Obama’s Asia no-show — President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap his Asia trip is a setback for his much-advertised pledge to shift the focus of foreign policy to the Pacific and a boost for China’s attempt to gain influence in the region. By staying home because of the partial government shutdown, Obama hands new Chinese leader Xi Jinping a chance to fill the void at two Asian summits Obama had planned to attend. It’s the third time since 2010 that Obama has cancelled an Asia trip, all because of domestic political crises. Secretary of State John Kerry will represent him at the summits in Indonesia and Brunei.

D.C. self-immolation — A man set himself on fire on the National Mall in the nation’s capital as passers-by rushed over to help put out the flames, officials and witnesses said Friday afternoon. The reason for the self-immolation was not immediately clear and the man’s identity was not disclosed. But it occurred in public view, on a central national gathering place, in a city still rattled by a mass shooting last month and a high-speed car chase outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday that ended with a woman being shot dead by police with a young child in the car. The man on the Mall suffered life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to the hospital, said District of Columbia fire department spokesman Tim Wilson.

Afghan withdrawal — The U.S. and Afghanistan have reached an impasse in their talks over the role that U.S. forces will play here beyond next year, officials from both countries say, raising the possibility of a total withdrawal. U.S. officials say they are preparing to suspend negotiations absent a breakthrough, and would only resume them with President Hamid Karzai’s successor, who will be chosen in elections set for next April. But it is by no means certain when the next president would take office. Any delay would reduce the amount of negotiating time before the end of 2014, when the U.S.-led NATO combat mission ends.

Kenya unrest — Deadly riots broke out in the coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa on Friday morning after a popular but controversial Muslim cleric was fatally shot in what his followers said they believed was an attack by state security services. Four people were confirmed dead and seven injured in the unrest, according to the Kenya Red Cross, and a church was set ablaze. The violence unleashed bubbling religious tensions in the wake of the terrorist attack last month on a shopping mall in Nairobi. The cleric, Sheik Ibrahim Ismail, was killed Thursday night along with three others when their car was sprayed with bullets.

Papal visit — In a carefully choreographed pilgrimage, Pope Francis on Friday visited the town of the saint whose name he shares, a trip sprinkled with warm, intimate gestures from an unpredictable pontiff. Shortly after dawn in Assisi, Italy, at the Serafico Institute, a religious charitable institution that treats seriously disabled children, the pope stopped to greet each of more than 100 children gathered in the institute’s chapel. Francis used the occasion of the Feast Day of St. Francis to retrace the footsteps of the holy man, including a stop at the site where the saint is said to have heard the voice of Jesus.

Clinton 2016? — Hillary Clinton will begin to seriously consider a run for president “sometime next year,” she told a group of Long Island businesspeople Friday. “I want to think seriously about it,” Clinton told the group, according to Newsday. She added that a 2016 presidential bid “is something on a lot of people’s minds, and it’s on my mind as well.” But, she said, “I want us to think more broadly.” In light of the government shutdown and gridlock in Congress, Clinton said the obsession over 2016 was “bad for the country.”