Tributes continued to pour in for the late Aretha Franklin, who died Thursday after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
AP's Margie Szaroleta reports.
Within two hours of the news that Aretha Franklin had died, her music topped the iTunes' charts. Her "30 Greatest Hits" album bumped "Queen" by Nicki Minaj from the number one spot on the album chart.
Franklin's song "Respect" topped the songs' chart.
Other Franklin's songs like "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Chain of Fools," and "I Say A Little Prayer" were in the top ten.
Franklin died of pancreatic cancer in Detroit at the age of 76.
I'm Margie Szaroleta.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the United States is ready to impose more sanctions on Turkey if detained American pastor Andrew Brunson is not released from house arrest.
Mnuchin made the statement during a cabinet meeting with President Trump on Thursday.
"We have put sanctions on several of their cabinet members, working with you, we have more that we are planning to do if they don't release him quickly."
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Turkey's ministers of Justice and Interior in response to Brunson's detention.
Turkey accuses Brunson of espionage and is holding him under house arrest pending his trial.
Hundreds of U.S. newspapers launched an unprecedented and coordinated defense of press freedom in response to President Donald Trump's frequent attacks on media organizations.
An estimated 350 newspapers of all sizes across the country published a series of editorials in support of a free and vigorous press.
The campaign comes as Trump has repeatedly accused the media of disseminating what he calls fake news and denounced it as the enemy of the American people.
On Thursday, Trump tweeted "THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY."
This is VOA news.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has named Brian Hook, the top diplomats' senior policy adviser, as the special representative for Iran on Thursday.
Pompeo said that Hook will lead the Iran Action Group, which was also announced Thursday and will coordinate the State Department's actions against Tehran.
"Our new strategy addresses all manifestations of the Iranian threat, and the new Iran Action Group will be focused on implementing that strategy."
Washington announced earlier this year that it would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and has once again imposed sanctions on Tehran, calling the country a destabilizing influence in the region.
The United States has said it would only end the sanctions if Iran allowed the negotiation of a tougher deal.
Officials say the death toll from the collapse of a highway bridge in the Italian city of Genoa has risen to at least 39 people and is expected to increase.
AP correspondent ??? reports.
Search has continued to comb through tons of jagged steel, concrete and dozens of vehicles that plunged as much as 150 feet into a dry river bed on Tuesday, the eve of Italy's main summer holiday.
Genoa's chief prosecutor told reporters there could be between 10 and 20 people still unaccounted for.
Italy is planning a state funeral for the dead in the port city Saturday, which will be marked as a day of national mourning.
At least six of the dead are foreigners - four French citizens and two Albanians.
I'm ???.
Torrential monsoon rains disrupted air and train services Thursday in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where flooding, landslides and bridge collapses have killed at least 67 people in the past week.
Heavy rains forced state authorities to release excess water from dozens of reservoirs, causing floods downstream. The flooding has submerged vast areas in 12 out of 14 districts in the state.
Gunmen launched an attack on a training center on the grounds of Afghanistan's intelligence service in Kabul, one day after dozens of people were killed in an assault on an education institution. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Bahar Mehr, an adviser to the minister of interior, told VOA that four suicide attackers were involved in Thursday's latest attack. He said one bomber exploded himself and three others were killed in fighting with security forces. He said three Afghan security personal were also wounded in cleanup operations but no civilians were harmed.
U.S. stocks rallied Thursday on positive sales news from Walmart and talk of negotiations between the U.S. and China.
The Dow was up 1.58 percent. The S&P was up nearly seven tenths of a percent.
