Why are you with Hillary Clinton?

Barack Obama says Hillary Clinton is more qualified to be President than him



PENNSYLVANIA: Barack Obama just came out during the Democratic National Convention and gave one incredible speech that was full of wit, laughs, zingers and mic-drop moments, once again proving that he is a master public speaker.

During the DNC in Philadelphia, Obama opened with some funny remarks about getting older while his wife Michelle Obama hasn't, some heartfelt comments about the pride he has for his two daughters, and some outstanding praise about his choice as the next president, Hillary Clinton.

"You know, nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the oval office. You can read about it, you can study it, but until you've sat at that desk, you don't know what it's like to manage a global crisis or send young people to war," Obama told the crowd. "But Hillary's been in the room. She's been part of those decisions. She knows what's at stake in the decisions our government makes, what's at stake for the working family for the senior citizen or the small business owner, for the soldier, for the veteran. And even in the midst of crisis, she listens to people and she keeps her cool and she treats everybody with respect."

After attacks, Merkel cuts short holiday to face refugee policy storm


BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel interrupted her vacation on Thursday to face down accusations at home and abroad that her open-door refugee policy allowed Islamist terrorism to take hold in Germany.

Merkel returns to Berlin to hold a news conference at 12 p.m. (07:00 a.m. EDT) after a spate of attacks since July 18 left 15 people dead - including four attackers - and dozens injured.
Two assailants, a Syrian asylum seeker and a refugee from either Pakistan or Afghanistan, had links to Islamist militancy, officials say. The attacks have burst any illusions in Germany that the country is immune to attacks like those claimed by Islamic State in neighboring France.

Politicians from left and right say Merkel's refugee policy is at fault, after more than a million migrants entered Germany in the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
"All our predictions have been proven right," Horst Seehofer, Bavaria's state premier and a long-standing critic of Merkel's open-door refugee policy, said on Tuesday. "Islamist terrorism has arrived in Germany."

Chinese polluters to face more business, financing restrictions


BEIJING: Chinese firms guilty of exceeding emissions limits or building plants without environmental permits will face tougher punishments including credit bans and land use restrictions, the country's environmental ministry said late on Wednesday.

China has been cracking down on polluting enterprises, raising fines and threatening criminal action against persistent offenders, but regulators have long struggled to impose rules on powerful industrial enterprises and local governments anxious to protect revenue and jobs.

The country has sought to beef up its traditionally underpowered environment ministry and spread the burden of enforcement to other agencies, including dedicated courts, police authorities and financial regulators.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a notice published on its website that it has signed a cooperation agreement with 30 government departments, including the central bank, to broaden the range of punishments for offenders as well as improve information sharing. (http:///www.mep.gov.cn)
The 31 government departments will draw up a blacklist of offenders in order to create a "unified punishment mechanism", the ministry's official publication, China Environmental News, said.

Hawaiian Airlines makes another emergency landing in Japan


TOKYO: A Hawaiian Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Tokyo, its second such incident in Japan this month, an official said Thursday.

Flight HA 442, which departed the northern Japanese city of Sapporo for Honolulu, made an emergency landing at Narita airport just outside the Japanese capital at 10:53 pm Wednesday (1353 GMT). The pilot cited an abnormality with the Boeing 767's hydraulics system, said an official at Narita International Airport Corp.

None of 248 passengers and crew members on board the flight suffered injuries, he added. "It is not clear whether there was in fact a problem or that signs indicating a possible problem came on," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Islamic state posts video of men it says were French church attackers


PARIS: Islamic State's news agency on Wednesday posted a video of two men it said were those who attacked a church in France in which they pledged allegiance to the group's leader.

The video was posted by Amaq news agency a day after two men burst into the Catholic church in Normandy during a service, forced the priest to his knees and slit his throat.

The two men who identified themselves as Abu Omar and Abu Jalil el-Hanafy appeared in the one-minute video sitting on a staircase pledging loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State's leader.

Links between Paris, Mumbai attacks under investigation


VIENNA - Austrian prosecutors said on Tuesday, they are probing a possible link between a Pakistani held in Salzburg in connection with last November's terror assaults in Paris and the 2008 attacks in Indian city of Mumbai.

‘Leads pointing to this are being looked into,’ prosecutors in Salzburg said, adding however that the identity of the Pakistani suspect, who has been in custody since December in the western Austrian city, has not been confirmed.

"Wide-ranging investigations on this question, among others, are ongoing, although the public prosecutors' office has been waiting for information on this from Pakistan since December 2015," they said in a statement.

A source in Paris and the Sunday Times said that the man is thought to be a bomb maker for Pakistani extremist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

King Salman, Sissi agree to build Saudi-Egypt link bridge


CAIRO: Saudi King Salman announced Friday an agreement with Egypt to build a bridge over the Red Sea connecting the two countries, on the second day of his visit to Cairo.

The monarch made the announcement in televised comments after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and before representatives of the two countries began signing investment deals.
“I agreed with my brother his Excellency President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to build a bridge connecting the two countries,” Salman said.

“This historic step to connect the two continents, Africa and Asia, is a qualitative transformation that will increase trade between the two continents to unprecedented levels,” he added.
A beaming Sisi, who had minutes before presented the king with the ceremonial Nile Collar, suggested they name the bridge “King Salman bin Abdel Aziz Bridge”.