From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jee Abbey Lee reporting.

U.S. President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, took more than $500,000 from Turkey and tens of thousands of dollars from Russian interests. New documents show he was also warned not to accept payments from foreign governments in2014.

Elijah Cummings, a top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, said his committee has no evidence that Flynn obtained permission from the secretary of the Army and the secretary of state to accept any foreign government payments as required by law.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday blamed the previous administration for failing to catch the questionable payments from Russia-linked companies.

"The Department of Defense was the issuing agency for General Flynn's SF-86. We referred them to the Department of Defense, who owns and issued his security clearance, and they got a copy of it." :White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

President Donald Trump says phone conversations Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau persuaded him not to withdraw from their countries' three-way trade pact at least for now. He said that NAFTA has been horrible for the U.S. economy.

"I like them very much. I respect their countries very much. The relationship is very special. And I said I will hold on the termination. Let's see if we can make it a fair deal, because NAFTA has been a horrible deal for the United States. It's been very good for Canada, it's been very good for Mexico, but it's been horrible for the United States."

Trump said if he is unable to make a fair deal for American workers and companies, he will terminate NAFTA.

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The Pentagon says two U.S. service members were killed and the third was wounded during a raid against the Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan.

A U.S. military statement says the U.S. troops were conducting an operation with Afghan security forces when they came under attack Wednesday evening.

General John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, said the fight against a local chapter of the Islamic State is important to the world, but not without sacrifice.

Earlier this month, a U.S. warplane dropped the largest bomb in America's arsenal on an IS bunker complex in Nangarhar. Officials said at least 92 militants were killed in the blast.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Afghan and U.S. forces closely coordinated on the bombing.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan eked out a narrow referendum victory even though the country's industrial heartland and main cities voted against him for the first time in his political career. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

President Erdoğan's referendum victory was bittersweet.

For the first time, he lost in Turkey's main cities, including Istanbul.

Inan Demir, an economist for Nomura Bank, points out that Erdoğan's unprecedented electoral successes were achieved in a period of economic boom, but those halcyon days appear to be waning.

"Currently, inflation rate is at 11.3 percent and it is expected to increase further to around 12 percent in the coming months. It would constitute the highest inflation rate since before the global financial crisis in 2009."

The impact of the economic slowdown has been felt most in western Turkey, where more than 70 percent of the country's economic production is located and most closely linked to European markets."

Dorian Jones, of VOA news, Istanbul.

United Airlines reached an out-of-court settlement Thursday with a doctor who was dragged off one of its flights after he refused to give up his seat.

The airline and Dr. David Dao's lawyers agreed not to disclose the amount of money he will receive.

United put out a brief statement saying it reached an "amicable resolution of the unfortunate incident."

The airline said earlier Thursday that from now on, no passenger would be forced to give up his seat except in cases of safety and security.

One of the key messages coming out of President Donald Trump's meeting with U.S. lawmakers on North Korea was a renewed emphasis on the need to use sanctions and diplomacy to try to pressure Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.

For more news, log on to voanews.com. I am Jee Abbey Lee in Washington.

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