Powerful cluster of tornadoes hits central Iowa unexpectedly; NEWS BRIEFING; Staff and news services; Israeli soldier, 4 Palestinians killed in clashes at Gaza border; Congress abandons bid to reverse Trump deal with ZTE ; 10 hurt as man with knife attacks bus riders in Germany; Suspect at large after officer killed in Hawaii; Ohio killer spared after extent of abuse revealed

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa - Thousands of people were without power Friday after a flurry of unexpected tornadoes swept through central Iowa, injuring at least 17 people and flattening buildings in three cities.

The storms even surprised weather forecasters when they hit the region Thursday afternoon, causing extensive damage to a manufacturing plant in Pella and prompting the evacuation of all 40 patients at a hospital in Marshalltown.

The National Weather Service said Friday that at least five tornadoes - and likely more - struck. Meteorologist Jeff Johnson said it will take days to determine their strength and total number.

The most extensive damage was in Marshalltown, a city of 27,000 people where 10 people were injured, brick walls collapsed into the streets, roofs were blown off buildings and the cupola of the courthouse tumbled to the ground.

Businesses and homes had gaping holes, some with roofs torn off or collapsed inward.

Such strong storms weren't expected. Forecasting models produced Thursday morning showed only a slight chance of strong thunderstorms later in the day, said Alex Krull, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, said

Elsewhere, seven workers were hurt when a tornado hit the agricultural machinery maker Vermeer Manufacturing in Pella, scattering huge sheets of metal through a parking lot and leaving one building with a gaping hole.

A tornado also destroyed several homes in Bondurant.

Israeli soldier, 4 Palestinians killed in clashes at Gaza border

JERUSALEM - Israel pummeled Hamas targets in Gaza, killing four Palestinians, mostly Hamas operatives, on Friday in a series of airstrikes after gunmen killed an Israeli soldier near the border, officials said.

The military said gunmen fired at troops and one soldier was severely injured and later died of his wounds. He was the first Israeli military fatality in months of violence along the Gaza border.

Israel said it struck 15 Hamas positions including weapon warehouses, command and control centers and training facilities. It said "fighter jets commenced a wide-scale attack against Hamas military targets throughout the Gaza Strip."

The militant Islamic Hamas said three of the Palestinians killed were members of the group. Gaza media reported that gunmen had fired mortars toward the border.

Congress abandons bid to reverse Trump deal with ZTE

WASHINGTON - Bowing to White House demands, Senate Republicans backed off an attempt to reimpose sanctions on the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE as part of a sweeping defense policy bill, a congressional source said Friday.

Senators from both parties expressed outrage Friday that the revised defense legislation, which will be unveiled early next week, guts the punishment provision. ZTE was almost forced out of business after being accused of selling sensitive information to nations hostile to the U.S., namely Iran and North Korea.

President Donald Trump, who ordered the Commerce Department to lift the penalties, warned the ban was causing heavy job losses in China and said he had discussed the matter with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

10 hurt as man with knife attacks bus riders in Germany

BERLIN - A man armed with a kitchen knife attacked passengers Friday on a crowded city bus in northern Germany before being overpowered by other riders and arrested by police, authorities said. Ten people were injured, three of them seriously.

Authorities had no immediate information on the assailant's motive for the afternoon attack on a city bus in Luebeck, near the Baltic coast northeast of Hamburg, but said they had no indication that he was politically radicalized or had any terrorist background.

Investigators found a flammable substance in a backpack aboard the bus, but no explosives.

The incident started when the assailant set fire to the backpack, prosecutor Ulla Hingst said at a Friday evening news conference in Luebeck.

Suspect at large after officer killed in Hawaii

HONOLULU - Two associates of a man suspected of killing a Big Island police officer have been arrested during a manhunt for the shooter, authorities said Friday.

Officer Bronson Kaimana Kaliloa was killed during a traffic stop Tuesday near Hilo, police said.

Police received a tip that suspect Justin Waiki was seen in a pickup truck in Kailua-Kona, on the other side of the vast island from where the shooting took place.

On Thursday, officers spotted the truck and approached a man in the driver's seat and a woman in the passenger's seat. The man first drove toward the officers and police fired as they chased the vehicle before the man and woman abandoned the truck and ran.

Police arrested Harvey Damo Jr. and Shevylyn Klaus on suspicion of stealing the truck earlier in Hilo.

Ohio killer spared after extent of abuse revealed

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Friday spared a condemned killer whose sentence was challenged after a juror came forward and said information about the extent of the horrific abuse the inmate experience in childhood wasn't properly presented at trial.

The Republican governor commuted the sentence of death row inmate Raymond Tibbetts to life without the possibility of parole, citing "fundamental flaws" in the sentencing portion of Tibbetts' trial.

The guilt of Tibbetts, 61, has never been in doubt. He received the death sentence for stabbing Fred Hicks to death at Hicks' Cincinnati home in 1997. Tibbetts also received life imprisonment for fatally beating and stabbing his wife, 42-year-old Judith Crawford, during an argument that same day over Tibbetts' drug habit.

The Republican National Committee announced Friday that it will hold its 2020 convention in Charlotte, N.C.. The city hosted the 2012 Democratic National Convention. The decision was made in a unanimous vote at the RNC's summer meeting in Austin. The dates of the convention were not announced.

North Korea said Friday that an August reunion of Korean families separated by the 1950-53 war may not happen if South Korea doesn't return some of its citizens. Pyongyang calls the 2016 arrival of 12 female workers from a North Korean-run restaurant in China a kidnapping, while Seoul says they resettled on their own.

Caption: Crystal Jansen of Marshalltown, Iowa, stands near the debris of her tornado-ravaged home on Friday. She said she ran to the basement when she saw debris coming toward the house and that the storm blew over in just three minutes.

Charlie Neibergall/AP