Islamic State: About 60,000 Syrian Kurds fled the country into Turkey over the weekend as Islamic State militants advanced and captured border towns. The Kurds said they feared a massacre in Kobani, a key city that would consolidate the hold of ISIS on northern Syria.

In another development, Turkey won the freedom of 49 of its citizens held hostage by the Islamic State (ISIS) and claims to have done it without paying ransom or making a trade. The hostages, including women and small children, were taken when ISIS overran the city of Mosul, Iraq back in June. Some critics have said it’s unlikely ISIS gave up the hostages without getting anything for them. Turkey’s prime ministers said only that getting the hostages back involved “intense efforts that lasted days and weeks.”

Afghanistan: After months of wrangling over a disputed and possibly fixed election, Afghanistan’s two presidential candidates signed a power-sharing deal making one president and the other chief executive. The deal makes Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai president, and  Abdullah Abdullah, who had the most votes in the primary, will be CEO. The White House issued a statement saying it’s an opportunity for increased stability in Afghanistan.

Nation: The Secret Service will probably be examined with a proctoscope after allowing a man to jump the White House fence Friday night and enter the North Portico doors before he was caught. He was armed with a knife. Jumpers have gotten over the fence before but getting into The White House may be a first. And apparently the doors were not locked. The Secret Service arrested a second man yesterday after he walked around acting creepy and then drove his car into the vehicle screening area.

The Obit Page: Polly Bergen, the beautiful and versatile brunette actress who could also sing a sultry song, has died at age 84 at her Connecticut home. She was the terrorized wife in the original “Cape Fear” and went on to have a long career as a television and film actress, hawker of beauty products, and game show host.

Nothing Lasts Forever: The “Locks of Love” on the Pont des Arts in Paris are about to be broken. The recent trend of attaching a lock to the bridge’s railing to declare eternal love is now seen as a blight and a possible danger. An estimated 700,000 locks hang from the bridge and one of the rail panels collapsed under the weight in June. The city has begun replacing the panels of fence with thick glass. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said Paris may be the city of love, “But there are other, more beautiful ways of showing love than attaching padlocks.”

The Screens: NYU teacher and writer Clay Shirky has given up competing with smartphones, tablets, and laptops, banning all of them from class unless an assignment specifically requires their use. He says multitasking is a myth … you do all the tasks badly. Shirky says there’s an army of programmers out there fighting for the attention of young people and he can’t keep up in a lecture hall. “Asking a student to stay focused while she has alerts on is like asking a chess player to concentrate while rapping their knuckles with a ruler at unpredictable intervals.”

This news brought to you by The Rooney Report, designed to be read on smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

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