World/Nation

• Turkish strikes on Kurds complicate efforts

WASHINGTON - In a fresh test for U.S. coalition-building efforts, Turkey is launching airstrikes against Kurdish rebels inside its borders this week despite pleas from the Obama administration to instead focus on an international campaign to destroy Islamic State militants wreaking havoc in the region.

Media reports about the Turkish strikes surfaced Tuesday as President Barack Obama and military chiefs from more than 20 nations gathered in Washington in a show of unity against the Islamic State group.

"This is an operation that involves the world against ISIL," Obama declared, referring to the militant group by one of its many names.

The Turkish airstrikes occurred Monday and marked the country's first major strikes against Kurdish rebels on its own soil since peace talks began two years ago. The strikes came amid anger among the Kurds in Turkey, who accuse the government there of standing by while Syrian Kurds are being killed by Islamic State militants in the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani.

• Hong Kong police drag activists away

HONG KONG - Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers drove protesters from a tunnel in the dead of night in the worst violence since the street demonstrations for greater democracy began more than two weeks ago.

Officers, many with riot shields and wielding pepper spray, dragged away dozens of protesters, tore down barricades and removed concrete slabs the protesters used as road blocks around the underpass.

The clampdown comes amid increasing impatience in Beijing over the political crisis in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

A front-page editorial Wednesday in the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, condemned the protests and said "they are doomed to fail."

"Facts and history tell us that radical and illegal acts that got their way only result in more severe illegal activities, exacerbating disorder and turmoil," the commentary said, referring to the activists.

• Alaska couple has state's first same-sex marriage

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A remote outpost on Alaska's Arctic Coast where people are used to doing their own thing has applied that independent streak to gay marriage.

A magistrate in Barrow, Alaska - the nation's northernmost community, and one that cannot be reached by road - has performed what is believed to be the state's first gay marriage ceremony days ahead of schedule after a federal judge struck down the state's ban. Couples lined up statewide Monday to apply for marriage licenses, beginning the clock on a mandatory three-day wait until ceremonies could be held.

For Kristine Hilderbrand, 30, and Sarah Ellis, 34, it wasn't about being first when they sought and received a waiver to the three-day wait from Magistrate Mary Treiber.

Monday just fit their schedules better.

After completing their marriage license Monday morning, they began to check on available dates for a courthouse ceremony. They then tried to mesh those with their schedules and those of families and friends.

• Democratic group no longer helping Grimes with ads

FLORENCE, Ky. - The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has stopped running TV ads in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, a severe blow to Alison Lundergan Grimes in her challenge to Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

In a statement issued three weeks before the Nov. 4 election and a day after the candidates' sole debate, the committee said Tuesday that it had spent more than $2 million in Kentucky and continued to fund get-out-the-vote operations. However, the committee made no commitment to go back on the air in support of Grimes, who has been pummeled by tens of millions of dollars in attack ads by McConnell and his allies.

The committee's decision in Kentucky was in strong contrast to its activities in other states with pivotal Senate races. Democrats continued to spend freely in Iowa, Georgia, North Carolina and several other states as they tried to blunt a Republican drive to gain a Senate majority in midterm elections.

• Supreme Court puts hold on Texas abortion law

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked key parts of a 2013 law in Texas that had closed all but eight facilities providing abortions in America's second most-populous state.

In an unsigned order, the justices sided with abortion rights advocates and health care providers in suspending an Oct. 2 ruling by a panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that Texas could immediately apply a rule making abortion clinics statewide spend millions of dollars on hospital-level upgrades.

The court also put on hold a provision of the law only as it applies to clinics in McAllen and El Paso that requires doctors at the facilities to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

The admitting privileges rule remains in effect elsewhere in Texas.

Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would have ruled against the clinics in all respects.

The 5th Circuit is still considering the overall constitutionality of the sweeping measure overwhelmingly passed by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry last year.