Second Japanese hostage 'beheaded' by ISIL

Journalist Kenji Goto shown being beheaded in new video released by the armed group, SITE Intel monitoring group says.

 

The Japanese government said it was trying to authenticate the video [Reuters]

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has released a video purportedly showing the killing of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, a monitoring service has said.
The video released online by the armed group on Saturday shows the journalist who was abducted while reporting on Syria's civil war last year being beheaded with a knife by a black-clad masked fighter.
Addressing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the ISIL member in the video said: "Because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin."
Abe addressed the nation shortly after the move, condemning the "horrendeous" killing and saying that the government tried its best to save the hostage.
"Japan will not be defeated by terrorism," he said.
Meanwhile, the United States said it was working to confirm the authenticity of the video.
"We have seen the video purporting to show that Japanese citizen Kenji Goto has been murdered by the terrorist group ISIL," Bernadette Meehan, White House National Security Council spokeswoman, said in a statement.
"We are working to confirm its authenticity. The United States strongly condemns ISIL's actions and we call for the immediate release of all remaining hostages. We stand in solidarity with our ally Japan," Meehan added.
Mother of another hostage, Jordanian pilot First Leutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh, urged ISIL to release her son.
"I call upon the Islamic State group, I appeal to our brothers among them, from one Muslim addressing another, from a distressed mother's heart who is in sorrow for missing her beloved son," said Om Jawad al-Kasasbeh in an interview with Al Jazeera.
"I appeal to you tell us about Moaz’s wellbeing and I ask you to be kind in how you treat him and to release him. I beg you, I ask you to show him mercy."
Japanese hostage
Kenji was a freelance journalist who had reported from war zones for more than 20 years, in Africa, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
He travelled to Syria, at least in part, to attempt a rescue of his friend Haruna Yukawa, who was captured by ISIL in August.
Haruna was a self-styled military consultant who went to Syria to set up a security company, despite a lack of any experience.
In October, Kenji was captured by ISIL and was held captive alongside his friend. ISIL demanded a $200m ransom for the two men.
But last week, the armed group released a video. In it, there was an image of Kenji, chained by the wrist, and in his hands a photograph of his friend Haruna, who had been killed.
ISIL has beheaded and shot dead hundreds of captives - mainly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers - during its sweep across the two countries, and has celebrated its mass killings in extremely graphic videos.
The group also beheaded James Foley and Peter Kassig, American hostages; Steven Sotloff, an Israeli-American; and David Haines and Alan Henning, British captives.

Kurdish commander dies in Kirkuk battle

ISIL kills senior Kurdish military commander and eight Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, as attacks elsewhere kill 27.

 

The Kurds want to incorporate Kirkuk into their self-ruled region in northern Iraq

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has killed a senior Kurdish military commander and eight Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, officials say.
Brigadier General Shirko Fatih was killed on Friday as he was leading Kurdish peshmerga troops in a battle against ISIL outside the city of Kirkuk.
At least eight Kurdish fighters were also killed in the clashes, Brigadier Khatab Omar said.
The casualties near oil-rich Kirkuk are a heavy setback for the Iraqi Kurds, who have been at the forefront of the battle against ISIL, which has captured a third of both Iraq and Syria in its blitz last year.
Home to a mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, the Kurds want to incorporate Kirkuk into their self-ruled region in Iraq's north, a proposition strongly opposed by Arabs and Turkmen.
Twin bombings
Attacks elsewhere killed 27 people, with twin bombs hitting a crowded market in Baghdad and a suicide bomber targeting pro-government Shia militiamen who were manning a checkpoint outside a city north of the Iraqi capital.
In the Baghdad market attack, a bomb first exploded near carts used for selling clothes in the central Bab al-Sharqi area, followed by a second bomb as people rushed to help victims from the first blast.
Police and hospital officials said 19 people were killed and 28 were wounded.
Also in Baghdad, mortar shells landed on a residential area in the Shula neighborhood, killing four people and wounding seven others, police and hospital officials said.
Meanwhile a suicide bomber drove an-explosive-laden car into a security checkpoint manned by Shia militias near the city of Samarra, killing four militiamen and wounding 10.
The casualties come as Iraq is facing its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops.
ISIL controls about a third of the country, including the north's biggest city Mosul, as well as large areas of neighbouring Syria.

The Islamic State (Full Length)

The Islamic State, a hardline Sunni jihadist group that formerly had ties to al Qaeda, has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group has announced its intention to reestablish the caliphate and has declared its leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph.
 The lightning advances the Islamic State made across Syria and Iraq in June shocked the world. But it's not just the group's military victories that have garnered attention — it's also the pace with which its members have begun to carve out a viable state.
 Flush with cash and US weapons seized during its advances in Iraq, the Islamic State's expansion shows no sign of slowing down. In the first week of August alone, Islamic State fighters have taken over new areas in northern Iraq, encroaching on Kurdish territory and sending Christians and other minorities fleeing as reports of massacres emerged.
 VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the Islamic State, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings.

Teenager with fake gun storms Dutch broadcaster

Detectives probe motives of man who gained access to NOS headquarters and demanded air time before arrest by police.

 

A 19-year-old brandishing a fake weapon threatened a security guard to gain access to the headquarters of Dutch national broadcaster NOS and demand air time, before police stormed a TV studio to arrest him.
Nobody was injured in the incident near Amsterdam on Thursday night, but it forced NOS off air for around an hour and set the Netherlands on edge, coming just weeks after the deadly attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris that left 12 people dead.
When NOS came back on air, it showed recorded footage of the young man, wearing a black suit, white shirt and black tie, and carrying a pistol with what looked like a silencer attached.
Police said later the gun was a fake and that the man had no criminal record. Detectives investigated his possible motives but said he had no link terrorist organisations.
Speaking calmly to someone off-camera, apparently the security guard he had forced to let him into the building, the man said: "We are hired in by intelligence agencies."
Shortly after, police burst in with their guns drawn and ordered the man to drop his weapon and put his hands up.
Arrested without fight
At least five police officers then ordered him to turn around and lie down, which he did and he was arrested without a struggle and taken to a nearby police station for questioning.
Martijn Bink, a NOS reporter, said he spoke to the man after he was arrested and he claimed to be from a hackers' collective. He did not elaborate.
Police said in a statement the man demanded air time and threatened that bombs would go off at several locations around the Netherlands if his demand was not met.
Special police units evacuated the building and thoroughly searched it but allowed staff back in later in the evening after finding nothing suspicious.
Prosecutor Johan Bac, who spoke in Hilversum, said the man was from the small town of Pijnacker near The Hague.
Bac said he was being held on suspicion of making a threat, weapons possession and taking a hostage. The suspect's name was not released by the prosecutor.
Officials said they were still investigating the man's background and the seriousness of the threat he posed.
"There is a major investigation under way to get clarity as quickly as possible about what happened here tonight," Bac said.
Extra security
Jan de Jong, NOS director, told the broadcaster that the headquarters had extra security in the aftermath of the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
The media park in Hilversum, 20km east of Amsterdam, is home to NOS and many other Dutch broadcasters.
It has been tightly guarded for years, since Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician, was killed in a parking lot there in 2002 by an animal-rights activist.
"This is your worst nightmare, especially after Charlie Hebdo," De Jong said later on a special NOS news show.
De Jong said he would speak to staff on Friday and the already tight security would again be reviewed.
"We don't want to turn this into a bunker," he said.

Egypt's Sisi pulls out of AU summit after Sinai attacks

Egyptian President cuts short Ethiopia visit after 26 killed in attack claimed by group that pledges allegiance to ISIL.

 

Egyptian security forces have struggled to quell armed groups operating in the Sinai region [Getty]

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has cut short a visit to Ethiopia for an African Union summit, following a wave of deadly attacks in the Sinai Peninsula claimed by a group that pledges allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
President's office said in a statement that Sisi, who was scheduled to address the summit, would head back to Cairo after the opening session on Friday morning.
His decision comes as two children were killed in clashes between the army and fighters in Sinai a day after at least 26 people, mostly soldiers, died in violence there, security officials said.
Fighters fired a barrage of rockets and set off a car bomb in a series of attacks in North Sinai province in some of the worst anti-government violence in months, according to security officials.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis that now calls itself the Sinai Province, said it was retaliating against a government crackdown on supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi.
It claimed responsibility for the attacks that struck the provincial capital of El-Arish, the nearby town of Sheik Zuwayid and the town of Rafah bordering the Gaza Strip.
The armed group claimed via a Twitter account that it "executed extensive, simultaneous attacks in the cities of El-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah".
A military base, a nearby police headquarters, a residential complex for army and police officers and an army checkpoint were targeted in El-Arish in the biggest such attack since October.
"Terrorist elements have attacked several police and army headquarters and facilities using explosive-laden vehicles and rockets," the military said.
Security officials said fighters first fired rockets at the El-Arish police headquarters and the military base, which was followed by the car bomb.
Rocket barrage
Minutes later a barrage of rockets struck the nearby housing complex. Late on Thursday fighters also attacked a military checkpoint south of El-Arish, wounding four soldiers.
In a separate attack, an officer was killed when a rocket struck an army checkpoint in the town of Rafah, on the border with Gaza.
Overall, officials said at least 62 people were wounded in the attacks in North Sinai.
In a separate incident a police officer was killed when struck by a bomb in the canal city of Suez.
The El-Arish attack was the deadliest since an October 24 assault, which was also near El-Arish, when fighters killed 30 soldiers and wounded scores more.
It came despite a series of security measures implemented by the authorities in North Sinai since the October attack.
That attack prompted the authorities to build a buffer zone along the Gaza border to prevent fighters infiltrating from the Palestinian territory.
Armed groups have regularly attacked security forces in the Sinai Peninsula since President Morsi was toppled by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.

Sunset deadline passes for ISIL-held Jordanian pilot

Group threatening to kill pilot, Japanese journalist if prisoner not released but Amman is demanding proof of life.

 

Jordan said it was still holding an Iraqi would-be suicide bomber as a deadline passed for her release set by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL) who threatened to kill a Jordanian pilot unless she was handed over by sunset.
An audio message purportedly from a Japanese journalist also captured by ISIL said the pilot would be killed unless Jordan freed Sajida al-Rishawi, who is on death row for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed 60 people in Amman.
Before the deadline passed at sunset on Thursday, the wife of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto released a written plea to the Jordanian government and ISIL to free her husband, as well as the Jordanian pilot.
"My husband and I have two very young daughters. Our baby girl was only three weeks old when Kenji left. I hope our oldest daughter, who is just two, will get to see her father again. I want them both to grow up knowing their father," Rinko Goto wrote.
Earlier, a spokesman of Jordan's government demanded proof of life for their pilot, Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, before moving ahead with any possible swap to bring about his release.
 "We want to see a proof of life of the Jordanian pilot and then we can talk about the exchange," Mohammed al-Momani said.

High stakes
It was not clear from the audio message said to be from Goto, and reported by monitoring group SITE Intelligence, if either Goto or Kasasbeh would be freed.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament: "We are aware of the new message ... [and] are verifying [its authenticity]."
Japan plays no military part in the fight against ISIL.
The apparent communication breaks an anxious silence from the group since their previous 24-hour deadline for Rishawi expired, around 14:00 GMT Wednesday.

Amman had offered to free the Iraqi woman, who was convicted for her part in the 2005 triple-hotel bombings in the Jordanian capital that killed 60 people, if ISIL released their airman.
"Jordan is ready to release the prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi if the Jordanian pilot is freed unharmed," state television quoted a government spokesman as saying on Wednesday.
"From the start, the position of Jordan was to ensure the safety of our son, the pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh," it added. The government spokesman made no mention of Japanese hostage Goto.
Wednesday passed in a maelstrom of conflicting reports on the fate of the three key players, complicated by linguistic and cultural misunderstandings, and by the high stakes on all sides.


'Save my son'
The atmosphere was tense in Jordan, where the country's involvement in the US-led air raids against ISIL positions is contentious.
"It has caused real difficulties in this country because what was a supportive atmosphere towards the allies against ISIL is now turning against the government," Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from Amman, said.
"ISIL are standing to make possibly more capital in the propaganda stakes out of all of this, realising now that hostages it has have more value alive than dead."
The downing on December 24 of Kasasbeh's F-16 fighter jet over northern Syria and his subsequent capture and humiliation by ISIL exacerbated the situation.
This week the pilot's father begged the government to save his son "at any price".

Jordan 'ready to swap' inmate for pilot held by ISIL

Efforts to free Jordanian pilot and Japanese journalist comes after ISIL threatens to kill the two within 24 hours.

 

About 200 relatives of captured Jordanian pilot protested outside the prime minister's office in Amman

Jordan has said it is willing to swap an Iraqi woman held on death row in Jordan for a Jordanian pilot captured in December by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
The statement by Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani made no mention of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, who is also being held by the ISIL.

Efforts to release the Jordanian pilot and the journalist gained urgency with the release late on Tuesday of a purported online ultimatum claiming the ISIL would kill both hostages within 24 hours if the Iraqi woman was not freed.
On Wednesday, al-Momani said in a statement: "Jordan is ready to release the Iraqi prisoner, Sajida al-Rishawi, if the Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, is released unharmed.''
His comments were carried by Jordan's official Petra news agency.
Japan earlier said it was seeking help from the Jordanian government after ISIL released the video threatening to kill Goto and al-Kaseasbeh.
Japanese and Jordanian officials were reportedly holding talks over ISIL's demand for the release al-Rishawi, who was convicted for her part in multiple bombings in Amman in 2005 that killed 60 people, in exchange for Goto and al-Kaseasbeh.


An angry Japanese prime minister on Wednesday slammed as "utterly despicable" the threat to kill both hostages.
"The government, in this extremely severe situation, has been asking for the Jordanian government's cooperation towards the early release of Mr Goto, and this policy remains unchanged," Shinzo Abe said.
After initially demanding a $200m ransom for the release of the two Japanese men, the group said it wanted Jordan to free Rishawi, a would-be suicide bomber who has been on death row since 2006.
Goto was abducted by fighters in October 2014 after venturing into Syria on a mission to free his friend Haruna Yukawa.
Yukawa was apparently executed last week after Japan failed to meet an initial $270m ransom demand by Friday.
Parents of hostages plead
Goto's mother Junko Ishido read  to reporters a plea to Abe on Wednesday to "Please save Kenji," which she said she had sent earlier in the day.
She begged Abe to work with the Jordanian government to try to save Goto, saying "Kenji has only a little time left."
Safi al-Kaseasbeh, the father of the Jordanian hostage, made a last-ditch appeal for Jordan "to meet the demands" of ISIL to secure his release.
Several hundred people, including relatives of the Jordanian pilot, gathered in front of the office of Jordan's prime minister late on Tuesday, urging the authorities to meet the ISIL demands and release Rishawi to save the young pilot's life.
A member of Jordan's parliament said the country was in indirect talks with the fighters to secure the hostages' release.
Bassam Al-Manaseer, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, told Bloomberg News that the negotiations are taking place through religious and tribal leaders in Iraq, adding that Jordan and Japan will not negotiate directly with ISIL and will not free Rishawi in exchange for Goto only.
Manaseer's comments were the strongest suggestion yet that authorities in Jordan and Japan may be open to a prisoner exchange, something that would go against the policy of the kingdom's main ally, the US, which opposes negotiating with armed groups.
Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama was in Amman to coordinate hostage-release efforts with Jordan, but refused comment on details of the talks early on Wednesday.

Two Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah missile attack

Seven soldiers also injured in the attack, and one Spanish UN peacekeeper killed in Israeli shelling.

 

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed by a Hezbollah missile fired at at an Israeli military vehicle in the Shebaa farms area on the border with Syria and Lebanon.
The Israeli military confirmed that seven soldiers were also injured in Wednesday's strike.
In response to the attack, Israeli forces fired shells across the border into southern Lebanon, killing a UN peacekeeper from Spain. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed the death.
Responding to the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised those behind it would be held responsible.
"Those behind the attack today will pay the full price," Netanyahu said as he launched consultations with security chiefs on a possible further response to the incident, according to a Reuters news agency report.
There were also reports of Israeli war planes flying over the border with Lebanon.
A Hezbollah statement claiming responsibility for the attack said: "11:25am this morning, al-Quneitra Martyr's group targeted an Israeli convoy with specialised heavy duty rockets in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa farms area.
The convoy included Israeli artillery, an officer and several soldiers many of whom were injured," the statement read.

"Await retaliation"
The attack by Hezbollah was likely in retaliation for an Israeli air strike in Quneitra on January 18th that killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general. Both Hezbollah and the Iranian army had vowed revenge, and earlier on Wednesday Iran said that Israel should "await retaliation" for the strike.
A Lebanese army spokesman said the missile was not fired from Lebanese territory, and that the artillery response by Israel was randomly falling on areas along the border, but that no shells had landed on villages with civilians yet.
Shebaa Farms is a small strip of disputed land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Schools closed in and around Shebaa, and residents stayed indoors as the shelling continued throughout Wednesday morning.
Residents in neighbouring towns carried on as normal, telling Al Jazeera they did not feel things would escalate into full-blown war.
"Whatever happens happens, but we're not moving and we're not scared," one resident of Marjayoun, a town a few kilometres from the border with Israeli, said.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, condemned the attack, saying Hezbollah had been "stockpiling" weapons in southern Lebanon in violation of a UN resolution.
"Israel will not accept any attacks on its territory and it will exercise its right to self-defence and take all necessary measures to protect its population."
Al Jazeera's Nisreen el-Shamayleh, reporting from Jerusalem, said that while a response was expected from Israel against Hezbollah, an escalation of hostilities was unlikely.
Lebanese politician Samir Geagea, a member of the March 14 opposed to Hezbollah, said that the organisation "doesn't have the right to involve the Lebanese army and government in a battle with Israel."
Walid Jumblatt, another politician considered to be centrist, said the attack would lead to "turbulent" times for Lebanon.
On Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak on the Quneitra strike.
In 2006, Israel fought a bloody war against Hezbollah that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

The Near-Term Future of Quantum Computing? Analog Simulations

Contrary to what you may have ​heard, progress in quantum computing is slow and painful. While there are papers and studies out every week describing some new technology that could have a quantum computing implication at some theoretical future point—together reinforcing the impression that we are really, truly almost there—they usually have less to do with the thing itself: a quantum computer.
Physicists have performed quantum calculations on small handfuls​ of qubits, the quantum analog of the classical bit information carrier, but the real prize remains distant.
There is a reason for this: a quantum computer is really, really hard to do. Mostly, this has to do with the fragility of quantum information (qubits), which, once disturbed, become classical junk. It’s a hardware challenge. How do you protect a qubit—a single particle in a superposition of different states—when its very surroundings threaten to wipe it out? It’s worse than that even, because wiping out one qubit means potentially wiping out the entire network of entangled qubits, nuking not just one unit of information but every parallel processing unit too.
The problem is worse still. While information gets lost in computing just as a matter of course, classical error correction algorithms don’t work in quantum computing because attempting to compare qubits to assess whether or not a given piece of information has been compromised is just another way to disrupt that qubit.​
The physicist Ivan Deutsch doesn’t seem too discouraged, however, even though his task for the past 20 years has been designing the guts of a quantum computer. In a great Quant​a Q&A he offers some hope in the form of old-school computing: quantum simulations, not quite the real deal, but immensely powerful nonetheless.
The key component is what Deutsch calls the “qudit.” It’s a complete atom rather than a single electron or other fundamental particle. It operates in a sort of fake or simulated quantum superposition in which it’s allowed to occupy one of 16 different states, represented by energy levels. As Deutsch explains, using a full atom of 16 possibilities is a fundamentally different beast than a computer using the classical bit (on or off) or the quantum qubit (on and off). It’s analog.
This presents its own problems, however:

What are the main challenges for these quantum simulators?
​Because the evolution of the analog simulation is not digitized, the software cannot correct the tiny errors that accumulate during the calculation as we could error-correct noise on a universal machine. The analog device must keep a quantum superposition intact long enough for the simulation to run its course without resorting to digital error correction. This is a particular challenge for the analog approach to quantum simulation.

Deutsch’s analog interest isn’t isolated in the quantum computing research community. With less resources available than labs at, say, IBM (etc.), analog quantum simulators offer short-term progress to academic researchers. “There is short-term fruit to be picked in that arena—both intellectually and in the currency of academics: publishable papers,” he said.
Meanwhile, proper digital quantum computing is still limited to about 10 qubits at a time, which scale-wise is kind of like a trainset inside a trainset inside of an actual train. So far no quantum error-correcting algorithm exists for real-life scales, but we’re edging closer. The distance is still huge. “Before I die,” Deutsch offered, “I would love to see just one universal logical qubit that can be indefinitely error corrected. It would instantly be classified by the government.

How to Teach Your Drone to Track Things

Personal compact drones are becoming more popular around the world, despite ​jumbled government regulations. While that trend has so far resulted mostly in some cool aerial photography and video, hobbyist drone pilots are quickly expanding the capabilities of their craft. Take this ​trio of programmers in Brazil, who recently whipped up a simple real-time object tracking algorithm for their homebuilt drone’s video camera.
The algorithm allows the drone to pinpoint a designated object in crosshairs and keep it in view while hovering.
While it seems pretty basic right now, that’s kind of the point: it was written in just 50 lines of ​open source Python code, meaning anyone else with a drone can use it. Obviously future iterations should only improve.
It’s hardly the first example of hobbyist tracker drones though. Back in 2011, then-graduate student Mike Mogenson created a ​facial recognition and track algorithm for the Parrot AR drone, which he also ​open sourced.
Other enterprising grad students have developed similar algorithms over the years, allowing their drones to ​follow people around autonomously.
Perhaps the spookiest example of these types of algorithms is the appropriately named ‘Predator,’ an object-tracking system developed by another graduate student that quickly “learns” a specific object, recognizing it even if it moves out of frame and returns, and can track multiple objects at once.
While they may pale in comparison to the types of tracking abilities found on larger drones increasingly used by government and industry, the growing number of open source algorithms points to a future where autonomous piloting abilities are readily available to the common hobbyist.

With Microsoft's New Holographic Computer Goggles, You'll Never Unplug Again

At yesterday's Windows 10 event, Microsoft announced an array of products, none more mesmerizing than HoloLens. Described by Microsoft as “the world’s first holographic computing platform,” the company hopes HoloLens will allow it to leapfrog virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear, and Sony Morpheus by taking users out of the interior virtual realities of headsets and back into analogue reality. Indeed, judging by the demo videos, HoloLens alters the current virtual reality landscape by blurring the distinction between our offline and online lives.
What Microsoft's Alex Kipman, inventor of the Xbox Kinect, created is a computer that blends virtual and analogue worlds. Like augmented reality (AR), and the mysterious Magic Leap (which would project an AR directly onto users' eyes), HoloLens maps its holographic visuals onto everything from walls and desks to a room's empty space. The company claims it also tracks users hands with its camera, allowing them to manipulate virtual objects.
To hear Microsoft tell it, untethered and free from wires, phones, or connection to a PC, users will be able to walk, run or sit, staring off into space checking email, reading, Skyping, or doing something as mundane as making dinner reservations. Put more simply, you'll always be jacked in, or as much as possible anyway.
If this vision of an always connected world isn't clear enough already, just watch the HoloLens videos. Microsoft sees users wearing it at work and home. People will make phone calls on the job, then go home to play Minecraft or watch Netflix. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since technology is in and of itself is amoral. But it should remind us that with every new and cool bit of tech, people will have to consider the drawbacks of usage. Do we want to live in reality where our analog lives are constantly mixed with holograms? And do we want to give Microsoft and developers more access to our offline lives and the data that lies within that time and space?
While Microsoft believes HoloLens will become a new engine of creation and communication, with developers creating apps that exploit the headset's depth camera, the blending of realities will result in people spending more time, if not staring at an actual screen, computing nonetheless. As we’ve seen with the ubiquity of mobile devices, there has been an erasure of offline and online existence. With virtual objects, interfaces, and experiences mapped onto the territory of our analog worlds, the obliteration of the line separating our offline or unplugged lives from our online ones will only be amplified.
Microsoft is thinking far beyond immersive video games, the medium most immediately ready for VR; the company is imagining HoloLens infiltrating a much greater share of our reality, and gaining access to a lot more data in the process. “We envisioned a world where technology could become more personal—where it could adapt to the natural ways we communicate, learn, and create,” reads the HoloLens website. “Where our digital lives would seamlessly connect with real life.”
Imagine watching your favorite movie or TV series on the HoloLens. Instead of being limited to television sets, computer screens, and VR headsets, an entire room becomes the screen. If the HoloLens experience is dynamic enough, it could be tempting to ditch the TV, laptop or tablet for a single device—the HoloLens. Granted, this assumes developers and filmmakers exploit the HoloLens's depth camera, allowing users to walk within a motion picture scene in a way that one simply cannot with Oculus Rift content.
HoloLens could also trigger another evolution in book publishing. Three in ten American adults read an e-book in 2013, according to Pew Research, and that figure should only grow. Imagine those who read e-books on mobile devices migrating to HoloLens, and haptically flipping pages of a book hanging in space. Speaking of haptic feedback, a virtual shopping platform could allow users to see and manipulate products from various angles.
Filmed entertainment, video games, books, and virtual shopping would be just the tip of the iceberg with HoloLens. Developers will be offered a template to do things that simply cannot be done on mobile devices, laptops, or even an Oculus Rift. “Holograms will improve the way you do things every day, and enable you to do things you’ve never done before,” Microsoft says.

This Flying Robot Can Walk on Its Wings Like a Bat

While other robots struggle to master locomo​tion in any form, this little bot can both walk on the ground and fly through the air. It’s like a robot with wings, or a drone with legs.
The DALER (Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot), designed by a project at EPFL in Switzerland, is detailed in a paper published in Bioinspirati​on and Biomimetics. Robo​Hub has a great piece on the technical challenges of making a bot that can move in more than one way.
It looks a bit like a model airplane when it’s flying, but “wingerons” at the tips of its wings allow it to use the same appendages to crawl across the floor. At this point, it becomes impossible not to anthropomorphise the multi-modal bot, as it endearingly lurches forward on its claws.
That’s pretty apt, given that the robot design was inspired by an animal: a vampire bat. Researcher Ludovic Daler told me over email that his eponymous creation took inspiration from the creature since the bat uses its wings both to run and walk, and adapts them to best suit each task—like closing its wings when on the ground and opening them in the air. The advantage of this is that the robot uses the same actuators and structure for both walking and flying, which keeps its weight down.
Bats aren’t the only animals that have inspired biomimetic robots with capabilities to move across different terrains. Nature is a popular starting point for robotic critters, such as the salamander-inspired Salamandra R​obotica, which can both swim and walk.
“Many animals exploit adaptive morphologies in order to accommodate the requirements imposed by different modes of locomotion,” the authors on the DALER paper write. “We have shown that also this strategy is a good solution to minimize trade-offs [in performance]. Indeed, a robot optimized for flight can improve its terrestrial capabilities with foldable wings.”
Daler told me that the robot is designed for search and rescue efforts, such as after a natural disaster, and that “the duality of modes of locomotion will be used principally to fly long distances to survey large spaces in a short timespan, and then to walk into dangerous or inaccessible areas.”

In the future, he hopes to develop the robot so that it can take off from the ground autonomously (you can see in the video that it is currently launched by a human), so that it could return to base after completing a mission on the ground.

The Real 'True Detective'

Ten years ago, the town of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, was traumatized when a local church's secret Satan worship, ritualized child molestation, and animal sacrifices came to light. Rust Cohle may be a fictional character, and time may not really be a flat circle, but that sounds an awful lot like the events of the first season of HBO's hit True Detective. In this episode of our brand-new series The Real, we went down to Ponchatoula to meet Stuart Murphy and Tom Tedder, two law enforcement officials who helped put these terrible, true events in Ponchatoula's rearview mirror.

Two People Died in a Murder-Suicide at a Home Depot in New York City

On Sunday afternoon, Jose Sanchez, a wheelchair-bound bystander, watched as between 70 and 100 people ran out of the Home Depot on West 23rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues in Manhattan. He didn't know it yet, but just moments before, an employee had fatally shot his manager with a .38-caliber revolver revolver at least three times before killing himself with a bullet to the head.

"I don't know how to describe it... they definitely just looked terrified," Sanchez told me outside of the Home Depot. "Everyone was running."

Continued below.

The group huddled in a parking lot across the street, shivering in the cold weather; many of them were employees, wearing the company's signature orange shirts without coats. As they called family members, sobs and screams rang through the crowd, and employees darted around with schedules, making sure all 70 of their peers on shift that day were present. They were eventually brought back inside by NYPD officials.

Spectators collected on the sidewalks, horrified to find out what had happened on the busy Chelsea street. Former employees stood close to the strands of caution tape, visually distraught and crying in each others' arms as more details emerged from the grisly scene inside.

Cops say the sequence of events that led to the fatal confrontation between the gunman, 31, and his supervisor, 38, is still murky, as is the motive. The gunman was a current employee, police officials said, and the two were having a conversation in the run-up to the shooting. Apparently only one witness saw the final moments before blood was spilled.

"We have no idea what it stemmed from," Captain-Commanding Officer Steven Wren said at a press briefing outside the store. The investigation, he said, was active and ongoing.

(Identities of both victims have yet to be released by police. VICE has reached out for the NYPD for confirmation of possible identities, and we're waiting to hear back.)

Accounts from those on the scene varied. One former employee who wouldn't provide his name said the shooter had recently been fired, suggesting this was a simple act of vengeance. Whatever inspired the killer, his victim died on the way to Bellevue Hospital Center.

"He was a good, hard-working man who only worked for his family," the former employee said of the supervisor. "He had just gotten promoted, too." The supervisor's wife and child live in France, according to the New York Post, and he was sending money their way.

One of the customers inside the store during the shooting was Alexandra Pelosi, the documentarian and daughter of former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "It sounded like a big refrigerator had fallen over," Pelosi told the Daily News. "A woman started screaming at the top of her lungs, howling. And then everybody, it was like the running of the bulls, everybody just took off."

On Monday, grief counselors will be provided for employees and their families. When reached for comment by VICE, Home Depot spokesperson Stephen Holmes said, "We're deeply saddened by this tragedy. We are fully cooperating with the authorities on their investigation of what appears to have been an isolated incident."

ISIL offer to swap Japanese hostage for Iraqi woman

Group demands release of woman jailed in Jordan, in apparent video recording of killing of one of two Japanese hostages.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has reportedly demanded the release of an Iraqi woman detained in Jordan in exchange for a Japanese national they are holding captive, following the group's apparent killing of another Japanese citizen.

In a video recording generally deemed credible, which was posted online on Saturday, Kenji Goto, a freelance journalist abducted while reporting on Syria's civil war last year, is shown holding a picture of what appears to be the body of Haruna Yukawa .
In the footage, Goto speaks of ISIL's demand for a prisoner exchange to guarantee his release.

"They are just demanding the release of their imprisoned sister Sajida al-Rishawi. It is simple. You give them Sajida and I will be released," Goto says.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday branded the apparent murder of Yukawa as "outrageous and unforgivable" and demanded the immediate release of Goto.

"Such an act of terrorism is outrageous and unforgivable," Abe told broadcaster NHK.

'Imprisoned sister'
Rishawi has been held by Jordanian authorities since 2005, and has not been seen publicly in about nine years.
She was arrested and later sentenced to death "for conspiracy to carry out terror acts" after a triple bomb attack on the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman, the Jordanian capital, in November 2005.
Now believed to be in her early-40s, Rishawi was arrested four days after the attack, in which her husband, Ali Hussein al-Shammari, and two other Iraqis, blew themselves up.
In a television confession after her arrest, she said that she too had tried but failed to activate her explosives at a wedding reception. Sixty people died in the attack.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor to ISIL, claimed responsibility for the bombings.
"A group of our best lions launched a new attack on some dens ... After casing the targets, some hotels were chosen which the Jordanian despot turned into a backyard for the enemies of the faith," a statement on a website usually used by the group said.
ISIL has released several videos of executions of captured enemy fighters, activists and journalists.
The armed group has taken large parts of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate in territory under its control in June.
Since then it has fought the Syrian and Iraqi governments, other armed groups and Kurdish forces.

The UK's Drug Dealers Are Swapping Crack for Nokia 8210s

Smartphones have their perks; without them, it would be impossible to take a photo of your junk and instantly share it with someone in Brazil. But they also have their downsides. Like constantly having your office in your pocket, or people ruining debates by googling the answer, or the fact that they're effectively just GPS ankle monitors that double up us pizza-ordering devices.
That last point is a salient one for people who spend a lot of their time doing stuff they don't want anyone to know about. People like drug dealers and other criminals, who—thanks to the nature of their jobs—are understandably paranoid that they're having their every movement monitored.
The best remedy for this problem is to switch from an Android or iPhone to a shitty old handset. And the shitty old handset of choice, according to every source I've spoken to, is the Nokia 8210.
The pocket-sized phone, released in 1999, has no Bluetooth, near-field connectivity or wifi—meaning nobody can snoop on your movements—but is equipped with infra-red technology, enabling quick transfers of information when dealers need to swap phones. It's also got a massive battery life, which is handy if you spend the majority of your time calling customers who can't work out which road you've parked on.
Unveiled at the 30th anniversary of the fashion brand Kenzo in Paris, it was the smallest and lightest phone Nokia had ever released. It's also become a popular phone in prisons, with visitors frequently smuggling them into inmates inside their anuses.

Continued below.

A dealer in Handsworth, Birmingham—who would only give his name as "K2"—told me: "I've got three Nokia 8210 phones and have been told they can be trusted, unlike these iPhones and new phones, which the police can easily [use to] find out where you've been.
"The feds can now use wifi and Bluetooth to get information from the phone, and seem to be able to listen to phones a lot easier now than ever before. Every dealer I know uses old phones, and the Nokia 8210 is the one everyone wants because of how small it is and how long the battery lasts. And it was the best phone when it came out. I couldn't afford one in Jamaica back in the day, but now I've got four."
He added: "Every TV program you watch seems to show feds listening to phones, and there are even apps now that record every phone call. At least I can trust an old Nokia. I need to use more than one phone for what I do; I've got the incoming line and ones I use to phone out, which I change the sims in regularly, so I've got different covers so I know which is which."

The Nokia 8210 commercial from 1999

Tony, a 32-year-old addict from Birmingham, told me that the 8210 has also become a good bargaining chip. "I was using an 8210 because my Samsung was bust, and two dealers offered to buy it," he said. "The third one who asked, I snapped their hand off and swapped it for half a six [of crack, with a street value of $50].
"After that, I asked everyone I knew if they had any old Nokias lying around, and managed to get four more, and did the same with them, too. Now I'm going to second hand shops and eBay to get Nokia 8210s. They're wicked phones, and after all, everyone likes a game of Snake. These dealers are the same as everyone—they want to have the best, even it is the best of the shit old phones."
A mobile phone shop owner on the Soho Road, Birmingham, who didn't want to named, confirmed what I'd heard, telling me: "We've had a few people asking for 8210s, and if we ever get one they sell straight away. I don't know what they want them for and don't ask."
So there you have it: if you've got an old 8210 lying around, don't bother with Envirophone—take it along with you the next time you're buying a bag of weed and you might end up wrangling an extra eighth out of it.

Japan probes video of 'hostage being killed by ISIL'

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says if apparent killing is verified, hostage's death would be "outrageous and unacceptable".

 

Haruna Yukawa, a private military contractor, was kidnapped in Syria last August [Reuters]

Japan has condemned a video purporting to have been released by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) announcing that the group has killed one of two Japanese hostages they are holding for ransom.
The Japanese government said on Saturday that the recording appeared to show that captive Haruna Yukawa has been killed. Yukawa, a private military contractor, was kidnapped in Syria last August.
"This is an outrageous and unacceptable act of violence," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters as he arrived at his Tokyo office early on Sunday morning local time, Reuters reported.
"We strongly demand the immediate release" of the remaining captive, Kenji Goto, he added, referring to the freelance Japanese journalist who was abducted while reporting on Syria's civil war last year.
The purported video surfaced after a deadline for Japan to pay the ISIL group a $200m ransom passed on Friday.
Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from Tokyo, said the Japanese government was trying to verify the authenticity of the video.
"There are some [people on social media] who are doubting the veracity of the pictures," Fawcett said.
The video was not posted on any of ISIL's official channels and does not bear the the group's black and white flag.
The group has reportedly now demanded that one of its members is released from custody in Jordan as a swap for the release of Goto.
US National Security Council deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a statement on Saturday that the US intelligence community was also working to confirm the video's authenticity.
"We have seen the video purporting to show that Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa has been murdered by the terrorist group ISIL," Ventrell said.
"The United States strongly condemns ISIL’s actions and we call for the immediate release of all the remaining hostages. We stand in solidarity with Japan and are coordinating closely."
On Tuesday, the ISIL group released a video threatening to kill Yukawa, 42, annd Goto, 47, unless they received $200m within 72 hours, directly demanding the ransom from Abe.
The ransom video, identified as being made by ISIL's Al-Furqan media arm, was released shortly after Abe had pledged $200m in aid to countries to fight against ISIL.

US woman jailed for attempting to join ISIL

Nineteen-year-old, who wanted to "correct the wrongs against the Muslim world," arrested before boarding plane from US.

 

Federal agents met with Conley several times in an attempt to dissuade her from joining ISIL [Reuters]

A 19-year-old Colorado woman who has admitted that she had planned to travel overseas to join the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been sentenced to four years in a US federal prison.
In a statement to the court on Friday before sentencing, Shannon Maureen Conley expressed gratitude to the FBI for "potentially saving my life" by intervening to arrest her, and said she rejected the violent ideology espoused by some Muslims.
"I believe in true Islam, where peace is encouraged," Conley, a Muslim convert, said.

Conley, from suburban Denver, struck up an online relationship last year with a Tunisian man, identified as Yousr Mouelhi, who said he was a member of ISIL, according to an FBI arrest warrant affidavit.
"During their communications, Conley and Mouelhi shared their view of Islam as requiring participation in violent jihad," according to the plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors.
Conley, a certified nurse's aid, went to a US Army Explorers camp in Texas and had firearms and first-aid training in preparation for waging war against those she considered infidels, court papers showed.
Federal agents met with Conley several times in an attempt to dissuade her from joining ISIL.
But Conley told them she planned to marry Mouelhi and join the fighters to "correct the wrongs against the Muslim world," even though she knew it was illegal, the FBI affidavit said.
Conley had faced up to five years in prison, but prosecutors agreed not to seek the maximum penalty because of her guilty plea and co-operation with investigations.
She has been held without bond since federal agents arrested her in April at Denver International Airport as she prepared to board a plane bound for Germany.
In September, Conley pleaded guilty in Denver federal court to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to ISIL, designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah buried in Riyadh

King buried in unmarked grave, in common with his predecessor, as new ruler pledges no change in kingdom's direction.

 

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has been buried at the El-Ud public cemetery in Riyadh.
Earlier on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Egypt’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb joined the leaders of Gulf Arab states for the funeral prayer at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque.
Bahrain's King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, a high-level delegation from the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah were at the funeral, state television showed on Friday.

Earlier, a royal court statement said that the king, believed to be around 90, had died at 1:00am local time (22:00 GMT), expressing its "great sadness and mourning".
The officials did not disclose the cause of Abdullah's death, but he was admitted to hospital in December suffering from pneumonia and had been breathing with the aid of a tube.
In keeping with the kingdom's traditions, the king was buried in an unmarked grave as was his predecessor King Fahd, who died in 2005.
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra said: "This is someone who is definitely going to be remembered as a reformist within the royal family.
"He succeeded his brother at a very delicate time and started reforms in the country."
Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the deceased king's half-brother, has officially been named as the next ruler of the world's top oil exporter and the spiritual home of Islam.
Saudi Arabia's Western and Arab allies, along with countries such as Israel and China, offered their condolences on the death of the king.


King Salman, 79, in his first public address, pledged no change in the kingdom's direction and called for unity among Muslims.
"We will remain with God's strength attached to the straight path that this state has walked since its establishment by King Abdul Aziz bin al-Saud, and by his sons after him," Salman said his in televised remarks.
Prince Muqrin Bin Abdulaziz has been announced as the new crown prince, state TV announced.
The new king also appointed his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef as deputy crown prince, meaning he will be the first person of the next generation to rule the kingdom one day.
Prince Mohammed, who remains as interior minister, according to the royal decree carried on state television, is next in line to rule after Salman and Crown Prince Muqrin.
Obama condolences

US President Barack Obama offered his condolences on King Abdullah's death.
"As our countries worked together to confront many challenges, I always valued King Abdullah's perspective and appreciated our genuine and warm friendship," Obama said in a written statement.
"The closeness and strength of the partnership between our two countries is part of King Abdullah's legacy."
Abdullah, thought to have been born in 1923, took the throne in 2005, but had run the country as de facto regent for a decade before that after his predecessor King Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke.
At stake with the appointment of Salman as king is the future direction of the US' most important Arab ally and self-appointed champion of Sunni Islam at a moment of unprecedented turmoil across the Middle East.
Most recently, the kingdom joined the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Abdullah played a guiding role in Saudi Arabia's support for Egypt's government after the military intervened in 2013, and drove his country's support for Syria's rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.
King Salman has been crown prince since 2012 and has been heading the defence ministry since 2011. He was governor of Riyadh province for five decades before that.

ISIL hostages: Japan's life or death dilemma

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he will never yield to "terrorists" as ransom is demanded for Japanese captives.

Japan has denied being involved in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after the group kidnapped two of its nationals in Syria.
ISIL threatened to kill the men within 72 hours unless Japan paid a ransom of $200m. That's the exact amount Japan offered on Saturday in non-military aid to countries fighting the armed group.
It left Prime Minister Shinzo Abe trying to strike a balance between pressures at home, and abroad.
Speaking in Tokyo on Wednesday, Abe said: "I ordered the cabinet to save the lives of the hostages using whatever available measures, and by fully utilising all existing diplomatic channels and routes."
But he added: "We will never yield to the terrorists. We will do our best to fight against this evil terrorism by holding hands together with the international community."
The ransom demand has again brought into sharp focus the challenge nations are facing when trying to secure the release of hostages.
So what options are available to Japan as it is drawn into this life or death dilemma? And is Japan's role overseas conflicting with its stance as a pacifist nation?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan
Guests:
Matthew Henman - Counter-terrorism expert and manager at IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre
Tomohiko Taniguchi - Adviser to the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Richard Weitz - Political and military analyst from the Hudson Institute

Japanese hostage 'not enemy of Muslims'

Mother of Kenji Goto, being held by ISIL, pleads for his life, as deadline for payment of $200 million ransom looms.

 

Junko Ishido said she would let Muslim students coming to study in Japan to stay at her home

Tokyo - As the clock ticks down to the end of the deadline ISIL has given the Japanese government to pay a massive ransom, the mother of hostage Kenji Goto, appealed for her son's life, explaining: "My son is not an enemy of Muslims."
Junko Ishido tearfully explained at a press conference on Friday morning in Tokyo that it was freelance journalist Goto's sense of justice that originally led him to work in the Middle East.
On Tuesday, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group released a video threatening to kill Goto, 47, and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa, 42, unless they receive $200m within 72 hours, directly demanding the ransom from Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Japanese government considers the deadline to be 2:50 pm local time (0550 GMT) on Friday.
The video, identified as being made by ISIL's Al-Furqan media arm was released shortly after Abe had pledged $200m in aid to countries to fight against ISIL.
Ishido on Friday described her son as someone who had maintained a long-term and sympathetic interest in the Islamic countries and who was helping the Japanese public to better understand the problems facing that part of the world.
"The reason he went [to Syria] was only to help a friend. He was always that kind of person, even as a child. He would look out for the children who were weaker than he was."
Ishido offered to give her own life in the place of her son's life.
"My own life is of very small worth," she said, "If I could somehow offer my life up I would pray that my son be released."
She added that irrespective of how the hostage crisis ends, she was willing to open her own home to Muslim students who wish to study in Japan.
When asked by reporters what stance she wanted the Japanese government to take in the face of ISIL's demand for ransom, she declined to answer clearly, but said she hoped the Abe administration would make every effort on the hostages' behalf.
She added that she had yet to be contacted by the Japanese government regarding her son's kidnapping.
According to local media Jiji Press, Abe told the Japanese media on Friday that "the Cabinet is working at full power for the early release of the two people."

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia dies

State TV says Crown Prince Salman has succeeded King Abdullah, who died at the age of 90.

 

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has died, a statement from the royal palace has said.
The royal court said in a statement on Friday that Abdullah, believed to be around 90, died at 1:00am local time (2200 GMT), expressing its "great sadness and mourning".
The officials did not disclose the cause of Abdullah's death, but he was admitted to hospital in December suffering from pneumonia and had been breathing with the aid of a tube.
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra said: "This is someone who is definitely going to be remmebered as a reformist within the royal family.
"He succeeded his brother at a very delicate time and started reforms in the country.
Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, deceased king's half-brother, has officially been named as the next ruler of the world's top oil exporter and the spiritual home of Islam. Prince Muqrin Bin Abdulaziz is the new crown prince, Saudi state TV announced.
Saudi Arabia's Western and Arab allies, along with countries such as Israel and China, have offered their condolences on the death of the king.
Abdullah will be buried later on Friday following afternoon prayers, and citizens would be invited to pledge allegiance to the new monarch and the crown prince at the royal palace, the royal court statement said.

King Salman, 79, in his first public address, pledged no change in the kingdom's direction and called for unity among Muslims.
"We will remain with God's strength attached to the straight path that this state has walked since its establishment by King Abdul Aziz bin al-Saud, and by his sons after him," Salman said in televised remarks.
The new King appointed his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef as deputy crown prince, meaning he will be the first of that generation to rule the kingdom one day.
Prince Mohammed, who remains as Interior Minister, according to the royal decree carried on state television, is next in line to rule after Salman and Crown Prince Muqrin.


Obama condoles death
US President Barack Obama condoled King Abdullah's death. "As our countries worked together to confront many challenges, I always valued King Abdullah's perspective and appreciated our genuine and warm friendship," Obama said in a written statement.
"The closeness and strength of the partnership between our two countries is part of King Abdullah's legacy."
Abdullah, thought to have been born in 1923, took the throne in 2005, but had run the country as de facto regent for a decade before that after his predecessor King Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke.
At stake with the appointment of Salman as king is the future direction of the United States' most important Arab ally and self-appointed champion of Sunni Islam at a moment of unprecedented turmoil across the Middle East.
Most recently the kingdom joined the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.
Abdullah played a guiding role in Saudi Arabia's support for Egypt's government after the military intervened in 2013, and drove his country's support for Syria's rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.
King Salman has been crown prince since 2012 and has been heading the defence ministry since 2011. He was governor of Riyadh province for five decades before that.

Anti-ISIL coalition to train Syria opposition fighters

US secretary of state tells anti-ISIL UK summit that forces will be trained in camps in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.

 

 

The meeting examined ways of intensifying the coalition campaign against ISIL in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere

The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has announced it intends to step-up its training of Syrian opposition forces in camps in the region, as well as establishing a fund to help those affected by ISIL when it is "long gone".
US Secretary of State John Kerry made the announcements after a meeting of 21 coalition members in London on Thursday.
"This spring, we're going to begin training Syrian opposition forces in camps in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar", Kerry said.
"We're also concerned with helping Daesh's (ISIL's) victims to rebuild their lives once Daesh (ISIL) is long gone."
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who was also among those attending the meeting.


The talks examined ways of intensifying the assault on ISIL in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere by doing more militarily, looking at ways to cut off the group's finances and how to stem the flow of foreign fighters.
Earlier in the day, Britain's foreign minister warned it could take up to two years to expel the group from Iraq.
Philip Hammond said that the task of pushing ISIL back in Iraq would be slow, and that while Iraqi forces were getting better they were still some way off from being able to launch a major ground offensive.
"This isn't going to be done in three months or six months. It's going to take a year, two years to push ISIL back out of Iraq but we are doing the things that need to be done in order to turn the tide," Hammond told Sky News.

Commuters wounded in Tel Aviv stabbing

Israeli police say Palestinian bus passenger shot and apprehended after attacking 13 people in act praised by Hamas.

 

 

Israeli police say a Palestinian man has stabbed 13 people on and near a bus in central Tel Aviv, seriously wounding three of them before he was shot and arrested.
Police described Wednesday's assault as a "terrorist attack", and the Palestinian group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, praised it.
It appeared to be the latest in a series of "lone-wolf" attacks by Palestinians citing tensions surrounding al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City.
The man, who was riding the bus with the other passengers, began stabbing people, including the driver, then managed to get out of the bus and run away from the scene.
Officers from a prison service, who happened to be nearby, saw the bus swerving out of control and a man running away. They gave chase, shot the man in the leg, wounding him lightly, and arrested him.
Three of those stabbed remain in critical condition, according to Lee Gat, a spokesperson at Tel Hashomer hospital, and a statement from the Ichilov hospital.
Reporting from Jerusalem, Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh said: "There have been many attacks in recent months, but this one is significant because such an attack hasn't occurred in Tel Aviv since an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death in November."
Suspect identified
Video aired by Israel's Channel 10 TV showed the attacker running in the street and stabbing a woman as he tried to escape. Police confirmed that Matroukh stabbed a woman as he attempted to flee.
Police identified the assailant as Hamza Mohammed Matroukh, a 23-year-old Palestinian resident of the occupied West Bank who had entered Israel illegally.
Micky Rosenfeld, Israeli police spokesperson, said Matroukh was in custody and undergoing questioning.

Timeline: A review of the critical events that have marked the history of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Police said he confessed to the stabbing, saying he carried it out in response to last year's Gaza war and tensions surrounding a Jerusalem site holy to Jews and Muslims.
The stabbing appeared to be the latest in a series of attacks in recent months carried out by individual Palestinians with no known ties to armed groups, which have killed about a dozen people, including five killed when two men attacked a Jerusalem synagogue with guns and meat cleavers.
Police sealed the central intersection where the attack occurred, which is typically clogged with cars, as paramedics tended to the wounded.
Herzl Biton, the bus driver, was stabbed in the upper body and liver and was in surgery, his niece Cheli Shushan said. She said he had tried to fight back and sprayed the attacker with pepper spray.
Biton called a friend as the attack was unfolding, describing the violence.
Hamas did not claim responsibility but praised Wednesday's attack as "brave and heroic" in a tweet by Izzat Risheq, a Hamas leader.
The stabbing is a "natural response to the occupation and its terrorist crimes against our people", Risheq said.
Wave of violence
Israeli officials say the attacks arise from incitement by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders.
"The terrorist attack in Tel Aviv is the direct result of the poisonous incitement being disseminated by the Palestinian Authority against the Jews and their state," Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, said on Wednesday.
Jerusalem has seen months of tensions between Jews and Palestinians in East Jerusalem - the section of the city the Palestinians demand as their future capital.
The area saw a wave of violence last summer, culminating in a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Much of the recent unrest has originated in tensions surrounding the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem's Old City which houses al-Aqsa Mosque.
Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and it is their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
It is also the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.
On Monday, thousands of Palestinians living inside Israel participated in the funeral procession of a Palestinian man with Israeli citizenship who died during a confrontation with Israeli police on Sunday night.
Local councils and grassroots committees have also called for nationwide general strikes.


Palestinian residents of the West Bank have also faced an escalation in attacks by Israeli settlers, including firebombings of local houses.
The violence comes in the run-up to March elections, in which Netanyahu is facing a challenge from a joint list headed by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, who support negotiations with the Palestinians.

Iraqi Kurds in major offensive against ISIL

Peshmerga forces fighting ISIL near Mosul Dam hope to cut off vital supply lines used by the group.

 

 

Peshmerga forces have succeeded in regaining several towns and villages from ISIL [Getty Images]

Kurdish Peshmerga forces have launched a major military operation in northwestern Iraq, following recent attempts to push across a frontline near the ISIL stronghold of Tal Afar.
Hundreds of Peshmerga troops have been deployed along frontlines pushing south from the Mosul Dam on Wednesday, after clearing almost 4km of territory.
With the help of the US-led coalition, the Peshmerga have been trying to take strategic territory that will cut vital supply lines from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant group's strongholds in Syria into Iraq.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from near the Mosul Dam, said Peshmerga commanders were confident of the operation, even though they knew it may take some time.
"The military operation is being carried out jointly with the US coalition. Since the early hours of the morning we have seen coalition planes dropping bombs targeting ISIL positions," she said.
"Earlier in morning there was no resistance from ISIL, but now ISIL is putting up a fight. They are fighting back and putting up fierce resistance while launching mortars at Peshmerga positions."
Peshmerga commanders on the ground told Al Jazeera that their aim is to take strategic territory that will cut supply lines vital for ISIL.
Ethnically diverse area
Successfully cutting off the supply lines would mean that ISIL would no longer be able to bring in supplies from their stronghold in Syria to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Al Jazeera's Khodr said there is no intention to push into Tal Afar, which is a heavily populated and ethnically diverse area.
"Peshmerga forces entering Tal Afar may be seen as an invading force by the local population. There are many Arabs and Turkmen residents in those areas," she said.
The US-led coalition has launched at least 20 more air strikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq since Monday.
In Iraq, nine air strikes hit areas near Sinjar, Kirkuk and Ramadi. Five units of ISIL fighters, several military supply units as well as heavy weaponry were targeted, according to the combined Joint Task Force leading the operations.
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al- Abbadi said on Wednesday in an interview with the Associated Press that the international community is not doing enough to help his country win the war against ISIL.
"We are in this almost on our own," he said. "There is a lot being said and spoken, but very little on the ground."
He said his country is grateful for the US-led air campaign and that air strikes have been effective

Audio leak links ex-Yemeni leader to Houthis

Yemen's deposed leader Ali Abdullah Saleh was talking with Houthi rebels a month after the Shia group took control of capital Sanaa, according to leaked telephone conversations obtained by Al Jazeera.
In the audio recording, received by Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Saleh, a former president, is heard apparently coordinating military and political moves with Abdul Wahid Abu Ras, a Houthi leader.
The audio was reportedly recorded in October.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from London, Mohamed Qubaty, a former government adviser in Yemen, said that if the audio recordings are proven, it shows Saleh as "a master of mischief" in the country.
On Wednesday, Saleh called for early elections, arguing that early presidential and parliamentary polls would help defuse the current political crisis.
Separately, news broke that President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthis had reached an agreement under which the fighters would withdraw from areas overlooking the presidential palace and the private compound of the president.
The Houthis, who took over the presidential palace in Sanaa in Tuesday, have demanded that Hadi implement a power-sharing deal.

Houthis take over Yemen presidential palace

Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Houthis, has accused Hadi of "failing the Yemeni people" and disrupting the implementation of the Peace and National Partnership Agreement (PNPA), which was approved after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in September.
In a televised speech just hours after his fighters' display of force on Tuesday, Houthi warned Hadi that he had to implement the power-sharing deal.
"At this historic and exceptional point in time, when conspiracies have been plotted against the country, there is a great danger facing Yemen,” Houthi said.
“Nothing will ever stop us from realising the peace and cooperation treaty. We will not be scared by foreign powers, the issue is crucial."
The Houthis are demanding security solutions and reforms to the national decision-making body, and they reject the draft constitution that divides Yemen into six federal regions.
Houthi fighters stood guard on Wednesday outside the private residence of Hadi, whose home in the city centre is normally protected by presidential security officers, witnesses said.
Entry posts were empty and there was no sign of the presidential guard at the compound, scene of clashes between Houthis and guards on Tuesday, the witnesses said.
Under house arrest
An official at the president's residence told Al Jazeera that Hadi had not been harmed in the clashes overnight.
Hadi appeared to be under house arrest, the official said.

However, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi politburo, told Reuters: "President Hadi is still in his home. There is no problem, he can leave."
The Houthis appear to hold de facto power over the capital and most of the country after months of territorial gain that culminated in the capture of Sanaa last September.
However, the international community is standing by Hadi as the legitimate leader of the mainly Sunni Arabian Peninsula country.
Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday, warned the Houthis to withdraw their siege of the Yemeni presidential palace.
Peter Salisbury, a Yemen analyst, said it remains unclear how the ultimatum will affect the position of Hadi.
Cristian Barros Melet, Chile’s permanent representative to the UN and currently UN Security Council president, urged all parties to commit to dialogue after a closed Security Council session on Tuesday.

Obama vows to hunt down 'terrorists'

US president calls on Congress in State of Union speech to approve new war powers to fight ISIL.

 

US President Barack Obama has vowed in his sixth State of the Union address to relentlessly hunt down "terrorists" from "Pakistan to the streets of Paris," before calling on Congress to approve new war powers against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
Obama argued on Tuesday that US military leadership in Iraq and Syria is stopping ISIL from advancing, but asked lawmakers "to show the world that we are united in this mission" with a war authorisation vote.
Republican lawmakers have said they are prepared to work with him to pass such a measure, if he sends a proposal up to Capitol Hill.
"Instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group," Obama said.
"We're also supporting a moderate opposition in Syria that can help us in this effort, and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremism. This effort will take time. It will require focus. But we will succeed."
 Cuba, Iran and Ukraine
Obama also promoted his administration's efforts to revive relations with Cuba after 50 years of hostility.
"Our shift in Cuba policy has the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere; removes a phony excuse for restrictions in Cuba; stands up for democratic values; and extends the hand of friendship to the Cuban people," he said.
"And this year, Congress should begin the work of ending the embargo [on Cuba]," he added.
The US president also warned Congress in the address that any move to impose new sanctions on Iran could undermine negotiations aimed at reaching a complex nuclear deal.
"New sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails ," Obama said in his address to the Republican-controlled Congress.
"Our diplomacy is at work with respect to Iran, where, for the first time in a decade, we've halted the progress of its nuclear programme and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material. Between now and this spring, we have a chance to negotiate a comprehensive agreement that prevents a nuclear-armed Iran."


"That is why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this progress," Obama said, referring to an interim accord under which Tehran has frozen its uranium enrichment in return for limited sanctions relief.
Obama also noted that United States' substantial support for Ukraine, which is facing of growing threat from Russian-backed separatists, has further demonstrated the country's strong place in the international community.
"We're upholding the principle that bigger nations can't bully the small - by opposing Russian aggression, supporting Ukraine's democracy, and reassuring our NATO allies," he said.
Domestic issues
Obama also devoted a large portion of the speech to the various domestic issues he has dealt with in his two terms as president.
"We can't slow down businesses or put our economy at risk with government shutdowns or fiscal showdowns. We can't put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street or refighting past battles on immigration when we've got to fix a broken system." he warned Republicans.
 And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of these things I will veto it."
He also outlined a number of progressive policies, although the likelihood of them being realized in his remaining time in office appears slim.
Reporting from Capitol Hill, Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane said: "I don't think the president laid out the speech thinking he would get anything done, but he wanted to highlight the difference for the American people between him and the Republicans in Congress."
"He talked about very progressive issues like raising the minimum wage, making childcare more affordable, free college tuition for two years."
However the response of many Republicans was to ask how Obama planned to pay for those initiatives.
Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett, also reporting from Capitol Hill, said: "How is the president going to pay for that? That is the one thing that seemed to be missing from the speech according to Republicans - what President Obama did not mention in his speech is that the US has a $18.1 trillion debt and 7 trillion of those dollars were added under Obama."

Canadian Troops Exchange Gunfire with Islamic State in First Confirmed Ground Battle with Western Forces

Britain's Forgotten Wartime Structures

Abbot's Cliffe, Kent, England (2010)

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.
There are numerous grand memorials to Britain's wartime dead. But alongside the buffered plaques and the striking limestone statues, countless muted physical remnants of the war in the UK and Northern Europe remain strewn across the country, great hulking concrete structures becoming a silent part of the scenery.
Photographer Marc Wilson spent six years visiting 143 of these locations for his book, The Last Stand, which was released late last year. Despite the fact I wasn't alive while the bunkers and gun batteries he documented were in use, turning the pages and looking at the exoskeletons of war embedded on the landscape, I knew they captured some of my experience.
The images illustrate the thread that has run through the tapestry of British life since these structures were built. Or, as Marc himself puts it, "The period of time in between their construction and today is made up of the histories, stories, and memories that the work hopes to reflect. The objects can be seen as full stops in the timeline."

Widemouth Bay, Cornwall, England (2011)

The blockhouses of Marc's photos, in other words, have slept along coastlines and hilltops since their assembly, waiting for someone to chance upon and find a place for them within their own personal timeline. Growing up in Norfolk, the outlook for me was always very much horizontal; we looked to the countryside, out over the fields, for direction, and happened upon many war remnants similar to those shown in Marc's book.
The fields around us hid both a tumbledown castle behind spiked gates and a Cold War observation post among a thicket of thorns. The castle, what's left of it, and the unroofed rooms of the observation post allowed us to smoke away from prying eyes, and their walls became the boundaries of our own worlds.

Brean Down II, Somerset, England (2012)

Looking at Marc's photo of Brean Down Fort, which juts out of the crest of the Somerset hillside, it's hard not to see myself in the photo, looking out the window, cursing the wind and quickly running out of matches.
These places became the settings for our realities away from home, and, as we grew older, venues in which we could escape everything else, through raves and free parties. Any concrete creation that provided some kind of shelter in our local forests, fields, dunes, and quarries was fair game for the sound system mafia who kept Norfolk's outdoor party free-for-all alive.

Portland, Dorset, England (2011)

The link between the rave scene and the structures in Marc's photos is perhaps most salient in the image of the front gun placements in Portland, Dorset. Had we lost the Battle of Britain, these guns would have helped to prevent invasion by shore. Yet, part of me can't help but look at those curved battery walls and wonder if there's any better place to position a sound system rig, with room to spare behind for the generator and jerry cans (unfortunately, however, there's not actually a path that a van could drive down to drop off all the gear).
A party that comes to mind while looking at these images is the AZTEK multi-rigger at Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire, on the Easter bank holiday in 2006. Blackened concrete structures with arched roofs of corrugated iron echoed the sound of happy hardcore and hard trance from sound systems in the adjacent trench.
When the sun come up, I noticed that the hangar, control tower and runway—which was now packed with hundreds of Fiestas and Escorts—had once been part of an RAF base. In 1944, it was home to the Americans—specifically, the 20th Fighter Group, known as the "Loco Group" for their acuity when it came to dropping bombs on locomotives. As the morning chill began to set in, I realized that the trembling teenagers and the hum of the generators remained the only constants there since the Loco Group last flew.

Continued below.

It sounds odd, but I glean a far greater sense of identity from looking at these photos than I do via scrolling through old Facebook pictures. I can hear the music boom beyond the frame, and that feels unique to me.
For my father and grandfather, the photos hark back to a collective nationalism that was rooted in identity for all, and the strength of an empire in the face of fascism. They represent a time when the anachronisms of imperialism and the nuances of civil defense found their way into common conversation. They were tangible evidence of war, objects that brought the headlines to life and made the danger feel graver. I'm not sure if my generation could really fathom the thought that anti-tank barricades were once necessary defense expenditure.

Studland Bay I, Dorset, England (2011)

Marc has gone to great lengths to disguise these wartime narratives, though. In his image of a pillbox leaning into the surf at Studland Bay, he shot the cold obelisk with a slow shutter speed, giving the water a milky appearance. In doing so, he takes objects that represent great violence and creates scenes of peace.
To achieve this, Marc would often venture out of hotels well before dawn and stand around in the freezing sea was, waiting for that moment when the light illuminates the remnants just right and he sees them as he wants them to be seen.

Wissant II, Nord-Pas-De-Calais, France (2012)

There's a lot of debate as to whether the structures in Marc's photos should be left erect as tribute, or whether they should be removed. In the case of the Wissant II, photographed above, the decision was the latter, after a child was injured on the wrought iron bars extending from its concrete torso. Marc thinks that's a shame, and I can't help but feel he's right. The structures stand for something much more important than we're maybe capable of grasping right now.
We live in a time where character is defined by the variety of stickers on our MacBooks. The Last Stand hints at something more complete; dilapidated stone works that look to me like blood and sinew. The broken cartilage of a nation with its nose cracked all out of sorts.

Lossiemouth II, Moray, Scotland (2011)

When documenting the past, it's important to remember that you're also capturing the present, and the future. A collective nostalgia doesn't merely observe, it echoes.
Marc's photos, then, are like wormholes, through which we can see Britain's past, present and future. I just hope that the objects he's shot will be around for another generation of kids like me.

 By James Baines, Photos: Marc Wilson