JEREMY HAINSWORTH, Associated Press
ROB GILLIES, Associated Press

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — A Canadian soldier standing guard at a war memorial in the country’s capital was shot to death Wednesday, and gunfire then erupted inside Parliament, authorities said. One gunman was killed, and police said they were searching for as many as two others.

People fled Parliament by scrambling down scaffolding erected for renovations, while others took cover inside as police with rifles and body armor took up positions outside and blocked the normally bustling streets around the building.

Witnesses said the soldier was gunned down by a man dressed all in black with a scarf over his face. They said the gunman then entered Parliament, where dozens of shots rang out.

Ottawa police spokesman Chuck Benoit said two or three gunmen were believed to be involved in the attack. Gilles Michaud, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, called it a “dynamic, unfolding situation.”

Ottawa Hospital said it received two patients, both listed in stable condition, in addition to the soldier.

The attack came two days after a recent convert to Islam killed one Canadian soldier and injured another in a hit-and-run before being shot to death by police. The killer had been on the radar of federal investigators, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey.

Canada had raised its domestic terror threat level from low to medium Tuesday because of “an increase in general chatter from radical Islamist organizations,” said Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, a spokesman for the public safety minister.

On Wednesday, Tony Zobl, 35, said he witnessed the soldier being gunned down from his fourth-floor window directly above the National War Memorial, a 70-foot, arched granite cenotaph, or tomb, with bronze sculptures commemorating World War I.

“I looked out the window and saw a shooter, a man dressed all in black with a kerchief over his nose and mouth and something over his head as well, holding a rifle and shooting an honor guard in front of the cenotaph point-blank, twice,” Zobl told the Canadian Press news agency.

“The honor guard dropped to the ground, and the shooter kind of raised his arms in triumph holding the rifle.”

Zobl said the gunman then ran up the street toward Parliament Hill.

Cabinet minister Tony Clement tweeted that at least 30 shots were heard inside Parliament, where Conservative and Liberal MPs were holding their weekly caucus meetings.

“I’m safe locked in a office awaiting security,” Kyle Seeback, another member of Parliament, tweeted.

The top spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Harper was safe and had left Parliament Hill. The U.S. Embassy in Ottawa was locked down as a precaution.

Officials also canceled two events in Toronto honoring Pakistani teenager and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, including one in which she was supposed to receive honorary Canadian citizenship. The teenager was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 for calling for schooling for girls.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned people in downtown Ottawa to stay away from windows and rooftops.

Scott Walsh, 21, a construction worker working in a manhole right in front of Parliament Hill, said he heard shots go off at the War Memorial.

“We’re in construction and we’re used to loud bangs. When people started screaming and running, that’s when I clued, and I saw this guy running” with a gun, he said. “It was intense. I didn’t think it was real. ”

He said the gunman had long black hair with a scarf covering the bottom half of his face.

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OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Police in Ottawa say shots also were fired near a shopping mall close to Parliament.

Ottawa police Constable Marc Soucy said Wednesday there have been shots fired at three places in the Canadian capital: at the National War Memorial, where a soldier was wounded, on Parliament Hill and near the Rideau Centre Mall.

All three sites are within less than a mile from each other.

He said it started at the war memorial and that it is still unclear whether there is more than one shooter. No arrests have been made.

“Most of downtown Ottawa is in lockdown,” Soucy said.

The shooting came two days after a recent convert to Islam killed one Canadian soldier and injured another in a hit-and-run before being gunned down by police.

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OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Police and witnesses say a gunman has shot a Canadian soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

Witnesses also said the gunman entered Parliament and shots rang out. Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned people in downtown Ottawa to stay away from windows and rooftops. Buildings across the area including the U.S. Embassy are on lockdown.

The shooting, which happened shortly before 10 a.m., comes just two days after two Canadian soldiers were run over — and one of them killed — in Quebec by a man with jihadist sympathies.

CONNIE CASS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials are significantly expanding the breadth of vigilance for Ebola, saying that all travelers who come into the U.S. from Ebola-stricken West African nations will now be monitored for symptoms of illness for 21 days.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the program will begin Monday and cover visitors as well as aid workers, journalists and other Americans returning from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea.

The program will start in six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia.

CDC Director Tom Frieden says state and local health officials will check daily for fever or other Ebola symptoms.

Passengers will get kits to help them track their temperature and will be told to inform health officials daily of their status.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Midwest Cancer Alliance on Tuesday announced the formal opening of a clinic designed especially for adult survivors of childhood cancer.

“This program helps give pediatric cancer survivors access to long-term care tailored to their unique needs,” Dr. Becky Lowry, the new clinic’s medical director, said in a prepared statement.

Survivors of childhood cancer, she said, often are prone to secondary cancers, fertility issues, cardiovascular disease, weakened immune systems and endocrine problems.

Lowry also is an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

The clinic is a project of the cancer alliance, Children’s Mercy Hospital and KU Medical Center. It’s housed in the Physicians Medical Office Building on the KU Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kan.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for 5:30 p.m. Nov. 6.

The Survivorship Transition Clinic is meant to complement the Children’s Mercy “Survive and Thrive” program, which is geared toward cancer patients who are not yet 18. The new clinic is for patients who are 18 and older.

“We have patients in their 50s as well as young adults who are college age and were seen within the past year or two in a children’s hospital or clinic,” said Kyla Alsman, a nurse at the new clinic.

The new clinic’s staff, Alsman said, reviews patients’ medical records to develop a treatment summary. It serves as the foundation for knowing how to monitor for health problems after treatment, she said, and is shared with the patient and his or her primary care physician.

Laura Long, a spokesperson for the cancer alliance, said the new clinic is one of only six of its kind in the nation. The alliance is the outreach arm of the University of Kansas Cancer Center.

T.J. Horton, who was first diagnosed with leukemia when he was 4 years old, welcomed news of the clinic’s formal opening.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Horton, who’s now 34 and has been in remission since he was 8. “Once you’re in remission, you start thinking you’re healthy and you never want to go through that again. I’ve had some issues that, fortunately, my wife and I were able to work out, but it sure would have been nice if we’d have had someone there to lead us in the right direction.”

Horton, athletic trainer at Garden City Community College, was the subject of a recent feature story in the Garden City Telegram.

“I think this will be a wonderful opportunity for guiding teenagers through the transition into adulthood, and give them a place to go to get answers when things come up later in life,” Horton said.

For more information about the clinic, call the cancer alliance at (877) 253-4477.

Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

PAOLA — Three people were injured in an accident just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday in Miami County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Ford passenger car driven by Robert L. Geiler Jr., 36, Osawatomie, was northbound on U.S. 69 and stopped in traffic.

A 2013 Ford SUV driven by Denise M. Sieben, 53, Bucyrus, was slowing to stop and was rear-ended by a 2000 Acura driven by Marin E. Hoskins, 17, Olathe.

The impact pushed the SUV into the car.

Geiler and a passenger in the car Anthony L. Woltkamp, 25, Olathe, were transported to Miami County Medical Center.

Sieben was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.

The KHP reported Hoskins was possibly injured but not where she was treated and all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two state senators from Wichita say they want to introduce a plan in the Legislature to eliminate sales tax on food purchased for preparation at home.

Republican Sen. Michael O’Donnell says he worked on a similar proposal on the tax code during the 2013 legislative session but the House rejected it.

The Wichita Eagle  reports O’Donnell is working with Democratic Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau on a plan that would slowly reduce the sales tax on food over several years.

The Kansas Department of Revenue says groceries make up about 15 percent of total sales tax collections, bringing in about $392.5 million each year — most of which goes into the state’s general fund.

Kansas is currently projected to have a $260 million deficit by the end of June 2016.

TOPEKA (AP) — Former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves has endorsed U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and is recording a statewide radio ad for the three-term Republican incumbent in his tough re-election race.

The Roberts campaign released a letter Wednesday from Graves calling Roberts a tested leader and reasonable problem-solver.

Roberts is in a tight race with independent candidate and Olathe businessman Greg Orman. The challenger is running as a centrist who can break gridlock in Washington.

Graves is a GOP moderate who served as governor from 1995 through 2002 and often clashed with GOP conservatives. He is president of the American Trucking Associations.

Graves’ actions follow Orman’s endorsement by a group of former moderate GOP state legislators.

Roberts campaign manager Corry Bliss said the Graves radio ad should be running by Friday.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Plans for a $75 million apartment complex near the University of Kansas are in jeopardy after city commissioners declined to allow the developer to reduce the number of parking spaces.

City commissioners decided Tuesday to reject a request to reduce parking for the complex by 100 spaces. They cited concerns parking from the apartments would cause problems for the Oread neighborhood near the complex.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that a representative for the development firm declined to comment after the meeting but the company has said in the past that an exemption from the parking code was vital to secure funding.

The developer wants to build a complex with 237 apartments with 624 bedrooms but only 461 parking spaces. Neighbors urged the commission to reject the parking exemption.