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Washington: President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to meet on the sidelines of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, according to a US official familiar with the planning.

The two sides worked out an agreement in principle to hold a meeting during the summit as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Friday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that the two sides have still not worked out details on the exact day of the meeting, venue and other logistics.

The White House said in a statement following Friday’s meetings that the two sides were “working toward” a Biden-Xi face-to-face on the sidelines of APEC, a forum of 21 Pacific countries.

Earlier Friday, Biden met with Wang, holding an hour-long talk with the senior Chinese official in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. The meeting, with Blinken and Sullivan present, was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilizing an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.

The White House said Biden “emphasized that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication,” and he “underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden viewed his meeting with Wang as “a positive development, and a good opportunity to keep the conversation going.”

Biden had been widely expected to talk with Wang, a reciprocal action after Xi met with Blinken in June.

Beijing has yet to confirm if Xi will travel to San Francisco for the annual APEC summit, which runs from Nov 11 to Nov 17.

Wang is in the midst of a three-day visit to Washington, where he’s been meeting with top US officials. He sat down with Blinken on Friday morning for the second time during his trip.

On Thursday, after their initial meeting, the Chinese side said “the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.”

In its readout, the US State Department said the two men addressed “areas of difference” and “areas of cooperation,” while Blinken “reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.”

Wang said before Thursday’s meeting that China's goal was to “push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development.”

US officials had said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player. The US has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the war between Israel and Hamas.

“China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm” in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.”

US officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

Wang came to Washington at a time when tensions between the two countries remained high, including over US export controls on advanced technology and China’s more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.

On Thursday, the US military released a video of a Chinese fighter jet flying within 10 feet (three meters) of an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident. Earlier this month, the Pentagon released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of US warplanes by Chinese aircraft that occurred in the last two years, part of a trend US military officials call concerning.

The US also has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a security pact, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Philippine vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.

Beijing has released its own video of close encounters in the region, including what it described as footage of the USS Ralph Johnson making a sharp turn and crossing in front of the bow of a Chinese navy ship. The US destroyer also was captured sailing between two Chinese ships.

Senior Col. Wu Qian, the spokesman of the Chinese defense ministry, said the videos showed that “the US is the real provocateur, risk taker and spoiler.”

The Pentagon rejected China's characterization of the USS Ralph Johnson’s movements, saying the video includes only “cropped segments of a 90-minute interaction.” The ship “complied with international law” and “operated in a lawful, safe and resolute manner,” the Pentagon said.

During his visit to Washington, Wang was also expected to discuss Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory. Beijing vows to seize it by force if necessary, but Washington, which has a security pact with Taiwan, opposes the use of force.

The Chinese president last came to the US in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on US soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in Nov 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

The US-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50bn worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Biden-Xi meeting would bring much-needed stability to relations between the two countries, said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center.

“The keyword here is ‘stabilization’ of bilateral ties—not really improvement, but stabilization,” Sun said. “The world needs the US and China to take on a rational path and stabilize their relationship, offering the region and the world more certainty.”

AP

The UN General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution Friday calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, the first United Nations response to the war.

The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States. It would have unequivocally condemned the Oct 7 “terrorist attacks” by Hamas and demanded the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas, which is not mentioned in the Arab-drafted resolution.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, called the General Assembly “more courageous, more principled” than the divided UN Security Council, which failed in four attempts during the past two weeks to reach agreement on a resolution. Two were vetoed and two failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes required for approval.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called it “a day that will go down in infamy,” saying after the vote: “Israel will not stop the operation until Hamas terror capabilities are destroyed and our hostages are returned. … And the only way to destroy Hamas is root them out of their tunnels and subterranean city of terror.”

Frustrated Arab nations went to the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes—just as Ukraine did after Russia’s Feb 2022 invasion because of Moscow’s Security Council veto power—to press for a UN response. And the United Arab Emirates Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, the Arab representative on the Security Council, expressed delight at the result.

“120 votes in this kind of geopolitical environment is a very, very high signal of the support for international law, for proportionate use of force, and it is a rejection of the status quo that is currently happening on the ground,” she said.

The 14 countries that voted against the resolution include Israel and its closest ally, the United States, five Pacific island nations and four European countries—Austria, Croatia, Czechia and Hungary, all European Union members. Eight EU members voted in favor.

France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere said his country supported the resolution “because nothing could justify the suffering of civilians,” and he urged collective efforts to establish a humanitarian truce.

Mansour said the European votes indicate they can be “very helpful” in pursuing a Security Council resolution “or in maximizing pressure in Israel to stop this war.”

While the surprise Hamas attacks killed some 1,400 Israelis, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The escalating death toll and destruction in Gaza heightened international support for “humanitarian truces” to get desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel to the 2.3m people in Gaza.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but the UAE’s Nusseibeh told reporters “they carry incredible weight and moral authority.”

She said the 10 elected Security Council members, who serve two-year terms, will take the “moral authority” from the General Assembly and try to break the gridlock on a council resolution.

The votes came part way through a list of 113 speakers at an emergency special session of the General Assembly on Israeli actions in occupied Palestinian territories.

Jordan’s UN Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, speaking on behalf of the UN’s 22-nation Arab group, called for action on the resolution because of the urgency of the escalating situation on the ground.

Before the vote, Hmoud urged defeat of the Canadian amendment, saying “Israel is responsible for the atrocities that are being committed now, and that will be committed in the ground invasion of Gaza.”

Canada’s UN Ambassador Robert Rae countered that the resolution appears to forget that the events of Oct 7 happened. The amendment would condemn Hamas, “which is responsible for one of the worst terrorist attacks in history,” he said.

Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram drew loud applause when he said the Arab-drafted resolution deliberately didn’t condemn or mention Israel or name any other party. “If Canada was really equitable,” Akram said, “it would agree either to name everybody—both sides who are guilty of having committed crimes—or it would not name either as we chose.”

The vote on the Canadian amendment was 88-55 with 23 abstentions, but it failed to get a two-thirds majority of those voting for or against—abstentions didn’t count. In the vote on the entire resolution that followed, Canada abstained.

The assembly’s emergency special session, which began Wednesday, continued Friday morning with US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield echoing Israel’s Erdan in calling the resolution “outrageous” for never mentioning Hamas and saying it is “detrimental” to the vision of a two-state solution.

She called it “a perilous moment for Israelis and Palestinians,” stressing that there is no justification for Hamas “terror,” that Palestinians are being used as human shields and that “the lives of innocent Palestinians must be protected.”

Oman, speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned Israel’s “siege” of Gaza, starvation of its population and collective punishment of Palestinians. But it said the Palestinians won’t be deterred from demanding their “legitimate inalienable rights, chief among them the right to self- determination and the right to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

In addition to calling for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities,” the resolution adopted Friday demands that all parties immediately comply with their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law requiring protection of civilians and the schools, hospitals and other infrastructure critical for their survival.

The resolution demands that essential supplies be allowed into the Gaza Strip and humanitarian workers have sustained access. And it calls on Israel to rescind its order for Gazans to evacuate the north and move to the south and “firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.”

The resolution also stresses the need “to urgently establish a mechanism to ensure the protection of the Palestinian civilian population.”

And it “emphasizes the importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region” and calls on all parties to exercise “maximum restraint” and on all those with influence to press them “to work toward this objective.”

AP

Dhorpatan: Baglung’s farmers are facing a concerning issue as their lemon plants, which were in the fruiting stage, are succumbing to a fungal infection. Hundreds of farmers in the area have reported that thousands of lemon plants have withered over the past two months. They fear significant financial losses if the situation is not promptly addressed.

According to Kumar Pun Magar, the information officer at the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in Baglung, the lemon plants are falling victim to this fungal infection, which causes the tips of the lemon plant leaves to dry up and die. He suggests that the farmers can save their plants by pruning and discarding the affected areas. Seeking technical advice can help prevent this issue in lemon cultivation.

The fungal infection affects the lemon branches and poses a threat to the farmers’ investments. Farmers are advised to be vigilant and promptly trim the drying branches. The problem has primarily emerged in the Nisikhola area and its surroundings within the district.

Nar Bahadur Budha Magar from Nisikhola has already witnessed 34 out of 60 lemon plants wither. He explains that his ripe lemon fruits started dropping during the harvest, leading to the death of the plants. Even lemon plants planted the previous year are not spared. Having engaged in commercial lemon cultivation for the past two years, Budha Magar anticipates a significant financial setback, estimating a loss of approximately Rs 200,000.

The issue has even spread to lemon trees that have been growing for six to seven years in the area. Initially affecting the older trees, the problem has now extended to younger plants, threatening the investments of farmers.

Purna Bahadur Chhetri, another local farmer, has had 70 out of 90 of his lemon plants affected by the disease. He is taking measures to combat the issue by cutting the dried branches as soon as they show signs of infection. Notably, this problem did not arise last year.

The Agriculture Knowledge Centre in Baglung reports that, out of 45 hectares of land dedicated to lemon cultivation in the district, only 22 hectares are currently yielding produce. The situation remains a cause for concern among the lemon farmers in the region.

Kohalpur: The Banke police have held a person who defrauded people by pretending to be an employee of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), said the district police office, Banke.  The arrestee has been identified as Mohan Koirala of Bharatpur Metropolitan City in Chitwan district, currently living in Nepalgunj Sub Metropolitan City-20. 

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Narayan Dangi, spokesperson for the district police office, acting on a tip off, the police arrested Koirala who had been defrauding people for the past some time by pretending to be an employee of the CIAA. He also visited government offices and other organizations and took benefits, he said. A joint team from the Nepalgunj-based contact office of the CIAA, Butwal and the district police office arrested him. Investigations are underway and the police have requested people to lodge a police report, he said. 

Kathmandu: The Nepal government has considered the release of two hostages in Gaza as a positive development. In a press statement issued on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) expressed its appreciation for the release of the two hostages in Gaza and commended the diplomatic efforts made by Qatar and other parties involved in securing their release.

Furthermore, the Ministry stated that Bipin Joshi, a Nepali student who has been missing since the day of the Israeli attack on Oct 7, remains unaccounted for. The Ministry has called for the safety of Joshi and other missing civilians.

Kathmandu: Nepali Congress (NC) is hosting its greetings exchange and tea reception at the party central office, Sanepa, Lalitpur, on Saturday afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. 

NC central member Ramhari Khatiwada informed that the party is hosting the tea reception on the occasion of the Dashain, Tihar, Nepal Sambat and Chhath festivals tomorrow. 

Khatiwada, also the President of House of Representatives (HoR)’s State Advisory and Good Governance Committee, said, “The tea reception BP Koirala initiated in the then time realizing the need of political dialogue and meeting is still relevant and can contribute to keep political harmony and unity in the country.”

The tea reception program of the party’s Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur district committees will be held at the party central office, Sanepa, while the concerned districts’ committees will organize the same in respective districts. 

NC leader Arjunnarsingh KC highlighted the relevance of the tea reception culture that was initiated by BP Koirala to maintain harmony among all sides on the occasion of the festivals, including Bada Dashain in the context when the national and international context was turning complex after his repatriation. 

NC has invited chiefs of all political parties, ministers, lawmakers, heads and representatives of diplomatic missions in Nepal and distinguished personalities representing different sections of society at the tea reception programme. 

NC has started hosting the tea reception since 1978 following BP’s return to home with a policy of national unity and reconciliation in Dec 1977. BP continued the tradition up to 1981. Then Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Girija Prasad Koirala and Sushil Koirala continued the cultural legacy of tea reception. Incumbent President Sher Bahadur Deuba is perpetuating the tradition. 

NC has been hosting the tea reception every year around the Dashain festival.

Lewiston: Shocked and fearful Maine residents kept to their homes Friday as hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents searched intensely for Robert Card, an Army reservist who authorities say fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in the worst mass killing in state history.

Much of Thursday’s search focused on a large property belonging to one of Card’s relatives in rural Bowdoin, where trucks and vans full of armed agents from the FBI and other agencies eventually surrounded a home on Thursday.

The Cards have lived in Bowdoin for generations, neighbors said, and various members of the Card family own hundreds of acres in the area.

“This is his stomping ground,” Richard Goddard, who lives on the road where the search took place, said of the suspect. “He knows every ledge to hide behind, every thicket.”

Authorities repeatedly yelled for Card and anyone else inside the home to surrender. But hours later, they left, with state police saying it was unclear whether the suspect had ever been at the location.

Authorities say Card, 40, who has firearms training, opened fire with at least one rifle at a bar and a bowling alley Wednesday in Lewiston, Maine's second-largest city about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Bowdoin. The attack left 18 people dead and 13 wounded, three of whom were hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.

The victims of the shootings include Bob Violette, 76, a retiree who was coaching a youth bowling league and was described as devoted, approachable and kind. Auburn City Councilor Leroy Walker told news outlets that his son, Joe, a manager at the bar and grill, died going after the shooter with a butcher knife. Peyton Brewer-Ross was a dedicated pipefitter at Bath Iron Works whose death leaves a gaping void in the lives of his partner, young daughter and friends, members of his union said.

The manager of the youth bowling league vowed that the league would survive despite the devastating grief members were feeling.

“The people we lost were not just random league bowlers, they were people who contributed significantly to the development of our sport and our experience,” said Mark Fortier, who is also the manager of the Maine State US Bowling Congress.

Authorities have not said how many guns were used or how they were obtained.

People stayed behind locked doors in cities as far as 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the scenes of the shootings. Schools in Lewiston and Portland, and public buildings in Portland, remained closed Friday. Bates College in Lewiston also canceled classes Friday and postponed the inauguration of the school’s first Black president.

April Stevens lives in the same neighborhood where one of the shootings took place. She turned on all her lights overnight and locked her doors. She knew someone killed at the bar and another person injured who needed surgery.

“We’re praying for everyone,” Stevens said through tears.

The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3m people that has one of the country’s lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills promised to do whatever was needed to “hold whoever is responsible for this atrocity accountable."

As authorities searched for Card, details about his recent behavior emerged. He underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically while with his reserve regiment, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

A neighbor, Dave Letarte, said Card’s family let them deer hunt on their property and were kind, although Letarte said he noticed Card appeared to have mental problems for a while.

“People have problems, but you don’t expect them to go off the deep end like that,” Letarte said. “When we saw it on the news last night, I was shocked.”

Neighbors said the Cards owned the local sawmill, and that years ago a member of the Card family donated the land for a local church.

A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service. A woman who answered a phone number for one of Card’s relatives on Thursday afternoon said the family was helping the FBI. She didn’t give her name or additional details.

Eight murder warrants were issued for Card after authorities identified eight of the victims, and 10 more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, police said.

Three of the 13 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said.

The attack started at Just-In-Time Recreation, where a children’s bowling league was taking place, just before 7 pm Wednesday.

Less than 15 minutes later, numerous 911 calls started coming in from Schemengees Bar and Grille a few miles away.

The search for Card covered both land and water. The Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat Thursday morning along the Kennebec River, but after hours of searching, they found “nothing out of the ordinary,” said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, who is in charge of the Coast Guard’s Boothbay Harbor Station.

A car believed to belong to Card had been discovered by a boat launch in the town of Lisbon near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec, and Card’s 15-foot (4.5-meter) boat remains unaccounted for, Smith said.

In many past US mass shootings, the suspect was found—whether dead or alive—within minutes. But Card was still on the loose more than a full day after the shootings.

The shootings mark the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

AP

Islamabad: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is on the verge of a shutdown as it canceled over 500 flights in the past 11 days due to the unavailability of fuel, ARY News reported.

PIA is facing its worst crisis in history as Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has cut its fuel supply over unpaid dues. The move forced the airline to cancel 537 flights since Oct 13.

On Thursday, as many as 49 domestic and international flights were canceled from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta, Multan, Peshawar and other cities after the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) slashed its fuel supply to the PIA, sources said.

The flights include Karachi to Islamabad and Karachi to Turbat, all of which have to be called off.

Meanwhile, PIA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amir Hayat has written a ‘motivation letter’ to the employees amid the financial crisis, closure of the flight operations and the ongoing privatization process, as per ARY News.

Hayat asked all employees to maintain a concerted focus on ensuring organizational compliance through closely-knit teamwork ahead of the airline’s privatization.

PIA recently paid PKR 220m (approximately $789,000) to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) for a two-day fuel supply, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The PIA spokesperson said that the airline has paid PKR 500m so far to the PSO for the provision of fuel, adding that the national flag carrier is making payments to PSO daily.

PIA is currently acquiring fuel for profitable routes including Saudi Arabia, Canada, China, Kuala Lumpur and others. 

ANI