GENEVA (AP) — More than half of all workplace tasks will be carried out by machines by 2025, organizers of the Davos economic forum said in a report released Monday that highlights the speed with which the labor market will change in coming years.

By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) — One of China’s most prominent figures in global finance says Beijing should press Washington to end their tariff battle by clamping down on exports of goods needed by American companies, according to news reports Monday.

The comments by Lou Jiwei, a former finance minister and chairman of China’s sovereign wealth fund, follow reports regulators are squeezing American companies by slowing down customs approvals and stepping up environmental and other inspections.

MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. Russian Defense Ministry has figured out that videos showing the movement of a Buk missile system from Russia to Ukraine, presented by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) looking into the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine, were fabricated, ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters.

According to him, Russian experts thoroughly studied those videos and came to the conclusion that they had been fabricated.

CAIRO, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Arab League urged on Sunday the international community to exert immediate pressure on Israel to halt the demolition of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar Bedouin village east of Jerusalem.

Israel should also be pressured to halt the systematic settlement activities meant to isolate East Jerusalem, the Arab League's Palestine and the occupied Arab territories sector said in a statement.

Such moves will divide the West Bank and eliminate any chances to reach a peaceful settlement based on the two-state solution, the pan-Arab group noted.

BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, will start formal operation and open to Chinese astronomers in 2019, according to the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC).

FAST has discovered 44 new pulsars since its trial operation began in September 2016, and it is still being improved, said Li Di, chief scientist of FAST, in a recent astronomy forum held in Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province.

RIYADH, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali signed on Sunday the Jeddah Peace Accord in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, Al Arabiya reported.

The deal was sponsored by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and attended by the United Nation's Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation of the United Arab Emirates.

Muzaffarnagar, Sep 15 (PTI) A local court has sentenced a man and his father to life imprisonment for killing his wife in Shamli district.

Additional District Sessions Judge Gaurav Kumar Srivastava also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 each on Sudhir kumar and Harpal Singh after holding them guilty under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) here.

KIEV, September 17. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko signed a decree on the termination of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the president’s website informed on Monday.

"According to the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine from September 6, 2018, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s offer concerning the termination of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, signed on May 31, 1997, has been approved," the message states.

SEOUL, September 17. /TASS/. The North and South Korean leaders will hold bilateral negotiations on Tuesday and Wednesday, said a spokesperson for the South Korean president’s administration at Monday’s briefing for journalists.

"Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un will hold two rounds of bilateral negotiations - on Tuesday and Wednesday," the administration official stressed.

DOHA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Qatar has announced plan to produce first Qatari electric cars by 2023, local media reported on Monday.

The Qatari electric vehicles will be manufactured by the factory which will be established at a cost of nine billion U.S. dollars, said "Qatar Tribune" newspaper.

The project will be the first-of-its-kind in the Middle East as it is a whole new brand, said Ali bin Nasser al Misnad, Chairman of the Qatar Quality company, which is responsible for this project.

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's government is confident a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico will be reached by December, Presidential Spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said on Sunday.

The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto is hoping to sign an updated version of the 1994 trade accord before his six-year term ends on Nov. 30, Sanchez told reporters.

"We're working on it. Hopefully this government will get to sign it," Sanchez said on the sidelines of Mexico's Independence Day parade.

Mumbai, Sep 17 (PTI) "Thugs of Hindostan", featuring megastar Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan in the lead roles, will hit the theatres on November 8.

The Yash Raj Films project also stars Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh.

Apart from announcing the release date, YRF also unveiled the logo of action entertainer.

Vijay Krishna Acharya is directing the movie, which marks the first collaboration of Bachchan and Khan.

"Thugs of Hindostan" has been extensively shot in picturesque locations of Malta and Rajasthan.