Three weeks ago, things in Armenia were proceeding roughly as expected.

Serzh Sargsyan had just followed his two terms as president by winning election as the country's prime minister, largely on the strength of his ruling Republican Party. He had been in power for a decade, and recent constitutional changes to boost the premier's authority had made the office an enticing way to retain that power while still observing term limits.

Filmmaker siblings Jay and Mark Duplass grew up making movies using their father's VHS camera, but it wasn't until they were in their mid-to-late 20s that their artistic vision really fell into place.

Jay remembers one day in particular, when he was "pushing 30" and feeling frustrated with his desire to do the "impossible artist thing." That's the day his brother Mark announced that he was going to the store to buy tapes for their dad's video camera. Jay had to come up with an idea for a movie before he returned.

Fair housing advocates are suing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to compel it to follow a rule meant to help prevent segregation and comply with the Fair Housing Act. The suit, which also names HUD Secretary Ben Carson, was filed Tuesday morning.

Republicans in Indiana and West Virginia will settle two bitter Senate primary fights today, with hopes that the nominees will not be too battered to take down vulnerable Democratic incumbents in November and secure the slim GOP Senate majority.

Candidates in both parties seem to agree on one thing: President Trump is the issue in 2018. While Republicans compete to prove who is most loyal to Trump, Democrats insist it's a tactic that will backfire come November, motivating more Democratic voters than Republicans.

Political ads in Georgia's Republican gubernatorial primary this year may be the most charged of any intraparty battle around the country, especially when it comes to guns.

One ad shows former state Sen. Hunter Hill at a shooting range loading one gun, eyes steady on the camera, and firing another.

"We don't need a carry permit," Hill says, "the only thing we need as Americans is the U.S. Constitution. And as governor, I won't give an inch on our Second Amendment."

The woman in the brown burqa stood at the gate of court complex as men in suits shouldered past. With one hand, she clutched her son, and in the other, a piece of paper scrawled with a name.

The district police officer gave it to her when she complained about her husband's abuse. He told her to present it at the entrance of the sprawling court administration that serves the Swat Valley. Noorshad Begum couldn't read it, being illiterate.

She handed it to a court guard.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has opened an investigation into the allegations against New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Following a New Yorker article published Monday evening in which four women accused him of nonconsensual physical violence, Schneiderman said he will step down at the close of business on Tuesday.

Beef cattle ranchers are getting wise to the science of genetics.

They have always known that making the best steak starts long before consumers pick out the right cut, such as where an animal grazes or what it eats. The key is in the genetic makeup — or DNA — of the herd. And over the past year, those genetics have taken a historic leap thanks to new, predictive DNA technology.

This is playing out in rising auction prices for the best bulls as identified by genetic profiles or simply for their elite pedigree.

Slave narratives tend equally to fascinate and appall. They can represent history, red in tooth and claw, or, in the words of noted multiculturalist Lawrence W. Levine, "a mélange of accuracy and fantasy, of sensitivity and stereotype, of empathy and racism."