Russia said Thursday it plans to retaliate against the United States for imposing sanctions against it in connection with the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakahrova said the U.S. was knowingly presenting demands that are unacceptable.
She said as a condition to abandon the sanctions, they're making absolutely unacceptable demands. This is just a first step and they threaten to ramp up the sanction pressure even further so the United States are following the path of deteriorating our bilateral relationships although these relationships are at the lowest point as of now.
Russia said that it had nothing to do with the March incident involving Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were both found slumped on a bench unconscious in the British city of Salisbury.
The U.S. State Department announced the sanctions Wednesday, saying Russia broke international law by using a lethal nerve agent against its own nationals.
The measures are set to take effect August 22 and generally involve U.S. licenses for exporting sensitive national security goods to Russia.
Zimbabwean opposition leader Tendai Biti was charged Thursday with inciting public violence and unlawfully announcing the results of last week's disputed election.
As he arrived at court in Harare, Biti said he will keep fighting.
"but we survive. We live to fight another day, I am glad to be home. and tomorrow, we raise ..."
Biti is one of nine members of the Movement for Democratic Change alliance wanted by Zimbabwe police for inciting violence following last week's presidential election. The MDC alliance claims that vote was rigged in favor of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
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Saudi-led airstrikes targeting Shiite rebels in Yemen hit a bus Thursday, killing at least 43 people, many of them children.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that a hospital it supports received 29 bodies of children under the age of 15 and another 48 wounded in the attack. Other accounts said that more than 60 people were injured.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States is calling for a thorough investigation of the incident.
"We call on the Saudi-led coalition to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the incident. We take all credible accounts of civilian casualties very seriously."
The attacks occurred in a Houthi rebel stronghold in northern Yemen near the border with Saudi Arabia. The bus was hit in the Dahyan market in Saada province.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the Pentagon is taking steps to create a space force by 2020.
As AP's Sagar Meghani reports, the Trump administration wants the new force by the year 2020.
There is the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy.
"The time has come to establish the United States Space Force."
And Vice President Mike Pence says the White House wants it established by 2020. Here at the Pentagon, he said adversaries like Russia and China have turned space into a war fighting domain.
"The United States will not shrink from this challenge."
But creating a new military service is complicated and expensive and Congress has to sign off.
Immediately after Pence's remarks, President Trump tweeted "Space Force all the way!"
Sagar Meghani, at the Pentagon.
Washington's mayor and police chief say the nation's capital is ready to handle the "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally on Sunday.
Jason Kessler, who organized the demonstration that turned into a riot last year in Virginia, has received a permit for this weekend's event in Washington.
Mayor Muriel Bowser stressed that all emergency preparations are being made to prevent any violence.
"Very, very few of our visitors share the views that will be expressed in Lafayette Park on Sunday. On Sunday, we know that we have people coming to our city for the sole purpose of spewing hate."
One woman was killed and 19 others injured last August in Charlottesville, Virginia, during clashes between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators.
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rocked Indonesia's Lombok island and the neighboring island of Bali on Thursday, causing instant panic after Sunday's quake killed more than 300 people.
A spokesman for the country's National Disaster Mitigation Agency said Wednesday 1,447 people were injured by Sunday's temblor. More than 165,000 have been displaced.
