World/Nation

Boehner rebuffs Obama on Iran sanctions

WASHINGTON - Defying President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner announced on Wednesday that he has invited Israel's prime minister to stand before Congress and push for new sanctions against its archenemy, Iran.

Boehner's decision to bring Benjamin Netanyahu before a joint meeting of Congress on Feb. 11 seemed to catch the White House by surprise. And it added fuel to a drive by lawmakers from both parties to pass legislation calling for fresh penalties if there is no deal soon to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

Barely sworn in, the new Republican-controlled Congress is already on a collision course with Obama over a major foreign policy issue. Obama has threatened to veto any new sanctions legislation, saying it could scuttle ongoing nuclear talks with Iran and heighten the risk of a military showdown.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday quoted an unidentified Israeli intelligence official as saying that adding sanctions now "would be like throwing a grenade into the process."

But Boehner is not backing down. He told a private meeting of GOP lawmakers that Congress would proceed on further penalties against Iran despite Obama's warning.

Shiite rebels, Hadi reach agreement to end standoff

SANAA, Yemen - Shiite rebels holding Yemen's president captive in his home reached a deal with the U.S.-backed leader Wednesday to end a violent standoff in the capital, fueling fears that a key ally in the battle against al-Qaida has been sidelined.

The late-night agreement, which promises the rebels greater say in running the Arab world's poorest nation in exchange for removing its fighters from President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's residence and key areas of the capital, left unclear who really controls the country.

In the deal, carried on the official SABA news agency, the Houthi rebels also agreed to release a top aide to Hadi that they had kidnapped in recent days.

The Houthis, who seized control of the capital and many state institutions in September, say they only want an equal share of power. Critics say they want to retain Hadi as president in name only, while keeping an iron grip on power.

The power vacuum has raised fears Yemen's al-Qaida branch, which claimed the recent attack on a French satirical weekly and is considered by Washington to be the terror group's most dangerous affiliate, will only grow more powerful as Yemen slides toward fragmentation and the conflict takes on an increasingly sectarian tone. The Shiite Houthis and Sunni terror group are sworn enemies.

France plans tough new terrorism tack

PARIS - Reeling from the Paris terror attacks, France announced broad new measures to fight homegrown terrorism like giving police better equipment and hiring more intelligence agents, as European officials sought to strike the right balance between rushing through tough counterterrorism laws and protecting treasured democratic rights.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls laid out the counterterrorism initiatives just as the Paris prosecutor announced preliminary charges against four men for allegedly providing logistical support to one of the attackers behind a three-day spree of violence this month that killed 17 people before the three gunmen were shot dead by police.

France plans to spend $490 million over the next three years for the new measures. They include leaning on Internet companies and social media to help in the fight, creating an improved database of suspected extremists, and increasing intelligence-gathering on jihadis and other radicals - in part by making it easier to tap phones. About 2,600 counter-terrorism officers will be hired, 1,100 of them specifically for intelligence services.

Meanwhile, at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, new efforts are being made to overcome privacy objections and make the sharing of air passenger information easier. But continental leaders warned also about going too far, at the risk of undermining individual rights that are a cornerstone of the European way of life.

"The last thing" is for Europeans "to change the nature of our open societies as a reaction to this threat. Because then, we would play into the hands of these terrorists," EU Vice President Frans Timmermans said.

FBI completes Ferguson civil rights probe

WASHINGTON - The FBI has completed its investigation into the police shooting of an unarmed, black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

The Justice Department has not yet announced whether it will file a federal civil rights charge against former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. But officials and experts have said such a prosecution would be highly unlikely, in part because of the extraordinarily high legal standard federal prosecutors would need to meet.

The official was not authorized to discuss the case by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson declined to comment.

Wilson, who is white, was cleared in November by a state grand jury in the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown, a shooting that touched off protests in the streets and became part of a national conversation about race relations and police departments that patrol minority neighborhoods. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Ferguson in the days after the shooting to try to calm tensions and to meet with Brown's relatives and federal law enforcement.

Wilson, who shot Brown after a scuffle in the middle of a street, told the St. Louis County grand jury that spent months reviewing the case that he feared for his life during the confrontation and that Brown struck him in the face and reached for his gun. Some witnesses have said Brown had his hands raised when Wilson shot him.

Video: Man shot by police was raising his hands

BRIDGETON, N.J. - With the dashboard camera in their cruiser rolling, police pulled a Jaguar over for running a stop sign on a dark night. But things suddenly turned tense when one of the officers warned his partner that he could see a gun in the glove compartment.

Screaming over and over "Don't you f---ing move!" and "Show me your hands!" at the man in the passenger seat, the officer reached into the car and appeared to remove a silver handgun.

Then, the passenger, despite being warned repeatedly not to move, stepped from the Jaguar, his hands raised about shoulder level.

The officers opened fire, killing him.

The video of the Dec. 30 killing of Jerame Reid in Bridgeton, a struggling, mostly minority city of 25,000 people just south of Philadelphia, was released this week, raising questions and stirring anger over another death at the hands of police.

- The Associated Press