Donald Trump to have trilateral meeting with PM Modi and Shinzo Abe in Argentina
US President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, the White House said Tuesday.
The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings Trump would have later this week on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Argentina. The annual meeting is being attended by leaders of the top 20 economies of the world.
However, all eyes are expected to be on two meetings that Trump would have with the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said that Trump will also have meetings with President Mauricio Macri of Argentina, President Moon Jae-In of South Korea, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Blast in China’s Hebei province kills 22, injures at least 22
A blast near a chemical plant in Zhangjiakou city in China’s northern Hebei province early on Wednesday killed 22 people and injured at least 22 others, the local government said.
A video of the blast scene shared by state media showed billowing black smoke and flames, while photographs showed rows of burnt-out cars and trucks lining the streets on Wednesday morning.
The fire engulfed 50 vehicles, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing sources from the government. Production at the nearby Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co was shut down, said a woman who answered the plant’s telephone. A spokesman at ChemChina, owner of Hebei Shenghua, confirmed that the blast did not occur at Shenghua.
State media said all fires at the blast site had been extinguished. Zhangjiakou, a city about 156 km (96 miles) northwest of Beijing, is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics alongside the capital.
Pakistan to invite PM Modi for SAARC summit in Islamabad: Report
Pakistan Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be invited to Islamabad for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Dawn reported.
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The previous summit in 2016 was cancelled after India backed out following the terrorist attack on an Army camp in Uri where 19 soldiers died.
The last summit of the leaders of the eight SAARC countries was convened in Kathmandu in late 2014. Recalling Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two, Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal pitched for dialogue with New Delhi to solve all contentious issues.
“We fought a war with India, relations cannot be fixed quickly,” Faisal said. So far, India’s refusal to engage Pakistan unless Islamabad addressed its concerns on cross-border terrorism has remained a sticky issue for holding the 19th SAARC summit.
SAARC Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association. Besides India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the 2016 Islamabad meet. The Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative.
NASA's InSight lander has touched down on Mars
Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory exploded into celebratory applause and cheers after the touchdown was confirmed. The landing was watched around the world and even broadcast live on the Nasdaq Stock Market tower in New York City's Times Square.
During a post-landing NASA press conference, the astronauts on the International Space Station called down to congratulate the mission team and said they "got some goosebumps" watching the coverage.
President Kovind appoints Sunil Arora as new Chief Election Commissioner
President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Sunil Arora as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), replacing OP Rawat. Arora will take charge on December 2. Arora was previously brought in as the Election Commissioner in September, last year to fill the vacancy created by former CEC Nasim Zaidi’s retirement.
A 1980-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, Arora was the skill development secretary before he was appointed as the top bureaucrat in the I&B Ministry. He has also worked in ministries and departments such as Finance, Textiles and Planning Commission and was also CMD of Indian Airlines for five years.
Back in his home state, Arora was one of the most trusted officers of Vasundhara Raje during her earlier term as Rajasthan Chief Minister. He was her principal secretary from 2005 to 2008.
Kartarpur corridor HIGHLIGHTS: Will visit Pakistan after it ends terror, says Amarinder Singh
Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Monday arrived in Gurdaspur to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the Kartarpur corridor which will link India’s border district of Gurdaspur with Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal, and Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh are also present on the occasion.
To mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev next year, India last week had decided to build the Kartarpur road corridor up to the international border between India and Pakistan to let Sikh pilgrims visit the gurdwara on the banks of the river Ravi in Pakistan. The two neighbouring countries on November 15 had made an official announcement in this regard and had decided to let the pilgrims visit the holy shrine without having to secure a visa.
Citizens abroad can soon get passports in under 48 hours at Indian missions: VK Singh
Indian missions across the world would soon issue passports in less than 48 hours to citizens abroad, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said here.
Addressing a gathering after launching the 'Passport Seva' project at the Indian Embassy here on Saturday, he said the passport offices at Indian missions have been digitally linked with the data centre back home, which would speed up the process of issuing passport.
Earlier this week, the Indian mission at New York issued passports in less than 48 hours. "This is going to happen across the world," Singh said, handing over passports issued under the new project to citizens abroad.
Asserting that in the coming days India will have the best passport services in the world, the minister said there has been a major simplification of rules and regulations for passport applicants and verification of a lot of information of the applicants would be done digitally.
The 'Passport Seva' project was first launched in the UK last month.
In US, the project was first rolled out in New York on November 21, followed by Washington on Saturday. It would be subsequently launched in Indian Consulates at Atlanta, Houston, Chicago and San Francisco.
After the UK and the US, the project would be extended to all the Indian missions across the globe, Singh said.
Navtej Singh Sarna, Indian Ambassador to the US, who was also present at the launch, said, "This is actually going to quantitatively and qualitatively improve our passport services immensely, both in the scope of the applications that can be handled and also in the way they will be handled and the way they will be integrated into the overall much better consular services."
The minister said in the next few months, the Indian government will issue a new set of passports, the design of which have already been approved.
The new passports will have all kind of security features and better printing and paper quality, Singh said
26/11: US announces $5 mn reward for information that leads to arrest of conspirators
On the tenth anniversary of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the United States on Monday offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual who was involved in planning or facilitating the assault.
“It is an affront to the families of the victims that, after ten years, those who planned the Mumbai attack have still not been convicted for their involvement,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to uphold their UN Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and its affiliates.”
“We stand with the families and friends of the victims, whose loved ones were lost in this act of barbarism, including six American citizens. The barbarity of 26/11 shocked the entire world,” he said, expressing solidarity with the survivors of the attack. The United States, Pompeo said, is committed to seeing that those responsible for the attack face justice.
Airtel Africa appoints eight global banks to work on IPO
Mumbai: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd said it has appointed eight global banks for the planned initial public offering (IPO) of its African unit. Airtel Africa Ltd, a subsidiary of the Indian telecom giant, has appointed J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, BofA Merrill Lynch, Absa Group Limited, Barclays Bank PLC, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs International and Standard Bank Group for its IPO, it said in an exchange filing.
Bharti Airtel shares jumped as much as 3.14% intraday to Rs 338.25 per share following the announcement.
The proposed IPO of the African unit follows a $1.25 billion fund raise by Airtel Africa, led by Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singtel, SoftBank Group International and others.
Earlier this month, Airtel Africa also announced its newly-constituted board of directors that includes representatives from Bharti Airtel and the investors. “The new Board of Directors brings a wealth of industry and governance experience to further drive the Airtel Africa business,” the telecom operator said in the filing.
Timeline: The turbulent journey of Jet Airways
Jet Airways Ltd, the biggest full-service carrier in India, has been under dark clouds for the past few months. While intense pricing competition, weak rupee and rising fuel costs have hurt Indian airlines like IndiGo owned by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd and SpiceJet Ltd, Jet Airways is in a league of its own. Saddled with a debt of about 80.52 billion rupees ($1.14 billion) as of Sept. 30, Jet is desperately searching for a deal that could help mitigate its severe liquidity crunch. The airline has a market capitalisation of 35.03 billion rupees as of last close.The Tata conglomerate is now likely to be the potential white knight for the debt-laden company, but no proposal has been made yet.