Battle for Mosul: Iraq army mops up final IS pockets
The Iraqi army has been mopping up the last pockets of resistance from Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul, after a long battle to recapture the city.
An official declaration of victory from the government is expected soon.
Iraqi forces, backed by US-led air strikes, have tried to retake the city since 17 October last year.
IS seized Mosul in June 2014 before sweeping across much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland and proclaiming a "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria.
But they have been losing ground over the past nine months, as government forces advance on their former Iraqi stronghold.
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen, supported by US-led coalition warplanes and military advisers, have been involved in the battle.
On Saturday the jihadists were desperately holding out in a tiny area near the Old City. State television said troops had expected to take full control within hours.
Mother Mushroom: how Vietnam locked up its most famous blogger
One of Vietnam’s most influential political bloggers, given a courage award by Melania Trump, faces a decade behind bars for her ‘reactionary’ work
“Each person only has a life, but if I had the chance to choose again I would still choose my way.”
They are the words of one of Vietnam’s most influential bloggers — known by her online pseudonym, Mother Mushroom — minutes before she was handed the shock sentence of a decade in prison. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh directed her defiant comments at her 61-year-old mother, who was watching a live feed in a room next door as she was not allow into the courtroom.
The 37-year-old was accused of defaming Vietnam’s communist regime in her blogs and interviews with foreign media.
Soldiers celebrate Isis's defeat in Mosul as Iraq's greatest battle in war against jihadis reaches bloody conclusion
In the latest piece in his series from Iraq, Patrick Cockburn reports from Mosul where government forces are confident of eliminating Isis from the city very soon, leaving shattered streets for residents to return to
Iraqi soldiers have started celebrating their defeat of Isis in Mosul after a nine-month siege, even before the last resistance has been extinguished. An Iraqi commander called on a loudspeaker for surviving Isis fighters to surrender, but this was rejected by their commander.
“It may take another two or three days,” said an Iraqi observer, but the Iraqi government is right in saying that the greatest battle in its war against Isis is effectively over.
Iraqi troops were beginning to look more relaxed as they moved through the shattered streets in the centre of Mosul. Air strikes have turned every building into a jumble of broken beams and masonry. There was the sound of shooting just ahead and a civilian ambulance sped past. There had been heavy fighting the previous day in which snipers were very active and there were repeated air strikes by the US-led coalition.
Lasting Questions from HamburgWas the G-20 Summit Really Worth It?
The Hamburg summit is over. Overshadowed by the violence on the streets outside, Angela Merkel and the rest of the G-20 leaders managed to find mini-compromises on major issues. But the question remains: Was it worth it?
Unfettered violence. Unbridled brutality. Outside our democratic community. When Angela Merkel held her closing address on Saturday afternoon at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, she used clear words to denounce what had taken place on the streets of Hamburg during the preceding day and night.Cars and barricades ablaze, shops plundered, water cannons in constant operation, injuries, devastated city quarters, heavily armed special police units: The images of the violence in Hamburg have circled the globe. And they stood in stark contrast to those of the 20 heads of state and government who, at the same time, were listening to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" in Hamburg's chic new Elbphilharmonie concert hall. Classical music inside, clashes outside.
THE BIOMETRIC FRONTIER
“Show Me Your Papers” Becomes “Open Your Eyes” as Border Sheriffs Expand Iris Surveillance
George Joseph
SINCE HIS INAUGURATION, President Donald Trump has found little funding for his “big, beautiful wall.” In the meantime, however, another acquisition promised to deter unauthorized immigrants is coming to the border: iris recognition devices. Thirty-one sheriffs, representing every county along the U.S.-Mexico border, voted unanimously on April 3 to adopt tools that will capture, catalogue, and compare individuals’ iris data, for use both in jails and out on patrol. Biometric Intelligence and Identification Technologies, the company behind the push, has offered the sheriffs a free three-year trial, citing law enforcement’s difficulties in identifying unauthorized immigrants whose fingerprints can be disfigured through manual labor or self-inflicted wounds.
University student saves abused child after chance encounter in the rain
Today 05:30 am JSTTOKYO
The rainy season of 2017 has been particularly hard on Japan with a recent typhoon causing widespread damage to life and property. It’s hard to imagine at times like this that something good could have actually come from it.
Just as Japan’s rainy season was getting under way, on 2 June, Kwansei Gakuin University student Yuto Morita was returning to his home in the city of Takarazuka. As the 19-year-old student walked out the gate of Mondo-Yakujin Station, the surrounding area was getting battered by a storm, so he pulled out his umbrella.
Soon after, he noticed a young girl taking shelter in front of a store near the station. Morita approached the 12-year-old and offered her his umbrella so she could get back home.
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