Turkey, US can turn Raqqa into ‘graveyard' for Daesh: Erdogan

April 30, 2017

Istanbul, Apr 30: Turkey and the US can join forces to turn Daesh's de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria into a “graveyard” for the terrorists, the Turkish president said on Saturday.turkey

“The huge America, the coalition and Turkey can join hands and turn Raqqa into a graveyard for Daesh,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told an Istanbul meeting.

“They will look for a place for themselves to hide,” he said.
Erdogan's comments come ahead of a meeting with President Donald Trump on May 16 in the US.

Turkey sees the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria as a terrorist group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging a deadly insurgency against Ankara since 1984.

But for the US, the YPG is essential in the fight against Daesh.

Erdogan repeated his call to the US to cease its support of the YPG in combating Daesh. “The YPG, and you know who's supporting them, are attacking us with mortars. But we will make those places their grave, there is no stopping,” Erdogan said.

Meanwhile, Turkey's military killed 14 members of the PKK in airstrikes in northern Iraq, the military said in a statement.

Six militants were killed around the area of Sinat-Haftan and eight in the countryside around Adiyaman in two separate airstrikes, the military said.

The PKK, which has carried out a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, has camps in the mountains of northern Iraq, near the Turkish border.

In another development, Turkey's military has relocated a convoy of armored vehicles and personnel carriers to a base near the Syrian border, local media and activists reported Saturday.

Footage shot Friday night showed a long line of trucks carrying military vehicles driving to the area. The private Ihlas news agency reported the convoy was heading to southeastern Sanliurfa province from Kilis in the west.

The agency said the relocation comes after Turkish officials announced the completion of a phase of Turkey's cross-border operation in Syria, adding that the force may be used against Syrian Kurdish militants “if needed.”

Turkish officials announced the conclusion of Operation Euphrates Shield in March but have said they would continue combatting terror to make its borders safe, pointing to both Daesh and Kurdish militants.

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News Network
February 18,2020

Washington, Feb 18: The upcoming visit of President Donald Trump to India later this month has the potential to usher in a new era of bilateral ties between the two countries, a top American business advocacy group has said.

President Trump will pay a state visit to India on February 24 and 25 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He would be accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump.

This would be the president's first bilateral visit in the third decade of the 21st century and also the first after his acquittal by the Senate in the impeachment trial.

"I believe President Trump's upcoming visit to India has the potential to usher in a new era of our bilateral ties," Mukesh Aghi, President of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) said in a statement on Monday.

On the sidelines of the visit, the USISPF, in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the ORF, has announced to organise a program entitled "US-India Forum: Partners for Growth".

The full-day discussion will focus on the key pillars defining India and the US' strategic, economic, and cultural partnership over the next decade.

"We have an opportunity before us to make real progress on multiple aspects of the relationship— whether it is upholding peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region; building upon an already strong energy partnership; developing co-production and co-development opportunities in the defense space; or strengthening bilateral trade," Aghi said.

"We look forward to an extremely successful visit and some concrete outcomes from the visit," he said.

The day-long programme on February 25 in New Delhi, will bring together over 500 senior business executives, members of the US-India think tank community and leading figures of the Indian diaspora to set the agenda for this strategic partnership.

Discussions during the day will touch upon areas, including the Indo-Pacific Strategy and Maritime Security; the US-India Defence Partnership, the US-India Energy Partnership, Elevating US-India Trade and Investment and Role of the Indian Diaspora in US-India Relations.

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News Network
March 25,2020

Hubei, Mar 25: As a bus departed from its terminus at Hankou Railway Station at 5:25 am Wednesday morning, Wuhan started to resume bus service after nine weeks of lockdown.

Apart from a driver, a safety supervisor was also on each bus, whose duty was to make sure all passengers are healthy.
"For those who do not use smartphones, they should bring with them a health certificate issued by the health authorities," said Zhou Jingjing, a safety supervisor aboard bus No. 511 departing from the Wuchang Railway Station complex.
The once hardest-hit city in central China's Hubei Province during the COVID-19 outbreak took unprecedented traffic restrictions on Jan 23. All of its public transport and all outbound flights and trains had been suspended in an attempt to contain the virus within the region.

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Agencies
June 24,2020

Washington, Jun 24: Twitter has once again flagged a tweet from US President Donald Trump which promoted violence by saying if protesters tried to set up an "autonomous zone" in Washington, DC they would be met with "serious force".

This is the fourth time Twitter has red flagged Trump's tweet for glorifying violence or violating its policies.

Trump has been critical of the "autonomous zone" in Seattle, an area occupied by protestors for much of this month.

"We've placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behaviour, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group," Twitter's safety team tweeted late Tuesday.

Trump had tweeted: "There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!"

Twitter earlier labeled a video tweeted by him which mocked CNN as manipulated media.

According to Twitter, "this Tweet has been labeled per our synthetic and manipulated media policy to give people more context".

In May, Twitter labeled two Trump tweets that made false claims about mail-in ballots in California.

Twitter later labeled another Trump tweet glorifying violence in which he said, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Facebook also removed a Trump campaign ad featuring a symbol used by Nazis for political dissenters, saying the ad violated its policies.

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