NY doctor to be free after Ebola recovery

NY doctor to be free after Ebola recovery

NEW YORK

An emergency-room doctor who was the first Ebola patient in the nation’s biggest city has recovered and is scheduled to be released from the hospital today, health officials said.

The city Department of Health said Monday in a statement that Dr. Craig Spencer, who was the only Ebola patient being treated in the United States, “has been declared free of the virus.”

Spencer tested positive for the virus Oct. 23, just days after returning from treating patients in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders. He has been treated in a specially designed isolation unit at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola treatment center.

Assailants kill 1, wound 3 in attacks

JERUSALEM

Palestinian assailants carried out stabbing attacks Monday in Tel Aviv and the West Bank, police said, killing an Israeli woman and a soldier as a wave of Arab unrest appeared to be gaining strength.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a harsh response — a confrontational strategy that risks deepening weeks of turmoil that has shaken the country.

With the attacks believed to be the work of lone assailants, however, police could have a tough time preventing more of them.

Slow-moving lava sets house ablaze

HONOLULU

A stream of lava set a home on fire Monday in a rural Hawaii town that has been watching the slow-moving flow approach for months.

The molten rock hit the house just before noon, said Hawaii County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira. The home’s renters already had left the residence in Pahoa, the largest town in Big Island’s isolated and mostly agricultural Puna district.

The lava from Kilauea volcano emerged from a vent in June and entered Pahoa on Oct. 26, when it crossed a road at the edge of town.

China uses APEC to boost regional role

HUAIROU, China

As leaders of Asia-Pacific economies gather for a summit, China is trying to boost its status as a regional leader by launching a rapid-fire series of trade and finance pacts that might dilute U.S. influence.

On the eve of the gathering, Beijing announced a free-trade agreement Monday with South Korea. Also Monday, regulators approved a plan to open Chinese stock markets wider to foreign investors by linking exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. That followed the weekend announcement of a $40 billion Chinese-financed fund to improve trade links between Asian economies.

At today’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, China is promoting its own regional free-trade pact, despite U.S. pressure to make progress on other initiatives.

15 rescued hikers waited in wilderness

PASADENA, CALIF.

Fifteen hikers from a church group who failed to return from a day hike in the Southern California mountains were exhausted and losing daylight, so they decided to build a fire and wait until Monday morning, when a helicopter plucked them safely out of the wilderness.

The Los Angeles County sheriff’s helicopter rescued the hikers — 11 adults and four teens — and they were driven to a nature center to be reunited with anxious family and friends.

Hiker Nancy Picado, 22, said the group became worn out after spending Sunday rappelling down waterfalls in the Eaton Canyon Natural Area, a popular hiking spot known for rescues at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, about 15 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Associated Press