The chief American peace negotiator Saturday hailed the ongoing round of talks with the Taliban in Qatar as “the most productive session” so far toward finding a political settlement to the war in Afghanistan. The U.S.-Taliban negotiations began on June 29, the seventh round in the nearly yearlong direct dialogue between the two adversaries in the nearly 18-year-old war that has turned deadlier in recent months. Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted that both sides decided Saturday to take a break from the dialogue to allow for a two-day intra-Afghan conference to be held in the Qatari capital of Doha on Sunday. “The last six days of talks have been the most productive session to date. We made substantive progress on all four parts of a peace agreement,” noted Khalilzad. Areas of concentration The Afghan-born U.S. diplomat went on to emphasize that discussions have focused exclusively on counterterrorism assurances from the Taliban, a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign troops from the country, participation of the insurgent group in an intra-Afghan dialogue, and a comprehensive permanent cease-fire. “There is still important work left to be done before we have an agreement. We will resume on the 9th [of July] after the [intra-Afghan] …

A Kazakhstan court has ordered a reporter for Current Time to leave the country and has banned her from re-entering for five years, citing violations of the country’s immigration regulations. The court in Nur-Sultan on Friday ordered Zhazgul Egemberdieva, a Kyrgyztan national, to leave within 10 days. Kazakh officials alleged Egemberdieva failed to notify immigration authorities that she was staying in Kazakhstan longer than 30 days. Management officials with Current Time, a Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, said they were investigating the circumstances of the order. Egemberdieva had been in Kazakhstan since May 3 as part of Current Time’s coverage of the June 9 presidential election. The vote, which was won by Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, the handpicked successor of longtime ruler Nursultan Nazarbaev, was criticized by international observers who cited “detentions of peaceful protesters, and widespread voting irregularities on election day [that] showed scant respect for democratic standards.” Egemberdieva had been scheduled to help in coverage of more anti-government protests that were taking place in Nur-Sultan on Saturday. Journalists harassed Reporters for Current Time and RFE/RL in general have faced increased scrutiny and harassment in Kazakhstan and Central Asia more broadly in recent years. Ahead of the Kazakh …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to reassure Western Balkan nations that support for their membership in the European Union remains strong, stressing that it is in the bloc’s “strategic interest” to bring in the new members. Merkel told a Western Balkan summit in Poznan, Poland, on Friday that concerns expressed by French President Emmanuel Macron that the countries’ governance mechanisms become more efficient should not delay accession talks. “I share President Macron’s view that the EU’s working mechanisms must be improved,” she said. “I don’t see that as an abandonment of the accession talks.” She added that the accession process for Balkan nations aspiring for membership — Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia — was sufficiently lengthy to allow time for improvements to be made. North Macedonia hailed Speaking at a news conference as the summit concluded, Merkel singled out North Macedonia’s “courage” in trying to overcome divisive issues with its neighbors, especially a dispute over its name with Greece. Athens opposed the country’s use of the name Macedonia, saying it implied territorial designs on the Greek province of the same name. A compromise was reached, leading Skopje to change the country’s name to North Macedonia. “That was a huge step. …

At least two people have been killed and about 20 others wounded in a bomb blast inside a Shiite mosque in the Afghan city of Ghazni, officials said Saturday. The explosion occurred late Friday when the Mohammadiya mosque in the Khak-e-Ghariban area of Ghazni was packed with worshippers attending evening prayers, provincial governor spokesman Arif Noor said. As many as 70 people were present at the time of the explosion, Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, the head of the Ghazni provincial council, and Councilor Amanullah Kamran said. The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier, the Taliban denied involvement in the mosque attack and condemned the bombing. IS, which has a limited presence in Ghazni, is also suspected by locals of destroying a shrine known as Shams Sahib in the western part of Ghazni in May. In recent months, Ghazni police have arrested several people on suspicion of having links to IS. This article contains material from dpa, tolonews.com. …

An apparent gas explosion at a shopping plaza in Plantation, Florida, injured several people on Saturday, authorities and local media reported. Video posted to Twitter showed the force of the blast scattered debris across a parking lot and blew out several windows at a nearby L.A. Fitness gym, sending patrons running for the exits. The Plantation fire department said on Twitter that there were multiple patients being treated at the scene. The Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported that witnesses said a vacant restaurant appeared to be the source of the explosion. The city of Plantation is about 6 miles west of Fort Lauderdale.   …

A war monitor and first responders group say an airstrike has killed at least 13 people in a village in northwestern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the dead, most of them internally displaced persons, include seven children and three women. They died on Saturday in a Syrian government airstrike on the village of Mhambel in the province of Idlib.   Opposition-allied first responders known as the White Helmets also reported the attack and the casualties.   Idlib is the last major rebel stronghold in Syria’s eight-year civil war. Government troops backed by Russia have been using heavy airstrikes in their campaign to take the area in the past months.   …

UK-flagged supertanker Pacific Voyager which halted in the Gulf on Saturday is “safe and well,” a British official told Reuters, after Iran dismissed reports its Revolutionary Guards had seized the vessel. A Revolutionary Guards commander on Friday had threatened to seize a British ship in retaliation for the capture by Royal Marines of Iranian supertanker Grace 1 in Gibraltar. The Pacific Voyager stopped in the Gulf en route to Saudi Arabia from Singapore before resuming its course, Refinitiv Eikon mapping showed. It stopped as part of a routine procedure to adjust its arrival time at its next port, an official at UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) told Reuters. The UKMTO, which coordinates shipping in the Gulf, had been in contact with the tanker, the official said. On Saturday an Iranian cleric said Britain should be “scared” about Tehran’s possible retaliation for the seizure of the Grace 1, the Fars semi-official news agency reported. “I am openly saying that Britain should be scared of Iran’s retaliatory measures over the illegal seizure of the Iranian oil tanker,” said Mohammad Ali Mousavi Jazayeri, a member of the Assembly of Experts clerical body. Tensions are high in the Gulf following last month’s attacks on …

The United States on Saturday welcomed a provisional agreement forged by Sudan’s ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups to share power for three years as an “important step forward.” The U.S. State Department said in statement that special envoy for Sudan Donald Booth will return to the region soon. The agreement brokered by the African Union and Ethiopia Union, announced on Friday, is due to be finalized on Monday. “The agreement between the Forces for Freedom and Change and the Transitional Military Council to establish a sovereign council is an important step forward,” the State Department said. “We look forward to immediate resumption of access to the internet, establishment of the new legislature, accountability for the violent suppression of peaceful protests, and progress toward free and fair elections.” The deal revived hopes for a peaceful transition of power in a country plagued by internal conflicts and years of economic crisis that helped to trigger the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in April. Relations between the military council that took over from Bashir and the Forces for Freedom and Change alliance broke down when security forces killed dozens of people as they cleared a sit-in on June …

They are trapped in squalid detention centers on Libya’s front lines. They wash up on the banks of the Rio Grande. They sink without a trace — in the Mediterranean, in the Pacific or in waterways they can’t even name. A handful fall out of airplanes’ landing gear. As their choices narrow on land and at sea, migrants are often seen as a political headache in the countries they hope to reach and ignored in the countries they flee. Most live in limbo, but recent tragedies have focused attention on the risks they face and the political constraints at the root of them. A record 71 million people were forcibly displaced around the world in 2018, according to a report last month by the U.N. refugee agency, in places as diverse as Turkey, Uganda, Bangladesh and Peru. Many are still on the move in 2019, or trapped like thousands in detention in Libya, where an airstrike on Tuesday killed at least 44 migrants and refugees locked away in the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura. Most of those in Tajoura and other Libyan detention centers have been intercepted by the Libyan coast guard, which has become the go-to border force for the …

President Donald Trump roused a political tempest when he decided to plant himself squarely in Independence Day observances with a speech from the Lincoln Memorial. His words from that platform, though, were strikingly measured, except for some befuddlement over American military history. The unscripted Trump — the one the world sees day to day — was to be found on Twitter and in other venues. It was in such places that the president misrepresented his record on care for veterans, the health of the economy, the state of the auto industry and more. Some rhetoric in review: MARS TRUMP: “Someday soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars.” — July 4 speech. THE FACTS: This is not happening soon; almost certainly not while he is president even if he wins a second term. The Trump administration has a placed a priority on the moon over Mars for human exploration (President Barack Obama favored Mars) and hopes to accelerate NASA’s plan for returning people to the lunar surface. It has asked Congress to approve enough money to make a moon mission possible by 2024, instead of 2028. But even if that happens, Mars would come years after that. International space …

Federal agents descended on the suburban Maryland house with the flash and bang of a stun grenade, blocked off the street and spent hours questioning the homeowner about a theft of government documents that prosecutors would later describe as “breathtaking” in its scale. The suspect, Harold Martin, was a contractor for the National Security Agency. His arrest followed news of a devastating disclosure of government hacking tools by a mysterious internet group calling itself the Shadow Brokers . It seemed to some that the United States might have found another Edward Snowden, who also had been a contractor for the agency. “You’re a bad man. There’s no way around that,” one law enforcement official conducting the raid told Martin, court papers say. “You’re a bad man.” Later this month, about three years after that raid, the case against Martin is scheduled to be resolved in Baltimore’s federal court. But the identity of the Shadow Brokers, and whoever was responsible for a leak with extraordinary national security implications, will remain a public mystery even as the case concludes. Authorities have established that Martin walked off with thousands of pages of secret documents over a two-decade career in national security, most recently …

The International Organization for Migration warns massive displacement from renewed inter-ethnic fighting in DR Congo’s Ebola-affected Ituri province poses a serious health hazard.   At least 160 people were killed during renewed clashes early last month between Lendu farmers and Hema herders in Ituri province.  U.N. agencies report the violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sent more than 7,500 refugees fleeing for their lives into neighboring Uganda. The International Organization for Migration reports people who have fled the frontline of the conflict are living in abysmal conditions that create a fertile ground for the spread of disease, most worryingly Ebola.   The latest World Health Organization figures put the number of Ebola cases at 2,382, including 1,606 deaths.  The bulk of these cases and deaths are in conflict-ridden North Kivu province   About 10 percent are in Ituri. The inter-communal fighting has displaced an estimated 400,000 people.  IOM spokesman, Joel Millman, says his agency manages 12 displacement sites in Ituri’s Djugu Territory.  Thousands of people unable to cram into these overcrowded camps, he says, are sheltering in spontaneous sites. “Poor hygiene conditions in displacement sites severely increase the risk that Ebola, as well as cholera, measles and acute respiratory …

A Syrian regime bombardment has killed 14 civilians including seven children in northwestern Syria, a war monitor said Saturday, in the latest deadly raids on the embattled opposition bastion. Warplanes and helicopters late Friday carried out airstrikes on Mahambel village in Idlib province, killing 13 civilians including the seven children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A woman was also killed early Saturday in regime rocket fire on the outskirts of the town of Khan Sheikhun in the south of the province, the Britain-based war monitor said. Idlib, a region of about 3 million people, many of whom fled former rebel-held areas retaken by the government, is the last major bastion of opposition to the Russia-backed Damascus government after eight years of civil war. The region on Turkey’s doorstep is administered by Syria’s former Al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but other jihadist and rebel groups are also present. Idlib is supposed to be protected from a major regime assault by a September deal between Moscow and Ankara, but Damascus and its Russian ally have ramped up their deadly bombardment of the region since late April. More than 520 civilians have been killed since then, according to the Observatory. The …

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos’ divorce from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Bezos, was finalized by a Seattle-area judge Friday, paving the way for her to receive $38.3 billion worth of Amazon stock, Bloomberg reported. In April, Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, said in a filing that 4% of its outstanding stock or 19.7 million shares would be registered in MacKenzie Bezos’ name after court approval of the divorce. The couple announced their plan to divorce in a joint Twitter statement in January, causing some to worry that Jeff Bezos could wind up with reduced Amazon voting power or that he or MacKenzie would liquidate large position. He retains a 12% stake worth $114.8 billion and remains the world’s richest person, Bloomberg said. MacKenzie Bezos has said she would give him voting control of her shares. MacKenzie in May pledged to give half her fortune to charity to join the “Giving Pledge,” a campaign announced by billionaire Warren Buffett and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates in 2010. …

Many senior living communities in America are encouraging residents to socialize more with young people, something experts say will benefit both generations. Faiza Elmasry visited one of these senior living facilities where high school students serve and interact with residents. Faith Lapidus narrates. …

As governments around the world try to tackle air pollution problems, some cities are looking to ban fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. But cars and tractor trailers are not the only things that run on dirty fuels. A new vehicle will hit the market to tackle another source of emissions: ice cream trucks. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more. …

Leftovers. It’s what’s for dinner. In Germany that saying does not just apply to people who cook too much at home. These days, more and more restaurants are selling their leftovers to hungry city dwellers at reduced prices. It’s good for business, good for the consumer and good for the environment. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.  …

Turkey fired its central bank governor Saturday and replaced him with the bank’s deputy governor, a presidential decree published on the official gazette showed. Murat Cetinkaya, who had been serving as the governor since April 2016, was removed from the role and was replaced by his deputy Murat Uysal, the order showed. No official reason was given for the sacking, but markets have speculated over recent weeks that Cetinkaya may be pushed out by the government because of his reluctance to cut rates. The central bank has faced pressure in the past from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to lower interest rates to boost economic growth. Two government sources told Reuters that differences between the government and the governor over the conduct of monetary policy have deepened in the past few months. “The difference of opinions between the governor and the ministers in charge of the economy has deepened in the recent period,” said one of the sources. “The president and the finance minister demanded his resignation, but Cetinkaya reminded of the bank’s independence and declined to resign,” the other source said. In a statement Saturday, the central bank said it will continue to operate independently and that the new governor …

President Donald Trump said Friday that mass deportation roundups would begin “fairly soon” as U.S. migrant advocates vowed their communities would be ready when immigration officers come. Trump, who has made a hard-line immigration stance a key issue of his presidency and his 2020 re-election bid, postponed the operation last month after the planned date was leaked to the press, but Monday he said the roundups would take place after the July 4 holiday. “They’ll be starting fairly soon, but I don’t call them raids, we’re removing people, all of these people who have come in over the years illegally,” he told reporters at the White House Friday. Targeting the recently arrived U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month said raids would target undocumented migrants who had recently arrived in the United States so as to discourage a surge of Central American families at the southwest border. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s statement. ICE operations are expected to involve “collateral arrests” in which undocumented migrants not directly targeted by officers are picked up in raids. Government documents published this week by migrant rights groups showed some past ICE raids had more collateral …

A quake with a magnitude of 7.1 jolted much of California, cracked buildings, set fires, broke roads and caused several injuries while seismologists warned that large aftershocks were expected to continue. The quake, preceded by Thursday’s 6.4-magnitude temblor in the Mojave Desert, was the largest Southern California quake in at least 20 years and was followed by a series of large and small aftershocks, including a handful above magnitude 5.0. There is about a 1-in-10 chance that another 7.0 quake could hit within the next week, said Lucy Jones, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology and a former science adviser at the U.S. Geological Survey. The chance of a 5.0-magnitude quake “is approaching certainty,” she added. However, the quake was unlikely to affect fault lines outside of the area, Jones said, noting that the gigantic San Andreas Fault was far away. The quake struck at 8:19 p.m. and was centered 11 miles from Ridgecrest in the same areas where the previous quake hit.  “These earthquakes are related,” Jones said, adding that the new quake probably ruptured along about 25 miles of fault line. The quake was felt as far north as Sacramento, as far east as Las Vegas …

Officials are gathering in Niger’s capital this weekend for an African Union summit that begins the “operational phase” of a long-sought continental free trade zone. Some 50 heads of state were to arrive in Niamey on Friday, a day behind their foreign ministers, for Sunday’s summit on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). By integrating economies and reducing trade barriers such as tariffs, the pact aims to increase employment prospects, living standards and opportunities for the continent’s 1.2 billion people and to make Africans more competitive regionally and globally. FILE – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is sworn in for a second four-year term in Africa’s most populous nation in Abuja, Nigeria, May 29, 2019. The trade deal got a boost earlier this week when Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, committed to signing the deal this weekend. The ECOWAS Executive Director, Mohamed Ibn Chambas Regional common currency ECOWAS plans to introduce the ECO currency in 2020, though its debut has been delayed repeatedly since 2000. The African free trade zone has been under discussion since 2002, with a draft deal signed in early 2018. In May, it surpassed a threshold of ratification by at least 22 member countries’ legislatures. “And now …

Members of what prosecutors have called one of Britain’s largest-ever modern-day slavery rings have been convicted and sentenced for their role in forcing around 400 Polish people to work and live under inhumane conditions. The cases against all eight suspects, originally from Poland, ended Friday, allowing reporting restrictions to be lifted and details of their trials to be published. Prosecutors say the victims, who were from Poland, were forced to work for barely any money while the organizers of the operation earned several million dollars. They say the human trafficking ring lured homeless people, former convicts and alcoholics from Poland to Britain with promises of well paid work but instead forced them to live in squalid conditions, paying some less than $1 a day. Victims described going to food banks to try to find enough to eat and of being threatened or assaulted if they complained. Jurors in two separate trials in Birmingham heard the accounts of more than 90 victims. All eight suspects, part of a criminal gang led by the Brzezinsky family, were convicted of modern slavery offenses. Seven of them were also convicted of money laundering. They received sentences ranging from 4½ to 11 years. Judge Mary …