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President Barack Obama offered Mr Xi Jinping a warm welcome at the White House on Thursday, greeting his Chinese counterpart with a “ni hao”, or Mandarin for “how are you?”, at the start of a tricky state visit.

He will visit Tesla Motors.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States will contribute almost US$419 million (AU$ 592 million) in humanitarian aid to help Syrian refugees. Part of the funding will go towardmedical care, including vaccination against measles and polio, safe drinking...

More from L. Ian MacDonald available here.

The announcement comes one day after Secretary of State John Kerry said the USA would raise its annual refugee cap from 70,000 to 85,000 to accommodate more Syrians fleeing their war-torn country.

In addition, the two leaders “discussed how a big part of the answer to the refugee crisis must be a solution to the situation in Syria“, a spokesman for Cameron’s office said.

The diplomat noted the recent flurry of diplomatic activity on Syria after the Iran nuclear deal was announced, including a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Qatar, but said that window “slammed shut” with...

Senate Democrats thwarted a Republican effort to ban late-term abortions on Tuesday as GOP leaders strained to avoid a government shutdown in eight days over the dispute – all against a tangled backdrop of presidential politics.

During the Mass at Madison Square Garden, Francis focused his homily on life in big cities populated by many forgotten or “second-class” citizens.

The main concept of the presentation is about what would be the opportunities for India United States collaboration are and what plans they have for India.

In Havana, the pope met Fidel Castro over the weekend in a 40-minute session at the former president’s home that the Vatican described as “informal and familial”, with an exchange of books and discussion about issues facing humanity.

The German government has agreed to give its 16 states a total of around 4 billion euros next year to help them deal with the increased number of migrants and refugees who have entered the country.

Rather than claiming asylum in the first safe European Union country they reach, most head on toward wealthy northern states.

“We won’t be able to solve the conflict from outside, without involving regional countries”, she underscored.

The policy change, which Kerry said would result in the Obama administration’s accepting 85,000 refugees next year – up from 70,000 – rising to 100,000 in 2017, comes as the refugee crisis in Europe threatens to explode into outright chaos.