President Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, said on Tuesday that she would resign at the end of the year, marking the departure of one of the few high-profile women in the Trump administration.

Ms. Haley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina, had been an early and frequent critic of Mr. Trump, but he named her to the United Nations job weeks after his election. As ambassador, Ms. Haley has been an outspoken and often forceful envoy — someone whom foreign diplomats looked to for guidance from an administration known for haphazard and inconsistent policy positions — who emerged as something of a star amid the dysfunction of the president’s first national security team.

“It was a blessing to go into the U.N. with body armor every day and defend America,” Ms. Haley, seated next to Mr. Trump in the Oval Office, told reporters. “I’ll never truly step aside from fighting for our country. But I will tell you that I think it’s time.”

White House staff members were caught off guard by the announcement, which Ms. Haley and Mr. Trump had kept closely under wraps. But the president said Ms. Haley had informed him roughly six months ago that she wanted to take a break by the time his administration reached its second anniversary. He said that he hoped Ms. Haley would return in a different role, and that he would name her successor in the coming weeks.

Manu first shot a solid 576 to top the qualification round and then was best out of the blocks in the final with four shots out of the first five in the 10s or above, which was unmatched by the field. She was 0.6 ahead of Iana and Anja Prezelj of Slovakia, who were in second and third respectively at that stage. After the second five shot series, Manu’s lead over the Russian was cut to 0.2 while the Thai girl Kanyakorn displaced the Slovak in third place.

Amazingly all three leaders shot a 9.8 for their 11th shot and all three again shot in the 9s for their 12th at which stage the Lithuanian Greta Rankelyte was the first to be eliminated in eighth place.

Manu then after being 1.5 clear at the top after the 14th shot had a series of seven scores in the 9s from the 11th to the 20th shot, to lose the lead to the fast improving Georgian Nino Khutsiberidze after the 20th shot by 0.1. But a poor 21st and 22nd shot by Nino meant that Manu went into the final two shots, 1.5 ahead of the Russian Iana, who after looking as if she would be eliminated without a medal, had fought back brilliantly.

For the first time ever an Asian country has the most powerful passport in the world. It is a testament of Singapore's inclusive diplomatic relations and effective foreign policy," said Philippe May, managing director of Arton Capital's Singapore office.

India, which was listed 78th last year, has improved its ranking, figuring at 75th position with a visa-free score of 51.

Coming in at last place on the list is Afghanistan, ranked 94 with a score of 22, followed by Pakistan and Iraq at 93 with a score of 26, Syria at 92, having a score of 29 and Somalia at 91 with a score 34.

"Visa-free global mobility has become an important factor in today's world," said founder and president of Arton Capital Armand Arton at the recently held Global Citizen Forum in Montenegro.

"More and more people every year invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a second passport to offer better opportunity and security for their families," Arton added.

While Singapore quietly climbed the ranks, the US passport has fallen down since President Donald Trump took office. Most recently Turkey and the Central African Republic revoked their visa-free status to US passport holders, the statement said.

Passport Index has become the most popular interactive online tool to display, sort and rank the world's passports.

The index ranks national passports by the cross-border access they bring, assigning a "visa-free score" according to the number of countries a passport holder can visit visa-free or with visa on arrival.

On the occasion of its 85th anniversary, the Indian Air Force has launched an innovative mobile health App named `MedWatch' in keeping with the Prime Minister's vision of ‘Digital India'. The concept and content of the App is by the Directorate General of Medical Services (Air) and it has been developed in-house with zero financial outlay by the Directorate of Information Technology (DIT).

‘MedWatch’, available on the IAF's AFCEL network, comprises a host of features that will provide authentic health information to all IAF personnel. A Reminder Tool to enable timely immunization for the children of all Air Warriors is an important component of the App. This will directly enable 'Mission Indradhanush' of the Govt of India.

‘MedWatch’, the first mobile health app in the three Armed Services, was launched by Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa PVSM AVSM YSM VM ADC, Chief of the Air Staff, during the Air Force Commanders' Conference at New Delhi on 11 Oct 17.

Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution, C. R. Chaudhary, is leading the Indian delegation to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)- EXIM Bank, Regional Conclave on India-West Africa Project Partnership being held in Abuja, Nigeria on 8th – 9th October 2018. President and Vice President of Nigeria along with Ministers and Delegation of West African countries are participating in the Conclave.

Minster of State, C. R. Chaudhary, also held bilateral talks with Cape Verde, Niger and other West African countries. C. R. Chaudhary, discussed issues of climate change, electric mobility, renewable energy,tourism, infrastructure development and HR building capacity with Trade Minister of Cape Verde. These are the key areas for collaborative projects between India and Cape Verde.

Niger has appreciated India’s support to build Mahatma Gandhi International Convention Centre (MGICC)in Niamey in Niger at the cost of USD 35.5 million on grant basis. The foundation stone of the project has been laid recently.

India’s exports to Niger increased by more than 50% since 2014-15. There is tremendous scope for increase and diversification of trade between thetwo countries. Minister of State for Commerce & Industry held bilateral meeting with Mr. SadouSeydou, Niger Minister of Trade and Promotion of Private Sectorat the Conclave.

Bilateral relations between India and Niger have expanded significantly since 2009. India has provided lines of credit worth USD 96.54 million for projects in transport, electrification, solar energy and potable drinking water. India’s grant assistance for MGICC will further contribute towards enhancing of bilateral ties. Niger will host the African Union (AU) Summit in 2019 in this Convention Centre. The establishment of the Centre is the land mark of Niger-India friendship and also a symbol of India’s firm commitment towards Africa.

Javelin thrower Sandeep Chaudhary produced a stunning world record effort as India bagged 11 medals, including three gold, on a productive day at the Asian Para Games in Jakarta yesterday.

Chaudhary clinched India's first gold of the Games in the men's category before middle distance runner Raju Rakshitha in women's 1500 meters and swimmer Jadhav Suyash Narayan in men's 50-meter butterfly added the yellow metals later on the second day of competitions.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday forecast a growth rate of 7.3 percent for India in the current year of 2018 and that of 7.4 percent in 2019.

In 2017, India had clocked a 6.7 percent growth rate.

"India's growth is expected to increase to 7.3 percent in 2018 and to 7.4 percent in 2019 (slightly lower than in the April 2018 World Economic Outlook [WEO] for 2019, given the recent increase in oil prices and the tightening of global financial conditions), up from 6.7 percent in 2017," the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report.

Google will be shutting down Google+ for consumers as part of a data privacy measure announced on Monday. The move comes as the company revealed that a previously undisclosed security flaw exposed hundreds of thousands of Google+ users' profile data. The issue was fixed earlier this year in March, but Google never made it public at the time. The company has now decided to shut down the seven-year-old service that was initially launched as a direct take on Facebook.

Google in a blog post said that the security bug was discovered and immediately patched in March 2018. The company adds that it cannot confirm how many Google+ users were affected by this bug, but based on a detailed analysis it seems up to 500,000 Google+ accounts have been affected. Google also said that there is no evidence that and Profile data was misused. A Wall Street Journal report cites sources briefed on the incident who say that Google executives willingly did not disclose the security breach out of fear that it would "draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage."

The company is now responding to the incident and has detailed a set of data privacy measures, which includes shutting down Google+ for consumers. Google in a blog post said that the consumer version of Google+ is seeing "low usage and engagement" in that 90 per cent of user sessions are less than five seconds. Google does plan to keep the enterprise version of Google+ alive and will roll out some new features for businesses. Google says Google+ for consumers will wind down over a 10-month period, which would be complete by the end of next August.

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday launched 'Nirman Kusuma' programme for providing financial assistance to the children of the construction workers for their technical education in the state.
Launching the programme, Mr Patnaik said 'Nirman Kusuma' would help fulfil dreams of construction workers' children. He said the children of construction workers would get financial assistance for their education in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics.

While an ITI student will be entitled to get financial assistance of Rs. 23,600, a diploma student to get Rs. 26,300 per annum. A total of 1,878 students will get benefit from the programme.

Mr Patnaik said the government had already deposited Rs. 1.09 crore in the bank account of beneficiaries of the 'Nirmal Kusuma'. The chief minister said the government had decided to increase the financial assistance by 20 per cent for girl students. Female students from standard sixth to post graduation level are being provided financial assistance.

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has won the ‘ISSA Good Practice Award’ for Administrative Solution for Coverage Extension at the “Regional Social Security Forum for Asia and the Pacific” held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia recently.

The award recognizes the measures taken by ESIC for extension of coverage-SPREE (Scheme for Promoting Registration of Employers and Employees), reduced rate of contribution rates for 24 months in newly implemented areas and raising the wage limit for coverage under the ESI Act, etc.

Shri Raj Kumar, IAS, Director General, ESIC represented Employees’ State Insurance Corporation and received the Certificate of Merit on behalf of ESIC.

The Regional Social Security Forum for Asia and the Pacific is a triennial Forum, which is the most important social security event in the Region. For the triennial Regional Forum, ISSA invites submissions for the ISSA Good Practices Award for Asia and the Pacific Regions. The Forum provides unique opportunities to CEOs and Managers of ISSA Member Institutions to discuss key social security challenges and share their experiences.