Business

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang urged New Zealand to provide a “fair, transparent, convenient” investment environment in a meeting Monday with the country’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, that comes amid a dispute over use of Chinese telecoms equipment.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since New Zealand in November stopped mobile phone company Spark from using Huawei gear in its planned 5G upgrade because of security concerns.

LONDON (AP) — The eurozone economy received a double dose of bad news Monday as inflation fell further away from the European Central Bank’s target and a closely monitored survey showed the crucial manufacturing sector shrinking at its fastest rate in six years.

The developments suggest Europe is struggling to cope with global trade tensions and the uncertainty of Brexit, among other things.

DES MOINES, the United States, March 31 (Xinhua) -- It would be a timely piece of good news for American farmers if the United States and China could reach a deal to defuse bilateral trade tensions before the Spring planting season, a U.S. soybean farmer has said.

"We're gonna be starting to plant in mid-April, mid-May. So we hope that the decision is made (before that), and then that will help us, that would give us some time to make our adjustments where we wanted to," Rick Kimberley, president of Kimberley Farms Inc., told Xinhua in a recent interview.

HANOVER, Germany, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The Hannover Messe, the world's largest industrial show, opened here on Sunday evening with the highlights of 5G network and artificial intelligence (AI).

With the total of 6500 exhibitors from 75 countries and regions, the Hanover Fair will show the latest development of technologies for industrial use, including 5G network, artificial intelligence, light-weighted manufacturing, among others.

CAIRO, March 31 (Xinhua) -- China's Tianjin Light Industry Vocational Technical College, Tianjin Transportation Vocational College and Egypt's Ain Shams University on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the Egypt Luban Workshop in Cairo, Egypt.

Luban workshop is the first project of international cooperation on vocational training supported by China's Tianjin Municipality, which aims at improving academic education of top technical talents and serving the local economy and society via vocational training.

New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may cut key lending rates by another 25 basis points on Thursday to boost economic activities amid fears of global slowdown impacting domestic growth prospects, experts said.

The RBI had reduced the repo rate by 25 basis points in February after a gap of 18 months. A back-to-back cut in interest rate would provide relief to borrowers in the election season.

Washington, Mar 30; GANASHAKTI: There has been a considerable amount of cooperation from India on the US efforts to restrict export of Venezuelan oil, a top American diplomat said Friday as the Trump administration tightened its noose over President Nicolas Maduro's regime of the Latin American country.

Baghpat/Kairana (UP), Mar 31 (PTI) Tractors loaded with cane waiting to be crushed line the roads across swathes of western Uttar Pradesh, telling the bitter story of sugarcane farmers caught in a pincer trap of unpaid dues and low prices.

With posters, buntings and rallies, the clamour of poll-time campaigning is all around in the area famed as the country's sugar bowl but the very word election strikes a sour note for many farmers.

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal may not be dead after all — even though lawmakers voted to reject it for a third time Friday — the day Britain had long been scheduled to leave the European Union.

The U.K. now faces a deadline of April 12 to present the EU with a new plan, or crash out of the bloc without an agreement.

But May’s government is considering a fourth vote on her deal, bolstered by their success in narrowing margin of defeat to 58 votes on Friday from 230 votes in January...

31 Mar 2019; AP: President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean, a U.S. judge said in a ruling that restored the Obama-era restrictions.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in a decision late Friday threw out Trump’s executive order that overturned the bans that comprised a key part of Obama’s environmental legacy.