Business

BEIJING (AP) — Japanese stocks plunged Tuesday and other Asian markets declined following heavy Wall Street losses triggered by President Donald Trump’s attack on the U.S. central bank.

The Nikkei 225 fell by an unusually wide margin of 4.8 percent to 19,189.00. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.3 percent to 2,469.28. Benchmarks in Thailand and Taiwan also declined.

Markets in Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas.

Mumbai, Dec 23; GANASHAKTI: Close to 1 million employees of various banks, including private lenders, have called for a one-day strike on December 26 to protest against the proposed amalgamation of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda.

The strike call comes on the heels of an officers union of state-run banks observing a day-long strike last Friday on similar grounds along with demand for immediate settlement of their wage negotiations.

Beijing, Dec 22; PTI: China on Saturday launched its first communication satellite to provide broadband internet services worldwide in an apparent bid to rival Google and other international firms.

The satellite was launched from a Long March 11 carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north-western China and is the first in the Hongyun project planned by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC).

New Delhi, Dec 22; PTI: In a relief to the common man, the GST Council Saturday cut rates on 23 commonly used goods and services, including TV screens, movie tickets and power banks.

The annual revenue implication of the rate cuts would be Rs 5,500 crore, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

The council rationalised the 28 per cent slab by bringing down the tax rate on seven items in the highest tax bracket, thereby leaving only 28 items in the slab.

OSLO, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- New figures from Norway's statistics bureau showed strong increase of Norwegian population's wealth due to a long-term stock market upturn and housing price growth, online newspaper E24 reported Saturday.

Total gross wealth in 2017 was 9,975 billion kroner (1,145 billion U.S. dollars), which is an increase of 9.1 percent from the year before, according to the Statistics Norway (SSB).

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied Saturday that President Donald Trump was considering firing the country's central bank chief, after the latest rate hike sparked such rumors.

Mnuchin tweeted that Trump told him in a conversation that he "never suggested firing" Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. "Nor do I believe I have the right to do so," Mnuchin quoted Trump as saying.

ROME (AP) — After a raucous session, the Italian Senate has approved a national budget law that was tweaked in a bid to satisfy European Union concerns.

Much of the Italian government’s planned spending in 2019, which won passage in Parliament’s upper chamber about 3 a.m. Sunday, satisfies the expensive campaign promises by Italy’s populist coalition. Those including rolling back pension changes and guaranteeing income for the jobless or underemployed.

By The Associated Press

WHAT’S OPEN AND WHAT’S CLOSED

Social Security checks will go out and troops will remain at their posts. Doctors and hospitals will receive their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. The U.S. Postal Service, busy delivering packages for the holiday season, is an independent agency and won’t be affected. Passport services, which are funded by fees and not government spending, will also continue.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is expected to remain partially closed past Christmas Day in a protracted standoff over President Donald Trump’s demand for money to build a border wall with Mexico.

With Trump’s insistence on $5 billion for the wall and negotiations with Democrats in Congress far from a breakthrough, even a temporary measure to keep the government running while talks continued seems out of reach until the Senate returns for a full session Thursday.

Udaipur, Dec 21 (PTI) Hindustan Aeronautics Limited chairman R Madhavan Friday said the HAL was capable of producing the Rafale aircraft but suggested that the question of transfer of technology does not arise in the current order of just 36 aircraft.

The Congress has alleged that Narendra Modi government is buying the military aircraft from French company Dassault Aviation at a much higher price than what was being negotiated by the previous UPA government, which planned to procure 126 aircraft.