10 things you need to know today: October 24, 2014

1. New York doctor diagnosed as city's first Ebola case

A New York City doctor tested positive for Ebola on Thursday, becoming the city's first case. The doctor, Craig Spencer, had recently returned from Guinea, where he treated Ebola patients. Spencer reportedly took a subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn and went to a bowling alley on Wednesday night before waking up the next morning with a 103-degree fever. Health workers quarantined his fiancee and two others, and tried to track down anyone who might have had contact with him before he was rushed to a hospital.

The New York Times

2. Canadian police say Parliament attacker was angry over passport delays

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who was killed in a shootout at Canada's Parliament building, might have been lashing out at the government because a delay in processing his passport was preventing him from traveling to Syria. Zehaf-Bibeau, a Muslim convert, had said he wanted to go to Libya, his father's homeland, but his mother said after he was shot dead that he had planned to go to Syria. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson said Thursday that the motive for the attack remains fuzzy, "but radicalization and the passport figured highly."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

USA Today

3. Mexico-U.S. border deaths fall to lowest since 1999

Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen to a 15-year low, The Associated Press reported Thursday. In the fiscal year that ended in September, 307 people died, down from 445 the previous year. The Border Patrol credits the lower death toll to a drop in the number of people attempting dangerous crossings across the Arizona desert, Spanish-language media messages warning against crossing on foot, increased Border Patrol efforts, and a jump in the number of immigrants turning themselves in to authorities.

The Associated Press

4. Boko Haram abducts another 25 girls in Nigeria

Boko Haram militants kidnapped at least 25 girls in a remote Nigerian town, witnesses said Thursday. The latest attack came despite a temporary ceasefire with the rebels, and ongoing negotiations for the freedom of more than 200 other young women the Islamist militant group abducted in April. Parents of some of the newly captured hostages said the militants abducted female hostages late in the night, and later released the older women, keeping only girls.

Reuters

5. EU announces new goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions

European Union leaders announced Thursday that they had agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said poorer countries that rely more heavily on coal-fired power plants would receive funding to help them reach the targets. Activists were not satisfied. Oxfam's Natalia Alonso said the goal was "far too short of what the EU needs to do to pull its weight in the fight against climate change."

BBC News

6. Iraq says ISIS used chemical weapon against police

Iraqi officials on Thursday accused ISIS of attacking police with chlorine gas. Eleven police officers were taken to a hospital 50 miles north of Baghdad last month with dizziness, vomiting, and severe breathing trouble. Iraqi defense officials said the attack was the first confirmed case in which ISIS used chemical weapons on the battlefield. Doctors reportedly agreed that the patients' symptoms were what would be expected from chlorine poisoning.

The Washington Post

7. Amazon's stock sinks on a disappointing quarterly report

Amazon's shares dropped by nine percent on Thursday after the online retail giant reported a third-quarter loss that was much larger than expected, and lowered its projections for sales in the crucial holiday season. Amazon's losses have been fueled by huge investments in its new Fire smartphone, grocery deliveries, and the production of its own video content. Analysts said investors overlooked Amazon's losses when its revenue growth was better than 20 percent, but they're losing patience as that pace slows.

The New York Times

8. Joan Rivers' daughter reportedly will sue to get answers on her mother's death

Melissa Rivers plans to file a lawsuit against the medical center where her mother, comedian Joan Rivers, stopped breathing during throat surgery nearly two months ago, TMZ reported Thursday. New York's Health and Human Services department found that the surgical services and staff of the medical facility, Yorkville Endoscopy, were "deficient." Melissa Rivers reportedly has grown frustrated trying to find out exactly what caused her mother's death, and believes the lawsuit will force the staff to answer questions.

TMZ

9. Artist investigated for graffiti at national parks

The National Park Service has identified a New York artist as a suspect in graffiti vandalism cases in at least 10 national parks across the West, including Arizona's Grand Canyon and California's Yosemite. The investigation began after the woman posted a photo on social media in which she appeared to be working on an acrylic drawing of a woman smoking a cigarette at Utah's Canyonlands National Park in June.

Reuters

10. Christian Bale picked for Steve Jobs role in biopic

Actor Christian Bale has been tapped to play Steve Jobs in director Danny Boyle's film about the late Apple co-founder and CEO. Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the script based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Walter Isaacson's biography, said that Bale was the first pick for the role after Leonardo DiCaprio dropped out. "We needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range and that's Chris Bale," Sorkin said. "He didn't have to audition."

CNN