Trump extends warms wishes as Muslims prepare to observe Ramazan

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Trump extended best wishes at the start of the holy month of Ramazan as Muslims in America, Europe and the Middle East prepare to begin the month of fasting.
In his message, he reiterated that America will always stand with its partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it. He asked to make a resolve during the month of Ramazan to spare no efforts to ensure that future generations is free of the scourge of terrorism and be able to worship in peace.
“I extend my best wishes to Muslims everywhere for a blessed month as you observe the Ramazan traditions of charity, fasting, and prayer. May God bless you and your families,” President Trump said in a message issued by the White House.
“At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict,” he added.
President Trump said that as the Muslims in most parts of the world prepare for the holy month of Ramadan, the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramazan.
He said that such attacks only strengthen the resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology.
President Trump recalled his recent visit to Saudi Arabia to attend a summit which was attended by the heads of state and government of 50 Muslim countries and said that leaders gathered there to deliver an emphatic message of partnership for the sake of peace, security, and prosperity for our countries and for the world.
He assured that America will always stand with its partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it. “During this month of Ramazan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace,” he added.

India opens its longest bridge near China border

TINSUKIA, India: India opened its longest bridge close to the border with China in a move seen as bolstering its defences in a sensitive region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked the third anniversary of his rule by inaugurating the 9.1 kilometre (5.7 mile) long Dhola-Sadiya bridge over the Brahmaputra river that will link Assam and Arunachal Pradesh states.
Indian media Friday made much of the fact that the bridge has been built to support the weight of a 60 tone tank.
"This bridge will not only save time and money, but it will bring about a new economical revolution for the people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh," Modi said.
The structure in mountainous Arunachal Pradesh, he said, will help farmers transport crops and herbs to markets in Assam.
Experts say the $318 million project will consolidate New Delhi´s defences in the region.
"The bridge is going to help our troops get to parts that were earlier difficult to reach in times of crises," Ajit Singh, a defence research fellow at New Delhi´s Institute for Conflict Management, told AFP.
"It´s a step in the right direction, a proactive step by India to counterbalance China."
Indian government is also constructing a 2,000-kilometre highway to connect the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh to the western side at an estimated $6 billion cost. It is carrying out a study on a possible new railway network in the area.
Earlier governments refused to construct roads near the border, fearing they could be used by Chinese troops in a conflict.
But in 2014, Modi eased rules on building roads and army facilities near the 4,056 kilometre-long (2,520 mile) border in Arunachal Pradesh, signalling a shift in India´s strategic policy.
Relations between India and China are dogged by mistrust stemming from a brief border war in 1962 over Arunachal Pradesh which has a large ethnic Tibetan population.
The two sides regularly accuse each other of border incursions.
China and India ties soured this month when India boycotted a Beijing summit in opposition to a Chinese-Pakistani economic corridor that runs through Azad Kashmir.
Last month, China protested after India let Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama visit Arunachal Pradesh.

India issues terror alert in Delhi, Mumbai

NEW DELHI: Indian security and intelligence agencies have issued a terror alert about possible attack by militants in New Delhi, Mumbai and some areas of Punjab and Rajasthan.
According to Indian intelligence agencies, a group of 20 to 21 militants have entered the aforementioned areas and divided themselves into smaller groups.
The Times of India said police have issued an advisory to ensure tight monitoring and strengthened anti-terror measures at Metro and railway stations, airports, hotels popular among tourists, crowded markets, religious places and stadiums in Delhi, said the advisory.
Indian officials suspect the terrorists may carry out a medium intensity blast by a suicide bomber at a crowded location.
Police have also been asked to conduct proper frisking and checking, besides tightening security.

Trump son-in-law had undisclosed contacts with Russian envoy

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, seven current and former U.S. officials told Reuters.
Those contacts included two phone calls between April and November last year, two of the sources said. By early this year, Kushner had become a focus of the FBI investigation into whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, said two other sources - one current and one former law enforcement official.
Kushner initially had come to the attention of FBI investigators last year as they began scrutinizing former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s connections with Russian officials, the two sources said.
While the FBI is investigating Kushner’s contacts with Russia, he is not currently a target of that investigation, the current law enforcement official said.
The new information about the two calls as well as other details uncovered by Reuters shed light on when and why Kushner first attracted FBI attention and show that his contacts with Russian envoy Sergei Kislyak were more extensive than the White House has acknowledged.
NBC News reported on Thursday that Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI, in the first sign that the investigation, which began last July, has reached the president’s inner circle.
The FBI declined to comment, while the Russian embassy said it was policy not to comment on individual diplomatic contacts. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Kushner's attorney, Jamie Gorelick, said Kushner did not remember any calls with Kislyak between April and November.
"Mr Kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period. He has no recollection of the calls as described. We have asked (Reuters) for the dates of such alleged calls so we may look into it and respond, but we have not received such information," she said.
In March, the White House said that Kushner and Flynn had met Kislyak at Trump Tower in December to establish “a line of communication.” Kislyak also attended a Trump campaign speech in Washington in April 2016 that Kushner attended. The White House did not acknowledge any other contacts between Kushner and Russian officials.

Tears and anger as Egyptian Copts bury attack victims

DEIR EL JERNOUS, Egypt: Mourners sang, women sobbed and men cried out in anger in a packed Egyptian church at the funeral of some of the 28 Coptic Christians killed in Friday´s bus attack.
Eight wooden coffins were lined up in front of the altar, each bearing a golden cross and a white piece of paper printed with the name of the victim inside.
Relatives of the dead -- men in long flowing robes and women dressed in black -- pressed their faces to the coffins in a final farewell.
They had been among 28 people gunned down by masked gunmen as they travelled in a bus to the Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province south of the Egyptian capital.
Outside the church, a man brandishing a big wooden cross was carried on the shoulders of a friend.
"With our soul, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the Cross," people around him shouted.
Friday´s was the latest attack on Copts after Islamic State (IS) group jihadists bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.
It came after jihadists had threatened more strikes against the Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt´s 90-million population.
No claim of responsibility has yet been made.
For some among the Coptic community, authorities are not doing enough to protect them.
"I tell (Abdel Fattah al-)Sisi, you will have to account for your action in heaven," said Reda Makary of the president and former army chief.
His nephew Nassef, a 28-year-old labourer, was killed in Friday´s attack.
"Of course there is no security. If there were, they wouldn´t have been killed," said Makary, adding that his nephew had become a father for a third time just two months earlier.

Clinton delivers stinging attack on Trump at graduation speech

NEW YORK: Hillary Clinton launched a stinging attack on Donald Trump Friday, obliquely comparing him to former president Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 to escape impeachment, and savaging the Republican assault on fact-based politics.
The defeated Democratic presidential nominee made her remarks in a commencement address at her alma mater Wellesley College, a women´s liberal arts college in Massachusetts, 48 years after her own graduation.
Never once uttering Trump´s name, she urged the class of 2017 to get politically and socially involved, saying that the future of America depends on "brave, thoughtful people like you insisting on truth and integrity."
Coughing at one point before being passed a bottle of water and continuing briefly in a hoarse voice, the former secretary of state who made history as the first US woman to win a major party nomination for president was frequently interrupted by applause.
"Now, you may have heard that things didn´t exactly go the way I planned, but you know what? I´m doing ok," she said of her electoral defeat. "I won´t lie, Chardonnay helped a little too," she added to roars of delight.
Clinton implicitly compared Trump to Nixon, the Republican president brought down by the Watergate scandal. He sacked his attorney general in a move some have compared to Trump´s firing of FBI director James Comey, who was investigating Russian interference in last year´s election and possible collusion by Trump´s campaign.
The former first lady said her class of 1969 was "furious" about the then-recent election of Nixon, "a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice."
"You are graduating at a time when there is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason. Just log on to social media for 10 seconds it will hit you right in the face," she said.
"People denying science, concocting elaborate hurtful conspiracy theories... Drumming up rampant fear about undocumented immigrants, Muslims, minorities, the poor," she added.
"Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes, like the size of crowds," she said, again alluding to but not naming Trump, who falsely accused the news media last January of misrepresenting the size of his inauguration crowds. "Then defending themselves by talking about quote unquote alternative facts."
Clinton called Trump´s proposed federal budget "an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable" that "grossly underfunds" public education, mental health care, efforts to combat America´s opioid epidemic and threatens to worsen climate change.
"It matters because if our leaders lie about the problems we face, we´ll never solve them. It matters because it undermines confidence in government as a whole."
Much of her speech was a rallying cry for graduates to get politically involved and engaged with their communities.
"In the years to come, there will trolls galore, online and in-person, eager to tell you that you don´t have anything worthwhile to say or anything meaningful to contribute, they may even call you a nasty woman," she said.
"You don´t have to do everything, but don´t sit on the sidelines."

Indian army can abduct, rape women, says Indian politician

Kodiyeri BalaKrishnan, a leader of Communist Party of India, has said Indian army was free to abduct and rape women if given additional powers, a day after defence Minister Arun Jaitley said armed forces have been given a free-hand to take decision in “war-like situations”
According to Indian media, the Communist Party Kerala Secretary courted controversy by his “shocking remarkrs” against country’s armed forces.
"They (army) can do anything to anybody. If they see more than four people standing together, they can shoot them...They can take any woman and rape her, nobody has the right to question them. This is the state wherever the army is," Balakrishnan was quoted by local media as saying.
 The Indian army has long committed atrocities in occupied Kashmir, killing thousands of people in the Valley.
An Indian army officer recently tied a Kashmiri man to his jeeb to use him as a human shield against stone pelting protesters.
Instead of punishing the officer, Indian army chief honored him for the act that drew strong criticism from human rights activists and Kashmiri politicians.

Chinese jets intercept U.S surveillance plane

Two Chinese fighter jets carried out an intercept of a U.S. military surveillance plane near Hong Kong on Wednesday, with one coming within 200 yards of the American aircraft, U.S. officials told Reuters.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said initial reports showed that the U.S. P-3 surveillance plane was 150 miles South East of Hong Kong in international air space when the aircraft carried out an unsafe intercept of the plane.
One Chinese aircraft flew in front of the American plane, restricting it's ability to maneuver.
A U.S. Navy warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built up by China in the South China Sea, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, the first such challenge to Beijing in the strategic waterway since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.

Trump uses Ramadan message to urge end to violence

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump wished Muslims "a joyful Ramadan," on Friday, urging them to use the holy month to reject violence by Islamist extremists.

"On behalf of the American people, I would like to wish all Muslims a joyful Ramadan," said Trump, who is winding up a first overseas trip as president that included a stop in Saudi Arabia.

"This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan," said the US leader, who campaigned last year on a pledge to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

"Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology," he said in his message to the world´s estimated 1.6 billion Muslims.

Trump said that when he met dozens of leaders of Muslim countries in the Saudi capital Riyadh, he had vowed to stand with them to counter "terrorism and the ideology that fuels it."

"During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace," said Trump, whose revised travel ban on half a dozen Muslim-majority countries was once again rejected by a US court this week on grounds of religious discrimination.

"At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict," he said.

During Ramadan, Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk. The month is sacred to Muslims because tradition says it marks the period when the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

The presidential statement concluded by saying, "I extend my best wishes to Muslims everywhere for a blessed month as you observe the Ramadan traditions of charity, fasting, and prayer. May God bless you and your families."

´Large part´ of Manchester attack network held: police

LONDON: A "large part" of the network behind Monday´s suicide bomb attack at a pop concert in Manchester has been arrested, the head of Britain´s counter-terrorism police said on Friday.

Police believe they have "got hold of a large part of the network," Mark Rowley said, adding that there had been "immense" progress in the investigation.