Business

GENEVA; 03 Feb 2019; AA: Venezuela’s envoy to the UN told Anadolu Agency that the people of his country were prepared to resist a possible U.S. military intervention.

“We are totally prepared for any military aggression by a foreign country,” said Ambassador Jorge Valero, the permanent representative of Venezuela to the UN.

“We have millions of people prepared for a long resistance […] with any kind of arms,” he added.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka is negotiating a $1 billion loan from China to construct a highway linking the capital Colombo to the hilly resort city of Kandy, even as the heavily-indebted South Asian island nation makes arrangements to pay down $5.9 billion in foreign loans this year.

Finance Ministry spokesman M.R. Hasan said Saturday that he’s waiting to hear whether terms of the loan for the highway project have been approved.

03 Feb 2019; AFP: Hundreds of people demonstrated Saturday in Stuttgart, the bastion of Germany's car industry, against a recent driving ban on older diesels, wearing yellow vests to match protesters in France whose movement began as a reaction to proposed fuel hikes.

Since January 1, only diesel vehicles meeting the Euro 5 emissions standard are allowed into Stuttgart, home of Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler, Volkswagen subsidiary Porsche and the world's biggest car parts supplier Bosch.

03 Feb 2019; AFP: China is fast-tracking a foreign investment law at an unprecedented pace to meet Washington's demands on trade, but businesses fear that time to review and raise objections on a crucial piece of legislation has been cut short.

The law will eliminate the requirement for foreign enterprises to transfer proprietary technology to Chinese joint-venture partners.

It also includes other steps to level the business playing field that Western trading partners have long demanded.

03 Feb 2019; DW: Germany's Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, said on Sunday that the idea of the UK avoiding Brexit was unlikely. Maas told German media group Funke that he would liked to have seen an "exit from Brexit," but that he held no hopes of it happening.

Brussels and London find themselves at an impasse over the final agreement to the UK's exit from the EU, with the most recent deal having failed in the British Parliament, as the deadline of March 29 looms.

BEIJING, Feb.2 (Xinhua) -- Construction of China's first public-private partnership (PPP) funded high-speed railway has kicked off, China Railway Construction Corporation said Saturday.

The 266.9-km railway will start from the city of Hangzhou, crossing Shaoxing and ending in Taizhou, all cities in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The rail line is designed to run at a top speed of 350 km per hour, according to the company.

Washington, Feb 2 (PTI) President Donald Trump has said US' massive trade deficit with China cannot be allowed to continue, a day after the officials from both countries concluded their latest round of negotiations on trade issues.

The US and China have been locked in an escalating trade spat since early 2018, raising import tariffs on each other's goods.

Last year, Trump imposed tariff hikes of up to 25 per cent on USD 250 billion of Chinese goods. The move prompted China to increase tariffs on USD 110 billion of American goods.

Islamabad, Feb 2 (PTI) China will provide USD 2.5 billion in loans to Pakistan to boost the foreign exchange reserves of its "all-weather ally", a media report said Saturday.

Pakistan is nearly broke with the drying up of foreign cash reserves and mounting external debt.

The country's USD 8.12 billion reserves, which are below the minimum level that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) prescribe, are sufficient to cover only seven weeks of imports.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) The government will provide a total of Rs 3,900 crore for servicing Air India's loans transferred to a special purpose vehicle, according to Budget documents.

The Air India Asset Holding Ltd, a special purpose vehicle, has been set up as part of financial restructuring of the debt-laden national carrier.

According to the documents presented in the interim Budget for 2019-20, the government has decided to allocate Rs 1,300 crore for the special purpose vehicle this fiscal.

New Delhi, Feb 1(PTI) Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit slammed the Interim Budget presented on Friday as "high on rhetoric, low on content" and disappointing.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal made various announcements in his budget speech, including direct cash transfer to farmers and income tax exemptions, amid cheers by NDA members in Parliament.