In a desperate bid to slow West Africa's accelerating Ebola outbreak, Sierra Leone ordered its 6 million people confined to their homes for three days starting Friday while volunteers conduct a house-to-house search for victims in hiding. Many residents of rural villages have reacted with fear and panic when outsiders have come to conduct awareness campaigns and have even attacked health clinics. International observers endorsed the landmark Fiji election as credible on Thursday, although most smaller political parties said they would not accept what appeared to be a decisive win for the South Pacific country's military ruler. 4 Iraq violence: A series of bomb and mortar shell attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 36 people, Iraqi officials said Thursday, in an assault that underscored the threat posed to the Iraqi capital by marauding Islamic militants that have seized large parts of country.