It will be the longest tour of Asia by a US president in 25 years.

The trip comes at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea over its nuclear programme and missile tests.

Mr Trump is expected to show a united front with South Korea and Japan while pressing China to take a stronger line with Pyongyang.

President Trump flew first to the US state of Hawaii where he visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor – the scene of the 1941 Japanese attack that drew the US into World War Two.

He also took part in a briefing at the US Pacific Command.

From Hawaii, he and First Lady Melania Trump will head to Japan and then on to South Korea.

Mr Trump has previously exchanged some fiery rhetoric with North Korea over its ballistic missile tests but aides said earlier this week that he would not go to the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the border between the South and North.

He is, however, to visit Camp Humphreys, a US military complex south of the capital, Seoul.

In Vietnam, Mr Trump will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Danang and make a state visit to Hanoi.

His final engagement will be a summit of South-East Asian nations in the Philippine capital, Manila.

The last time a US president made such a marathon trip to Asia was when George HW Bush visited the region in late 1991 and early 1992.

While in Japan on that trip, Mr Bush fainted and vomited during a banquet.

President Trump’s itinerary

• Sunday, 5 November: Arrives in Japan. Golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and professional player Hideki Matsuyama at Kasumigaseki Country Club. Bilateral meetings with Mr Abe
• Tuesday, 7 November: In South Korea for talks with President Moon Jae-in. Mr Trump will also address the National Assembly
• Wednesday, 8 November: Arrives in China for a series of events including meetings with President Xi Jinping
• Friday, 10 November: Travels to Danang, Vietnam, and will participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit
• Saturday, 11 November: Travels to Hanoi, Vietnam, for talks with President Tran Dai Quang and other Vietnamese leaders
• Sunday, 12 November: Arrives in Manila, Philippines, to take part in a gala dinner for the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
• Monday, 13 November: Will attend the Asean summit in Manila and hold talks with President Rodrigo Duterte

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Source: BBC

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“He’s our best,” Mr Trump said, as he announced his pick in a speech in Ohio.

Gen Mattis, who is known as “Mad Dog”, was an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s Middle East policy, particularly on Iran.

He has referred to Iran as “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East”.

Mr Trump made the announcement in Cincinnati at the start of a “USA Thank You Tour 2016” for his supporters.

“We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defence,” he told the crowd.

“They say he’s the closest thing to General George Patton [World War Two commander] that we have.”

Mr Trump has previously described Gen Mattis, 66, as “a true general’s general”.

The retired Marine Corps officer led an assault battalion during the first Gulf war in 1991 and commanded a task force into southern Afghanistan in 2001.

He also took part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and played a key role a year later in the Battle of Fallujah.

Gen Mattis retired in 2013 after serving as the commander of the US Central Command.

Correspondents say his nomination will be popular among US forces.

However, a legal hurdle must be overcome before he can be appointed.

Under US law, a retired officer must be out of uniform for at least seven years before he or she can serve as defence secretary.

Republican-controlled Congress will have to approve legislation bypassing the requirement so he can take up the role.

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Source: BBC

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Brown’s body lay in a black and gold casket at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, topped with the St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap he was wearing when he was shot dead on Aug. 9.

People jammed inside the modern red-brick church and gathered outside on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in St. Louis for the celebration, a markedly different scene from the violent protests that rocked the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson after the shooting of the unarmed 18-year-old Brown.

Brown’s death has focused global attention on the state of race relations in the United States. Police and demonstrators in Ferguson clashed nightly for more than a week, with authorities coming under fire for mass arrests and the use of heavy-handed tactics and military gear.

The teenager’s coffin was surrounded by photos of him as a child, graduating from school and smiling in his baseball cap.

Spirited gospel music by a choir and horn players filled the sanctuary, and mourners clapped their hands and danced in the aisles. Readings from the Bible were met with whoops and cheers.

“It was real spiritual,” said Mike Montgomery, a black city employee who said he took the day off from work to attend.

“I usually hear more mourning at a funeral,” said Montgomery, 38. “I think the family wanted a celebration. That’s why they had the upbeat music.”

Printed in a program for the service were letters from his parents to their late son.

A letter by Michael Brown Sr. read: “I always told you I would never let nothing happen to you and that’s what hurts so much, that I couldn’t protect you.”

Afterwards, the funeral procession carried Brown’s casket to St. Peter’s Cemetery, a few miles from Brown’s home, where it was loaded onto a horse-drawn carriage.

Michael Brown Sr. cried at his son’s grave site and let out a scream before leaving. His mother arrived with a separate group. She laid her body across his coffin as she wept.

Call For Justice

A grand jury has begun hearing evidence in the shooting and the U.S. Justice Department has opened its own investigation.

In a eulogy for Brown, civil rights activist Al Sharpton demanded a fair and impartial investigation into the shooting and an end to police brutality.

“Michael Brown does not want to be remembered for riots,” Sharpton said. “He wants to be remembered as the one that made America deal with how we’re going to police in the United States.”

He also called on the black community to end the kind of street violence and looting that cast Ferguson in a negative light.

“We have to be outraged for our disrespect for each other,” he said. “Some of us act like the definition of blackness is how low you can go.

“Blackness has never been about being a gangster or a thug. Blackness was no matter how low we was pushed down, we rose up anyhow,” he said.

Family and friends rose to speak as well, recalling Brown’s nicknames of “Gentle Giant,” and “Big Mike.”

Pastor Charles Ewing, Brown’s uncle, recalled Brown once telling him: “One day the whole world will know my name.”

“Michael Brown’s blood is crying from the ground, crying for vengeance, crying for justice,” Ewing said.

Outside, under the hot midday sun, the police presence was heavy but relaxed. Authorities had braced for a possible flare-up, although clashes between protesters and police have waned significantly in recent days.

The crowd repeated the now-familiar “Hands up, don’t shoot,” which protesters have chanted in the streets of Ferguson.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson told a news conference late on Monday that the evening had passed peacefully.

In differing accounts of Brown’s shooting, police have said he struggled with Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed him. But some witnesses say Brown held up his hands and was surrendering when he was shot multiple times in the head and chest.

After the funeral, people came in small groups to the impromptu memorial at the site of his death, among them Tameka Bryant, 28, a marketing executive at a radio station.

“I just hope we will see justice served,” said Bryant, who said she attended Brown’s funeral. “The family needs some comfort and peace. I hate to think what would happen if they don’t get it. We would have chaos.”

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Source: Reuters

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