After Bishops Call for Married Priests, Pope Urges New Ways

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28 October 2019, 09:05

Pope Francis presides over a Mass for the closing of the Amazon synod in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019. Photo: Alessandra Tarantino / AP

VATICAN CITY (AP) — On the heels of a landmark call by Amazon region bishops for married men to become priests, Pope Francis on Sunday exhorted Catholics to be open to fresh ways of evangelization, saying the church must “open new roads for the proclamation of the Gospel.”

He also cautioned against self-righteousness, in an apparent slap at conservative critics who fear he is weakening the church’s foundations.

Allowing married men to be ordained in remote Amazon areas with severe shortages of priests would chip away at the church’s nearly millennium-old practice upholding priestly celibacy. It would also help the church compete with evangelical and Protestant churches that have been increasingly winning converts there.

A three-week-long Vatican gathering, or synod, on the special needs of Catholics in that South American region featured a vote by a majority of the more than 180 synod bishops who proposed the ordination of married men with established families to help minister to the region’s far-flung faithful, where some Catholics don’t see priests for months, even years.

Francis expressed gratitude that the bishops spoke with “sincerity and candor.” He has said he will put his response in writing by year’s end.

Addressing the public in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said he and synod participants felt spurred to “leave comfortable shores” in seeking new ways to carry out the church’s core mission to spread the Catholic faith.

Francis has often praised celibacy for priests. It the Argentine-born pontiff embraces the appeal from bishops on his native continent, it is not clear whether that might trigger an erosion of the celibacy rule elsewhere.

Ordaining married men, even in limited circumstances, risks deepening the antipathy in strongly conservative church circles toward Francis, whom they deem to be dangerously progressive.

Francis said he and the bishops “felt spurred to go out, to leave the comfortable shores of our safe ports to sink into deep waters — not in the swampy waters of ideologies, but in the open sea in which the Spirit invites us to throw out the fishing nets,” he said, referring to Gospel writings about fishing for the souls of people.

In prepared remarks, which he didn’t read, he appeared to hint at the appeal for married priests when he encouraged being open to “new things.”

His critics, including so-called traditionalist Catholics, insist the Vatican adheres strictly to centuries-old rules demanding that priests be celibate, unmarried men. But in the first centuries of the church, married men did serve as priests. Even the first pope, St. Peter, hand-picked by Jesus, was married, as were many of the first apostles.

Currently, the Vatican allows married men to become priests in Eastern rite churches. Eager to include converts, it has also allowed married Anglicans to remain priests when they join the Roman Catholic church.

In a possible reference to those who consider themselves guardians of the faith, Francis warned against self-righteousness and what he derided as “self-canonization.”

The idea that mature, married men of “proven virtue” could become priests has been suggested for decades, including during the papacy of St. John Paul II, a darling of conservatives.

But the Amazon synod’s formal proposal was the first official call for it.

Francis might seize that momentum. But he also might tread cautiously to avoid disorienting faithful whose trust in the church hierarchy has been seriously eroded by decades of pedophile priest scandals in many countries.

Italian theologian Marinella Perroni, noting in an interview with Italian daily La Stampa that the ban on married priests became formal more than 1,000 years after the church’s founding, ventured that it could be more than a century before marriage is no long an impediment to ordination.

Synod bishops also called for the Vatican to revive study of whether women can be ordained as deacons, a lesser role than priests. During Francis’ papacy, a commission to study that prospect produced no action.

Deborah-Rose Milavec, a co-director of Future Church, an advocacy group for progressive change, was cautious about whether there would someday be female deacons, especially since any married priest in the Amazon would probably be selected from the ranks of male deacons.

Francis also echoed environmental concerns by the Amazon bishops.

He lamented that the Amazon’s native peoples had been considered “backward and of little worth,” and denounced those who have despised their traditions and sought to erase their history as well as “occupy their lands and usurp their goods.”

“How much alleged superiority, transformed into oppression and exploitation, exists even today!” Francis said. “The mistakes of the past were not enough to stop the plundering of other persons and the inflicting of wounds on our brothers and sisters and on our sister earth.”

Story: Frances D’Emilio

Research on Cat Tongues Wins China’s Bizarre Science Award

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Xinhua News Agency

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28 October 2019, 09:05

A winner dresses up as Garfield at the ceremony of 2019 Pineapple Science Award in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, on Oct. 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Yin Xiaosheng)

HANGZHOU (Xinhua) — Cat tongues are more efficient than brushes, longer vacations mean a longer life, even dinosaurs suffered from cervical spondylosis… what is arguably the most bizarre science award in China once again paid its annual tribute to the spirit of curiosity.

“It’s a fantastic award because it celebrates not only science, but curiosity in particular. Science is not always a straight path. You have to follow your curiosity, sometimes you get lost, and sometimes you discover the unexpected,” said Marcos Martinon-Torres, a professor with the University of Cambridge, who won a chemistry prize on Saturday.

Legend has it that ancient Chinese craftsmen had mastered advanced chromium metal coating technology so that the bronze swords unearthed from Xi’an’s Terracotta Warriors pit were almost rustless.

But Marcos found it was the pit soil that functioned as a natural preservative due to its suitable ph-value, small amounts of organic matter and fine granular structure.

138499267 15719008097161n 1 — British scientist Marcos Martinon-Torres receives a prize at the ceremony of 2019 Pineapple Science Award in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, on Oct. 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Yin Xiaosheng)

China’s equivalent of the Ig Nobel Prizes, the U.S. parody of the Nobel, the Pineapple award is given in fields including psychology, physics and biology. Ten awards were handed to global scientists who based their seemingly trivial findings on serious scientific activities.

David Hu and his team from the Georgia Institute of Technology won this year’s physics prize for “bringing a new dawn to the brush industry,” 10,000 years after the brush was invented.

Based on the research of tongues of six felines, Hu designed a highly efficient, detergent-saving brush that simulated the barbed microstructure of a cat tongue.

For as far back as medical records stretch, cervical spondylosis was thought to be a disease unique to bipedal human beings, born from the need to directly support the head on a cervical spine.

But thanks to Xing Lida, a professor with the China University of Geosciences, and his team consisted of paleontologists from China, the United States and Japan, have come to realize that humans do not have a monopoly on cervical spondylosis.

They detected cervical arthropathy from dinosaur fossils, a finding so profound they were able to secure a Pineapple prize for biology.

First held in 2012 to honor imaginative research, the Pineapple awards are co-sponsored by the Zhejiang Science Museum and Guokr, China’s leading popular science website. The award aims at arousing public enthusiasm for science among China’s younger generation.

“Our goal is to make people see the beauty of science. We hope to help everyone get to know and understand science out of pure curiosity, and bring out their love and respect for science,” said Xu Rui, with the Zhejiang Science Museum.

Trump Hails Military Strike on Islamic State

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Associated Press

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28 October 2019, 09:03

In this photo provided by the White House, President Donald Trump is joined by from left, national security adviser Robert O'Brien, Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary mark Esper, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and Brig. Gen. Marcus Evans, Deputy Director for Special Operations on the Joint Staff, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019, in the Situation Room of the White House in Washington. Photo: Shealah Craighead / The White House via AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group who was killed in a U.S. military raid in Syria, according to President Donald Trump (all times local):

5:40 p.m.

Australia’s prime minister has welcomed the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi but says it does not end the campaign “to defeat this terrorist group and the extremism it embodies.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says in a statement the death is “a significant blow” to the Islamic State group and “another important step in preventing its revitalization.”

Morrison says al-Baghdadi inspired or directed cowardly attacks by Islamic State group followers against “innocent civilians around the world, some of whom were Australian.”

4:15 p.m.

The Prescott, Arizona parents of slain American hostage Kayla Mueller say they have mixed emotions about the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Their daughter was a humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped and taken hostage in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria.

Mueller’s death was reported in February 2015 and U.S. intelligence officials told her family four months later that she was raped repeatedly by al-Baghdadi.

Carl Mueller told The Arizona Republic on Sunday that al-Baghdadi “either killed her or he was complicit in her murder.”

Marsha Mueller says she wants to know what truly happened to her daughter “and what aren’t we being told.”

Kayla Mueller’s body has yet to be recovered.

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1:10 p.m.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is criticizing the White House for failing to notify congressional leaders before the U.S. raid in Syria that President Donald Trump says killed the leader of the Islamic State group.

She notes that the U.S. let Russia know the raid was in the works.

Trump said U.S. military helicopters flew over territory controlled by Russian and Syrian forces before landing at Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s compound. He also said he kept lawmakers out of the loop because he was fearful of leaks.

Pelosi says the Trump administration must brief Congress on the operation and on the administration’s overall strategy for the Mideast.

Before the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the Obama administration did give advance word to the top two Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate as well as the four leaders of the congressional intelligence committees.

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12:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump says European nations have been a “tremendous disappointment” in what he says is their unwillingness to bring home captured Islamic State fighters from their home countries.

He’s renewing his threat to release imprisoned fighters at their borders.

Trump has repeatedly and publicly pressed Europe to take back their large numbers of imprisoned fighters, but that push has been met by some resistance.

The U.S. has said it wants to lead by example and several captured fighters have been returned to America for prosecution.

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12:40 p.m.

The Russian Defense Ministry is expressing skepticism about President Donald Trump’s announcement that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed in a U.S. raid in Syria.

The ministry says in a statement that there were no recorded airstrikes in the Idlib zone on Saturday where the operation is said to have taken place.

Trump said U.S. military helicopters flew over territory controlled by Russian and Syrian forces before landing at al-Baghdadi’s compound.

The Russian statement says the ministry is unaware of “any alleged assistance to the passage of American aircraft into the airspace of the Idlib de-escalation zone during this operation.”

It also suggested that al-Baghdadi’s presence in that area would be unlikely because the territory is controlled either by the Syrian government or by an al-Qaeda affiliate that is an IS rival.

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12:15 p.m.

Vice President Mike Pence is disclosing more details about the U.S. military raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria.

Pence says that by Thursday afternoon, he and President Donald Trump learned that there was “a high probability” that al-Baghdadi would be at his compound in Syria’s Idlib province.

Pence tells CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Trump directed commanders to come up with military options and present them to him on Friday morning.

Pence says that by Saturday morning, “we received the actionable intelligence” that allowed the operation that Trump had approved to go ahead.

And it was on Sunday morning when Trump told the nation that the raid had resulted in al-Baghdadi’s death.

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12:05 p.m.

The head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament says the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi would be welcome news, but he’s playing down its possible impact in the fight against terrorism.

Konstantin Kosachev is pointing out that President Donald Trump’s announcement Sunday in Washington that al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. military raid in Syria isn’t the first time the leader’s death has been reported.

Kosachev says “countering terrorism is a much more difficult task than the physical destruction of its leaders, even the most implacable.”

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10:30 a.m.

Some information is emerging about how the United States might have been able to track Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

A senior Iraqi intelligence official says that a few months ago, an Iraqi aide to al-Baghdadi was killed in western Iraq by a U.S. airstrike. The official says the aide’s wife was arrested in the operation and handed over by the Americans to Iraqi authorities.

The official says the wife ended up being a key source of information on al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts and that through her, the Iraqis ultimately were able to pass along to the United States coordinates on al-Baghdadi.

A second Iraqi security official says al-Baghdadi’s brother-in-law was recently arrested by the Iraqis and also helped with information about Abu Bakr’s whereabouts

The officials weren’t authorized to publicly discuss intelligence operations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

—Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad.

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10:25 a.m.

Israel’s prime minister is congratulating President Donald Trump for the “impressive achievement” of killing Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Benjamin Netanyahu says the U.S. military operation “reflects our shared determination with the United States and all the free nations to combat terrorist organizations and terrorist states.”

Netanyahu spoke during a tour of an Israeli air force base shortly after Trump announced at the White House that Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. military raid in Syria.

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10 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. military raid that took out Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a bigger deal than the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden during the Obama administration.

Trump is detailing the operation during an announcement at the White House.

The president acknowledges that the death of bin Laden was significant, but he believes the news about al-Baghdadi is even bigger news.

Trump says that bin Laden didn’t become a global name in terrorism until the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The president says that’s in contrast to al-Baghdadi, who Trump says is responsible for building a caliphate.

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9:55 a.m.

President Donald Trump says an on-site DNA confirmed that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. military raid in Syria.

Trump is sharing extensive details from the mission during a televised address from the White House on Sunday.

He says debris from the tunnel where Bakr al-Baghdadi blew himself up in using an explosive vest made it difficult to get to his body.

But Trump says Americans were able to move the debris and confirm al-Baghdadi’s identity.

Trump says those involved in the raid “brought body parts” back with them, even though there “wasn’t much left” of al-Baghdadi’s body.

He says “they have his DNA. More of it than they want.”

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9:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump says that watching the raid that killed Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria as it was underway felt “as though you were watching a movie.”

And he’s suggesting that the video be released to the public to dissuade al-Baghdadi’s followers.

Trump says that he watched much of the mission unfold from the White House Situation Room on Saturday night.

Trump says at the White House on Sunday that the U.S. had al-Baghdadi under surveillance for several weeks. He says that during the raid, U.S. forces flew low and fast, and were met with gunfire at points.

Trump is also suggesting that the footage of the raid may be released publicly so that the world knows al-Baghdadi spent his final moments “crying, “whimpering” and “screaming.”

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9:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump says Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died after running into a dead-end tunnel and igniting an explosive vest, killing himself and three of his young children

Trump is describing the U.S. raid in Syria that killed perhaps the world’s most wanted man.

The president says during remarks from the White House’s Diplomatic Room that al-Baghdadi spent his last moments in utter fear and claims that the IS leader was “whimpering and crying” and died as “a coward, running and crying.”

Trump had teased the announcement with a tweet Saturday night, declaring that “Something very big has just happened!”

He says the U.S. received immediate and positive identification on the body and that the world is now a much safer place.

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9:25 a.m.

President Donald Trump says Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead after a U.S. military operation in Syria targeted the Islamic State group leader.

Trump says in a statement to the nation from the White House’s Diplomatic Room that “al-Baghdadi is dead” — fulfilling the top national security priority of his administration.

He says no U.S. personnel were lost in the mission.

Al-Baghdadi presided over IS’s global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man.

The announcement comes as Trump has been on the receiving end of bipartisan criticism in Washington following the recent pullback of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria. Critics fear that move will allow the militant group to regain strength after it had lost vast stretches of territory it had once controlled

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8:40 a.m.

A senior Turkish official says that “to the best of my knowledge,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi arrived at a location in Syria 48 hours before the U.S. military raid that’s believed to have targeted the Islamic State group leader.

The Turkish official says in a written statement Sunday that there’s been “close coordination” among relevant parties and that the Turkish military had advanced knowledge of the raid.

Turkey’s army said earlier in a tweet that it had “information exchanged and coordination” with U.S. military authorities before the operation.

The U.S. raid with helicopters took place in the Barisha area north of Idlib city — a few kilometers from the Turkish border.

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2:10 a.m.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group, had a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head.

He’d kept a low public profile in recent years, releasing only sporadic audio recordings. In a recording just last month, he called on members of the extremist group to do all they could to free IS detainees and women held in jails and camps.

That purported audio was his first public statement since last April, when he appeared in a video for the first time in five years.

The video included images of the IS leader sitting in a white room with three others. He praised Easter Day bombings that killed more than 250 people and called on militants to be a “thorn” against their enemies.

Islamic State Leader Leaves a Legacy of Terror

By

Associated Press

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28 October 2019, 09:02

This file image made from video posted on a militant website Saturday, July 5, 2014, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq during his first public appearance. Photo: Militant video, File

BEIRUT (AP) — Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sought to establish a new Islamic “caliphate” across Syria and Iraq, but he might be remembered more as the ruthlessly calculating militant leader of the Islamic State group who brought terror to the heart of Europe and set up a short-lived organization so extreme that it was shunned even by al-Qaida.

With a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, al-Baghdadi steered his chillingly violent and surprisingly disciplined followers into new territory by capitalizing on feelings of Sunni supremacy and disenfranchisement at a time of tumult that followed the Arab Spring.

One of the few senior IS commanders still at large after two years of steady battlefield losses, al-Baghdadi died Saturday when he detonated his suicide vest in a tunnel while being pursued by U.S. forces north of Idlib, Syria, killing himself and three of his children, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Sunday. He was believed to be 48.

“He didn’t die a hero, he died a coward, crying, whimpering and screaming,” Trump said at the White House, adding that the U.S. had al-Baghdadi under surveillance for weeks.

Militants under his command were some of the first jihadis to grow up with the internet, and they deftly exploited social media to tout their military successes, document their mass slaughter, beheadings and stonings, and promote the Islamic State to a global audience.

The announcement of his death came nearly two years after Iraq announced the defeat of IS and five years after the group humiliated its armed forces and seized nearly a third of the country.

In April, U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces in Syria declared the group’s territorial defeat after liberating the village of Baghouz in eastern Syria, its last bastion. The Islamic State saw its territory shrink from an area the size of Britain to a speck in the Euphrates River valley.

Though at minimum a symbolic victory for Western counterterrorism efforts, it is unclear what impact his death will have on possible future attacks. He was largely regarded as a figurehead of the global terror network, and was described as “irrelevant for a long time” by a coalition spokesman in 2017.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the death of al-Baghdadi is “only a step,” adding that the fight continues “so that the terrorist organization is definitely defeated.”

Also unclear is who will replace him as leader. The group has lost many of its senior commanders in U.S.-led airstrikes, including Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, described as the group’s No. 2 who was killed in Iraq by an August 2015 U.S. airstrike, and Abu Ali al-Anbari, the extremist group’s leading finance official, who was killed in 2016. Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, the IS spokesman and one of the group’s best-known commanders, also was reported to have been killed in 2016 by a Russian airstrike.

Al-Baghdadi was born as Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai sometime in 1971 in Samarra, Iraq, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, according to a U.N. sanctions list. His hometown later would be the site of a 2006 bombing by Sunni militants on a revered Shiite shrine — an attack that sparked a wave of sectarian violence that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Details of his early life are murky. A brief biography posted to online jihadi forums in 2014 traced his lineage to the Prophet Muhammad’s Quraysh tribe. Its claims, which cannot be independently confirmed, describe al-Baghdadi as coming from a religious family and earning a doctorate from Saddam University for Islamic Studies, the Iraqi capital’s main center at the time for Sunni clerical scholarship. It says he promoted the Salafi jihadi movement, which advocates “holy war” to bring about a strict, uncompromising version of Islamic law, or Shariah.

According to IS-affiliated websites, al-Baghdadi was detained by U.S. forces in Iraq and sent to Bucca prison in 2004 for his anti-U.S. militant activities, although he was considered a civilian detainee and his jailers were unaware of his jihadi role. He was released 10 months later and joined the al-Qaida branch in Iraq of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad in 2006 and al-Baghdadi became a trusted aide of its two most senior figures, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Al-Baghdadi assumed control of the group, known at the time as the Islamic State of Iraq.

The group he inherited, al-Qaida’s official franchise in Iraq, already had been weakened by years of U.S. and Iraqi raids and the mobilization of large numbers of Sunni fighters opposed to its extremist ideology. But al-Baghdadi was playing a long game.

Deploying suicide attackers, roadside explosives, car bombs and Kalashnikov-toting gunmen, he increased the tempo of assaults against Iraqi forces and Shiite civilians as the U.S. military drew down its troops ahead of their December 2011 withdrawal. Prison breaks, including a military-style assault on two Baghdad-area jails in July 2013 that freed more than 500 inmates, bolstered his group’s ranks.

The chaos of the uprising against President Bashar Assad in Syria provided an opportunity to expand his influence. Al-Baghdadi sent comrades to create a like-minded Sunni extremist group known as the Nusra Front, which more moderate Sunni rebels initially welcomed.

Over time, more of his fighters and possibly al-Baghdadi himself relocated to Syria, pursuing their plans to restore a medieval Islamic state, or caliphate, spanning both Iraq and greater Syria, also known as the Levant. In April 2013, al-Baghdadi announced what amounted to a hostile takeover of the Nusra Front, saying he was merging it into a new group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The move caught both the Nusra Front and al-Qaida’s central command off guard.

Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani refused to accept the takeover. Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida’s top leader, tried to end the squabbling and ordered al-Baghdadi’s group to be abolished.

Al-Baghdadi, however, would not compromise, and al-Qaida eventually had enough. In February, it formally distanced itself from al-Baghdadi, saying it had no connection with his group and “is not responsible for its actions.”

But al-Baghdadi’s organization was well on its way to achieving the proto-state it coveted, taking control of key cities such as Raqqa, Syria, and Fallujah in Iraq.

1000 1 4 — This file image made from video posted on a militant website April 29, 2019, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, being interviewed by his group’s Al-Furqan media outlet. (Al-Furqan media via AP, File)

Then came the offensive that would draw the U.S. back into Iraq. In June 2014, al-Baghdadi’s militants and allied Sunni fighters seized Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul and other Sunni-dominated communities in the north and west of the country. Government troops in many areas put up little resistance, abandoning their posts and leaving behind valuable American-made materiel. Al-Baghdadi’s fighters posted propaganda videos of its forces gunning down captured Shiite troops en masse.

By month’s end, the group announced its own state governed by Islamic law. Al-Baghdadi became the declared “caliph” of the newly renamed Islamic State group, and Muslims worldwide were urged to pledge allegiance to him.

On June 29, 2014, the group released a video showing a man purporting to be al-Baghdadi giving a sermon at a Mosul mosque.

“It is a burden to accept this responsibility to be in charge of you,” he said. “I am not better than you or more virtuous than you. If you see me on the right path, help me. If you see me on the wrong path, advise me and halt me. And obey me as far as I obey God.”

President Barack Obama launched airstrikes against IS beginning Aug. 8. He acted after thousands of Iraqi Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion with ties to Zoroastrianism, were targeted by al-Baghdadi’s fighters, and to safeguard U.S. interests, including a consulate in the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital of Irbil.

Islamic State militants responded by beheading Western captives, beginning with freelance American journalist James Foley, and posting their deeds in gruesome online videos.

The U.S. and Arab allies eventually expanded the military campaign to target IS fighters with airstrikes in Syria, helping U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters battle the group.

Under pressure in both countries, the group turned outward, claiming responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in which 130 people died, and the March 22 attacks in Brussels that left 32 people dead.

Iraqi officials said al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike on Nov. 8, 2014, in the town of Qaim, near the Syrian border in Iraq’s Anbar province. Days later, an online audio message purportedly from al-Baghdadi urged his followers to “explode the volcanoes of jihad everywhere.”

Little is known about al-Baghdadi’s family. An ex-wife, Saja al-Dulaimi, and her daughter from al-Baghdadi, were detained in Lebanon in 2014. She was released a year later as part of a swap with al-Qaida in exchange for kidnapped Lebanese soldiers and police. In July 2018, IS said al-Baghdadi’s son, Huthaifa al-Badri, was killed fighting government forces in central Syria.

On April 30, he appeared in a video for the first time in five years, acknowledging defeat in the group’s last stronghold in Syria but vowing a “long battle” ahead. He appeared with a bushy gray and red beard, wearing a black robe with a beige vest and seated on the floor with what appears to be an AK-74 rifle propped up next to him.

The man said to be Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the video also claimed the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka that killed over 250 people were “part of the revenge” against the West.

“Our battle today is a war of attrition to harm the enemy, and they should know that jihad will continue until doomsday,” al-Baghdadi said.

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Story: Adam Schreck and Zeina Karam. Schreck reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed.

WWF Launches Giant Panda Friends Club in China

By

Xinhua News Agency

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28 October 2019, 09:01

A giant panda eats a pumpkin in the panda house in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Wild Zoo in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, June 16, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Long)

CHENGDU (Xinhua) — The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a giant panda-friendly enterprise alliance Sunday in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

The WWF launched the alliance, known as the Panda Friends Club, with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, which will promote a giant panda-friendly certification that aims to create sustainability for healthy panda ecosystems and economic development.

The certification requires products to be produced in the distribution area of wild giant pandas, meet the demand of sustainability during collection or cultivation, and be beneficial for giant panda protection and the development of local communities.

The companies in the alliance can support the communities by purchasing the products.

The value of the ecosystem of giant pandas and their habitats is as high as 6.9 billion U.S. dollars a year, 27 times the investment in giant panda protection, said Wei Fuwen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Sichuan has 1,387 wild giants pandas and habitats covering 2.02 million hectares.

Trump Says US Forces Cornered IS Leader in Dead-End Tunnel

By

Associated Press

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28 October 2019, 09:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group who presided over its global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man, died after U.S. special operators cornered him during a raid in Syria, President Donald Trump said Sunday.

“Last night, the United States brought the world’s No. 1 terrorist leader to justice,” Trump announced at the White House, providing graphic details of al-Baghdadi’s final moments at the helm of the militant organization. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.”

In a national address, Trump described the nighttime airborne raid in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, with American special operations forces flying over heavily militarized territory controlled by multiple nations and forces. No U.S. troops were killed in the operation, Trump said.

The death of al-Baghdadi was a milestone in the fight against IS, which brutalized swaths of Syria and Iraq and sought to direct a global campaign from a self-declared “caliphate.” A yearslong campaign by American and allied forces led to the recapture of the group’s territorial holding, but its violent ideology has continued to inspire attacks.

As U.S. troops bore down on al-Baghdadi, he fled into a “dead-end” tunnel with three of his children, Trump said, and detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and the children. “He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone,” Trump said. “He died like a dog, he died like a coward.”

Al-Baghdadi’s identity was confirmed by a DNA test conducted onsite, Trump said.

Trump had teased a major announcement late Saturday, tweeting that “Something very big has just happened!” By the morning, he was thanking Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, as well as Kurdish fighters in Syria for their support.

The operation marks a significant foreign policy success for Trump, coming at one of the lowest points in his presidency as he is mired in impeachment proceedings and facing widespread Republican condemnation for his Syria policy.

The recent pullback of U.S. troops he ordered from northeastern Syria raised a storm of bipartisan criticism in Washington that the militant group could regain strength after it had lost vast stretches of territory it had once controlled. Trump said the troop pullout “had nothing to do with this.”

Planning for the operation began weeks ago, Trump said, after the U.S. gained unspecified intelligence on al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts. Eight military helicopters flew for more than an hour over territory controlled by Russian and Syrian forces, Trump said, before landing under gunfire at the compound.

Trump vividly described the raid and took extensive questions from reporters for more than 45 minutes Sunday. He said U.S. forces breached the walls of the building because the doors were booby-trapped and chased al-Baghdadi into the tunnel, which partially collapsed after al-Baghdadi detonated the suicide vest. Many homes in Syria, which has been riven by civil war since 2011, have subterranean tunnels or shelters from the fighting.

Trump also revealed that U.S. forces spent roughly two hours on the ground collecting valuable intelligence. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that the U.S.-led Coalition launched at least one airstrike in western Aleppo aimed at Abu Hassan al-Muhajer, an aide to al=Baghdadi.

Trump said he watched the operation from the White House Situation room as it played out live “as though you were watching a movie.” Trump suggested he may order the release of the video so that the world knows al-Baghdadi did not die of a hero and spent his final moments “crying, “whimpering” and “screaming.”

Trump approved the operation Saturday morning after receiving “actionable intelligence,” Vice President Mike Pence told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Trump had spent Friday night at Camp David and flew by helicopter Saturday morning to golf at his private Virginia club. He then returned to the White House.

Trump said he teased the announcement as soon as American forces landed safely in a third-country. An Iraqi security official confirmed the U.S. aircraft took off from the Al-Asad air base in western Iraq, where Trump visited American forces in December.

Trump said he did not follow convention in informing leaders on Capitol Hill, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., before the raid, saying he was fearful of leaks.

Pelosi said the House “must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top congressional leadership were notified of in advance, and on the administration’s overall strategy in the region.”

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the mission was to capture or kill the IS leader. While Trump had initially said no Americans were injured, Esper said two service members suffered minor injuries but have already returned to duty. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said a military dog chasing al-Baghdadi was seriously wounded by an explosive blast.

In his address from the White House, Trump suggested that the killing of al-Baghdadi was more significant than the 2011 operation ordered by his predecessor, President Barack Obama, that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Trump later repeated a false claim that he predicted the threat posed by bin Laden in a book before the 2001 attacks.

He also praised Russia and the Syrian government — American foes — and defended his ban on entry to the U.S. from some Muslim-majority countries. He called European allies “a tremendous disappointment” for not repatriating foreign IS fighters.

Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said al-Baghdadi’s remains would be dealt with in accordance with Islamic law and buried at sea in the same way that bin Laden’s were.

Praise for the military operation was swift, coming from American allies and even the president’s political opponents. In congratulating the U.S. forces and intelligence officials, but not Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden warned that IS “remains a threat to the American people and our allies.”

But one counterterrorism expert said al-Baghdadi’s death is not the end of IS.

“Counterterrorism must be part of the strategy, but reducing the strategy to just special operations raids and drone targeting, as this administration seems to want to, guarantees a forever war,” said Katherine Zimmerman of the American Enterprise Institute. She said extremists’ strength and staying power lies in the support they have locally among the disenfranchised and economically deprived populations.

Al-Baghdadi’s presence in the village a few kilometers from the Turkish border was surprising, even if some IS leaders are believed to have fled to Idlib after losing their last sliver of territory in Syria to U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in March.

Iraqi officials said Sunday they passed information that helped ascertain al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts to the U.S. from the wife of an Iraqi aide to al-Baghdadi, as well as al-Baghdadi’s brother-in-law, who was recently arrested by the Iraqis. The officials weren’t authorized to publicly discuss intelligence operations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Al-Baghdadi had led IS for the last five years, presiding over its ascendancy as it cultivated a reputation for beheadings and attracted tens of thousands of followers to a sprawling and self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria. He remained among the few IS commanders still at large despite multiple claims in recent years about his death and even as his so-called caliphate dramatically shrank, with many supporters who joined the cause either imprisoned or jailed.

His exhortations were instrumental in inspiring attacks in the heart of Europe and in the United States. Shifting away from the airline hijackings and other mass-casualty attacks that came to define al-Qaida, al-Baghdadi and other IS leaders supported smaller-scale acts of violence that would be harder for law enforcement to prepare for and prevent.

They encouraged jihadists who could not travel to the caliphate to kill where they were, with whatever weapon they had at their disposal. In the U.S., multiple extremists have pledged their allegiance to al-Baghdadi on social media, including a woman who along with her husband committed a 2015 massacre at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California.

With a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, al-Baghdadi was far less visible in recent years, releasing only sporadic audio recordings, including one just last month in which he called on members of the extremist group to do all they could to free IS detainees and women held in jails and camps.

The purported audio was his first public statement since last April, when he appeared in a video for the first time in five years. In that video, which included images of the extremist leader sitting in a white room with three others, al-Baghdadi praised Easter Day bombings that killed more than 250 people and called on militants to be a “thorn” against their enemies.

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Jill Colvin in Washington, Zeina Karam in Beirut, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed to this report.

CP Foods Tops the Seafood Industry in Supply Chain Stewardship and Human Rights

By

Khaosod English

-

28 October 2019, 06:00

Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL (CP Foods), a leading agro-industrial conglomerate and shrimp producer and exporter, received the highest scores in the areas of Stewardship of the supply chain and Human rights and working conditions on Seafood Stewardship Index (SSI), a sustainability benchmark for seafood industry.

CP Foods is also ranked the third best in the world on the overall score, displaying a strong performance in most of the sustainability areas.

According to the SSI report quoted that CP Foods stands out as one of the most transparent companies in the benchmark in regard to its sustainability reporting and company-wide policies. It praised the company for its transparency and a robust mix of social and environmental commitment with a measureable progress. Being placed as an industry’s leader reflects the company commitments on producing quality foods from highly responsible sources with a minimal impact to society and environment.

Dr. Sujint Thammasart, DVM, Chief Operating Officer – Aquaculture Business of CP Foods, said the company has committed that all products are made from sustainable and slavery-free sources throughout supply chain. Moreover, the operations are governed by policies, such as Human Rights Policy, Employment and Labour Management Policy and Sustainable Sourcing Policy and Supplier Guiding Principle. Particularly, the company has made a statement on Slavery and Human Trafficking to report its progress in human rights works, covering both the company’s operations and supply chains.

The company tops its peers in supply chain stewardship, as a result of commitments toward improving product traceability, responsible sourcing and environment footprint mitigation. Further, it is an industry leader in human rights and working conditions.

The report noted that a grievance management process has made the company standout of its peers. Labour Voices Hotlines has provided a hotline service in Myanmar, Cambodian, and Thai to ensure that all workers, regardless of nationality, can gain access to this hotline channel for voicing grievances, or seeking assistance in a timely manner.

Dr. Sujint added that 100% of fishmeal sourced and used for Thailand operations has come from sources certified by the IFFO Responsible Supply (IFFO RS), an internationally recognized standard for marine ingredients. The company extended good practices to its overseas aquaculture operations in Vietnam, India and the Philippines. CP Foods also has been in active collaboration with IFFO RS to develop the assessment criteria for responsible multispecies fisheries in South and Southeast Asia.

“It is important to note that the company have never been an operator nor owner of any fishing vessel. However, as one of the world’s biggest shrimp feed producers, we are committed to promoting sustainability in the seafood industry to address various concerns including marine resource degradation, unfair labour practices, human rights violation, and impacts on the community from IUU fishing,” Dr. Sujint stressed.

CP Foods operates sustainability-focused operations. It has been listed in globally recognized sustainability indexes including Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) Emerging Markets 2019 for five consecutive years and FTSE 4 Good Emerging Index for three consecutive years.

The Seafood Stewardship Index, a tool developed by World Benchmarking Alliance, aims to enhance sustainability in seafood supply chain in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thirty seafood industry’s global leaders were benchmarked in aspects, including Governance and management of stewardship practices, Stewardship of the supply chain, Ecosystems, Human rights and working conditions and Supporting for local communities.

Police Balk at Charging ‘Anti-Thai’ Slur Man With Royal Insult

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

-

25 October 2019, 21:23

Pro-monarchy activist Rachen Trakulwieng on Oct. 24, 2019, urges police to file lese majeste charge against Rachata Wangkitcharoengsuk.

BANGKOK — Police on Friday said they needed time to collect more evidence before deciding whether to press royal defamation charge against a man seen insulting His Majesty the King and Thai people in a viral video.

Col. Netiwong Kularb of Crime Suppression Division said the case requires careful deliberation. A group of monarchy supporters filed complaint of royal insult, or lese majeste, against Rachata Wangkitcharoengsuk on Thursday over the remark, which struck many as offensive.

“It’s a sensitive matter,” Col. Netiwong said. He did not mention when the decision would be made.

Read: Hundreds Besiege Police Dept. to Seek Road Rage Man Who ‘Insults Thailand’

Rachata, 24, became a social media hate figure after a video of him yelling slurs at a fellow motorist went viral earlier this week. Among his insults include references to the Thai monarch, the Prime Minister, and Thai people in general.

“I insult all Thai people. Even the king!” said Rachata, who identified himself as a graduate from overseas. “I hate Thailand. I shouldn’t have come back at all. It’s full of low-class people here.”

His comments drew a protest of several hundred people to a police station in Nakhon Pathom province where he was summoned for questioning. The crowd shouted abuse and threats of violence at Rachata, but eventually dispersed without incident.

Rachata himself apologized for his actions, and his family said he sometimes behaved erratically due to depression.

He was also charged with defamation and physical assault for the encounter with the motorist. However, police have postponed bringing the case against him to the court, citing the need for more questioning.

2019 Halloween: Here’s Something for Everyone to Do in Bangkok

By

Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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25 October 2019, 18:31

BANGKOK — Here’s our picks for what to do this Halloween in the city, whether you’re raving to dance in costume to EDM, wanting to Instagram spooky food, roleplay in a bougie murder mystery, need somewhere to bring the kids, or even if you don’t have a costume yet.

For People Who Don’t Have a Costume Yet

This year, don’t be like every other thot who rips up an old tank top, smears their lipstick and eyeliner, and calls themselves a sexy zombie. Please.

One creative, sustainable way to craft a costume is to swap for one at the Swap ‘Til You Drop Halloween costume swap. Bring pre-loved clothes in good condition and swap them for something that looks like Cersei’s gown that someone wore last year for a few hours. Leftover clothes will be donated.

The swap will be at Aesop’s Bangkok restaurant on Oct. 30 starting at 6pm. The 400 baht entry fee includes finger food, free-flow sangria, and as much swapping as you want.

Read: Bangkok Clothing Swap Makes Fashion Sustainable

For Food Instagrammers

Want a well-lit place where you can take photos of Halloween-themed food from the view of the 35th floor? Medinii Italian restaurant at The Continent in is serving a menu of free flow spooky cocktails, and two spooky food items: a spider web pizza and a beetroot soup for a net price of 1,176 baht per head.

Head up to the 38th and 39th floors’ Axis & Spin and Bangkok Heightz bars for a dress-up Halloween party. Best three costumes win dining vouchers. Entrance, which includes free-flow drinks and a choice between a “spooky” spaghetti and wagyu burger, are also 1,176 baht.

On Silom Road, Mustmeat.Bkk steakhouse will give a free blood-colored cocktail to each customer and steak tartare to each table on Halloween Day. Book in advance!

For the Bougie Roleplayer

Newly-opened Langsuan Road jazz club Crimson Room will hold an interactive murder mystery game set in the Roaring Twenties.

“All are welcome but we encourage something to fit the Roaring Twenties theme – be it flapper, industry baron, jazz musician, mobster, silver-screen starlet, private dick, femme fatale, bootlegger, artist, dandy or similar,” the event page stipulates.

The mysterious fun will take place starting 8pm on Oct. 31. The winner will get a voucher to Michelin-starred Canvas restaurant.

For Party People

A party boat by Bangkok Island will be sailing with a crew of sexy pirates for a night of rock, disco, and electro down the Chao Phraya this halloween. The Dead Pirates Special Halloween Cruise will ship off 9pm at Asiatique before docking at Sathorn pier around 1am. Dress up to get one free drink.

“There might be some naughty gay pirates’ we’re well known with the gay community,” Yuval Schwok, of the Overstay fame, said. “It’s not a dinner cruise.”

Kolour in the Park’s outdoor party will be on Saturday Nov. 2 at Escape Bangkok at Emquartier. Get your face and body painted while dancing to techno, and come in costume to try and win the costume contest. Tickets are 750 baht, but 950 baht at the door.

Char Rooftop Bar’s Halloween Jungle party starts at 5pm on Oct. 31. Come dressed as a scary jungle animal for a chance to win the best costume and score some food vouchers. Cocktails are at least 300 baht.

For Dia de los Muertos Lovers

Tropical party meets celebration of death in a couple of Dia de Los Muertos parties happening in the city.

The Revolucion Cocktail Dia de Muertos party runs three nights starting 7pm from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, and extends to La Lupita Mexican restaurant in the floor above as well. Come dressed in your best Puebla / Chiang Mai embroidery dress with flowers in your hair. A make-up artist will draw a skull on your face if you don’t know how to.

A more loosely-themed Latino Halloween Party at Mojjo Rooftop Bar will start at 7pm on Oct. 31. A range of mexican food is available, and 500 baht gets you free-flow drinks for two hours.

For the Kids

Bring the kids for a day of wholesome fun at The Commons’ Wild Spooky Rumpus on Sunday Oct. 27 from 11am to 6pm. There’s a whole host of free and paid activities, such as trick or treating (three rounds at 12pm, 2pm, and 5pm) and face painting (also free).

Crafty little witches and wizards will enjoy making slime, pottery, masks, trick-or-treat baskets, and so on. Paid activities cost from 100 baht to 400 baht per child. Entry is free.

K-Village’s 2018 Halloween party.

K-Village has a similar family-friendly spooky evening planned on Halloween Day, but with a costume contest for kids, adults – and pets! Register for your category here.

Activities include a haunted house filled with ghosts from around the world, including mummies and Chinese ghosts, the organizer said, face painting, glitter tattoos, pumpkin tossing, and so on. Each activity costs about 60 baht, and a set of 5 tickets is 250 baht. Admission is free.

If you’re going to the Revolucion Cocktail party mentioned above, Blue Parrot Bangkok in its backyard is also having a Coco-themed Halloween party for kids on Oct. 31. Drop the kids off so they can whack pinatas and hunt for candy!

For the Chill Bangkokian

For the Bangkokian who unabashedly loves malls, the 101 Halloween Concert might be the best choice. From 6pm to 10pm for three days from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, listen to artists like Pu Anchalee, Image Suthita, Singto Numchok, Scrubb, and Billy Ogan on the third-floor open air garden at 101 True Digital Park mall, reachable from BTS Punnawithi. See the full lineup here.

Under the theme “Songs Never Die,” the artists will be singing their own songs as well as covering some all-time favorites by dead artists. For example, ex-BNK48 Janchan will sing “You Are Not Alone” by Michael Jackson.

To get tickets, spend 1,000 baht at any shop in the mall starting today and trade them for a ticket at the information counter on the second floor. Receipts from Tops supermarket and 7-Eleven don’t count. Tickets for the first day are going fast.

Need more booze? Expat haunt Hemingway’s is holding a Halloween party starting 7pm on Oct. 31. Get a free drink if you arrive in costume, then stagger home from BTS Nana.

For Horror Flick Enthusiasts

Bangkok Screening Room is showing some classic horror films for those hankering for some shivering: surgery horror Eyes Without a Face (1960) is showing 9:30pm Saturday and 3:45pm Sunday. “Mandy” (2018) is playing on 4:15pm Oct. 29, 8:30pm on Oct. 30, 4:15pm on Nov. 1, 1pm on Nov. 2, and 8:30pm on Nov. 3.

Relive the famous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho,” which will screen 8:30pm Oct. 29, 6:15pm Oct 30, 8:30pm on Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, and 6:15pm on Nov. 3.

Princess Ubolratana Dresses Up as the Joker

By

Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

-

25 October 2019, 15:33

BANGKOK — King Rama X’s eldest sister dressed up as one of Gotham City’s most iconic villains in an Instagram post Friday.

Princess Ubolratana posted photos of herself as a clown with a rainbow afro in front of a poster of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker (2019), while offering spoilers and social commentary in the caption.

“What did they want to convey, by making such a terrifying, pitiful Joker? Actually, I’ve seen the real lives of disadvantaged people, even in America. There are lots of people with mental issues like Joker,” she wrote.

The princess then offered a quick analysis of American society and its mental healthcare system.

“It’s a society full of broken families, creating crazy people to fill up the state mental hospitals since they have no money to go to private hospitals, and their healthcare system is still being argued over,” she wrote. “That’s why the hospitals release people, even though they aren’t ready, creating homeless people who live sad lies among sois and alleys.”

At the end of the caption, the princess then decided to spoil the entire plot without any warning. We are withholding translation in case you haven’t watched the movie.

“#UnfunnyClown #HardLifeBecauseOfLackingOpportunities #FilmIsRealLife #BusyButStillPretty,” she signs off.

Read: Review: Why Everyone is Talking About ‘Joker’

An active social media personality, Princess Ubolratana, 68, has a history of going viral for endearingly eccentric posts such as the time she dropped some Avengers: Endgame spoilers on her Instagram, sang pop songs onstage and cheered for Germany during the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

As recently as Monday, she posted photos of herself cosplaying as Maleficent.

In February, she was nominated as a Prime Minister candidate by Thai Raksa Chart Party, but King Rama X said in a statement that she cannot run for office.

Review: Why Everyone is Talking About ‘Joker’

For People Who Don’t Have a Costume Yet

For Food Instagrammers

For the Bougie Roleplayer

For Party People

For Dia de los Muertos Lovers

For the Kids

For the Chill Bangkokian

For Horror Flick Enthusiasts

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