US envoy urges Pakistan to stop protecting terrorists

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks to the members of an Indian think tank in New Delhi, India, on June 28, 2018. (AP)
Updated 28 June 2018
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US envoy urges Pakistan to stop protecting terrorists

  • Pakistan's cooperation is seen as key to the success of President Donald Trump's Afghanistan policy
  • Haley is on her first visit to India since becoming the US ambassador to the United Nations in 2017

NEW DELHI: Nikki Haley, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said Thursday her country is urging Pakistan more strongly not to give safe haven to terrorists.

She said Pakistan has been cooperating with the United States, but Washington cannot accept any government protecting terrorists.

"We are communicating this message to Pakistan more strongly than in the past and we hope to see changes," Haley told members of the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank.

Pakistan's cooperation is seen as key to the success of President Donald Trump's Afghanistan policy.

Pakistan is under pressure from Washington and the Afghan government to stop offering safe haven to militants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies. Pakistan also insists its influence over the Taliban has been exaggerated.

India has also blamed a Pakistan-based group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, for attacks on Mumbai in November 2008 that killed 166 people. The U.S. has designated the group a terrorist organization.

Earlier in the day, Haley undertook an interfaith journey in New Delhi, visiting a Hindu temple, a Sikh shrine, a mosque and a church in old parts of the capital.

Haley, who was born in South Carolina to Sikh immigrants from the northern Indian state of Punjab, rolled breads at the Sikh shrine, a religious way of paying obeisance to Sikh gurus.

After visiting the Jama Masjid, one of India's largest mosques, she interacted with a child sitting outside.

She is on her first visit to India since becoming the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 2017. She met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday.

Haley visited India in 2014 when she was governor of South Carolina.


Explosions rock Ukrainian capital ahead of planned talks in Geneva

Updated 4 sec ago
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Explosions rock Ukrainian capital ahead of planned talks in Geneva

KYIV: Several explosions shook central Kyiv early Thursday, AFP journalists heard, after officials warned of air raids in the Ukrainian capital ahead of planned talks in Geneva with US representatives on ending the Russian war.
Washington is pushing to bring an end to the war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, which has left hundreds of thousands dead and destroyed swathes of territory, particularly in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported high-speed targets heading toward Kyiv shortly before Tymur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, said Russia was attacking the city with strike drones and ballistic missiles.
“Air defense is operating. Stay in shelters until the alert is cleared!” he said on Telegram.
The attacks were not limited to the capital.
In the northeast, Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said two blasts were heard in the city as Russian Shahed drones targeted the area, warning residents to stay in shelters with “drones and missiles flying toward the city.”
Terekhov later reported a “combined air attack” with impacts in the Shevchenkivsky and Kyivsky districts.
In the southeast, Zaporizhzhia regional chief Ivan Fedorov said the city had come under attack, reporting several explosions and at least one person wounded.
In Kryvyi Rig, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, said a Russian strike wounded an 89-year-old man and sparked a fire that damaged a high-rise building.
Ukraine has faced repeated overnight barrages in recent months as Russia targets cities with missiles and drones amid harsh winter conditions.