Internet video purports to show Islamic State group beheading British hostage
CAIRO — An Internet video released Friday purports to show an Islamic State group fighter beheading British hostage Alan Henning, the fourth such killing carried out by the extremist group now targeted in U.S.-led airstrikes.
The video mirrored other beheading videos shot by the Islamic State group, which now holds territory along the border of Syria and Iraq, and ended with a militant threatening a man they identified as an American named Peter Kassig.
“Obama, you have started your aerial bombardment of Shams (Syria), which keeps on striking our people, so it is only right that we continue to strike the neck of your people,” the masked militant in the video said.
The Associated Press could not immediately verify the video’s authenticity, though it was released in the same manner as other Islamic State group videos and the masked militant sounded similar to the one who carried out the other slayings.
A medical first: Woman gives birth to baby after receiving womb transplant
LONDON — In a medical first, a woman in Sweden has given birth after receiving a womb transplant, the doctor who performed the pioneering procedure said Friday.
The 36-year-old mother received a uterus from a close family friend last year. Her baby boy was born prematurely but healthy last month, and mother and child are now at home and doing well. The identities of the woman and her husband were not disclosed.
“The baby is fantastic,” said Dr. Mats Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm IVF who led the research and delivered the baby with the help of his wife, a midwife. “But it is even better to see the joy in the parents and how happy he made them.”
The feat opens up a new but still experimental alternative for some of the thousands of women each year who are unable to have children because they lost a uterus to cancer or were born without one. Before this case proved the concept can work, some experts had questioned whether a transplanted womb would be able to nourish a fetus.
Crew decontaminates home where Ebola patient stayed; monitoring falls
DALLAS — A hazardous-materials crew on Friday decontaminated the Texas apartment where an Ebola patient stayed, while public-health officials cut by half the number of people being monitored for any symptoms of the deadly disease.
The decontamination team was to collect bed sheets, towels and a mattress used by the infected man before he was hospitalized, as well as a suitcase and other personal items belonging to Thomas Eric Duncan, officials said.
They planned to place the items in industrial barrels and take them to a storage facility, according to Dallas County Fire Marshal Robert De Los Santos.
Once the proper permits are issued, the materials were to be hauled away for permanent disposal, probably by incineration at a landfill.
Heavy fighting between Kurdish fighters, Islamic State group rages
BEIRUT — Islamic State militants heavily shelled a Kurdish town on Syria’s border with Turkey on Friday as jihadi fighters prepared an all-out offensive for the strategic site, whose capture would provide a direct link between areas under their control in Aleppo and their stronghold in Raqqa to the east.
The fighting came as Turkey’s prime minister pledged his country would do what it could to prevent the fall of Kobani, although he did not spell out what assistance Turkey would provide. Turkey’s parliament gave the government new powers Thursday to launch military incursions into Syria and Iraq, and to allow foreign forces to use its territory for possible operations against the Islamic State group.
Kurdish officials and activists said that Islamic State group fighters had so far not penetrated the frontier town as fighting raged on the eve of a major Muslim holiday.
“It looks like they are going to attack tonight and try to enter (Kobani) on the day of the feast,” said Nasser Haj Mansour, a defense official in Syria’s Kurdish region, referring to the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha that begins on Saturday in most Muslim countries.
“Kurdish fighters are ready and prepared to repel any attack.”
By wire sources