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Hello Jammu News at 1:31:00 PM 0



London, Apr 21: The Prince of Wales will succeed the Queen as head of the Commonwealth, its leaders have announced, according to The Royla Family and Commonwealth sources.
The Queen had said it was her "sincere wish" that Prince Charles would follow her in the role.
Leaders of the Commonwealth discussed the issue at a meeting behind closed doors at Windsor Castle.
The head role is non-hereditary so is not automatically passed on when the Queen dies, with suggestions it might have rotated among the 53 leaders.
In a statement, the leaders said they "recognise the role of the Queen in championing the Commonwealth and its people".
Prime Minister Theresa May and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau had earlier given their backing to Prince Charles, the BBC News report said.
Speaking at a news conference marking the end of the summit, Mrs May praised the Queen for her "vision and duty" in growing the Commonwealth from eight members to 53.
She said it was "fitting" Prince Charles would succeed her due to his "proud support" of the Commonwealth "for more than four decades".
The leaders also agreed a "blue charter" to protect the ocean from pollution and climate change and a "cyber declaration" to combat online crime and threats.
The meeting during a two-day summit involved 46 heads of Commonwealth governments and foreign ministers from the remaining seven countries.
The Commonwealth represents about 2.4bn people, but critics say the organisation is so disparate that it struggles to know what it is for, BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond said.
He also said the news of the prince's appointment would be "of great satisfaction" to the Queen.
Other issues under discussion in London have included trade between the countries with Mrs May saying the leaders agreed to "fight protectionism" to expand intra-Commonwealth trade to $2 trillion by 2030.
The leaders' statement said they had set "specific commitments" which include building peace, promoting gender equality and tackling climate change.
They also said they will work to prevent violent extremism and human trafficking, pledged to halve malaria in Commonwealth countries by 2023 and agreed that all boys and girls should receive at least 12 years of education by 2030.
Meanwhile, the government has indicated it would welcome Zimbabwe's re-entry to the Commonwealth after Robert Mugabe pulled the country out in 2003.
Foreign secretary Boris Johnson said Zimbabwe's government has "made impressive progress" under Mr Mugabe's successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, but the country would have to deliver "free and fair elections" for the people in July.
Rwanda has been chosen to host the next summit in 2020.
The role, currently held by the Queen, is largely a symbolic one and carries no maximum fixed term.
It is used to unify the 53 member states and to ensure the core aims of the Commonwealth are fulfilled. These include linking the countries through trade and international co-operation.
The head of the Commonwealth usually makes regular visits to the member states to foster these connections personally.
A decision on all successive heads has to be made by the Commonwealth leaders.
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Secretary-General and the Secretariat, its central organisation, help to plan many Commonwealth activities. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 1:34:00 PM 0



New York, Apr 18: A woman has been killed and seven others needed medical treatment after an engine on a US passenger jet apparently exploded in midair, the BBC News said.
Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after a window, wings and fuselage were damaged in the incident, officials say.
In an air traffic control recording, one of the pilots can be heard saying "there is a hole and someone went out".
The last passenger death on a US commercial flight was in 2009.
The Boeing 737-700 had been en route from New York's La Guardia airport to Dallas, Texas, with 143 passengers and five crew when the incident happened on Tuesday morning.
Witnesses say an engine on the plane's left side blew, smashing a window and causing cabin depressurisation that nearly sucked a woman out of the aircraft. She was pulled back in by other passengers.
The plane made a safe landing at 11:20 (15:20 GMT), fire officials said.
The dead woman was Jennifer Riordan, a mother-of-two and bank vice-president at Wells Fargo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In the air traffic control recording released by NBC News, pilot Tammie Jo Shults is heard saying: "We have a part of the aircraft missing, so we're going to need to slow down a bit."
Asked if the plane is on fire, she says it is not but adds: "They said there is a hole and someone went out."
The US Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said a preliminary investigation had revealed that an engine fan blade was missing and there was evidence of metal fatigue at the point where it had apparently broken off.
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said part of the cowling -- the engine's covering -- was found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles (112km) from Philadelphia.
"It is very unusual so we are taking this event extremely seriously," he said, adding that the investigation could take 12 to 15 months.
Mr Sumwalt told reporters the type of engine, a CFM56, is "very widely used in commercial transport".
The Philadelphia Fire Department said one passenger had been taken to hospital in a critical condition while seven other people were treated for minor injuries at the scene.
In a statement, Southwest Airlines said it was "devastated" and extended sympathy to all those affected by the "tragic event".
Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel told a news conference that passengers and crew "did some pretty amazing things under very difficult circumstances".
First responders "found a fuel leak and small fire in one of the engines", he said, adding that they used foam to extinguish the flames.
'Blood everywhere' Images have been shared on social media showing passengers sitting in oxygen masks as the plane shudders around them.
"All of a sudden, we heard this loud bang, rattling..." said one passenger.
"It just shredded the left-side engine completely... it was scary," Kristopher Johnson told CNN.
Timothy Bourman, a pastor from New York City, told he had been sitting in the rear of the plane when he heard a loud boom.
"All the sudden, it felt like we dropped 100 feet," he said.
"We were kind of out of control for a while. It seemed like the pilot was having a hard time controlling the plane. Honestly I think we just all thought we were going down."
When flight attendants told passengers to brace for impact, Mr Bourman said he and his wife worried for the worst.
"We're just all really thankful to be alive right now," he said. "Thankful to God, thankful to that pilot."
Passenger Marty Martinez posted a brief Facebook live with the caption: "Something is wrong with our plane! It appears we are going down! Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!"
After landing, he told CBS News that it felt like the plane was "free-falling", and added that he saw one injured woman being taken off the plane by rescuers.
"There was blood everywhere," he said.
"First there was an explosion and then almost immediately the oxygen masks came down and probably within a matter of 10 seconds the engine hit a window and busted it wide open." UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 12:07:00 PM 0


New York, Apr 18: A woman has been killed and seven others needed medical treatment after an engine on a US passenger jet apparently exploded in midair, the BBC News said.
Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after a window, wings and fuselage were damaged in the incident, officials say.
In an air traffic control recording, one of the pilots can be heard saying "there is a hole and someone went out".
The last passenger death on a US commercial flight was in 2009.
The Boeing 737-700 had been en route from New York's La Guardia airport to Dallas, Texas, with 143 passengers and five crew when the incident happened on Tuesday morning.
Witnesses say an engine on the plane's left side blew, smashing a window and causing cabin depressurisation that nearly sucked a woman out of the aircraft. She was pulled back in by other passengers.
The plane made a safe landing at 11:20 (15:20 GMT), fire officials said.
The dead woman was Jennifer Riordan, a mother-of-two and bank vice-president at Wells Fargo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In the air traffic control recording released by NBC News, pilot Tammie Jo Shults is heard saying: "We have a part of the aircraft missing, so we're going to need to slow down a bit."
Asked if the plane is on fire, she says it is not but adds: "They said there is a hole and someone went out."
The US Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said a preliminary investigation had revealed that an engine fan blade was missing and there was evidence of metal fatigue at the point where it had apparently broken off.
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said part of the cowling -- the engine's covering -- was found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles (112km) from Philadelphia.
"It is very unusual so we are taking this event extremely seriously," he said, adding that the investigation could take 12 to 15 months.
Mr Sumwalt told reporters the type of engine, a CFM56, is "very widely used in commercial transport".
The Philadelphia Fire Department said one passenger had been taken to hospital in a critical condition while seven other people were treated for minor injuries at the scene.
In a statement, Southwest Airlines said it was "devastated" and extended sympathy to all those affected by the "tragic event".
Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel told a news conference that passengers and crew "did some pretty amazing things under very difficult circumstances".
First responders "found a fuel leak and small fire in one of the engines", he said, adding that they used foam to extinguish the flames.
'Blood everywhere' Images have been shared on social media showing passengers sitting in oxygen masks as the plane shudders around them.
"All of a sudden, we heard this loud bang, rattling..." said one passenger.
"It just shredded the left-side engine completely... it was scary," Kristopher Johnson told CNN.
Timothy Bourman, a pastor from New York City, told he had been sitting in the rear of the plane when he heard a loud boom.
"All the sudden, it felt like we dropped 100 feet," he said.
"We were kind of out of control for a while. It seemed like the pilot was having a hard time controlling the plane. Honestly I think we just all thought we were going down."
When flight attendants told passengers to brace for impact, Mr Bourman said he and his wife worried for the worst.
"We're just all really thankful to be alive right now," he said. "Thankful to God, thankful to that pilot."
Passenger Marty Martinez posted a brief Facebook live with the caption: "Something is wrong with our plane! It appears we are going down! Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!"
After landing, he told CBS News that it felt like the plane was "free-falling", and added that he saw one injured woman being taken off the plane by rescuers.
"There was blood everywhere," he said.
"First there was an explosion and then almost immediately the oxygen masks came down and probably within a matter of 10 seconds the engine hit a window and busted it wide open." UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 12:27:00 PM 0


Washington, Apr 14: The US, UK and France have bombed multiple government targets in Syria in an early morning operation targeting alleged chemical weapons sites, says a BBC News report on Saturday.
The strikes are in response to a suspected chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma last week.
Explosions hit the capital, Damascus, as well as two locations near the city of Homs, the Pentagon said.
Russia's ambassador to the US responded by saying the attack on its ally "will not be left without consequences".
"A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now under way," President Trump said in an address to the nation from the White House at about 21:00 local time (02:00 BST).
The wave of strikes is the most significant attack against President Bashar al-Assad's government by western powers in seven years of Syria's civil war.
At a Pentagon briefing shortly after Mr Trump's announcement, Gen Joseph Dunford listed three targets that had been struck: (1) a scientific research facility in Damascus, allegedly connected to the production of chemical and biological weapons; (2) a chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs; and (3) a chemical weapons equipment storage and an important command post, also near Homs.
Syrian state television said government forces had shot down more than a dozen missiles, and claimed only the research facility in Damascus had been damaged.
US Secretary of Defence James Mattis told reporters there were no reports of US losses in the operation.
In his earlier address, President Trump had said: "We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents."
But Secretary Mattis said that "right now, this is a one-time shot". Gen Dunford confirmed the wave of strikes had ended.
Gen Dunford said the US had specifically identified targets that would "mitigate" the risk of Russian casualties. But the Pentagon said that Russia - which has forces on the ground in Syria in support of the government - had not been given advance notice of the targets.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed British involvement, saying there was "no practicable alternative to the use of force".
UK strikes carried out by four Tornado jets hit one of the targets mentioned by the Pentagon - a military site near the city of Homs which is believed to have housed precursor materials for chemical weapons, according to the UK ministry of defence.
French President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed his country's participation in the operation.
"Dozens of men, women and children were massacred with chemical weapons," he said of the Douma incident a week ago - adding that "the red line had been crossed".
This attack was more significant than the US strike against a Syrian air base a little over a year ago, but at first sight seems more limited than President Trump's rhetoric may have suggested.
Last year some 59 missiles were fired. This time a little over double that number were used.
The strikes are over for now, but there was a clear warning that if the Assad regime resorts to chemical weapons again then further strikes may well follow.
Care was taken, say the Americans, to avoid both Syrian and "foreign" - for that read Russian - casualties.
But the fundamental questions remain. Will President Assad be deterred?
Last year's US strike failed to change his behaviour. This time, will it be any different?
Syria has denied carrying out the Douma attack and its ally, Russia, had warned that Western military strikes would risk starting a war.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has dispatched a fact-finding mission to the site of the alleged attack in Syria. Investigators were due to start their probe later on Saturday.
Sana, Syria's official state news agency, called the western action "a flagrant violation of international law".
"The American, French and British aggression against Syria will fail," it said.
A US official told Reuters news agency that Tomahawk cruise missiles were being used against multiple locations in Syria.
Secretary Mattis also said the scale of the strikes was about "double" what was launched in April 2017 after a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed more than 80 people.
The strikes were ordered "on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities" of the Syrian government, Mr Trump said.
The US president said the purpose was "to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons".
"These are not the actions of a man, they are the crimes of a monster instead," he said of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, suggested that more targets than the three listed by the Pentagon had been hit.
It said western forces had struck "scientific research centres, several military bases, and the bases of the Republican Guard and Fourth Division in the capital Damascus and around it."
One Damascus resident told BBC News: "It was mayhem above us."
"I saw more than 20 anti-air missiles launched. They'd fly really high then start weaving across, like they were following their target.
"I didn't see the cruise missiles, but I saw some falling debris nearby."
What has the reaction been?
Reaction to the strikes was mixed among the international community.
The Nato Secretary General, Jen Stoltenberg, tweeted support for the western strikes, saying those who use chemical weapons "must be held accountable".
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also expressed his nation's support.
John Mc Cain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a top Republican who is often critical of the president, applauded Mr Trump for taking military action.
Across the aisle, however, some Democrats said that President Trump should come before Congress and receive authorisation for the use of military force.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned UN members of their responsibilities.
"There's an obligation, particularly when dealing with matters of peace and security, to act consistently with the Charter of the United Nations and with international law in general," he said.
"I urge all Member States to show restraint in these dangerous circumstances." UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 2:10:00 PM 0


Islamabad, Mar 29: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has returned to Pakistan for the first time since being shot by Taliban militants, a BBC News said on Thursday.
Ms Yousafzai, now aged 20 and a vocal human rights activist, was shot in the head by a gunman for campaigning for female education in 2012.
She is expected to hold meetings with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
Details of the trip have been kept secret "in view of the sensitivity".
Pakistani television broadcast video that appeared to show her with her parents at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport under tight security.
The trip is expected to last four days and she arrived with officials from her Malala Fund group, local media report.
It has not been confirmed if she will visit her family's hometown of Swat in the country's rural north-west during her visit.
Many on Twitter called for a warm welcome for the activist after news of her overnight homecoming broke.
At just 11, Ms Yousafzai began writing an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about her life under Taliban rule.
A vocal advocate of female education amid militant suppression in Pakistan, she was deliberately attacked on a school bus at 15. Malala's story brought international attention.
The Pakistani Taliban said at the time that they shot her because she was "pro-West" and "promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas".
The teenager sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack, and had to have part of her skull removed to relieve swelling on her brain.
After receiving emergency treatment at a military hospital in Pakistan, she was transported to the UK for further treatment and to recover in Birmingham, where her family continue to live.
What has she done since?
Since her recovery, Ms Yousafzai has continued to speak up for children's education and rights around the world.
She set up the Malala Fund with her father Ziauddin, with the goal of "working for a world where every girl can learn and lead without fear".
In 2014 she became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi were jointly awarded it for their efforts for children's rights.
She has continued campaigning while pursuing her studies, and last year earned a place at Oxford University.
Despite security efforts in recent years, the Pakistani Taliban has remained active.
They have been blamed for a number of deadly attacks on schools and colleges that have killed hundreds.
Ms Yousafzai repeatedly expressed her wishes to return to Pakistan, describing her hometown of Swat as "paradise on earth" in an interview earlier this month.
"I have received a lot of support in my country," she told US talk-show host David Letterman in a Netflix special.
"There is this lust for change. People want to see change in their country. I am already doing work there but I want my feet to touch that land."
Pakistan is religiously conservative and late last year Ms Yousafzai was trolled online after a picture of her in Oxford wearing western clothes - jeans and heeled boots - was shared on social media. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 2:07:00 PM 0


Caracas, Mar 29: A fire at a police station in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, in Carabobo state, has left 68 people dead, government officials say, a BBC News report said.
The blaze reportedly started after prisoners set fire to mattresses in an attempt to break out on Wednesday.
Police used tear gas to disperse relatives who surrounded the station after news of the fire broke.
Chief state prosecutor Tarek Saab said an investigation into what had happened would begin immediately.
State official Jesus Santander said the situation had now been been brought under control. He said the state of Carabobo was in mourning.
The circumstances surrounding the fire have not been officially confirmed.
The association Una Ventana a la Libertad (A Window on Freedom), which monitors jail conditions, said its reports showed a police officer had been shot in the leg by a detainee and that shortly afterwards mattresses in cells were set ablaze and the fire quickly spread.
Mr Santander did confirm one police officer had been shot.
Rescuers reportedly broke through walls to try to free those trapped by the blaze.
Nearly all of those who died were inmates but at least two women who were visiting at the time were also killed, Mr Saab said.
Some of the victims burned to death, others died of smoke asphyxiation.
Angry relatives gathered outside the detention centre and clashed with police as they sought information about loved ones.
Aida Parra, who said she had last seen her son the day before, told the Associated Press news agency: "I don't know if my son is dead or alive. They haven't told me anything."
Dora Blanco told local media: "I am a desperate mother. My son has been here a week. They have not given any information."
The government has set up an inquiry.
Carabobo state governor Rafael Lacava expressed his condolences, adding: "A serious and profound investigation has been initiated to find the causes and those responsible for these regrettable events."
Facilities are notoriously overcrowded, with violence and deadly riots common.
The country has struggled to accommodate its prisoners amid an ongoing economic crisis, leading to the use of temporary facilities such as the one in Valencia.
Inmates are supposed to be held for only 48 hours in police holding cells.
Carlos Nieto, head of Una Ventana a la Libertad, says some police facilities are overfilled at five times their capacity.
The organisation says that 65 people died last year in temporary cells due to violence, disease or malnutrition.
Last month inmates at a different prison in Carabobo took a number of prisoners and guards hostage in another riot. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 3:20:00 PM 0



Abuja, Mar 22: Nearly all of the 110 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by militants in the town of Dapchi last month have been returned, the government says.
Officials said at least 101 girls were reunited with their families after being brought back to the town, a BBC News report said on Thursday.
The girls were later flown to the capital, Abuja, where they were due to meet President Muhammadu Buhari.
Reports suggest at least five girls died during their ordeal, and that a Christian girl remains captive.
One of the freed girls, in a phone conversation with a relative, said the five had been crushed to death as they were herded into vehicles and driven away.
The girl said she and the others were taken into the bush, to an "enclosed place". When asked whether they were well fed, she said they had to cook their own food.
The government did not make any mention of deaths, or otherwise explain the discrepancy between 
One parent, Kundili Bukar, told the BBC the militants had driven into the town in a motorcade in the early hours of Wednesday morning and surrendered the girls to the community.
Government officials indicated their relief. The government had been strongly criticised after the abduction on 19 February, amid reports that the military had pulled out of Dapchi the day before.
Nigeria had already suffered the Chibok kidnapping, when 276 girls were snatched from a school in April 2014. More than 100 are still missing.
Among those to witness the release of the Dapchi girls were some of the Chibok parents, who had gone to the town to console its residents on their loss.
"Our visit became something else," one of the Chibok mothers told Reuters news agency, adding that the scenes of reunion made her weep for the fate of her own daughter.
And while many parents celebrated, the father of one girl said she was being kept by the militants - thought to be from the Boko Haram group - because she refused to convert from Christianity to Islam. In a radio interview he said he was happy that she had not renounced her faith.
School warning
The BBC says the government is likely to have given something in return for the girls' release.
But Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told Reuters that "no ransom was paid".
Mr Lai Mohammed said the girls were taken to hospital in Dapchi, and they would be quarantined and offered psychological counselling before going back to school.
However, one parent told the BBC the extremists had warned them not to send their daughters back to school, or they would be kidnapped again.
The return of more than 70 Dapchi schoolgirls indicates that a Boko Haram faction, led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, is taking a different approach to kidnappings.
Negotiations for the Chibok girls' release proved difficult under Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau. More than 100 of them still remain in captivity.
But despite reports, Wednesday's release did not come free. Boko Haram definitely got something in return for waltzing back into Dapchi and dropping off the girls.
The problem going forward is that this will encourage the IS-linked militants to once again raid another community and abduct another set of people.
The Nigerian government might feel like it has averted the kind of global disrepute that plagued the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan following its poor response to the kidnapping of the Chibok girls.
But this is only a minor PR victory for President Muhammadu Buhari's administration. Boko Haram and its various factions suffered no losses on Wednesday and they will remain a scourge in Nigeria. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 3:19:00 PM 0



Washington, Mar 22: The Trump administration plans to announce sanctions against China on Thursday after determining that the country was encouraging the theft and transfer of intellectual property from US businesses, a BBC News report said.
The White House said the actions come after years of talks about the issue that failed to produce change.
The actions are expected to include tariffs, as well as other measures.
The plans have stoked fears of a wider trade war.
The White House is reported by US media to be considering between $30bn-$60bn in tariffs as well as measures that would restrict investment.
The US may also seek to bring complaints to the World Trade Organisation, trade officials said.
America's top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, told members of Congress on Wednesday the US is looking to put "maximum pressure on China and minimum pressure on US consumers".
Mr Lighthizer said protecting intellectual property is critical to the US economy.
"It's an enormously important issue," Mr Lighthizer said at the House Ways and Means hearing. "We think it is perhaps the most important thing that will have been done in terms of rebalancing trade."
A US trade official, who spoke to reporters as part of a briefing, said the US has evidence that China requires firms to create local partnerships to enter the Chinese market, as a way of pressuring them into technology transfer.
The US also found evidence that China steers investments in the US to strategic industries, and conducts and supports cyber attacks.
The findings come from a review of China's practices that Mr Trump ordered in August, called a 301 investigation.
In section 301 of the trade act, the government has given itself the power to unilaterally impose sanctions against countries which it decides are not trading fairly.
There is growing concern in America that China is seeking technology that could be deployed for military purposes.
Congress is also weighing legislation that would boost the government's power to review foreign business deals, citing the threat posed by state-backed acquisition of US firms.
But some politicians and industries, including retailers, have expressed concern about possible retaliation.
"I'm all for targeting Chinese intellectual property violations, holding them accountable - but let's be targeted in what we want China to change," Erik Paulsen, a Republican who represents Minnesota, urged Mr Lighthizer on Wednesday.
"Let's not shoot ourselves in the foot."
Mr Lighthizer acknowledged the possibility of retaliation, noting that US agriculture is especially vulnerable. But he said that should not stop the US from taking action.
"I don't think it is a sufficient worry that therefore we're not going to stand up for intellectual property but we're trying to do everything in a measured and appropriate way," he said at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
"If there is retaliation, then the United States is going to have to take action to stick up for our farmers."
China has said there would be no winner from any trade war.
On Tuesday, the last day of the annual sitting of the National People's Congress, China's Premier Le Keqiang said he hoped both sides could remain "calm".
He also said he hoped the US would ease restrictions on exports of high-tech goods to China. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 4:19:00 PM 0


Beijing, Mar 20: Chinese President Xi Jinping has delivered a fervently nationalistic closing speech to parliament, painting China as the rising global power, a BBC News report said on Tuesday.
Mr Xi said "achieving total unity" was the "collective hope of all Chinese people" and any attempts to divide it were "doomed to fail".
The speech was a strong warning against any attempt at separatism from places like Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Mr Xi also warned China could not be complacent about its development.
Meanwhile, Premier Li Keqiang used his once-a-year news conference to say China was committed to global co-operation on trade.
He said China would further open up its economy and "ensure that both domestic and foreign firms" were "able to compete on fair terms in China's large market". Chinese officials have made similar pledges in the past.
The premier's comments are a marked contrast to the recent protectionist rhetoric and threats of tariffs from the Trump administration in the US.
Xi Jinping became president in 2013 and now looks likely to lead China indefinitely, after the National People's Congress (NPC) - a rubber-stamp parliamentary session that meets once a year - voted to remove a two-term limit on the presidency from the constitution.
He is now considered the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, and has further cemented his position by moving many of his key allies in to leadership roles during the NPC.
In his speech in the Great Hall of the People, Mr Xi highlighted major achievements of Chinese history, like the invention of gunpowder and the writings of Confucius.
He laid out his own grand vision for China, saying history had proven that "only socialism can save China".
Chinese people, he said, "have the spirit of fighting the bloody battle against our enemies to the bitter end".
In a way it wasn't so much what Xi Jinping said in his Congress closing speech that matters but the fact that he said it. This had traditionally been a day for China's number two leader, the premier, to dominate the stage with an annual press conference.
Not any more: President Xi emerges with a keynote speech pushing nationalist buttons and, all of a sudden, he is on the front page where he wants to be.
The pushing of Premier Li Keqiang to one side will not seem strange to China watchers, who have seen an already powerful Xi Jinping becoming virtually untouchable at this Congress.
The limited check-and-balance provision of presidential term limits has gone; his philosophy under his own name is in the country's constitution; his chief tool for destroying enemies - the anti-corruption crackdown - has been widened into other parts of society and it's hard to see who is left to be able to challenge President Xi in any way whatsoever.
Pointing at China's global ambitions, he said his country would be strong but not aggressive and would not develop itself at the expense of the rest of the world.
But he warned that China had to be united to prosper, and it was "absolutely impossible to separate any inch of our great country's territory from China".
"All acts and tricks to separate the country are doomed to fail and will be condemned by the people and punished by history."
The comments were a clear warning to places like Taiwan, which is self-ruling but considered by Beijing to be a a rebel region that must be reunited with the mainland - by force if necessary.
The issue remains a major potential flashpoint. Last week US President Donald Trump angered Beijing by singing a new law which encourages the sending of top officials to Taiwan to meet their counterparts there, and vice-versa.
There have also been vocal calls for greater autonomy or even independence for Hong Kong in recent years - and China says it is fighting an Islamist separatist insurgency in Xinjiang province.
Dissenting voices or protests are not tolerated at the NPC, which brings together 3,000 delegates who are theoretically elected but in reality handpicked by the government.
Among other major changes this year, the NPC confirmed a major shake-up of ministries, introducing several new bodies overseeing areas like the environment, army veterans and culture.
Key positions including the central bank head and chief economic adviser were appointed, and the NPC ratified a law to set up a new powerful anti-corruption agency, far extending the reach of Mr Xi's flagship campaign.
The anti-corruption drive has seen more than a million officials disciplined, but is seen by some observers as a tool to sideline his political rivals.
Though it was overwhelmingly backed by parliament, the decision to lift the presidential term limits has been criticised both abroad and within China.
In the run-up to the NPC, former state newspaper editor Li Datong wrote to lawmakers that scrapping term limits for the president and vice-president would sow the seeds of chaos.
"This is against the tide of civilisation and won't stand the test of time," he told BBC Chinese. "It will be considered a farce in Chinese history in the future." UNI
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