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"The U.S. has opened up secret communications with Venezuela's socialist party boss as members of President Nicolas Maduro's inner circle seek guarantees they won't face retribution if they cede to growing demands to remove him, a senior administration official has told The Associated Press."

"A bomb has exploded in a wedding hall in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing 63 people and wounding more than 180. Witnesses told the BBC a suicide bomber detonated explosives during a wedding ceremony."

"For months, Afghans have been waiting anxiously to see whether negotiations between U.S. officials and Taliban insurgents will lead to a lasting peace and a solid path to power-sharing or leave them bereft, facing revived conflict and a possible Taliban takeover."

Authorities in Afghanistan say a massive suicide bomb blast late Saturday inside a packed wedding hall in Kabul "killed and injured dozens of civilians."

"Airstrikes have killed more than two dozen civilians in northwestern Syria in the last two days in an escalation of a Russian-backed offensive against the last major rebel stronghold, a war monitor and local activists said Saturday."

"As the U.S. and the Taliban are on the brink of securing a peace deal that would remove U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan, a new report cautions that Afghan warlords are readying for a potential civil war."

"U.S. military officials in Iraq will now seek out Iraqi approval before launching any air operations, a move made a day after that nation’s prime minister announced a ban of unauthorized flights, including those involving coalition forces fighting ISIS."

The White House says President Donald Trump’s talks with his national security advisers to discuss Afghan peace talks went “very well” and that negotiations with the Taliban “are proceeding.”

"Chinese and Russian warplanes have increasingly nosed around and veered into South Korea’s airspace, conducting close patrols that allow Beijing and Moscow to test the air defenses of the U.S. and its allies in the region."

"The proposed Afghan peace deal presented Friday to President Trump by the administration’s top peace negotiator would accomplish the president’s major goal of beginning to withdraw thousands of U.S. forces from the country, after nearly 18 years of fighting and just over 2,400 U.S. personnel killed."

"President Trump is meeting with his top national-security advisers Friday afternoon to consider a deal with the Taliban that could lead to a significant U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the end of America’s longest military engagement abroad, U.S. officials said."

"U.S. negotiators have made significant advances in recent talks with the Taliban, and the two sides are close to announcing agreement on an initial U.S. troop withdrawal, along with plans to start direct discussions between the militants and the Afghan government, according to U.S. and foreign officials."

"The top American commander in Afghanistan sought to reassure Afghan forces on Thursday that they still had the full backing of the United States, after a report that the support was being dialed back in preparation for an imminent peace deal with the Taliban."

"The Defense and State Departments have yet to evaluate whether the millions spent on training programs for foreign militaries and police to protect human rights are having any effect, according to the Government Accountability Office."

The United States criticized Thursday the government in Afghanistan for releasing from jail and into house arrest a key "fraud perpetrator" before the conclusion of his sentence, allegedly in return for a multimillion-dollar campaign donation.

"Key Afghan warlords have begun preparing for a potential civil war as the U.S. nears an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has observed indicators that Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara leaders are taking steps to mobilize their ethnic communities in preparation for a looming power struggle as the U.S. and NATO leave Afghanistan. Afghan Pashtuns will also soon likely mobilize, if they have not already begun."

Pakistan says three of its soldiers were killed Thursday in clashes with India across the disputed Kashmir border, known as the Line of Control (LoC), amid increasing tensions between the two nations over the Himalayan region. A Pakistani army spokesman claimed five Indian soldiers also were killed in retaliatory fire. Major-General Asif Ghafoor said skirmishes were ongoing intermittently.

"Israel and the United Arab Emirates held secret meetings arranged by the U.S. in recent months to share information and coordinate efforts to counter what they see as the increasing threat posed by Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the clandestine diplomacy."

"A deal between the Taliban and the United States for U.S. forces to withdraw from their longest-ever war in Afghanistan could drive some diehard Taliban fighters into the arms of the Islamic State militant group, Afghan officials and militants say."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that revoking Indian-administered Kashmir of its special status will restore the region to its "past glory" and play an "important role" in the country's development.

"With Taliban-U.S. peace talks failing to reach a hoped-for breakthrough this week, and the insurgents threatening to attack Afghan presidential elections next month, Afghans fear that one or both efforts will fail, leaving the country in political limbo."

Since the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime in 2001, the militant group had sought a channel with Washington. There had been contact between U.S. and Taliban military commanders. But the 2010 meeting, brokered by Germany, was a turning point in the conflict.

"Afghanistan is often called America’s longest war. It would be more accurate to say that Afghanistan is the longest battle in the very long war being waged against America and the West by a motley crew of Islamic supremacist groups and regimes."

"The war in Afghanistan has become America’s longest war not because U.S. security interests necessitate it, nor because the battlefield realities are insurmountable, but because of inertia. Policymakers have shied away from hard truths, fallen victim to specious cognitive biases, and allowed the mission to continue without clear intentions or realistic objectives."

"As the United States appears to be nearing a deal with the Taliban on pulling its troops from Afghanistan, the country’s security forces are in their worst state in years — almost completely on the defensive in much of the country, according to local military commanders and civilian officials."