by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate Jobs, Employment, Overseas
Bengaluru : Global software major Infosys on Thursday said it will soon open a technology and innovation hub in the US state of Connecticut and hire about 1,000 American workers by 2022.
“We will open our next technology and innovation hub at Harford in Connecticut and hire 1,000 American workers in the state by 2022,” said the IT major in a statement here.
The Connecticut hub will focus on insurance, healthcare and manufacturing to bring the company to the eastern state’s clients and serve as the global hub for its InsurTech and HeathTech efforts.
“Investment in Connecticut is a part of our commitment to accelerate innovation for American enterprise by amplifying local talent and shrink the IT skills gap in the marketplace,” asserted the statement.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Michael Hernandez,
Washington: Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee split with their Republican colleagues Tuesday, maintaining there is evidence to support claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said there is “significant evidence” that indicates President Donald Trump’s campaign did cooperate with what U.S. officials have called an “influence campaign” aimed at helping the then-Republican presidential candidate.
“There is work to be done on that issue and on others, work we have not been allowed to do,” Schiff said at the Capitol, backed by his Democratic colleagues.
One day earlier, Republicans on the committee halted the probe and laid out their draft findings, saying that while Russia did work to influence the 2016 election, they did not work to improve Trump’s chances, nor did the Trump campaign cooperate.
Schiff dismissed their conclusions, calling the decision to end the inquiry premature.
“That was a terrible disservice to the country and the American people and represented a reneging on the commitment that was made at the outset of the investigation to follow the facts wherever they lead,” he said, promising Democrats would carry on with the investigation to the fullest extent possible.
Trump has lauded the Republican’s preliminary findings, saying earlier Tuesday he is “very happy” with them.
“We are very, very happy with that decision. It was a powerful decision that left no doubt, so I want to thank the House Intelligence Committee,” he told reporters.
But Schiff struck out at the narrative his Republican colleagues formulated.
“I think what the Republicans are struggling with is they’re trying to placate the White House, they’re trying to tell the White House the story the White House wants to be told,” Schiff told CNN. “That’s not their job.”
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Large Enterprise, World
By Safvan Allahverdi,
Washington: The State Department on Monday welcomed an agreement by Turkey’s national flag carrier to purchase $7 billion worth of aircraft from U.S. aerospace giant Boeing Co.
“So pleased to see this deal — creating jobs at home and expanding economic opportunities overseas! A great example of the U.S. and #Turkey collaborating on free, fair, and reciprocal #trade,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a post on her official Twitter account.
Boeing and Turkish Airlines have finalized an order for 25 787-9 Dreamliners with options for five more airplanes, Boeing announced Monday on its official website.
“We are proud to extend our decades-long partnership with Turkish Airlines and we welcome them to the growing group of elite airlines who have made the 787 Dreamliner the most preferred mid-sized twin-aisle airplane today,” Kevin McAllister, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and Chief Executive Officer, said in a written statement.
“We are confident that Turkish Airlines will enjoy the Dreamliner’s unmatched fuel efficiency, range, and superior cabin features.”
Boeing’s newest and fastest-selling Dreamliner planes will render service to Turkish Airlines passengers at Istanbul’s third airport, which is planned to be the largest airport in the world with a capacity of 150 million passengers annually.
The inauguration of the airport is planned to take place on Oct. 29, 2018.
The sale agreement between Boeing and Turkish Airlines was signed during a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the U.S. for the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly in September 2017.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, an extraordinary development following months of heightened nuclear tension and frequent threats and insults, media reports said.
The news was confirmed on Thursday night by both the White House and visiting South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong.
“President Trump greatly appreciates the nice words of the South Korean delegation and President Moon. He will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong-un at a place and time to be determined. We look forward to the denuclearisation of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain,” CNN quoted White House press secretary Sarah Sanders as saying.
After meeting Trump at the White House, Chung said: “He (Kim) expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible.
“President Trump said he would meet Kim Jong-un by May.”
Chung however, did not provide any information on where the meeting would take, reports The Washington Post.
Chung led the South Korean delegation earlier this week to North Korea, where Kim and his senior cadre expressed a willingness to hold talks with the US and were prepared to discuss denuclearisation and normalising relations.
In Seoul, the presidential Blue House clarified that the meeting would occur by the end of May.
Trump also expressed his optimism about the meeting in a post on Twitter, saying that Kim had “talked about denuclearisation with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze”, The New York Times reported.
“Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time… Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!”
Trump and Kim have spent the past year making belligerent statements about each other, with Trump mocking Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and pledging to “totally destroy” North Korea and Kim calling the American President a “dotard” and a “lunatic” and threatening to send nuclear bombs to Washington, D.C.
No sitting American President has ever met a North Korean leader, The Washington Post reported.
Former president Jimmy Carter met Kim’s grandfather Kim Il-sung, and former president Bill Clinton met his father, Kim Jong-il – during visits to Pyongyang after they had left office.
Both Carter and Clinton also went to Pyongyang to collect Americans who had been imprisoned by the regime.
Since he took over the leadership of North Korea from his father at the end of 2011, Kim Jong-un has not met any other head of state.
Discussions were now underway to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas at the end of next month.
After a year in which North Korea fired intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching all of the US and tested what is widely thought to have been a hydrogen bomb, such a moratorium would be welcomed by Washington and the world.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative Mahmoud Saikal
By Arul Louis,
United Nations : Afghanistan has welcomed the rising international pressure on the counter-terrorism front against Pakistan including its recent listing on a terrorism financing watch list and the United States withholding aid.
“We hope that this trend continues and the response to these measures is positive in the interest of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region,” Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative Mahmoud Saikal told the Security Council on Thursday.
“Of late, we have seen new measures at the international level to shift the calculus and promote genuine and productive counter-terrorism cooperation,” he said.
He diplomatically did not name Pakistan but the reference was clear.
“Recent decisions including the reduction of financial aid to the concerned State, and inclusion in the watch list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) represent a renewed attempt to encourage genuine action on the crucially important goal of defeating terrorism effectively,” Saikal said.
Last month Washington persuaded the members of FATF to reinstate Pakistan on its “grey list” of nations that are monitored for not acting adequately to stop terrorist financing and money laundering.
In January US President Donald Trump ordered withholding military aid and payments estimated at $1.2 billion to Islamabad because of its support for terrorist organisations.
Trump had accused it of giving safe havens to the terrorists that “we hunt in Afghanistan” and practising “lies and deceit.”
Saikal denounced the attacks in January by “Taliban’s Haqqani network” on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul that killed 18, including 14 foreigners, and on Save the Children NGO in Jalalabad in which 27 people died, and the detonation of an explosive-laden ambulance near a major hospital in the heart of Kabul killing at least 105 civilians.
“The sheer level of savagery in these despicable and heinous attacks was startling,” he said.
Despite all this, Saikal said President Ashraf Ghani made the “unprecedented” offer of direct talks to the Taliban without preconditions.
“Should our call receive a positive response, they will be granted the chance to become normal citizens, allowed to compete peacefully in politics through democratic procedures, be relieved from UNSC sanctions measures, besides enjoying the benefits of other positive measures,” he said. “In turn, they have to give up on their long-standing path of violence.”
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
