Obama pledges to help fight cartels
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama pledged to stand with Mexico against “the scourge of violence and the drug cartels” as he met Tuesday with President Enrique Peña Nieto amid concern over the unsolved abduction of 43 Mexican college students last September.
Protesters in front of the White House questioned what happened to the students who are presumed dead, allegedly at the hands of local officials and police in league with a drug cartel. The dozens gathered in the city’s first winter snowfall were a smaller version of the massive street protests that have occurred in Mexico calling for Peña Nieto’s resignation.
Small earthquake shakes North Texas
DALLAS – An earthquake measured at 3.5 magnitude caused a stir in North Texas, but no damage was reported.
The U.S. Geological Service plotted the epicenter of the 3:10 p.m. Tuesday temblor as Texas 183 about 100 yards southeast of Spur 482 in eastern Irving. The quake occurred within an area near the Elm Fork of the Trinity River that has seen a swarm of mild temblor in recent months.
The earthquake was felt throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The swarm has prompted Southern Methodist University seismologists to plan the installation of more measuring equipment in the area.
Airstrike deaths in Syria, Iran probed
WASHINGTON – The U.S. military disclosed Tuesday that it is investigating alleged civilian casualties from two airstrikes in Syria and Iraq last year, and that it has dismissed 13 other allegations of civilian casualties from airstrikes.
Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the command has examined 18 separate allegations that U.S.-led coalition airstrikes killed or wounded civilians between Aug. 8, 2014, when the U.S. launched its air campaign against the Islamic State Group in Iraq, and Dec. 30.
Thirteen allegations were deemed unfounded five involving airstrikes in Syria and eight in Iraq, he said.
The Associated Press
