Business

Kolkata, May 28 (PTI) Domestic flight operations to and from Kolkata resumed on Thursday after a gap of two months due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Though domestic flight operations across the country began on May 25, they could not be restarted in Kolkata as the state machinery was involved in relief and restoration work after Cyclone Amphan whiplashed many areas of the state.

The first flight from Kolkata left for Guhawati at 6.05 am with 40 passengers, whereas 122 passengers arrived from New Delhi on Thursday morning, the sources said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States’ decision to end sanctions waivers that had allowed some work to proceed at Iranian nuclear sites will only provoke Tehran into developing nuclear weapons, Interfax cited Russian Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov as saying on Thursday.

“The U.S. is pushing them and in the end they are provoking Iran to create a nuclear bomb, unequivocally,” said Dzhabarov, adding that Russia would continue to cooperate with Iran.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Malaysia successfully chaired the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Virtual Extraordinary Senior Officials’ Meeting (VESOM) on COVID-19, in a four-hour meeting which began 7 pm Malaysian time Wednesday.

The VESOM brought together 21 APEC Economies from eight different time zones, into a single virtual platform.

BEIJING, May 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — China’s parliament on Thursday approved Hong Kong’s national security Bill that has caused uproar in the city about concerns over freedoms in the financial hub.

The National People’s Congress of more than 2,800 delegates voted in favour of the proposal to draft the law, which would punish secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and acts that endanger national security.

RAMALLAH, May 28 (NNN-WAFA) – Official institutions in Palestine, on Wednesday, resumed work after several months’ lock-down, all over the West Bank, due to the COVID-19.

The move is part of the Palestinian government’s decision, to ease the restrictions and precautionary measures, against the virus, which have been taken since Mar 5.

Palestine on Wednesday (yesterday), said that, eight new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of cases in the Palestinian territories to 613.

KAMPALA, May 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni says, the government has injected 1 trillion shillings (about US$270 million) into the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) to boost industrialization.

Museveni, according to a State House statement issued here, said the US$270 million is part of the US$491.5 million that Uganda borrowed from the International Monetary Fund early this month to address the “urgent balance of payments and fiscal needs” arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON, May 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — In the decentralized American system, the COVID-19 pandemic is draining public finances in many cities and states, and without help from the federal government, experts say the consequences will be lasting and the recovery slower.

“There cannot be a national recovery if the state and local governments are not funded,” New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.

27 May 2020; MEMO: China cut its imports of oil from Saudi Arabia last month, customs data issued by the authorities in Beijing revealed this week. During the same period, imports of Russian crude oil increased.

Imports of Russian crude in China were 1.75 million barrels per day in April, compared with 1.66 million barrels in March. In contrast, oil imported from Saudi Arabia fell to 1.26 million barrels per day, compared with 1.7 million barrels in March.

New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) Fitch Ratings on Tuesday forecast the Indian economy to contract 5 per cent in the current fiscal on account of slump in economic activities following a "very severe" lockdown that has lasted much longer than expected.

In its Global Economic Outlook (GEO) for May, Fitch projected growth to rebound to 9.5 per cent in 2021-22 and an estimated 3.9 per cent growth in 2019-20.

The forecast of 5 per cent contraction is sharp decline from 0.8 per cent growth projected by the global rating agency in late April.

MADRID, May 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Foreign visitors to Spain will no longer have to undergo a two-week quarantine from July 1, the government has announced.

It said the measure had been finalised in a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya had previously said the requirement would be lifted in July, without giving a date.

The news comes as the UK government prepares to bring in its own 14-day quarantine policy from June 8.