International News

  AFP India may have just spent billions of dollars on hi-tech French fighter jets, but experts say it needs to do a lot more if it is going to face up to an increasingly assertive China. The world’s top defence importer has signed several big-ticket deals as part of a $100-billion upgrade since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi …

  AFP Japan’s exports tumbled and the country logged a surprise trade deficit in August, data showed, reviving concerns about the economy just before the Bank of Japan wraps up a closely watched meeting. Shipments overseas fell 9.6 percent from a year earlier as a strong yen clouds the country’s trade picture. That left a trade deficit of 18.7 billion …

  AFP China has removed an almost 13-year-old ban on some US beef products, its quality inspection regulator said Thursday. A ban on imports of “American bone-in beef and boneless beef for cattle under 30 months” has been lifted effective immediately, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said, according to a document posted on its official website. …

  Bloomberg Coming off its best Christmas in years, the US toy industry is wagering that the Pokemon Go craze will command a lot of space on kids’ wish lists. Pokemon-branded video games from Nintendo Co. and a plush Pikachu character that wiggles its ears from Tomy Co. highlight the Toy Insider’s Hot 20 list, an industry publication’s best guess …

  Bloomberg More than 1.1 million US workers would lose their jobs because of tougher fuel-economy regulations coming next decade if prices at the gasoline pump remain low in America, a new study found. With low fuel prices, consumers won’t get the payback they are expecting from expensive fuel-saving technology as automakers strive to reach a US mandate to achieve …

  London / AFP Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are pledging to spend more than $3 billion over the next decade to work on curing diseases. “Can we work together to cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children’s lifetime?” Chan said Wednesday onstage at an event in San Francisco for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. “Mark and …

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG offered no hint of concessions after a meeting with European Union regulators over demands the company provide compensation to the bloc’s consumers hit by the diesel emissions scandal. VW will carry out an “EU-wide action plan” to inform customers and repair the vehicles, EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova said after meeting with Francisco …

  Bloomberg The largest US gasoline pipeline returned to service by the end of the day Wednesday, easing almost two weeks of curtailed shipments that drove up pump prices and caused hundreds of stations to run out of fuel in the East and Southeast. Once Colonial Pipeline Co. restarts its main line, many shipments will be rerouted to southern locations …

  Manila / AFP President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on crime is threatening the Philippines’ economy and endangering its democratic institutions, international credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s warned on Wednesday. S&P maintained its stable outlook for the Philippines, but highlighted a range of “weaknesses” under the new Duterte administration that also included his foreign policy and national security statements. …

  Bloomberg India is considering expanding the basket of steel products that attracts an anti-dumping tax to stem inflows of cheaper supplies into the world’s third-biggest producer. The steel ministry is likely to levy anti-dumping taxes on some of the 66 products that are currently covered by the minimum import price rule before it expires on Oct. 4, Steel Secretary …