rithu gossip

Donald Trump insists he has 'complete power' to pardon

US President Donald Trump has insisted he has the "complete power" to pardon people, amid reports he is considering presidential pardons for family members, aides and even himself.

A Democratic Party spokesman has called the reports "extremely disturbing".

The US authorities are probing possible collusion between the Trump team and Russia. Intelligence agencies think Russia tried to help Mr Trump to power.

Russia denies this, and the president says there was no collusion.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Mr Trump and his team were looking at ways to pardon people close to him.

Presidents can pardon people before guilt is established or even before the person is charged with a crime.

Describing the reports as disturbing, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said "pardoning any individuals who may have been involved would be crossing a fundamental line".

On Saturday, Mr Trump tweeted: "While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS."

Mr Trump also attacked "illegal leaks" following reports his attorney general discussed campaign-related matters with a Russian envoy.

The Washington Post gave an account of meetings Attorney General Jeff Sessions held with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak. The newspaper quoted current and former US officials who cited intelligence intercepts of Mr Kislyak's version of the encounter to his superiors.

One of those quoted said Mr Kislyak spoke to Mr Sessions about key campaign issues, including Mr Trump's positions on policies significant to Russia.

During his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Mr Sessions said he had no contact with Russians during the election campaign. When it later emerged he had, he said the campaign was not discussed at the meetings.

An official confirmed to Reuters the detail of the intercepts, but there has been no independent corroboration.

The officials spoken to by the Post said that Mr Kislyak could have exaggerated the account, and cited a Justice Department spokesperson who repeated that Mr Sessions did not discuss interference in the election.
But the Post's story was the focus of one of many tweets the US president fired off on Saturday morning.
"A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post, this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions. These illegal leaks, like Comey's, must stop!" Mr Trump said.
The Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has been an occasional sparring partner for Mr Trump. "Comey" refers to James Comey, the former FBI boss Mr Trump fired.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump told the New York Times he regretted hiring Mr Sessions because he had stepped away from overseeing an inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the US election.
Mr Sessions recused himself in March amid pressure over his meetings with Mr Kislyak. He says he plans to continue in his role as attorney general.

Several other regular targets for Mr Trump featured in his series of tweets.

He accused the "failing" New York Times of foiling an attempt to assassinate the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
It is not clear what Mr Trump was referring to, but on Saturday a US general complained on Fox News that a "good lead" on Baghdadi was leaked to a national newspaper in 2015.
A New York Times report at the time revealed that valuable information had been extracted from a raid, but the paper stressed on Saturday that no-one had taken issue with their reporting until now.
And Mr Trump again urged Republicans to "step up to the plate" and repeal and replace President Obama's healthcare reforms, a key campaign pledge of his that has collapsed in Congress.

BBC NEWS

Jerusalem: Metal detectors at holy site 'could be removed'

Israel is willing to consider alternatives to controversial metal detectors it installed at a holy site in Jerusalem, a senior official says.

Major General Yoav Mordechai called on the Muslim world to put forward other suggestions.

Israel installed the detectors after two Israeli policemen were killed near there earlier this month.

The measures angered the Palestinians, who accuse Israel of trying to take control over a sacred place.

Tensions over the site, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, have surged in the past couple of days.

What makes Jerusalem so holy?

"We hope that Jordan and other Arab nations can suggest another security solution for this (problem)," Maj-Gen Mordechai told BBC Arabic, referring to the metal detectors.

"Any solution be it electronic, cyber or modern technology: Israel is ready for a solution. We need a security solution; not political or religious."

The BBC World Service's Middle East editor Alan Johnston says it is the first sign of a softening of Israel's position over the measures.

Saturday saw fresh clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. At least four Palestinians have been killed in the last two day's protests.

On Friday, Three Israeli civilians were stabbed to death at a settlement near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The United Nations Security Council is to meet on Monday to discuss ways of defusing the violence.

BBC NEWS

UK air traffic controllers warn of over-crowded skies

Air traffic controllers are warning that UK skies are running out of room for record numbers of planes.

And they have called for a drastic modernisation in the way aircraft are guided across UK airspace.

It comes as the government launches a discussion to shape the UK's aviation industry for the next thirty years.

It wants the public to submit ideas on a wide range of subjects, from airport bag check-ins in town centres to noise reduction targets.

Aviation's rapid growth is causing headaches across the industry.

Today is likely to be the busiest day of the year, with air traffic controllers expecting to handle over 8,800 flights.

They will guide some 770,000 flights across UK airspace through the summer.

That's a record, and 40,000 more than last year.

Stretched to the limit

But the ability of the the UK's National Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) to deal with this surge is being stretched to its limit.

Jamie Hutchison, Nats Director said: "In the last few weeks we have already safely managed record-breaking daily traffic levels, but the ageing design of UK airspace means we will soon reach the limits of what can be managed without delays rising significantly."

Delays are not just inconveniences. The Department for Transport estimates that if airspace management remains unchanged, by 2030 there will be 3,100 days' worth of flight delays - 50 times the amount seen in 2015, along with 8,000 flight cancellations a year.

In February the government launched a consultation paper on reforming airspace, and it is expected to report back in the autumn.

"Beyond the horizon"

Today's government paper has a broader scope. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "Our new aviation strategy will look beyond the new runway at Heathrow and sets out a comprehensive long-term plan for UK aviation. It will support jobs and economic growth across the whole of the UK.

"Our vision puts the passenger at the heart of what we do, but also recognises the need to address the impacts of aviation on communities and the environment."

Nats itself is rolling out a new £600m ($747m) computer system known as iTec that could result in more flights and fewer delays.

But Juliet Kennedy, Nats operations director, said: "What is needed is a clear and stable UK policy that recognises how important our airspace is as a critical part of our national infrastructure.

"It is essential that we are able to balance the needs of airspace users with the environment and, of course, with the communities who experience aircraft noise."

Glimmer of hope at last for India's vanishing Parsis

A jubilant Katy Gandevia passed around a box of celebratory sweets she had received in her office at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.

"That," she said, gesturing towards the sweets, "was to celebrate the birth of the 102nd baby."

The baby in question had been born under the Jiyo Parsi scheme, a federal government initiative launched in 2013 to stem the decline of the India's Parsi population. Dr Gandevia is senior member of this initiative.

Every baby born is a moment for celebration in the dwindling community that traces its ancestry to Zoroastrian refugees who landed on the coast of the western Indian state of Gujarat around the 8th Century.

Fleeing Islamic persecution in Persia, the new arrivals integrated with the local populations, whilst maintaining their distinctive ethnic identity. As a highly-educated and prosperous community, their success and influence has been far in excess of their size. And that size is ever-shrinking.

With each census, the number of Parsis has dropped, even as India's population of 1.3 billion people has grown.

The latest 2011 census put the number of Indian Parsis at 57,264, a fall from 1,14,000 in 1941, and extinction has increasingly become a reality.

Jiyo Parsi is an ambitious plan to halt that.

For its first phase - which will conclude in a few months - the scheme received 100 million rupees ($1.5m;£1.1m) to defray costs of fertility treatments for Parsi couples earning less than 2m rupees a year.

The campaign also sought to encourage Parsis to go forth and multiply through advertising, counselling and outreach efforts, .

That flipped the script on family planning, a key part of Indian government policy for decades.

When it was first announced in September 2013, the scheme quickly became both a headline and a punchline. It's quirky outreach included ad campaigns that urged couples to "Be responsible, don't use a condom tonight" and told young men to cut the umbilical chord and marry because, "isn't it time you broke up with your mom?"

But even though some objected that the campaign reduced women to their uteruses, it appears to have made a dent.

"The scheme created an enthusiasm and a buzz," Ms Gandevia told the BBC. "People were pessimistic but this has been a ray of hope."

Most of the babies have been born in Mumbai, which has India's largest concentration of Parsis. The number includes five pairs of twins and a roughly equal number of boys and girls.

One woman who declined to be identified claimed she had given up on having a child after repeated efforts which drained both her patience and money, but said that the financial assistance and counselling under the Jiyo scheme helped her conceive.

Another woman said: "At the age of 41 when most women start experiencing the symptoms of menopause, I am experiencing the symptoms of a long-awaited pregnancy. At the end of every tunnel there is light."

Before she became a coordinator for the scheme, Ms Gandevia, a social scientist and Parsi herself, had studied this tightly-knit group for more than a decade.

She says the first cause for alarm was in 2001, when census figures showed a sharp drop.

"That was the time the bells should have started ringing. the writing was on the wall," she said.

More than 30% of Parsis don't marry, and an equal proportion are more than 60-years-old. The total fertility rate for Parsis- the number of children a woman has - has dropped to 0.8. The average for India is 2.3, and 2.1 is the figure at which a population remains steady.

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions - Zoroastrians believe there is is one God called Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord)
Founded by Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra (pictured above), in Persia about 3,500 years ago
Once one of the world's most powerful religions, it is now one of the smallest
Zoroastrians are roughly split into two groups, Iranians and Parsis - there are an estimated 110,000 Parsis around the globe and in 2006 the New York Times reported there were probably less than 190,000 Zoroastrians worldwide
They worship in fire temples and believe fire represents God's light or wisdom

Read more about Zoroastrianism

A combination of factors has been responsible for this: marrying outside the community or not at all, divorce, couples having only one child and late marriages.

Furthermore, women who marry outside the community are not allowed to raise their children in the faith.

Hence, the two-pronged efforts of the team, which believes that talking to people, without lecturing them on reproducing, can be a powerful motivator.

"It is all because of the advocacy work that I decided to have a second child," said a Mumbai-based woman who is in her first trimester. "In whatever way, it is my small contribution."

The woman said she initially decided not to have another child to focus on her career.

"But maybe subconsciously I wanted another kid," she said. "All of us are happy."

Emphasising community pride and the joys of kinship has been another thrust area - a new advertising campaign launching later this month will focus on family.

Impressed by their efforts, even the Japanese government - a country where the population is rapidly aging and the fertility rate has fallen to 1.4 - has approached Parzor Foundation, an implementing partner, to decode the success of the campaign

"When we started, we were going into unknown territory," Shernaz Cama, the foundation's director told the BBC. "This had never been attempted by an urban, educated community before. Now we are seeing interest from all over."

Although the initial euphoria is palpable, it is too early to estimate any demographic impact it has had on the fertility rate.

"But 102 babies were born that would have otherwise not been there if Jiyo Parsi hadn't provided support," said Ms Gandevia. "That is a fact." She added that the real effects would be visible a generation from now.

Still, there are currently more Parsis dying than are being born every year. In Mumbai, for instance, about 750 Parsis die annually, and 200 children are born, pointed out Jehangir Patel, the editor and publisher of Parsiana, a community-focussed publication in the city.

"Even five or 20 more births per year more won't change the demographics," he said. "It's a good endeavour helping couples who might have otherwise not been able to have children but it won't drastically change the picture."

Bhavya Dore is a Mumbai-based journalist

Dalian Wanda $9.3bn deal in 'crazy' restructuring

One of China's biggest ever property deals is being restructured, less than a week after it was announced.

Dalian Wanda had said it was selling 13 tourism projects - including three theme parks - and 77 hotels to developer Sunac for $9.3bn (£7.1bn).

But now the deal is being split, with another firm, Guangzhou R&F Properties, taking on the hotels.

One analyst described the restructuring of the deal as "very unusual" and "kind of crazy".

Raised eyebrows

Neither side has commented on why the deal was reworked but it is believed to follow bank scrutiny.

R&F, which said it would now be the world's largest hotel owner, saw its share price jump sharply.

Sunac's stocks also rallied, as investors cheered that the firm was taking on less debt risk.

Under the previous terms, Wanda had been due to lend Sunac more than half the money needed to do the deal, which raised eyebrows among some observers.

The restructuring of the deal was "kind of crazy" said Ben Cavender, senior analyst with China Market Research.

"It is very concerning, and it's very unusual at this late stage to have a $9bn deal, and then to have another deal with another company in place."

He added Chinese firms were running into trouble because they did not have the due diligence or vetting in place for large mergers and acquisitions.

"They put out a lot of press, then the regulators realise there's some issues that need to be addressed. I suspect that's what happened here."

The initial transaction had been a surprise - not least because it represented a U-turn from Dalian Wanda's ambitions to expand in the tourism sector.

The three Chinese theme parks had only opened in the past year, and were intended to compete with US giant Disney's ventures in the country.

While it emerged as a property giant in China, Dalian Wanda has come to prominence abroad after its heavy investment in the film and cinema industries.

It controls the AMC cinema chain, as well as Legendary Entertainment, co-producer of hit films including Godzilla and The Dark Knight Rises.

But it is one of several major Chinese firms whose transactions have come under scrutiny from Beijing, and it has been widely reported that Chinese banks have been told to stop providing funding to Dalian Wanda and others to make overseas acquisitions.

'Bit of a mess'

The effects of the clampdown were first seen earlier this year when Wanda pulled out of a $1bn bid for the owner of the Golden Globe TV and film awards.

That pressure is widely seen as a blow to the ambitions of Wanda's billionaire chief executive Wang Jianlin.

"I'm a little bit sympathetic to Wanda," said Christopher Balding, professor of politics and economics at Peking University.

"What they were doing 12 months ago was being heavily encouraged by Chinese regulators. Beijing wanted to improve its soft power with entertainment assets and things like this and Wanda was very willing to help there.

"But they've clearly fallen into a bit of a mess."

Justine Damond's death 'should not have happened'

The fatal shooting of an Australian woman by a Minneapolis police officer "should not have happened", the city's police chief has said.

Justine Damond, originally from Sydney, was shot when she approached a police car after reporting a suspected rape.

A lawyer for Ms Damond's family has called it "ludicrous" to suggest the two officers inside feared an ambush.

Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau said the killing was the "the actions and judgement of one individual".

Officer Mohamed Noor, who shot Ms Damond in the abdomen in an upmarket neighbourhood of the city, has refused to be interviewed by investigators, as is his legal right.

"The actions in question go against who we are as a department, how we train and the expectations we have for our officers," Chief Harteau told reporters in Minneapolis.

"I want to assure Justine's family our community and those in Australia that I will do everything in my power to ensure due process is followed and justice is served."

Cameras 'should be active'

Body cameras, which are worn by all Minneapolis police, had not been turned onat the time of the shooting and the squad car dashboard camera also failed to capture the incident.

Chief Harteau said the cameras worn by Officers Noor and Matthew Harrity "should have been activated".

"An officer should have them on and that is what we are trying to identify," Chief Harteau said.

"We want to do everything we can in training and in our policy to ensure that they are put on before an officer arrives at the scene."

Fred Bruno, the lawyer for Officer Harrity has said: "It is reasonable to assume an officer in that situation would be concerned about a possible ambush."

However Robert Bennett, who represents Ms Damond's family, said the yoga instructor was in her pyjamas when she approached the police and "was not a threat to anyone".

Mr Bennett told CBS News: "I think that [the ambush fear] is ludicrous. It's disinformation. It doesn't have any basis in fact."

He added: "She obviously wasn't armed, was not a threat to anyone, and nor could she have reasonably been perceived to be."

On Thursday, a statement from Ms Damond's family said: "All we want to do is bring Justine home to Australia to farewell her in her hometown among family and friends.

"We are still trying to come to terms with this tragedy and we are struggling to understand how and why this could happen."

911 calls

On Wednesday, police released the transcript of two separate 911 calls Ms Damond made after hearing screams nearby.

"I'm not sure if she's having sex or being raped," she told the police operator, before giving her address.

"I think she just yelled out 'help', but it's difficult, the sound has been going on for a while," she continued.

Ms Damond called back eight minutes later to ensure police had the correct address.

Chief Harteau said she understood why the incident could make some people more reluctant to call 911.

"Although disheartening, I understand the fear and why it exists. This has had a negative impact on the community trust we have built," she said.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman has said he will decide whether to charge the police officer.

Strong earthquake kills two on Greek island of Kos

A strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea has killed at least two people on the Greek island of Kos, officials say.

The 6.7-magnitude quake hit 12km (seven miles) north-east of Kos, near the Turkish coast, with a depth of 10km, the US Geological Survey said.

Several others were injured on Kos, mayor George Kyritsis said.

A small tsunami was reported on the Turkish coast. Pictures on social media showed people walking with water lapping their ankles.