>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ good to have you along for the al jazeera news hour. i'm david foster with a look at some of what we have coming up in the next 60 minutes. trying to get isil fighters to retreat, the fiercest air attract offensive yet on the border town of kobani. the kenyan president appears at the international criminal court to face charges of crimes

against humanity. is thought that the nurse who has ebola in spain may have touched her face with a contaminated glove. and eyes in the sky as the moon turns red. the u.s.-lead international coalition has been mounting its most sustained air campaign against the islamic state in iraq and levant near kobani on the turkey syrian border. isil remains definant and has just changed its tactics and positions. so they moved their attacks from the southwest, launching a new offensive from the east of kobani, on wednesday carrying out a suicide tack by a truck bomb in the industrial zone against a militia target.

protesters in turkey are blaming the turkish government for not helping inside kobani. they want more weapons allowed across the border. let's talk to bernard smith who is close to k-- kobani. give us your best estimate of the position right now, and give us an idea of how we really find out what is going on, when we can't go in ourselves. >> well, first of all, we find out what is going on from people that we are able to speak to on the ground, our production team here is able to call kurdish activists in kobani, to speak to fighters. so that is how we get a reasonably good idea, we believe, of what is going on on

the ground. and the information that we're getting today from the fighters is that at least six u.s. air strikes have made a difference to them. it has helped them push isil forces back towards the boundaries of the town. those barriers that were set up that the isil fighters got over on monday. so those strikes have had an effect, but nevertheless, there has been an extremely intensive day in kobani today. there has been air strikes, shelling, mortar fire, and gunfire coming in and out of that town. i think what isil fighters must be realizing is they are facing a determined and motivated opposition in those kurds. parts where they have swept

through recently have been had soldiers not really up for the fight. but kobani is different. these kurds really determined to defend that town, and the air strikes, as i say, seem to be helping. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: most of the syrian kurds involved in the fight for kobani had other norm alives. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: before they took up arms to defend their town. john was a musician. he is across the border now in turkey, getting shrapnel wound treated. >> translator: i didn't want to kill people. but we only had two choices, kill or be killed. >> reporter: john has seen friends and relatives killed as

fighters from islamic state of iraq and levant pushed through to kobani town. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: despite their desperate circumstances, he like other kurdish fighters is suspicious of the turkish government's motives. >> translator: we are not going to let the turkish army enter kobani. we would fight them. we have sacrificed our martyrs we won't let them steal our victory. will turkey send its troops to kill us too? >> reporter: john has been trying to get back to kobani, but turkish authorities won't let him cross the border. >> reporter: my mother told me she's all alone in kobani and hungry. i told her i will help you. and she said my son, do not come back home. i told her i would prefer to die in kobani, it's my wish to die

there. >> reporter: john tells me he has dreams of a family, a house, and a vegetable garden if life in kobani ever returns to normal. >> bernard you may have heard the interview i did about this time yesterday with the advisor of the turkish prime minister. and he said there are great humanitarian efforts going on there. but it is fair to say the tensions where you are, and perhaps elsewhere in turkey, are rising? >> reporter: yes, they are. there's no doubt on the humanitarian side of things, turkish have lended a hand to anybody fleeing the fight in syria is being accommodated in fairly well run refugee camps, but the fighting we have seen in

turkish city, most of the deaths were here in the southeastern turkey. that was an expression of the frustration kurds feel with the turkish government. yes, there is the humanitarian help, but the kurds feel the turks are more worried about autonomy than about stopping isil's advance, and the kurds have responded violently in some cities, and the turkish authorities have imposed a curfew and some schools are shut for the next few days, david. the fight against al jazeera america is also taking place in iraq. the armed group says it has downed a helicopter belonging to the iraqi government. imran khan has the latest from bagdad. >> reporter: iraqi security

sources say the helicopter was downed killing two pilots. this is the second helicopter that has been downed in the last ten days. the first was downed using surface to air mice -- missiles. it is a big blow to the iraqis. the helicopter is seen as an advantage that the iraqis have over isil fighters. let me give you an idea of the geography we're dealing with. there is an oil refinery, one of iraq's largest, parts are in control of the army, parts are in control of isil forces. and a few meters away you have a control and command center for isil forces. so the ability to knock helicopters out of the sky is seen as a triumph for isil

forces. it's a real concern to security forces that the kinds of equipment that isil is using have actually been captured from the iraqi army, and that isil are able to use that equipment against the iraqi army. >> isil has been gaining grown in anbar. the fighting there is causing a humanitarian crisis. the united nations saying that as many as half a million people are displaced. many of the refugees have moved north, and zana met some of them. >> reporter: it has been almost a year since this family has been living in exile. yet again they have been caught up in violence. some of these children were not even born when the majority of their province was a battle ground between al-qaeda and u.s. forces backed by local tribes.

their grandmother does remember that fight. but she describes the latest violence as the worst she has ever seen. >> translator: isil and the iraqi army have destroyed our town. we have no home to return to. what is the reason for all of this. never before has it been this bad. >> reporter: the iraqi security forces are at war with the islamic state of iraq and the levant which took control of much of the sunni hartland in june. but months before, isil had already seized parts of two cities. according to the united nations as many as 500,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in anbar. up to 70,000 now live in the kurdish region in northern iraq. these men are among them. now they have lost even more hope. isil has managed to take more territory in anbar, despite the

u.s.-lead coalition air strikes. >> translator: there is no other solution for anbar, unless the people of the area rise up against isil. you need ground forces to fight them, and the army is weak. >> reporter: these people may call isil terrorists but they are also angry at the army's indiscriminate air campaign that has killed many civilians, this doesn't help the government win over a community that has long felt ignored. >> translator: we just want more rights for the sunnis. we have many men and officers who served in the former iraqi army. why aren't they part of the forces? this is a solution. >> reporter: anbar has already seen ten months of shelling and battles, and the security situation is only worsening by the day. jordan's foreign minister saying that the fight against isil must be, quote, severe. he made the remarks on a visit

to germany where we praised the new iraqi government for its efforts. he said the fight against isil to succeed in iraq, more is needed to defeat the group inside syria. >> translator: what we achieved in iraq to at least stop the advance of isil, we have not yet achieved in syria, so the creation of this coalition was a necessity, but is not yet the guarantor of our overall success. >> translator: it is a big challenge we are facing today. isil exists in iraq and syria, and they are occupying territories. it is clear that this organization, which abolishing geographical borders between countries must be stopped, must be severely fought. canada is the latest western country to join the coalition fighting isil.

parliament voted to authorize air strikes despite the objection of opposition parties. conservative majority lead by the prime minister passed the motion by 23 votes. canada will deploy up to six fighter jets, two surveillance planes, and other equipment for up to six months. the mission will include as much as 600 military personnel, but no ground troops. lawyers for kenya's president have asked for the case against him to be dropped. his defense team says he should be acquitted after a hearing at the international criminal court was adjourned. prosecutors say they don't have enough evidence, and blame kenya's government for obstructing their investigation. simon mcgregor wood has been covering this story for us at the hague. >> reporter: the status here at the hague, in the case against mr. kenyatta concluded on

wednesday. the prosecution asked the three judges on the panel for an indefinite adjournment in the case. it's an unusual move, perhaps rather controversial given the statutes that govern the procedure of this court. by its own admission it does not have sufficient evidence to go to trial against mr. kenyatta. but accuses the kenyan government and by implication the president of withholding crucial evidence that it, the prosecution, feels would further implicate mr. kenyatta, namely his mobile phone records, bank records, and tax returns. the prosecution says the government has not responded with repeated requests to supply that information. the defense rejected that claim, saying the government of kenya is constrained by legal limit, it has done what it can do.

and it demands as it has done before, that the case be dropped. it's a very difficult decision for the judges to make. they will make several weeks to deliver their verdict. mr. kenyatta left the court surrounded by dozens of his supporters. today on wednesday at the hague, he was acting in a very presidential manner. victims of the post election violence have been watching the hearing from kenya. malcolm webb have spoken to the people in the city of one of the flash points of unrest. >> reporter: the reaction here has been mixed. among kenyatta's supporters, they believe he shouldn't be on trial. they believe he is not guilty, and because he is president he shouldn't be in this position anyway. among the elite there is very little support for the icc,

critics say that's because of all of the violence. we spoke to people who saw the killings right here in 2008. they say gangs in an organized fashion hacked people to death, the icc says that kenyatta was behind that violence. still to come, on this al jazeera news hour, we'll be talking to chinese mainlanders about their shock and in some cases disbelief about the protests in hong kong. tension building between palestinian worshippers and police at a mosque in east jerusalem. i'm lee wellings in london where the head of the european football club association has given fifa a warning. ♪

spanish health officials are investigating still why ebola has spread to one hospital staff member. the nursing assistant became the first case of the virus to be contracted outside of west africa. she now says she remembers touching her face with an infected glove after treating an infected priest. health-care workers at the hospital have been protesting about the handling of the case in spain. and spain's prime minister is urging calm. >> translator: what i'm asking you is to let the professionals do their work, to trust the processionals. the spanish health system is one of the best in the world. what they are telling any is that contagion is not easy. direct contact with a person in advanced stage is necessary. we will keep you informed with any news. paul brennan is in madrid and sent us this.

>> reporter: two main thrusts to this ebola story here in madrid have emerged during wednesday. firstly, the fact that according to the hospital authorities, at least, all but the original nurse who was infected have so far proved negative. initial tests on the other four people currently in quarantine have so far proved negative. at the moment the signs look good. the other thing to be aware of is a news briefing that took place with the hospital management. and they have said that after delicately and painstakingly questioning this nurse who has been in fa-- infected, she is n saying that she may have touched her face with the glove she was using in that treatment room while disrobing from the protective clothing, and that she believes that that is the most likely way that she could

have been informed with ebola. there has been huge anxiety here particularly among hospital staff, fearful that the protocols in place perhaps are simply not strong enough, and if it does turn out that this nurse simply through human error touched her face, it will go a long way to ensuring the hospital staff that the rest of the precautions are sufficient to protect them. one other thing to mention is the disinfecting going on at the home of the nurse. permission has been given to authorities to euthanize the family dog. animal lovers are rather upset about this. and there were scuffles with riot police as they prepared to take the dog away.

>> professor, if she was wearing a level two suit, which was not the level four suit that is more secure, would it have made any difference if she touched her face with an in -- infected hand? >> no. the most likely scenario is that she touched her face while taking off the equipment. therefore, with the quality of the equipment doesn't come into the equation here. it's just that she has made an error when she was disrobing, and that's what caused the event. >> processor is it standard procedure to have the most secure suits that you can. or it is up to each country to decide for itself? >> well, what is available are guidelines, and so their

recommendations -- they strongly endorse recking -- recommendations, and it would be reasonable that you would adopt the most stringent containment that you could manage. but that's tempered by the precise circumstances in which you operate. there are practical issues that may make it difficult to use those suits in certain circumstances, although i would expect in the highest level of containment that you would use the highest level of materials you could get ahold of. >> you have probably read the report that they had to put sticky tape around the suit. >> i think if you think back to the pictures of the people actually in the field, that's

the sort of thing that is going on there, and it does work. it's not desirable, obviously what you would hope for is something a bit more sophisticated and regulated, in the sense of being reproducible than tape. so it's not a cause of massive concern. it's more the quality of the materials that are being used that one should address. >> professor we talked about the suits, what about the room environment? the hospital environment? how easy is it to make sure that what is in that room doesn't get out? >> okay. so in -- in these circumstances, the quality of the room is -- is also under some fairly clear guidelines. so the expectation here is that the air flow within the room is -- is tightly controlled. typically the air going in, is -- is controlled. it's filtered to make sure it is clean and doesn't introduce any

other materials, but specifically the air flow coming out of the room is regulated so it goes through a series of filters which are there to retain, to trap any materials like viruses or bacteria the infected patients might be producing. so that side of things is a physical engineering control, and they are well understood. they are specialists, facilities that are available to install those things. so that side of things is controlled. >> professor, i'm going to budget in at this moment, because you might be interested to listen to what john kerry has to say. we expect him to talk about isil later, but he's on ebola at the moment. let's listen in. >> -- international coalition meeting at the white house in order to discuss where we are and where we need to get to. and i want to discuss that in a

moment. in addition to that, i have been in daily contact with roger shaw, and the usaid director, and deputy secretary of state, and nancy powell to make sure we're bringing all of our resources to this effort. i'm here this morning to make an urgent plea to countries in the world to step up even further. while we are making progress, we are not where we can say that we need to be, and there is additional -- there are additional needs that have to be met in order for the global community to be able to properly respond to this challenge and to make sure that we protect people in all of our countries. there are specific needs and i want to emphasize those needs by showing a few slides, if i can.

as you'll see in the first slide, to my left here, we need more countries to move resources of specific kinds. it is not just a question of sending people, though. it is vital to send people, but we need ebola treatment units, healthcare workers, medivac capacity. generators, incinerators, public's communications capacity. training, construction. and large assistance of health system strengthening, of cash that countries could contribute, budget support, food, and other humanitarian efforts, and ways of getting that equipment to people. all of these things are frankly urgent in order to be able to quickly move to contain the spread of ebola. we need airlines to continue to

operate in west africa, and we need borders to remain open, and we need to strengthen the medivac capacity. we need countries to contribute more ebola treatment centers, and we need other african countries with the capacity to send responders to join the effort, and make sure the health care workers that go are properly trained, properly equipped, and supported in order to prevent additional infections. as you can see in the next slide to my left here, this gives you a sense of who has contributed, and what they have contributed. and the fact is that the united kingdom, and the united states between them have contributed $120 million to the united nations response, and there are smaller countries that have stepped up to the plate. some quite remarkably, some smaller countries are

contributing way above their per capita than other countries. but more countries can and must step up in order to make their contributions felt. and this chart tells the story. those are not nufr -- enough countries to make a difference. and every nation has an ability to do something on this challenge. the next chart will show -- as you see, we have a shortfall still of some $300 million. the united nations has identified $1 billion in urgent needs, which is what is reflected in that pie chart. the world bank put in 22%, the usa put in 11%, private sector 10%. others you can see the tally. but this unfunded is a critical component of our ability to be able to meet this challenge, and we need people to step up now. now is the time for action, not

words. and frankly, there is not a moment to waste in this effort. both foreign secretary and i also remain deeply committed on another issue, and that is the question of a europe which is whole, and free, and at peace. together with our partners in the european union, the united nations and united nations are -- >> this is going to be a wide-ranging press conference. we'll keep an eye on that affair. we'll also be checking to see what if anything the two men have to say about events in syria and iraq. but let's go back to our professor in the u.k. we were talking professor, about

ebola and fortu us toly we then had the u.s. secretary of state commenting on it. what i wanted to ask you was world health organization 24 hours or so ago saying it was inevitable that this would spread across europe and other countries. do you share that view? >> i think it's inevitable that there will be individuals moving from west africa and taking the infection with them into european countries. the important thing to appreciate is the scale of risk that represents. it's a small scale of risk. it is exceedingly unlikely to lead to high levels of infection in that country in which the individual arrives. there is no large-scale threat of a brood infection. >> but there is a --

>> what we just -- yeah. >> i'm sorry, please. you continue, please, professor. >> reporter: i was going to say with regard to what we just heard from mr. kerry there, i really welcome hearing those sorts of comments. we have had a situation running in west africa for many months now, where we do understand what is required to bring it under control, to reduce the impact of this terrible disease on a population there. and frankly, the -- what has been required has not been provided, and i really welcome hearing such strong words, indications that -- that people need to step up and make available the things that we -- we understand well, that are required and would be able to bring this under control, albeit, it will take some time to do so now. >> professor, it has been very good to hear your thoughts. appreciate you sparing the time