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CIA: Espionage against allies put on hold

WASHINGTON - The CIA has curbed spying on friendly governments in Western Europe in response to the furor over a German caught selling secrets to the United States and the Edward Snowden revelations of classified information held by the National Security Agency, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The pause in decades of espionage, which remains partially in effect, was designed to give CIA officers time to examine whether they were being careful enough and to evaluate whether spying on allies is worth running the risk of discovery, said a U.S. official who has been briefed on the situation.

Under the stand-down order, case officers in Europe largely have been forbidden from undertaking "unilateral operations" such as meeting with sources they have recruited within allied governments. Such clandestine meetings are the bedrock of spying.

CIA officers are still allowed to meet with their counterparts in the host country's intelligence service, conduct joint operations with host country services and conduct operations with the approval of the host government. Recently, unilateral operations targeting third country nationals - Russians in France, for example -were restarted. But most meetings with sources who are host nationals remain on hold, as do new recruitments.

The CIA declined to comment.

France to join U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State

PARIS - France is back at America's side in conducting military strikes in Iraq.

More than a decade after spurning President George W. Bush's war against Saddam Hussein, France on Friday became the first country to join U.S. forces pounding targets inside Iraq from the air in recent weeks - this time in pursuit of militants of the Islamic State group.

Flying from the United Arab Emirates, two French Rafale jets fired four laser-guided bombs to destroy a weapons and fuel depot outside the northern city of Mosul, part of the territory the militants have overrun in Iraq and neighboring Syria, officials said.

An Iraqi military spokesman said dozens of extremist fighters were killed in the strikes. A French military official said a damage assessment had not been completed, while showing reporters aerial images of targets hit. Officials said it was a former military installation seized by the group.

One analyst said the French action was more symbolic than substantive - France's military means in the region are limited - but it could give political cover for other allies to join in and show that the U.S. is not acting alone in a country still sown with deadly violence 11 years after Saddam's ouster.

Time to heal the divide after Scotland vote

EDINBURGH, Scotland - Following a long night which brought floods of relief for some and bitter disappointment for others, Scotland awoke with a hangover Friday after voting to reject independence.

Now, the task was to heal the divide - and use the energy the referendum unleashed to hold London politicians to promises of more powers for Scotland.

The result - 55 percent to 45 percent - was more decisive than pollsters had foreseen and prompted Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who led the unsuccessful Yes campaign, to resign.

But it meant almost half of Scotland's more than 5 million people woke up in a country, the United Kingdom, that they wished to leave.

Queen Elizabeth II, who has kept out of the political debate, said Friday that "all of us throughout the United Kingdom will respect" the result.

Congress OKs aid to rebels fighting militants

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law legislation authorizing the military to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State militants in the Middle East.

Obama acted a day after a Senate vote capped congressional action on the request, which passed by wide margins despite reservation about whether his strategy will do enough to stop the surging terrorist group, which has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria. Congress will revisit the issue after the midterm elections.

Thursday's bipartisan 78-22 tally Thursday blended support from Obama's close Democratic allies and some of his fiercest GOP critics, including top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. It put leading contenders for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination on opposite sides. Some of Obama's liberal allies defected.

The legislation also provides funding for the government after the end of the budget year on Sept. 30, eliminating any threat of a shutdown in the run-up to November elections that will seat a new House and decide control of the Senate. The House approved the bill on Wednesday.

Obama said Thursday that the support from both Republicans and Democrats "shows the world that Americans are united" in combating the Islamic State group. He said the militants thought they could frighten or intimidate Americans, but the Senate vote had showed them they were wrong.

White House evacuated after man jumps fence

WASHINGTON - Much of the White House was evacuated on Friday after someone jumped over the fence and ran toward the executive mansion, minutes after President Barack Obama had departed.

Video from the scene showed a man making it most of the way across the North Lawn and approaching the main entrance to the presidential residence. The Secret Service confirmed that someone had jumped the fence and was apprehended.

White House staffers and Associated Press journalists inside the West Wing were evacuated by Secret Service officers, some with their weapons drawn. Those evacuated were later allowed back into the White House, but the area remained closed to pedestrian traffic.

The incident occurred just minutes after Obama and his daughters, along with a guest of one of the girls, left the White House aboard Marine One on their way to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where Obama and his family were to spend the weekend. The White House said first lady Michelle Obama had traveled separately to Camp David and was not at home at the time of the incident.

- The Associated Press