facing deportation
AP, San Francisco
California Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday pardoned five ex-convicts facing deportation, including two whose families fled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia four decades ago.
The pardons don’t automatically stop deportation proceedings, but eliminate the state convictions federal authorities based their deportation decisions on. That gives the men’s lawyers strong legal arguments before immigration judges to try to prevent the deportations.
Afghanistan to hold polls in Oct
Reuters, Kabul
Afghanistan aims to hold parliamentary and local district elections in October, more than three years late, a senior election official said, although much work needs to happen quickly to meet that timeline in the war-ravaged country.
The elections are considered a dry run for the presidential vote to be held in 2019 and a test of whether Afghanistan’s Western-backed government can overcome past election problems of poor security and fraud.
Prague extradites Russian hacker to US
AFP, Prague
The Czech Republic on Friday said it had extradited a Russian hacker to the United States where he is wanted for alleged cyberattacks on social networks.
Yevgeniy Nikulin, who is also sought by his native Russia on fraud charges, had been in a Prague prison since he was arrested in the Czech capital in 2016 in a joint operation with the FBI.
Israeli drone crashes in Lebanon
Reuters, Beirut
An Israeli drone crashed in southern Lebanon overnight between Friday and Saturday, the Israeli military and Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV reported. “An unmanned Israeli spy plane crashes between the villages of Beit Yahoun and Baraachit,” al-Manar reported.
Kosovo arrests 6 Turks
AP, Pristina, Kosovo
Kosovo police arrested six Turks working with a group of schools owned by a cleric who President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for an attempted coup two years ago and handed them over to Turkish authorities Thursday, officials said.
