News brief: Big stories of the day

A massive blast ripped through the Yima gasification plantin centralChina on Friday, news agency AFP reported citing local media.
The powerful explosion is reported to have shattered windows and doors of buildings in a three-kilometre (1.9-mile) radius.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Friday they would release images to disproveUS President Donald Trump's assertion that the US Navy has destroyed anIranian drone in the Gulf,Iranian news agencies reported.

After receiving the second deadline set by Governor Vajubhai Vala, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday said the Governor's second letter has hurt him and asked Speaker KR Ramesh to handle the new directive.

The man who believed to have started the fire at an animation studio in Japan's Kyoto has a criminal record, Russia's Sputnik News said, citing sources in Japan.

The World Banksaid on Friday it had withdrawn $300 million of funding for a new capital in Andhra Pradesh after the central government dropped support for the project.