Science & Technology News

By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama commended New Yorkers for their calm reaction to the city’s first case of Ebola and told Americans in his weekly address that the response to domestic cases of the deadly disease needs to be based on “facts, not fear.” It was the second week in a row that Obama used his address to speak directly to Americans about the response to Ebola, which has turned into a political issue in the days leading up to Nov. 4 congressional elections. They did what they do every day: jumping on buses, riding the subway, crowding into elevators, heading into work, gathering in parks,” he said. Obama praised the fast response by New York City officials in isolating and treating Dr. Craig Spencer, a humanitarian aid worker who tested positive for Ebola on Thursday, the fourth person diagnosed with the virus in the United States. “It’s important to remember that of the seven Americans treated so far for Ebola – the five who contracted it in West Africa, plus the two nurses from Dallas – all seven have survived,” Obama said.

By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW YORK (Reuters) – A medical worker quarantined in New Jersey on her return from treating Ebola victims in West Africa was being evaluated in a hospital isolation ward on Saturday after new contagion-control safeguards were imposed for America’s biggest urban center. She was the first to be quarantined under a policy imposed on Friday by the states of New York and New Jersey requiring all health workers coming from Ebola-stricken West African countries to be automatically confined for monitoring during the 21-day incubation period of the virus. The worker, who has not been publicly identified, showed no symptoms when she arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday but developed a fever after being admitted to University Hospital in Newark, the state health department said. New York and New Jersey officials acted to begin mandatory isolation of medical personnel arriving from Ebola zones after Craig Spencer, a doctor who treated patients in Guinea for a month, came back to New York City infected.

By Ellen Wulfhorst and David Morgan NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New York and New Jersey will automatically quarantine medical workers returning from Ebola-hit West African countries and the U.S. The steps announced by the two states, which go beyond the current restrictions being imposed by President Barack Obama’s administration on travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, came as medical detectives tried to retrace the steps in New York City of Dr. Craig Spencer, who tested positive for Ebola on Thursday.

By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW YORK (Reuters) – The young doctor diagnosed with Ebola in New York City is a big-hearted man with a serious interest in international emergency medicine and a flair for languages, yet his friends call him “a goofball.” Craig Spencer, originally from the Detroit area, has specialized in International Emergency Medicine at the highly respected Columbia University-New York Presbyterian Hospital since 2011, according to his online LinkedIn resume. He spent a month treating Ebola patients in Guinea with the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, returned to the United States on Oct. 17 and was diagnosed with the virus on Thursday, health officials said. “Craig is one of the most brilliant and delightful people I have ever had the pleasure of working with,” said Leslie Roberts, a professor of population and family health at the Columbia University Medical Center.

By Ellen Wulfhorst and Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Reuters) – A doctor who worked in West Africa with Ebola patients was in an isolation unit in New York City on Friday after testing positive for the virus, becoming the fourth person diagnosed with the disease in the United States and the first in its largest city. Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, was quarantined at Bellevue Hospital on Thursday, six days after returning from Guinea, unnerving financial markets amid concern the disease may spread in the nation’s most populous city. Three people who had close contact with Spencer, a physician for the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, were quarantined for observation. The news of New York’s first Ebola case sent U.S.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth made her first foray into the world of social media on Friday when she sent out her inaugural message on Twitter. “It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @sciencemuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R,” the 88-year-old monarch tweeted at the opening of a new gallery at London’s Science Museum. The message, sent at 10.35 GMT, had already been re-tweeted more than 4,000 times less than 45 minutes later. …

The new arrangement, requested by South Korea, delayed transition to South Korean command leadership until Seoul has better military capabilities to counter the kinds of nuclear weapons and missile threats posed by North Korea. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-Koo signed the accord at the Pentagon on Thursday, a year after they agreed to review the December 2015 timing of the transfer.

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc is expanding its artificial intelligence initiative, hiring more than half a dozen leading academics and experts in the field and announcing a partnership with Oxford University to “accelerate” its efforts. Google will make a “substantial contribution” to establish a research partnership with Oxford’s computer science and engineering departments, the company said on Thursday regarding its work to develop the intelligence of machines and software, often to emulate human-like intelligence. Google did not provide any financial details about the partnership, saying only in a post on its blog that it will include a program of student internships and a series of joint lectures and workshops “to share knowledge and expertise.” Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, is building up its artificial intelligence capabilities as it strives to maintain its dominance in the Internet search market and to develop new products such as robotics and self-driving cars.

By Jonny Hogg and Gulsen Solaker ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu unveiled a tightening of security legislation on Tuesday following deadly protests this month, amid growing fears that the government is using the unrest to tighten its grip on power. Around 40 people were killed in violence that swept southeast Turkey after Kurdish protesters took to the streets to express their fury over the fate of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, besieged by Islamic State militants for a month. …

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) – Chen Ziming, a veteran Chinese dissident who was jailed by Beijing for what it said was his role as one of two “black hands” behind the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, died of cancer on Tuesday, friends said. He was 62. Chen remained a moderate critic of China’s ruling Communist Party for decades despite serving 13 years in prison for what authorities said was intent to overthrow the government and the spread of counter-revolutionary propaganda. …