Hunter Biden is indicted on 9 tax charges

WASHINGTON - Hunter Biden was indicted on nine tax charges in California as a special counsel investigation into the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son intensifies against the backdrop of the 2024 election.

The new charges filed Thursday - three felonies and six misdemeanors - are in addition to federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging Hunter Biden broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018. They come after the implosion of a plea deal over the summer that would have spared him jail time, putting the case on track to a possible trial as his father campaigns for reelection.

A rocket attack targets the US Embassy in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - A rocket attack on the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad caused minor damage but no casualties on Friday morning, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The attack was the first on the embassy located in the heavily fortified Green Zone of Iraq’s capital to be confirmed since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, triggered by the deadly attack on southern Israel by Palestinian militants from Gaza.

The Green Zone houses Iraqi government buildings and foreign embassies on the West Bank of the Tigris River.

Appeals court upholds gag order on Trump in Washington case

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court in Washington largely upheld a gag order on Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case on Friday, but narrowed the restrictions on his speech to allow the former president to criticize the special counsel who brought the case.

The three-judge panel’s ruling modifies the gag order, permitting the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner to make disparaging comments about special counsel Jack Smith, but it reimposes limits on what he can say about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses in the case and about court staff and other lawyers.

Putin will seek another term as Russian president

Vladimir Putin on Friday moved to prolong his repressive and unyielding grip on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election next March that he is all but certain to win.

Putin still commands wide support after nearly a quarter-century in power, despite starting an immensely costly war in Ukraine that has taken thousands of his countrymen’s lives, provoked repeated attacks inside Russia - including one on the Kremlin itself - and corroded its aura of invincibility.

- The Associated Press