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Iraqi Kurdish forces enter Syria to fight Islamic State
Malala donates $50,000 to re-build Gaza schools
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US ‘horrified’ at attack on Syrian camps
Clashes erupt as Israeli cops kill Palestinian
Commando who killed Osama to reveal identity
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Iraqi Kurdish forces enter Syria to fight Islamic State
Suruc (Turkey), October 30 Kobani, on the border with Turkey, has been encircled by the Sunni Muslim insurgents for more than 40 days. Weeks of US-led air strikes have failed to break their stranglehold, and Kurds are hoping the arrival of the peshmerga will turn the tide. The siege of Kobani — known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab — has become a test of the US-led coalition's ability to stop Islamic State's advance, and Washington has welcomed the peshmerga's deployment. It has intensified its air strikes in the past two days ahead of their arrival. The first contingent of about 10 peshmerga fighters arrived in Kobani from Turkey, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Kurdish and Turkish officials said more were expected within hours. "That initial group, I was told, is here to carry out the planning for our strategy going forward," said Meryem Kobane, a commander with the YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish armed group defending the town. Hemin Hawrami, a senior official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iraq, wrote on Twitter that the peshmerga already in Kobani were assessing where the heavy weapons would be deployed. Around 100 peshmerga fighters arrived by plane in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, joined later that night by a land convoy of vehicles carrying heavy weapons including a cannon and truck-mounted machine guns. In a compound protected by Turkish security forces near the border town of Suruc, the fighters were donning combat fatigues.
— Reuters International coalition will destroy Islamic State: US
Washington: The US-led international coalition of more than 60 countries against the Islamic State will degrade and ultimately destroy the terror group, a top Obama Administration official has said. "I do believe we will degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL with our coalition of over 60 countries," National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in an interview at the Washington Ideas Forum.
— PTI
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Malala donates $50,000 to re-build Gaza schools
London, October 30 "We must all work to ensure Palestinian boys and girls, and all children everywhere, receive a quality education in a safe environment. Because without education, there will never be peace," Malala said in Stockholm as she received the prestigious World Children's Prize. Malala, 17, said the money would be channelled through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to help rebuild 65 schools in the Palestinian territory. The money would help children get "quality education" and continue their life, knowing they were not alone and that people were supporting them, she said. Malala, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 and now lives in the UK, was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize earlier in October, alongside India's 60-year-old Kailash Satyarthi for their championing of children's rights. Malala has her own fund to help small-scale organisations in a number of countries, including Pakistan. She is the first person to receive the children's prize and the Nobel in the same year.
— PTI
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Pak province rewrites text books to satisfy Islamic conservatives
Peshawar, October 30 The public tussle over the changes mirrors a struggle for power at the heart of Pakistan's young democracy. Secular, liberal parties are vying with conservative, religious parties for influence in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people. That struggle often plays out in the classroom. Professors or teachers accused of blasphemy have been attacked, jailed or killed. School books commissioned by provincial governments have been frequently rewritten. The latest changes in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cover chemistry, physics, English, history and geography text books. Education official Bashir Hussain Shah told Reuters that the changes include reintroducing religious verses on jihad, a word that means holy struggle but is also often used by insurgents. That had been removed from the curriculum for 13 and 14 year olds, he said, but was being restored. Inayatullah Khan, the leader of religious political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, said the verses on jihad were not intended to promote violence but to inform students when jihad was lawful. "It doesn’t allow Muslims to fight against those non-Muslims with whom you have diplomatic ties or an agreement," he said. Changes were also made to history books and science books, Khan said. They would reverse changes that had replaced content about Muslims with material about non-Muslims, including American Helen Keller, an author who was deaf and blind, and Hindu ruler Raja Dahir.
— Reuters
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US ‘horrified’ at attack on Syrian camps
Washington, October 30 The attack killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens more in the camp near Habeet, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "We are horrified by the reports that the Assad regime barrel bombed the Abedin displaced persons camp in Idlib and the images we saw of the carnage against innocent civilians," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki yesterday said. "The attack on the Abedin camp was nothing short of barbaric." Video posted on YouTube by activists showed bodies lying among olive tree branches littered with shreds of white canvas from tents that had been ripped apart by the bombs. The British-based group said most of the people in the camp had fled fighting in the central province of Hama. Psaki said, “We've been clear that the Assad regime must be held responsible for its atrocities against the Syrian people."
— AFP
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Clashes erupt as Israeli cops kill Palestinian
Jerusalem, October 30 The Al-Aqsa compound, or Temple Mount, which is a central cause of the latest violence, was closed to all visitors as a security precaution. It was the first full closure of the site, venerated by both Jews and Muslims, in 14 years. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Israeli actions as "tantamount to a declaration of war". Moataz Hejazi's body lay in a pool of blood among satellite dishes on the rooftop of a three-storey house in Abu Tor, a district of Arab East Jerusalem, as Israeli forces sealed the area and repelled stone-throwing Palestinian protesters. Hejazi was suspected of shooting and wounding Yehuda Glick, a far-right religious activist who has led a campaign for Jews to be allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa compound. Glick, a US-born settler, was shot as he left a conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Centre in Jerusalem on Wednesday, his assailant escaping on the back of a motorcycle.
— Reuters
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Commando who killed Osama to reveal identity
Washington, October 30 "The Man Who Killed Osama Bin Laden" will air in two segments November 11-12, with the commando recounting his role in the raid that killed Bin Laden at his Pakistani compound in 2011. The Navy SEAL "will share his story of training to be a member of America's elite fighting force and explain his involvement in Operation Neptune Spear, the mission that killed Bin Laden," the network said in a press release. "Offering never-before-shared details, the presentation will include 'The Shooter's' experience in confronting Bin Laden, his description of the terrorist leader's final moments as well as what happened when he took his last breath," it
said. — AFP
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