An Ethiopian diplomat who opened fire to quell a protest outside his country's embassy in Washington has left the United States to avoid prosecution, a U.S. official said Thursday.

An unarmed man was shot dead in the back by New York police after intervening when a knife-wielding assailant threatened a woman and her two children, officials said Thursday.

U.S. media identified the victim as 51-year-old Rafael Laureano and quoted a police spokesman as saying that he was shot by mistake.

A large majority of U.S. House of Representatives members wrote Secretary of State John Kerry expressing their concern Thursday over Iran's "refusal" to work with the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

With a November deadline fast approaching for Tehran and world powers to reach a deal on the Islamic republic's nuclear program, 354 of the House's 435 members warned that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been frustrated in its efforts to glean more information about the "potential military dimensions" of Iran's atomic efforts.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at the White House after Washington criticized Israeli plans to build thousands more settler homes in east Jerusalem, Israeli media reported on Thursday.

Public radio quoted Netanyahu as telling U.S. President Barack Obama in talks in Washington Wednesday to "study the facts and details before making statements" about the settlement plan.

Retired U.S. general John Allen, who is leading the international effort against Islamic State extremists, said Wednesday that the training of Syrian rebels would be a slow process. 

Fresh satellite images show North Korea has completed upgrading its main satellite site to handle far larger rockets, suggesting a possible launch by the end of the year, a U.S. think tank said Thursday.

Pro-Russian insurgents launched a fresh assault Thursday on an airport held by isolated Ukrainian forces as a month-old truce came under renewed strain and calls grew for the Kremlin to help halt the bloody revolt.

Ukraine also dispatched its energy chiefs to Brussels in a bid to convince the European Union to back up Kiev at crunch talks with Russia on the latest energy war with its westward-leaning but effectively bankrupt neighbor.

The U.S. Secret Service director resigned Wednesday, paying the price for a string of security lapses by the elite presidential protection branch, including one in which an armed intruder ran into the White House.

Tunisian youths disillusioned with the post-revolution era have flocked to join jihadists overseas, making the birthplace of the Arab Spring the top source of foreign fighters in Syria.

Two Taliban suicide bombers hit army buses in Kabul on Wednesday with initial reports of six people killed in the twin attack, police said, one day after the new Afghan government signed a deal for U.S. troops to stay in the country.

The Taliban, who strongly opposed the U.S. agreement, claimed responsibility for the two early-morning attacks on vehicles carrying military employees to work in the capital.