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MANILA / AP A summit next week between Southeast Asian leaders and President Barack Obama is unlikely to deliver any big economic prizes, but will allow the American side to press the advantages of joining a Pacific trade pact that doesn’t include China. The meetings at Rancho Mirage in California set for Monday and Tuesday will be the first summit ...

Washington / AFP In freezing President Barack Obama’s plan to tackle carbon emissions, the US Supreme Court delivered a blow to a global climate deal — but experts say that US commitments to the deal will survive. Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” would require the power sector to cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 32 percent compared to 2005 levels ...

SAN JOSE / WAM President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solis, received H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The two sides discussed cooperation and ways to enhance it in the best interest of the two countries. During the meeting, they exchanged views on important regional and international issues as well as topics ...

Bloomberg World powers agreed on a partial cease-fire in Syria’s civil war, reaching a deal that could forestall a humanitarian crisis around the besieged city of Aleppo even amid skepticism about how broad and lasting the truce might be. Backing the accord were all the major outside powers in the five-year-old conflict, including the US, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and ...

Bloomberg Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said Germany’s decision to admit more than 1.1 million refugees within the last year is likely to strain the government’s target to cut greenhouse gas pollution. The minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet who also oversees housing asked for 3.9 billion euros ($4.4 billion) in additional spending through 2020 to build homes for asylum seekers. ...

Bloomberg Cold War foes Russia and Pakistan are set to hold their first joint military drills on land, a sign that neighbouring Afghanistan may avoid becoming the site of another proxy war between global powers. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in need of cash, is seeking to shift away from his country’s decades-old relationship with India—which is also buying more weapons ...

NEW DELHI / WAM The United Arab Emirates and the Republic of India exchanged a number of cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding in a number of areas. The exchange ceremonies were witnessed by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and His Excellency ...

Munich / AFP Russia said on Thursday it was ready to discuss a ceasefire in Syria as foreign ministers gathered in Munich in a bid to kick-start peace talks derailed by the regime onslaught on the besieged city of Aleppo. Tens of thousands of Syrians have fled to the Turkish border as government forces, backed by Russian bombers and Iranian ...

Bloomberg Norway’s biggest political party says the country’s giant wealth fund needs to rethink its proposed entry into the $20 trillion infrastructure market. “With what we’re seeing now with economic developments globally, and the short-term cost of that for Norway, it’s time to put the brakes on,” said Torstein Tvedt Solberg, a Labor Party politician who sits on the parliamentary ...

Brussels / AFP NATO launched on Thursday an unprecedented naval mission in the Aegean Sea to tackle people smugglers taking migrants and refugees from the Turkish coast, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. The move follows a request this week by alliance members Germany, Greece and Turkey for assistance in tackling Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since World War II. ...