Business

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers added jobs in 46 states last month, evidence that the U.S. economy’s surprise hiring gain in May was spread broadly across the country — in both states that began reopening their economies early and those that did so only later.

New Delhi, Jun 18 (PTI) Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said India should no longer depend on China and instead focus on research and innovation to ramp up domestic manufacturing.

The minister also said the government is working on formulating a new policy for import substitution.

The remarks come in the wake of border clashes between the two nations in Ladakh.

Banda/Mahoba (UP), Jun 19 (PTI) A swarm of locusts attacked trees and crops in several villages in Banda and Mahoba districts, farmers and officials said on Friday.

The swarm came from the jungles of the neighbouring Panna and Chhatarpur districts of Madhya Pradesh and entered Kartal, Bolharka, Maharajpur, Manpur, Pukari, Ragoli and Babupur villages in Banda on Thursday evening, they said.

Farmers said the locusts attacked vegetables sown in one kilometre area in an hour and returned to the jungles in Madhya Pradesh.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) has extended its enhanced Economy Class flexible fare options across its entire network except for Malaysia to Japan and Japan to Malaysia, Jeddah and Madinah, beginning June 22, 2020.

The unique fare options — Lite, Basic, Flex was previously limited to domestic, ASEAN and South Asian destinations, offering unparalleled safety, security, flexibility and a completely hassle-free, premium experience based on the needs of each customer. 

KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Homegrown 24-hour mini-supermarket chain KK Super Mart is hoping to open more branches in India, as well as develop an e-commerce platform for consumers to purchase essential products online in view of the COVID-19.

KK Super Mart’s founder and KK Group of Companies’ executive chairman, Datuk Seri Dr KK Chai, said KK Super Mart will continue with its expansion plans in India by opening more branches in the republic in the future in addition to the three branches in Kolkata city, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal.

BERLIN, June 19 (NNN-XINHUA) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday presented a basic outline and goals of Germany’s presidency of the EU Council starting in July, setting tackling COVID-19 as the “leitmotif” for its term.

“Europe needs us as much as we need Europe,” said Merkel in a speech to the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament. “Europe is something that we can and must create. It is a dynamic order of peace and freedom.”

WASHINGTON, June 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Layoffs caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the United States have passed 45.7 million, raising fears that despite some positive signs, the economy faces a halting recovery from the downturn.

Another 1.5 million US workers filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said, a decrease of only 58,000 from the prior week and higher overall than analysts expected.

New Delhi, Jun 18 (PTI) Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday appealed to people to boycott products from China and also directed officials of his ministry not to procure any Chinese products for day-to-day office use.

The comments from the Food and Consumer Affairs Minister come against the backdrop of heightened border tensions between India and China.

HONOLULU, June 18 (NNN-XINHUA) – Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi held a dialogue with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the latter’s request on Tuesday and Wednesday local time in the US state of Hawaii.

Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, conducted in-depth exchanges with Pompeo on China-U.S. relations as well as global and regional issues of mutual concern.

WASHINGTON, June 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Bank said it would provide $400 million to support universal health coverage in Egypt as the country struggles with rising numbers of new Coronavirus cases.

The funding will help Egypt increase the reach of its universal health insurance system in six governorates and offer temporary financial protection to those hit by high out-of-pocket health expenditures linked to the coronavirus outbreak, the bank said in a statement.