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WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Barack Obama announces a stepped-up role for the United States in the fight against Ebola, lawmakers from both parties are calling for urgent action. At a Senate hearing on the Ebola crisis in West Africa, Republican Lamar Alexander said the threat from the Ebola epidemic should be taken as seriously as the threat from the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. And Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa says the outbreak is spreading "in ways that are potentially catastrophic for the world."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The plan doesn't call for ground troops -- but senators have heard today that those troops may be needed to battle Islamic State forces in the Middle East if President Barack Obama's current strategy fails. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate panel that if the current approach isn't enough, he might "make a recommendation that may include the use of ground forces." But the response from White House spokesman Josh Earnest is that Obama "will not deploy ground troops in a combat role into Iraq or Syria."
BAGHDAD (AP) — There's another delay in forming a unified government in Iraq that can confront the Islamic State extremist group. The country's lawmakers today rejected the new prime minister's nominees to lead the defense and interior ministries. Control over the two powerful sectors has been a source of tension among Iraq's feuding political factions.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Poland says one of its soldiers was among three members of the NATO-led force who were killed today in a car bomb attack in Afghanistan. Officials say a Taliban attacker set off a car bomb next to an international military convoy, killing the three soldiers and wounding nearly 20 troops and civilians. It happened only a couple of hundred yards from the U.S. Embassy, on a main Kabul road that leads to the airport -- and next to a base that houses many Americans.
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. (AP) — A grand jury will decide whether NASCAR driver Tony Stewart will be charged in the August death of a fellow driver at a sprint car race in upstate New York. A prosecutor said today that after reviewing evidence collected by sheriff's investigators, he has decided to present it to a grand jury. The prosecutor could have determined there was not enough evidence to support charges and dropped the case. Stewart's car struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. at a dirt-track race last month. Ward had climbed from his car after it had spun while racing alongside Stewart.
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