ROME (AP) — Insistence by Italy’s center-right bloc that one of their candidates is vaulted to the country’s presidency backfired on Friday, as their political opponents abstained in droves in the latest round of so far fruitless balloting in Parliament to elect a new head of state. Tensions and frustration continued to mount among the uneasy rivals forming Premier Mario Draghi’s pandemic unity government. At the start of the fifth day of voting, right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini declared that the center-right bloc would vote for Senate president, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bridge in Pittsburgh collapsed on Friday hours before U.S. President Joe Biden was due to arrive in the former steel city to highlight his efforts to strengthen the country’s infrastructure. Ten people sustained injuries, all of them minor, when the snow-covered span collapsed into a wooded gully at about 6 a.m., according to authorities, who said a massive gas leak was reported in the area at the time. The leak was brought under control, they said. “It sounded like a snow plow,” a witness told KDKA, calling the timing on the day of Biden’s visit “an amazing coincidence.”

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Floods that had devastated much of Malaysia in recent weeks have caused an estimated 6.1 billion ringgit ($1.46 billion) in overall losses, a government report said on Friday. Dozens of people died while more than 120,000 were displaced after unusually heavy rain caused severe flooding in multiple states in mid-December and early January. In a special report on the floods’ impact, the Department of Statistics said damage to public assets and infrastructure caused losses of 2 billion ringgit, followed by 1.6 billion ringgit in damage to homes. Manufacturing losses accounted for 900 million ringgit, most of which were recorded in the central state of Selangor, one of the country’s wealthiest and populous regions surrounding the capital Kuala Lumpur.

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Tokyo (AFP) – Six young people will sue the operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday over claims they developed thyroid cancer due to exposure to radiation after the facility’s meltdown. The plaintiffs, now aged between 17 and 27, were living in the Fukushima region when a huge earthquake on March 11, 2011 triggered a tsunami that caused the nuclear disaster. They will file a class-action lawsuit on Thursday afternoon against plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), seeking a total of 616 million yen ($5.4 million) in compensation, the group’s lead lawyer Kenichi Ido told AFP.

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BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards have exchanged fire amid a standoff over a blocked road, in the latest clash between the former Soviet neighbors following a similar violent incident last year that killed dozens. The border between the two countries, both of which host Russian military bases and are closely allied with Moscow, is poorly demarcated. The Secretary General of Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Stanislav Zas, called for an immediate ceasefire at the border, RIA news agency reported.