Pakistan Nabs Militants Linked To Attack On Malala

Malala Yousafzai, a 16-year-old girl from Pakistan who was shot in the head by the Taliban last October for advocating education for girls, speaks about her fight for girls' education on the International Day of the Girl at the World Bank in Washington. Pakistan's army announced Friday, Sept. 12, 2014, that it had arrested 10 militants suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on teenage activist Malala, who won world acclaim after she was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating gender equality and education for women.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's army said Friday that it has arrested 10 militants suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, who won world acclaim after she was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating gender equality and education for women.

Army spokesman Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa said the detained men attacked Yousafzai, then 15, on orders from Mullah Fazlullah, the head of the Pakistani Taliban. The army is currently waging a major offensive against the extremist group in North Waziristan, a tribal region along the border with Afghanistan that has long been a militant stronghold.

"The entire gang involved in the murder attempt... has been busted," Bajwa said, adding that the "terrorists" were part of Tehrik-e-Taliban, an umbrella group encompassing militant organizations across the tribal areas.

Malala, a precocious teenage activist who had called for expanding girls' education in deeply conservative areas of Pakistan, was shot in the head in October 2012 while returning from school. Two other girls were also wounded in the attack.

Malala was initially treated in Pakistan, but was later flown to a hospital in Britain, where she now lives with her family. "This is good news for our family and most importantly, for the people of Pakistan and the civilized world. This first step of apprehending Malala's attackers signifies the beginning of real hope for the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been affected by terrorism," Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, said in a statement.

Malala is from the northwestern Swat Valley, once home to Fazlullah, who was elevated to his current leadership position after his predecessor, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan.

Fazlullah has been on the run since 2009, when Pakistan launched a major offensive in the Swat Valley to eliminate militants who were trying to overthrow the government and impose a harsh version of Islamic law. Islamic extremists believe women should largely confine themselves to the home, and view girls' education as a sinister Western import.

Pakistan believes Fazlullah is hiding in Afghanistan, and Bajwa said Islamabad had raised the issue with the Afghan government. Both countries have long accused each other of ignoring militants who launch cross-border attacks from their territory.

"We will continue our efforts until (Fazlullah) is arrested or killed," Bajwa told a televised news conference in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. He did not say when or where the men were captured, but said security agencies detained all 10 in a coordinated operation acting on information from one of the members of the cell. He said the head of the cell had also been arrested.

"The group acted upon the instructions of Mullah Fazlullah who, while based in Kunar, Afghanistan, passed instructions through his two associates," he said. He added that it was a "known fact" that Fazlullah and other "terrorists" are hiding in Afghanistan.

The arrests come at a time when Pakistan's military is carrying out a major operation against militants in North Waziristan. Pakistan launched the June 15 operation after militants attacked one of the country's busiest airports, in the southern city of Karachi, shocking the nation.

The military says it has so far killed at least 975 militants and that the operation is progressing as planned.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

Pakistani Girls Struggle To Be Educated

A young Pakistani girl works on her mid-term papers in a school in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan. Malala Yousafzai's struggle for girls to be educated in a deeply conservative society led to her shooting by the Taliban two years ago, while her relentless campaign for women's was rewarded Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, by the recognition of her work as she was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (AP) — Malala Yousafzai's struggle for girls to be educated in deeply conservative parts of Pakistan led to her being shot and nearly killed by the Taliban two years ago, while her relentless campaign for women's rights was rewarded Friday when she was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala, who moved to Britain for treatment and later settled there, tirelessly continued her campaign for a woman's right to an education in Pakistan and won international recognition for her struggle.


In Pakistan her campaign lives on, as young girls and women struggle to get an education. Here are a series of images by Muhammed Muheisen and the late Anja Niedringhaus focusing on the education of young girls in Malala's hometown of Mingora, in the Swat Valley, and in the outskirts of the capital Islamabad.

Taken in makeshift schools set up in slums and mosques, many show adult volunteers teaching children with the limited resources they have. In Mingora they show girls attending Malala's old school.

Follow AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo
Follow Muhammed Muheisen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Muheisen81

Oregon Governor's Fiancee Admits To Sham Marriage

Cylvia Hayes, fiancee of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, speaks at a news conference in Portland, Ore. on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Hayes has admitted that she violated the law when she married an immigrant seeking to retain residency in the United States. She said she was "associating with the wrong people" while struggling to put herself through college and regrets her actions.

PORTLAND, OREGON (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is considered the front-runner in next month's election, but his fiancee's stunning admission that she was paid to illegally marry an immigrant in 1997 — plus other allegations about her — have suddenly complicated the race.

Wiping away tears at a Thursday news conference, 47-year-old Cylvia Hayes said she accepted around $5,000 to marry the immigrant so that he could remain in the United States. "It was a marriage of convenience," Hayes said. "He needed help and I needed financial support."

Ashamed and embarrassed, Hayes said she had kept the marriage secret from Kitzhaber until a Portland alternative newspaper, Willamette Week, began asking questions. The Democratic governor has not publicly addressed his fiancee's secret marriage, but the issue could come up when he debates Republican state Rep. Dennis Richardson on Friday.

Hayes said she was "associating with the wrong people" while struggling to put herself through college when she agreed to the sham marriage. Hayes was twice divorced and just shy of her 30th birthday when she married an 18-year-old Ethiopian man.

"It was wrong then and it is wrong now and I am here today to accept the consequences, some of which will be life-changing," Hayes said. Hayes said she was "ashamed and embarrassed," and did not tell the governor about the marriage until the newspaper's questions this week. She appeared alone before a podium in a downtown Portland office building, saying she asked Kitzhaber not to join her because she can't look at him without crying.

When she told Kitzhaber about the marriage, "he was stunned and he was hurt," Hayes said, pausing to fight tears. "And I will be eternally grateful for the beautiful, loving way he has supported me in this."

Hayes apologized to Kitzhaber, her friends and family, and to Oregonians, saying she deeply regrets not being upfront about "a serious mistake." The couple confirmed in August that they're engaged. Hayes said they never lived together, met only a handful of times and have not had any contact since the divorce was finalized in 2002.

Hayes, 47, has openly discussed her hardscrabble childhood in Washington state and her struggle to support herself financially since high school. Kitzhaber met Hayes when she ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature in 2002. Kitzhaber, who was governor from 1995 until 2003, divorced his second wife, Sharon, shortly after leaving office. Kitzhaber made a political comeback in 2010.
Though they have yet to marry, Kitzhaber refers to Hayes as the "first lady," and she has embraced the role of political spouse while continuing her work as an energy consultant. She has been active in developing Kitzhaber's energy and environmental policy. A story in Willamette Week on Wednesday said that Hayes has used her title as first lady and her role in advising the governor to advance her private consulting business.

Hayes said she'll step back from her work advising Kitzhaber for now. Richardson, trying to gain traction before voters begin casting ballots next week in Oregon's all-mail election, has tried to shift attention to another story about Hayes. A Willamette Week story on Wednesday said she used her positon as first lady to advance her consulting business.

"It's clear from her past history that the first lady has had no qualms with breaking the law in order to make financial gains," said Meredith Glacken, a spokeswoman for Richardson. Hayes said she's been cautious in trying to avoid conflicts of interest between her business and first lady work.

"The kind of issues that I work on, we've been working on these things together the entire 10 years we've been together," Hayes said.

Associated Press writers Gosia Wozniacka and Steven DuBois contributed.

WHO: Ebola Death Toll Rises To More Than 4,000

A Nigerian port health official uses a thermometer on a passenger at the arrivals hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria. The Obama administration’s plans to screen certain airline passengers for exposure to Ebola are based on the Constitution and long-established legal authority that would almost certainly stand up in court if challenged, public health experts say. Airline passengers arriving from three West African countries will face temperature checks using no-touch thermometers and other screening measures at five U.S. airports, starting with New York’s Kennedy International on Saturday.

MONROVIA, LIBERIA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Liberian lawmakers on Friday rejected a proposal to grant President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf the power to further restrict movement and public gatherings and to confiscate property in the fight against Ebola. One legislator said such a law would have turned Liberia into a police state.

The proposal's defeat came as the World Health Organization once again raised the death toll attributed to the Ebola outbreak. The Geneva-based U.N. agency said that 4,033 confirmed, probable or suspected Ebola deaths have now been recorded.


All but nine of them were in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Eight of the rest were in Nigeria, with one patient dying in the United States. On Friday, David Nabarro, the U.N. special envoy for Ebola, said the number of Ebola cases is probably doubling every three-to-four weeks and the response needs to be 20 times greater than it was at the beginning.
He warned the U.N. General Assembly that without the mass mobilization of the world to support the affected countries in West Africa, "it will be impossible to get this disease quickly under control, and the world will have to live with the Ebola virus forever."

Nabarro said the U.N. knows what needs to be done to catch up to and overtake Ebola's rapid advance "and together we're going to do it." "And our commitment to all of you is to achieve it within a matter of months — a few months," he said.

The defeat of Sirleaf's proposal in the House of Representatives came as U.S. military forces worked on building a hospital for stricken health workers in Liberia, the country that has been hit hardest by the epidemic.

"The House felt it was not necessary to grant her additional measures," Speaker Alex Tyler told The Associated Press. He spoke after lawmakers rejected the president's proposal to give her further power to restrict movement and public gatherings and the authority to appropriate property "without payment of any kind or any further judicial process" to combat Ebola.

Liberia has recorded 2,316 deaths during the Ebola outbreak, according to the World Health Organization — more than any other country. Sirleaf's government imposed a three-month state of emergency beginning Aug. 6, but critics have accused the Nobel Peace Prize winner's approach to fighting Ebola since then as ineffective and heavy handed.

"I see a kind of police state creeping in," lawmaker Bhofal Chambers, a one-time Sirleaf supporter, said before the vote. In August, a quarantine of Monrovia's largest shantytown sparked unrest and was derided as counterproductive before being lifted. The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused Sirleaf's government of trying to silence media outlets criticizing its conduct.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military was rushing to set up a 25-bed hospital to treat health workers who may contract Ebola. Rear Adm. Scott Giberson, the acting U.S. Deputy Surgeon General, said the facility would be ready within weeks.

"We're in training right now. As you may know, not everybody is fully experienced in seeing Ebola related care of patients," Giberson said. "We have experience deploying in lots of medical settings. However, this is unique."

The arrival of 100 U.S. Marines on Thursday brings to just over 300 the total number of American troops in Liberia. The Marines and their aircraft will help with air transportation and ferrying of supplies, overcoming road congestion in Monrovia and bad roads outside the capital, said Capt. R. Carter Langston, spokesman for the U.S. mission. A priority will be transporting building materials to treatment unit sites. The U.S. has said it will oversee construction of 17 treatment units with 100 beds each.

The 101st Airborne Division is expected to deploy 700 troops by late October. The U.S. may send up to 4,000 soldiers to help with the Ebola crisis, though officials have stressed that number could change depending on needs.

In a call with reporters on Wednesday, USAID assistant administrator Nancy Lindborg said six treatment units were operational in Liberia. She said about 250 beds had come online in the last ten days or so, and that beds would come online in waves until the end of November.

In Mali, a health ministry spokesman said two more people had begun participating in the first phase of a study for a possible Ebola vaccine. Mali has not had any cases of Ebola, but it borders the outbreak zone. University of Maryland researchers announced Thursday that the first study of a possible vaccine was underway, and that three health care workers in Mali had received the experimental shots developed by the U.S. government.

"Today, we are at five people vaccinated," health ministry spokesman Markatie Daou said. "We envision vaccinating between 20 and 40 people for this first phase and the results are expected next month."

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, meanwhile, visited the Madrid hospital where a nursing assistant infected with Ebola is being treated. Teresa Romero was scheduled to start receiving the experimental anti-Ebola drug ZMapp, which is in extremely short supply worldwide, a spokeswoman for Madrid's regional health agency said on condition of anonymity because of agency rules.
Romero contracted Ebola in Madrid while helping treat a Spanish missionary who became infected in West Africa, and later died. She is the first person known outside of West Africa to have caught the disease in the current outbreak.

Rajoy praised Spanish health care workers and said the World Health Organization thinks "the risk is very low that this disease will spread in the future" in Spain and Europe. __ Corey-Boulet reported from Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Associated Press journalists Wade Williams in Monrovia, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, and Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali, contributed to this report.

Pakistani Teenager, Indian Activist Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Malala Yousafzay, the Paskitani teenager (Pictured) and Kailash Satyarthi, Indian Children's rights activist Wins 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Children must go to school and not be financially exploited. Yousafzay image courtesy of Rebel Society. 

"In the poor countries of the world, 60% of the present population is under 25 years of age.  It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected.  In conflict-ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation.

"Showing great personal courage, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi’s tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain.  He has also contributed to the development of important international conventions on children’s rights.

"Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzay has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations.  This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances.  Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.

"The Nobel Committee regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.  Many other individuals and institutions in the international community have also contributed.  It has been calculated that there are 168 million child labourers around the world today.  In 2000 the figure was 78 million higher.  The world has come closer to the goal of eliminating child labor.

"The struggle against suppression and for the rights of children and adolescents contributes to the realization of the “fraternity between nations” that Alfred Nobel mentions in his will as one of the criteria for the Nobel Peace Prize."

--------The Norwegian Nobel Committee, October 10, 2014

Microsoft CEO Apologizes For Comments On Women

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella speaks to students in New Delhi. On Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, Nadella spoke at an event for women in computing held in Phoenix, saying women don't need to ask for a raise. They should just trust the system. He was asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a raise.

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella apologized Thursday night and said he was wrong for saying that women don't need to ask for a raise and should just trust the system to pay them well.

Nadella was blasted on Twitter and in blog posts for his comments, which were made earlier Thursday at an event for women in computing. Tech companies hire many more men than women. And beyond the tech industry, women are typically paid less than men.

He had been asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a raise. His response: "It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along." Not asking for raise, he added, is "good karma" that would help a boss realize that the employee could be trusted and should have more responsibility.

But his comments caused an uproar online, and Microsoft posted a memo from him on its website. In it, Nadella said he answered the question "completely wrong" and that he thinks "men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it's deserved, Maria's advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."

His interviewer at the event, Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College and a Microsoft director, had told him she disagreed, which drew cheers from the audience. She suggested women do their homework on salary information and first practice asking with people they trust.

Still, his comments at the event, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, underscored why many see technology companies as workplaces that are difficult to navigate or even unfriendly for women and minorities. Tech companies, particularly the engineering ranks, are overwhelmingly male, white and Asian.

Criticized for their lack of diversity, major companies say they are trying to address the problem with programs such as employee training sessions and by participating in initiatives meant to introduce girls to coding.

Twenty-nine percent of Microsoft's employees are women, according to figures the Redmond, Washington-based company released earlier this month. Its technical and engineering staff and its management are just 17 percent female.

That's roughly comparable to diversity data released by other big tech companies this year. "Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap," Nadella wrote in his memo to employees.

Online:

http://gracehopper.org/2014-grace-hopper-celebration-thursday-livestream/ (The question about raises comes up at about 1:34.)

Europe, Others Weigh Risks Of West African Flights

A Moroccan health worker uses a thermometer to screen a passenger at the arrivals hall of the Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, Thursday, Oct 9, 2014. Air Maroc, along with Air France and Brussels Airlines, are still flying to Ebola-hit West Africa, with the backing of the World Health Organization. The WHO has urged the airlines to keep flying, saying the risk to public health from air travel itself is low and that flights bring needed aid workers and supplies. Airlines have to balance that against safety concerns which have led British Airways and Emirates to suspend service.

CASABLANCA, MOROCCO (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — After seven months in Ebola-stricken Liberia, Vijay Kumar was getting his temperature scanned Thursday at the airport by medical crews in blue gowns and masks — one of dozens who relied on Royal Air Maroc's continuing flights to West Africa.

"Of course we are all scared," the cellphone worker said as he and dozens of passengers made their way through the international airport in Casablanca, Morocco. But "we really appreciate their procedures, it's a good system."

He was finally heading home to Chennai, India, relieved that there were still flights operating, after British Airways and Emirates suspended travel to the outbreak countries. Airlines from Morocco, France and Belgium are still flying in and out of West Africa, encouraged by the World Health Organization, because stopping would keep out needed aid workers and supplies — and wouldn't necessarily halt the spread of the disease.

It can take up to 21 days before a person infected with Ebola starts to show symptoms that can be found in airport screening tests. During that period, an individual carrying Ebola can get a flight to anywhere in the world and fall ill later — as happened with a Liberian man who developed Ebola and died in the U.S. this week.

Departing passengers in Africa are being screened. U.S. officials said they will soon start screening arrivals from the affected countries. European governments so far have held off, even though it's conceded infected passengers could arrive undetected. If someone gets sick in Europe, they are hoping to focus on quick response in advanced isolation wards like the one at Frankfurt, Germany's University Clinic — not far from its international airport.

As a major hub for travel to West Africa, Casablanca airport functions as a gateway to the rest of the world. Thursday morning's arrivals board included flights from the Ebola-hit cities of Monrovia, Liberia and Freetown, Sierra Leone, among others. Besides Royal Air Maroc, Air France and Brussels Air also still fly to and from West Africa.

Travel bans aren't the way to go, says a top WHO official. "You can stop a direct flight, but you can never stop people from moving," either by connecting through other cities or crossing land borders, said Dr. Isabelle Nuttal from the World Health Organization.

The U.N. health agency is not asking countries to have people screened when they arrive on a flight. Nuttal warned that on-arrival screening could lead to a false sense of security, when the key step is that doctors "need to ask people where they have been."

She cited the case of Thomas Eric Duncan, who died Wednesday in Dallas. He passed an airport screening at Monrovia before he flew to Brussels and on to the U.S. because he was not yet showing symptoms. When he did fall ill, he was sent home by a Dallas hospital at first.

Ilham Kazzini, senior vice president with government-owned Royal Air Maroc, said the company is still flying to West Africa because Morocco has an official policy of solidarity with the region. "It also is in response to the calls by international organizations fighting against Ebola, like the U.N. and WHO, who called on the company to maintain its flights as the best way to fight the disease," she said. "We transport members of international organizations, food and medical aid."

As the passengers lined up in Casablanca to be scanned by thermal cameras and checked by remote thermometers, they expressed relief that there were still flights. Passengers from West Africa who stay in the country have to give the police contact details, travel plans and are handed a free mobile phone to stay in touch with medical officials.

Passenger John Hyland, who had visited Sierra Leone on a mission for Virginia-based Project Hope, emphasized the importance of not cutting West Africa off from the rest of the world. "These countries need foodstuffs and all the things they usually import," he said. "If Air Maroc can fly there, why not British Air?"

The airport's chief medical officer, Mohammed Moussif, said they had yet to discover a case of Ebola in months of screenings, but travelers staying in the country must remain in contact. "By default, we consider all of them to be in the phase of incubation and they are followed up with by a medical team no matter where they are in Morocco, in the north or south, until the end of the incubation period," Moussif said.

U.S. officials say exit screening of about 36,000 people attempting to board airplanes in West Africa showed 74 had a fever and three others had some other symptom that led to them being pulled out of line. That's roughly 1 in 500 people. None are believed to have had Ebola.

Greg Keller in Paris, Lauran Neergaard in Washington, DC, Jorge Sainz in Madrid, Raf Casert in Brussels, and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to his report.

Liberia Children Orphaned, Ostracized By Ebola

Promise Cooper, 16, Emmanuel Junior Cooper, 11, and Benson Cooper, 15, sit at their St. Paul Bridge home in Monrovia, Liberia. The Cooper children are now orphans, having lost their mother Princess in July, and their father Emmanuel in August. Their 5-month-old baby brother Success also succumbed to the virus in August. Ruth, their 13-year-old sister is being hospitalized with Ebola. The three never fell sick to the deadly disease.

MONROVIA, LIBERIA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — First 16-year-old Promise Cooper's mother complained of a hurting head and raging fever, and she died days later on the way to the hospital. The following month, her father developed the same headache and fever, and her baby brother grew listless.

That's when Promise knew this was not malaria. She had heard about Ebola on the radio. When she tended to her father, she washed her hands immediately afterward. Desperate to keep her three other younger siblings safe, she urged them to play outside and stay away from their one-room home. Yet she was powerless before an invisible enemy, as her family of seven disintegrated around her.

In the meantime, neighbors and relatives were starting to become suspicious. No one came by to check on the kids, not even their grandparents. Word, like the virus, was spreading through Liberia's capital: The Coopers had Ebola.

In Liberia's large, deeply religious families, there is usually an aunty somewhere willing to take in a child who has lost a parent. But Ebola, and the fear of contagion and death is now unraveling those bonds.

At least 3,700 children across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have lost one or more parents to Ebola, according to the U.N. children's agency, and that figure is expected to double by mid-October. Many of these children are left to fend for themselves, and continue to live inside infected houses.
At the Cooper home, tiny Success lost his battle with Ebola at just 5 months, long before he could live up to the expectations of his given name. By the time an ambulance could come collect the corpse, along with Promise's father, 11-year-old Emmanuel Junior fell sick.

After watching them all packed into the back of the ambulance, Promise was now alone with 15-year-old Benson and 13-year-old Ruth. An uncle stopped by to drop off some money but left without touching them for fear of infection.

If the children sat down somewhere, people would spray bleach after they got up. When they tried to buy something with what little money they had, vendors refused to serve them. Women took the long path to the well to avoid the house.

"Why don't you want to talk to me? Why God does nobody want to come around? We are human beings," Promise sobbed. Finally she scraped together enough change from a cousin to take a taxi to the Ebola clinic to check on her father. She and Ruth paced outside the barbed-wire topped walls of the clinic for what felt like hours, waiting for an answer on when he would be coming home.

Then a security guard came back: Emmanuel Cooper Senior was on the list of the dead. The girls broke down sobbing. No one could tell them if 11-year-old Emmanuel was still alive either. Even as Promise mourned her parents, a community leader named Kanyean Molton Farley took the children under his wing. Farley did human rights research by day and tried to help the neighborhood's orphaned children by night.

He worried that Promise could fall prey to an older man. At 16 and hungry, she was vulnerable to abuse. Then the Cooper children caught another lucky break: Promise saw her brother's face on television among government photos of children who had survived Ebola at the city's clinics but were still separated from their families.

"It's him, it's him!" she told Molton. Off they went to get Emmanuel — the first in the family to survive the plague sweeping their neighborhood. But not long after Emmanuel came home, Ruth became feverish and unwell. How could this be happening again? A terrified Promise called Farley again. He couldn't get them an ambulance until morning because of the curfew, so he told her to use mattresses as room dividers in the single bedroom where they all slept.

Ruth would stay on one side; the healthy children would sleep on the other. Now it was just Promise and the boys. The children slept together in their parents' bed instead of crowding on the floor below, as they had in their previous life. Some nights her brothers would weep for their mother, and Promise tried to be firm but caring.

"I tell them Ma and Pa are no more, and that they shouldn't worry about that," she says. "We must concentrate on living our lives because they are gone." Just a few weeks ago, their aunt Helen came around to the house — the first family member to do so in months. Now she too is shunned.

"I have to come back because everyone has abandoned them," says Helen Kangbo, breastfeeding her 1-year-old daughter Faith after joining her nieces and nephews for a paltry dinner of rice. "I must have the courage to come."

There has been other good news for the Cooper children: After three weeks, 13-year-old Ruth is better. She is still weak, so she is staying with Farley's family. When Ruth is well enough she will return home.

Here in their house, there is little trace left of dead loved ones, because authorities have burned their parents' clothing in a bid to stop the spread of the disease. The only photos of their parents are on their voter ID cards. And the only reminder of Success is the two bottles of baby powder, still sitting on a table in the room.

Follow Krista Larson at https://www.twitter.com/klarson

US Military Planes Arrive At Epicenter Of Ebola

U.S marines disembark upon their arrival at the Roberts International airport in Monrovia, Liberia, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Six U.S. military planes arrived Thursday at the epicenter of the Ebola crisis, carrying more aid and American Marines into Liberia, the country hardest hit by the deadly disease that has devastated West Africa and stirred anxiety across a fearful world. At a World Bank meeting in Washington, the presidents of several West African countries struggling with Ebola pleaded for help, with one calling the epidemic "a tragedy unforeseen in modern times."

MONROVIA, LIBERIA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Six U.S. military planes arrived in the Ebola hot zone Thursday with more Marines, as West Africa's leaders pleaded for the world's help in dealing with a crisis that one called "a tragedy unforeseen in modern times."

"Our people are dying," Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma lamented by videoconference at a World Bank meeting in Washington. He said other countries are not responding fast enough while children are orphaned and infected doctors and nurses are lost to the disease.

Alpha Conde of Guinea said the region's countries are in "a very fragile situation." Ebola is "an international threat and deserves an international response," he said, speaking through a translator as he sought money, medicine, equipment and training for health care workers.

Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he was reminded of the start of the AIDS epidemic. "We have to work now so this is not the next AIDS," Frieden said. The fleet of planes that landed outside the Liberian capital of Monrovia consisted of four MV-22 Ospreys and two KC-130s. The 100 additional Marines bring to just over 300 the total number of American troops in the country, said Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the commander leading the U.S. response.

Williams joined the American ambassador to Liberia, Deborah Malac, at the airport to greet the aircraft. As vehicles unloaded boxes of equipment wrapped in green-and-black cloth, the Marines formed a line on the tarmac and had their temperatures checked by Liberian health workers.
Meanwhile, British authorities said they would introduce "enhanced" screening of travelers for Ebola at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Eurostar rail terminals. Prime Minister David Cameron's office said passengers arriving from West Africa would be questioned about their travels and contacts. Some people could be given a medical assessment and advice on what to do if they develop symptoms.

Also Thursday, Liberian police used batons and rattan whips to disperse 100 protesters outside the National Assembly, where lawmakers were debating granting President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf more powers beyond those contained in a state of emergency declared in August. Her handling of the crisis has been criticized as heavy handed and ineffective.

Liberian state radio announced that Senate elections scheduled for next week would be postponed. No new date was given. The outbreak has killed more than 3,800 people, according to the latest World Health Organization figures. The vast majority of those deaths have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Elsewhere, University of Maryland researchers announced that the first study of a possible Ebola vaccine in Africa was underway. Scientists say three health care workers in Mali received the experimental shots developed by the U.S. government.

Mali has not had any cases of Ebola, but it borders the outbreak zone. Researchers say early safety tests should be done in Ebola-free countries to avoid complicating factors. If the vaccine appears to be safe, larger trials could be done in the outbreak zone early next year.

The U.S. military is working to build medical centers in Liberia and may send up to 4,000 soldiers to help with the Ebola crisis. Medical workers and beds for Ebola patients are sorely lacking. British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said his country would provide more than 750 troops to help build treatment centers and an Ebola "training academy" in Sierra Leone. Army medics and helicopters will provide direct support. Britain will also contribute an aviation support ship.

British troops are expected to arrive next week in Sierra Leone, where they will join military engineers and planners who have been there for nearly a month helping to construct medical centers. The German military, which has already been flying material such as protective clothing from Senegal to the worst-hit countries, planned to start a wider deployment of aid in mid-November. The military is expected to set up a clinic for 50 patients.

Sierra Leone officials finally released a shipping container filled with medical gear and mattresses that had been held up at the port for more than a month. Ibrahim Bangura, an official who handles medical supplies, said the container's contents were finally in his possession on Thursday. Bureaucracy and political infighting were blamed for delay in distributing the aid.

In Guinea, where the first Ebola cases were confirmed back in March, Doctors Without Borders warned on Thursday of a "massive" influx of cases in the capital. The aid group's center in Conakry received 22 patients on Monday alone, including 18 from the same region 50 kilometers east of the city, the group said, adding that its facilities were reaching their limits.

There was continued concern about Ebola in Spain, where the first person known to have caught the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa became sick. The condition of Spanish nursing assistant Teresa Romero deteriorated on Thursday, said Yolanda Fuentes, deputy director of Madrid's Carlos III hospital.

Four doctors, four nurses, a hospital orderly and two beauty salon workers who came into contact with Romero have been admitted to the hospital, bringing to 14 the number of people being monitored at the center, health officials said late Thursday.

In Germany, a man infected in Liberia arrived Thursday at a hospital for treatment — the third Ebola patient to be flown to the country. The St. Georg Hospital in Leipzig said the patient works for the United Nations in Liberia.

Clendenning reported from Madrid. Associated Press writers Clarence Roy-Macaulay in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Maria Cheng in London; Wade Williams in Monrovia, Liberia; Robbie Corey-Boulet in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and Connie Cass in Washington, D.C., also contributed to this report.

Contact Alan Clendenning on Twitter at https://twitter.com/alanclendenning .

Excerpts Of Nobel Prize Winner's Works In English

French novelist Patrick Modiano points during a press conference at his publishing house in Paris, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Patrick Modiano, who has made a lifelong study of the Nazi occupation and its effects on his country, won the 2014 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for what one academic called "crystal clear and resonant" prose.

PARIS, FRANCE (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — "Missing Person," Published by David R Godine (Original title: "Rue des Boutiques Obscures") — "In this strange, elegant novel, Patrick Modiano portrays a man in pursuit of the identity he lost in the murky days of the Paris Occupation, the black hole of French memory."

--"I am nothing. Nothing but a pale shape, silhouetted that evening against the cafe terrace, waiting for the rain to stop; the shower had started when Hutte left me. "Some hours before, we had met again for the last time on the premises of the Agency. Hutte, as usual, sat at his massive desk, but with his coat on, so that there was really an air of departure about it. I sat opposite him, in the leather armchair we kept for clients. The opaline lamp shed a bright light which dazzled me."

"The Search Warrant," Published by Harvill Secker. (Original title: "Dora Bruder") — "A meditation on the immense losses of the period (France's Nazi occupation) — people lost, stories lost, human history lost."

--"In 1965, I knew nothing of Dora Bruder. But now, 30 years on, it seems to me that those long waits in the cafes at the Ornano crossroads, those unvarying itineraries — the rue du Mont Cenis took me back to the Butte Montmartre hotels, the Roma or the Alsina or the Terrass, Rue Caulaincourt — and the fleeting impressions I have retained: snatches of conversation heard on a spring evening beneath the trees in the Square Clignancourt, and again, in winter, on the way down to Simplon and the Boulevard Ornano, all that was not simply due to chance. Perhaps, although as yet unaware of it, I was on the track of Dora Bruder and her parents. Already, imperceptibly, they were there."

"Honeymoon," Published by David R Godine. (Original title: "Voyage de Noces") — ": Jean B., the narrator of Patrick Modiano's Honeymoon, is submerged in a world where day and night, past and present, have no demarcations. Having spent his adult life making documentary films about lost explorers, Jean suddenly decides to abandon his wife and career, and takes what seems to be a journey to nowhere."

--"At Juan-les-Pins, people behaved as if the war didn't exist. The men wore beach trousers and the women light-coloured pareus. All these people were some twenty years older than Ingrid and Rigaud, but this was barely noticeable. Owing to their suntanned skin and their athletic gait, they still looked young and falsely carefree. They didn't know the way things would go when the summer was over. At aperitif time, they exchanged addresses. Would they be able to get rooms at Megeve this winter?

Some preferred the Val-d'Isere, and were already getting ready to book accommodation at the Col de l'Iseran. Others had no intention of leaving the Cote d'Azur. It was possible that they were going to reopen the Altitude 43 in Saint-Tropez, that white hotel which looks like a liner grounded among the pines above the Plage de la Bouillabaisse. They would be safe there. Fleeting signs of anguish could be read on their faces under the suntan: to think that they were going to have to be permanently on the move, searching for a place that the war had spared, and that these oases were going to become rare all the time . . . Rationing was beginning on the Cote. You mustn't think about anything, so as not to undermine your morale."

On the web: http://www.godine.com
http://vintage-books.co.uk

FBI Exhumes Body In 10 Most Wanted Search

 Photo: APThe FBI's ten most wanted fugitive poster for William Bradford Bishop Jr. Bishop, diplomat suspected of killing his wife, mother and three sons in 1976. 

WASHINGTON (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Nearly 40 years ago, authorities said former diplomat William Bradford "Brad" Bishop Jr. bludgeoned his family to death with a sledgehammer and disappeared into the North Carolina woods. For decades, investigators believed he might have used his education, international experience and knowledge of foreign languages to flee to Europe and assume a new identity.

On Thursday, the FBI had a new theory: Bishop never left the rural South, living as a homeless vagrant until he was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Alabama in 1981. The John Doe in that case bares a strong resemblance to Bishop, so authorities have dug up the unidentified remains to see if they match his DNA, the FBI said. The agency said the results could be known "soon" but wouldn't elaborate.

Bishop was accused of killing his wife, mother and three sons in their Bethesda, Maryland, home in 1976. It's not clear why he killed his family, but back then, he had been passed over for a promotion and was prone to violent outbursts, the FBI said.

Bishop was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List in April, and in July, his case was featured on the CNN program "The Hunt with John Walsh." A viewer called the FBI to point out similarities between Bishop's picture and the photo of the unidentified Alabama man, which police in Scottsboro had publicized last year in an attempt to crack the cold case.

The Alabama victim had no identification and no personal belongings beyond a slip of paper with the phone number of a truck driver who had given him a ride. He was wearing several layers of dirty, heavy clothing, according to the funeral director who helped prepare his body.

"Both John Doe and Bishop have cleft chins, distinctive noses, thin lips and similar hairlines and sideburns," FBI agent Pamela Hanson wrote in an affidavit requesting that the body be exhumed. Bishop was 39 years old when his family was slain. A licensed pilot who spoke five languages, he had worked as a State Department diplomat in Europe and Africa before settling in the Washington suburbs. He had been treated for depression, and was intense and self-absorbed, the FBI said.

After the killings, Bishop loaded the bodies into his station wagon, drove to rural eastern North Carolina and placed them in a shallow grave. He poured gasoline on them and lit them on fire, authorities said.

His last confirmed sighting was at a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina, the next day. Investigators said they were not sure why he took the bodies to North Carolina. Two weeks later, the vehicle was found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, just over 200 miles northeast of Scottsboro.

Given the size of the park, which encompasses more than 500,000 acres, Bishop, an avid outdoorsman, "could have remained in the North Carolina/Alabama/Tennessee area for many years without being discovered," Hanson wrote.

That would come as a surprise to three acquaintances of Bishop who told authorities that they had seen him in Europe after he disappeared. Those sightings, most recently in 1994, were never verified. The FBI has Bishop's DNA on file and will test the exhumed remains for a possible match, said Amy Thoreson, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Baltimore field office, which is handling the investigation.

The retired Scottsboro police chief, Keith Smith, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Thursday that they held off on burying the man out of hope that his relatives would be found. "We didn't have any inkling he might be a serial killer or anything," Smith said. "Most people aren't."

Associated Press writer Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols .