News brief: Big stories of the day
Follow UsA Florida fan of Donald Trump was arrested and charged Friday with mailing 13 bombs to opponents of the US president in a brazen, week-long spree that inflamed the country ahead of key elections.
Cesar Sayoc, 56, a registered Republican with a criminal history and reported past as a stripper, was born in New York and lived in a van covered in pro-Trump and anti-liberal stickers. He was arrested outside a Florida mall.
The United States urged political parties in Sri Lanka on Friday to abide by the Constitution and refrain from violence, as the latter country faces a constitutional crisis after its president ousted the prime minister.
Controversial Sri Lankan strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa staged a dramatic political comeback on Friday, becoming the new prime minister after President Maithripala Sirisena sacked premier Ranil Wickremesinghe who termed the move as "unconstitutional" and vowed to prove his majority in Parliament.
Former Mumbai captain Shishir Hattangadi has said he is ready to testify against BCCI CEO Rahul Johri who has accused of sexual misconduct.
In a tweet on Friday, Hattangadi said he would assist the BCCI in the Rahul Johri case. Hattangadi said he was exercising his responsibility as a former captain.
He also tweeted that individuals cannot be above the game.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that news coverage of the pipe bombs targeting high-profile Democratic politicians and critics of the president had drowned out other stories and slowed Republican momentum ahead of congressional elections.
"Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this 'Bomb' stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows - news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on," Trump wrote on Twitter as he urged Republicans to get out to vote.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday approved a request to send troops and military assistance to the US-Mexico border -- part of President Donald Trump's effort to slow illegal crossings in the run-up to key elections.
A Pentagon statement said the support would come in the form of logistical and engineering assistance, including the construction of "temporary barriers, barricades and fencing."