Because I felt like it, here are some more World News Thingees:

The government is trying to confirm reports that the mastermind of the plot to kidnap and behead random people in Sydney has been killed in fighting in the Middle East.  Former bouncer and part-time actor Mohammad Ali Baryalei is (or was) a member of Islamic State (IS), helping Australian recruits cross from Turkey into Syria.  Associated posted to social media that Baryalei had been “martyred”.

Some 150 Iraqi Kurds have flown through Turkey to get to Kobani in northern Syria and help the Kurdish defenders there.  A second contingent with artillery is traveling separately by land.  The city has been under siege from Islamic State fighters, but the Kurds have hung tough while US airstrikes have taken a toll among the IS fighters.

There is widespread condemnation for the Abbott government’s decision to suspend entry visas for people from the West African nations worst-affected by Ebola – Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.  Sierra Leone called it “Draconian”, Uganda accused western nations of “creating mass panic which is unhelpful”, and Amnesty International says the government’s policy was “too narrow”.  Australian Amanda McClelland runs a Red Cross treatment center in Sierra Leone and says she is embarrassed over the Abbott government’s actions.

The head of the World Bank is calling for thousands of medical workers to volunteer to help contain Ebola.  Jim Yong Kim said at least 5,000 medics and support staff were needed to beat the disease, and other estimates said twice that number were needed.  Around 5,000 people have died in the epidemic.

There have been violent protests in France following the death of a young man demonstrating against a controversial dam project died when a police flash-bang grenade got stuck in his rucksack. 21-year-old Remi Fraisse and others opposed a dam project that they say would threaten biodiversity in the southwest of the country.  The Greens – who pulled out of a coalition with the increasingly unpopular Socialists – are demanding a parliamentary inquiry.

Venezuela pulled its ambassador to Spain after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy met with the wife of a jailed Venezuelan opposition leader.  President Nicolas Maduro blasted the conservative leader for “interfering” in Venezuela’s affairs and trying to distract attention from Spain’s cruddy economy.  Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is accused to stirring up violent protests that resulted in the deaths of innocent people.