MICHIGAN: US President Donald Trump railed against the political opponents and said that the report was a “total exoneration”.

At a rally since the Mueller report was submitted, Trump told a cheering crowd that after three years of lies, smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead, media report said.

He said that the collusion delusion is over now.

The report against him found no evidence of Russian collusion. President Trump used crude language to deride the two-year investigation during the rally.

Mueller’s report was submitted on a week ago to the US Attorney General William Barr. (Agencies)

TOKYO: Buddhist nuns pray for Vietnamese people, who died after coming to Japan to work or study.

Rows of wooden mortuary tablets inscribed with names lined up an altar at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo as a silent testimony to Vietnamese.

Thich Tam Tri, a Vietnamese Buddhist nun, said whenever she is contacted about a death, she would only ask: ‘Why?’ and ‘Again?’

She said Vietnamese people want to work hard in Japan, and they had dreams…and they suddenly died.

Vietnamese are lured by higher wages in Japan.

Several of the 140 Vietnamese, whose names are on the tablets, came to Japan on a “technical trainee” program that acts as a back door to blue-collar jobs in a country where immigration is a touchy subject. Some came as students and worked part time. (Agencies)

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand: Thousands of people stand and listen silently in a Christchurch Park today as the names of 50 people shot dead in two mosques were read out at a national memorial service, media reports said.

Speaker called for the legacy of the tragedy to be a kinder, more tolerant New Zealand.

Several representatives of governments from around the world joined New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the remembrance service in Hagley Park.

PM Ardern said that the challenge now is to make the very best of us a daily reality.

Ardern, wearing Maori cloak known as a kakahu during the service, said the world had to end the vicious cycle of extremism. (Agencies)

SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump for a summit on North Korean nuclear diplomacy in United States (US).
South Korean President’s office said Friday that Moon will visit the United States on April 10-11 and meet with Trump.
It says the two leaders will discuss how to achieve North Korea’s complete denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.
U.S.-led diplomacy on ridding North Korea of its nuclear program remain stalled since Trump’s second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam last month ended without any deal.
North Korea later threatened to quit the nuclear diplomacy, citing a lack of U.S. steps to match disarmament measures it took last year.

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Adam Schiff, House intelligence panel chairman to resign.

Trump made the urge after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation failed to establish evidence of collusion between the 2016 election campaign and Russia.

US President Trump tweeted: “Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!”.

Authorities have not accused Schiff of leaking classified information.

Schiff’s spokesman, however, did not comment. (Agencies)

BANGKOK: Thailand’s election took another turn when the country’s Election Commission (EC) announced that the pro-army party, Palang Pracharat, had won the popular vote.

The announcement, however, does not make clear the overall winner of the general election held on Sunday, local media said.

The Palang Pracharat and an anti-junta “democratic front” both have claimed a mandate to form the new government. However, it has not been clear if either side will be able to gather enough votes in parliament to form the government.

According to the Election Commission, Palang Pracharat won the popular vote with 8.4 million ballots.

The main opposition Pheu Thai Party got 7.9 million votes. (Agencies)

NEW DELHI: India has topped the list of the most polluted cities in the world, according to a study by IQAir AirVisual and Greenpeace. Seven among the most polluted cities are in India.

The most polluted city on earth is Gurugram, a home to 1 million people situated about 30 kilometers southwest of New Delhi, followed by Ghaziabad.

Other  Indian cities include Bhiwadi (5), Noida (6), Patna (7), Lucknow (9) while Faisalabad (3) and Lahore (10) are in Pakistan and Chinese city Hotan is placed in the 8th position.

There, average air pollution levels in 2018 were more than 13 times the level permitted under WHO guidelines, although air quality had actually improved slightly since the previous year.

Air pollution is an insidious killer. If you are among the 91% of the world’s population who breathes air the World Health Organization (WHO) deems unsafe, then every time you inhale, microscopic particles are being drawn into your lungs.

They get into your bloodstream, causing cancers, strokes and heart disease, stunting children’s growth and development, and even reducing your intelligence.

The research focused on the levels of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5. These microscopic particles 20 times smaller than the width of a human hair are the most dangerous to human health.

(Agencies)

Facebook Inc has banned praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism.

This has been a move that drew qualified approval from New Zealand where a massacre of 50 people in mosques was live streamed this month.

Civil rights groups have alleged social media giants of failing to confront extremism. It was under the spotlight earlier in March after a suspected white supremacist broadcast live footage of the attacks in Christchurch of New Zealand.

Facebook has tightened its content monitoring teams.

Earlier, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called for social media platforms to be accountable for what users post. (Agencies)

MEXICO CITY: A truck crashed into a crowd of people in Guatemala, killing more than 30 and injuring at least four, police said.

The truck hit a group of people gathered near the road to inspect a person who had been hit by a car, local media quoted authorities as saying. (Agencies)

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry approved six secret authorizations to sell nuclear power technology and assistance to Saudi Arabia, media reports said.

According to a copy of a document, the Trump administration quietly pursued a deal on sharing U.S. nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia.

The deal aims to build at least two nuclear power plants. Countries such as the United States, South Korea and Russia are in competition for the deal. The winners are expected to be announced later by Saudi Arabia, according to Reuters.

The US approvals, dubbed as Part 810 authorizations, allow companies to do preliminary work on nuclear power ahead of any deal. (Agencies)