US President Donald Trump has said that Defence Secretary James Mattis will remain in office, dismissing reports that he is looking for possible replacements for the Pentagon chief.

“He’ll stay right there. We’re very happy with him. We’re having a lot of victories,” Trump said on Wednesday when asked by reporters at the White House whether he was considering replacing Mattis.

The remarks came as The Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin wrote in an article that the administration has been considering possible replacements for Mattis for weeks.

Rogin added that no decisions were made yet, though White House officials expected that Mattis will leave his position in the coming months.

The Trump-Mattis relationship was put under limelight a day earlier after excerpts from an explosive book mentioned that the Defence Secretary had made disparaging remarks about the President.

According to the book, “Fear: Trump in the White House”, authored by veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward, Mattis was quoted as having told associates that Trump acted like “a fifth- or sixth-grader”.

Mattis denied earlier that he ever said or heard the quotes attributed to him in the book.

“While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility,” Mattis said in a statement.

Trump called Woodward’s book “a total piece of fiction”, while praising Mattis’ statement as “beautiful”.

In a statement to The Washington Post, Woodward said, “I stand by my reporting”. According to the author, the book was based on hundreds of hours of conversations with direct players.

Woodward has been a reporter at The Washington Post since 1971 and remains an associate editor. He is most famous for breaking the story of the Watergate scandal, which prompted the resignation of Richard Nixon from the presidency in 1974.

(IANS)

militant was today killed in an encounter with security forces in Hajin area of Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir, the police said.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Hajin area following information about presence of militants there, a police official said.

He said the search operation turned into an encounter after militants opened fire towards security forces positions.

(Ians)

Describing the Rohingya refugee situation as one of the worst humanitarian and human rights crises of the past year, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for international action to ensure Myanmar is held to account for the crimes of its security forces.

Speaking at a Security Council session convened on Tuesday for the one-year anniversary of the start of the exodus of 720,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh, Guterres also condemned the attacks by extremists against the security forces.

However, he added that nothing can ever justify the disproportionate use of force against civilians and the horrendous violation of human rights violations by the security forces.

Urging united action by the divided Security Council, Guterres cited a report issued on Monday by a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) fact-finding team and said the human rights abuses amounted to “the gravest crimes under international law”.

He thanked the Bangladesh government for its generosity in hosting the refugees and said more needs to be done by the world community as only 33 per cent of the $951 million UN appeal for assistance has been met and the the monsoon season looms.

The current crisis began in August 2017 with attacks on Myanmar security posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which is led by Karachi-born Ata Ullah.

The Myanmar armed forces and vigilantes retaliated brutally against the Rohingyas starting an exodus that began on August 25.

Tariq Mahmood Ahmad, the British Minister of State for the UN, who presided over the Security Council session, said that it should be prepared to use all the tools it has to ensure justice for the Rohingyas.

The strongly-worded report by the UNHRC team headed by former Indonesian attorney-general Marzuki Darusman said that allegations of genocide against Myanmar officials should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or to a special tribunal.

The Netherlands and Sweden backed the suggestion and asked the Security Council to refer the matter to the ICC.

But Russia and China countered saying that the situation required a non-confrontational approach and only a bilateral diplomatic solution involving Myanmar and Bangladesh would work.

Myanmar’s Permanent Representative Hau Do Suan said that his country did not accept the findings of the UNHRC team as it was biased.

However, he added that Myanmar does not condone human rights abuses and would take action against anyone guilty if there was evidence of their conduct.

He alleged that the ARSA had set up terrorist bases in some areas along the border with Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Permanent Representative Masud Bin Momen said that in the light of the UNHRC team’s report, it was imperative that the Security Council should act decisively.

He said that the Rohingyas could not return to their homes in Rakhine state unless they were assured of their safety.

For this, the Myanmar government should take several steps like curbing hate speech, allowing free access to UN agencies for relief operations and dismantling internal camps for Rohingyas and giving them freedom of movement.

Australian-born actor Cate Blanchett, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, spoke at the Security Council session about her encounters with Rohingya refugees who told her harrowing tales of their experiences in Myanmar.

She said that as a mother she was moved by the plight of the children she met as she saw her children reflected in them.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s singles competition in the 2018 Asian Games here on Saturday.

The 28-year-old registered a straight sets victory over Indonesia’s Fitriani Fitriani in the pre-quarters.

Saina won the first game 21-6 before Fitriani dominated the early parts of the second game. However, the Indian fought back and sealed the affair 21-14.

Another star Indian shuttler, P.V. Sindhu, will be up against Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariiska Tunjung later on Saturday.

San Francisco,Global software major Infosys has inaugurated its fourth technology and innovation hub in Raleigh, North Carolina, saying that it has now hired more than 4,700 Americans since spring 2017, including nearly 500 in North Carolina.

The North Carolina hub will help Infosys work more closely with clients in the region in areas as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, user experience and advanced digital technologies, including big data and Cloud, the company said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The Hub will train, upskill and reskill Infosys and client employees, in the technologies required to help American businesses accelerate their digital transformations.

“The inauguration of our Raleigh Technology and Innovation Hub empowers our North Carolina employees by providing them with pioneering technology training that will help American industries revitalise their core businesses,” Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said in a statement.

“The hub allows us to co-locate, co-innovate and co-create alongside our clients and build on our passion for creating the next generation of top US technology talent through world-class education and training,” Parekh added.

The hiring is part of the company’s May 2, 2017, decision to recruit 10,000 Americans by setting up four such hubs across the US and focus on new technologies.

“Just over a year ago, Infosys committed to creating 2,000 high-skill, high-wage jobs in the Tar Heel State. The company is making strong progress towards that hiring target,” noted North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.

In March this year, Infosys said it will open a technology and innovation hub in the US state of Connecticut and hire about 1,000 American workers by 2022.

The Connecticut hub will focus on insurance, healthcare and manufacturing to bring the company to the eastern state’s clients and serve as the global hub for its InsurTech and HeathTech efforts.

The company’s first hub was inaugurated in March at Indianapolis in Indiana state where it hired 2,500 American workers over the past year.

The company has also announced opening its third hub at Providence in Rhode Island, where it plans to hire about 2,000 techies each by 2021-22.

“Today’s Hub inauguration represents another major step forward for Infosys in North Carolina. We have formed strong partnerships with the state’s economic development team,” said Ravi Kumar, President, Infosys.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has nominated former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to succeed the controversial Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Her nomination was sent by Guterres on Wednesday to the UN General Assembly which must approve the appointment.

Zeid’s four-year term ends this month and General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak had convened a session on August 3 to consider her nomination.

Zeid decided not to seek a second term for which he was eligible.

Bachelet, who completed a second term as Chile’s President in March, personally experienced human rights violations during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

A doctor, she also has done advanced studies in defense in the US and served as health and defense minister — unique qualifications for a human rights chief who must confront military organizations involved in human rights violations that inflict physical and mental harm.

Bachelet now faces a task of reestablishing the credibility of her office and of the UN Human Rights Council, which have come under attack during Zeid’s stormy tenure.

India had accused Zeid of being biased after he had issued a report on human rights violations in Kashmir and called for a Security Council investigation.

India slammed the report and Deputy Permanent Representative Tanmaya Lal said it reflected “the clear bias of an official who was acting without any mandate whatsoever and relied on unverified sources of information”.

The US pulled out of the Human Rights Council in June with Permanent Representative Nikki Haley calling it a “hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights”.

Bachelet’s father, Air Force Brigadier General Alberto Arturo Miguel Bachelet Martinez, died in custody after being tortured following his arrest by Pinochet who overthrew the democratically elected President Salvador Allende in 1973.

She herself was detained and tortured before being exiled to Australia.

She moved to what was then East Germany before being allowed to return to Chile in 1979 and resume her medical studies.

After Pinochet’s defeat in a referendum in 1988 and the restoration of democracy, she received a scholarship to study at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington.

She was first elected President in 2005 but could not seek re-election as the constitution prohibits the head of state from holding two consecutive terms.

Bachelet joined the UN in 2010 as the executive director of UN Women, the office for empowering women and for gender equality.

She was again elected president in 2013.