ANKARA, Turkey

Prime Minister wins first direct presidential election

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won Turkey’s first direct presidential election Sunday, striking a conciliatory tone toward critics who fear he is bent on a power grab as he embarks on another five years at the country’s helm.

“I will not be the president of only those who voted for me, I will be the president of 77 million,” Erdogan said in a victory speech delivered from the balcony of his Justice and Development Party headquarters in Ankara.

The three-term prime minister’s message of unity was in stark contrast to his mostly bitter, divisive pre-election campaign, when he poured scorn on his opponents.

Sixty-year-old Erdogan is revered by many as a man of the people who ushered in a period of economic prosperity, but reviled by others as an increasingly autocratic leader trying to impose his religious and conservative views on a country with strong secular traditions.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Missionaries to Ebola area to be quarantined in U.S.

Missionaries returning to the United States after working with patients infected with Ebola will be put in quarantine and monitored, health officials said Sunday.

The quarantine will last at least three weeks since the missionaries were last exposed to people infected with the Ebola virus, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said.

The missionaries are with Charlotte-based SIM USA. None of them is sick or has shown any signs of having Ebola, but they agree with health officials that everyone should be as cautious as possible, SIM USA president Bruce Johnson said in a statement.

The aid group isn’t releasing how many missionaries were in Liberia or when they will return to protect the privacy of their families.

SIM USA aid worker Nancy Writebol is in an Atlanta hospital after contracting Ebola.

PHILADELPHIA

Husband of strangled jogger charged with her murder

The husband of a jogger found strangled in a park has been charged with her murder, police said Sunday, days after they warned female runners to take extra precautions until the killer was caught.

Authorities announced the arrest of 48-year-old Christopher Murray at a Sunday news conference. His 46-year-old wife, Constance, was found dead Tuesday in Pennypack Park in northeast Philadelphia. The mother of two had been out running the night before.

Riehl said Murray has expressed remorse. “I think it was more of a rage incident more than premeditated,” he said.

Investigators say Murray trailed his wife in a car while she went out Monday night, and the two began to argue. Christopher Murray strangled his wife and left her body near a bench, police said.

HONOLULU

Hawaiians face power outages as rare storm exits

Sunshine and blue skies returned to parts of Hawaii on Sunday after days of heavy rain and gusting winds brought by Tropical Storm Iselle, the first to make landfall in more than two decades.

A second storm in the Pacific, Hurricane Julio, had tourists and residents on edge but was moving away from the islands and no longer posing a threat.

Iselle, initially a hurricane, left the most traveled and populated areas of the state largely unscathed, but toppled trees and power lines when it hit the Big Island early Friday.

Thousands of people there remained without power or any idea when it would be restored.

– From news service reports

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