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Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, grew up next to a leper colony in Liberia and fled years of war before later returning to his country to find it ravaged by the disease that ultimately took his life. Duncan, 42, arrived in Dallas in late September, realizing a long-held ambition to join relatives. He came to attend the high-school graduation of his son, who was born in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast and was brought to the U.S. as a toddler when the boy's mother successfully applied for resettlement....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A U.S. Coast Guard sector says it will contact ships that have recently been to Ebola-affected countries to ask whether passengers have symptoms of the virus before they are allowed into port. The sector, which includes parts of New York and Connecticut, issued to the maritime community in Long Island Sound on Monday a bulletin that describes protocols being put into place due to the Ebola outbreak....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)New York City's Department of Health has been on alert for Ebola, and it's now stepping up its contingency plans. The task is not only tracking down any possible cases that could come to our area, but also how to treat and contain the virus. Diagnosing and treating Ebola are all such top priorities in New York right now that officials have been sending actors into emergency rooms pretending to be sick to see how the staff respond. "I really think it's beneficial," student John-David Noguerra said. "I'd rather us be over-prepared than under-prepared for it." To be clear, there...

Several cruise lines have changed itineraries due to concerns over Ebola, canceling port stops in West Africa. On Holland America Line's 35-day African Explorer cruise aboard the MS Rotterdam, from Cape Town, South Africa, to Southampton, England, three ports of call in Ghana, Gambia and Senegal will be replaced with an added overnight in Cape Town, an added overnight in Cape Verde and a stop in Tangier, Morocco, according to Holland America spokesman Erik Elvejord....

ORLANDO -- A passenger who became ill with Ebola like symptoms on a flight from Houston to Orlando was isolated and removed from the plane Monday. Orlando International Airport officials said the passenger was on Southwest Airlines flight #718 and became ill. The flight crew spoke with the passenger who told them he had traveled to West Africa at the end of August....

It looks like when it comes to the Ebola virus some people aren't taking any risks. Rapper Akon, who performed during the International Day of Peace festival in the city of Goma in The Democratic Repbulic of Congo, took extreme precautions to avoid catching the deadly disease. The "Smack That," singer took a note from the made-for-TV movie, The Boy In the Plastic Bubble, and secured himself in a giant rubber ball so that he didn't catch the sickness from the festivalgoers. After a diagnosis of a Dallas man earlier this week, the world has broken into a Ebola...

General Motors told dealers to stop selling its 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon mid-sized pickups on Friday. The trucks have only recently started rolling off assembly lines. GM says a wiring problem with the trucks' airbags could keep the airbags from deploying properly when needed. The trucks are so new that only few of them are currently in customers' possession, GM said in a statement. The vast majority are still at the factory and were about to be shipped to dealers. A few more are sitting on dealer lots....

In Dallas and other cities home to large populations of African immigrants, worries are abounding among many that their standing in the United States has been tainted by one Liberian man infected with Ebola being treated in Texas. "Some people around here see us as bringing the disease and that's just not right," said a Liberian who asked to be called Sekou, fearful that he and other West African immigrants are going to face bias in their U.S. home because of the sick man. Because many Americans have little knowledge of Africa's geography and the politics of countries on the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who is the first person to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the U.S., traveled to Dallas to marry his longtime girlfriend and the mother of his 19-year-old son, the pastor of the woman's church told NBC News on Saturday. The Rev. George Mason, senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church, said the church has been "doing whatever is permitted" to help the woman — who is named Louise and whose last name NBC News is not reporting — and the three children with whom she is in isolation at an undisclosed location...

Tuesday So… It is a beautiful, spectacular day here in Los Angeles. I am sitting at my desk and looking out at the swimming pool and I am thinking a DEEP THOUGHT: I LOVE CARS. I don’t just like cars. I don’t just think it’s good to have a car. I LOVE CARS. And I include trucks there, too, of course. I LOVE CARS!!!! The car is the greatest invention of mankind. The car is what makes all of the difference in life. Before the car, man was pretty much just an insect. He burrowed and crept along the ground....

Thomas Eric Duncan aka Patient Zero traveled to the United States out of desperation. He knew that he had been exposed to Ebola, and knew that he could not get treatment where he lived in Liberia. He had seen a friend turned away from three hospitals, and then die of the disease. So according to his former boss, he made the trip to the United States to obtain treatment. Monrovia (Liberia) Daily Observer reports. About Duncan being aware of his medical condition before he left Liberia, his former boss, Mr. Henry Brunson, 60, manager of SafeWay Cargo, a licensed agent...

ISIS has executed Alan Henning. Henning is the fourth western hostage to be executed by the Islamic State. Here’s what we know so far:

People who contract Ebola in West Africa can get through airport screenings and onto a plane with a lie and a lot of ibuprofen, according to healthcare experts who believe more must be done to identify infected travelers. At the very least, they said, travelers arriving from Ebola-stricken countries should be screened for fever, which is currently done on departure from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But such safeguards are not foolproof. "The fever-screening instruments run low and aren't that accurate," said infection control specialist Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, a biosafety company based in Atlanta. "And people...

As the international media and law enforcement authorities begin to investigate how a man who had contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia came to arrive in Texas, new details are surfacing about Thomas Eric Duncan and his voyage to the United States. Before coming to America to visit family, Duncan worked at a FedEx from which he was dismissed, after which he decided to "just go" to Texas. According to new details given to the Liberian Observer by someone close to Duncan, Duncan did not leave Liberia with any outward symptoms of the disease. His decision to leave the country,...

The spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general says the United Nations believes air travel to and from the West African countries affected by the Ebola virus should continue despite the first reported case in the United States. Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday that "it's very important not to isolate these countries" as it would worsen their political and economic situations. He says aid groups need access to the region. The first reported U.S. case involves a man who flew from Liberia to visit relatives. His travel took him through Brussels and Washington before reaching Texas....

Community leaders plan vigil for unidentified male patient at local Texas hospital on Thursday.Cynjoe African Market is the sort of miraculous little shop that manages to sell a bit of everything, from hair braids to DVDs, shawls to soft drinks. Its fridges stock the usual selection of mainstream American beers but lettering on the front window advertises matooke, gari, pondu and fufu: African dishes that sound especially exotic given the store’s prosaic location in a north Dallas strip-mall just off the Lyndon B Johnson Freeway. A Liberian flag hangs in one corner of the window. One customer on Wednesday morning...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Two days after he was sent home from a Dallas hospital, the man who is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States was seen vomiting on the ground outside an apartment complex as he was bundled into an ambulance. "His whole family was screaming. He got outside and he was throwing up all over the place," resident Mesud Osmanovic, 21, said on Wednesday, describing the chaotic scene before the man was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday where he is in serious condition. The hospital cited the man's privacy as the reason...

The Financial Times [subscription] is reporting that the US is poised to become the world’s largest producer of liquid petroleum (oil and natural gas liquids): US production of oil and related liquids such as ethane and propane was neck-and-neck with Saudi Arabia in June and again in August at about 11.5m barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency, the watchdog backed by rich countries. With US production continuing to boom, its output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia’s this month or next for the first time since 1991. [...] Rising oil and gas production has caused the US...

The BMW i8 is a rather unusual car, not only because of its look and drivetrain, but also because it can apparently earn money for its owner. According to Motoring Research, one of the early BMW i8 owners was able to sell his car used for £140,000, or almost 50% over £95,000 post-grant price! He earned £45,000 ($73,000) in just over a month. The reason, which makes used i8s so expensive, lies in high demand limited by the low production target set by BMW. “Specialist finance house Magnitude Finance arranged the deal. One of its customers was reportedly desperate to...

Allowing single-occupant hybrid cars to use carpool lanes – on some of Los Angeles’ busiest highways during rush hour, no less – creates crushing congestion and about $4,500 per car in adverse social costs annually. That includes increased commute times and carbon dioxide emissions, says a new study in the August edition of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. “For commuters, it means further traffic delays, and this becomes a regressive tax on carpoolers – it’s taxing due to their added time,” said study lead author Antonio Bento, associate professor at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and...