Nation & World Glance
ISTANBUL — Shots were fired from a moving car at the U.S. Embassy in Turkey before dawn on Monday, an attack that came during heightened tensions between the two NATO allies.
There were no casualties and no claim of responsibility for the fleeting attack, in which three of the six bullets that were fired hit the embassy gate and a reinforced window.
“We can confirm a security incident took place at the U.S. Embassy early this morning. We have no reports of any injuries and we are investigating the details” embassy spokesman David Gainer said. He thanked Turkish police for their “rapid response.”
Turkey’s interior minister said police and intelligence units were searching for the car and suspects, stressing their motive would be established only after they are apprehended.
Army reinstates at least 36 discharged immigrants
At least three dozen immigrant recruits who were booted from the U.S. Army after enlisting with a promised pathway to citizenship are being brought back to serve, according to court records filed Monday.
Since Aug. 17, the U.S. Army has reinstated 32 reservists, and revoked discharge orders of another six enlistees who had sued. Another 149 discharges have been suspended and are under review, said Army Assistant Deputy for Recruiting and Retention Linden St. Clair, in the filing.
The reinstatements follow an Associated Press story in early July that revealed dozens of immigrant enlistees were being discharged or had their contracts cancelled. Some said they were given no reason for their discharge. Others said the Army informed them they’d been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them.
They had enlisted under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program, known as (MAVNI), to increase the number of soldiers with critical language or medical skills.
The reinstatements come weeks after the Army reversed course, suspending the discharges at least temporarily.
Afghan forces free 149 hostages taken by Taliban in ambush
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan forces launched a lightning operation in northern Kunduz province on Monday, rescuing 149 people, including women and children, abducted by the Taliban just hours earlier, officials said.
By mid-afternoon, fighting was still underway in the area to free 21 remaining hostages, officials added.
The operation was a boost for Afghan forces, which have struggled to contain a resurgent Taliban on battlefields across the country.
On Monday morning, the Taliban ambushed a convoy of three buses travelling on a road in the Khan Abad district, and forced everyone to come with them, according to Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
Rahimi said that after Afghan security forces freed 149, the insurgents were still holding 21 hostages from the buses. He added at least seven Taliban fighters have been killed in the fighting so far.
The ambush came despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s announcement of a conditional ceasefire with the Taliban during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha this week.
Colorado man charged with murder says wife killed daughters
DENVER — A Colorado man told police that he killed his pregnant wife in “a rage” when he discovered she had strangled their two daughters after he sought a separation, according to an arrest affidavit released on Monday.
Colorado prosecutors, though, filed formal charges earlier in the day, accusing the former oil and gas worker of murdering his entire family days before he was interviewed by local television stations and pleaded for his missing family’s safe return home.
Christopher Watts, who is being held without bail, is due back in court on Tuesday morning to be advised of the charges filed against him.
District Attorney Michael Rourke declined to answer most questions about the case Monday but said his office has three prosecutors assigned to it. Rourke also said it was too early to discuss whether he will seek the death penalty.
Los Angeles authorities looking into Asia Argento allegation
NEW YORK — Authorities said Monday that they are looking into sexual assault allegations by a young actor against Italian actress Asia Argento — one of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Darren Harris said investigators from his department will seek to talk to Jimmy Bennett or his representatives about the alleged incident at a Southern California hotel in 2013, when Bennett was 17. The move comes in response to a New York Times story saying Argento, 42, settled a legal notice of intent to sue filed by Bennett, who is now 22, for $380,000 shortly after she said last October that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her.
Argento and Bennett costarred in a 2004 film called “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” in which Argento played Bennett’s prostitute mother.
Bennett says in the notice
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A Confederate statue in the heart of North Carolina’s flagship university was toppled Monday night during a rally by hundreds of protesters who decried the memorial known as “Silent Sam” as a symbol of racist heritage.
The crowd gathered across the street from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill plaza for a series of speakers at 7 p.m. before heading over to the quadrangle. Then, about two hours into the protest, a group surrounded the statue and pulled it down, according to television footage. Once it was on the ground, demonstrators kicked it and cheered.
A half-hour after it was pulled down, a crowd of dozens remained standing around the empty pedestal. The crowd chanted “Tar Heels!” and “Whose Campus? Our Campus!” Cars honked as they passed nearby on the college town’s main drag.
Many students, faculty and alumni have called the statue a racist image and asked officials to remove it, though some argued it was a tribute to fallen ancestors. UNC leaders including Chancellor Carol Folt had previously said state law prevented the school from removing the statue.