Hillary Clinton has dismissed renewed claims that her charitable foundation had influence over the State Department during her time as secretary of state.

A new batch of unreleased emails showed exchanges between Clinton Foundation and State Department employees.
A conservative legal group, Judicial Watch, obtained the emails as part of a lawsuit against the State Department.
The Democratic presidential nominee said the emails did not involve her or relate to the foundation's work.
The emails, which were heavily redacted, came from Mrs Clinton's first three months as secretary of state in 2009.
The latest batch was not included in the more than 30,000 emails Mrs Clinton turned over to the State Department last March as part of an investigation.
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In one email exchange, Clinton Foundation official Doug Band asked Mrs Clinton's top aides, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, to find a job for a foundation associate at the State Department.
Ms Abedin replied: "We all have him on our radar. Personnel has been sending him options."
However, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told ABC News that the State Department hires political appointees through a "variety of avenues".
"State Department officials are regularly in touch with a range of outside individuals and organisations including non-profits, NGOs, think tanks, and others," she said.
Mrs Clinton's campaign addressed the emails highlighted by Judicial Watch, suggesting that Mr Band was acting as former President Bill Clinton's personal assistant and not in his role as the head of the Clinton Global Initiative.
"They are communications between her aides and the president's personal aide, and indeed the recommendation was for one of the Secretary's former staffers who was not employed by the foundation," a statement said.
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In another instance, Mr Band asked Ms Abedin and Ms Mills to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury, in contact with the State Department's "substance person" on Lebanon.
Mr Band said the billionaire foundation donor was a "key guy there [Lebanon] and to us".
The newly released batch also included an email to Mrs Clinton from Stephen Roach, then-chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, who said he was scheduled to testify to Congress and was "happy to help in any way I can."
Mr Roach then met with Mrs Clinton over the summer for 30 minutes, according to Clinton calendars obtained by the AP.
Mrs Clinton's campaign did not immediately address the email exchange with Mr Roach.
The Democratic nominee has been mired in controversy over her use of a personal email server while at the State Department, prompting a federal investigation and undermining her trustworthiness among public opinion.
FBI Director James Comey announced in July that though Mrs Clinton was "extremely careless," his investigation did not find any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Republican presidential rival Donald Trump's campaign responded to the latest revelations, saying it was "more evidence that Hillary Clinton lacks the judgment, character, stability and temperament to be within 1,000 miles of public power".


The boss of Australia's foreign intelligence agency has been criticised for clenching his fist in a photo with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.

Mr Duterte used the pose in his 2016 presidential campaign, a symbol of his tough and controversial crime policies.
Critics said the photo of Nick Warner, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (Asis) director-general, sent an inappropriate message from Canberra.
The Australian government said the photo was not Mr Warner's idea.
Mr Duterte has been condemned by human rights groups for his crackdown on drugs in the Philippines, which has seen thousands of people die at the hands of police.
The drug war has sparked civil unrest and protests against Mr Duterte's presidency, as well as criticism from community leaders.
Photos of the meeting between Mr Duterte and Mr Warner at Manila's Malacanang Palace were shared on the president's Twitter account.
Elaine Pearson, the director of Human Rights Watch in Australia, said Mr Warner's gesture was unwise.
"Sickening to see head of Australia's spy agency fist-bumping a man who has instigated the killing of thousands," she wrote online.
"You wouldn't pose like this with a mass murderer. And one day, Duterte may be indicted for crimes against humanity."
Australian MP Anthony Byrne said the photo was "completely inappropriate for the head of one [of] our most important intelligent services to be in".
However Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, whose department oversees Asis, said she was "confident it would not have been his [Mr Warner's] idea".
"I do not know the details of how it came about or who released the photograph," she said.
"But of course the Australian Secret Intelligence Service is called a secret intelligence service for a reason. Preferably the work that Asis does is below the surface but there are instances where it comes public."
Earlier this week, Ms Bishop told Fairfax Media that Australia was deeply concerned about extra-judicial killings in the Philippines.
Media outlets reported a palace official as saying Mr Duterte and Mr Warner had discussed routine matters such as regional security.
Last week, the Australian government added so-called Islamic State in East Asia to its official list of terrorist organisations.
It follows warnings by Australian intelligence chiefs about security threats in South East Asia.


The Queen has laid a wreath at the Republic of Ireland's Garden of Remembrance during the first visit by a British monarch since Ireland gained independence.

The garden, in Dublin, is dedicated to people who fought for Irish independence from Britain.
Dozens of protesters gathered nearby amid one of the country's biggest security operations.
Earlier, the Queen was welcomed by President Mary McAleese.
It emerged that a pipe bomb found on a bus bound for Dublin on Monday had been made safe by the Irish army.
Upon landing at Baldonnel military airbase, just outside Dublin, the Queen emerged wearing an outfit of symbolic emerald green.
After lunch the monarch wore a white outfit.
God Save The Queen was played when she arrived at the Garden of Remembrance to lay the wreath - regarded as a highly symbolic act as the garden commemorates Irish people who fought over the centuries against British rule.
A one-minute silence followed the laying of the wreath, after which the Irish Tricolour was raised from half to full mast and the country's national anthem was played.
Much of the centre of Dublin was cordoned off, leaving many streets empty, as part of the strict security clampdown put in place for the visit.
By Conor SpackmanBBC News
The mood in the Garden of Remembrance was sombre as the Queen carried out one of the most symbolic engagements of her itinerary.
Here, in the heart of Dublin's city centre, the Republic of Ireland remembers all those who died while fighting to break the link with Britain - from the United Irishmen in 1798 to the IRA of 1921.
Greeted by the British national anthem, the Queen stood alongside the Irish president Mary McAleese.
The respectful silence was only broken by the quiet whirr of a helicopter overhead and the occasional shout from protesters who were outside releasing black balloons.
Then, with senior members of the Irish defence forces looking on, the two heads of state took turns to lay wreathes, honouring those who gave their lives for Irish freedom.
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Meanwhile, riot police officers jostled with demonstrators at two separate protests on streets several hundred yards from the garden.
The sounds of protesters could be heard during the laying of the wreath and black balloons were released by some demonstrators.
There were scuffles between police and republicans protesting against the visit in the centre of Dublin at Tuesday lunchtime.
Up to 200 supporters of the Eirigi socialist republican party later retreated to stage a rally nearby.
The Queen then went on to Trinity College to be shown the Book of Kells, an ancient illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four gospels of the New Testament.
Later, the monarch met Trinity scholars, musicians and artists.
At Baldonnel airbase, the royal party was greeted by an Irish Air Corps guard of honour and presented with flowers by a south Dublin schoolgirl, eight-year-old Rachel Fox.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were then driven in a bombproof and bulletproof car, with a 33-motorcycle escort, to Aras an Uachtarain - the official residence of the Irish president in Dublin's Phoenix Park. The visit is taking place following Mrs McAleese's invitation.
The Queen shook hands with the president at the front of the residence before moving inside to meet the Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny.
The Irish flag and the union jack flew side by side at the gates to the building, where both countries' national anthems were played.
A 21-gun salute and an Air Corps flypast also marked the Queen's arrival.
She and Prince Philip signed the visitors' book in the residence's lavish state ballroom, before having lunch with the president and her husband.
King George V was the last monarch to visit the country, in 1911, when what is now the Republic was then part of the UK.
UK Prime Minister Cameron will join the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh for part of their trip on Wednesday, while Foreign Secretary William Hague is following the usual practice of accompanying the royals throughout their visit.
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The Queen will attend events this week at the National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge and Croke Park stadium.
Croke Park is the home of Gaelic games where in 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, British forces fired into the crowd at a football match, killing 14 spectators and players.
The Queen is also to make a speech at a state dinner at Dublin Castle.
There are also plans for the Queen and Prince Philip to visit the Irish National Stud in County Kildare, as well as the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary and a technology park in Cork.
The bomb on the bus was found in a holdall in the luggage compartment on Monday night during a check in Maynooth, County Kildare, to the west of Dublin.
About 30 people who were on board the bus were taken off and transported to Dublin in another vehicle.
The device was later made safe in a controlled explosion carried out by an Irish army bomb disposal team.
A coded bomb threat relating to London had been received on Sunday, the first issued by Irish dissidents outside Northern Ireland in 10 years, officials said.
However, the threat level for Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Britain remains unchanged at substantial. In Northern Ireland it is severe.
The cost of the security operation has been estimated at 30 million euros (Â£26m), with measures including:
Richard Boyd Barrett, who represents the People Before Profit party, criticised the expense of the state visit.
"We don't need to spend 30 million euros on a big circus bringing over one of the wealthiest women in the world to parade around the streets of Dublin and shut the city down for a few days to tell us what we already know, which is we are friends of the people of Britain," he said.
Tuesday 17 May: Visit to the official residence of the Irish president, Mary McAleese and tree planting ceremony. Wreath laying ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance and visit to Trinity College to view the Book of Kells.
Wednesday 18 May: Tour of the Guinness Storehouse; visit the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, at Government Buildings, wreath laying ceremony at the Irish War Memorial Garden; Croke Park stadium to meet Gaelic Athletic Association; state dinner at Dublin Castle.
Thursday 19 May: Visit to National Stud at Kildare.
Friday 20 May: Tour of St. Patrick's Rock, Cashel and the English Market and Tyndall Institute, Cork.


Former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton insists stablemate Josh Taylor will go on to become Scotland's finest boxer since Ken Buchanan.

Frampton and Taylor are both trained by Shane McGuigan and are under the guidance of promoter Barry McGuigan.
And having spent time sparring with Taylor, Frampton is in no doubt about his potential.
"This kid is going to be the best fighter to come out of Scotland since Ken Buchanan," the 30-year-old said.
Buchanan was the undisputed lightweight champion of the world in 1971 and Frampton is well-placed to make such a comparison with Taylor.
"I honestly think that and I don't want to be putting pressure on Josh, but I've seen what he can do day in, day out," the Northern Irishman told BBC Scotland.
"He has it all. He's tall and skinny and people look at him and think he's not a puncher, but his record suggests otherwise. He's been knocking these guys over.
"I've been in the ring sparring with him and he's a terrific puncher. His shot selection is brilliant, better than mine, he has great distance control, he can take a good shot and he can box ahead of people."
Northern Ireland's Frampton has a global reputation, having held the IBF and WBA super-bantamweight belts as well as the WBA super-featherweight title. He has had 24 fights and lost just one of them, a rematch against Leo Santa Cruz for the super featherweight belt in January.
Taylor, 26, is far less experienced but has won all of his nine fights as a professional, eight of them by way of knockout.
And Frampton revealed he rates Taylor so highly he even studies the Scot in action.
"He's one of the only guys I hang around and watch sparring," Frampton added. "When you're surrounded by boxing you sometimes want to get away but when Taylor is sparring I hang around because I feel I can learn from him and pick things up - he's brilliant."
Taylor, the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, defends his Commonwealth super-lightweight title against England's WBC Silver champion Ohara Davies at Glasgow's Braehead Arena on 8 July.
And Frampton has only one piece of advice for the Scot.
"He's never asked for advice and I think the only bit of advice would be to remain calm," he added.
"At times he's hot-headed and he likes to have a fight when he doesn't need to - the William Wallace comes out in him. If Josh can remain disciplined in the ring and stick to the game-plan, there's not a fighter in Britain at the minute that can touch him."


Families affected by the baby ashes scandal at Aberdeen's Hazlehead Crematorium have been given a deadline for lodging compensation claims.

Baby and adult ashes were mixed together at the crematorium and given back to relatives of the adult.
The parents of infants were told there were no ashes.
Aberdeen City Council's insurers are already dealing with claims, and a deadline for any more has been set for 1 February.
BBC Scotland revealed in 2013 that no ashes had been offered to the families of infants cremated in Aberdeen over a five-year period.
It followed similar revelations about Mortonhall crematorium in Edinburgh, which had been secretly burying baby ashes for decades.
A report into the scandal by Dame Elish Angiolini described the practices as "abhorrent".
Patrick McGuire, a partner with Thompsons Solicitors - the firm representing many of the families involved - said: "The past few years have been immensely painful and stressful for the Aberdeen families.
"They have struggled to get their concerns heard. They felt as if their concerns were being ignored and brushed aside.
"The fact that we are where we are today is a testament to their courage, tenacity and dignity as well as the knowledge that in the end they knew they would be proved right.
"Over the past few years myself and the Aberdeen parents have had no alternative other than to follow a course of being highly critical of the stance adopted by Aberdeen City Council. The council has now done the right thing and for that they should be given credit.
"Myself and the families also believe that the report produced by Dame Elish Angiolini into these terrible events was critical in bringing us to this point and we wish to extend our thanks to her."
A spokesperson for Aberdeen City Council said: "We are committed to moving towards a settlement of claims for compensation and are working with all parties to ensure the individuals and families involved in the process are kept fully informed throughout the process.
"The council has wholeheartedly apologised for the distress past practices at Aberdeen Crematorium have caused. The commitment to the compensation process is part of a full and comprehensive response from the organisation but Aberdeen City Council is clear that the impact on those affected must never be forgotten."
The terms of compensation packages will remain confidential.


Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri has extended his contract with the Serie A champions until the summer of 2018.

Allegri, 48, took charge in July 2014 and signed a new deal until 2017 after leading the Old Lady to the league title and the Coppa Italia.
Having successfully defended their league crown, Juventus have announced the former AC Milan boss will now remain until 30 June 2018.
Juventus face AC Milan in the Coppa Italia final on 21 May.
They are 12 points clear of nearest rivals Napoli with two games remaining in Serie A.
Juventus defeated Manchester City twice in the group stage of this season's Champions League before being knocked out by Bayern Munich in the round of 16.


National League side Maidstone have signed striker Joe Pigott on a one-year deal following his release by League Two club Cambridge.

Pigott joined Cambridge in July 2016, but scored only once in 17 games before joining Maidstone on loan in January.
The 23-year-old scored six goals in 16 league appearances for the Stones.
Pigott is Maidstone's second signing since the end of the season, following the arrival of former Bromley left-back Joe Anderson.


A woman will become champion jockey in Britain for the first time within the next 15 years, says leading apprentice rider Josephine Gordon.

The 23-year-old, who is on the brink of turning professional, is eyeing a top-10 finish in the flat racing standings herself in future seasons.
"There are more female riders around. It's been accepted now that females can be as good as males," she told BBC Sport.
This month Gordon became only the third woman to land the apprentice title, which boasts previous winners such as Lester Piggott and Frankie Dettori.
"I think in the next 15 years there will be a woman who becomes champion jockey," she said.
"Hopefully it will be me. At this time, it's probably quite unrealistic for me but that would be the biggest dream. I didn't think I could achieve being champion apprentice."
Racing is one of the few sports in which men and women compete against each other on the same level.
Gordon follows Hayley Turner and Amy Ryan as women who were champion apprentices.
Turner went on to be Britain's most successful female jockey, winning hundreds of races including two top-level Group One contests before retirement, while Ryan was badly injured in a fall and no longer rides competitively as a jockey.
"Hayley Turner set the barrier higher for us, and I'd like to get to her standard if not further," said Gordon, who grew up in Devon.
"We've got loads of up-and-coming females - Georgia Cox, Hollie Doyle, Shelley Birkett, Rachel Richardson - and there's more coming through.
"I think in the next 10, 20 years there will be a top female rider and a lot of records are going to be broken."
It's a case of proving yourself and getting the right connections and chances. It could take one horse to get you to the top
She believes opportunities are increasing and can point to her own bookings as an example - Gordon has ridden for more than 100 trainers in the past year.
As well as being apprentice jockey to Stan Moore, she has represented 10-time champion trainer Sir Michael Stoute and Classic winner Hugo Palmer, who calls her "a gifted and strong" rider.
On Monday, she had her first ride (and win aboard Timekeeping) for Sheikh Mohammed's powerful Godolphin powerful team, just days after trainer John Berry had suggested Muslim owners have a bias against female jockeys.
Gordon admits the call came "out of the blue" but is not reading too much into the coincidence.
"It could be that I've just become champion apprentice and they've picked up on that. That was a real confidence boost."
Gordon's rise is particularly remarkable, considering she almost quit the sport when more than 18 months passed between her first and second winners.
"I'd pretty much given up. I was looking for jobs abroad, not to race ride, just to go out and ride in America or Australia," she said.
"It is a tough game. I spent 18 months without a winner and it drained me and disheartened me. I was having seconds and couldn't ride a winner, and thought it was me.
"When everything's going wrong and you can't ride winners, you are always doing the wrong thing because you're stressed.
"I got in touch with Stan Moore and said: 'It's up to you whether you want to use me. If you think I'm good enough, we'll give it a go.' He threw everything my way and it just filled me with confidence again."
Gordon put in extra work with her jockey coach, Derby-winning jockey John Reid, and she remembers the horse that ended the drought well - 25-1 chance Shamrock Sheila at Bath in June 2015.
"That second winner was probably better than my first because it was just like a sigh of relief. It meant there was a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, and I should keep working at it," added Gordon.
The winners came - more than 70 during 2016, including 50 in the championship as she beat last year's winner Tom Marquand (45) into second place.
Gordon hopes to match Turner, with the help of her agent Phil Shea, by becoming only the second female jockey to ride 100 winners in a calendar year.
Turner hit the mark in 2008 when her 58 victories during the championship campaign from spring to autumn placed her tied 24th in the table.
"Ideally in the next few years, I'd like to be in the top 10 jockeys," said Gordon, who is based in Lambourn, Berkshire.
"When I first started race riding, I wrote down a little list - riding in a race, riding a winner, riding abroad, riding on television. I've got them all ticked off so I've got to write a new list."
But could she be champion one day?
"I'd love that. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I'd probably be pushing it a bit to say that. There's a lot more experienced people than me around. "
After first sitting on a pony as a toddler at her mother Cheryl's livery yard, Gordon has always loved horses and decided she wanted to be a jockey aged about 12.
Regular 5.30am starts to ride out horses, long days in the car travelling to meetings and "no social life" have not dimmed that enthusiasm.
"The buzz of getting on a horse, the speed, and especially it winning is a different feeling. It's such a powerful animal," she said.
As an apprentice, she has been able to claim a weight allowance on a sliding scale from 7lb to 3lb according to winners, which will disappear when she reaches a career total of 95 victories and turns pro.
"I've got seven more wins until I'm professional. It gets harder," she admitted.
"The real test is when you lose your claim whether you can keep the rides, but I feel I've made a lot of good connections. I think they'll keep using me, I'll try my best and work harder than ever."
When setbacks arise, the rider will draw on her experience of that long losing run.
"That has encouraged me even more, that is my motivation I always have that in the back of my head - 'I will not fall back there again,'" she said.


A new campaign advert for US presidential candidate Marco Rubio is promising a return to "morning in America," but the ad has the sun rising over the Canadian city of Vancouver.

The city's skyline shows prominently in the ad, which recalls Ronald Reagan's successful 1984 campaign slogan.
In its opening moments, a tugboat bearing the Canadian flag passes through Vancouver's harbour.
The Rubio campaign has told BuzzFeed that the use of the clip was a mistake.
Guy Chavasse shot the original video footage of Vancouver last year.
"It's pretty funny, isn't it?" the Vancouver-based videographer told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). "It's a good-looking video, no doubt, but it's pretty recognisable as Vancouver,"
This isn't the first time a candidate's advert has had trouble with American imagery.
In September, a group supporting former Florida Governor Jeb Bush released a campaign ad using stock images from the UK and parts of south-east Asia as stand-ins for US locales.
In January, a Donald Trump campaign advert on US border security featured footage of African migrants fleeing from Morocco into Spain.


Rail workers have been forced to clear up raw sewage dropped on the tracks of the Borders Railway.

It had been discarded from carriages pulled by the Union of South Africa steam train over the last month.
Michael Hogg, of the RMT rail union, said workers who change sleepers and maintain rails on the line between Edinburgh and Tweedbank had dealt with human waste.
"It's disgusting and it's just not acceptable," he added.
The steam train transported the Queen to the Scottish Borders for the official opening of the Â£300m line in September.
Since then it has carried 6,500 railway enthusiasts and day-trippers on three return excursions a week.
Its run on the Borders Railway officially ended on Sunday but the popularity of the excursion means further charter trips could be arranged.
Diesel trains on the line's regular services retain human waste, but the use of older carriages to carry passengers on steam train trips skirts the rules for modern trains.
Mr Hogg said: "It's diabolical that in this day and age people have to put up with these kind of working conditions.
"It's bad enough having human waste on the tracks, but you're having workers stand back for a passing train and be sprayed with raw sewage.
"We're talking about people possibly being exposed to harmful bacteria that could cause illness and disease, such as hepatitis C."
He added: "We appreciate that these steam rail trips are very, very popular and are likely to continue, but we can't accept the use of old rolling stock which fails to prevent waste ending up on the tracks."
ScotRail confirmed that steam train toilets were not fitted with tanks to collect human waste.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) gave the rail firm permission to allow customers to use toilets between stations on the Borders Railway steam trips.
Onboard toilets remained locked when the train was stabled in or near a station.
A spokeswoman for the ScotRail Alliance said: "The line has been closely monitored and, now that the last steam train has run on the line, our specialist team will carry out a full track clean."


Chelsea manager Antonio Conte says the referee "made the right decision" in taking no action against striker Diego Costa after his challenge on West Ham goalkeeper Adrian.

Costa, already booked, caught Adrian high on his shin in the second half.
Anthony Taylor did not produce a second yellow card and Costa went on to make it 2-1 to Chelsea in the 89th minute.
Conte said he "did not see" the tackle, adding: "I saw Costa put the pressure on the keeper and then try to stop."
Chelsea led 1-0 when Costa made the challenge and even though James Collins equalised for West Ham, the Spain international settled the game with a low, 20-yard strike.
"It was not reckless or deliberate, but it was quite late," said Hammers boss Slaven Bilic referring to the incident.
"He could have been booked again and so a red card. I am not frustrated because of that, I am frustrated because of the late goal."
Referees have been instructed to book players who protest against decisions this season and Costa was initially cautioned for chasing Taylor following a penalty appeal.
"Diego is a good player and a passionate man - sometimes it happens that he can receive a yellow card," Conte told Sky Sports.
"I think in the situation with Adriano the referee took the right decision."
Collins' goal was West Ham's only shot on target and striker Andre Ayew, a £20m summer signing from Swansea, limping off in the first half is a concern for Bilic.
"We have to wait on Andre Ayew," said the Croat, whose side travel to Romania on Thursday for the first leg of their Europa League qualifier against Astra Giurgiu.
"It is a thigh injury and we will find out after the scan on Tuesday."
Conte has arrived at Chelsea with a reputation for being an expert tactician, as displayed by taking Italy to the European Championship quarter-finals, but also for being a passionate and animated character on the touchline.
The Italian lived up that billing by rushing towards fans to celebrate Costa's winner.
"I knew the Premier League only through television. I played against English teams in the Champions League and Europa League, but playing this league is very difficult," said the 47-year-old.
"There is a great intensity in the Premier League and it's very physical. I don't know if I'll sleep tonight because the adrenaline is high."


Iran is considering buying planes from US manufacturer Boeing as it moves to upgrade its fleet following the removal of UN sanctions.

Iran's deputy transport minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan told Reuters that Iran is interested in buying 100 aircraft.
UN sanctions were lifted a week ago, allowing Airbus to negotiate a deal to sell 114 aircraft to Iran.
US trade sanctions on Iran remain in place, but Boeing could apply for a special waiver.
However, last week Boeing said there are "many steps" before it decides to sell aircraft to Iran.
The Airbus deal will have an official signing when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visits Paris on Wednesday, according to Iranian media.
The average age of Iran's commercial airliners is is almost 27 years, according to airfleets.net.
European regulators have banned all but 12 of Iran Air's fleet from using European Union airspace, because the airline has failed to show that its aircraft meet international safety standards.
Iran Air's website says it has a fleet of 43 jets. The company also runs a cargo operation and a low-cost carrier.
Iran's transport minister Abbas Akhoundi was quoted by Iranian media as saying that only 150 planes are operational out of a total of 250.
He also said that 400 medium-to-long range planes are needed and 100 short-range jets and he expects the first batch of new Airbus jets to arrive by late March.


A Scottish tech firm which became a major player in the US fantasy sports market is to merge with its biggest rival.

FanDuel, which was founded in Edinburgh in 2009, has entered a merger agreement with DraftKings.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the second half of next year.
FanDuel has offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow but moved its headquarters to New York several years ago.
DraftKings has its headquarters in Boston.
The companies offer online fantasy contests across professional sports in the US, Canada and the UK.
There are an estimated 57 million fantasy players in the US alone.
Both companies have been facing regulatory and legal challenges to their industry, with regulators in some US states ruling that fantasy sports firms' activities amounted to illegal gambling.
In a joint statement on Friday, the companies said that by combining and streamlining resources they could "accelerate work with government officials to continue to develop a standard regulatory framework".
They also expect the "strategic merger of equals" to bring efficiencies and cost savings and help the combined company "accelerate its path to profitability".
FanDuel chief executive Nigel Eccles said: "Being able to combine DraftKings and FanDuel presents a tremendous opportunity for us to further innovate and disrupt the sports industry.
"While both companies have accomplished much already, this transaction will create a business that can offer a greater variety of offerings, appealing to new users, including the tens of millions of season-long fantasy players that haven't yet tried our products."


Leicestershire Police has launched its first firearms amnesty in 10 years.

The force is asking for people to surrender unlawfully held guns and ammunition to help avoid them "getting into the wrong hands".
Officers said many firearms were held in innocence and ignorance of their illegality or were overlooked and forgotten in people's homes.
Ch Insp Chris Brown said there had only been one death this year from a firearm but it was still "one death too many".
"We want as many weapons off the street as possible and would encourage people to hand them in," he said.
"It has been 10 years since we have run a firearms amnesty and it is really to give people who may have illegal firearms in their homes an opportunity to safely bring them in to police without fear of prosecution."
Collection points will be placed at police stations across Leicestershire. The amnesty runs until 6 October.


A new respiratory illness similar to the Sars virus that spread globally in 2003 and killed hundreds of people has been identified in a man who is being treated in Britain.

The 49-year-old man, who was transferred to a London hospital by air ambulance from Qatar, is the second person confirmed with the coronavirus.
The first case was a patient in Saudi Arabia who has since died.
Officials are still determining what threat the new virus may pose.
The World Health Organization has not recommended any travel restrictions.
Prof John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the UK's Health Protection Agency, said: "In the light of the severity of the illness that has been identified in the two confirmed cases, immediate steps have been taken to ensure that people who have been in contact with the UK case have not been infected, and there is no evidence to suggest that they have.
"Further information about these cases is being developed for healthcare workers in the UK, as well as advice to help maintain increased vigilance for this virus."
He said there was no specific evidence of the virus spreading from person to person and he had no advice for the public or returning travellers.
Peter Openshaw, director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London, told Reuters that at this stage the novel virus looked unlikely to prove a concern, and may well only have been identified due to sophisticated testing techniques.
And Prof John Oxford, a virology expert at Queen Mary, University of London, said he felt "somewhat relaxed" about the news.
"Sars was very quick off the mark infecting hospital staff etc and this new virus does not to me appear to be in the same 'big bang' group."
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which includes ones that cause the common cold and Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome).
This new virus is different from any coronaviruses that have previously been identified in humans.
There have been a small number of other cases of serious respiratory illness in the Middle East in the past three months, one of whom was treated in the UK but has since died.
This person's illness is also being investigated, although there is no evidence as yet to suggest that it is caused by the same virus or linked to the current case. No other confirmed cases have been identified to date in the UK.
Sars is a serious respiratory infection that caused a global outbreak in 2002, spreading from Hong Kong to more than 30 different countries around the world and killing around 800 people. Although it has not been eradicated its spread was fully contained in 2003. Like other coronaviruses, it is spread through droplets of body fluids - produced by sneezing and coughing.


The war in Syria has meant millions of people have fled the country, and hundreds of thousands of children now don't have a school to go to.

4 February 2016 Last updated at 08:05 GMT
World leaders are meeting in London on Thursday to try to do more for these children who are not getting an education.
More than four million people - over half of them children - have had to leave their homes and everything they own to escape the war in Syria.
Many families run away to countries nearby like Lebanon and Jordan, where they live in special camps.
But these camps do not have enough school places for all the children living in them - so many of them miss out on an education.


Several Indian states have opposed the federal government's decision to ban the sale of cattle for slaughter.

West Bengal in eastern India and Kerala in the south said they would not follow the "arbitrary" order which bans the sale of cattle at livestock markets.
The federal government said the order was aimed at "preventing uncontrolled and unregulated animal trade".
But critics say the move is aimed at protecting cows, considered holy by India's majority Hindu population.
West Bengal and Kerala are among several Indian states where beef is part of local cuisine.
Correspondents say the order will hurt farmers, and industries like food processing and leather.
Many states have actively started enforcing bans on cow slaughter after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party formed India's federal government in 2014.
The western state of Gujarat passed a law in March making the slaughter of cows punishable with life imprisonment. In addition to government bans, several vigilante groups who portray themselves as protectors of cows have also been active in several states.
Such groups have even killed Muslim men over suspicion of cow slaughter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year criticised the vigilantes, saying such people made him "angry".
However, this has not stopped attacks against cattle traders.
Mr Modi's critics say the new order is aimed at appeasing India's Hindu community.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the centre was "encroaching upon state matters" with such orders.
"Prevention, protection and improvement of stock and prevention of animal diseases come under the state list. So do markets and fairs and also trade and commerce," she said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to all non-BJP ruled states to unite against the order.
He said it violated India's federal constitution and also violated "the basic right of a person to freedom of choice regarding his food".
The union territory of Pondicherry has also decided to formally oppose the ban.
The southern states of Karnataka and Telengana as well as Meghalaya in the north-east have also protested the order.


James Collins believes he is playing the best football of his career, entirely because of his ambition to play for Wales at Euro 2016.

The West Ham United defender has become a key figure at Upton Park this season and has signed a new contract.
Collins is a regular in the Premier League, but not for his country.
"My current good form is fuelled by Wales, 100% that is in my mind, wanting to impress (Wales manager) Chris Coleman," he said.
The 32-year old former Cardiff City and Aston Villa defender earned only 46 international caps, fewer than younger team-mates Chris Gunter (63), Joe Ledley (58), Ashley Williams (55) and Gareth Bale (53).
That is despite making his debut for the Dragons in 2004 against Norway.
Wales face Slovakia, England and Russia this summer in France, Wales' first major tournament appearance in 58-years.
"This is the strongest Welsh squad I have been involved with, it is a great squad and there is competition for places.
"There is no guarantee of being in the squad, let alone starting the games.
"So I feel like I need to impress the gaffer, that is my frame of mind.
"You know with him you need to train well and work hard.
"I want him to have me in my thoughts for a starting place or just to get in the squad.
"To go and be involved would be amazing, but the ultimate would be to play well in a major tournament for Wales."
Collins feels he is ready to embrace the role of elder statesman in Chris Coleman's youthful squad.
"I feel like I have grown-up, Wales is a young squad and I've been part of football for a lot longer than some of the others," he explained.
"I am a senior player and international breaks can be a long week, I try to keep the boys entertained.
"You bring your stories to tell the boys and they are all great lads, the gaffer has got things spot on in the Wales camp.
"I enjoy it, all the players enjoy it and I'm playing the best football of my career, personally.
"In the past we've turned up before the first qualifier and thought 'we aren't going to qualify'.
"That doesn't happen anymore."


Binge drinking in an area of south Belfast, a loyalist feud in Carrickfergus and claims of bullying make the front pages on Wednesday.

The Irish News says in the last three years the equivalent of 15,000 tins of beer have been seen seized from the streets of Belfast's Holylands.
The paper says in the same period 1,800 complaints of anti-social behaviour have been made.
These included drunkenness, verbal abuse and "loud partying".
Police and other agencies are preparing for large crowds coming to the area on St Patrick's Day, it adds.
Both the News Letter and Mirror lead with intra-loyalist violence in Carrickfergus.
"Loyalist war warning" is the Mirror's front page headline.
The paper says there are fears that the murder of loyalist Geordie Gilmore will spark a feud within the UDA.
Police have dismissed claims that they have lost control of paramilitary gangs in the area, the paper adds.
Meanwhile, the News Letter leads with the fact that one of the bullets fired during the murder of Mr Gilmore passed through the door of a nearby house.
Inside, the paper reports that police are concerned by the possibility of retaliation by associates of Mr Gilmore.
It also quotes local MP Sammy Wilson, who says he fears a serious escalation in the feud and urged young people thinking of getting involved to think of their future.
Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, Jim McDowell says that the UDA's motto is Quis Separabit: Who shall come between us.
"Now, once again, they only have to look in the mirror to find the answer," he says.
The front page of the Telegraph features claims of bullying at the NI Prison Service.
It says that that an industrial tribunal has heard that former Maghaberry deputy governor Gary Alcock made tapes of a prison service director allegedly bullying him.
Mr Alcock claims he was treated badly because he was chairman of the Prison Governors' Association.
He told the tribunal that the alleged bullying left him "terrified, anxious, lying awake in a pool of sweat in my bed".
All four papers also feature the tragedy of the Irish coastguard helicopter crash, in which Capt Dara Fitzpatrick was killed and three other crew members remain missing.
The Belfast Telegraph says Capt Fitzpatrick helped to save many lives in Northern Ireland.
Both The Irish News and News Letter say she was well-known for her starring role in a fly-on-the wall TV show about the service.
The Mirror says the helicopter showed no signs of being in trouble before it went missing 10 miles off the coast of County Mayo.
Finally, plans for Northern Ireland's first green burial site have prompted fears of paganism in County Down, the papers report.
A group called Down to Earth is behind the proposal close to the spot were St Patrick was buried in Downpatrick.
However, all four papers report that some residents in the area have raised concerns about "pagan elements", potential contamination of Lough Money and the upkeep of the site.
Down to Earth's Ciara Campbell Crawford says she thinks "people are afraid of the unknown" and that people of faith would be welcomed to the site.
"It is just a calm and peaceful place where people can be buried around nature," she says.


It may be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, but wealth has never been an insuperable barrier to a parliamentary career.

The super-rich feature in both Houses and, following David Cameron's post-Panama Papers publication, we might soon have the voyeuristic pleasure of inspecting their tax returns.
At the moment the prime minister is trying to hold a line; that he and Chancellor George Osborne should reveal their tax affairs because they are the people who set tax policy - and that others, by implication, should not have to do so.
But the pressure for disclosure might not stop there; what about lesser Treasury ministers, business ministers, any ministers involved in spending decisions, which is pretty much all of them?
Or MPs on the Treasury Committee, the bill committees for finance bills and city regulation measures? What about their opposition and minor party shadow ministers?
The ripple effect of the principle could soon engulf most of parliament - and could then continue outward, encompassing major public officials, industry regulators and the like.
The ripple would probably manifest itself as peer pressure - "X has published all his tax details, why haven't you, minister?" - well before any rule change was pushed through to require publication.
Already, Boris Johnson, who was under no particular pressure to reveal his tax affairs, has gone public, revealing an impressive income as a columnist and author.
And in the process he has made it very hard for future rivals for the leadership of the Conservative Party not to follow suit. By the next election tax disclosure by candidates could be an almost universal expectation, as it is in America.
Of course, MPs already have to disclose their earned income in the Register of Members Income, so any employment income - which covers things like paid directorships, earnings as a member of Lloyds, salaries and fees paid in kind have to be there - but the rules specifically do not require them to declare "Income received by way of dividends."
The register is designed to reveal where interests lie - rather than how much income is generated by those interests. So MPs must register shares when they amount to more than 15% of the share capital of a company, or are valued at more than Â£70,000. And that includes any shares which are managed by a trust, other than, for obvious reasons, a blind trust.
Changing that requirement would expose their income from assets - shares, trusts, whatever, to the public gaze - but it's an extension of what already happens with other forms of income, not a new principle.
Some would doubtless find the glare of scrutiny uncomfortable; either because they just don't like entirely innocent financial matters being made public, or, perhaps in a few cases, because something embarrassing would be revealed.
And politically, there is clear evidence that the voters are less keen on rich candidates - especially if the extent of their wealth is available in footnoted detail, for opponents to rub their noses in.
As candidates' earnings increase, so their popularity declines, wealth is an especial negative for women, working-class and Labour and Lib Dem respondents voters - while Conservative voters are less put off by wealthy candidates, but they draw a sharper distinction between the source of income than others.
Remember, too, that the disclosure would bring to light things like gift-aid donations and joint arrangements with spouses and relatives, who might think they were none of the public's business.
Some people might even be deterred from standing for parliament or entering government - but a bigger, but more subtle, danger is that irritation at a forced disclosure might feed into a more general disgruntlement and make MPs harder to manage and less whip-able.
And in the current fractious Westminster climate, that is not nothing.
Politicians' taxes: who's published what?
More details of tax disclosures


Recruitment has picked up in Scotland, according to a survey from Markit data consultancy.

But a shortage of available recruits is reported to be helping to push up starting salaries.
Evidence collated from about 100 employment consultants during March showed the fourth consecutive month of increasing permanent placements.
This was at a faster rate than the UK average, but slower than the figure for February.
However, the survey evidence suggested the growth in temporary postings has been only modest, and slower than the UK as a whole.
It pointed to a pick-up in demand for further permanent recruits. And the increase in temporary jobs becoming available was the strongest since December 2014.
The strongest growth in hiring was in health and social care, computing and hospitality. However, there were declines in demand for senior management, professionals and blue collar roles.
The fall in the availability of suitable recruits was the sharpest since last July.
Starting salaries in permanent jobs were on the rise in March, as were hourly rates of pay for temporary staff. However, the rate of pay inflation appeared to be slowing from February.
The Markit survey evidence comes after other economic indicators pointed to tough trading conditions for private sector firms during autumn and winter, but some signs of more optimism about the months ahead.


Burton's lead at the top of League One was cut to two points after they were held by fellow high-flyers Walsall.

The Saddlers looked more likely to take the lead in the first half, with Albion goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin keeping out Paul Downing and Romaine Sawyers.
Burton came close when Stuart Beavon tricked his way into Walsall's box but fired into the side-netting.
Wigan's win over Bury means Albion's lead at the top is cut to two points, with Walsall staying in fourth.
Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough told BBC Radio Derby:
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"There was nothing in it at all. It was never going to be an open, free-flowing classic I don't think.
"Chances were few and far between but we got a clean sheet and another point on the board.
"We played better on Monday night, in terms of knocking the ball about, without doubt. But we got back to what the teams been all about for the last season or two - being solid and not giving anything away."
Walsall head coach Sean O'Driscoll told BBC WM 95.6:
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"I think we were organised and disciplined and professional. I've watched a number of games here where teams have fallen into a trap trying to play where there's no space.
"They play in a defensive shape and do it really well, so I thought we created the better chances and it was a different kind of performance to the ones we've put in before.
"Hopefully the chances we created today will go in in the following games."


A group of school students will be the first team from Europe to take part in a big solar powered car race in Australia.

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22 September 2015 Last updated at 16:42 BST
The pupils, from Sussex, have designed and built their own high-tech vehicle and will now compete in the three thousand kilometre race.
Only solar-powered cars are allowed in the competition, which involves the teams driving from Darwin to Adelaide.
Watch Hayley's report to see how the team are preparing.


Oil prices tumbled again on Monday, eroding last week's gains, as Opec called for co-operation from oil-producing nations outside the cartel.

Brent crude fell 6.3% to $30.15 a barrel following a 10% rise on Friday, while US oil shed 7.1% to $29.90.
The slide came as the head of Opec called for all oil-producing nations to work together.
Abdullah al-Badri said both Opec and non-Opec oil producers needed to tackle oversupply to help prices rise.
"It is vital the market addresses the issue of the stock overhang. As you can see from previous cycles, once this overhang starts falling then prices start to rise," he told a conference in London.
Despite the ongoing refusal of Saudi Arabia, the dominant Opec member, to cut production, Mr al-Badri nevertheless blamed countries outside the cartel for the huge global oil glut.
"Yes, Opec provided some of the additional supply last year, but the majority of this has come from non-Opec countries," he said.
Opec accounts for almost 42% of the world's oil production.
What's an oil producer to do amid tumbling prices?
Ask everybody in the business to cooperate, it seems.
If you're Opec, that means asking non-members, such as Russia to join in with curbing production.
It must be said that the prospects of any co-operation from outside Opec are weak at the best of times.
But it has got harder in the last decade.
The surge in US shale oil means it is much more difficult to manage the market without American co-operation, which would never be forthcoming.
The US government wouldn't want to work with Opec, and in any case private companies are the ones taking the decisions.
They will cut if it makes commercial sense to them and their shareholders.
The Opec secretary-general said all major producers should agree on methods to reduce stockpiles and thus help prices recover.
"The current environment is putting this future at risk. At current price levels, it is clear that not all of the necessary future investment is viable," Mr al-Badri said.
Prices briefly fell to less than $28 a barrel earlier this month.
HSBC has lowered its forecast for the average price of Brent crude in 2016 from $60 to $45 a barrel, while UniCredit lowered it from $52.50 to $37 a barrel.
The prospect of Opec members cutting production remains unlikely. Indonesia's Opec representative said that only one member of the cartel supported calling an emergency meeting to discuss ways of boosting oil prices.
The chairman of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant, said on Monday that prices would ultimately rise to a moderate level as global demand increased.
The Iraqi government said on Monday that oil output reached a record high in December, producing as much as 4.13m barrels a day.
Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam, said: "The news that Iraq has probably hit another record builds on the oversupply sentiment. The oversupply will keep markets depressed and prices low."
Iran, which has the world's fourth-biggest oil reserves, is also preparing to resume exports now that sanctions have been lifted.
A fall in the number of oil rigs in the United States, one of Opec's biggest production rivals, could reduce output, with Goldman Sachs predicting a decline of 95,000 barrels per day this year.
Analysts at Energy Aspects said global oil inventories would continue to rise in the next few months, but should start to decline by the summer.


Newcastle United's Jack Colback says they must give something back to the fans for their continued support.

The relegation-threatened Magpies came from 2-0 down to claim a crucial point against Liverpool at Anfield.
"We've not given [the fans] a lot to shout about, but they're sticking with us," Colback told BBC Newcastle.
"If the fans turn on you it can be difficult but they're there for us and we need to try and repay them with points and good performances."
The draw with Liverpool earned Newcastle's eighth away point of the season out of a possible 54, but the 26-year old - who scored the equaliser - said they did not lose hope despite their poor away form.
He continued: "It would have been easy to lose our heads at 2-0 down.
"With the away form this season, you kind of thought 'is it going to be another one of those days?'
"But we managed to show our character and get a point."
Rafael Benitez's side remain 18th, one point adrift of relegation rivals Norwich and Sunderland who both have a game in hand, but Colback said they will stay positive.
"I've probably been in a worse situation with Sunderland a few years ago and we managed to get out of it," he added.
"All you can really do is keep believing."


A man once known as fattest in the world has accepted a marriage proposal during a television show in the United States.

Mr Mason, 53, from Ipswich, was recording an episode of The View alongside US resident Rebecca Mountain, who he had met online.
He said yes and has vowed to lose enough weight to allow him to walk down the aisle.
"I don't want to go down that aisle in a wheelchair," Mr Mason said.
Mr Mason, who at his heaviest weighed 70 stone (440kg), flew to the United States in December to spend Christmas with Ms Mountain and to see a consultant about surgery to remove excess skin.
He got his weight down to 22 stone (140kg) with the help of gastric band surgery but said his life is on hold until the excess skin was removed.
Mr Mason went to New York to meet with Dr Jennifer Capla, who has agreed to donate her time to perform the operations.
"What she's going to do is my tummy and my arms, both at the same time," Mr Mason said.
"I thought just the tummy would be major surgery on its own, but she feels confident that because my health is good, she could do the arms at the same time.
"It's excellent."
Mr Mason said he received a second surprise on The View, saying the programme found someone to pay the $17,000 (Â£10,341) he had been fundraising for the cost of the first operation.
"We've still got to fundraise to pay for the aftercare," Mr Mason said, adding that he hoped Friday's broadcast of the show in the United States would prompt people to add to the $1,170 (Â£711) already raised.
"I'm excited, all I've got to do is go back to the UK, get a medical visa, and then come back."
The couple said they had not set a date for the wedding.
Ms Mountain said: "There's so many things we need to do to take care of Paul first.
"There will be another surgery for his legs, but not for another six to eight months."


Contaminated water in an area of Worcester affected by flooding contains bacteria levels nearly 60 times what is considered safe, an expert says.

Aquatic health and safety consultant Allen Wilson tested water in a garden where raw sewage has been released by a flooded sewer.
He said the levels suggested there was a risk of water-borne diseases like Weil's disease or typhoid fever.
But Public Health England said the levels were not unusual after flooding.
Mr Wilson, from Studies in Work, took readings from a garden in the Diglis area of the city where homes have been under water for more than a week, and found bacteria measurements ranged from 40 to 1,774.
A reading of between one and 32 is considered safe, he said.
"I've never seen numbers as high as some of the ones we've seen today," he said.
"That is the utopian area for bacteria to thrive and grow and multiply."
Mr Wilson said the risk of diseases "that live and thrive in sewage" would be a lot higher than under normal circumstances.
Weil's disease is an infection contracted through touching water contaminated with animal urine, and can be life-threatening.
But Dr David Kirrage, from Public Health England, said the levels were to be expected.
"The contamination doesn't surprise us at all, it's what we get after every flood," he said.
"Over time those bacteria will be removed by oxidation, by just the action of the sun, the ultraviolet light as things die out... any pollution will eventually go away after time."
Matt Beesley, who owns the garden where the tests were carried out, said he was "very worried" by the readings.
"We've been wading in and out of it for 10 days now. We have complained and talked to people about it and still nothing has been done."
Severn Trent spokesman Ed O'Brien said the company had sent crews to try to deal with the sewage situation, but water levels remained too high.
The sewer system had been "overwhelmed" by the flooding, he said.


Blake Lively has revealed she and husband Ryan Reynolds are expecting their first child together.

The Gossip Girl star posted a picture of her baby bump on her lifestyle website Preserve.
Since the announcement, Blake Lively has been trending on Twitter, with many users talking about the baby's chances of being, well, gorgeous.
So far no-one's tweeted about the possibility of the baby being a top scientist but there's still time.
"It's time to prepare yourself for the most genetically blessed baby ever," the Gossip Girl website claimed.
"With family on our mind, we looked to the origin of it all - to the women in our lives who are right there, at that special moment; at the creation of family," said the Preserve website, as part of the announcement.
"Today we celebrate them. With food to fill their tummies (as if that needs more filling), presents to soothe their tired (and swollen) soles, toys to warm their baby's souls, projects to provoke them, and decorations to inspire creativity and merriment in all.
"Congratulations to all the expecting mothers out there."
Lively and Reynolds, who were married in 2012, met on the set of Green Lantern.
The 27-year-old is known for her love of homemaking.
In addition to her lifestyle website, she has also appeared on numerous television shows and in magazines, talking about cooking, baking and her everyday life at home.
Previously, she has told Vogue that Reynolds will "be a great father and leader and patriarch - he's so meant to be all of those things".
Reynolds, 37, has also previously said they would like to have a "big family".
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Tight security is in place in Hong Kong for the visit of the most senior official from Beijing since large pro-democracy protests in 2014.

Zhang Dejiang, the leader responsible for Hong Kong affairs, arrived amid discontent with alleged interference by Beijing.
Mr Zhang said he was in Hong Kong "to listen to all sectors of society".
More than 6,000 police have been deployed amid planned protests by pro-democracy groups.
In a five-minute speech on arrival, Mr Zhang, 69, conveyed "President Xi Jinping's warm regards and well wishes for the people of Hong Kong" and said he came "with the care of the central government and all Chinese people".
Noting his trip had "attracted wide attention", he said:  "I will listen to the chief executive and the [Special Administrative Region] government regarding their work, and to all sectors of society about what recommendations and requirements they have about implementing the principles of "one country, two systems".
He heads China's Hong Kong and Macau affairs office but is also chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, making him China's third-highest ranking leader after President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang.
Mr Zhang is to speak at a policy conference on President Xi's One Belt, One Road economic project that aims to improve connectivity between China and Eurasia.
He will meet a group of four pro-democracy legislators at a reception, ahead of a banquet.
As head of Hong Kong affairs, Mr Zhang was responsible for a key decision in 2014 on Hong Kong's political future and is the highest-ranking mainland official to visit since then.
The mini-constitution, or Basic Law, under which Hong Kong is governed, says the ultimate aim is for the leader to be elected by universal suffrage.
Although China had promised direct elections by 2017, it said in 2014 that the leader, or chief executive, put up for election would come from a list of two or three candidates chosen by an effectively pro-Beijing nominating committee, angering pro-democracy campaigners.
The decision led to full-scale protests, dubbed the Umbrella Movement. Tens of thousands of protesters camped in the streets for weeks but the camps were gradually dismantled with no concessions from the government.
Current Chief Executive CY Leung remains unpopular. Commentators will be watching and listening carefully to see whether Mr Zhang will hint at endorsing him for another term.
Following the 2014 protests, a number of so-called "localist" groups sprung up and showed themselves willing to use violence to battle what they see as a dilution of the city's identity, fearing growing social and political influence from mainland China.
In February, hundreds of demonstrators dug up and threw bricks during a violent clash with police trying to shut a night food market. The market was seen by the protesters as a symbol of local traditions.
There have also been increasing concerns over the freedoms Hong Kong enjoys - unseen on the mainland - which were integral to the agreement that enabled Hong Kong to be returned to China by the British in 1997.
They include freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, travel and trade union membership.
One incident that raised particular concern was the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers known for publishing controversial books about Chinese leaders.
The men were later found to have been detained by mainland authorities in a move condemned by the UK.
In addition to the 6,000 police officers on duty, hundreds of huge, water-filled plastic barriers have been deployed near Mr Zhang's hotel and the convention centre at which he will speak.
Demonstrators will be given designated areas and are unlikely to be visible to Mr Zhang.
Pavement stones have reportedly been glued together to prevent them from being ripped up and thrown by protesters.
The South China Morning Post said security was tight at the airport for Mr Zhang's arrival. It said guards reportedly took away journalists' umbrellas, along with a small yellow towel used by one reporter to cover a camera lens.
The colour yellow, along with umbrellas, has become a symbol of the pro-democracy movement.
Hours before Mr Zhang landed, activists unfurled a yellow banner on Hong Kong's Beacon Hill reading:  "I want genuine universal suffrage". The banner was later removed.
On Monday a Hong Kong man was arrested just over the border in Shenzhen for trying to buy a drone purportedly to be used to disrupt the visit.


UN war crimes investigators say US-led coalition air strikes on Islamic State militants in the Syrian city of Raqqa are causing "staggering loss of life".

Hundreds of civilians are reported to have been killed since March, as coalition warplanes support an offensive by a Kurdish-led alliance.
In the past week. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters have pushed into the west, east and north of Raqqa.
The battle for the city has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes.
The coalition has said the capture of Raqqa will deliver a "decisive blow" to the caliphate proclaimed by IS in June 2014, months after it took control or the city.
Up to 4,000 militants are believed to be holed up inside Raqqa, including foreign fighters and various senior figures.
It is unclear how many civilians are trapped there with them, but UN officials estimated that there are between 50,000 and 100,000.
In an address to the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, the chairman of the independent commission of inquiry for Syria noted that IS had been losing territory at a rapid pace in the north and centre of the country over the past few months.
If successful, Paolo Pinheiro said, the SDF offensive on Raqqa "could liberate the city's civilian population from the group's oppressive clutches, including Yazidi women and girls, whom the group has kept sexually enslaved for almost three years as part of an ongoing and unaddressed genocide".
But he added that the offensive must not be "undertaken at the expense of civilians who unwillingly find themselves living in areas where [IS] is present".
"We note in particular that the intensification of air strikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced."
The UK-based monitoring group Airwars estimates that more than 600 civilians were killed in more than 150 coalition or SDF attacks between March and May.
Air and artillery strikes killed dozens more in the first eight days of June, it says.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned on Thursday that the assault was intensifying an "already desperate" situation in Raqqa.
Air strikes, shelling and clashes on the ground were killing and injuring civilians, and damaging key infrastructure, it said. There were also reports of increased shortages of essential commodities such as food, medicine and fuel, it added.
Mr Pinheiro also expressed deep concern that the creation of "de-escalation" zones in western Syria - agreed earlier this year as part of a plan sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran - had not led to improved access for aid agencies.
So far this year, he said, only one UN convoy had been permitted access to an area identified as urgently in need of assistance.
The UN investigators were also alarmed at the increasing number of "evacuation agreements" in which civilians are being moved out of some besieged areas.
They said some of the evacuations might amount to war crimes because they appeared "primarily motivated by the strategic considerations of the warring parties that negotiate them" and generally did not take the wishes of civilians into account.
Separately, Human Rights Watch warned that the coalition's use of artillery-delivered white phosphorus in Raqqa and in the last remaining IS-held parts of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was endangering civilians.
White phosphorus can be used for several purposes on the battlefield - as a smoke screen, for signalling and marking, and as an incendiary weapon.
However, international law prohibits its use in civilian areas because of its indiscriminate effects. On contact, it can burn people, thermally and chemically, down to the bone.
"No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm," warned Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch.


Kevin Cunnington has been appointed head of the Government Digital Services (GDS).

He was formerly director of business transformation at the Department for Work and Pensions
GDS runs gov.uk, the government's overarching website, and advises departments on how to provide online services and manage data.
Cabinet Office Minister Ben Gummer said he would "continue the transformation of government services".
Mr Cunnington, who becomes the third chief executive in a space of just over a year, said he was "delighted to be joining" and wanted to "continue to improve digital services and increase value for money for taxpayers".
He succeeds Steve Foreshew-Cain who said in a resignation post on social media that the unit was in strong shape and committed to continuing to making government simpler and more effective.
Praising his team, he wrote: "Collectively they are the best shot we have to transform government for the internet era. And we all need them to do that."
To its supporters the Government Digital Service is a shining example of how to bring innovation into public service IT projects via a team of fast-moving and imaginative developers ready to break with convention and cut through civil service bureaucracy.
To its detractors, it is a collection of naive and arrogant young know-it-alls who are better at their own PR than actually delivering improved government services.
Now it looks as though the enemies of GDS, which include some senior civil servants, have won a victory.
The appointment of another chief executive, just a year after the founding leader Mike Bracken left, is being painted by the Cabinet Office as just another step in the evolution of the service.
But many GDS supporters are clear that this is the revenge of the mandarins, and fear it signals a retreat from plans to bring digital innovation to all areas of government activity. There is particular concern about what it means for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) where GDS was involved in trying to rescue the failing Universal Credit IT system.
The new GDS boss Kevin Cunnington is not being replaced in his role at DWP - does that mean that the immensely difficult job of trying to deliver benefits in a more digital fashion has been put on hold?
Some in government may feel that the revolutionary fervour of the GDS team was fine five years ago, but there now needs to be a period of calm consolidation.
But in the words of crossbench peer Baroness Lane Fox, who was the inspiration behind the foundation of the service, it would be an "immense waste of taxpayers' money" not to build on the success it has achieved so far.
One of GDS' key projects, Notify, recently moved into private beta testing.
Notify is a service which will allow departments across government to keep in touch with citizens using their services via email, text or letter.
Another, called Pay - which enables government departments to receive payments or to make refunds - has been approved to process credit and debit card payments on behalf of other government departments and wider public sector organisations.
The government's 2015 spending review outlined a Â£450 million investment in the service.


Former Spain youth international defender Derik Osede Prieto has revealed to BBC Sport why he wants to play for Nigeria.

The 22-year-old centre-back, who is known simply as Derik, has played at all youth levels for Spain including two appearances for the Under-21 team.
But Derik, a regular for European giants Real Madrid's B side, is eligible to play for the Super Eagles because his father is Nigerian.
And under Fifa rules he is free to switch because he has not yet played for a country's senior national team.
Despite possessing the talent to potentially make the step up to Spain's senior side, Derik has issued what appears to be effectively a come-and-get-me plea to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
"I have lived in Spain all my life and I am not sure the people in Nigeria are aware that I have Nigerian blood," Derik told BBC Sport.
The immediate plan now is to go out on loan elsewhere, because at this age I need stability and regular football
"But I crave for something special with Nigeria because it will give me a chance to properly connect with the ancestral home of my father.
"My father is from Benin City [southern Nigeria] and even though I have never been there I always follow events in Nigeria.
"I celebrated when the country won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013 and I was cheering the team at the last World Cup in Brazil."
Derik joined Real Madrid's academy in 2002 at the age of nine and has steadily made the transition from the club's C team to the Castilla side [B side], where he has  become an integral member of La Fabrica.
An extremely athletic centre-back with great vision, Derik's talent has not gone unnoticed.
Former Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti included him in his 20-man squad for the 2014 summer International Champions Cup in the United States.
But while Derik bides his time to make the grade at club level, he has already decided his international future belongs with the country of his father and not the country of his birth.
"Playing for Spain was the foundation to where I am today and I can never take that for granted," he said.
"You can't throw away your education or outgrow it, Spain gave me what I have now and my hard work got me to where I am.
"But somehow I feel one half of my life has always been left untouched and I need to fix that."
Derik has rejected suggestions he could be using Nigeria as a bargaining chip in his push for a call-up from the Spanish U-23 or senior selectors.
He insists: "Even if it's difficult for some people to understand, I have made my decision [to represent Nigeria] and am going to stick to it.
"My father has not influenced my decision in any way. I respect him and adore his outlook on life but it's my personal desire to play for Nigeria.
"When you look around Europe there are several Nigerian players playing at the top level and the future looks bright for the team.
"With that in mind I want to be a part of that group. I do not need favours from anyone, I only need an opportunity.
"I eat Nigeria's wheat meal, listen to Nigerian music and play as Taribo West [former Nigeria central defender] on video games online.
"If I get a chance with Nigeria, I believe my versatility as a player will make me stand out."
Despite his ambition of flying with the Super Eagles someday he is only too aware of the challenges ahead in the coming years.
Derik made his Real Madrid B team debut against Millonarios in 2012, the same year he won the European Under-19 Championship with Spain.
But in June 2014 Real Madrid B suffered an embarrassing relegation into the third tier of Spanish football and Derik knows plummeting down that road could dash his hopes.
He is aware that level is a far cry from the incredible heights being enjoyed by the likes of Sergio Ramos and Pepe - his more illustrious rivals - in the first team.
"I would like to play in the Real Madrid first team someday, knowing if I did that maybe the chance would be there to play for Nigeria," he explained.
"But if I am not playing at the top level week in, week out, I wouldn't expect to receive a call from anyone because that would be daydreaming.
"The immediate plan now is to go out on loan elsewhere, because at this age I need stability and regular football to fulfil my dream.
"Training alongside big players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Modric, Sergio Ramos and Pepe gives you a taste of what you can be as a footballer.
"The hard truth is that there is no available shortcut to reaching that level and staying there. I need to work extremely hard wherever I go and play first team football regularly. "


Chinese shares tumbled to their biggest loss in almost four months amid a flurry of new share issues, dragging down markets across much of Asia.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite closed down 4.1% to 4,298.71 - its biggest one day decline since 19 January.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.3% to 27,755.54 - closing at its lowest in two weeks.
Investors were also selling after hopes receded that China would follow others in the region and cut interest rates.
Disappointing factory activity data on Monday had boosted investor confidence that China may introduce measures to help boost its slowing economy.
Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed flat, down just 0.02% at 5,826.50.
The index finished the trading day in negative territory, despite an announcement by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) that it would cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to an all-time low of 2%, effective from Wednesday.
Rising property prices in Australia's biggest city, Sydney, a strong currency and a drop in iron ore prices were among the reasons for the cut.
The cut is the second this year, following a previous 25 basis point cut in February.
Australia's currency started to fall against the US dollar on the RBA's announcement.
On a brighter note, shares in ANZ, one of Australia's biggest banks, were up as much as 3.9% after the lender posted better-than-expected half yearly results.
The bank posted a cash profit of 3.7bn Australian dollars ($2.9bn;Â£1.91bn) for the six months ending in March, beating forecasts for a rise of A$3.6bn.
The result marks a 5% rise on cash profits from a year earlier.
Analysts described the numbers as a welcome relief amid a slowing economy and disappointing results from rival Westpac on Monday.
Elsewhere, South Korea's financial markets were closed on Tuesday for the Children's Day holiday.
And Japanese markets are shut for the Golden Week holiday. They will reopen on Thursday.


There has been a surge of food trucks recently in Macae, a city that calls itself Brazil's "oil capital".

At first glance, it makes sense that in this seaside town with its beach culture, there would be plenty of street food vendors selling to both tourists and residents.
But many of them did not open because entrepreneurs were discovering a new niche. These trucks belong to people who have lost their jobs and used their compensation money to start a new business.
In fact, on weekdays, most food trucks are just parked around town and closed as there aren't many customers.
In just under two years, this city of 239,000 saw about 22,000 jobs disappear. Many of the unemployed who did not buy food trucks or venture into new business simply left town.
Macae is one of the many cities on Brazil's south-east coast that has seen its dreams of oil-spurred wealth destroyed by the cruel reality of the country's oil crisis that started in 2014.
Brazil's oil reserves are buried deep beneath the seabed, miles from the coast. So places like Macae are home to a large number of people who work on the offshore oil platforms and drilling ships.
Since the 1970s, when Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras started its offshore operations here, this sleepy fishing town has seen an influx of highly skilled workers, such as engineers, chemists and professional divers.
Anita Gomide and her husband started their commercial diving firm Tecsubsea in 2011 to service the oil platforms.
During the good years, they would have up to two jobs a week - each of them requiring a team of at least three divers. But now they say they are lucky to get one job a month.
"Every six months we sit down and consider shutting down our company," says Anita.
"Then we decide, 'Let's just carry on for six months more and see what happens.' We've been doing this for a long time."
Tecsubsea is still operating, but many of its competitors have dropped out.
The upside of this crisis, Anita jokes, is that Macae is now a much nicer place to live, with less traffic and more affordable housing.
At the local port, most commercial boats that service the oil industry are anchored in the dock. The only vessels in high demand are the fishing ones.
Evanildo Faria, of Patricia Mar Transport, takes people and equipment out to the drilling ships and platforms. He says demand has fallen by about 80% and he has had to fire many employees.
"We've been in this business for four decades. I have never seen things this bad."
At the heart of Macae's boom and bust cycle is Petrobras - Brazil's state oil giant.
The euphoria with Petrobras started in 2006, when the company announced massive new oil reserves in the so-called "pre-salt" layer of rocks - some 4,000m beneath the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean (itself up to 3,000m deep at this point).
The new oil find was supposed to turn Brazil into one of the wealthiest non-Opec oil producers.
Over the years, under the leadership of former Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, lawmakers changed the law to ensure that Petrobras would be the main operator here, and that the royalties it paid would go on health and education spending.
Markets rallied with Brazil's good fortune. In 2010, at the height of the global euphoria with Brazilian oil, Petrobras raised $70bn (about Â£46bn at the time) in what was then the world's largest public share offering.
But today the company holds a very different record: it has the highest debt of any corporation in the world - in both relative and absolute terms. Its debt of $120bn is more than five times bigger than its ability to generate cashflow.
A number of factors contributed to Petrobras's downfall over the years. In 2014, a major corruption scandal revealed that $2bn had been stolen from the company by executives and politicians.
It took Petrobras seven months to produce a credible balance sheet.
But corruption was just one factor. Petrobras had also been subsidising domestic petrol prices.
The government, which holds the majority of the company's shares, used this policy to hold down inflation. It may have helped keep retail prices down, but it came at great cost to Petrobras.
International markets did not help either. Oil prices tumbled as China's economy slowed. New onshore shale gas projects became far more competitive than expensive offshore investments.
Since June, a few weeks after Ms Rousseff stepped down from government during her impeachment trial, the new government of President Michel Temer has been moving fast in its bid to reform Petrobras and the sector.
It has pressed on with changes initiated by Ms Rousseff to prevent further corruption scandals - now key company decisions have to be scrutinised by a number of executives and committees.
Crucially the company says it will sell off $15bn in assets - including its biofuel operations.
And Brazil's Congress is moving to remove Petrobras's privileges when it comes to the pre-salt oil, allowing foreign multinationals a bigger role.
In Macae, where the economy is closely linked to the future of Petrobras, people are divided over the reforms.
"I think these reforms will have a great effect here," says Anita Gomide.
"But we are not sure about how quickly they will come. It will open up new jobs and companies that we have lost over the years."
But the oil workers' trade unions disagree. They have launched campaigns and strikes against President Temer's reforms, accusing him of giving away prized assets to foreign firms.
Marcelo Abrahao, director of Sindipetro union, says the government has the means to seek loans and new cash to invest in Petrobras.
"Petrobras should not be run like a private company. Its purpose is much greater than just to seek profits," he says.
Pedro Parente, the man appointed by President Temer to reform Petrobras, says no-one is happy with what was done in the past with the company, and that it is still suffering from the effects of past decisions and crises.
But he says once Petrobras reduces its debt by selling assets and scaling down investments, it will grow once again.
"In five years, this company will be bigger than it is today in its main area - oil and gas," says Mr Parente.
Most people in Macae, even those who are not fully behind his plans, hope that this prediction at least will come true for the sake of Brazil's beleaguered oil capital.


Based on the camouflage abilities of octopuses and cuttlefish, engineers in the US have built a flexible material that changes colour to match its surroundings.

The new design features a grid of 1mm cells, containing a temperature-driven dye that switches colour on demand.
So far it only responds in black-and-white, but the team hopes that the principles of their design will have commercial and military applications.
The work appears in the journal PNAS.
Senior author Prof John Rogers, from the University of Illinois, said the new sheet was the fruit of a collaboration between experts in biology, materials, computing and electrical engineering.
"Animals in the natural world - particularly cephalopods: octopus, squid and cuttlefish - have really spectacular colour-changing capabilities," he told BBC News.
Prof Rogers' team set out to see what could be learned from such natural examples, and build a new material based on those insights.
In particular, they copied the three-layer design seen in the skin of these animals: the top layer contains the colours, the middle layer drives the colour changes, and the lower layer senses the background patterns to be copied.
Each component in the new sheets, however, does its job quite differently from the three layers that do the same job in an octopus's skin.
The bottom layer in the engineered system contains a grid of photosensors, which detect changes in light and transmit that pattern to "actuators" in the layer above.
These actuators take the place of muscles within octopus skin, which control colour-changing organs in the surface layer.
The uppermost layer in the artificial version uses a temperature-sensitive pigment, which goes from black to transparent at precisely 47C. That temperature change has to be produced by a current from the actuators underneath.
This is both a much less efficient system, and a much more limited colour repertoire, than what shimmers across the eight-legged canvasses of the sea.
Nonetheless, Prof Rogers' team is justifiably proud of its achievement.
"This is the first full, working system of its kind - it looks like a thin sheet of paper," he told BBC News.
"But it's nothing close to being ready to deploy, in a military setting or anything else. It's really a beginning point, to focus on the engineering science around how you might create systems that have this type of function."
In particular, the system needs to improve its spatial and colour resolution, and its efficiency - possibly by incorporating solar cells instead of using external power.
This could all be done by adapting existing technology, Prof Rogers said, such as that seen in flat-screen displays.
Prof Anne Neville, a UK expert in biologically inspired technologies, said the work was of a "very high standard" and was impressed by the number of different disciplines involved.
"It's very innovative and very interesting," said Prof Neville, who is the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Leeds.
The applications go beyond the obvious associations of camouflage, where Prof Rogers said there is "obvious potential" - potential which led to the work being funded by the US Navy.
"What I've been intrigued by is a number of folks who have approached us for completely other classes of application, that I wouldn't initially have guessed at."
One of these was an art professor in Chicago, who is interested in colour-changing fabrics for high-end fashion, which could respond to ambient lighting. "In that case you probably don't want camouflage necessarily," Prof Rogers said. "Maybe you want your clothing configured so that you stand out from the crowd."
Such "anti-camouflage" would draw more inspiration from the deep sea creatures that use their skin to attract, rather than avoid, attention - like cuttlefish that mesmerise their prey with rippling stripes.
Prof Rogers has also had conversations with his own university's school of architecture, about the possibility of dynamic, colour-changing walls and other interior surfaces.
These grand designs remain some way off, however, and Prof Rogers emphasised that they are not his priority.
"Our goal as researchers is not to develop a colour-changing wallpaper. That's a vision that somebody had, for an application - and indeed, it's kind of cool. But our emphasis is more on the basics, around biologically inspired engineering."
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When Julius Malema recently warned South African president Jacob Zuma that soldiers were going to "turn their guns" against him, one might have been forgiven for dismissing this as vintage Malema hyperbole.

He may have received some military training in the past but the red-bereted "Commander in Chief"  of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as he is known, is a populist politician, not a Che Guervara guerrilla leader.
During the launch of his party's manifesto a few days ago, Julius Malema similarly warned that South Africa's soldiers were among his supporters - a fact that is probably true given the pluralist nature of the South African National Defence Force. But how much should we read into Malema's military musings?
Malema may be a wannabe revolutionary who frequently alludes to Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Venezuela's former leader Hugo Chavez's revolutionary fervour. But he is smart, quick-witted and no fool.
He knows how to capture the public's imagination and press the buttons of the leader who he once said he would be prepared "to die for".
A few months ago, when the Constitutional Court ruled that Jacob Zuma had violated the country's basic law by failing to head calls to "pay back the money" after security upgrades to his rural home, one of South Africa's defence unions responded in anger.
Zuma survives Nkandla impeachment vote
Profile: Jacob Zuma
Zuma fights for his reputation
Sandu (The South African National Defence Union) accused both the President and parliament of having "constitutional dirt on their hands". They appeared to speak for many South Africans.
That sense of frustration also bubbled over in 2009 when more than 1,000 disgruntled soldiers went on the rampage in the administrative capital Pretoria, to protest against poor pay and conditions. But tear gas and rubber bullets quickly quelled their "rebellion" and no-one for one moment thought it was the start of a coup.
Some in the armed forces clearly align themselves with many ordinary South Africans concerned about the integrity of their president.
But Jakkie Cilliers from the Institute of Security Studies - himself a former South African soldier - believes it is unlikely that Malema "can a tap into a deep vein of running discontent" even though the military is "underfunded and overstretched".
The new South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is home to a wide range of interests.
Among its members are former apartheid era soldiers, fighters from the MK (Umkhonto we sizwe) the former armed wing of the ANC, other freedom fighters such as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and a new generation of "born free" South African soldiers, who were still children when the armoured vehicles of the old apartheid security state swept through the streets crushing everything in their path.
Central to today's South African military is the lack of a core political identity. And central to the South African state is the fact that it is a constitutional democracy and soldiers are given space to express their views, just like any other South African.
Unlike other countries where South African troops have been deployed as peacekeepers, including Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the South Africa military is credited with a sense of professionalism. That has meant it has kept out of politics.
Profile: Julius Malema
Julius Malema: In his own words
The top brass of the armed forces are largely made up of those loyal to the governing party.
And despite problems of resources, Cilliers argues that it is unlikely to be enough to provide political ammunition for Malema.
He said: "I think there is no possibility of senor military aligning themselves with anyone other than the ruling party. The values of constitutionalism are taught and understood at every level of the military, so we are unlikely to see anything like insubordination, let alone an attempted coup."
So when Malema talks about soldiers "turning their guns" against President Zuma is he perhaps speaking metaphorically, threatening more civil unrest rather than the potential for a military coup?
"There is no doubt," says Somadoda Fikeni, a political analyst, "that such language prepares people for discontent." But it is ambiguous, perhaps deliberately so.
He worries about ordinary South Africans, the millions of unemployed for whom Julius Malema clearly holds some appeal.
His talk of "revolution" may hold "tantalising appeal" but to Fikeni the danger is not with the EFF leadership, "but the people who take him literally".
The ANC did take Mr Malema literally when in a recent TV interview the "Commander in Chief" issued a chilling warning, that made headlines around the world - that the Zuma government would be removed "through the barrel of a gun". The ANC responded by threatening to sue him for treason.
President Zuma, as a former head of intelligence for the ANC and a member of MK, knows a thing or two about insurgency.
He also knows that the best counter-insurgency strategy is to win the propaganda war, erode your opponents' support base and offer a legitimate alternative that keeps your supporters onside.
Julius Malema may picture himself as a revolutionary making waves in the run-up to municipal elections - but he relies on questions over President Zuma's legitimacy to breath oxygen into his campaign.
Until that is addressed, some would argue, Malema will draw a crowd.


A man and a 15-year-old girl have been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice following an investigation into jury tampering.

Jonaade Hussain, 27, and the teenager appeared before magistrates in Leeds earlier.
The investigation relates to a "crash-for-cash" trial that resulted in four men being jailed for offences including the manslaughter of a woman aged 88.
A 28-year-old man who was also arrested remains in police custody.
The three people were initially arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to intimidate jurors and perverting the course of justice.
Betty Laird died in hospital after a car she was travelling in was hit on Old Lane, Beeston, Leeds, in 2014, in a staged "crash-for-cash" collision.
Mr Hussain, from Leeds, was remanded in custody while the girl, who cannot be named because of her age, was released on bail, West Yorkshire Police said.