World/Nation

French police detain 9 in hunt for 2 brothers

PARIS - Police SWAT teams backed by helicopters tracked two heavily armed brothers with al-Qaida sympathies suspected in the newsroom massacre of a satirical French weekly that spoofed Islam, homing in Thursday on a region north of Paris as the nation mourned the dozen slain.

Authorities fear a second strike by the suspects, who U.S. counterterrorism officials said were both on the U.S. no-fly list, and distributed their portraits with the notice "armed and dangerous." More than 88,000 security forces were deployed on the streets of France.

They also extended France's maximum terror alert from Paris to the northern Picardie region, focusing on several towns that might be possible safe havens for the two - Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34.

A senior U.S. official said Thursday the elder Kouachi had traveled to Yemen, although it was unclear whether he was there to join up with extremist groups like al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based there.

Both were also on the U.S. no fly list, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss foreign intelligence publicly.

Sony CEO: 'no playbook' for hack response

LOS ANGELES - More than six weeks after hackers attacked Sony Pictures Entertainment, its computer network is still down but the studio has not lost a single day of production on any of its films or television shows, CEO Michael Lynton told The Associated Press on Thursday.

In a wide-ranging interview Lynton talked about the company's isolation and the uncertainty that was created by the pre-Thanksgiving attack, which the U.S. government has attributed to North Korea. Sony's experience as the target of such an unprecedented corporate cyberattack is undoubtedly being closely watched in boardrooms around the world.

"We are the canary in the coal mine, that's for sure," Lynton said. "There's no playbook for this, so you are in essence trying to look at the situation as it unfolds and make decisions without being able to refer to a lot of experiences you've had in the past or other peoples' experiences. You're on completely new ground."

GOP Congress, pushes health care, pipeline bills

WASHINGTON - In command and ready for a fight, defiant Republicans ignored two White House veto threats and advanced bills in Congress Thursday curbing President Barack Obama's cherished health care overhaul and forcing construction on a proposed oil pipeline. The top House Democrat predicted her party would uphold both vetoes.

On the new Congress' third day of work, a Senate committee approved a measure dismantling Obama's ability to block the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which has become a flashpoint pitting the GOP's jobs agenda against Democrats' environmental concerns. The Senate planned to begin debate next week and passage there seemed likely, while the House was poised to approve its version Friday.

Meanwhile, the House approved legislation narrowing the definition of full-time workers who must be offered employer-provided health care from those working 30 hours weekly to a 40-hour minimum. The vote was a mostly party-line 252-172 - short of the 290 needed, assuming all members voted, for the two-thirds majority required to override a veto.

On both bills, GOP leaders would face uphill fights mustering the two-thirds House and Senate majorities needed to override vetoes. But both measures had some support from Democrats, and Republicans could use them to portray themselves as championing bipartisan legislation, only to be thwarted by Obama and his Democratic allies.

Democratic Sen. Boxer won't seek fifth term

WASHINGTON - California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, a tenacious liberal whose election to the Senate in 1992 heralded a new era for women at the upper reaches of political power, announced Thursday she will not seek re-election to a new term next year.

Boxer's retirement sets off a free-for-all among a new generation of California Democrats, who have had few offices to aspire to while Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein had a lock on the state's U.S. Senate seats.

A staunch supporter of abortion rights, gun control and environmental protections, Boxer has said she is most proud of the vote that she cast against the war in Iraq.

Girl knows she'll die without chemo but doesn't want it

HARTFORD, Conn. - A 17-year-old girl being forced by state officials to undergo chemotherapy for her cancer said Thursday she understands she'll die if she stops treatment but it should be her decision.

The state Supreme Court ruled earlier in the day state officials aren't violating the rights of the girl, Cassandra C., who has Hodgkin lymphoma.

Cassandra told The Associated Press in an exclusive text interview from her hospital it disgusts her to have "such toxic harmful drugs" in her body and she'd like to explore alternative treatments. She said she understands "death is the outcome of refusing chemo" but believes in "the quality of my life, not the quantity."