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New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has cautioned that transfer of excess reserve to the government may bring down rating of the central bank.

Rating downgrade of the RBI from 'AAA' would make borrowing costlier for the central bank and will have implication for the entire economy.

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced USD 1.4 billion financial assistance to Maldives after he held extensive talks with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih during which both sides vowed to deepen security cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.

The two countries also inked four pacts, including one on visa facilitation.

"We held successful talks in a cordial atmosphere. We vowed to strengthen ties," Modi said in his press statement, with Solih by his side.

NEW YORK, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Understanding China is vital especially at a time when globalization is under great pressure from mounting protectionist forces, a U.S. expert said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"The imperatives of global cooperation have never been greater," Stephen Roach, senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and also former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said via email.

TEHRAN, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the U.S. sanctions have failed to change Iran's policies, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.

"Sanctions have never worked," Zarif was quoted as saying.

"They hurt Iranians but don't change (Iran's) policy," he added.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iranian international nuclear deal, calling it "the worst deal ever."

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia filed criminal charges on Monday against Goldman Sachs and two former executives over state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

In a statement, Malaysian Attorney General Tommy Thomas said Goldman Sachs and its former bankers Tim Leissner and Roger Ng are were charged under Malaysian laws over their alleged involvement in a scheme to defraud the Malaysian government.

17 Dec 2018; AFP: Protesters threw smoke grenades at police who responded with tear gas in Budapest on Sunday as thousands of people rallied against a new "slave law" passed by the government of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

More than 15,000 people, according to local press reports, joined the demonstration -- the first rally since Orban returned to power in 2010 to bring together all opposition parties, from greens to the far right, under the same banner.

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Theresa May is set to condemn calls for a second referendum on Britain’s departure from the European Union, saying it would do irreparable damage to trust in democracy.

In remarks released ahead of her speech in the House of Commons on Monday, May says that staging another referendum “would say to millions who trusted in democracy that our democracy does not deliver.”

She’s also expected to argue that such a ballot would exacerbate divisions rather than heal them.

WASHINGTON (AP) — By detaining two Canadians in an apparent act of retaliation, China is looking like the country its harshest critics say it is: one unbound by the laws, rules and procedures that govern other major industrial nations.

Canada’s arrest of a top Chinese technology executive at the request of the United States has set off a diplomatic furor with Beijing.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as Fannie Mae, said on Friday that U.S. economic growth would drop to 2.3 percent in 2019 while the housing market would stabilize as economic growth slows.

"We expect full-year 2018 economic growth to come in at 3.1 percent - an expansion high - before slowing markedly to 2.3 percent in 2019 and 1.6 percent in 2020," said Doug Duncan, chief economist of Fannie Mae.

JAKARTA, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian soldiers will take over construction in Nduga district of Papua province in eastern Indonesia in the wake of brutal assassination of 16 construction workers by an armed group earlier this month, a military officer said.

Indonesian armed force will resume works of PT Istaka Karya construction firm in building the 4,000 km trans-Papua highway and bridges, Indonesian military commander in the district Jonathan B. Parluhutan revealed.