The Republican-led House of Representatives has passed a temporary spending bill that gives U.S. President Donald Trump $5 billion for a border wall. The House voted 217-185 late Thursday in hopes of averting a government shutdown at midnight Friday .

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On December 21, 1988, Pan American Airlines flight 103 from London to New York is destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 residents of Lockerbie. The bomb was hidden in an audio cassette player and detonated in the cargo area of the 747 jet at 31,000 feet. The incident sparked an international investigation and ultimately led to arrest warrants being issued for two Libyan nationals in 1991.

A new land conflict is threatening to erupt in Myanmar, where land is so sought after that even a cemetery can be eyed by developers .

While the European Court of Human Rights has demanded the release of Selahattin Demirtas, a former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, Turkish courts convicted him of spreading terrorist propaganda, which some analysts and rights groups view as Ankara attempting to misuse the country’s counter terrorism laws to crack down on political dissidents.

The government in Afghanistan is playing down the significance of reported U.S. troop reduction plans, saying Afghan security forces are capable of protecting and defending the country on their own.

Cameroon has suspended 16 journalists and seven news outlets for periods ranging from one month to six months for what it calls media offenses .