Kurds battle for key Syria town, woman suicide bomber hits IS

MURSITPINAR, Turkey: Kurdish fighters backed by US-led air strikes battled the Islamic State group for a key Syrian town Sunday, with one woman defender blowing herself up using the jihadists' own tactic.

IS fighters seized part of a strategic hill overlooking the town of Kobane late on Saturday, a monitor said, but their progress was slowed by new strikes from the coalition of Washington and Arab allies.

A Kobane local official, Idris Nahsen, said IS fighters were just one kilometre (less than a mile) from the town and that air strikes alone were not enough to stop them.

He complained of a lack of coordination between the coalition and Kurdish fighters on the ground.

In a sign of the Kurdish defenders' determination to keep the jihadists at bay, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a female suicide bomber blew herself up at an IS position east of Kobane.

"The operation caused deaths, but there is no confirmed number," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said of the first reported instance of a female Kurdish fighter employing a tactic often used by IS itself.

The border town of Kobane has become a crucial battleground in the international fight against IS, which sparked further outrage this weekend with the release of a video showing the beheading of Briton Alan Henning.

The video — the latest in a series of on-camera beheadings of Western hostages — included a threat to another hostage, US aid worker Peter Kassig.

Fighting raged around Kobane as the jihadists pressed their nearly three-week siege of the town, said the Britain-based Observatory.

"IS succeeded on Saturday night in taking the southern part of the Mishtenur hill," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said there were seven new coalition strikes against IS positions late Saturday and that the air raids were hindering the jihadist advance.

In a statement, US Central Command said the US military carried out three air strikes in Syria on Saturday, while fighter jets, bombers and helicopters were used in six assaults against IS in Iraq on Sunday.

The sound of shelling echoed from the town — also known as Ain al-Arab — as warplanes roared overhead Sunday, an AFP reporter just across the border in Turkey said.

One mortar round hit a house on Turkish territory just a few kilometres (miles) from Kobane, wounding five people, medical sources said.

The source of the fire was unclear, but residents of two small border villages were ordered evacuated as a precaution.

Tear gas was fired to clear the border zone around the Mursitpinar crossing, the main vantage point for watching the fighting for reporters and Kurds.

Sunday's toll was not known, but the Observatory, which relies on a network of local sources, said at least 33 IS fighters and 23 of the town's Kurdish defenders were killed on Saturday.

IS began its advance on Kobane on September 16, seeking to cement its grip over a long stretch of the Syria-Turkey border.

The offensive prompted a mass exodus from the town and surrounding countryside, with some 186,000 people fleeing into Turkey.

Extremist Sunni Muslim group IS has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, declaring a "caliphate" in June and imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

The group has been accused of carrying out widespread atrocities including mass executions, abductions, torture and forcing women into slavery.

It has also released videos of the on-camera beheadings of two US journalists, a British aid worker and on Friday of Henning, a 47-year-old British volunteer driver who went to Syria with a Muslim charity.

After first launching strikes against IS in Iraq in August, Washington has built a coalition of allies to wage an air campaign against the group.

Britain and France have joined the strikes in Iraq, while an F16 war plane carried out Belgium's first bombing raid there on Sunday.

Dutch and Australian fighter jets flew their first missions over Iraq on Sunday but did not launch any air strikes.

Five Arab nations — Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — have meanwhile taken part in the Syria raids.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Paris will "increase" the rate of air patrols over Iraq, branding IS "a terrorist army".

In Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah called for joint efforts to fight extremism "and defeat it because it has nothing to do with Islam".

Turkey's parliament last week authorised the government to join the campaign, but so far no plans for military action have been announced.

Elsewhere, the Observatory said Syrian rebels on Sunday seized a strategic hilltop in the southern province of Daraa after a two-day battle in which 30 regime forces and 29 rebels were killed.

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Two Swiss nationals shot dead in Philippines, police say

MANILA: Two Swiss nationals have been shot dead in a southern Philippine resort town, police said on Monday.

The victims, 67-year-old Robert Erich Loever and 78-year-old Baltazar Johann Erni, had just stepped out from a beach resort at 1pm (0500 GMT) Sunday in Opol town, Misamis Oriental province, when unidentified gunmen shot them in the head, municipal police chief Senior Inspector Alwin Baclao said.

The assailants fled on foot, Baclao said, according to the victims' two female companions who witnessed the attack.

Police ruled out robbery as motive after the suspects ran away without taking the victims' belongings, Baclao said, adding an investigation was underway.

Criminal gangs are known to operate in the southern Philippines, prompting China last month to warn its citizens against travel to the area.

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Malaysian navy boat goes missing with 7 crew members

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian combat boat with seven crew members has gone missing during a routine patrol off Borneo island in rough seas, with bad weather hampering the search and rescue operations.

The incident happened yesterday when the CB90H attack boat set out for a routine sea patrol on their way to Pulau Layang Layang atoll, which is part of the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea, when it went off the radar with the Sepanggar Navy base.

It had last communicated with the base requesting permission to turn back from its mission due to bad weather.

China claims almost all of the sea, a vital avenue for world trade that is also believed to harbour vast oil and gas reserves.

A source with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said the search operation resumed after it was suspended for several hours earlier today due to bad weather.

Its last known position was some 20 nautical miles northeast of Pulau Mangalum.

New Straits Times, quoting unnamed sources, said three ships have been deployed from the Kota Kinabalu naval base for the search and rescue mission.

Air assets from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency have also been roped in to help with the search near Pulau Mangalum and Pulau Gaya.

Authorities believe the missing vessel may have lost contact with the base after being hit by strong waves.

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AgustaWestland chopper deal case: Businessman Gautam Khaitan sent to judicial custody, to be produced tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Businessman Gautam Khaitan, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged kickbacks in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal case, has been sent to judicial custody till tomorrow by a Delhi court.

Metropolitan magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria had yesterday sent Khaitan in two-day judicial custody after ED submitted that he was not required for further custodial interrogation.

Khaitan was produced before the court after expiry of his five-day ED custody.

ED had earlier alleged in the court that Rs 360 crore was paid as kickbacks in the entire deal.

Khaitan has filed a bail application, through advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, on which the chief metropolitan magistrate had issued notice to ED to give its response by tomorrow.

The bail plea would also be taken up for hearing tomorrow when Khaitan would be produced in court.

In the bail plea, Khaitan said he should be enlarged on bail as he has always cooperated during the investigation and there was no apprehension that he would flee from justice.

ED submitted that Khaitan was on board of Chandigarh-based company Aeromatrix which was allegedly a front firm for the financial dealings in the chopper deal.

Khaitan's counsel, however, had told the court that his client was nowhere connected with the day-to-day affairs of the firm and he had resigned from the post way back in October 2010.

Khaitan was arrested under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by ED which had lodged a case in July this year against Khaitan, former IAF chief SP Tyagi and 19 others in the VVIP chopper deal case to probe alleged kickbacks.

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Modi to address election meeting in Nagpur tomorrow

NAGPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on campaign trail ahead of assembly elections in Maharashtra, will address a public meeting here on Tuesday.

Modi will address the gathering at Kasturchand Park ground in the evening. This would be his first election rally in the city, according to an official release issued here on Monday.

The Prime Minister has already addressed nearly half a dozen meetings in Maharashtra which goes to the polls on October 15.

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Pope Francis opens landmark synod on family, marriage

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Sunday opened a landmark synod of bishops from around the world which will review Church teaching on the family and marriage.

The bishops and a small number of lay figures will spend the next two weeks addressing the gulf between what the Church says about issues such as divorce and cohabitation and what many followers actually do.

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Chinese media warns against Hong Kong-style protests in China

BEIJING: Wary over the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong spreading to China, the official media here said that any attempt to launch a "colour revolution" in the mainland would be futile and a day dream.

"Any intention among a small number of people to hold a colour revolution on the mainland through Hong Kong would be a daydream," the ruling Communist Party of China's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily said.

In a front-page commentary under the headline, "Determined to protect the rule of law in Hong Kong," the newspaper said yesterday that democracy without the rule of law would only result in chaos.

The Occupy Central protests involving thousands of students in Hong Kong opposing the rule to screen the candidates to contest for the post of Chief Executive of Hong Kong in 2017 polls wear blue ribbons as the identity of their protest movement.

"Colour revolution" is a term widely used to describe various movements in the former Soviet Union republics during the early 2000s that led to the overthrow of governments. The term was also applied to uprisings in the Middle East in recent years.

It was the third day in a row the party-run newspaper had carried front-page commentary on the protests in Hong Kong that entered its second week today.

Occupy Central "would also cause significant economic loss, and possibly serious consequences in terms of injuries and deaths," Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted the Daily's commentary as saying.

The People's Daily also reported that business had fallen for many hotels, and some overseas investors had put their Hong Kong investment plans on hold.

It added that voters in US had a "limited choice" of presidential candidates and the British made no attempt to introduce democracy in Hong Kong when they ruled the city.

The commentary said, Occupy Central was illegal even though it was branded as "civil disobedience" and peaceful, and Hong Kong police had no alternative but to fire tear gas.

"Dealing with illegal activities through legal means is the best safeguard for the rule of law, and a strong defence for democracy," it said.

"No one can ignore the law. No one is an exception to the rule of law, and young people and students should also obey the law," it added.

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Mexico hit by 5.4-magnitude quake: USGS

MEXICO CITY: A 5.4-magnitude earthquake rattled southeastern Mexico today, seismologists said.

The quake was centered in the state of Veracruz, 47 kilometers southeast of Sayula de Aleman, the US Geological Survey said.

Mexico's National Seismology Service initially measured it at a strong 6.2-magnitude but later revised it to 5.6 strength.

The USGS said the quake was 145 kilometers deep, much farther underground than Mexico's preliminary measurement of 10 kilometers.

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US disease control agents remove sick passenger from flight in Newark: Report

US disease-control agents in biohazard suits removed a sick passenger and his daughter from a United Airlines jet that landed on Saturday in Newark, New Jersey, but local media said the man was not believed by federal health officials to have Ebola.

The passenger, who was vomiting during the flight from Brussels to Newark Liberty International Airport, was escorted off the plane by officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and taken to University Hospital in Newark, accompanied by his daughter, according to a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport.

CDC officials were testing the man but do not believe he was sick with the deadly Ebola virus, airport officials told the New Jersey newspaper the Record.

The CDC, which has reported fielding more than 100 inquiries about possible Ebola cases that have turned out to be false alarms, could not be reached by phone or email for comment.

The plane's 251 other passengers and 14 crew members were held in temporary quarantine while health officials evaluated the situation, Erica Dumas, the Port Authority spokeswoman, said. She added that all were ultimately cleared and permitted to leave the plane.

United Airlines said in a statement that passengers and crew were held while public health officials interviewed each person on board.

"Upon arrival at Newark Airport from Brussels, medical professionals instructed that customers and crew of United Flight 998 remain on board until they could assist an ill customer," a statement said.

The sick passenger and his daughter were believed to be from Liberia, WABC-TV reported. It said they had transferred to the US-bound flight in Brussels, a major hub for flights from western and central African countries.

Liberia is the West African country hardest-hit by the Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 3,400 people since March, according to the World Health Organization.

The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States was confirmed this week in a man who had recently flown to Dallas from Liberia by way of Brussels.

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Pro Jayalalithaa protests complete a week, to continue

CHENNAI: Protests and fasts continued in Tamil Nadu today over jailing of AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa in the illegal assets case with bus services being suspended in many districts and a private schools' federation announcing that their schools would remain closed on October 7.

Officials said passengers were affected as over 6,000 private buses suspended their services in the state, barring three districts, protesting the conviction of Jayalalithaa by a Special Court at Bangalore on September 27.

Responding to the call given by the Federation of Bus Operators' Association of Tamil Nadu, private bus services were suspended in all districts, barring Chennai, Nilgiris and Kanyakumari. Inter-district, intra-district and private buses plying inside towns were part of the strike, officials said.

Protests by AIADMK workers and Jayalalithaa supporters continued with some of them conducting special prayers in temples for the speedy release of their leader.

AIADMK legislators and Chennai Mayor S Duraisamy wore black shirts and observed a fast at the memorial of party founder M G Ramachandran (MGR) at the Marina beach here.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Associations of Private Schools in Tamil Nadu announced that private schools across the state would remain closed on October 7.

Over 4,500 private schools would not function protesting the jailing of Jayalalithaa, while principals and administrators of these schools would hold a protest in front of the School Education Department in Chennai on that day, D C Elangovan, Secretary, Federation of Associations of Private Schools in Tamil Nadu, said in Salem.

A Coimbatore report said some 800 private buses did not ply in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts with their owners, drivers and conductors observing one-day strike.

Police said passengers were put to a lot of hardship due to the strike, as about 350 buses in the city, 150 in Pollachi and 210 in Tirupur did not run.

Meanwhile, about 20 employees of a Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation liquor outlet staged a demonstration in Coimbatore seeking early release of Jayalalithaa, they said.

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