Business

28 Dec 2018; AFP: China's customs administration announced Friday it had approved US rice imports, a move that comes during a 90-day tariff truce between the two countries which are engaged in a bruising trade war.

US rice that meets inspection and quarantine requirements will be allowed to enter the country, according to a notice by China's customs authority released Friday and dated December 27.

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus; 26 Dec 2018; AA: The ground-breaking ceremony for a Turkish-sponsored irrigation project in Northern Cyprus was held on Wednesday.

The project -- which consist of a 5.7-kilometer (3.5 mile) tunnel for supplying water to farmlands -- is being added to current water supply facilities from Turkey to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

27 Dec 2018; AFP: A US government delegation will travel to Beijing in early January for the first face-to-face talks since President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart agreed to a truce in their tariff war, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

Deputy US Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish will lead the US team for talks during the week of January 7, Bloomberg said, citing two people familiar with the matter.

BEIJING, December 26. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will become a key guest and participant of the second international Belt and Road Forum due in April 2019 in the Chinese capital of Beijing, Russia’s Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov said on Wednesday.

"We believe that a major event of the first half of 2019 will be the coordinated visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to China, who will take part in the second summit of the Belt and Road Forum," Denisov said.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The impact from a partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government has grown further after Christmas as it stretched into the fifth day on Wednesday.

The shutdown, which started Friday midnight, resulted from a budgetary impasse between the White House and Congress over whether to fund the construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall, a plank of President Donald Trump's campaign in 2016.

Dehradun, Dec 26 (PTI) An Israeli business delegation met Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat here Wednesday and discussed the setting up an algae and a medicinal cannabis farms in the hill-state.

According to a press release by the government, Puremagics Ltd, an Israeli firm specialising in biotechnology, intends to produce Haematococcus pluvialis, a species of algae used in the manufacturing of cosmetics and nutritional supplements in Uttarakhand.

26 Dec 2018; DW: Japan will resume commercial whaling in July 2019. Tokyo has long deflected criticism for its commercial whaling activities, arguing that eating whale meat is a part of its culture.

Japan will withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a government spokesman confirmed on Wednesday. The move sets the stage for Japan to resume commercial whaling activities next year.

MOSCOW, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree expanding the list of Ukrainian individuals and entities subject to sanctions, the government said Tuesday.

Moscow will add over 200 Ukrainian citizens and legal entities to the list that already has 322 individuals and 68 entities, according to a Russian government statement.

"This was done to protect the interests of the Russian state, companies and citizens," Medvedev tweeted following his signing of the decree.

Washington, Dec 25 (PTI) Bored at the White House on Christmas Eve, a lone Donald Trump spent the day slamming his critics, as the government entered its third day of partial shutdown initiated by a rift with Democrats over the President's long-promised wall along the US-Mexico border.

President Trump, who has cancelled his trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, said he was "all alone" in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come to the negotiating table to end the partial government shutdown.

New Delhi, Dec 25 (PTI) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon introduce a new Rs 20 currency note with additional features, according to a document of the central bank.

The central bank has already issued new look currency notes in the denominations of Rs 10, Rs 50, Rs 100, and Rs 500, besides introducing Rs 200 and Rs 2,000 bank notes.

The new look notes are being introduced since November 2016 under Mahatma Gandhi (New) series. These are different in size and design compared to the notes issued previously.