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Nation and World News

Ahmed Eissa

Senior Staff Writer

aeissa2@umbc.edu

Spain

A doctor in Madrid said on Wednesday that a Spanish nurse infected with Ebola, Teresa Romero, remembers touching her face with her gloves after treating a priest dying from the virus.

Romero, an auxiliary nurse, was part of a team of about 30 staffed at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid which treated missionaries returning from West Africa.

She expressed her belief that she might have become infected when she removed her protective suit after cleaning the room of a patient who had died of Ebola.

Romero, who is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus outside West Africa, is currently quarantined in Madrid, along with her husband and three other individuals.

 

Argentina

An Argentine court sentenced the country’s last military ruler, Reynaldo Bignone, to 23 years in prison for the kidnapping and torture of more than 30 factory workers during what was known as the Dirty War.

Bignone, who ruled from 1982 to 1983, is 86 years old and is already serving a life sentence in prison for crimes against humanity, as well as the kidnapping and murder of left-wing militant Gaston Goncalves and former congressman Diego Muniz Barreto.

Bignone’s multiple convictions stem from his activities during the Dirty War, which was a brutal plan during the 1970s and 1980s to silence Argentina’s left-wing political opposition through kidnapping, torture and murder.

 

Syria

Fighting between militants of the Islamic State and Syrian Kurds spread to the Syrian town of Kobane near the Turkish border on Tuesday. This came after Islamic State fighters had taken control of three districts in eastern Syria the day before.

Idriss Nassan, a Kurdish official in Kobane, said that Kurdish fighters had halted the Islamic States’ advance in east Kobane, and that weapons and supplies from Western governments were crucial to continuing the fight.

Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip said that cooperation on a ground offensive was necessary to prevent the town from falling. However, Turkey has received criticism for not intervening to defend Kobane, which is being attacked from three sides.

Hundreds of Kurds in Turkey clashed with police in several cities, angered at the government’s lack of involvement. If Kobane falls to the Islamic State, they will control a large stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.