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Hong Kong's teen leader; Pluto's comeback; Sandler's Netflix deal


Face of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests is 17-year-old high school kid

Have you seen the face of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests? It belongs to Joshua Wong. And he's 17. The wunderkind isn't old enough to vote, but he's inspiring thousands. At 14, Wong co-founded the student-run pro-democracy movement Scholarism, one of the main campaign groups involved in the Hong Kong protests. Last Friday, Wong spent 40 hours in detention for storming a government complex. News of his arrest spread on social media, effectively helping to kick-start the recent protests on a massive scale. Today, Hong Kong's embattled Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said he would meet with the pro-democracy protesters, but he's still refusing to resign. The student groups at the center of the protests are glad he wants to talk but say he still has to step down.

Liberia says it's going to prosecute the Ebola patient in Dallas

Liberia is not happy with Thomas Eric Duncan. The Ebola patient – who's a Liberian national – is in serious condition in a Dallas hospital. He's the first case of Ebola ever in the USA. Liberia said that when he was leaving the country, he lied on his exit papers and said he hadn't come into contact with anyone who was infected with the virus. They said they're going to prosecute him when he returns home. On Sept. 15, days before he left Liberia for the U.S., Duncan helped carry 19-year-old Marthalene Williams into a taxi to go to the hospital after her family couldn't get an ambulance, The New York Times reported. Williams, who was seven months pregnant, was turned away at the hospital because there wasn't enough space in the Ebola ward, the Times reports. She returned home that night, hours before she died. We're not sure if Duncan knew she had Ebola.

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IMF Chief: Ebola could pose 'significant risks'
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warns that if not contained, the Ebola virus might develop into something that would be a very serious concern, could pose significant risks for global economy. (Oct. 2)
AP

Scientists just can't make up their minds on whether Pluto is a planet

First it was a planet. Then it wasn't it planet. Now some people are saying it should be a planet. My head hurts. Pluto, a celestial snowball with a surface of methane ice 3.6 billion miles from the sun, was first discovered and classified as a planet in 1930. Pluto was relegated to "dwarf-planet" status by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. They booted it out because there appeared to be a bunch of other big rocks just like Pluto out beyond the eighth planet (Neptune), all considered too puny to be called a planet. But, at a forum in September with a bunch of really smart people, some experts argued Pluto should be called a planet again. One said, "a planet is a culturally defined word that changes over time," and Pluto is a planet. So what does this mean for Pluto? Not much, officially anyway, according to a spokesman from the International Astronomical Union: "There are currently no requests from any astronomers to put this issue on the agenda at the General Assembly." Back to limbo.

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Wait, is Pluto a planet, again? | USA NOW
There’s been a lot of talk about Pluto’s planet status, eight years since the celestial body was officially labeled a “dwarf planet.” Carly Mallenbaum talks about what all of the fuss is about and why some people are really excited for Pluto.
(Paste BN, USA NOW)

Adam Sandler said he inked a deal with Netflix because it rhymes with 'Wet Chicks'

Makes total sense. Adam Sandler has signed a big deal to produce and star in four movies that will air exclusively on Netflix, where his flicks like Happy Gilmore are still madly popular. "I immediately said yes for one reason and one reason only ... Netflix rhymes with Wet Chicks," said Sandler. "Let the streaming begin!" The deal is big for Netflix, because it shows they're serious about trying to compete with Hollywood. It follows news earlier this week that Weinstein Co. and Netflix are teaming up for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, a sequel to 2000's Oscar-winning foreign-language martial-arts film. It'll be released in August 2015 at IMAX theaters and simultaneously to Netflix's 50 million subscribers.

JP Morgan's data breach this summer was huge

This one's big. Today we learned that a huge cyberattack on JPMorgan Chase this summer affected 76 million households and 7 million small businesses. What info did hackers steal? Contact information, including names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. JPMorgan said passwords, dates of birth and Social Security numbers weren't compromised. JPMorgan was one of several financial institutions hacked in late July. Customer account information was siphoned off, and the FBI and U.S. Secret Service are investigating the attack.

Extra Bites

Day in Pictures: Our favorite photo from today's gallery.

Have you seen it? NASA spots a giant cloud of poison. Because there can never be a giant cloud of marshmallows.

Step off: Will and Kate want the paps to chill with baby George.

Teresa Guidice is going to jail. So is Joe.

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This is a compilation of stories from across Paste BN.

Contributing: Doug Stanglin, Elizabeth Weise, Calum MacLeod, Gary Levin, Doyle Rice, Brian Truitt, Bryan Alexander