The White House has signalled progress on preparations for a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying that discussions between President Donald Trump and top advisors went "very well".
Trump met at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course with national security advisors, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, the White House said on Friday.
Also present were national security point man John Bolton and the US special envoy for the talks with the guerrillas, Zalmay Khalilzad.
"Discussions centered around our ongoing negotiations and eventual peace and reconciliation agreement with the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan. The meeting went very well, and negotiations are proceeding," deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

White House discussions on Afghan peace deal went 'very well': Trump spokesman

PTI Automatic

The US Justice Department has unveiled a warrant for the seizure of the Iranian oil supertanker Grace 1, one day after a Gibraltar judge allowed the release of the detained vessel.
The United States on Friday called for the seizure of the ship, which was still anchored in the British Mediterranean territory on Friday, for "a scheme to unlawfully access the US financial system to support illicit shipments to Syria from Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization," the Justice department said.
The warrant says the vessel, all the oil aboard and USD995,000 are subject to forfeiture based on violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and bank fraud, money laundering, and terrorism forfeiture statutes.
Earlier Friday Iranian officials said the tanker was preparing to set sail after a Gibraltar judge ordered its release, six weeks after it was detained in apparent retaliation for Iran's seizure of a ...

US issues warrant to seize Iranian supertanker Grace 1

Mexico has said it arrested a US citizen suspected of backing jihadist groups who was being housed at a migrant detention center and deported him to the United States.
The Mexican prosecutor general's office said on Friday that the man was the target of an Interpol "blue notice," issued because the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suspects him of "publishing support for violent jihad and radical Islam" online.
Interpol blue notices are issued "to collect additional information about a person's identity, location or activities in relation to a crime," according to the international police organisation.
Mexican media reports named the man as Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa.
He was arrested at a migrant detention center in the town of Huehuetan, in the southern state of Chiapas, near the Mexican-Guatemalan border, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Such centers are used to temporarily house undocumented migrants as Mexican immigration authorities process their ...

Mexico detains US 'Islamist' at migrant centre

A rights activist in Kazakhstan who faced seven years imprisonment over his outspoken opposition to neighbouring China has been unexpectedly freed as public and international pressure over his case mounted.
Serikjan Bilash, whose activism in defence of Muslim and Turkic minorities in Xinjiang earned him global media attention told AFP on Friday he struck a plea bargain with the court that allowed him freedom but will end his activism.
"I had to end my activism against China. It was that or seven years in jail. I had no choice," Bilash told AFP at a restaurant where he held a celebratory midnight feast with his family and around 40 supporters.
Bilash agreed to accept guilt over inter-ethnic incitement charges  triggered by his call for an "information Jihad" against the Chinese authorities over their policies in Xinjiang earlier this year.
He will also be unable to leave the city of Almaty -- Kazakhstan's largest -- for the next three months according to the terms of his deal, he ...

Kazakhstan court frees renowned anti-Beijing activist

Japan has insisted that it no longer hunts endangered sei whales in international waters, but faced accusations of still violating a wildlife treaty by allowing commercialisation of meat from past catches.
The standing committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) last October found Japan in breach of the treaty and ordered it to rectify the situation or face trade sanctions.
The elected panel, which handles the treaty's compliance and enforcement, dismissed Japan's claims that the cull since 2002 of some 1,500 North Pacific sei whales was only scientifically motivated.
Instead, it found that the hunt was primarily commercially motivated, and thus constituted international trade in a protected species and a clear violation of the treaty.
Japan told the committee meeting in Geneva on Friday that it no longer permits the hunting of sei whale on the high sea and is therefore in compliance with CITES.
"This matter should be ...

Japan under pressure over past hunting of endangered whales

Two more women have filed a $100 million lawsuit against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, accusing the tycoon of having sexually abused them 15 years ago.
The lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan federal court, did not identify the two alleged victims.
It also did not name some 10 women also accused of being accomplices of Epstein, a convicted pedophile who died last weekend from apparent suicide in a New York prison cell, where he was being held on charges of trafficking minors for sex.
The age of the accusers was not listed in the lawsuit, but their lawyer Lisa Bloom said in a statement Friday they were 18 and 20 at the time of the alleged abuse.
They were working as hostesses in a Manhattan restaurant in 2004 when a woman described in the lawsuit as a "recruiter" for Epstein approached them.
The recruiter allegedly offered the pair, who were hoping to launch careers as models, hundreds of dollars each to go to Epstein's home and give him a massage, assuring them there would be no sexual ...

Two women file new USD 100 mn lawsuit against Epstein estate

An Iranian tanker seized by Gibraltar last month is preparing to set sail after being released, a senior Iranian shipping official said Friday.
The ship's seizure on July 4, with the help of British Royal Marines, triggered a sharp deterioration in relations between Tehran and London and the tit-for-tat detention by Iran of the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero.
The Grace 1 will be renamed and switch to the Iranian flag for its onward journey, the deputy head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, Jalil Eslami, told state television.
"At the owner's request, the Grace 1 will depart for the Mediterranean after being reflagged under the Islamic Republic of Iran's flag and renamed as Adrian Darya for the voyage," Eslami said.
"The ship was of Russian origin and Panama-flagged and is carrying two million barrels of Iranian oil," he added.
But a source with knowledge of the case told the Gibraltar Chronicle daily that the tanker is unlikely to set sail before Sunday.
"Six seafarers ..

Iran says tanker freed by Gibraltar preparing to set sail

New York went on alert for two hours Friday during the morning rush hour because of three suspicious objects that turned out to be empty rice cookers.
Police said the alarm was first sounded in Manhattan around 7:00 am when a passenger saw a cooker abandoned at the Fulton Street subway station near the World Trade Center -- a neighborhood rebuilt after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
A second rice cooker was found in an another part of the same station.  The station was quickly evacuated, service on two subway lines was suspended and trains on other lines serving Fulton Street bypassed the station.
As police announced the objects turned out to be harmless, a third suspicious object was detected on 16th Street in the Chelsea district further to the north.
It, too, turned out to be a rice cooker, said John Miller, the New York Police Department's deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism.
It was in Chelsea that a pressure cooker containing a homemade explosive device ..

Security scare in New York, empty rice cookers found

Thirty-two people are missing, feared dead, after a boat carrying more than 70 passengers capsized on Lake Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Friday.
Initial reports after the motorised piroque -- a large canoe -- sank Thursday evening "indicate that 46 people were rescued and 32 are missing," local authorities in the province of South Kivu said in a statement.
It did not give a death toll but said each affected family had been given money to organise "funeral arrangements worthy of our drowned countrymen." "Overloading was the main cause of the capsize," local head Christian Chiringwi in Luhihi told AFP.
In the neighbouring province of Tanganyika meanwhile a similar accident late Thursday left two people dead, local officials said.
Such incidents occur regularly in DR Congo, with poorly built and maintained boats often overloaded with people and cargo while safety equipment is minimal.
In the worst recent accident, 142 people drowned when their boat .

32 missing after boat sinks in DR Congo

Three people were wounded in raids by forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar against two airports controlled by the unity government in northern Libya, the UN-recognised government said Friday.
Tripoli's sole functioning airport Mitiga and Zuwara airfield were targeted for the second time in less than 48 hours -- the former hit overnight Thursday and the latter on Friday morning.
Airport management at Mitiga reported rocket fire against the runway "as planes took off and landed".
The UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) said on Facebook that Haftar's forces "targeted employees of the airport services company" at Mitiga with Grad missiles, causing shrapnel wounds to two workers and damaging a bus.
Flights were temporarily suspended or rerouted to Misrata, 200 kilometres (120 miles) east of Tripoli.
In the attack against Zuwara airfield, Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army said it targeted a hangar "which houses Turkish drones and their ammunition".
The ...

3 wounded in Libya airport raids: Government

Uganda and Zambia on Friday denied a report that employees of Chinese telecom giant Huawei had helped them spy on political opponents.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported this week that Huawei technicians helped the two African governments intercept communications and social media activity of their opponents, while also tracking their movements.
The article also reported that Huawei operated a video and cyber surveillance system in Algeria, which the company denied.
Algeria's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment In Uganda, WSJ reported that Huawei technicians helped Ugandan authorities use spyware to monitor pop star turned opposition icon Bobi Wine.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, became a lawmaker in 2017 and is preparing to challenge President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda's 2021 presidential election.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Huawei's assistance enabled Ugandan authorities to disrupt Wine's plans for concerts they feared would turn into .

Uganda, Zambia deny Huawei helped spy on political opponents

French Farm Minister Didier Guillaume came under fire Friday from environmentalists and opposition parties after being photographed attending a bullfight alongside a cabinet colleague.
Guillaume and Jacqueline Gourault, the minister in charge of territorial cohesion, were among 6,000 people who attended a bullfight Wednesday in the southwestern city of Bayonne, a French bastion of the controversial tradition.
The pair were photographed in the front row of the arena.
Greens MEP Yannick Jadot accused Guillaume in an angry tweet of "not giving a damn about animal suffering" and called his presence at the fight, where star matador Daniel Luque put six bulls to death, "pathetic".
Florian Philippot, leader of the small eurosceptic Patriots party, also criticised the minister.
"The agriculture minister responsible for animal welfare attends a corrida.... After that we can expect to see no change in the situation on factory farming, abattoirs and banning slaughter without stunning," he ...

French ministers criticised for attending bullfight

Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky, who was granted permission to travel to India for medical care after years in detention, returned to Nigeria on Friday following a row over his treatment, his supporters said.
Zakzaky, founder of the pro-Iranian Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), and his wife Zeenah Ibrahim were "whisked away by security agents" to avoid waiting media after touching down at the airport in the capital Abuja, group member Abdurrahman Abubakar told AFP.
There was no official comment from the Nigerian authorities on the couple's whereabouts.
The cleric had been in custody in Nigeria along with his wife since December 2015 after they were arrested during violence in which the army killed some 350 of his followers and buried many in mass graves.
The couple flew to India on Monday after a court gave them permission to travel abroad for medical treatment under Nigerian government supervision following a spate of bloody protests by IMN supporters.
But the medical care was held up 

Shiite cleric returns to Nigeria after India medical row

Riot police in Zimbabwe on Friday fired teargas and beat demonstrators who defied a protest ban, as the opposition accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government of surpassing Robert Mugabe's regime in brutality.
Scores of people gathered in a square in the capital Harare to demonstrate against the country's worsening economy, despite massive police deployment and a ban upheld by a court the same morning.
Police cornered a group of protesters and beat them with batons, an AFP reporter saw. One woman was seen being carried into a Red Cross ambulance.
The protestors then regrouped, singing songs condemning police brutality. As the crowd swelled, police fired teargas.
"People were just singing, people were happy, peacefully. Then they saw the police coming -- they were encircling people, they were actually surrounding the supporters then they came closer to us and started beating people," a 35-year-old protester who gave her name as Achise told AFP.
She said police beat "an old ...

Zimbabwe police beat protesters defying 'rogue' government

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard was left disgusted by racist abuse of striker Tammy Abraham online after the UEFA Super Cup final defeat to Liverpool midweek and called on social networks Friday to do more to prevent the publication of offensive content.
Abraham saw his penalty saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian on Wednesday as the European champions won a shootout 5-4 after a 2-2 draw in Istanbul.
"I am particularly disgusted by a so-called Chelsea fan," said Lampard.
"Tammy Abraham asked me to take the fifth penalty because he wanted to take it, wanted to stand up, be brave when the world is watching.
"Within hours somebody sitting behind a keyboard or a phone has said the most disgusting things possible.
"I don't know how these platforms are allowed, it's too easy to be done, something needs to be done as well as people obviously changing their mindsets completely.
"I'm so angry for Tammy, angry for the club because that is not what the club is about. The club does a lot of work ...

Lampard lambasts racist abuse of Abraham

FIFA on Friday banned former Nigeria Football Federation official Samson Siasia for life after the body's ethics panel found him guilty of taking bribes in connection with match fixing.
In a statement, the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee said the probe targeting Siasia stemmed from a wider investigation involving Wilson Raj Perumal, who has confessed to international match-fixing.
The probe that began in February found Siasia "guilty of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics," the statement said.
In addition to being banned from all football related activity for life, Siasia was also handed a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs ($50,000, 46,000 euros).
Siasia, a former striker, also briefly coached Nigeria's men's national football team.
FIFA did not detail the nature of ties to Perumal, a Singaporean national who was arrested and jailed in Finland in 2011 for fixing top-tier ..

FIFA bans ex-Nigeria football official over match fixing

Neymar was included on Friday in Brazil's squad for friendlies against Colombia and Peru next month amid speculation of a departure from Paris Saint-Germain and a return to La Liga.
Coach Tite's announcement comes as former captain Neymar appears set to leave the French outfit and head back to Spain before the end of the transfer window on September 2, either with his former side Barcelona or Real Madrid.
The world's most expensive player has been plagued by an ankle injury that ruled him out of last month's Copa America success.
Authorities in Brazil also recently dropped an investigation into rape allegations against the forward due to insufficient evidence, accusations which he had vehemently denied.
Tite said he had spoken to Neymar, who "said he was happy", but he acknowledged that he was not doing "tactical work."
"I will not abandon an athlete of Neymar's level and quality," Tite said, explaining he wanted to give him "playing time." Brazil will face Colombia on September 6 in .

Neymar called up for Brazil friendlies amid transfer speculation

Eoin Morgan would love to add the Twenty20 World Cup trophy in Australia next year to the 50 over version he skippered England to victory in July but he told the BBC it would depend on clearing up a persistent back problem.
The 32-year-old Irishman had problems with his back during the drawn-out World Cup campaign -- going off early in the game against the West Indies with a back spasm.
Morgan -- who recovered to hit a ODI record of 17 sixes four days later against Afghanistan -- pulled out of a match with Sussex last week due to further trouble with his back.
Morgan -- who was at Lord's to receive a commemorative cap for his World Cup success over New Zealand, playing 200 one-day internationals for England and captaining them on 100 occasions -- said he wanted to captain them but could not commit yet.
"I need more time to think. It's a big decision and a big commitment," he said.
"I just don't want to let anybody down. When you lead, you have to lead from the front and you have to be 

Morgan's desire for second World Cup success tempered by back concern

The Gulf of Guinea, where 17 seamen were abducted Thursday when two merchant ships came under attack in Cameroonian waters, has in recent years become the epicentre of world maritime piracy.
The syphoning of oil from hijacked cargo ships, illegal fishing, trafficking of all kinds: the 5,700-kilometre (3,541-mile) coastal zone stretching from Senegal to Angola is a happy hunting ground for pirates.
It has upstaged the Gulf of Aden, where once rampant piracy has considerably diminished faced with the deployment of an international military armada.
In 2018 in the Gulf of Guinea, attacks have more than doubled compared to 2017, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), accounting for all six hijackings worldwide, 13 out of 18 ships fired upon and most kidnappings for ransom.
Pirates are now venturing out farther, often beyond territorial waters, and attacking a wider range of vessels, from fishing boats to larger carriers, according to the IMB.
However, attacks in the region ..

AFP

AFP

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