USA

Washington, Sep 26 (PTI) The US Congress has passed a crucial bipartisan bill that seeks to impose a visa ban on Chinese officials who deny American citizens, government officials and journalists access to Tibet.

The legislation, passed by a unanimous voice vote, comes amidst the Trump administration imposing massive trade import duties on China that has started impacting the Chinese economy.

Donald Trump has to endure what could be one of the most humiliating moments in his life when he was laughed at the UN General Assembly while bragging that his presidency “had accomplished more than any other administration in history”.

The laughter was audible. US president looked around the room, smiled broadly, and said “Didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s OK,”

81 year old Bill Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad” in the top-rated Cosby Show in the 1980s, was convicted in April of violating Andrea Constand, Temple University women’s basketball administrator.

The punishment was handed down by the Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill, saying, “It is time for justice”, and, “Mr Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come.”

Cosby was also fined $34,445.

NEW YORK; 24 Sep 2018; (AP) — Mel Gibson will co-write and direct a remake of Sam Peckinpah’s classic 1969 Western “The Wild Bunch.”

Warner Bros. on Monday confirmed that Gibson will helm the production, with Bryan Bagby to co-write the script with him. It will be Gibson’s first time directing since his 2016 World War II drama “Hacksaw Ridge,” for which Gibson earned a best directing Oscar nomination.

WASHINGTON; 25 Sep 2018; (AP) — The Trump administration says it has approved the sale to Taiwan of $330 million in spare parts and related support for Taiwan’s F-16 fighters and other military aircraft.

A Pentagon statement Monday said the sale will improve Taiwan’s ability to defend itself without altering the basic military balance in Asia.

China opposes all U.S. military sales to Taiwan.

NEW YORK (AP) — Gone is the shoulder squeezing, the affectionate dandruff-brushing — and French President Emmanuel Macron’s hope that he could use his unlikely friendship with Donald Trump to rein in the American president’s more incendiary instincts.

When the two men met Monday in New York, they shook hands lightly and got down to the tasks at hand. They agreed to disagree on the Iranian nuclear accord and Trump’s protectionist policies and one-sided support for Israel, according to two French presidential advisers.

FRESNO, Calif.; 25 Sep 2018; (AP) — The Trump administration’s proposal to roll back national fuel economy standards was headed for its second public hearing a day after California officials and scores of speakers blasted it as a danger to the environment and public health.

UNITED NATIONS, 25 September. /TASS/. The UN Security Council condemned terrorist attack in Iran's Ahvaz and underlined the need to search and bring to justice the organizers of this attack, according to the statement released on Monday.

"The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack that took place in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in Ahvaz, on 22 September. The terrorist attack, at a military parade, resulted in at least 24 people killed, including children, and 60 others injured," the report said.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) will set up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran in light of the U.S. withdrawal from the international agreement on Tehran's nuclear program and the re-imposition of sanctions, said the EU's foreign and security policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his British counterpart Jeremy Hunt on Monday vowed to defend the current international system and multilateralism amid a slew of challenges.

During their meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly session, Wang said that China and Britain, both permanent members of UN Security Council, should make their ties a stabilizer in a world fraught with uncertainty.