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22 August 2018 WORLD www.theasianindependent.co.uk Trump urges US attorney general to end Russia probe Washington : US President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation immediately, escalating his attacks on the inquiry. “This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further,” Trump tweeted. “Bob Mueller is totally conflicted and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!” The tweet came as Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort, who was earlier indicted by the special counsel, faces trial for the second day in federal court in Virginia. Sessions, however, already recused himself last year — handing off oversight to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. So he is unlikely to act, CNBC reported. The President has criticized Sessions for his recusal. In June, Trump said on Twitter that Mueller was continuing to investigate “all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself”. “I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined…and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion.” The Justice Department and the office of the special counsel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for elaboration on the President’s comments. Mueller was investigating Trump’s tweets criticizing Sessions as part of a wider inquiry into whether the President has obstructed justice, the New York Times earlier reported. Trump’s attacks on Mueller have escalated in recent weeks. The President’s attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, made headlines on Monday saying that “collusion is not a crime”. TRUMP THREATENS government shutdown over immigration policy Washington : US President Donald Trump has threatened to shut down the government if the Democratic Party does not cooperate on border security issues. "I would be willing to 'shut down' government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! "Must get rid of Lottery, Catch and Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!" Trump tweeted on Sunday. The threat came on top of another fiery tweet posted earlier on the same day, which said: "Please understand, there are consequences when people cross our Border illegally, whether they have children or not -- and many are just using children for their own sinister purposes. "Congress must act on fixing the DUMBEST and WORST immigration laws anywhere in the world! Vote 'R'," referring to Republicans, Xinhua news agency reported. The tweets were in response to attacks on the US government's family separation policy, which saw thousands of minors separated from their parents who entered the US illegally. The controversy that ensued the family separation policy caused many Republican lawmakers to distance themselves from Trump's tough immigration agenda. It also stalled legislative progress in Congress for comprehensive immigration reform, which had been a major promise for his supporters during his 2016 campaign. However, Trump's menacing tweets were rebuffed even by his own party members, who said "shutting down the government will not be helpful". Congressman Steve Stivers, a Republican from Ohio, downplayed the possibility of a shutdown in a TV interview on Sunday, saying: "I think we're going to make sure we keep the government open." The US federal government last shut down was over a spending bill when the Congress failed to reach consensus due to political fights. Soldiers patrol Zimbabwe capital after election violence Harare : Soldiers patrolled the streets of Harare on Thursday a day after three opposition protesters were killed in post-election clashes that dashed President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s hopes of ending Zimbabwe’s reputation for political repression. Troops backed by armoured vehicles opened fire on Wednesday to clear the capital’s streets of demonstrators who accused Mnangagwa’s ruling party of trying to rig Monday’s presidential election. Many shops were closed on Thursday morning and the pavements quiet. Several streets were still strewn with rocks and the charred remains of fires. Soldiers loitered at intersections. “Yesterday was a very sad day for Zimbabwe,” said minibus driver Gift, glancing over his shoulder as a soldier smoking a cigarette looked on. “We hope things remain quiet and we can all just forget about this election. We don’t know if it was fair. The government will do what they want.” The deployment of soldiers and their shooting and beating of unarmed protesters is likely to set back efforts to end Zimbabwe’s pariah status in the wake of the army’s removal of longtime leader Robert Mugabe in a coup last November. Mnangagwa blamed the violence on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by Nelson Chamisa, who announced on Twitter on Wednesday that he had “won the popular vote”. Chamisa provided no details or concrete evidence of rigging. The website of the election commission, which is expected to start announcing presidential election results on Thursday, was offline after being taken out by unidentified hackers overnight. Amnesty International called on the government to launch a prompt investigation into the army’s actions. “It is unfortunate that this election has descended into bloodshed, which could have been avoided if security forces had exercised restraint against protesters,” the Londonbased human rights organisation said. China says foreigners should not interfere in Cambodia after election Beijing - Foreigners should not interfere in Cambodia’s internal affairs, the Chinese government’s top diplomat told his Cambodian counterpart, following an election in the Southeast Asian nation that critics said was neither free nor fair. China is Cambodia’s most important diplomatic and economic backer. Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party said on Monday it had won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in a general election a day earlier, a vote heavily criticised by rights groups, the United States and other Western countries. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi offered his congratulations for what he said was the “smooth” election, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday after Wang met Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon on the sidelines of a regional forum in Singapore. The election result showed the Cambodian people’s “affirmation and trust” in the administration of the Cambodian People’s Party, Wang said. “China has always resolutely supported Cambodia’s efforts to protect its sovereignty, independence and stability, and opposes any foreign country interfering in Cambodia’s internal affairs,” the statement cited Wang as saying. China would continue to provide help to Cambodia to maintain stability and develop, he said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Prak Sokhon as saying the election was orderly and transparent and that the Cambodian people had voted for peace, stability and development. “China is the Cambodian people’s closest, most reliable friend,” he said, according to the Chinese statement.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk Women football players more vulnerable to injury from heading New York : Women's brains are much more vulnerable than men's to injury from repeated football heading, according to a new study. Regions of damaged brain tissue were five times more extensive in female football players than in males, suggesting that sex-specific guidelines may be warranted for preventing soccer-related head injuries, showed the findings published online in the journal Radiology. "Researchers and clinicians have long noticed that women fare worse following head injury than men, but some have said that's only because women are more willing to report symptoms," said study leader Michael Lipton, Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "Based on our study, which measured objective changes in brain tissue rather than self-reported symptoms, women do seem more likely than men to suffer brain trauma from heading soccer balls," Lipton added. About 30 million women and girls play football worldwide, according to the International Federation of Association Football, known as FIFA, the international governing body of football. In the study, Lipton and his colleagues performed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a form of MRI, on 49 male and 49 female amateur football players. Both groups ranged in age from 18-50 with a median age of 26, and both groups reported a similar number of headings over the previous year (an average of 487 headings for the men and 469 for the women). DTI detects subtle brain damage by measuring the direction of the diffusion of water in white matter (the deep brain tissue that coordinates communication between brain regions). 11 killed in Afghanistan roadside blast; gunmen storm govt building Kabul-A roadside bombing hit a passenger bus in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people, as militants launched a coordinated attack on a city in the country’s east, setting off gunbattles with Afghan troops, officials said. The morning attack in western Farah province took place in the Bala Buluk district and also wounded 31 people, all civilians, according to Abdul Jabar Shahiq, the provincial health department chief. There were women and children among the casualties. The bus was on its way from Herat province toward the capital, Kabul, when it hit the roadside bomb, Shahiq said. Details were sketchy for the attack in eastern Afghanistan, where militants launched a coordinated assault Tuesday on Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar, according to local officials. Zabihullah Zemarai, a member of the provincial council, said there was first a car bombing — likely an explosion set off by a suicide car bomber — near the city’s provincial hospital and health department, followed by gunfire. Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the target appeared to be the provincial refugee and repatriation department, which is also located in the same area of the city. He could not provide any detail on possible casualty figures as fighting was still underway at the department compound. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. In Nangarhar, both the Taliban insurgents and the Islamic State group have been active. The Taliban also have a strong presence in Farah, especially in Bala Buluk where they often plant roadside bombs to target government officials or Afghan security forces. Such attacks often end up inflicting significant casualties among civilians. Farah has seen heavy fighting in recent months, with local officials and tribal elders requesting additional government forces to support the overburdened army and police. In May, more than 300 Taliban launched a multi-pronged attack on the city of Farah, the provincial capital, before they were repelled. At least 25 government troops were killed in the fighting. WORLD Saudi vows to ensure epidemic-free Hajj season Riyadh : The Saudi health ministry said the current Hajj season is so far safe from epidemic diseases, the media reported on Tuesday. The Hajj rituals due in mid-August is being managed with tight security and health measures to ensure the safety of pilgrims, the ministry said, Al Arabiya reported. The ministry is also following the developments and changes in the global health situation in cooperation with the World Health Organization and other international health bodies. August 2018 23 NASA’s SLS rocket gets major hardware boost Washington, Engineers have now assembled the first major piece of core stage hardware for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket which is designed to herald a new era of exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, launching crew and cargo on deep space exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. It now is ready to be joined with other hardware for Exploration Mission-1, the first integrated flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft, NASA said in a statement on Wednesday. The 212-foot-tall core stage, referred to as the “backbone” of the rocket by NASA, will contain the SLS rocket’s four RS-25 rocket engines, propellant tanks, flight computers and much more. Though the smallest part of the core stage, the forward skirt will serve two critical roles. It will connect the upper part of the rocket to the core stage and house many of the flight computers, or avionics. “Completion of the core stage forward skirt is a major step in NASA’s progress to the launch pad,” said Deborah Bagdigian, lead manager for the forward skirt at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “We’re putting into practice the steps and processes needed to assemble the largest rocket stage ever built. With the forward skirt, we are improving and refining how we’ll conduct final assembly of the rest of the rocket,” Bagdigian said. As part of forward skirt testing, the flight computers came to life for the first time as NASA engineers tested critical avionic systems that will control the rocket’s flight. Located throughout the core stage, the avionics are the rocket’s “brains,” controlling navigation and communication during launch and flight. It is critical that each of the avionics units is installed correctly, work as expected and communicate with each other and other components, including the Orion spacecraft and ground support systems. “It was amazing to see the computers come to life for the first time,” said Lisa Espy, lead test engineer for SLS core stage avionics. “These are the computers that will control the rocket as it soars off the pad for Exploration Mission-1,” Espy added.
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August 2018

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