VOA NEWS

November 18, 2014

From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, the latest on the Ebola outbreak. Plus, more on the Islamic State beheadings. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.

A U.S. surgeon who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone has died of the disease at a special isolation treatment unit in the U.S. state of Nebraska.

Dr. Martin Salia was admitted to the bio-containment unit after a long trip from Africa late Saturday afternoon. Forty-four-year-old Salia was the chief medical officer at the United Methodist Kissy Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when he was tested positive last week for Ebola.

The current outbreak of Ebola is the worst on record. It has killed at least 5,177 people, most of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.



French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve [says] said Monday that a French citizen who joined Islamic State extremists in 2013 is believed to be among the knife-wielding extremists lined up behind their kneeling victims in the latest video.

Cazeneuve said that there was a "strong presumption" that the man was 22-year-old Maxime Hauchar, who had been monitored by French authorities since he left for Syria in 2013.

He called on all French citizens, especially young people who are the primary targets of the Islamic State recruitment, to realize the terrible reality of the militants' actions.

On Sunday, President Obama confirmed the slaying of an American aid worker who had been beheaded by the Islamic State group along with a dozen Syrian soldiers.



This is VOA news.



U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the U.S. military is accelerating its training and advising mission in Iraq as forces there continue to battle the Islamic State militants. We get more now from VOA's Carla Babb.

Secretary Hagel says the military has moved some of the U.S. special operations forces in Iraq into early missions with Iraqi forces in volatile Anbar province.

"Just to kind of continue the mission, accelerate the mission of preparing for training and equipping, and the things we need to do to start setting that up."

Hagel said the troops moved into Anbar province over the last couple of days. He said General Lloyd Austin, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, recommended the effort.

The Pentagon says the U.S. military plans to train 12 brigades to fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq. Nine of those will be Iraqi Security Force brigades, while the other three will be Kurdish peshmerga forces.

Carla Babb, VOA news, Fort Irwin, California.



European Union foreign ministers moved Monday to ratchet up sanctions against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. It comes amid reports of intensified fighting in the region.

The move follows elections led by the separatists earlier this month in areas under their control, which were denounced by Western governments, as well as an upsurge in fighting between rebel and government forces despite the cease-fire reached in early September. Witnesses reported fresh shelling in and around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Monday.

Meantime, Moscow continues to deny supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine.



Hong Kong police are expected to take action this week to clear areas that have been occupied by protesters since late September.

News of the impending action comes as a new survey by The Chinese University of Hong Kong indicates a shift in public sentiment, with most now saying the protests should end.

Leaders of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the main organizers of the protests, say they are urging their followers not to resist the authorities and to avoid confrontations.

The demonstrators have been calling for fully democratic elections in 2017.



The European Commission has adopted protective measures to try to contain a bird flu outbreak after new cases were reported in Britain and the Netherlands.

The Dutch government has reported the highly contagious H5N8 strain at a poultry farm. British authorities reported a case at [a Dutch] a duck farm in east Yorkshire. And the commission said it's probably identical.

EU officials say the outbreaks may be linked to bird flu recently found in Germany.

H5N8 can potentially affect humans but it has never been found in humans unlike H5N1, which has killed 400 people, mostly in Asia and the Middle East.



That's the latest world news from VOA.