Returning troops will face Ebola quarantine ADVERTISING Returning troops will face Ebola quarantine WASHINGTON (AP) — Ordering firm restrictions for U.S. troops returning from West Africa, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that the military men and women helping fight
Returning troops will face Ebola quarantine
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ordering firm restrictions for U.S. troops returning from West Africa, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that the military men and women helping fight Ebola must undergo 21-day quarantines upon their return — longer than required for many civilian health care workers.
In Maine, meanwhile, a civilian nurse was vigorously resisting the quarantine she was told to undergo. Kaci Hickox, who had treated Ebola patients in West Africa, said she planned to stop quarantining herself in her home, signaling a potential showdown today with state police monitoring her movements and Maine officials preparing to legally enforce the order.
President Barack Obama, meeting with health care workers at the White House, acknowledged that the United States was not invulnerable to the disease but cautioned against discouraging civilian volunteers with overly restrictive measures upon their return home. “We can’t hermetically seal ourselves off,” he declared.
There seemed to be good news from the region of most severe outbreaks. The World Health Organization said the rate of new Ebola infections in Liberia appeared to be declining, although it cautioned that the epidemic there was far from over.
Nearly 5,000 people have died and more than 13,700 have been sickened in the outbreak, which has hit Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone hardest.
Ebola nurse to stop
voluntary quarantine
FORT KENT, Maine (AP) — A nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa said Wednesday she plans to stop quarantining herself in rural Maine, signaling a potential showdown with state police monitoring her home and state officials preparing to legally enforce the quarantine.
Kaci Hickox, who has shown no symptoms of Ebola, told NBC’s “Today” show and ABC’s “Good Morning America” she was abiding by the state’s voluntary quarantine by having no contact with people Tuesday and Wednesday. But she said she’ll defy the state if the policy isn’t changed by today.
“I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me even though I am in perfectly good health,” Hickox said on “Today.”
Her lawyer Norman Siegel told The Associated Press she isn’t willing to cooperate further unless the state lifts “all or most of the restrictions.”
Gov. Paul LePage said he was seeking legal authority to keep her in isolation.
Russian rocket engines suspected in explosion
CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. (AP) — Crews searched for scorched wreckage along the Virginia coast Wednesday in hopes of figuring out why an unmanned commercial rocket exploded in a blow to NASA’s strategy of using private companies to fly supplies and, eventually, astronauts to the International Space Station.
The 140-foot Antares rocket, operated by Orbital Sciences Corp., blew up 15 seconds after lifting off for the space station Tuesday, lighting up the night sky and raining flaming debris on the launch site. No one was injured, but the $200 million-plus mission was a total loss.
The blast not only incinerated the cargo — 2½ tons of space station food, clothes, equipment and science experiments dreamed up by schoolchildren — but dealt a setback to the commercial spaceflight effort championed by NASA and the White House even before the shuttle was retired.
It was the first failure after an unbroken string of successful commercial cargo flights to the space station since 2012 — three by Orbital and five by SpaceX, the other U.S. company hired by NASA to deliver supplies.
Although the cause of the blast is still unknown, several outside experts cast suspicion on the 1960s-era Russian-built engines used in the rocket’s first stage. Orbital Sciences chairman David Thompson himself said the Russian engines had presented “some serious technical and supply challenges in the past.”
He said he expects the investigation to zero in on the cause within a week or so. The launch pad on Wallops Island appeared to have been spared major damage.
Man decapitates mom, is killed by train in NY
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — A man with a history of psychiatric problems decapitated his mother, dragged her lifeless body into the street in front of their home and then killed himself by walking into the path of a nearby oncoming train, police said Wednesday.
Neighbors initially took the woman’s killing as a macabre Halloween prank.
Patricia Ward, a 66-year-old professor, was killed Tuesday night in her Farmingdale apartment just steps from a Long Island Rail Road station, Nassau County Police Detective Lieutenant John Azzata said.
Her 35-year-old son, Derek Ward, committed suicide several minutes later by walking in front of a commuter train approaching the station, Azzata said.
Patricia Ward was found dead in the street at around 8 p.m. Tuesday. Her torso was found by a curb and her head was several paces away, police said. A knife was recovered in the apartment, police said.
