Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

Trade deal unlikely at Modi-trump meet

- HT Correspond­ent

WASHINGTON: A trade deal with the US is not expected to be in the bouquet of announceme­nts following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly debates next week.

But the two sides could get closer to an agreement or arrive at, what an expert said, a “trade understand­ing”.

“It will be premature to talk about a trade deal,” a person familiar with discussion­s taking place about the bilateral said, adding, “We have not reached that stage yet.”

Some investment­s and “positive” business announceme­nts are expected and the Indian PM will be reaching out to leading business leaders at separate engagement­s, as he has during previous US visits.

Neither country has officially announced the bilateral, but Modi and Trump will be holding a delegation-level meeting next week, their second interactio­n in a week following a joint appearance and address at an Indianamer­ican outreach event ‘Howdy, Modi!’ - in Houston on Sunday.

Trade is likely to figure as it has on all of their previous meetings, especially the two recent once on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka in June and the G7 summit in Biarritz in August. SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook said on Tuesday it has finalised its charter for its “independen­t oversight board”, giving the panel the authority to overrule chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on questions of appropriat­e content.

Zuckerberg said in a statement the independen­t panel would have the final say on many matters. “If someone disagrees with a decision we’ve made, they can appeal to us first, and soon they will be able to further appeal to this independen­t board,” the Facebook CEO said.

IS, AL-QAEDA FB PAGES AUTO-GENERATING

WASHINGTON:FACEBOOK likes to say that its automated systems remove prohibited content glorifying IS and al-qaeda. But a whistleblo­wer’s complaint shows that Facebook has inadverten­tly provided the two terror groups with a networking tool by producing dozens of pages in their names.

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