New U.S. office would protect ‘conscience’ rights of doctors; NEWS BRIEFING; Staff and news services; Senate Dems question legality of Trump work requirements; Israel says it killed Palestinian sought in settler slaying; Syria threatens to down Turkey jets over its Kurdish region; Deputy U.S. marshal killed while serving warrant; Zimbabwe opposition leader dies ; in U.S. crash

WASHINGTON - Reinforcing its strong connection with social conservatives, the Trump administration announced Thursday a new federal office to protect medical providers refusing to participate in abortion, assisted suicide or other procedures on moral or religious grounds.

Leading Democrats and LGBT groups immediately denounced the move, saying "conscience protections" could become a license to discriminate, particularly against gay and transgender people.

The announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services came a day ahead of the annual march on Washington by abortion opponents, who will be addressed via video link by President Donald Trump. HHS put on a formal event in the department's Great Hall, with Republican lawmakers and activists for conscience protections as invited speakers.

The religious and conscience division will be part of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal anti-discrimination and privacy laws. Officials said it will focus on upholding protections already part of federal law. Violations can result in a service provider losing government funding.

No new efforts to expand such protections were announced.

Although the HHS civil rights office has traditionally received few complaints alleging conscience violations, HHS Acting Secretary Eric Hargan painted a picture of clinicians under government coercion to violate the dictates of conscience.

"For too long, too many health care practitioners have been bullied and discriminated against because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions, leading many of them to wonder what future they have in our medical system," Hargan told the audience.

Senate Dems question legality of Trump work requirements

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration's new policy allowing state work requirements for Medicaid recipients is legally questionable, more than two dozen Democratic senators said Thursday, framing an argument likely to be aired in court.

The senators' letter to acting health secretary Eric Hargan reads like a memo preparing a court challenge on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries. Last week the administration unveiled its policy letting states impose Medicaid work requirements, and promptly approved a waiver request by Kentucky to carry out its version.

When President Barack Obama was in office, congressional Republicans backed litigation to tie up parts of the Affordable Care Act, and now Democrats seem to be following a similar playbook with President Donald Trump's health care agenda.

Israel says it killed Palestinian sought in settler slaying

JERUSALEM - Israel said special forces hunting the killers of a West Bank settler raided a home Thursday, killing a Palestinian suspect in a firefight that also wounded two Israeli officers.

The raid was part of a police and army hunt for those involved in a drive-by shooting last week that killed a rabbi from an Israeli settlement outpost, police said.

One suspect was killed and other Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank town of Jenin, according to a statement by Israel's Shin Bet security services.

Israeli media initially identified the man killed as a member of the Islamic militant Hamas group by the name of Ahmed Jarrar. But Palestinian officials said the man killed was Ahmed Jarrar's cousin, a 30-year-old with the same first and last name.

Syria threatens to down Turkey jets over its Kurdish region

BEIRUT - Syria said on Thursday its air defense would shoot down any Turkish jets that carry out attacks within Syria, a stark warning as tensions soar over apparent preparations by the Turkish military to invade a northern Syrian Kurdish enclave.

Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said a military incursion into Syria's Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin would be "no picnic" for Turkey. Any such operation would be considered an "aggressive act," Mekdad said.

The escalation comes after the United States disclosed plans to form a 30,000-strong border force in Syria led by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces in the wake of the victory over the Islamic State group. Turkey reacted angrily to the announcement.

Deputy U.S. marshal killed while serving warrant

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A gunman opened fire on law enforcement officers serving an arrest warrant inside a home before dawn Thursday, killing a deputy U.S. marshal before he was shot to death by police as he fled outside, authorities said.

Police were on the first floor handcuffing the woman they were seeking to arrest when a man began firing from the second floor, said U.S. Attorney Dave Freed. The man was fatally shot as he later ran out the front door, again shooting at police, Freed said.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Christopher David Hill, 45, an Army veteran who has been with the service more than a decade, died from his injuries. Another member of the police task force, York City Police Officer Kyle Pitts, also was hit by gunfire, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Zimbabwe opposition leader dies

in U.S. crash

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Zimbabwean opposition leader Roy Bennett died in a helicopter crash in New Mexico that also killed four others, authorities said.

State Police Lt. Elizabeth Armijo confirmed Bennett's death Thursday, a day after a helicopter carrying him and five others went down in a mountainous rural area of northern New Mexico. Details of why the 60-year-old Bennett was in the area were not immediately available. The crash injured one person aboard.

Obert Gutu, spokesman for Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change opposition party, said the loss of Bennett, a white man who spoke fluent Shona and drew the wrath of former President Robert Mugabe, was tragic. Bennett's wife, Heather, also died, Gutu said.

A former Milwaukee police officer acquitted last year in a fatal shooting that sparked two nights of riots pleaded guilty Thursday to soliciting prostitution in an unrelated case. Under the deal with Dominique Heaggan-Brown, prosecutors dropped the most serious charges of second-degree sexual assault.

Britain's media say police in London are investigating a third allegation of sexual assault against two-time Academy Award winning actor Kevin Spacey. The Metropolitan Police force said Thursday it had received an allegation "that the man sexually assaulted a man (Victim 3) in 2005 in Westminster."

Caption: A woman shields herself from snow Thursday in Germany as as a storm killed seven people in three countries. In the U.S., the death toll from a Southern storm climbed to 15.

DANIEL REINHARDT/Getty-AFP