WHO declares Ebola epidemic an international health emergency

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan addresses the media after a two-day meeting of its emergency committee on Ebola, in Geneva August 8, 2014.

West Africa's Ebola epidemic is an "extraordinary event" and now constitutes an international health risk, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The Geneva-based U.N. health agency said the possible consequences of a further international spread of the outbreak, which has killed almost 1,000 people in four West African countries, were "particularly serious" in view of the virulence of the virus.

"A coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop and reverse the international spread of Ebola," the WHO said in a statement after a two-day meeting of its emergency committee on Ebola.

Israel strikes Gaza after militants resume rocket fire

A Palestinian woman, whom medics said was wounded in an Israeli air strike, is wheeled on a stretcher at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 8, 2014.

Israel launched air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday in response to Palestinian rockets after Egyptian-mediated talks failed to extend a 72-hour truce in a month-long war.

Egypt later called for a resumption of the ceasefire, saying only a few points remained to be agreed. Palestinian factions said they would meet Egyptian mediators later in the day but there was no sign of any imminent deal.

An Israeli government official said Israel would not negotiate with Palestinians while militants continued to unleash missiles.

As warning sirens sounded in southern Israel, the military said "Gaza terrorists" had fired more than 45 rockets on Friday morning and the "Iron Dome" interceptor system had brought down two.

U.S. bombs Islamic State after Obama call to prevent Iraq 'genocide'

 U.S. warplanes attacked Islamist fighters advancing towards the Kurdish region of Iraq after President Barack Obama said Washington must act to prevent "genocide."

 U.S. warplanes bombed Islamist fighters marching on Iraq's Kurdish capital on Friday after President Barack Obama said Washington must act to prevent "genocide".

Islamic State fighters, who have beheaded and crucified captives in their drive to eradicate unbelievers, have advanced to within a half hour's drive of Arbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdish region and a hub for U.S. oil companies.

They have also seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, Kurdish authorities confirmed on Friday, which could allow them to flood cities and cut off vital water and electricity supplies.

Ebola Therapy From an Obscure Biotech Firm Is Hurried Along

A Reynolds American plant in Owensboro, Ky., makes ZMapp inside the leaves of tobacco plants, but production is very limited.

Inside special isolation units at an Atlanta hospital on Wednesday, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, the two Americans infected with Ebola in West Africa, appeared to be responding to an experimental medicine devised by an obscure biotechnology company with ties to the Defense Department.

In West Africa, the estimated death toll from the outbreak kept rising, to 932, by the latest official count.

How and why Dr. Brantly and Ms. Writebol received the drug, ZMapp, is one of the many mysteries surrounding what has been called a “secret serum,” including the big one: Does it really work? The Americans are the only two patients who have been treated with the medicine, out of perhaps thousands who might have benefited so far, raising old questions about who does — and does not — have access to medications, including experimental drugs.

In Iran, the Jockeying Behind a Foreign Journalist’s Arrest

Jason Rezaian knew he was being watched. A man on a motorcycle had been following him and his wife for weeks, his colleagues said. The tail was so blatant that Mr. Rezaian, The Washington Post correspondent in Tehran, had even managed to take a picture of the license plate.

Like many foreign journalists accredited by the Iranian authorities, Mr. Rezaian had grown painfully accustomed to being under constant suspicion. Opponents of Iran’s leaders accuse correspondents of soft-pedaling to avoid being expelled, while conservatives inside Iran often call them spies. Some hard-liners even say they should be executed.