Associated Press

(CHICAGO) — Former Illinois Rep. Lane Evans, a Vietnam War-era Marine who fought for veterans’ rights during his 24 years in the U.S. House, has died after a long fight with Parkinson’s disease.

The Democrat died Wednesday at a nursing home in East Moline, Illinois, said his legal guardian and former congressional staffer Michael Malmstrom. He was 63.

Evans was first elected from his western Illinois district in 1982, when he was a 31-year-old attorney, and went on to serve 12 terms.

He worked for more than a decade after his Parkinson’s diagnosis, but announced in 2006 that he wouldn’t seek re-election because of his deteriorating health. He left office in January 2007.

Evans joined the Marines at age 17, and had orders for Vietnam. But he did his overseas service in Okinawa, Japan, because his older brother was already deployed in the war.

As a congressman, he fought for the rights of veterans and was the senior Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He pushed legislation to help those exposed to Agent Orange and to give former service members rights to judicial review.

“He was an advocate of veterans across this country no matter what branch of service,” said Malmstrom, a fellow Marine.

He is survived by his three brothers.

(WASHINGTON) — Officials say HealthCare.gov has gotten cybersecurity upgrades ahead of a Nov. 15 start for the second open enrollment season under President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Andy Slavitt, overseeing the complex technology, says the facility that hosts HealthCare.gov is now certified to meet the highest government standards for cloud computing. Cloud operations use large networks of machines in different locations to handle data.

HealthCare.gov is also conducting daily security scans and weekly so-called “white-hat” hacking attempts that simulate real attacks. The Homeland Security department is also helping to bolster HealthCare.gov’s detection and defense.

The federal marketplace for subsidized private health insurance will serve 38 states this year. Cybersecurity is getting scrutiny from critics as well. Last year’s chaotic debut of the program did not allow time to complete security testing.

(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — The space tourism company that suffered a tragic setback when its experimental rocket-powered spaceship broke apart over the California desert could resume test flights as early as next summer if it can finish building a replacement craft, its CEO says.

The sleek composite shell and tail section of the new craft are sitting inside the company’s manufacturing facility in Mojave, California.

After more than two years of work, it’s beginning to look like a spaceship, but Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said there’s much more to be done, from relatively simple things such as installing windows to the more complex fitting of flight controls and other wiring.

The ship — dubbed SpaceShipTwo Serial No. 2 — will replace one that was destroyed last week after its feathering system that controls descent deployed prematurely and aerodynamic forces ripped it apart, killing the co-pilot and seriously injuring the pilot.

In the wake of the accident, workers have focused on building the new ship.

“That’s provided some solace to all of us, and I think there’s sort of a therapeutic benefit to folks to be able to put their energies into constructive work,” Whitesides told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.

He said the company will be able to continue flying its mother ship — the much larger jet-powered plane that launches the rocket ship at high altitudes — while federal investigators look into the cause of the deadly crash with the cooperation of the company.

It’s possible that test flights for the next spaceship could begin within six months, before the investigation is expected to conclude, Whitesides said.

Scaled Composites, which is developing the spacecraft for Virgin Galactic, has an experimental permit from the Federal Aviation Administration to test the crafts. Just last month, the company had received approval from the agency to resume rocket-powered flights.

When the new ship is ready next year, the FAA said it will conduct a more extensive review to ensure whatever caused last week’s mishap has been addressed before allowing test flights to resume.

Speculation continues about how far the accident will push back the day when Virgin Galactic’s paying customers can routinely rocket dozens of miles from a $219 million spaceport in the New Mexico desert toward the edge of space for a fleeting feeling of weightlessness and a breathtaking view.

Whitesides said the accident has been tough on many levels, but he refused to see it as a roadblock and said the company does not have to start from scratch.

“There was no question it was a tragic setback, but it’s one from which we can recover,” he said. “With Serial No. 2, we’ll be putting a stronger, even better ship into initial commercial service and I think we’ll be able to get back into test flights soon and carry forward.”

Virgin Galactic has hopes of one day being able to manufacture at least one new ship a year. It envisions flights with six passengers climbing more than 62 miles above Earth.

Seats sell for $250,000 and the company says it has booked passengers including Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Russell Brand. A few more passengers signed on this week, Whitesides said.

Virgin Galactic will be the anchor tenant at the taxpayer-financed Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. Before the accident, the company planned to begin moving operations to New Mexico early next year.

Whitesides reiterated his commitment to New Mexico but acknowledged the company was still considering its new timeline.

(COTONOU, Benin) — As Ebola continued to burn its way through three West African countries, the World Health Organization on Wednesday elected its next Africa director, Botswana doctor Matshidiso Moeti, a longtime veteran of the U.N. agency.

The announcement was made by Senegalese health minister Awa Marie Coll Seck, who chaired the vote during this week’s meeting of WHO Africa’s regional committee in Benin.

“I’m very happy and proud of the way this process was conducted,” Moeti said after being declared the winner. “As regional director, I will work with every country in all the regions of our continent to improve the health of our populations.”

WHO Africa’s outgoing leader, Angolan doctor Luis Sambo, was criticized for initially bungling WHO’s response to the biggest Ebola outbreak in history.

Moeti previously led the epidemiology department in Botswana as well as its AIDS department and joined WHO Africa as a regional adviser for women’s and adolescent health. She was previously head of WHO’s Malawi office and was WHO Africa’s deputy regional director until March.

WHO’s Africa office is widely acknowledged to be the agency’s weakest regional office, among five others which are all largely autonomous and do not answer to the Geneva headquarters.

In an internal draft document obtained by the Associated Press last month, WHO blamed its staff in Africa for initially botching the response to Ebola, describing many of its regional staff as “politically-motivated appointments” and noted numerous complaints about WHO officials in West Africa.

Whoever is chosen as Africa’s new WHO head probably won’t have a big role in ending Ebola since the U.N. has already taken charge of control efforts, but the new director could be key to preventing similar disasters in the future.

A British-built treatment center opened outside the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown and began accepting patients on Wednesday. The facility includes a special 12-bed clinic to treat infected health care workers that will be staffed by British Army medics.

The charity Save the Children is running the main treatment center, where more than 200 medical staff, including a contingent of Cuban doctors, will care for up to 80 patients.

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Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar contributed to this report.

(JERUSALEM) — Israeli police say a man has rammed a car into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem in an “intentional attack.”

The police then shot and killed the attacker.

Police officials say the car hit the train platform, then rammed into cars after which the driver jumped out and tried to run away. The officials say he then attacked a group of policemen with a crowbar before he was shot and killed.

Wednesday’s attack came just over a week after a similar attack by a Palestinian motorist that drove into a train platform and killed a baby girl.

Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have clashed almost daily in east Jerusalem in recent months.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Israeli police on Wednesday dispersed dozens of masked Palestinians who threw rocks and firecrackers at the officers near a contested holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City, angered by a planned visit to the area by Israeli supporters of a right-wing activist.

The Israelis had planned to visit the site to commemorate a week since a Palestinian shot and wounded American-Israeli activist Yehuda Glick who has campaigned for more Jewish access to the location. Palestinians view such visits as a provocation and often respond violently.

Several police officers were hurt in the clashes, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, adding that the police used stun grenades to disperse the Palestinians. Quiet was soon restored, he said.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials on Wednesday’s incident.

Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have clashed almost daily in east Jerusalem in recent months, with much of the unrest focused around a sacred compound revered by both Jews and Muslims. It’s the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount because of the revered Jewish Temples that stood there in biblical times. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and it is their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Israel captured east Jerusalem — with its sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians — from Jordan in the 1967 war. Palestinians demand the territory for their future capital. The fate of the area is an emotional issue for Jews and Muslims and its future lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Glick, a leading voice in a campaign to expand Jewish prayer rights on the hilltop complex, was wounded a week ago when a Palestinian gunman on a motorcycle opened fire at him as he left a conference in Jerusalem.

Muslim worshippers view Jewish prayer at the site as a provocation, and Israeli authorities place tough restrictions on it. Everyone visiting the area from the Israeli side has to be screened by police.

East Jerusalem has experienced unrest since the summer, with Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs at motorists and clashing frequently with Israeli police. The violence gained steam last month, when a Palestinian motorist rammed his car into a crowded train station, killing a 3-month-old Israeli-American girl and a woman from Ecuador.

(TEHRAN, Iran) — Thousands of Iranians chanted “Down with America” at a major anti-U.S. rally on Tuesday marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, just days ahead of a key meeting between the two nations’ top diplomats over Iran’s controversial nuclear program.

The gathering outside the former embassy compound in Tehran, which has become the annual venue for rallies commemorating the embassy attack and other American-bashing protests, was smaller compared to last year’s event, which drew tens of thousands — a sign of improved Iran-U.S. relations since moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office last year.

But the rally, organized by hard-liners, still puts pressure on Rouhani, whose policy of outreach to Washington has faced harsh criticism from opponents at home.

Many in the crowd chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to Britain,” neither of which has an embassy here. Several protesters burned the American, Israeli and the British flag.

Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran 35 years ago, militant Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy, claiming it was a center of plots against the Persian nation, and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Ties between the two countries were severed after the siege and formal relations have not been restored since.

The anti-U.S. gathering this year also had a religious character as most Shiites world over on Tuesday observed the Ashoura, a remembrance of the 7th-century death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad revered by Shiites.

One of the rally speakers, cleric and university professor Ali Reza Panahian compared the U.S. to enemies Hussein faced in his final battle in Karbala in present-day Iraq.

“Today, the evil arrogant powers have learned that they should not attempt to thwart us in the same way that enemies of Hussein encircled him,” Panahian said. He also denounced talks with world powers over Iran’s nuclear program, claiming the negotiations cannot change the Iranians’ anti-U.S. stance.

State TV said similar anti-U.S. rallies took place in other Iranian cities and towns Tuesday.

But despite anti-American sentiments on the streets, Rouhani’s government has pushed for a final nuclear deal that would end crippling Western sanctions imposed on Iran in exchange for ensuring that Tehran cannot produce a nuclear weapon.

The two sides have a Nov. 24 deadline to seal the final deal. The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it’s for peaceful purposes only.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all Iranian state matters, has repeatedly backed the talks even though he has expressed doubts about the intentions of the six-member group — the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany — in the negotiations.

In Oman’s capital of Muscat next week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif are to hold trilateral talks, which will also include European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Zarif’s adviser Ali Khorram said Iran-U.S. relations have now changed from being openly hostile to friendly but that “it’s a friendly relation not based on trust, not yet.”

Khorram said the two have “common fields of cooperation in Iraq and Syria” against Islamic State extremists.

(DAMASCUS, Syria) — A vampire, a medieval knight and a man dressed as an Islamic militant walk into a blue-lit bar in a Damascus hotel, all determined to have fun at the costume party. The music is pounding, a break dancer stands on his head and in the DJ booth, a man and woman are kissing.

Over the loudspeakers, a droning voice intones: “Welcome foolish mortals. There’s no turning back now.”

Amid a conflict lapping at the edge of Damascus, Syria’s better-offs spend their time in cafes and at parties, strolling a gleaming new mall and enjoying the controlled adrenalin of amusement park rides overlooking a city skyline of buildings and columns of smoke from bombings — striving to deny war its miserable monotony.

Yet as the Syrian conflict grinds on, well into its fourth year, almost no family has been left untouched by death, injury, poverty, homelessness or missing relatives.

“We want to change our boring routine,” said Naja, a she-vampire with fake blood drooling from her reddened lips. “Every day we live a horror show (in Syria) but this one is a comedy,” she said, laughing at the hotel Halloween party. Nearby, a woman painted makeup on arriving guests, turning them into vampires or Spiderman. Beside her, Cleopatra and a two-faced man posed for photographs.

Like most Syrians, Naja only gave her first name, worried she would cause offense to government officials in a country that brooks little dissent.

Inside the club, one man sported a fake luxurious beard and a flowing robe.

“I came as Caliph al-Baghdadi because he is a frightening person, he’s scarier than Dracula,” said a 42-year-old lawyer, Hassan, referring to Iraqi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the militant Islamic State group. The group has massacred rivals, enslaved women and children and decapitated enemies in seizing swaths of Syria and Iraq. Al-Baghdadi has declared the captured territory a new Islamic caliphate.

“There are even films where Dracula does good things, but there is nothing good about (al-Baghdadi),” Hassan said.

He came to the party with his wife and child because, he said, “We are here to live, and defy the culture of death that they want to drown us in.”

Hassan’s wife was a kind-of vampire, because they weren’t sure if al-Baghdadi had a spouse, he shrugged, laughing.

Break-dancers performed to the thumping song “Turn Down for What.” The small crowd hooted as three men flipped and spun around to lyrics “Fire up that loud/ Another round of shots! Turn down for what?”

One young man posed for photographs with his girlfriend. In a booth, the chain-smoking DJ spun music, as another man working the lights frequently paused to kiss his girlfriend.

Outside, the sound of aircraft bombing a nearby rebel-held town shuddered through the city.

This year, more attention than ever has been paid to how middle-class Syrians wile away their time amid war, as businessmen opened a mall in the coastal city of Tartous, and a smaller one in Damascus. A new entertainment center called “Uptown Palace” in Damascus features amusement rides, a shooting club, bowling and sports fields.

For activists, it suggested a certain callousness toward the suffering of ordinary Syrians, who have grown visibly poorer since the conflict began to threaten the rule of President Bashar Assad. Businessmen say the new entertainment options are a form of defiance at a time of war; their patrons say they are badly needed distractions.

Television footage of Uptown Palace from a summer’s day showed the amusement center packed with families strolling the sprawling complex of water fountains, brightly-lit shops and flashing lights.

Children slid down red, yellow and blue slides in a water park. Some residents fastened themselves into ball-cages that were hurled into the air. Others rode a pirate-ship style ride that flipped them over. Some smoked water pipes in an outdoor area decorated with Hellenic statues.

The amusement park’s management wouldn’t allow The Associated Press to film, saying they were worried the project would be portrayed as frivolous at a time of war.

Many other Syrians find relief in more traditional parts of Damascus.

In the city’s cavernous bazaar, Bader al-Deen Ali smoked a water pipe with his buddies. For eight years, he has smoked at the same cafe, a ritual made only more important because of the war.

“It means a lot for me to be here. This is where I come to breathe,” he said, gesturing around the cafe. “I should buy stocks here,” he joked.

Other nightspots, in rebel-held territory in towns outside of Damascus, are no-go zones now.

When asked about the prospect of entering the rebel-occupied suburbs, Ali made a slicing gesture across his neck and said “Daesh!” Arabic slang for the Islamic State group.

In another alleyway, a woman ate ice-cream in Damascus’ most famous gelato shop, Bakdash.

Even here, the usually crowded shop was half-full on a recent day as many Syrians grow too poor, even for ice-cream. But for those who could still come, the ice-cream was a treat.

“I always come to Bakdash, it’s part of our heritage, and the ice cream is delicious,” said Nawal, a 50-year-old housewife.

She fled her home in southern Damascus last year because of shelling; later, her nephew was killed. Nawal said she preferred not to say how he died, common societal code for the boy being a rebel.

She gestured to the ice-cream before her. “We want to live our lives to the fullest, we want to overcome what has happened to us. If we didn’t, we’d become depressed.”

The poorer find relief in the grand Umayyad mosque of Damascus, a light-filled soaring space.

Fayza, 44, leaned on the mosque’s outer wall, taking in the afternoon sun after finishing her work as a cleaner. One of her sons, a soldier, was missing in southern Syria. Another was wounded in fighting and she had to flee her home in a nearby town because of clashes.

“We have so many worries,” said the woman in a tidy brown robe. “I come so that maybe my heart will rest a little.”