Pakistan shuts U.S.-funded radio station

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani authorities on Friday closed the offices of a U.S. governmentfunded radio station whose broadcasts it said were “against the interests of Pakistan,” dealing another blow to relations with the United States.

The Pakistani interior ministry said that Radio Mashaal portrayed the country as “a hub of terrorism” and “a failed state” that could not provide security for its people, particularly religious minorities and long-term refugees from Afghanistan.

The ministry said it shut the organization’s Islamabad office on the recommendations of InterServices Intelligence, the spy agency of the Pakistani military, which has been the target of criticism from President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration this month announced that the U.S. would withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance because of Pakistan’s inability to crack down on militant groups that travel across the border to attack U.S.led coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Mr. Trump has accused Pakistan, which has accepted $33 billion in U.S. funds to fight terrorism since 2002, of “lies and deceit.”

Pence off to Middle East

WASHINGTON— Vice President Mike Pence left Friday for a Middle East trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel.

Mr. Pence said he was hopeful that President Donald Trump’s decision last month to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will help, not hinder, efforts to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians. He said he hoped the U.S. can soon repair its relationship with Palestinian President MahmoudAbbas, who said earlier this week that the U.S. can no longer serve as a fair mediator in the peace process.

Offensive ‘destabilizing’

WASHINGTON— The Trump administration on Friday branded as “destabilizing” a Turkish military offensive against a Kurdish-held region in neighboring Syria, threatening to further inflame tensions between Turkey and Syria, two NATO allies.

But U.S. officials also scrambled to backtrack from a U.S. military plan to recruit and train a 30,000-member local security force on Syria’s northern border with Turkey.

Turkish officials were furious at the U.S. proposal, in part because Kurdish soldiers would make up most of the force, and warned it would cause irreparable damage to U.S.-Turkish ties.

While American forces battling the Islamic State group have valued Kurds as a fighting force, Turkey regards most Kurdish militias to be a terrorist threat.

Deaths in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India — Rival troops shelled villages and border posts for a third day Friday along the volatile frontier between India and Pakistan in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Indian officials said two civilians, an army soldier anda paramilitary soldier died and at least 24 civiliansand two soldiers were injured in Indian-controlled Kashmir. According to Pakistani officials, Indian fire on Friday killed acivilian and wounded nine others in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Each country blamed the other for initiating the violence.