Taliban operatives arrested

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan intelligence agency said Saturday that Afghan special forces had arrested a Taliban operative responsible for two major attacks in Kabul. And in a separate operation, agents apprehended a university professor whom they described as a top recruiter for the Islamic State.

In a statement, the Afghan National Directorate of Security said the Taliban operative, Mohammad Sharif, was the mastermind behind a truck bombing that killed 150 people in Kabul’s diplomatic area in May 2017. He also was accused of planning a suicide bombing last November that killed five employees of a multinational security company.

Officials said Mr. Sharif had studied at a madrasa in Quetta, Pakistan, where the Afghan Taliban leadership is based. He was arrested along with two Taliban members accused of helping in the two attacks, intelligence officials said.

Still held in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — A Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan has been transferred from a secret location near the capital to another in Karachi but is still unable to leave the country to join her daughters in Canada, a friend said Saturday.

Aman Ullah, who spoke to Aasia Bibi by telephone Friday, said the 54-year-old Ms. Bibi is being held in a room in the port city. He said Ms. Bibi, who faces death threats by radical Islamists, is frustrated, uncertain of when she will be able to leave Pakistan.

Aid ready for Venezuela

CUCUTA, Colombia — Dozens of volunteers prepared sacks of rice, canned tuna and protein-rich biscuits for malnourished children at a warehouse on the Colombian border on Friday as Venezuela’s opposition vowed to deliver the U.S. humanitarian aid to their troubled nation, even if it means mounting a mobilization of their countrymen to carry it in.

As the food and hygiene kits were packed into individual white bags in the city of Cucuta, just across the river from Venezuela, U.S. officials and Venezuelan opposition leaders appealed to the military to the let the aid through.

The emergency supplies have become the focus of Venezuela’s struggle between President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido.