IS chief Baghdadi probably still alive - US commander

Image copyright AFP Image caption Baghdadi's whereabouts have been unknown for some time

The leader of the Islamic State (IS) group is probably still alive, a senior US general has said, contradicting a claim by Russia that it probably killed him in a raid in Syria in May.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may be hiding in a remote border area between Iraq and Syria, said Gen Stephen Townsend, commander of the anti-IS coalition.

He may have fled as IS strongholds have been under attack in both countries.

Baghdadi's whereabouts have been unknown for some time.

In June, Russia said there was a "high probability" that Baghdadi had been killed a month earlier in a Russian air strike on Raqqa, IS's de facto capital in northern Syria.

Since then local anti-IS groups have intensified a ground assault on the city, where an estimated 2,000 militants are holed up.

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Media captionTens of thousands have left Raqqa as fighting intensifies

There have been several previous reports of Baghdadi's death. But on Thursday, Gen Townsend said there were "indicators in intelligence channels that he's still alive".

"We're looking for him every day. I don't think he's dead," he told reporters, repeating that he had "no clue" as to where the IS leader was.

"The last stand of Isis will be in the Middle Euphrates River Valley," he added, using an alternative name for IS. "When we find him, I think we'll just try to kill him first. It's probably not worth all the trouble to try and capture him."

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Media captionTal Afar is one the group's last remaining strongholds in Iraq

Baghdadi was believed to be in Mosul, Iraq, before a US-led coalition began an effort to reclaim the city in October 2016.

He has made only one public appearance in recent years - in a video delivering a sermon in Mosul on 5 July 2014, shortly after IS captured the city.

His last audio message was released on 2 November last year.

Who is Baghdadi?

Baghdadi - a nom de guerre rather than his real name - is believed to have been born in Samarra, north of Baghdad, in 1971.

Reports suggest he was a cleric in a mosque in the city around the time of the US-led invasion in 2003.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The Iraqi interior ministry released this image of Baghdadi in January 2014

Some believe he was already a militant jihadist during the rule of Saddam Hussein. Others suggest he was radicalised during the four years he was held at Camp Bucca, a US facility in southern Iraq where many al-Qaeda commanders were detained.

He emerged as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the groups that later became Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS), in 2010.

In October 2011, the US officially designated Baghdadi as a terrorist. It has offered a reward of up to $25m (£19.6m) for information leading to his capture or death.

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Death of world's oldest manatee, Snooty, ruled 'preventable'

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Media captionThe BBC reported from the museum on Snooty's 65th birthday in 2013

Officials have ruled that a popular Florida manatee died as result of a "preventable accident" at the aquarium where it lived.

Snooty was the world's oldest known manatee, but drowned after becoming trapped in a maintenance area just one day after his 69th birthday.

The report revealed a repair had not been made to his broken pen panel.

He was beloved in the local area, and even became the Manatee County mascot.

The sea cow had lived at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton for 68 years after being bred in captivity in Miami. He died on 23 July.

The report said staff were aware that a panel leading to a maintenance area was loose and had screws missing a week before his death.

It is thought the panel then broke off during the night, and the 1,000lb (450kg) animal swam through, getting trapped in a 30in (75cm) tube where he drowned.

'Tragic accident'

Museum CEO Brynne Anne Besio blamed a communication breakdown for the lack of action, saying: "Reporting of these occurrences, if at all, was verbal and informal, and was not recorded in the dive logs".

"We have made, and continue to make, substantive changes, operationally and philosophically, to address the breakdowns that contributed to this tragic accident," she said.

The museum's aquarium still has three younger manatees in its care.

Animal rights protestors campaigned for senior staff resignations after the manatee's death.

The museum confirmed to local media that Marilyn Margold, the official in charge of the aquarium, no longer worked there, but refused to say if she resigned or was fired.

A memorial service for the animal will now be held on 10 September.

An online petition calling for the town's confederate monument to be replaced by a statue of Snooty has collected almost 14,000 signatures since his death.

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Florence: Largest asteroid in century to safely fly by Earth

Image copyright NASA Image caption Despite relatively close distance, Nasa says Florence poses no threat to the Earth

The largest asteroid in more than a century is expected to pass by Earth at a relatively close distance of 4.4m miles (7m km), Nasa says.

Florence measures 2.7 miles (4.4km) in size and will not pose a threat to Earth for centuries to come.

While other asteroids have passed closer to Earth, they were all estimated to be smaller.

Asteroids retain clues to the events that brought the Sun and the planets into being.

At its closest point, Florence - which was discovered in 1981 - will be at about 18 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.

"Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the [American space agency] Nasa program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began [over a century ago]," Paul Chodas, manager of Nasa's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said in a statement.

The 2017 encounter is the closest by this asteroid since 1890 and the closest it will ever be until after 2500, the US space agency added.

Scientists plan to study the asteroid up close, using ground-based radar imaging in California and Puerto Rico.

An object this size would have global effects were it to hit the Earth. Scientists believe they have now identified more than 90% of the monster rocks flying on space.

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Kenyan opposition celebrates wildly after court annuls vote

The Kenyan opposition in the western town of Kisumu has been celebrating wildly after news of the supreme court ruling's annulling the election result.

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Judges annul Kenya presidential election

Kenya Supreme Court annuls presidential election due to irregularities which harmed the vote, orders new poll

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Australians grapple with new ID rule for takeaway booze

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Australians love a beer, but sometimes it crosses the line into problem drinking

Citizens in Australia's Northern Territory now need to produce photographic ID if they want to buy takeaway alcohol, it's reported.

This means that more than 1,000 people living in the country's northernmost state will be unable to make a purchase, now that the Banned Drinker Register (BDR) has been relaunched by the authorities in an attempt to cut booze-related crime, The NT News reports.

A register was attempted in 2011, but was replaced within a year with a mandatory treatment scheme for problem drinkers. Now that the BDR has been successful, bottle shop customers must produce photo ID, which is then scanned through machines linked to the BDR database.

Trade associations, however, fear that glitches in the system could result in long delays, raising the prospect of violence against staff. A recent trial of the machines resulted in just that outcome, the Australian Hotels Association NT told the paper.

The territory's Liquor Stores Association hints at further problems to come, given that the roll-out is happening on what is traditionally the busiest day of the week. "It's going to be a nightmare," LSANT president Faye Hartley said. "It'll take time to sort out and to start."

Rising crime figures

The register means that anybody with a conviction for alcohol-related crime is now banned from purchasing takeaway alcohol, broadcaster ABC reports. This includes anyone convicted for drunk driving or alcohol-related domestic violence. Many who have been taken into protective custody for being intoxicated have also been blacklisted.

The initial banned list contains just over 1,000 names out of Northern Territory's 250,000 population. However, the authorities expect it to grow by about 500 per month until "the majority of the Territory's problem drinkers are identified," ABC adds.

The Northern Territory - perhaps due to its remote location - has struggled with excess alcohol consumption and its associated health and law and order problems.

Police figures for the last year show an average of 10 alcohol-related assaults in the Territory per day, and Darwin suburb Palmerston saw a 34% increase in assaults annually linked to excessive drinking.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The measures hope to protect the enjoyment of having a drink, whatever the weather

Reporting by Alistair Coleman

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North Korea tourism: US travel ban takes effect

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption North Korea has a burgeoning tourism industry

A US ban on its citizens travelling to North Korea has come into effect, at a time of heightened tensions over North Korean missile launches.

The new rule was announced after US student Otto Warmbier died after being released from prison in North Korea.

The State Department said it was necessary "due to the serious and mounting risk" of detention.

Any US citizen breaking the rules may face criminal penalties and have their passports revoked.

The State Department would only grant permission to US citizens to go to North Korea "under very limited circumstances", such as for journalism or humanitarian work.

Tour operators have suggested that up to 1,000 Americans visit North Korea every year, making up about a fifth of Western tourists. The vast majority of visitors are Chinese.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption About 5,000 Western tourists visit North Korea every year

On Thursday, tour operators flew out their last American tourists from Pyongyang.

Simon Cockerell, general manager of Koryo Tours, told the BBC's Newsday programme that he expected to see fewer customers overall from now on.

"[Although] the US travel ban only affects Americans, of course it sends out a message from the US that they believe strongly that people shouldn't visit," he said.

Recent detentions of US citizens have caused "a downward push in bookings" as "that's the thing that concerns people the most, that they may personally get into trouble".

Otto Warmbier was arrested and jailed in 2016 after Pyongyang accused him of attempting to take a propaganda sign from a hotel while on holiday.

He was released to his family in the US in June, but he was in a coma and died shortly afterwards without regaining consciousness. The cause of his death remains unclear.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Otto Warmbier appeared in a news conference in 2016 confessing to stealing a propaganda sign

The State Department said at least 16 citizens had been detained in North Korea in the past decade. Three are known to be in detention.

Most of those detained in the past have been US missionaries, journalists and professors.

The US has in the past accused North Korea of detaining its citizens to use them as pawns in negotiations over its nuclear weapons programme.

Tourism offers outside visitors a rare window into North Korean life, but tour groups are heavily regulated as well as monitored.

It is also a lucrative source of income, with one estimate that it nets authorities up to $43.6m (£34m) a year.

The State Department said in its latest statement that anyone visiting North Korea "should have no expectation of privacy", with all electronic devices subject to searches and authorities able to monitor mobile phone calls.

It also warned that it was "entirely possible" that tourism money was being used to fund North Korea's nuclear programmes.

'Severely impacted'

The new rules also affect US citizens living and working in North Korea, such as aid workers and teachers.

About 60 US citizens who were working in North Korea's Pyongyang University of Science and Technology have departed, according to Reuters.

The wire news agency said they were unable to receive special permission to stay, despite attempts by the university to lobby the US government for exemptions.

It quoted an unnamed source saying the school was "severely impacted" by the US travel ban as well as the "decision of some other personnel not to return."

The ban comes amid escalating tensions between the two countries and in the region.

This week North Korea reiterated its threat to launch a missile strike on the US Pacific island of Guam, and conducted what it called its "first step" of wider military operations in the Pacific by firing a missile over Japan.

US President Donald Trump had recently vowed to rain "fire and fury" on North Korea in response to its threats, and warned that the US military is "locked and loaded".

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