Business

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday announced his decision to allow registered Afghan refugees to open bank accounts in Pakistan which refugees say will help them do business.

Pakistan presently hosts nearly 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees who hold Proof of Registration or PoR cards, which allow them to stay legally in the country, according to the UN refugee agency.

Besides, there are also about one million refugees, who have been documented but not entitled to have PoR cards.

BOGOTA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Monday announced new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Venezuelan officials loyal to President Nicolas Maduro.

During a meeting in Bogota of the Lima Group, a Latin American bloc aligned with Washington and its push to unseat Maduro, Pence said the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on four Venezuelan governors for their pro-government stance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Roughly half the nation’s business economists say they think the U.S. economy will slip into recession by the end of next year, and three-fourths envision such a downturn beginning by the end of 2021.

The finding comes from the latest survey by the National Association for Business Economics of its member economists. Just 10 percent of them say they foresee a recession beginning this year. At the other extreme, only 11 percent expect the economy to avoid a recession through 2021.

WASHINGTON, February 25. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he had decided to postpone increasing customs tariffs on Chinese products due to productive American-Chinese negotiations to resolve bilateral trade disputes, he wrote on his Twitter page.

BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Beijing Daxing International Airport completed flight checks when a plane landed safely at the airport at 10:20 a.m. Sunday.

The flight checks lasted 34 days and ended 19 days ahead of schedule.

Seven instrument landing systems and one navigation system, among others, went through thorough checks.

The completion of the tests means the airport is ready for operation, authorities said.

Set to open in late 2019, the new airport sits at the junction of Beijing's southern Daxing District and Langfang, a city in Hebei Province.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Arab and European leaders stressed on Sunday the need to beef up efforts to face common challenges.

This came during the first League of Arab States (LAS)-European Union (EU) Summit which kicked off Sunday in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh city and will end on Monday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day summit, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said that terrorism is spreading like a "plague," urging leaders to stand together against it.

LONDON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The vote by British lawmakers on the Brexit deal will be postponed again by March 12, Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters on the plane to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt for the European Union (EU)-Arab League (AL) summit on Sunday, May ruled out bringing the Brexit deal to Commons this week, local media said.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo said Sunday in an interview that the United States would impose more sanctions against Venezuela.

"There'll be a meeting of the Lima Group on Monday, where further action will be contemplated. There are more sanctions to be had," Pompeo said in the interview with CNN.

Vice President Mike Pence would travel to Colombia on Feb. 25 to attend a Lima Group meeting on behalf of President Donald Trump, the White House said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States have achieved substantial progress on specific issues following their latest round of high-level economic and trade talks in Washington, the Chinese delegation said Sunday.

During the Feb. 21-24 talks, the seventh round since February last year, Chinese and U.S. negotiators further implemented the important consensus reached by the presidents of the two countries during their December meeting in Argentina, and focused their talks on the text of an agreement.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — China’s Huawei is set to take the wraps off a new folding-screen phone, joining the latest trend for bendable devices as it challenges the global smartphone market’s dominant players, Apple and Samsung.

The company on Sunday plans to unveil the device, which can be used on superfast next-generation mobile networks that are due to come online in the coming years.

Huawei will reveal the phone on the eve of MWC Barcelona, a four-day showcase of mobile devices, as the company battles U.S. allegations it is a cybersecurity risk.