Globe Trot: Nigeria plagued by Ebola and Boko Haram

NIGERIA has ordered all schools to remain closed until mid-October to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. With major airlines halting flights to Africa over Ebola, the head of the African Development Bank called the situation “cataclysmic” for the continent: “It is decimating the health sector. … There are many other diseases right now not being attended to because Ebola has overstretched the capacity of the health sector.”

Ebola is not slowing Boko Haram fighters in northern Nigeria, who have taken over Gwoza district this month much the same way ISIS took over Nineveh province in Iraq. This firsthand account describes a June attack on a neighboring village in (warning) graphic terms, as among other brutalities, one Boko Haram militant beheaded a 6-year-old boy.

SYRIA: President Barack Obama finds himself check-mated by Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad as he authorizes air surveillance of ISIS in Syria but vows not to cooperate or share intelligence with Assad, the ISIS nemesis there.

UKRAINE: NATO for the first time will deploy forces at bases in eastern Europe in response to the crisis in Ukraine and Russian troublemaking. Moscow appears to have closed three McDonald’s restaurants for 90 days over alleged health violations, widely seen as retaliation for Western sanctions. The Putin regime also says it plans to halt the flow of natural gas to Europe this winter over sanctions.

CUBA: Violations against churches and other religious groups in Cuba are running nearly double this year compared to last.

SOUTH KOREA: WORLD’s Sophia Lee explores the dynamo that is her homeland, including its false models of beauty and success. (One in five South Korean women has had plastic surgery.)

GLOBAL TREND: Consider this: In the United States, life expectancy rose from about 61 years in 1933 to about 79 in 2010. Scholar Nicholas Eberstadt traces how the lengthening of life spans the world over is a rising tide lifting all boats.

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