NEWS OF THE DAY
Kabul fire: Residents of the Afghan capital grappled on Friday with the aftermath of a massive fire that destroyed hundreds of stores overnight at a market in central Kabul, incinerating businesses and leaving an apocalyptic scene of disaster in its wake. No casualties were reported but the loss was estimated in the millions of dollars. Firefighters were still struggling, pouring water over smoldering flames in daylight Friday, more than 13 hours after the blaze started at the city’s largest market for electronic goods and home appliances. What started as an apparent electrical fire began shortly after 6 p.m. on Thursday, after stores had closed for the night. The blaze roared through shop after shop before firefighters were able to contain it. They struggled with an erratic supply of water, drawn from water lines with very little pressure.
“Father of Taliban”: Pakistani police and the family of cleric Maulana Samiul Haq, 81, who also was known as the “father of the Taliban,” say he has been killed in a knife attack at his home Friday in the city of Rawalpindi. Yousaf Shah, Haq’s spokesman, said the attacker’s identity and motive were not immediately known. Haq was the head of his faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam party. The religious scholar was also the founder of the famous Haqqani seminary, where many Taliban leaders were graduates — including the founder of the Taliban, the late Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Sanctions lifted: Turkey and the U.S. on Friday lifted sanctions on senior government officials that had been imposed during the diplomatic standoff over the arrest of American pastor Andrew Brunson. The Treasury Department said it was lifting the sanctions on Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, while Turkey removed its retaliatory measures against Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The moves follow the release last month of Brunson, who spent two years in prison and faced the possibility of a life sentence on terrorism charges that he called “ridiculous.” Brunson had lived in Turkey as a missionary for more than two decades when he was arrested following a failed coup against President Recep Erdogan in 2016.
Anti-Semitism probe: British police have launched a criminal investigation into allegations of anti-Semitic hate crimes within the opposition Labor Party. Metropolitan Police said Friday that it is acting on a dossier given to London police chief Cressida Dick following an interview on LBC radio. The internal Labor Party dossier details social media postings by party members, including one posting that read: “We shall rid the Jews who are a cancer on us all.” Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has over the past couple of years struggled to rebut persistent charges of anti-Semitism in his party ranks, including complaints raised by some party legislators who are Jewish.
Restrained protest: The militant group Hamas says protests along the Gaza-Israel border fence have been scaled down to give diplomatic efforts a chance. Only a few thousand Palestinians rallied at the frontier on Friday. Israeli gunfire wounded seven protesters, health officials said — the lowest casualty figures reported since the weekly demonstrations began in March. Khalil alHayya, a Hamas official, says his Islamic group is “testing” Egyptian-led efforts to broker a ceasefire to ease an 11-year-old blockade on Gaza.