WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added just 142,000 jobs in August, snapping a six-month streak of hiring above 200,000 and posting the smallest gain in eight months.

The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. But the rate dropped because more people without jobs stopped looking for one and were no longer counted as unemployed.

Employers also added 28,000 fewer jobs in June and July than the government had previously estimated.

The weaker-than-expected figures make it unlikely that the Federal Reserve will speed up its timetable for raising interest rates. Most analysts expect the first rate hike around mid-2015.

OMAHA, Neb. — A doctor who became infected with Ebola while working in Liberia — the third American aid worker sickened with the virus — is expected to arrive today at a Nebraska hospital for treatment.Officials at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha have said Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, will begin treatment in the hospital's 10-bed special isolation unit, the largest of four such units in the U.S.Sacra, who's from the Boston area, opted to head to Liberia after hearing that two other missionaries were sick. He served with the North Carolina-based charity SIM. Sacra wasn't involved in the treatment of Ebola patients but delivered babies, so it's unclear how he got infected with the virus that has killed about 1,900 people.

RICHMOND, Va. — Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife were convicted Thursday of taking bribes to promote a dietary supplement in a corruption case that derailed the career of the onetime rising Republican star and laid bare the couple's broken marriage.A federal jury in Richmond convicted Bob McDonnell of 11 of the 13 counts he faced; Maureen McDonnell was convicted of nine of the 13 counts she faced. Both bowed their heads and wept as the court clerk read a chorus of “guilty” verdicts.Widely considered a possible running mate for Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign, McDonnell was reduced to living with the family's priest in a church rectory during the trial. Now he and his wife face up to 20 years in prison for each conspiracy, fraud and bribery conviction. Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 6.

WASHINGTON — Avoidable miscommunication between U.S. air and ground forces led to a “friendly fire” incident in Afghanistan that killed five U.S. soldiers and one Afghan in June, according to a military investigation report.The incident was one of the deadliest friendly fire episodes of the war, which began 13 years ago next month.The report released Thursday by U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Afghanistan, cited a collective failure by soldiers, commanders and air crew members to execute the fundamentals of the mission. As a result, the five Americans and one Afghan were mistaken for the enemy and were attacked with two laser-guided bombs from a B-1 bomber.A two-star Air Force general led the investigation. Many details of the report were blacked out before its public release.The B-1 bomber crew was executing an authorized order, but the crew members were faulted by investigators for not taking reasonable precautions to ensure they knew where friendly forces were located. Despite discrepancies in reported U.S. troop locations — suggesting that something may have been amiss — the air crew did not take necessary steps to validate its information before launching the bombs, the report said.