Complete shutdown being observed in occupied Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: A complete shutdown due a strike and curfew restrictions is being observed in the Indian occupied Kashmir on Sunday against the killing of  and 11 other youth by Indian troops.

Resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik had given a two-day strike call in the valley against the killings and use of brute force on civilians by troops.

All shops and other businesses are closed while traffic is off the road.

Curfew and other restrictions have been imposed in Srinagar, Pulwama, Shopian, Islamabad, Gandarbal and other districts of the territory.

The authorities also ordered closure of schools and colleges in Srinagar and other parts of the territory on Monday in view of protests against the killing of Sabzar Ahmad Butt and 11 other youth.

Key Kashmiri leaders Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had been placed under house arrest while Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Advocate Shahid-ul-Islam, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Ayaz Akbar, Altaf AhmedShah, Muhammad Ashraf Laya and Hilal Ahmed War were detained.

Two men killed in Oregon train stabbings after anti-Muslim rant

PORTLAND: A man fatally stabbed two passengers aboard a Portland, Oregon, commuter train after they tried to stop him from harassing two young women who appeared to be Muslim, police said on Saturday.
Police identified the assailant, who was arrested soon after the Friday afternoon attack, as Jeremy Joseph Christian of
Portland, a 35-year-old convicted felon.
A senior researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center, in a blog post, said Christian´s Facebook page showed he held "some
racist and other extremist beliefs.
"The attack unfolded hours before the start of Ramadan, Islam´s holy month, when most of the world´s 1.6 billion Muslims
observe a daily religious fast.
Christian started shouting ethnic and religious slurs, apparently at the two young women, one of whom wore a Muslim
head-covering, the Portland Police Department said in a statement.
Three men who intervened were stabbed.
Ricky John Best, 53, of Happy Valley, Oregon died at the scene, while Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, of Southeast Portland died at a hospital, police said.
A third victim, Micah David-Cole Fletcher of 21, Southeast Portland, remained in a local hospital with
serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Christian was booked on two counts of aggravated murder and charges of attempted murder, intimidation and being a felon in
possession of a restricted weapon, and was ordered held without bail.
His arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday.The women, who had left the train before officers arrived, were later in contact with authorities, according to police, who have not released their identities.
Dyjuana Hudson, the mother of one of them, told The Oregonian newspaper her 16-year-old daughter, who is black,
boarded the train with a Muslim friend, also a teenager, who was wearing a hijab. The attacker approached the girls while screaming at them, Hudson told the newspaper, relaying an account her daughter had given her.
"He was saying that Muslims should die," Hudson said. On Friday police said detectives wanted to speak to the two
women.
A detective later took a statement from her family, Hudson told the paper.
She could not be reached for comment.
Police declined to release details of Christian´s criminal history, but the newspaper reported he had been convicted of
robbery, kidnapping and weapon charges, citing court records.
It was not immediately clear if he had obtained an attorney.
The suspect had no known affiliation with a criminal gang member nor any mental health history, police said.
In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations blamed an increase in anti-Muslim incidents in part on President
Donald Trump´s focus on militant Islamist groups and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
The administration has said that while it strongly opposes Islamist militants, it has no quarrel with Islam.
A Facebook page that appears to belong to Christian mentions "Jihadi Muslims" among people he disliked.
The image on the page matches a photo of Christian released by police.

White House shaken as Russia probe pierces Trump´s inner circle

WASHINGTON: The probe into Russia´s role in the US election pierced the innermost circle of the White House Saturday, with reports that Donald Trump´s son-in-law sought a secret communications line with Moscow -- the most damning allegation yet from the scandal.

The latest furor was stirred up after the Washington Post reported late Friday that Jared Kushner -- arguably Trump´s closest White House aide, and husband to the president´s eldest daughter Ivanka -- made a pre-inauguration proposal to the Russian ambassador to set up a secret, bug-proof communications line with the Kremlin.

Kushner, 36, went so far as to suggest using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States to protect such a channel from being monitored, The Post said, quoting US officials briefed on intelligence reports.

The revelation, if confirmed, would raise new questions about the Trump team´s relationship with the Russians, who US intelligence agencies say tried to sway the November election in Trump´s favor and thus deny Hillary Clinton the presidency.

News reports said the White House, reeling from the latest explosive developments in the longrunning Russia saga, is creating a new rapid-fire communications unit to respond to the controversy, led by Kushner, senior presidential adviser Steve Bannon and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

- ´Sinister´ -

"This is now sinister. There is no way this can be explained, from the intelligence perspective," said Malcolm Nance, a retired naval officer and expert on terrorism and intelligence, speaking on MSNBC late Friday.

"That is indicative of espionage activity of an American citizen that is working in league with a hostile government," Nance said.

The Washington Post said Kushner´s secret communications proposal was made December 1 or 2 at Trump Tower in New York, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by US officials.

Michael Flynn, who was Trump´s national security adviser for just 24 days before being fired amid questions about meetings he held with the Russian ambassador, was also at the meeting, the newspaper reported.

The Post said Kushner´s Russian interlocutor, ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak, reportedly was surprised by the future White House aide´s idea of a secret channel and passed it on to the Kremlin. It did not specify what, if anything, came of Kushner´s alleged pitch.

The White House on Saturday declined to comment on the report.

"We´re not going to comment on Jared, we´re just not going to comment," said Gary Cohn, Trump´s chief economic adviser, during a press conference in Italy as the president´s first overseas visit was winding down.

The White House also faces a cascade of other worries related to the Russia probe in the coming week.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has "asked President Trump´s political organization to gather and produce all Russia-related documents, emails and phone records going back to his campaign´s launch in June 2015," The Post reported.

Fired former FBI director James Comey has promised to testify at an open session before the Senate Intelligence Committee, sometime after Monday´s Memorial Day holiday.

And in another reported development, The New York Times reported on Friday that Oleg Deripaska, a Russian once close to Trump´s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, has offered to cooperate with congressional bodies probing alleged Russian election meddling.

- Not yet a ´target´ -

Kushner, like his father-in-law, is a wealthy businessman and heir to a family-run New York real estate empire.

A man of few words who is never far from the president´s side, Kushner boasts an enormous portfolio of domestic and international responsibilities underscoring his importance as Trump´s chief aide-de-camp, despite having no experience in the world of politics before the 2016 race.

He is the only person currently in the White House known to be under investigation.

But there have been a number of as yet unexplained contacts -- during last year´s presidential campaign and afterward -- between other top Trump aides and senior Russian officials, including Flynn, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Manafort and others.

The Post reported earlier that investigators are focusing on meetings Kushner held in December with Moscow´s ambassador and the head of a Russian bank that has been under US sanctions since 2014. Kushner has offered to talk to Congress about these meetings, according to his lawyer.

The Post and other media have been careful to note that their sources did not say Kushner was a "target" of the investigation, nor that he was accused of any wrongdoing. Labeling him a "target" would suggest Kushner was a main suspect of the investigation.

The investigation is being led by Robert Mueller, a respected former FBI director who was given broad powers to pursue the case as a special counsel after Trump abruptly fired Comey on May 9.

The Senate and House Intelligence committees also are investigating, but not with an eye to bringing criminal charges.

Former CIA director John Brennan revealed this week that intelligence chiefs had been looking into suspicious contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials since mid-2016.

Trump has denied any collusion with Russia, calling the probe "the greatest witch hunt" in American political history.

India´s Muslim meat traders plan legal action over new rules

NEW DELHI: Indian meat traders plan to take the government to court over new rules banning the trading of cattle including buffalo for slaughter, calling it a move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s administration to hurt the business run mainly by Muslims.

The environment ministry said this week that animal markets will only be able to trade in cattle meant for agricultural purposes, the biggest blow yet for meat suppliers facing several reverses under Modi´s three-year old Hindu nationalist
government.

The slaughter of cows, considered holy in Hinduism, is banned in most Indian states and laws on the issue have become more stringent over the past few years.

Muslims, who make up 14 percent of India´s 1.3 billion people, dominate the Indian meat industry.

India is the biggest seller of buffalo meat in the world, with exports of more than $4 billion a year to countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Egypt.

But that could change following the government´s May 23 notification regarding changes to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, made public on Friday.

It requires owners to declare that cattle have not "been brought to market for sale for slaughter" and for market committees to verify that the buyer is an "agriculturist by seeing the relevant revenue document".

The new rules define cattle as bulls, cows, buffalo, steers, heifers, calves and camels.

"The business is dead," said Aqil Qureshi, president of the Delhi Buffalo Traders´ Welfare Association who runs a slaughterhouse outside the city and sells hides to leather companies.

"We will take legal help, we will hit the streets.

Who does not fight for their livelihood?"The environment ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the regulation was to protect "animals from cruelty and not to regulate the existing trade in cattle for slaughter houses".

Animals for slaughter will have to be bought from farmers directly, it said.
Abdul Faheem Qureshi, a lawyer in the southern city of Hyderabad and head of the All India Jamiatul Quresh Action Committee, said direct buying was "not always practical" and that he was drafting a court appeal after meeting with many of his "shocked" trader clients.

Al Faheem Meatex, an exporter in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said buying buffalo directly from farmers was likely to raise costs, given stringent norms on cattle transportation.

"It will raise costs for us but what else can we do?" the company said.
"We will see if we can get some relief from the court.

"Qureshi said the new law would only embolden cow vigilantism groups.

Muslims have been assaulted by Hindu hardliners over the past few years on suspicion of eating beef or illegally transporting cattle.

GVL Narasimha Rao, a spokesman for Modi´s Bharatiya Janata Party, had no immediate comment.

Government spokesman Frank Noronha did not respond to requests for comment.

UK security threat level lowered as police close on bomber´s suspected network

LONDON: Britain lowered its security threat level to "severe" on Saturday following significant activity by police investigating the suicide bomb attack on a pop concert in Manchester, Prime Minister Theresa May said.

Earlier, police hunting a suspected network behind Salman Abedi, the bomber who killed 22 people on Monday night, said they had made two further arrests overnight as they closed in on other possible cell members.

May said this meant that the independent body which sets the threat level had decided it should be lowered from its highest rating "critical", which means an attack could be imminent, to "severe".

As a result, soldiers who have been assisting police, would be withdrawn from Britain´s streets from midnight on Monday.

"A significant amount of police activity has taken place over the last 24 hours and there are now 11 suspects in custody," May said.

"The public should be clear about what this means.

A threat level of severe means an attack is highly likely.

The country should remain vigilant.

"The threat assessment has now been returned to the level it was at prior to the Manchester attack.

Officers said they had used a controlled explosion to gain entry to an address in the north of the city where two men were detained on Saturday.

Some hours later, police cordoned off a large area in the Moss Side area of south Manchester and houses were evacuated with a bomb disposal unit sent to the scene.

A man working in a local shop, who declined to be named, told Reuters he saw three men being taken away from the address.

"As part of an ongoing search at a property in Moss Side an evacuation is currently being carried in the area," police said in a statement.

On Friday, Britain´s most senior counter-terrorism officer said police were confident that they had made "immense" progress and had apprehended a "large part of the network".

However, extra armed officers will be on duty across the country with security stepped up at some 1,300 events over the long holiday weekend.

The Times newspaper reported on Saturday that intelligence officers had identified 23,000 jihahist extremists living in Britain.

Earlier this week a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters the security services were managing 500 active operations involving some 3,000 people who were thought to pose a threat.

Cargo plane crashes near Mount Everest, 3 injured

KATHMANDU: A cargo plane crashed Saturday as it was trying to land at a small airport near Mount Everest, seriously injuring the two pilots and hostess on board, officials said.
All three crew members were pulled alive from the wreckage of the plane, which broke into three pieces when it crashed as it was attempting to land at Lukla airport in heavy fog.
"A cargo plane has crashed in Lukla and we are trying to get more details. It crashed on approach to the airport," Sagar Acharya of Summit Air, which operates the aircraft.
"The three crew members have been taken to hospital. We are not yet sure what caused the accident," he added.
Local media reported that the three crew members were in a serious condition.
Lukla airport -- commonly nicknamed the most dangerous airport in the world -- in the main gateway to the Everest region and sees thousands of trekkers and climbers pass through it each year.
Nepal has a poor air safety record, which is largely blamed on inadequate maintenance, inexperienced pilots and poor management.
Two deadly plane crashes last year claimed at least 25 lives, the first when a passenger plane slammed into a mountainside and the second when a small aircraft crash-landed killing the two pilots.
Despite the risks, air travel is popular in Nepal, which has a limited road network. Many communities, particularly in the mountains and hills, are accessible only by foot or by air.
All Nepal airlines are banned from flying to the European Union because their poor safety standards.

Taliban suicide bomber kills at least 18 in Afghanistan

KHOST, Afghanistan: A suicide car bomber killed at least 18 people in the eastern Afghan city of Khost on Saturday, officials said, in the first major insurgent attack at the start of the holy fasting month of Ramazan.
The attack is the latest in a series of assaults on Western-backed forces as the Taliban step up their annual spring offensive and the insurgency expands more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion.
"A suicide car bomb in Khost province has killed 18 people and wounded six others, including two children," said interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish.
"The target was a public bus station which was hit by the bombing. The victims were in civilian clothes and it is difficult to verify their identities at this stage."
But provincial police chief Faizullah Ghairat said the victims were civilians and members of the elite Khost Provincial Force (KPF) -- known to be paid and equipped by the American CIA.
"The bombing took place early morning when KPF members were heading to work," Ghairat told AFP.
The KPF, estimated to have around 4,000 fighters, are known to operate a shadow war against the Taliban in a province that borders Pakistan and are accused of torture and extrajudicial killings.
The brazen attack comes just a day after at least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their base in Kandahar, in the third major insurgent assault this week on the military in the southern province.
The assault in Shah Wali Kot district followed insurgent raids earlier this week on military bases in the same area and Maiwand district, bringing the death toll among Western-backed troops to around 60.
The battlefield losses mark a stinging blow for NATO-backed Afghan forces and have raised concerns about their capacity to beat back the resurgent Taliban.
Afghan forces are beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.
During another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.
The pleas for attention, a major embarrassment for the Western-backed government, highlighted the disarray in security ranks.
The Taliban launched their annual spring offensive in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.
The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.

State Department quietly lifts limit on refugees entering the US

NEW YORK: The U.S. State Department quietly lifted its restriction this week on how many refugees are allowed to enter the U.S. despite efforts by the Trump administration to scale back refugee resettlements, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Jennifer Smith, a department official, reportedly notified refugee groups of the decision Thursday in an email stating that they could begin bringing refugees to the U.S. "unconstrained by the weekly quotas that were in place."
Many of the organizations that received the email are private agencies that help guide individuals hoping to enter the country through the two-year U.S. application process.
The number of refugees entering the U.S. could double as a result of the lifted restrictions, refugee advocates told the newspaper.
The leap could go from 830 a week for the first three weeks of May to over 1,500 a week by next month.
While the lifted restriction occurred on the same day that a Virginia-based federal appeals court handed down a ruling that blocked President Donald Trump's travel ban targeting six-majority Muslim countries, the decision is not related to the ruling, the Times said.
Congress passed a spending bill last fall that tightly constrained the budget for the State Department's refugee resettlement programme.
The spending bill passed earlier this month, however, does not impose any limits on refugee admissions.
A State Department spokeswoman told the Times that State consulted with the Justice Department about its refugee quotes before making the decision to adjust them.
Refugee advocates were delighted by the State Departmen's decision.
"This is long overdue, but we'e very happy," Mark Hetfield, president and chief executive of HIAS, an immigrant aid society, said.
But many of the advocates said they were worried that any reprieve would be temporary.
"The president's proposed budget cuts for 2018 would mean we would have a much smaller programme next year no matter what happens with his executive orders," Erol Kekic, executive director of the immigration and refugee program at Church World Service, said.
Perhaps even more worrisome, refugee advocates said they had seen a slowdown in security screenings by the Department of Homeland Security, whose checks are required for refugees to enter the United States.
Still, even Republicans in Congress have said that few of Trump's proposed budget cuts to foreign aid and the State Department's budget would be adopted into law.
In a visit this week to Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, Nikki R. Haley, the United Nations ambassador, all but urged Congress to reverse Trump's proposed cuts in aid to refugees.

Pakistani-origin Sophia, the first female Muslim mayor of UK’s Rushmoor

LONDON: Sophia Choudhary, the Pakistani-origin British Councillor has become the first female Muslim Mayor of Rushmoor Borough Council of the United Kingdom.
Sophia Choudhary belongs to Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Former mayor Councillor Jacqui Vosper handed over the charge to Sophia in a ceremony here. Family of Sophia, her friends, council members and people from Pakistani British Community attended the ceremony.
Talking to Geo TV, she hoped to take forward the work she has done with charities.
Sophia also remarked she had fulfilled her parents’ wishes.
Saleem Choudhary, Sophia’s father, has also served as Mayor of Rushmoor Borough Council in 2002.

Indian troops martyr 11 Kashmiri youth in IoK

SRINAGAR: The Indian security forces, in their fresh acts of state terrorism, martyred 11 Kashmiri youth including top Hizbul Mujahideen Commander, Sabzar Ahmed Butt in Baramulla and Pulwama districts of occupied Kashmir.
Kashmir Media Services reported that the Indian troops martyred eight youth in Rampur and Uri areas of Baramulla and three others at Saimoh in Tral area of Pulwama.
Indian army claimed that the youth were killed in encounters with troops. However, independent sources said that Sabzar Ahmed Butt and his associates were arrested first and later killed in custody, the KMS said.
Earlier, people staged forceful demonstrations in Saimoh and its adjoining areas for the release of Sabzar Ahmed and his two associates. Indian police and troops fired teargas shells and pellets to disperse the demonstrators, triggering clashes between the protesters and the forces’ personnel.
Dozens of people were injured during clashes.
The residents of Saimoh said that the forces also destroyed two residential houses. They said that the troops also went berserk and broke windowpanes of mosques and residential houses.