China's post COVID-19 pandemic economic rebound showed signs of slowdown as the economy grew at 7.9 per cent in the second quarter compared to a record 18.3 per cent in Q1, while the GDP expanded 12.7 per cent year on year in the first half amid the continued global spread of the coronavirus and unbalanced domestic recovery. In the second quarter, the GDP of the second largest economy in the world grew 7.9 per cent year on year, the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS) on Thursday showed. On a quarterly basis, the economy expanded 1.3 per cent in Q2.
During their hour-long in-person meeting on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave in Dushanbe on Wednesday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also told his Chinese counterpart and State Councilor Wang Yi that any unilateral change in the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was 'not acceptable' to India and that the overall ties can only develop after full restoration of peace and tranquillity in eastern Ladakh.
The commander of United States forces in Afghanistan General Scott Miller returned from the country almost winding up the longest American war, even as Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin assured that America's Afghan mission is not yet over and that it would continue to support Kabul.
In a significant policy statement on the Taliban which is making big gains in its offensive in Afghanistan, China has asked it to make a "clean break" from all terrorist forces, especially the Al Qaida-backed Uyghur Muslim militant group ETIM fighting for the volatile Xinjiang province's independence.
Guo Xinzhen went missing in September 1997, at age two-and-a-half years abducted by human traffickers while he was playing near the family home in Liaocheng.
The China-India bilateral trade in the first half of the year totalled $57.48 billion, up 62.7 per cent year on year, perhaps the highest in recent years amid the Ladakh impasse and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released by China's Customs. Though Indian exports to China picked up with 69.6 per cent year on year increase, the trade deficit, a structural problem for India for long, climbed to 55.6 per cent. According to data released by China's Customs, India's exports to China reached $14.724 billion, up 69.6 per cent year on year in the first six months and India's imports from China amounted to $42.755 billion, up 60.4 per cent.
'China is a friendly country and we welcome it for reconstruction and developing Afghanistan'
If confirmed by the Senate, Garcetti, 50, would replace Kenneth Juster, who served as India's Ambassador to the US during the Trump administration.
he United States did what we went to do in Afghanistan, to get to terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and deliver justice to Osama bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base, from which attacks could be continued against the United States.
Addressing the centenary celebrations of the Communist Party of China at the historic Tiananmen Square, Xi in over an hour-long address also said that integrating Taiwan with the Chinese mainland is a historic mission of the ruling party.
The celebrations began with a fly past and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who heads the Communist Party of China, arrived at the function dressed in the Mao suit.
The highlight of the occasion, according to officials, is an address to a special gathering in the morning by President Xi Jinping, who cast himself in the mould of Mao Zedong, the founder of the Communist Party of China as it is officially called.
The NIH said results of two studies of blood serum from people who had received Covaxin suggest that the vaccine generates antibodies that effectively neutralise the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) and B.1.617 (Delta) variants of SARS-CoV-2, first identified in the United Kingdom and India, respectively.
"Indians see religious tolerance as a central part of who they are as a nation. Across the major religious groups, most people say it is very important to respect all religions to be 'truly Indian'.
"Against such background, the words and deeds of relevant important military and government officials and military deployments should be conducive to deescalating and cooling down the situation, and to enhancing mutual trust, rather than the opposite", the spokesman said.
China on Friday operationalised its first fully electrified bullet train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet, connecting the provincial capital Lhasa and Nyingchi, a strategically located Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh.
Some foreign guest workers in the US will be able to re-submit their applications for the H1-B visa, the most sought-after non-immigrant visa among Indian IT professionals, if their petition was solely rejected because it was based on the initial registration period, according to a federal agency. According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), such re-submission of applications is for those whose applications have been rejected or administratively closed solely because the requested start date was after October 1, 2020. The H-1B visa allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
However, the "good news" is that the US vaccines are effective against the Delta variant, said Fauci, the head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
United States Pharma giant Pfizer is in the final stages of an agreement with India to supply anti-COVID-19 vaccines, Chief Executive Officer Dr Albert Bourla said on Tuesday, observing that the domestically manufactured vaccines would be the backbone of vaccinating the Indian people.
Of the 4.10 crore to be shared through COVAX, 1.40 crore will go to Latin America and the Caribbean nations and 1.60 crore to Asia.