US Taliban
negotiator to testify
AFP, Washington
The US envoy charged with negotiating with the Taliban was ordered Thursday to testify by the Democratic-led House of Representatives, which complained it had been kept in the dark on the now called-off peace process.
Representative Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a subpoena to force Zalmay Khalilzad to appear on September 19.
New US Ambassador takes up post at UN
AFP, United Nations
US Ambassador Kelly Craft took up her post at the United Nations on Thursday, vowing to defend America’s values and interests nine months after the departure of her high-profile predecessor Nikki Haley.
Craft, 57, served previously as US ambassador to Canada where she was involved in negotiations on a new US Mexico Canada free trade agreement. She declined to speak with reporters on her arrival at UN headquarters, making her way to the 38th floor offices of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Imran Khan to visit Saudi Arabia
PTI, Islamabad
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Saudi Arabia later this month, his third trip to the country, a media report said on Thursday.
According to a Pakistani news channel, Mr Khan will travel to Saudi Arabia before his trip to the US to address the UN General Assembly for the first time on September 27. Mr Khan has said that he would highlight the Kashmir issue in his speech, after India ended Jammu and Kashmir’s special status last month.
Philippines arrests 270 Chinese citizens in fraud raid
AP, Manila
Philippine police have arrested more than 270 Chinese nationals in a raid on a gang wanted over a vast investment fraud that cost victims in China millions of dollars, authorities said Friday.
Agents swooped on an office building in the capital Manila on Wednesday to take four suspects into custody in connection with the 100 million yuan ($14 million) scam, but stumbled upon many more. “The operation then yielded the incidental arrest of 273 other Chinese nationals who were caught in the act of conducting illegal online operations,” immigration authorities said, without elaborating.
US sanctions may hit Hezbollah allies in Lebanon
AFP, Beirut
Allies of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon could be hit by US sanctions, US envoy David Schenker said Thursday, nearly two weeks after Washington targeted a Lebanese bank.
“In the future, we will designate, because we have to, individuals in Lebanon who are aiding and assisting Hezbollah, regardless of what their sect or religion is,” the Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern Affairs told Lebanon’s LBCI network.
