WORLD

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Facebook said Friday it would add $9 billion to its stock buyback program, which could scoop up shares pummeled over the past few months by privacy scandals and a slump on Wall Street. In a regulatory filing, the leading social network said it …

Vancouver, Canada | AFP | Chinese telecom giant Huawei’s chief financial officer faces US fraud charges related to sanctions-breaking business dealings with Iran, a Canadian court heard Friday, a week after she was detained on an American extradition request. Meng Wanzhou, 46, was arrested in Canada’s Pacific coast city of …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Former US secretary of state Rex Tillerson says that President Donald Trump repeatedly wanted to violate the law, describing him as “undisciplined” and uninterested in details. Tillerson, who was fired in March, made no attempt to deny his poor relationship with Trump during a …

Washington, United States | AFP | Former FBI director James Comey, sacked by President Donald Trump in 2017, testified Friday before US lawmakers for the first time in over a year, but this time out of the camera glare. The hours-long Capitol Hill grilling comes amid turbulence at the White …

Rome, Italy | AFP | Italy’s competition authority has fined Facebook 10 million euros ($11.3 million) for selling users’ data without informing them and “aggressively” discouraging users from trying to limit how the company shares their data. Facebook “misleadingly gets people to sign up… without informing them in an immediate …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Police questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara on Friday, her lawyer said, with media saying it was over new suspicions of fraudulently misusing public funds. Public radio said that Sara Netanyahu arrived at the headquarters of the National Fraud Squad, near Tel Aviv, …

Washington, United States | AFP | Job creation slowed unexpectedly in the United States last month as the service sector added fewer workers, but the unemployment rate held steady at a 49-year low, the government reported Friday. The new numbers fell below recent trends and avoided another blow-out result, denying …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Eleven people — six bank robbers and five hostages including a child — were killed Friday in a pre-dawn assault on two banks in a northeast Brazilian city foiled by police, the local mayor said. The violence erupted in the city of Milagres, …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday hailed majority backing in the UN General Assembly for condemning militant group Hamas even though a draft resolution failed to win enough votes to pass. The US draft won 87 votes in the General Assembly on Thursday compared …

Hamburg, Germany | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hand off leadership of her party Friday after nearly two decades at the helm, with the race wide open between a loyal deputy and a longtime rival. The contest’s outcome is expected to be crucial in deciding whether Merkel, Europe’s …