Texas high school stabbings: Teen charged with murder

 teenager has been charged with murder in stabbings at a Houston-area high school that left one student dead and three others injured, the Harris County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday evening.

Luis Alonzo Alfaro, 17, faces one count of murder in the Wednesday morning confrontation at Spring High School, about 20 miles north of downtown Houston, the sheriff's office said.

A 17-year-old student was killed and three other students were injured. The three injured students have been released from hospitals, the sheriff's office said.

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said earlier that "there has been some information that this may have been gang-related," but he stressed that no conclusions had been reached because the investigation was in the early stages.

Information on what led to the stabbings was limited. Garcia said an encounter between students turned into a physical confrontation involving "cutting instruments of some sort."

The statement issued Wednesday evening read in part: "The stabbing occurred during a physical altercation between several students in the hallways. During the altercation, the suspect produced a knife and fatally stabbed the victim to death and injured 3 other victims."

It was unclear Wednesday night whether Alfaro had an attorney.

After the stabbings, students were kept in classrooms for safety and to allow authorities to interview witnesses, said the superintendent of Spring Independent School District, Ralph Draper. The school intended to dismiss students for the day at noon, he said.

In April: Stabbing at Texas college

Sheila Dauth, mother of a Spring High School freshman, said she learned of the stabbings around 7:15 a.m., when her son texted her. They continued to communicate in the hours after, while he and other students were kept in their first-hour classes, she said.

"He said he's OK. He said it was pretty scary at first when they were rushing everyone into the classrooms," Dauth said. The students have drilled for such situations, "but I don't think he expected to be in a lockdown" like this, she said.

Dauth said she was disappointed that she learned about the incident through her son and the local media hours before the school district contacted her. The district gave automated phone and e-mail messages to parents about three hours after the stabbings, she said.

Draper, while not specifying the time it took to notify parents, told reporters that the district needed to do two things before communicating with families. First was to ensure the rest of the students were safe, and second was to coordinate with authorities so that the investigation wouldn't be compromised.

Gunmen kill 10 family members in Iraq

Twenty people were killed in violence south of Baghdad and in Mosul on Wednesday, including 10 members of the same family, police officials said.

Gunmen in Latifiya, south of the capital, stormed the home of a Shiite family at dawn, and opened fire, killing two mothers, two fathers and their children, the officials said.

One day earlier, gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni Muslim family in southern Baghdad, killing five family members in their sleep, according to police.

This comes as Sunni-Shiite frictions have escalated since an April incident in Hawija, in northern Iraq. That's where Iraqi security forces raided a site used by Sunni protesters to demonstrate against the Shiite-led government.

Sunnis have felt politically marginalized under Shiite President Nuri al-Maliki, whose government fears that Sunni Islamists, who've been involved in fighting in neighboring Syria, are now targeting it.

Separately, police reported three attacks in Mosul on Wednesday.

The deadliest involved a suicide bomber who blew himself up at a police station, killing five officers, the officials said.

Two people were shot while driving in western Mosul. Three others were reported killed when mortar rounds landed in the central part of the city.

More than 800 Iraqis were killed and another 2,030 wounded in violence and acts of terrorism last month, the United Nations said.

August's toll was lower than July's. But, said the agency's assistance mission for Iraq, "the impact of violence on civilians remains disturbingly high."

July was the deadliest month in Iraq since the peak of sectarian violence in 2006 and 2007. According to U.N. figures, 1,057 Iraqis were killed and another 2,326 were wounded in July.

Actress Scarlett Johansson is engaged

Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac attend the 'Under The Skin' Premiere during the 70th Venice International Film Festival at Palazzo del Cinema on September 3, 2013 in Venice, Italy.

Scarlett Johansson's beau put a ring on it. But the wedding date is not yet set.

The actress is engaged to Romain Dauriac, who co-owns an independent advertising agency.

Her rep confirmed the happy news, but did not disclose when it occurred.

"They haven't chosen a date for the wedding," she said.

Johansson's marriage to Ryan Reynolds ended in 2011.

Last year, the actress told Vogue magazine that their divorce was "comically amicable."

But that did not mean it was a happy ending.

"Of course it's horrible," she told the magazine. "It was devastating. It really throws you. You think that your life is going to be one way, and then, for various reasons or whatever, it doesn't work out."

Johansson has appeared in various movies, including "Lost in Translation" and "Girl With a Pearl Earring."

Serena Williams smashes her way into U.S. Open semifinals

World No. 1 Serena Williams is bidding for a fifth U.S. Open singles title

Serena Williams underlined her status as the overwhelming favorite for the women's U.S. Open title with a crushing "double bagel" win over Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarterfinals of the New York grand slam.

The defending champion, bidding for a fifth singles triumph at Flushing Meadows, beat the Spanish world No. 20 6-0 6-0 to become the first woman since Martina Navratilova in 1989 to win a women's U.S. Open quarterfinal without losing a game.

"I played well -- I played really well," world No. 1 Williams told the WTA's official website. "I was just more focused than anything.

"I like to believe there is always room for improvement though. I haven't really thought about it yet, but off the bat, I think it was very difficult to hit a big serve today because of the winds, and I didn't get my serve up as much as I wanted to. But I don't know. I do think I definitely played well tonight."

The American's latest commanding win means she has lost just 13 games at the tournament ahead of her semifinal meeting with Li Na, who is appearing in the last four of the year's final grand slam for the first time after beating Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.

"I'm still in the tournament and I'm not thinking like, 'I'm really dominant now'," added Williams. "I'm thinking I have a really tough match in the next round and want to do well."

Earlier in the day second seed Victoria Azarenka, beaten by Williams in the 2012 final,