In this task, you will be presented with a passage and have to answer a question based on your understanding of the events inferred from the passage. Try to find the best answer that is most likely to fill in "_". Note that the URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].

The gunman who killed nine people last week at an Oregon college shot himself in front of his classmates after being wounded by two hero cops. Also revealed on Wednesday was that Umpqua Community College shooter Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, was discharged from the Army after attempting to commit suicide. Harper-Mercer was discharged after one month of basic training at Fort Jackson, in South Carolina, in 2008. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Army wouldn't disclose details of the 2008 suicide attempt but that it indicates Harper-Mercer was deeply troubled long before he opened fire on his classmates last Thursday.Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, shot himself in a classroom after being wounded by two hero cops who opened fireHarper-Mercer was discharged from the Army in 2008 for trying to commit suicideTodd Spingath was one of two officers to take down Oregon shooterHis partner and fellow vet, Joe Kaney, was identified earlier this weekThe pair have been hailed for preventing further potential devastationThey rushed into Umpqua Community College five minutes after alert 
 Question:At a Wednesday news conference, authorities said that two police officers in plainclothes were the first to confront Harper-_ after he began shooting at his morning writing class.
Mercer

Washington (CNN) Sen. Marco Rubio, a longtime hawk on Syria, praised the US airstrike on a Syrian airfield days after a chemical attack on innocents attributed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Following news that President Donald Trump had green-lit the US action, Rubio said Thursday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" that Russia could not fairly criticize the military strike because Russia backed Assad -- who is accused of perpetrating the attack on his own people. "They have no standing to say anything about this," Rubio said of the Russians. He said that the move doesn't just send a message, but amounts to a "significant degrading" of Assad's ability to carry out chemical attacks.Rubio said Russians had put themselves into harm's wayHe said the strikes indicated a firm US stance against Assad's reign 
 Question:"I'll let them speak for their policy, but tonight's actions show that the days of being able to act with impunity are over when it comes to _-Assad," Rubio said.
Bashar al

(CNN) Two Taiwanese hikers have been found after going missing in Nepal for almost seven weeks, but one had died three days before help arrived. Survivor Liang Sheng-yue was found conscious and with the remains of his partner, Liu Chen-chun, just before midday Wednesday and airlifted out of a ravine near the Narchet River in the Himalayas, according to rescuer Madhav Basnet. Basnet, an official at Kathmandu-based Asian Trekking Agency and one of the three rescuers who found the couple, told CNN that Liang and Liu were hiking around the remote Ganesh Himal route in Dhading district, west of the Nepali capital Kathmandu.Survivor says his partner died three days before help arrivedTaiwanese couple had been missing since early March 
 Question:_ is out of danger, he said, and while he is still a little weak "he is gaining energy very fast."

Liang Sheng