Washington DC

Washington, May 15 (PTI) The United States has urged China to release Tibetan Buddhism's 11th Panchen Lama, who was taken into captivity at the age of six by Chinese authorities.

In 1995, a young Tibetan boy Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognised as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second highest spiritual authority in Tibetan Buddhism after Dalai Lama. Days later Nyima had disappeared, becoming the world's youngest political prisoner.

Washington, May 15 (PTI) The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of strong India-US collaboration, India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu has said.

Noting that India's partnership with the US in health sciences and technologies is longstanding, the senior diplomat said research and innovation institutions of both the countries have been engaged in understanding important chronic and infectious diseases and in developing therapeutics and diagnostics.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Five US sailors have been evacuated with coronavirus from an aircraft carrier despite extensive screening as the warship prepares its return to sea following a major outbreak, a US official confirmed.

After testing positive but asymptomatic, the five spent two weeks in quarantine in Guam where the nuclear-powered USS Theodore Roosevelt is docked, the official said.

After each registered negative twice in subsequent tests, they were permitted back aboard the ship.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US Senate approved legislation calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to toughen its response to China’s crackdown on its Uighur Muslim minority, the latest push in Washington to punish China as Trump blames Beijing for worsening the covid-19 pandemic.

The Republican-led Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent, without a roll-call vote.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump further hardened his rhetoric towards China on Thursday, saying he no longer wishes to speak with Pres Xi Jinping and warning darkly he might cut ties over the rival superpower’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tensions have ratcheted up between Washington and Beijing as they trade barbs over the origin of the pandemic – which first appeared in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and which Trump has dubbed the “Plague from China.”

14 May 2020; MEMO: Some 51 anti-war groups, including a think tank backed by George Soros and Charles Koch, have urged US presidential hopeful Joe Biden to leverage America’s annual $3.8 billion aid to Israel to pressure the Zionist state to abide by UN Security Resolutions and international law, in a letter calling on the Presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee to commit to a “principled foreign policy”.

14 May 2020; AFP: Boeing has been awarded two contracts worth more than $2 billion for the delivery of more than 1,000 air-to-surface and anti-ship missiles to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

A first contract, worth $1.97 billion, is for the modernization of SLAM ER cruise missiles as well as delivery of 650 new missiles "in support of the government of Saudi Arabia," it said.

WASHINGTON, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Republican senators proposed legislation Tuesday that would empower President Donald Trump to slap sanctions on China if Beijing does not give a “full accounting” for the coronavirus outbreak.

“The Chinese Communist Party must be held accountable for the detrimental role they played in this pandemic,” said Senator Jim Inhofe, one of the sponsors of the “COVID-19 Accountability Act.”

“Their outright deception of the origin and spread of the virus cost the world valuable time and lives as it began to spread,” he said in a statement.

12 May 2020; MEMO: The United States yesterday urged Tehran to send a charter plane to take home 11 Iranian nationals whom Washington wants to deport and accused the Islamic Republic of stalling the repatriation process, Reuters reported.

Washington, May 12 (PTI) President Donald Trump has said he is "not interested" in reopening negotiations on the trade deal with China, days after the US warned Beijing of very significant consequences for not honouring the bilateral agreement early this year to end their bruising trade war.

Trump's remarks came in response to a question on a report in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post which said that China would like to reopen negotiations on the trade deal to make the terms more favourable to Beijing. Is this something you'd be interested in doing? he was asked.