WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A behind-the-scenes congressional battle to avoid a U.S. government shutdown broke into public view on Thursday when Republicans produced a stop-gap funding bill that Democrats immediately rejected.

PHOENIX, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Phoenix police are investigating a 19-year-old man's contention that two rookie officers forced him to eat marijuana, demanding that he consume the drug in exchange for avoiding arrest, police said on Thursday.

BOSTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - A Rhode Island man charged last year with planning to behead enemies of Islamic State and lend support to the militant group pleaded guilty on Thursday, agreeing to a sentence of up to 22 years in federal prison.

CLEVELAND, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The family of a African-American man who died in 2010 after being tasered by Cleveland police will receive a $375,000 settlement from the city, the mayor's office said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. rules intended to prevent runs on money market funds are already sending tremors through markets and sparking debates on Capitol Hill, even though they are still weeks away from coming fully online.

BEIJING, Sept 22 (Reuters) - China has conditionally lifted an import ban on some shipments of U.S. boneless beef and beef on the bone, and will also ease restrictions on Canadian beef, the Asian nation's agriculture ministry and its premier said on Thursday.

NEW YORK, Sept 22 (Reuters) - At 11:00 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT) on Wednesday, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency amid a second night of unrest following the fatal police shooting of a black man.

AMMAN, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The Syrian army announced the start of a new military offensive in the rebel-held east of the city of Aleppo on Thursday, signaling a potential further escalation in a bombing campaign by Russian and Syrian jets that rebels say has already intensified in the last 24 hours.

GENEVA/PARIS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization said on Thursday the European Union had failed to rein in billions of dollars in subsidies to planemaker Airbus , ratcheting up tensions in the battle for airliner orders worth trillions of dollars a decade.