(KABUL, Afghanistan) — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived Sunday in Afghanistan, where stalled peace talks with the Taliban and persistent violent attacks by the insurgent group and Islamic State militants have complicated the Trump administration’s pledge to withdraw more than 5,000 American troops.

Esper told reporters traveling with him that he believes the U.S. can reduce its force in Afghanistan to 8,600 without hurting the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. But he said any withdrawal would happen as part of a peace agreement with the Taliban.

The U.S. has about 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan as part of the American-led coalition. U.S. forces are training and advising Afghan forces and conducting counterterrorism operations against extremists. President Donald Trump had ordered a troop withdrawal in conjunction with the peace talks that would have left about 8,600 American forces in the country.

U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad had a p..

(MILAN) — Italian authorities evacuated 4,000 people from the center of the northern city of Bolzano on Sunday to defuse a World War II bomb found during construction.

Three experts defused the 500-pound American bomb during a three-hour operation that also forced 60,000 people to stay in their homes and closed sporting complexes and churches, the news agency ANSA reported.

An alarm signaled the all-clear to reopen the city center just before noon, as well as a nearby north-south highway and rail line both connecting Italy with Austria and Germany.

The bomb was found close to the city’s central cathedral and not far from the train station — the likely wartime target — during excavation work for a new shopping center.

The online news site Neue Suedtiroler Tageszeitung said after being defused, the bomb was brought to a secure site nearby for a controlled explosion.

According to historian Ettore Frangipane, Bolzano, in the northern Alto-Adige region bordering Austria, suffered 13 ma..

(AKCAKALE, Turkey) — Kurdish fighters and civilians began evacuating from a besieged Syrian town on Sunday, the first pullback under the U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal, opening the way to a broader withdrawal of the Kurdish-led forces from parts of the Turkish border.

The evacuation is a boost to a cease-fire that has been shaky since it began on Thursday evening. Clashes have erupted daily, with occasional shelling, particularly around Ras al-Ayn, the border town where Kurdish fighters have been encircled by Turkish-led forces.

A local official in Ras al-Ayn told the Associated Press that Kurdish fighters and civilians had begun leaving in convoys. He said it was unsure if it would be completed Sunday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the process.

The cease-fire deal only calls for fighters to leave the border area. But Kurdish civilians flee as well because without their protection they fear atrocities by the Turkish-backed Sy..

Tens of thousands of anti-communist protesters defied an official ban to march through one of Hong Kong’s prime tourist districts Sunday. But what began as a peaceful demonstration followed the usual pattern and degenerated into violence, arson and destruction.

Marchers originally intended to rally at the West Kowloon high-speed rail terminus—a showpiece transport hub, built at a cost of $10.7 billion, connecting the former British colony to mainland Chinese cities. Some parts of the facility are subject to mainland customs and immigration laws and therefore the terminus is seen as a symbol of Beijing’s presence by many protesters, whose push for greater political freedom has taken on an increasingly anti-China tone over five months of unrest.

But the crowds quickly shifted their targets after the march began. The shuttered shopfronts of mainland Chinese businesses were vandalized as the march made its way up the “Golden Mile” of Nathan Road—the prime tourist strip—passing five-star ..