WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer told the New York Times Tuesday he paid $130,000 of his own money to a porn star who once said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.

The attorney, Michael Cohen, said that he was not reimbursed for the payment to the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford and goes by Stormy Daniels, the Times said.

Mr. Cohen told the newspaper the payment was legal, and he declined to give details such as why he made it.

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Mr. Cohen said, according to the Times.

“The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

US media reports have said the payment was made one month before the November 2016 election to keep the liaison quiet.

Mr. Trump was a private citizen when the 2006 sexual encounter with Ms. Clifford allegedly took place.

Mr. Trump was married at the time and his wife, Melania, had given birth to their son less than four months earlier.

The payment was first reported last month by the Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Trump, through his lawyers, and Ms. Clifford, 38, have both denied anything ever went on between them.

But In Touch magazine published a 2011 interview with Ms. Daniels last month in which she expounds at length and in detail on their relationship and what she described as their “textbook generic” sex. — AFP

NEW YORK — A US restaurant worker inspired by Osama bin Laden was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for wounding 31 people in a 2016 New York bombing, branded “extremely dangerous” by a federal judge.

Afghan-born Ahmad Khan Rahimi, 30, told the court that he became radicalized after being “harassed” by the FBI and “singled out” for his religion, but showed no remorse for inflicting the bloody injuries.

Prosecutors told his two-week trial last year it was a “miracle” that nobody was killed in the September 17, 2016 attack.

A second bomb forced the cancellation of a US Marine Corps run in the New Jersey town of Seaside Park. He was convicted on all eight counts.

Police also defused another device in Chelsea and found additional pipe bombs in Mr. Rahimi’s hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he worked in his family’s fried chicken restaurant.

Mr. Rahimi was critically wounded in a shoot-out with police on Sept. 19 before being captured, and was found with a handwritten journal lauding Osama bin Laden and US-born Al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki.

He moved to the US in 1995 with his family and became a naturalized citizen in 2011.

Addressing the court at length, Mr. Rahimi said he understood why there were frustrations between Muslim countries and Americans.

“I have been here for more than 20 years, I had American friends and Muslim friends,” he said. Things started to change, he said, after he started acting and dressing like a devout Muslim.

“I was harassed by the FBI,” he said, referring to going on holiday to the Dominican Republic. He claimed he was “singled out just because of my attire” after returning from a trip to Pakistan.

“I was never discriminated for my religion until I started following it,” he said.

Mr. Rahimi’s father contacted the FBI in the months leading up to the attack, warning them about his son’s militant sympathies.

“I did not hear an ounce of justification,” US District Judge Richard Berman.

“There is no comparison between the grievances that you may feel and the actions you took… The conclusion is inescapable that you remain extremely dangerous,” the judge added.

“Innocent people on a Saturday night, it is inexplicable that anybody would do that deliberately. But you did. It was you.”

Since Mr. Rahimi’s arrest, two other lone-wolf attackers have carried out bombings in New York. A Bangladeshi driver detonated a bomb in a subway passageway, wounding himself and three other people in December.

On Oct. 31, an Uzbek immigrant, also reportedly inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, killed eight people on a bike path by ramming his truck into cyclists.

New York retains stringent security, which was drastically stepped up after the Sept. 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda hijackings brought down the Twin Towers. — AFP

BEIJING — Britain’s Defense Ministry is trying to justify its existence and grab attention with a planned mission by a British warship to the disputed South China Sea next month, a Chinese newspaper said on Wednesday.

A British warship will sail through the South China Sea to assert freedom-of-navigation rights, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said in remarks published on Tuesday during a visit to Australia.

British officials first flagged the voyage six months ago and the journey is likely to stoke tensions with China, who claim control of most of the area and have built military facilities on land features in the sea.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to the energy-rich sea through which billions of dollars in trade pass each year.

The widely read state-run tabloid the Global Times said Mr. Williamson needed to state clearly the purpose of the mission.

“If not provocation, the Royal Navy should behave modestly when passing through the South China Sea,” it said in editorials published in its English and Chinese-language editions.

“By acting tough against China, Britain’s Ministry of Defence is trying to validate its existence and grab attention,” it said.

The paper wondered whether the Royal Navy could actually complete the trip, considering budget cuts and problems with a new aircraft carrier that has a leak.

“As the Royal Navy has been hit by news such as a leaky aircraft carrier and the UK government has a tight budget, it appears a difficult mission for the Royal Navy to come all this way to provoke China,” it wrote.

China has repeatedly accused countries outside the region — generally a reference to the United States and Japan — of trying to provoke trouble in the South China Sea while China and its neighbors are trying to resolve the matter through diplomacy.

Speaking of Britain’s plan, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it hoped “relevant sides don’t try to create trouble out of nothing.”

Britain, which will be leaving the European Union next year, has looked to China as one of the countries it wants to sign a free trade deal with once it leaves the bloc. British Prime Minister Theresa May ended a largely successful trip to China earlier this month. — Reuters