In brief: Hospital director dies of Ebola

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – A doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola, the fifth local doctor to die of the disease there, authorities said Monday, as UNICEF announced it was doubling its staff in the three West African nations hard hit by the deadly virus.

The death of Dr. Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone, was a blow to efforts to keep desperately needed health workers safe in a country ravaged by the world’s worst Ebola outbreak.

At the United Nations in New York, Ebola coordinator Dr. Peter Salama of UNICEF said the U.N. children’s agency would double its staff from 300 to 600 in Guinea, Liberia and in Sierra Leone, where children make up 20 percent of all Ebola cases. About 4,000 children have been orphaned by Ebola, he said.

24 dead after boat sinks off Istanbul

ISTANBUL – A boat carrying suspected migrants from Afghanistan and Syria sank Monday off Istanbul’s coast, leaving at least 24 people dead, the city’s governor’s office said. About a dozen people were believed to be missing, while six were rescued.

There were about 40 people on board the boat, the coast guard said. It was unclear what caused the vessel to sink or where it had set sail from.

The people on board were believed to be from Afghanistan and Syria, said Col. Sakir Cicek, of the Turkish military’s general staff command in the capital, Ankara.

Suicide bomber kills 33 in Nigeria

POTISKUM, Nigeria – A suicide bomber killed himself and 32 civilians Monday when he detonated explosives on the edge of a religious procession by the moderate Muslim Brotherhood in northeast Nigeria, a hospital official and witnesses said.

The official said 119 people were wounded.

In a separate development, gunmen attacked a prison in central Kogi state and freed 145 inmates, prison chief Omale Adams told the Associated Press.

He said one inmate died in Sunday night’s attack and 12 escapees were recaptured by late Monday.