CANADA-EBOLA RESTRICTS VISAS

TORONTO - Canada's Conservative government announces it is suspending visa applications for residents and nationals of countries with "widespread and persistent-intense transmission" of the Ebola virus.

EBOLA-NURSE QUARANTINED

FORT KENT, Maine - A nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone can move about as she pleases after a judge eased state-imposed restrictions on her, handing officials in Maine a defeat in the nation's biggest court case yet over how to balance personal liberty, public safety and fear of Ebola. 

SPACESHIP TWO

MOJAVE, California - A winged spaceship designed to take tourists on excursions beyond Earth's atmosphere breaks up during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, killing a pilot in the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week. B

SENATE-BLACK VOTERS

ATLANTA - With Republicans confident of reclaiming control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats are looking to black voters in the Southern states of North Carolina and Georgia to help preserve their majority. Early voting totals from both states show strong turnout in majority Democratic, heavily African-American urban counties. Republicans say that a sour national mood benefits them, and they insist that early turnout deficits mean only that reliable Democrats are voting early and not changing the bottom line. 

US-ELECTONS-GOVERNORS

NEW YORK - Democratic and Republican candidates are locked in tight governors' races across the U.S. that could resonate far beyond Tuesday's elections and have implications for the 2016 presidential contest. The stakes are perhaps highest in Florida, and not just for Republican Gov. Rick Scott and his opponent Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor-turned-Democrat. The results could provide a blueprint on how White House candidates could win over Florida's two all-important voting blocs, retirees and Hispanic voters. 

US-ELECTIONS

WASHINGTON - Early votes in the U.S. midterm elections soared past 15 million across 31 states on Friday, an outpouring that is giving hopeful Republicans as well as nervous Democrats cause for optimism heading into the final weekend of a campaign with control of the Senate, the U.S. House and 36 governorships at stake. 

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA-SMUGGLING

BOGOTA, Colombia - A $15 grocery run has cost two single mothers from Colombia 48 days in jail - and the threat of a 14-year prison sentence - as a result of a crackdown on smuggling in Venezuela that's ratcheting up tensions and highlighting growing economic distortions between the neighbors.