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At least four people were killed when gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a Sikh temple in the Afghan capital of Kabul, according to a Sikh politician. Within hours, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack. Those killed included a child whose body was brought to a Kabul hospital, emergency services said. At least 15 people were wounded.

The Trump administration is slashing $1 billion in assistance to Afghanistan and threatening further reductions in all forms of cooperation after the country’s rival leaders failed to agree on forming a new government. The announcement came from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday after he made an unannounced visit to Kabul to meet with Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, the rival Afghan politicians who have each declared themselves president of the country after disputed elections last year. In an unusually harsh statement, Pompeo slammed the two men for being unable to work together and threatening a potential peace deal...

Israel's Supreme Court ruling today that a vote must be held on a new speaker for Israel's parliament.... Tonight the parliament (Knesset) met boycotted by members supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a majority approving a new Arrangements Committee.... The anti-Netanyahu majority approved six new temporary committees..... Politics here in the USA and the winner of the Democrats Abroad Caucus for Democrats living outside the United States is Bernie Sanders.... US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit today.... The late word is that the US has decided to cut one billion dollars in aid...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Monday in Kabul on an urgent visit to try to move forward a U.S. peace deal signed last month with the Taliban, a trip that comes despite the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when world leaders and statesmen are curtailing official travel. Since the signing of the deal, the peace process has stalled amid political turmoil in Afghanistan, with the country’s leaders squabbling over who was elected president. President Ashraf Ghani and his main rival in last September’s presidential polls, Abdullah Abdullah, have both declared themselves the country’s president in dueling inauguration ceremonies...

The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) killed 27 Taliban militants in northern Kunduz province, the Afghan military said. The 217th Pamir Corps in a statement said the security forces responded killed the militants while reacting to Taliban Taliban attacks in Khanabad and Dasht-e Archi districts. The statement further added that a large number of Taliban militants had also gathered in Imam Saheb district where they were planning a large scale attack against the security forces. The 217th Pamir Corps also added that a local commander of Taliban, Qari Hafiz, was also among those killed and 19 other militants...

The coronavirus death rate in the US is just over 1.25 percent of cases but first.... North Korea firing two short range missiles Saturday morning local time.... Saying the fight against Islamic State has made progress and out of concern for the coronavirus pandemic the US-led coalition in Iraq is reducing its military presence... At least two dozen Afghan police and military killed with others missing following an attack by Taliban connected forces.... The troubled US aircraft maker Boeing is getting a bailout from the federal government.... Moving to distance herself from the situation is the former UN Ambassador and...

Judicial Watch today released 80 pages of new emails recently found by the FBI that further document how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her unsecure, non-government email to transmit classified and other sensitive government information. The documents include 11 new Clinton email documents. The emails include an email sent by Mrs. Clinton a month after the Benghazi terrorist attack referencing a “Benghazi security” issue. The emails also include talking points, which are redacted, for a meeting with President Obama. (This is the second release from the batch of Clinton emails the FBI inexplicably found late last year.) The...

I first met Qassem four years ago, at the height of the European refugee crisis. The BBC had sent me to capture the stories of Mideast migrants, thousands of whom would daily wash ashore on the Greek isles. He was around 15, malnourished and clearly traumatized. As we sat together in a cabin at a ­migrant camp on the island of Lesbos, his hunched body rocked backward and forward. His marginal life amounted to a speck of dust amid the geopolitical earthquakes that were remaking the region at the time. Yet the story he told opened a window onto the...

TORKHAM, Pakistan — Above the trucks and travelers lining up at the main eastern gateway between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a glinting new landmark scales the dun-colored mountains: Parallel mesh fences, a couple of feet apart and topped with coils of razor wire, climb from the border crossing up over the dizzying crags. The section of fence overlooking Torkham is just a glimpse of a 1,600-mile barrier begun four years ago by Pakistan’s military and set to be completed this year. Nearly 9,000 miles from President Trump’s border wall with Mexico, Pakistan has quietly been building its own version to try...

U.S. military forces have begun leaving Afghanistan and will not be replaced, despite the political unrest that threatens the recently signed Taliban peace agreement that has resulted in the troop withdraw. The initial U.S. troop withdrawal is based on a joint declaration between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and a U.S. agreement with the Taliban requiring the political-military group to stop its deadly attacks on America’s Afghan allies. Per the agreement, Washington will try to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600. A complication arose Monday as Afghanistan’s rival leaders — Ashraf...

A Saudi suspected of being the "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 attacks has recanted his confession, saying he made false statements after he was beaten, abused and humiliated at Guantanamo, according to documents obtained Friday by The Associated Press. Mohammed al-Qahtani — who U.S. officials have said previously was subjected to harsh treatment authorized by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld — denied knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks in his first appearance before a military panel at Guantanamo Bay in October. "I am a businessman, a peaceful man," al-Qahtani testified under oath, nearly five years after he was...

In February of 1862, Ulysses S. Grant forced the surrender of Confederate forces at Fort Donelson in Kentucky. His demands shocked his Confederate opponents and military observers from across the world accustomed to more chivalrous commanders. That demand was for a simple unconditional surrender. Turn your army over to the mercy of the victor with no guarantees of treatment. Two years later General Grant turned his two most celebrated subordinates, William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan, loose on the remaining sources of supplies in the South. By 1865, the heart of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, plus Georgia and the Carolinas were...

The U.S. government has collected persuasive intelligence that the Taliban do not intend to honor the promises they have made in the recently signed deal with the United States, three American officials tell NBC News, undercutting what has been days of hopeful talk by President Donald Trump and his top aides. "They have no intention of abiding by their agreement," said one official briefed on the intelligence, which two others described as explicit evidence shedding light on the Taliban's intentions. Trump himself acknowledged that reality in extraordinary comments Friday, saying the Taliban could "possibly" overrun the Afghan government after U.S....

Former President Bill Clinton has something to say about Monica Lewinsky, a staff shakeup at the White House and a publisher backs away from the memoir of film director Woody Allen but first.... Another crackdown on elites in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched by the country's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. High ranking members of the royal family under arrest reportedly for treason plotting a coup.... President Trump changing the White House Chief of Staff... From northwestern Syria the cease-fire agreed to by the Russian and Turkish presidents appears to be holding but.... In Portland, Oregon...

Today, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber authorized an investigation into the alleged activities of the Taliban and U.S. and Afghan personnel related to Afghanistan. This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution, masquerading as a legal body. It is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan – the best chance for peace in a generation. Indeed, the Afghan government, itself, pleaded with the ICC to not take this course. But the ICC politicians had other goals. The United States is...

The U.S. military said early Wednesday it had conducted an airstrike against Taliban forces in Afghanistan, the first such attack since a historic peace deal was signed with the militant group Saturday. The Helmand Province strikes targeted fighters attacking an Afghan government checkpoint.

he White House is willing to offer some military assistance to Turkey to assist an insurgency against neighboring Syria, which has received support from Russia and Iran, a senior U.S. diplomat said Tuesday. James Jeffrey, who serves as both the State Department's special representative for Syria and the presidential envoy to the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) told reporters in Turkey's southern border province of Hatay that the Turkish forces "mainly use our equipment, we want to make sure the equipment is ready when they need to use it," according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency. "We're willing...

The crew of a U.S. gunship have been awarded bravery medals at a ceremony in Florida after they rained fire down on Islamic State militants for hours, as allied soldiers on the ground were whisked to safety. Forces on the ground came under heavy fire from ISIS militants in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan on April 3, 2019, in a ferocious fight which one Major on the ground likened to infamous WW2 battle Iwo Jima. They called for backup from 'Spooky 41' - a AC-13OU gunship, and the Hercules-variant plane arrived within minutes to provide covering fire and ensure medical helicopters could...

Newsdump Alert: French Premier Edouard Philippe invokes French constitution to speed passage of President Emmanuel Macron's "pension reform".... Newsdump Alert: Democrat Presidential candidate Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard warns against US involvement in Turkish-Al Qaeda war against Russia in Syria.... At a UN Security Council emergency meeting Friday night the US Representative Kelly Craft called for the grounding Russian aircraft being used to bomb the forces of the Turkish-Terrorist alliance in Syria saying... "we call on the Russian Federation to immediately ground its warplanes"....... (Warning: This Content May Offend Some Readers) Well another wild weekend here of "happening" after "happening" and "The...

We are working to finally end America’s longest war and bring our troops back home. President Donald J. Trump PATHWAY TO PEACE IN AFGHANISTAN: President Donald J. Trump is following through on his promise and taking a decisive step to achieve negotiated peace in Afghanistan. President Trump is making good on his promise to bring our troops home from endless wars overseas by working toward peace in Afghanistan.Following a successful 7-day reduction in violence in Afghanistan, the United States is taking decisive steps toward a negotiated peace in Afghanistan.The United States and Afghan governments will be issuing a joint...