Against the backdrop of the World Health Organization notifying the public the death toll has now reached over 900, and a second Ebola patient is confirmed in Nigeria, a new bulletin reflects a New York hospital may have just encountered a U.S. Ebola patient:

BREAKING IN NYC: Person has been quarantined at Mt Sinai Hospital after returning from a West African country & SHOWING SYMPTOMS OF EBOLA
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 4, 2014

CNN BREAKING: Patient at Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC being tested for #Ebola — high fever, reporting recent travel to west Africa

— Vaughn Sterling (@vplus) August 4, 2014

New York officials are asking the public to remain calm, and if needed to panic in an orderly manner, until further testing can confirm.
Meanwhile in Liberia society has turned downright medieval. (more…)

(Via Washington Free Beacon)  The Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Dr. Tom Frieden, appeared on four Sunday programs to quell fears that the United States may be at risk for an Ebola outbreak.
“We know that there are travelers from places where there’s Ebola. We know it’s possible that someone will come in. If they go to a hospital and that hospital doesn’t recognize it’s Ebola there could be additional cases or their family members could have cases. That’s all possible, but I don’t think it’s in the cards that we would have an outbreak in this country,” Frieden said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“The way it spreads in Africa is really two things. First, in hospitals where there isn’t really infection control and second in burial practices where people are touching the bodies of people who have died from Ebola. So it’s not going to spread widely in the U.S. Could we have another people here, could we have a case or two, not impossible … but we know how to stop it here.” (more…)

Clear as mud. An update to the original article now adds:

“At around 11pm on Sunday, the Department of Health said that tests for the deadly Ebola virus on the woman who died at Gatwick had proved negative”…

I’m looking for more details….

———————————- Original Story Below —————————–

And So It Begins….. There are two major international aviation hubs in London England;  Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport  (similar to JFK and LaGuardia).  
A 72-year-old woman stricken with Ebola virus collapses AFTER arrival in London and dies in airport.

If all passengers exiting Sierra Leone are screened as claimed, how did this woman board a plane with 128 passengers ?

LONDON –    Airport staff tonight told of their fears of an Ebola outbreak after a passenger from Sierra Leone collapsed and died as she got off a plane at Gatwick.
Workers said they were terrified the virus could spread globally through the busy international hub from the West African country which is in the grip of the deadly epidemic.

The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board. She died in hospital on Saturday.
Ebola has killed 256 people in Sierra Leone. A total of 826 have died in West Africa since the outbreak began in February. (more…)

BREAKING NEWS: Ebola forces Liberia to shut border crossings  (link)

*NOTE*  Did Dr. Kent Brantly’s family anticipate the border closure ? (see article below)

BOONE, N.C. (AP) — A second American aid worker has tested positive for the Ebola virus at the same hospital in Liberia where an American doctor became infected while helping to combat an outbreak of the deadly disease, a relief group official said Sunday.
Ken Isaacs, a vice president of Samaritan’s Purse, told The Associated Press that Dr. Kent Brantly — the 33-year-old medical director for the group’s Ebola care center on the outskirts of the Liberian capital of Monrovia — was stable and in very serious condition.

“We are hopeful and prayerful,” Isaacs told AP by telephone from the group headquarters in Boone, North Carolina. He said the doctor quickly recognized the symptoms and sought speedy treatment.
Isaacs identified the second American, Nancy Writebol, as a worker with an allied aid group SIM, or Serving in Mission, which runs the hospital where Samaritan’s Purse has an Ebola care center on the grounds. He said she was in stable and serious condition.
(more…)

VICE News reported: On Thursday, July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet carrying 298 people was shot down over eastern Ukraine — allegedly by pro-Russia separatists. Residents in the area described bodies falling from the sky and landing in their own backyards. VICE News travels to the still-gruesome scene of the crash and speaks to residents who witnessed firsthand a tragedy that promises to dramatically alter the terms of the conflict.

HRABOVE, Ukraine (Associated Press) – Ukraine accused Russia on Saturday of helping separatist rebels destroy evidence at the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines plane shot down in rebel-held territory – a charge the rebels denied.
As dozens of victims’ bodies lay in bags by the side of the road baking in the summer heat, international monitors at the crash site Saturday said they were still being hampered by heavily armed rebels. (more…)

MAJOR UPDATE – U.S. Intelligence confirm a surface to air missile was used to shoot down MH-17 Passenger Plane.

In addition a recent release of ground conversation between Russian groups and Ukrainian Rebel separatists friendly to Russia show they talked about shooting it down and discussed after:

Here’s the full translation of the video, provided by Kyiv Post:

Igor Bezler: We have just shot down a plane. Group Minera. It fell down beyond Yenakievo.
Vasili Geranin: Pilots. Where are the pilots?
IB: Gone to search for and photograph the plane. It’s smoking.
VG: How many minutes ago?
IB: About 30 minutes ago.

After examining the site of the plane the terrorists come to the conclusion that they have shot down a civilian plane. The next part of the conversation took place about 40 minutes later. (more…)

You might have seen reports today about heightened concerns for airline travel.   Some media reports are discussing explosives that can be hidden from normal detection methods, or similar.
Here’s a snippet of a report from the AP wire – something about the way this report is worded spikes the spidey sense.  (The emphasis is mine):

WASHINGTON – Intelligence officials are concerned about a new al-Qaida effort to create a bomb that would go undetected through airport security, according to a counterterrorism official, prompting the U.S. to call for tighter security measures Wednesday at some foreign airports.

The counterterrorism official, who would not be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, declined to describe the kind of information that triggered this warning. (more…)

Come travel with us on a wonderful trip through the region of Andalusea in southern Spain. You’ll find Zurich Mike’s complete travel itinerary below the fold.  The music accompanying Mike’s photos is called “Fantasia para un Gentilhombre” ( Fantasia for a Gentleman), by Joaquín Rodrigo,  and played by Andres Segovia.  I couldn’t think of a more appropriate theme for ZM.

(more…)

The U.S. Military and Australian Search Authority in charge of looking for missing Malaysian Airline MH-370 have now admitted what independent researchers announced a few weeks ago.   They have no idea where to look, and admit the initial ping signals were mistakenly interpreted.  The search is suspended.

VIA CNN – The four acoustic pings at the center of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 for the past seven weeks are no longer believed to have come from the plane’s black boxes, a U.S. Navy official told CNN.

The acknowledgment came Wednesday as searchers wrapped up the first phase of their effort, having scanned 329 square miles of southern Indian Ocean floor without finding any wreckage from the Boeing 777-200. (more…)