Midday Roundup: Missionary doc gives blood to nurse with Ebola

Health scare. The Dallas nurse infected with the Ebola virus has received a blood transfusion from Dr. Kent Brantly, a Samaritan’s Purse missionary doctor who contracted the disease in Liberia and survived. Nina Pham, 26, fell ill after caring for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who died of the virus on a visit to Dallas. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Duncan died and Pham works, has come under criticism for its handling of Duncan’s treatment. But Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has urged the public not to blame the hospital, whose mistakes will be a lesson for other facilities that might have to deal with Ebola. Earlier today, the World Health Organization said the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has a mortality rate of 70 percent and could spread to infect up to 10,000 people per week within two months.

Market slide. Stocks fell sharply Monday following losses last Thursday and Friday, ending the indexes’ worst three-day performance in more than two years. The Dow Jones industrial average slumped 222 points, or 1.4 percent, to close at 16,321 Monday. The price of oil has been slumping as fears of waning demand grow even as production remains high. Wall Street analysts are hoping that a positive earnings season, which started last week, with the release of Alcoa’s positive earnings report, will reduce fears that have slowed growth in Europe and China over the past few months.

On the scene. Photos released today by North Korea show leader Kim Jong-Un appearing in public after six weeks of being missing in action. Kim, who was last seen publicly at a Sept. 3 concert, is shown smiling broadly and supporting himself with a walking stick while touring the newly built Wisong Scientists Residential District and another new institute in Pyongyang. The state didn’t say when the visit happened, nor did it address the leader’s health. Rumors of Kim’s poor health, death, or a possible coup circulated during the leader’s absence. An official documentary has said only that Kim was experiencing “discomfort.”

The beat goes on. Police arrested more than 50 people in the Greater St. Louis area Monday as protesters committed numerous acts of civil disobedience to call attention to racial strife. Organizers named last weekend “Ferguson October” in an effort to continue the drumbeat for more police accountability after the August shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed. Marches took place over the weekend, and the movement continued into “Moral Monday,” which wrapped up with a protest at the St. Louis Rams game against the San Francisco 49ers in the Edward Jones Dome. The Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of the Washington-based social justice group Sojourners, was among those arrested Monday in Ferguson.

Face-off. Police in Hong Kong moved Tuesday to clear out protest zones that have locked up traffic in the city for two weeks. Angry Hong Kong residents also lashed out at the protesters and tried to clear away barricades. A group of pro-democracy demonstrators, many of them students, refused to disperse from in front of the government headquarters near the entrance to the office of the city’s leader. Police used pepper spray to try to scatter the protesters, but failed and fell back, leaving a tunnel in the hands of the protesters.

WORLD News Group’s Warren Cole Smith and The Associated Press contributed to this report.