Orlando buries its dead in wake of gay club massacre

Miami, Jun 18, 2016, AFP:

Orlando turned to burying its dead Friday, with funerals for at least five of the 49 people killed in a massacre at a gay nightclub -- the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

More burials were expected over the weekend as the resort city better known for theme parks like Disney World struggles to recover from the shooting by lone gunman Omar Mateen, who ran amok with a legally purchased assault rifle and pistol and was killed when police stormed the club.

One of those buried Friday was Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, a 25-year-old dancer who traces his heritage to Puerto Rico, the community hardest hit by the massacre.

"He was a very talented dancer who was loved and will be missed by all," his obituary at the Newcomer funeral home read.

Three others buried Friday were also in their 20s, while the fifth was a 50-year-old man, according to local TV station WKOW.

The process of saying goodbye began Wednesday with a wake for Javier Reyes, a 40-year-old salesman also of Puerto Rican origin. The first burial was held Thursday in Kissimmee, an Orlando suburb.

Puerto Rico is grappling with the pain of loss and repatriating the bodies of some 24 islanders whose lives were cut short in the carnage early Sunday at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, which was hosting a Latin party.

Officials say Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in his final hours of life inside the nightclub. But witnesses said he had frequented the gay club in the past and used gay dating apps, raising questions over the motive for the attack.

While Mateen passed a psychological evaluation in 2007 as part of his application to become a security guard, his employer -- US government contractor G4S -- did not give him another one during his nine-year tenure at the firm, despite two FBI inquiries into Mateen in 2013 and 2014, NBC News reported, citing unnamed sources.

CNN, also citing unnamed sources, reported that Mateen recently added his wife Noor Salman to his life insurance policy and gave her access to his bank accounts, suggesting the attacks were premeditated.

Mateen had been disciplined 31 times in elementary school between 1992 and 1999 for disrespectful and sometimes violent behavior, as well as using obscene language, according to local media outlet Treasure Coast News. He was also a very poor student.

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Man charged with murdering British MP

Birstall, Jun 18, 2016, AFP:

Sole suspect Thomas Mair has been charged with murdering British lawmaker Jo Cox and will appear in court later today, police said.

Cox was attacked with a knife and a firearm outside her constituency surgery in the village of Birstall, northern England, today.

Her murder has sent shockwaves through British politics and drawn messages of condolence from around the world, with US President Barack Obama condemning the "heinous" attack.

Campaigning ahead of Thursday's closely-contested referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union remains suspended Saturday as a mark of respect.

Mair, 52, who is from Birstall, a quiet village in the Yorkshire hills, was arrested Thursday close to the scene of the attack.

West Yorkshire Police's Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen, who is leading the investigation, said in a brief statement that Mair had been charged with a string of crimes related to the Labour MP's death.

Mair is due to appear in a central London court later Saturday. "We have now charged a man with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon," he said.

"Thomas Mair, 52, of Birstall, will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court today."

Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn laid bouquets at a massive floral tribute to Cox in Birstall on Friday.

"Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance, we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities," Cameron said.

"Today our nation is rightly shocked," he said.

The White House said Obama offered condolences to Cox's widower and praised her "selfless service". Obama called Brendan Cox while travelling on the Air Force One presidential plane.

"President Obama offered his sincere condolences on behalf of the American people to Mr Cox and his two young children, as well as to her friends, colleagues and constituents," the White House statement said.

"The president noted that the world is a better place because of her selfless service to others, and that there can be no justification for this heinous crime, which robbed a family, a community and a nation of a dedicated wife, mother and public servant."

Cox, a former aid worker who was campaigning for Britain to stay in the EU and also spoke out for Syrian refugees, was killed just a few miles (kilometres) from where she was born.

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UK backs India's NSG bid; offers 'firm support'

London, Jun 17, 2016, (PTI):

British Premier David Cameron has assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the UK's "firm support" for India's NSG membership bid, a boost to the country ahead of the nuclear trading club's crucial meeting next week.

Cameron confirmed Britain's backing for India's membership of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in a telephone call to Modi yesterday.

A Downing Street spokesperson said, "The Prime Minister spoke to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about India's application for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a group of nuclear supplier countries that works together to prevent nuclear proliferation by controlling the export of materials, equipment and technology that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons."

"The Prime Minister confirmed that the UK would firmly support India's application. They agreed that in order for the bid to be successful it would be important for India to continue to strengthen its non-proliferation credentials, including by reinforcing the separation between civil and military nuclear activity," the spokesperson said.

The two leaders also took stock of UK-India ties in their telephonic conversation. "They agreed that the UK-India relationship was going from strength to strength, including through the recent visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William and wife Kate)," the spokesperson said.

India's case for NSG membership is also being strongly pushed by the US, which has written to other members to support India's bid at the plenary meeting of the group expected to be held in Seoul on June 24.

While majority of the elite group backed India's membership, China along with New Zealand, Ireland, Turkey, South Africa and Austria were opposed to India's admission.

China maintains opposition to India's entry, arguing that it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). China wants NSG membership for its close ally Pakistan if NSG extends any exemption for India.

India has asserted that being a signatory to the NPT was not essential for joining the NSG as there has been a precedent in this regard, citing the case of France. The NSG looks after critical issues relating to nuclear sector and its members are allowed to trade in and export nuclear technology. Membership of the grouping will help India significantly expand its atomic energy sector.

India has been reaching out to NSG member countries seeking support for its entry. The NSG works under the principle of consensus and even one country's vote against India will scuttle its bid.

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Tension in Pak town over conversion of Kalasha girl to Islam

Islamabad, Jun 17, 2016, (PTI)

The conversion to Islam of a 14- year-old girl from Kalasha community, Pakistan's smallest religious minority, has sparked clashes between majority Muslims and a few thousand remaining members of the animist tribe.

Nestled in the picturesque Chitral valley, the Kalasha people, who follow an ancient animistic religion and number only around 3,000, had claimed that the teenage girl was lured to convert to Islam.

However, a district official today said that the girl has recorded her statement before the court that she converted out of her own free will.

Yesterday, clashes were reported between Muslims and the Kalasha people after the girl returned back to her family amid reports that she was lured and coerced to convert to Islam.

According to eye witnesses, a mob of few hundred Muslim men attacked a house in the Kalash tribe's valley of Bumburate in the northern district of Chitral after the girl returned and police had to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Chitral Deputy Commissioner Usama Waraich said that the situation was now under control and the issue has been resolved as both local Muslims and Kalasha people have agreed to respect the girl's decision.

However, some elders of the Kalasha community still claim that the girl was forcefully converted and demand an impartial probe into the matter.

Kalasha people mostly live in Bamburate, Birir and Rambur regions of Chitral, a northern district in the troubled Khyber-Pukhtunkwa province.

The closely-knit community with its distinctive language, colourful dresses, songs and dances and elaborate rituals, has long been an anomaly in the Muslim-majority Pakistan and are under increased threat from militants who want to convert them to Islam.

Local legends also connect Kalasha people to the descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great, who passed this area in 326 BC during Alexander's India campaign.

Some of the soldiers settled in the cold climes of the scenic Chitral valley after Alexander abruptly ended his India campaign and decided to return back to Greece, local folk-lore say.

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Mother kills pregnant daughter in name of 'honour' in Pak

Lahore, Jun 17, 2016 (PTI)

A mother slit open the throat of her 22-year-old pregnant daughter in Pakistan's Punjab province, the latest in a series of gruesome "honour killing" that have sparked national outrage.
Muqadas, a resident of Butranwali, Gujranwala, some 80 kms from Lahore, contracted love marriage with Taufeeq of her locality against the will of her family some three years ago, a police official said.

Superintendent of Police (civil lines) Nadeem Khokhar said that the family of Muqadas was not happy with her as the victim married Taufeeq after eloping with him.

"Amna, mother of Muqadas, recently contacted her and told her that the family had pardoned her. She invited the couple to her house. However, yesterday when the 8-month pregnant Muqadas was present at a clinic in her locality for a check-up Amna reached there and took her to her house," he said.

Khokhar said initial reports are suggesting that Amna with the help of her husband Arshad and son Adil tortured Muqadas severely before she slit open her throat with a knife.

"However we are recording the statements of Muqadas' relatives about the incident and probing the matter from all aspects," he said.

Khokhar said a murder case has been registered against six people including mother, father and brother of the victim.

He said Arshad has been arrested while raids are underway to arrest the remaining suspects. Shafique, brother-in-law of Muqadas, told police that initially Muqadas family had pardoned her for marrying a man of her choice.

"But later it decided to kill her. It is learnt that her parents pledged to kill her for earning bad name for the family," he said. Last week Zeenat, 18, was burnt alive by her mother in Lahore for marrying a man of her own choice.

A couple in Lahore and a young Christian girl were killed by their family members for contracting marriage against their (families will).

An Islamic religious body in Pakistan this week dubbed the killing of women in the name of "honour" as un-Islamic.

At least 40 clerics of the Barelvi school of thought on June 12 issued a fatwa against honour killing, declaring it 'un-Islamic and unpardonable sin'.

The clerics under the banner of Sunni Itehad Council (SIC) said that honour killing is kufr (infidelity).
At least 1,100 women were killed in the name of honour in Pakistan last year by their relatives on the pretext of defending what is seen as family honour. 

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Ex-SS guard, 94, convicted for complicity in Auschwitz murders

Detmold (Germany), Jun 17, 2016 (AFP)

A former SS guard was today convicted by a German court for complicity in the mass murders at Auschwitz death camp, capping what is likely one of the last Holocaust trials.

More than 70 years after World War II, Reinhold Hanning, 94, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment over his role at the Nazi-run camp in occupied Poland. "The accused is sentenced to five years' jail for accessory to murder in 170,000 cases," ruled the court in the western German city of Detmold.

"He was aware that in Auschwitz, innocent people were murdered everyday in gas chambers." During the four-month trial, which involved witnesses giving harrowing accounts of the living hell they faced, prosecutors outlined how Hanning had watched over the selection of prisoners deemed fit for slave labour, and those sent to the gas chambers.

They also accused him of knowing about the regular mass shootings and the systematic starvation of prisoners.

For Holocaust survivors and inmates' descendants, the trial marked "a big, even though a late, step towards a just examination of the mass murders in Auschwitz".

This is because it for the first time focused on "the division of labour in the collective mass murders at Auschwitz," the plaintiffs said in a joint statement.

Unlike previous trials of officers who personally sent people to the gas chambers, this case covered the broader organisation of the extermination camp, where inmates were also starved to death or killed in summary executions.

The verdict was welcomed by World Jewish Congress President Ronald S Lauder. "Mr Hanning got a fair trial, and today's verdict is very clear: He was complicit in mass murder. He was part of a merciless killing machine. Without the active participation of people like him, Auschwitz would not have been possible."

Prosecutors had sought six years in prison on grounds that Hanning "contributed to the extermination aim of the camp", while his lawyers wanted an acquittal, saying he had not personally "killed, hit or abused" anyone.

In April, Hanning himself broke his silence, speaking for the first time about his time at Auschwitz in court.

Telling victims "I am sorry," he admitted to the court that he knew prisoners were being shot and gassed and that their bodies were burned at the camp.

He said he had been "silent all my life" about the atrocities because he felt deep shame, and had never spoken a word about it to his wife, children or grandchildren.

"No one in my family knew that I worked at Auschwitz. I simply could not talk about it. I was ashamed," said the white-haired, bespectacled widower, who ran a dairy after the war.

"I deeply regret having listened to a criminal organisation that is responsible for the deaths of many innocent people, for the destruction of countless families, for the misery, distress and suffering on the part of victims and their relatives. I am ashamed that I let this injustice happen and did nothing to prevent it," he told the court.

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2nd black box of crashed EgyptAir plane found

Cairo, Jun 17, 2016 (PTI)

In a breakthrough, searchers today located and retrieved the second black box of the crashed EgyptAir plane a day after recovery of the cockpit voice recorder of the aircraft which plunged into the Mediterranean last month killing all 66 on board.

The flight data recorder was recovered by the vessel 'John Lethbridge', according to a statement by the Egyptian committee that probed the crash of the Airbus A320 plane.

Yesterday, the cockpit voice recorder for EgyptAir Flight 804 was found in a damaged condition, an Egyptian investigative committee said after the the wreckage of the ill-fated plane was recovered on Wednesday.

"The device was damaged and the retrieval process was conducted in several stages," the Egyptian committee that investigated the crash said in a statement.

The statement added that the vessel, which joined the search team last week, succeeded in pulling out the memory unit which is the most important part in the recorder although it (the recorder) was damaged.

The vessel which was contracted by the government to join the search for the two black boxes found and obtained images from the wreckage of the plane.

EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people, including crew, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea about 280 kms from the Egyptian seacoast on May 19 with 56 passengers and 10 cabin crew on board.

The passengers included 15 French, 30 Egyptians, a British, a Belgian, two Iraqis, a Kuwaiti, a Saudi, a Sudanese, a Chadian, a Portuguese, an Algerian and a Canadian.

A deep-sea robot has also located pieces of the missing EgyptAir plane at the bottom of the Mediterranean.

While the wreckage discovered could offer clues about why the plane went down, Airbus said the flight recorders held the key to unlocking the mystery.

Some wreckage had been pulled out of the sea by search teams last month, along with belongings of passengers.

The "pings" emitted by the black boxes were detected on June 1 but the flight recorders' exact location has not yet been established.

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Novel model to help track ISIS activities online

Washington, Jun 17, 2016, (PTI):

Researchers have developed a model to identify behavioural patterns among online groups of ISIS supporters that could provide cyber police and anti-terror watchdogs a roadmap to their activities and help predict terror attacks.
Researchers from University of Miami in the US identified and analysed second-by-second online records of 196 pro-ISIS groups operating during the first eight months of 2015.

They found that even though most of the 108,000-plus individual members of these self-organised groups probably never met, they had a striking ability to adapt and extend their online longevity, increase their size and number, reincarnate when shut down - and inspire "lone wolves" with no history of extremism to carry out horrific attacks.

"It was like watching crystals forming. We were able to see how people were materialising around certain social groups; they were discussing and sharing information - all in real-time," said Neil Johnson from University of Miami.

Generalising a mathematical equation commonly used in physics and chemistry to the development and growth of ad hoc pro-ISIS groups, researchers witnessed the daily interactions that drove online support for these groups, or "aggregates," and how they came together and multiplied prior to the onset of real-world campaigns.

Researchers suggest that by concentrating just on these relatively few groups of serious followers - those that discuss operational details like routes for financing and avoiding drone strikes - cyber police and other anti-terrorist watchdogs could monitor their buildup and transitions and thwart the potential onset of a burst of violence.

"This removes the guess work. With that roadmap, law enforcement can better navigate what is going on, who is doing what, while state security agencies can better monitor what might be developing," said Johnson.

"So the message is find the aggregates - or at least a representative portion of them - and you have your hand on the pulse of the entire organisation, in a way that you never could if you were to sift through the millions of internet users and track specific individuals, or specific hashtags, Johson said.

The research suggests that any online 'lone wolf' actor will only truly be alone for short periods of time, he added.

For the study, researchers monitored pro-ISIS groups on VKontakte, the largest online social networking service in Europe.

They began their online search of pro-ISIS chatter manually, identifying specific social media hashtags, in multiple languages, which they used as "signals" to trace the more serious groups.

The hashtags were tracked to the online groups, and the data was fed into a software system that mounted the search. The results were repeated until the chase led back to groups previously traced in the system, researchers said.

The findings were published in the journal Science. 

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3,000 arrested in B'desh crackdown, PM vows to catch killers

Dhaka, Jun 11, 2016, (PTI)

More than 3,000 people, including 37 militants, have been arrested across Bangladesh in a sweeping crackdown on Islamists to halt a wave of fatal attacks on minorities and secular writers, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today vowed to catch "each and every killer".

The militants arrested were operatives of the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the outfit believed to have carried out most of the attacks on secular and liberal activists and minorities, including Hindus and Christians.

"Out of the 37 militants, 27 belong to JMB," Deputy Inspector General AKM Shahidur Rahman told reporters while reports said more than 3,000 suspects - mostly listed as thugs and criminals - were arrested over the past two days.

Bangladesh launched the drive after a high-level meeting held by Inspector General AKM Shahidul Hoque on Thursday. The anti-militant drive involved the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh and the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion.

Bangladesh has been witnessing a string of brutal attacks by Islamists. The ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Peninsula have claimed some of the attacks but government denies the presence of these groups in Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Hasina told a meeting of her ruling Awami League party that police would stamp out the violence.

"Where will they hide in Bangladesh," she said. "No one will get away. Bangladesh is a small country. It's not a tough task to find them. They will be brought to justice."

"Each and every killer will be brought to book as we did after the 2015 mayhem (and) all their sources, financiers and patrons would be unearthed and brought to justice as well," she said, referring to the deadly transport blockade last year organised by opposition parties.

She asked her countrymen to not be a bystander during such attacks as most of the attacks involved bike-borne assailants.

"Please don't play the role of an onlooker when you see that a person is under attack, rather, try to resist and catch the criminals... police and (government) will stand by you," she said at the meeting at her official residence Gana Bhaban.

But opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party immediately accused the government of using the crackdown to suppress political dissent. It rejected the allegation that the party and its fundamentalist ally Jamaat-e-Islami were patronizing the attacks under an orchestrated plot against the government.

BNP Secretary-General Fakhrul Islam Alamgir accused the government of arresting "hundreds of opposition activists in the name of crackdown against Islamist militants."

The attacks since last year, which has left more than 30 people dead, has put Bangladesh under a global spotlight for failing to prevent such attacks.

Yesterday, a 60-year-old Hindu ashram worker was hacked to death by ISIS jihadists, days after another priest was killed by the same terrorist group in the Muslim-majority nation.

In February, militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.

In April, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death in Rajshahi city. The same month, a Hindu tailor was hacked to death and Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor was murdered in his Dhaka flat by Islamists.  

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Qaeda chief vows allegiance to new Taliban leader: SITE

Dubai, Jun 11, 2016, (AFP)

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has pledged allegiance to new Afghan Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, whose predecessor was killed in a US drone strike.

The pledge came in a 14-minute audio and video message posted online, the US-based monitor SITE Intelligence Group said on Saturday.

"We pledge allegiance to you on jihad to liberate every inch of the lands of the Muslims that are invaded and stolen, from Kashgar to al-Andalus, from the Caucasus to Somalia and Central Africa, from Kashmir to Jerusalem, from the Philippines to Kabul, and from Bukhara and Samarkand," it quoted Zawahiri as saying.

The message included images of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

Akhundzada was named by the Afghan Taliban as their new leader last month in a swift power transition after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.

Akhundzada, formerly one of Mansour's deputies, faces the enormous challenge of unifying an increasingly fragmented militant movement.

The drone attack that killed Mansour, the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil, sent shockwaves through the insurgent movement which had seen a resurgence under Mansour.

He was killed just nine months after being formally appointed leader following a bitter power struggle upon confirmation of founder Mullah Omar's death.  

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Zardari asks US to 'trust' Pakistan

Islamabad, Jun 11, 2016, PTI

Former president Asif Ali Zardari has asked the US to "trust" and "mend ties" with Pakistan to defeat terrorism, amid tension between the two countries over an American drone strike that killed the Afghan Taliban chief in Baluchistan.

Zardari, who served as president from 2008 to 2013, also challenged those US Congressmen who doubt the intention of Pakistan and its role and commitment to take action against the dreaded Haqqani network, which is blamed for a number of attacks against American interests in Afghanistan.

"I would challenge any faction in Congress that holds this view to come to Pakistan and bear witness to our solidarity and resolve,"    Zardari wrote in an article in Chicago Tribune.

He said in order to defeat terrorism the US and Pakistan should raise the trust level and mend ties.

"Doubters should know that Pakistan has lost nearly 5,000 troops and many thousands of civilians in this fight. These losses were sustained in offensives against terrorist networks in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas — a long-time US priority," The Nation quoted him as saying in the article.

The Pakistan People's Party leader also criticised the US for blocking the sale of eight F-16 jets to Pakistan and said the decision will be counter-productive and self-defeating.

The US Congress has blocked funding for the jets citing Pakistan's unsatisfactory actions against the Haqqani network.

Zardari said the US must play its role along with Pakistan to combat terrorism. "Pakistan is ready and willing to continue its role at the front lines of the war against terrorism. But the US has a part to play in assuring our ability to fight and win on the battlefield."

His comments came amid tension between Pakistan and the US following the May 21 drone strike that killed Mullah Akhtar Mansour deep inside Pakistan.

Prime minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz yesterday told a high-level US delegation here that the drone attack "was not only a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and breach of the principles of the United Nation's Charter, but has also vitiated bilateral ties".

Pakistan-US ties are sliding down due to differences over handling of peace process in Afghanistan and US' growing defence ties with India, especially its support to India's membership for the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Zardari said as the talks between the delegation and the Pakistani government continue, the US should reaffirm sale of fighter aircraft and with it faith in an indispensable partnership in defence of civilisation.

He said the war against terrorism has not only cost Pakistan human lives but has also taken the country towards economic crisis.

"Three decades of war has also meant slower economic growth and foreign direct investment than that of other developing countries whose borders are not active war zones. These are among the hidden opportunity costs of our commitment to fighting terrorism," he wrote.

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Bangladesh: ISIS claims responsibility for ashram worker's murder

Dhaka, Jun 11, 2016, (PTI)

The ISIS today claimed responsibility for the killing of an elderly Hindu ashram worker in Bangladesh, as the Muslim-majority country reels under a series of brutal murders of secular activists and minorities by Islamists.

"ISIS fighters in Bangladesh killed a Hindu man in Pabna, in the north of the country," the ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency said in a brief Arabic message, according to US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

Nityaranjan Pandey, 60, who was working as a volunteer for the past 40 years at the Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsanga Paramtirtha Hemayetpurdham Ashram, was murdered in Pabna's Hemayetpur Upazila yesterday.

Pandey was taking his routine morning walk when several machete-wielding attackers hacked him in the neck, killing him on the spot only 200 yards away from the ashram.

The ashram, named after a famous Hindu saint, draws large number of Hindu devotees from across Bangladesh and neighbouring India.

Pandey's murder comes within a week of killings of a Hindu priest, a Christian grocer and wife of an anti-terror police officer.

In February, militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.

In April, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death in Rajshahi city. In the same month, a Hindu tailor was hacked to death in his shop and Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor was brutally murdered along with a friend in his flat in Dhaka by Islamists. 

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Indian govt is going to be America's 'great ally': Paul Ryan

Washington, Jun 11, 2016, PTI:

The Indian government is going to be America's "great ally" and there is a need to nurture this relationship, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan has said.

In a major foreign policy speech here in which he was highly critical of President Barack Obama's policies, the US-India relationship was the only aspect of it which was appreciated by Ryan.

"I think you need, and in particular, specifically under Modi's leadership, and he and I have discussed this at great length yesterday, (US-India) have a great potential for the future particularly with the seas, in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, making sure that we help police the global commons and international order, namely China building, you know, runways on islands in contested areas," Ryan said.

He said this in the speech at the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress at his invitation.

Modi was the first foreign leader to be invited to address a joint sitting of the Congress under Ryan's speakership.

On Wednesday, Modi and Ryan had a one-on-one interaction before the Prime Minister's address. Ryan also hosted a lunch for the visiting leader. A day later, Ryan was all in praise for Modi.
"I think the Indian (government), the new Indian government, is going to be a great ally of ours and we have better security cooperation with them. That's one thing that we need to nurture and grow," Ryan told the audience at the Council on Foreign Relations, a top American think tank.

"And those of us who are fans of Modi, you know, he's a conservative who wants, who embraces free enterprise. He's bringing needed reform to the country," Ryan said, according to the remarks released by his office.

"That's the kind of an alliance that we need to forge and build upon. That stands in stark contrast, I would argue, to the Obama foreign policy of the last eight years where we have neglected our allies and we have basically rewarded our enemies, our adversaries," said the Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Except for his comments on India, Ryan slammed Obama's foreign policy. "We know that this new Obama foreign policy concept, leading from behind, can now be declared an unambiguous failure. It is making us unprepared. It is reducing our military capability and strength," he alleged.

"It is confusing our allies and incentivising our adversaries. And all that does is tempt fate. So we are saying we've got to reset our system. We've got to restructure and reaffirm our foreign policy, in particular our military policy if we want to prevent these problems on the horizon from getting out of control," Ryan said.

In response to a question, he said Modi's address to the joint session of the Congress was a great day.

"So we just heard the prime minister of India at the Capitol Hill yesterday. It was a great day. He spoke before Congress and it was a great moment for the growing friendship between our two countries. The main reason I think this moment was so notable is that nowadays it's so rare," Ryan said referring to the bipartisan support that India-US relationship enjoys in the Congress.

"On the past seven years, our friendships have frayed. Our rivalries have intensified. It's not too much to say that our enemies no longer fear us and too many of our allies no longer trust us," he said.

In the Republican document on foreign policy and national security released by Ryan, the party said India and the US working together for betterment of the world.

"We must also embrace emerging partners that could help keep the peace in their region and beyond," the document said.

"India, the world's largest democracy, shares common interests with the world's oldest democracy, the United States and we must build upon that foundation to work together in shaping world events," it said.

As part of its objective of advancing American interest, the 25-page document calls for "deepening relations" with emerging powers like India. The foreign policy document released by Ryan is also critical of the Pakistan policy of the Obama Administration.

The Obama administration failed to prioritise economic growth in its approach to foreign aid and development, preferring high-profile "presidential initiatives" and short-term responses such as loan guarantees and enterprise funds, it said.

"In places like Pakistan, the administration has made major investments in infrastructure but failed to accomplish the reforms necessary to create a positive environment for economic growth. Without reform, these initiatives will do little to improve livelihoods," the policy paper said.

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Pak army chief asks US to bomb Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan

Islamabad, Jun 11, 2016, PTI:

Pakistan's powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif has asked the US to target the hideouts of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan militants and their chief Mullah Fazlullah in Afghanistan.

General Raheel made the demand during a high-level meeting with Commander Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan General John Nicholson and US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson here yesterday.

In a late night statement, the army said Gen Raheel demanded targeting of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan militants and Mullah Fazlullah in their hideouts in Afghanistan.

"Raising the demand of targeting TTP and Mullah Fazlullah in their bases in Afghanistan, COAS reiterated Pakistan’s resolve not to allow hostile intelligence agencies’ efforts, especially RAW and NDS, of fomenting terrorism," it said.

It was the first visit of high-level officials from the US since fresh tension with Pakistan after the killing of the Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Mansour by a CIA drone in Balochistan on May 21.

The army said the regional security situation, with particular reference to border management and peace and stability in Afghanistan in the post-21 May US drone strike environment came under discussion.

"Expressing his serious concern on the US drone strike in Balochistan as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, Gen Raheel highlighted as to how it had impacted the mutual trust and respect and was counter-productive in consolidating the gains of Operation Zarb-e-Azb," it said.

Raheel said all efforts for durable peace in the region have to be synergised with shared commitment and responsibility in order to make them successful.

He said all stakeholders need to understand Pakistan's challenges with regard to porous border, inter-tribal linkages and decades-old presence of over 3 million refugees.

"Blaming Pakistan for instability in Afghanistan is unfortunate," he said. He said Pakistan is committed to work for a long term peace process for Afghanistan under the four nation Quadrilateral Coordination Group framework, involving Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the US.
Earlier, the high-level US delegation met the Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz who warned the American officials of consequences for bilateral ties if attacks like killing of Mansour on May 21 were repeated.

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Obama endorsed someone with 'criminal investigation': Trump

Richmond (US), Jun 11, 2016, PTI:

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has slammed US President Barack Obama for endorsing Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate despite being under "criminal investigation".

Trump, however, said he was ready to face Clinton in the November elections, which he claimed would attract the largest ever voter turnout.

"You have a President coming out and endorsing somebody who is under criminal investigation. Is this supposed to be the way the country supposed to be?" Trump told his cheering supporters at an election rally in Richmond, Virginia yesterday.

This was Trump's first public rally since Obama endorsed Clinton as Democratic presidential nominee against Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont.

The rally at spacious Richmond Coliseum attracted several thousands people. But the arena having a capacity of 13,500 was more than half empty.

Trump said the rally was organised at a short notice of less than one day. The real estate mogul from New York said he would make a major policy speech on Clinton in New Hampshire on Monday. To the cheering of his supporters, Trump described this as a "crooked Hillary" speech.

"There is so much corruption. If the system works, she is not allowed to run. It is really unfair for the other people," Trump said referring to a latest news report that an Indian American Rajiv Fernando was appointed to the important International Security Advisory board because of his alleged massive donations to the Clinton Foundation.

The Advisory Board advises the State Department on nuclear weapons and other issues of national security. Based out of Chicago, Fernando is a securities trader president of Chopper Trading.

According to ABC News, Fernando was a major bundler for the Obama Campaign, raising more than USD 500,000 for his re-election cycle. And before his appointment at the State Department, he gave between USD100,000 and USD250,000 to the William J Clinton Foundation.

Trump cited this as another example for corruption by Hillary Clinton. "He made a contribution of USD 250,000 and all of a sudden he's on this very important and vital board," he said.

Reiterating that Clinton should not be allowed to run for the elections, he said he is ready to run against the former US Secretary of State and exuded confidence of winning the election.

Trump said the debate against Clinton would be the "biggest debate" in the history and would be the "biggest voter turnout" in the history of this country.

Countries like China and Mexico, he alleged are destroying the United States. He reiterated that he would make the wall on the Mexico border, which some day may be called as Trump Wall. "Someday, people would call it a Trump wall," he said, adding this would be a strong, tall and beautiful wall.

"Our taking is being taken advantage of because we have very stupid people representing in trade. It is not going to happen. We are losing badly. We have the smartest people in the world. But we are using dumbest people," he alleged.

Trump claimed that companies would start setting up manufacturing plants in the US, because there would be consequences for moving jobs overseas. "We are going to bring jobs back to America," he said, adding his administration would lower taxes and simplify tax codes.

"Hillary Clinton is going to raise taxes beyond anyone imagination," he claimed."Polls are looking good in Virginia," he said. Pollsters are saying that Virginia is a key swing state for the November general elections. He claimed that he would win the presidential elections in Florida and New York.

"Unless we win in November, it means nothing. It would be waste of time and money," he said and asked people to come out and vote in large numbers in the November general elections.

"I am the least racist person that you have ever looked at," he said, referring to the allegations that he is a racist.

Trump lashed out at Clinton for not using the term "radical Islamic terrorism" because she does not want to offend Obama. "Because she does not want to go to jail. The system is rigged. Bernie found it out," he said.

"If we had guns in those rooms, and bullets going in opposite direction," not so many people would have been killed, he said. "We are going to win again and we are going to kick ISIS, we are going to win in trade, we are going to win on the Supreme Court... we are going to win so much that you people are going to (get) sick and tired of winning. We are going to win, win, win," he said.

Stephen Miller, a senior policy advisor to the Trump Campaign, alleged that as Secretary of State, Clinton gave a prominent national security post dealing with nuclear security to someone who paid USD five million to the Clinton Foundation.

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IS chief Baghdadi injured: reports

London, Jun 10, 2016, (PTI):

Islamic State’s dreaded chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been wounded in an air strike by coalition forces on one of the outfit's command headquarters close to the Syrian border in Iraq, media reports said on Thursday.

Iraqi news channel Al Sumariya TV claimed that local sources in Iraq's Nineveh province had confirmed that Baghdadi and other leaders in the Islamist group were wounded in the Thursday’s coalition bombing raid. “The planes of the international coalition yesterday (Thursday) bombed a location where there is a base of IS members along the border area between Iraq and Syria, 65 kilometres west of Nineveh,” Express UK quoted an Iraqi source as saying.

According to reports, Baghdadi was injured along with IS members during a meeting. “The attack was carried out on the basis of precise intelligence information that led to strike its own site,” the source said.

The area is one of the group's strongholds, the source said, adding that “Baghdadi and the other IS leaders arrived in Iraq from Syria with a convoy of cars”.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition said that he had seen the reports but had “nothing to confirm this at this time”, the report said. In recent years there have been a number of reports of Baghdadi’s injury, and even death, but none have been confirmed.

Baghdadi was seriously wounded by an airstrike on March 18, 2015.He was said to be receiving treatment for spinal injuries after being wounded in that strike.

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Bill Gates: Chickens, not computers, can solve poverty

Washington, Jun 10, 2016, AFP

Want to end extreme poverty? Technology hyper-billionaire Bill Gates says the answer is chickens. And that's not the name of new Microsoft software.

Gates, the founder of the world's largest software company, says the best thing to improve the lives of the world's poorest is not computers or the Internet but raising a few roosters and hens.

"It's pretty clear to me that just about anyone who's living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens," he said this week on his website GatesNotes.com.

The world's richest person, who made his USD 75 billion fortune pushing for a Microsoft computer in every home, said his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has just partnered with the global development group Heifer International to donate some 100,000 chickens to families in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than USD 2 a day.

The goal, he said, is to get 30 per cent of the rural families in the region to raise improved breeds of vaccinated chickens, compared with the current five per cent.

The return is better than other solutions, he said: Chickens cost little to take care of, they multiply fast and eggs and chicken meat can boost family nutrition.

They also empower women, he said.

"Because chickens are small and typically stay close to home, many cultures regard them as a woman's animal, in contrast to larger livestock like goats or cows. Women who sell chickens are likely to reinvest the profits in their families." 

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Took Saudis off blacklist over threat to stop funds: Ban

United Nations, Jun 10, 2016, PTI

The UN has temporarily removed the Saudi-led coalition in strife-torn Yemen from a blacklist for killing children due to threats from its supporters to defund programmes of the world body, Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said.

Ban said he stands by his annual report on children and armed conflict, which "describes horrors no child should have to face."

The UN chief said he had to consider "the very real prospect" that millions of other children in the Palestinian territories, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and many other places "would suffer grievously" if U.N. programs were defunded.

"This was one of the most painful and difficult decisions I have had to make," he said.
Speaking to the press outside of the UN Security Council chamber, he acknowledged that there was "fierce reaction to my decision to temporarily remove the Saudi-led Coalition countries from the report's annex."

Insisting that he stands by the report, the UN chief added that the Organisation "will assess the complaints that have been made, but the content will not change."

"I fully understand the criticism, but I would also like to make a larger point that speaks to many political challenges we face. When UN peacekeepers come under physical attack, they deserve strong backing by the Security Council," he added.

"When UN personnel are declared persona non grata simply for carrying out their jobs, they should be able to count on firm support from the Member States," he said.

Ban also underlined that when a UN report comes "under fire" for raising difficult issues or documenting violations of law or human rights, Member States should defend the mechanisms and mandates that they themselves have established.

"As the Secretariat carries forward the work that is entrusted to us, I count on Member States to work constructively and maintain their commitment to the cause of this Organization," he told reporters.

Responding to questions, Ban said in the course of making reports available to the Member States or in the course of preparing these reports, the Organization has found that some countries were more concerned that their names are listed together with some non-State actors, like terrorist and extremist groups.

"Therefore, I think the main reaction of the Coalition is also that their names are included and listed together with some terrorist and extremist groups. Therefore, we are now in the process of considering what would be the better modalities of listing those countries," he said, but reiterated that no decision has been made as the matter is still being discussed.

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