North America

DALLAS (AP) — The gunman who killed seven people in West Texas over Labor Day weekend was hospitalized nearly two decades ago at a psychiatric facility, where he punched a hole in a wall and menaced security staff with a piece of pipe pried from a toilet before being arrested, according to police.

Seth Ator was being treated in July 2001 at an in-patient facility in Waco, about 105 miles (169 kilometers) south of Dallas, when he became so violent that staff called the police, Assistant Chief Robert Lanning said Wednesday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — In a tantalizing first, scientists have discovered water at a planet outside our solar system that has temperatures suitable for life.

Two research groups announced this week that they’ve found water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet 110 light-years away in the constellation Leo. This so-called Super Earth is just the right distance from its star to conceivably harbor life.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has risked turmoil in the financial markets and damage to the U.S. economy in waging his trade war with China, America’s top strategic rival.

But Trump hasn’t exactly gone easy on America’s friends, either. From Europe to Japan, the president has stirred up under-the-radar trade disputes that potentially could erupt within weeks or months with damaging consequences.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has said he doesn’t mind if the U.S. is on its own in the world. Now, it seems he doesn’t mind running American foreign policy on his own as well.

With the ouster of John Bolton as his national security adviser, the president has again pushed away an experienced hand in international affairs and a counter-weight to his DIY approach to Iran, North Korea, China and more.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man ordered to leave a construction-supply business after quarreling with co-workers returned minutes later and stabbed five employees Wednesday in Florida’s capital, seriously wounding one of them, authorities said.

Police in Tallahassee were still trying to determine what set off the suspect and prompted him to pull out a pocketknife and stab co-workers before fleeing the workplace on foot. They identified the suspect as Antwann Brown, 41.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday denied instructing an aide to urge a federal agency to repudiate weather forecasters who contradicted his claim that Hurricane Dorian could hit Alabama.

Trump responded to a New York Times report that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly disavow the position that Alabama was not at risk.

FREEPORT, Bahamas (AP) — An estimated 2,500 people are listed as missing in the Bahamas in Hurricane Dorian’s aftermath, the government said Wednesday. But it cautioned that the names had yet to be checked against the rosters of people evacuated from the devastated islands or staying in shelters.

Carl Smith, a spokesman for the country’s National Emergency Management Agency, said he expected the list to shrink as the names are checked.

KEENE, N.H. (AP) — Beto O’Rourke was back at Keene State College, but the large crowd that flocked to see him six months ago was not.

Far removed from the whirlwind opening days of his presidential campaign, the former Texas congressman faced a far smaller, quieter gathering. An attempted “Beto! Beto!” chant fizzled, and when an elderly voter declared that O’Rourke was “so clear and consistent on what the world needs,” the candidate responded, “Could you travel with us to every campaign stop and say what you just said?”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee is preparing for its first impeachment-related vote, set to define procedures for upcoming hearings on President Donald Trump even as some moderates in the caucus are urging the panel to slow down.

YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — On a dirt road past rows of date trees, just feet from a dry section of Colorado River, a small construction crew is putting up a towering border wall that the government hopes will reduce — for good — the flow of immigrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.