Philadelphia Front Page News Special News Report: Jehovah’s Witnesses Religion Truth Be Told (2012 film) by Van Stone frontpagenews1@yahoo.com

Philadelphia Front Page News Special News Report: Jehovah’s Witnesses Religion Truth Be Told (2012 film) by Van Stone frontpagenews1@yahoo.com

 

The following news report is not a message for those who support speaking out about the Jehovah’s Witnessess religion or for those who support not speaking out about the Jehovah’s Witnessess religion.  However, it is a real and factual report. 

Truth Be Told is a 2012 documentary about growing up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. The title refers to the Jehovah's Witnesses’ perception that their beliefs are 'the truth.'

Truth Be Told focuses on seven individuals raised in the Jehovah's Witnesses religion. In a series of informal interviews they reveal experiences including the effects of proselytizing door-to-door, shunning non-observant family and friends, suffering the discouragement of pursuing dreams like gaining a higher education and missing other societal holidays and customs. The film cuts between talking-head interviews and visual storytelling techniques including dramatic reenactments, motion graphic sequences and montages. Actors were filmed in front of a greenscreen and composited to create a virtual Kingdom Hall, the house of worship used by Jehovah's Witnesses.

The documentary features an interview with retired mixed martial arts fighter and television personality Nathan Quarry. Quarry grew up as a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses in a variously oppressive and controlling environment. After a period of self-discovery, Quarry rejected his Jehovah's Witnesses upbringing, which caused him to become alienated from his family and former friends.

In the Photo: Dark Church for Christian Jehovah’s Witnessess called the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnessess and  Nathan Quarry, former baptized Jah’s Witness, Disfellowshipped (meaning expulsion from the Jah’s Witness faith ) for declaring the religion and religion organization a cult.  

Truth Be Told is described as an exposé of the Jehovah's Witnesses religion that discloses a profit-driven, isolationist culture characterized by fear, totalitarian corporate leadership, intellectual & spiritual intimidation, suspension of critical thinking, failed prophecies, doctrinal inconsistency and improper handling of physical and sexual abuse allegations within the church.

The documentary is the first feature-film directed by Gregorio Smith. He describes his film as an honest glimpse into the culture of growing up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion that is at once immersive, informational, expository and controversial.

Truth Be Told is described as an exposé of the Jehovah's Witnesses religion that discloses a profit-driven, isolationist culture characterized by fear, totalitarian corporate leadership, intellectual & spiritual intimidation, suspension of critical thinking, failed prophecies, doctrinal inconsistency and improper handling of physical and sexual abuse allegations within the church.

The documentary is the first feature-film directed by Gregorio Smith. He describes his film as an honest glimpse into the culture of growing up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion that is at once immersive, informational, expository and controversial.

 

Key dates leading to indictment of Texas' Perry

Key dates leading to indictment of Texas' Perry 
 

FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 8, 2014, file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry delivers a speech to nearly 300 in attendance at the 2014 RedState Gathering, in Fort Worth, Texas. Perry was indicted on Friday, Aug. 15, 2014, for abuse of power after carrying out a threat to veto funding for state public corruption prosecutors.

  

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A timeline of developments leading up to Friday's indictment of Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry on charges that he abused the powers of his office by carrying out a threat to veto funding for state prosecutors investigating public corruption:

April 12, 2013 - Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, an elected Democrat, is arrested on charges of drunken driving. A jailhouse video shows her verbally berating officers.

April 19, 2013 - Lehmberg pleads guilty. She's sentenced to 45 days in jail and serves about half that time.

April 27, 2013 - Lehmberg writes open letter saying she wants to finish her term.

June 10, 2013 - The Austin-American Statesman publishes story saying that Perry intends to veto $7.5 million in funding for state Public Integrity Unit unless Lehmberg resigns.

June 14, 2013 - Perry vetoes funding.

June 26, 2013 - Left-leaning watchdog group Texans for Public Justice files formal complaint against Perry that alleges abuse of power over veto threat.

July 8, 2013 - Perry announces he won't seek re-election after 14 years in office.

July 15, 2013 - Judge is appointed to oversee investigation into complaint.

April 14 - Special grand jury is seated to investigate.

Aug. 15 - Grand jury indicts Perry on one count abuse of official capacity and one count of coercion of a public servant. Both are felonies and carry possible prison sentences.

AP video journalist, translator killed in Gaza

AP video journalist, translator killed in Gaza

This Monday, Aug. 11 2014 photo shows Associated Press video journalist Simone Camilli in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip. Camilli, 35, was killed in an ordnance explosion in the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014 together with Palestinian translator Ali Shehda Abu Afash and three members of the Gaza police. Police said four other people were seriously injured, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Six people - including an Associated Press video journalist - were killed Wednesday when leftover ordnance believed to have been dropped in an Israeli airstrike blew up in the Gaza Strip.

Simone Camilli and his Palestinian translator, Ali Shehda Abu Afash, were covering the aftermath of the war between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza when they were killed. The blast occurred as Gaza police engineers were trying to defuse unexploded ordnance fired by Israel.

Four police engineers also were killed, police said. Three people, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa, were badly injured.

Moussa told a colleague that they were filming the scene when an initial explosion went off. He said he was hit by shrapnel and began to run when there was a second blast, which knocked him out. He woke up in a hospital and later underwent surgery before he was transferred to a hospital in Israel for more advanced care.

Police officials in Gaza said the blast took place at a special site set up in the northern town of Beit Lahiya where authorities have collected unexploded ordnance to be defused. The cause of the blast was not immediately known.

An official said an Israeli tank shell caused the first explosion, triggering the more powerful secondary blast that included several bombs, including unexploded missiles dropped in Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli military carried out nearly 5,000 airstrikes in a month of fighting.

Hamas police posted photos of what it said was the site shortly before the explosion showing a senior bomb disposal expert surveying the area with piles of unexploded bombs behind him. Even after the blast, the lot, surrounded by a low wall, was strewn with piles of unexploded shells. There appeared to be about 10 missiles dropped by Israeli warplanes and dozens of tank shells.

Iyad al-Bouzm, a spokesman for Gaza's Interior Ministry, estimated that Israel dropped about 10,000 tons of explosives on Gaza, including shells fired by tanks, artillery batteries and gunboats, as well as more powerful missiles delivered in airstrikes. He said there was no estimate on how many unexploded shells remained.

Camilli became the first foreign journalist killed in the Gaza conflict, which took more than 1,900 Palestinian lives and 67 on the Israeli side. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based press-freedom advocacy group, four Palestinian journalists or media workers were previously killed in the fighting.

The 35-year-old Italian national had worked for the AP since 2005, when he was hired in Rome. He relocated to Jerusalem in 2006, and often covered assignments in Gaza. He had been based recently in Beirut, returning to Gaza after the war began last month.

He is survived by a longtime partner and a 3-year-old daughter in Beirut, as well as his parents and two sisters.

Camilli is the 33rd AP staffer to die in pursuit of the news since AP was founded in 1846, and the second this year. On April 4, AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus was killed and veteran AP correspondent Kathy Gannon was badly wounded by a gunman in Afghanistan.

"Simone was well known throughout Europe, and especially to our video team in London, where his death has hit AP deeply," Gary Pruitt, the AP's chief executive, said in a memo to staffers.

"As all of you know, this has been a very difficult year for AP," he said. "As conflict and violence grows around the world, our work becomes more important but also more dangerous. We take every precaution we can to protect the brave journalists who staff our front lines. I never cease to be amazed at their courage."

He said the AP was providing assistance to Camilli's family.

Pope Francis prayed for Camilli and Abu Afash aboard the papal plane en route to South Korea after he was informed of their deaths by the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, who noted the tremendous risks taken by journalists in covering conflict.

Francis, who came to the back of the plane to greet the press, was clearly moved.

"I have to make a silent prayer for Simone Camilli, one of yours, who today left us in service. Let us pray in silence," the pontiff said.

Abu Afash, a 36-year-old Gaza resident, is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 7 and 2 1/2. He often worked with the international media as a translator and news assistant, and worked as a part-time administrative assistant for Agence France-Presse.

Hundreds of people attended Abu Afash's funeral in Gaza City. Mourners sobbed and shrieked in grief, with many people kissing Abu Afash on the forehead before his body was taken away for burial.

"He is not a journalist. He's not a terrorist, nor a politician. He's an innocent man who loves to help everyone," said his wife, Shireen, a doctor who heads the neonatal unit at the al-Nasr Pediatrics Hospital in Gaza City and spent much of the war treating the wounded.

"He was happy to help the foreign journalists in the war. He was not afraid. He knew that if he died, he will go to heaven," she said. The couple was to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary in four days.

Camilli was remembered by colleagues as a consummate storyteller - a passionate and talented newsman with an eye for detail and the ability to convey events with powerful video images that touched people around the world.

Camilli loved reporting from Gaza so much that he recently turned down an assignment in Iraq to come to the seaside strip, said Najib Jobain, the AP's chief producer in Gaza.

"He was my brother. I have known him for almost 10 years. He was so happy to be with me working in Gaza," Jobain said. "He was asked, `Do you want to go to Irbil or Gaza?' He said, `I'll go to Gaza.'"

Diaa Hadid, a longtime colleague, described Camilli as warm and funny. "To think he is not here is really just too much," she said.

Camilli began his career in Rome while still a university student at the Sapienza University, helping cover Pope John Paul II.

Over the years, he worked on major stories across Europe and the Middle East, including the independence of Kosovo, the war in Georgia, the arrest of Bosnian Serb military leader Radko Mladic, the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, Hamas' takeover of Gaza, the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Most recently, he had covered the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Syrian refugee crisis.

Chris Slaney, the former senior producer in Jerusalem, said he brought Camilli to the region during Israel's war against Hezbollah in 2006, and "he immersed himself in the Middle East story, which unfortunately is mostly a story of conflict."

Tomislav Skaro, the AP's Middle East regional editor for video, said praised Camilli's "incredible eye for detail" and said he was able to personalize stories and portray human drama.

"He was incredibly calm, mature beyond his age, gentle and the friend that everybody wants to have," Skaro said.

Gaza's wounded: Living reminder of ravages of war

Gaza's wounded: Living reminder of ravages of war 
 

In this photo made on Wednesday, Aug 6, 2014, Shaker Abu Shawqah, wounded during a shelling in Nusseirat refugee camp in his legs and arm, rests in a basement of a building in Gaza City. More than 9,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians and nearly a third among them children, have been wounded in the month long Gaza war.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- When an Israeli airstrike hit the Gaza home for the handicapped where she was staying, Sally Saqr was left shattered. Her pelvis, both legs and an arm were broken, her skull fractured, much of her body burned. In the hospital, doctors couldn't put her limbs in casts because multiple other wounds had to heal first.

But after a week, her mother had to take the 20 year old home because Gaza's main Shifa Hospital needed the bed as more broken bodies flowed in every day from the bombardment.

Saqr has been severely handicapped since birth because of complications during delivery. She can't speak, her body never developed beyond the size of a child. She was able to walk - with difficulty - but after her wounds in the July 12 airstrike, she couldn't walk at all, and had to be put in diapers because she couldn't reach the bathroom.

Her mother has been overwhelmed. Saqr is in excruciating pain and screams in her sleep.

"My burden is heavy," said her 36-year-old mother, Soumah Abu Shanab. "Now I must feed her, bathe her and change her diapers." She spoke as three visiting nurses changed Saqr's dressings. Saqr clutched a box of medicine. Just holding it distracts her from the pain.

Much of the world's attention has focused on the Palestinian death toll in the Gaza war, with more than 1,900 killed, including at least 450 children, Palestinian health officials say. But a longer-term trauma may be the large number of wounded - more than 9,800, mostly civilians, including at least 3,000 children, officials say.

The dead have been quickly and often unceremoniously buried even as fighting raged. The wounded are a living reminder of the ravages of war. Their numbers have overwhelmed Gaza's medical system, already dilapidated after seven years of blockade on the tiny territory by Israel and Egypt, as well as the diversion of resources to build up Hamas' military capabilities.

Gaza's 25 hospitals have a total of 2,047 beds, or 1.3 beds per 1,000 people, among the lowest ratios in the world, according to United Nations figures. Nearly a third of the hospitals have been damaged in the fighting, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that looks after Palestinian refugees.

The thousands discharged - many with severe wounds patched together temporarily - are then left to the care of already devastated families who are grieving for dead loved ones and struggling to get by in the devastation of the war.

Some of the wounded return not to home but to U.N.-run schools packed with displaced people. Some crowd into the houses of extended families along with other relatives with nowhere else to go. Most homes are without electricity or running water.

Around 250,000 of Gaza's 1.8 million residents have been displaced, while some 65,000 lost their home in the fighting, according to U.N. figures.

In the crowded households, the wounded become a center of attention as relatives try to provide small comforts. Most are immobile, or can move very little. Families often put the wounded's mattress or bed by a window to get air in stifling rooms amid the power outages.

Though nurses can sometimes visit homes, many wounded have to make daily trips back to the hospital for treatment, risking complications from the exertions of the trip and the summer heat.

"Some of them don't have the basic needs of life at home," Dr. Sobhi Skaek, head of surgery at Shifa Hospital, told The Associated Press. "We have a serious problem."

Neighbors have lent a helping hand, but it is a drop in the ocean. Egypt took 220 wounded from Gaza, the West Bank 29, Jordan 43, and Israel arranged for 87 to be admitted to hospitals in east Jerusalem.

The large number of wounded speaks to the ferocity of Israeli shelling - nearly 5,000 strikes since the war began on July 8, according to the Israeli military.

Israel says its campaign aims to stop rocket fire into Israel by Gaza militants and that it targets sites of rocket launchers and militants' command and control, which were tightly interwoven with the population. Israel says it does its utmost to avoid hitting civilians, warning them to leave areas about to be attacked.

But repeatedly during the war, entire families have been devastated by strikes, killing multiple members at once and leaving others torn by shrapnel, burned or crushed in rubble.

This week in Shifa Hospital, 10-year-old Abdul-Qader Sahweel grimaced in pain and clenched back tears as medics changed the dressings on his wounds. He has to be brought back and forth to the hospital every day for the treatment.

The boy was sleeping with his family in a classroom in a U.N.-run school when three Israel artillery shells hit the building on July 30. His eldest brother died instantly - decapitated in the blast, his mother says. Another brother is in a coma in an Israeli hospital. His mother, Yasmeen, and 4-year-old brother were lightly wounded.

Abdul-Qader was sprayed by shrapnel in his chest, right eye and leg.

The daily trips to the hospital - plus visits every three days to an eye clinic - cost about $10 each, a considerable expense, said his father, Mohammed Sahweel, who is unemployed like around 50 percent of Gaza's population.

After the hospital's visit Wednesday, the boy and his father returned to the home of relatives where his family is now staying. Exhausted and uncomfortable, Abdul-Qader said he has recurring headaches, a high temperature and can't sleep. His right eye was red and swollen.

His family is worried about long term damage - his vision in the eye is severely impaired.

"Before the war began, I was enjoying my summer holiday. I went to the park, played football and went to the beach," the boy said. "Now I cannot do any of that."

Fahd Abu Sultan, a 25-year-old laborer, paid dearly for an act of courage on July 16. He rushed to help when an Israeli navy boat shelled a group of boys playing soccer on a Gaza beach, killing one and wounding others. As Sultan tried to carry away the wounded, the shelling resumed, killing three others.

Abu Sultan has five gaping shrapnel wounds. He lay on a sofa in his home while male nurses changed the dressing, causing him so much pain he had to pause as he described how the rocket hit only meters (yards) away from him.

"I kept on screaming to the ambulance people to come to rescue me but no one heard me," he recalled. "I was the last one to be taken to hospital."

Bahaa Eilewah, 16, was trying to help the injured in the Gaza district of Shijayiah on July 30 when he himself was hit by shrapnel. Both his legs were broken and are now in casts. He may not be able to walk unaided again for a year.

He thinks about how he used to play table tennis at a mosque recreation center.

"Now I don't know when I will do that again."

Trendi & Co. Presents: Church Ladies Boutique. New Life on Lancaster Avenue by Mary A. Jones, a.k.a. MAJones - MAJones777@gmail.com (215) 558-8673.

Trendi & Co. Presents: Church Ladies Boutique. New Life on Lancaster Avenue by Mary A. Jones, a.k.a. MAJones - MAJones777@gmail.com (215) 558-8673.

Church Ladies Boutique From L to R:  Shintele Lewis,  Debbie Ebo, 
and  Mary A. Jones, a.k.a. MAJones
 

Church Ladies Boutique has brought new life and a new style to the Lancaster Avenue corridor. The ownership is unique in itself; entrepreneur partners, each owning their own business: Debbie Ebo – A Beautiful Creation, Shintele Lewis – Trendi & Co., and yours truly, Mary A. Jones – Jones & Jones Strategic Consulting.                 

As resellers, our primary goal is to provide quality merchandise, (clothing, jewelry, shoes, hats, collectables, etc.) that are new and slightly used, for men and women at prices that you can afford. By taking on consignments, the Church Ladies Boutique has something for everyone. The boutique is a cut above the rest, showcasing their display window afresh each week. The display window presents a new theme every Thursday. Now until after the Grand Opening, August 8^th, from 2:00 pm to 8:00 p.m. the theme showcases evening dresses that any woman would love to wear on a dinner date or to a show at the theater. You don’t want to miss our wedding theme coming up on August 14^th.

 So if you are looking to get married and want a gorgeous gown that is affordable, yet of expensive taste, check us out – 4250 Lancaster Avenue, from 2:00pm – 6:00pm Monday thru Thursday, Fridays 2:00pm to 7:00pm and Saturdays from 10:00am to 6:00pm.

ChurchLadiesBoutique@gmail.com (215) 558-8673.

Church Ladies Boutique has become the spot. The community has welcomed us with open arms and in return we exemplify the love of Jesus that dwells within us to everyone. In fact, they gave us the name “Church Ladies”. The boutique is open for all and we specialize in getting you what you want and serving you with gladness. 

In my closing, it is an honor for the Church Ladies Boutique to be in Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell’s district. For years she has served the neighboring communities by bringing programs, events, and quality service to the community that would benefit everyone. 

The partners of Church Ladies Boutique will promote the same kind of service and altitude. Our platform is a springboard for entrepreneurs to showcase their up and coming business, by presenting their merchandise; giving them an opportunity to sell their products and teaching them skills they need. Jones & Jones Strategic Consulting will provide entrepreneurial training so that the presentment of the inspiring entrepreneur is one of a professional manner. We will offer coaching and marketing strategies for the new and upcoming entrepreneur.  

Jones & Jones Strategic Consulting and Trendi & Co. will collaborate on this initiative. The executive designing officer of Church Ladies Boutique will advance the presentation skills of their merchandise; teaching them how to showcase to get results. Our motto: “A Cut Above the Rest”.

Judges weigh 4 states' same-sex marriage cases

Judges weigh 4 states' same-sex marriage cases 

Gay marriage supporters rally on Fountain Square, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014, in Cincinnati. Three judges of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati are set to hear arguments Wednesday in six gay marriage fights from four states, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Three federal judges weighing arguments in a landmark gay marriage hearing Wednesday peppered attorneys on both sides with tough questions, with one judge expressing deep skepticism about whether courts are the ideal setting for major social change and another saying the democratic process can be too slow.

The judges in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considered arguments in six cases from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, setting the stage for historic rulings in each state that would put more pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the issue once and for all. Wednesday's hearing was the biggest so far on the issue.

The cases pit states' rights and traditional, conservative values against what plaintiffs' attorneys say is a fundamental right to marry under the U.S. Constitution.

While questions and comments from two of the judges all but gave away how they'll rule, one in favor of gay marriage and one opposed, Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton vigorously challenged some of each side's assertions.

Sutton repeatedly questioned attorneys for the same-sex couples whether the courts are the best place to legalize gay marriage, saying that the way to win Americans' hearts and minds is to wait until they're ready to vote for it.

"I would have thought the best way to get respect and dignity is through the democratic process," said Sutton, a George W. Bush nominee. "Nothing happens as quickly as we'd like it."

Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey, a Bill Clinton nominee, said that historically, courts have had to intervene when individual constitutional rights are being violated, such as overturning state laws against interracial marriage and giving women the right to vote, pointing out that the latter took decades.

"Do you have any knowledge of how many years I'm talking about, going into every state, every city, every state board of elections, for 70 years?" she said. "It didn't work. It took an amendment to the Constitution."

Besides, gay marriage already is legal in more than a quarter of the states, and "it doesn't look like the sky has fallen in," Daughtrey said.

Constitutional law professors and court observers say that the 6th Circuit could be the first to uphold statewide bans on gay marriage following an unbroken string of more than 20 rulings in the past eight months that have gone the other way.

They point to Sutton, the least predictable judge on the panel. In 2011, he shocked Republicans and may have derailed his own chances to advance to the U.S. Supreme Court when he became the deciding vote in a ruling that upheld President Barack Obama's health care law.

If the 6th Circuit decides against gay marriage, it would create a divide among federal appellate courts and put pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the issue in its 2015 session. The panel did not indicate when it would rule.

Attorneys for each state defended their marriage bans, arguing that any change should come from voters and that same-sex marriage is too new to be considered a deeply rooted, fundamental right.

"The most basic right we have as a people is to decide public policy questions on our own," said Michigan's solicitor general, Aaron Lindstrom.

Leigh Latherow, hired by Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, told the judges that the state has an economic interest in encouraging heterosexual marriage, which can lead to procreation. And Tennessee Associate Solicitor Joseph Whalen said Tennessee's law barring recognition of out-of-state gay marriages ensures children are born into a stable family environment.

Attorneys for the same-sex couples said marriage is fundamental for everyone and should not be decided by popular votes.

"These rights are very, very profound," said Al Gerhardstein, a Cincinnati civil rights attorney representing the Ohio plaintiffs. "A marriage is a significant thing. It's solemn. It's precious. This can't be just subjected to a vote."

Carole Stanyar, who represents the same-sex Michigan plaintiffs, bemoaned the often slow pace of the democratic process and said she doesn't see such a change coming to her state any time soon.

"In my state, nothing is happening to help gay people," she said.

Outside the courthouse, advocates held up banners and signs urging marriage equality. Jon Bradford, 26, of Covington, Kentucky, wore a wedding dress, and his partner, Matt Morris, wore a top hat and formal shirt.

"It's to make a statement, really," Bradford said. "We want to be married."

He said they were hopeful the court will rule in favor of same-sex marriage.

"One day, it's going to happen," he said. "You can't stop love."

About a dozen opponents prayed the rosary outside the courthouse.

"I'm just praying for God's will to be done," said Jeff Parker, 53, from the Cincinnati suburb of Madeira.

Gay marriage is legal in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Other states' bans are tied up in courts.

Two federal appeals courts have ruled in favor of gay marriage - one in Denver in June and another in Richmond, Virginia, last week. On Tuesday, Utah appealed one of those rulings, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case and uphold its ban. Oklahoma followed suit Wednesday.

The 6th Circuit is the first of three federal appeals courts to hear arguments from multiple states in coming weeks. The 7th Circuit in Chicago has similar arguments set for Aug. 26 for bans in Wisconsin and Indiana. The 9th Circuit in San Francisco is to take up Idaho's and Nevada's bans Sept. 8.

Death toll from Ebola in W. Africa hits 887: WHO

Death toll from Ebola in W. Africa hits 887: WHO

Nigeria health officials wait to screen passengers at the arrival hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Nigerian authorities on Monday confirmed a second case of Ebola in Africa's most populous country, an alarming setback as officials across the region battle to stop the spread of a disease that has killed more than 700 people.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- The doctor who treated a man who flew to Nigeria and died of Ebola now has contracted the disease, authorities said Monday, presenting a dire challenge to Africa's most populous nation as the regional toll for the outbreak grew to 887 dead.

As Nigerian health authorities rushed to quarantine others who had been exposed to the doctor, a special plane landed in Liberia to evacuate the second American missionary who fell ill with Ebola. Nancy Writebol, 59, is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday, where she will be treated at a special isolation ward.

The second confirmed case in Nigeria is a doctor who treated Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died July 25 days after arriving in Nigeria from Liberia, said Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.

Three others who also treated Sawyer now show symptoms of Ebola and their test results are pending, he said. Authorities are trying to trace and quarantine others in Lagos, sub-Saharan Africa's largest city of 21 million people.

"This cluster of cases in Lagos, Nigeria is very concerning," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, which is dispatching 50 experienced disease control specialists to West Africa.

"It shows what happens if meticulous infection control, contact tracing, and proper isolation of patients with suspected Ebola is not done. Stopping the spread in Lagos will be difficult but it can be done," he said.

The World Health Organization announced Monday that the death toll has increased from 729 to 887 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

Cases in Liberia jumped from 156 to 255, WHO said, as the government ordered that all Ebola victims must now be cremated because of rising opposition to burials in neighborhoods around the capital. Over the weekend, police were called in amid a standoff over whether health authorities could bury nearly two dozen victims in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital, Monrovia.

Sierra Leone marked a national stay-at-home day Monday in an effort to halt the disease's spread. A documentary film of the first outbreak of the Ebola disease in Congo was being shown intermittently throughout the day by the national broadcaster.

The emergence of a second case in Nigeria raises serious concerns about the infection control practices there, and also raises the specter that more cases could emerge. It can take up to 21 days after exposure to the virus for symptoms to appear. They include fever, sore throat, muscle pains and headaches. Often nausea, vomiting and diarrhea follow, along with severe internal and external bleeding in advanced stages of the disease.

"This fits exactly with the pattern that we've seen in the past. Either someone gets sick and infects their relatives, or goes to a hospital and health workers get sick," said Gregory Hartl, World Health Organization spokesman in Geneva. "It's extremely unfortunate but it's not unexpected. This was a sick man getting off a plane and unfortunately no one knew he had Ebola."

Doctors and other health workers on the front lines of the Ebola crisis have been among the most vulnerable to infection as they are in direct physical contact with patients. The disease is not airborne, and only transmitted through contact with bodily fluids such as saliva, blood, vomit, sweat or feces.

Sawyer, who was traveling to Nigeria on business, became ill while aboard a flight and Nigerian authorities immediately took him into isolation upon arrival in Lagos. They did not quarantine his fellow passengers, and have insisted that the risk of additional cases was minimal.

Nigerian authorities said a total of 70 people are under surveillance and that they hoped to have eight people in quarantine by the end of Monday in an isolation ward in Lagos.

Tracking down all the people who came into contact with Sawyer and his caregivers could prove difficult at this late stage, said Ben Neuman, a virologist and Ebola expert at Britain's University of Reading.

"Contact tracing is essential but it's very hard to get enough people to do that," he said. "For the average case, you want to look back and catch the 20 to 30 people they had closest contact with and that takes a lot of effort and legwork ... The most important thing now is to do the contact tracing and quarantine any contacts who may be symptomatic."

Obama says after 9-11, US 'tortured some folks' Obama says after 9-11, US 'tortured some folks'

Obama says after 9-11, US 'tortured some folks'
 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States tortured al Qaida detainees captured after the 9/11 attacks, President Obama said Friday, in some of his most expansive comments to date about a controversial set of CIA practices that he banned after taking office.

"We tortured some folks," Obama said at a televised news conference at the White House. "We did some things that were contrary to our values."

Addressing the impending release of a Senate report that criticizes CIA treatment of detainees, Obama said he believed the mistreatment stemmed from the pressure national security officials felt to forestall another attack. He said Americans should not be too "sanctimonious," about passing judgment through the lens of a seemingly safer present day.

That view, which he expressed as a candidate for national office in 2008 and early in his presidency, explains why Obama did not push to pursue criminal charges against the Bush era officials who carried out the CIA program. To this day, many of those officials insist that what they did was not torture, which is a felony under U.S. law.

The president's comments are a blow to those former officials, as well as an estimated 200 people currently working at the CIA who played some role in the interrogation program.

In 2009, Obama said he preferred to "look forward, not backwards," on the issue, and he decided that no CIA officer who was following legal guidance-however flawed that guidance turned out to be -should be prosecuted. A long-running criminal investigation into whether the CIA exceeded the guidance-which is an allegation of the Senate report-was closed in 2012 without charges.

Still, Obama's remarks on Friday were more emphatic than his previous comments on the subject, including a May 2009 speech in which he trumpeted his ban of "so-called enhanced interrogation techniques," and "brutal methods," but did not flatly say the U.S. had engaged in torture.

At an April 2009 new conference, he said, "I believe that waterboarding was torture and, whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake."

In addition to water boarding, the CIA used stress positions, sleep deprivation, nudity, humiliation, cold and other tactics that, taken together, were extremely brutal, the Senate report is expected to say. Obama on Friday did not mention a specific method, but he said the CIA used techniques that "any fair minded person would believe were torture."

"We crossed a line," he said. "That needs to be understood and accepted...We did some things that were wrong, and thats what that report reflects."

Obama on Friday did not address two other central arguments of the soon-to-be-released Senate report - that the brutal interrogations didn't produce life-saving intelligence, and that the CIA lied to other elements of the U.S. government about exactly what it was doing.

The president also expressed confidence in his CIA director, John Brennan, in the wake of an internal CIA report documenting that the spy agency improperly accessed Senate computers. There have been calls for his resignation on Capitol Hill.

Obama said the internal report made clear that "some very poor judgment was shown," but he seemed to say it wasn't Brennan's fault, and he praised his director for ordering the inquiry in the first place.