Islamic State is pushed back, but not out, of Kobani – An open microphone catches a Tory’s real opinions – Bono apologizes for hijacking your iThing – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Islamic State (IS) guerillas are reportedly retreating from parts of the Kurdish city of Kobani in northern Syria, under intense pressure from US-led bombing.  IS lost more than 20-percent of their gains in the past few days.  The US says “hundreds” of IS fighters have been killed, although the Pentagon acknowledges the group is still a threat.

Does Islamic State have access to chemical weapons?  A former British Colonel who specialized in that crap is warning IS could rig dirty bombs with the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s long-abandoned chemical weapons program, which apparently wasn’t completely disposed of by occupying US troops in the last decade.  The toxic waste didn’t rise to the level of the “weapons of mass destruction” purported to be lurking in Iraq when that moron George Bush and his dark overlord Dick Cheney were in the White House.  But in the hands of the nihilistic maniacs of IS?  Could be a problem.

A Tory minister is apologizing for heartless and insensitive comments mad about disabled workers in the UK.  Apparently, lifetime peer Lord David Freud didn’t realize he was being recorded saying that he believes some disabled workers “were not worth the minimum wage” and should be paid £2 an hour.  That’s a fraction of the legal UK minimum wage.  The Tory welfare minister said, “I am profoundly sorry for any offence I have caused to any disabled people.”  Or humanity in general?

Brazilian police say they’ve cracked a huge child pornography ring, arresting 55 people over a year-long investigation.  In addition to Brazil, suspects were rounded up in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Portugal, and Italy – that’s six countries over three continents.  It’s another sign that Latin American countries are getting more and more serious about smashing these scumbags who victimize children.  Just last week, Colombia busted a child-smuggling ring.

A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced a Shiite cleric to death. Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr was a supporter of anti-government protests in Eastern Province, where the Shiite population has long felt marginalized by the Sunni government.  The court said he was guilty of “foreign meddling” in the kingdom, “disobeying” its rulers, and taking up arms against the security forces.

If you want to know how not to handle a possible case of Ebola, there’s Texas, Spain, and now the Czech Republic.  A student from Ghana was suffering from a bad cold, but misdiagnosed by medical workers in Prague – who then covered the student in black plastic and rushed him into quarantine.  Ghana’s envoy plans to lodge a formal complaint with the Czech government, which might be too embarrassed to comment on the screw up.

U2’s Bono is apologizing for force-feeding his band’s new album “Songs of Innocence” on zillions of unsuspecting victims by cutting a deal with Apple to automatically load it onto people’s devices – whether they wanted it or not.  Comics called it a virus, and some even went as far as to say things you just can’t take back – labeling U2 the “New Nickelback” OUCH.. although it’s really not that bad.  Some people quite like it.  It’s just that Bono now admits that perhaps giving people a FREAKING CHOICE might have been better than what he now terms “a drop of megalomania, a touch of generosity, a dash of self-promotion”.