President Nicolas Maduro charged Saturday that tighter, "stupid" new U.S. sanctions are just further straining to undermine military staff loyalty after Venezuela derailed a bid to oust him.

"These sanctions are a threat -- to see if they can break the morale of leaders of our armed forces... In March, I announced that we put down an attempted coup, thanks to our brass's loyalty," Maduro said at a speech in Caracas.

The U.S. Senate on Saturday gave itself four additional days to pass a $1.1 trillion federal spending bill, easing the threat of a government shutdown that was looming at midnight.

Amid deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats over how to proceed on funding government through September, feuding lawmakers unanimously passed a measure that extends funds to late Wednesday.

Russia on Friday expressed outrage at the U.S. Senate's approval of a bill to potentially provide lethal military aid to Ukraine in its fight against Kremlin-backed separatists, and to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow.

A U.S. court dropped murder charges Thursday against a German-born woman who spent 23 years on death row over allegedly orchestrating the murder of her four-year-old son, news reports said.

Debra Milke, now 49, was charged and initially convicted of arranging the murder of her son Christopher in 1989 to collect insurance money.

A Vietnamese appeal court on Friday upheld jail sentences against three activists who were convicted for "public disorder" offences earlier this year following short trials that generated widespread criticism.

Bui Thi Minh Hang, a high-profile anti-China activist and the most prominent of the three, was imprisoned for three years in August following a one-day trial marked by strict security including the detention of scores of supporters.

The CIA declassified a letter Thursday that suggests U.S. intelligence had grave doubts about part of the case made by former president George W. Bush's White House to justify the war in Iraq.

In the run-up to the March 2003 invasion, U.S. officials including then vice president Dick Cheney alleged that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta had met an Iraqi spy in Prague before the attacks.

U.S. spymaster John Brennan admitted Thursday that some CIA interrogators had used unauthorized and "abhorrent" tactics and said he believes torture tends to lead to false intelligence.

Democrats on a Senate panel on Thursday unanimously supported a new authorization for military force against Islamic State jihadists without U.S. ground troops, signaling their willingness to tie President Barack Obama's hands on war policy.

Facing intense pressure to avoid a U.S. government shutdown, the House of Representatives holds a critical vote Thursday on approving a $1.1 trillion federal spending bill hours ahead of a looming deadline.

The spending package would fund most federal operations through September, the end of the  2015 fiscal year.

The French army said Thursday it had killed the commander of a major West African jihadist group's branch in Mali in an operation in the north of the country.

Ahmed el Tilemsi was the emir of the Al-Murabitoun group in Mali and was earlier this year declared a "specially designated global terrorist" by the U.S. State Department, who offered a $5 million reward (four million euros) for information leading to his capture.