New York, October 24
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 placed in a quarantined unit at Bellevue Hospital on Thursday, six days after returning from Guinea, renewing public jitters about transmission of the disease and rattling financial markets.

Three people who had close contact with Spencer, a physician for the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, were quarantined for observation - one of them, his fiancée, at the same hospital - but all were still healthy, officials said.

The Ebola diagnosis in the nation's most populous city renewed concerns about the spread of the disease in the United States, where the three previous cases occurred in Texas.

The worries sent US stock index futures lower on Friday, with the benchmark S&P 500 index dipping 0.4 per cent, even as some Ebola-related stocks jumped. Biotechnology company Ibio Inc was up 14 per cent while hazmat-suit maker Lakeland Industries Inc surged 20 percent

The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed at least 4,877 people and perhaps as many as 15,000, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to World Health Organization figures.

WHO set out plans Friday for speeding up development and deployment of experimental vaccines, saying hundreds of thousands of doses should be ready for use in West Africa by the middle of next year.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo sought to reassure New Yorkers they were safe, even though Spencer had ridden subways, taken a taxi and visited a bowling alley between his return from Guinea and the onset of his symptoms.

"There is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed," de Blasio said at a news conference at Bellevue. "Being on the same subway car or living near someone with Ebola does not in itself put someone at risk."

Cuomo said that unlike in Dallas, where two hospital nurses treating an Ebola patient contracted the disease, New York officials had time to thoroughly prepare and drill for the possibility of a case emerging in the city.

"From a public health point of view, I feel confident that we're doing everything that we should be doing, and we have the situation under control," he said.

Four Ebola cases have been diagnosed so far in the United States: Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on October 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, two nurses who treated him there, and Spencer. — Reuters

Sydney, October 24
Australian surgeons said on Friday that they have made a major breakthrough by making a dead heart beat again and successfully using it in a transplant.

Previously, surgeons relied on donor hearts from brain-dead patients whose hearts were still beating.

But the director of Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital Heart Lung Transplant Unit, Peter MacDonald told a press conference that the successful surgery meant many more "dead" hearts could be used in transplants, Xinhua reported.

"In all our years, our biggest hindrance has been the limited availability of organ donors," MacDonald told reporters.

MacDonald said the hospital had recently successfully transplanted two hearts, which were donated after the hosts died and the heart was no longer beating.

The first transplant patient was Michelle Gribilar, 57, who was suffering from congenital heart failure and had undergone surgery about two months ago.

Gribilar said before surgery, she struggled to walk 100 metres but now she can walk three km every day. "I was very sick before I had it," she said. "Now I'm a different person altogether."

The transplant breakthrough involves a special preservation solution which works in conjunction with a machine that houses the heart, known as the ex vivo organ care system (OCS).

The OCS restores the heart beat of the donor heart and keeps it warm until it is ready to go into a recipient. — IANS

A game changer Doctors at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital have described it as the biggest heart transplant breakthrough in a decade, which will have a profound implications for reducing the shortage of donor organs Previously transplant units relied solely on donor hearts from brain dead patients whose hearts were still beating, but the clinic has recently transplanted two hearts which were donated after circulatory death, where the heart is no longer beating

Los Angeles, October 24
A Silicon Valley IT company in the US has been ordered to pay US $40,000 in back wages to eight Indian workers who worked up to 122 hours a week and received as little as US $1.21 an hour.

The Electronics for Imaging Inc (EFI) also paid a fine of US $3,500 following a federal investigation into its wage and hour practices, which had included paying its workers in Indian rupees and having them work up to 122 hours a week in the company’s IT department.

The employees who were paid to help install a computer network when the company moved its home office from Foster City to Fremont, the San Jose Mercury News reported. An anonymous tip prompted the US Department of Labor to investigate the case, which resulted in more than US $40,000 in back wages paid to the eight employees and a fine of US $3,500 for Electronics for Imaging. The data storage provider said that it had brought in some of its IT employees from Bangalore to do the jobs in Fremont between September 8 and December 21, 2013.

“During this process, we unintentionally overlooked laws that require even foreign employees to be paid based on local US standards,” the company said.— PTI

Forced staff to work 122 hours a week Electronics for Imaging Inc ordered to pay US $40,000 in back wages to eight Indian workers The company also paid a fine of US $3,500 following a federal investigation into its wage and hour practices Workers were forced to work 122 hours a week

Washington, October 24
President Barack Obama has nominated a major fundraiser for his presidential campaign Indian-American Azita Raji as the US Ambassador to Sweden. A former investment banker, California-based Raji served as national vice-chair of finance for Obama’s presidential campaign in 2012.

Considered as a top bundler, Raji had helped raise more than $500,000 for Obama’s 2012 campaign. Raji’s nomination was announced along with several other key administrative positions by White House.

“These fine public servants bring a depth of experience and tremendous dedication to their important roles. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come,” Obama said in a statement.

Raji is a Member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, a position she has held since 2013. She is engaged in various leadership roles with several civic and non-profit institutions in New York and the District of Columbia. She has also served as a Commissioner of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

Since 2013, Raji has served as a Director of the National Partnership for Women and Families, a Member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and an Advisory Board Member of the Economic Advisory Council at the Center for American Progress.

She has been an Advisory Board Member of the Columbia Business School Social Enterprise Program since 2011, and a Trustee and Executive Committee Member of Barnard College at Columbia University since 2010. Raji was also a Founding Co-chair and Advisory Board Member of Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College from 2009 to 2013. — PTI

A former banker A former investment banker, California-based Azita Raji (pic) served as national vice-chair of finance for Obama’s presidential campaign in 2012 Considered as a top bundler, Raji had helped raise more than $500,000 for Obama’s 2012 campaign

Hong Kong, October 24
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong plan to hold a spot referendum Sunday on whether to stay in the streets or accept government offers for more talks and clear their protest camps. The three main groups behind the demonstrations said yesterday they would register public opinion at the main downtown protest site, where thousands remain camped out.

Hong Kong's government has offered to submit a report to the central government noting the protesters' unhappiness with a Beijing-dictated plan to have a 1,200-person committee pick candidates for the city's top leader in 2017 elections.

Protesters say the committee is weighted toward the central government's preferences and should be scrapped or at least reformed to better represent the Asian financial capital of 7.2 million people.

Hong Kong officials have also offered to hold regular dialogue with protesters about democratic reforms if they end their nearly month long demonstrations, which have occupied streets in three of the city's busiest areas. The Hong Kong Federation of Students has already rejected the government offer but still called for the Sunday referendum. — AP

Los Angeles, October 24
A student opened fire at a US school today, injuring six persons before killing himself, the Seattle Times reported, citing law enforcement sources. Live TV pictures showed swarms of police and emergency workers descending on the Marysville-Pilchuck High School in the western state of Washington.

The shooting occurred in the school cafeteria, according to multiple reports.

"I was eating... I heard four gunshots and it was behind me. I saw a gun pointed at a table... then I ran out of the exit," a student in the cafeteria, named only as Alex, told KIRO TV news. Television footage also showed schoolchildren coming out of the sprawling campus in Marysville, 55 km of Seattle.

The Marysville School District said on its website: "The Marysville-Pilchuck High School is currently in lockdown due to an emergency situation. — AFP

Ottawa, October 24
Canada's capital faced a third day of heightened security on Friday as the police searched for any clues that the man who shot and killed a soldier and charged into the Parliament building had help in plotting his attack.

Groups of Ottawa residents gathered early around the national war memorial where the soldier, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, was slain on Wednesday at the start of a brazen daylight attack by a man police identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a 32-year-old Canadian citizen.

"I feel tremendous sadness," said April Hall, 43, a doctor from London, Ontario, as she sat near the monument wiping tears from her eyes.

The attack by Zehaf-Bibeau, who according to US sources was a recent convert to Islam, came two days after another incident in Quebec, in which Martin Rouleau, 25 and also a recent convert, drove over two soldiers, killing one. Both men were shot dead by security officers.

The attacks on soldiers came during a week when the Canadian military sent six jet fighters to the Middle East to take part in a campaign of air strikes against Islamic State militants. The police said Zehaf-Bibeau had travelled to Ottawa seeking a passport and that he had intended to travel to Syria.

Canada vowed to continue their military efforts and on Friday two long-range patrol aircraft were due to depart Nova Scotia for the Middle East. — Reuters

Gunman wanted to travel to Syria: Mother Michael Zehaf-Bibeau had recently applied for a passport as he wanted to travel to Syria, said his mother. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson said he had been in Ottawa since October 2 Paulson said Zehaf-Bibeau, a recent Muslim convert, may have lashed out in frustration over delays in obtaining a passport