A second Texas nurse who has contracted Ebola flew on a commercial flight from Ohio to Dallas with a slight temperature the day before she was diagnosed, health officials said on Wednesday, raising new concerns about U.S. efforts to control the disease http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/15/us-health-ebola-usa-idUSKCN0I40UE20141015. Chances that other passengers on the plane were infected were very low, […]

The First Amendment is strong medicine, the Supreme Court keeps telling us, and it even requires vulnerable people to listen to things they do not want to hear.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/us/for-supreme-court-first-amendment-sometimes-has-a-limit-its-doorstep.html?ref=us Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. explained this in 2011 to the father of a fallen soldier who had to endure a hateful protest while he […]

The Pentagon on Monday released a report asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster responses as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/us/pentagon-says-global-warming-presents-immediate-security-threat.html?ref=us&_r=0 The report lays out a road […]

The Ebola epidemic threatens the “very survival” of societies and could lead to failed states, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29603818 The outbreak, which has killed some 4,000 people in West Africa, has led to a “crisis for international peace and security”, WHO head Margaret Chan said. She also warned of the cost […]

It should surprise no one that governments, including our own, have sometimes acted in ways unbecoming of a free democracy. http://filmschoolrejects.com/reviews/kill-the-messenger.php They’ve done bad things, and as is the case with any organization that’s committed questionable acts they’ve often tried to sweep those sins under the proverbial rug. We’ll never know how frequently they’ve gotten […]

A hospital worker here who helped treat the Liberian man who died last week of the Ebola virus has tested positive for the disease, even though the worker was wearing a gown, gloves, mask and other protective gear when coming into contact with the victim, officials said Sunday. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/us/texas-health-worker-tests-positive-for-ebola.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSumLargeMedia&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&assetType=nyt_now The hospital employee, a woman whom […]

The Chinese government has national security concerns about Hong Kong — and pervasive suspicions among Chinese officials, their local allies and a segment of the public that the protesters receive foreign support. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/world/asia/some-chinese-leaders-claim-us-and-britain-are-behind-hong-kong-protests-.html?ref=world Officials contend that the United States and Britain wield so much influence in Hong Kong that China cannot open the nomination process […]

More than half of the general election advertising aired by outside groups in the battle for control of Congress has come from organizations that disclose little or nothing about their donors, a flood of secret money that is now at the center of a debate over the line between free speech and corruption.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/us/politics/ads-paid-for-by-secret-money-flood-the-midterm-elections.html?ref=us&_r=0 The […]

With the help of a robot, US researchers have described for the first time precisely how “sidewinder” rattlesnakes climb up sand dunes. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29523851 By observing snakes on an artificial dune, they found that on steeper slopes the animals flatten themselves to increase their contact with the sand. They then tested the new insights with a […]

A top Bahraini human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, was formally charged on Thursday with insulting the Defense and Interior Ministries. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/world/middleeast/bahrain-rights-activist-charged-over-twitter-posts.html?ref=world Mr. Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was detained Oct. 1 over his messages posted on Twitter that accused Bahrain’s security institutions of being incubators for extremist ideology. His lawyer, Jalila […]

Sunni insurgents in Pakistan increased attacks on Iranian border posts in the southeast of the country this week, employing methods similar to those used by Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.  Sunni insurgents in Pakistan increased attacks on Iranian border posts in the southeast of the country this week, employing methods similar to those […]

A senior Dutch government official’s disclosure that one victim of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash in eastern Ukraine had been found wearing an oxygen mask led to dismay on Thursday among investigators and outrage among victims’ relatives. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/world/europe/oxygen-mask-disclosure-in-malaysia-airlines-crash-inquiry-angers-victims-families-.html?ref=world “People are shocked when they hear this and wonder what other information there is but isn’t shared,” […]

It has been nearly half a century since a young antiwar protester named Tom Hayden traveled to Hanoi to investigate President Lyndon B. Johnson’s claims that the United States was not bombing civilians in Vietnam. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/us/pentagons-web-timeline-brings-back-vietnam-and-protesters-.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0 Mr. Hayden saw destroyed villages and came away, he says, “pretty wounded by the pattern of deception.” Now the […]

An Australian nurse who worked for the International Red Cross in Sierra Leone treating patients suffering from Ebola has developed a fever and been admitted to a hospital in Cairns, in northeast Australia. http://www.nytimes..com/2014/10/10/world/asia/australia-nurse-ebola.html?ref=world The chief health officer for the state of Queensland, Dr. Jeannette Young, said on Thursday that the woman had returned over […]

Nearly two-thirds of those stopped, searched or observed by the police here between 2007 and 2010 were blacks, even though blacks make up only a quarter of the city’s population, according to preliminary findings from a police department study released Wednesday. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/us/boston-police-focus-on-blacks-in-disproportionate-numbers-study-shows.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes The findings, released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, were […]

An off-duty policeman shot and killed a teenager in St Louis on Wednesday, officers said, triggering a night of protests just miles from the site of another police shooting of another black youth in the suburb of Ferguson. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/09/us-usa-missouri-shooting-idUSKCN0HY08H20141009?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter Police said the 18-year-old was armed and fired three shots while he was being chased by […]

The Spanish health authorities said Thursday that three more people had been quarantined overnight in a Madrid hospital as Spain seeks to contain the risk of Ebola spreading from an auxiliary nurse who is Western Europe’s first case. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/world/europe/ebola-spain-nurse-hospital.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes The auxiliary nurse, María Teresa Romero Ramos, tested positive for the disease on Monday, six days […]

Gun battles and explosions echoed from the embattled Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on Wednesday, as Islamic State militants detonated a car bomb and new American-led airstrikes hit the northern edge of the town, close to the Turkish border.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/world/middleeast/isis-advances-in-syrian-border-town-of-kobani-despite-airstrikes.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 A Kurdish official in Kobani, Assi Abdullah, said that despite the bombing, Islamic State fighters […]

In the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City no traffic would be allowed on the surrounding streets for much of the day, Tuesday, due to a visit by President Obama. Residents of 22nd Street between Ninth and 10th Avenues would need to show identification to be able to walk on the block. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/nyregion/before-a-visit-from-obama-a-chelsea-block-goes-on-lockdown.html?ref=us&_r=0 Nobody could […]