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Yazidi woman kidnapped by ISIS in Iraq escapes from Gaza a decade later, officials say
A Yazidi woman kidnapped from her home by ISIS terrorists in Iraq when she was just 11 years old has been reunited with her family after years stranded in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Iraqi and Israeli officials said Thursday.
The woman, identified by Iraq’s Foreign Ministry as Fawzia Amin Sido, now 21, was abducted along with thousands of other Yazidi women from northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in August 2014. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, she survived years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of a Palestinian ISIS militant she was forced to marry, and that she was moved to Gaza several years ago.
Sido returned to Iraq and was reunited with her mother and the rest of her surviving family in Sinjar, northwest Iraq, on Wednesday.
Steve Maman, a Jewish Canadian businessman sometimes referred to as “the Jewish Schindler” for his efforts to help Yazidis escape ISIS captivity, posted a video on social media Thursday showing the moment the family was reunited after 10 years.
“I made a promise to Fawzia the Yazidi who was hostage of Hamas in Gaza that I would bring her back home to her mother in Sinjar,” Maman wrote in his post on X. “To her it seemed surreal and impossible but not to me, my only enemy was time.”
David Saranga, the director of the Digital Diplomacy Bureau at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a separate post that Sido had “finally been rescued by the Israeli security forces,” without providing any details of the operation.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday that the operation was led by the defense ministry’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories in collaboration with the US Embassy in Israel.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry did not mention Israeli involvement in its statement, but said Sido had been freed “through joint efforts between the [Iraqi] Foreign Ministry and the National Intelligence Service” in coordination with the U.S. embassies in Baghdad and Amman and with Jordanian authorities. The ministry said the process had taken four months.
Maman told the Jerusalem Post that Sido escaped from her Palestinian captor’s family in late 2023 after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. She then sought refuge in a safe house within “walking distance” of IDF forces, but spent a month waiting for permission to leave Gaza, he told the newspaper.
The IDF said Sido “was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing” and crossed through Israel into Jordan before traveling home to Iraq.
The Free Yezidi Foundation estimates that more than 2,600 Yazidis remain missing a decade after ISIS’ documented genocide against the religious minority group.
ISIS militants are believed to have kidnapped more than 6,000 Yazidi women and girls as they overran the Sinjar mountains in northern Iraq in 2014. Many were sold as sex slaves and then sold or traded between the terrorists during their years in control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Yazidi women are still rescued with some regularity from the sprawling al-Hol displacement camp in northern Syria, where they have continued to live trapped among ISIS fighters.
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Hurricane Helene satellite images show major devastation in North Carolina as death toll continues to rise
A week after Hurricane Helene tore through the U.S. Southeast and devasated western North Carolina with heavy rains and severe flooding, satellite images are showing the extent of the damage.
Officials have previously said hundreds of roads in western North Carolina have been inaccessible because of the storm’s effects, hindering rescue efforts. Residents reported seeing water as high as the roofs of some homes.
At least 219 people have been confirmed dead, and officials say they expect the death toll to continue to rise as recovery efforts continue.
Satellite images show washed-out streets and buildings. One image shows mud and debris near Old Fort Elementary School in Old Fort, North Carolina.
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Old Fort is one of the hardest-hit areas, CBS affiliate WNCN-TV reported. Cars, homes and more were pushed along by strong floodwaters. Power, water and other essential services are still yet to be fully restored.
Another satellite image from the town shows empty space where homes once were, and downed trees and power lines.
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In the town of Spruce Pine, the local North Toe River overflowed, flooding the region that is also the source of quartz used in microchips, according to NPR.
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The town received over two feet of rain, according to the National Weather Service, and images show muddy roads, wrecked homes and more devastation.
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President Joe Biden viewed the damage and cleanup efforts in Florida and Georgia on Thursday, and said that the work to rebuild will cost “billions of dollars.” On Wednesday, he visited the Carolinas and surveyed damage by air.
Mr. Biden said then that the federal government will cover 100% of all debris removal and emergency protective measure costs in North Carolina for six months, and will do the same for Florida and Georgia for the next 90 days.
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“In moments like this, it’s time to put politics aside,” the president said against the backdrop of a damaged Ray City, Georgia. “There are no Democrats or Republicans out here.”
A child in Canada has died from rabies after being exposed to a bat in their room, health officials said this week.
Dr. Malcolm Lock, the chief medical officer from Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit in Ontario, said Wednesday the child was exposed to the virus in their room from a bat.
“They woke up with a bat in their room,” Lock said, as quoted by Canadian media. “The parents looked, didn’t see any signs of a bite or scratches or saliva, and didn’t seek getting a rabies vaccine, so unfortunately, that child is now deceased.”
The child was hospitalized in early September, according to a statement by Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer, confirming the first domestically acquired case of human rabies in the province since 1967.
“Brant County Health Unit has received laboratory confirmation of a human case of rabies in a resident of Brantford-Brant. The illness is suspected to have been acquired from direct contact with a bat in Ontario.” Dr. Moore said.
No other details, including the child’s age and gender, have been released.
“Due to reasons of personal health information and patient confidentiality, I cannot comment further on the case mentioned,” a spokesperson from Health Ontario told CBS News in an email.
How is rabies spread and what are the symptoms?
Rabies is a deadly viral infection that attacks the nervous system in humans and animals, causing brain and spinal cord inflammation. It is typically spread to humans through direct contact with the saliva of an infected animal through scratching or biting.
Rabies is commonly found in bats, raccoons, foxes, skunks and some household pets. Without proper and prompt treatment after symptoms appear, rabies is nearly 100 percent fatal in both animals and humans, according to Haldimand and Norfolk Health Services, where the child was admitted. Bats pose a unique risk because their scratches can be hard to notice due to their small teeth, and bats cannot be vaccinated through provincial programs, health officials said.
If bitten by an animal suspected of carrying the virus, health officials advise washing the wound thoroughly with soap and water for 15 minutes and immediately seeking medical attention.
According to the CDC, the incubation period of rabies may last from weeks to months, depending on the location of exposure, severity of exposure and age.
“The first symptoms of rabies, called prodrome, maybe like the flu, including weakness, discomfort, fever, or headache. There also may be discomfort, prickling, or an itching sensation at the site of the bite. These symptoms may last for several days,” the CDC says.
In Canada, there have been 28 known cases of rabies in humans since reporting began in 1924, according to the federal government’s data. All the cases were fatal.
Just last week, a U.S. citizen died due to rabies exposure after being exposed to a bat in western Minnesota in July.
