Latest news with #Isis
Local Sweden
6 days ago
- Local Sweden
Sweden charges jihadist over Jordanian pilot burned to death in Syria
Prosecutors have charged a Swedish jihadist over the 2014 killing of a Jordanian pilot, who was burned to death in a cage in Syria after being captured by the Islamic State (IS or Isis) group. Advertisement Osama Krayem, 32, was charged with "participating in the brutal execution of a pilot" near the city of Raqqa, prosecutor Reena Devgun told a press conference. Krayem, who is already serving a 30-year sentence for involvement in the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, was charged with "serious war crimes and terrorist crimes". According to prosecutors, who had announced they intended to charge Krayem last week, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria on December 24th, 2014. The pilot was captured by Isis fighters the same day near the central city of Raqqa, and killed sometime before February 3rd, 2015. The execution was filmed and a 22-minute video accompanied by a specially composed religious chant was published. In the video, the victim is seen walking past several masked Isis fighters, including Krayem, according to prosecutors. The pilot is then locked in a cage that is set on fire, leading to his death, Henrik Olin, the other prosecutor in charge of the case, told reporters. "This bestial murder, in which a prisoner was burned alive in a cage, was staged in a carefully produced video that was broadcast around the world. Its publication marked an unprecedented escalation in the Islamic State group's violent propaganda," Olin said. Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact day of the murder, but the investigation has identified the location where it took place. Advertisement 'Obligation' to prosecute The defendant's lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP that her client admitted to being present at the scene but disputed the prosecution's version. "He denies the acts for which he is prosecuted," she said. "He acknowledges having been present at that place during the event but claims not to have acted in the manner described by the prosecutors in the account of the facts." Krayem, who is from Malmö in southern Sweden, joined the Isis group in Syria in 2014 before returning to Europe. In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for helping plan the November 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed. Advertisement The following year, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for participating in the bombings on March 22nd, 2016, at Brussels' main airport and on the metro system, which killed 32 people. "Even though this is a person that's already sentenced and is serving very long prison sentences in other countries, we will still charge him and we have an international obligation to do so," Devgun told AFP. Krayem has been "temporarily handed over to Sweden to participate in the trial", which is scheduled to begin on June 4th, according to the Swedish Prosecution Authority. "It is painful for my parents to be confronted with this event again, but we are grateful that the Swedish authorities want to give us justice," Jawdat al-Kasasbeh, the pilot's brother, told broadcaster Sveriges Radio.
RTÉ News
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Happy birthday Bob! A guide to Dylan's best narrative songs
Analysis: To mark Dylan's birthday this weekend, a decade by decade guide to the songs showing the master storyteller's narrative strengths With the recent release of the Timothée Chalamet -starring biopic A Complete Unknown, Bob Dylan's popularity has undergone a resurgence lately. While the film tells the true story of Dylan's rise to fame, it leaves out one crucial fact: Dylan himself is a master storyteller. Dylan's career is defined by stratospheric highs, interminable lows and endless reinventions. He's been a folkster, a country rocker, a born-again bible-beater and even a singer of nursery rhymes, both traditional and original (1990's Under the Red Sky, an album written for his youngest child at the time). And he's still going. Dylan has been on the Never-Ending Tour ever since 1988 (covering The Pogues' A Rainy Night In Soho lately). He's only took a single year off touring since and that was 2020, when the entire world ground to a halt. Even still, it was the year Dylan released his album Rough and Rowdy Ways, which ranks among his finest. Beyond his divisive vocals (memorably described by Haruki Murakami in his 1985 novel End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland as sounding "like a little kid staring out the window at the rain"), Dylan's entire discography is defined by his rich literary style. His lyrics are witty, intelligent and often narrative. Over the past 60 years, Dylan has penned strange and sometimes difficult to follow stories – for which he was eventually awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. Although controversial at the time, the award was entirely deserved. Here's a list featuring a single song from each decade showing Dylan's narrative strengths and abilities. 1960s Honourable mentions: Desolation Row, Talkin' World War III Blues, Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands In this song, which is criminally absent from A Complete Unknown, Dylan gives an account of the real-life murder of a black barmaid by a wealthy young white man. Literary critic and leading Dylan scholar Christopher Ricks counts it among Dylan's finest songs, referring to his subtle invocation of biblical imagery. An angry, embittered, and deeply political song, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll builds to the reveal of the murderer's punishment: a mere six month's imprisonment. 1970s Honourable mentions: Hurricane, Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, Black Diamond Bay, Romance in Durango Co-written with clinical psychologist and theatre director Jacques Levy, Isis tells the story of a mysterious graverobber and his troubled marriage. The song is set in an unfamiliar land, with sloped pyramids "embedded in ice" and harkens to fantasy and myth like Lovecraft's The Quest of Iranon or the Odyssey. Like the Odyssey, Isis tells the story of an ambitious man separated from his wife, recounting his adventures and journey home. The song is a true epic, accompanied by one of Dylan's finest vocal performances. Isis was released during a particularly strong narrative period for Dylan; the album on which it features, 1976's Desire is packed with stories of thwarted love, doomed people and miscarriages of justice. 1980s Man In the Long Black Coat Dylan is unusually candid in his discussion of this track in his memoir Chronicles: Volume One, describing the song as his version of Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line: "a song he'd always considered to be up there at the top, one of the most mysterious and revolutionary of all time, a song that makes an attack on your most vulnerable points". Man in the Long Black Coat tells a story familiar to folk standards like Black Jack Davy – a woman leaves her partner for a mysterious interloper – but Dylan conjures a unique sort of menace that sets it apart. Highlands Honourable mentions: Handy Dandy, Tryin' to Get to Heaven A nearly seventeen-minute track, Highlands demonstrates Dylan's novelistic command of dialogue. The song comes to life during a conversation between the speaker of the song and a waitress in a Boston restaurant around the six-minute mark. The conversation reads as an allegory for Dylan's sometimes contentious relationship to the press: the speaker, by various means, attempts to deny the woman's requests of him, echoing Dylan's sometimes difficult interview style. His dialogue is clipped and sparse, recalling the work of Cormac McCarthy, while retaining a wry knowingness that is all his own. 2000s Ain't Talkin' Honourable mentions: Mississippi, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, Thunder on the Mountain A song in which Dylan's speaker wanders through a seemingly corrupted idyll. As a narrative, the song is sparse. As an allusive poem, the song is as dense as Dylan has ever managed – managing to reference Wild Mountain Thyme in the same breath as biblical apocalypses. A bubbling sense of unease haunts the song, which ends up feeling like a snapshot of a cold, dead world bereft of light and good. 2010s Tin Angel Honourable mentions: Tempest, Scarlet Town Of all the songs featured here, Tin Angel is perhaps the most direct in its storytelling. It also feels familiar; Dylan is replaying his old tricks here, returning to the narrative of the runaway bride. But this time, there is progression – the spurned husband confronts his wife and her new lover. The dialogue is again the highlight: Dylan conjures three distinct character voices, interchanging between the three in a climactic argument. The resolution of the song is as grim as Dylan has ever gotten. Listen with the lights down low. 2020s Murder Most Foul Dylan's longest track to date (thirty seconds longer than Highlands), Murder Most Foul is a challenging song: 17 minutes, no chorus, and a sparse arrangement of hushed, meditative piano and percussion. Named after a quote from Hamlet, it finds Dylan retelling the assassination of JFK. The song later introduces late radio DJ Wolfman Jack as a character, imagining conversations between Kennedy and Wolfman in the afterlife. The song is at once an elegy, a conspiracy, and a masterpiece.
Belfast Telegraph
15-05-2025
- General
- Belfast Telegraph
Presbyterian Church in Ireland members meet women living in war zones as part of conference
Members of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland have returned from Lebanon after taking part in a special conference of Christian women who continue to be impacted by war and conflict. Rev Dr Liz Hughes, the former convener of the church's council for global mission, and Heather Clements, convenor of the council's global mission committee, took part in 'The unheard voice: women's persevering witness in war' conference, which brought together women from Lebanon, Syria and Transcarpathia in western Ukraine, along with Hungarian speaking reformed communities in central Europe. Mrs Clements said: 'Of the 24 participants who attended, some were pastors, or pastor's wives, and others were women who were in leadership in their congregations. We heard of the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war, for others it was coping with Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, or surviving Isis death squads.' Rev Dr Liz Hughes said: 'Each of the women felt deep sadness for what conflict had done to their countries, family and church families. 'It was an incredible privilege to see just a glimpse of what God sees: the silent, resilient and courageous persevering strength that you often find in women hidden in the pages of the Bible.'
News18
12-05-2025
- Health
- News18
Do You Know Why Doctors Write 'Rx' On Their Prescriptions?
Last Updated: Ever wondered what "Rx" means? It isn't shorthand for a secret medical formula or a pharmaceutical code. It's actually much older, and surprisingly poetic. In many cultures, doctors are revered as earthly manifestations of the divine – guardians who snatch lives back from the brink using their skill, science, and silent compassion. But even as doctors offer us hope and healing, much of their written language remains a puzzle to the untrained eye. Prescriptions are often filled with squiggly handwriting and mysterious abbreviations. One such enigma sits right at the top of most prescriptions: the symbol 'Rx". Ever wondered what 'Rx" means? It isn't shorthand for a secret medical formula or a pharmaceutical code. It's actually much older, and surprisingly poetic. The 'Rx" symbol is derived from the Latin word Recipere, which means 'to take". When a doctor writes 'Rx" at the beginning of a prescription, they are essentially saying, 'Take this medicine". Some historians and symbologists trace the origins of 'Rx" even further back – over 5,000 years – to the mythological lore of ancient Egypt. According to legend, the falcon-headed deity Horus, associated with the sun and healing, lost his eye in a battle with evil. His mother, the goddess Isis, appealed to the gods, and Horus's eye was miraculously restored. The restored 'Eye of Horus" became a powerful symbol of protection, health, and healing. Over time, this symbol – an eye with markings resembling modern-day 'Rx" – was adopted by early healers as a mark of medicinal care. Though modern historians debate the accuracy of this mythological connection, the resemblance between the 'Eye of Horus" and the 'Rx" symbol is undeniable. First Published: May 12, 2025, 16:02 IST
Time of India
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Cheaper than a car, deadlier than a plane
Don't judge a drone's lethality by its price Military drones aren't new. America used Pioneer RQ-2As in the '91 Gulf War. As one of them came in to survey Failaka Island, five Iraqi soldiers made history by waving a white flag and surrendering to it. But almost 35 years on, drone use has become common on the battlefield. Op Sindoor, Ukraine, Myanmar, Red Sea, drones have forced militaries everywhere to rethink strategy. If you find drone warfare intriguing, check out the podcast Drone Wars. There's no denying that Ukraine mainstreamed the small 'homemade' drone as a weapon, but as military expert Mike MacKay points out in an episode, Isis was using cheap, store-bought drones to drop grenades on coalition forces in Iraq in 2016. Where the '91-vintage RQ-2A was 14ft long and had a wingspan of almost 17ft, a top-end military drone like Reaper MQ-9 – India has ordered 31 of them – now measures almost 66ft across and costs over $30mn. Pakistan's Turkish-origin Bayraktar Akinci drones also cost several million dollars each. But the drones revolutionising warfare are tiny in comparison, and dirt cheap, often costing no more than a few hundred dollars each. So, even a cash-strapped country like Ukraine can make hundreds of thousands of them. It made over 1mn in 2024 and would double output, funds permitting. Can any military hope to acquire 2mn fighter planes? A B2 strategic bomber costs well over $1bn. But the Ukrainian drones – Magura V5 – that knocked out 40% of Russia's naval fleet in Black Sea cost only about $250,000 apiece. In Red Sea, Houthis have sunk ships with over $100mn worth of cargo, using drones that cost only about $100,000 each. Experts on the podcast say the low cost of drone warfare makes this a cavalry-vs-machine gun moment for militaries all over again. Where tanks and field guns intimidated opponents at one time, now they are sitting ducks for drones. Christopher Miller, another drone expert, says militaries will need to adapt rapidly to drone warfare because old front line techniques, like firing mortars, are too slow. Where aiming at and hitting a target with a mortar takes at least five minutes, a drone with AI does the job in 90 seconds. And while a mortar can hit only up to a couple of kilometres, even small drones can fly 15-20km. That's why S Korea, learning from Ukraine, has decided to phase out its smaller mortars and train troops to become drone pilots. Experts on the podcast say Ukraine has 20 schools to train drone pilots. Its expert pilots can manoeuvre a drone by reckoning or counting rather than using the inbuilt camera. One of them was awarded Ukraine's Hero of the Republic medal for killing 400 Russian troops in six months. You can shoot down drones, of course. Coalition forces in Iraq did so with guns, but when hundreds of drones – a whole swarm – come at you, countermeasures are harder. You could use sophisticated missiles like the Patriot Interceptor – or the S400 that India used to shoot down Pakistan's missiles – for bigger drones, but supplies and costs are a hurdle. For now, nobody has a foolproof counter to attacking drones, and as the bigger militaries – US, China, India – start inducting them in bigger numbers, questions about AI capabilities will also have to be dealt with. Autonomous drones could dodge hacking, jamming and GPS-spoofing, but will they hit targets their human masters want them to? That's the next drone frontier. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
