China's national congress was concluding its annual session Monday with the usual show of near-unanimous support for plans designed to carry out ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's vision for the nation.

The weeklong event, replete with meetings carefully scripted to allow no surprises, has highlighted how China's politics have become ever more calibrated to elevate Xi.

A Ukrainian drone attack Friday on the Russian border region of Belgorod killed two people, the Russian regional governor said.

The outskirts of a village in the region "was attacked by the Ukrainian armed forces using three kamikaze drones. As a result of the explosions, two people were killed and a third man was serious wounded," Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Istanbul on Friday for talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the Russian invasion and navigation on the Black Sea.

Zelensky, accompanied by a delegation including his defence minister, is due to meet with Erdogan at his office at Dolmabahce palace, the state-run TRT television reported.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a defiant argument for a second term in his State of the Union speech Thursday night, lacing into GOP front-runner Donald Trump for espousing "resentment, revenge and retribution" and for jeopardizing freedom at home and abroad.

Russia summoned the U.S. Ambassador on Thursday and threatened to expel American diplomats in protest against what it said was American interference in Moscow's domestic affairs.

Moscow said Washington was funding "anti-Russian" non-profit groups and "spreading disinformation" around this month's Russian presidential elections and its offensive against Ukraine.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump each won the White House by razor-thin margins in key states.

Now, with a reprise of their bitter 2020 campaign all but officially set after Super Tuesday, the two campaigns are unveiling their strategies for a matchup between a president and his immediate predecessor.

The European Union's largest political party on Thursday endorsed Ursula von der Leyen's bid for a second five-year term at the helm of the bloc's powerful Commission.

Von der Leyen 's nomination at a gathering of her center-right European People's Party in Romania's capital, Bucharest, comes ahead of June 6-9 elections for the European Parliament, the EU's only democratically elected institution. The endorsement places her firmly as a frontrunner for the top job in the 27-nation bloc.

Once again, Lebanese will set their clocks forward by one hour at the end of March, losing perhaps a bit of sleep but gaining more glorious sunlight in the evenings as the days warm into summer.

Last spring, chaos ensued when the government announced a last-minute decision to delay the start of daylight saving time by a month — until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Some institutions made the change and others refused as citizens tried to piece together their schedules. Within days, the decision was reversed.

China's foreign minister accused the U.S. on Thursday of devising tactics to suppress China's rise and criticized the Biden administration for adding more Chinese companies to its sanctions lists.

Wang Yi, speaking to media during the annual meeting of China's legislature, said China's relations with the U.S. have improved since Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden met in November, but America has not fulfilled its promises.

Moscow said Wednesday that an election official had been killed by a car bomb in the Russian-controlled city of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine.

A number of Russian-installed officials have been targeted in apparent assassination attempts since Moscow launched its full-scale military operation in Ukraine two years ago.