United States says battle not over in Syria's Kobane, despite Kurds claim they've recaptured town
The United States said on Monday the battle for control of the Syrian town of Kobane was continuing, despite claims by Kurdish leaders that their forces have recaptured the area from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group.
Kurdish forces, backed up by US-led coalition air strikes, had made progress in recent fighting but "Kobane remains contested," State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said.
The ISIS group "has put a great deal of resources into Kobane", she told reporters. "They're clearly not succeeding, and we are pushing them back. But I don't have confirmation fully of it being a complete process."
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India's New Clean-Energy Goals Face Funding, Political Hurdles
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the world's third-biggest polluter is ready to take on global warming. Money and politics stand in his way.
Following meetings with US President Barack Obama in New Delhi, Mr Modi said India, a nation with some of the dirtiest air in the world and 400 million people without access to electricity, is prepared to use renewable power to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. The leaders also announced a breakthrough that may herald an expansion of carbon-free civilian nuclear projects.
While the remarks represent a shift in India's tone on global warming, stumbling blocks remain. Indian legislation allows nuclear suppliers to be sued over accidents, a legacy of the 1984 chemical leak in Bhopal in which more than 10,000 people were killed or injured. Modi's commitment to renewable power means India must build five times the current total installed solar capacity in the United States, or about 12 gigawatts a year until 2022.
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Church of England gets first female bishop, Libby Lane, despite protest
The Church of England ended centuries of male-only leadership on Monday as Libby Lane became its first female bishop in a ceremony briefly disrupted by a traditionalist priest's protest.
Around 100 bishops gathered around the 48-year-old to perform the traditional "laying on of hands" at the ceremony's climax in the Gothic splendour of York Minster, northern England.
The congregation of some 2,000 people broke into applause and cheers and some shed tears.
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Mountain-sized asteroid to skim by Earth today
An asteroid the size of a mountain is about to shave by Earth, in a rare type of flyby that will not be seen for another decade, astronomers said on Monday.
The asteroid, known as 2004 BL86, runs no risk of a colliding with Earth and will be about three times farther than the Moon when it passes.
At the time of its closest approach, the asteroid will be about 1.2 million km from Earth.
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Cycling: Lance Armstrong would race clean now but not in 1995
Banned cyclist Lance Armstrong says he would not have needed to resort to doping in the sport's current era and what happened years ago should be seen in the context of the times.
"If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn't do it again because I don't think you have to," the Texan told the BBC in an interview on Monday. "If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again."
A cancer survivor and once a hero to millions, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories and banned for life from racing in 2012 by the US Anti-Doping Agency after it accused him in a report of engineering one of the most sophisticated doping schemes in sports.
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