FILE - In this June 2, 2017, file photo Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Trump administration is set to authorize the sale of surveillance drones to India as the two nations' leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting on June 26. That's according to a congressional aide and an industry representative speaking to The Associated Press.

Japan aims to finalize on June 9 plans to allow package delivery by drone sometime from 2020 and the commercialization of self-driving trucks by 2022, as it scrambles to breathe new life into its corporate sector, sources told Reuters. Japan is also eyeing financial technology as a source of future growth, the sources said, but has so far lagged overseas firms that have adopted technology to transform processes such as payments, lending, asset management and investment banking. A separate document obtained by Reuters shows the government's annual growth strategy due on Friday will keep up policies Prime Minister Shinzo Abe introduced last year to narrow the wealth gap, improve working conditions and boost productivity. In a rare step, the strategy document, which does not usually touch on defense, has called for effective military defense in line with Japan's military alliance with the United States, against the backdrop of North Korea's missile program.

The orb's segmented pedestal, which looked as if it might have come from the bridge of a science-fiction starship, added to the mystery. And an illuminated floor, not directly visible in the most widely circulated images, intensified the dramatic underlighting. Critics of Mr. Trump, some of whom seem eager to see something nefarious in anything he does, appeared especially agitated. Some projected onto the images their dismay about Mr. Trump's playing down of human rights and about the authoritarian Egyptian and Saudi governments. Bill Kristol, a prominent conservative critic of Mr. Trump, likened the group to the conclave of witches in "Macbeth."

While the world watches anxiously for signs of US President Donald Trump's next move vis-a-vis China, Chinese leaders remain focused on the next stage of their country's ongoing economic transformation. What they do should interest everyone ― especially US policymakers. China's industrialization process, like that of other successful East Asian economies, has combined profit-led investment, active industrial policy, and export discipline. But that approach has its limits, exemplified in the numerous developing countries that have attempted to climb the same development ladder, only to become stuck on the middle rungs or even to fall back, owing to what Harvard University economist Dani Rodrik has called "premature deindustrialization." China hopes to avoid this fate, with the help of "China Manufacturing 2025" (CM2025), a roadmap released by Premier Li Keqiang in 2015 to guide the country's industrial modernization.

The timing of the FBI director's dismissal, the Senate minority leader said, raises questions about the integrity of the Justice Department's look at potential collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Less than six months ago, Mark Zuckerberg dismissed the idea that the social publishing platform he founded was being used to manipulate voters as "pretty crazy." But in a new report, Facebook now says it has data that "does not contradict" a key U.S. intelligence report that describes "information warfare" ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and carried out on Facebook and across the web. "Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency," officials wrote in a declassified version of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence report in January. Guided by the Russian government's "clear preference" for Donald Trump, the DNI report said, Moscow followed a strategy "that blends covert intelligence operations--such as cyber activity--with overt efforts by Russian Government agencies, state-funded media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social media users or'trolls.'" Scholars have long theorized about the possibility of people manipulating public opinion on Facebook--Facebook itself carried out a mood experiment on its users--but U.S. intelligence officials call Moscow's latest meddling "unprecedented."

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is abruptly reversing himself on key issues. "After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it's not so easy," the president said after a discussion with Chinese President Xi Jinping that included his hopes that China's pressure could steer North Korea away from its nuclear efforts. "I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power" over North Korea, he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "But it's not what you would think." That's just one of several recent comments offering insight into what looks like a moderate makeover for an immoderate president.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said a suspected chemical weapons attack was a "fabrication" to justify a US military strike, AFP news agency reported. In his first interview since the April 4 incident prompted a US cruise missile attack on Syrian forces, Assad insisted his army gave up all of its chemical weapons three years ago and that Syrian military power was not affected by the US strike. "Definitely, 100 percent for us, it's fabrication," Assad said of the poison gas incident. "Our impression is that the West, mainly the United States, is hand-in-glove with the terrorists. They fabricated the whole story in order to have a pretext for the attack," added Assad, who has been in power for 17 years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has made a preliminary conclusion that Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attack last week, but has no proof of Moscow's involvement, a senior U.S. official says.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has made a preliminary conclusion that Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attack last week, but has no proof of Moscow's involvement, a senior U.S. official said Monday.