U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND FIRST LADY TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

With just over a month to go for the Presidential election, U.S. President

Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump announced that they had tested

positive for the coronavirus. The news will mean a dramatic reduction in the

in-person rallies Trump can hold in October and has cast doubt on whether

the President will be able to participate in the next presidential debate

scheduled for October 15.

Announcing his condition, Trump tweeted: "Tonight, FLOTUS and I tested

positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process

immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!"

Stocks on Wall Street closed lower as news of Trump's diagnosis added to

mounting uncertainties surrounding the election.

Roughly 17 hours after he announced he had tested positive for the

coronavirus, Trump walked slowly from the White House to a waiting

helicopter to be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in

Bethesda, Maryland. He wore a mask and business suit and did not speak to

reporters.

"I think I'm doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work

out," Trump said in a brief video posted to Twitter.

Trump will work in a special suite at the hospital for the next few days as

a precautionary measure, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said.

The White House doctor has said that both were well and that Trump would

continue his presidential "duties without disruption".

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wished Trump and Melania a swift

recovery from Covid-19.

"Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania

Trump for a swift recovery," Biden said as America and the world digested

the bombshell news overnight that Trump has contracted the coronavirus. "We

will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his

family," Biden said on Twitter.

Joe Biden and his wife Jill have tested negative for coronavirus, their

doctor said in a statement on Friday. Vice-Presidential nominee Kamala

Harris and her husband too tested negative and are continuing with their

planned campaigning.

PAK PM SAYS HE WOULD HAVE SACKED ARMY CHIEF IF KARGIL WAR WAS CONDUCTED

WITHOUT INFORMING HIM

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that he would have sacked the

army chief had the Kargil war with India been started without informing him.

Nawaz Sharif, who was the Prime Minister during the Kargil war, has long

maintained that he was not aware of what was happening when the conflict

broke out in 1999. He says the then army chief General Pervez Musharraf had

attacked Kargil without informing him.

"I would have sacked the army chief if Kargil operation was conducted

without informing me," Khan said in an interview to private news channel

Samaa TV on Thursday.

Khan also said that he would sack the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)

chief if the latter asked him to resign. The comment was made in the context

of three-time Prime Minister Sharif's claim that the ISI chief asked him to

step down in 2014 when Khan had unleashed a big protest sit-in the national

capital.

He said the army was keeping the country united and slammed Sharif for

targeting the military establishment.

"Look at Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen; the entire Muslim world is

ablaze [so] why are we safe? If it weren't for our army, our country

would've been in three pieces", Khan said.

Sharif recently made two speeches from London, where he has been staying

since November 2019 on medical grounds, directly attacking the army for

interference in politics and claimed that Khan came to power through its

support.

EMMANUEL MACRON SAYS ISLAM 'IN CRISIS', UNVEILS ANTI-RADICALISM PLAN

President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a plan Friday to defend France's secular

values against radical Islam, announcing stricter oversight of schooling and

better control over foreign funding of mosques.

Describing Islam as a religion "in crisis" worldwide, Mr. Macron insisted

that "no concessions" would be made in a new drive to eradicate extremist

religious teaching in schools and mosques.

At the same time, Mr. Macron said France must do more to offer economic and

social mobility to immigrant communities, adding radicals had often filled

the vacuum.

His long-awaited address came 18 months before presidential elections where

Macron is set to face a challenge from the right, as public concern grows

over security in France.

"Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not

just seeing this in our country," Mr. Macron said in Les Mureaux, a town

outside Paris with a historically large immigrant population.

He said extremists were seeking to indoctrinate new converts across the

country, which has one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe.

He denounced a trend of "Islamist separatism" that flouts French rules and

seeks to create a "counter-society" holding its own laws above all others.

He said the government would present a bill in December that would

strengthen the country's bedrock 1905 law that officially separated church

and state.

GREEK GOVT TO KEEP CLOSE WATCH ON PAKISTANI, AFGHAN MIGRANTS: SOURCES

The Greek government has decided to keep a close watch on the activities of

migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan after the burning of a refugee camp

at Moria on Lesbos island by migrants from these two countries, sources

said.

Last month, fires broke out in Greece's largest migrant camp, an overcrowded

facility on the island of Lesbos, and destroyed it leaving over 12,000

people without shelter.

"The Greek government has decided to keep a close watch on the activities of

migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan. This follows burning of the refugee

camp at Moria on Lesbos island of Greece by Afghan and Pakistani migrants in

which about 12,000 refugees were displaced," the sources said.

The sources added that the decision was also taken considering the "violent

skirmishes between Greeks and Pakistanis at Tympaki on Crete island" last

month.

Around 30 Pakistanis living illegally in Greece, were arrested following the

skirmishes and have been deported.

The Greek authorities are also keeping a close watch on about 50 mosques

(make-shift in small houses) in Athens and various Pakistani and Afghan

organisations active in Greece, sources said.

"Greek authorities fear radicalization of Pakistani and Afghan youths

especially due to Greece-Turkey border dispute and bid to infiltrate more

Pakistanis illegally with the connivance of Turkish border authorities.

Also, Pakistanis and Afghanis migrants have been involved in drug

trafficking in Athens," they added.

CONFIDENT THAT EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WILL KEEP CHINA AWAY FROM 5G NETWORKS:

MIKE POMPEO

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday expressed confidence after

meeting Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic that European countries

will act to prevent China from acquiring their citizens' private data

through its 5G networks.

"I am confident that many more European countries now, frankly because of

just sharing information with them, they are going to make their own

sovereign decision that says no," Pompeo was quoted as saying by Sputnik.

"We don't want our citizens' data in the hands of the Chinese Communist

Party," Pompeo said. "I think every European country now understands this

and is increasingly aware of it. And you'll see them take actions consistent

with that, including Croatia."

The US Secretary of State is on a week-long tour of Europe's Eastern

Mediterranean region.

"Superb trip to beautiful Croatia. I am proud of our shared commitment to

enhancing our security cooperation, and appreciate Croatia's role in

advancing European energy independence," Pompeo wrote on Twitter.

Washington has signed declarations on 5G security with several European

countries, including the Czech Republic, Poland and Estonia.

US JUDGE STAYS H-1B VISA BAN

A federal judge has blocked the enforcement of the H-1B visa ban issued by

President Donald Trump in June this year, saying the president exceeded his

constitutional authority.

The order was issued on Thursday by District Judge Jeffrey White of Northern

District of California.

The lawsuit against the Department of Commerce and Department of Homeland

Security was filed by companies represented by National Association of

Manufacturers, US Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation and

TechNet.

The ruling places an immediate hold on a series of visa restrictions that

prevent manufacturers from filling crucial, hard-to-fill jobs to support

economic recovery, growth and innovation when most needed, the National

Association of manufacturers said.

RUSSIANS WERE URGED TO RETURN TO NORMAL LIFE, EXCEPT FOR PUTIN

MOSCOW - The officials from a secretive Russian security force seemed to

know exactly what they wanted when they reached out to Olga Izranova's

company last spring.

They wanted movable tunnels that douse people in clouds of disinfectant.

"They said it had to be done very fast," Izranova recalls.

She admits the tunnels are of limited efficacy in the coronavirus pandemic,

but for her most important customer, every bit counts. The Federal

Protective Service, Russia's answer to the Secret Service, has helped build

a virus-free bubble around President Vladimir Putin that far outstrips the

protective measures taken by many of his foreign counterparts.

Russian journalists who cover Putin have not seen him up close since March.

The few people who meet him face-to-face generally spend as much as two

weeks in quarantine first. The president still conducts his meetings with

senior officials - including with his Cabinet and his Security Council - by

video link from a spartan room in his residence outside Moscow, which has

been outfitted with Izranova's disinfectant tunnel.

In the coronavirus pandemic, Putin's Russia has often been compared to the

United States and Brazil, two other large countries whose leaders have

played down the disease's risk and saw it spiral out of control. But while

President Donald Trump and President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil have chafed

against restricting their own movements, Putin has retreated into an

intricate cocoon of social distancing - even as he has allowed life in

Russia to essentially return to normal.

The contrast between the behavior of Putin and that of his people now looms

large, as a second wave of the pandemic threatens to wash over Russia. In

Moscow, where people packed indoor bars and restaurants all summer with few

masks in sight, the number of daily reported new cases tripled to more than

2,300 in the last two weeks.