New Delhi, Feb 20 (AP/UNB)  — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday offered intelligence sharing and other cooperation with India in fighting extremism and terrorism, as New Delhi tackled rising tensions with Pakistan following a suicide bombing last week on Indian paramilitary soldiers in disputed Kashmir.

The crown prince, with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi by his side, told reporters that he "shared India's concern on terrorism." He did not make any reference to Pakistan, but said his visit to India will improve centuries-old ties between the countries, which he said are "in our DNA."

Modi is under heavy pressure from his supporters to punish Pakistan for the suicide attack. India placed the blame for the bombing squarely on Pakistan, which it accuses of supporting rebels in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.

Modi in his remarks at the media briefing referred to the attack on Indian soldiers and said that effective steps would be taken to punish the perpetrators and their supporters. He didn't elaborate.

"Saudi Arabia and India share views on increasing cooperation in counterterrorism and tackling cybercrimes," he said.

Modi also called for a strong action plan for combating extremism so that the powers spreading violence and terror cannot mislead the youth.

The two sides signed agreements for promoting investment, infrastructure, tourism, housing and communications. Their two-way trade totaled $27.5 billion last year.

The Saudi side also signed the framework agreement on the International Solar Alliance, a treaty-based international body for the promotion of efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, according to India's External Affairs Ministry. It was launched by India and France on the sidelines of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference.

The agreement aims at creating credit mechanisms, crowd funding and sharing of technological breakthroughs to promote solar energy in 121 countries associated with the treaty.

Prince Mohammed said he saw a potential for $100 billion investment in energy, agriculture, technology, culture and social services and said the two countries would evolve a strategy for mutual gains. He said that Saudi Arabia had invested $44 billion in India since 2016.

He also noted that "since we remember ourselves, we know Indian people as friends, and they are part of building Saudi Arabia in the past 70 years." These relations would improve for the sake of both countries, he told reporters.

His trip to India comes five months after he came under intense pressure following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. In keeping with a long-standing policy of not commenting on countries' internal affairs, India declined to take a position on the Washington Post columnist's killing by suspected Saudi agents at the consulate.

The crown prince arrived in India on Tuesday night after visiting cash-strapped Islamabad, which voiced support for him amid the international outcry over Khashoggi's killing. The Saudi delegation signed $20 billion in investment deals and vowed to free thousands of Pakistani prisoners in Saudi custody.

India describes Saudi Arabia as a "key pillar" of its energy security. It provides about 17 percent of India's crude oil and about a third of its liquefied natural gas.

The relationship is likely to become more significant as a deadline nears for India to comply with U.S. sanctions against Iran, one of India's main oil providers.

Ties between India and Saudi Arabia, where millions of Indians are employed as migrant workers, have strengthened since Modi visited Riyadh in 2016 for the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with intelligence-gathering on money laundering and terrorism financing.

Prince Mohammed will leave New Delhi later Wednesday, according to India's External Affairs Ministry.

He will pay a two-day visit to China beginning Thursday.

Berlin, Feb 20 (AP/UNB) — Britain's foreign secretary is telling a German audience that securing an orderly British departure from the European Union is "of paramount importance."

Jeremy Hunt was meeting officials in Berlin on Wednesday ahead of Prime Minister Theresa May's trip to Brussels later in the day to meet EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. May is seeking changes to the already-negotiated withdrawal agreement after British lawmakers rejected it — but the EU says it won't be reopened.

Hunt said in a speech to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a think tank linked to Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, that failing to secure a ratified agreement "would be deeply damaging, economically and politically."

He said that "in the vital weeks ahead, standing back and hoping that Brexit solves itself will not be enough."

New Delhi, Feb 20 (AP/UNB) — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday said his visit to India will improve centuries-old ties, which he said are "in our DNA."

In brief remarks at the president's palace where he was given a ceremonial welcome, the crown prince did not make any reference to rising tensions between India and Pakistan.

He arrived in India on Tuesday night after visiting Pakistan, which New Delhi blames for a suicide bombing last week that killed at least 40 Indian soldiers in disputed Kashmir.

Prince Mohammed is due to hold talks with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two sides are expected to sign agreements for promoting investment, tourism, housing and communications.

The countries' two-way trade totaled $27.5 billion last year.

Modi is under heavy pressure from his supporters to punish Pakistan for the suicide attack. India placed the blame for the bombing squarely on neighboring Pakistan, which it accuses of supporting rebels in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.

The crown prince said on Wednesday that "since we remember ourselves, we know Indian people as friends, and they are part of building Saudi Arabia in the past 70 years."

These relations would improve for the sake of both countries, he told reporters.

His trip to India comes five months after he came under intense pressure following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

In keeping with a long-standing policy of not commenting on countries' internal affairs, India declined to take a position on the Washington Post columnist's killing by suspected Saudi agents at the consulate.

India describes Saudi Arabia as a "key pillar" of its energy security. It provides about 17 percent of India's crude oil and about a third of its liquefied natural gas.

The relationship is likely to become more significant as a deadline nears for India to comply with U.S. sanctions against Iran, one of India's main oil providers.

Ties between India and Saudi Arabia, where millions of Indians are employed as migrant workers, have strengthened since Modi visited Riyadh in 2016 for the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with intelligence-gathering on money laundering and terrorism financing.

Prince Mohammed will return home later Wednesday, according to India's External Affairs Ministry.

Washington, Feb 20(AP/UNB) — President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that he would prevail over a multistate lawsuit challenging his emergency declaration to pay for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he expected to do "very well" against the suit, adding that he had an "absolute right" to make the declaration.

"I think in the end we're going to be very successful with the lawsuit," Trump said. "I actually think we might do very well, even in the 9th Circuit, because it's an open and closed case."

A group of 16 states, including California, New York and Colorado, filed a lawsuit Monday against Trump's emergency declaration. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges Trump's declaration is unconstitutional.

All the states involved in the lawsuit have Democratic attorneys general.

Using a broad interpretation of his executive powers, Trump declared an emergency last week to obtain wall funding beyond the $1.4 billion Congress approved for border security. The move allows the president to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and other budgets.

Trump's use of the emergency declaration has drawn bipartisan criticism and is already facing a number of legal challenges. Another suit was filed Tuesday in the Northern District of California by the American Civil Liberties Union. Filed on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, it says there is no emergency to justify the president's action and accuses Trump and other members of his administration of violating Constitutional limits on their authority.

Democrats are also planning to introduce a resolution disapproving of the declaration once Congress returns to session and it is likely to pass both chambers. Several Republican senators are already indicating they would vote against Trump — though there do not yet appear to be enough votes to override a veto by the president.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, would not explicitly say Tuesday whether she would support a resolution of disapproval if one came before the Senate. But she made clear she was worried about the precedent that could be set by Trump going around Congress to fund the wall.

"I'll be very direct. I don't like this. I don't like this. I think it takes us down a road, and with a precedent, that if it's allowed, that we may come to regret," said Murkowski, who said she supports efforts to bolster security at the border but is concerned about an erosion of checks and balances.

A top White House adviser said Sunday that Trump was prepared to issue his first veto if Congress votes to disapprove his declaration of a national emergency. Stephen Miller told "Fox News Sunday" that "the president is going to protect his national emergency declaration."

Trump argued Tuesday that the wall was needed to "stop drugs and crime and criminals and human trafficking." He has repeatedly sought to paint a dire picture of conditions at the border, though illegal border crossings are down from a high of 1.6 million in 2000.

After weeks spent battling with Congress over border funding and what constituted a wall versus a fence, Trump said, "I can call it a barrier, but I think I don't have to do that so much anymore, we'll call it whatever we want."

Democrats quickly seized on the move as an example of executive overreach. The office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a press release Tuesday that stated: "No one is above the law. Republicans must join Democrats to uphold the Constitution and stand with the American people — against the President's brazen assault."

Earlier Tuesday, Trump singled out California for its lead role in the suit, seeking to link the state's high-speed rail project to his plan for the wall.

On Twitter, Trump claimed the "failed Fast Train project" was beset by "world record setting" cost overruns and had become "hundreds of times more expensive than the desperately needed Wall!"

The estimated cost for a San Francisco-to-Los Angeles train has more than doubled to $77 billion. That's about 13 times the $5.7 billion Trump sought unsuccessfully from Congress to build the wall.

Hours later, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it planned to cancel $929 million in federal money allocated to California's rail project and seek to claw back $2.5 billion the state has already spent.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom charged it was a reaction to the lawsuit and pledged a fight to keep the money.

"It's no coincidence that the Administration's threat comes 24 hours after California led 16 states in challenging the President's farcical 'national emergency,'" Newsom said in a statement. "This is clear political retribution by President Trump, and we won't sit idly by."

The spat over the rail project comes after Newsom said last week the project "as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long." He said the state would focus on completing a shorter segment in the state's Central Valley while seeking new funding sources for the longer route.

United Nations, Feb 20(AP/UNB) — The expected pullout of forces from three key ports in Yemen provides an opportunity to move to the major goal of ending the four-year conflict that has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the U.N. envoy for the war-battered country said Tuesday.

Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council that Yemen's government and Houthi Shiite rebels demonstrated that they are able to deliver on commitments they made in December in Stockholm by agreeing on the first phase of redeployment from the ports.

He said forces will initially be withdrawn from the smaller ports of Salif and Ras Issa, beginning "possibly" Tuesday or Wednesday. This will be followed by a pullout from the major port of Hodeida and critical parts of the city that will allow access to the Red Sea Mills, a major U.N. storage facility holding enough grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month, he said.

Griffiths called on the parties to fully implement the first phase and to agree on details of the second phase of the redeployment of forces, "which we hope will lead to the demilitarization" of Hodeida, whose port handles about 70 percent of Yemen's commercial and humanitarian imports.

A U.N. official said the first phase involves pulling back several kilometers, and the second phase a withdrawal of 18 to 30 kilometers (11-18 1/2 miles), depending on the location and fighters. In some places in Hodeida city, the opposing forces are facing each other about 100 meters apart, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were private.

The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by the Iranian-backed Houthis, who toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. A Saudi-led coalition allied with Hadi's internationally recognized government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.

The fighting in the Arab world's poorest country has killed thousands of civilians, left millions suffering from food and medical care shortages, and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said about 80 percent of Yemen's population — 24 million people — need humanitarian assistance including nearly 10 million "just a step away from famine" and nearly 240,000 "facing catastrophic levels of hunger."

Lowcock told the council the figures "are considerably worse than last year," stressing that aid agencies are running out of money and facing restrictions in the Houthi-controlled north and on deliveries of fuel.

The U.N. is appealing for more than $4 billion to assist 15 million people across Yemen this year and Lowcock implored donors to pledge generously at a conference next week in Geneva convened by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and co-hosted by Sweden and Switzerland.

"We expect current resources to be used up by the end of March — just six weeks from now," Lowcock said. "Without adequate resources, the aid operation will grind to a halt at a time when more people need more help than ever before."

On the political front, Griffiths said the Stockholm agreement was "a breakthrough" and a major shift by the warring parties, but he said it "was only ever intended to be a preliminary step."

He recalled in a video briefing from Amman, Jordan that he previously told the council "that Hodeida was the center of gravity of the war — and it is."

"In truth, our primary interest, the real center of gravity of this war, has to be moving towards a political solution," Griffiths said. "The implementation of the Hodeida agreement as announced today gives us permission to look ahead beyond the agreement made in Stockholm."

He said starting a discussion on political and security arrangements for Yemen would be "a major step forward and an important statement of intent from the parties that they are determined ... finally, to bring this conflict to a close."

Another key part of the Stockholm agreement was the exchange of prisoners, which has been the subject of two rounds of talks in Amman.

Griffiths said both sides seek the release of all prisoners and "I would like to think that we are not far off from agreeing and realizing the release of a first batch."