Nation and World briefs for November 10

2 American contractors among 5 killed in rare shooting attack in Jordan police training center

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A Jordanian police captain opened fire Monday on instructors at an international police training center in Jordan’s capital, killing at least five people, including two Americans, before being shot dead by security forces.

It was not clear if there was a political motive to the shooting spree, which also wounded six people, including two Americans. But concern has swirled in staunchly pro-Western Jordan over possible revenge attacks by Islamic militants since the country assumed a high-level role in the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State extremist group, which controls large areas of neighboring Syria and Iraq.

The unprecedented assault inside a Jordanian security compound also raised questions about the kingdom’s image as an island of relative stability in a turbulent region.

The shooting took place at the Jordan International Police Training Center in Amman, where Jordanian and foreign instructors, including Americans, have trained thousands of police officers from the Palestinian territories and other parts of the Arab world in recent years.

The Jordanian officer opened fire, killing the two Americans and a South African contractor before being shot dead, government spokesman Mohammed Momani said. Two Jordanians were critically wounded and later died, he said.

Judge issues gag order after lawyer describes police video showing driver’s hands up

MARKSVILLE, La. (AP) — A police body camera recorded the father of a 6-year-old autistic boy with his hands up and posing no threat as police fired into his car, severely wounding the motorist and killing his son, the man’s lawyer said Monday.

“This was not a threatening situation for the police,” said Mark Jeansonne, an attorney for Chris Few, who remained hospitalized and could not attend Monday’s funeral of his son, Jeremy Mardis.

Derrick Stafford, 32, of Mansura, and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, of Marksville, were ordered held on $1 million bonds Monday on second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder charges, Jeansonne said.

The lawyer said he hasn’t seen the video himself, but its contents were described during the hearing. Louisiana’s state police chief, Col. Mike Edmonson, said Friday that “it’s the most disturbing thing I’ve seen — and I will leave it at that.”

Few’s condition was improving Monday, but he had not been told as of midday that his son is dead, Jeansonne said. His stepfather, Morris German, said last week that Few had bullet fragments in his brain and lung.

SeaWorld executive: Orca shows at San Diego park ending, cites customer distaste for tricks

SAN DIEGO (AP) — SeaWorld will end its orca shows at its San Diego park by 2017, its top executive said Monday, saying customers at the location have made clear they prefer killer whales acting more naturally rather than doing tricks.

CEO Joel Manby told investors that the park — where the iconic shows of killer whales doing flips and other stunts debuted decades ago — will offer a different kind of orca experience focusing on the animal’s natural setting and its behaviors, starting in 2017.

Animal rights activists called the move a marketing gimmick and want the company to phase out holding whales in captivity at all.

The Orlando, Florida-based company has seen revenue drop since the 2013 release of the documentary “Blackfish” that examined how orcas respond to captivity, particularly in the case of Tilikum, a killer whale that caused trainer Dawn Brancheau’s 2010 death by pulling her into a pool at SeaWorld Orlando.

Attendance has dropped the most at its San Diego location, and the decision to end such shows would be limited for now to that park, the original home of Shamu. Shows at its other parks, including in San Antonio and Orlando, will continue.

Belt getting tighter? Study finds a pot belly risky even if you’re not considered overweight

WASHINGTON (AP) — A pot belly can be a bad thing — even if you’re not considered overweight.

New research suggests normal-weight people who carry their fat at their waistlines may be at higher risk of death over the years than overweight or obese people whose fat is more concentrated on the hips and thighs.

Monday’s study signals the distribution of fat matters whatever the scale says.

“If the waist is larger than your hips, you’re at increased risk for disease,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, an obesity specialist at Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis, who wasn’t involved in the new research.

It also has implications for advising patients whose body mass index or BMI, the standard measure for weight and height, puts them in the normal range despite a belly bulge.

University of Missouri president resigns over handling of race and discrimination complaints

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The president of the University of Missouri system resigned Monday with the football team and others on campus in open revolt over what they saw as his indifference to racial tensions at the school.

President Tim Wolfe, a former business executive with no previous experience in academic leadership, took “full responsibility for the frustration” students expressed and said their complaints were “clear” and “real.”

For months, black student groups had complained that Wolfe was unresponsive to racial slurs and other slights on the overwhelmingly white flagship campus of the state’s four-college system. The complaints came to a head two days ago, when at least 30 black football players announced that they would not play until the president was gone. A graduate student went on a weeklong hunger strike.

Wolfe’s announcement came at the start of what had been expected to be a lengthy closed-door meeting of the school’s governing board.

“This is not the way change comes about,” he said, alluding to recent protests, in a halting statement that was simultaneously apologetic, clumsy and defiant. “We stopped listening to each other.”

EU warns of looming refugee ‘catastrophe’ in Balkans as winter approaches

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union warned on Monday of a looming humanitarian “catastrophe” with tens of thousands of people traveling through the Balkans to northern Europe as winter closes in.

More than 770,000 people have arrived in the EU by sea so far this year, overwhelming border authorities and reception facilities. Many have made the arduous land journey on foot through the Balkans in search of sanctuary or work in countries like Germany or Sweden.

The EU’s 28 member nations have pledged to provide experts and funds to help manage the emergency, and to share refugees among them.

But the resources have been painfully slow in coming.

“The European Union must do everything to avoid a catastrophe as winter closes in,” Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said after chairing the latest in a long series of high-level talks on the challenge. “We cannot let people die from the cold in the Balkans.”

Israel lacks evidence against extremists in arson attack that killed Palestinian family

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is still lacking evidence to charge those responsible for a deadly arson attack on a Palestinian family this summer, Israeli media reported the country’s defense minister as saying Monday, in a case that Palestinians say helped fuel the past weeks of bloodshed.

In July, assailants, believed to be Jewish extremists, lobbed a firebomb into the Dawabsheh family’s home in the West Bank village of Duma, where four family members were asleep. Ali Dawabsheh, a toddler, was burned to death, while his mother and father later died of their wounds. His 4-year-old brother Ahmad is being treated in an Israeli hospital.

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said a “group of Jewish fanatics” who want to install a “religious kingdom” based on biblical law were behind the attack. Yaalon’s remarks to military correspondents were reported by Israel’s Walla news site.

But Yaalon said, “We don’t currently have evidence that directly ties the one who carried out the terror attack but I believe we will get that, I hope that we will solve the case completely,” Yaalon said.

Israeli leaders across the political spectrum have strongly condemned the firebomb attack and vowed to apprehend the assailants. But the fact that no one has been officially charged months after the attack is a sore point among Palestinians and many cite the case as a big factor in fueling the current violence.

Obama, Netanyahu minimize sharp differences on Iran, reaffirm commitment to Mideast peace

WASHINGTON (AP) — Minimizing sharp differences, President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed their commitment to seeking elusive Middle East peace on Monday, though prospects for an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians appear ever further out of reach.

The U.S. and Israeli leaders’ meeting at the White House marked the first time they had talked face-to-face in more than a year. They have long had a frosty relationship, and tensions peaked earlier this year amid Obama’s pursuit of an Iran nuclear deal that Netanyahu vigorously opposed.

Monday’s meeting was an attempt to reset ties for the final year of Obama’s presidency.

In comments to reporters before their private talks, they sidestepped their disagreement on Iran, with Obama calling it a “narrow issue.” Netanyahu didn’t mention the matter at all.

“We don’t have a disagreement on the need to making sure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, and we don’t have a disagreement about us blunting destabilizing activities in Iran that may be taking place,” Obama said. “So we’re going to be looking to make sure we find common ground there.”