Today is October 19th, the last day of the quarantine for the family members who were living with Duncan just before he was hospitalized.
...according to news reports as recently as yesterday, none of the family members have shown any symptoms of the disease. So we can now say close to definitively that none of them contracted Ebola even though they were living with him in close quarters as he entered the infectious period.
Banned from campuses by judicial order since 2010, the question of police presence on university campuses once again emerged during the previous academic year. In October 2013, police presence was approved on Al-Azhar’s campus. In April 2014, Cairo University followed suit.
In October of this year, private security firm, the Falcon Group, was hired to provide on-campus security services at fifteen state universities, as well as at Al-Azhar University. Measures put in place by Falcon included steel gates installed in front of electronic gates at campus entrances, and female security guards stationed at entrances. The firm, however, would not be equipped with live ammunition.
Students have been protesting for awhile now. This will be important to watch.
From a couple of days ago. The stock market has been highly volatile.
One of the more viral pieces of news from yesterday:
From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule.
In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Iraqi security forces evacuated another military base in restive Anbar province on Monday in the face of an offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).
The base is the latest in a string of military installations to fall into ISIS hands, according to CNN. Its abandonment comes less than two weeks after ISIS fighters captured nearby Heet on Oct. 2, which lies just 85 miles west of Baghdad.
...
On Monday, the U.N. said that an estimated 180,000 Iraqis have fled Heet since it fell earlier this month to the radical Islamist group, which continues to cleave away large swaths of the country’s Sunni heartland from central government control.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed more than a dozen Texas abortion clinics to reopen, blocking a state law that had imposed strict requirements on abortion providers. Had the law been allowed to stand, it would have caused all but eight of the state’s abortion clinics to close and would have required many women to travel more than 150 miles to the nearest abortion provider.
The Supreme Court’s order — five sentences long and with no explanation of the justices’ reasoning — represents an interim step in a legal fight that is far from over.
Hayden's comments about Risen's case make him one of the most senior intelligence officials to question the wisdom of prosecuting the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. "I am, like America, conflicted," Hayden said in the CBS interview. "You're talking about ruining lives over things about which people are acting on principle."
It's unlikely Hayden's statements will have any practical impact on the case, but they may provide some political cover for the Obama administration if it wishes to jettison the case against Risen. Hayden told CBS that he believes Risen's reporting harmed American interests but questioned the wisdom of redressing that offense in a way that "harms the broad freedom of the press."
Elections are a good way to gauge the health of democracy of a country. Bolivia's an interesting case. A popular candidate from the disadvantaged indigenous community rose to the presidency. Yet this is Evo Morales's third time running, and not without his share of criticism. I wish I knew more of the country, to comment in detail.
Evo Morales became the first indigenous president in 2006 and is even more popular now, and not only among his Aymara ethnic group.
He won the trust of many thanks to Bolivia's good economic performance. Supermarkets, cinemas and restaurants are popping up everywhere.
The new cable car in La Paz is perhaps the best example of the changing times in Bolivia, which remains one of the poorest countries in the region.
It connects La Paz with the satellite city of El Alto, home to thousands of migrants. There, a monument to Che Guevara sits next to a brand new shopping centre, surrounded by thousands of poorly built stalls selling counterfeit products.
Mr Morales's critics have accused him of using millions of dollars in government cash to fund his re-election campaign and say that this has helped create a fractured opposition.
They say he has also introduced measures which are harmful to the environment.