North America

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The furor Tuesday over the killing of a black woman by a white Fort Worth officer became increasingly about a gun pointed at a bedroom window. But the police chief and activists said the focus was on the wrong gun.

Officer Aaron Dean was arrested on a murder charge Monday in the slaying of Atatiana Jefferson. Police released an arrest warrant Tuesday quoting the victim’s 8-year-old nephew as saying Jefferson had pulled out a gun after hearing suspicious noises behind her house.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Authorities evacuated an elementary school in Montana on Tuesday after officials found what they thought were the remnants of a homemade bomb that exploded, but it turned out to be a plastic bottle filled with nuts and bolts left in the schoolyard.

School officials in Helena made the discovery shortly before classes began at Rossiter Elementary School. They blocked off the area and called 911, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said.

MORELIA, Mexico (AP) — Grieving relatives of 13 police officers killed in an apparent cartel ambush gathered outside a funeral home Tuesday, many of them angry at the government and police commanders they believe sent their loved ones to a certain death.

“The good ones are here,” said the brother of slain officer Marco Antonio González, gesturing at the huge funeral hall.

“And those responsible for this, they are also here,” the brother said just as the Michoacan state police chief and his top brass got out of cars.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman — aka inmate No. 77806-112 — reported Tuesday to a federal prison in California to serve a two-week sentence in a college admissions scandal that underscored the lengths some wealthy parents will go to get their children into top universities.

Huffman’s husband, actor William H. Macy, dropped her off at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, a low-security prison for women in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to TASC Group, which represents Huffman.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Syria’s Kurdish fighters, America’s longtime battlefield allies against the Islamic State, announced over the weekend that they were switching sides and joining up with Damascus and Moscow, it seemed like a moment of geopolitical whiplash.

But in fact, the move had been in the works for more than a year. Fearing U.S. abandonment, the Kurds opened a back channel to the Syrian government and the Russians in 2018, and those talks ramped up significantly in recent weeks, American, Kurdish and Russian officials told The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The impeachment inquiry is revealing vivid new details about the high-level unease over President Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine, and those of his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as the swift-moving probe by House Democrats showed no signs Tuesday of easing.

The testimony from the witnesses, mainly officials from the State Department and other foreign policy posts, is largely corroborating the account of the government whistleblower whose complaint first sparked the impeachment inquiry, according to lawmakers attending the closed-door interviews.

USA (AP) - Elizabeth Warren repeatedly came under attack during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate as rivals accused the Massachusetts senator of ducking questions about the cost of Medicare for All and her signature “wealth tax” plan.

The pile-on was the clearest sign yet that Warren has a new status in the crowded Democratic primary: a front-runner in the contest to take on President Donald Trump next year.

WASHINGTON, October 15. /TASS/: Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria hampered efforts against the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), and led to the release of many captured militants, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in a statement released on Monday.

15 October 2019; AFP: The White House's alleged effort to pressure Ukraine so alarmed former national security advisor John Bolton that he alerted a lawyer, his former aide said on Monday, according to US media.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday demanded Turkey stop its military incursion in Syria and imposed new sanctions on the NATO ally as Trump scrambled to limit the damage from his much-criticized decision to clear U.S. troops from Turkey’s path.

Vice President Mike Pence said Trump had told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call on Monday to agree to an immediate ceasefire. He also said he would travel to the region soon to try to mediate the crisis.

Pence said Trump had been firm with Erdogan on the phone.