The governor of Missouri has declared a state of emergency and a curfew for the town of Ferguson. That’s where nightly protests have been taking place after a white police officer killed an unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, last week. NPR’s xx reports the north St. Louise suburb.

 

Governor Jane Nixon told the tense crowd gathered at the Ferguson church that the curfew will started at midnight and last until five o’clock in the morning.

 

The best way for us to get peace is for everybody to help to make sure everybody gets home safe tonight at twelve o’clock.

 

Missouri state highway patrol Capitan Ron Johnson says officers will enforce the curfew through communication.

 

We won’t enforce it with trucks. We won’t enforce it with tear gas. We’ll communicate, we’ll talk about, you know what, it is time to go home.

 

Officials did not say how long a curfew will be enforced. xx, NPR news, Ferguson.

 

A senior US official says American aircrafts carried out strikes today near the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq that was taken earlier this month by Islamic fighters. NPR’s Peter Kenyon reports from northern Iraq that the dam is seen as a major strategic asset.

 

In taking the Mosul Dam on August 7th, the Sunni fundamentalists who want to be called the Islamic State not only handed Kurdish Peshmerga forces in embarrassing defeat, they gain the power to threaten the entire cities with inundation. So Iraqis were pleased to learn that military aircrafts were striking Islamic positions in the vicinity of the dam. A Peshmerga officer reached by phone says the strikes are a prelude to adjoin operation to return the dam to Iraqi control. This plan which has not been confirmed by the US military would involve Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces on the ground with US air support. Peter Kenyon, NPR news, xx, northern Iraq.

 

Arrests were made in the abduction of two Amish girls taken from their families ? in upstate New York last week. Police say Stephen Howell Jr. and Nicole Vaisey in New York will be charged with two counts of first degree kidnapping with the intent of physically hummer, sexually abuse the girls. Police say there was potential for other victims. The 7- and 12-year old girls are back with their family.

 

President Obama says college education has to become more affordable, and he is calling on Congress to pass a bill that would allow borrowers to refinance their student debt. In his weekly radio and internet message today, the president called higher education the surest ticket to the middle class, and says a plan to tight federal finance aid to a school performance could help cut college costs. Obama recently signed an executive order allowing more college graduates to cap their student loan payments at 10% of their income.

 

Texas governor Rick Perry says he will fight the indictment against him for alleged abuse of power. He vetoed funding for a Travis County unit investigating public corruption because the Democrat heading the group refuse to resign after been convicted of drunk and driving.

 

This is NPR news.

 

A Dutch man is returning a medal of honor Israeli government gave him for being one of what it calls the righteous among the nations. xx, who helped save Jews from the Holocaust. xx reports the 91-year old man won that medal for harboring a Jewish child in World War II, but now he lost six family members in an Israeli bombing of the Gaza strip.

 

Seventy-one years ago, the young xx risked his life to snick a Jewish boy pass occupying Nazis and sheltered him in his family home outside Amsterdam until the end of the Holocaust. xx own father died in an concentration camp and his brother xx was killed by the Nazis for resisting occupation. But now xx is returning his medal to Israeli embassy in the Hague, saying in a published letter he finds it “particularly shocking and tragic that four generations on our family is faced with the murder of our king in Gaza, murder carried out by the state of Israel.” xx says six Palestinian members of his extended family were killed by an air strike July 20th. The Israeli embassy in the Hague was not immediately available for comment. For NPR news, I am xx.

 

A new center to treat Ebola patients is opening in Liberia after the existing one became overwhelmed with patients. Health officials say the first center was only meant to treat about 25 patients, but now has around 80. The new center will have 120 beds and it may eventually triple in size because of the ongoing crisis. Isolating Ebola patients is one of the keys to slowing the spread of the disease. That’s because those infected can transmit through body fluids. The World Health Organization says it could take another six months to get the outbreak in West Africa under control. I am Jeannie Herbst, NPR news in Washington.