I GLOBAL NEWZ

A combination photo of a Boeing 737 MAX before the opening of the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget airport near Paris, France, June 16, 2017, and shareholders line up to view Bombardier’s CS300 aircraft following their annual general meeting in Mirabel, Quebec, Canada April 29, 2016 (Reuters) A US trade commission on Friday handed an unexpected victory to Bombardier Inc against Boeing Co, in a ruling that allows the Canadian company to sell its newest jets to US airlines without heavy duties, sending Bombardier’s shares up 15 percent. The US International Trade Commission’s unanimous decision is the latest twist in US-Canadian trade relations that have been complicated by disputes over tariffs on Canadian lumber and US milk and President Donald T6rump’s desire to renegotiate or even abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump, who did not weigh in on the dispute personally, took his “America First” message to the world’s elite on Friday, telling a summit...

In Picture, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (AP) US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stressed diplomacy as the way to deal with the North Korean crisis on Friday during talks with his South Korean counterpart in Hawaii, a day after Seoul’s top diplomat said a military solution would be unacceptable. “Diplomacy should impose reason on Kim’s reckless rhetoric and dangerous provocations,” Mattis said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He added that military options were meant to ensure diplomats spoke from a position of strength.

Firefighters rescue a patient from a burnt hospital in Miryang, South Korea. (Source: REUTERS) South Korean officials rushed to identify 37 victims of a hospital fire and pinpoint the cause of the worst blaze in years on Saturday as opposition politicians blamed the president for failing to avoid the latest in a series of tragedies. Flames and toxic smoke swept through the Sejong Hospital in the southern city of Miryang on Friday, injuring more than 150, just weeks after a fire killed 29 people at a fitness centre. All the hospital victims died from smoke inhalation. City vice mayor Lee Byung-hee said the cause of Friday’s blaze was under investigation. “We are trying to comprehensively manage (the blaze fallout), including supporting what would be needed for funerals etc,” Lee said in a televised briefing. The government of Asia’s fourth-largest economy, with one of the world’s fastest ageing populations, has faced criticism in recent years over poor safety standards...

IMF’s Christine Lagarde said any dark trade that involves money laundering or anonymity is unacceptable. IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Thursday said the multilateral financial institution is looking into issues relating to crypto currencies to understand potential risks and benefits, even as the US made it clear it will not allow any illicit trade through this route. Speaking here at a session on remaking of global finance at the World Economic Forum (WEF), US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, “We will make sure crypto currencies are not used for illicit activities.” Asked whether IMF would heed the G20’s call to look into crypto currencies, as suggested by French President Emmanuel Macron here yesterday, Lagarde said in the same session that the body is accountable to 189 countries and not just 20 though it works closely with the G20 nations. “We have already started analysing the issues concerning crypto currencies including risks and potential benefits,” she said. ...

Britain’s finance minister Philip Hammond. (Source: REUTERS/File) Britain’s finance minister called for a modest Brexit on Thursday that would keep the world’s sixth-largest economy as closely aligned as possible with the European Union after its 2019 exit. Britain is due to exit the EU on March 29, 2019, but there are deep divisions inside Prime Minister Theresa May’s government and party about what sort of relationship should replace 46 years of membership. Philip Hammond, who in the 2016 referendum voted to stay in the EU, sought to allay investor concerns over Brexit turmoil by calling for arrangements that would ensure free and smooth trade and for the “closest possible future relationship”. “We are taking two completely interconnected and aligned economies with high levels of trade between them, and selectively, moving them, hopefully very modestly, apart,” Hammond said at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The EU and Britain agreed last month to move Brexit talks...

Researchers said it was not clear if the increase was due to local transmission of Zika alone or if there were other contributing factors. The mosquito-born Zika virus may be responsible for an increase in birth defects in US states and territories even in women who had no lab evidence of Zika exposure during pregnancy, US health officials said on Thursday. Areas in which the mosquito-borne virus has been circulating, including Puerto Rico, southern Florida and part of south Texas, saw a 21 percent rise in birth defects strongly linked with Zika in the last half of 2016 compared with the first half of that year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its weekly report on death and disease. Researchers said it was not clear if the increase was due to local transmission of Zika alone or if there were other contributing factors. The Zika outbreak was first detected in Brazil in 2015 and spread through the Americas. It has been linked to thousands of suspec...

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, shakes hands with French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian before a meeting in Paris, Tuesday (AP photo) The United States and 28 other countries are launching a new plan to better identify and punish anyone who uses chemical weapons, amid new reports of a suspected chemical attack in Syria. The initiative was announced Tuesday in Paris, where US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and diplomats from the other signatory countries. The group plans to publish information about chemical attacks to name and shame perpetrators and eventually sanction them. UN efforts to punish perpetrators in Syria have failed, repeatedly blocked by Syrian ally Russia. Activists and rescue teams said the Syrian government launched an attack Monday with suspected poisonous gas that affected nearly 20 civilians in a rebel-held suburb near Damascus. The Syrian government denies using chemical w...