Police say an Indiana man has now definitively confessed to killing seven women whose bodies were found over the weekend in Indiana.
	Gary Police Chief Larry McKinley also told a news conference that authorities have enough evidence to charge Darren Vann, 43, with murder in at least three more of the cases involving bodies discovered in abandoned buildings around the city over the weekend. McKinley said those charges were expected to be filed within a few days.
	Vann was arrested over the weekend after a missing person's report led police to a body in a bathtub at a Motel 6. He confessed to that murder and directed police to six more bodies. The first murder charge was filed against him on Monday.

Police: Indiana man confesses to all 7 killings

PTI Automatic

Mexico's governmental Human Rights Commission says at least 12 and probably 15 of 22 people killed by soldiers at a rural warehouse were executed, contradicting both army and prosecutors' versions of the June 30 incident in southern Mexico.
	Commission President Raul Plascencia says the scene of the killings was altered and bodies were moved to mimic a shootout the army's initial account of how the 22 suspected gang members died.
	The army's version almost immediately came under question because only one soldier was wounded. The Associated Press found evidence at the scene didn't match a shootout.
	A witness later told the AP that only one man died in an initial shootout and all the others were shot after surrendering.
	Three soldiers face civilian murder charges and eight military discipline.

Mexican rights agency says army executed 15 of 22

Eighty-eight former students who were sexually molested by a Franciscan friar who worked as an athletic trainer at a Pennsylvania Catholic high school have settled their legal claims for USD 8 million, according to two attorneys who represent more than half the victims.
	Attorney Richard Serbin represents 13 former students at Bishop McCort High School, and attorney Mitchell Garabedian represents 33. The students said they were abused by Brother Stephen Baker, who worked at the school in Johnstown, 100 kilometres east of Pittsburgh, from 1992 to 2001.
	Baker, 62, committed suicide at his monastery in by stabbing himself in the heart in January 2013. That occurred nine days after the Youngstown, Ohio, diocese disclosed abuse settlements with 11 former students who said they were abused by him at John F Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio, from 1986 to 1990.
	News of those settlements prompted many of the Bishop McCort victims to come forward.
	Serbin has been pursuing clergy abuse ...

USD 8M for 88 victims of abuse by US Franciscan friar

An Australian teenager who ran away from home has reportedly appeared in an Islamic State propaganda video.
	In the video the boy warns that the movement won't stop fighting until the extremists' notorious black flag is flying in every nation.
	Australian media yesterday widely reported a video posted on YouTube in which a speaker believed to be 17-year-old Abdullah Elmir of Sydney warns western leaders of the terror group's resolve.
	Using the name Abu Khaled, holding a rifle and dressed in military garb, he is surrounded by dozens of other male jihadists as he addresses the camera.
	According to media reports, Abdullah went missing in June, saying he was going fishing.
	Elmir's family could not immediately be reached for comment.

Australian runaway teenager reportedly in IS video

Every few years Dr Leonardo Fernandez flies to a nation shaken by natural disaster, political turmoil or disease, leaving his hospital in eastern Cuba for countries that have included Pakistan, Nicaragua and East Timor.
	Yesterday, the intensive care specialist was headed to the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic along with 90 other Cuban medical workers as part of a half-century-old strategy that puts doctors on the front lines of the country's foreign policy.
	The 91 nurses and doctors going to Guinea and Liberia join 165 already in Sierra Leone making this island of 11 million people one of the largest global contributors of medical workers to the fight against Ebola.
	The commitment has drawn rare praise from the US and focused worldwide attention on Cuba's unique program of medical diplomacy, which deploys armies of doctors to win friends abroad and earn more than USD 6 billion a year in desperately needed foreign exchange.
	Cuba has more than 50,000 medical workers in more than 60 .

Cuba sends 91 more doctors to fight Ebola

The FBI in Denver said it is investigating the possibility that three girls from the Denver area were trying to travel to Syria to join Islamic State extremists.
	An FBI spokeswoman yesterday said agents helped bring the girls back to Denver after FBI agents stopped them in Germany.
	Spokeswoman Suzie Payne said they are safe and reunited with their families.
	She didn't give the identity of the girls or any other details.
	The announcement comes one month after 19-year-old Shannon Conley of Denver pleaded guilty to charges that she conspired to help militants in Syria.
	The US Attorney's Office in Denver declined to comment on the latest cases.

FBI: US girls may have tried to join jihadis

NATO scrambled fighter jets twice in two days to intercept Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, it said today amid reports that Russian military activity in the region is increasing.
	Lt Col Robert Gericke said the Russian aircraft were flying in international airspace and had not violated the territory of alliance members.
	Two Canadian F-18 Hornet jets were scrambled from the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania yesterday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft, which they shadowed for some 15 minutes, NATO said.
	"Once identification was successful, the intercept mission was completed and the two Hornets returned to their base," a NATO statement said.
	Earlier, the Latvian military tweeted that NATO F-16 jets were dispatched today to intercept a Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft over the Baltic Sea.
	Gericke confirmed that NATO jets had also intercepted a Russian aircraft that day, but could not immediately provide more details.
	NATO, which has 16 ...

NATO intercepts Russian jets over Baltic Sea

The bodies of two South Korean tourists were found in waters near Thailand's southern resort city of Phuket today, two days after the tourist boat they were in collided with a fishing vessel, police said.
	Marine police and volunteer rescuers found and retrieved the bodies, a man and a woman, more than 30 metres underwater and under the wreckage of the tourist boat, police Colonel Phrutthipong Nutchanart said.
	The tourist speedboat was carrying 44 foreign and Thai tourists and crew members from Phi Phi Island, which is famous for its white sandy beaches. Most of those aboard were rescued by marine police and villagers on boats.
	The Thai speed boat driver was held by police for questioning and was initially facing charges of causing severe bodily harm by reckless act.
	"Now that a body is found, we will have to press the additional charges of causing death by reckless act against him," Phrutthipong told The Associated Press.
	The tourists, who were mostly Chinese but included four ...

Bodies found of 2 South Koreans in Thai boat crash

Islamic State group fighters seized at least one cache of weapons airdropped by US-led coalition forces that were meant to supply Kurdish militiamen battling the extremist group in a border town, activists said today.
	The cache of weapons included hand grenades, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, according to a video uploaded by a media group loyal to the Islamic State group.
	The video appeared authentic and corresponded to The Associated Press' reporting of the event.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which bases its information on a network of activists on the ground, said the militants had seized at least one cache.
	The caches were airdropped early yesterday to Kurds in the embattled Syrian town of Kobani that lies near the Turkish border.
	The militant group has been trying to seize the town for over a month now, causing the exodus of some 200,000 people from the area into Turkey. While Kurds are battling on the ground, a US-led coalition ..

IS fighters seize weapons cache meant for Kurds

North Americans, get set for the fourth and final eclipse of the year.
	On Thursday, most of North America will have prime viewing of a partial solar eclipse. The new moon will hide part of the sun from view. The eclipse will unfold slowly following its start near the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia.
	The best views will be in the US Northwest and northern Canada, especially Prince of Wales Island. New England and the Canadian Maritime provinces will miss out.
	In the eastern half of the US, the eclipse will occur near sunset.
	Sky gazers are urged to protect their eyes with special filtered glasses. Regular sunglasses are not good enough. This makes for two solar and two lunar eclipses this year.

N America treated to partial solar eclipse Thursday

Police say they have discovered the remains of as many as four dead infants in a storage locker in the central Canadian city of Winnipeg.
	Winnipeg Const Eric Hofley said today concerned employees at the storage locker company called police yesterday and, once inside, police found what appeared to be the remains of up to four infants.
	He says the remains were so decomposed, it's not clear if police are dealing with three or four bodies.
	He says victims appear to be "very, very young" and could be newborns.
	Autopsies were being conducted.
	He says police are talking to a few people, but the remains don't appear to be linked to any infants that have been reported missing.

Police find dead infants in Winnipeg locker

Conclusive tests show a Spanish nursing assistant infected with Ebola is cured of the virus, doctors said today, signaling a huge step forward in her 15-day battle for survival.
	Four blood tests over the past four days indicated Teresa Romero's system had eliminated the virus, said Dr. Jose Ramon Arribas of Madrid's Carlos III hospital.
	He added that Romeo will no longer have to be kept in isolation but will be closely monitored for after effects of the virus.
	The family spokeswoman for Romero, Teresa Mesa, said the nursing assistant could remain hospitalized for about two more weeks.
	Romero, 44, tested positive Oct 6.
	She received plasma from a recovered Ebola patient, but health authorities have disclosed no more treatment details.
	"She's recovering well, her spirits are high," Mesa told reporters. "She's not wearing an oxygen mask anymore. She's eating. The recovery is going great."
	Romero was the first known person to contract the disease outside of West Africa in the ...

Spanish woman free of Ebola, final tests shows

Tens of thousands of doses of experimental Ebola vaccines could be available for "real-world" testing in West Africa as soon as January as long as they are deemed safe, a top World Health Organization official said today.
	Dr Marie Paule Kieny, an assistant director general for WHO, said clinical trials that are either underway or planned in Europe, Africa and the US are expected to produce preliminary safety data on two vaccines by December.
	If the vaccines are declared safe, she said they will be used in trials in West Africa beginning in January to test their effectiveness among tens of thousands, but not millions, of people.
	"I'm not suggesting at this moment that there would be mass vaccination campaigns at population levels starting in 2015," she said, adding that none of the volunteers who take part in the trials could accidentally contract Ebola from the testing.
	The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has already killed over 4,500 people, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra ...

WHO: Ebola vaccine trials in W Africa in January

Same-sex marriage has arrived in Wyoming, the conservative western mountain state where the 1998 beating death of a gay student helped spark the movement that has culminated in a broad expansion of gay rights around America.
	State lawyers filed a legal notice today morning that said they won't defend a recently overturned Wyoming law that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, meaning county clerks can begin to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and the state will recognize same-sex unions performed legally elsewhere.
	More than 30 states, including Alaska and Arizona, now recognize same-sex unions in changes triggered by a US Supreme Court decision Oct 6 that refused to hear appeals from states that wanted to defend gay marriage bans.
	The change is particularly notable in the state where Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was robbed, tied to a fence and viciously beaten 16 years ago.
	He died days after the attack on Oct 12, 1998. The ...

Wyoming latest US state to legalize gay marriage

Everyone coming to the United States from the three West African countries at the center of the Ebola outbreak will now be screened for the deadly disease at one of five airports, the Homeland Security Department said today.
	Earlier this month, Customs and Border Protection officers at New York's Kennedy, Newark Liberty, Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airports started screening people arriving from West Africa.
	The screening includes using no-touch thermometers to determine if travelers have a temperature, one symptom of a possible Ebola infection.
	The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also working with DHS on the screening.
	There are no direct flights to the United States from West Africa. About 94 percent of the roughly 150 people traveling daily from West Africa to the US arrive at the one of the five airports.
	Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said today that now everyone traveling from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea ...

US orders new screening for Ebola

Ukraine has asked the European Union for an additional loan of USD 2.5 billion as it struggles to cope with the implications of its standoff with Russia.
	EU Commission spokesman Simon O'Connor said today that the Ukraine request for the 2 billion euro loan will be "evaluated in consultation with the IMF and Ukrainian authorities."
	However, he insisted that the EU's executive office "remains very committed to supporting Ukraine in line with earlier commitments."
	The announcement came as negotiations between the energy chiefs from Ukraine, Russia and the EU to find a compromise to make sure that Moscow would continue to provide Kiev with gas over the winter headed into the late evening.
	After Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukraine counterpart Petro Poroshenko agreed on a broad thrust of a deal on Friday, the issues on how, when and how much Ukraine should pay continued to divide the sides.
	This year already, the EU has agreed on an aid package of USD 14 billion to boost ..

Ukraine asks for big EU loan during gas standoff

An Egyptian military tribunal sentenced today seven alleged militants to death and two to life in prison for their roles in consecutive attacks that killed nine soldiers this year, an official said.
	The military official said the court issued its decision today after the country's top Muslim cleric approved the initial sentence in August, a necessary step.
	In Egypt, civilians accused of attacking members of the armed forces are only tried before military tribunals. Human rights groups criticize military trials for hasty procedures, harsh sentences, and limited transparency.
	The verdicts can be appealed, but any appeal would return to another military court.
	The defendants are alleged members of the al-Qaida-inspired militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Champions of Jerusalem.
	Originally based in northern Sinai, the group has also claimed responsibility for most of the major attacks in or near Cairo, targeting mostly troops and government installations.
	Six of the defendants ..

Egypt military court sentences 7 to death

Nepal today said it will introduce new rules, improve weather forecasts and better monitor the movement of trekkers after the Himalayan country's worst hiking disaster left dozens dead last week.
	Tourism Department official Tulasi Gautam said trekkers venturing to mountain trails will be required to take trained local guides, and will have to rent a GPS tracking unit to help authorities trace them in case of an emergency.
	Gautam said the government plans to announce the new rules nationwide before the next trekking season in the spring.
	"The main reason for the high number of casualties is that those trekkers without proper guides were prompted to continue with their trek in attempts to beat the storm. So we plan to strictly enforce new rules of no trekking without porters or proper guides," Gautam said.
	Yadav Koirala of Nepal's Disaster Management Division said two more bodies of Nepalese national were recovered on today by soldiers who remain in the Thorong La pass on the ...

Nepal vows new rules after worst trekking disaster

Britain's defense ministry says Royal Air Force drones will fly intelligence-gathering missions over Syria, in a broadening of UK operations against the Islamic State group beyond Iraq.
	Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said today that British Reaper drones and Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft would be starting operations "very shortly."
	In a written statement to lawmakers, Fallon said the aircraft would "gather intelligence as part of our efforts to protect our national security from the terrorist threat emanating from there."
	He said the drones were not authorized to use weapons in Syria.
	Britain's Parliament voted last month to approve British airstrikes against IS forces in Iraq, but not in Syria.
	Fallon said that armed operations in Syria would require "further permission.

British surveillance drones to fly over Syria

A German court has rejected a bid by Lufthansa to force a union representing the company's pilots to call off a strike, the latest in a string of walkouts over retirement benefits.
	The state labor court in Hesse, which includes Lufthansa's main Frankfurt hub, said today it rejected the airline's suit and found no grounds to declare the strike illegal.
	The Vereinigung Cockpit union started a 35-hour walkout at Lufthansa's short-haul fleet mid-yesterday and extended it early today to the company's long-haul services.
	The two sides have been fighting for months over the pilots' demand that Lufthansa keep paying a transition payment for those wanting to retire early.
	The airline, facing tough competition from European budget airlines and major Gulf carriers, wants to cut those payments.

Court rejects Lufthansa bid to block strike

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews hurled stones and slashed the tires of buses bearing ads promoting female worship at a key Jerusalem holy site, Israeli police said today.
	The attack, which happened on last night in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood, underscores the still simmering tensions in Israel over religious extremists who want to separate the sexes in public spaces.
	Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police units were dispatched to quell the violence in Mea Shearim where about 50 men slashed tires and pelted the buses with stones.
	The ads were posted by the group Women of the Wall, which seeks to achieve gender equality at the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray. The advertisements showed girls and women wearing prayer shawls and holding a Torah scroll rituals seen by many Orthodox Jews as reserved for men only.
	Video footage on the YNet news site showed the words "end the obscene pictures" spray-painted on a bus.
	The ads aimed to ...

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