10 things you need to know today: October 13, 2014

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson))

Jump to category:

1. Judge throws out Alaska's first-in-the-nation gay marriage ban
2. "Breach of protocol" led to Dallas nurse's Ebola infection
3. Putin orders troops to return from Ukraine's border
4. Turkey reaches agreement to let U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition use its bases
5. Bolivia's Evo Morales wins reelection
6. ISIS triple suicide bombings kill 58 in Iraq
7. Crowds clash with Hong Kong democracy protesters
8. India and Japan battered by powerful storms
9. Pilots die in mid-air collision over Nevada
10. Gas prices hit 10-month lows

last updated 13 January 2015

1. Judge throws out Alaska's first-in-the-nation gay marriage ban

A federal judge on Sunday overturned Alaska's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Alaska's ban on same-sex marriage was the first in the nation. Judge Timothy M. Burgess ruled the amendment unconstitutional, saying that denying same-sex couples the right to legally marry "sends the public a government-sponsored message that same-sex couples and their familial relationships do not warrant the status, benefits, and dignity given to couples of the opposite sex."

A Texas nurse who tested positive for Ebola appeared to have contracted the virus due to a "breach of protocol" while providing care for the late Thomas Eric Duncan, who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Thomas Frieden said Sunday. President Obama ordered the CDC to conduct an investigation "as expeditiously as possible" into how the infection-control procedures failed at the Dallas hospital that treated Duncan.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered 17,600 troops to return to their bases from the Ukrainian border ahead of a Friday meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, in Milan. News agencies reported Sunday that some Russian forces had already begun pulling out. The West has imposed sanctions against Moscow for supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Kiev has accused Russia of sending tanks and troops over the border, a charge Russia denies.

Turkey has agreed to let members of the U.S.-led coalition use its bases for operations against ISIS fighters in Syria, American officials said Sunday. The Obama administration has called for Turkey to take on a bigger role in the fight against ISIS. Turkey is in negotiations to begin training several thousand moderate Syrian rebels to help prevent a massacre in the Syrian town of Kobani, which ISIS forces are fighting to take over.

ISIS claimed responsibility for three suicide bombings that killed at least 58 people in northern Iraq on Sunday. The Islamist group also killed the police chief of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi with a roadside bomb. ISIS has been targeted by a U.S.-led coalition's airstrikes as well as a counteroffensive by Iraqi forces trying to win back territory the group gained across Iraq and Syria, but ISIS has been managing to resist and even get closer to striking distance of Baghdad.

Hundreds of counter-demonstrators — some of them taxi drivers — on Monday tore down barriers erected by Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, shouting, "Open the roads!" Earlier in the day, police carrying riot shields had removed some of the barricades the protesters — who are demanding free elections and the resignation of the Chinese-controlled city's chief executive, Leung Chun-ying — have used to block streets for two weeks. Leung has warned he will not let the protests go on indefinitely.

Authorities in India on Monday sent more than 1,000 rescue workers and soldiers to clear away uprooted trees and other debris left behind after Cyclone Hudhud smashed into the country's eastern coast, killing at least eight people. At least 37 people were injured when another storm, Typhoon Vongfong, hit the Japanese island of Okinawa. The storm was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved on Monday to hit another Japanese island, Kyushu.

Two pilots were killed Sunday when their small planes collided over northern Nevada. Both pilots were flying alone — one in a single-engine Cessna 170 and the other in an unidentified experimental aircraft. Investigators could not yet say Sunday what caused the accident. The planes collided with enough force that their wreckage became entangled when it hit a hillside near where pilots were holding an informal weekend fly-in. The names of the pilots were not immediately released.

The price of regular gasoline fell by 11.6 cents last week to an average $3.26 per gallon, its lowest point in more than 10 months last week, according to the Lundberg Survey. Pump prices could fall by another 10 cents per gallon over the next few days, provided crude oil prices remain low, said Trilby Lundberg, president of Lundberg Survey. "There's certainly a flush supply of barrels hitting the market," Lundberg said.

Explore More

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.