Apple iPhone 6 finally cleared for launch in China

Apple has finally been granted regulatory approval by the Chinese government to sell the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

The company received a key license after addressing various security risks concerning personal data that had been raised by Chinese state-owned media outlets, according to a government statement.

Apple said its new smartphones will go on sale Oct. 17, nearly a month after the devices first hit stores in select countries around the world. Pre-orders will begin Oct. 10.

The debut will mark the first time that all three of China's biggest state-run wireless carriers will be able to offer the new iPhone at launch. China Mobile, the largest, became the final major carrier to ink an iPhone agreement with Apple in December.

7 Ukrainian soldiers killed in Donetsk fighting

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- Seven Ukrainian soldiers were killed by tank fire Monday at the airport in the flashpoint city of Donetsk, the country's counterterrorist operations press office said.

Nine other soldiers were injured in the clash, the office said.

In a separate incident, three civilians were killed and five injured in shelling overnight in Donetsk, the website of the city office said Monday.

Residential and administrative buildings were damaged as a result of artillery fire, according to the site, which described the situation as tense.

Ukrainian government forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine for months.

Despite the ongoing violence in places such as Donetsk, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko insisted last week that a ceasefire signed with rebel leaders more than three weeks ago was holding.

NFF to dump Keshi for Siasia

Samson Siasia could be in line to replace Stephen Keshi as Nigeria coach unless the National Sports Commission stops the Nigeria Football Federation.

Goal exclusively gathered from a top NFF official at the weekend that the Super Eagles’ poor results against Congo where they lost 3-2 in Calabar as well as the goalless draw away to South Africa has blotted the impressive record of the trainer.

A top official of the Nigeria Football Federation disclosed that “there are many factors standing in the way of Stephen Keshi to be re-appointed as the Eagles chief coach and I will give you a break-down but before that I must say that Keshi must be most grateful to the Honourable Sports Minister (Tammy Danagogo) for fighting for his retention as the chief coach.

“The minister has never hidden his love and preference for him and he based it on Keshi’s past achievement which he said was more than necessary for him to continue his job. The minister still believes that the Eagles under Keshi could still bounce back and qualify for the 2015 Afcon in Morocco.

“But we at the NFF here know that the problem with the team is more than what we are seeing from the surface. Firstly, there is no commitment on the part of the players Keshi is parading for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and if something drastic is not done, Nigeria may not be among those nations that would campaign in Morocco 2015,” the source who begged for his identity not to be revealed told Goal.

The NFF source also revealed that most of the members of the NFF Executive Board are no longer at ease with the alleged antics and disrespect of Keshi towards them and now want another coach who would listen to them and respect them as his employers. They have also not forgotten in a hurry the way Keshi allegedly humiliated the Aminu Maigari Board members during the Africa Cup of Nations which Nigeria won in South Africa in 2013 and felt highly disappointed with the way the Coach received all the accolades and praises from all and sundry without mere mention of the NFF Board and Secretariat.

“We all know how Keshi threatened to dump the team in South Africa shortly after the Eagles won the 2013 Afcon. The controversies generated by this singular action of his put the NFF then in a bad light and so many other crises including the Eagles threatening not to play one of the qualifying matches for the last World Cup as well as during the World Cup proper when the players demanded for their bonuses are all crises that have put negative mark on the NFF.

“So unless the National Sports Commission decides to use its veto powers, I don’t think Keshi would be retained as the Eagles coach. Even the N6 million that the minister said he is requesting for cannot be met by the NFF as a matter of fact. The NFF is broke for now and the crisis has not helped matters.

“It seems everybody is speaking favourably about Samson Siasia to come back to the post he left in 2011. Some of us believed that Siasia has learned his lessons and he would adjust where he has failed to bounce back with the Eagles. Another thing is that it will be very difficult for us to pick the 2015 Nations Cup ticket if we continue to parade the same players Keshi is using to prosecute the 2015 Afcon qualifiers so it is preferable Siasia comes to the rescue and bring new ideas and players that are fighters to salvage the situation.

“The reason for the choice of Siasia is that the NFF cannot afford the salary and emoluments of a foreign coach now, so employing a foreign coach to replace Keshi now is out of the issue. But we will know precisely how it goes after Tuesday when NFF elections will take place,” the source concluded.

China dramatically revises death toll in Xinjiang violence

Beijing (CNN) -- Chinese authorities late Thursday dramatically revised upward the death toll of a violent incident they say occurred earlier in the week in Xinjiang, an ethnically divided region in China's far west.

According to state-run regional media portal Tianshan, 50 people, including 40 "rioters," were shot dead by police or killed by a series of explosions.

"Police forces reacted decisively," said the report. The report didn't specify how many were killed by police.

More than 50 civilians were injured during the blasts on Sunday evening, which police called a terrorist attack, according to Tianshan. The bombs hit two police stations, a shop and an open market frequented by ethnic minority Uyghurs.

The dead included six civilians, two police officers and two auxiliaries, Tianshan said. The primary suspect behind the bombings was shot dead, police said.

On Monday, state media claimed that just two people were killed in the explosions. It is unclear why more details were only released several days later.

Local police refused to comment to CNN, saying the information surrounding the incident is "confidential." The provincial government refused to provide more details.

The violence occurred just two days before prominent Uyghur professor Ilham Tohti was found guilty of '"separatism" by a Chinese court and sentenced to life in prison.

Chinese authorities have stepped up security measures in Xinjiang following several recent attacks in the region, which has been the scene of ethnic strife between the indigenous Uyghurs, a mainly Turkic-speaking Muslim population, and Han Chinese.

The Chinese government has blamed recent violent incidents in Xinjiang on Uyghur separatists seeking to establish an independent state.

Waves of Han Chinese have flocked to the resource-rich region, fueling tensions with the Uyghurs, who regard themselves as culturally and ethnically closer the people of nations bordering western China, such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Xinjiang is now home to more than eight million Han Chinese, up from 220,000 in 1949, and 10 million Uyghurs. Unemployment among Uyghurs is high, and they complain of discrimination and harsh treatment by security forces.

Chibok moves to identify girl abandoned by Boko Haram

The Chibok Community has commenced moves to identify the girl, Susan Ishaya, who was abandoned by Boko Haram and found wandering in Mubi on Wednesday.

The Chairman,Kibaku Development Association, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, said he had directed the Vice Principal, Government Secondary School, Chibok, to go to Yola, Adamawa State and ask the girl about her origin and other issues surrounding her identity.

Susan was discovered near a police station in Mubi, Adamawa State, after she was brought there by villagers who found her near Biu in Borno State.

She was said to have been thrown out of a moving vehicle by her captors and was left to wander for two days before she was discovered by the villagers.

Susan was said to be traumatized and sexually abused by the insurgents, and was also found to be four months pregnant.

The girl, who is being treated in a hospital in Yola, Adamawa State, was said to have been psychologically abused and could not properly identify herself and her origin.

Bitrus told our correspondent on Friday that there are doubts over the identity and origin of the girl, adding that the community was not convinced that she was from Chibok, as her name did not correspond with the names of the 219 school girls.

He said, “We are still making efforts to identify the girl and know where she is from because she is psychologically traumatized and is not in a good frame of mind. So, I have asked the Vice Principal of Government School, Chibok, to go to the hospital where she is being treated in Yola, to talk to her and ascertain her name and village.”

The Chairman, Chibok Community, Abuja, Tsambido Abana, also said that parents of the 219 abducted girls had been asked to make inquiries about Susan from other Chibok indigenes.

Asked if he entertained any fear that the schoolgirls in Boko Haram captivity could also be sexually harassed and impregnated like Susan, Abana said his people had always harboured such thoughts, but did not want to voice it out.

He said it was imperative that the government fast tracked efforts to secure the release of the girls, whom he said may have been sexually molested.

Abana said, “The initial test carried out on the girl indicated that she was pregnant and sick, but this has not been fully confirmed. We are not very sure she is from Chibok because her surname did not tally with the names of any of the missing girls.

“We are apprehensive over the fate of the schoolgirls, we are afraid that what happened to this girl may befall them, this is our fear all along, but we didn’t want to voice it.”

UK votes for action against ISIS: Will this time be different?

London (CNN) -- More than a decade after the Iraq war, when one million people took to the streets to protest against intervention, British lawmakers have again been grappling with their consciences.

In 2003, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair won a vote authorizing the use of force as part of a U.S.-led coalition to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but the war's chaotic aftermath left a bitter legacy.

Last year British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote to bomb the Assad regime in Syria amid public opposition to another war. Political commentators said the failed vote by Washington's long-standing ally put a brake on President Barack Obama's plans to punish the Syrian leader for allegedly using chemical weapons on his own people.

However, the task of Obama in building a coalition is likely to be made easier after Cameron easily won Friday's vote, by 524 votes to 43, authorizing the airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq. The opposition Labour Party supported the action against the Islamic militant group, despite doubts of some lawmakers on both sides of the House of Commons.

Opinion polls also suggest backing for action has grown following the release of videos showing the beheadings of western hostages. In August opinion was evenly split (37-36%), according to one YouGov poll, but is now markedly more in favor (53-26%). Polling by Comres conducted before the death of British hostage David Haines also found similar backing for airstrikes: more than half of those who took part in the survey backed action -- a rise of 5% in a month.

Cameron recalled Parliament after Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi requested British military support in its battle against ISIS. Fighter planes from France and the United States have already started bombing in Iraq, but unlike in those countries the convention in Britain is for lawmakers to vote in Parliament before action is taken.

Veteran political commentator Robin Oakley said MPs were more in tune with the public than a year ago. "The degree of ISIS' brutality has changed a considerable number of minds.

"People who previously had doubts are now convinced that there is no alternative but force. Voices will be raised: some MPs believe that bombing ISIS may radicalize the population in areas that it controls. Local people who never liked the al-Maliki government and who may have been suffering ISIS may now offer it their support."

Oakley said it was the brutal videos that had likely won over lawmakers -- in contrast to the Syria vote. "Last year Labour couldn't support the action because MPs felt there was no conclusive evidence that al-Assad had used chemical weapons against his own people.

"MPs will worry about 'mission creep' when there is no obvious aim apart from to eradicate ISIS. Military action may destroy the leaders but it cannot eradicate ideas -- so the fear among lawmakers is that this intervention could be counter-productive."

Outside Parliament, there were also doubts about the military action. Protests took place in central London on Thursday, organized by Stop the War. The group's spokesman Ian Chamberlain said that while it was important to listen to public opinion, "once people start to see the results and start to reflect, I believe support will fall."

"Public support for military interventions in Afghanistan collapsed after the results of the bombing became clear. Bombing increases sectarian hatred of the west, and it's obvious that military intervention doesn't work. You can't destroy terrorism by bombing infrastructure. It just brings more terrorism."

Ebola crisis calls for 'strong' action, Obama tells United Nations

(CNN) -- The West Africa Ebola outbreak is "a growing threat to regional and global security," U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday, telling a high-level meeting on the deadly epidemic at the U.N. General Assembly that only an international response can prevent "a humanitarian catastrophe across the region."

"If ever there were a public health emergency deserving of an urgent, strong and coordinated international response, this is it," the President said.

Obama has declared the epidemic -- which is centered in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- a national security priority amid fears it could spread farther afield and claim many more lives.

"This is more than a health crisis," he said. "This is a growing threat to regional and global security. In Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, public health systems are near collapse. Economic growth is slowing dramatically. If this epidemic is not stopped, this disease could cause a humanitarian catastrophe across the region."

The President singled out Sierra Leone, where on Wednesday the government declared a success a three-day nationwide lockdown put in place to help stop the spread of Ebola, saying it had revealed more cases hidden in the community. Under the plan, no one was allowed to leave their homes for three days, from September 19 to 21, allowing volunteers to go door-to-door to educate people about the deadly virus.

"The courageous men and women fighting on the front lines of this disease have told us what they need: more beds, more supplies and more health workers, as fast as possible," Obama said. "Right now, patients are being left to die in the streets. ... One health worker in Sierra Leone compared fighting this outbreak to 'fighting a forest fire with spray bottles.' "

Obama called the outbreak an "urgent threat to the people of West Africa but also a potential threat to the world." A rapid global response to the crisis "could be the difference between tens of thousands of people dying and perhaps a million people dying," he said.

The President also highlighted United States' efforts to help, including establishing a military command in Liberia to support civilian efforts. But he urged international organizations and businesses to move faster to mobilize partners on the ground, and nations to contribute everything from air transport to health care workers to equipment.

"We are not moving fast enough; we are not doing enough," Obama said. "Right now, everybody has the best of intentions, but people are not putting in the kinds of resources that are necessary to put a stop to this epidemic."

The head of a medical organization at the forefront of fighting the Ebola crisis also appealed to world leaders at the meeting to take immediate action or risk losing the fight to contain the epidemic.

"Generous pledges of aid and unprecedented U.N. resolutions are very welcome. But they will mean little, unless they are translated into immediate action," Dr. Joanne Liu, international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said, according to an advance transcript of her speech.

"The reality on the ground today is this: The promised surge has not yet delivered.

"The sick are desperate, their families and caregivers are angry, and aid workers are exhausted. Maintaining quality of care is an extreme challenge."

Liu said fear and panic have set in as infection rates double every three weeks in the worst-affected nations, while growing numbers are dying of other diseases like malaria because health care systems have collapsed.

"Without you, we fall further behind the epidemic's deadly trajectory. Today, Ebola is winning," she said.

UK police arrest 2 more men in counter-terrorism investigation

(CNN) -- UK police arrested two more men Friday in connection with an investigation into suspected membership of a banned organization.

It comes a day after nine men were arrested in London on terrorism charges, one of them named in British media reports as radical British cleric Anjem Choudary.

The two latest arrests came in the early hours in a swoop on a vehicle traveling on the M6 motorway, which runs northwest from the English Midlands to Manchester and beyond.

One suspect, aged 33, was arrested on suspicion of being a member of a banned organization, supporting a banned organization and encouraging terrorism, London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The second man, aged 42, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

Both remain in custody at a central London police station.

The nine men arrested Thursday, ages 22 to 51, also remain in custody in London, police said. Searches continue at a number of addresses.

"These arrests and searches are part of an ongoing investigation into Islamist related terrorism and are not in response to any immediate public safety risk," the police statement said.

Radical cleric

Anjem Choudary, who was a co-founder of the banned UK Islamist group Al Muhajiroun, told CNN last month that the world had been split into two camps.

There's a "camp which believes that sovereignty and supremacy belongs to God. They are the Islamic State, at the head of which is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," Choudary said. "In the other camp you have those people who believe sovereignty and supremacy belongs to man. At the head of that camp is Barack Obama."

"I believe this Islamic State will spread, rapidly, and I believe it will be in Europe and even America within decades."

Police have not named the suspects or the banned organization concerned.

Cameron lays out plans to counter UK jihadi threat

Terror threat level raised

The Home Office has listed 60 international proscribed terrorist organizations as of August 2014.

They include networks such as ISIS and al Qaeda, as well as UK-based groups such as Al Muhajiroun, which emerged in 1996 and has operated under a range of other names since being disbanded in 2004 and banned in 2010.

The UK Home Office last month raised its terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe."

The government also announced new measures to combat the threat from Islamist extremism, including a radical new measure to ban Britons from coming home once they join jihadi ranks abroad.

UK authorities estimate that 500 Britons have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamist groups.

15 beheaded in Taliban offensive in Afghanistan, official says

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A Taliban offensive in eastern Afghanistan left an estimated 100 civilians dead or wounded in the past week, including some women and children who were beheaded, a provincial deputy governor said Friday.

Hundreds of Taliban insurgents stormed Ghazni province's Ajristan district last week, sparking intense, ongoing battles with Afghan security forces, said Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, Ghazni's deputy governor. The Taliban have taken over a large number of villages in the area, he added.

The insurgents beheaded at least 15 people, including women and children, on Thursday, Ahmadi said.

The exact number of people killed in the last week isn't known, in part because authorities don't have an adequate communications system that could help tally the figures, Ahmadi said.

"We only have local police forces and a small number of Afghan National Army personnel fighting a huge number of well-armed Taliban in the area," he said, adding that the country's government in Kabul promised Friday that air support would be sent to the region.

Pentagon spokesman on ISIS: 'I think we are in this for a matter of years'

(CNN) -- The United States and its allies are steeling themselves for what an American defense official described Thursday as a yearslong fight against the so-called Islamic State, a revelation that came as airstrikes pummeled oil refineries in Syria used by the terror group to help fund its operations

"I think we are in this for a matter of years," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby told CNN on Thursday. "... We are steeling ourselves for that period of time."

 

U.S.-led airstrikes hit locations overnight in a remote area of eastern Syria where ISIS has been using mobile refineries to produce oil that brings in up to $2 million a day for the group.

The U.S. military was still assessing the damage to the refineries by the airstrikes, Kirby said. The attacks are focused on the "infrastructure around the refineries," meaning the ability of ISIS to produce oil, he said.

Even so, there are questions about just how much impact the destruction of the refineries will have on ISIS, which analysts have said has access to billions of dollars.

"Even if we stop their oil flow today, they still have about a billion dollars in the bank," retired U.S. Army Col. Peter Mansoor said.

"They seized about a third of a billion dollars from the central bank of Mosul (Iraq)." On top of that, he added, ISIS has garnered millions of dollars in ransoms from European governments for hostages and have traded much of their oil.

For now, the United States is focused on the refineries, according to Kirby. But he acknowledged there are "other economic levers the international community is going to have to pull" to cut off all funding to ISIS.

At least 14 militants and five civilians were killed in the overnight airstrikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a dissident monitoring group.

ISIS targets in Iraq were also hit Thursday morning by France's military, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll told reporters in Paris. Fighter jets carried out strikes on four ISIS warehouses near Fallujah, which were believed to house military equipment.

Human rights lawyer executed

The news came as reports surfaced that ISIS fighters carried out a public execution of a well-known human rights lawyer, who took to Facebook to criticize the group's destruction of mosques, churches and shrines in Iraq.

Calling the torture and killing of Sameera Al-Nuiamy savage and cowardly, U.N. special representative for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said the Iraqi government and the international community must do all they can to ensure those responsible for her death are brought to justice.

Al-Nuiamy was reportedly abducted from her home in Mosul on September 17 and put on trial before a Sharia court, which Mladenov says found her guilty of apostasy.

"She was then held for a further five days during which she was subjected to torture in an attempt to force her to repent before she was executed in public," he said.

Since August, ISIS has beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker David Haines, gruesomely showing their killings in videos posted online.

On Thursday, FBI Director James Comey said that the United States believes it has identified the ISIS militant in the video showing Foley's killing. Officials believe the same masked militant speaks in all three beheading videos. Comey did not identify the man.

ISIS overruns Iraqi base

The reports about the execution came as new details emerged about the killing of up to 300 Iraqi soldiers in Iraq's western Anbar province after ISIS fighters overran the base near Falluja this week.

A handful of survivors who escaped from Saqlawiyah, which had been under siege for a week, accused the Iraqi government of failing to respond to pleas for help in the days leading up to Monday's final ISIS assault on the base.

One soldier recounted in a video posted to YouTube how he and his comrades battled the fighters for hours before starting to run out of ammunition and then being shot by a sniper.

"I called the commander ... for support, but no one responded," he said.

While CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the claims in the video, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an investigation into what happened and why the soldiers were left to fend for themselves.

At least 113 soldiers were killed and another 78 are missing, according to Iraqi security officials.

The report has raised questions about whether the Iraqi military can defeat ISIS on the ground even with help from the United States and its allies in the air.

There are similar questions being asked about Syria's moderate rebel groups, which have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces and ISIS.

ISIS leadership dispersed?

ISIS has likely dispersed much of its command-and-control capabilities in Syria, and leaders are now "mixed in with the civilian population," Mansoor said.

"So it's unlikely these airstrikes have crippled ISIS," he said. "As the President has said, it's going to be a long campaign, and it will be months -- perhaps years -- before ISIS is dealt a serious blow absent any sort of ground force to go in and root them out on the ground."

In the latest round of strikes targeting ISIS refineries in Syria, fighter jets from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates flew alongside U.S. aircraft, hitting 12 locations, Kirby said.

While ISIS has been the focus of most of the strikes in Syria, other terror targets have been hit.

The U.S. military said the al Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group also was targeted when the strikes in Syria began Tuesday morning.

And the terror group al-Nusra Front says its leader, Abu Yousef al-Turki -- also known as "The Turk" -- was killed. But the United States has not said whether al-Turki is dead.

"We cannot confirm any particular leadership that might have been killed in any of these strikes," Kirby said Wednesday.

And as far as how many ISIS militants have been killed, "we don't know that, either," Kirby said.

International support

While the support for the U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria has been tepid, the support for the the international coalition against ISIS in Iraq is growing.

The Dutch foreign ministry announced Wednesday that its military will contribute six F-16 fighter jets and 250 troops to carry out airstrikes and train Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said his country's parliament will weigh a request for six of its fighter jets to take part in the bombing campaign.

Similarly, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he's recalling Parliament Friday "to secure approval for the United Kingdom to participate in the Iraq air campaign.

"The U.N. Security Council has now received a clear request from the Iraqi government to support it in its military action against ISIL," Cameron said from U.N. headquarters in New York. "... So it is right that Britain should move to a new phase of action."

Dolphins killed as Taiji's controversial hunting season resumes in Japan

Tokyo (CNN) -- The slaughter of dolphins has begun again in a small Japanese village, in a controversial annual hunt that pits Western environmentalist values against what locals say are traditional hunting practices.

Taiji, a coastal town of 3,500 people in the Japanese prefecture of Wakayama, has a dolphin hunting season from September to March every year.

Local fishermen are permitted by the Wakayama prefectural government to hunt an annual quota of nearly 2,000 dolphins and porpoises from seven different species, in accordance with what the government says is traditional practice.

Most of the dolphins are killed for their meat, but many are sold live to aquariums around the world.

'Eerie' killing cove

In recent years, the Taiji dophin hunt has become a focal point for activists, particularly since the release of the Academy Award-winning 2009 film The Cove, which documented the hunt and raised awareness of Taiji's dolphin hunting industry internationally.

Conservationist group Sea Shepherd has had a presence in Taiji during hunt season for the past five years, broadcasting tfrom the village via a livefeed, and mobilizing a social media campaign against the hunt.

The campaign has drawn celebrity and other high-profile supporters, with comedian Ricky Gervais and U.S. ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy tweeting their support in recent years, and former Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed actress Shannen Doherty visiting Taiji last week to witness the hunt.

"It's eerie," Doherty said in a statement. "You wonder how they (the hunters) are able to go to bed at night... I think being here rocks even the most hardened human being, because it is just atrocious."

Melissa Sehgal, Sea Shepherd's campaign co-ordinator for the Taiji project, which it calls "Operation Infinite Patience," said that after 15 days without the capture or killing of dolphins, the fishermen had begun killing pods of Risso's dolphins last week.

Four dolphin pods had been driven into the cove for killing so far this year, the group said.

"These dolphins are a gentle and docile species, but they continued to fight and struggle to stay alive," Sehgal told CNN.

Military kills Abubakar Shekau ‘again’

The Defence authorities have confirmed the killing of the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, during one of the four encounters with insurgents in Kodunga, Borno State between September 12 and 17, 2014.

The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said during a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, that the corpse of the insurgents’ leader was identified by the people of Kodunga.

He said that Shekau whose real name was Mohammed Bashir   had used other names like Abacha Abdullahi Geidam and Damasack.

Olukolade illustrated the Defence authorities claim with pictures of the bullet-ridden corpse of Shekau   and a video of the battle in which he was killed.

Four days ago,     the Cameroon Concord reported that the Cameroonian troops killed Shekau during a cross border aerial bombardment of his hideout in Nigeria on Saturday.

To prove the killing, the newspaper also published photographs of the bearded   Shekau whom it said then usually appeared in videos as the leader of Boko Haram.

But Olukolade dismissed the claim that   Shekau was killed by Cameroonian security forces within Nigeria.

“There was no raid whatsoever by Cameroon or any foreign forces in any part of Nigeria’s territory in pursuit of terrorists as claimed in some reports allegedly quoting Cameroon authorities,” he had said.

He had also claimed     in a tweet on Wednesday last week that troops who repelled an attack by insurgents in Kodunga,   captured a high ranking terrorist leader who was being treated in military medical facility.

On Tuesday, a journalist said to be a close ally of Boko Haram, Ahmad Salkida, said he had it on “authority” that   Shekau was hale and hearty.

Writing on his Twitter handle, Salkida, who is on self-exile in the United Arab Emirates, claimed that Shekau was not the one in the pictures of a corpse that trended on Monday on social media after they were published by the Cameroon Concord.

“Mark my words: I have it on authority that Shekau is well and alive. The pictures going round are not that of the person who torments us with his group,” the journalist   added.

The spokesperson for the Department of State Service had in May claimed that “the real Abubakar Shekau had been taken out.”

“Boko Haram has become a franchise; anybody can assume and lay claim to any name. What   I know is that the original Abubakar Shekau is dead; the person claiming to be the national leader now is not the original Abubakar Shekau.

“If security sources tell you that somebody is dead, you don’t have to come out and doubt that,” Ogar said.

A former spokesman for the Joint Task Force in the North-East, Sagir Musa, had in a statement in August 2013, also   said that Shekau might have been killed during a battle with troops in June last year.

But during the news conference on Wednesday, the defence spokesman   said that many top commanders of Boko Haram were also killed in the four battles against the insurgents   between September 12 and 17.

Olukolade added that the military was determined to   eliminate anybody, who claims to be Shekau, a name which, he said had become a brand for the leader of the insurgents.

He said, “Nigerian troops have been conducting coordinated air and land operations in furtherance of efforts at containing the terrorists in the North -East. . Somehow, it became apparent that the terrorists, in continuation of their campaign of terror, were determined to take over communities around Maiduguri, which is their prime target.

“There was, therefore, the need to ensure that communities such as Kodunga were protected. It is noteworthy that the terrorists made no less than four attempts between September 12 and 17 to violate the security and enter Kodunga to perpetrate their atrocities. Air and land forces were subsequently deployed to handle the situation.

“The convoy of combat vehicles typical of terrorists’ mission that involved their top commanders was   engaged by   land and air forces. Several of the terrorists, including some of their commanders, lost their lives in the encounters which lasted an average of about five hours each. The troops captured some of the terrorists and their equipment.

“In the course of those encounters, one Mohammed Bashir, who has been acting or posing on videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau, the eccentric character known as leader of the group, died.

“Since the name Shekau has become a brand name for the terrorists’ leader, the Nigerian military remains resolute to serve justice to anyone who assumes that designation or title as well as all terrorists that seek to violate the freedom and territory of Nigeria.

“On restoring normalcy after the encounters, inhabitants of the community who were victims of their activities corroborated information on the identity of Bashir Mohammed alias Abubakar Shekau, alias Abacha Abdullahi Geidam alias Damasack, etc.

“Indeed, the recent devastation on the leadership of the insurgents is attributable to the renewed commitment to the mission of eradicating terrorism in our country.”

Olukolade also said that   135 insurgents surrendered   their weapons to troops in Borno and Adamawa states on Tuesday evening.

He added that   88 of them surrendered at Mairiga/Buniyadi while another set of 45 were arrested around Mubi-Michika.

The Defence spokesman said the insurgents   were undergoing interrogation in strict compliance with standard procedure.

“A total of 135 terrorists yesterday (Tuesday) evening surrendered along with their equipment to troops around the Biu Local Government Area. A group of 88 submitted themselves at Mairiga/Buni – Yadi while another group of 45 terrorists were taken in around Mubi – Michika. They are all being interrogated and processed in conformity with the dictates of standard best practices,” he added.

The Defence Headquarters had earlier said that 10 insurgents surrendered at Kawuri on Monday and another five at Konduga on Saturday.

This brings the total number of insurgents who have surrendered after the Kodunga battles   to 150.

Investigation by The PUNCH on Wednesday revealed that troops were intensifying a house-to-house search   in Madagali, Gulak, Michika,   Bazza and other communities in Adamawa State   for 70 fleeing insurgents.

It was gathered that six members of the sect   were caught by troops at a refugee centre in Yola on Wednesday.

FG’ll celebrate B’Haram surrender not Shekau’s death – Maku

Meanwhile, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, said on Wednesday that the Federal Government was more interested in   Boko Haram members laying down their arms than in the said death of   Shekau.

Maku told journalists after   the weekly   Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday   that the government was not interested in celebrating the death of the terrorist.

“The Federal Government would be happier if the Boko Haram leader and his group laid down their weapons and embraced peace,” he said.

The minister added, “Government has a responsibility to respect human rights unlike members of the Boko Haram sect who have thrown away all sympathy for human lives and are prepared to kill people just for killing’s sake.

“For us it is immaterial if the leader of the terrorist group is killed or not. We want them to drop their weapons and embrace peace. We want them to drop their weapons, stop killing their parents and innocent people and accept peace.”

Culled from The Punch

Pennsylvania woman blamed for her own rape in state response to lawsuit

(CNN) -- The Pennsylvania attorney general's office is blaming a former state prison clerk for her own rape, in response to a federal lawsuit the woman filed.

The 24-year-old typist was working at the state prison at Rockview in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, when she was attacked in 2013. She was choked unconscious and raped for 27 minutes by inmate Omar Best, who had been convicted three times previously of sex-related crimes, and then been transferred from a different state prison for assaulting a female assistant there.

"Despite this knowledge, defendants ... still allowed Omar Best to have unsupervised access to the offices of female employees," according to the lawsuit, which also blames the state for the rape.

In fact, the lawsuit says that the prison superintendent actually moved the clerk offices from a secure floor where there was no inmate contact to a location that was on a cell block.

"There were no locked doors between the offices and cell blocks, including Block C where (the victim) worked, except for the copy room," the lawsuit states.

Even though Best was convicted of the rape in May and a review of the prison found multiple failings and led to the superintendent's removal, a senior deputy attorney general wrote that the woman "acted in a manner which in whole or in part contributed to the events" in his response to her lawsuit.

It's victim shaming at its worst, the woman's lawyer told CNN.

"Worse than that, it's an attempt to embarrass the victim," said Clifford Rieders, a Williamsport, Pennsylvania, attorney.

The state attorney general's office at first declined to comment when the matter was reported by the Centre Daily Times, in State College, Pennsylvania.

Wednesday, the office released a statement saying that it is required to present all possible defenses and "contributory negligence is one such defense."

In the statement provided to CNN, the attorney general's office said, "This initial filing should not necessarily be interpreted as meaning this defense will be pursued throughout the entire case," adding that elected Attorney General Kathleen Kane was not aware her senior deputy included that defense in his filing.

"Attorney General Kane is disappointed that she was not made aware of this matter prior to the filing, and was saddened to learn that the filing implied that the victim somehow contributed to this crime."

Best is serving a life sentence for the woman's rape. The Pennsylvania state victim advocate said it's hypocritical to use victim-blaming as a defense for the prison.

"I think it's absolutely deplorable to blame the victim in this case," Jennifer Storm told CNN.

"It's not common legalese in rape cases," Storm said of the AG's defense. "And it shows a significant lack of sensitivity to not understand the harm this has done to the young woman and the re-victimization she's going through today.

"In a rape case, this is plain victim-blaming."

Storm and Rieter both pointed out that the local district attorney, Stacy Parks Miller, who prosecuted Best, whole-heartedly believed the victim. And so did a jury.

"The DA went to bat 100% for this victim," Storm said. "To then backtrack ... it's despicable, I'm disgusted.".

"It's obviously completely inconsistent with the criminal trial," Rieter said. "I think it's bad lawyering. It's what some lawyers do. I don't think it's right, or just, and has no basis here ... There are some people in this day and age who will still do that even though there is no factual or legal basis for it."

According to the suit, Best had been convicted three times prior of sex-related offenses. In 2010, DNA testing linked him to the 1999 abduction and rape of an 18-year-old woman in Philadelphia, and he was sentenced to 7 to 15 years in prison for it. In 2011, he pleaded guilty to rape and robbery in another Philadelphia case and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison.

In a 1996 case, he pleaded guilty to indecent assault, after being charged with attempted rape, the lawsuit says.

Then, while imprisoned at another facility called Graterford, Best assaulted a female assistant, according to the lawsuit, and was transferred to the state prison at Rockview in Bellefonte, where this victim worked.

The victim had complained twice to her boss -- about a week before the attack -- that she felt uncomfortable and unsafe with Best coming into her office. She was assured Best would no longer have access to her office, the lawsuit states.

But on July 25, around 8:30 a.m., Best went to her office under the guise of taking out her trash, and grabbed the woman from behind, choking her until she passed out. She tried to blow a distress whistle she carried, but no one heard it. Her lawsuit also claims the prison was understaffed.

A prison investigation led to the firing of the superintendent, Marirosa Lamas, the hiring of 70 new corrections officers, and the moving of those offices where she had worked to a more secure space, away from inmates.

In the state's response, it denied that the internal investigation was the reason for Lamas leaving.

The victim is suing the state Department of Corrections, her former supervisor, the block manager, and the former superintendent, Lamas.

Tasty or addictive? Chinese restaurant serves noodles laced with opium poppy

Hong Kong (CNN) -- The noodles were not just tasty. They were addictive.

A Chinese noodle vendor in northern Shaanxi province has been detained for 10 days after admitting he added powdered poppy plant — from which opium is made --- to his dishes to keep customers coming back, Chinese media has reported.

The owner said that he bought 4 catty (2kg) of the substance for 600 yuan ($98) in August. He said he added it to his food to make it taste better and to improve his business, the Huashangbao paper reported.

The opium-laced noodles came to light after police stopped a vehicle driven by a 26-year-old man and tested him for drugs not long after he had consumed a bowl of the noodles.

The man was detained for 15 days on charges of drug abuse and was not released until family members told police how they had also eaten at the same restaurant and tested positive for the drug.

The paper said the risk of becoming a drug addict from the laced noodles, even if eaten continuously for a long period of time, was unlikely.

It added that lacing food with opium poppy was not uncommon in China, with similar cases in 2010 and 2012.

Man arrested after 6-year-old's dismembered remains found in Japan

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japanese police have arrested a man after the dismembered body of a missing six-year-old girl was found in several plastic bags near her home in Kobe City.

Through DNA testing, police identified the remains as those of first-grade student Mirei Ikuta, missing since September 11, police from Hyogo prefecture told CNN.

The remains were found Tuesday afternoon by police searching bush near the girl's home.

Police said a 47-year-old local man, Yasuhiro Kimino, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in relation to the disposal of the body.

Local media reported the man's hospital ID card had been found in the bags.

Japanese news agency Kyodo quoted an investigation source as saying the bags, one containing the victim's head and another the victim's hand, was found about 100 meters from her family home in central Japan.

Local media reported Mirei was last seen at her grandmother's house on September 11, before leaving to see a friend.

Clemson limits fraternities after death, 'high number' of incidents

(CNN) -- A month into the fall semester, Clemson University has pulled the plug on two dozen fraternities. The university opted to halt all social and new-member activities on the South Carolina campus after the death of a student and a "high number" of reported incidents involving fraternities.

Student Affairs Vice President Gail DiSabatino cited complaints "ranging from alcohol related medical emergencies to sexual misconduct" as contributing to the decision. "These behaviors are unacceptable and mandate swift and effective action to protect students," DiSabatino said in a press release. "There is no higher priority than the safety and welfare of our students."

"It is especially prudent to suspend fraternity activities given the tragic death of Tucker Hipps," she said.

Hipps was found dead on Monday.

The 19-year-old sophomore went for a run with his fraternity early Monday morning and did not come back, according to the university. His fraternity brothers searched for him and eventually went to campus police.

At 3:30 that afternoon, an officer found Hipps' body in nearby Lake Hartwell close to a bridge.

The local sheriff's office is investigating and it said there is nothing to indicate that "hazing played a part in the death."

An autopsy revealed the teen likely fell, according to CNN affiliate WHNS. The coroner told WHNS the teen had a head injury consistent with a fall from a height of 20 feet or more.

Student responds to university's decision

Tanner Parsons, a freshman at Clemson, says he met Hipps briefly at a fraternity pledge event this year. While he didn't know Hipps personally, the news shocked him.

"It kind of hit me hard that this kid was just like me, just starting college and just figuring stuff out. It's kind of sobering to think how fast something can happen," said Parsons, who first shared his story on CNN iReport.

Hundreds of students came together Tuesday night to remember Hipps at a candlelight vigil on Bowman Field at Clemson, according to CNN affiliate WLTX.

Other schools have been showing their solidarity by wearing orange and posting their photos on social media.

American Matthew Miller starts North Korean prison sentence; photo released

(CNN) -- The American held in North Korea, Matthew Miller, begins his six-year sentence of hard labor on Thursday.

A North Korean government official released a photo of Miller, taken on Wednesday. Dressed in a blue-gray prison garment with the number 107 and his head shaved, Miller is seen with his eyes downcast, staring away from the camera.

Details about where he'll serve his sentence or what labor he will be required to do were not released.

Miller was convicted of committing "acts hostile" to North Korea and sentenced earlier this month. North Korea has accused him of ripping up his visa on arrival to the country so he could go to prison and expose human rights violations there, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

KCNA described him as "rudely behaved," saying he was sent to infiltrate prison as part of a United States campaign against North Korea.

"He perpetrated the above-said acts in the hope of becoming a world famous guy and the second Snowden through intentional hooliganism," state media said.

READ: Who is Matthew Miller?

Before being sent to prison, Miller asked his family for help in a phone call on Wednesday, according to a source.

He has also written a letter imploring U.S. officials for help. The letters have been sent to Miller's family in which he addressed Speaker of the House John Boehner, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama.

Miller's family lives in Bakersfield, California, and has not spoken to the press.

Miller told CNN's Will Ripley in a brief interview earlier this month in Pyongyang that he "prepared to violate the law of DPRK before coming here. And I deliberately committed my crime." But he didn't elaborate on what his "crime" was.

It's unclear whether his statements were made freely or under coercion.

Miller is a 2008 graduate of Bakersfield High School, according to CNN affiliate KBAK.

He traveled to North Korea this year after arranging a private tour through the U.S.-based company Uri Tours, which takes tourists into North Korea.

The U.S. State Department warns American citizens of arbitrary arrest and detention in North Korea.

Two other Americans, Kenneth Bae and Jeffrey Fowle remain detained in North Korea.

French President: Islamic extremists beheaded French hostage

(CNN) -- French hostage Herve Gourdel was abducted and beheaded, a killing shown on video, French President Francois Hollande told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

"You will understand that today I am speaking before you with a particularly high level of emotion because one of my compatriots has just been subject of a cowardly assassination," Hollande said. "He was a man who was full enthusiasm. He loved the mountains. He thought he would be able to pursue his passion moving into the Ouzou area in Algeria."

Hollande said the attack won't affect France's role in the battle against terrorism.

"France will never give in to blackmail, to pressure, to barbaric acts. Quite to the contrary, France knows what is expected," Hollande said.

Earlier, Hollande expressed his condolences to Gourdel's family in a news conference at the French mission.

Gourdel was kidnapped over the weekend in Algeria's Tizi Ouzou region east of Algiers, the French Foreign Ministry said. The video was posted online Wednesday. It shows armed men who claim to belong to Islamist militant group Jund al-Khilafa -- or Soldiers of the Caliphate -- in Algeria. They pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS execution videos strikingly similar

Titled "A message of blood for the French government," the video surfaced as French Prime Minister Manuel Valls addressed the French National Assembly, the country's lower house of parliament, about the fight against ISIS.

France is part of a broad coalition that is working with the United States to combat the brutal extremist group.

According to his website, Gourdel was born in 1959 and when he was a teenager decided he wanted to become a mountain guide. He opened a guide office in Saint Martin-Vésubie in 1987 where he spent more than 20 years, the website says. He was also an active member of a mountaineering club that spent time in France's Mercantour National Park.

The Algerian government called the beheading an act of "criminals."

"It is with a lot of sorrow and sadness that the Algerian government has learned about the horrible assassination of French national Pierre Hervé Gourdel, an odious and despicable act committed by a group of criminals," officials said, according to the state-run Algerie Presse Service news agency.

Hollande said he spoke with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, who assured Hollande he would commit a maximum effort to find the killers and Gourdel's body.

"We owe it to his family," Hollande said.

READ: The anatomy of ISIS

The video appears to show the latest beheading of a Westerner by an Islamist extremist group. Since mid-August, ISIS has beheaded American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley and British aid worker David Haines.

The new video came on the same day U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations, calling for all countries to unite against terrorism and brutality wrought by ISIS. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria goes against everything Islam stands for, he said. Islam, Obama said, is about peace.

Obama publicly extended the condolences of the United States to the people of France for the death of Gourdel.

The U.N. Security Council issued a statement condemning the "heinous and cowardly murder."

Bin Laden son-in-law sentenced to life in US

Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday in New York following his conviction on terrorism charges.

A Manhattan federal jury in March found the Kuwaiti-born 48-year-old guilty of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to provide material support for terrorists and providing such support.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, addressing Abu Ghaith, said it was his “assessment that you are committed to doing everything you can to carry out al Qaeda’s agenda to kill Americans.”

Abu Ghaith, who was arrested in Turkey, is one of the highest-ranking al Qaeda figures to be brought to the United States to face a civilian trial. Evidence against him included videos and audio recordings, prosecutors said.

Abu Ghaith appeared in videos representing al Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Ebola leads to deaths of uninfected Liberians

Monrovia, Liberia (CNN) -- About 10 days ago, Lusa Khanneh took ill, but not in an Ebola kind of way.

Her son, Saymon Kamara, says his mother was having violent convulsions. Those aren't a typical symptom of Ebola, but they're a very really complication of high blood pressure, which Kanneh had suffered for years.

Kamara drove his mother to Redemption Hospital, near their home in the West Point slums of Monrovia. Doctors had given her treatment there before, and he hoped to get it again.

But Redemption, like so many hospitals in Liberia, is closed or partially closed out of fear that Ebola patients will infect health care workers. It's a fear based in reality: In Liberia, more than 170 health care workers have contracted the disease and 83 have died of it.

Next, Kamara drove to ELWA Hospital, but learned it only takes Ebola patients. Then he drove his mother to JFK Hospital, but it was overwhelmed and accepting only pregnant women, children and Ebola patients.

Cooper Hospital was his last chance.

Kamara and his mother waited outside. By now she was convulsing every 15 minutes, "as if someone had put a spell on her," he says. Her breathing was rapid and shallow.

A doctor came out, a tall man, Kamara remembers. He pointed to a small blood stain on his mother's shirt. He wanted to know what it was from.

Kamara explained that during one of her seizures his mother had bit her tongue and bled a little. But he could tell the doctor was worried she had Ebola, because bleeding is one of the symptoms. He turned Kanneh away.

Lusa Khanneh had run out of options. The only place her son could take her was home. Four days later, on September 19, she died.

Saymon Kamara is angry.

"If the hospitals were open, she wouldn't have died," he says. "This wasn't her time to go."

There's no question that countless Liberians are dying because of Ebola even when they don't have it. There are few functioning hospitals or doctors' offices. Health care services, weak before Ebola, barely exist; vaccination rates, for example, have plummeted.

"The primary care system here is basically shattered," says Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for UNICEF who is working in Liberia. "It's an outrage that children are dying of diseases, like measles, that are preventable and treatable."

Even after death, Ebola -- a disease her son says she never had -- haunted Kanneh.

Her family heard on the radio that no one is to touch a cadaver, no matter what the cause of death. Give a call, the announcer on the radio said, and a team from Dead Body Management will come for the body.

The Kanneh family did as they were instructed. On Saturday, the day after her death, a team of five men in white suits, covered head to toe, sprayed Lusa Khanneh's body with chlorine and buried her.

Kanneh didn't receive the burial she would have wanted as a devout Muslim. Her family didn't wash her body. They didn't carry her to the mosque and pray over her. They didn't bury her themselves.

"These guys who buried her - I don't know these guys," Kamara says, referring to the men in the white suits with the chlorine spray. "I expected my family to bury her, but now strangers have buried her."

But he says he understands.

"I have to accept this because this is the kind of country I live in and the kind of country my mother died in," he says. "I have to accept it with a heavy heart."

CDC: Ebola cases could reach at least 550,000 by January

(CNN) -- The number of Ebola cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone could rise to between 550,000 and 1.4 million by January if there are no "additional interventions or changes in community behavior," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Tuesday. The estimate was derived from a new forecasting tool developed by the CDC.

The range of estimated cases -- from 550,000 to 1.4 million -- is wide because experts suspect the current count is highly under-reported. The official death toll from Ebola in West Africa has climbed to more than 2,800 in six months, with 5,800 cases confirmed as of Monday, the World Health Organization said.

But the CDC estimates that if 70% of people with Ebola are properly cared for in medical facilities, the epidemic could decrease and eventually end.

In a press conference Tuesday, CDC Director Tom Frieden cautioned that this model is based on older data from August. The numbers are not projections, but "scenarios." The model does not take into account President Obama's announcement that the U.S. is sending troops and extra medical equipment to the area. Nor does it take into account the additional help from other countries promised.

 

This team picks up Ebola's dead

Photos: Ebola outbreak in West Africa

 

What the model does suggests, he said, is that the current surge of help can "break the back of the epidemic" and is "exactly what's needed" to end it. He said he is now "confident the most dire predictions will not come to pass."

The cautionary tale this data does tell, he said is that there would be an "enormous cost" if help is delayed.

Gayle Smith, a special assistant to the President and senior director of the National Security Council said the model tells responders how to "bend the curve" and that the epidemic can end with a large international response. "The momentum must at least be maintained to ensure we are way out ahead of this," Smith said. And added that the international help will need to "stay on this as long as it takes."

 

Desperation grows in heart of Ebola zone

A separate nine-month assessment published by WHO experts in The New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday says the fatality rate of this outbreak in West Africa is 71% and that the "current epidemiologic outlook is bleak."

It also warns that without "drastic improvements" in measures to control its spread, the number of cases and deaths from Ebola is expected to continue climbing from hundreds to thousands per week in the coming months. The cumulative number of cases could exceed 20,000 by November 2, the assessment said.

It blamed the spread not on a particularly virulent strain of the virus, rather it said this outbreak was so deadly because of a "combination of dysfunctional health systems, international indifference, high population mobility, local customs, densely populated capitals, and lack of trust in authorities after years of armed conflict."

"Perhaps most important, Ebola has reached the point where it could establish itself as an endemic infection because of a highly inadequate and late global response."

It warns that the global response must improve to meet the threat posed by this and future epidemics.

Another six-month report from WHO -- which assesses the situation in three countries at the outbreak's center, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- is dedicated to those health workers "who, as an expression of our innately shared human compassion, risked their lives, and lost them."

In the six months since this outbreak was first formally reported in March, 337 health care workers have been infected, of whom more than 181 have died, the WHO said.

Complete coverage of the Ebola outbreak

Guinea: Porous borders aid spread

The WHO's six-month report on Guinea, where the outbreak began in a remote area, details how the virus first gained a grip on a vulnerable, frightened population ill-equipped to deal with the deadly disease.

Once Ebola was identified as the killer, a national and international response swung into gear. But each time it looked like the country might be at the point of controlling the virus, new flare-ups occurred.

The WHO report concludes Ebola kept getting reintroduced "into Guinea -- with its notoriously porous borders -- from the large outbreaks in neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone."

Read: Deadliest outbreak: What you need to know

Controlling the virus then will not be feasible in Guinea until its stopped in neighboring countries.

Meanwhile, health workers there have come under attack as they seek to educate the local population.

"Today, one of the biggest barriers to control is violence from an impoverished, terrified and shattered population that does not understand what hit it and fights back the only way it can," the report said.

Liberia: Misery and hope

WHO's six-month report on Liberia summarizes their situation as one of "misery and despair tempered by some good reasons for hope."

The number of Liberian cases is increasing exponentially, with 113 new ones reported over a single 24-hour period on one day last week, WHO said -- a record number in any outbreak. At the same time, treatment centers are overflowing. Many patients are turned away.

Read: Desperation grows in the Ebola zone

The capacity to deliver other basic health services, such as care for women in childbirth, has been compromised. The report warns malaria-related deaths may soon surpass those from Ebola.

Hope can be found in the opening of a new WHO-funded, 120-bed Ebola treatment center, it said. The U.S. government is also setting up a new laboratory to speed up diagnosis. Currently there are four major Ebola treatment units in Liberia.

In remarks made on Tuesday, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that her country's health care system is hurting. Of the over 1500 who have died, 85 were health care workers.

The President characterized the CDC's model for possible infections as "scary to all of us." She added, though, that she is happy with the U.S. response to the disaster. She believes it will make a "major" difference.

She predicts with that increased international effort, Liberia will see better results in a couple of weeks.

Sierra Leone: Urgent needs

The situation assessment for Sierra Leone explains how traditional burial practices helped the virus spread quickly there following the funeral of a respected local healer.

The virus has taken a devastating toll on health workers and researchers.

"Sierra Leone's most urgent needs include more treatment beds in much safer facilities, better contact training and follow-up, more personal protective equipment and body bags, and more properly protected teams to collect bodies and bury them safely," WHO said.

The deployment of international medical teams in West Africa, including from China and Cuba, may help.

Nigeria and Senegal, where the situation is judged "stable -- for the moment," are seen as success stories.

Those countries have shown conventional methods such as early detection, contact tracing, isolation and an adequate supply of personal protective equipment can contain the virus, WHO said.

"If Nigeria can control an outbreak caused by such a deadly and highly contagious virus, right from the start, any country in the world can do the same," its report said.