Iran has warned against the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Syria’s Kurdish border town of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani, amid escalation of clashes between Takfiri ISIL terrorists and the Kurds. ● Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham on Tuesday stressed the importance of supporting the Syrian government and nation in their fight against the terrorists in the region and called for the supply of humanitarian aid to civilians and refugees. She denounced the international community’s indifference toward the fate of people in Kobani and said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran will soon send its humanitarian aid to residents and refugees in this area through the Syrian government.” The warning came as the ISIL militants on Tuesday opened new fronts in their battle against Kurdish defenders in the southern and western parts of the city. On Monday, the ISIL terrorists took over three districts of the flashpoint town. The ISIL militants have been trying to reach and seize control of Kobani over the past few weeks, but failed to do so amid stiff resistance by Kurdish forces. Dozens of ISIL militants have been killed in the fighting.

PressTV: Urban warfare in Kobani goes on between Kurds, ISIL
Mike Head ■ ISIS gains provide further pretext for US ground troops in Iraq and Syria

1. (C) Ambassador Rice spoke with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon three times on May 4 to discuss concerns over the Board of Inquiry's report on incidents at UN sites in December 2008 and January 2009. Rice called the Secretary-General to register concern about the scope of the report. She cited in particular recommendations 10 and 11, saying it set a bad precedent if the report of a Board of Inquiry expands beyond its terms of reference. Given that those recommendations were outside the scope of the Board's terms of reference, she asked that those two recommendations not be included in the summary of the report that would be transmitted to the membership. The Secretary-General said he was constrained in what he could do since the Board of Inquiry is independent; it was their report and recommendations and he could not alter them, he said.

2. (C) Ambassador Rice urged the Secretary-General to make
clear in his cover letter when he transmits the summary to
the Security Council that those recommendations exceeded the
scope of the terms of reference and no further action is
needed. The Secretary-General said his staff was working
with an Israeli delegation on the text of the cover letter.
Ambassador Rice asked the Secretary-General to be back in
touch with her before the letter and summary are released to
the Council.

3. (C) Ambassador Rice spoke with the Secretary-General two additional times. In the second conversation, she underscored the importance of having a strong cover letter that made clear that no further action was needed and would close out this issue. Secretary-General Ban called her after the letter had been finalized to report that he believed they had arrived at a satisfactory cover letter. Rice thanked the Secretary-General for his exceptional efforts on such a sensitive issue.

Steigan Blogger: FNs Ban Ki-Moon arbeidet for å svekke kritikk av Israel

Clearing up the damage to the "The Swallow" kindergarten after night-time shelling by Ukrainian forces.

On Friday, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen informed the Defence Committee of the government's plans to massively expand German army (Bundeswehr) missions abroad. The current German training mission in Iraq is to be expanded, in addition to the operations in Ukraine. ● According to von der Leyen, the government plans to send a still unknown number of reconnaissance drones to the embattled region of eastern Ukraine. The drones are to be deployed as part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission to monitor the ceasefire between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists. The decision is based on an agreement struck between the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French President François Hollande on the fringes of the last NATO summit in Wales. In September, the two governments sent a team of observers to clarify details of the operation. According to a report in the Bild newspaper, the team concluded that at least 150 German soldiers were needed to keep the drones regularly in the air, plus 50 additional armed soldiers to protect the operation.

RIA Novosti: Nuland ‘Anxious to Shift Kiev From Diplomacy to Warfare’: James Petras
Finian Cunningham ■ Nuland Lands in Kiev as US-backed Regime Tools Up for War
Arkady Dziuba ■ Ukraine to Go Nuclear or Last Resort of Ukraine’s Defence Chief
Stephen Lendman ■ Illusory Ceasefire in Ukraine

Attorneys for a longtime hunger-striker at Guantanamo Bay said today that refusing food is his only means of peaceful protest and asked a federal judge to stop his jailers from punishing him by being cruel in their application of force-feeding techniques. ● Abu Wa’el Dhiab’s court case is being carefully watched because U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ruled on Friday that videos of Dhiab’s force-feeding – which involves the repeated insertion and removal of a rubber tube up his nose – should be publicly released. But the only showing of the videos today was behind closed doors, as the Justice Department continues to wrangle over how and when to release them. In a short closed session, Sondra Crosby, a Boston University medical professor who examined Dhiab on behalf of his legal team, was shown a few minutes of footage and asked her medical opinion. Afterwards, all she would say was that the footage was “disturbing.”

Cora Currier ■ Judge Rebukes Government, Keeps Gitmo Force-Feeding Hearing Open || A federal judge has knocked down the government’s attempt to hold a secret hearing in a case challenging the military’s practice of force-feeding Guantanamo detainees who are on hunger strike. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler called the government’s desire to close the proceedings “deeply troubling,” and chastised the Department of Justice for appearing to “deliberately” make the request “on short notice.”

Peter Piot was a researcher at a lab in Antwerp when a pilot brought him a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had fallen mysteriously ill in Zaire. ● Professor Piot, as a young scientist in Antwerp, you were part of the team that discovered the Ebola virus in 1976. How did it happen?

I still remember exactly. One day in September, a pilot from Sabena Airlines brought us a shiny blue Thermos and a letter from a doctor in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire. In the Thermos, he wrote, there was a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had recently fallen ill from a mysterious sickness in Yambuku, a remote village in the northern part of the country. He asked us to test the sample for yellow fever.

VG: Norwegian woman infected with Ebola
RT.com: Ebola in Spain: 4 people including nurse hospitalized in Madrid
Washington Post: In the medical response to Ebola, Cuba is punching far above its weight