US President Donald Trump told Russia's foreign minister and ambassador that he was unconcerned about their country's interference in the 2016 elections, The Washington Post reported Friday.
Trump made the previously unreported comments during the same May 2017 Oval Office meeting in which he famously revealed highly classified information on the Islamic State group.
During the conversation he reportedly told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that he was not bothered by their country's meddling because the United States did the same in other countries, according to three former officials who requested anonymity.
The meeting was held just one day after Trump fired his FBI director James Comey, and Trump told the two senior Russian officials that the sacking had relieved him of "great pressure." The comments alarmed White House officials who subsequently restricted access to a memorandum describing the meeting to those with only the highest ...

Trump told Russian officials he wasn't concerned by interference: report

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Insurgents worked to disrupt Afghanistan's presidential election Saturday, with a series of blasts reported across the country as voters headed to the polls and troops flooded the streets of the capital.
The vote marks the culmination of a bloody election campaign that is seen as a two-horse race between President Ashraf Ghani and his bitter rival Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive.
The Taliban, who unleashed a string of bombings during the two-month campaign, in recent days issued repeated warnings they intend to attack polling centres.
At least 15 people were wounded in the southern city of Kandahar when a bomb went off at a polling station about two hours after voting began, a hospital director told AFP, and officials across the country reported several small explosions at other election sites.
"Peace is the first desire of our people," Ghani said after casting his vote at a high school in Kabul.
"Our roadmap (for peace) is ready, I want the people to give us ...

Blasts as insurgents try to disrupt Afghan presidential election

At least 15 people were wounded Saturday when a bomb exploded at a polling station in southern Afghanistan, a hospital official said, hours after voting got underway in the presidential election.
An "explosion took place outside a polling centre in the city of Kandahar, and 15 people -- all men -- were injured and were brought to the hospital," Naimatullah, the head of a regional hospital who only has one name, told AFP.

15 wounded in blast at southern Afghanistan polling station: hospital

Pep Guardiola insists he has no problem with Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus being unhappy about his lack of first-team starts.
In a recent interview with a Brazilian TV station, Jesus spoke of his frustration at playing understudy to City's record goal-scorer Sergio Aguero.
Jesus has started just one Premier League game this season, while Aguero has scored in all six league games so far.
The Brazilian has three goals in his five appearances, with his other starts coming in the Champions League and League Cup.
But despite scoring in the 3-0 League Cup win at Preston on Tuesday, City will likely revert to Aguero for the Premier League match at Everton on Saturday.
It is a problem every other manager would like and Guardiola admits he understands Jesus's point of view about his relative lack of game-time.
"No player will be happy when he doesn't play regularly. Gabriel is happy when he plays and not happy when he doesn't, but it's not just him," Guardiola told reporters on ...

Guardiola keeps cool after Jesus complaint

Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich powered through brutal heat and humidity to win gold in the women's marathon on Saturday, bringing the curtain down on a dramatic opening day at the World Athletics Championships in Doha.
With around two dozen runners in the 68-strong marathon field falling by the wayside as the sweltering conditions took their toll, Chepngetich dug deep to win the first gold medal of the championships in a time of 2 hours 32 minutes and 43 seconds.
The marathon, held on a floodlit course alongside Doha's waterfront Corniche, had started at 11.59 pm local time on Friday, in a scheduling move designed to protect athletes from the furnace-like daytime heat.
But even allowing for the near-midnight start, temperatures of around 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity approaching 80 percent proved too much for several exhausted competitors who were seen being stretchered away or escorted from the course in wheelchairs.
Race organisers had staffed the course with ...

Chepngetich tames marathon heat as World Championships under way

- Frank Lampard admitted he was stunned to see Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds win the FIFA Fair Play Award despite the 'Spygate' scandal that rocked the Championship club.
Leeds boss Bielsa and his club were recognised at the world governing body's annual award ceremony in Milan for allowing Aston Villa to score an uncontested goal during a second tier match last season.
However, Leeds were also fined GBP 200,000 and given a severe reprimand by the English Football League last term after Bielsa sent a member of his staff to spy on a Derby training session.
Chelsea boss Lampard, who was Derby manager at the time of Leeds' undercover operation in January, branded the Fair Play decision "strange".
Asked on Friday if he choked on his breakfast cereal when he heard the news, Lampard replied: "I did smile. Do we know who votes for these things? "What happened with Spygate was very well-documented, and then they got fined, the rules changed slightly because of it. I felt it was improper.
"To get a 

Lampard surprised Leeds won FIFA's Fair Play award

Polls opened Saturday for Afghanistan's presidential election, officials said, following a bloody campaign that has been marred by a wave of violence.
"Voting has begun all over the country, and we are glad the people are already in big lines at polling centres waiting to cast their votes," Independent Election Commission spokesman Zabi Sadaat told AFP.

Polls open in Afghan presidential election: officials

China and Kiribati have established diplomatic relations, Chinese state media reported Saturday, days after the tiny Pacific island nation severed ties with Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Kiribati's President Taneti Mamau on Friday signed a joint communique to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries on the sidelines of the UN climate summit, Xinhua reported.
The move is a coup for Beijing just days before it marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and comes a week after the Solomon Islands also dropped diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
And it leaves the self-ruled island more isolated than ever with just 15 states left that recognise it.
Taiwan has been a de facto sovereign nation since the end of a civil war in 1949, but China still views the island as its territory and has vowed to seize it -- by force if necessary.
Over the decades, as China's economic and military power has grown, most countries, including the United .

China, Kiribati establish diplomatic relations

US special representative on Ukraine Kurt Volker resigned after Congress ordered him to speak in an impeachment investigation on President Donald Trump, a source said.
A person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity confirmed Volker's resignation Friday, which was first reported by the student newspaper at Arizona State University, where he directs an institute.

US envoy on Ukraine, named in Trump scandal, resigns: source

Afghans head to the polls amid tight security Saturday to vote for their next president, following a bloody, two-month election campaign that has been marred by repeated attacks across Afghanistan.
The Taliban, who already have unleashed a string of bombings, have in recent days issued repeated warnings they intend to attack polling centres and have told voters to stay away.
Wary authorities have placed an uneasy Kabul under partial lockdown, banning trucks from entering the city in an effort to stop would-be suicide bombers attacking the electoral process.
The capital's traffic, often gridlocked, has dropped to a trickle as schools and offices close for the day and as many people choose to stay off the roads.
Some 9.6 million Afghans are registered to vote, but many have lost any hope that after 18 years of war any leader can unify the fractious country and improve basic living conditions, boost the stagnating economy or bolster security.
Several of the 18 original contenders have ...

Security tight as Afghans head to presidential polls

Russia urged the United States to not publish Donald Trump's conversations with Vladimir Putin after a growing scandal led the White House to release a transcript from a call with Ukraine's leader.
"As for transcripts of phone conversations, my mother when bringing me up said that reading other people's letters is inappropriate," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters at the United Nations Friday.
"It is indecent," he said. "For two people elected by their nations to be at the helm, there are diplomatic manners that suppose a certain level of confidentiality."
The White House on Wednesday put out a summary of a July 25 call with Ukraine's newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, after controversy over the conversation led rival Democrats to launch an impeachment process.
It showed that Trump asked Zelensky to probe Democratic rival Joe Biden, and Democrats are looking into whether Trump used a delayed $400 million aid package as leverage.
Lavrov, who met Friday with 

Russia tells US to not release Trump-Putin transcripts

President Hassan Rouhani said Friday that Iran's abidance by nuclear inspections proves it does not seek to develop atomic weapons despite having scaled back its compliance with a 2015 accord.
"Some were saying this third step, that you want to set up modern centrifuges, means that you are moving towards a nuclear weapon," said Rouhani on state television.
"We explained that someone who wants a nuclear weapon... limits comprehensive inspections. We have not reduced inspections," he said.
Iran fired up advanced centrifuges to boost its enriched uranium stockpiles on September 7 as the latest scaling back of commitments under the crumbling 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
The Islamic republic acted on a threat to further abandon its nuclear commitments based on a deadline it set for European powers to act to shield it from US sanctions.
Rouhani, speaking to reporters at Tehran's Mehrabad airport on his return from the UN General Assembly, stressed all Iran's nuclear ...

Iran says inspections show it does not seek nuclear weapon

Many of the hundreds of e-cigarette users who have developed lung problems in recent months, some of them fatal, used black market marijuana products, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
The CDC was cautious to say the investigation was ongoing, and that the cause of the illnesses "remains unknown at this time," but the report did name one counterfeit brand, Dank Vapes, as potentially problematic.
So far in the United States, more than 800 people have developed lung injuries associated with e-cigarette use. Twelve have died.
Of 514 patients who gave information about their past use of vaping products, 77 percent of them said they had used products containing THC -- tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.  A minority, 16 percent, say they only used nicotine products.
"These reports suggest that THC-containing products play a role in the recent cases," said CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat.
"We do not know yet what exactly is ...

Most vaping-related lung injuries linked to marijuana products: CDC

Hundreds of thousands of people from across Senegal converged on the capital Dakar on Friday for the inauguration of a huge mosque, claimed to be the largest in West Africa.
Muslim faithful arrived by bus, car or on foot in the poor district of Bopp, home to the new Massalikul Jinaan mosque, capable of hosting 30,000 worshippers.
The mosque has been built by the Mouride Brotherhood -- part of the Sufi strand of Islam that predominates in Senegal, a country with a long tradition of religious tolerance.
Huge traffic jams several kilometres (miles) long built up on highways leading to the site, where some people had starting camping out two days before the long-awaited ceremonies.
Thousands of women in colourful robes, men dressed in festive white along with children packed the streets.
"I'm here to celebrate God, the Prophet and Serigne Touba, (one of the holy names used for the brotherhood's founder) whose work is being rewarded here," said Malick Mar, a mechanic who was among the ...

Masses surge to Dakar for inauguration of Senegal's mega-mosque

President Donald Trump called his struggle with Democrats threatening impeachment a "war," a video of comments that he expected to remain private showed Friday.
"We're at war. These people are sick," Trump says in the video obtained by Bloomberg.
He was speaking at a closed-doors gathering with US diplomats in New York on Thursday and apparently filmed by one of the people attending.
The event was held in the wake of the Democrats' decision to launch an impeachment investigation into Trump's alleged attempt to arm-twist the Ukrainian president into providing dirt on one of his main 2020 election rivals, Joe Biden.
The recording of the event, part of which was first published by the LA Times, showed Trump suggesting that whoever gave compromising information to the whistleblower was "close to a spy." He went on to say that "spies and treason" used to be handled "a little differently than we do now."
While that comment prompted chuckles from the crowd, it has since been criticized by ...

Trump on impeachment probe: 'We're at war'

Teen activist Greta Thunberg called on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders Friday to do more for the environment, as she prepared to lead a march in Montreal that was part of a wave of global "climate strikes."
She met privately with Trudeau but later told a news conference with local indigenous leaders that he is "not doing enough" to curb greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
"My message to all the politicians around the world is the same," she said. "Just listen and act on the current best available science." On Monday, the 16-year-old delivered an impassioned "How Dare You?" speech at the UN climate summit, accusing world leaders of betraying her generation.
"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words," she thundered, visibly angry and close to tears.
The teen has spurred millions of youths to protest, drawn by her steely determination despite her years.
Trudeau and other Canadian political party leaders, who are in the ..

Greta Thunberg marches in Montreal as part of global climate protests

Three Senegalese crew were killed and a fourth was injured when a combat helicopter used by United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic crashed in the west of the country, the UN force said on Friday.
"It is with immense sorrow that I have learned of the crash of a Senegalese combat helicopter as it was landing at Bouar, leading to three deaths and one injured," the head of the MINUSCA mission, Mankeur Ndiaye, said on Twitter.
The crash of the Russian-made helicopter was confirmed by the Senegalese army in a statement.
It was "returning from an operational mission" for MINUSCA when the accident occurred, it said.
On Thursday, MINUSCA carried out an attack on an armed group called 3R at Koui, in the northwest of the country, several officials in UN force told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Separately, the rebel group said late Thursday that its bases had been bombarded by UN forces.
The 3R had been challenged by MINUSCA the day before to hand over those ...

UN peacekeeping helicopter crashes in C.Africa, 3 dead: UN force

At least 52 people died when an illegal gold mine collapsed in northern Chad this week, a government source said on Friday, with authorities still searching for more bodies.
Chad officials initially said as many as 30 people may have died when the mine caved in on Tuesday in Kouri Bougoudi, in Tibesti province, near the Libyan border, an area rife with illicit mining and smugglers.
Another source who was part of a mission to visit the area also confirmed the new death toll.
"There are 37 injured, including 21 seriously," the second source said.  Tibesti is largely lawless and home to numerous gangs and traffickers seeking to profit from a gold rush in the area.
Clashes in January between Arab miners from Libya and miners from Chad's Ouaddai community left "dozens" dead, according to security and mining sources.
Kouri Bougoudi has been the centre of clashes among ethnic, local and foreign groups since 2012 and 2013 after the discovery of gold deposits there.
The Chadian government has .

At least 52 dead in Chad gold mine collapse: official

Unheralded 5,000 metre runners Braima Suncar Dabo and shattered rival Jonathan Busby drew the biggest cheer of the World Championships on Friday after a dramatic finish to their race marked by a gesture of sportsmanship.
Both Dabo and Busby had already been lapped and were competing only for pride when their final lap drama unfolded at Doha's Khalifa Stadium.
Aruba's Busby, 33, had slowed to almost a crawl down the back straight on the last lap, lurching forward uncertainly and appearing close to collapse.
It was then that Guinea Bissau's Dabo came to Busby's rescue, stopping to prop up his fellow racer and leading him around the final 200 metres to the finish line.
With the crowd roaring them on, Busby collapsed after crossing the line and was eventually taken away in a wheelchair.
"I just wanted to help the guy finish the race," Dabo, 26, said afterwards through a translator.
"I wanted to help him cross the line. I think anyone in that situation would hve done the same thing," added 

Sporting gesture wows crowd at World Championships

Gina Miller's stunning Supreme Court victory against Boris Johnson is the latest legal triumph for the Guyana-born businesswoman, making her a hero to Brexit opponents, and a villain to its supporters.
The 54-year-old now has a 2-0 record against the government of the day in the highest court of the land, dealing hammer blows to the Brexit plans of then-prime minister Theresa May and current incumbent Boris Johnson.
Miller, an investment fund manager, has said she was moved to action immediately as the result of the 2016 referendum became clear, when her 11-year-old son told her: "You're going to do something, mummy, you always do."
She decided then that the courts would be her battlefield, becoming the figurehead of the legal fight to give parliament a say on Brexit -- a position that has exposed her to an onslaught of death threats and racist abuse.
Born into a privileged household in what was then British Guiana -- her father became the country's attorney general after independence 

AFP

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