US-led coalition forces and their Kurdish allies the Syrian Democratic Forces killed two regional ISIS leaders in a raid in eastern Syria this week, US Central Command announced on Friday.
Ahmad 'Isa Ismail Al Zawi and Ahmad 'Abd Muhammad Hasan Al Jughayfi were killed in the joint raid on May 17 on an ISIS position in Deir Ezzor province CentCom said.
Al Zawi, also known as Abu Ali Al Baghdadi, was the ISIS regional leader for North Baghdad, it said, adding that he was "responsible for disseminating terrorist guidance” from the senior ISIS leadership to operatives in the area.
Al Jughayfi, also known as Abu Ammar, was a senior ISIS logistics and supplies official who directed the extremist group’s efforts to acquire and then transport weapons, bomb-making materials and personnel across Syria and Iraq, CentCom said.
The removal of the ISIS leaders, it said, "will disrupt future attacks against innocent civilians and our security partners and in the region".
The extremist group’s remaining leaders in the area are under “relentless pressure” from the SDF and are in decline, it added.
Since its territorial defeat in Syria in March 2019, ISIS attacks have been restricted to the vast deserts stretching from Deir Ezzor to Homs in the centre of Syria.
Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, who led the extremist group since 2014 and was the world's most wanted man, was killed when he detonated a suicide vest as US special forces raided his hideout in Syria's north-western province of Idlib in October 2019.
Iraq’s National Intelligence Service on Wednesday announced it had arrested a potential successor to the late ISIS leader.
Agents with the service arrested Abdul Nasser Qardash, a high-ranking figure who led the group’s last major battle in Baghouz, Syria, in February 2019.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Manchester City 4
Otamendi (52) Sterling (59) Stones (67) Brahim Diaz (81)
Real Madrid 1
Oscar (90)
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
