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http://ift.tt/2sMC45U US President Donald Trump. / AFP PHOTO / NICHOLAS KAMM US President Donald Trump has told his top diplomat to ignore trouble in Washington and re-engage with Russia to rebuild ties, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday. With ex-FBI director James Comey due to testify to Congress on Thursday, Tillerson was asked if he feared the adminstration would be brought down over allegations of Trump’s election campaign ties with Moscow. “The president has been clear to me, ‘Do not let what’s happening over here in the political realm prevent you from the work you need to do in this relationship’,” he told reporters in New Zealand. Comey’s testimony will be his first public remarks since being fired by Trump last month, and represents a moment of danger for the embattled president. His sacking came as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probes possible collusion between Trump’s election campaign team and Russia — which US intelligence believes hope...

http://ift.tt/2pYx3ul Tawfiq Abu Naim (2nd L), head of Hamas-run security forces in Gaza, speaks during a press conference on the killing of senior Hamas official Mazen Faqha, in Gaza City, on May 16, 2017. A military court in Gaza on May 15 held the first hearing of three men accused of assassinating the Hamas military leader last March. MOHAMMED ABED / AFP A court in the Gaza Strip on Sunday sentenced three men to death over the assassination of a Hamas military commander that the Islamist movement accused Israel of masterminding. After a trial that lasted four days, two of the accused were sentenced to be hanged and one to be shot, the military court announced. The assassination of Mazen Faqha in the middle of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in March shocked the Islamist movement and raised the possibility of a new round of violence with Israel. Hamas immediately blamed its arch-enemy, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, and implemented strict border restrictions on...

http://ift.tt/2pY5K3f The two were killed during a police operation on their residence in the Etimesgut district of Ankara after a gunfight with officers, state-run news agency Anadolu quoted regional governor Ercan Topaca as saying. Turkish police on Sunday killed in Ankara two suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group believed to have been planning an attack in the capital, the regional governor said. The two were killed during a police operation on their residence in the Etimesgut district of Ankara after a gunfight with officers, state-run news agency Anadolu quoted regional governor Ercan Topaca as saying. The raid was launched on the basis of testimony from a suspected Azerbaijani IS member who was detained by Istanbul police after allegedly driving the two men to Ankara. “This (police) operation was quickly planned after this suspect said they and the two others he left in Ankara were Daesh (IS) members and planning an attack,” Topaca said. He said polic...

http://ift.tt/2qHvyxs US President Donald Trump (L) and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud stop for coffee in the terminal of King Khalid International Airport following Trump's arrival in Riyadh on May 20, 2017. BANDAR AL-JALOUD / Saudi Royal Palace / AFP US President Donald Trump landed in Saudi Arabia Saturday for the start of an eight-day foreign tour, taking his first steps on the world stage as scandals mount at home. Trump can expect a warm welcome in Saudi Arabia where he is to meet King Salman and other senior royals — in sharp contrast to Washington where pressure is building over his team’s alleged links to Moscow. Air Force One had barely taken off when it was announced that James Comey, the former FBI chief fired by Trump, had agreed to testify publicly about Russian interference in the US elections. Reports also emerged that Trump had called Comey “a nut job” and that the FBI had identified a senior White House official as a “significant perso...