The US Congressional elections will be held in November this year. 20 Indian Americans are in the fray.

Traditionally, a significant amount of money is raised by candidates in the last two quarters.
And, these 20 Indian Americans have collectively raised more than 15.5 million dollars.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois is in the contention. Pitted against him is Indian American Jitender Digankar from the Republican party.

Indian-American scientist and entrepreneur Shiv Ayyadurai from Massachusetts is running as an independent candidate.
Three other Indian American Congressmen Ro Khanna, Dr Ami Bera and Pramila Jayapal are also in fray.
Four other Indian American women are also running for the US House of Representatives.

They are Hiral Tipirneni from Arizona; Aruna Miller from Maryland, Anita Malik from Arizona and Saira Rao from Colorado. All four are from the Democratic party.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

Financial leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) have expressed concerns that trade disputes among major economies could pose downside risks to the global economy, Argentine Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne has said.

“Concerns on trade disputes occupied some part of the discussions that we had yesterday, and, of course, it is still one of the three main concerns in terms of the downside risks for the economy,” Dujovne told reporters in Washington on Friday after wrapping up a two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors under Argentina’s presidency, Xinhua reported.

“We discussed trade and the potential impacts on the global economy and the potential disruption that modifications on the trade scheme can actually pose to the global economy,” he said.

While some differences over trade appeared in the last few months, Dujovne said G20 members “still have a very big consensus on the benefits of trade for growth.”

“The idea that the gains from trade have to be evenly shared is a concern that was placed both by advanced economies and emerging economies,” echoed Argentine central bank governor Federico Sturzenegger, noting “there was general appeal for multilateralism”.

However, the G20 meeting didn’t discuss specific trade measures, which are appropriate for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to deal with, according to Dujovne.

Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said at the meeting that current global recovery is facing “substantial challenges from a strong wave of anti-globalization and unilateralism.”

He urged G20 members to “firmly support the multilateral trading system” and strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination so as to lay a solid foundation for sustainable global growth, according to a statement posted on the website of China’s Ministry of Finance.

The G20 meeting comes after the Trump administration recently announced additional tariffs on imported steel and aluminium and threatened to impose broad tariffs against Chinese imports.

These unilateral protectionist measures have sparked widespread criticism and provoked threats of retaliation from major trading partners, raising the prospect of escalating global trade conflicts that threaten global recovery.

 Violent anti-government protests that spread across Nicaragua in response to its social security system reforms have claimed more than five lives in three days of rioting, reports said.

The violence follows the decision of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government to push through reforms that would apply a five per cent tax to old-age and disability pensions and increase the contributions paid by both employees and employers.

The reforms, which went into effect on Wednesday, were in response to the financial crisis affecting its National Social Security Institute (INSS), The Guardian reported.

Some reports over Friday night put the death toll between five and 10. Consecutive governments have been accused of using the INSS as a source of “petty cash”.

Rosario Murillo, the vice-president and wife of President Daniel Ortega, has defended the reforms in national radio address.

Murillo has comparing the protests to “vampires, needing blood to feed their political agendas”.

Alleged fraud in electoral processes have allowed Ortega to control the country’s national assembly and make important constitutional changes, including his own right to serve more than two terms as president.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said building up the presence of the United Nations (UN) in Syria deserves attention as it will help collect reliable information.

Russia cannot accept the situation that UN agencies produce reports and statements based on information from other sources than UN’s own ones, he said at a joint press conference on Friday following talks with visiting UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, Xinhua reported.

Lavrov criticised the US-led missile strikes on Syria last week as they undermined the Geneva talks for the Syrian settlement under the auspices of the UN at a time when Russia, Turkey and Iran very closely approached the resumption of the Geneva process.

He asked the UN to step up humanitarian aid to the Syrian people and help with the reconstruction of housing, infrastructure and facilities of the war-torn country’s national economy.

De Mistura said at the press conference he was pleased that Russia remains committed to pushing for a political settlement of the Syrian crisis.

He said the deconfliction mechanism between Russian and the US forces in Syria has been effective and should continue.

De Mistura expressed the hope that experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will visit Douma district near the Syrian capital of Damascus as soon as possible to investigate an alleged chemical weapon attack by the Syrian government forces.

The US, Britain and France launched intensive missile attacks on Syria on April 14, saying the move was in response to the alleged chemical weapon attack.

Damascus denied the accusation and Russia said its military experts found no traces of toxic substances in Douma.

The OPCW experts are now in Syria for the investigation, but so far they have not visited Douma.

Western countries accused Russia of hindering the OPCW investigation, while Moscow said that the experts cannot enter the area due to a lack of the UN’s permission over safety concerns following the US-led strikes.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) in China launched a database on Friday for stolen foreign antiques to prevent them from entering and circulating in the country.

The administration will go on to ask entry-exit examination offices to intensify the supervision over the entry and exit of stolen foreign antiques, Xinhua reported.

It also called on professional institutions, practitioners and the public to check the database from time to time, to avoid the purchase or sale of such items.

The damage to cultural heritage has become a common challenge for the international community, and the stealing and trafficking of antiques has damaged the historical and cultural legacy of many countries, the SACH said in the statement.

Last year, the administration joined with the Ministry of Public Security in a similar platform for stolen Chinese antiques.

Since 2008, the SACH has made public information on over 6,900 stolen foreign antiques.

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Beijing, April 21 (IANS) The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) in China launched a database on Friday for stolen foreign antiques to prevent them from entering and circulating in the country.

The administration will go on to ask entry-exit examination offices to intensify the supervision over the entry and exit of stolen foreign antiques, Xinhua reported.

It also called on professional institutions, practitioners and the public to check the database from time to time, to avoid the purchase or sale of such items.

The damage to cultural heritage has become a common challenge for the international community, and the stealing and trafficking of antiques has damaged the historical and cultural legacy of many countries, the SACH said in the statement.

Last year, the administration joined with the Ministry of Public Security in a similar platform for stolen Chinese antiques.

Since 2008, the SACH has made public information on over 6,900 stolen foreign antiques.

(Ians)

The Trump administration has unveiled a new policy that could vastly expand sales of armed drones, making it easier to put American-made weapons into the hands of US allies and partners.

With the plan that was rolled out on Thursday, the administration sought to lift — what it viewed — as self-imposed policy restrictions that limited potential opportunities for business, the New York Times reported.

However, according to experts, the move posed grave risks to US security as the newly-released conventional arms transfer policy will put jobs and the interests of arms manufacturers ahead of safety, security and human rights in its decisions on who the US should arm.

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has shown an “insatiable appetite” for selling American weaponry abroad — at times using face-to-face meetings with global leaders to make a personal sales pitch.

Under the new Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) policy and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) export policy, private US defence companies will now be allowed to directly sell certain types of conventional weapons and a broader range of unmanned drones to allies without having to go through the US government, CNN reported.

Trump seemed to foreshadow the new policies during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday when he said at a that after allies order weapons from the US, “we will get it taken care of, and they will get their equipment rapidly”.

“It would be, in some cases, years before orders would take place because of bureaucracy with Department of Defence, State Department.

“We are short-circuiting that. It’s now going to be a matter of days. If they’re our allies, we are going to help them get this very important, great military equipment,” Trump said.

The biggest change announced involved the sale of larger armed drones like the Predator and the Reaper, which were the workhorses of the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan and the tribal regions of Pakistan.

Former President Barack Obama embraced the weapons but was also so troubled by such remote warfare tools that he placed unusual restrictions on their sale, the Times report said.

“The new drone export policy will keep our defence industrial base in the vanguard of emerging defence technologies while creating thousands of additional jobs with good wages and generating substantial export revenues,” said Peter Navarro, assistant to the President for trade and manufacturing policy.

Under the old policy, only Britain, France and Italy were approved to purchase armed drones, said Dan Gettinger, co-director of the Centre for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.

As more countries are approved, “the risk is that countries may be more willing to use military force when they can do so without risking their own people”, Gettinger said.

(Ians)

Syria has returned to France the top Légion d’honneur presented to President Bashar al-Assad in 2001, saying he would not wear the award of a country that was a “slave” to the US.

The move came days after France said a “disciplinary procedure” for withdrawing the award was under way, the BBC reported.

France had joined the US and the UK in bombing Syrian targets in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack on Douma, the last rebel-held town in the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus. More than 70 people were reportedly killed in the April 7 attack.

Former French President Jacques Chirac had decorated Assad with the highest class of the award, the grand-croix, after the latter took power following the death of his father.

“It is no honour for President Assad to wear a decoration attributed by a slave country and follower of the US that supports terrorists,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The other recipients of the award included former dictators Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Tunisia’s ousted former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali received it in 1989 and Russian President Vladimir Putin got it in 2006.

So far, only one foreign leader, former Panamian President Manuel Norriega, has been stripped of the honour. Under French President Emmanuel Macron, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was also stripped of the award after a series of accusations of sexual harassment and rape.

China on Friday backed its all-weather ally Pakistan and called on the international community to support its counter terrorism efforts after Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the neighbouring country as a “terror export factory”.
PTIUpdated:April 20, 2018, 3:16 PM IST facebookTwittergoogleskype

China Jumps to Pakistan’s Defence After Modi’s ‘Terror Export Factory’ Remarks File photo of Pakistan and China Flags.
Beijing: China on Friday backed its all-weather ally Pakistan and called on the international community to support its counter terrorism efforts after Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the neighboring country as a “terror export factory”.

“Terrorism is the enemy faced by all. The international community should work together to fight against it,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said during a media briefing here, when asked about China’s response to Modi terming Pakistan as a “terror export factory” during a speech in London.

“We hope the international community could support the efforts made by Pakistan in counter terrorism and forge effective cooperation with it in that regard,” Hua said putting up a strong defence for China’s all-weather ally.

While speaking at the ‘Bharat Ki Baat, Sabke Saath’ programme at the iconic Central Hall Westminster in London on Wednesday, warning Pakistan, Modi had said India will not tolerate those who export terror and will respond to them in the language they understand, referring to the 2016 surgical strikes conducted across the LoC.

“When someone has put a terror export factory in place and makes attempts to attack us from the back, Modi knows how to answer in the same language,” he had said.

Hua’s comment also came ahead of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here, to be held early next week.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is arriving here tomorrow to take part in the meeting to be held on April 24. She is due to meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Sunday.

Separately Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman too will attend the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting on the same day.

These are the first meetings of the SCO after India and Pakistan were admitted into the eight-member group in which China and Russia play an influential role. Both events are to be attended by the respective Ministers from Pakistan.

SCO consists China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Modi is also due to attend this year’s SCO summit to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.
Hua said issues related to terrorism will be discussed at the meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers.

“We believe it is a purpose of the SCO to promote relevant cooperation in that field. Security has been a priority of the SCO since its inception,” she said.

“So the upcoming SCO Foreign Ministers meeting will see participants exchanging views on the relevant issues, major international and regional issues and all the participants will uphold the Shanghai sprit to consolidate more consensus and to move forward the development of the SCO,” she said.

US President Donald Trump has said he’d bring up Japan’s sensitive abductees issue when he meets North Korea top leader Kim Jong-un in an upcoming historic meeting.

“I suspect Trump will raise the subject if there is a meeting. Of course, his priority will be the three American hostages held by North Korea,” Xinhua news agency reported quoting Douglas Paal, Vice President for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“There have also been reports from North Korea that the regime believes the abductees question has been settled, so expectations for concrete results are low even though emotions still run high,” said Paal.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe concluded his two-day working visit to the US on Wednesday. During a meeting with Trump, Abe scored a major win when Trump promised he’d bring up the issue during the upcoming historic meeting with Kim.

The issue has been ongoing for some 40 years.

“Trump should raise the issue of Japanese abductees with Kim, but in the context of a broader, lasting peace in the region,” said Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, a Washington-based non-profit policy research institution.

“While the focus of the upcoming talks will be denuclearisation, if there is to be a sustainable peace in the region afterwards, North Korea will need to resolve issues such as the abductees in addition to denuclearising,” Stangarone told Xinhua.

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West said that it would not be difficult for North Korea to address the abductees issue.

“It should be easy for North Korea to address the abductees issue. So I would anticipate progress there,” he said.

(Ians)

The strike against the jihadists was conducted on Haider al-Abadi’s order “because of the danger they pose to Iraqi territory,” a statement said.

The Iraqi air force on Thursday carried out a “deadly raid” against positions of the ISIS group in neighbouring Syria, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office said.