International

• Saturday, September 15th 2018 - 08:42 UTC

  Trump ready to move with a next round of tariffs on Chinese goods

  

  United States President Donald Trump has instructed staff to move forward with the next round of tariffs on Chinese goods, US media have reported. The tariffs are expected to apply to about US$ 200bn worth of imports from China, including electronic parts and consumer goods such as handbags.

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 09:32 UTC

  Skripal poisoning case: Russian official television mockingly interviews the two “civilian” suspects

  

  Two men named as suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in the UK have said they were merely tourists. The men, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, told the state-run RT channel they had travelled to Salisbury on the recommendation of friends. The UK believes the men are Russian military intelligence officers who tried to kill Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury last March.

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 09:20 UTC

  South Korea interested in becoming associate member of the Pacific Alliance

  

  South Korea and Chile agreed on Wednesday to bolster substantive bilateral partnerships in various sectors on the basis of their free trade agreement (FTA). Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha and his Chilean counterpart Roberto Ampuero held talks on the sidelines of a regional meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Hanoi, according to Kang's ministry.

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 09:11 UTC

  A Judge in Andorra has charged 29 Venezuela chavista officials with corruption

  

  A judge in Andorra has charged 29 Venezuelans with corruption - among them two former deputy ministers. Prosecutors allege that they were part of a network of corrupt officials who received US$ 2.3bn in bribes from companies in return for lucrative contracts with Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA.

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 09:07 UTC

  US, the world's top crude oil producer, but global geopolitical uncertainty prevails

  

  The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that the U.S. likely surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia earlier this year to become the world’s top crude oil producer. The EIA based its disclosure on preliminary estimates in its Short Term Energy Outlook which is released every month.

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 09:01 UTC

  Turkey property sales, rental contracts and leasing must be made in the Lira currency

  

  Turkey ruled on Thursday that property sales, rental contracts and leasing transactions must be made in lira from now on, halting the use of foreign currencies for such deals in a fresh step to support the ailing local currency. All business deals inside the country should be conducted in lira, President Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that nobody apart from exporters and importers should cross paths with foreign currency.

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 08:50 UTC

  Maduro in China after more financial support to prop Venezuela's collapsing economy and oil output

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is travelling to China to discuss economic agreements, as the crisis-struck OPEC nation seeks to convince its key Asian financier to disburse fresh loans.

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 08:42 UTC

  US comes out strongly in support of Taipei in its influence policy dispute with Beijing

  

  The State Department announced last week that it would temporarily recall U.S. ambassadors to the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama for consultations in Washington. The meetings will focus on recent decisions by Latin American countries to no longer recognize Taiwan and ways the U.S. can “support strong. independent, democratic institutions and economies throughout Central America and the Caribbean”

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 08:37 UTC

  BoE and European central bank keep rates unchanged; Turkey hikes 625 points to 24%

  

  Stocks in Europe reversed earlier gains by Thursday's close to finish lower, as investors digested fresh news out of the central banking sphere. The pan-European STOXX 600 closed down 0.15%, with the majority of sectors falling into negative territory. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 slipped 0.43% by the close, while France's CAC 40 ended a touch lower, off 0.08%, and Germany's DAX rose 0.19%.

• Friday, September 14th 2018 - 08:28 UTC

  Support for Brazilian proposal to safeguard whales in perpetuity: Japan and allies furious

  

  Tempers flared at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on Thursday as it voted to back a Brazilian proposal which would safeguard whales in perpetuity, after a bitter debate. The biennial meeting of the 89-nation body passed the host country's “Florianopolis Declaration” which sees whaling as no longer being a necessary economic activity.