The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	US air strikes halt advance of IS militants in Kobani Plumes of dust, smoke rise over Syrian Kurdish town Mursitpinar (Turkey), Oct 8 US-led air strikes on Wednesday pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, local officials said. The town has drawn international attention since the Islamists' advance drove 180,000 of the area's mostly Kurdish inhabitants to flee into adjoining Turkey. Ankara has infuriated its own restive Kurdish minority and its NATO partners in Washington by refusing to intervene. Islamic State fighters hoisted their black flag on the eastern edge of the town on Monday but, since then, air strikes have been redoubled by a U.S.-led coalition that includes Arab Gulf states seeking to reverse the jihadists' dramatic advance across northern Syria and Iraq. Intense gunfire and loud explosions could be heard on Wednesday morning from across the Turkish border, and huge plumes of grey smoke and dust rose above the town, where the United Nations says only a few hundred inhabitants remain. "They are now outside the entrances of the city of Kobani. The shelling and bombardment was very effective and as a result of it, IS have been pushed from many positions," Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of the Kurdish-run Kobani district, told Reuters by phone. "This is their biggest retreat since their entry into the city and we can consider this as the beginning of the countdown of their retreat from the area." Islamic State had been advancing on the strategically important town from three sides and pounding it with artillery despite dogged resistance from heavily outgunned Kurdish forces. Defence experts said it was unlikely that the advance could be halted by air power alone - a fact that left not only Washington but also the Syrian Kurds' ethnic kin across the border in Turkey demanding to know why Turkish tanks lined up within sight of Kobani had not rolled across the frontier. The Turkish parliament voted last week to authorise cross-border intervention but President Tayyip Erdogan and his government have so far held back. Many Turks prefer to risk alienating the Kurds rather than be sucked into a ground war in Syria, a prospect Erdogan says he would consider only as part of an international push that also sought to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. — Reuters Canada votes to join air strikes against IS Ottawa: Canadian lawmakers have voted to join the international coalition launching air strikes on the Islamic State group in Iraq. Parliamentarians led by Conservative PM Stephen Harper carried the vote, 157 to 134, in favor of the six-month mission. Both the opposition New Democrats and Liberals voted against it, saying they fear the mission could become a quagmire. Six hundred air crew and other personnel will now head to the Middle East. Harper has ruled out sending ground combat troops.
	ISI ties with terror groups an open secret, says Panetta Washington, October 8 Pakistani spy agency ISI having close ties with terror groups is an open secret and this was the reason why the US did not share the intelligence about the raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout with Islamabad, former Defense Secretary and ex-CIA Director Leon Panetta has said. "We had been discussing this for months, and it was an open secret that Pakistan's intelligence agency had ties to terrorist groups - that, after all, was a major part of our rationale for not sharing our bin Laden intelligence with the ISI," Panetta wrote in his book 'Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace' which hit the stores yesterday. Panetta was the CIA Director in the first term of the Obama Administration and was also his Defense Secretary later. In both these position, Panetta was a strong advocate of US-Pakistan relationship and always came out in strong defense of ISI and the Pakistan Army whenever there were allegations of the spy agency having links with the terrorist outfit. In fact, while serving in the Obama administration - both as CIA chief and Defense Secretary, Panetta always issued certificates to ISI on allegations of its links with terror outfit. However, in his latest book, the first after he left the Obama Administration some two years ago, Panetta speaks in an altogether different tone. "One of the most complicated international relationships to manage in my years with President Obama was that between the US and Pakistan," Panetta wrote. — PTI
	US to screen all arriving from Ebola-stricken nations Washington, October 8 Travelers arriving in the United Stated from Ebola-striken Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will face mandatory screening measures for the deadly virus as soon as this weekend, according to a media report on Wednesday. The additional screening could also be extended to passengers from other nations struggling with the outbreak, CNN reported, citing the US government. Countries in West Africa, where the deadly Ebola outbreak is centered, are already supposed to screen passengers before they are allowed to depart. But, under the new measures, such travellers will also have to answer questions and have their temperature taken with a hand-held scanner once they arrive in the United States, CNN said. — Reuters All protocols were followed in Spain: Minister * Spain's Health Minister Ana Mato on Wednesday said a probe has been opened into the cause of the first case of Ebola virus disease contracted outside Africa * Spanish nurse Teresa Romero, the first person to contract Ebola outside Africa, is being treated at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital * Mato said there was no evidence of Ebola symptoms in people who were in contact with Romero, and added that another health worker was being tested for the disease Sierra Leone: Strike leaves Ebola dead in streets * The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday that bodies of Ebola victims have been left in the country's streets because of a strike by burial teams * Health Ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis said the situation is "very embarrassing," insisting money was available to pay the teams * The World Health Organisation says Ebola is believed to have killed more than 600 people in Sierra Leone, where there have been more than 2,100 confirmed cases * The regional impact of Ebola epidemic could reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015 if it spreads beyond the worst-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
	HK protests dwindle but talks may go nowhere Hong Kong, October 8 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests that brought tens of thousands on to the streets last week dwindled to a few hundred on Wednesday after activist leaders agreed to talks with the government, which are all but certain to go nowhere. The student-led protests have calmed since clashes with police more than a week ago and the number of protesters calling for universal suffrage has fallen dramatically since violent scuffles broke out at the weekend between demonstrators and pro-Beijing opponents. Friday's talks will focus on "the basis for political development", the government said, referring to plans for a 2017 election of the chief executive, Hong Kong's leader, but it was unclear how discussions could reconcile two such polarised positions. Protesters had called on the city's current leader, Leung Chun-ying, to step down and any breakdown in the talks is widely expected to trigger another cycle of protests. "The lack of room for the government to back away from (China's) decision will make it difficult for the government to satisfy the student leaders' requested demands," Citi Group said in a research note. Several Western countries, including Britain, have urged China to keep its promise about universal suffrage, though activists have urged Britain, with strong trade ties with Beijing, to take a stronger stand. — Reuters
	Two Americans, German get Nobel Prize in Chemistry Stockholm/London, Oct 8 A German and two American scientists won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for smashing the size barrier in optical microscopes, allowing researchers to see individual molecules inside living cells. US citizens Eric Betzig and William Moerner and Germany’s Stefan Hell won the prize for using fluorescence to take microscopes to a new level, making it possible to study things such as the creation of synapses between brain cells in real time. “Due to their achievements the optical microscope can now peer into the nanoworld,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said as it awarded the 8 million crown ($1.1 million) prize. Scientists, who have been looking down microscopes since the 17th century, had thought there was a limit to what could be seen. In 1873, Ernst Abbe stipulated that resolution could never be better than 0.2 micrometre, or around 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The trio bypassed this limit by tagging objects with fluorescent markers and scanning them to build detailed images. “This is important to understand how cell works and what goes wrong if it is diseased,” Hell said. — Reuters
	No role for 3rd party in SCS dispute: China Beijing, October 8 China today sharply reacted to India and the US expressing concern over the South China Sea (SCS) dispute during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington, asserting that the maritime row should be resolved directly by parties concerned and no third party should meddle in it. “Our position is that the dispute in the South China Sea should be resolved by countries directly concerned through negotiations and consultations. Any third party should not be involved in this,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei told a media briefing. He was reacting to the Indo-US joint statement issued at the end of Modi’s meeting with President Barack Obama on September 30 which for the first time made a direct reference to the South China Sea dispute. The reaction came late as Chinese Foreign Ministry formally reopened today after a week-long National Day holiday starting from October 1. In his cautious comment on the issue, Hong merely reiterated China’s long standing position on the outside intervention on the maritime dispute involving Beijing and several other countries in the region including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei besides Taiwan. Though the joint statement did not make direct reference to China, it came as a surprise here as SCS dispute directly figured for the first time in India-US discourse in the backdrop of New Delhi and Washington expanding their sphere of influence in the Southeast Asia region. — PTI
	First person diagnosed with Ebola in US dies Dallas, October 8 A Liberian man who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died in a Texas hospital on Wednesday, his case having put health authorities on alert for the deadly virus spreading outside of West Africa. About 48 persons who had direct or indirect contact with the man since he arrived in the United States from Liberia on September 20 are being monitored, but none have yet shown any symptoms, according to health officials. "It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51," Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas spokesman Wendell Watson said in an emailed statement. Duncan's case has led to expanded efforts by US authorities to combat the spread of Ebola at its source in West Africa and raised questions about the effectiveness of airport screening and hospital preparedness. Duncan became ill after arriving in Dallas to visit family. He went to the Dallas hospital on September 25, but was initially sent home with antibiotics. His condition worsened, he returned September 28 by ambulance and was diagnosed with Ebola, which has killed more than 3,400 people in the worst-hit impoverished countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The current Ebola outbreak began in March and has killed nearly half of those infected, according to the World Health Organisation. Ebola can take as long as three weeks before its victims show symptoms, at which point the disease becomes contagious. Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva. While several American patients have been flown to the United States from West Africa for treatment, Duncan was the first person to start showing symptoms on US soil. — Reuters Sierra Leone: Strike leaves Ebola dead in streets * The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday that bodies of Ebola victims have been left in the country's streets because of a strike by burial teams * The WHO says Ebola is believed to have killed more than 600 people in Sierra Leone, where there have been more than 2,100 confirmed cases * The regional impact of Ebola epidemic could reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015 if it spreads beyond the worst-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone Extra screening at five US airports The White House said extra Ebola screening will be put in place at five US airports: New York's John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. “These five airports are the destination of 94% of individuals who travel to the US from the three countries that are affected by Ebola,” the White House spokesman said. UK to send troops to Sierra Leone Britain is sending extra troops, aircraft and a naval vessel to Sierra Leone to help stem the spread of the Ebola virus, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said following a meeting of the government's emergency response committee.