The US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Friday that Republicans have collected the votes for successful adoption of the tax bill. He added that final vole will happen "later today."
Bashar al-Ja‘afari, the envoy of Syrian government to UN-backed peace talks that take place in Geneva, said that Saudi Arabia does not want to find political solution to the crisis, thus undermining the whole process of negotiations.
According to local police, an unknown item found at the Christmas market in Potsdam was an explosive device. Law enforcement agents that arrived on scene have successfully defused it.
On Friday evening, delegation of the Syrian government quit peace talks in Geneva and threatened not to return at all, as opposition forces categorically reject any role of Bashar al-Assad in post-war Syria.
The new President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa made Major-General Sibusiso Moy the Foreign Minister, while other military commander Perrance Shiri got under management the land portfolio.
The German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel stated on Thursday that Germany withdrew the third diplomat from the embassy in North Korea amid Pyongyang's nuclear missile programme.
According to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate in the country fell to 5.9% in November, beating analysts' forecasts of a slight decline to 6.2% from the prior month's 6.3% rate.
Markit reported on Friday that German Manufacturing activity remained on hold at 62.5 in November, fully meeting analysts' expectations for the unchanged reading.
On Friday, CME Group stated it was planning to launch a bitcoin futures contract on December 18, as it aimed to provide the regulated trading platform for the market of cryptocurrency futures.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko stated on Friday it would get harder for reformist legislation to muster votes in the Parliament as the election approached.
Germany and Norway agreed to develop a missile for the navies that is based on the Naval Strike Missile of Kongsberg Gruppen, the Norwegian Defence Minister stated on Friday.
Swedish Spotify and Chinese music group Tencent Holdings are planning to swap their stakes up to 10% in each other's businesses, before their estimated public listings in 2018.
On Thursday, Germany's Social Democrats and the Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservative Party agreed to launch the negotiations on forming a new grand coalition.
A study published by the ECB shows that convergence between the poorest and richest countries in the Euro zone still continues; however, income inequality remains a major problem.
European shares weakened on Friday even despite solid factory data in the Euro zone, as the anticipated US tax reform increased demand for the US Dollar during the Asian session.
According to the coalition talks' source, a new conservative-far right government of Austria should be sworn in as soon as December 20.
Chinese banking regulator fined China Minsheng Banking $4.16M for the sale of fake wealth management products, according to the official website's report posted on Thursday.
The Mitsubishi Materials subsidiary's head stepped down from his post over the data falsification scandal, the unit stated on Friday.
Nissan Motor reported a dramatic fall of 46.8% in its domestic passenger car sales in November, driven by a compliance scandal, which caused a recall of 1.2M vehicles and production suspension.
On Friday, former Catalonia's Cabinet members are set to appear before the Supreme Court, following the request of release right ahead of the regional election on December 21.
Japan's Emperor Akihito is eager to abdicate on April 30 in 2019, after spending about three decades on the Japanese throne.
On Friday, Tesla switched on its world's biggest lithium ion battery to shore up Australia's grid for summer's first day, meeting Elon Musk's promise to construct it in 100 days.
Japan's automaker Nissan Motor started international arbitration versus India, seeking more than $700M over the issue on unpaid state incentives.
Some progress in the UK negotiations to quit the European Union ceased the likelihood of disorderly Brexit, raising the chances to result in a free trade agreement.