Business

Colombo, May 29 (PTI) Sri Lanka has signed a deal with India and Japan to develop a deep-sea container terminal here amid increasing forays by China which has taken a strategic port on a 99-year lease that has worried New Delhi.

The three countries will jointly build the East Container Terminal at the Port of Colombo.

Kanpur: In continuation of the NGT order dated July 13, 2017 for construction of a proposed 20 MLD CETP, a Chennai-based company has been awarded the contract. An understanding was signed between the project engineer and the company on May 9. A sum of Rs 419 crore would be spent on the construction of the common effluent treatment plant. Jajmau Tannery Treatment Association has also been formed. The sources said that the work on the construction is supposed to start in the mid-June this year. 

BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China hopes the United States will respect facts and market laws, and refrain from politicizing the issue of currency exchange rates, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.

"China has repeatedly advised the U.S. to act according to multilateral international rules instead of unilaterally assessing other countries' currency exchange rates," spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing.

TEHRAN, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of negotiations with the United States over the existing mutual thorny issues.

"We will not negotiate with the United States as it will be fruitless and a loss," Khamenei was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

The Iranian leader said that negotiations are the "U.S. tactic to complement its pressures policy on Iran."

Iran possesses the "necessary tools" to confront U.S. pressures, he added.

VIENNA, May 29. /TASS/: Russia is observing the moratorium on nuclear tests, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Wednesday.

Ulyanov was commenting on the remarks made earlier by director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley. Ashley said that "the United States believes that Russia probably is not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the 'zero-yield' standard" outlined in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/: The union treaty between Russia and Belarus is needed to boost the economies and social sectors in both countries,, Russia’s Ambassador to Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev said in a televised interview with Russia’s Rossiya-24 TV channel on Wednesday.

"People do need allied relations between Russia and Belarus, our economies do need them. They are needed to achieve growth and enrichment in the social sector. Last but not least, millions of citizens of Belarus and of the Russian Federation need them," he said.

MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/: Russia will hold another round of talks with Iran on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily.

"This whole situation, along with concrete spheres of joint work between us, Iranians and other parties to the JCPOA, were in focus of our discussions in Tehran. We agreed that the next round of contacts will take place in the near future," Ryabkov said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s government says it will spend billions of dollars more on mental health services and combatting child poverty as part of a new approach to its finances.

The liberal-led government on Thursday unveiled the country’s first so-called well-being budget. It aims to measure social outcomes like health and the environment alongside traditional metrics such as economic growth.

The new approach has been lauded by some internationally but criticized by the conservative opposition as meaningless window-dressing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing new trade sanctions and a U.S. clampdown on its top telecommunications company, China issued a pointed reminder Wednesday that it has yet to unleash all its weapons in its trade war with the Trump administration.

Chinese state media warned that Beijing could cut America off from exotic minerals that are widely used in electric cars and mobile phones. The threat to use China’s rich supply of so-called rare earths as leverage in the conflict has contributed to sharp losses in U.S. stocks and sliding long-term bond yields.

PARMA, Italy (AP) — The police huddled for hours each day, headphones on, eavesdropping on the doctor. They’d tapped his cellphone, bugged his office, planted a camera in a trattoria.

They heard him boast about his power to help Big Pharma make millions pushing painkillers, and about all the money they say he was paid in exchange.