Scott Neuman

The number of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong has dwindled today after a weekend that saw dozens of arrests and an angry backlash from business owners whose shops were shut down amid the demonstrations.

The South China Morning Post says: "Protest sites are quiet on Monday as some demonstrators ...

Updated at 10:20 a.m. ET

The condition of a man infected with the Ebola virus who is undergoing treatment in a Dallas hospital is "fighting for his life" doctors say as another patient with the disease has arrived in Nebraska to receive care.

Thomas Eric Duncan, in isolation at Texas ...

Update at 7:05 a.m. ET

Three neuroscientists from Europe will share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of how the brain determines where the body is in space.

John O'Keefe, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, will get half of the prize — ...

Health officials say they have halved the number of people they are actively monitoring for symptoms of Ebola after possible contact with a patient with the disease being treated in Dallas. They lowered the number of so-called "contact traces" from 100 to 50 after deciding that many posed of ...

As we reported last month, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that a team of archaeologists had discovered one of two ships from a doomed Arctic expedition 160 years ago. At the time, the searchers weren't sure if they'd found British Capt. Sir John Franklin's HMS Erebus or the ...

Updated at 1 p.m. ET

The U.S. unemployment rate dipped below 6 percent for the first time since July 2008, with nonfarm payrolls adding 248,000 new jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

The jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 5.9 percent. Employment increased in professional ...

Fierce fighting has been reported today near the border between Syria and Turkey as militants with the self-declared Islamic State step up their efforts to capture the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

Kurdish fighters defending the town have warned of a likely massacre if the extremist group, also known as ...

Updated at 12:55 p.m. ET

Hong Kong's main democracy groups called off planned talks with the territory's government after several hundred pro-Beijing demonstrators attacked activists who have staged a week of protests calling for greater freedom.

Occupy Central, one of the main groups organizing protests against Beijing's effort to tightly ...

Update, 10 p.m. ET: Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital now say Thomas Eric Duncan wasn't honest with them either. When asked if he had been around anyone who had been ill, Duncan told them he had not.

As we wrote Wednesday, Duncan's neighbors in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, believe ...

Fighting has resumed in eastern Ukraine as pro-Russian separatists have broken a much-violated nearly month-long truce in order to launch a military push to capture the government-held airport in Donetsk.

Reuters reports that the renewed fighting, which began on Wednesday, has escalated. Al-Jazeera reports "thick black smoke" over the ...

Updated at 3:42 p.m. ET:

The number of "contact traces" for a man diagnosed with Ebola earlier this week in Dallas has risen to 100, officials say, as they add secondary contacts to a list of people being monitored for symptoms of the deadly virus.

Earlier today, Erikka Neros, a ...

Updated at 8:40 a.m. ET

A United Nations report out today lists what it describes as a "staggering array" of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity by the self-declared Islamic State in Iraq, including mass executions, the kidnapping of women and girls to use as sex slaves and the ...

Updated at 11:55 a.m. ET

Hong Kong's leader said today that his government has agreed to hold a dialogue with pro-democracy student activists to discuss reforms, but that such a discussion must take place within the context of Chinese law. He also renewed warnings to protesters not to occupy ...

An official from the Texas hospital where an Ebola patient is being treated says a nurse using a checklist for the disease learned that he had traveled from West Africa, but that the information was "not communicated" to doctors making the diagnosis.

Dr. Mark Lester, of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital ...

Following word of the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as major news organizations have weighed in. While the development is a concern, the basic message seems to be this: Don't panic.

The patient, who is being treated at ...

Updated at 12:50 p.m. ET

The number of dead from a volcanic eruption in Japan has climbed to nearly 50 after more victims were recovered from Mt. Ontake, which unexpectedly spewed toxic gas last week as people hiked near the 10,000-foot summit.

The Japan Times says:

"Precarious conditions ...

A human rights group reports that Islamic State militants in a Kurdish area of northern Syria have beheaded seven men and three women as part of an apparent campaign to quell resistance to the group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the 10 people, including four Syrian rebels, ...

A deadline set by Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrators for the territory's leader to step down has passed without his resignation, triggering a new phase to the protests that have brought parts of the Asian financial hub to a standstill.

Protesters, who took to the streets by the tens of thousands ...

Two container ships, the German-flagged MV Colombo Express and the Singapore-flagged MV Maersk Tanjong collided on Monday at the north end of the Suez canal Monday, delaying traffic.

In the video above, apparently filmed from a third vessel, it appears that the 1062-foot Colombo Express, is overtaking the ...

Update at 9:55 a.m. ET

Afghanistan has signed a pact with the U.S. to allow about 10,000 troops to remain in the country after the end of the year, when most American forces are to be withdrawn.

The country's newly inaugurated president, Ashraf Ghani, signed the Bilateral Security Agreement, or ...