Reuters, Davos
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said on Thursday that Pakistan continued to give sanctuary to an insurgent group that helps the Taliban in its war against Kabul and the United States, directly contradicting an earlier statement by Pakistan’s prime minister.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan told reporters at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the Haqqani network, which the United States has designated as a terrorist group, had no activities or bases in Pakistan.
Vandals set fire to mosque in east Jerusalem
AP, Jerusalem
Israeli police said Friday they are investigating after a “room was ignited” in a mosque on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Hebrew graffiti was found on an outside wall.
The graffiti was hard to make out but appears to have been left by ultranationalist Israelis. One part read, “Demolishing (for) Jews? Demolishing enemies!” an apparent reference to the dismantling of settler outposts in the West Bank.
Book reveals 2 fathers linked by grief to 2015 Paris attacks
AP, Paris
Lola Salines happily accepted the last-minute concert ticket from a friend the night of Nov. 13, 2015. At 28, the Parisian had already created her own brand at a prestigious French publishing house, frequently took her lunch break to swim laps at the local pool with her father and was dating the coach of her amateur roller derby team. Her father wistfully described it as “a time of excitement and happiness.”
She and Samy Amimour were the same age, born in the same city. And after he and two other Islamic State gunmen stormed the Bataclan concert hall that night, opening fire on a crowd of music lovers and killing 90, it became terribly clear how little he and Lola had in common. Both died that night, Lola of gunshot wounds and Samy and the two other extremists in a hail of bullets and explosions after police stormed the building.
