#Google Maps image provides clue in Spanish missing persons case.

Chance images captured by a passing Google Maps camera showing a man leaning over a large bag or bags in a car trunk with what could be a human body gave police an extra clue in a murder investigation in the central Spanish village of Tajueco.

A friend reported the male victim missing in November 2023 after receiving suspicious text messages sent from the victim's phone saying he had met a woman and was leaving the province of Soria, where Tajueco is located, and abandoning his phone, police said in a statement on Wednesday.

The investigation focussed on the missing man's girlfriend and her ex-partner, with unspecified important clues found in their cars and homes, police said.

During checks on the movements of one of the cars, police came across a street view image captured by a Google Maps car mapping the area.

It showed a street that was deserted except for a man leaning into the trunk of a red car in which there was a bulky white bag or bags. Several other images in the same series, dated October 2024, showed the trunk shut and nobody in the street.

Last month, police arrested the couple initially on suspicion of kidnapping, and later discovered a human torso, believed to be that of the missing man, in a shallow grave at a local cemetery on Dec. 11.

The investigation is still underway, police said, noting that the Google Maps image was just one of several clues in the case.

#MOSCOW, December 17. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the assassination of Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov and his aide as a planned terrorist attack made possible by the West’s connivance of the crimes of the Kiev regime.

"Another terrorist attack has taken place. General Igor Kirillov and his aide were killed in a planned manner, killed in front of an apartment building at a time when people are going to work, children are going to school or kindergarten," she wrote on Telegram.

According to the diplomat, the attack represented "a continuation and development of the spiral of Western connivance of the war crimes of the Kiev regime's militants, which they have been exacerbating all these years."

#Taiwan said on Thursday it detected 16 #Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on #Taipei.

EU envoys agree on 15th package of anti-Russia sanctions
The new package adds more persons and entities to the already existing sanctions list, as well as constrains the activity of additional vessels of third states operating to contribute or support actions or policies supporting Russia’s actions against Ukraine

#DAMASCUS, Syria -Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday, and the Israeli defence minister announced that his forces had destroyed Syria's navy.

#Israel acknowledged pushing into a buffer zone inside Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad. But it remained unclear if its soldiers had gone beyond that area, which was established more than 50 years ago. Israel denied it is advancing on the Syrian capital of #Damascus.

Israeli officials have said they are striking military targets, including heavy weapons, suspected chemical weapons sites and air-defence systems, to prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists. Photographs circulating online showed destroyed missile launchers, helicopters and warplanes. Associated Press reporters in the capital heard heavy airstrikes overnight and into Tuesday morning.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel intended to establish a demilitarized zone in southern Syria.

Speaking at a navy base in Haifa, Katz said the army will create "defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, in order to prevent terrorism in Syria from taking root."

He gave few details on what that entailed, but warned Syria's rebels that "whoever follows Assad's path will end up like Assad. We will not allow an extremist Islamic terrorist entity to act against Israel."

In an area where so many geopolitical lines are packed together -- it is barely 25 miles (60 kilometres) from Damascus to the buffer zone, and only a few more miles to Israeli territory -- any military movement can spark regional fears.

There was no immediate comment from the insurgent groups -- led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS -- that have taken control of much of the country. Their lightning advance brought an end to the Assad family's half-century rule after nearly 14 years of civil war. There are concerns over what comes next.

'Damascus is more beautiful now'

Life in the capital is slowly returning to normal after the overthrow of Assad, who fled the country over the weekend and has been granted political asylum in Russia.

Private banks reopened on instructions from the central bank, said Sadi Ahmad, who runs a branch in the upscale Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood. He said all his employees returned to work.

Shops also reopened in the city's ancient Hamidiyeh market, where armed men and civilians could be seen buying perfume and ice cream. A clothing shop owner, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said he hoped vendors would no longer have to pay bribes to security officials.

At Bakdash, a famous ice cream shop, a poster outside read: "Welcome to the rebels of free Syria. Long live free Syria."

"Damascus is more beautiful now," said Maysoun Qurabi, who was shopping in the market. "It has a soul, and people feel at ease and secure." Under Assad, she said, "people were hungry and scared. The regime was strong."

Israeli incursion draws condemnation

In the immediate aftermath of Assad's fall, Israeli forces moved into a roughly 400-square-kilometre (155-square-mile) buffer zone inside Syria that was established after the 1973 Mideast war, a move it said was taken to prevent attacks on its citizens.

Israel has a long history of seizing territory during wars with its neighbours and occupying it indefinitely, citing security concerns. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, except by the United States.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has closely tracked the conflict since the civil war erupted in 2011, said Israel has carried out more than 300 airstrikes across the country since the rebels overthrew Assad.

The Observatory, and Beirut-based Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Syria, said Israeli troops are advancing up the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon and had come within 25 kilometres (15 miles) of Damascus, which the Israeli military denied.

The suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO killer planned his attack well -- but made crucial mistakes, experts say.

“What surprises me is how well planned the actual attack was, and at the same time how sloppy the killer was in his movements – in his showing his face, in leaving behind items,” said Steve Moore, a retired FBI supervisory special agent.

“There’s kind of a dichotomy. It’s almost as if he read a book on how to do one of these attacks and didn’t read it carefully. He just made serious mistakes as he went along.”

The suspect’s evasion ended Monday at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania – where police arrested Luigi Mangione in connection with the killing.

Here’s a look at what police say are the suspect’s key moves, the evidence he left behind, and what experts say about his strategy:
Before the killing

He took a bus to New York and paid cash: The suspect cleverly avoided air travel – and the intense scrutiny that comes with it, experts said.

Had he taken a plane to New York, the suspect probably would have had to use a credit card, show his ID and reveal his entire face under security cameras. If he had a gun at the time, it probably would have been detected during luggage screening.

Instead, the suspect took a Greyhound bus to New York, law enforcement sources told CNN.

By travelling on Greyhound, the suspect “is paying cash, no ID,” former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Richard Esposito said.

“It’s one of the reasons people ride Greyhound buses. (There) is a great deal of freedom and anonymity to come and go as you please.”

Almost a week after the killing, it’s still not clear where the suspect got on the bus. The bus started its route in Atlanta, but authorities didn’t know whether the suspect boarded in Atlanta or elsewhere.

Detectives from the New York Police Department travelled to Georgia and reviewed surveillance footage from the Greyhound station in Atlanta – but saw no sign of the suspect, law enforcement officials told CNN. The detectives returned to New York.

#TUNIS, December 9. Syria’s government is ready to transfer power peacefully, Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali pledged.

According to al-Jalali, talks with the armed opposition which has taken power in Syria continue. "We are ready to cede our authority as soon as we are asked to," he told the Al Arabiya television channel. "Our top priority today is to make sure the basic needs of the Syrian people are provided for," he stressed.

Syria’s armed opposition units launched a large-scale offensive on government troops in the Aleppo and Idlib governorates on November 27. By the evening of December 7, they seized several large cities, including Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, and Homs. On December 8, they entered Damascus while government troops withdrew from the city. The head of the Syrian government, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, expressed his readiness for a peaceful transfer of power in the country. According to a statement from the Russian foreign ministry, Bashar Assad resigned as president of Syria and fled the country, instructing for the peaceful transfer of power.

Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of the insurgency that toppled Syria's Assad?

Beirut -Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the militant leader whose stunning insurgency toppled Syria’s President Bashar Assad, has spent years working to remake his public image, renouncing longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicting himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. As he entered Damascus behind his victorious fighters Sunday, he even dropped his nom de guerre and referred to himself with his real name, Ahmad al-Sharaa.

The extent of that transformation from jihadi extremist to would-be state builder is now put to the test.

Insurgents control #Damascus, Assad has fled into hiding, and for the first time after 50 years of his family’s iron hand, it is an open question how Syria will be governed.

Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, often pitted against each other by Assad’s state and years of war. Many of them fear the possibility that Sunni Islamist extremists will take over. The country is also fragmented among disparate armed factions, and foreign powers from Russia and Iran to the United States, Turkey and Israel all have their hands in the mix.

Hours after Damascus' capture, the 42-year-old al-Sharaa made his first appearance in the city's landmark Umayyad Mosque, declaring Assad's fall “a victory for the Islamic nation.” A senior rebel commander, Anas Salkhadi, appeared on state TV to declare, “Our message to all the sects of Syria, is that we tell them that Syria is for everyone.”

Al-Sharaa, who has been labeled a terrorist by the United States, and his insurgent force, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS – many of whose fighters are jihadis -- now stand to be a major player.

For years, al-Sharaa worked to consolidate power, while bottled up in the province of Idlib in Syria’s northwest corner as Assad’s Iranian- and Russian-backed rule over much of the country appeared solid.

He maneuvered among extremist organizations while eliminating competitors and former allies. He sought to polish the image of his de-facto “salvation government” that has been running Idlib to win over international governments and reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities. And he built ties with various tribes and other groups.

Along the way, he shed his garb as a hard-line Islamist guerrilla and put on suits for press interviews, talking of building state institutions and decentralizing power to reflect Syria’s diversity.

“Syria deserves a governing system that is institutional, no one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions,” he said in an interview with CNN last week, offering the possibility HTS would eventually be dissolved after #Assad falls.

“Don’t judge by words, but by actions,” he said.