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President Trump says he gets along "very well" with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. He was interviewed by the Christian Broadcasting Network days after his much anticipated meeting with Mr Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg. The US president also said he was sure Mr Putin would have preferred Hillary Clinton was sitting in the White House. Several investigations are under way into allegations Russia helped get Mr Trump elected. Mr Trump has denied any knowledge of this and Russia has also repeatedly denied interfering. On the meeting with Mr Putin, Mr Trump said "people said, oh, they shouldn't get along. Well, who are the people saying that? I think we get along very, very well. "We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesn't make sense not to have some kind of a relationship." Mr Trump cited the recent ceasefire in south-western Syria as an example of how co-operation with Mr Putin worked. Mr Trump also used the interview to pour cold water on the notion that Russia conspired to get him elected - quite the opposite, he maintained. Russia preferred Hillary Clinton, his Democrat rival, he said. Why? "If Hillary had won, our military would be decimated," he said. "Our energy would be much more expensive. That's what Putin doesn't like about me. And that's why I say why would he want me?" DONALD TRUMP JR 'INNOCENT' The US president earlier defended his son Donald Jr over a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer in 2016 at the height of the presidential campaign. Mr Trump's son met Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York in June 2016. Mr Trump Jr had been told that she would offer Russian-linked information which would put Hillary Clinton in a bad light. Critics accuse Mr Trump Jr of intent to collude with the Russians, and believe he may have broken federal laws. But others dispute this. Donald Trump tweeted that his son was "open, transparent and innocent". He also told Reuters he was unaware of the meeting and only learned of it two days ago. Mr Trump Jr himself told Fox News the meeting was "such a nothing", but he accepted he should have handled it differently. He has released a series of emails in which he was told he would receive "very high level and sensitive information", to which in response he said "if it's what you say I love it". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any link to the Russian lawyer, and Ms Veselnitskaya herself has said she was never in possession of information that could have damaged Mrs Clinton.  ....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been convicted of corruption charges and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. The judge ruled he could remain free pending an appeal. Lula has rejected claims that he received an apartment as a bribe in a corruption scandal linked to state oil company Petrobras. He says the trial is politically motivated and has strongly denied any wrongdoing. The case is the first of five charges against him. Running again? Lula served eight years as president until 2011 and has expressed interest in running again in next year's elections for the left-wing Workers' Party. On Wednesday, a judge found him guilty of accepting bribes from engineering firm OAS in the form of a beachfront apartment in return for his help in winning contracts with the state oil company. In a statement, Lula's lawyers insisted he was innocent and said they would appeal. "For more than three years Lula has been subject to a politically motivated investigation. No credible evidence of guilt has been produced, and overwhelming proof of his innocence blatantly ignored," they wrote. The head of the Workers' Party, Senator Gleisi Hoffmann, also hit out at the ruling, saying it was designed to stop Lula standing for office. She said the party would protest against the decision. The BBC's Katy Watson in Rio says Lula remains a popular politician and the sentence will deeply divide Brazil. The charges Lula faces relate to the Car Wash scandal, the nickname for Brazil's biggest ever corruption probe. Operation Car Wash was launched three years ago amid escalating public anger over political corruption. The investigation centres on firms that were allegedly offered deals with Petrobras in exchange for bribes, which were funnelled into politicians' pockets and party slush funds. Lula, a former steel worker turned union leader, came to office as the first left-wing leader in Brazil in nearly half a century. He was Brazil's most popular president during his tenure - former US President Barack Obama labelled him the most popular politician on Earth. Unable to stand for a third consecutive term, he was succeeded by close ally Dilma Rousseff, who was later impeached. Current President Michel Temer also faces corruption allegations and is resisting calls for him to step down.   ....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04

Donald Trump's pick to lead the FBI has rejected the president's depiction of a probe into alleged Russian meddling in the US election as a witch hunt. "I do not consider Director Mueller to be on a witch hunt," Christopher Wray said about the former FBI director who is leading the special investigation. Mr Wray, 50, also told a Senate hearing he would quit if the president asked him to do anything illegal. The last FBI director, James Comey, was fired by the US president on 9 May. The US president earlier on Wednesday tweeted: "This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!" Mr Wray told the Senate panel on Wednesday: "Anybody who thinks that I would be pulling punches as FBI director sure doesn't know me well. "I will never allow the FBI's work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law, and the impartial pursuit of justice. Period." The nominee said he was "very committed to supporting" the work of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Mueller, who was described by Mr Wray as "a straight shooter", is a former FBI director who is now leading the special inquiry into alleged Russian attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election. Mr Wray also faced questions about emails belonging to Donald Trump Jr - the president's eldest son - arranging a meeting with a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin. The nominee told senators he was unfamiliar with the emails. Senator Lindsey Graham read out the text of the emails to him and asked if Mr Trump Jr "should have taken that meeting". "I would think you'd want to consult with some good legal advisers before you did that," said Mr Wray when pressed by the South Carolina Republican. "Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or non-state actor is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know", he continued. Mr Wray added that he has "no reason to doubt" the assessment by US intelligence agencies that Russia sought to influence the 2016 election in Mr Trump's favour. Last month, Mr Comey told a congressional hearing that Mr Trump had requested a pledge of loyalty to him, which Mr Comey said he had refused to give. Mr Wray declared: "My loyalty is to the constitution, to the rule of law, and to the mission of the FBI. "And nobody asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any point during this process and I sure as heck didn't offer one." Mr Comey had also told senators he was worried about meeting one-on-one with Mr Trump, because he was concerned the president might lie later about their discussion. When Mr Wray was asked how he would respond to a private invitation from Mr Trump, he said such a meeting would be "highly unlikely". But he added it would depend on the circumstances and if national security was involved. Mr Wray also said he would attempt to work with the justice department to ensure "it's not a one-on-one meeting". "I think the relationship between any FBI director and any president needs to be a professional one, not a social one," he said. "And there certainly shouldn't be any one-on-one discussion between the FBI director and any president about how to conduct particular investigations or cases". Mr Wray, a longtime justice department official who most recently has worked as a private criminal defence attorney, also noted his opposition to torture as an interrogation tactic. Democratic senators, who have harshly questioned other Trump nominees during their confirmations, signalled approval for Mr Wray, indicating that he will probably be approved for the 10-year term. If the president ever asked him to do anything illegal, he told senators, "first I would try to talk him out of it, and if that failed I would resign".    ....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel nabbed a man along with 19 kilograms of explosive substance from Shibirer Haat in Sadar upazila of Chapainawabganj district on Wednesday. The arrestee was identified as Mithun, 25, son of Shariful Islam of Surjyanarayanpur village, reports UNB. Tipped off, a team of RAB-5 led by its commanding officer Enamul Karim conducted a drive in the area around 8:30 pm and arrested Mithun along with the explosive substance. A case was filed with Sadar Police Station.....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04

Two children drowned in a pond at Chakuria village in Mohammadpur upazila on Wednesday. Quoting family sources, police said Musa, 5, son of Habibullah Mia, and Hafizur, 4, son of Hashem Ali of the village went out of the house for playing. As the children could not return home for long time, they searched for them and found them floating in a pond near their house. An unnatural death case was filed; according to UNB.....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04