FIFA's executive committee decides to publish - ''in appropriate form'' - investigator Michael Garcia's report into the turbulent bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. As Joel Flynn reports, the meeting began a day after Garcia quit in protest at the handling of his investigation.
The US central bank's favored measure of inflation accelerated last month, according to government data published Friday, pushing back the chances of an interest rate cut this summer. The data published Friday also show that personal income accelerated last month, rising by 0.5 percent in March from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said.
An Israeli assault on southern Gaza's Rafah area would spell disaster for civilians, not only in Gaza but across the Middle East, the head of an aid group warned on Friday, saying the region faced a "countdown to an even bigger conflict". Jan Egeland, the Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Reuters that 1.3 million civilians seeking refuge in Rafah - including his aid group's staff - were living in "indescribable fear" of an Israeli offensive.
A former tabloid publisher who squashed potentially embarrassing stories about Donald Trump was to take the witness stand again on Friday for grilling by lawyers of the former US president."We didn't want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or hurt his campaign."
Microsoft reported better than anticipated Q3 earnings on Thursday, powered by growth in its cloud products.
Ukraine’s foreign minister doubled down Friday on the government’s move to bolster the pool of fighting forces by cutting off consular services to conscription-age men outside the country, saying it was a question of "justice.” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the policy would ensure men in Ukraine and those who have left were both treated fairly. “It’s about justice -- justice in the relationship between Ukrainian men abroad and Ukrainian men inside of Ukraine,” he said.
The former president’s criminal hush money is set to resume in Manhattan Friday when former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker returns to the witness stand to face cross-examination by the defense.
A court in Romania’s capital on Friday ruled that a trial can start in the case of influencer Andrew Tate, who is charged with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The Bucharest Tribunal ruled that prosecutors’ case file against Tate met the legal criteria but did not set a date for the trial to begin. Tate’s spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said the ruling will be appealed.
Armed groups in the Middle East and North Africa have little difficulty getting their hands on portable surface-to-air missiles despite a campaign to prevent their proliferation, according to a report published Friday.Shoulder-fired missiles -- also known as man-portable air-defence systems, or MANPADS -- in the hands of militants are seen as a threat because of their ability to target military aircraft, but also passenger planes.
The Russian and Turkish flags were lowered on Friday to mark the closure of a centre set up to monitor a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, as Russian peacekeepers ended a multi-year deployment in the strategic South Caucasus region. Nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops were dispatched to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020 under a Moscow-brokered deal that halted six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces. Despite the deployment, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh by force in September last year, a move which triggered an exodus of at least 100,000 ethnic Armenians living there and the arrest of the breakaway area's ethnic Armenian leaders.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Pfizer’s treatment for a rare genetic bleeding disorder, making it the company’s first-ever gene therapy to win clearance in the U.S.
Stellar earnings from the 'Magnificent Seven' duo have reignited optimism for a rally, but the PCE inflation print could put a spoke in the wheel.
Countries in the World Trade Organization are resuming stalled negotiations on fixing its dispute settlement system by the end of this year, a document showed on Friday, after they overcame difficulties in choosing a chief negotiator. Ambassador Usha Dwarka-Canabady from Mauritius, a career diplomat, was announced as chief negotiator this month after at least three other ambassadors turned the role down, trade sources said. The previous facilitator, Marco Molina from Guatemala, was abruptly dismissed by his government in February despite widespread praise for his approach which, unlike other WTO talks, sought to reduce haggling by encouraging co-authorship of new rules.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday as he wrapped up a three-day visit to China.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said Friday that “a potential aggressor must see our readiness" as he and his Lithuanian counterpart monitored a joint military drill along their shared border. Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda met on the last day of the week-long Brave Griffin 24/II military exercise along the Suwalki Gap, a strategically important stretch of land that's considered a potential flashpoint area in case of a standoff between Russia and NATO.
Why are they shiny? And how did Pennsylvania become the pretzel capital of the world?
Supporters of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez prepared on Friday to hold rallies to urge him to stay on after he announced this week he was considering stepping down as a court looks into allegations of business corruption made against his wife. Local branches of the Socialist party (PSOE) organized buses to bring supporters to a rally backing the prime minister planned for Saturday morning in Madrid. Sanchez, 52, surprised both foes and allies when he said on Wednesday he was taking several days away from public duty to consider quitting.
From a man who really makes his own beer to the Japanese bears given paws for thought... your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.- Paws for thought - A pair of bears picked the wrong Japanese tourists to mess with when they jumped out of the bushes as Masato Fukuda was hiking to see a waterfall in the northern island of Hokkaido.
The FDA said late Thursday that additional testing is required to determine whether the intact pathogen is still present and if it remains infectious. Eight states in the U.S. have confirmed cases of bird flu in dairy cattle, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Only one person - a Texas farm worker - has been one confirmed to have bird flu.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday protests at U.S. universities over U.S.-ally Israel's war in Gaza are a hallmark of American democracy, but criticized what he called the "silence" about Palestinian militant group Hamas. Police have clashed with students critical of the war and the Biden administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza, with nearly 550 arrests made over the protests in the last week across major U.S. universities, according to a Reuters tally. Asked at a press conference in China whether he was taking on board the protesters' message, Blinken said he understood the conflict elicited "strong, passionate feelings" and that the administration was doing it all it could to halt the war.
French barber Roger Amilhastre, 90, could have hung up his clippers decades ago but he said his passion for hair gives him a reason to get up in the morning.France's national hairdressers' union believes Amilhastre may be France's oldest active barber.
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