Islamic State crisis: US intensifies airs strikes in Kobane

Kurdish fighters have been facing on onslaught from IS in Kobane for weeks

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Islamic State

• Tools for the fight
• Turkey's crisis
• Social media war
• Too little too late?

US-led forces have stepped up air strikes against Islamic State (IS) fighters threatening the Syrian town of Kobane, near the Turkish border.

The coalition had carried out 21 strikes over two days, a sharp increase that slowed IS advances, the US said.

President Barack Obama predicted a "long-term campaign" against the group, which holds swathes of Syria and Iraq.

He was speaking at a meeting of military commanders from 22 countries that have joined the anti-IS coalition.

"This is an operation that involves the world" against IS, Mr Obama said after the meeting at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

"There are going to be periods of progress and setbacks," he added.

Major test

President Obama said the allies were "deeply concerned" about the situation in and around Kobane.

The battle for the predominantly Kurdish town has lasted for a month and is regarded as a major test of whether the coalition's air campaign can push back IS.

US-led forces have been carrying out air strikes in support of Kurdish forces there for two weeks.

In a statement, the US military said Tuesday's raids had destroyed IS buildings and military vehicles.

It added that the situation on the ground "remains fluid, with IS attempting to gain territory and Kurdish militia continuing to hold out".

Tens of thousands of Syrians, most of them Kurds, have fled Kobane in the past month

Abdulrahman Kok, a Kurdish journalist in Kobane, told Reuters news agency that the air strikes had lasted throughout Tuesday, calling it "a first".

But he added that IS had intensified its own shelling later in the afternoon.

IS is believed to control about half of the town, from which more than 160,000 people have fled.

Capturing it would give the group unbroken control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.

Shia militias have been at the forefront of the fight against IS in Iraq

Mr Obama also said the US was "also focused on the fighting that is taking place in Iraq's Anbar province".

The militants have made significant gains in the western province in recent weeks, despite air strikes from the US and its allies since August.

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Lakhdar Brahimi, former UN and Arab League special envoy to Syria: "IS did not come out of the blue"

The battles in both Anbar and Kobane illustrated the threat posed by IS and "coalition air strikes will continue in both these areas", he said.

In other developments:

• The White House said President Obama would discuss the fight against IS in a video conference on Wednesday with British, French, German and Italian leaders
• Lakhdar Brahimi, the former UN and Arab League special envoy to Syria, called for Iran to be part of political and military initiatives to stop IS
• At least 10 Syrian soldiers were killed in fighting against IS militants in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, activists said
• Two Iraqi journalists have been killed by IS in the past four days, the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said.

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Iraq confirms rebels seized Muthanna chemical arms site

Remnants of some 2,500 degraded rockets filled with nerve agents are said to be stored at Muthanna

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Struggle for Iraq

• Shia militia takes on Isis
• Key players in Sunni revolt
• In pictures: Shrines destroyed
• 'Dangerous development'

Isis-led Sunni rebels are in control of a disused chemical weapons factory, Iraqi officials have confirmed.

In a letter to the UN, Iraq said it would be unable to keep to obligations to destroy its chemical weapons.

The Muthanna complex northwest of Baghdad houses remnants of rockets filled with sarin and other deadly nerve agents.

The UN and US say the munitions are degraded and the rebels will be unable to make usable chemical arms from them.

Commitment on hold

In the letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Iraq's UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said the rebels took over the complex on 11 June, after disarming soldiers who guarded the site.

The document stated that Muthanna's surveillance system showed that there was "looting of some equipment and appliances" at the factory, about 70km (45 miles) north-west of the Iraqi capital.

As a result of the takeover, the letter stated that Iraq was unable "to fulfil its obligations to destroy chemical weapons".

However, it added that the government would resume its commitments "as soon as the security situation has improved and control of the facility has been regained".

It is believed that some 2,500 rockets filled with nerve agents - including sarin and mustard gas - are stored at Muthanna.

The US said nearly three weeks ago that the militants had taken the chemical factory,

In recent weeks, Isis (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) insurgents have seized huge swathes of north-western Iraq.

The UN has said at least 2,417 Iraqis, including 1,531 civilians, were killed in "acts of violence and terrorism" in June.

More than a million people have fled their homes as a result of the fighting.

EU-Moscow row over South Stream gas pipeline

Russia has accused the European Union of imposing "creeping" economic sanctions following Bulgaria's decision to halt construction of a gas pipeline.

The South Stream pipeline, financed by Russia's state gas giant Gazprom, would ship gas to western Europe via the Balkans, thus avoiding Ukraine.

But the European Commission says the pipeline may break EU competition rules and asked Bulgaria to suspend work.

Serbia's prime minister has denied his country has also halted building work.

Reports on Sunday had quoted Serbian ministers as saying the work was on hold until the EU, Russia and Bulgaria resolved their dispute.

But speaking on Monday, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said no such decision had been made.

Serbia is in talks with the EU on joining the bloc. Bulgaria is already an EU member state.

'Political purposes'

Construction work on the South Stream pipeline began in Bulgaria in October 2013.

It is intended to deliver Russian gas to southern Europe without passing through Ukraine and if built, it would deliver 63 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year.

Sleep's memory role discovered

The mechanism by which a good night's sleep improves learning and memory has been discovered by scientists.

The team in China and the US used advanced microscopy to witness new connections between brain cells - synapses - forming during sleep.

Their study, published in the journal Science, showed even intense training could not make up for lost sleep.

Experts said it was an elegant and significant study, which uncovered the mechanisms of memory.

It is well known that sleep plays an important role in memory and learning. But what actually happens inside the brain has been a source of considerable debate.

Researchers at New York University School of Medicine and Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School trained mice in a new skill - walking on top of a rotating rod.

They then looked inside the living brain with a microscope to see what happened when the animals were either sleeping or sleep deprived.

Their study showed that sleeping mice formed significantly more new connections between neurons - they were learning more.

Egypt's Sisi vows tough line to bring security

Ex-army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has vowed to to tackle "terrorism" and bring security, after being sworn in as Egypt's new president.

He said his election after a landslide win in May was "a historic moment", and pledged no reconciliation with those who had "committed violence".

The retired field marshal overthrew President Mohammed Morsi last July.

He has since been pursuing a crackdown on Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, which urged a boycott of the elections.

Liberal and secular activists, including the 6 April youth movement which was prominent in the 2011 revolution that ousted long-serving President Hosni Mubarak, also shunned the 26-28 May poll in protest at the curtailing of civil rights.

The BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo: Supporters of Abdul Fattah al-Sisi hope there will be ''a new chapter in Egypt's history''

'No coup'

Mr Sisi, 59, made no mention directly of the Muslim Brotherhood in a speech at a Cairo presidential palace late on Sunday.

But he said there would be no reconciliation with anyone who had "blood on their hands".

He said: "Defeating terrorism and achieving security is the top priority in our coming phase.

"There will be no acquiescence or laxity shown to those who resorted to violence."

Many Egyptians believe that after three years of turmoil Mr Sisi is the saviour they have been waiting for