The World in Brief

In this photo taken on Friday, Aug. 29, 2014,  a security guard, center left,  working at the University Hospital Fann, speaks to people inside a car, as a  man is  treated for symptoms of the Ebola virus inside the Hospital in Dakar, Senegal. The effort to contain Ebola in Senegal is “a top priority emergency,” the World Health Organization said Sunday, as the government continued tracing everyone who came in contact with a Guinean student who has tested positive for the deadly disease in the capital, Dakar. (AP Photo/Jane Hahn)

In this photo taken on Friday, Aug. 29, 2014, a security guard, center left, working at the University Hospital Fann, speaks to people inside a car, as a man is treated for symptoms of the Ebola virus inside the Hospital in Dakar, Senegal. The effort to contain Ebola in Senegal is “a top priority emergency,” the World Health Organization said Sunday, as the government continued tracing everyone who came in contact with a Guinean student who has tested positive for the deadly disease in the capital, Dakar. (AP Photo/Jane Hahn)

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Senegal scans all met by man with Ebola

DAKAR, Senegal -- Senegalese authorities on Monday were monitoring everyone who was in contact with a student infected with Ebola who crossed into the country and who has lost three family members to the disease.

An Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 1,500 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The university student is Senegal's first case of Ebola.

The 21-year-old left Guinea on Aug. 15, just days after his brother died of the disease, according to Guinea's Health Ministry.

The student traveled by road, crossing into Senegal despite a border closure. He arrived in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, on Aug. 20, according to the World Health Organization, and was staying with relatives on the outskirts of the city. The agency said that on Aug. 23, he went to a medical facility seeking treatment for fever and diarrhea.

But he concealed from doctors that he had had contact with infected people. He was treated instead for malaria and continued to stay with his relatives before turning up at a Dakar hospital last Tuesday.

Senegal's Health Ministry said Sunday that it has since traced everyone the student came into contact with, and they are being examined twice a day.

The Health Ministry in Guinea, meanwhile, said that since the young man left home, his mother and a sister have died of the disease, and two other brothers are being treated for it.

Man kills 3 children, self at China school

BEIJING -- A 40-year-old man stabbed students and teachers with a fruit knife at an elementary school in central China on Monday, killing three children and injuring six other people before jumping to his death, officials said.

The attack on the first day after summer break injured five other children and one teacher at Dongfang primary school in Yunxi county in Hubei province, they said.

Two students were hospitalized with serious injuries, said Deng Yunshan, a government official in Chengguan, the township where the school is located.

The assailant jumped to his death from a fourth-floor window after the attack, Deng said.

Yunxi county's propaganda office identified the man only by his family name, Chen, and said he was a parent.

An investigation into the attack is underway, Deng said. No further details were immediately available.

China has suffered a series of attacks on kindergartens and grade schools. The culprits often are identified as mentally ill or as being angry at society.

70 Boko Haram dead reported in Nigeria

BAUCHI, Nigeria -- Nigerian military officials say they killed about 70 Boko Haram fighters when the Islamic extremists attacked the northeastern town of Bama on Monday morning.

The militants arrived Monday in armored tanks and trucks and tried to take over the town, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Most of Bama's residents fled to Maiduguri, said Muhammed Gava, a spokesman for the anti-Boko Haram vigilante movement.

"There was an attempt by the Boko Haram people to enter and capture Bama as they did in Gwoza some weeks back, but thank God for the efforts of the soldiers stationed near the mobile police unit who were able to repel them," said Mohammed Bunu Ahmed, a witness.

Sani Usman, an army spokesman, said Monday that the curfew in Maiduguri has been extended, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

U.S. hits at militant group in Somalia

The U.S. military carried out a counterterrorism strike Monday against leaders of the militant group al-Shabab in Somalia, Pentagon officials said, although it was unclear whether the operation was successful.

Journalists in Somalia reported that suspected U.S. drones fired missiles near the port city of Barawe, a stronghold for al-Shabab. In a rare acknowledgment of its clandestine military activities in Somalia, the Pentagon said it had conducted a counterterrorism operation there but gave no details.

"We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement late Monday.

The U.S. government's Voice of America news service, which broadcasts programs to Somalia, reported that a target of the attack may have been Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, the alleged mastermind of al-Shabab's attack on an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013.

Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

A Section on 09/02/2014