Australia Thursday lifted a suspension on military air missions over Syria imposed after the shooting down of a Syrian jet by US forces.

Canberra temporarily halted flights on Tuesday after a spike in tensions between the US and Russia, which warned it would track coalition aircraft in Syria as potential &quot;targets&quot;.

Moscow also halted a military hotline with Washington over the incident, intended to prevent confrontations in Syria&#39;s crowded air space.

Australia defence ministry said in a statement the suspension was &quot;a precautionary measure to allow the coalition to assess the operational risk&quot;.

&quot;The suspension has since been lifted,&quot; it added.

The United States moved quickly to contain an escalation of the situation after the jet was downed on Sunday evening when regime forces targeted the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters battling IS.

A top US general said the country would work to relaunch the &quot;deconfliction&quot; hotline established in 2015, after Russia said Washington had failed to use the line -- a vital incident-prevention tool -- before targeting the plane near Raqa.

Australia is part of the coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and in late 2015 extended air operations into Syria, with a total of 780 defence personnel based in the Middle East.

The staunch US ally in September said it would widen the scope of targets in the air war against IS by allowing its pilots to strike jihadist support and logistics resources in Iraq and Syria.

Australia&#39;s Air Task Group consists of 300 personnel, six F/A-18 Hornets, an E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft, and a KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker and Transport plane.

(AFP)

Canberra temporarily halted flights on Tuesday after a spike in tensions between the US and Russia

Australia Thursday lifted a suspension on military air missions over Syria imposed after the shooting down of a Syrian jet by US forces. Canberra temporarily halted flights on Tuesday after a spike in tensions between the US and Russia, which warned it would track coalition aircraft in Syria as potential "targets". Moscow also halted a military hotline with Washington over the incident, intended to prevent confrontations in Syria's crowded air space. Australia defence ministry said in a statement the suspension was "a precautionary measure to allow the coalition to assess the operational risk". "The suspension has since been lifted," it added. The United States moved quickly to contain an escalation of the situation after the jet was downed on Sunday evening when regime forces targeted the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters battling IS. A top US general said the country would work to relaunch the "deconfliction" hotline established in 2015, after Russia said Washington had failed to use the line -- a vital incident-prevention tool -- before targeting the plane near Raqa. Australia is part of the coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and in late 2015 extended air operations into Syria, with a total of 780 defence personnel based in the Middle East. The staunch US ally in September said it would widen the scope of targets in the air war against IS by allowing its pilots to strike jihadist support and logistics resources in Iraq and Syria. Australia's Air Task Group consists of 300 personnel, six F/A-18 Hornets, an E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft, and a KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker and Transport plane. (AFP)

Australia's military resumes air operations over Syria

Saudi Arabia and its allies have drawn up a list of demands to be presented to Qatar, the United States said Wednesday, as President Donald Trump discussed the regional crisis with new Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The latest moves came as Washington stepped up its efforts to resolve the thorny row between Qatar -- home to the biggest US air base in the Middle East -- and its neighbors, led by Riyadh.

&quot;We hope the list of demands will soon be presented to Qatar and will be reasonable and actionable,&quot; said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

&quot;We support the Kuwaiti mediation effort and look forward to this matter moving toward a resolution,&quot; added Tillerson, who has been tasked by Trump to oversee an end to a standoff that has put key US allies at loggerheads with one another.

Two weeks ago, Riyadh and several of its allies including Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, cut ties with Qatar over accusations that Doha supports extremist groups, including some linked to Saudi foe Iran -- a claim Qatar denies.

In addition to diplomatic isolation, other measures taken included closing Qatar&#39;s only land border, banning its planes from using their airspace and barring Qatari nationals from transiting through their airports.

Trump&#39;s administration has sent contradictory signals on the crisis. While the US president has made statements siding with Saudi Arabia, Washington has shown mounting frustration over the kingdom&#39;s role in the crisis.

Tillerson&#39;s spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that the US was &quot;mystified&quot; that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have failed to present details justifying their embargo on Qatar.

&quot;The more that time goes by, the more doubt is raised about the actions taken by Saudi Arabia and the UAE,&quot; Nauert said.

On Wednesday, Trump discussed the Qatar row with Saudi Arabia&#39;s newly-appointed crown prince, on a call during which he also offered his congratulations to the new heir to the throne.

&quot;The president and the crown prince committed to close cooperation to advance our shared goals of security, stability, and prosperity across the Middle East and beyond,&quot; the White House said in a statement.

&quot;The two leaders discussed the priority of cutting off all support for terrorists and extremists, as well as how to resolve the ongoing dispute with Qatar,&quot; the statement added.

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia&#39;s King Salman ousted his nephew as crown prince and installed Mohammed, his son, as heir to the throne.

Trump, 71, and Mohammed, 31, have met twice -- once in Riyadh during the US leader&#39;s recent trip to Saudi Arabia and once in mid-March at the White House.

The latest moves came as Washington stepped up its efforts to resolve the thorny row between Qatar and its neighbours

Saudi Arabia and its allies have drawn up a list of demands to be presented to Qatar, the United States said Wednesday, as President Donald Trump discussed the regional crisis with new Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The latest moves came as Washington stepped up its efforts to resolve the thorny row between Qatar -- home to the biggest US air base in the Middle East -- and its neighbors, led by Riyadh. "We hope the list of demands will soon be presented to Qatar and will be reasonable and actionable," said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. "We support the Kuwaiti mediation effort and look forward to this matter moving toward a resolution," added Tillerson, who has been tasked by Trump to oversee an end to a standoff that has put key US allies at loggerheads with one another. Two weeks ago, Riyadh and several of its allies including Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, cut ties with Qatar over accusations that Doha supports extremist groups, including some linked to Saudi foe Iran -- a claim Qatar denies. In addition to diplomatic isolation, other measures taken included closing Qatar's only land border, banning its planes from using their airspace and barring Qatari nationals from transiting through their airports. Trump's administration has sent contradictory signals on the crisis. While the US president has made statements siding with Saudi Arabia, Washington has shown mounting frustration over the kingdom's role in the crisis. Tillerson's spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that the US was "mystified" that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have failed to present details justifying their embargo on Qatar. "The more that time goes by, the more doubt is raised about the actions taken by Saudi Arabia and the UAE," Nauert said. On Wednesday, Trump discussed the Qatar row with Saudi Arabia's newly-appointed crown prince, on a call during which he also offered his congratulations to the new heir to the throne. "The president and the crown prince committed to close cooperation to advance our shared goals of security, stability, and prosperity across the Middle East and beyond," the White House said in a statement. "The two leaders discussed the priority of cutting off all support for terrorists and extremists, as well as how to resolve the ongoing dispute with Qatar," the statement added. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman ousted his nephew as crown prince and installed Mohammed, his son, as heir to the throne. Trump, 71, and Mohammed, 31, have met twice -- once in Riyadh during the US leader's recent trip to Saudi Arabia and once in mid-March at the White House.

Saudis, allies have list of demands for Qatar: US

Eight Afghan guards have been&nbsp;killed and two others wounded after&nbsp;gunmen attacked the American base at Bagram&nbsp;in Afghanistan.

Bagram is around 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kabul. The Bagram base&nbsp;contains the largest US contingent in the country.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/dozens-killed-and-wounded-in-attack-on-regional-afghanistan-police-hq-officials-16965">Also Read:&nbsp;At least 5 dead, 18 wounded in Afghan police HQ attacks</a>

&quot;They were all local residents serving as guards at Bagram,&quot; said district governor Abdul Shakoor Quddusi, adding that they were riding back home in a convoy when attacked.&nbsp;

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban are setting up nationwide attacks to regain&nbsp;their Afghanistan stronghold, while ISIS is trying to make new inroads into the country.&nbsp;

The US is expected&nbsp;to increase military deployment in the country to help Afghan forces contain the Taliban&#39;s rising offensive. <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/us-to-send-4000-more-troops-to-afghanistan-reports-16891">At present, there are 8,400 US troops and another 5,000 from NATO allies </a>in Afghanistan, much&nbsp;less&nbsp;compared to the 100,000 troops six years ago.&nbsp;

Seven American soldiers were wounded in an insider attack by an Afghan soldier at Camp Shaheen near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday.

Analysts say such attacks are expected to increase this year as US troops engage with the Afghan military to double the size of its special forces, considered to be effective in the fight against insurgents.

The Afghan conflict is the longest in American history, with US-led forces at war there since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001. 
&nbsp;

Bagram is around 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kabul. The Bagram base?contains the largest US contingent in the country

Eight Afghan guards have been killed and two others wounded after gunmen attacked the American base at Bagram in Afghanistan. Bagram is around 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kabul. The Bagram base contains the largest US contingent in the country. Also Read: At least 5 dead, 18 wounded in Afghan police HQ attacks "They were all local residents serving as guards at Bagram," said district governor Abdul Shakoor Quddusi, adding that they were riding back home in a convoy when attacked. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban are setting up nationwide attacks to regain their Afghanistan stronghold, while ISIS is trying to make new inroads into the country. The US is expected to increase military deployment in the country to help Afghan forces contain the Taliban's rising offensive. At present, there are 8,400 US troops and another 5,000 from NATO allies in Afghanistan, much less compared to the 100,000 troops six years ago. Seven American soldiers were wounded in an insider attack by an Afghan soldier at Camp Shaheen near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday. Analysts say such attacks are expected to increase this year as US troops engage with the Afghan military to double the size of its special forces, considered to be effective in the fight against insurgents. The Afghan conflict is the longest in American history, with US-led forces at war there since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

Eight Afghan guards killed, two injured in attack on American base at Bagram

In a move to improve its services and help in cutting Government waste, President Donald Trump today held a meeting with the chief executives of technology companies including Apple Inc and Amazon.com. 
&nbsp;

In the meeting with nearly 20 chief executives, the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations. The White House claims that they could have saved up to $ 1 trillion in 10 years by cutting expenses on the Government As a consequence of this, many business executives are eager to work with the new administration as they face numerous regulatory and other policy issues.

In May, Trump created an &quot;American Technology Council,&quot; the latest in a series of efforts to modernize the U.S. government. He signed a separate order in March to overhaul the federal government and tapped son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner to lead a White House Office of American Innovation to leverage business ideas and potentially privatize some government functions.

&nbsp;Trump asked lawmakers to cut $3.6 trillion in government spending over the next decade. He assured that the healthcare, defence, and food assistance programs were boosted in the budget.

A 2016 US Government Accountability Office report estimated the U.S. government spent more than $80 billion on IT annually, excluding classified operations. In 2015, there were at least 7,000 separate IT investments by the U.S. government and some agencies were using systems that had components at least 50 years old.

&nbsp;

The tech CEOs and White House also plan to discuss Trump&#39;s review announced in April of the U.S. visa program for bringing high-skilled foreign workers into the country.

The council also seeks to boost the cybersecurity of U.S. Government IT systems and wants to learn from private-sector practices. In 2015, hackers exposed the personal information of 22 million people from U.S. Government databases.

In a document outlining the working-group sessions, the White House said the federal government should require &quot;making it easy for agencies to use the cloud.&quot;

The White House thinks it can take lessons from credit card companies in significantly reducing fraud. A 2016 government audit found that in Medicaid alone, there was $29 billion in fraud in a single year.

Following Trump&#39;s June 1 decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger stepped down from White House advisory panels. White House officials said the dispute had little impact and that they had to turn away tech leaders from Monday&#39;s event because of lack of space.

White House looks to the private sector for help in cutting government waste and improving services

In a move to improve its services and help in cutting Government waste, President Donald Trump today held a meeting with the chief executives of technology companies including Apple Inc and Amazon.com. In the meeting with nearly 20 chief executives, the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations. The White House claims that they could have saved up to $ 1 trillion in 10 years by cutting expenses on the Government As a consequence of this, many business executives are eager to work with the new administration as they face numerous regulatory and other policy issues. In May, Trump created an "American Technology Council," the latest in a series of efforts to modernize the U.S. government. He signed a separate order in March to overhaul the federal government and tapped son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner to lead a White House Office of American Innovation to leverage business ideas and potentially privatize some government functions. Trump asked lawmakers to cut $3.6 trillion in government spending over the next decade. He assured that the healthcare, defence, and food assistance programs were boosted in the budget. A 2016 US Government Accountability Office report estimated the U.S. government spent more than $80 billion on IT annually, excluding classified operations. In 2015, there were at least 7,000 separate IT investments by the U.S. government and some agencies were using systems that had components at least 50 years old. The tech CEOs and White House also plan to discuss Trump's review announced in April of the U.S. visa program for bringing high-skilled foreign workers into the country. The council also seeks to boost the cybersecurity of U.S. Government IT systems and wants to learn from private-sector practices. In 2015, hackers exposed the personal information of 22 million people from U.S. Government databases. In a document outlining the working-group sessions, the White House said the federal government should require "making it easy for agencies to use the cloud." The White House thinks it can take lessons from credit card companies in significantly reducing fraud. A 2016 government audit found that in Medicaid alone, there was $29 billion in fraud in a single year. Following Trump's June 1 decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger stepped down from White House advisory panels. White House officials said the dispute had little impact and that they had to turn away tech leaders from Monday's event because of lack of space.

President Donald Trump meets the chief executives of technology companies

US&nbsp;troops based in Syria&#39;s southeastern desert have expanded their footprint, rebels there say, increasing the risk of direct ground confrontation between the Americans and Iran-backed pro-government forces.

US&nbsp;special forces have been based since last year at Tanf, a strategic&nbsp;Syrian&nbsp;highway border crossing with Iraq, where the Americans have assisted rebels trying to recapture territory from fleeing Islamic State fighters.

The US-backed&nbsp;Syrian&nbsp;rebels in the area are in competition with pro-government forces who are also trying to recapture territory from Islamic State.

On several occasions in recent weeks, warplanes of the US-led coalition have struck pro-government forces to prevent them advancing, in what Washington has described as self defence.

Abu al-Atheer, military spokesman for the US-backed Maghawir al-Thawra rebel group, told Reuters US&nbsp;forces had spread from their initial location at Tanf to set up a second base at Zakf, around 60-70 km (40-50 miles) to the northeast.

Regional intelligence sources told Reuters the US&nbsp;military moved in the last few days a new long-range rocket launcher system from Jordan to Tanf, for the first time in southern Syria stepping up its presence in the area.

They said the (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) - HIMARS which can fire missiles as far as 300km had been deployed for the first time in southern Syria. They had been previously used to strike militants from positions in Turkey and Jordan.

Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting against Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, denied troops had set up a new base. But he said sometimes coalition forces conduct patrols and training with rebels at locations outside Tanf that could be maintained for days or weeks.

&quot;We have that garrison in al-Tanf that is a temporary base and location for us to train our partner forces to fight to defeat ISIS, but that is the only base in southern Syria or location where we have coalition forces,&quot; Dillon said.&nbsp;

Abu al-Atheer said the US&nbsp;special forces were now patrolling distances of up to 100 km from Tanf. He said more US&nbsp;special forces were arriving at both the original base at Tanf and the new base at Zakf, and more weapons had been delivered to rebels.

&quot;The (new) base was being studied for months but now it&#39;s an official base. It has been built and expanded and God willing will be in the next few days like the Tanf base,&quot; he told Reuters.

Video clips purportedly of the Zakf site, sent to Reuters by another rebel in the group, showed a convoy of military vehicles travelling on a paved road lined by long walls, a communications mast and a hut. Another showed three men in uniform next to two small military vehicles, firing a mortar in otherwise empty desert.&nbsp;

US-backed rebels are fighting to oust Islamic State fighters from their last two major bastions - Mosul in Iraq and the Euphrates River valley near Raqqa in Syria - in battles which Washington hopes could crush the group this year.

The&nbsp;Syrian&nbsp;government, backed by Russia and Iran, also wants to reclaim the territory in Syria. Pro-government forces have taken up positions north of Tanf, potentially cutting off the US-backed rebels from advancing.

Muzahem Saloum, a rebel official close to Maghawir al-Thawra, said the Zakf location would back up Tanf and was expected to be a &quot;first line of defence&quot; against any attack by Iranian-backed&nbsp;Syrian&nbsp;pro-government militias.&nbsp;

Rivalry

Tanf is located near a Syria-Iraq border crossing on the main Baghdad-Damascus highway, and the US-backed rebels took it from Islamic State last year, partly to stop Iran from using it in future to send arms to the&nbsp;Syrian&nbsp;government.&nbsp;

The US-backed rebels also want to use it to take more territory along the border and to push towards Deir al-Zor, a large city on the Euphrates where the government has an enclave surrounded by Islamic State fighters.&nbsp;

However, Syria&#39;s army has declared winning back control of the desert and relieving its besieged Deir al-Zor enclave a military priority and has advanced swiftly from Palmyra with troops and dozens of tanks.&nbsp;

Aided by allied militias backed by Iran, it also hopes to join up with Iraqi forces advancing against Islamic State across the border to secure a land route from Damascus to Baghdad.&nbsp;

Iranian news sites have published pictures of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards&#39; elite extra-territorial arm the Qods Force, visiting militia fighters at an undisclosed area on the border.&nbsp;

Recent&nbsp;Syrian&nbsp;government advances to the Iraq border northeast of Tanf and Zakf mean the US-backed rebels would have to fight the&nbsp;Syrian&nbsp;army in order to march on Deir al-Zor.

US&nbsp;defense secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday said air strikes against pro-government forces near Tanf in recent weeks had been in self defence, to prevent them from attacking its troops at the base.

Rebel spokesman Abu al-Atheer said the goal of the government forces was &quot;to cut our advance towards Deir al-Zor. But we are moving towards a plan to take us to Deir al-Zor even if they enter,&quot; Abu al-Atheer said.

&quot;The battle is not over and we will not allow the Iranian Shi&#39;ites to occupy our land. Our response to those who stand against us will be cruel,&quot; he added.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Abu al-Atheer, military spokesman for the US-backed Maghawir al-Thawra rebel group, told Reuters US?forces had spread from their initial location at Tanf to set up a second base at Zakf, around 60-70 km (40-50 miles) to the northeast

US troops based in Syria's southeastern desert have expanded their footprint, rebels there say, increasing the risk of direct ground confrontation between the Americans and Iran-backed pro-government forces. US special forces have been based since last year at Tanf, a strategic Syrian highway border crossing with Iraq, where the Americans have assisted rebels trying to recapture territory from fleeing Islamic State fighters. The US-backed Syrian rebels in the area are in competition with pro-government forces who are also trying to recapture territory from Islamic State. On several occasions in recent weeks, warplanes of the US-led coalition have struck pro-government forces to prevent them advancing, in what Washington has described as self defence. Abu al-Atheer, military spokesman for the US-backed Maghawir al-Thawra rebel group, told Reuters US forces had spread from their initial location at Tanf to set up a second base at Zakf, around 60-70 km (40-50 miles) to the northeast. Regional intelligence sources told Reuters the US military moved in the last few days a new long-range rocket launcher system from Jordan to Tanf, for the first time in southern Syria stepping up its presence in the area. They said the (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) - HIMARS which can fire missiles as far as 300km had been deployed for the first time in southern Syria. They had been previously used to strike militants from positions in Turkey and Jordan. Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting against Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, denied troops had set up a new base. But he said sometimes coalition forces conduct patrols and training with rebels at locations outside Tanf that could be maintained for days or weeks. "We have that garrison in al-Tanf that is a temporary base and location for us to train our partner forces to fight to defeat ISIS, but that is the only base in southern Syria or location where we have coalition forces," Dillon said. Abu al-Atheer said the US special forces were now patrolling distances of up to 100 km from Tanf. He said more US special forces were arriving at both the original base at Tanf and the new base at Zakf, and more weapons had been delivered to rebels. "The (new) base was being studied for months but now it's an official base. It has been built and expanded and God willing will be in the next few days like the Tanf base," he told Reuters. Video clips purportedly of the Zakf site, sent to Reuters by another rebel in the group, showed a convoy of military vehicles travelling on a paved road lined by long walls, a communications mast and a hut. Another showed three men in uniform next to two small military vehicles, firing a mortar in otherwise empty desert. US-backed rebels are fighting to oust Islamic State fighters from their last two major bastions - Mosul in Iraq and the Euphrates River valley near Raqqa in Syria - in battles which Washington hopes could crush the group this year. The Syrian government, backed by Russia and Iran, also wants to reclaim the territory in Syria. Pro-government forces have taken up positions north of Tanf, potentially cutting off the US-backed rebels from advancing. Muzahem Saloum, a rebel official close to Maghawir al-Thawra, said the Zakf location would back up Tanf and was expected to be a "first line of defence" against any attack by Iranian-backed Syrian pro-government militias. Rivalry Tanf is located near a Syria-Iraq border crossing on the main Baghdad-Damascus highway, and the US-backed rebels took it from Islamic State last year, partly to stop Iran from using it in future to send arms to the Syrian government. The US-backed rebels also want to use it to take more territory along the border and to push towards Deir al-Zor, a large city on the Euphrates where the government has an enclave surrounded by Islamic State fighters. However, Syria's army has declared winning back control of the desert and relieving its besieged Deir al-Zor enclave a military priority and has advanced swiftly from Palmyra with troops and dozens of tanks. Aided by allied militias backed by Iran, it also hopes to join up with Iraqi forces advancing against Islamic State across the border to secure a land route from Damascus to Baghdad. Iranian news sites have published pictures of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite extra-territorial arm the Qods Force, visiting militia fighters at an undisclosed area on the border. Recent Syrian government advances to the Iraq border northeast of Tanf and Zakf mean the US-backed rebels would have to fight the Syrian army in order to march on Deir al-Zor. US defense secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday said air strikes against pro-government forces near Tanf in recent weeks had been in self defence, to prevent them from attacking its troops at the base. Rebel spokesman Abu al-Atheer said the goal of the government forces was "to cut our advance towards Deir al-Zor. But we are moving towards a plan to take us to Deir al-Zor even if they enter," Abu al-Atheer said. "The battle is not over and we will not allow the Iranian Shi'ites to occupy our land. Our response to those who stand against us will be cruel," he added.

US expands presence in Syrian desert: Rebels

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday he will present a new US military strategy for Afghanistan, along with adjusted troop numbers, in the coming weeks to President Donald Trump.

American military commanders in Afghanistan and the surrounding region have requested thousands of additional boots on the ground for months to boost the NATO troop presence there.

&quot;Together in the interagency, we will define the way ahead and I will set a US military commitment consistent with the commander in chief&#39;s strategic directions and his foreign policy, as dictated by Secretary of State Tillerson,&quot; Mattis told lawmakers during a hearing at the Senate Appropriations Committee.

&quot;The revised Afghanistan strategy with the new approach will be presented to the president for his approval in the coming weeks.&quot;

His remarks came a day after Trump granted the Pentagon authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, currently at around 8,400.

Mattis said the decision would come in consultation with other US government agencies in a more comprehensive approach to the conflict.

Prior to the White House decision, Mattis had warned that the Taliban was surging -- having claimed a series of deadly attacks, including against Afghan military bases and positions -- and that America still was &quot;not winning&quot; in the country nearly 16 years after the US-led invasion there.&nbsp;

(AFP)

American military commanders in Afghanistan have requested thousands of additional boots on the ground for months to boost the NATO troop presence there

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday he will present a new US military strategy for Afghanistan, along with adjusted troop numbers, in the coming weeks to President Donald Trump. American military commanders in Afghanistan and the surrounding region have requested thousands of additional boots on the ground for months to boost the NATO troop presence there. "Together in the interagency, we will define the way ahead and I will set a US military commitment consistent with the commander in chief's strategic directions and his foreign policy, as dictated by Secretary of State Tillerson," Mattis told lawmakers during a hearing at the Senate Appropriations Committee. "The revised Afghanistan strategy with the new approach will be presented to the president for his approval in the coming weeks." His remarks came a day after Trump granted the Pentagon authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, currently at around 8,400. Mattis said the decision would come in consultation with other US government agencies in a more comprehensive approach to the conflict. Prior to the White House decision, Mattis had warned that the Taliban was surging -- having claimed a series of deadly attacks, including against Afghan military bases and positions -- and that America still was "not winning" in the country nearly 16 years after the US-led invasion there. (AFP)

US to make Afghanistan troop announcement in weeks: Mattis

&nbsp;An audio message purporting to come from the spokesman of Islamic State called on followers to launch attacks in the United States, Europe, Russia, Australia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and the Philippines during the Islamic holy month of Ramzan, which began in late May.

The audio clip was distributed on Monday on Islamic State&#39;s channel on Telegram, an encrypted messaging application. It was attributed to the militant group`s official spokesman, Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer.&nbsp;

The authenticity of the recording could not be independently verified, but the voice was the same as a previous audio message purported to be from the spokesman.

&quot;O lions of Mosul, Raqqa, and Tal Afar, God bless those pure arms and bright faces, charge against the rejectionists and the apostates and fight them with the strength of one man,&quot; said al-Muhajer. Rejectionist is a derogatory term used to refer to Shi&#39;ite Muslims.

&quot;To the brethren of faith and belief in Europe, America, Russia, Australia, and others. Your brothers in your land have done well so take them as role models and do as they have done.&quot;

&nbsp;

An unverified audio message distributed on?Islamic State's channel on Telegram called on followers to launch?attacks in the US, Europe, Russia, Australia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and the Philippines

An audio message purporting to come from the spokesman of Islamic State called on followers to launch attacks in the United States, Europe, Russia, Australia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and the Philippines during the Islamic holy month of Ramzan, which began in late May. The audio clip was distributed on Monday on Islamic State's channel on Telegram, an encrypted messaging application. It was attributed to the militant group`s official spokesman, Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer. The authenticity of the recording could not be independently verified, but the voice was the same as a previous audio message purported to be from the spokesman. "O lions of Mosul, Raqqa, and Tal Afar, God bless those pure arms and bright faces, charge against the rejectionists and the apostates and fight them with the strength of one man," said al-Muhajer. Rejectionist is a derogatory term used to refer to Shi'ite Muslims. "To the brethren of faith and belief in Europe, America, Russia, Australia, and others. Your brothers in your land have done well so take them as role models and do as they have done."

Islamic State calls for attacks in US, Europe, Middle East, Asia during Ramzan

This is the worst diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region in decades.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt decided to break off ties with Qatar, accusing the Gulf state of supporting terrorism and of destabilising the whole region.

Qatar had fired the opening shot by what seemed to be open criticism of the Saudi-led and US-assisted anti-Iran alliance &nbsp;pushed by Donald Trump after his visit to Riyadh on May 21.

On May 24, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar, allegedly criticised the US-Saudi move and described Iran as an &ldquo;Islamic power&rdquo;. The Qatar News Agency quoted the emir as saying, &ldquo;There is no wisdom in harbouring hostility towards Iran&rdquo;. This infuriated Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Qatar then questioned the veracity of the comments and said its news agency was hacked. Nevertheless, the diplomatic rift been deepening, culminating in the current crisis.

Not the first diplomatic imbroglio

This is not the first time that Qatar, a thumb-shaped emirate of the size of the US state of Connecticut, has become embroiled a diplomatic imbroglio with its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) partners Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

These three Gulf Arab states withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar&rsquo;s capital Doha in early 2014, on the pretext that the country had links to the Muslim Brotherhood and gave refuge to its leaders after the fall of Egypt&rsquo;s first democratically elected government in July 2013.

Saudi Arabia declared the Muslim Brotherhood, which it views as an alternative source of authority that&rsquo;s opposed to hereditary monarchical rule, a terrorist organisation in early March 2014.

But the current crisis is much more serious than the 2014 diplomatic spat, which was resolved after eight months, with Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors returning to Doha in November of the same year on the condition that Qatar would never allow the Muslim Brotherhood to operate from its territory.

Iran in the centre

Unlike the 2014 crisis, the current Qatari&ndash;Saudi rift is not just an intra-GCC falling out, as it involves Saudi Arabia&rsquo;s regional rival Iran.

Qatar is seen by the Saudi government and its Emirati and Bahraini counterparts as a spoiler of efforts to forge a unified Arab&ndash;Muslim position, undergirded by the Trump administration, against Iran&rsquo;s so-called &ldquo;terrorist agenda&rdquo; in Arab countries.

A week before US President Donald Trump visited Riyadh to consolidate the anti-Iran alliance, the Saudi Arabic-language daily newspaper Okaz reported a secret meeting between the Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, who was officially visiting Baghdad at the time, and the Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasim Sulaimani.

The newspaper accused Qatar of exiting &ldquo;early from the Arab-Islamic consensus&rdquo; on Iran, adding &ldquo;its defence of the Iranian terrorist regime shows the secret Doha-Tehran alliance intends to strike at Arab and Islamic solidarity.&rdquo;

All of this while Qatar signed the anti-Iran Riyadh Declaration issued after the Arab-Islamic-America summit on May 21 2017.

But why would Qatar, a country that hosts the largest US air force base in the Middle East (Al-Udeid), veer off the Saudi-led GCC military and diplomatic track?

Gulf watchers know that Qatar is suspicious of Saudi goals under the GCC umbrella, and it wants an independent foreign policy, free from Saudi or Iranian influence.

Qatar hardly sees Saudi Arabia as a harmless neighbour. Tensions in Saudi-Qatar relations started right after the former emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaifa Al Thani (1995 &ndash; 2013) came to power via a bloodless coup in 1995 by overthrowing his father Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani. Sheikh Khalifa was visiting Saudi Arabia at the time, which embarrassed the Saudi government.

Sheikh Hamad&rsquo;s takeover in 1995 was preceded by a Saudi attack on a Qatari border security post in September 1992, in violation of a mutual defence treaty the two states had signed in 1982.

Riyadh also thwarted Qatari initiatives to export liquefied gas to other GCC member states in the 1990s. Emir Sheikh Hamad began to pull Qatar out of the Saudi shadow, a policy that Emir Sheikh Tamim is also pursuing.

Qatari satellite news channel Al Jazeera occasionally broadcasts programs criticising Saudi Arabia and, much to the anger of Riyadh, it hosted Saudi dissidents in a popular talk show in June 2002.

The incident led to Saudi Arabia recalling its ambassador from Doha in September 2002. Full diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored five years later, in September 2007, on Qatari assurance that Al Jazeera would refrain from broadcasting anti-Saudi programs.

A big push in the region

At the same time, Qatar, with the massive amount of oil and gas-generated income in its coffers (US$191 billion GDP in 2012), has been pushing for a bigger foreign policy and diplomatic profile in the region.

Doha successfully mediated a series of conflicts in the 2000s. It broke the political impasse in Lebanon by persuading the Sunni-led Lebanese government and the opposition Hezbollah to sign the May 2008 Doha Agreement; it mediated the conflict between the Yemeni government and Houthis in February 2008 (though it failed subsequently to find a permanent solution to the conflict); and, in February 2010, it facilitated a ceasefire agreement between the Sudanese government and the opposition Justice and Equality Movement.

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These successful mediations brought the tiny country enviable diplomatic plaudits from home and abroad.

In 2011, to the surprise of many regional states, the Qatar military participated in the NATO-led intervention to dislodge the Gaddafi government in Libya. It wanted to achieve a similar goal in Syria &ndash; to topple the Bashar Al-Assad government &ndash; but did not succeed primarily due to Iranian and Russian opposition.

Despite being an autocracy, Qatar presented itself as a frontline Arab state for politically transforming the Arab world, under the rubric of the Arab Spring movements.

Its objective was to strengthen Qatari national security and foreign policy autonomy in the Gulf region, a neighbourhood dominated by giants such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

What next?

Nonetheless, the diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia does not bode well for Qatar. The Saudi-led diplomatic offensive has isolated it from the rest of GCC and the Middle East region by cutting off air, land and sea routes to Doha.

Doha has been accused again of supporting regional terror groups &ndash; al-Qaeda and ISIL in Iraq and Syria - and cooperating with Iran.

Qatar has always denied funding extremist groups, but the small country has been accused in the last few years of allowing terrorist financiers &nbsp;to operate within its territory with impunity.

The Qatari government has also pledged support for Hamas, the Palestinian group regarded as a liberation force against Israeli occupation by most Muslim countries, but as a terrorist organisation by the United States, Israel, Egypt and Canada.

Qatar can expect no serious help from Iran either, as any possible Iranian political or diplomatic help runs the risk of further embittering Saudi-Qatar relations and permanently subject Doha to Saudi wrath.

The Trump administration is definitely not on Qatar&rsquo;s side, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking in Australia, indirectly hoped to resolve the intra-GCC irritants and put Qatar back in the Saudi-driven GCC orbit.

Cracks in the Saudi-Qatar relationship would undercut the joint Arab-US fight against regional terror and extremist groups. It&rsquo;s difficult to say how long Qatar would be in the position to resist the Saudi diplomatic offensive.

But backing down from the fight with Riyadh looks set to produce two outcomes. First, Doha would be obliged to downgrade its support to rebel groups in Syria, linked to either Muslim Brotherhood or al-Qaeda. And second, it must be willing to shed some degree of its foreign policy autonomy to participate in the Saudi-led offensive against Iran.

<img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/78894/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" />In either case, Qatar has undermined the anti-Iran alliance, giving Tehran more time to reassess the situation and consider its options.

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/saudi-rift-with-qatar-exposes-growing-division-in-the-anti-iran-alliance-78894">original article</a>.

This is the worst diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region in decades.

This is the worst diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region in decades. On June 5, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt decided to break off ties with Qatar, accusing the Gulf state of supporting terrorism and of destabilising the whole region. Qatar had fired the opening shot by what seemed to be open criticism of the Saudi-led and US-assisted anti-Iran alliance pushed by Donald Trump after his visit to Riyadh on May 21. On May 24, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar, allegedly criticised the US-Saudi move and described Iran as an “Islamic power”. The Qatar News Agency quoted the emir as saying, “There is no wisdom in harbouring hostility towards Iran”. This infuriated Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Qatar then questioned the veracity of the comments and said its news agency was hacked. Nevertheless, the diplomatic rift been deepening, culminating in the current crisis. Not the first diplomatic imbroglio This is not the first time that Qatar, a thumb-shaped emirate of the size of the US state of Connecticut, has become embroiled a diplomatic imbroglio with its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) partners Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These three Gulf Arab states withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar’s capital Doha in early 2014, on the pretext that the country had links to the Muslim Brotherhood and gave refuge to its leaders after the fall of Egypt’s first democratically elected government in July 2013. Saudi Arabia declared the Muslim Brotherhood, which it views as an alternative source of authority that’s opposed to hereditary monarchical rule, a terrorist organisation in early March 2014. But the current crisis is much more serious than the 2014 diplomatic spat, which was resolved after eight months, with Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors returning to Doha in November of the same year on the condition that Qatar would never allow the Muslim Brotherhood to operate from its territory. Iran in the centre Unlike the 2014 crisis, the current Qatari–Saudi rift is not just an intra-GCC falling out, as it involves Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran. Qatar is seen by the Saudi government and its Emirati and Bahraini counterparts as a spoiler of efforts to forge a unified Arab–Muslim position, undergirded by the Trump administration, against Iran’s so-called “terrorist agenda” in Arab countries. A week before US President Donald Trump visited Riyadh to consolidate the anti-Iran alliance, the Saudi Arabic-language daily newspaper Okaz reported a secret meeting between the Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, who was officially visiting Baghdad at the time, and the Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasim Sulaimani. The newspaper accused Qatar of exiting “early from the Arab-Islamic consensus” on Iran, adding “its defence of the Iranian terrorist regime shows the secret Doha-Tehran alliance intends to strike at Arab and Islamic solidarity.” All of this while Qatar signed the anti-Iran Riyadh Declaration issued after the Arab-Islamic-America summit on May 21 2017. But why would Qatar, a country that hosts the largest US air force base in the Middle East (Al-Udeid), veer off the Saudi-led GCC military and diplomatic track? Gulf watchers know that Qatar is suspicious of Saudi goals under the GCC umbrella, and it wants an independent foreign policy, free from Saudi or Iranian influence. Qatar hardly sees Saudi Arabia as a harmless neighbour. Tensions in Saudi-Qatar relations started right after the former emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaifa Al Thani (1995 – 2013) came to power via a bloodless coup in 1995 by overthrowing his father Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani. Sheikh Khalifa was visiting Saudi Arabia at the time, which embarrassed the Saudi government. Sheikh Hamad’s takeover in 1995 was preceded by a Saudi attack on a Qatari border security post in September 1992, in violation of a mutual defence treaty the two states had signed in 1982. Riyadh also thwarted Qatari initiatives to export liquefied gas to other GCC member states in the 1990s. Emir Sheikh Hamad began to pull Qatar out of the Saudi shadow, a policy that Emir Sheikh Tamim is also pursuing. Qatari satellite news channel Al Jazeera occasionally broadcasts programs criticising Saudi Arabia and, much to the anger of Riyadh, it hosted Saudi dissidents in a popular talk show in June 2002. The incident led to Saudi Arabia recalling its ambassador from Doha in September 2002. Full diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored five years later, in September 2007, on Qatari assurance that Al Jazeera would refrain from broadcasting anti-Saudi programs. A big push in the region At the same time, Qatar, with the massive amount of oil and gas-generated income in its coffers (US$191 billion GDP in 2012), has been pushing for a bigger foreign policy and diplomatic profile in the region. Doha successfully mediated a series of conflicts in the 2000s. It broke the political impasse in Lebanon by persuading the Sunni-led Lebanese government and the opposition Hezbollah to sign the May 2008 Doha Agreement; it mediated the conflict between the Yemeni government and Houthis in February 2008 (though it failed subsequently to find a permanent solution to the conflict); and, in February 2010, it facilitated a ceasefire agreement between the Sudanese government and the opposition Justice and Equality Movement. These successful mediations brought the tiny country enviable diplomatic plaudits from home and abroad. In 2011, to the surprise of many regional states, the Qatar military participated in the NATO-led intervention to dislodge the Gaddafi government in Libya. It wanted to achieve a similar goal in Syria – to topple the Bashar Al-Assad government – but did not succeed primarily due to Iranian and Russian opposition. Despite being an autocracy, Qatar presented itself as a frontline Arab state for politically transforming the Arab world, under the rubric of the Arab Spring movements. Its objective was to strengthen Qatari national security and foreign policy autonomy in the Gulf region, a neighbourhood dominated by giants such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. What next? Nonetheless, the diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia does not bode well for Qatar. The Saudi-led diplomatic offensive has isolated it from the rest of GCC and the Middle East region by cutting off air, land and sea routes to Doha. Doha has been accused again of supporting regional terror groups – al-Qaeda and ISIL in Iraq and Syria - and cooperating with Iran. Qatar has always denied funding extremist groups, but the small country has been accused in the last few years of allowing terrorist financiers to operate within its territory with impunity. The Qatari government has also pledged support for Hamas, the Palestinian group regarded as a liberation force against Israeli occupation by most Muslim countries, but as a terrorist organisation by the United States, Israel, Egypt and Canada. Qatar can expect no serious help from Iran either, as any possible Iranian political or diplomatic help runs the risk of further embittering Saudi-Qatar relations and permanently subject Doha to Saudi wrath. The Trump administration is definitely not on Qatar’s side, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking in Australia, indirectly hoped to resolve the intra-GCC irritants and put Qatar back in the Saudi-driven GCC orbit. Cracks in the Saudi-Qatar relationship would undercut the joint Arab-US fight against regional terror and extremist groups. It’s difficult to say how long Qatar would be in the position to resist the Saudi diplomatic offensive. But backing down from the fight with Riyadh looks set to produce two outcomes. First, Doha would be obliged to downgrade its support to rebel groups in Syria, linked to either Muslim Brotherhood or al-Qaeda. And second, it must be willing to shed some degree of its foreign policy autonomy to participate in the Saudi-led offensive against Iran. In either case, Qatar has undermined the anti-Iran alliance, giving Tehran more time to reassess the situation and consider its options. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Saudi rift with Qatar exposes growing division in the anti-Iran alliance

In a call last month with the Philippines&#39; president, US President Donald Trump described North Korea&#39;s leader Kim Jong Un as a &quot;madman with nuclear weapons&quot; who could not be let on the loose, according to a leaked Philippine transcript of their call.

Trump told Duterte in the April 29 call that the United States would &quot;take care of North Korea,&quot; and had a lot of firepower in the region, although it did not want to use it, according to a transcript of their conversation published by the Washington Post and the investigative news site The Intercept.

The document included a &quot;confidential&quot; cover sheet from the Americas division of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

A senior US official said the Trump administration did not dispute the accuracy of the transcript and declined to comment further.

Trump requested Duterte&#39;s help in impressing on China, North Korea&#39;s neighbour and only major ally, the need for it to help rein in Kim, the transcript showed.

&quot;We can&#39;t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that,&quot; Trump said. &quot;We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20, but we don&#39;t want to use it.&quot;

The US president told Duterte that Washington had sent two nuclear submarines to waters off the Korean peninsula, comments likely to raise further questions about his handling of sensitive information after US officials said Trump discussed intelligence about Islamic State with Russian officials this month.

&quot;We have two submarines - the best in the world. We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all,&quot; Trump said.

The Philippines foreign ministry said earlier in a statement that it had no comment on news reports about the leaked transcript.

But it said that under Philippine law there was &quot;criminal and civil liability attached to the hacking, unauthorized disclosure and use of illegally or inadvertently obtained confidential government documents.&quot;

The ministry said it valued the need for transparency, but the release of some information could affect national security and regional stability. &quot;As such, we appeal to the sense of responsibility and patriotism of all concerned,&quot; it added.

North Korea has vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the U.S. mainland, presenting Trump with perhaps his biggest foreign policy challenge.

It has conducted dozens of missile launches and two nuclear bomb tests since the start of last year.

Trump has said &quot;a major, major conflict&quot; with North Korea is possible and that all options are on the table, but his administration says it wants to resolve the crisis diplomatically with the aid of tougher sanctions.

On May 1, just after the call with Duterte, Trump said he would be &quot;honoured&quot; to meet Kim Jong Un, under the right conditions.

According to the transcript, Trump said he hoped China would act to solve the North Korea problem.

&quot;They really have the means because a great degree of their stuff comes through China,&quot; Trump said. &quot;They (Beijing) are doing certain things, like not accepting calls. But if China doesn&#39;t do it, we will do it,&quot; Trump said, having asked Duterte if he thought China had influence over Kim.

Trump said Kim had the &quot;powder&quot; - an apparent reference to North Korea&#39;s nuclear capability - &quot;but he doesn&#39;t have the delivery system.&quot;

&quot;All his rockets are crashing. That&#39;s the good news. But eventually when he gets that delivery system,&quot; Trump said without finishing his sentence.

While North Korea missile tests have frequently failed, Trump and Duterte spoke before an apparently successful test of a long-range missile this month.

Western experts say that test appeared to have advanced North Korea&#39;s aim of developing a missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, although the capability was probably still several years away.

The director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, General Vincent Stewart, said on Tuesday that if left unchecked, North Korea was on an &quot;inevitable&quot; path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States.

In a show of force, the United States has sent the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to waters off the Korean peninsula, where it joined the Michigan, a nuclear submarine that docked in South Korea in April.

(Reuters)

Trump told Duterte in the April 29 call that the United States would 'take care of North Korea'

In a call last month with the Philippines' president, US President Donald Trump described North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un as a "madman with nuclear weapons" who could not be let on the loose, according to a leaked Philippine transcript of their call. Trump told Duterte in the April 29 call that the United States would "take care of North Korea," and had a lot of firepower in the region, although it did not want to use it, according to a transcript of their conversation published by the Washington Post and the investigative news site The Intercept. The document included a "confidential" cover sheet from the Americas division of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. A senior US official said the Trump administration did not dispute the accuracy of the transcript and declined to comment further. Trump requested Duterte's help in impressing on China, North Korea's neighbour and only major ally, the need for it to help rein in Kim, the transcript showed. "We can't let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that," Trump said. "We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20, but we don't want to use it." The US president told Duterte that Washington had sent two nuclear submarines to waters off the Korean peninsula, comments likely to raise further questions about his handling of sensitive information after US officials said Trump discussed intelligence about Islamic State with Russian officials this month. "We have two submarines - the best in the world. We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all," Trump said. The Philippines foreign ministry said earlier in a statement that it had no comment on news reports about the leaked transcript. But it said that under Philippine law there was "criminal and civil liability attached to the hacking, unauthorized disclosure and use of illegally or inadvertently obtained confidential government documents." The ministry said it valued the need for transparency, but the release of some information could affect national security and regional stability. "As such, we appeal to the sense of responsibility and patriotism of all concerned," it added. North Korea has vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the U.S. mainland, presenting Trump with perhaps his biggest foreign policy challenge. It has conducted dozens of missile launches and two nuclear bomb tests since the start of last year. Trump has said "a major, major conflict" with North Korea is possible and that all options are on the table, but his administration says it wants to resolve the crisis diplomatically with the aid of tougher sanctions. On May 1, just after the call with Duterte, Trump said he would be "honoured" to meet Kim Jong Un, under the right conditions. According to the transcript, Trump said he hoped China would act to solve the North Korea problem. "They really have the means because a great degree of their stuff comes through China," Trump said. "They (Beijing) are doing certain things, like not accepting calls. But if China doesn't do it, we will do it," Trump said, having asked Duterte if he thought China had influence over Kim. Trump said Kim had the "powder" - an apparent reference to North Korea's nuclear capability - "but he doesn't have the delivery system." "All his rockets are crashing. That's the good news. But eventually when he gets that delivery system," Trump said without finishing his sentence. While North Korea missile tests have frequently failed, Trump and Duterte spoke before an apparently successful test of a long-range missile this month. Western experts say that test appeared to have advanced North Korea's aim of developing a missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, although the capability was probably still several years away. The director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, General Vincent Stewart, said on Tuesday that if left unchecked, North Korea was on an "inevitable" path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States. In a show of force, the United States has sent the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to waters off the Korean peninsula, where it joined the Michigan, a nuclear submarine that docked in South Korea in April. (Reuters)

Trump calls North Korea's leader 'madman', says he can't be let on the loose

A senior North Korean diplomat who handles relations with the United States said on Saturday Pyongyang would have dialogue with the U.S. administration if conditions were right, South Korea&#39;s Yonhap news agency reported.

Choe Son Hui, North Korea&#39;s foreign ministry director general for U.S. affairs, made the comment to reporters in Beijing as she was travelling home from Norway, Yonhap said.

&quot;We&#39;ll have dialogue if the conditions are there,&quot; she told reporters when asked if the North was preparing to hold talks with the Trump administration, according to Yonhap.

When asked if North Korea was also preparing to talk with the new government in South Korea, of liberal President Moon Jae-in, Choe said: &quot;We&#39;ll see.&quot;

The comments by Choe, who is a veteran member of the North&#39;s team of nuclear negotiators, came amid stepped up international efforts to press North Korea and ease tension over its pursuit of nuclear arms.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned in an interview with Reuters in late April that a &quot;major, major conflict&quot; with the North was possible, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute over its nuclear and missile programmes.

Trump later said he would be &quot;honoured&quot; to meet the North&#39;s leader, Kim Jong Un, under the right conditions.

Choe was in Norway for so-called Track Two talks with former U.S. government officials, according to Japanese media, the latest in a series of such meetings.

A source with knowledge of the latest meeting said at least one former U.S. government official took part but the U.S. administration was not involved.

South Korea&#39;s Moon, elected this week on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea, has said he would be willing to go to Pyongyang under the right circumstances and said dialogue must be used in parallel with sanctions to resolve the problem over North Korea&#39;s weapons.

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. and U.S. sanctions and is also developing long-range missiles to deliver atomic weapons.

It says it needs such weapons to defend itself against U.S. aggression.

(Reuters)

Choe Son Hui, North Korea's foreign ministry director general for US affairs, made the comment to reporters in Beijing as she was travelling home from Norway

A senior North Korean diplomat who handles relations with the United States said on Saturday Pyongyang would have dialogue with the U.S. administration if conditions were right, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. Choe Son Hui, North Korea's foreign ministry director general for U.S. affairs, made the comment to reporters in Beijing as she was travelling home from Norway, Yonhap said. "We'll have dialogue if the conditions are there," she told reporters when asked if the North was preparing to hold talks with the Trump administration, according to Yonhap. When asked if North Korea was also preparing to talk with the new government in South Korea, of liberal President Moon Jae-in, Choe said: "We'll see." The comments by Choe, who is a veteran member of the North's team of nuclear negotiators, came amid stepped up international efforts to press North Korea and ease tension over its pursuit of nuclear arms. U.S. President Donald Trump warned in an interview with Reuters in late April that a "major, major conflict" with the North was possible, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute over its nuclear and missile programmes. Trump later said he would be "honoured" to meet the North's leader, Kim Jong Un, under the right conditions. Choe was in Norway for so-called Track Two talks with former U.S. government officials, according to Japanese media, the latest in a series of such meetings. A source with knowledge of the latest meeting said at least one former U.S. government official took part but the U.S. administration was not involved. South Korea's Moon, elected this week on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea, has said he would be willing to go to Pyongyang under the right circumstances and said dialogue must be used in parallel with sanctions to resolve the problem over North Korea's weapons. North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. and U.S. sanctions and is also developing long-range missiles to deliver atomic weapons. It says it needs such weapons to defend itself against U.S. aggression. (Reuters)

North Korea says will have dialogue with US under right conditions: Yonhap

The Trump administration on Thursday blamed Pakistan for deteriorating Indo-Pak relations and warned that the ties might worsen further if another &quot;high- profile&quot; terrorist attack emanates from across the border this year.

&quot;Islamabad&#39;s failure to curb support to anti-India militants and New Delhi&#39;s growing intolerance of this policy, coupled with a perceived lack of progress in Pakistan&#39;s investigations into the January 2016 Pathankot cross-border attack, set the stage for a deterioration of bilateral relations in 2016,&quot; Daniel Coats, director of National Intelligence, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing.

Testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence along with top intelligence officials, Coats said the relations between India and Pakistan became more tense following two major terrorist attacks in 2016 by militants crossing into India from Pakistan.

&quot;They might deteriorate further in 2017, especially in the event of another high-profile terrorist attack in India that New Delhi attributes to originating in or receiving assistance from Pakistan,&quot; Coats said in his testimony before the Senate committee on worldwide threats.

Supporting India&#39;s pre-condition for bilateral talks on Islamabad stopping support to cross border terrorism, Coats said increasing numbers of cross-firing along the Line of Control, including the use of artillery and mortars, might aggravate the risk of unintended escalation between the two countries.

&quot;Easing of heightened Indo-Pak tension, including negotiations to renew official dialogue, will probably hinge in 2017 on a sharp and sustained reduction of cross-border attacks by terrorist groups based in Pakistan and progress in the Pathankot investigation&quot;, Coats said.

Last year, heavily-armed terrorists sneaked in from across the border and attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station in Punjab. The attack had claimed the lives of seven security personnel while four terrorists were killed.

Coats said Pakistan is concerned about its international isolation due to its dwindling position against India&#39;s rising international status, expanded foreign outreach and deepening ties with the US. Pakistan will likely turn to China to offset its isolation, empowering a relationship that will help Beijing to project influence into the Indian Ocean, said the top US intelligence official.

In his remarks ahead of the possible release of the Afghanistan policy of the Trump Administration, he said &quot;Pakistan-based terrorist groups will present a sustained threat to the US interests in the region and continue to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan.&quot;

&quot;The threat to the US and the West from Pakistani-based terrorist groups will be persistent but diffuse. Plotting against the US homeland will be conducted on a more opportunistic basis or driven by individual members within these groups,&quot;&nbsp;he told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Noting that Pakistan will probably be able to manage its internal security, he said anti-Pakistan groups are likely to focus more on soft targets.

&quot;The groups we judge will pose the greatest threat to Pakistan&#39;s internal security include Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat ui-Ahrar, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, ISIS-K, Laskhare Jhangvi, and Lashkar-e Jhangvi ai-Aiami, he said, adding that the emerging China Pakistan Economic Corridor will probably offer militants and terrorists additional targets.&quot;

Pakistan&#39;s pursuit of tactical nuclear weapons potentially lowers the threshold for their use, Coats warned.

&quot;Early deployment during a crisis of smaller, more mobile nuclear weapons would increase the amount of time that systems would be outside the relative security of a storage site, increasing the risk that a coordinated attack by non-state actors might succeed in capturing a complete nuclear weapon&quot;,he said.

(PTI)

Testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence along with top intelligence officials, director of National Intelligence?Coats said the relations between India and Pakistan became more tense following two major terrorist attacks in 2016 by militants crossing into India from Pakistan.

The Trump administration on Thursday blamed Pakistan for deteriorating Indo-Pak relations and warned that the ties might worsen further if another "high- profile" terrorist attack emanates from across the border this year. "Islamabad's failure to curb support to anti-India militants and New Delhi's growing intolerance of this policy, coupled with a perceived lack of progress in Pakistan's investigations into the January 2016 Pathankot cross-border attack, set the stage for a deterioration of bilateral relations in 2016," Daniel Coats, director of National Intelligence, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing. Testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence along with top intelligence officials, Coats said the relations between India and Pakistan became more tense following two major terrorist attacks in 2016 by militants crossing into India from Pakistan. "They might deteriorate further in 2017, especially in the event of another high-profile terrorist attack in India that New Delhi attributes to originating in or receiving assistance from Pakistan," Coats said in his testimony before the Senate committee on worldwide threats. Supporting India's pre-condition for bilateral talks on Islamabad stopping support to cross border terrorism, Coats said increasing numbers of cross-firing along the Line of Control, including the use of artillery and mortars, might aggravate the risk of unintended escalation between the two countries. "Easing of heightened Indo-Pak tension, including negotiations to renew official dialogue, will probably hinge in 2017 on a sharp and sustained reduction of cross-border attacks by terrorist groups based in Pakistan and progress in the Pathankot investigation", Coats said. Last year, heavily-armed terrorists sneaked in from across the border and attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station in Punjab. The attack had claimed the lives of seven security personnel while four terrorists were killed. Coats said Pakistan is concerned about its international isolation due to its dwindling position against India's rising international status, expanded foreign outreach and deepening ties with the US. Pakistan will likely turn to China to offset its isolation, empowering a relationship that will help Beijing to project influence into the Indian Ocean, said the top US intelligence official. In his remarks ahead of the possible release of the Afghanistan policy of the Trump Administration, he said "Pakistan-based terrorist groups will present a sustained threat to the US interests in the region and continue to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan." "The threat to the US and the West from Pakistani-based terrorist groups will be persistent but diffuse. Plotting against the US homeland will be conducted on a more opportunistic basis or driven by individual members within these groups," he told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Noting that Pakistan will probably be able to manage its internal security, he said anti-Pakistan groups are likely to focus more on soft targets. "The groups we judge will pose the greatest threat to Pakistan's internal security include Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat ui-Ahrar, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, ISIS-K, Laskhare Jhangvi, and Lashkar-e Jhangvi ai-Aiami, he said, adding that the emerging China Pakistan Economic Corridor will probably offer militants and terrorists additional targets." Pakistan's pursuit of tactical nuclear weapons potentially lowers the threshold for their use, Coats warned. "Early deployment during a crisis of smaller, more mobile nuclear weapons would increase the amount of time that systems would be outside the relative security of a storage site, increasing the risk that a coordinated attack by non-state actors might succeed in capturing a complete nuclear weapon",he said. (PTI)

US blames Pakistan for deteriorating Indo-Pak ties

The United States and Philippines began Monday their main annual military exercises with a smaller number of troops than previous years and are limited to anti-terrorist operations and disaster response.

The 2017 edition of so-called Balikatan, the first one during the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte&#39;s tenure, began with a ceremony at the headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo to the north of Manila, said the Armed Forces spokesperson Restituto Padilla.

Nearly 5,400 soldiers - including 2,800 Philippine and 2,600 US troops - will participate in these 12-day exercises.

The number of troops, joined by some Australian and Japanese soldiers, has been considerably reduced as compared to previous years, when 11,000 US and Philippine soldiers took part in the exercises.

The current edition of Balikatan will be restricted to anti-terrorist and disaster response operations only, explained the military spokesperson to EFE.

Manila has deployed its biggest warship in this manoeuvre which will focus on mass casualty evacuation, urban search and rescue, underwater demolition and anti-terrorism operations in Samar, Cagayan, Isabela, Aurora and Nueva Ecija provinces.

During previous years, both armies practiced war situations with response exercises in the face of an invasion.

This edition does not even include exercises near the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea where Manila and Beijing are embroiled in territorial disputes over the sovereignty issue.

The scaled-back exercises come after Duterte changed the Philippines&#39; foreign policy, distancing the country from Washington and aligning itself more with China with whom it has signed several cooperation agreements and has proposed strengthening defence ties.

Last week, three Chinese warships visited the Philippines - for the first time since 2010 - to &quot;bolster camaraderie and understanding between the two navies through naval diplomacy,&quot; according to the Armed Forces of the island country.

Balikatan has taken place every year since the US and the Philippines signed a mutual defence agreement in 1951.

Duterte agreed to it even though in October, during another program of joint manoeuvres, he promised that those would be the last ones to be conducted.

(EFE)

Nearly 5,400 soldiers - including 2,800 Philippine and 2,600 US troops - will participate in these 12-day exercises

The United States and Philippines began Monday their main annual military exercises with a smaller number of troops than previous years and are limited to anti-terrorist operations and disaster response. The 2017 edition of so-called Balikatan, the first one during the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's tenure, began with a ceremony at the headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo to the north of Manila, said the Armed Forces spokesperson Restituto Padilla. Nearly 5,400 soldiers - including 2,800 Philippine and 2,600 US troops - will participate in these 12-day exercises. The number of troops, joined by some Australian and Japanese soldiers, has been considerably reduced as compared to previous years, when 11,000 US and Philippine soldiers took part in the exercises. The current edition of Balikatan will be restricted to anti-terrorist and disaster response operations only, explained the military spokesperson to EFE. Manila has deployed its biggest warship in this manoeuvre which will focus on mass casualty evacuation, urban search and rescue, underwater demolition and anti-terrorism operations in Samar, Cagayan, Isabela, Aurora and Nueva Ecija provinces. During previous years, both armies practiced war situations with response exercises in the face of an invasion. This edition does not even include exercises near the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea where Manila and Beijing are embroiled in territorial disputes over the sovereignty issue. The scaled-back exercises come after Duterte changed the Philippines' foreign policy, distancing the country from Washington and aligning itself more with China with whom it has signed several cooperation agreements and has proposed strengthening defence ties. Last week, three Chinese warships visited the Philippines - for the first time since 2010 - to "bolster camaraderie and understanding between the two navies through naval diplomacy," according to the Armed Forces of the island country. Balikatan has taken place every year since the US and the Philippines signed a mutual defence agreement in 1951. Duterte agreed to it even though in October, during another program of joint manoeuvres, he promised that those would be the last ones to be conducted. (EFE)

US, Philippines begin small-scale military exercises

When Donald Trump was elected in November, the Dalai Lama said he was keen to meet the incoming US president, but since then Trump has cozied up to China&#39;s leader Xi Jinping, making it less likely the man Beijing deems a separatist will get an invite to the White House anytime soon.

The United States has long recognised Tibet as part of the People&#39;s Republic of China, and does not back Tibetan independence. But that has not deterred all the recent US presidents before Trump from meeting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

The United States is widely seen as the last major Western power that has still held meetings with the Dalai Lama despite Beijing&#39;s objections that such encounters foment separatism.

In past meetings, the US had consistently voiced support for the protection of human rights of Tibetans in China, and called for formal talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama and his representatives.

A State Department spokeswoman and a White House official referred Reuters to the Dalai Lama&#39;s office when asked whether the Tibetan spiritual leader and his representatives had asked for a meeting with Trump and whether any such meetings were planned.

The Chinese foreign ministry didn&#39;t immediately respond to a faxed request asking whether Beijing had asked Trump not to meet the Dalai Lama.

&quot;His Holiness was supposed to go (to the US) in April, but it was postponed,&quot; Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, told Reuters.

That trip has been delayed until June due to a hectic schedule in the preceding months that had left the Dalai Lama physically exhausted, Sangay said, adding that Washington DC wouldn&#39;t be part of the June itinerary.

The office of the Dalai Lama hasn&#39;t reached out to Trump to arrange a meeting yet, he said.

The Dalai Lama is taking a more considered approach with regard to any meeting with Trump, said a source with knowledge of the thinking of the winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.

The unpredictable US president upset protocol in December when weeks before being sworn into office he took a telephone call from the leader of self-ruled Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province, only to last week rebuff Taiwanese suggestions of another call.

In the interim, Trump has met and phoned Xi, and says he has built a strong relationship with the Chinese leader.

He called Xi &quot;a friend of mine&quot; who was &quot;doing an amazing job as a leader&quot; in an interview with Reuters last week, and praised him for trying to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea. In return, the Chinese president has invited Trump to visit China this year.

In mid-2008, then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met the Dalai Lama, to the anger of Beijing. Months later, the British Foreign Secretary at that time David Miliband ditched Britain&#39;s near century-long position on Tibet, describing it as an &quot;anachronism&quot;, and explicitly recognised Tibet as part of China.

Based on treaties signed at the turn of the 20th century by British-administered India and Tibet, Britain had previously said it would recognise China&#39;s &quot;special position&quot; in Tibet on the condition that Tibet was given significant autonomy.

Silence from Trump

Chinese troops took control of Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a &quot;peaceful liberation&quot;. Nine years later, the Dalai Lama fled to India after an abortive uprising and set up a government in exile, which China does not recognise.

China sees the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist in a monk&#39;s robes, even though the Dalai Lama says he wants autonomy for his homeland, not outright independence.

There have been no formal talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama&#39;s representatives since 2010.

International rights groups and exiles say China stamps on the religious and cultural rights of Tibetans, accusations denied by Beijing. China says its rule has ended serfdom and brought prosperity to a once-backward trans-Himalayan region.

Trump has been silent on Tibetan issues.

&quot;The main change is that the US approach on Tibet seems likely to become more transactional and therefore less consistent,&quot; said Robbie Barnett, director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University.

&quot;It seems set to become more a question of contingency, dependent on how he calculates his relationship with China at any one moment.&quot;

Earlier this week, Democratic US Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts called for a new US policy towards Tibet to safeguard the identity of the Tibetan people and hold China accountable for human rights abuses.

The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile said he is still hopeful that the United States will continue to support Tibetan issues and push for talks between the Dalai Lama&#39;s representatives and Beijing.

But he said they were prepared for any upsets.

&quot;We are Buddhists, we believe in impermanence. You just go with your karma and whatever happens, happens, because we have seen the worst, the occupation of our country,&quot; said Sangay, who is planning a trip to Washington at the end of May.

(Reuters)

The United States has long recognised Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China, and does not back Tibetan independence

When Donald Trump was elected in November, the Dalai Lama said he was keen to meet the incoming US president, but since then Trump has cozied up to China's leader Xi Jinping, making it less likely the man Beijing deems a separatist will get an invite to the White House anytime soon. The United States has long recognised Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China, and does not back Tibetan independence. But that has not deterred all the recent US presidents before Trump from meeting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. The United States is widely seen as the last major Western power that has still held meetings with the Dalai Lama despite Beijing's objections that such encounters foment separatism. In past meetings, the US had consistently voiced support for the protection of human rights of Tibetans in China, and called for formal talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama and his representatives. A State Department spokeswoman and a White House official referred Reuters to the Dalai Lama's office when asked whether the Tibetan spiritual leader and his representatives had asked for a meeting with Trump and whether any such meetings were planned. The Chinese foreign ministry didn't immediately respond to a faxed request asking whether Beijing had asked Trump not to meet the Dalai Lama. "His Holiness was supposed to go (to the US) in April, but it was postponed," Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, told Reuters. That trip has been delayed until June due to a hectic schedule in the preceding months that had left the Dalai Lama physically exhausted, Sangay said, adding that Washington DC wouldn't be part of the June itinerary. The office of the Dalai Lama hasn't reached out to Trump to arrange a meeting yet, he said. The Dalai Lama is taking a more considered approach with regard to any meeting with Trump, said a source with knowledge of the thinking of the winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. The unpredictable US president upset protocol in December when weeks before being sworn into office he took a telephone call from the leader of self-ruled Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province, only to last week rebuff Taiwanese suggestions of another call. In the interim, Trump has met and phoned Xi, and says he has built a strong relationship with the Chinese leader. He called Xi "a friend of mine" who was "doing an amazing job as a leader" in an interview with Reuters last week, and praised him for trying to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea. In return, the Chinese president has invited Trump to visit China this year. In mid-2008, then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met the Dalai Lama, to the anger of Beijing. Months later, the British Foreign Secretary at that time David Miliband ditched Britain's near century-long position on Tibet, describing it as an "anachronism", and explicitly recognised Tibet as part of China. Based on treaties signed at the turn of the 20th century by British-administered India and Tibet, Britain had previously said it would recognise China's "special position" in Tibet on the condition that Tibet was given significant autonomy. Silence from Trump Chinese troops took control of Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a "peaceful liberation". Nine years later, the Dalai Lama fled to India after an abortive uprising and set up a government in exile, which China does not recognise. China sees the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist in a monk's robes, even though the Dalai Lama says he wants autonomy for his homeland, not outright independence. There have been no formal talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's representatives since 2010. International rights groups and exiles say China stamps on the religious and cultural rights of Tibetans, accusations denied by Beijing. China says its rule has ended serfdom and brought prosperity to a once-backward trans-Himalayan region. Trump has been silent on Tibetan issues. "The main change is that the US approach on Tibet seems likely to become more transactional and therefore less consistent," said Robbie Barnett, director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University. "It seems set to become more a question of contingency, dependent on how he calculates his relationship with China at any one moment." Earlier this week, Democratic US Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts called for a new US policy towards Tibet to safeguard the identity of the Tibetan people and hold China accountable for human rights abuses. The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile said he is still hopeful that the United States will continue to support Tibetan issues and push for talks between the Dalai Lama's representatives and Beijing. But he said they were prepared for any upsets. "We are Buddhists, we believe in impermanence. You just go with your karma and whatever happens, happens, because we have seen the worst, the occupation of our country," said Sangay, who is planning a trip to Washington at the end of May. (Reuters)

Dalai Lama to wait longer for White House invite as Trump cozies up to China's Xi

Pope Francis said on Saturday a third country should try to mediate the dispute between North Korea and Washington, saying the situation had become &quot;too hot&quot; and the world risked a devastating war.

Francis said he believed &quot;a good part of humanity&quot; would be destroyed in any widespread war.

Speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him back from Cairo, Francis also said he was ready to meet US President Donald Trump when he is in Europe next month but that he was not aware that Washington had made a request for a meeting.

In answer to a question about the tensions between the United States and North Korea, Francis said the United Nations should re-assert its leadership in world diplomacy because it had become &quot;too watered down&quot;.

(Reuters)

Pope Francis said the situation had become 'too hot' and the world risked a devastating war

Pope Francis said on Saturday a third country should try to mediate the dispute between North Korea and Washington, saying the situation had become "too hot" and the world risked a devastating war. Francis said he believed "a good part of humanity" would be destroyed in any widespread war. Speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him back from Cairo, Francis also said he was ready to meet US President Donald Trump when he is in Europe next month but that he was not aware that Washington had made a request for a meeting. In answer to a question about the tensions between the United States and North Korea, Francis said the United Nations should re-assert its leadership in world diplomacy because it had become "too watered down". (Reuters)

Pope Francis urges mediation to end North Korean crisis

US President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a &quot;horrible&quot; free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a US anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea &quot;unacceptable&quot; and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his administration completes a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.

He blamed the US-Korean trade deal, known as KORUS, on his 2016 Democratic presidential election opponent, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state promoted the final version of the trade pact before its approval by Congress in 2011.

&quot;It is unacceptable, it is a horrible deal made by Hillary,&quot; the Republican Trump said. &quot;It&#39;s a horrible deal, and we are going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it.&quot;

KORUS was initially negotiated by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush in 2007, but that version was scrapped and renegotiated by President Barack Obama&#39;s Democratic administration three years later.

The US goods trade deficit with South Korea has more than doubled since KORUS took effect in March 2012, from $13.2 billion in 2011 to $27.7 billion in 2016, according to US Census Bureau data.

Trump said the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system now being deployed in South Korea to defend against a potential missile attack from North Korea would cost about $1 billion and questioned why the United States was paying for it.

&quot;I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It&#39;s a billion dollar system,&quot; Trump said. &quot;It&#39;s phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky.&quot;

Lockheed Martin Corp is the prime contractor for the THAAD system.

Asked about the remarks, a former US State Department official estimated the cost of the system at about $1.2 billion but said the United States would not want to sell THAAD to Seoul.

&quot;We want to retain THAAD in our arsenal, consistent with all other US weapons systems deployed on the Korean peninsula. We own them. We retain them. We have the right to redeploy them,&quot; the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(Reuters)

In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea 'unacceptable'

US President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a "horrible" free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a US anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion. In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea "unacceptable" and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his administration completes a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. He blamed the US-Korean trade deal, known as KORUS, on his 2016 Democratic presidential election opponent, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state promoted the final version of the trade pact before its approval by Congress in 2011. "It is unacceptable, it is a horrible deal made by Hillary," the Republican Trump said. "It's a horrible deal, and we are going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it." KORUS was initially negotiated by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush in 2007, but that version was scrapped and renegotiated by President Barack Obama's Democratic administration three years later. The US goods trade deficit with South Korea has more than doubled since KORUS took effect in March 2012, from $13.2 billion in 2011 to $27.7 billion in 2016, according to US Census Bureau data. Trump said the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system now being deployed in South Korea to defend against a potential missile attack from North Korea would cost about $1 billion and questioned why the United States was paying for it. "I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It's a billion dollar system," Trump said. "It's phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky." Lockheed Martin Corp is the prime contractor for the THAAD system. Asked about the remarks, a former US State Department official estimated the cost of the system at about $1.2 billion but said the United States would not want to sell THAAD to Seoul. "We want to retain THAAD in our arsenal, consistent with all other US weapons systems deployed on the Korean peninsula. We own them. We retain them. We have the right to redeploy them," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. (Reuters)

Trump wants South Korea to pay $1 billion for missile defence system

NAFTA partners Mexico, Canada and the United States plan to swiftly renegotiate their free trade deal, the White House announced Wednesday.

President Donald Trump &quot;agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly... to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal,&quot; a statement said.

The announcement came after reports in US media had said that Trump was considering giving formal notice of pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

A draft executive order was in the final stages of review, two White House officials told the Politico news website, and could be unveiled within a week or two. The New York Times had quoted a senior administration official saying Trump was likely to sign such an executive order.

But late Wednesday Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross brushed off the reports as &quot;rumor&quot;.&nbsp;

&quot;There was a rumor today that there would be an executive order, just a rumor, and my practice is to comment on things we have actually done or are doing as opposed to commenting on rumors,&quot; he said.

Trump calls NAFTA, established January 1, 1994, a &quot;disaster&quot; and has pledged to renegotiate the terms or abandon the pact altogether.

He blames NAFTA for the loss of millions of US industrial jobs, mostly to Mexico.

His administration also slapped tariffs in recent days on some imports of Canadian timber and threatened to retaliate against Canadian moves that harm US dairy farmers. Timber and milk, however, are not covered by NAFTA.

The White House statement said Trump spoke late Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.&nbsp;

&quot;Both conversations were pleasant and productive,&quot; it said.

Trump was quoted in the statement saying &quot;it is my privilege to bring NAFTA up to date through renegotiation. It is an honor to deal with both President Pena Nieto and Prime Minister Trudeau, and I believe that the end result will make all three countries stronger and better.&quot;

(AFP)

President Donald Trump "agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly... to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal," a statement said

NAFTA partners Mexico, Canada and the United States plan to swiftly renegotiate their free trade deal, the White House announced Wednesday. President Donald Trump "agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly... to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal," a statement said. The announcement came after reports in US media had said that Trump was considering giving formal notice of pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement. A draft executive order was in the final stages of review, two White House officials told the Politico news website, and could be unveiled within a week or two. The New York Times had quoted a senior administration official saying Trump was likely to sign such an executive order. But late Wednesday Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross brushed off the reports as "rumor". "There was a rumor today that there would be an executive order, just a rumor, and my practice is to comment on things we have actually done or are doing as opposed to commenting on rumors," he said. Trump calls NAFTA, established January 1, 1994, a "disaster" and has pledged to renegotiate the terms or abandon the pact altogether. He blames NAFTA for the loss of millions of US industrial jobs, mostly to Mexico. His administration also slapped tariffs in recent days on some imports of Canadian timber and threatened to retaliate against Canadian moves that harm US dairy farmers. Timber and milk, however, are not covered by NAFTA. The White House statement said Trump spoke late Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada. "Both conversations were pleasant and productive," it said. Trump was quoted in the statement saying "it is my privilege to bring NAFTA up to date through renegotiation. It is an honor to deal with both President Pena Nieto and Prime Minister Trudeau, and I believe that the end result will make all three countries stronger and better." (AFP)

US, Mexico and Canada agree to renegotiate NAFTA: White House

Donald Trump and the US media may still be at war after the president&#39;s first 100 days but both sides are also reaping benefits from the hostilities between the former reality TV star and what he calls the &quot;fake news&quot; industry.

Trump&#39;s decision to snub this weekend&#39;s White House Correspondents&#39; Dinner has underlined how little love is lost between the president and &quot;the opposition&quot; -- as his top advisor Steve Bannon has dubbed the media.

But analysts say that while Trump uses the press as a foil to deflect bad news, media outlets are getting a lift from consumers looking for credible information about his administration -- or simply tuning in for a dose of the daily Trump show.

&quot;Trump has been gold for the mainstream media,&quot; says Tobe Berkovitz, a former political consultant who is now a communications professor at Boston University.

Berkovitz says Trump has &quot;a handy devil he can blame for all his stumbles,&quot; and as a result, &quot;both sides are pretty happy with each other.&quot;

Newspapers such as the New York Times have seen a significant bounce in circulation since Trump`s victory last November and cable news networks have also enjoyed a ratings rise.&nbsp;

&quot;You can attribute a lot of that to Donald Trump,&quot; said Dan Kennedy, a Northeastern University journalism professor, said there is more interest in news because it is a time of &quot;great anxiety.&quot;

A key question for the media is whether the bump in ratings and subscriptions is temporary or indicative of a trend.

&quot;It may end up being more sustainable than we might think even if Trump goes away,&quot; said Kennedy.

&quot;There is so much concern over fake news, and the garbage that is shared on Facebook,&quot; he added. &quot;We are seeing a flight to quality.&quot;

The apparent bad blood between Trump and the Washington press corps stands in stark contrast with relations under his predecessor Barack Obama who was a regular turn at the annual correspondents&#39; dinner.

Trump regularly refers to the New York Times as a &quot;failing&quot; newspaper and often has digs at traditional cable networks. 
But he has nevertheless granted interviews to nearly all the mainstream media and some pundits say the seeming animosity is not all that it appears.

&quot;It&#39;s more than a little bit of a show,&quot; says Kennedy.

Trump, he said, &quot;turns around and calls a lot of the reporters that he excoriates publicly.&quot;

Politico reporters Ben Schreckinger and Hadas Gold, who interviewed more than three dozen members of the White House press corps, wrote that Trump is engaged in a &quot;fake war&quot; on the press, that the president`s staff works to maintain relationships with journalists.

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who worked for president George W. Bush, says Trump appears to help himself politically by vilifying the media, in which trust is at historic lows.

&quot;Donald Trump strikes a chord when he takes the press on,&quot; Fleischer told a recent symposium at the Newseum in Washington. 
Charlie Spiering, a reporter at the pro-Trump Breitbart News, told the same forum that the mainstream press is an easy target.

Spiering said Trump`s bashing of news outlets isn`t &quot;to denigrate the press,&quot; but because &quot;it was popular among his base -- his base loves those taglines.&quot;Nevertheless, the short-term lift from Trump may be the harbinger of longer problems, says Jeff Jarvis, a City University of New York journalism professor.

&quot;If it`s bad for democracy, it`s bad for the press,&quot; Jarvis said.

&quot;He&#39;s attacking our credibility, attacking our trust.&quot;

Reporter Jim Acosta of CNN -- whom Trump singled out as &quot;fake news&quot; in his first press conference after his election -- has similar worries.

&quot;When he leaves office, we need Republicans to believe what is being said in the mainstream press just as much as we need Democrats to,&quot; Acosta told the Newseum event.

A Pew Research Center survey released this month found 83 percent of respondents said the relationship between Trump and the media is &quot;unhealthy&quot; and 73 percent said the tensions hinder public access to important political news.

A separate Gallup survey found 37 percent of Americans felt the news media was &quot;not tough enough&quot; on Trump while 32 percent said it was &quot;too tough.&quot; Only one in four said the press had struck a good balance.

(AFP)

Trump's decision to snub this weekend`s White House Correspondents' Dinner has underlined how little love is lost between the president and "the opposition" -- as his top advisor Steve Bannon has dubbed the media.

Donald Trump and the US media may still be at war after the president's first 100 days but both sides are also reaping benefits from the hostilities between the former reality TV star and what he calls the "fake news" industry. Trump's decision to snub this weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner has underlined how little love is lost between the president and "the opposition" -- as his top advisor Steve Bannon has dubbed the media. But analysts say that while Trump uses the press as a foil to deflect bad news, media outlets are getting a lift from consumers looking for credible information about his administration -- or simply tuning in for a dose of the daily Trump show. "Trump has been gold for the mainstream media," says Tobe Berkovitz, a former political consultant who is now a communications professor at Boston University. Berkovitz says Trump has "a handy devil he can blame for all his stumbles," and as a result, "both sides are pretty happy with each other." Newspapers such as the New York Times have seen a significant bounce in circulation since Trump`s victory last November and cable news networks have also enjoyed a ratings rise. "You can attribute a lot of that to Donald Trump," said Dan Kennedy, a Northeastern University journalism professor, said there is more interest in news because it is a time of "great anxiety." A key question for the media is whether the bump in ratings and subscriptions is temporary or indicative of a trend. "It may end up being more sustainable than we might think even if Trump goes away," said Kennedy. "There is so much concern over fake news, and the garbage that is shared on Facebook," he added. "We are seeing a flight to quality." The apparent bad blood between Trump and the Washington press corps stands in stark contrast with relations under his predecessor Barack Obama who was a regular turn at the annual correspondents' dinner. Trump regularly refers to the New York Times as a "failing" newspaper and often has digs at traditional cable networks. But he has nevertheless granted interviews to nearly all the mainstream media and some pundits say the seeming animosity is not all that it appears. "It's more than a little bit of a show," says Kennedy. Trump, he said, "turns around and calls a lot of the reporters that he excoriates publicly." Politico reporters Ben Schreckinger and Hadas Gold, who interviewed more than three dozen members of the White House press corps, wrote that Trump is engaged in a "fake war" on the press, that the president`s staff works to maintain relationships with journalists. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who worked for president George W. Bush, says Trump appears to help himself politically by vilifying the media, in which trust is at historic lows. "Donald Trump strikes a chord when he takes the press on," Fleischer told a recent symposium at the Newseum in Washington. Charlie Spiering, a reporter at the pro-Trump Breitbart News, told the same forum that the mainstream press is an easy target. Spiering said Trump`s bashing of news outlets isn`t "to denigrate the press," but because "it was popular among his base -- his base loves those taglines."Nevertheless, the short-term lift from Trump may be the harbinger of longer problems, says Jeff Jarvis, a City University of New York journalism professor. "If it`s bad for democracy, it`s bad for the press," Jarvis said. "He's attacking our credibility, attacking our trust." Reporter Jim Acosta of CNN -- whom Trump singled out as "fake news" in his first press conference after his election -- has similar worries. "When he leaves office, we need Republicans to believe what is being said in the mainstream press just as much as we need Democrats to," Acosta told the Newseum event. A Pew Research Center survey released this month found 83 percent of respondents said the relationship between Trump and the media is "unhealthy" and 73 percent said the tensions hinder public access to important political news. A separate Gallup survey found 37 percent of Americans felt the news media was "not tough enough" on Trump while 32 percent said it was "too tough." Only one in four said the press had struck a good balance. (AFP)

Trump and the media: A win-win reality show?

Nobody could claim to be shocked after&nbsp;the presidential candidate who ran on &quot;bomb the sh*t out of them&quot; rained Tomahawk missiles&nbsp;on&nbsp;Syria and dropped what is literally called&nbsp;the &quot;Mother Of All Bombs&quot; in Afghanistan,&nbsp;but tough words against Canada?

Canada is now bracing for trade disputes with the US after what some may see as surprisingly anti-Canadian rhetoric coming from the Trump White House.&nbsp;

On Tuesday Trump&nbsp;said:&nbsp;&quot;People don&#39;t realise that Canada has been very rough on the United States. Everyone thinks of Canada as being wonderful and so do I. I love Canada. But they&#39;ve outsmarted our politicians for years.&quot;&nbsp;

The US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Canada was &quot;not a good neighbour&quot;.

As&nbsp;statements, this is placid stuff by&nbsp;Trump White House standards. These&nbsp;Americans&nbsp;seem to be using Canadian passive aggressiveness against Canada. But in action Trump&#39;s pledge&nbsp;to charge an additional&nbsp;20 per cent tax on softwood lumber, key in the construction industry,&nbsp;from Canada is highly provocative. In a $5 billion industry,&nbsp;US dollars, this amounts to an additional $1 billion.

And Reuters <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/us-rekindles-trade-conflict-with-canada-over-lumber-14898" target="_blank">reported </a>that the US Commerce department&nbsp;&quot;will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits based on these preliminary rates,&quot; and that&nbsp;&quot;certain companies will be subject to the retroactive collection of cash deposits&quot; for up to 90 days.

Fair play is apparently the US getting hundreds of millions of dollars in cash for something that has already happened.&nbsp;The previous softwood lumber deal expired in October 2015, but what gives the US grounds to make these kind of claims is unclear.

In response, Prime Minister Trudeau&#39;s office has&nbsp;&quot;refuted the baseless allegations by the US Department of Commerce and the decision to impose unfair duties,&quot; according to summary of the call published in <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/04/25/canada-braces-for-tough-times-in-us-lumber-dispute.html" target="_blank">media reports</a>.

&nbsp;

Is this new? No

While it&#39;s tempting to read this as a sign that Trump&#39;s unhinged bellicosity will extend even to Canada--a country&nbsp;the planet largely sees as an innocent darling, although less so as&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/canadas-justin-trudeau-liberal-signs-and-symbols-6370">evidence </a>to the contrary mounts--squeezing Canada for more money despite signed free trade agreements is an American tradition. Complaining about America doing this is a Canadian tradition.

It&#39;s a fight that first erupted in the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-17/u-s-and-canada-say-divisions-remain-in-softwood-lumber-dispute" target="_blank">1980s</a>. In fact,&nbsp;trying to screw Canada on softwood lumber&nbsp;may be the only political&nbsp;precedent Trump has decided not to smash.

Wilbur Ross continued:&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a question of President Trump messing with the Canadians. We believe the Canadians violated legitimate practice.&rdquo; That Canada violated legitimate practices is a little rich, coming from&nbsp;a man&nbsp;who represents a president&nbsp;currently under FBI investigation for&nbsp;colluding&nbsp;with a hostile foreign government, and who for&nbsp;decades has been so linked to the Russian mafia he may as well be a made man, if he isn&#39;t already. (Here<a href="http://thegopwatchdog.com/136-paths-to-putin/" target="_blank">&nbsp;are 136</a>&nbsp;links between Trump&#39;s orbit and Russia&#39;s.)&nbsp;

But to be fair, the softwood lumber issue does predate&nbsp;Trump, and is&nbsp;sufficiently&nbsp;thorny and complicated to have put these two otherwise chummy, successive governments at odds for&nbsp;decades. Maybe Canada violated agreements, but it&#39;s impossible to hear the US president, the king of the &quot;<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trump-university-its-worse-than-you-think" target="_blank">bait and switch</a>&quot; con, and take his word for it.

People outside North America may look at this and wonder:&nbsp;If Trump will pick a fight with Canada, which country is immune? Well, they should know,&nbsp;this is an old fight.

But in case&nbsp;anyone thinks the US&nbsp;isn&#39;t being a little ornery&nbsp;with its northern neighbour, Trump is&nbsp;targeting not just lumberjacks&nbsp;but&nbsp;Canada&#39;s other notorious fat cats: Dairy farmers.

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Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/856847826663460865">April 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Trump has spent months blasting NAFTA, but&nbsp;also recently praised it, and now seems to be harsh&nbsp;on it again. While the lumber fight may be old, moving forward with free trade deals&nbsp;the script&nbsp;is far from clear.

Trying to predict&nbsp;what this erratic,&nbsp;monumentally inexperienced and unqualified guy&nbsp;will do&nbsp;next is anyone&#39;s guess.&nbsp;

(WION)

While it's tempting to see this new trade dispute as Trump's bellicosity extending even to Canada, it's actually Washington-Ottawa tradition

Nobody could claim to be shocked after the presidential candidate who ran on "bomb the sh*t out of them" rained Tomahawk missiles on Syria and dropped what is literally called the "Mother Of All Bombs" in Afghanistan, but tough words against Canada? Canada is now bracing for trade disputes with the US after what some may see as surprisingly anti-Canadian rhetoric coming from the Trump White House. On Tuesday Trump said: "People don't realise that Canada has been very rough on the United States. Everyone thinks of Canada as being wonderful and so do I. I love Canada. But they've outsmarted our politicians for years." The US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Canada was "not a good neighbour". As statements, this is placid stuff by Trump White House standards. These Americans seem to be using Canadian passive aggressiveness against Canada. But in action Trump's pledge to charge an additional 20 per cent tax on softwood lumber, key in the construction industry, from Canada is highly provocative. In a $5 billion industry, US dollars, this amounts to an additional $1 billion. And Reuters reported that the US Commerce department "will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits based on these preliminary rates," and that "certain companies will be subject to the retroactive collection of cash deposits" for up to 90 days. Fair play is apparently the US getting hundreds of millions of dollars in cash for something that has already happened. The previous softwood lumber deal expired in October 2015, but what gives the US grounds to make these kind of claims is unclear. In response, Prime Minister Trudeau's office has "refuted the baseless allegations by the US Department of Commerce and the decision to impose unfair duties," according to summary of the call published in media reports. Is this new? No While it's tempting to read this as a sign that Trump's unhinged bellicosity will extend even to Canada--a country the planet largely sees as an innocent darling, although less so as evidence to the contrary mounts--squeezing Canada for more money despite signed free trade agreements is an American tradition. Complaining about America doing this is a Canadian tradition. It's a fight that first erupted in the 1980s. In fact, trying to screw Canada on softwood lumber may be the only political precedent Trump has decided not to smash. Wilbur Ross continued: “It’s not a question of President Trump messing with the Canadians. We believe the Canadians violated legitimate practice.” That Canada violated legitimate practices is a little rich, coming from a man who represents a president currently under FBI investigation for colluding with a hostile foreign government, and who for decades has been so linked to the Russian mafia he may as well be a made man, if he isn't already. (Here are 136 links between Trump's orbit and Russia's.) But to be fair, the softwood lumber issue does predate Trump, and is sufficiently thorny and complicated to have put these two otherwise chummy, successive governments at odds for decades. Maybe Canada violated agreements, but it's impossible to hear the US president, the king of the "bait and switch" con, and take his word for it. People outside North America may look at this and wonder: If Trump will pick a fight with Canada, which country is immune? Well, they should know, this is an old fight. But in case anyone thinks the US isn't being a little ornery with its northern neighbour, Trump is targeting not just lumberjacks but Canada's other notorious fat cats: Dairy farmers. Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2017 × Trump has spent months blasting NAFTA, but also recently praised it, and now seems to be harsh on it again. While the lumber fight may be old, moving forward with free trade deals the script is far from clear. Trying to predict what this erratic, monumentally inexperienced and unqualified guy will do next is anyone's guess. (WION)

Trump's tough talk on Canadian lumber anything but unprecedented

Nuclear-armed North Korea on Tuesday marked a military anniversary with a massive conventional firing drill, Seoul said, as a US guided-missile submarine docked in South Korea amid tensions over Pyongyang&#39;s weapons ambitions.

Speculation had mounted that the North could carry out a sixth nuclear test or another missile launch to mark 85 years since the founding of its army.

But no such event -- which usually happens in the morning -- had taken place by the evening, and instead Seoul&#39;s defence ministry said Pyongyang was conducting a &quot;massive fire drill&quot; in the eastern port city of Wonsan.

The South&#39;s Yonhap news agency cited a government source as saying the exercise was the North&#39;s &quot;largest ever&quot; and was presumed to have been overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un.

Washington has sent the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to the Korean peninsula, where it is expected to arrive -- after a derision-provoking delay -- later this week.

Confusion had clouded the carrier&#39;s whereabouts earlier this month after US officials indicated it was sailing towards North Korea when in fact it was heading south.

The vessel will take part in joint naval drills with the South&#39;s forces to &quot;demonstrate Seoul and Washington&#39;s strong determination to punish North Korean provocations&quot;, the South Korean Navy said in a statement.

They will take place in the East Sea, the South&#39;s name for the Sea of Japan, it said, and the two allies will also begin joint naval exercises in the West Sea -- what it calls the Yellow Sea -- on Tuesday &quot;in relation to the current security situation&quot;.

The nuclear-powered US submarine USS Michigan also made a port call at Busan in the South on Tuesday in another show of force, while US navy destroyers carried out separate joint exercises with Japanese and South Korean vessels.

President Donald Trump has said the US was sending an &quot;armada&quot; to the Korean peninsula, including submarines.

According to the US Navy&#39;s Submarine Force Pacific website, the USS Michigan carries more than 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

They are capable of precision strikes against the North&#39;s nuclear facilities, but the South Korean Navy called the visit &quot;routine&quot; and said the submarine would not take part in any joint exercises.

&nbsp;

&#39;Brutal punishment&#39;

North Korea has ambitions to build a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US mainland. Tensions have soared in recent months as it carried out a string of missile tests that sparked tit-for-tat sabre-rattling between it and Washington.

Pyongyang&#39;s rhetoric always intensifies in the spring, when Seoul and Washington hold joint military drills which it sees as rehearsals for an invasion.

The North&#39;s Rodong Sinmun -- the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers&#39; Party of Korea -- warned Tuesday of dire consequences in the event of a US-led pre-emptive strike.

It promised &quot;the most brutal punishment... in the sky and land as well as at sea and from underwater without any warning or prior notice&quot;.

North Korea launched two missile tests this month while Trump and his senior aides have warned that &quot;all options are on the table&quot; against Pyongyang, including military action.

Trump on Monday urged UN Security Council ambassadors to consider stronger sanctions against Pyongyang, and US senators will be briefed on North Korea at the White House on Wednesday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is to chair a ministerial-level Security Council meeting on the North on Friday.

The North says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against invasion. A spokesman for its foreign ministry on Tuesday claimed the meetings -- coupled with Trump&#39;s fresh policy of &quot;maximum pressure and engagement&quot; on Pyongyang -- showed the threat it faced from the US.

&quot;They are explicitly advocating pressure on us, which is as dangerous as lighting the fuse on an all-out war,&quot; he said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.

Top nuclear envoys from Japan, South Korea and the United States met Tuesday in Tokyo and vowed &quot;stern action&quot; against any fresh North Korean provocations.

US special representative Joseph Yun said he discussed American policy to &quot;enhance pressure&quot; on Pyongyang &quot;because we really do not believe that North Korea is ready to engage us towards denuclearisation&quot;.

The trio also agreed that China and Russia should play a bigger role in reining in the North, said Kim Hong-Kyun, South Korea&#39;s chief envoy on the issue.

&quot;Cooperation with China and Russia is the most important for effective pressure on North Korea,&quot; he said.

(AFP)

A government source said the exercise was the North's 'largest ever' and presumably was watched by Kim Jung Un

Nuclear-armed North Korea on Tuesday marked a military anniversary with a massive conventional firing drill, Seoul said, as a US guided-missile submarine docked in South Korea amid tensions over Pyongyang's weapons ambitions. Speculation had mounted that the North could carry out a sixth nuclear test or another missile launch to mark 85 years since the founding of its army. But no such event -- which usually happens in the morning -- had taken place by the evening, and instead Seoul's defence ministry said Pyongyang was conducting a "massive fire drill" in the eastern port city of Wonsan. The South's Yonhap news agency cited a government source as saying the exercise was the North's "largest ever" and was presumed to have been overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un. Washington has sent the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to the Korean peninsula, where it is expected to arrive -- after a derision-provoking delay -- later this week. Confusion had clouded the carrier's whereabouts earlier this month after US officials indicated it was sailing towards North Korea when in fact it was heading south. The vessel will take part in joint naval drills with the South's forces to "demonstrate Seoul and Washington's strong determination to punish North Korean provocations", the South Korean Navy said in a statement. They will take place in the East Sea, the South's name for the Sea of Japan, it said, and the two allies will also begin joint naval exercises in the West Sea -- what it calls the Yellow Sea -- on Tuesday "in relation to the current security situation". The nuclear-powered US submarine USS Michigan also made a port call at Busan in the South on Tuesday in another show of force, while US navy destroyers carried out separate joint exercises with Japanese and South Korean vessels. President Donald Trump has said the US was sending an "armada" to the Korean peninsula, including submarines. According to the US Navy's Submarine Force Pacific website, the USS Michigan carries more than 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles. They are capable of precision strikes against the North's nuclear facilities, but the South Korean Navy called the visit "routine" and said the submarine would not take part in any joint exercises. 'Brutal punishment' North Korea has ambitions to build a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US mainland. Tensions have soared in recent months as it carried out a string of missile tests that sparked tit-for-tat sabre-rattling between it and Washington. Pyongyang's rhetoric always intensifies in the spring, when Seoul and Washington hold joint military drills which it sees as rehearsals for an invasion. The North's Rodong Sinmun -- the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea -- warned Tuesday of dire consequences in the event of a US-led pre-emptive strike. It promised "the most brutal punishment... in the sky and land as well as at sea and from underwater without any warning or prior notice". North Korea launched two missile tests this month while Trump and his senior aides have warned that "all options are on the table" against Pyongyang, including military action. Trump on Monday urged UN Security Council ambassadors to consider stronger sanctions against Pyongyang, and US senators will be briefed on North Korea at the White House on Wednesday. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is to chair a ministerial-level Security Council meeting on the North on Friday. The North says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against invasion. A spokesman for its foreign ministry on Tuesday claimed the meetings -- coupled with Trump's fresh policy of "maximum pressure and engagement" on Pyongyang -- showed the threat it faced from the US. "They are explicitly advocating pressure on us, which is as dangerous as lighting the fuse on an all-out war," he said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency. Top nuclear envoys from Japan, South Korea and the United States met Tuesday in Tokyo and vowed "stern action" against any fresh North Korean provocations. US special representative Joseph Yun said he discussed American policy to "enhance pressure" on Pyongyang "because we really do not believe that North Korea is ready to engage us towards denuclearisation". The trio also agreed that China and Russia should play a bigger role in reining in the North, said Kim Hong-Kyun, South Korea's chief envoy on the issue. "Cooperation with China and Russia is the most important for effective pressure on North Korea," he said. (AFP)

North Korea marks military anniversary with firing drill

President Donald Trump said on Sunday he expected Mexico to pay for the wall he has promised to build along the southern border, resuscitating a campaign promise that roiled U.S. relations with Mexico in the first week of his presidency.

&quot;Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall,&quot; Trump said in a Twitter post.

Trump returned to his Mexico demand on a morning in which he simultaneously tried to pressure congressional Democrats to include funding for the border wall in must-pass spending legislation needed to keep the U.S. government open beyond Friday.

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<h5>Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall,&#39; Trump tweeted</h5>
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In Mexico City, a spokesman for the foreign ministry had no immediate comment on Trump&#39;s wall payment comment.

The Republican president&#39;s demand that Mexico pay for the border wall triggered a diplomatic crisis with the southern U.S. neighbor during the first week of his presidency. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Jan. 26 scrapped a planned trip to meet with Trump and the White House floated the idea of a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico to pay for the wall.

The two leaders agreed the following day not to talk publicly about payment for the wall, the Mexican government said. The White House said the two recognized they had differences over the proposed wall but agreed to &quot;work these differences out.&quot;

Trump sought the wall, projected to cost more than $20 billion, as part of his effort to curb illegal immigration. Mexico has rejected payment for the construction project as out of the question.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions told ABC&#39;s &quot;This Week&quot; on Sunday the wall would get paid for one way or another.

&quot;I don&#39;t expect the Mexican government to appropriate money for it but there are ways that we can deal with our trade situation to create the revenue to pay for it, no doubt about it,&quot; Sessions said.&nbsp;

(Reuters)

Mexico has earlier said paying is out of the question

President Donald Trump said on Sunday he expected Mexico to pay for the wall he has promised to build along the southern border, resuscitating a campaign promise that roiled U.S. relations with Mexico in the first week of his presidency. "Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall," Trump said in a Twitter post. Trump returned to his Mexico demand on a morning in which he simultaneously tried to pressure congressional Democrats to include funding for the border wall in must-pass spending legislation needed to keep the U.S. government open beyond Friday. Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall,' Trump tweeted × In Mexico City, a spokesman for the foreign ministry had no immediate comment on Trump's wall payment comment. The Republican president's demand that Mexico pay for the border wall triggered a diplomatic crisis with the southern U.S. neighbor during the first week of his presidency. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Jan. 26 scrapped a planned trip to meet with Trump and the White House floated the idea of a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico to pay for the wall. The two leaders agreed the following day not to talk publicly about payment for the wall, the Mexican government said. The White House said the two recognized they had differences over the proposed wall but agreed to "work these differences out." Trump sought the wall, projected to cost more than $20 billion, as part of his effort to curb illegal immigration. Mexico has rejected payment for the construction project as out of the question. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday the wall would get paid for one way or another. "I don't expect the Mexican government to appropriate money for it but there are ways that we can deal with our trade situation to create the revenue to pay for it, no doubt about it," Sessions said. (Reuters)

Trump says Mexico 'eventually' will pay for border wall

A murder suspect who police said posted a video on Facebook of the killing of a Cleveland man fatally shot himself after a &quot;brief pursuit&quot; by Pennsylvania State Police officers on Tuesday, police said.

Steve Stephens was accused of shooting Robert Godwin Sr, 74, on a sidewalk on Sunday before fleeing in a car and uploading a video of the murder to Facebook, becoming the focus of a nationwide manhunt.

Pennsylvania State Police officers found Stephens in Erie County, Pennsylvania, after getting a tip from the public that his white Ford Fusion was parked outside a McDonald&#39;s fast-food restaurant, Calvin Williams, the Cleveland police chief, told a news conference.

After a brief chase, Stephens stopped his vehicle, Williams said.

&quot;As the officers approached that vehicle Steve Stephens took his own life,&quot; Williams said. &quot;We would have preferred that it had not ended this way,&quot; he added, saying he and the community would have had &quot;a lot of questions&quot; for Stephens.

Stephens, who had no prior criminal record, was not suspected in any other killings, Cleveland officials said. Stephens said in a separate video on Facebook on Sunday that he had already killed a dozen others.

The shooting marked the latest video clip of a violent crime to turn up on Facebook, raising questions about how the world&#39;s biggest social media network moderates content.

The company will do all it can to prevent content like Stephens&#39; post, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook&#39;s annual conference for software developers on Tuesday in San Jose.

Facebook on Monday said it would review how it monitors violent footage and other objectionable material in response to the killing after Stephens&#39; post was visible on the social media site for about two hours.

Stephens is not believed to have known Godwin, a retired foundry worker who media reports said spent Easter Sunday morning with his son and daughter-in-law before he was killed.

Beech Brook, a behavioural health facility in a Cleveland suburb where Stephens had worked since 2008, said in a statement on Tuesday that Stephens had cleared an extensive background check.

In interviews before Stephens&#39; death, some of Godwin&#39;s relatives forgave his killer.

&quot;I forgive him because we are all sinners,&quot; Robby Miller, Godwin&#39;s son, said in an interview with CNN.

Others were less sympathetic.

&quot;All I can say is that I wish he had gone down in a hail of 100 bullets,&quot; Godwin&#39;s daughter, Brenda Haymon, told CNN. &quot;I wish it had gone down like that instead of him shooting himself.&quot;

(Reuters)

Steve Stephens was accused of shooting Robert Godwin Sr, 74, on a sidewalk on Sunday and posting the video on Facebook

A murder suspect who police said posted a video on Facebook of the killing of a Cleveland man fatally shot himself after a "brief pursuit" by Pennsylvania State Police officers on Tuesday, police said. Steve Stephens was accused of shooting Robert Godwin Sr, 74, on a sidewalk on Sunday before fleeing in a car and uploading a video of the murder to Facebook, becoming the focus of a nationwide manhunt. Pennsylvania State Police officers found Stephens in Erie County, Pennsylvania, after getting a tip from the public that his white Ford Fusion was parked outside a McDonald's fast-food restaurant, Calvin Williams, the Cleveland police chief, told a news conference. After a brief chase, Stephens stopped his vehicle, Williams said. "As the officers approached that vehicle Steve Stephens took his own life," Williams said. "We would have preferred that it had not ended this way," he added, saying he and the community would have had "a lot of questions" for Stephens. Stephens, who had no prior criminal record, was not suspected in any other killings, Cleveland officials said. Stephens said in a separate video on Facebook on Sunday that he had already killed a dozen others. The shooting marked the latest video clip of a violent crime to turn up on Facebook, raising questions about how the world's biggest social media network moderates content. The company will do all it can to prevent content like Stephens' post, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook's annual conference for software developers on Tuesday in San Jose. Facebook on Monday said it would review how it monitors violent footage and other objectionable material in response to the killing after Stephens' post was visible on the social media site for about two hours. Stephens is not believed to have known Godwin, a retired foundry worker who media reports said spent Easter Sunday morning with his son and daughter-in-law before he was killed. Beech Brook, a behavioural health facility in a Cleveland suburb where Stephens had worked since 2008, said in a statement on Tuesday that Stephens had cleared an extensive background check. In interviews before Stephens' death, some of Godwin's relatives forgave his killer. "I forgive him because we are all sinners," Robby Miller, Godwin's son, said in an interview with CNN. Others were less sympathetic. "All I can say is that I wish he had gone down in a hail of 100 bullets," Godwin's daughter, Brenda Haymon, told CNN. "I wish it had gone down like that instead of him shooting himself." (Reuters)

US: Suspect who posted murder video on Facebook kills himself

The United States is ruling nothing out in its dealings with North Korea, Vice President Mike Pence said Monday during a visit to the heavily militarised border between the two Koreas.

Washington wants to achieve security &quot;through peaceable means, through negotiations. But all options are on the table as we continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of South Korea,&quot; he said at the border village of Panmunjom.

Pence, speaking at Freedom House, a few metres from the military demarcation line that he described as a &quot;frontier of freedom&quot;, said America&#39;s relationship with South Korea was &quot;ironclad and immutable&quot;.

&quot;The message of the people of the United States of America is that we seek peace, but America has always sought peace through strength and my message here today standing with US forces Korea, standing with courageous soldiers from the Republic of Korea is a message of resolve.

&quot;The people of North Korea the military of North Korea should not mistake the resolve of the United States of America to stand with our allies.&quot;

Pence&#39;s visit to the DMZ comes a day after North Korea&#39;s latest missile test failed, when the rocket exploded seconds after blast off.

(AFP)

'... We seek peace, but America has always sought peace through strength,' the US vice president said

The United States is ruling nothing out in its dealings with North Korea, Vice President Mike Pence said Monday during a visit to the heavily militarised border between the two Koreas. Washington wants to achieve security "through peaceable means, through negotiations. But all options are on the table as we continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of South Korea," he said at the border village of Panmunjom. Pence, speaking at Freedom House, a few metres from the military demarcation line that he described as a "frontier of freedom", said America's relationship with South Korea was "ironclad and immutable". "The message of the people of the United States of America is that we seek peace, but America has always sought peace through strength and my message here today standing with US forces Korea, standing with courageous soldiers from the Republic of Korea is a message of resolve. "The people of North Korea the military of North Korea should not mistake the resolve of the United States of America to stand with our allies." Pence's visit to the DMZ comes a day after North Korea's latest missile test failed, when the rocket exploded seconds after blast off. (AFP)

'All options on table' with North Korea: Pence at DMZ

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson battled to overcome differences with his Russian opposite number Wednesday, but they remained split over an alleged chemical attack in Syria after talks in Moscow.&nbsp;

&quot;Despite the quantity of existing problems... there are considerable prospects for joint work,&quot; Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Tillerson and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

&quot;Russia is open to this, open to dialogue with the US in all different areas, not only to dialogue but to joint action aimed at results in the areas where this corresponds to the interests of both countries.&quot;

Tillerson, who met with Putin earlier Wednesday, deplored the &quot;low level of trust&quot; between the countries, whose relations have dropped to a post-Cold War low over Ukraine and Syria.

&quot;The world&#39;s two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship,&quot; Tillerson said.

Lavrov said both sides were set on leading an &quot;uncompromising fight against international terrorism&quot;.

He said Moscow was ready to resume a deal with Washington to avoid incidents in Syrian airspace as the two countries lead separate bombing campaigns.&nbsp;

&quot;Today the president confirmed our readiness to return to its implementation on the understanding that the original aims of the air forces of the American coalition are reaffirmed, namely the fight with IS and Al-Nusra,&quot; Lavrov said.

The deal was suspended after US strikes against a Syrian airbase following last week`s suspected chemical attack in Idlib province, in an act Moscow labelled &quot;aggression against a sovereign state&quot;.

Lavrov, however, said that the two sides still &quot;diverge&quot; over their evaluation of the alleged chemical attack, which Washington has blamed squarely on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.&nbsp;

Despite initial hopes in Moscow of better ties with the US under President Donald Trump, the two powers have descended into a furious war of words over the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun and the retaliatory US strike against the forces Kremlin ally Assad.&nbsp;

Putin admitted that relations have worsened in the three months that Trump has been in office.

(AFP)

US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said there is 'low level of trust' between the two countries

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson battled to overcome differences with his Russian opposite number Wednesday, but they remained split over an alleged chemical attack in Syria after talks in Moscow. "Despite the quantity of existing problems... there are considerable prospects for joint work," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Tillerson and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Russia is open to this, open to dialogue with the US in all different areas, not only to dialogue but to joint action aimed at results in the areas where this corresponds to the interests of both countries." Tillerson, who met with Putin earlier Wednesday, deplored the "low level of trust" between the countries, whose relations have dropped to a post-Cold War low over Ukraine and Syria. "The world's two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship," Tillerson said. Lavrov said both sides were set on leading an "uncompromising fight against international terrorism". He said Moscow was ready to resume a deal with Washington to avoid incidents in Syrian airspace as the two countries lead separate bombing campaigns. "Today the president confirmed our readiness to return to its implementation on the understanding that the original aims of the air forces of the American coalition are reaffirmed, namely the fight with IS and Al-Nusra," Lavrov said. The deal was suspended after US strikes against a Syrian airbase following last week`s suspected chemical attack in Idlib province, in an act Moscow labelled "aggression against a sovereign state". Lavrov, however, said that the two sides still "diverge" over their evaluation of the alleged chemical attack, which Washington has blamed squarely on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Despite initial hopes in Moscow of better ties with the US under President Donald Trump, the two powers have descended into a furious war of words over the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun and the retaliatory US strike against the forces Kremlin ally Assad. Putin admitted that relations have worsened in the three months that Trump has been in office. (AFP)

US, Russia struggle to overcome rifts in Moscow

China will offer the Trump administration better market access for financial sector investments and US&nbsp;beef exports to help avert a trade war, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing officials familiar with the matter.

China is prepared to raise the investment ceiling in the Bilateral Investment treaty and is also willing to end the ban on US&nbsp;beef imports, the newspaper also reported.

&quot;China was prepared to (raise the investment ceilings) in the BIT but those negotiations were put on hold (after Trump&#39;s election victory),&quot; the Financial Times also reported citing a Chinese official involved in the talks.

US&nbsp;Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday that President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to a new 100-day plan for trade talks on Friday.

The US&nbsp;trade department was not immediately available for comment while the China&#39;s ministry of commerce could not be reached for comment.

(Reuters)

China is prepared to raise the investment ceiling in the Bilateral Investment treaty, and is also willing to end the ban on US beef imports

China will offer the Trump administration better market access for financial sector investments and US beef exports to help avert a trade war, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing officials familiar with the matter. China is prepared to raise the investment ceiling in the Bilateral Investment treaty and is also willing to end the ban on US beef imports, the newspaper also reported. "China was prepared to (raise the investment ceilings) in the BIT but those negotiations were put on hold (after Trump's election victory)," the Financial Times also reported citing a Chinese official involved in the talks. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday that President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to a new 100-day plan for trade talks on Friday. The US trade department was not immediately available for comment while the China's ministry of commerce could not be reached for comment. (Reuters)

China offers concessions to avert trade war with US: Financial Times

So far, it&rsquo;s all been about allies, but this week will be different. US President Donald Trump is set to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a two-day summit at his exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on April 6-7.

The meeting between the leaders of the world&rsquo;s biggest economies, as Trump predicted in a tweet, is expected to be &ldquo;a difficult one&rdquo;. Sino-US ties had witnessed steady growth under Barack Obama, both in style and substance.

For starters, Obama&rsquo;s much-vaunted and now abandoned pivot to Asia led to anxieties in Beijing &ndash; the kinds that Obama sought to sooth by becoming the first US president to visit China during his first year in office.

Through Obama&rsquo;s terms in office, Sino-US ties grew within a theoretical framework of expanding cooperation while containing conflict. In a sense that axiom was adhered to.

While the Obama White House resisted the Chinese narrative of designating ties as a &ldquo;new type of great power relationship,&rdquo; Obama did acknowledge that the China-US relationship was the &ldquo;most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century&rdquo;.

Despite the inherent frictions in the relationship, Obama and Xi met on 11 different occasions since 2013. Their interactions often showcased a strong personal rapport, whether it was in the heat of the desert in Sunnylands in 2013 or under the cool blue lights of the imperial gardens of Zhongnanhai in November 2014.

While fundamental irritants - such as North Korea, the South China Sea dispute, differences at the UN Security Council, along with trade, currency valuation and cyber-security &ndash; have persisted, there has been historic cooperation in areas where interests have coincided, such as combating climate change and arriving at a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme.

Most importantly, however, the Obama years showed that strategic containment of China is a venture that is destined to fail. For instance, while Obama negotiated the TPP, which today lies in ruins, China has moved ahead with its Belt and Road Initiative and expanded its influence through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

With the arrival of Trump and his hostile approach to economic globalisation, Xi has sought to position himself as the face of an interconnected world, as evident in his recent address in Davos.

Another such scenario was witnessed last week. As Trump signed an executive order to demolish an array of anti-global warming policies at home, Chinese state media showcased images of Xi planting trees with primary school students in Beijing, promising to build an ecological civilisation. While Trump has indicated that he will be pulling out of the Paris climate change accord, Xi has vowed that China will remain true to its commitments to combat global warming.

So, when it comes to optics, Beijing has clearly out-done the Trump White House, although given the new US President&rsquo;s rhetorical incoherence, one can legitimately argue that this wasn&rsquo;t really a difficult task.

In terms of the bilateral relationship, Trump, it seems, has steadily climbed down from the vitriol of the campaign and transition periods.

For instance, in December Trump called Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, raising doubts whether he would respect the One-China policy. By February, however, he agreed to support the One-China policy during a phone conversation with Xi.

Likewise, all the campaign trail threats of designating China as a currency manipulator have not led to any policy action so far. Moreover, as has been the case so far under Trump, the President&rsquo;s off-the-cuff and often abrasive Twitter rhetoric has been balanced out by his diplomatic emissaries.

During his visit to Beijing in March, US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, went as far as borrowing Chinese catchphrases - &ldquo;non-confrontation&rdquo;, &ldquo;no conflict&rdquo;, &ldquo;mutual respect&rdquo; and &ldquo;win-win solutions&rdquo; - to describe Sino-US ties. That led to a rather strange media debate, with commentators speculating that despite the Twitter hostility, the new US administration will actually be more accommodating of China&rsquo;s great power narrative than Obama was.

Finally, while Trump has continued to lash out at Beijing for not doing enough to rein in an aggressive Pyongyang and threatened to go it alone against the North with the military option being on the table, the truth is that there are very few realistic options available for Washington to explore.

China, which accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Pyongyang&rsquo;s trade, says that its influence over North Korea is overstated by Washington. It has consistently argued that it is Washington&rsquo;s aggression, such as the recent joint military drills with Seoul in the region, which is making it difficult to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table.

Beijing has reportedly proposed a &quot;double halt&quot; approach, with all sides dialing down the aggression. But that&rsquo;s a concept that the US State Department has already dismissed.

If for argument&#39;s sake, we assume that Trump is correct and that Beijing can do more to contain North Korea, but has been shirking that responsibility, then what is it that Washington can offer to encourage a policy shift?

In an interview to the Financial Times ahead of Xi&rsquo;s visit, Trump is quoted as saying &ldquo;trade is the incentive. It&rsquo;s all about trade&rdquo;. But given that the US trade deficit with China stands at $347 billion, a figure that Trump has promised to bring down, what sort of incentives can Trump realistically offer? Perhaps, we&rsquo;ll all have a better idea by April 6.

But from assessing what we&rsquo;ve seen so far, don&rsquo;t hold your breath: Trump isn&rsquo;t likely to follow up on the tough talk with serious action or a grand bargain just yet.

(WION)

Washington expects Beijing to do more in reining in North Korea but what incentives can US offer for such a policy shift remains to be seen

So far, it’s all been about allies, but this week will be different. US President Donald Trump is set to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a two-day summit at his exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on April 6-7. The meeting between the leaders of the world’s biggest economies, as Trump predicted in a tweet, is expected to be “a difficult one”. Sino-US ties had witnessed steady growth under Barack Obama, both in style and substance. For starters, Obama’s much-vaunted and now abandoned pivot to Asia led to anxieties in Beijing – the kinds that Obama sought to sooth by becoming the first US president to visit China during his first year in office. Through Obama’s terms in office, Sino-US ties grew within a theoretical framework of expanding cooperation while containing conflict. In a sense that axiom was adhered to. While the Obama White House resisted the Chinese narrative of designating ties as a “new type of great power relationship,” Obama did acknowledge that the China-US relationship was the “most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century”. Despite the inherent frictions in the relationship, Obama and Xi met on 11 different occasions since 2013. Their interactions often showcased a strong personal rapport, whether it was in the heat of the desert in Sunnylands in 2013 or under the cool blue lights of the imperial gardens of Zhongnanhai in November 2014. While fundamental irritants - such as North Korea, the South China Sea dispute, differences at the UN Security Council, along with trade, currency valuation and cyber-security – have persisted, there has been historic cooperation in areas where interests have coincided, such as combating climate change and arriving at a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme. Most importantly, however, the Obama years showed that strategic containment of China is a venture that is destined to fail. For instance, while Obama negotiated the TPP, which today lies in ruins, China has moved ahead with its Belt and Road Initiative and expanded its influence through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). With the arrival of Trump and his hostile approach to economic globalisation, Xi has sought to position himself as the face of an interconnected world, as evident in his recent address in Davos. Another such scenario was witnessed last week. As Trump signed an executive order to demolish an array of anti-global warming policies at home, Chinese state media showcased images of Xi planting trees with primary school students in Beijing, promising to build an ecological civilisation. While Trump has indicated that he will be pulling out of the Paris climate change accord, Xi has vowed that China will remain true to its commitments to combat global warming. So, when it comes to optics, Beijing has clearly out-done the Trump White House, although given the new US President’s rhetorical incoherence, one can legitimately argue that this wasn’t really a difficult task. In terms of the bilateral relationship, Trump, it seems, has steadily climbed down from the vitriol of the campaign and transition periods. For instance, in December Trump called Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, raising doubts whether he would respect the One-China policy. By February, however, he agreed to support the One-China policy during a phone conversation with Xi. Likewise, all the campaign trail threats of designating China as a currency manipulator have not led to any policy action so far. Moreover, as has been the case so far under Trump, the President’s off-the-cuff and often abrasive Twitter rhetoric has been balanced out by his diplomatic emissaries. During his visit to Beijing in March, US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, went as far as borrowing Chinese catchphrases - “non-confrontation”, “no conflict”, “mutual respect” and “win-win solutions” - to describe Sino-US ties. That led to a rather strange media debate, with commentators speculating that despite the Twitter hostility, the new US administration will actually be more accommodating of China’s great power narrative than Obama was. Finally, while Trump has continued to lash out at Beijing for not doing enough to rein in an aggressive Pyongyang and threatened to go it alone against the North with the military option being on the table, the truth is that there are very few realistic options available for Washington to explore. China, which accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Pyongyang’s trade, says that its influence over North Korea is overstated by Washington. It has consistently argued that it is Washington’s aggression, such as the recent joint military drills with Seoul in the region, which is making it difficult to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table. Beijing has reportedly proposed a "double halt" approach, with all sides dialing down the aggression. But that’s a concept that the US State Department has already dismissed. If for argument's sake, we assume that Trump is correct and that Beijing can do more to contain North Korea, but has been shirking that responsibility, then what is it that Washington can offer to encourage a policy shift? In an interview to the Financial Times ahead of Xi’s visit, Trump is quoted as saying “trade is the incentive. It’s all about trade”. But given that the US trade deficit with China stands at $347 billion, a figure that Trump has promised to bring down, what sort of incentives can Trump realistically offer? Perhaps, we’ll all have a better idea by April 6. But from assessing what we’ve seen so far, don’t hold your breath: Trump isn’t likely to follow up on the tough talk with serious action or a grand bargain just yet. (WION)

Xi-Trump summit talks: Washington can't ignore a resurgent China

Pakistan has welcomed the US offer to help de-escalate tensions with India, saying &quot;any positive role&quot; America plays to bring peace and stability in South Asia can serve the region well, according to a media report today.

Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Pakistan&#39;s envoy to Washington, termed US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley&#39;s remarks on Monday that the US would try and &quot;find its place&quot; in efforts to de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan as positive.

&quot;Any positive role that the US plays to bring peace and stability in South Asia can serve the region well,&quot; Chaudhry was quoted as saying in a report by Dawn from Washington.

Chaudhry said Pakistan is interested in such efforts because it &quot;wants good neighbourly relations with India&quot;.

Pakistan&#39;s support for a third-party mediation comes after India rejected yesterday any role for the US in Indo-Pak issues. India said its position for bilateral redressal of all India-Pakistan issues &quot;in an environment free of terror and violence hasn&#39;t changed&quot;.

Haley, a senior Indian-American member of the Trump Cabinet, made the remarks after the US assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of April.

She hinted that the Trump administration would participate in the talks aimed at resolving differences between India and Pakistan. It was the first time Haley, as a member of the Trump Cabinet, has addressed tensions between India and Pakistan.

A State Department spokesperson, when contacted by the newspaper, explained the US position on facilitating talks between the two countries.

&quot;We believe India and Pakistan stand to benefit from practical cooperation. We encourage India and Pakistan to engage in direct dialogue aimed at reducing tensions,&quot; the spokesperson said.

The US official also explained why Washington wanted to promote good Indo-Pak ties. &quot;The normalisation of relations between Pakistan and India is vital to both countries and the region. Steps that initiate closer regional economic ties can also create jobs, lower inflation and increase energy supply,&quot; the official said.

The last sentence of the statement, however, stressed the stated US policy, which is close to India&#39;s stance on this issue, that all differences between India and Pakistan should be resolved bilaterally.

&quot;We have and continue to encourage India and Pakistan to work together to resolve any differences,&quot; the US official said.

India has consistently ruled out third-party mediation, including by the United Nations or the US, and maintained that Kashmir was a bilateral issue. Pakistan, however, welcomes international mediation and regularly raises the Kashmir issue at various UN fora.

Yesterday, India&#39;s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay snubbed Haley for hinting that the US was ready to mediate. He asked the international community to instead persuade Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorist attacks.

(PTI)&nbsp;

The US had offered to try and de-escalate tensions between the two countries

Pakistan has welcomed the US offer to help de-escalate tensions with India, saying "any positive role" America plays to bring peace and stability in South Asia can serve the region well, according to a media report today. Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Pakistan's envoy to Washington, termed US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley's remarks on Monday that the US would try and "find its place" in efforts to de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan as positive. "Any positive role that the US plays to bring peace and stability in South Asia can serve the region well," Chaudhry was quoted as saying in a report by Dawn from Washington. Chaudhry said Pakistan is interested in such efforts because it "wants good neighbourly relations with India". Pakistan's support for a third-party mediation comes after India rejected yesterday any role for the US in Indo-Pak issues. India said its position for bilateral redressal of all India-Pakistan issues "in an environment free of terror and violence hasn't changed". Haley, a senior Indian-American member of the Trump Cabinet, made the remarks after the US assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of April. She hinted that the Trump administration would participate in the talks aimed at resolving differences between India and Pakistan. It was the first time Haley, as a member of the Trump Cabinet, has addressed tensions between India and Pakistan. A State Department spokesperson, when contacted by the newspaper, explained the US position on facilitating talks between the two countries. "We believe India and Pakistan stand to benefit from practical cooperation. We encourage India and Pakistan to engage in direct dialogue aimed at reducing tensions," the spokesperson said. The US official also explained why Washington wanted to promote good Indo-Pak ties. "The normalisation of relations between Pakistan and India is vital to both countries and the region. Steps that initiate closer regional economic ties can also create jobs, lower inflation and increase energy supply," the official said. The last sentence of the statement, however, stressed the stated US policy, which is close to India's stance on this issue, that all differences between India and Pakistan should be resolved bilaterally. "We have and continue to encourage India and Pakistan to work together to resolve any differences," the US official said. India has consistently ruled out third-party mediation, including by the United Nations or the US, and maintained that Kashmir was a bilateral issue. Pakistan, however, welcomes international mediation and regularly raises the Kashmir issue at various UN fora. Yesterday, India's External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay snubbed Haley for hinting that the US was ready to mediate. He asked the international community to instead persuade Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorist attacks. (PTI)

After India rejection, Pak welcomes US offer to mediate

The US has ruled that being a simple computer programmer would no longer qualify as a specialist profession, which is a must for the issue of a H-1B work visa, in a move that could have far-reaching implications for thousands of Indians applying for such a visa.

The ruling reverses the US&#39; more than decades and a half old guidelines, that were issued in the context of addressing the new millennium needs.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has ruled that an entry level computer programmer position would not generally qualify as a position in a &quot;specialty occupation&quot;.

The clarification on what constitutes a &quot;specialty occupation&quot; superseding and rescinding its previous guidelines of December 22,2000 was issued by the USCIS through a new policy memorandum on March 31.

The move could have far reaching implications on thousands of Indians applying for H-1B work visas for the next fiscal beginning October 1, 2017, the process for which started yesterday.

Issued just one business day before the USCIS started accepting H-1B visa petitions, the policy memorandum titled &#39;Rescission of the December 22, 2000 Guidance memo on H1B computer related positions,&#39; has sent shocked waves across the companies and immigration attorneys, as their application was based on the 2000 guidelines on what constitutes a specialty occupation.

&quot;The fact that a person may be employed as a computer programmer and may use information technology skills and knowledge to help an enterprise achieve its goals in the course of his or her job is not sufficient to establish the position as a specialty occupation,&quot; the USCIS Policy Memorandum ruled.

&quot;Thus, a petitioner may not rely solely on the (current version of the) Handbook (that describes specialty occupation) to meet its burden when seeking to sponsor a beneficiary for a computer programmer position. Instead, a petitioner must provide other evidence to establish that the particular position is one in a specialty occupation,&quot; the memorandum said.

According to the USCIS, the December 22, 2000 memorandum entitled &#39;Guidance memo on H-1B computer related positions&#39; is not an accurate articulation of current agency policy.

&quot;USCIS is rescinding it to prevent inconsistencies in H-1B and H-1B1 adjudications between the three service centers that currently adjudicate H-1B petitions,&quot; it said.

The USCIS argued that the 2000 memorandum was based on 1998-1999 and 2000-01 editions of the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which is now obsolete.

The 2000 memorandum, it said, did not accurately portray essential information from the Handbook that recognised that some computer programmers qualify for these jobs with only &quot;2-year degrees.&quot;

While the memorandum did mention beneficiaries with &quot;2-year&quot; degrees, it incorrectly described them as &quot;strictly involving the entering or review of code for an employer whose business is not computer related.&quot;

The Handbook did not support such a statement, it said.

As such, &quot;it is improper to conclude based on this information that the USCIS would &quot;generally consider the position of programmer to qualify as a specialty occupation,&quot; the memorandum told USCIS personnel involved in adjudication of H-1B applications and petitions.

The Bureau of Labour Statistics in its Occupational Outlook Handbook identifies 10 different kinds of computer and information technology (IT) occupation.

Topping the list is computer and information research scientists with a doctoral or professional degree, who normally invent and design new approaches to computing technology and find innovative uses for existing technology.

They study and solve complex problems in computing for business, medicine, science, and other fields.

The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows American firms to employ foreign workers in occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year.

In 2015 their median salary was USD 110,000. It is followed by Computer network architects (whose median salary in 2015 was USD 100,000), Computer programmer (USD 79,530), Computer support specialist (USD 51,000).

The median salary for Computer systems analysts was USD 85,500 followed by Database Administrators (USD 81,000), Information Security Analysts (USD 90,000), network and computer systems administrators (USD 77,000), Software developers (USD 100,000) and web developers (USD 65,000).

(PTI)

The US has ruled that simple computer programming would no longer qualify as a 'specialist profession', a must for issue of the visa

The US has ruled that being a simple computer programmer would no longer qualify as a specialist profession, which is a must for the issue of a H-1B work visa, in a move that could have far-reaching implications for thousands of Indians applying for such a visa. The ruling reverses the US' more than decades and a half old guidelines, that were issued in the context of addressing the new millennium needs. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has ruled that an entry level computer programmer position would not generally qualify as a position in a "specialty occupation". The clarification on what constitutes a "specialty occupation" superseding and rescinding its previous guidelines of December 22,2000 was issued by the USCIS through a new policy memorandum on March 31. The move could have far reaching implications on thousands of Indians applying for H-1B work visas for the next fiscal beginning October 1, 2017, the process for which started yesterday. Issued just one business day before the USCIS started accepting H-1B visa petitions, the policy memorandum titled 'Rescission of the December 22, 2000 Guidance memo on H1B computer related positions,' has sent shocked waves across the companies and immigration attorneys, as their application was based on the 2000 guidelines on what constitutes a specialty occupation. "The fact that a person may be employed as a computer programmer and may use information technology skills and knowledge to help an enterprise achieve its goals in the course of his or her job is not sufficient to establish the position as a specialty occupation," the USCIS Policy Memorandum ruled. "Thus, a petitioner may not rely solely on the (current version of the) Handbook (that describes specialty occupation) to meet its burden when seeking to sponsor a beneficiary for a computer programmer position. Instead, a petitioner must provide other evidence to establish that the particular position is one in a specialty occupation," the memorandum said. According to the USCIS, the December 22, 2000 memorandum entitled 'Guidance memo on H-1B computer related positions' is not an accurate articulation of current agency policy. "USCIS is rescinding it to prevent inconsistencies in H-1B and H-1B1 adjudications between the three service centers that currently adjudicate H-1B petitions," it said. The USCIS argued that the 2000 memorandum was based on 1998-1999 and 2000-01 editions of the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which is now obsolete. The 2000 memorandum, it said, did not accurately portray essential information from the Handbook that recognised that some computer programmers qualify for these jobs with only "2-year degrees." While the memorandum did mention beneficiaries with "2-year" degrees, it incorrectly described them as "strictly involving the entering or review of code for an employer whose business is not computer related." The Handbook did not support such a statement, it said. As such, "it is improper to conclude based on this information that the USCIS would "generally consider the position of programmer to qualify as a specialty occupation," the memorandum told USCIS personnel involved in adjudication of H-1B applications and petitions. The Bureau of Labour Statistics in its Occupational Outlook Handbook identifies 10 different kinds of computer and information technology (IT) occupation. Topping the list is computer and information research scientists with a doctoral or professional degree, who normally invent and design new approaches to computing technology and find innovative uses for existing technology. They study and solve complex problems in computing for business, medicine, science, and other fields. The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows American firms to employ foreign workers in occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year. In 2015 their median salary was USD 110,000. It is followed by Computer network architects (whose median salary in 2015 was USD 100,000), Computer programmer (USD 79,530), Computer support specialist (USD 51,000). The median salary for Computer systems analysts was USD 85,500 followed by Database Administrators (USD 81,000), Information Security Analysts (USD 90,000), network and computer systems administrators (USD 77,000), Software developers (USD 100,000) and web developers (USD 65,000). (PTI)

Computer programmers may no longer qualify for H-1B visa

US President Donald Trump set human rights scandals aside to welcome Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to the White House Monday, the first such visit from an Egyptian president in almost a decade.

Greeting Sisi warmly in the Oval Office, Trump heaped praise on the former general&#39;s leadership as he sought to mend ties strained by crackdowns, revolution and counter-revolution.

&quot;You have a great friend and ally in the United States and in me,&quot; Trump told Sisi, sweeping aside his predecessor Barack Obama&#39;s concerns about Sisi&#39;s purge of political opponents and rights activists.

The meeting symbolises the Egyptian leader coming in from the cold, after years of being kept at arm&#39;s length by Washington.

Trump is betting that Egypt can be a partner in achieving two key goals: restarting the Middle East peace process and tackling jihadist groups.

&quot;I just want to let everybody know that we are very much behind President al-Sisi -- he has done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation,&quot; Trump said.

The last time an Egyptian president was at the White House was in 2010, when Hosni Mubarak attended Middle East peace talks alongside Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders.

Within months, Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising, as the Arab Spring swept across the region.

Obama had angered allies in Egypt&#39;s powerful military by putting his finger on the scales, warning them against quashing protests by force.

In the months and years that followed, the Egypt-US relationship was strained further as a broadly Islamist and then a ilitary government -- led by Sisi -- took charge.

Hundreds of demonstrators were killed and thousands jailed during the accompanying crackdown, prompting Obama to freeze military aid to Egypt -- worth roughly a billion dollars a year.

Egypt&#39;s pivotal regional role meant that aid was fully reinstated in 2015, but diplomatic relations remained difficult.

Common cause&nbsp;

The catalyst for Trump and Sisi&#39;s friendship has been a common hardline stance against jihadist groups, which Sisi described as &quot;a satanic ideology&quot; during brief remarks at the White House.

The former New York property tycoon and the former Egyptian army general, who had no plans for a joint press conference, previously met in September when Trump&#39;s campaign was still in full swing.

Trump at the time called Sisi a &quot;fantastic guy.&quot;

Sisi was reportedly the first to call Trump to offer his congratulations on his November election win.

In one of several public appearances, Trump gave only the slightest hint of areas of difference.

&quot;We have many things in common, We have a few things that we don&#39;t agree on,&quot; he said. &quot;I think that this is going to be a very productive day.&quot;

Asked directly whether human rights were discussed, Trump declined to answer.

Ahead of the meeting, a senior administration official said the topic would be handled in a &quot;private, more discreet way.&quot;

&quot;We believe it&#39;s the most effective way to advance those issues to a favorable outcome.&quot;

That stance was slammed by rights groups, who say tens of thousands of opponents have been arrested or are facing criminal charges.

&quot;Inviting al-Sisi for an official visit to Washington as tens of thousands of Egyptians rot in jail and when torture is again the order of the day is a strange way to build a stable strategic relationship,&quot; said Sarah Margon, Washington director of Human Rights Watch.

Egypt&#39;s own watchdog said in a report last year that it raised 266 cases of enforced disappearances with the interior minister.

But Trump&#39;s White House, which hailed the visit as a success, in a statement late Monday applauded Sisi&#39;s &quot;courageous efforts to promote moderate understandings of Islam, and the leaders agreed on the necessity of recognizing the peaceful nature of Islam and Muslims around the world.&quot;

&nbsp;Making peace

The thorny issue of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process was also on the agenda, the White House statement said.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel and would likely be considered key players in any renewed peace effort.

Jordan&#39;s King Abdullah will visit the White House on Wednesday, as Trump -- a self-declared expert dealmaker -- looks to make the deal of all deals.

A senior administration official described &quot;very positive discussions&quot; between the US and Egyptian leaders both on Middle East peace and fighting jihadists.

But experts warn that Sisi may be unable to deliver what Trump wants on either dossier.

&quot;Sisi&#39;s brutal repression has made Egypt a mass-production facility for violent extremism,&quot; said Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Meanwhile, she added, &quot;Egypt&#39;s leadership has become irrelevant to peace efforts in the region.&quot; &nbsp;

(AFP)

The meeting symbolises the Egyptian leader coming in from the cold, after years of being kept at arm's length by Washington

US President Donald Trump set human rights scandals aside to welcome Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to the White House Monday, the first such visit from an Egyptian president in almost a decade. Greeting Sisi warmly in the Oval Office, Trump heaped praise on the former general's leadership as he sought to mend ties strained by crackdowns, revolution and counter-revolution. "You have a great friend and ally in the United States and in me," Trump told Sisi, sweeping aside his predecessor Barack Obama's concerns about Sisi's purge of political opponents and rights activists. The meeting symbolises the Egyptian leader coming in from the cold, after years of being kept at arm's length by Washington. Trump is betting that Egypt can be a partner in achieving two key goals: restarting the Middle East peace process and tackling jihadist groups. "I just want to let everybody know that we are very much behind President al-Sisi -- he has done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation," Trump said. The last time an Egyptian president was at the White House was in 2010, when Hosni Mubarak attended Middle East peace talks alongside Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders. Within months, Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising, as the Arab Spring swept across the region. Obama had angered allies in Egypt's powerful military by putting his finger on the scales, warning them against quashing protests by force. In the months and years that followed, the Egypt-US relationship was strained further as a broadly Islamist and then a ilitary government -- led by Sisi -- took charge. Hundreds of demonstrators were killed and thousands jailed during the accompanying crackdown, prompting Obama to freeze military aid to Egypt -- worth roughly a billion dollars a year. Egypt's pivotal regional role meant that aid was fully reinstated in 2015, but diplomatic relations remained difficult. Common cause The catalyst for Trump and Sisi's friendship has been a common hardline stance against jihadist groups, which Sisi described as "a satanic ideology" during brief remarks at the White House. The former New York property tycoon and the former Egyptian army general, who had no plans for a joint press conference, previously met in September when Trump's campaign was still in full swing. Trump at the time called Sisi a "fantastic guy." Sisi was reportedly the first to call Trump to offer his congratulations on his November election win. In one of several public appearances, Trump gave only the slightest hint of areas of difference. "We have many things in common, We have a few things that we don't agree on," he said. "I think that this is going to be a very productive day." Asked directly whether human rights were discussed, Trump declined to answer. Ahead of the meeting, a senior administration official said the topic would be handled in a "private, more discreet way." "We believe it's the most effective way to advance those issues to a favorable outcome." That stance was slammed by rights groups, who say tens of thousands of opponents have been arrested or are facing criminal charges. "Inviting al-Sisi for an official visit to Washington as tens of thousands of Egyptians rot in jail and when torture is again the order of the day is a strange way to build a stable strategic relationship," said Sarah Margon, Washington director of Human Rights Watch. Egypt's own watchdog said in a report last year that it raised 266 cases of enforced disappearances with the interior minister. But Trump's White House, which hailed the visit as a success, in a statement late Monday applauded Sisi's "courageous efforts to promote moderate understandings of Islam, and the leaders agreed on the necessity of recognizing the peaceful nature of Islam and Muslims around the world." Making peace The thorny issue of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process was also on the agenda, the White House statement said. Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel and would likely be considered key players in any renewed peace effort. Jordan's King Abdullah will visit the White House on Wednesday, as Trump -- a self-declared expert dealmaker -- looks to make the deal of all deals. A senior administration official described "very positive discussions" between the US and Egyptian leaders both on Middle East peace and fighting jihadists. But experts warn that Sisi may be unable to deliver what Trump wants on either dossier. "Sisi's brutal repression has made Egypt a mass-production facility for violent extremism," said Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Meanwhile, she added, "Egypt's leadership has become irrelevant to peace efforts in the region." (AFP)

In landmark meeting, Trump hails Sisi's 'fantastic job' in Egypt

A New Jersey teen pleaded guilty Monday to a plot allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group to kill Pope Francis during his 2015 visit to the United States.

The US Justice Department said Santos Colon, 15 years old at the time, sought to recruit a sniper to shoot the pope as he celebrated mass in Philadelphia on September 27, 2015. Colon also allegedly planned to set off explosives.

But the teen unwittingly recruited an undercover FBI agent for the job, and was arrested quietly 12 days before the event.

&quot;Colon engaged someone he believed would be the sniper, but in reality was an undercover FBI employee. Colon engaged in target reconnaissance with an FBI confidential source and instructed the source to purchase materials to make explosive devices,&quot; the Justice Department said in a statement.&nbsp;

Court documents said Colon sought to carry out the act in support of the Islamic State group and that he had used the adopted name Ahmad Shakoor.

In a plea bargain with prosecutors, Colon, now 17, agreed to forego trial and plead guilty as an adult to one charge of providing material support to a terror group.&nbsp;

With the deal, prosecutors dropped three other charges filed against him as a juvenile.&nbsp;

Court documents said the charges were in relation to the Islamic State group, which Washington has designated a foreign terrorist organization.&nbsp;

But there were no details on how Colon became interested in the group and if or how he communicated with them.

Pope Francis celebrated mass for tens of thousands of followers in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the historic east coast city to cap a week-long visit for the World Meeting of Families

Colon&#39;s home is in Lindenwold, New Jersey, just east of Philadelphia.

Colon faces a maximum of 15 years in prison but sentencing would likely be held off until 2021 while he undergoes psychiatric treatment in a secure facility.&nbsp;

In a plea statement, Colon acknowledged having been a patient in a mental institution in the past.

(AFP) 
&nbsp;

The US Justice Department said Santos Colon, 15 years old at the time, sought to recruit a sniper to shoot the pope in 2015

A New Jersey teen pleaded guilty Monday to a plot allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group to kill Pope Francis during his 2015 visit to the United States. The US Justice Department said Santos Colon, 15 years old at the time, sought to recruit a sniper to shoot the pope as he celebrated mass in Philadelphia on September 27, 2015. Colon also allegedly planned to set off explosives. But the teen unwittingly recruited an undercover FBI agent for the job, and was arrested quietly 12 days before the event. "Colon engaged someone he believed would be the sniper, but in reality was an undercover FBI employee. Colon engaged in target reconnaissance with an FBI confidential source and instructed the source to purchase materials to make explosive devices," the Justice Department said in a statement. Court documents said Colon sought to carry out the act in support of the Islamic State group and that he had used the adopted name Ahmad Shakoor. In a plea bargain with prosecutors, Colon, now 17, agreed to forego trial and plead guilty as an adult to one charge of providing material support to a terror group. With the deal, prosecutors dropped three other charges filed against him as a juvenile. Court documents said the charges were in relation to the Islamic State group, which Washington has designated a foreign terrorist organization. But there were no details on how Colon became interested in the group and if or how he communicated with them. Pope Francis celebrated mass for tens of thousands of followers in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the historic east coast city to cap a week-long visit for the World Meeting of Families Colon's home is in Lindenwold, New Jersey, just east of Philadelphia. Colon faces a maximum of 15 years in prison but sentencing would likely be held off until 2021 while he undergoes psychiatric treatment in a secure facility. In a plea statement, Colon acknowledged having been a patient in a mental institution in the past. (AFP)

US teen pleads guilty to IS-inspired plot to kill Pope Francis

The top US general in Iraq told reporters on Tuesday that a strike near the Islamic-State-held Syrian city of Raqqa last week appears to have killed dozens of militants and not civilians.

Last week the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an air strike that hit a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 33 people, adding it believed the strike was carried out by the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State in the area.

&quot;I would tell you that we haven`t completed our assessment of that event yet, but my initial read is (it is) not credible,&quot; Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend told reporters at a Pentagon via teleconference.&nbsp;

&quot;I think that was a clean strike,&quot; Townsend said.&nbsp;

&quot;We had multiple corroborating intelligence sources from various types of intelligence that told us the enemy was using that school and we observed it and we saw what we expected to see,&quot; Townsend said, adding that it appeared to have hit about 30 Islamic State militants.

(Reuters)

Last week the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an air strike that hit a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 33 people

The top US general in Iraq told reporters on Tuesday that a strike near the Islamic-State-held Syrian city of Raqqa last week appears to have killed dozens of militants and not civilians. Last week the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an air strike that hit a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 33 people, adding it believed the strike was carried out by the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State in the area. "I would tell you that we haven`t completed our assessment of that event yet, but my initial read is (it is) not credible," Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend told reporters at a Pentagon via teleconference. "I think that was a clean strike," Townsend said. "We had multiple corroborating intelligence sources from various types of intelligence that told us the enemy was using that school and we observed it and we saw what we expected to see," Townsend said, adding that it appeared to have hit about 30 Islamic State militants. (Reuters)

Strike in Syria hit militants, not civilians : US general

The United States and Britain have banned laptops and tablet computers from passenger cabins on certain airlines&#39; flights from some airports in Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa, citing terror threats.

The restrictions are different in the two countries and only Britain specified the maximum size of device allowed - 16 by 9.3 centimetres (6.3 by 3.7 inches).

Canadian and French officials are considering whether to impose similar measures, but Germany, Australia and New Zealand said they are not currently mulling a ban.

Why is this measure now?

Normally, decisions taken by American authorities and implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are the result of specific threats identified by US intelligence agencies, Jean-Charles Brisard, president of the Center for Analysis of Terrorism told AFP.

&quot;Certain groups like Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have been trying for years to adapt to the progressive security measures put in place by the US and their allies, in particular by miniaturising explosives.&quot;

The new measures &quot;will be based on specific threats, without doubt an initiative by AQAP, one of the most advanced and sophisticated groups - in particular with regards to miniaturisation of explosive devices,&quot; he added.

Why is there a ban on only laptops and tablets?

&quot;These types of electronic devices contain all the component parts of an improvised explosive device (IED) except for the detonator and the actual explosives,&quot; said Sebastien Caron, director general of ASCT, a training centre for airport security.

By adding those two missing elements, it could be possible to effectively assemble an IED, making these devices more sensitive than other electronics, he added.

How can explosives be detected at security inspections?

If airport security have any doubt about a passenger and their baggage they can use a trace detector - a small wipe - to check for any explosives, Caron said.

If the electronic device has been booby-trapped, there will be traces of explosive of that can be found. The wipe can be analysed in seven seconds and will warn of any explosives detected, the expert said.

How can they monitor checked baggage?

In France, checked baggage is passed through an Explosive Detection System which can determine whether any explosives are present by analysing the molecules inside the bags.

If the machine estimates that there may be a threat, it alerts airport security who can take the bag aside for a more comprehensive check.

&quot;Out of 100 bags, only 30 percent pass through a human inspection, who will usually be able to clear 25 out of those 30 of having any threat,&quot; Caron said.

&quot;The remaining five percent are sent to an even more sophisticated tomography machine,&quot; which is a very expensive X-ray or ultrasound machine, he added.

Has this happened before?

After AQAP and rebel groups in Syria drew closer together in 2014, the TSA banned devices with flat batteries, saying that passengers could be required to demonstrate that laptops and phones could be powered up before boarding planes, Brisard said.

&quot;The fear, which was based on precise information, was that the battery&#39;s housing could conceal a miniature explosive of just a few hundred grams,&quot; he said.

Why Arab countries and Turkey?

&quot;The reality is that the main threat will come from the countries listed by American authorities,&quot; said Brisard, adding that TSA regulations were generally followed around the world. 
Some countries will not have the same level of security screenings as in the US and other western nations, he added.

What are the consequences for travellers?

Caron worries that the new measures will cause tension with travellers. &quot;Passengers are mainly business people who need to work or tourists who don&#39;t want to be deprived of their devices to relax or watch a movie. It&#39;s going to be complicated to manage.&quot;

(AFP)

The move is prompted by reports that militant groups want to smuggle explosive devices inside electronic gadgets

The United States and Britain have banned laptops and tablet computers from passenger cabins on certain airlines' flights from some airports in Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa, citing terror threats. The restrictions are different in the two countries and only Britain specified the maximum size of device allowed - 16 by 9.3 centimetres (6.3 by 3.7 inches). Canadian and French officials are considering whether to impose similar measures, but Germany, Australia and New Zealand said they are not currently mulling a ban. Why is this measure now? Normally, decisions taken by American authorities and implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are the result of specific threats identified by US intelligence agencies, Jean-Charles Brisard, president of the Center for Analysis of Terrorism told AFP. "Certain groups like Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have been trying for years to adapt to the progressive security measures put in place by the US and their allies, in particular by miniaturising explosives." The new measures "will be based on specific threats, without doubt an initiative by AQAP, one of the most advanced and sophisticated groups - in particular with regards to miniaturisation of explosive devices," he added. Why is there a ban on only laptops and tablets? "These types of electronic devices contain all the component parts of an improvised explosive device (IED) except for the detonator and the actual explosives," said Sebastien Caron, director general of ASCT, a training centre for airport security. By adding those two missing elements, it could be possible to effectively assemble an IED, making these devices more sensitive than other electronics, he added. How can explosives be detected at security inspections? If airport security have any doubt about a passenger and their baggage they can use a trace detector - a small wipe - to check for any explosives, Caron said. If the electronic device has been booby-trapped, there will be traces of explosive of that can be found. The wipe can be analysed in seven seconds and will warn of any explosives detected, the expert said. How can they monitor checked baggage? In France, checked baggage is passed through an Explosive Detection System which can determine whether any explosives are present by analysing the molecules inside the bags. If the machine estimates that there may be a threat, it alerts airport security who can take the bag aside for a more comprehensive check. "Out of 100 bags, only 30 percent pass through a human inspection, who will usually be able to clear 25 out of those 30 of having any threat," Caron said. "The remaining five percent are sent to an even more sophisticated tomography machine," which is a very expensive X-ray or ultrasound machine, he added. Has this happened before? After AQAP and rebel groups in Syria drew closer together in 2014, the TSA banned devices with flat batteries, saying that passengers could be required to demonstrate that laptops and phones could be powered up before boarding planes, Brisard said. "The fear, which was based on precise information, was that the battery's housing could conceal a miniature explosive of just a few hundred grams," he said. Why Arab countries and Turkey? "The reality is that the main threat will come from the countries listed by American authorities," said Brisard, adding that TSA regulations were generally followed around the world. Some countries will not have the same level of security screenings as in the US and other western nations, he added. What are the consequences for travellers? Caron worries that the new measures will cause tension with travellers. "Passengers are mainly business people who need to work or tourists who don't want to be deprived of their devices to relax or watch a movie. It's going to be complicated to manage." (AFP)

Explained: Why US, Britain banned laptops and tablets on airplanes

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