Diplomats are urging all sides in the conflict to act with restrain and abide by the cease-fire that begins Friday morning, local time. They say the truce is critical that gives civilians a much needed reprieve from the violence, to stock up on supplies, to take care of the injured and bury the dead. The truce does not require Israeli troops to pull out of Gaza. Under the deal Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will go to Cairo to begin talks on a more durable cease-fire. The news came after the UN humanitarian officials warn that Palestinians in Gaza have no where to hide. A UN shelter was struck by a Israeli artillery this week. Michele Kelemen, NPR news, Washington. 

 

 

After earlier having denied any wrongdoing, CIA Director John Brennan reportedly today apologized to the top members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. NPR's David Welna reports Brennan did so after an internal probe found CIA officials have improperly access to Committee's computers. 

According to an agency spokesman, CIA Director Brennan apologized to Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic Chair of Senate Intelligence Committee, and Saxby Chambliss, the panel's top Republican. Feinstein had been demanding that apology since March when she publicly accused the CIA of spying on her staff's computers. That was after the CIA claimed Senate staffers may have improperly obtained internal documents from the agency, related to a report they were preparing on brutal interrogation methods used by the CIA during the Bush Administration. Brennan's apology comes after a probe by the agency's inspector general found CIA employees had in fact acted improperly. David Welna, NPR news, the Capital.

 

 

US health official are warning Americans not to travel to any of the three countries that are currently dealing with the outbreak of the deadly disease Ebola. The advisory applies Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone where the disease has now claimed more than 700 lives. Dr. Tom Frieden, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the announcement today and says his agency will also help to work how to deal with the outbreak. We plan to send an additional 50 CDC disease control specialists into the three countries. The current outbreak is the biggest since the Ebola virus first emerged in Africa nearly 40 years ago. One of two Americans stricken with the disease has been taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment.

 

 

Senate lawmakers have signed off on a nearly 11-billion-dollar measure to keep money flowing for transportation improvements. The measure's designed to keep the increasingly depleted transportation trust fund operating to heat up next year. Measure approved by lawmakers is extended to preventing a 28% cut in federal highway mass transit *date. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature. 

 

 

A major down day on Wall Street. The Dow dropped a 317 points.

 

 

You are listening to NPR.

 

 

Islamist militants are now saying they are in control of Libya's second largest city. According to a commander of the militants *Bogay, militias have assumed control of Benghazi after defeating an army unit, taking over barracks, and seizing tanks, rockets and ammunition. Militias have been battling forces loyal to a renegade general being waging to a campaign to crush extremist militants there. 

 

 

There were report shows fewer women are holding jobs in college sports. NPR's Ketzel Levine reports the NCWA and its member schools also receive low marks for racial diversity in hiring. Richard Lapchick co-wrote the report card released by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity & Ethics in Sport.

On the playing fields, the athletes are represented pretty proportionately into their percentages in the general population. But in terms of who's running sports, who's making the decisions, it wasn't perfect.

That's why the report card gives the NCWA and its member schools a B for racial hiring practices. That's the lowest grade given among all the professional and amateurs sport organizations. For gender hiring, college sports received a C+, the second lowest rating after the NFL. Lapchick says, overall, the decision markers about college sports are overwhelmingly white men. Ketzel Levine, NPR news. 

 

 

Crews are continuing to work to shove up a massive hole on Los Angeles's street after a large water main burst there, sending more than 20 million gallons of water onto the UCLA campus. The nearly-century-old pipe in Sunset Boulevard creating a massive 56 by 41 foot crater, off-site workers are fastening new belts in a replacement for the burst section of pipe. UCLA says six facilities, including Pauley Pavilion, were damaged. More than 900 vehicles remain trapped in below-ground garages. Many of them totally submerged.