Philly's Van Stone Reveals: Wonder Woman Was Black; The First African-American Super Girl-Top 17 Most "Significant" Beautiful Black Female Comics Superheroine Characters Part 1.

Philly's Van Stone Reveals: Wonder Woman Was Black; The First African-American Super Girl-Top 17 Most "Significant" Beautiful Black Female Comics Superheroine Characters Part 1.

Above: Diana, Wonder Woman, (DC Comics) who was always a Black Female Superhero but rarely drawn having dark skin  complexion.

The reason why I am presenting Female characters in Superheroines comics is: Each model who wants to make it to the end of the model magazine cover competition developed by the Philadelphia Front Page News-Magazine MUST create a sexy pose as one of the famous “Significant” non-caricatured Black Female superheroes in comics history.

But let’s set the record straight about Black Female superheroes who are both from Africa and the other world continents. If their beginnings are from Africa and they somehow journey to America to fight super-evil, the Black woman doesn’t become African-American just because she visited the Americas.

Same goes for, if their beginnings are from America and they somehow journey to Africa to fight super-bad guys, the Black woman doesn’t become America-African just because she visited Africa, Asia, Europe or any of the other continents where Black females have beginnings.

The Women of Color, the person who is Black, has always been identified in parts of the world, not by skin complexion, but rather by historical genes. Therefore, if the people living in Africa, Asia, and certain parts of Europe located at the corners of Egypt, were Black where they all began they will not become something other than Black just because they all suddenly have an end in a completely different part of the world.

When it comes to women characters in comics, one of the most significant developed stories for a superheroine, which began in North Africa, is the story of Diana, Wonder Woman and her twin sister Nubia, Wonder Woman.

Another significant developed story for a superheroine is the story of an African-American Super woman
which began in New York City, New York.

But most people interested in superheroes and comics want to know who the first most significant non-caricatured Black female superhero is. So, I, Van Stone, will reveal the answer to you the reader.                     
The first most “significant” non-caricatured Black female superhero ever, introduced in 1940 DC Comics, is the Hawkgirl, an Egyptian, Eastern North Africa Princess (a Black Woman).  

 

Above: Hawkgirl (Hawk Woman) DC Comics.


Diana, Wonder Woman, who is a Black female superhero, has to have one of the most enigmatic histories of any major comic book character. Why? Because, in 1941 DC Comics introduced the Wonder Woman, a Libyan, Eastern North Africa Princess (a Black Woman) who became the second most “significant” non-caricatured Black female superhero ever.

Wonder Woman’s background story has been changed, re-connected, tweaked, retold, re-imagined and re-envisioned over and over.  But why has this occurred?  This has happened because Wonder Woman is really based on a real life Black person- a Black woman.

And the same has happened with every creation story that actually has anything to do with being based on real life female or male historic Black peoples or people of Color. The fact is: The Old and New Testament Biblical Characters, The Great African, Greek, Asian, as well as, Southeastern African/European Poetry Writer Characters, and many of the First Explorers of Canada, North, South and Central Americas were all Black-gene peoples. 
 

Still, it seems that there is a natural habit of all mankind for some un-established strange reason to observe any Black Histories and then afterwards steal or borrow them for another fake racial historic creation. The fake racial historic creations last forever without anyone bothering to expose what is false.          

In fact, with the exception of the X-men's Storm and Rogue, Avengers’ Hawkgirl, America’s Spiritual Revenge’s Shi, Van Stone’s Heroes of the Last Q’s Shadai Chiropractra, Gotham’s Batgirl, and America’s Teen Ms Marvel, there are not any other widely recognized black superheroines in American culture.

But this is only because Diana, Wonder Woman’s true identification of being the Super-Black woman with a twin sister whose name is Nubia, Wonder Woman has been denied by both whites and blacks for years. 

Because she is such a powerful female character, a strong and independent leader, and a frequently used and referenced character, Wonder Woman is simply just the most famous Black Female character in DC Comics. But Wonder Woman is not the number 1 Black Female Superhero.

From Van Stone’s countdown from number 17 superheroine to number 1 at the start of the year of the Black female super hero until now, the winner is: Her name is simply, Shi. Recall, Shi, a Woman of Color, who is Japanese-American, is a Black woman because of her historical genes.  

Above: Shi.  Shi is the Best Black Female Superheroine in all comics illustrations since 1940 through 2014.

Continuing our celebration of the Black Woman Model on a Magazine Cover, before we start the actual model competition, we wanted to conclude our view of professional and amateur models by giving you a list of the Top 17 Black Female Characters in Comics according to actual order of  geographic location and time periods: From Egypt, Eastern North Africa is Hawkgirl; from Libya, Eastern North Africa is Wonder Woman (a twin sister of Nubia, Wonder Woman); from Libya, Eastern North Africa is Nubia (a twin sister of Diana, Wonder Woman) from Nicaragua, Central America is Namora; from Iran-Ukraine-Turkey, Eastern Asia is Red Sonja; from New York City, New York, African-America-USA, is  Sun Girl; from Kenya, East Africa is Storm; from the Greek Islands, Greece is Electra; 

from Maimon, Dominican Republic, is Zarda, Power Princess; from Mississippi, Native America-USA, is Rogue; from New York, Japanese-American-USA is Shi; from Libya, Eastern North Africa is Axegirl; from Philadelphia, PA, Black Hispanic-America-USA, is Shadai Chiropractra; from Philadelphia, PA, Black Indian-America-USA, is Yolanda; from Malaysia, Southeast Asia is Batgirl; from Kenya, East Africa is Female Black Panther; from Pakistan, South Asia is Ms Marvel

Wonder Woman is a fictional superheroine who appears in comic books. The character is a warrior princess of the Amazons (based on the Amazons of Greek mythology). The Greeks who wrote this mythology were in fact Black peoples who lived in North Africa, Asia, and Europe on the border of the corners of Egypt. Therefore, Wonder Woman racially would be Black. 

 

 Hawkgirl (1st "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

 

Diana, Wonder Woman, twin sister of Nubia, Wonder Woman (2nd "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Nubia, Wonder Woman, twin sister of Diana, Wonder Woman (3rd "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

 Namora (4th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

 

Red Sonja (5th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Sun Girl (6th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Storm (7th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Electra (8th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Zarda, Power Princess (9th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Rogue (10th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

 Shi (11th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Axegirl, Van Stone's Heroes of the Last Q at left (12th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Shadai Chiropractra, Van Stone's Heroes of the Last Q (13th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Yolanda, at top right and Shadai Chiropractra at bottom, Van Stone's Heroes of the Last Q (14th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Batgirl (15th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Female Black Panther (16th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Ms Marvel (17th "Significant" Black Female Superhero)

Traditionally, the word "tiara" refers to a high crown, often with the shape of a cylinder narrowed at its top, made of fabric or leather, and richly ornamented. It was used by the kings  and emperors of some ancient peoples in Anatolia and Mesopotamia, notably the Hittites. Therefore, Wonder Woman would be King and Queen when there is no male present for leadership.

DC’s Wonder Woman possesses an arsenal of weapons, including the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, a tiara which serves as a projectile, and, in some stories, an invisible airplane. Interestingly, Marvel’s Dominican Republican, Zarda, Power Princess has close ties to Libya, Eastern North Africa exodus, possesses and arsenal of weapons, including an invisible shield.
 
It seems that Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, and Zarda, Power Princess are all equal in significant power, strength, liberation, fairness, loyalty, commitment, and sexy beauty in the eyes of a good man. And these women superheroes were only interested in the opposite sex, fixated on romance between the male and female sex caring about children and modern family. Men of any race or being, even Batman or the Black Panther, found the Black female superhero to be irresistible.

France joins US against Islamic State over Iraq

France joins US against Islamic State over Iraq

This image provided Friday, Sept.19, 2014 by the French Army's video and photo department ECPAD shows the destruction of a munitions and fuel depot overrun by the militants in Iraq. Joining U.S. forces acting in Iraqi skies, French fighter jets struck Friday against the militant Islamic State group, destroying a logistics depot, Iraqi and French officials said.

PARIS (AP) -- France is back at America's side in conducting military strikes in Iraq.

More than a decade after spurning President George W. Bush's war against Saddam Hussein, France on Friday became the first country to join U.S. forces pounding targets inside Iraq from the air in recent weeks - this time in pursuit of militants of the Islamic State group.

Flying from the United Arab Emirates, two French Rafale jets fired four laser-guided bombs to destroy a weapons and fuel depot outside the northern city of Mosul, part of the territory the militants have overrun in Iraq and neighboring Syria, officials said.

An Iraqi military spokesman said dozens of extremist fighters were killed in the strikes. A French military official said a damage assessment had not been completed, while showing reporters aerial images of targets hit. Officials said it was at a former military installation seized by the group.

One analyst said the French action was more symbolic than substantive - France's military means in the region are limited - but it could give political cover for other allies to join in and show that the U.S. is not acting alone in a country still sown with deadly violence 11 years after Saddam's ouster.

"We are facing throat-cutters," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council that was called to show support for Iraq's government in battling the militants. "They rape, crucify and decapitate. They use cruelty as a means of propaganda. Their aim is to erase borders and to eradicate the rule of law and civil society."

For all his political and economic troubles at home, French President Francois Hollande has again showed he will use force to fight Islamic militants to help a beleaguered government.

Other such operations in Iraq would continue in coming days, Hollande said, "with the same goal - to weaken this terrorist organization and come to the aid of the Iraqi authorities."

"In no case will there be French troops on the ground: This is only about planes that, in liaison with Iraqi authorities (and) in coordination with our allies, will allow for a weakening of the terrorist organization," he said.

Hollande stressed that France's actions were limited to supporting the Iraqi military or Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and wouldn't involve targets in Syria.

Not so long ago, coordinated French and U.S. military strikes in Iraq might have been unthinkable. But feeding off sectarian strife in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State group has destabilized the region and become a lure for jihad-minded youths from France, elsewhere in Europe, and beyond.

Hollande says France is operating independently in Iraq, based on a request for airstrikes from Baghdad and in coordination with its allies. The U.S. Central Command said Thursday the U.S. military has conducted 176 airstrikes in Iraq since Aug. 8.

Broadly unpopular at home, Hollande has nonetheless drawn praise for a muscular foreign policy. Iraq is the third country in which he has authorized firepower: French troops largely purged al-Qaida-linked militants from Mali in 2011, and have sought to end sectarian violence in Central African Republic.

In 2011, France and the U.S., as well as Britain, did the heavy lifting in the NATO-led airstrikes in Libya. Last year, France was ready to join possible U.S. military action against President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria, before President Barack Obama stopped short. In recent weeks, French authorities have ruefully suggested that the U.S. inaction fostered the rise of jihadists in the region.

On Monday, Hollande hosted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and top diplomats from more than two dozen countries that pledged to help Iraq fight the extremist group, which has drawn widespread condemnation for its brutality - including the beheadings of Western hostages.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the Islamic State group in a presidential statement approved Friday by all 15 members in a session chaired by Kerry.

The statement expressed "deep outrage" at the killing, kidnapping, rape and torture of Iraqis and citizens of other countries by the Islamic State group. It noted that some of those acts might constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Since January, at least 8,500 civilians have been killed and more than 16,000 wounded in Iraq, according to U.N. estimates given to the council by Nikolay Mladenov, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq. Since June, he added, the toll had been 4,700 killed and 6,500 wounded.

Iraq's new, foreign minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, called for military, economic and financial assistance to help Baghdad fight the Islamic State group.

The fall of Mosul on June 10 was a turning point in Iraq's war against the group. The U.S.-trained Iraqi military, under pressure for months by small-scale attacks, buckled quickly when the militants advanced on the city.

The first French airstrikes in Iraq have additional significance: France, one of America's oldest allies, was among the most vocal critics of Bush's decision to conduct military action in 2003 that toppled Saddam.

Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraq's military, said the French airstrikes hit the town of Zumar, killing dozens of the group's fighters. Hollande said France has taken precautions to prevent civilian casualties, and the French military official said the depot was located in a remote area.

Zumar and surrounding towns have remained heavily contested by Islamic State fighters, even as Iraqi and Kurdish security forces have managed to make headway in nearby regions with the support of U.S. airstrikes.

The French bombs fell within minutes of a ceremony in which Gen. Martin Dempsey, the U.S. military commander, laid flowers at a Normandy cemetery honoring thousands of U.S. troops who died in France in World War II. Dempsey said he was told of the attack by French counterpart Gen. Pierre de Villiers, and he praised the French action.

"The French were our very first ally and they're with us again now," Dempsey told reporters traveling with him in Normandy. "It just reminds me why these relationships really matter."

At Friday prayers in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala, a representative for the most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said foreign help in the fight against the Islamic State group should not lead to a violation of Iraq's sovereignty.

"The international efforts on this regard should not be used as a pretext to allow the foreigners to control the course of events in Iraq, especially in the military field," Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie said. "It is true that Iraq is in need for the help of brothers and friends in combating the black terrorism, yet safeguarding its sovereignty and independence should be highly considered. This should be taken care of."

France is conducting the operations in Iraq from French Air Base 104 inside Al Dhafra base near Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. French jets began flying reconnaissance missions Monday over Iraq.

The base, with about 750 French service personnel and six Rafales, is 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from Mosul, meaning that the planes need refueling in flight to strike in Iraq.

For future operations, France could also mobilize its only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, which is docked in southeastern France and would need at least five days to reach the eastern Mediterranean. The ship can carry about 30 planes including Rafales, Super-Etendards and U.S.-built E-2C Hawkeye surveillance aircraft.

Retired French Gen. Vincent Desportes said the French involvement, alongside far greater U.S. firepower, was more symbolic than militarily significant. But he said it could have a "snowball effect" by drawing in allies such as Australia or Canada to think more about participation.

"Three or four (French) airstrikes doesn't change much," said Desportes. "But it changes things in that it shows that the Americans are no longer alone."

He also pointed to France's tradition of supporting the U.S. in military ventures, including the deployment of more than 20,000 troops in the U.S.-led Gulf War in 1991.

"Aside from the case of the Iraq war - which was a stupidity - we have always been alongside the Americans," Desportes said. "In this case, it seems to me very good that we're cooperating."

Obama orders airstrikes in Syria for first time

Obama orders airstrikes in Syria for first time 
 

President Barack Obama addresses the nation from the Cross Hall in the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. In a major reversal, Obama ordered the United States into a broad military campaign to “degrade and ultimately destroy” militants in two volatile Middle East nations, authorizing airstrikes inside Syria for the first time, as well as an expansion of strikes in Iraq.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Opening a new military front in the Middle East, President Barack Obama authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria for the first time Wednesday night, along with expanded strikes in Iraq as part of "a steady, relentless effort" to root out Islamic State extremists and their spreading reign of terror.

"We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are," Obama declared in a prime-time address to the nation from the White House. "This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten 

America, you will find no safe haven."

Obama announced that he was dispatching nearly 500 more U.S. troops to advise and assist Iraqi security forces, as well as conduct intelligence and reconnaissance flights, bringing the total number of American forces sent there this summer to more than 1,500. He also urged Congress anew to authorize a program to train and arm Syrian rebels who are fighting both the Islamic State militants and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Obama's plans amounted to a striking shift for a president who rose to political prominence in part because of his early opposition to the Iraq war. While in office, he has steadfastly sought to wind down American military campaigns in the Middle East and avoid new wars - particularly in Syria, a country where the chaos of an intractable civil war has given the Islamic State space to thrive and move freely across the border with Iraq.

Speaking on the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Obama's plans were also an admission that years of American-led war in the Middle East have not quelled the terror threat emanating from the region.

Obama insisted that his plan to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State militants would not involve returning U.S. combat troops to the Middle East. Even so, he acknowledged that "any time we take military action, there are risks involved, especially to the servicemen and women who carry out these missions."

"But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil," he added.

The president's speech, which lasted about 15 minutes, followed a summer of deliberation at the White House over how to respond to the violent Islamic State militants. While administration officials have said they are not aware of a credible threat of a potential attack by the militants in the U.S., they say the group poses risks to Americans and interests across the Middle East. Officials are also concerned about the prospect that Westerners, including Americans, who have joined the militant group could return to their home countries to launch attacks.

In recent weeks, the militants have released videos depicting the beheading of two American journalists in Syria. The violent images appear to have had an impact on a formerly war-weary public, with multiple polls in recent days showing that the majority of Americans support airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. began launching limited airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq earlier this summer at the request of that country's former prime minister. But Obama vowed that he would not commit the U.S. to a deeper military campaign until Iraq formed a new government that allowed greater participation from all sects, a step Iraqi leaders took Tuesday.

Officials said Obama plans to proceed with both the broader airstrikes in Iraq and the strikes in Syria without seeking new authorization from Congress. Instead, he is to act under a use-of-force authorization Congress passed in the days after 9/11 to give President George W. Bush the ability to go after those who perpetrated the terror attacks. Obama has previously called for that authorization to be repealed, but he has also used it as support for strikes against terror targets in Yemen and Somalia.

Obama said his approach in Syria is modeled after those long-running U.S. counterterrorism campaigns. But it is different in important ways, starting with the fact that it marks the first time since 9/11 that a U.S. president has authorized the bombing of terror targets in another nation without seeking permission or at least notifying it in advance.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, praised Obama for acknowledging the "grave and growing threat" that Islamic extremists pose, but he said Obama was coming to that conclusion far too late.

"He has finally begun to make the case the nation has needed him to make for quite some time: that destroying this terrorist threat requires decisive action and must be the highest priority for the United States and other nations of the free world," Boehner said.

As if to answer the criticism that he has been too cautious, Obama declared of his plan: "This is American leadership at its best."

Obama is seeking authorization from Congress for a Pentagon-led effort to train and arm more moderate elements of the Syrian opposition. Even before his remarks, congressional leaders were grappling with whether to support that request and if so, how to get such a measure through the fractured legislature before the November elections.

The White House wants Congress to include the authorization in a temporary funding measure lawmakers are expected to vote on before adjourning later this month. Republicans have made no commitment to support the request and the House GOP has so far not included the measure in the funding legislation.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Nevada Democrat might opt to seek separate legislation.

While the CIA currently runs a small program to arm the rebels, the new version would be more robust. Obama asked Congress earlier this year to approve a $500 million program to expand the effort and put it under Pentagon control, but the request stalled on Capitol Hill.

Some of Obama's own advisers, including former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, pressed him to arm the rebels early in their fight against Assad. But Obama resisted, arguing that there was too much uncertainty about the composition of the rebel forces. He also expressed concern about adding more firepower to an already bloody civil war.

The White House announced Wednesday that it was also providing $25 million in immediate military assistance to the Iraqi government as part of efforts to combat the Islamic State.

The Treasury Department will also step up efforts to undermine the Islamic State group's finances. David Cohen, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, wrote in a blog post that the U.S. would be working with other countries, especially Gulf states, to cut off the group's external funding networks and its access to the global financial system.

The U.S. has been pressing allies in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere to help with efforts to degrade the terror group.

France's foreign minister said Wednesday that his country was ready to take part in airstrikes against extremist fighters in Iraq if needed. And the German government announced that it was sending assault rifles, ammunition, anti-tank weapons and armored vehicles to Kurdish forces in Iraq fighting, breaking with Berlin's previous reluctance to send weapons into conflicts.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad Wednesday, was also scheduled to attend a conference with Arab leaders Thursday to discuss their role in confronting the militants.

 

Election Results In Delaware State Primary

Election Results In Delaware State Primary

NEWARK, Del., (CBS) — They’re counting the votes in Delaware’s primary election.

In the Senate race, Kevin Wade defeated Carl Smink to win the Republican nomination.

Wade will take on incumbent Democrat Chris Coons in the November general election.

In the race for State Treasurer, Jen Simpler defeated Sher Valenzuela for the Republican nomination.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

WHO: Liberia will see thousands of new Ebola cases

WHO: Liberia will see thousands of new Ebola cases 

Health workers, attend to patients that contracted the Ebola virus, at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Sept. 8, 2014. Border closures, flight bans and mass quarantines are creating a sense of siege in the West African countries affected by Ebola, officials at an emergency African Union meeting said Monday, as Senegal agreed to allow humanitarian aid pass through its closed borders.

 

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- The United States and Britain will send medical equipment and military personnel to help contain West Africa's Ebola outbreak, as the World Health Organization warned Monday that many thousands of new infections are expected in Liberia in the coming weeks.

The current Ebola outbreak is the largest on record. It has spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal and killed more than 2,000 people. An "exponential increase" in new cases is expected in the hardest-hit countries in coming weeks, the U.N. health agency warned.

"As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients, pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload," WHO said in a statement about the situation in Liberia. "Many thousands of new cases are expected in Liberia over the coming three weeks."

So far, more than 3,500 people have been infected, nearly half of them in Liberia. The outbreak has taken a particularly heavy toll on health workers. The World Health Organization announced Monday that one of its doctors working in Sierra Leone has been infected with Ebola.

In response to the spiraling disaster, U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday that the military would help to set up isolation units and provide security for public health workers responding to the outbreak.

Military personnel will set up a 25-bed field hospital in the Liberian capital, Col. Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday. The clinic will be used to treat health care workers, a high number of whom have become infected in this outbreak.

Once set up, the center will be turned over to the Liberian government. There is no plan to staff it with U.S. military personnel, Warren said.

Liberia welcomed the news.

"This is not Liberia's particular fight; it is a fight that the international community must engage very, very seriously and bring all possible resources to bear," said Information Minister Lewis Brown.

In addition, Britain will open a 62-bed treatment center in Sierra Leone in the coming weeks. It will be operated by military engineers and medical staff with help from the charity Save the Children, Britain's Department for International Development said Monday.

The clinic will also include a special section for treating health care workers, offering them high-quality, specialist care, the statement said.

Currently, there are about 570 beds in Ebola treatment centers in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the hardest-hit countries, and the World Health Organization says nearly 1,000 more are needed, the vast majority of those in Liberia.

Doctors Without Borders welcomed both the American and British announcements, but warned even the latest surge in efforts may not be enough, saying the disease was moving "catastrophically through the 

population much faster than new facilities are being created."

And experts say it's not just beds, but that more international and local health workers that are needed. 

Doctors Without Borders also urged Washington to not simply set up clinics but also to staff them.

Many health workers, however, have been reluctant to respond to the crisis out of concern that there isn't enough protective equipment to keep them safe.

A fourth American who contracted Ebola in West Africa was expected to arrive in the U.S. for care Tuesday, Emory University Hospital - where two other aid workers successfully recovered from the disease - said Monday in a news release.

Ebola is spread through the bodily fluids of people who show symptoms, and doctors and nurses are at high risk of infection because they work closely with the sick. The WHO doctor whose infection was announced Monday is the second health care worker with the agency to catch Ebola. The doctor is in stable condition and will shortly be evacuated, the agency said.

In Liberia alone, 152 health care workers have been infected with Ebola and 79 have died, WHO said, noting that country had too few doctors and nurses even before the crisis.

"Every infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes response capacity significantly," it said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called several world leaders over the weekend, including the British prime minister and French president, to urge them to send more medical teams and money to fight the 

outbreak.

Officials have said flight bans and border closures - meant to stop the disease's spread - are slowing the flow of aid and protective gear for doctors and nurses to the region.

At an emergency African Union meeting Monday, members agreed to open borders that have been closed and lift bans on flights to and from affected countries, according to Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, chair of the AU's Commission. But it was unclear how quickly those promises would be kept.

Earlier, Senegal, which has shut its borders and blocked flights, said it was planning to open a "humanitarian corridor" to the affected countries.

Churches urge high court to act on gay marriage

Churches urge high court to act on gay marriage 
  

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Mormon church and four religious organizations are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and settle once and for all the question of whether states can outlaw gay marriage.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a statement Friday, said it joined a friend-of-the-court brief asking the high court to hear Utah's marriage case.

Also taking part in the filing were The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ethics & Religious Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Each teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman.

"The time has come to end the divisive national debate as to whether the Constitution mandates same-sex marriage," the brief states.

Multiple organizations and governmental entities on both sides of the debate have filed similar briefs asking the court to take up the issue.

The religious groups urged the Supreme Court on the basis of tradition and religious freedom to uphold a state's right to disallow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

"Legal uncertainty is especially burdensome for religious organizations and religious believers increasingly confronted with thorny questions," the brief says. "Is their right to refrain from participating in, recognizing or facilitating marriages between persons of the same sex, contrary to their religious convictions, adequately shielded by the First Amendment and other legal protections? Or is further legislation needed to guard religious liberties in these and other sensitive areas?"

Last month, attorneys for three Utah gay and lesbian couples formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take Utah's appeal of a favorable gay marriage ruling.

The plaintiffs said they asked for the review even though they won at the federal appellate court level because they want the Supreme Court to weigh in on whether state same-sex marriage bans violate the Constitution.

The high court is under no obligation to take Utah's case or the others.

US and UK seek partners to go after Islamic State

US and UK seek partners to go after Islamic State

U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, right, speak before taking their seats at the start of a NATO-Afghanistan round table meeting during a NATO summit at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. In a two-day summit leaders will discuss, among other issues, the situation in Ukraine and Afghanistan.

  

NEWPORT, Wales (AP) -- President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron pressed fellow NATO leaders Thursday to confront the "brutal and poisonous" Islamic State militant group that is wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria - and urged regional partners like Jordan and Turkey to join the effort as well.

As leaders of the Western alliance gathered for a two-day summit, Obama and Cameron worked to begin forming a coalition of nations that could combat the extremists through military power, diplomatic pressure and economic penalties.

"Those who want to adopt an isolationist approach misunderstand the nature of security in the 21st century," they wrote in a joint editorial published as the meetings began. "Developments in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq and Syria, threaten our security at home."

While some NATO leaders talked tough about the threat posed by the Islamic State group, the alliance made no specific pledges of action. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he believed the broader international community "has an obligation to stop the Islamic State from advancing further" and would seriously consider requests for assistance, particularly from the Iraqi government.

The Islamic State group moved up the list of international priorities as the militants pressed through Iraq with lighting speed earlier this year. The group, which seeks to create a caliphate, or Islamist nation-state, in the Mideast, is considered even more merciless toward its enemies than the al-Qaida terror network, and intelligence officials across the world warn that with hundreds of Westerners fighting for them, it may soon seek to seed its violence beyond its declared borders.

The U.S. began launching airstrikes against militant targets in Iraq last month, with Britain joining American forces in humanitarian airdrops to besieged minority populations. The militants' killing of two American journalists inside Syria has raised discussion of targeting the group there as well.

White House officials said they did not expect NATO to commit to a military mission against the group during the summit. Still, they raised the prospect that the end of NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan - an effort that has consumed the alliance for more than a decade - could allow member states to focus their attention elsewhere.

"What you see the alliance doing at this summit is looking at more than one direction at a time," said Douglas Lute, the U.S. ambassador to NATO.

Indeed, the threat posed by the Islamic State overshadowed some of the NATO summit's official agenda, which was intended to focus on celebrating the Afghan drawdown of troops and constructing a rapid response force on the alliance's eastern flank that could serve as a deterrent to Russian aggression. Obama and European leaders met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a show of solidarity with his embattled nation.

Beyond direct military action, the White House said it was also seeking commitments from allies to send weapons, ammunition and other assistance to Western-backed Syrian rebels and to Iraqi forces.

Germany moved in that direction Thursday, with the government announcing that it had sent a first planeload of military equipment to the Kurds in Iraq's north, including helmets, protective vests, field glasses and mine-searching devices. The German government also said it had decided to send assault rifles, ammunition, anti-tank weapons and armored vehicles to the Kurdish forces, but it hadn't yet set a date for the arms deliveries.

In between summit sessions on Afghanistan and Ukraine, Obama and Cameron also sought support from non-NATO nations that partner with the alliance. The president and prime minister held separate meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah II Thursday, and both plan to meet Friday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Obama has said repeatedly that efforts against the Islamic State would be successful only if the U.S. had support from neighbors of Iraq and Syria.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who are both with Obama in Wales, plan to travel to the Middle East next week to rally more support from regional partners.

The U.S. and Britain have been particularly concerned about the prospect that Westerners who have traveled to Syria to join the militants could return to their home countries and launch attacks. Cameron proposed new laws this week that would give police the power to seize the passports of Britons suspected of fighting alongside the extremists.

A British citizen is believed to have carried out the beheadings of the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Cameron on Thursday said he hadn't ruled out joining the U.S. in airstrikes, but he added that the priority was to support the forces already fighting the militants on the ground.

"We need to show real resolve and determination; we need to use every power and everything in our armory with our allies - with those on the ground - to make sure we do everything we can to squeeze this dreadful organization out of existence," Cameron told the British network ITV.

No gray area: Beliefs shape views of Brown killing

No gray area: Beliefs shape views of Brown killing 

 

In this Aug. 23, 2014 photo, Keith Stephens stands at a rally in support of policeman Darren Wilson, in St. Louis. Wilson is the white officer who shot unarmed, black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Like many Americans, Stephens has formed strong opinions about the case.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Lamont Jones and Keith Stephens stood 60 feet from each other, separated by four lanes of pavement and a thousand miles of perception.

Stephens was wearing a T-shirt printed with a police shield bearing the phrase "OFFICER DARREN WILSON I STAND BY YOU," as part of a rally supporting the white policeman who killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed. Jones was across the street, holding up a sign that said, in blood-red letters: "Darren Wilson is a Murderer."

There was no overlap in the facts as seen by Jones and Stephens at the demonstrations staged a few miles from suburban Ferguson, where Brown was killed. Like many who have closely followed the case, which sparked riots and yet another national racial conflagration, Jones and Stephens had made up their minds.

Like uncounted numbers of Americans, they saw no gray area in the killing of Michael Brown.

Many are convinced there was no justification for Wilson to kill Brown because he was unarmed. Many others are certain it was justifiable because they believe Brown threatened Wilson.

Not everyone is so sure. In a CBS News/New York Times poll, 64 percent of respondents said they didn't know enough to say whether the shooting was justified. Only about half of respondents said they had paid "a lot" of attention to the case.

But the national furor over Ferguson is fueled by those with strong opinions. They are the people still marching, or calling Brown a thug, or demanding that Wilson be convicted, or implying that Brown deserved his death.

Such strong opinions can often be influenced by "confirmation bias," psychologists say. A large body of research shows that people search for evidence to support their preexisting viewpoints - and then interpret that information in a way that reinforces their beliefs.

"It's the tendency to seek out and give greater weight to information that confirms what we think rather than contradicts it," said Scott Plous, a psychology professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Confirmation bias seemed to be running rampant at the dueling demonstrations.

About 100 Wilson backers, nearly all of them white, gathered outside of Barney's Sports Pub in St. Louis late last month, brandishing signs like "Heroes Have A Right To Protect Themselves." A multiracial group of about a dozen Brown supporters stood across the street. Passing drivers honked in support of one side or the other, screamed obscenities, or raised middle fingers out of windows.

Jones stalked the sidewalk with a silent, smoldering gaze. Asked why his sign called Wilson a murderer, he said Brown was unarmed and was shot with his hands up.

What about the police statement that Brown tried to grab Wilson's weapon?

"Where his witnesses at?" Jones demanded. "(Brown) ran away. He was unarmed."

"Use a stun gun. Taser," Jones added. "The facts are, Darren Wilson fired a multitude of six shots into an 18-year-old, who was unarmed . two shots in the arm, the rest in the head and upper torso."

An autopsy by the Brown family said Brown was hit with four shots in the arm and two in the head.

Might any information emerge that could change Jones' mind?

"No," Jones said, gaze steady. "Not at all."

His parting shot: "Unarmed!"

Across the street, questions about the case were met with a different selection of facts.

People at the Wilson rally brought up the arrest record of Dorian Johnson, the first witness, who said Brown was shot in the back (autopsies indicate the bullets hit him from the front) and with his hands up.

They were quick to mention two unverified accounts that provided support for those who argue Brown rushed toward the officer.

No mention was made of the other three witnesses - Tiffany Mitchell, Piaget Crenshaw and James McKnight - who also said they saw Brown's hands up. None of those witnesses described Brown rushing toward the officer.

Wilson's supporters mentioned that Brown stole a box of cigars from a store and roughly shoved the clerk minutes before he encountered Wilson.

"That'd say something about your character, right? And then you might start a fight with a cop?" said a plumber who gave his name as James Edwards.

Edwards mentioned a report, based on anonymous sources, that Wilson's orbital eye socket was fractured. But what about another anonymously sourced report that there was no fracture?

"I don't know if it's true or not. It makes no difference. He had facial wounds when he was hit. He was 100 percent right to shoot," Edwards said, as a passing driver honked in solidarity.

Stephens, one of many people wearing the Wilson badge T-shirts selling for $20, said that if Brown grabbed Wilson's weapon and assaulted him, "that gives him every right to shoot him."

At first Stephens said he could see a gray area in the case because there was so much unconfirmed information circulating. Then he said, "If we assume this officer's account is accurate, there is no gray area in the state of Missouri," meaning he believed what Wilson did was legal under state law.

Did he assume Wilson's account was accurate?

"Yeah, I do," Stephens said.

Several witnesses described Brown breaking away from Wilson and running away. They recalled the officer firing shots at the fleeing Brown, and then Brown stopping.

The crucial question is what happened next.

The rallying cry of "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" has become a powerful symbol of Brown's death. But could "Hands Up" be more myth than fact?

Alternatively, could Wilson, facing possible criminal charges over his decision to shoot, have exaggerated Brown's aggression, shading his statement of facts about what happened?

With so much incomplete and sometimes conflicting information, some confirmation bias is bound to occur.

"If one were to view a police officer pointing a gun at someone, and they also view police negatively, they may very well ignore whatever events precipitated the officer drawing his/her weapon, even though that action may have been entirely justifiable," Lou Manza, chair of the psychology department at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, said in an email.

"On the other side," he said, "if one has a favorable view of police, they're going to ignore the alleged assailant's behavior, and simply assume that the police officer is correct, despite the fact that the officer may very well be wrong and unjustified in their actions."

"Confirmation bias is a subtle but strong effect," Manza said, "and once a belief is established, it can be VERY difficult to change it."

This helps to explain why Brown's killing, currently being considered by a Missouri grand jury, has revived a dynamic seen in racial controversy after controversy, from O.J. Simpson to Rodney King to Trayvon Martin: People look at the same information and come to very different conclusions.

In this particular case, with little unambiguous evidence, "people are actually acting very reasonably," said Plous, the Wesleyan professor.

"There is a void, and into that void, people will bring whatever they regard as the most reasonable evidence," he said. "People are trying to make sense of this tragedy using the most compelling evidence they have available."

Such as their own perspectives and experiences.

"We're forced to reconstruct, to remember, to imagine what could have taken place," Plous said, "and those are precisely the conditions when we're likely to see bias."