WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump expressed confidence Friday that a bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and Japan can be reached quickly despite ongoing differences over tariffs as he opened talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House.

26 Apr 2019; DW: US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan told Butina on sentencing Friday that the jail term was intended as a deterrent to others who might consider spying.

"This was no simple misunderstanding by an overeager foreign student," Chutkan said.

BRUSSELS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- When Hungary signed a cooperation document with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2015, it was the first European country to do so.

Almost four years later and ahead of the ongoing Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, 22 European countries had inked BRI cooperation documents with China.

BRUSSELS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Ambassador Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU), has dismissed the accusations regarding the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying the so-called China's debt trap "is not a suitable hat for China, nor for the BRI."

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An Iraq War veteran deliberately drove into a group of pedestrians because he thought some of the people were Muslim, California authorities said Friday.

Isaiah Joel Peoples, 34, faces eight counts of attempted murder for injuring eight people, including four who remain hospitalized. The most seriously injured is a 13-year-old Sunnyvale girl of South Asian descent who is in a coma with severe brain trauma.

ANKARA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Ankara and Tehran will seek a bartering system to pass through the U.S. sanctions after Washington announced its decision to end sanction waivers for countries importing Iranian oil, a move could further jeopardize the strained relations between the two NATO allies.

U.S. President Donald Trump has decided not to extend the sanction waivers allowing major importers to continue buying Iran's oil when they expire in early May, White House said Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department has issued a heightened travel warning for Sri Lanka after last Sunday’s suicide bombings that killed more than 250 people.

The department is urging Americans to “reconsider travel to Sri Lanka due to terrorism.”

The U.S. has also ordered the departure of all school-age family members of U.S. government employees. And it has authorized the voluntary departure of nonemergency U.S. employees and family members.

Friday night’s advisory warns, “Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka.”

27 Apr 2019; DW: German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Saturday that he hoped the US-China trade dispute that has slowed global growth would soon be over. 

For months, the world's two largest economies have been locked in a trade war that has cost them billions of dollars and rattled global markets.

27 Apr 2019; DW: Around 10% of voters plan to use their vote in the European Parliament elections to back far-right or right-wing populist parties, according to a study published by the Bertelsmann Foundation on Friday.

Most other EU citizens will use their ballots to thwart parties they oppose rather than support a particular group. The researchers said this type of "negative" voting could benefit political movements on the fringes and make it more difficult to form a majority in Parliament.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — At 12:10 p.m. Friday, men and boys in a Muslim neighborhood in Sri Lanka’s capital did something everyone had warned them not to do: They came together to pray.

Hundreds gathered at the Masjidus Salam Jumma mosque for their communal Friday prayers, one of many mosques that conducted services despite warnings of retaliatory violence.

UNITED NATIONS, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The rocket and mortar shelling of residential areas in Tripoli "is completely unacceptable by any measure," a UN spokesman said on Friday.

"The United Nations is gravely concerned about the continued reports of indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in Tripoli," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Dujarric stressed the need to protect civilians and grant immediate, unconditional access for humanitarian partners.

27 Apr 2019 (AP) - Former Vice President Joe Biden is reporting he raised $6.3 million in the first day of his campaign, the most of any of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates in the first 24 hours after their announcements.

In a news release Friday, Biden’s campaign says he raised the money from nearly 97,000 individuals across all 50 states, including 65,000 who weren’t solicited by email.

Biden edged former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s first-day total of $6.1 million and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ sum of slightly less than $6 million.