Nagato / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bunkered down for talks on Thursday to try and resolve a territorial dispute that has prevented their countries from formally ending World War II hostilities. Abe is hosting Putin at a hot spring summit in his ancestral city of Nagato in the hopes of achieving a breakthrough ...

  Manila / AFP The United States has not renewed a major aid package to the Philippines because of “significant concerns” about the rule of law under President Rodrigo Duterte, the US embassy said on Thursday. “This decision reflects the Board’s significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines,” embassy spokeswoman Molly Koscina said in a ...

Buenos Aires / AFP Venezuela’s top diplomat turned up uninvited to a meeting of the South America’s Mercosur, despite Caracas’ suspension from the trade bloc for failing to meet democratic and trade standards. Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez pushed her way through a crowd of riot police and journalists to enter the Argentine foreign ministry in Buenos Aires where the extraordinary meeting ...

  Bloomberg The UK wasted 285 million pounds ($360 million) on an almost unusable airport in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a panel of lawmakers said on Wednesday. Test flights in April to the landing strip on St. Helena, a British territory in the south Atlantic, revealed “dangerous wind conditions on the airport approach,” preventing the operation of regular ...

  Washington / AFP Amazon said it completed its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes will become a trend in automated shipments by air. The delivery to a customer near Cambridge, England, was announced in a tweet by Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos. “First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. 13 min ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Out-of-favour corporate jet ownership is fuelling growing demand for flights offered by business aircraft operator VistaJet, the founder and chairman of the Malta-based firm said. “The purchase of a business jet is not necessarily seen favourably by the boards or by the shareholders,” Thomas Flohr said during a visit to Dubai recently. However, executives still want ...

  Bloomberg American Airlines Group Inc. was ordered to pay $1.6 million in penalties and fines to settle charges it trapped passengers on 27 flights that were delayed for more than three hours on the ground. The penalties equal the previous record for violations of tarmac-delay regulations that Southwest Airlines Co. paid after reaching an agreement with the Department of ...

  Bloomberg SAS AB plans to cut 1,000 administrative jobs and double its cost-savings target as the Nordic airline prepares for rising fuel prices and intensifying competition that’s lowering fares and hampering earnings growth. Profit in the fiscal first quarter, which started Nov 1, will decline from a year earlier following “more demanding” trading conditions in the autumn autumn, Stockholm-based ...

  Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc is seeking to sell a smaller chunk of its Williams & Glyn consumer-banking unit after failing to draw any offers for the entire operation, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The UK government, which own 72 percent of RBS, is seeking European Union approval for the sale of a smaller ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea held its key interest rate unchanged on Thursday, despite an earlier US hike, as an ongoing political crisis tightened the reins on an already-slowing economy. In a move widely expected by analysts, the central Bank of Korea held its benchmark rate at its record-low of 1.25 percent for the sixth straight month. South Korea ...