The St. Louis County police chief described the encounter as one that left his officers with no choice but to open fire.

The man's death in the city of Jennings followed a string of police shootings around the United States, many involving African-Americans, that have raised questions about the use of force by law enforcement. One prominent case was in another St. Louis suburb, Ferguson.

A Missouri grand jury's decision in November to bring no charges against a white officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in Ferguson in August triggered a wave of protests from coast to coast.

Earlier this month, a South Carolina patrolman was charged with murder after being caught on a bystander's video shooting a black man in the back after a traffic stop.

Unlike those two cases, the latest shooting followed a tense, three-hour standoff in Jennings, which is located between Ferguson and St. Louis.

According to a police statement, a woman told officers her son, Thaddeus McCarroll, had locked her out of her house, was armed with a knife and had mentioned a "black revolution."

Police said they called on the man, who they could see was armed with knives and a sword, to leave the house and that when he finally did emerge from the home he held a knife in one hand and a Bible in the other.

Police tried to negotiate with McCaroll, telling him to drop the weapon. He did not comply, despite being shot at first with a "non-lethal round." Instead he charged at the officers, the statement said.

In response, two officers shot him multiple times shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday and he died at the scene, police said.

The St. Louis County Police Department's crimes against persons unit is investigating the incident, the statement said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry)

Police fatally shoot man near St. Louis

Authorities say officers shot and killed a man who spoke of a "black revolution" and charged at them.
Tense standoff

Yaoundé (AFP) - Nineteen people were killed in Thursday night's attack on a Cameroonian village by Nigeria-based Boko Haram militants, a security source said in an updated toll, adding that most of the victims were beheaded.

"The final toll from this attack is 19 dead, with a majority of the victims decapitated," a security source said Saturday on condition of anonymity.

Security sources had previously said 10 civilians were killed in the cross-border raid on the village of Bia in Cameroon's Far North region.

The attack comes after a regional military offensive -- which includes Cameroon -- has claimed a string of successes in their fightback against the Islamist militants in Nigeria in recent weeks.

Bia, which borders Lake Chad, has been identified previously by security forces as a recruiting ground for Boko Haram militants.

The source speaking to AFP on Saturday said security forces were slow to react to the raid on Bia, located in an area with several military bases.

"We noted a late response by our forces,", the source said.

"Many huts were burned down," the source added.

Also during the night from Thursday to Friday, Boko Haram Islamists attacked a Cameroon army position in Amchide, on the border with Nigeria.

"They burned houses in Amchide, but without losses on our side. The attack was repulsed. We don't know yet about casualties on the enemy side," a security source told AFP on Friday.

The insurgency by Boko Haram -- which is seeking to create a hardline Islamic state -- has killed some 13,000 people in northeast Nigeria and sent 1.5 million fleeing their homes since 2009.

The group had in recent months widened its attacks into neighbouring nations, prompting Chad, Cameroon and Niger to launch a joint offensive with the Nigerian army, resulting in a series of rebel-held towns and villages being recaptured in Nigeria's northeast.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's perceived inability to end the six-year insurgency was a factor in his election defeat last month.

Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to rid the country of the "terror" of Boko Haram.

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Obama: 'Embarassing' Senate Hasn't Voted on AG

WASHINGTON (AP) — Diplomacy is out, blunt talk is in as President Barack Obama and his White House team single out Republican lawmakers by name for criticism over their words and actions on Iran, Cabinet nominations and climate change.

Even amid glimmers of bipartisanship in Washington, the White House approach amounts to this: when you can't join 'em, beat 'em.

In the past week, the president and his spokesman have targeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Charles Grassley of Iowa for their words and actions on the Iran nuclear deal and the delayed confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch.

"Enough. Enough!" Obama declared Friday, delivering a testy lecture to Senate Republicans over the long wait Lynch has faced since he nominated her in early November. "This is embarrassing, a process like this."

This is a White House unleashed, dispensing with niceties for the kind of blunt talk some of Obama's allies have been demanding for some time. A president who once ran on the promise of changing the tone in the capital now seems to have fully embraced its political combat.

Last Saturday, Obama hit McCain hard. The 2008 GOP presidential nominee had declared a major setback in the Iran talks after Iran's supreme leader demanded that sanctions against Tehran had to be lifted immediately after a deal went into place.

The preliminary deal says the sanctions will be lifted as Iran proves it is complying with limits on its nuclear program.

Obama cast McCain's criticism as an assault on the credibility of Secretary of State John Kerry.

"That's an indication of the degree to which partisanship has crossed all boundaries," Obama said. "That's a problem. It needs to stop."

He went on: "We have Mitch McConnell trying to tell the world, oh, don't have confidence in the U.S. government's abilities to fulfill any climate change pledge that we might make."

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In this Jan. 28, 2015 file photo, Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch testifies on Capitol Hill i …

On Thursday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest singled out Grassley, noting that Grassley had once urged Obama not to push through Lynch during the lame duck Senate in November and December but now said Democrats should have acted on her when they had a Senate majority. Earnest called Grassley's stance "duplicitous."

Asked how harsh words might help his cause, Earnest replied: "Being nice has gotten us a 160-day delay. So maybe after they look up 'duplicitous' in the dictionary we'll get a different result."

It was the kind of "ouch" moment seldom heard from the White House.

Republicans have their own eye-rolling response.

"We're used to it," said McConnell, whose frequently jousts with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "We used to get it from the Democratic leader routinely."

Still, Pat Griffin, who was legislative director in the Clinton administration, said the tone from the White House dovetails with the aggressive strategy Obama has set since his party lost control of the Senate in November and put Congress in Republican hands.

"I think the president since the election has kept these guys on their heels," Griffin said. Obama and his aides "have come to understand that you don't get the attention of these guys and the attention of the country without having some edge."

Republicans maintain Obama would be better off working on bipartisan efforts, such as trade. Top lawmakers on Thursday revealed a bipartisan agreement to give Obama authority to negotiate trade deals without having to face delays in Congress. But many Democrats oppose such deals, fearing they will cost jobs or lower environmental standards.

"Rather than spending so much time criticizing people like Chuck Grassley and myself, he ought to be out there lining up the Democratic votes for trade promotion authority," McConnell said in an interview Friday. "This is a time for presidential leadership."

As for Lynch, McConnell said, "The cheap shots at Sen. Grassley were particularly inappropriate."

Lynch's confirmation has been delayed because McConnell has wanted to pass a sexual trafficking bill through the Senate first. That bill has been held up because of Democratic objections to anti-abortion language in the bill. McConnell predicted the dispute would be resolved next week, opening the way for a vote on Lynch.

For many Democratic allies of the White House, Obama's confrontational talk could have come even sooner.

"If you're sitting at the White House looking at Republicans on Capitol Hill, especially on the House side, you can't expect either much respect from them or a willingness to get much done," said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former top aide to Reid. "Point two, as we move into the primary season, the base is looking for a more combative tone from the White House as well."

The last two years of a second term are especially liberating for presidents. They don't face re-election and they don't feel they have much to lose legislatively by going on the offensive.

"It feels good to do that when you have been bottled up," said Matt Bennett, a veteran of the Clinton White House.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — World finance officials said Saturday they see a number of threats on the horizon for a global economy still clawing back from the deepest recession in seven decades, and a potential Greek debt default presents the most immediate risk.

After finance officials wrapped up three days of talks, the International Monetary Fund's policy committee set a goal of working toward a "more robust, balanced and job-rich global economy" while acknowledging growing risks to achieving that objective.

The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, held a series of talks with finance officials on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the 188-nation IMF and World Bank, trying to settle his country's latest crisis.

Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, said it was "urgent" to resolve the dispute between Greece and its creditors.

A default, he said, would send the global economy into "uncharted waters" and the extent of the possible damage would be hard to estimate. He told reporters that he did not want to even contemplate the chance of a default.

Earlier in the week, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde rejected suggestions that her agency might postpone repayment deadlines for Greece. On Saturday, she cited constructive talks with Varoufakis and said the goal was to stabilize Greece's finances and assure an economic recovery and "make sure the whole partnership hangs together" between Greece and its creditors.

In its closing communique, the policy-setting panel for the World Bank expressed concerns about the unevenness of global growth and pledged to work with the IMF to provide economic support for poor nations that have been hit hard by falling commodity prices.

But the international aid group Oxfam expressed disappointment that the IMF and World Bank did not devote more time to exploring ways to lessen widening income gaps.

"Given that rising inequality continues to make the headlines everywhere in the world, it is surprising how the issue remained almost totally absent from these spring meetings," said Nicolas Mombrial, head of the Washington office of Oxfam International.

Greece is in negotiations with the IMF and European authorities to receive the final 7.2 billion euro ($7.8 billion) installment of its financial bailout. Creditors are demanding that Greece produce a credible overhaul before releasing the money.

The country has relied on international loans since 2010. Without more bailout money, Greece could miss two debt payments due to the IMF in May and run out of cash to pay government salaries and pensions.

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Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis speaks with members of the International Monetary Fund, befo …

Fears that Greece could default and abandon the euro currency group sent shockwaves through global markets Friday. After being down nearly 360 points, the Dow Jones industrial average recovered a bit to finish down 279.47.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said that a Greek default would "create immediate hardship" for Greece and damage the world economy.

In a speech Saturday to the IMF panel, Lew urged South Korea, Germany, China and Japan to do more to increase consumer demand in their own countries instead of relying on exports to the United States and elsewhere for growth.

"We are concerned that the global economy is reverting to the pre-crisis pattern of heavy reliance on U.S. demand for growth," Lew said. "As we all know, such a pattern will not lead to strong, sustainable and balanced global growth."

The negotiations over Greece's debt have proved contentious but all sides have expressed optimism that the differences can be resolved.

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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, attends the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC …

A number of countries directed criticism toward the U.S. for the failure of Congress to pass the legislation needed to put into effect IMF reforms that would boost the agency's capacity to make loans and increase the voting power of such emerging economic powers as China, Brazil and India.

Agustin Carstens, the head of Mexico's central bank and the chair of the IMF policy panel, said that "pretty much all of the members expressed deep disappointment" that a failure of the U.S. Congress to act is blocking implementation of the reforms. The policy panel directed IMF officials to explore whether any interim reforms could be put into effect pending congressional action.

The finance ministers urged central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve to clearly communicate future policy changes to avoid triggering unwanted turbulence in financial markets.

Lagarde told reporters Saturday that the Federal Reserve had made it clear that it planned to "always communicate and help everybody anticipate" its future moves on interest rates.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen along with Lew represented the U.S. at the finance meetings.

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Associated Press writer Luis Alonso contributed to this report.