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PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — For all the interest in the men and women playing Pinehurst No. 2 in consecutive weeks, Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson made the U.S. Women's Open more closely resemble the first LPGA Tour major of the year.

Wie held it together with two key par putts and finished with back-to-back birdies for a 2-under 68. Thompson powered her way out of the sand and weeds and ran off three straight birdies to match Wie for the lowest score Friday.

They were the only players still under par going into the weekend, perhaps setting up a rematch from the first major of the year. Thompson soundly beat Wie in the final round at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

"Definitely too early," Thompson said with a laugh. "Thirty-six holes in a major, that's a lot of golf to be played, especially at a U.S. Women's Open."

For now, Wie had control with a three-shot lead.

The 24-year-old from Hawaii twice thought her shots were going off the turtleback greens, and twice she relied on her table-top putting stance to make long par saves. She finished with a 6-iron that set up a 12-foot birdie putt, and a 15-foot birdie on the par-5 ninth to reach 4-under 136.

"End of the day yesterday, I was thinking if I just did this again, that would be nice," Wie said. "Finishing with two birdies is always great. It's a grind out there. It's not easy. Really grateful for the par putts that I made and some of the birdie putts that I made. I can't complain. I'll take it."

Just when it looked as if this had the trappings of another runaway — Martin Kaymer led by at least four shots over the final 48 holes to win the U.S. Open — along came Thompson with a shot reminiscent of what Kaymer did last week.

From the sand and bushes left of the fairway on the par-5 fifth hole, Thompson blasted a 5-iron from 195 yards just off the green, setting up two putts for birdie from about 60 feet. Kaymer was in roughly the same spot in the third round when he hit 7-iron from 202 yards to 5 feet, that pin position more toward the front.

That was her third straight birdie, and she closed with four pars to reach 139.

Pinehurst No. 2 wasn't in much of a giving mood on another warm day in the North Carolina sandhills, with a brief shower in the middle of the afternoon that didn't do much to soften a dry, crusty golf course.

Stacy Lewis, the No. 1 player in women's golf who opened with a bogey-free 67, picked up a bogey on her first hole in a wild round of six bogeys, three birdies and a tough 73. A two-time major champion, she saw the big picture.

"I hung around, and that's what you've got to do at this tournament," said Lewis, at even-par with Amy Yang (69) and Minjee Lee, the 18-year-old amateur from Australia who played bogey-free on the back nine to salvage a 71.

Lucy Li, the precocious 11-year-old and youngest qualifier in the history of the U.S. Women's Open, isn't leaving town until Monday. She just won't be playing any more golf. The sixth-grader from the Bay Area started with a double bogey for the second straight day and shot another 78 to miss the cut.

The cut was 9-over 149.

No one was conceding anything to Wie or Thompson. What last week showed was a Pinehurst No. 2 that played about the same all four days, instead of some U.S. Opens where scores are thrown in reverse on the weekend. There's still plenty of time for players to chip away at par, and equal opportunity to lose even more ground.

"When you think seven shots, you think that's a lot," Karrie Webb said after battling for a 73, leaving her seven shots behind. "But really at the U.S. Open, I don't think that's too far out."

Na Yeon Choi had a 70 and was at 1-over 141, followed by a Paula Creamer (72) at 2-over 142. The group at 143 included Webb and So Yeon Ryu, who saved her hopes with three straight birdies on the front nine, and narrowly missing a fourth. All of them are former Women's Open champions.

This is a different Wie they are chasing.

She is in contention on the weekend in her second straight major. The last time that happened was when she was 16 and had a chance in three of them. Wie already has won this year in Hawaii, and she has eight top 10s and is No. 2 on the LPGA money list.

Attribute that to a putting stroke that she owns, no matter how peculiar it looks with her back bent severely, almost parallel to the ground. And she has learned to play the shot — she has a full allotment — instead of worrying about her score or her position on the leaderboard.

"I think you look at the way Michelle has played the last six months and you look at her differently," Lewis said. "I think she's become one of the best ball-strikers on tour. She hits it really consistent. She knows where the ball's going. And she's figuring out how to win. That's the big thing."

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa is "totally out of control," according to a senior official for Doctors Without Borders, who says and the medical group is stretched to the limit in its capacity to respond.

International organizations and the governments involved need to send in more health experts and to increase the public education messages about how to stop the spread of the disease, Bart Janssens, the director of operations for the group in Brussels, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Ebola has already been linked to more than 330 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization.

"The reality is clear that the epidemic is now in a second wave," Janssens said. "And, for me, it is totally out of control."

The outbreak, which began in Guinea either late last year or early this year, had appeared to slow before picking up pace again in recent weeks, including spreading to the Liberian capital for the first time.

"I'm absolutely convinced that this epidemic is far from over and will continue to kill a considerable amount of people, so this will definitely end up the biggest ever," he said.

The multiple locations of the outbreak and its movement across borders make it one of the "most challenging Ebola outbreaks ever," Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, said earlier in the week.

The outbreak shows no sign of abating and that governments and international organizations were "far from winning this battle," Unni Krishnan, head of disaster preparedness and response for Plan International, said Friday.

But Janssens' description of the Ebola outbreak was even more alarming, and he warned that the governments affected had not recognized the gravity of the situation. He criticized the World Health Organization for not doing enough to prod leaders and said that it needs to bring in more experts to do the vital work of tracing all of the people who have been in contact with the sick.

"There needs to be a real political commitment that this is a very big emergency," he said. "Otherwise, it will continue to spread, and for sure it will spread to more countries."

The World Health Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia's deputy minister of health, said that people in the highest levels of government are working to contain the outbreak as proved by the fact that that Liberia had a long period with no new cases before this second wave.

The governments involved and international agencies are definitely struggling to keep up with the severity of the outbreak, said Krishnan of Plan, which is providing equipment to the three affected countries and spreading information about how people can protect themselves against the disease. But he noted that the disease is striking in one of the world's poorest regions, where public health systems are already fragile.

"The affected countries are at the bottom of the human development index," he said in an emailed statement. "Ebola is seriously crippling their capacities to respond effectively in containing the spread."

The situation requires a more effective response, said Janssens of Doctors Without Borders. With more than 40 international staff currently on the ground and four treatment centers, Doctors Without Borders has reached its limit to respond, he said.

"It's the first time in an Ebola epidemic where (Doctors Without Borders) teams cannot cover all the needs, at least for treatment centers," he said.

It is unclear, for instance, if the group will be able to set up a treatment center in Liberia, like the ones it is running in in Guinea and Sierra Leone, he said. For one thing, Janssens said, the group doesn't have any more experienced people in its network to call on. As it is, some of its people have already done three tours on the ground.

Janssens said this outbreak is particularly challenging because it began in an area where people are very mobile and has spread to even more densely populated areas, like the capitals of Guinea and Liberia. The disease typically strikes sparsely populated areas in central or eastern Africa, where it spreads less easily, he said.

By contrast, the epicenter of this outbreak is near a major regional transport hub, the Guinean city of Gueckedou.

He said the only way to stop the disease's spread is to persuade people to come forward when symptoms occur and to avoid touching the sick and dead.

"There is still not a real change of behavior of the people," he said. "So a lot of sick people still remain in hiding or continue to travel. And there is still news that burial practices are remaining dangerous."

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Associated Press writer Jonathan Paye-Layleh contributed to this report from Monrovia, Liberia.

DENVER (AP) — A gunman with a rifle fired on an SUV carrying rapper ScHoolboy Q after a concert at the popular Red Rocks outdoor amphitheater near Denver, but he wasn't hurt, investigators said Friday.

Three other people suffered non-life threatening injuries during the attack late Thursday in a parking lot at Red Rocks.

Investigators have not released a possible motive for the shooting and said they do not know if ScHoolboy Q was targeted. No arrests have been made.

"We have a lot to learn," said Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department.

ScHoolboy Q, whose birth name is Quincy Matthew Hanley, is from Los Angeles. His most recent album, "Oxymoron," debuted at No. 1 earlier this year and reflects his life as a father and former gang member.

He and Kendrick Lamar, who was nominated for seven Grammys this year, are members of Black Hippy.

ScHoolboy Q said on Twitter Friday that he was OK.

"im str8...... dont trip," he wrote.

Ray Alba, a representative for ScHoolboy Q, didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The rapper and at least four other people were in a white SUV that was fired on at the venue in the foothills west of Denver, authorities said.

They drove themselves to a Denver intersection about 15 miles away, apparently in search of a hospital, before being stopped by Denver police and taken for medical attention, Kelley said.

ScHoolboy Q and another uninjured person were briefly handcuffed while police assessed the situation, but no one in the vehicle was arrested. Kelley said ScHoolboy Q was not a suspect in the shooting.

Nas and Flying Lotus also performed at the concert that benefited three groups, including the Gang Rescue and Support Project of Denver.

"We want to know what's going on so we can help out in any way," said Cisco Gallardo, director of the gang rescue group. "There could have been (a) prior beef, prior problems."

About 4,500 people attended the concert at the amphitheater, which seats as many as 9,525 people.

Promoters said the gang rescue group got 5 percent of the profits. Two other groups also got 5 percent each: Preserve the Rocks, which helps preserve the Red Rocks venue, and Helping Our People Excel, a Denver-area charity with a food pantry and other services.

Investigators stopped and questioned each car that left the venue. Traffic was chaotic and slow, but "we had a shooter out there," sheriff's spokesman Mark Techmeyer said.

Witnesses were interviewed until early Friday.

The amphitheater and surrounding park in the foothills west of Denver are popular with joggers and sightseers. Most of the park had been reopened, but the area of the shooting remained sealed off.

The Beatles and Grateful Dead have performed at Red Rocks, where U2 filmed "Under a Blood Red Sky."

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Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP

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