Civil rights organizations

Civil rights organizations and protest groups invited people from around the country to join vigils and marches from Friday to Monday over the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. A march is planned for Saturday morning through downtown St. Louis, with discussions about race and teach-ins about how to interact with police officers set to follow, according to organizing groups like Hands Up United. The weekend's demonstrations kicked off on Friday afternoon with hundreds peacefully marching through the rain to the St. Louis County courthouse in Clayton, adjacent to St. Louis. Protesters have called for the arrest and prosecution of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot the unarmed Brown, as a grand jury weighs whether he should be charged in the killing. Some 300 people later assembled outside the nearby Ferguson Police Department, chanting phrases like "Who are we? Mike Brown!" and "Indict. Convict. Send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!" just inches away from dozens of officers clad in riot gear. kids 9, kids 10, kids 11, kids 7, kids 8, kids 5, kids 6, kids 3, kids 4, kids 1, kids 2 Into early Saturday morning, many protesters moved to the St. Louis neighborhood of Shaw, where 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers Jr. was shot dead by an off-duty white officer working for a private security firm in what police described as a firefight on Wednesday. While the atmosphere was at times tense, there were none of the clashes with police that have marked protests in the St. Louis area in the wake of Brown's killing. Police said as of early Saturday there had been no arrests, injuries or damage from the night's protests. Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said law enforcement authorities in the area are planning for large crowds and possible violence, particularly given the killing of Myers on Wednesday. Police arrested eight people during chaotic protests that followed that killing on Thursday night.

protests in Missouri

Organizers of the four-day Ferguson October events expected 6,000 participants, but the initial protest Friday outside the St. Louis County prosecutor's office in Clayton didn't draw nearly that amount. Protesters huddled beneath umbrellas, raincoats and ponchos as they renewed their call for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed. A grand jury is reviewing the case, and the U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Brown's death and a broader inquiry into the Ferguson police force. "We are here to demand the justice that our people have died for," chanted protest organizer Montague Simmons of the local group Organization for Black Struggle. "We are here to bring peace, to bring restoration, to lift our banners in the name of those who've been sacrificed." Police in Clayton reported no arrests, and officers escorted the several hundred demonstrators through the suburb's downtown as they marched past high-end restaurants, jewelry stores, banks and law offices. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Police Department said it had encrypted its radio communications system because tactical information relayed to officers had been compromised during recent situations, putting officer and the public at risk. Tensions remain high in the wake of another black 18-year-old's shooting death by a white police officer Wednesday night in St. Louis. Police say Vonderrit D. Myers shot at the St. Louis officer, who was in uniform but working off-duty for a private neighborhood security patrol. Myers' parents say he was unarmed. Additional demonstrations were planned later Friday in Ferguson as well as in the St. Louis neighborhood where Myers was killed. On Saturday, the protests shift to downtown St. Louis, hours before the Cardinals host the San Francisco Giants in the first game of the National League Championship Series. And on Monday, a series of planned — but unannounced — acts of civil disobedience are to take place throughout the St. Louis region. "I'm not planning to get arrested," said Davidson, who was meeting up with other protesters from Illinois, Minnesota, New York and Tennessee. "But I do plan to do what I believe are in my rights as a protester. If I get arrested, that's on the people who arrest me." Brown's parents, the local chapter of the NAACP and other organizations called for peaceful protests ahead of the demonstrations. St. Louis police arrested eight people Thursday as hundreds gathered to protest Myers' death. At one point officers used pepper spray to force protesters back. A police spokeswoman said one officer was struck in the arm after someone threw a brick, and several cars were damaged. Black leaders in St. Louis want the Justice Department to investigate Myers' shooting as well. Police said the officer fired 17 rounds after Myers shot at him. Preliminary autopsy results show a shot to the head killed Myers. The officer wasn't injured. Online court documents show Myers was free on bond when he was killed. He had been charged with the unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest in June.

patients are sorely lacking

The U.S. military is working to build medical centers in Liberia and may send up to 4,000 soldiers to help with the Ebola crisis. Medical workers and beds for Ebola patients are sorely lacking, particularly in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Liberia and Sierra Leone only have enough beds to meet about 21 percent and 26 percent of their needs, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. British troops have arrived in Sierra Leone to start building more treatment centers and basic clinics. A Ugandan-born naturalized Liberian doctor, John Taban Dada, died of Ebola at a treatment center on the outskirts of Monrovia early Thursday, health officials have confirmed. Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said the gynecologist and surgeon will be immediately buried Thursday in accordance with policy about the quick interment of victims. Dr. Dada served as the medical director of the Redemption Hospital in Monrovia from 2008 to 2013 before moving on to take up a new assignment at the country's largest John F. Kennedy Memorial Center, according to authorities at the Redemption Hospital. "I didn't know he has passed on; it is really unfortunate that we're still losing so many health workers," she told AP. "This Ebola really ... it has come for the health workers," she said, "Because right now at Island Clinic we have almost 10 health workers admitted including doctors from JFK and laboratory technicians and nurses." There was also concern in Spain, where the first person known to have caught the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa became sick. The assistant director of Madrid's Carlos III hospital where a Spanish nursing assistant diagnosed with Ebola is being treated said Thursday the patient's condition has deteriorated. Yoland Fuentes said the patient, nursing assistant Teresa Romero, had asked for details of her condition not to be release and doctors could not give further information Two doctors who treated her have been admitted to a Madrid hospital for precautionary observation, bringing to six the number being monitored at the center, health officials said Thursday. Ebola has killed at least 3,800 people in West Africa with no signs of abating. The presidents of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the countries hardest hit in the outbreak, are appealing to the World Bank on Thursday for more help for their nations. In Germany, a man infected in Liberia arrived Thursday at a hospital in Germany for treatment — the third Ebola patient to be flown to the country. The St. Georg Hospital in Leipzig said the man, who works for the United Nations in Liberia and whose name wasn't given, will be treated in a special isolation unit. A Ugandan doctor who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone is currently being treated at a hospital in Frankfurt. A Senegalese scientist who was infected while working for the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone, has recovered and was discharged last week from a hospital in Hamburg. The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan, died Wednesday in Dallas. Five major U.S. airports plan to try to catch any travelers from Ebola-ravaged countries who may be carrying the disease by checking their temperatures on arrival.

The Swedish Academy

The Swedish Academy gave the 8 million-kronor ($1.1 million) prize to Modiano for evoking "the most ungraspable human destinies" and uncovering the world of life behind the Nazi occupation. Modiano, 69, whose novel "Missing Person" won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1978, was born in a west Paris suburb in July 1945, two months after World War II ended in Europe. His father was of Jewish-Italian origins and met his Belgian actress mother during the occupation of Paris. Jewishness, the Nazi occupation and loss of identity are recurrent themes in his novels, which include 1968's "La Place de l'Etoile" — later hailed in Germany as a key post-Holocaust work. Modiano, who lives in Paris, rarely accords interviews. He has published more than 40 works in French, some of which have been translated into English, including "Ring of Roads: A Novel," ''Villa Triste," ''A Trace of Malice," and "Honeymoon." He has also written children's books and film scripts, including co-writing the 1974 movie "Lacombe, Lucien" with director Louis Malle and the 2003 movie "Bon Voyage" with director Jean-Paul Rappeneau. He was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 and in 2012 won the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. Dervila Cooke of Dublin City University, author of a book on Modiano, said his works dealt with the traumas of France's past but have a "darkly humorous touch." "His prose is crystal clear and resonant," she said. "A common description of his work is of its petite musique — it's haunting little music." Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy said Modiano's works often explore the themes of time, memory and identity. "He is returning to the same topics again and again simply because these topics, you can't exhaust them," Englund told journalists in Stockholm. "You can't give a definite answer to: Why did I turn into the person I am today? What happened to me? How will I break out of the weight of time? How can I reach back into past times?" Englund said Modiano also likes to play with the detective genre. In "Missing Person" he wrote about a private detective who is about to launch his last investigation — finding out who he is because he has completely lost his memory. Betting on Modiano to win the Nobel Prize surged in the week before the announcement, raising questions about a possible leak. David Williams of bookmaker Ladbrokes said Modiano's odds had shortened from 100-1 a few months ago to 10-1 before the announcement. Something similar occurred the last time there was a French winner, when Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the Nobel literature prize in 2008. The academy at the time suspected a leak. But Williams said the betting pattern on Modiano was not suspicious. "We are experts in analyzing betting patterns and we kind of know what a leak looks like. This doesn't look like a leak. It just looks like his fans got behind him and gave him a bit of momentum," he told The Associated Press.

unlike virtually every other American

who was a plaintiff in a Nevada court challenge to the state's gay marriage ban with Beverly Sevcik, her partner of 43 years. A 9th Circuit ruling late Tuesday cleared the way for Idaho and Nevada to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Couples gathered early Wednesday, but a ruling by Justice Anthony Kennedy brought such plans to a halt in both states. Later, Kennedy clarified that the stay he approved applied only to Idaho, but Nevada officials said they wanted to wait for more clear direction. A Supreme Court decision Monday effectively made gay marriage legal in about 30 states, but for several how and when that would happen remained in doubt. In South Carolina, for example, a judge issued a license for a handful of gay couples, but no one got married as the state's attorney general asked the Supreme Court for a stay. the Supreme Court memo to a lawyer and told a small crowd of gay couples and their supporters gathered in a Boise courthouse, "We're not issuing same-sex marriage licenses today." The announcement left the room in stunned silence, except for a small child asking over and over, "Why?" oil gauge, oil gauge, oil gauge, oil gauge, oil gauge "We were past the metal detectors, we were just a few feet away from the clerk," said Amber Beierle. "And then our attorney was handed a one-page document. Apparently, it was Justice Kennedy telling us, No." Beierle said the toughest moment was when she called her mother, who was driving into town to help celebrate. "There's just something about hearing your mom's voice that makes everything seem a little more real," she said. Beierle began to choke up on the phone as she tried to fight back tears. She said she and her partner, Rachael Beierle, were not going to give up their fight, but it was an especially bitter moment since they had never been this close to getting married before. At several points throughout the day, couples thought marriages might begin. But as courts began to close, Diana Alba, the Clark County clerk, said no one in the state would be issuing marriage licenses Wednesday, and she didn't know when they might begin. "I wish I knew a date," she said. Tara Traynor and her fiancee, Cathy Grimes, had been among those waiting at the Clark County Marriage License Bureau, checking their phones for court developments and letting straight couples cut in front of them while they waited for the legal OK to get a license themselves.

The fire was spreading up

Yosemite National Park in Northern California smashed into a steep canyon wall Tuesday, killing the pilot who was believed to be the only person aboard, officials said. Rescue crews hiking through extremely rugged terrain found the wreckage and confirmed the pilot's death several hours after the plane crashed, said Alyssa Smith, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The pilot's family has requested no name be released until all immediate family members can be notified, Smith said. The plane went down about 4:30 p.m. within a mile of the park's west entrance, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said. California Highway Patrol Sgt. Chris Michael said he was stopping traffic along state Route 140 at the west entrance to the park when he witnessed the crash. "I heard a large explosion, I looked up on the steep canyon wall and saw aircraft debris was actually raining down the side of the mountain after the impact," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "It hit the steep side of the canyon wall. It appeared from the direction he was going, he was trying to make a drop down the side of the canyon when he hit the canyon wall." The fire was spreading up the canyon wall, and it appeared the pilot was trying to lay down fire retardant to stop its progress, Michael said. "It most definitely did disintegrate on impact," he said. "It was nothing. I didn't see anything but small pieces." Pieces of the aircraft landed on the highway and came close to hitting fire crews on the ground nearby, but no one on the ground was injured, he said. "It came pretty close to hitting them, but they were far enough away that it missed them, fortunately," he said. The airplane, manufactured in 2001 and based out of Hollister, is an S-2T air tanker, which is flown by a single pilot and normally has no other crew members. The tanker uses twin turbine engines and is capable of carrying 1,200 gallons of retardant, said another CalFire spokesman, Daniel Berlant. Don Talend, of West Dundee, Illinois, said he also may have seen the plane go down. Talend and friends were vacationing at the park when they stopped to snap some photographs of the fire, which was several miles away. The plane "disappeared into the smoke and you heard a boom," he told The Associated Press by phone. "I couldn't believe what I saw," Talend said. "There was actually a ranger there behind us. ... He had a look of disbelief on his face." The missing pilot is an employee of DynCorp., a contractor that provides the pilots for all CalFire planes and maintenance for the department's aircraft, said Janet Upton, a CalFire spokeswoman. The fire had broken out about 90 minutes earlier Tuesday near Route 140, which leads into the heart of the park. It had grown to about 130 acres by Tuesday evening and forced the evacuation of several dozen homes near the community of Foresta. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were investigating the crash and were expected to arrive at the crash site Wednesday morning, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said. FAA records show the plane is registered to the U.S. Forest Service, which originally provided the plane to CalFire, Upton said. The last time a CalFire air tanker crashed was in 2001, when two tankers collided while fighting a fire in Mendocino County, killing both pilots, Berlant said. The agency had another plane crash in 2006, when a fire battalion chief and a pilot were killed while observing a fire in a two-seat plane in Tulare County. According to the lawsuit filed Monday in Indiana, an officer told Mahone she was being pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt and asked to see both her driver's license and Jones' identification. Mahone produced her license, but Jones told the officer he did not have his license because he had been ticketed for not paying his insurance, and offered to show them the ticket. The officer refused, according to Jones, and ordered him to step out of the car. According to the suit, Jones refused, fearing "the officers would harm him." But Hammond police say Jones "refused to lower the window more than a small amount" and refused to provide his name. The officer then called for backup, requesting a video-equipped squad car. It was around this time, police say, that Mahone shifted the car into drive. When officers warned her they had placed a "stop strip" that would puncture her tires in front of the vehicle, she pleaded with them to let her go. cording to the lawsuit, the club struck Jones in the shoulder and caused shards of glass to hit the four passengers. The officers then tasered Jones and forcibly removed him from car, placing him under arrest. He was charged with resisting arrest, according to the suit. "At no point during this entire encounter did Jamal physically resist the officers in any way," the lawsuit states. But in a statement, Hammond Police Lt. Richard Hoyda said the officers were "at all times acting in the interest of officer safety and in accordance with Indiana law." "In general, police officers who make legal traffic stops are allowed to ask passengers inside of a stopped vehicle for identification and to request that they exit a stopped vehicle for the officer’s safety without a requirement of reasonable suspicion," Hoyda said. "When the passenger displayed movements inside of the stopped vehicle that included placing his hand in places where the officer could not see, officers’ concerns for their safety were heightened." The case is the latest in a series involving officers accused of using excessive force. Last month, a South Carolina Highway Patrol officer was charged with armed aggravated assault after he shot an unarmed driver who had reached into his car to retrieve his license. The shooting was captured on the officer's dash cam. The shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in August sparked nightly demonstrations that included heavily armed militarized police clashing with protesters in the St. Louis suburb. That shooting, which was not captured on video, led to calls from lawmakers for police to wear video cameras on their uniforms.

Acidification may already

Ocean acidification has risen by a quarter since pre-industrial times as a result of rising carbon emissions, casting a shadow over the seas as a future source of food, scientists warned on Wednesday. In the past two centuries, the sea's acidity level has risen 26 percent, mirroring the proportion of carbon dioxide it absorbs from the air, they said in a report to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in South Korea. Rising acidity will have damaging consequences for shellfish, corals and other calcium-making organisms which play a vital part in the food web, they said. "It is now nearly inevitable that within 50 to 100 years, continued anthropogenic [man-made] carbon dioxide emissions will further increase ocean acidity to levels that will have widespread impacts... on marine organisms and ecosystems and the goods and services they provide," they said. Acidification may already be affecting shellfish farms in the northwestern United States, they said. The report, authored by 30 experts, was released at a conference in Pyeongchang of the CBD, an offshoot of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The 102-page document, based on a review of hundreds of published studies, said the ocean's pH level was falling -- a benchmark of rising acidity -- and the consequences would be enduring. "Recovery from a major decrease in ocean pH takes many thousands of years," it said. The scientists pointed to a mysterious mass extinction from natural causes called the Paleo-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which occurred around 56 million years ago. The fossil record suggests it took around 100,000 years for calcifying organisms to recover from the acidification shock. The experts sounded a special warning for tropical coral reefs, whose health is already affected by warmer seas. The risks "are of great concern, since the livelihoods of around 400 million people depend on such habitats," they said. The report said ocean acidification was as complex as it was important, yet there were many knowledge gaps. It pointed to likely changes in the ecosystem as some species benefitted from the change while others were hit, and shifts in the ocean's chemistry that, in turn, may even add to warming above the surface.