Business

BASRA, Iraq, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation (CPECC) and Iraq's Basra Gas Company (BGC) signed Wednesday a contract for constructing a natural gas liquids (NGL) plant in Iraq's southern province of Basra.

During the signing ceremony, CPECC President Liu Haijun said "we are delighted to have been selected by BGC to be part of this strategically important gas project. Winning this important contract represents a new recognition of our proven capacity in project execution in Iraq."

HANOI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump met Wednesday night in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi for their second summit to discuss concrete ways for peace on and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Kim and Trump shook hands and smiled in their first encounter at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, where the two leaders were slated to briefly sit down one-on-one before having a social dinner, opening their two-day summit.

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26 (APP): After opening lower, the Indian stock markets – Sensex and Nifty – extended losses on Tuesday, following violation of Line of Control (LoC) by Indian Air Force (IAF), Business Today of India reported.

According to the report, the Sensex plunged nearly 500 points in opening deals and Nifty slipped below the 10,740 level. Most of the BSE sectoral indices were trading in the red, led by banking, power, PSU, realty and IT stocks.

27 Feb 2019; AFP: The Netherlands announced Tuesday the surprise purchase of a stake in Air France-KLM, saying it needed to protect Dutch interests after a series of rows about the alliance's management.

Paris reacted testily to the Dutch purchase of the 12.68 percent share -- which puts it on course to match France's own holding -- saying that Air France-KLM must be free of "state interference".

26 Feb 2019; DW: Meat from animals which are not stunned before slaughter cannot be labeled organic, the EU's top court has ruled. The organic standard places a high emphasis on animal welfare.

The meat from animals slaughtered under ritualistic practices cannot be labeled as organic, the European Union's top court ruled on Tuesday.

The EU organic standard places a high emphasis on animal welfare and ritualistic slaughter does not reach its threshold, the European Court of Justice found.

27 Feb 2019; DW: Ahead of talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said there was "awesome" potential and "great opportunity" for North Korea, which would be sooner realized if it committed to denuclearization.

"Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Guwahati, Feb 26 (PTI) US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster Tuesday met Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal here and discussed an array of issues, including business, connectivity and organic cultivation.

The Ambassador said that considering the vibrant petroleum and natural gas sector of the state, the USA can help Assam in providing state-of-the-art technology for exploring the sectors economically.

MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. Flights from Russia to popular Egyptian resorts may be fully resumed in the near future, Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev said at a meeting with Egyptian Ambassador Ihab Nasr on Tuesday.

"Now the flights, at least en route from Moscow to Cairo, have been fully resumed. As for other popular routes, we are close to also resuming these routes in full in accordance with the sides’ interests," Kosachev said.

MOSCOW, February 27. /TASS/. In an interview with the Turkey’s NTV channel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed hope that Washington would eventually change its mind on Turkey’s plans to buy S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.

"At present, relevant agencies conduct all the necessary talks, and will continue to do so, including a speech before the Congress. I hope that this wrongful approach by the United States would change," he said, commenting on the possibility of US sanctions over the deal.

MOSCOW, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Tuesday launched a submarine fiber-optic communication line linking Russia's Sakhalin island with the Southern Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.

The new optical line, connecting Sakhalin with three of the four Pacific islands claimed by both Russia and Japan, was part of the program "social and economic development of the Kuril Islands for 2016-2025," according to Russia's TASS news agency.