US Defense Secretary Austin also visits Baghdad to assure US support for Iraqi security, stability, and sovereignty ahead of the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion.

The Senate bill and the backing of the White House accelerated the political momentum against TikTok, which is also the target of a separate piece of legislation in the US House of Representatives.

Colombo, Sri Lanka--Sri Lanka's president said Tuesday that China had agreed to restructure its loans to the bankrupt island nation, clearing the final obstacle to an International Monetary Fund bailout. China's state-owned Exim Bank "sent a letter to the IMF" on Monday night expressing Beijing's willingness to "restructure" credit to Sri...

Pact is likely to help enhance Kingdom's non-oil exports.

Beijing, China--China on Sunday set an economic growth target of "around 5 percent" for 2023, one of the lowest in decades, as its annual National People's Congress opened in Beijing. The target was announced in a work report delivered by outgoing Premier Li Keqiang as the rubber-stamp parliament opened at the...

The proposed factory will be spread over 300 acres.

The Gulf countries are also able to attract highly qualified and scientific expertise and skilled workers, and they possess the primary resources for the manufacture of chips and semiconductors, especially silicon extracted from sand, plastic and petroleum materials, he adds.

Brussels, Belgium - The European Parliament has told staff to purge TikTok from devices used for work because of data protection concerns, after similar moves by the EU's main governing bodies last week. The parliament's president, Roberta Metsola, and the secretary-general, Alessandro Chiocchetti, decided TikTok must not be used or installed...

Washington, United States--FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday his agency believes the Covid-19 pandemic was "most likely" caused by an incident in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,"...

PARIS, FRANCE - A French court on Tuesday dismissed a landmark case against TotalEnergies for a massive oil project in Uganda and Tanzania after several NGOs filed a suit to suspend the controversial project. The six NGOs argued the development of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) failed to adhere...

Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young in a memorandum called on government agencies within 30 days to "remove and disallow installations" of the application on agency-owned or operated IT devices, and to "prohibit internet traffic" from such devices to the app.

Inflationary pressures, meanwhile, have eased by less than expected. Continued strength in the numbers has forced the Fed to turn up the hawkish rhetoric, and the market has responded by raising the expected terminal Fed funds rate while at the same time sending bond yields and the dollar higher, he...

Washington, United States--The coronavirus pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, the US Department of Energy now says according to media, although the White House maintained Sunday that American intelligence remained divided on the issue. The determination -- noted in a classified report by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines's...

Beijing, China--China's international trade in services stood at 459.5 billion yuan, or US$ 67.6 billion, in January, official data showed on Friday, Xinhua News Agency reported. Services exports totalled $25.44 billion last month, and services imports were at $40.50 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $15.50 billion , according...

The Chinese-owned platform is under growing Western scrutiny, and Canada's move came just hours after the European Commission banned the app from all employees' work devices to "protect" the institution. The investigation was initiated "in the wake of now-settled class-action lawsuits in the United States and Canada, as well as...

The ban also means European Commission staff cannot use the Chinese-owned video-sharing app on personal devices including phones that have official apps installed, the spokesperson said, confirming a report by news website Euractiv.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said China’s Ministry of Finance is among government entities that gave the so-called window guidance to some state-owned enterprises as recently as last month, urging them to let contracts with the Big Four auditing firms expire.

It, however, posted a jump in revenue to $15.7bn.

Blinken will visit Incirlik air base, through which the United States has shipped aid, and then hold talks in the capital Ankara on "continued US support," State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday. The top US diplomat will also take part in the Munich Security Conference, where the Ukraine war...

Demand is expected to reach 101.9 million barrels per day on average in 2023, an increase of two million barrels per day from last year, the IEA said. It would be up 1.4 million barrels a day from the pre-pandemic level in 2019 as consumption of fossil fuels behind global...

Raisi is expected to hold private talks with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping in the capital Beijing, with the pair expected to sign a number of "cooperation documents". The two met for the first time last September in Uzbekistan at a summit for the SCO, where the Iranian president...

Washington strenuously denied Beijing's charges as "false" and insisted it was China alone that has surreptitiously flown spy balloons, as tensions ramped up between the two superpowers. The downing of an alleged Chinese airship off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month prompted a resolution in the US Congress...

On Sunday the Pentagon said that it does not yet know what the other three objects -- one shot down Friday over Alaska, one Saturday over Canada's Yukon territory, and the most recent one Sunday over Lake Huron -- are. But it said that the object downed Sunday had been...

On his upcoming trip, Raisi is expected to hold private talks with Xi, and delegations from both countries are due to sign "cooperation documents", according to Iranian media agency.

The United States has adopted the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which contains $370 billion in sweeping investments, subsidies and tax cuts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest-ever US programme to combat climate change. But some of its provisions have been criticised by European Union officials as discriminatory...

After almost three years of stringent health restrictions, Beijing in December abruptly ended the zero-Covid policy that had battered the economy and provoked widespread protests. The Asian giant posted growth of just three percent in 2022, hammered by stringent lockdowns and a deepening crisis in the key property sector.

The majority of the EU's response involves repackaging already existing funds, a stop-gap measure that has earned much criticism. German MEP Markus Ferber described the proposals on Wednesday as "old wine in new bottles" and "predictably disappointing".

Paris, France-- The electrification of the auto industry is gathering pace, particularly in Europe, where the sale of new cars running on petrol and diesel will end in 2035. But challenges remain around their production, affordability and whether enough infrastructure can be put in place to persuade drivers to make the...

The index shows that Jordan scored 47 points and is ahead of 119 countries in combating corruption, including Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Kuwait, Turkey and Egypt.

While China's easing of coronavirus restrictions paves the way for a faster-than-expected recovery, the rise in central bank rates to fight inflation and Russia's war in Ukraine continue to weigh on economic activity, the Washington-based crisis lender said in its report. But "adverse risks have moderated" since October's forecast, the...

General public budget revenue grew 9.1 percent from 2021, excluding the impact of value-added tax credit refunds, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Supply of diesel to Europe from the US and the emerging refinery hub in the Middle East may make up some of the missing barrels from Russia, but a shortfall seems likely, not least considering the prospect for a strong recovery in China leading to lower export quotas, he adds.

The profit in year 2022 is 4.4 percent lower than in 2021.

Dubai, UAE-- Oil prices fell in early trade on Monday, but held on to most of last week's gains on the prospect of an economic recovery in top oil importer China this year. Brent crude futures retreated by 46 cents, or 0.5%, to $87.17 at 0031 GMT, while U.S. West...

With activity in China unlikely to pick up in earnest until after the Lunar New Year holiday, the prospect of a lull in activity could be the trigger for a pause in the current rally – especially across industrial metals where copper has started the year with an 11% gain,...

Davos-Klosters, Switzerland – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a wide-ranging address that touched on the most critical issues facing the world, urged leaders gathered for the Annual Meeting to take urgent action.Taking note of a range of critical threats facing the world, from the economic crisis to war and pandemic,...

Weak earnings from banking titan Goldman Sachs, a jobs warning by Microsoft, and a plunge in manufacturing data highlighted the bumpy road ahead for the United States, the world's top economy, despite optimism over inflation and the improving interest rate outlook.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen slammed what she described as "aggressive attempts" to convince Europe's clean technology operations to relocate to China through cheap labour and more lenient regulations.

The world's second-largest economy faced historic headwinds as 2022 drew to a close, with exports plunging last month due to a drop in global demand and rigid health restrictions that hammered economic activity.

Almost two-thirds of chief economists believe a global recession is likely in 2023, with 18 percent of them considering it extremely likely – more than twice as many as in the previous survey conducted in September 2022. A third of respondents consider a global recession to be unlikely this year.

In a statement, the firm - which in November posted its second consecutive quarterly decline in revenue -said it had found more than 100 employees guilty of violating its anti-fraud policy. More than 10 were transferred to China's public security organ, it added. "In response to the problems of corruption...

Brent fell 36 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $84.92 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 21 cents, or 0.3 percent.

Inflation slows and China reopens to the world, give a boost to markets.

China grounded the plane after two deadly accidents involving the model in 2018 and 2019. An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people. That accident came five months after the crash of a 737 MAX in Indonesia, where 189 people died. Investigators said a...

Exports fell 9.9 percent year-on-year to $30.6 billion, China customs said, their second consecutive month of decline and the biggest fall since the early days of the pandemic in 2020. They fell 8.7 percent in November. Imports were also down again in December, sinking 7.5 percent, following a 10.6 percent...

Brent crude rose 50 cents, or 0.6%, to $83.17 per barrel by 0135 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude also rose 50 cents, or 0.7%, to $77.91 per barrel.

The year 2022 witnessed several deals involving Gulf nations and leading natural gas consumer countries that seek to secure their LNG supplies in both near and distant future.

In December alone, new yuan loans stood at 1.4 trillion yuan, up 266.5 billion yuan year-on-year, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

TiKTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew held official talks for the first time with EU vice presidents Margrethe Vestager and Vera Jourova, the bloc's home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson and justice commissioner Didier Reynders.

Major stock markets mostly dropped as warnings that US interest rates would continue to rise and remain elevated offset growing optimism over China's economic reopening after Covid lockdowns. Equities enjoyed a strong start to the new year thanks largely to Beijing's decision to throw off the shackles of its strict...