Syria
Jihadi John threats
The British militant “Jihadi John” beheaded a second American journalist. The killing of Steven Sotloff came two weeks after that of a fellow hostage, James Foley. The killer, a member of Isis, also called Islamic State, warned the next hostage to be killed would be David Haines, a Scottish aid worker from Perth.
Lord West of Spithead, a former head of the Royal Navy, said MI6 probably knew Jihadi John’s identity and said he would be hunted down. “He is a dead man walking,” he added.
India
New al-Qaeda branch
A high-level terror alert was issued after the al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri posted a video announcing the formation of a new branch of the terrorist group on the subcontinent.
He called on Muslims from India, Bangladesh and Burma to “break all borders created by Britain in India” and “unite under the credo of the one god”.
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party said the news was “a matter of serious concern”. However, it added: “There is nothing to worry about. We have a strong government at the federal level.”
Advertisement
Argentina
Advertisement
What big feet you have
Advertisement
Paleontologists have discovered a new supermassive dinosaur in Patagonia and named it Dreadnoughtus schrani. Its fossilised remains are the largest and most complete skeleton of its type yet assembled.
The animal was about 85ft long and weighed 65 tons — and analysis of its skeleton revealed it was not fully grown.
Switzerland
Call for suicide action
At least 800,000 people take their own lives each year, a report by the World Health Organisation revealed.
The Swiss-based body found that numbers vary widely according to socioeconomic, cultural and religious environments.
Advertisement
The Korean peninsula and India have some of the world’s highest rates, while Middle Eastern countries have lower rates.
The report said there was a need for “a global knowledge base on suicide” to be established.
Qatar
Britons ‘kidnapped’
Two British men disappeared while investigating the treatment of migrant workers building facilities for the 2022 World Cup. Gundev Ghimire, 36, and Krishna Upadhyaya, 52, vanished on Sunday after texting colleagues to say they were being followed by plain-clothes police officers.
Advertisement
The men work for the Global Network for Rights, which fears they “may have been subjected to enforced disappearance”. It said that if “they are subjected to physical or psychological harm, [we are] prepared to take all necessary legal action”. America
Carb trouble
High-carbohydrate diets, not ones high in fat, are the main cause of obesity, a study found. The National Institutes of Health tracked 150 men and women across a year and found that those who ate a diet low in carbohydrates but moderate to high in saturated fat lost more weight (on average, about 8lb more) and had better cardiovascular health than those who ate a diet high in carbohydrates but low in fat.
This study appears to challenge the long-held belief that high levels of saturated fat increase weight and cholesterol.