In a final-week burst of campaigning, President Barack Obama sought to mobilize Democratic voters Thursday in the race for governor in Maine while keeping his distance from the state's bubbling controversy over its Ebola policies and the nurse who has defied them.

Obama was headlining a rally in Portland for Mike Michaud, a six-term congressman who is running to unseat Republican Gov. Paul LePage in a neck-and-neck race. Independent candidate Eliot Cutler is running a distant third.

The president, who has been praising health care workers who have volunteered to fight Ebola in West Africa, had no plans to visit with Kaci Hickox, the returning nurse who is challenging a state requirement that she isolate herself for 21 days.

Hickox worked in West Africa with Doctors Without Borders. She returned to the U.S. last week but has shown no symptoms of the disease. She has been under what the state has called a voluntary quarantine in remote northern Maine, but on Thursday she went on bike ride with her boyfriend.

Obama has urged states to consider how their policies will affect the willingness of other doctors and nurses to volunteer for Ebola work in the afflicted nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

"We believe that those decisions should be driven by science but ultimately it's state and local officials that have the authority for implementing these policies," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday.

As for next Tuesday's elections, Democrats in Maine hoped the visit by Obama so close to Election Day would help put Michaud over the top.

Michaud picked up a pre-Obama boost Wednesday with an endorsement from Angus King, Maine's independent U.S. senator. King originally had endorsed the independent, Cutler, but switched after Cutler said anyone who didn't believe he could win should vote for someone else.

Obama is the latest top Democrat to campaign for Michaud, following appearances by first lady Michelle Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

For the most part, the president has avoided appearing in public with Democratic candidates. He is unpopular in some states where competitive Senate races will help determine control in Congress for the two years Obama has left in office. Democrats have the Senate majority, but would lose it if Republicans gain six seats.

Instead, Obama has been aggressively raising money for Democratic candidates. Before Thursday's rally, he was attending a Democratic National Committee fundraiser with about 25 supporters who gave $16,200 and more to attend the round-table event at the Cape Elizabeth home of Michaud supporters Bob Monks and Bonnie Porta. The event was closed to media coverage.

Obama is also being featured in new radio commercials for House races in Nevada and Arizona and a gubernatorial contest in Maryland.

"I know that sometimes politics can seem focused on small things. Middle class families need their leaders to do big things," he said in a commercial airing in Nevada. He added, "But your congressman, Steven Horsford, hasn't let Washington gridlock get in his way."

In another radio ad, Obama says "hello" and "goodbye" in Navajo, part of an appeal to tribal voters to support Democrats.

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KANSAS-SENATE

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, facing a difficult re-election challenge from independent Greg Orman, vowed to prevent Obama from transferring terrorist suspects from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Obama has not recently mentioned Fort Leavenworth as a destination, but Roberts said Orman can't be trusted to stand up to the president. The fort is in eastern Kansas, not far from Kansas City.

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GEORGIA-SENATE

Republican David Perdue and Democrat Michelle Nunn each released new television advertisements as they pushed for a clear majority next Tuesday to avoid a Jan. 6 runoff.

Perdue's commercial seeks to link Nunn to Obama, who twice lost Georgia when he ran for the White House.

Nunn countered with a commercial in which she promised to be a pragmatic senator, and told voters her career has been about "living out her faith by trying to help others."

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RHODE ISLAND-GOVERNOR

In Providence, Michelle Obama urged voters to "get it done" for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Raimondo, saying Thursday that the race is close and Raimondo needs every vote.

The first lady is the second major Democrat to visit Rhode Island to campaign for Raimondo, the general treasurer, in the final days of her race against Republican Allan Fung. Hillary Clinton campaigned with Raimondo last week at Rhode Island College.

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MICHIGAN-HOUSE

Republican Rep. Fred Upton, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is locked in a closer-than-expected race as Mayday PAC, a crowd-funded political action committee determined to reduce the influence of money in politics, is spending more than $2 million to defeat the 14-term incumbent.

Upton faces a challenge from Democrat Paul Clements. The Republican lawmaker won by 12 percentage points in 2012 and polls show he still remains popular in the Kalamazoo-based district.


AP

Mandatory quarantines ordered by some U.S. states on doctors and nurses returning from West Africa's Ebola outbreak are creating a "chilling effect" on Doctors Without Borders operations there, the humanitarian group said on Thursday.

In response to questions from Reuters, the group said it is discussing whether to shorten some assignments as a result of restrictions imposed by some states since one of its American doctors, Craig Spencer, was hospitalized in New York City last week with the virus.

"There is rising anxiety and confusion among MSF staff members in the field over what they may face when they return home upon completion of their assignments in West Africa," Sophie Delaunay, executive director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement emailed to Reuters. Doctors Without Borders is also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF.

Some MSF workers are delaying their return home after their assignments and staying in Europe for 21 days, Ebola's maximum incubation period, "in order to avoid facing rising stigmatization at home and possible quarantine," Delaunay said in her statement.

"Some people are being discouraged by their families from returning to the field," she said.

The governors of New York and New Jersey announced strict new screening rules at airports last Friday, including mandatory 21-day quarantines for any healthcare worker who had been treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

Only one person is known to have been quarantined as a result of the new rules, nurse Kaci Hickox, who was confined to a tent against her will for several days after arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey last Friday. Hickox, 33, was returning from Sierra Leone, where she had cared for Ebola patients as an MSF healthcare worker.

Hickox, who tested negative for Ebola and says she is completely healthy, has strongly criticized the quarantine policy in New Jersey and then in her home state of Maine, where she was taken to finish her 21-day quarantine at home.

She went for a bike ride on Thursday, putting her on a collision course with Maine Governor Paul LePage, whose office said he would exercise his legal authority to keep her quarantined.

reuters

The owners of the website Ebola.com have scored a big payday with the outbreak of the epidemic, selling the domain for more than $200,000 in cash and stock.

The deal highlights the rewards and risk of industry trading and speculating in domain names that see high interest after news events.

According to a securities filing, the buyer was a Russian-registered firm called Weed Growth Fund, previously known as Ovation Research.

The Oct. 20 filing said the price was $50,000 cash and 19,192 shares of Cannabis Sativa, which promotes medical uses for marijuana. Those shares are worth close to $170,000.

The reasons for the sale were not clear, but Cannabis Sativa chief and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has publicly said he thinks marijuana may be used to treat the deadly disease.

The seller was Nevada-based Blue String Ventures, which describes itself as an “Internet real estate investment and branding” company.

“If you are looking for a great name for your company, there’s an excellent chance we can help,” the company says on its website.

Some of its holdings have included Africanmango.com, Fukushima.com and RaspberryKetones.com.

The Ebola.com website contains articles offering facts and frequently asked questions about the disease, which has infected almost 10,000 people worldwide, killing nearly 4,900.

afp

 The nurse who was quarantined at a New Jersey hospital because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa criticized the way her case has been handled, raising concerns from humanitarian and human rights groups over unclear policies for the newly launched quarantine program.

Kaci Hickox, the first traveler quarantined under Ebola watches in New Jersey and New York, wrote the first-person account for the Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/1w4Vi4J), which was posted on the paper's website Saturday. Her preliminary tests for Ebola came back negative.

"This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me," Hickox wrote of her quarantine. "I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine. ... The U.S. must treat returning health care workers with dignity and humanity."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday imposed a mandatory quarantine of 21 days — the incubation period of the deadly virus — on travelers who have had contact with Ebola patients in the countries ravaged by Ebola — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. A similar measure was announced in Illinois, where officials say such travelers could be quarantined at home.

The hazy details of how such quarantines will be handled are drawing sharp criticism as infectious disease experts say enforcement logistics are up in the air. Health officials in all three states with quarantine policies did not return messages from The Associated Press seeking details about enforcement.

Cuomo on Saturday acknowledged that the policy might be hard to enforce, according to the New York Daily News.

The governor said officials had never considered whether people refusing to go along with the order could face prosecution or arrest, adding "It's nothing that we've discussed, no," the newspaper said.

In her essay, Hickox described being stopped at Newark Liberty International and questioned over several hours after touching down Friday. She said none of those who questioned her would explain what was going on or what would happen to her.

Hickox is a nurse who had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone. Officials said she was taken to a hospital after developing a fever, but Hickox said she was merely flushed because she was upset by the process. Hickox remained isolated in a building adjacent to the hospital, state health department officials said Sunday.

Doctors Without Borders executive director Sophie Delaunay complained Saturday about the "notable lack of clarity" from state officials about the quarantine policies, and an American Civil Liberties Union official in New Jersey said the state must provide more information on how it determined that mandatory quarantines were necessary.

"Coercive measures like mandatory quarantine of people exhibiting no symptoms of Ebola and when not medically necessary raise serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its powers," said Udi Ofer, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.

Doctors Without Borders said Hickox has not been issued an order of quarantine specifying how long she must be isolated and is being kept in an unheated tent. It urged the "fair and reasonable treatment" of health workers fighting the Ebola outbreak.

"We are attempting to clarify the details of the protocols with each state's departments of health to gain a full understanding of their requirements and implications," Delaunay said in a statement.

Christie, campaigning Saturday in Iowa for a fellow Republican, said he sympathizes for Hickox but said he has to do what he can to ensure public health safety.

"My heart goes out to her," the governor said, while also noting that state and local health officials would make sure quarantine rules are enforced. He said the New Jersey State Police won't be involved.

Health officials said preliminary tests for Ebola came back negative for Hickox but Newark University Hospital would not say if she would be released for the balance of the quarantine period or remain in the hospital.

In the very early stages of Ebola, patients may still test negative because the virus has not yet reached detectable levels in the blood. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it may take up to three days after the onset of symptoms for the virus to reach detectable levels in some patients, prompting repeat testing in some cases.

Hickox's mother, Karen Hickox, said Saturday her daughter probably wasn't expecting to be quarantined upon her return to the United States, but is dealing with it.

"I spoke with her (Friday and Saturday)," she said. "She was more frustrated (Friday) but there were some tears (Saturday) ... If you knew her, she's a very compassionate person but she doesn't usually get emotional."

The quarantine measures were announced after a New York physician, Craig Spencer, working for Doctors Without Borders returned from Guinea was admitted to Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital Center earlier this week to be treated for Ebola. Hospital officials said Saturday he was experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms and "entering the next phase of his illness."

A senior White House official said Saturday that how to treat health care workers returning from the affected West African countries continues to be discussed at meetings on Ebola as the administration continues to take a "careful look" at its policies.

Dr. Irwin Redlener, a Columbia University professor and director of the New York-based National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said the logistics of the states' new quarantine policy are "a problem."

"The challenge now is how you translate this quarantine plan to operational protocol," Redlener said.

He warned that quarantines might discourage doctors and nurses from going to West Africa to help, an issue raised by aid groups and Dr. Rick Sacra, one of the American health care workers successfully treated for Ebola contracted while he worked in Liberia.

"Until Ebola is under control in Africa, we're never going to see the end of such cases coming to the United States," Redlener said.

ap

A two-year-old girl died of Ebola in Mali on Friday, in the first case of the disease in the west African nation, a source in the prime minister's office told AFP.

"Unfortunately she died between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm," said the source, adding that the girl's death had been confirmed by the governor of the western region of Kayes.

The girl had recently returned to Mali from neighbouring Guinea, one of the countries most affected by an epidemic that has killed nearly 4,900 people.


AFP

 A nurse who caught Ebola while caring for the patient diagnosed in Dallas was released from a hospital Friday, free of the virus, and met with President Barack Obama at the White House.

Nurse Nina Pham said she felt "fortunate and blessed to be standing here today," as she left the National Institutes of Health's hospital outside Washington.

She thanked her health care team in Dallas and at the NIH and singled out fellow Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly, who recovered after becoming infected in Liberia, for donating plasma containing Ebola-fighting antibodies as part of her care.

"Although I no longer have Ebola, I know it may be a while before I have my strength back," Pham, 26, said at a news conference.

Doctors have cleared her to return home to Texas, and after speaking at NIH she met with Obama in the Oval Office, where the president hugged her. White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the meeting "an opportunity for the president to thank her for her service."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the NIH, told reporters that five consecutive tests showed no virus left in her blood. Five tests is way beyond the norm, he stressed, but his team did extra testing because the NIH is a research hospital.

"She is cured of Ebola, let's get that clear," Fauci said.

Pham stood throughout the approximately 20-minute press conference and was joined by her mother and sister. She read from a prepared statement and took no questions, but she called her experience "very stressful and challenging for me and for my family."

"I ask for my privacy and for my family's privacy to be respected as I return to Texas and try to get back to a normal life and reunite with my dog Bentley," she said, drawing laughter with the mention of her 1-year-old King Charles spaniel, who has been in quarantine following Pham's diagnosis but has tested negative for the virus.

Pham arrived last week at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She had been flown there from Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

Pham is one of two nurses in Dallas who became infected with Ebola while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who traveled to the United States from Liberia and died of the virus Oct. 8. Liberia is one of three West Africa countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak.

The second nurse, Amber Vinson, is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which on Friday issued a statement saying she "is making good progress" and that tests no longer detect virus in her blood. But Emory said it had no discharge date for Vinson yet, as she continues to receive supportive care.


AP

News of New York's first case of Ebola was met with worry and even anger on Friday, but for this city of eight million residents, seasoned by everything from terror attacks to superstorms, there was little sign of panic.

Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, who treated Ebola patients in West Africa, was moved with elaborate precautions from his Harlem apartment to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan with a fever and tested positive for Ebola on Thursday, sparking concern about the spread of the disease in the country's most populous city.

Despite reassurances from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo that it was perfectly safe to use the city's vast subway system, New Yorkers riding the trains were uneasy on Friday. Spencer had ridden the subway, eaten out, taken a cab and gone bowling in Brooklyn since returning from Guinea a week ago but before showing symptoms.

"I am worried. It feels as if doctors' arrogance has put us all in danger. Why wouldn't you make sure it was safe before you started running round the city," said Amelia Fowler, 38, an actor waiting at a bus stop in Brooklyn on Friday.

After taking his own temperature twice a day since his return, Spencer reported running a fever and experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms for the first time early on Thursday. He was not feeling sick and would not have been contagious before Thursday morning, the city's Health Commissioner Mary Travis Bassett said.

Owners of the bowling alley he visited said they had voluntarily closed it for the day as a precaution, but the health department said it had given the site a clean bill of health after testing. Officials also gave the all clear to one of the eateries he visited, and were assessing the second.

The driver of the ride-sharing taxi Spencer took was not considered to be at risk, and officials insisted the three subway lines he rode before falling ill remained safe.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it had not removed any trains from service but had updated some of its health protocols including issuing gloves and disinfectant to deal with any potentially infectious waste. Seeking to reassure New Yorkers, De Blasio rode the subway Friday morning, chatting with passengers.

Still, many expressed worry and frustration on their way to work, fretting about using a mass transit system that for many is the only form of daily transport.

"I ride the train to work - I have to," said Ruth Bowtle, 48, a paralegal from Staten Island. "But I am trying not to hold onto the hand rail. You try not to breathe."

Some medical supply stores, including Chelsea Mobility and Medical Equipment in Manhattan, were stocking up on masks, thermometers and hand sanitizers in anticipation of a run on the goods by the public, similar to the response seen during the bird flu epidemic in 2009.

Heightened security was in place at Bellevue Hospital where Spencer was being treated, with police officers and metal gates keeping a large crowd of reporters and television crews at bay.

Some patients and visiting relatives brushed off the idea of Spencer representing a threat. Teresa Jurado, however, said she dreaded going inside the hospital where she had an appointment to treat a chronic stomach illness.

"I'm in a state of psychosis," the retired 80-year-old Queens resident said. "For one person, we're all going to fall sick."

But for all the bluster, many New Yorkers went about their business on Friday, largely unfazed. The major subway stations were busy. Commuters clutching newspapers declaring Ebola's arrival piled onto packed subway trains and buses, much like any other morning.

The U.S. stock market rose on Friday, recovering the losses suffered on news on Thursday afternoon that Spencer had been taken to hospital, as strong earnings outweighed any fear of the virus spreading.

Some residents said they were far more concerned about flu than Ebola. Others displayed total indifference.

"There is not really a chance of it spreading," said Omar Abdul, 58, a taxi driver slouched in his cab in Park Slope, Brooklyn. "It is not like everyone who gets into my cab has come from Africa."

The World Health Organization is pressing the search for an Ebola vaccine and hopes to begin testing two experimental versions as early as January on more than 20,000 front-line health care workers and others in West Africa's hot zone — a bigger rollout than envisioned just a few months ago.

An effective vaccine would not in itself be enough to stop the outbreak — for one thing, there probably won't be enough doses to go around — but it could give important protection to the medical workers who are central to the effort. More than 200 of them have died of the disease.

The WHO, which has come under fire for bungling its initial reaction to the Ebola crisis, is helping coordinate trials of two of the most promising experimental vaccines.

The real-world testing in West Africa will go forward only if the vaccines prove safe and trigger an adequate immune-system response in volunteers during clinical trials that are either underway or planned in Europe, Africa and the U.S. The preliminary safety data is expected to become available by December.

Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, an assistant director general for the U.N. health agency, acknowledged there are many "ifs" remaining — and "still a possibility that it will fail." But she sketched out a much broader experiment than was imagined only six months ago, saying WHO hopes to dispense tens of thousands of doses in the first couple of months of the new year.

"These are quite large trials," she said Tuesday.

WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib later said the agency expects 20,000 vaccinations in January and similar numbers in the months after that.

The outbreak in West Africa has killed over 4,500 people, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, since it emerged 10 months ago. Experts said the world could see 10,000 new cases a week in two months if authorities don't take stronger steps.

The vaccine push comes as Sierra Leone said Tuesday that the number of infected people in the country's western region is soaring, with more than 20 deaths a day. That region is on the opposite side of the country from where the first cases emerged.

One of the vaccines that Kieny mentioned, Okairos AG, is being developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and GlaxoSmithKline from a modified chimpanzee cold virus and an Ebola protein. It is in clinical trials now in Britain and in Mali.

GlaxoSmithKline said the vaccine is being manufactured at a plant in Rome.

"We have other vaccine facilities around the world, and we are seeing what we can do to ramp up production to commercial scale," said Mary Anne Rhyne, Glaxo's U.S. director of external communications.

The second front-runner, developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and known as VSV-EBOV, has been sent to the U.S. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland for testing on healthy volunteers. It will also be tested shortly among volunteers in Switzerland, Germany, Gabon and Kenya, Kieny said.

Doctors Without Borders, whose medics have been at the forefront in treating Ebola patients in West Africa, urged pharmaceutical companies to speed up their work.

"Vaccination of front-line health workers — who are among the most vulnerable people — and mass campaigns to vaccinate large numbers of people in affected and at-risk countries could make a huge difference in curbing this outbreak," the group's medical director, Bertrand Draguez, said in an interview on its website.

Also Tuesday, WHO's Chaib promised a thorough public audit of the agency's early missteps in responding to the Ebola crisis. But at the moment, "our focus is on the response."

AP

(AP) — They say you can never truly go home again, but for Barack Obama, perhaps the old adage doesn't apply.

Across the country, far more Americans say they disapprove of the president than approve. Democratic candidates in tough races are practically begging Obama to stay away this year.

But this is Chicago, where support for the town's favorite son still runs high. Throngs of Chicagoans craned their necks and shouted cheers in Obama's direction during his brief trip home.

Obama arrived here late Sunday and headed straight to an evening campaign rally for Illinois' Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. After a night's sleep, he hit the town for a day of campaign-themed events aimed at turning out the Democratic vote before an evening flight back to Washington.

A look at how Obama spent his day in Chicago:

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HOME SWEET HOME

There's nothing like waking up your own bed. And since he's traveling stag, Obama had the house to himself — save for a few dozen Secret Service agents, of course, who lock down the streets around the Obamas' South Side home whenever the president comes to town.

How Obama spent his Monday morning is anyone's guess. While the president often heads out for a morning workout at a nearby gym when he's in Chicago, this time he didn't emerge until after 11 a.m.

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VOTE EARLY — AND OFTEN

Obama wants Democrats across the country to vote early this year, hoping to boost turnout in a midterm year when Democrats historically tend not to vote. So Obama put his money where his mouth is, strolling in to a polling place near his house on the first day of early voting in Illinois.

"Barack Obama?" asked the poll worker at the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Service Center. Good guess.

"That's me!" the president replied.

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BROCCOLI DOUGHNUTS?

Volunteers making phone calls for Quinn got a pep talk from the president — and a less-than-healthy snack.

Making a surprise appearance at one of Quinn's campaign field offices, Obama brought three cartons of doughnuts, the oil from the pastries seeping through the white boxes.

But would the first lady approve?

"Michelle sent these," Obama quipped, playing off his wife's childhood nutrition campaign. "We got broccoli, carrots."

Obama seemed in his element as he worked the room and chatted with volunteers — some of whom had worked on his own 2008 campaign.

"Nothing like campaign fever going on," Obama said.

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OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND

Just after noon, Obama was back home for a quiet afternoon out of the spotlight. Aides wouldn't say what Obama was up to, but noted the president can carry out his duties from anyplace.

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SHOW ME THE MONEY

Before heading back to the White House Monday night, Obama was to make one last stop at a supporter's home to raise money for the Democratic National Committee. The price to attend? $10,000 a pop.

(AP) — As her boyfriend Thomas Eric Duncan lay dying of Ebola in a Dallas hospital bed, Louise Troh battled loneliness and fear that she too had contracted the disease while confined to a stranger's home under armed guard.

Troh's confinement was ending Sunday night, along with several friends, family and others who had contact with Duncan after he first became infectious. Ebola has a 21-day incubation period, and the people who interacted with Duncan after he first arrived in Dallas from Liberia will be in the clear.

It's an important milestone in the nation's efforts to contain the outbreak and a cause for celebration for Troh. After three long weeks, she will be able to have a clean bill of health, leave the house and be done with twice-daily temperature readings by government health care workers. She likened the period to being a prisoner.

"I want to breathe, I want to really grieve, I want privacy with my family," Troh told The Associated Press on Friday, lamenting that she was missing Duncan's memorial service at his mother's church in North Carolina because of the quarantine. Troh says she and Duncan planned to get married later in the week.

Duncan arrived in Dallas from Liberia in late September and went to the hospital complaining of headache and stomach pain. He was sent home with a prescription for antibiotics to treat a misdiagnosed sinus infection. He returned two days later, was diagnosed with Ebola and died Oct. 8.

The day Duncan tested positive for Ebola, Troh, her 13-year-old son, Duncan's nephew and a family friend were ordered by a Dallas court to stay inside the apartment among Duncan's used linens and any lingering virus. The unusual confinement order was imposed after the family failed to comply with a request not to leave the apartment, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. The four were later taken to an undisclosed gated community.

Jenkins and Troh's pastor George Mason delivered the news of Duncan's death to her during the confinement period.

The other people who will have their quarantine period end at midnight include Youngor Jallah, Troh's daughter, a nurse's assistant who checked Duncan's vital signs before calling for an ambulance.

For nearly three weeks, Jallah has not left the cramped, second-story apartment she shares with her partner, Aaron Yah, their three children, ages 2, 4 and 6, and Yah's 10-year-old son.

Unlike Troh, Jallah is not prevented from leaving by an armed guard, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials have come by daily to check everyone's temperature.

"I'm telling you, just to step outside will be so great. To hug my mom and grieve for Eric, not over the phone like we've been doing but in the flesh," Jallah said.

Mason said he is coordinating efforts with the city, county and philanthropic community to help Troh and the family recover. Because of the Ebola infection risk, crews stripped Troh's apartment down to the carpeting, saving only a few personal documents, photographs and a Bible.

"They were left with nothing. They are completely devastated by this, so there's need to have their lives rebuilt," Mason said.

Troh plans to partially recover financially with a book written about her life, from growing up in Liberia, meeting Duncan in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast, Duncan's years-long quest to come to America to be reunited with his girlfriend and their 19-year-old son, and his death in an isolation ward.

"It will be a love story," she said.

Troh also issued a statement Sunday asking for privacy as she comes through the ordeal while thanking everyone who came to their side.

At Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas on Sunday, associate pastor Mark Wingfield said the congregation was eager to welcome Troh back.

"We look forward to welcoming Louise and her family members back to church after the quarantine is lifted and we want you to know that when that happens we will be glad to receive each one of them," he said.

(AP) — A Spanish nursing assistant appears to have recovered from the Ebola virus, authorities said Sunday, nearly two weeks after she became the first person infected outside West Africa in the current outbreak.

An initial test shows that Teresa Romero, 44, is now clear of all traces of the virus, the government said in a statement. She has been receiving treatment in quarantine at a Madrid hospital since then.

Romero had treated two Spanish missionaries who were brought back to Madrid for treatment at Carlos III hospital after contracting Ebola in West Africa. The missionaries, Miguel Pajares and Manuel Garcia Viejo, later died.

A second test in the coming hours is needed to absolutely confirm Romero's recovery, said Manuel Cuenca, microbiology director at Madrid's Carlos III hospital.

"I am very happy today, because we can now say that Teresa has vanquished the disease," said Romero's husband, Javier Limon, in a video recorded sitting on his hospital bed. He was put into quarantine after his wife became sick.

Health authorities euthanized the couple's pet dog named Excalibur on Oct. 8 instead of placing it in quarantine, creating outrage among animal rights activists. The next day, thousands of people gathered in more than 20 cities throughout Spain to show their solidarity with Romero and to protest against how Madrid authorities dealt with the dog.

A second nurse who had also treated Garcia Viejo was released from hospital on Oct. 11 after twice testing negative for Ebola.

Maria Teresa Mesa, a family friend who has acted as Romero's spokeswoman, told journalists outside the hospital that she had spoken with her Sunday.

"She's doing spectacularly well," she said. Mesa said Romero had also told her that at one point she felt she could have succumbed to Ebola.

Earlier on Sunday, a crowd of several hundred people had gathered in Madrid to protest against Health Minister Ana Mato and to call for her resignation.

Among those who have been monitored at the Carlos III — apart from Romero's husband — there have been five doctors, five nurses, three hairdressers who attended her at a beauty salon, a paramedic and a health center cleaner. None have shown signs of having been infected.

Spain, meanwhile, has agreed to allow the U.S. to use two military bases in the southwest of the country to support its efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

A Defense Ministry statement said the deal permits U.S. armed forces to use the air base at Moron de la Frontera near Seville and the naval station at Rota on Spain's Atlantic coast to transport personnel and materials to and from Africa. Defense Minister Pedro Morenes sealed the deal with U.S. counterpart Chuck Hagel in Washington.

The ministry statement, released late Saturday, said the agreement will be reviewed and updated on a case-by-case basis.

(Reuters) - Congressional lawmakers criticized the government's response to Ebola in the United States on Thursday as some called, at a congressional hearing probing efforts to contain the virus, for a ban on travel from epidemic-stricken West Africa.

Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told reporters separately that the United States is assessing whether to issue a travel ban "on a day-to-day basis" but that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had determined that a ban would not address the challenges posed by Ebola.

The congressional hearing comes as concerns about the virus in the United States are accelerating. Several schools in Ohio and Texas were closed after concerns that a nurse with Ebola traveled on a plane with people with ties to the schools.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it would take over the care of the first Texas nurse diagnosed with Ebola, Nina Pham, who contracted the virus while treating a man from Liberia who later died.

Lawmakers focused questions and pointed criticism at the hearing on CDC chief Dr. Thomas Frieden.

"The administration did not act fast enough in responding in Texas," Democratic Representative Bruce Braley of Iowa told the hearing. "We need to look at all the options available to keep our families safe and move quickly and responsibly to make any necessary changes at airports."

Several Republicans said flights from West Africa, where the virus is widespread, should be stopped.

Ebola has killed nearly 4,500 people in West Africa, predominantly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, since March. The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person.

“I predict you’re going to put on or the president’s going to put on travel restrictions," Republican Representative Billy Long of Missouri told Frieden during the hearing. "I don’t know if it’s going to be today or tomorrow or two weeks or a month from now. But I think that they’re coming, and I think sooner rather than later.”

Frieden argued, as he has before, that closing U.S. borders would not work and would leave the country less able to track people with Ebola entering. Moreover, cutting flights to Africa would hit the U.S. ability to stop the virus at its source, he said.

Frieden said he has spoken to the White House about the issue of dealing with people traveling with Ebola. Asked if the White House had ruled out a travel ban, the CDC chief did not answer directly, saying, “I can’t speak for the White House.”

SICK NURSES LEAVING TEXAS

Pham, 26, was to be transferred late on Thursday from Dallas to an isolation unit at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland outside Washington for treatment, the agency's director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told lawmakers at Thursday's hearing.

"We will be supplying her with state-of-the-art care in our high-level containment facilities," said Fauci.

Pham was part of a team of healthcare workers who had treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian who was the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, at Texas Health Presybterian Hospital. He died on Oct. 8

Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer and senior vice president of Texas Health Resources, which owns the hospital, told the hearing that mistakes were made in diagnosing Duncan and in giving inaccurate information to the public, and said he was "deeply sorry."

He said there had been no Ebola training for staff before Duncan was admitted.

The spread of Ebola to Pham and Amber Vinson - another Dallas nurse who had cared for Duncan - - and revelations that Vinson had subsequently traveled on an airplane while running a slight fever, has prompted Frieden to backtrack on earlier statements about his confidence in the ability of American health officials to contain the disease.

"It would be an understatement to say that the response to the first U.S.-based patient with Ebola has been mismanaged, causing risk to scores of additional people," said Representative Diana DeGette, the top Democrat on the subcommittee holding Thursday's hearing.

At least two lawmakers have called for Frieden's resignation. Others, including Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, urged travel restrictions on the countries hardest hit by Ebola. The disease appeared in the United States last month.

Vinson was transferred to Emory University Hospital for treatment on Wednesday night.

In Ohio, where Vinson had visited family members, two schools in the Cleveland suburb of Solon were closed on Thursday because an employee may have traveled on the same plane as Vinson, though on a different flight.

The Ohio health department said the CDC was sending staff to help coordinate efforts to contain the spread of Ebola.

Frontier Airlines said it had placed six crew members on paid leave for 21 days "out of an abundance of caution."

Back in Texas, the Belton school district in central Texas said three schools were closed on Thursday because two students were on the same flight as the nurse.

Frieden has said it was unlikely passengers who flew with Vinson were infected because the nurse had not vomited or bled on the flight, but he said she should not have boarded the plane.

A federal official said Wednesday Vinson had told the CDC her temperature was 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (37.5 Celsius) but "was not told not to fly" because that was below the CDC's temperature threshold of 100.4 F (38 C).

One nurse who helped treat Pham came forward on Thursday to say the Dallas hospital was unprepared for the emergency and lacked proper protective gear.

    Nurses were not briefed or prepared for Ebola, Briana Aguirre told NBC's "Today" show, and no special precautions were taken when Duncan was admitted to the hospital.

"It was a total chaotic scene," she said.

(AP) — President Barack Obama says "the world is not doing enough" to fight Ebola.

Obama suggested to reporters Tuesday that he plans to reach out to foreign leaders to pressure them to do more. He spoke at the end of a meeting with U.S. and allied military leaders primarily focused on the threat from Islamic State militants.

Obama says the United States will continue to do its part to fight the deadly disease. But he said, "Everybody's going to have to do more than they are doing right now."

Obama also offered thoughts and prayers to the nurse being treated for Ebola after she tended to a Liberian man visiting Dallas. Obama says he wants to make sure lessons learned from that case are applied to health centers around the U.S.

(Reuters) - Emergency crews in protective gear removed five passengers with flu-like symptoms from an airplane at Boston's Logan Airport on Monday, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority said.

The Emirates flight 237 was from Dubai, and none of the ill passengers had recently been to West Africa, said spokesman Matthew Brelis.

The region is in the midst of a deadly Ebola outbreak.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the people were wearing protective gear when they went on board the plane and removed the passengers," Brelis said.