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AFP

  • Afghan Taliban leader hails peace talks with Kabul

    Afghan officials sat down with Taliban cadres last week in Murree, a tourist town in the hills north of Islamabad, Pakistan, for their first face-to-face talks aimed at ending the bloody insurgency.

    They agreed to meet again in the coming weeks, drawing international praise, but many militant commanders openly questioned the legitimacy of the Taliban negotiators, exposing dangerous fault lines within the movement.

    But in his annual message before Eidul Fitr, the festival marking the end of the fasting month of Ramazan, the reclusive leader backed negotiations ─ though he did not refer specifically to last week’s meeting.

    “If we look into our religious regulations, we can find that meetings and even peaceful interactions with the enemies is not prohibited,” he said in a statement on the Taliban’s website.

    “Concurrently with armed jihad, political endeavours and peaceful pathways for achieving these sacred goals is a legitimate Islamic principle.“

    Several informal meetings have been held in recent months between Taliban representatives and Afghan officials and activists, but last week’s meeting is seen as a significant step forward.

    Afghan officials have not said when and where the next round of negotiations will take place, but it is widely expected to be conducted after Eid.

    Fears of IS emergence

    Wednesday’s statement marks the first comments on the process from Mullah Omar, about whom rumours of ill-health and even death regularly emerge.

    In the absence of a clear lead from the top, some fighters have fallen back on the Taliban’s traditional position, that there can be no meaningful talks until all foreign forces leave Afghan soil.

    North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ended its combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of December, but a smaller residual force remains in the country to train Afghan forces, due to leave altogether by the end of 2016.

    Divides within the Taliban between those for and against talks have been made worse by the emergence of a local branch of the Islamic State, the Middle Eastern jihadist outfit that last year declared the Islamic State across large areas of Iraq and Syria that it controls.

    The Taliban warned IS last month against expanding in the region, but this has not stopped some fighters, inspired by the group’s success, defecting to swear allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi instead of the invisible Mullah Omar.

    US drone strikes over the past week have killed dozens of suspected IS-linked cadres in Afghanistan, including the group’s Afghanistan-Pakistan regional chief Hafiz Saeed.

    The notoriously uncompromising IS has shown no desire to negotiate ─ and if the Taliban fault lines widen, there is a danger the talks process could drive more of its hard line fighters into the arms of the Middle Eastern jihadist group.

  • Son of US police officer arrested in terror case

    Alexander Ciccolo, 23, also known as Ali al-Amriki, was arrested on Independence Day in the northeastern state of Massachusetts and is due to appear in court to answer firearms charges on Tuesday.

    He was detained after allegedly taking delivery of four weapons — two rifles and two pistols — from an FBI informant. Prosecutors said he had a knife strapped to his waist at the same time.

    They allege that he is a supporter of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, who wanted to wage a gun and bomb attack on college dorms and a cafeteria that would be broadcast live on the Internet.

    Partially made Molotov cocktails were found in his apartment and he was monitored buying a pressure cooker similar to that used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, court papers allege.

    The head of the FBI, James Comey, last week briefed the Senate select committee on intelligence that upwards of 200 Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria to join up with IS.

    But court documents unsealed on Monday portrayed a disturbed Ciccolo, an individual with “a long history of mental illness” who was put on probation in February for a drinking conviction.

    While in custody, he stabbed a nurse’s head with a pen during a routine medical exam that left a hole in the skin and broke the pen in half, court papers said.

    In the 18 months prior to his arrest he became “obsessed with Islam,” prosecutors claim.

    Last year, the 13th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the FBI was tipped off that Ciccolo allegedly had expressed a desire to go to Iraq or Syria to fight for IS.

    The FBI says that he operated a Facebook page under the name Ali Al Amriki, that was a platform for extremist postings.

    Under the photo of a man holding a machete, was written “another day in the forest strengthening myself” and next to the image of a dead American soldier, was written “Thank you Islamic State!”

    Last month, he allegedly told an informant about his intention to travel inter-state to bomb two bars and a police station, before switching his focus to attacking a university instead.

    Further concerns were raised by Ciccolo’s alleged praise of the June 26 massacre of 38 foreign holidaymakers on a beach in Tunisia, which he is accused of calling a “huge accomplishment.”

    His family issued a statement through the Boston police department saying they were “saddened and disappointed” but thanking authorities for preventing “any loss of life or harm to others.

    “At this time, we would ask that the public and the media recognize our grief and respect our desire for privacy,” they said.

    His police captain father was reportedly one of the first responders to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and wounded 264 others, carried out by brothers of Chechen descent.

  • Greek parliament to vote on controversial bailout

    The crucial vote comes hours after the International Monetary Fund issued a stark warning that Greece would need far more debt relief to stop it crashing out of the common currency than European governments have so far been willing to contemplate.

    The last-ditch deal struck Monday saw Tsipras agree to sweeping changes to labour laws, pensions, VAT and other taxes — many of which had been rejected by voters in a public referendum — in exchange for new funds to keep Greece’s struggling economy alive.

    The parliament in Athens must approve the deal before the 18 other eurozone leaders start negotiations over what Greece is to get in return: a three-year bailout worth up to 86 billion euros ($95 billion), its third rescue programme in five years.

    But while the motion is expected to pass, Tsipras has been forced to turn to pro-European opposition parties to get it through in the face of opposition from some 30 rebel lawmakers in his own radical left Syriza party, raising questions about his political survival.

    The embattled premier said he took “full responsibility” for signing an accord he did “not believe in, but which I signed to avoid disaster for the country” as it teetered on the brink of economic collapse.

    “A prime minister must fight, speak the truth, take decisions and not run away,” Tsipras said in an interview on Greek public television, when asked whether he would resign if the reforms fail to pass or he loses his parliamentary majority.

    Fresh polls published late Tuesday by Kapa Research found 72 percent of Greeks surveyed thought the deal was necessary, with the majority blaming Europe for the “tough measures”, but many see it as a humiliating climb down for a country still reeling from years of painful austerity.

    Civil servants are set to stage a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, the first big stoppage since Tsipras took power, while several in Syriza have vowed to vote against the plans, which contradict much of their own agenda.

    “The great majority of Syriza organisations oppose this agreement… in terms of labour and pension issues this is worse than the last two bailouts,” parliament vice-president Despoina Haralambidou told Vima FM radio.

    ‘Grexit’ still possible

    Under the new plan, eurozone governments will contribute between 40 and 50 billion euros to Greece’s new three-year bailout, the IMF will contribute another major chunk and the rest will come from selling off state assets and the financial markets, a European official said.

    Greek assets for privatisation will be parked in a special fund worth up to 50 billion euros, with some 25 billion euros of the money earmarked to recapitalise Greece’s banks.

    Tsipras said the establishment of the fund meant ordinary Greeks’ savings were safe, but added that the reopening of the banks — which have been closed for over a week — depended on the finalising of the deal, which could take a month.

    The European Central Bank has been keeping Greek banks afloat with emergency liquidity, but it could be forced to cut off that aid if Greece misses a huge debt repayment due on Monday.

    Tsipras has predicted “the great majority of Greek people” will support the deal, but admits he “cannot say with certainty” that it will be enough to stop Greece exiting the eurozone — a so-called “Grexit” — until the final bailout agreement is signed.

    Adding to his concerns, the IMF warned late Tuesday in a study that Greece’s creditors will still have to go “far beyond” their existing estimates for debt relief to stabilise the country’s finances.

    The EU needs to decide between a dramatic extension of grace and payment periods for the debt, direct cash payments to the government to finance its deficit, or a debt “haircut”, or writedown.

    “The dramatic deterioration in debt sustainability points to the need for debt relief on a scale that would need to go well beyond what has been under consideration to date,” the new study said.

    A senior IMF official also said the fund would only participate in a third bailout if its EU creditors produce a clear plan. The current deal “is by no means a comprehensive, detailed agreement”, the official said.

    More payments due

    European governments on Tuesday also clashed over options to help Greece meet its short-term cash needs while it waits for a eurozone bailout deal to be finalised, likely to take at least four weeks.

    Greece’s creditors estimate Athens needs 12 billion euros to get through mid-August — including 4.2 billion euros it is due to pay the ECB on Monday — but countries such as Britain are resisting contributing to any bridge financing.

    In a sign of the ongoing concern about the global fallout of the Greek crisis, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will travel to Germany and France on Wednesday and Thursday for talks with top officials.

    If Greece does pass the agreement, Europe’s next step would be to push the deal through several national parliaments, many in countries that are loath to afford Athens more help.

    Germany’s Bundestag is likely to vote on Friday, provided the Greek parliament rushes through the four new market-oriented laws by Wednesday.

    A new poll said 55 percent of Germans supported Chancellor Angela Merkel on the bailout deal, while a third said they would have preferred a Grexit.

  • Iran deal paves way for coalition against Islamic State: Russia

    “It removes the barriers — largely artificial — on the way to a broad coalition to fight the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups,” Lavrov said in a statement on the ministry’s website.

    The normalisation of the situation with Iran makes it possible to resolve “a whole number of problems and conflicts in the region” and will have a “positive influence on the situation as a whole”, Lavrov said.

    “In particular, it creates added impetus to promote the creation in the Middle East of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.”

    EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini earlier Tuesday told Sky Italia that the deal “opens the way for a new confidence” in combatting the IS group.

    Lavrov said the opportunities were now growing for Russia and Iran to cooperate in defence technology, stressing the need to “defeat the threats of terrorism in the region”.

    The terms of the Iran nuclear deal restrict arms sales for five years, but Lavrov has said that some deliveries will be possible with special permission from the UN Security Council.

  • US police officer 'ambushed' in Missouri

    The officer, 39, was struck in the torso but was saved by his bullet-proof vest, St Louis police chief Sam Dotson said.

    “What we have is a sergeant of the St Louis police department, working in full uniform, who was ambushed, who was targeted,” Dotson said.

    The attack comes nearly a year after the police shooting of unarmed black man Michael Brown in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson led to inflamed racial tensions across the region.

    In December, two officers were shot and killed in New York by a man who said he wanted to kill police because he was angry about the deaths of Brown and another man, Eric Garner, who died after being put in a chokehold as he was arrested for selling cigarettes.

    In Tuesday’s shooting, the off-duty officer — who is black — was sitting in his own car shortly before 5:00 am while working an approved second job as a security guard in a posh neighborhood filled with shops and restaurants.

    A car pulled up in front of him and a young black man with a bandana over his face out got out and started shooting.

    The officer — a 16-year veteran — returned fire from his car and believes he may have hit the assailant, Dotson said.

    Three other black men were in the vehicle, which sped away after the officer got out of his car.

    A lone protester holding a sign reading “How Does It Feel?” went to the scene of the shooting and stood with his back to the yellow police tape.

    “How does it feel to be met with same aggression you inflict on certain communities daily?” Dhoruba Shakur, 25, told the St Louis Post Dispatch.

    The officer — who was able to chase after the gunman but lost him in a parking garage — was treated in hospital for minor injuries and released Tuesday morning.

  • Pope jokes he doesn't 'do drugs'

    The 78-year-old pontiff delivered about two dozen speeches and said several masses during a weeklong trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.

    “You would like to say that I take drugs!” he said in jest, speaking in the plane flying him back to Rome from Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital.

    “Mate is what helps me,” he said, referring to a traditional caffeine-infused beverage popular in the pope’s native land Argentina.

    “I have never tried coca. That should be made clear,” he said, smilingly after Bolivian authorities said they did not exclude him chewing coca leaves to deal with the altitude in La Paz, perched 3,600 metres (11,800 feet) above sea level.

    Coca is native to western South America and is known throughout the world for its psychoactive alkaloid cocaine. Chewing the leaves or drinking coca tea does not produce the intense high people experience with cocaine.

    The pope’s visit, his ninth trip abroad, has been notable for a number of historical pronouncements.

    The pontiff decried the scourge of corruption as the “gangrene of a people,” railed against ideologies, called for an end to poverty and lamented today’s consumerist society.

  • Thief struck by misfortune returns loot 20 years on

    The 2,000-year-old sling stones, which were taken from the ancient city of Gamla on the Golan Heights, were left last week in a bag in the courtyard of the Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures in Israel’s southern city of Beersheba, said the IAA.

    “These are two Roman ballista balls from Gamla, from a residential quarter at the foot of the summit,” the thief wrote in a note distributed by the Authority.

    “I stole them in July 1995, and since then they have brought me nothing but trouble. Please, do not steal antiquities!” said the note written in Hebrew.

    The thief did not detail the nature of his or her misfortune.

    The Antiquities Authority said nearly 2,000 such stones were found in Gamla. They were used by the Romans against the Jews attempting to prevent the conquest of the hilltop city.

    This was not the first plundered antiquity to be returned, said the Authority, noting that a Tel Aviv resident had held an ancient coffin in his bedroom before realising its “morbid nature”.

  • Malala turns 18, says world failing Syrian children

    As she became an adult, the teenager, who was shot by militants in her native Pakistan for campaigning for girls’ rights, opened a school for more than 200 Syrian girls living in refugee camps in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

    The Malala Yousafzai All-Girls School will offer education and skills training to girls aged 14 to 18.

    “I am honoured to mark my 18th birthday with the brave and inspiring girls of Syria,” Yousafzai said in a statement received in London.

    “I am here on behalf of the 28 million children who are kept from the classroom because of armed conflict.

    “Their courage and dedication to continue their schooling in difficult conditions inspires people around the world and it is our duty to stand by them.

    “On this day, I have a message for the leaders of this country, this region and the world: you are failing the Syrian people, especially Syria’s children. This is a heartbreaking tragedy — the world’s worst refugee crisis in decades.”

    Lebanon is hosting nearly 1.2 million registered Syrian refugees, though the total number in the country may be even higher.

    The influx has placed strains on Lebanon, which has just four million citizens.

    The Lebanese government has prevented the establishment of official refugee camps, giving rise to informal shanties known as “tented settlements” in rural areas.

    Malala was flown to Britain for treatment after the Pakistani Taliban tried to kill her in October 2012, and now lives permanently in Britain with her family.

  • Brazil baby born in toilet bowl

    According to a foreign news agency, Yara Bernardo Jaco, 20, said that she went to doctors in Cristalina, 80 miles (130 km) from the capital Brasilia in central Brazil, complaining of pain.

    However, a doctor noticed nothing unusual.

    Jaco went home and just hours later felt a need to go to the toilet — and the baby boy was born.

    It has been reported that the doctors have said that Jaco was eight months pregnant. The infant, who weighed five pounds (2.3 kilograms), is in good health.

  • England beat Australia in first Ashes Test

    Australia, set what would have been a new Ashes fourth-innings record winning total of 412, were bowled out for 242 after tea as England went 1-0 up in the five-match series with more than a day to spare.

    Stuart Broad led England’s attack with three for 39 as Ashes-holders Australia, who had been 97 for one, collapsed either side of lunch on the fourth day.

    England made 430, with Joe Root top-scoring with 134 after being dropped on nought, before dismissing Australia for 308 to establish a first-innings lead of 122.

    Their second innings 289 left Australia, who whitewashed England 5-0 on home soil during the last Ashes campaign in 2013/14, with a mammoth run chase.

    No side have made more in the fourth innings to win an Ashes Test than Australia’s 404 for three at Headingley back in 1948 when Arthur Morris scored 182 and Donald Bradman, widely regarded as cricket’s greatest batsman, an unbeaten 173.

    But the highest individual scores Australia, looking to win their first Ashes series in Britain in 14 years, managed on Saturday were No 8 Mitchell Johnson’s 77 and opener David Warner’s 52.

    Root, appropriately, ended the match when he caught Josh Hazlewood at long-off from the bowling of off-spinner Moeen Ali.

    The second Test at Lord’s starts on Thursday, with Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc struggling to be fit for that match after suffering an ankle injury in Cardiff.

     

    Brief scores

    England 430 (J Root 134, M Ali 77, G Ballance 61, B Stokes 52; M Starc 5-114, J Hazlewood 3-83) and 289 (I Bell 60, J Root 60; N Lyon 4-75)

    Australia 308 (C Rogers 95; J Anderson 3-43) and 242 (M Johnson 77, D Warner 52; S Broad 3-39, M Ali 3-59)

    Result: England won by 169 runs

    Series: England lead five-match series 1-0.