President Trump on Friday blamed Washington, D.C., lawmakers for ballooning costs that forced the cancellation of his planned military parade.
Rights groups Thursday condemned a suicide blast inside a school that killed dozens of students in Kabul a day earlier, as outrage over the attack grew while tearful families buried loved ones in the war-weary Afghan capital. The attack was just one of the most shocking in a blood-soaked week across Afghanistan that has left security forces and civilians reeling. Two gunmen attacked an intelligence training centre in Kabul Thursday, firing on security forces for several hours before they were killed, police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said, adding that there were no other casualties.
Israel troops on Friday shot dead two Palestinians taking part in protests along the Gaza border, the Palestinian health ministry in the enclave said. The ministry named the dead men as Karim Abu Fatayer, 30, shot near the central Gaza Strip town of Bureij and Sadi Moamer, 26, killed near Rafah, in the south. At least 270 other Palestinians were wounded, 70 of them by gunfire, the ministry said.
The aircraft, carrying 157 passengers and eight crew, landed on its second attempt before skidding onto the grass, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesman Eric Apolonio told AFP. Its wings and engines were heavily damaged in the incident, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, which also said the plane circled the airport for an hour before attempting to land. The incident forced a partial shutdown of the Philippines' main airport.
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer said Thursday that it would begin integrating seeds and pesticides maker Monsanto after a mega-merger, but its stock price was battered by the US firm's legal woes. Two months after the $63 billion deal -- the biggest ever foreign takeover by a German company -- Bayer completed the sale of a final tranche of crop science businesses worth 5.9 billion euros ($6.7 billion) to rival BASF under concessions imposed by cartel watchdogs. With competition authorities' conditions met, "the integration of Monsanto into the Bayer Group can begin," the Leverkusen-based company said in a statement.
The United Nations General Assembly requested the report in a resolution adopted in June that condemned Israel for excessive force against Palestinian civilians and denounced the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas, but did not mention Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. The final option could be to send additional U.N. human rights, coordination and political officers to boost monitoring and reporting on the situation and increase the U.N.'s visibility, Guterres said.
Thousands of air travelers faced delays on Friday after a Chinese airliner skidded off the runway at the airport in the Philippine capital, disrupting more than 200 flights as authorities struggled to remove the damaged plane. All 157 passengers and eight crew aboard the Xiamen Air Boeing 737-800 were unharmed after the accident late on Thursday, according to the airline and airport officials. The main runway at Manila's international airport would remain closed until 5 a.m. on Saturday (2100 GMT on Friday) to allow for more time to remove the plane, authorities said.
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer said Thursday it would finally begin integrating US seeds and pesticides maker Monsanto into its business, after meeting competition authorities' final conditions for the merger. Two months after it bought the US firm, "the integration of Monsanto into the Bayer Group can begin," the Leverkusen-based company said. Thursday saw Bayer complete the sale of a final tranche of crop science businesses worth 5.9 billion euros ($6.7 billion) to rival BASF under concessions imposed by cartel watchdogs.
An online guide accompanying a pronouncement from the church president also asked people to stop referring to followers of the religion as Mormons and not to use the name "LDS" as a shorthand way of describing the faith. "The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," church President Russell Nelson said in a statement. Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have long proclaimed their faith as Christian and fought any association with polygamy, which was practiced by early members of the church before they abandoned it more than 100 years ago.
Venezuelans are concerned over the safety of a "twin" viaduct of the collapsed Morandi bridge in Genoa, Italy, after a fire on the concrete structure caused a major blackout. Designed by Italian structural engineer Riccardo Morandi, it predates by five years his 1967 bridge in Genoa that collapsed this week causing the death of 39 people.
In remarks to reporters at the White House, Trump again called Mueller's investigation, which had cast a cloud over his presidency, a "rigged witch hunt," but sidestepped a question about whether he would issue a presidential pardon for Manafort. The jurors met for about seven hours on Thursday without reaching a verdict on 18 criminal counts with which Manafort is charged. As president, Trump has the power to pardon Manafort on the federal charges.
An outspoken activist in Vietnam was jailed for 20 years Thursday for allegedly calling for an election boycott and inciting environmental protests in the one-party state that has little tolerance for dissent. The communist country is notorious for jailing its critics but the harsh sentence was the heaviest in years as a hardline administration in charge since 2016 intensifies its crackdown against activists. Le Dinh Luong was convicted for "attempting to overthrow the state" in a half-day trial against the 52-year-old who appeared gaunt and grey-haired in court in central Nghe An province.