• Secret Service chief quits over security lapses

WASHINGTON - Secret Service Director Julia Pierson abruptly resigned Wednesday in the face of multiple revelations of security breaches, bumbling in her agency and rapidly eroding confidence that the president and his family were being kept safe.

President Barack Obama "concluded new leadership of that agency was required," said spokesman Josh Earnest.

High-ranking lawmakers from both parties had urged her to step down after her poorly received testimony to Congress a day earlier - and revelation of yet another security problem: Obama had shared an elevator in Atlanta last month with an armed guard who was not authorized to be around him.

That appeared to be the last straw that crumbled trust in her leadership in the White House. Earnest said Obama and his staff did not learn about that breach until just before it was made public in news reports Tuesday.

• Ebola patient sent home from ER, despite travel

DALLAS - The airline passenger who brought Ebola into the U.S. initially went to a Dallas emergency room last week but was sent home, despite telling a nurse that he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa, the hospital said Wednesday in a disclosure that showed how easily an infection could be missed.

The decision by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to release the patient, who had recently arrived from Liberia, could have put others at risk of exposure to Ebola before the man went back to the ER a couple of days later, when his condition worsened.

A day after the diagnosis was confirmed, a nine-member team of federal health officials was tracking anyone who had close contact with him after he fell ill on Sept. 24. The group of 12 to 18 people included three members of the ambulance crew that took the man to the hospital and a handful of schoolchildren. They will be checked every day for 21 days, the disease's incubation period.

• Pro-democracy protesters apply heat in Hong Kong

HONG KONG - Raising the stakes in their standoff with the authorities, Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters threatened to occupy key government buildings unless the territory's top official resigns by the end of the day Thursday.

The Chinese government, meanwhile, appeared to be losing patience. An editorial solemnly read Wednesday on state TV said all Hong Kong residents should support authorities in their efforts to "deploy police enforcement decisively" and "restore the social order in Hong Kong as soon as possible."

And the Communist Party-run People's Daily warned of "unimaginable consequences" if the protests persist.

• Kurds fighting Islamic State still await U.S. help

MAHMOUDIYAH, Iraq - The exhausted Kurdish fighters leaned against a pair of antiquated green cannons on a hill overlooking this northern Iraqi village, the ground around them littered with shrapnel from fierce battles with Islamic State militants.

One of them, Moustafa Saleh, tapped the cannon with his mud-caked boots. "Russian-made," he said, with a smirk. "My grandfather used the same one."

Iraqi Kurdish fighters on the front lines of battle say they have yet to receive the heavy weapons and training pledged by the United States and nearly a dozen other countries to help them push back the Sunni militants.

• U.S. sharply criticizes new Israeli project

WASHINGTON - In a striking public rebuke, the Obama administration warned Israel on Wednesday that plans for a controversial new housing project in east Jerusalem would distance Israel from "even its closest allies" and raise questions about its commitment to seeking peace with Palestinians.

The harsh criticism came just hours after President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House. Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said the president privately raised his concerns with Netanyahu though the two leaders made no mention of the matter in their public comments to reporters.

"This development will only draw condemnation from the international community," Earnest said. "It also would call into question Israel's ultimate commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Palestinians."

Netanyahu pushed back against the criticism, according to reporters traveling with him Wednesday, saying that people should have all of the information before making such statements. He also said that while Obama did raise the issue of settlements in their meeting, the discussion did not focus on specific cases.

• McConnell hits Grimes for taking salary

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell is criticizing his Democratic opponent for drawing her state paycheck while away from work to campaign. Left unsaid in the new TV ad is that McConnell appears to be taking his government salary while campaigning, too.

The ad was among those fired in a new salvo this week in one of the nation's fiercest - and most expensive - races for U.S. Senate. It's a contest Republicans are counting on as they reach for the six seats they need to take control of the chamber and boost McConnell to majority leader.

Most of McConnells' ads relentlessly try to tie Grimes to President Barack Obama, who is deeply unpopular in Kentucky.