BEIJING — The United States should look within to cut demand for opioids rather than stressing unsubstantiated claims that China is the major source of these chemicals, a top Chinese drug enforcement official said Thursday.

China and the U.S. have worked to build a close relationship to fight global flows of illicit synthetic drugs, but their collaboration remains fraught.

Yu Haibin of the China National Narcotics Control Commission said there was little evidence showing China was the source of much of the chemicals used in the production of the opioid fentanyl.

President Donald Trump in November blamed a “flood of cheap and deadly” fentanyl from China for the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history.

“China doesn’t deny that shipments to the U.S. happen, but there isn’t the proof to show how much — whether it’s 20 percent or 80 percent,” said Yu, adding that U.S. authorities have only sent him information about six shipments from China in the past year.

Yu urged the U.S. to share more data and police intelligence with Chinese authorities and said rampant over-prescription of pain medication and lax cultural attitudes toward drugs had fueled demand for opioids in the U.S.

Insufficient drug education and the trend in some states of legalizing marijuana have hurt drug enforcement efforts, he said.

Since 2016, China has arrested dozens of synthetic drug exporters, destroyed several illegal labs and seized tons of new psychoactive substances, according to the Office of the National Narcotics Control Committee.

More than 66,000 people in the U.S. died of overdoses in the year ending May 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Minn. delays decision in officer shooting of Australian woman

MINNEAPOLIS — A prosecutor said Thursday that he needs more time to decide whether to charge a police officer who fatally shot an Australian after she called 911 for help.

Minneapolis Officer Mohamed Noor shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, 40, on July 15, just minutes after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. The life coach was engaged to be married, and her death drew international attention. It also cost then-police Chief Janee Harteau her job.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman had promised a decision by year’s end. But on Thursday, he said his office was “getting more information and evidence, and additional investigation must be completed.”

“The investigation and review of the case will not be rushed,” said Freeman, who did not set a new timetable on a decision.

Officers pull unconscious teens from burning car in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE — Two Milwaukee police officers are being hailed as heroes for rescuing two unconscious teenagers from a burning car.

Officers Nicholas Schlei and Nicholas Reid, both 23, were on patrol Tuesday night when a Pontiac Grand Am crashed into a utility pole and overturned. Flames erupted from the car’s engine compartment.

One teen escaped by kicking out a window, but the driver and another boy were unconscious, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The officers managed to pull the 16-year-olds out in less than a minute. Reid said he and his partner “knew that we had to get those kids out” and that “there’s no better feeling” than to help save someone.

Police said the driver will be cited for failure to yield and reckless driving.

Erica Garner, whose dad died in NYC police chokehold, in coma

Activist Erica Garner, whose father’s death helped galvanize an emotional discussion about race and policing, suffered significant brain damage this week after a heart attack, representatives said.

Garner, 27, came to prominence when her father, Eric Garner, died in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by a New York City police officer, an event that touched off protests across the country.

Erica Garner has been in a coma since Saturday, when she suffered a heart attack, according to local news reports and statements posted on Erica's Twitter account. A CT scan showed that Garner suffered “major brain damage from a lack of oxygen while in cardiac arrest,” according to a statement on her verified account.

12 dead in NY fire called ‘historic in its magnitude’

Twelve people were killed and four more were seriously injured and fighting for their lives late Thursday in a fast-moving fire at an apartment building on a frigid night in the Bronx, according to New York City's mayor.

The victims included a child around a year old, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a briefing outside the building.

“We may lose others as well,” he said.

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro called the fire, “historic in its magnitude,” because of the number of lives lost.

The blaze broke out at a five-story building, a block from the grounds of the Bronx Zoo.

One of the deadliest fires in recent memory happened elsewhere in the Bronx in 2007.

Nine children and one adult died in a blaze sparked by a space heater.

U.S. envoy rips ‘ugly’ response on declaration of Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — The U.S. ambassador to Israel said the Palestinian response to President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was “needlessly provocative.”

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post daily, David Friedman says the Palestinians overreacted to Trump’s declaration and that some of their responses — and protests — to it have been “ugly,” “largely emotional” and “anti-Semitic.”

Friedman also said in the interview, published Thursday, that there will be no peace process without U.S. involvement.

Trump’s Jerusalem pivot upended decades of U.S. policy and countered an international consensus that Jerusalem’s fate should be decided in direct negotiations. Palestinian leaders said Washington could no longer serve as a Mideast peace broker.

Egyptian blast: A roadside bomb planted by Islamic militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula hit a military vehicle Thursday, killing six people, including a senior army officer, security and hospital officials said. Three soldiers were wounded in the attack outside the town of Bir al-Abd in northern Sinai, they said.

Rising prices: Iranians angry over rising food prices and inflation protested in the country’s second-largest city of Masshad and other areas Thursday, putting new pressure on President Hassan Rouhani. The protests in Masshad saw police make an unspecified number of arrests, local authorities said.