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At first it seemed she was right. ELWA3 opened originally with 120 beds, then quickly expanded to 250. In September it seemed that even that wasn't enough. Staff members had to turn away suspected Ebola patients at the gate.

So to hear that the hospital's patient roster had dropped to just eight last week is great news.

A spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders says the admissions fluctuate a lot, and the tally has since gone up from eight to 17. But still 17 Ebola patients is a far cry from 250.

Part of why that statistic of eight screams so loudly is that ELWA3 is now a sign of how dramatically the number of cases has come down in Liberia.

There's no denying that it was worth building the 250-bed hospital. It got all of those people out of circulation, so they couldn't spread the virus to others.

But now the international response once again seems out of step with epidemic. On the same day that ELWA3 had more than 200 empty beds last week, the Chinese government opened a brand new 100 bed Ebola treatment unit just down the street.

ebola

Liberia

Manfred Karg says he doesn't know how his eldest son, Alfons, became mixed up with radical Islamists.

Whatever happened, the German pensioner's 19-year-old son from Hamburg is now dead, one of at least 60 Germans killed fighting alongside ISIS militants, nine of them in suicide attacks, according to German authorities.

Karg says two young men with an "immigrant background" knocked on Alfons' mother's door to tell her of his death in Syria last summer.

"When she opened up, they said: 'Congratulations, your son is now in paradise,' " he says.

Karg adds they showed her a photograph of his bullet-ridden body and his goodbye letter, neither of which they let her keep for fear the police would use the items to track the young men down.

Estranged from the mother and his son, Karg says he didn't find out Alfons was dead until he saw a report on a TV news program in October.

Alfons' mother could not be reached for comment.

Hans-Georg Maassen, who heads the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told the Bild Sunday newspaper late last month that at least 550 radical German Islamists have gone to help ISIS. Most of them have an immigrant background. But a few, like Alfons, are converts.

Karg doesn't understand why German authorities don't stop young Germans who join Islamist groups before they leave the country. He says German mosques that suspected extremists frequent are under surveillance by police and that a 6-foot-5 teen with blond hair like Alfons going in and out should have raised suspicions.

Whether his son went to such mosques is unknown, and Hamburg intelligence authorities declined to speak to NPR.

“ That was for me a crucial alarm bell. A young person, 18 years of age, buys himself a flat-screen TV and then we are suddenly allowed to throw away everything he has?

- Manfred Karg, whose son Alfons was killed fighting in Syria

Karg says there were other signs his son was in trouble.

He says Alfons grew more withdrawn after he secretly converted to Islam at age 17. The father says the lanky, insecure teen didn't grow a beard but cropped his blond hair short, stopped shaking hands with girls and women, and abandoned his apprenticeship.

Karg says he found out about the conversion from his younger son, Leonard, who has a different mother. The boy caught his half-brother praying during a weekend visit.

Leonard told Karg that Alfons' reaction was: "Don't tell Papa," just as he always hid things from his father.

Alfons was born on April 26, 1995. Karg says he missed a lot of his son's childhood because of his highly antagonistic relationship with the boy's mother, whom he never married. With the help of German youth services, he says, he eventually secured visitation rights when Alfons was in elementary school.

As his son grew older, the two spent more time together, including overnight visits. Karg believes the polite but distant boy had a difficult relationship with his mother, but Alfons deflected any questions about his life with her.

Karg says Alfons had a closer relationship with his half-sister (born to his mother) and half-brother (born to Karg's girlfriend). But Karg says he had a hard time expressing affection, even to them.

i i

Manfred Karg, a retired German merchant marine, says he is frustrated that authorities don't stop young Germans like his son who join Islamist groups before they leave the country. He says German mosques that suspected extremists frequent are under surveillance by police and that a 6-foot-5 teen with blond hair like Alfons going in and out should have raised suspicions. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson/NPR

Manfred Karg, a retired German merchant marine, says he is frustrated that authorities don't stop young Germans like his son who join Islamist groups before they leave the country. He says German mosques that suspected extremists frequent are under surveillance by police and that a 6-foot-5 teen with blond hair like Alfons going in and out should have raised suspicions.

Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson/NPR

When he learned his son wanted to apprentice as a social work assistant, Karg was very happy, he says. Alfons' professional mentor told Karg the boy was doing well. But Alfons stopped speaking to Karg following an argument.

Several weeks before graduation, he quit his apprenticeship, his father says. After that, when Alfons turned 18, he emptied his savings account and took a trip with two Turkish friends to Turkey.

Karg says Alfons came back Germany for a while and worked as a night guard.

But before last Christmas, unbeknownst to his father, Alfon left for Turkey again. Karg says he heard through acquaintances that his eldest had called his mother and told her to give away his belongings.

"That was for me a crucial alarm bell," Karg says. "A young person, 18 years of age, buys himself a flat-screen TV and then we are suddenly allowed to throw away everything he has?"

He called the domestic intelligence agency branch in Hamburg about his son, but it was too late: He never returned to Germany.

Preventing young Germans from heading to Syria or Iraq — whether they are the fewer than 10 percent who are converts like Alfons, or the rest who come from an immigrant background — is something German authorities say is a top priority.

In nearby North Rhine Westphalia, the head of the state's domestic intelligence, Burkhard Freier, says his government has launched three pilot programs called "Signpost" to reach out to at-risk youth.

"We want to know if they bear fruit, and I can say after five months, they are," Freier says. "We get at least 10 inquiries a week at each of the three projects and at our agency. These inquiries are worth a lot because individuals youths can be reached who we help to get out" of jihadist groups.

He acknowledges the numbers aren't large but argues that it takes time to build trust, not only with at-risk youth but with leaders and parents of the communities where they live.

Most of those communities are immigrant and Muslim, and often feel mistreated by their host country.

But in Hamburg, Karg argues grass-roots efforts and pilot projects are taking too long. He favors more aggressive intervention by German authorities and immediate notification of parents if the suspects are minors.

Karg adds he isn't taking a chance with his surviving son, 13-year-old Leonard. He says he has told Leonard's school what happened to his half-brother and to be on the lookout for any suspicious behavior among students.

"The possibilities of someone influencing him are there," Karg says.

jihadist

Islamic State

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Islamist fighters

Muslim radicalization

Germany

Few people track Miami development closer than Peter Zalewski. He runs Cranespotters.com, a business that keeps tabs on all the new construction proposed in downtown Miami.

In an area that covers less than 4 square miles, he notes, there's a lot going on. In "downtown Miami, we're looking at 69 towers, 18,400 units," all residential condominiums, Zalewski says.

If history is any guide, not all of the projects will be built. But Zalewski says there are other big projects coming that are likely to add to the total.

“ They're all coming here because they seem to think this is the next Singapore. This is the next London. This is the next great global city.

- Miami Real Estate Consultant Peter Zalewski

Unlike construction elsewhere, the new condo boom in Miami is being financed mostly by foreign buyers. It caps a decade of building that has transformed one of America's poorest cities into an international destination.

"I would tell you, if we were to sit down in a year from now, we will be well over and above what we did during our last boom and ultimate bust and then ultimate recovery," Zalewski says.

A City Built On Building Sprees

Since the city was founded just over a century ago, Miami's history has largely been a series of property booms and busts.

Over the span of just a few years — until it ended in 2006 — Miami's last building spree added more than 20,000 condo units to a downtown where previously few had lived.

History

Developer To Preserve Ancient Tequesta Village In Heart Of Miami

Today's new boom is adding more condos, as well as commercial, retail and entertainment properties, at a dizzying pace.

Brickell City Centre, one of the large-scale projects currently under construction, is a $1 billion project that will include residential condos and a hotel, plus a shopping and entertainment complex.

Several blocks away in Miami, construction is slated to begin soon on an even larger complex, the $2 billion Miami WorldCenter.

Developer Nitin Motwani refers to the project as "the hole in the doughnut." Right now, it's a 30-acre parcel of parking lots and old buildings in the heart of the city. But Motwani is planning a convention hotel, a shopping mall and more condominiums.

"Everybody has got their eyes on Miami," Motwani says.

Fine Homes For Foreign Investors

Similar construction booms are going on in other cities — Los Angeles, New York, Houston and Washington, D.C., to name a few. In Miami, though, developers are focused on one particular product: luxury condominiums for foreign buyers.

Art & Design

Street Art Brings Life To A Miami Neighborhood

Fine Art

For Miami, A New Art Project, Complete With Drama

Real estate consultant Zalewski says Miami, with its celebrities, nightlife and jet-set events, has built an international reputation.

"This is why we have Russian oligarchs purchasing property. This is why we have Malaysian conglomerates that own casinos and cruise lines coming here and buying," he says. "They're all coming here because they seem to think this is the next Singapore. This is the next London. This is the next great global city."

The annual Art Basel show, an event that attracts the ultra-wealthy to Miami Beach every December, has also been a factor.

Developers and city officials say they can track foreign investment dollars by watching the news. Sales to Russian buyers slowed after the U.S. imposed sanctions on that country. Economic and political turmoil in Latin America brought investors from that region.

And it's not just the super-wealthy buying here. Nelly Fernandez lives in Caracas, Venezuela, where she's a real estate broker. Because of Venezuela's crime and political problems, Fernandez says, she's used her savings to buy a modest condo in Miami.

"I have many, many friends in Miami," she says. "I have family there. In this city, I feel like I am like home, you know?"

Developer Motwani says that's one of Miami's key attractions for international buyers — it's a city where visitors from Latin America, Europe and even Russia quickly find others who literally speak their language.

"When people come here, you get beautiful weather, you get great taxes, you get great restaurants, you get great beaches," Motwani says. "All of that is spectacular. But what no one else can replicate is the diversity of our people."

The decade of residential construction has transformed Miami's downtown. Many of the condos are now rented by young professionals who work and play in the area. City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff says that has dramatically altered the demographics of the urban core.

"The average person is 37 years old. That's pretty young," he says. "Miami is undergoing a youth movement. And that youth movement is good because it's the creative class moving to the downtown core."

A Growing Divide

Around the Nation

In Miami, Plans For Mega-Casinos Bring Hope And Ire

But the high-end development downtown can mask another important fact about Miami: Even after all the new construction, it remains one of America's poorest cities. According to the Census Bureau, the Miami area has the nation's second-lowest median income, lower than Detroit or Newark, N.J.

With the wealth pouring in, the divide between rich and poor is getting wider. Particularly vulnerable are residents who live in neighborhoods that border on Miami's downtown.

In Overtown, a nearby neighborhood, work crews are renovating the old Josephine and Dunn Hotel. It was one of the few accommodations in segregated Miami open to African-Americans in the 1930s and 40s.

Yvette Harris works with Jackson Soul Food, a restaurant that's a Miami landmark. By next year, Harris says, Jackson will turn the old hotel into a European-style bed and breakfast "where travelers will be able to come into a community where they're able to do some cultural tours and learn a little bit about the Overtown area."

The work is being paid for out of a fund generated by fees on downtown development. Also in the works is a $60 million project to build affordable housing.

Activist and author Marvin Dunn is concerned about the neighborhood's future as developers begin looking for new places to build.

"So these properties [will] become very, very valuable," he says. "What will happen? The private market will dominate. People will build. Development will proceed to the west. Overtown will be squeezed."

Dunn believes gentrification may push out half of the community's longtime African-American population in coming years. A decade after high-rise condominiums began reshaping Miami's downtown, it's an indication that the city's transformation never stops.

housing bust

Miami

construction

Housing

Russia's economy has taken a series of heavy hits in the past few months, and now it seems to be in the midst of a perfect storm.

The country depends heavily on oil exports, and prices are down sharply. The Russian currency is losing value fast. And U.S. and European sanctions, imposed after Russia's takeover of Crimea, are biting hard.

President Vladimir Putin remains defiant, saying sanctions will never bring Russia to its knees.

But the pain is real. Russia's Economic Development Ministry said Tuesday that economic growth for 2015, which had been forecast at an anemic 1.2, has been revised downward and the economy is now expected to contract by 0.8 percent next year.

Here are some answers to key questions facing the Russian economy:

Why are falling oil prices having such a negative impact on Russia?

Russia is not the only country heavily dependent on revenues from its oil and gas exports. But some of the others, like Saudi Arabia, have deeper pockets in the form of huge reserves of dollars and euros that can be used to pay its bills when the oil income tapers off.

Economists say Russia needs a world oil price of around $100 a barrel to fund its government spending. When the price falls below that mark, Russia either has to curb spending or run a deficit. Oil prices began falling sharply this summer and are currently about $71 a barrel.

Normally, a little deficit spending shouldn't hurt Russia, a country that doesn't have a lot of foreign debt. But Russia has a lot of demands on its budget right now, including a massive military buildup and support for banks and businesses that are feeling the effects of Western sanctions.

How much are the U.S. and European sanctions contributing to Russia's current problems?

Russia's finance minister said recently that sanctions will cost Russia about $40 billion in lost economic activity if they're extended through next year.

The biggest problem is that the sanctions make it very hard for Russian banks to obtain foreign capital, and for Russian companies to borrow money to finance their operations.

Those banks and the state-owned energy companies are now asking the government to give them money from its reserve funds.

For instance, Rosneft, the big state oil company, is asking for $42 billion. That money would come from Russia's National Wealth Fund, which was originally created to guarantee pensions.

The ruble has also lost more than 40 percent of its value since last summer. How is this affecting ordinary Russians?

A weaker ruble means that imported goods become more expensive. Russia imports about 40 percent of its food, so price increases hit hardest at the grocery store.

In addition, Russia banned most food imports from the United States and the European Union in retaliation for Western sanctions. That drove food prices even higher because it created shortages.

Some regions, such as Russia's Far East, are more dependent on imports, and prices for some items, such as chicken, shot up by as much as 60 percent when the ban was announced.

Overall, though, economists are predicting that prices will be up between 8 percent and 10 percent over the next year.

So far, at least, that loss of purchasing power doesn't seem to be turning Russians against Putin. Support for the Russian president is still above 80 percent. Some analysts say economic hardships will just make the Russian people more defiant, if the government can convince them that they are sharing sacrifices for the good of their country.