Trump to have trilateral meeting with Modi and Abe in Argentina
Washington, Nov 28 : US President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, the White House said Tuesday.
The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings Trump would have later this week on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Argentina. The annual meeting is being attended by leaders of the top 20 economies of the world.
However, all eyes are expected to be on two meetings that Trump would have with the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said that Trump will also have meetings with President Mauricio Macri of Argentina, President Moon Jae-In of South Korea, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Bolton said the Trump-Abe bilateral meeting would expand into a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi.
"He is going to meet with President Macri, the host government of Argentina, he'll meet with President Moon of South Korea, he'll meet with President Erdogan of Turkey, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, that will transform at some point during that meeting a trilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, Bolton said.
"The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," he said.
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'Low-quality' catheters supplied to West Bengal govt hospitals at high price, probe ordered
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.
