Business

17 May 2019; DW: Russia said it had no desire to leave the Council of Europe and was ready to pay its dues following an apparent breakthrough between Moscow and Western nations. Russia's delegation had faced sanctions over Crimea.

France and Germany pushed through a compromise which would allow Russia's Council of Europe (CoE) to return to the body, as foreign ministers from the 47 member states resumed their two day summit in Helsinki.

17 May 2019; DW: The next-generation ALFA-X train is on course to become the fastest in the world. Testing will continue for three years, and the train is scheduled to go into use in 2030.

Japan's JR-EAST rail company unveiled a next-generation Shinkansen bullet train codenamed ALFA-X on Thursday. The company said the €82 million ($91 million) 10-car train, which was completed in early May, had already reached speeds of 320 km/h (198 mph).

17 May 2019; DW: Germany, France and the Netherlands have said they will not block Huawei from participating in the expansion of national 5G networks. The US fears that China could use Huawei equipment for spying.

The leaders of Germany, France and the Netherlands said Thursday that their governments do not plan to follow the lead of the US and ban Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from involvement in their national 5G high-speed mobile networks.

Mumbai, May 17 (PTI) Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and veteran talk show host David Letterman have collaborated for a Netflix stand-alone special.

As per the press release issued by the streaming service, the show will be all about in-depth conversations, for which Letterman is renowned, and in-the-field segments expressing his curiosity and humour.

The 53-year-old Indian star said he was honoured to share his story with Letterman.

Washington, May 17 (PTI) US President Donald Trump in a proclamation Thursday terminated the designation of Turkey as a beneficiary nation under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) while the suspense on India continued.

GSP is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme and is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries.

17 May 2019 (AP) - The Trump administration’s decision to restrict all U.S. technology sales to Chinese telecommunications powerhouse Huawei for national security reasons doesn’t just up the ante in the China trade war.

It’s also bound to hurt U.S. suppliers and accelerate Beijing’s drive toward greater technological independence.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats pushed legislation buttressing the 2010 health care law and curbing prescription drug prices through the House Thursday, advancing a bill that has no chance of surviving in the Senate or getting President Donald Trump’s signature and seemed engineered with next year’s elections in mind.

The measure forced Republicans into the uncomfortable political position of casting a single vote on legislation that contained popular drug pricing restraints they support, plus language strengthening President Barack Obama’s health care statute that they oppose.

BERLIN, May 16. /TASS/: Russia’s Energy Ministry opposes the idea of selling Russian gas to Ukraine on the eastern border, so that later the Ukrainian side itself could sell it to the EU countries, Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky, told reporters on the sidelines of the international conference Prospects for Russia-EU Energy Cooperation: Gas Aspects."

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The policy differences between the two major political parties vying for power at Australian elections on Saturday have been described as the widest divide at a federal contest in 26 years.

The center-left opposition Labor Party is regarded as pursuing a “big target strategy” with a diverse range of policies aimed at creating a more equitable society under the slogan “A Fair Go for Australia.” To give someone “a fair go” is an Australian colloquialism for providing justice.

HELSINKI, May 17. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met with his German counterpart Heiko Maas on the sidelines of a meeting of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on Friday.

The meeting between the Russian and German top diplomats took place behind closed doors.

The German Foreign Ministry said earlier that the parties would discuss bilateral relations, the situation in the Middle East, the Ukrainian issue and Russia’s Council of Europe membership.