Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Afghans halt release of prisoners, delay talks with Taliban
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government said Monday that it would not release the last 320 Taliban prisoners it is holding until the insurgents free more captured soldiers, defying a traditional council held last week and further delaying intra-Afghan talks sought by the United States.
The talks, laid out in a peace deal signed between the United States and the Taliban in February, were expected to begin Thursday but are now postponed indefinitely.
The U.S.-Taliban peace deal called on the Taliban to free 1,000 government and military personnel and for the government to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The prisoner releases were to be a goodwill gesture ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations aimed at devising a postwar roadmap.
“We are going to release them. That’s not an issue. But it has to be two-way,” said government spokesman Sediq Sediqqi. “If we take this bold step, releasing all these guys, all these bad people, why are the Taliban not releasing our captives, which is a very small number?”
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s political spokesman, said the group had fulfilled its obligations and was not aware of any other security personnel in its custody who were to be released.
The deal with the Taliban is aimed at ending the U.S. war in Afghanistan that began shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. U.S. troops have already begun leaving, and by November, fewer than 5,000 troops are expected to still be in the country. That’s down from nearly 13,000 when the agreement was signed Feb. 29.
Iowa storm: President Donald Trump said Monday he has signed an emergency declaration for Iowa to help supply federal money to help the state recover from an Aug. 10 wind storm.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds filed an expedited presidential major disaster declaration Sunday seeking $3.99 billion.
A derecho with wind gusts exceeding 100 mph destroyed or extensively damaged 8,200 homes and 13 million acres of corn, about a third of the state’s crop land, she said.
The storm left at least three people dead in the state.
Arrests in musician’s killing:
Nearly two decades after the slaying of hip hop star Jam Master Jay, federal prosecutors said Monday they have solved one of New York City’s most enduring unsolved killings, charging two men while suggesting the artist — celebrated for his anti-drug stance — may have been ambushed over a cocaine deal.
The suspects were identified in court papers as Ronald Washington, currently serving a federal prison sentence stemming from a string of robberies committed while on the run from police after Jay’s 2002 death, and Karl Jordan Jr., who is also charged with engaging in an alleged cocaine distribution conspiracy in 2017.
Washington was publicly named as a possible suspect or witness as far back as 2007. Prosecutors allege he waved a handgun and ordered people in Jay’s recording studio to lie on the ground, providing cover while Jordan fatally shot him in the head on Oct. 30, 2002.
Washington and Jordan were engaged in a conspiracy to distribute five kilograms of cocaine at the time of Jay’s killing, according to their indictment. Prosecutors did not say if Jay had any role in the conspiracy.
If convicted, Washington and Jordan each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison, or the death penalty.
Trump’s brother:
President Donald Trump is eyeing a White House funeral service later this week for his younger brother, Robert, who died Saturday in a New York hospital.
“We’re looking at Friday. And we may do just a small service right here at the White House,” Trump told reporters Monday.
Robert Trump, a businessman, was 71.
Trump discussed his brother’s death during a nationally broadcast interview Monday.
“This was not a great weekend. It’s very hard. You knew it was going to happen, but still when it happens, it’s a very tough thing,” the president said on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.”
Former Spanish monarch:
Former monarch Juan Carlos I of Spain has been in the United Arab Emirates since he left his country amid a growing financial scandal, the Spanish royal household said Monday, resolving a twoweek mystery about the ex-king’s whereabouts.
The Spanish government and Royal House officials have been tight-lipped about Juan Carlos’ location since Aug. 3, when he published a letter to his son, King Felipe VI, that said he was moving outside Spain due to the “public repercussions of certain episodes of my past private life.”
The former king, 82, is the target of official investigations in Spain and Switzerland into possible financial wrongdoing.
The spokesman declined to say if the UAE, a federation of seven sheikdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, would be Juan Carlos’ permanent residence.
Rapper qualifies:
Rapper Kanye West has qualified to appear on Utah’s ballot this November as an unaffiliated presidential candidate, an elections official said Monday.
State Elections Director Justin Lee said his office has verified that West’s campaign gathered the necessary 1,000 signatures from registered voters required to appear on the ballot.
West, who once backed Republican President Donald Trump, announced last month that he had broken with Trump and would launch his own presidential bid. His campaign filed paperwork on July 15 with the Federal Election Commission.
West has qualified in several states including Arkansas, Oklahoma and Colorado.
His effort to get on the ballot has been challenged in Wisconsin.
Death Valley sizzles:
California sizzled to a temperature so hot that meteorologists need to verify it as a planet-wide high mark.
Death Valley recorded a scorching 130 degrees Sunday, which if the sensors and other conditions check out, would be the hottest Earth has been in more than 89 years and the thirdwarmest ever measured.
The temperature, measured at Furnace Creek during a blistering heat wave, would be the hottest temperature recorded on Earth in August, said Arizona State University professor Randy Cerveny, who coordinates the World Meteorological Organization’s extreme temperature team, which is investigating the mark.
That mark is below the disputed all-time record of 134 degrees at nearly the same spot in 1913 and 131 degrees in Tunisia in 1931.