World/Nation
Police remove barriers at Hong Kong protests
HONG KONG - Dozens of police are removing bamboo barriers pro-democracy protesters had erected overnight after they were attacked the previous day by a mob of masked men.
Police also cleared out protesters' tents nearby Tuesday morning, and were starting to take down other makeshift barricades of plywood, trash cans and items collected by protesters and piling them into trucks and vans.
Crowds of people stood nearby watching in the heart of the city's financial district.
The protesters, led by university students, are pushing for greater say in the territory's first direct elections in 2017. They have occupied sections of roads in three main areas in Hong Kong since Sept. 28 in a civil disobedience movement.
About 70 hospital workers helped Ebola patient
DALLAS - They drew his blood, put tubes down his throat and wiped up his diarrhea. They analyzed his urine and wiped saliva from his lips, even after he had lost consciousness.
About 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital were involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was hospitalized, including a nurse now being treated for the same Ebola virus that killed the Liberian man who was visiting Dallas, according to medical records his family provided to The Associated Press.
The size of the medical team reflects the hospital's intense effort to save Duncan's life, but it also suggests that many other people could have been exposed to the virus during Duncan's time in an isolation unit.
On Monday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the infection of the nurse means the agency must broaden the pool of people getting close monitoring. Authorities have said they do not know how the nurse was infected, but they suspect some kind of breach in the hospital's protocol.
The medical records given to the AP offer clues, both to what happened and who was involved, but the hospital said the CDC does not have them.
Islamic State group seizes Iraqi army camp
BAGHDAD - Militants with the Islamic State group on Monday captured a military training camp in western Iraq, inching closer to full control of the restive Anbar province, as a spate of deadly bombings shook Baghdad, hitting mostly Shiite neighborhoods and leaving at least 30 dead.
The attacks, which came as Iraqi Shiites marked a major holiday for their sect with families crowding the streets in celebration, raised new concerns that the Sunni militant group is making gains despite U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, on a visit to Iraq, warned that the airstrikes will not be enough to defeat the extremist group and stressed that the Iraqi security forces would have to do the "heavy work on the ground."
But Iraqi troops, overstretched and overwhelmed by the Islamic State group's summer blitz that seized large swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq, continued to come under pressure Monday in the western Anbar province, where militants seized an Iraqi military training camp.
Bishops say gays have gifts to offer Catholic church
VATICAN CITY - Catholic bishops signaled a radical shift in tone Monday about accepting gays into the church, saying they had gifts to offer and that their partnerships, while morally problematic, provided homosexual couples with "precious" support.
In a preliminary report, released half-way through a Vatican meeting on family life called by Pope Francis, the bishops also said the church must welcome divorcees and recognize the "positive" aspects of civil marriages and even Catholics who cohabitate, as well as the children of these less traditional families.
While it does not change church doctrine, the tone of the report on a host of hot-button family issues such as marriage, divorce, homosexuality and birth control was one of almost-revolutionary acceptance and understanding rather than condemnation. It will guide a closed-door debate until a final document is issued Saturday.
Gay rights groups hailed what they called a "seismic shift" in the church's attitude toward gays.