Business

Manila, Sep 8 (AFP) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday blamed US President Donald Trump after inflation hit a nine-year high in the Philippines, hurting the image of the populist leader.

It was an unexpected claim from the fiery Duterte, a one-time fierce critic of the United States but who has since embraced Trump after the business tycoon was elected in November, 2016.

When questioned by reporters about the 6.4 per cent inflation in August, a nine-year high that exceeded most analysts' forecasts, Duterte blamed Trump's economic policies.

TEHRAN; 7 Sep 2018; AA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met his Russian and Iranian counterparts on Friday to discuss Syria.

The meeting between Erdogan, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani in the Iranian capital Tehran was held to discuss joint efforts as part of the Astana process and political efforts for finding a lasting solution to the Syrian conflict.

The leaders will hold a news conference after the summit.

Reporting by Ilkay Guder:Writing by Diyar Guldogan

BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday congratulated via a video on the opening of a forum in Kazakhstan to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In the video, Xi also extended sincere gratitude to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and sincere regards to all the guests at the forum.

After the initiative was put forward, it has gained extensive attention from the international community and active response from related countries, Xi said.

WASHINGTON; 6 Sep2018; (AP) — The Trump administration may be about to slap tariffs of up to 25 percent on an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods, escalating a confrontation between the world’s two biggest economies and likely squeezing U.S. companies that import everything from handbags to bicycle tires.

The administration could decide to begin taxing the imports — equal to nearly 40 percent of all the goods China sold the United States last year — after a public comment period ends Thursday.

HANOI, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- During upcoming World Economic Forum on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) slated for Sept. 11-13 in Vietnam's capital, 1,000 delegates from 43 countries and regions will focus their discussions on five key topics, organizers said on Thursday.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (PTI) India and the US Thursday held the first edition of the two-plus-two talks, aimed at further strengthening bilateral defence and security collaboration as well as boosting their global strategic partnership, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held talks with US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis.

By Prashant Rangnekar

Bengaluru, Sept 6 (PTI) Stepping up space cooperation, India and France Thursday inked an agreement to collaborate on Gaganyaan, ISRO's first human space mission.

The two countries have formed a working group for the project.

BEIJING (AP) — A rocket developed by Chinese company iSpace blasted into space Wednesday carrying three miniature satellites in another milestone for the country’s budding private spaceflight industry.

Reports said the SQX-1Z rocket took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China and entered space at a suborbital level. Two of the satellites will be released into space for testing while the third will re-enter the atmosphere and parachute down to Earth.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit widened for the second straight month in July, reaching the highest level since February, as imports hit an all-time high. The deficit in goods with China and the European Union set records.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. farmers want to stop trade disputes ignited by Washington with its major trade partners even though they are able to receive a 12-billion-U.S.-dollar trade compensation package from Tuesday.

According to a report of Agweek, a magazine of agriculture industry, U.S. soybeans, wheat, corn, sorghum, cotton, pork and dairy producers welcomed the payment which aims to help them get through the current bad market conditions , but they thought it was not enough.