MONROVIA, Liberia

Rioters’ quarantine center raid could hasten Ebola spread

Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital’s largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected patients and took items including bloody sheets and mattresses.

The violence in the West Point slum occurred late Saturday and was led by residents angry that patients were brought to the center from other parts of Monrovia, said Tolbert Nyenswah, assistant health minister.

Up to 30 patients were staying at the center and many of them fled at the time of the raid, said Nyenswah. Once they are located they will be transferred to the Ebola center at Monrovia’s largest hospital, he said.

CINCINNATI

Author Erdrich wins award for distinguished achievement

Author Louise Erdrich, whose writings chronicle contemporary Native American life through characters representing its mix of heritages and cultures, was announced Sunday as the winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s distinguished achievement award.

Erdrich was raised in North Dakota by an Ojibwe-French mother and a German-American father, and her works have reflected both sides of that heritage. .

Erdrich’s novel “The Round House” told the story of a teenage boy’s effort to investigate an attack on his mother on a fictional North Dakota reservation and of his struggle to come to terms with a crime of violence against his mother. It won the 2012 National Book Award for fiction.

Her first novel, “Love Medicine,” won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award.

The distinguished achievement award is given for body of work. It is named for Richard C. Holbrooke, the late diplomat who brokered the 1995 Dayton peace accords on Bosnia.

NEW YORK

‘Ninja Turtles’ trounces ‘Expendables’ at box office

Moviegoers continued to shell out for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” while Sylvester Stallone’s action ensemble “The Expendables 3” was easily out-gunned in its weekend debut.

Paramount Pictures’ reptiles took in $28.4 million in the film’s second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. That far surpassed the $16.2 million earned by Stallone’s gang of aged warriors.

Opening in third place was the 20th Century Fox buddy comedy “Let’s Be Cops,” starring Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. It took in $17.7 million.

Also debuting was the Lois Lowry adaption “The Giver,” a dystopian young-adult tale starring Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep. The Weinstein Co. release opened with an estimated $12.8 million.

— From news services