MOSCOW, November 29 -- Russia and the U.S. have agreed on details of a presidential meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.
The meeting will take place on Dec.1 at 1430GMT and will last about two hours, a source in the Russian delegation told state-run news agency RIA Novosti on Thursday. About 20 minutes are reserved for in-person talks between the two presidents. Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said that the presidents would discuss bilateral issues, including how to break the deadlock in relations between the two countries and start looking for ways to normalize ties. According to U.S. Security Adviser John Bolton, security, arms control and regional issues are on the agenda of the meeting.
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KUALA LUMPUR, November 29 -- Malaysia is delighted with the theme chosen by Thailand for its ASEAN chairmanship next year ‘Advancing Partnership for Sustainability’.
As it is in line with Malaysia’s drive to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 Agenda. Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the theme, unveiled at the closing ceremony of the recently-concluded 33rd ASEAN Summit in Singapore, was also relevant with the 11th Malaysia Plan in the context of the aspirations of its 17 SDGs, as well as the efforts that must be intensified to accelerate the nation’s progress towards achieving the SDGs principles. “We are very happy that Thailand has chosen such theme because this is very much in line and relevant to our 11th Malaysia Plan in which we have taken the SDGs to be embedded in the plan. KIEV, November 29 -- Ukraine will ask the Turkish authorities to close the Bosphorus for Russian ships through Russia's aggression in the Black and Azov Seas.
This was announced at a conference on maritime security by the commander of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces, Igor Voronchenko, reports Ukrinform. In particular, according to UNIAN, Voronchenko will demand recognition of Russian aggression against Ukraine at the international level. "In this regard, and the Montreux Convention norms, namely the 19th paragraph, we will try to ask for the closure of the Bosphorus Strait in the Republic of Turkey so that the Russians know how to violate the norms of international law," said the Navy. “Ukraine now protects not only itself, but also the Western world. The Russian Federation is trying to establish and spread its dominance in the Baltic Sea, the Arctic, the Middle and Far East,” Voronchenko added. According to him, the establishment of control on the seas next to Ukraine is "critically important" because it will prevent Russia's ambitions. ROTTERDAM, November 29 -- You might know your Instagram content is good, but imagine how much better it will seem if it looks like 10,000 people agree.
Whether you’re trying to become a social media celebrity or simply looking to spread brand awareness on Instagram, it can seem tempting to pay for your first couple thousand followers. There are plenty of services available that allow you to buy 1,000 followers for the price of a small Starbucks latte. But of course, if it really was that cheap and easy, everyone would be doing it. So what’s the catch? Is buying Instagram followers legal and safe for your business? Is it a worthwhile investment? Here, we’ve gone ahead and covered all the questions you might have about buying Instagram followers to give you a better idea of how it actually works. We’ve also explored the pros and cons, so you can decide for yourself if it’s a good move for your brand. Yes, you can buy Instagram followers. There are plenty of cheap services available that allow you to buy 1,000 followers for as little as $10 USD. But you’re only paying for a number. Many of those followers are either bots or inactive accounts, which means they’ll never engage with your posts. As a quick Google search will reveal, there are many cheap services you can use to buy Instagram followers. For about $6 USD, you can get 500 followers, and for about $10 USD, you can get 1,000 followers. The vast majority of these purchasable followers, however, are either bots or inactive accounts. In addition to buying followers directly, you can also pay services to strategically follow other accounts on your behalf based on your preferences (location, hashtag usage, account type, and gender). Ideally, those followed accounts will then follow you back. With this option, your followers are more likely to be real people, but engagement is still unlikely. Since you can't even guarantee these accounts will follow you back, it’s a risky investment. Most accounts won’t follow you back, and even if they do, they probably aren’t going to be long-term, loyal, or active followers. If your priority is simply to have a big follower count, these services can definitely help you. When your number of organic followers dips, these services even replenish your pool with other followers. But remember the risks: these followers will probably never like or comment on a post, and if you’re caught with a ton of fake followers, you could ruin your credibility with your real audience. Think of it this way: would you keep following an account if you saw that most of their “loyal audience” were inactive accounts or bots? I’m guessing not. It could seem deceitful, and lead you to believe the brand couldn’t get authentic followers through good content alone. ASTANA, November 29 -- Turkey has moved its heavy weapons to Syria’s provinces.
It's conducting a policy of Turkization of the local population, which is tantamount to outright aggression, the Syrian government’s chief delegate to the Astana talks, representative at the UN Bashar Jaafari said on Thursday. "Instead of sending a lightly armed agreed police mission Turkey has moved helicopters, troops and heavy military equipment to cities in northern Syria," he said. "Turkish flags are being hoisted in the cities. We regard Turkey’s actions as outright aggression," Jaafari said. Lionel Messi breaks record held by Cristiano Ronaldo after stunning goal in Barcelona win over PSV29/11/2018 EINDHOVEN. November 29 -- After scoring in Barcelona’s 2-1 win over PSV on Wednesday night, Lionel Messi wrote his name into the history books yet again.
The victory secured top spot in Group B for the Catalan giants, as they’ve collected 13 points from their five games thus far to comfortably make it through to the knockout stage of the Champions League. As seen in the video below, Messi was on the mark yet again as he dazzled with a brilliant goal for the visitors against PSV, playing an influential role in the build-up before producing a great finish to break the deadlock. In doing so, he broke yet another record, one previously held by Cristiano Ronaldo, as he bagged his 106th goal for Barcelona in the Champions League, thus giving him the title of scoring the most goals in the competition for a single club. Ronaldo previously held it with 105 for Real Madrid, but of course, he will no longer be able to surpass his great rival having secured a move to Juventus this past summer. Now, it remains to be seen if either superstar can add another trophy to their collection given both teams have made it safely through the group stage and with both men in fine form this season, it would come as no surprise if they led their respective teams on a deep run in Europe. WASHINGTON, November 28 -- A trade deal is unlikely between the U.S. and China when President Donald Trump meets his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires later this week, majority analysts polled by International Business Times said.
More important, 14 of the 15 analysts polled do not see the U.S. and China hammering out a trade deal before Dec. 31, or for that matter, within the next six months. Only one analyst expects a deal before the year-end. But the analysts say any optimistic vibes from the meeting could lead to some positive steps on tariffs, although not an outright deal, that could keep the heat of the trade war from rising further. They see a positive meeting between Trump and Xi leading to the U.S. agreeing to hold off on raising tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, from 10 percent to 25 percent, as scheduled on Jan. 1, 2019. Yung Yu-Ma, the chief investment strategist at BMO Wealth Management, said the “likelihood of an actual deal is very low” at the G20 Summit, adding it is more realistic to expect “some positive statements about both sides coming closer to an agreement or continuing negotiations.” “If there are such positive statements, then probably (there is) a 60 percent chance of postponement of tariff increases while negotiations take place,” he said. “If no such positive statement, then probably only a 20 percent chance of postponement.” Ryan yan Sweet, director of real-time economics at Moody’s, echoed the view. He said the two sides could reach a “partial trade agreement” at the G20 summit and “agree not to further increase tariffs while they iron out the other sticky points.” The analysts say the standoff between the U.S. and Chinese delegations at the recently concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting has diminished the prospect of a deal at the upcoming G20 meeting. For the first time in APEC’s 25-year history, the 21 participant countries failed to come up with a joint statement because they could not arrive at a consensus over a paragraph on trade. Luc Vallée, chief strategist at Laurentian Bank said “the probability of a short-term deal appears lower than ever. It does not mean that a deal is impossible, nor that extra tariffs by the U.S. on Chinese goods will be enacted next January. Negotiations will continue for a while and only if there is a dead-end, expect 25 percent tariffs on the entire $530 billion (Chinese) exports.” Chief economist Brian Wesbury at First Trust Advisors is the lone analyst among the 15 who expects a deal before the year-end. But even he does not see a deal at the G20 summit because “it seems China is willing to comply with U.S. requests quietly, rather than publicly.” Bill and Hillary Clinton Speak to Hundreds of Empty Seats in Toronto on First Night of Tour28/11/2018
BEIJING, November 28 -- China's Hainan Province will increase its annual tax-free shopping quota for travelers, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF) Wednesday.
Effective on Saturday, the quota will be raised to 30,000 yuan (about 4,300 U.S. dollars) per year from the current 16,000 yuan, without limit on the number of purchases, said a joint statement from the MOF and China's customs and taxation authorities. Some home medical devices will be added to the duty-free list, including hearing aids and breathing machines. The duty-free shopping policy was implemented in April 2011 and has been improved since with broader coverage and fewer restrictions. Duty-free sales in Hainan jumped 24.1 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, to 5.29 billion yuan. ZURICH, November 28 -- Kopter Group has begun flight trails of its latest SH09 prototype number 3 (P3) helicopter, the company announced on 22 November.
The commencement of flight trials marks the next phase of the helicopter's development and certification programme. P3 has achieved the necessary technical clearance and regulatory compliance to start the flight tests. In its first flight, the aircraft flew from Mollis airfield in Switzerland for 40 minutes, carrying out a series of manoeuvres to obtain preliminary flight data, validating test design features and evaluating flight qualities. While P3 will continue the development of the SH09 by performing an intensive flight test campaign in Sicily (Pozzallo, Province of Ragusa), the Kopter team is finalising the preparation of the next prototype, PS4, which will join P3 in 2019 to undertake flight testing in Sicily. P3 incorporates several improvements and modifications based on feedback results from the testing of Kopter prototypes 1 and 2. NEW YORK, November 28 -- The UN Council on Human Rights-linked Committee for the Protection against Racial Discrimination discussed the situation of religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq, Qatar and Honduras at a session held at the UN Geneva Office with the participation of international NGOs.
During the Iraqi debate, civil society group Minority Rights underlined how there are still religious and ethnic inequalities in Iraq. While the minorities in Iraq cannot benefit from the riches of the country, the group underlined that the religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq are in danger of attack. In a speech on behalf of the International Geneva Center for Justice, it was stated that the Iraqi government never obeyed international treaties to protect minorities. Emphasizing that the Iraqi government supports local militia forces that are violating human rights, the Geneva Center for Justice called on Iraqi government to ban violent videos in Iraq. Maat for Peace and Development and Human Rights, said that women in Iraq face great discrimination and violence. Iraqi government policies have actually strengthened attacks on women, and the two organisations called on the government to develop policies to protect religious and ethnic minorities, and particularly to protect women. It was also pointed out that everyone, especially women, targeted by DAESH should actually enjoy protection. Many international non-governmental organizations pointed out in their speeches that ethnic and religious minorities targeted by DAESH still live in a vulnerable situation. International NGOs said that the Yazidis who were specifically and violently targeted by DAESH, are still facing many dangers, and underlined that people who fled their houses due to DAESH attack still cannot return to them because of security reasons. The speeches also emphasized that Yazidis and women still live in a vulnerable situation of discrimination and called upon the Iraqi government to take action on this. KIEV, November 28 -- Russia has amassed roughly 500 tactical military planes and 340 helicopters along its border with Ukraine, Ukrinform reports, citing Vadym Skibitsky, spokesperson for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
e presented this data at a briefing titled “A military and strategic appraisal of the threat of the Russian Armed Forces invading Ukraine”. According to Skibitsky, since 2013, Russia has been upgrading its airfield network along the border with Ukraine, and has updated and grown its fleet of military aircraft The crews of the combat and tactical aircraft concentrated along the Ukrainian border have acquired combat experience during trips to Syria. “This means that the crews have enough experience to use bombs and high-precision weapons on the civilian population,” the military intelligence spokesperson emphasized. In addition, the combat range of these aircraft encompasses the entirety of Ukraine. The Kremlin has devoted a lot of attention to growing the numbers of troops and forming new divisions on Ukraine’s state border and in the European part of Russia. “Russia has been devoting significant attention to the creation and training of tactical battalion groups, which are deployed along the border of our state today. The total number of Russia’s tactical battalion groups which are capable of carrying out combat tasks in our territory is 25,” Skibitsky stressed. The Russian soldiers have honed their warfare skills during the military drills Kavkaz - 2016, Vostok - 2018 and Zapad - 2017. In particular, they practiced forming strike groups directed at Ukraine, mobilization, and deploying reserve forces and equipment from the central regions of Russia to the Ukrainian border. Two days ago, Russian border guards attacked and captured two artillery boats and one tugboat belonging to the Ukrainian Navy. All three ships were damaged the Russians opened fire on them. Six Ukrainian sailors were injured, and Russia is now illegally detaining a total of 23 people. Before this, a Russian ship rammed into the Yany Kapu tugboat, which was heading from Odessa to Mariupol, accompanied by the Berdyansk and Nikopol armored boats. The ramming caused damaged to the tugboat’s primary motor, its handrail, and the loss of a life raft. The Ukrainian Naval Command emphasized that it informed the Russians in advance of its intention to transfer the boats, in keeping with international maritime traffic safety laws. The Russian FSB, on the other hand, claimed that it did not receive any notifications, and described its aggression as “protecting the state border”. The agreement between Russia and Ukraine on the use of the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait has not been denounced. It gives ships of both countries the right to move freely in these internal waters. ATHENS, November 27 -- Dusan Tadic scored twice in the second half Tuesday to take Ajax to the last 16 in the Champions League for the first time in 12 years with a 2-0 win over 10-man AEK Athens, which fell to a fifth straight loss in the competition.
The Serb defender scored from the penalty spot in the 68th minute after Marko Livaja received a second yellow card for handling the ball. He struck again four minutes later, tapping in an unselfish pass from substitute Klaas Jan Huntelaar. AEK had managed to keep Ajax at bay thanks to the unyielding center-back duo of Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Marios Oikonomou, but struggled after losing Livaja. The game was preceded by violence inside Athens' Olympic Stadium and in parts of central Athens. STOCKHOM, November 27 -- Saab has received an order to deliver its Carl-Gustaf M4 multi-role weapon system to the Slovenian armed forces, the company announced on 22 November.
The Carl-Gustaf M4 is the latest version of the portable, shoulder-launched, multi-role weapon system. The new version’s major enhancements over the previous systems includes a lighter weight design (less than 7kg), a round counter, improved safety and intelligent features, such as compatibility with future intelligent sighting systems and programmable ammunition. Görgen Johansson, head of Saab business area Dynamics, said: ‘The Slovenian order is further proof that Carl-Gustaf M4 is the number one multi-role weapon on the market. We are happy to introduce the Slovenian armed forces to Saab’s Carl-Gustaf M4 with outperforming capabilities and high tactical flexibility, and we feel confident that the end user will be satisfied.’ Deliveries of the system will take place during 2018-2020. |
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