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Neighbor News

China’s Xi Calls Donald Trump His Friend

Belarus, Turkmenistan Hold Political Consultations

Iran Rejects French Ideaof Re-Opening Nuclear Talks

Canada Says Cuba Will Have a Role to Play in Venezuela’s Return to Democracy

Sri Lanka Leader Opposed to Police Attending Attacks Inquiry

A Week Late, But India’s Monsoon Arrives

in Southern Kerala

G-20 Talks Finance Tactics for Trade War,

Digital Disruption

Lawyers for Church Leader Decry Becerra’s Comments on Client

International Business Tycoons to Arrive in Pakistan this Month

Xi Highlights Sustainable Development as “Golden Key”

to Solving Global Problems at SPIEF

Maduro Opens Border with Colombia, Shut Down Over

Opposition’s Aid-Smuggling Attempt

LONDON - The Paki-stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was committed to fully pro-tecting and facilitating the overseas Pakistanis and other foreign inves-tors in order to attract huge investment for the prosperity of the coun-try, said Special Assis-tant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari.Addressing the partici-pants of a dinner on the occasion of Eid, hosted by the United King-dom-Pakistan Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry (UKPCCI) in London, Bukhari said prudent and business-friendly investment

ASHGABAT - Consulta-tions between Belarusian and Turkmen foreign ministries on contrac-tual and legal issues took place in Minsk, Trend reports referring to the Belarusian Embassy in Ashgabat.This meeting was en-visaged by the current Program of Coopera-tion between the foreign ministries of the two countries. The parties reviewed existing inter-state, intergovernmen-tal, interdepartmental and other bilateral trea-ties.During the consulta-tions, the parties out-lined the most prom-ising areas for further expansion of the bilateral

TEHRAN - Iran on Fri-day rejected an idea mooted by France of re-opening nuclear talks, warning that seeking to broaden an existing landmark treaty could lead to its collapse.President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that his goal of “region-al peace” would require new negotiations, add-ing that Paris aimed to rein in Iran’s nuclear and ballistics activities and its regional influ-ence.He made the comments at a press conference with US President Don-ald Trump, who last year withdrew from the multi-lateral agreement known as the JCPOA.But Tehran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi warned Friday that “bringing up issues that are be-yond the JCPOA does not help in saving the JCPOA, but will instead

ST. PETERSBURG - Chinese President Xi Jinping here on Friday called for joint efforts in forging ahead with sustainable develop-ment and the building of a community with a shared future for man-kind.Xi made the remarks in his address to the ple-nary session of the 23rd St. Petersburg Interna-tional Economic Forum (SPIEF), which was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bulgarian Presi-dent Rumen Radev, Armenian Prime Min-ister Nikol Pashinyan, Slovak Prime Minister

OTTAWA - Cuba will have a role to play in Ven-ezuela’s return to democ-racy, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Free-land said on Friday, even though Ottawa and Ha-vana disagree on wheth-er President Nicolas Ma-duro should stay in office.Freeland made her re-marks in a televised To-ronto news conference after meeting Cuban For-eign Minister Bruno Rod-riguez. Cuba is a strong ally of Maduro, whom most western nations want to step down in fa-vor of opposition leader Juan Guaido.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka police say President Maithripala Sirisena is opposed to have them testify before a parliamen-tary inquiry into in-telligence failures that preceded the Easter Sunday suicide attacks that killed more than 250 people.Police say in a state-ment Sirisena met with senior officers Friday evening and told them he doesn’t favor intel-ligence officers being summoned by a par-liamentary committee to discuss sensitive de-

NEW DELHI - India’s annual monsoon, which delivers about 70 percent of the country’s rainfall, officially arrived on the coast of southern Kerala state on Satur-day, the weather office said, a week later than usual.The delay has had a big impact on farm-ers and millions of Indians this year, as an ongoing heat wave has sent temperatures soaring across the country and dried up reservoirs.Monsoons are the lifeblood of India’s $2.5 trillion economy, spurring farm output and boosting rural spending on items ranging from gold to cars, motorcycles and refrigerators.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in April that India, where half of the farmland lacks irrigation, would likely receive average monsoon rains this year.Water is typically scarce in the summer months, but the situation has been par-ticularly grim this year in western and southern states which received below av-erage rainfall in the 2018 monsoon season.Depleting reservoirs have even forced some municipalities in places like Chen-nai, Mumbai and Hyderabad to cut sup-plies to ensure water lasts until the arrival of the monsoons.Key cotton growing western states of Ma-harashtra and Gujarat, which account for 27 of the 91 reservoirs in the country, had storage shortages of 64% and 27% respec-tively as on Thursday, compared with the 10-year average.The tea and rubber growing state of Ker-ala, known for its plentiful rainfall, had a shortage of 12%, accourding to the Central Water Commission. . (Reuters)

FUKUOKA, Japan — Financial leaders of the Group of 20 gathered Saturday to brainstorm ways to adapt global fi-nance to an age of trade turmoil and digital disruptions.The central bank governors and other financial regulators meeting in this southern Japanese port city also flagged risks from upsets to the global economy as Beijing and Washington clash over trade and technology.Asked if other financial leaders at-tending the meetings in Fukuoka were raising concerns over the impact on global markets and trade from Presi-dent Donald Trump’s crusade against huge, chronic U.S. trade deficits, espe-cially with China, U.S. Treasury Secre-tary Steven Mnuchin said no.Trump and members of his adminis-tration contend that the ripple effects of the billions of dollars in tariffs im-posed by Washington on Chinese ex-ports over the past year are creating new business opportunities for other businesses in the U.S. and other coun-tries.But Mnuchin acknowledged that growth has been slowing in Europe, China and other regions.“I’m hearing concerns if we continue on this path there could be issues. There will be winners and losers,” he said.The G-20 officials were expected to ex-press their support for adjusting mon-etary policy, for example by making borrowing cheaper through interest rate cuts, in a communique to be is-sued as meetings wrap up on Sunday. (AP)

policies of the govern-ment would attract huge foreign direct in-vestment (FDI) from Egypt, Malaysia and Gulf countries.“Nine business tycoons will come to Pakistan with their huge invest-ment plans by the end of June this year,” he disclosed.Bukhari said the busi-ness tycoons wanted to make huge investments in Pakistan, hoping that their investments would be fully protect-ed and facilitated.“Pakistan offers tre-mendous opportunities for investors including foreigners in different ...(More on P4)...(15)

legal framework, which ensures the strengthen-ing and development of relations between Bela-rus and Turkmenistan in the political, trade, eco-nomic and humanitarian spheres, the report said.The mutual trade turn-over between Turk-menistan and Belarus amounted to $65 million in 2017, and to $32.2 mil-lion in 2018.Belarus’ supplies to Turkmenistan mainly consist of high value-added goods including trucks, special purpose vehicles, tractors, road-building equipment, medicines, woodwork-ing products, and ag-ricultural products. (Trend)

cause increased distrust among the remaining parties” to the deal.European leaders, bitterly angered by Trump’s pullout from the deal in May last year, have struggled to find ways to salvage it in the face of Washing-ton’s re-instatement of tough sanctions.In a statement on the foreign ministry’s web-site, Mousavi said Euro-pean parties to the deal had been “incapable of acting upon their com-mitments”.Under such circum-stances, he said, making new demands would “only help America in nearing its objective -- the collapse of the JCPOA.”The Joint Comprehen-sive Plan of Action was an agreement between world powers including France and the United States, offering Iran ...(More on P4)...(14)

Peter Pellegrini and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.Facing the world’s profound changes un-seen in a century, said Xi, China stands ready to make joint efforts with the international community to create an open and pluralis-tic world economy, a happy society that is inclusive and benefits all, and a beautiful homeland with har-monious coexistence between humanity and nature, and explore a new path of sustain-able development.Noting that this year ...(More on P4)...(13)

CARACAS - Three months after violent clashes broke out at the Colombia-Venezuela border, followed by the opposition’s attempt to smuggle in ‘aid,’ Ven-ezuelan President Nico-las Maduro has ordered border crossings to be partially reopened.Maduro announced on Friday that the border with Colombia, which has remained closed since late February, will be reopened in western Tachira State on Satur-day.“In order to fully ensure our sovereignty, I have ordered the opening of border crossings with

LOS ANGELES — Remarks by the Cal-ifornia attorney general regarding the arrest of the leader of a Mexico-based megachurch charged with human traf-ficking and child rape may have tainted a potential jury, defense attorneys said Friday.Attorney General Xavier Becerra spoke at a news conference Thursday and described La Luz del Mundo leader Naasón Joaquín García as “sick” and “demented.” “No law of California,

Ukraine’s Zelensky is a Good Actor, but Actually Being President Is a Different Matter – Putin

ST PETERSBURG - Chi-nese President Xi Jin-ping on Friday called U.S. President Donald Trump his friend and said he believed the United States was not interested in ruptur-ing economic ties with China.Speaking in the Russian city of St Petersburg at an economic forum, Xi said there were strong trade and investment connections between China and the United States.“It’s hard to imagine a complete break of

Colombia in the state of Tachira beginning on Saturday, June 8,” Maduro tweeted, add-ing that Venezuela is a “peaceful nation” that “firmly defends its in-dependence.”In February, the Francis-co de Paula Santander Bridge over the Tachira River, which connects Colombia to Venezuela, became the scene of a showdown between op-position forces trying to make way for the ‘aid’ trucks and the National Guard. Images of an ‘aid truck’ engulfed in flames on the bridge be-came the symbol of Ca-racas’ crackdown, until

around a month later when the mainstream media was forced to ad-mit that the truck was in effect torched by pro-testers. Prior to the botched at-tempt to deliver ‘aid’, which Caracas later said included wire and nails that could have been used to erect barricades, tensions were already running high at the crossing. In the run-up to the attempt to smug-gle in the cargo, Ma-duro closed the border, severing diplomatic re-lations with Colombia and expelling its diplo-mats from the country.(RT)

no law of humankind and certainly no law of God would permit to occur what Naasón Joaquín García is alleged to have committed in this case against young girls and others,” Becerra said.Attorneys Ken Rosenfeld and Allen Sawyer decried the language used to describe their client Joaquín García.“Yesterday was a sad day for the crimi-nal justice system in California,” Sawyer said.” ‘’How is Mr. García’s supposed to get a fair trial?” (AP)

the United States from China or of China from the United States. We are not interested in this, and our American

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence last week called on Canada to do more to en-gage directly with Cuba over what Pence called its “malign influence” on the Venezuelan crisis.“I think we are seeing an international conver-gence around the need for a peaceful transition in Venezuela resulting in free and fair elections and the return to democracy. Cuba will have a role to play in this,” Freeland said.When pressed to be more specific about what Cuba could do, she declined to answer. . (Reuters)

tails in the presence of the media.The meeting between Sirisena, who is also the minister of de-fense and police, and senior police offic-ers came after intelli-gence officials, former bureaucrats and the suspended national police chief testified before the commis-sion and described shortcomings in the security sector.Sirisena has promised to protect officers who refuse to attend the committee hearings. (Fox News)

Boris Johnson Wins Brexit Case Hounding His Leadership Bid

LONDON - Former UK foreign minister Boris Johnson’s bid to succeed Theresa May as prime minister received a big boost Friday when a

London court quashed his summons to answer charges that he lied dur-ing the Brexit referendum campaign.His lawyers claimed that

the private prosecution was “politically motivat-ed” and had no precedent in common law.The two-judge High Court panel said it was persuaded by their case.The ruling was issued after nearly four hours of hearings into whether Johnson knowingly mis-lead the nation while arguing in favour of Brit-ain’s split from the Euro-pean Union during the 2016 referendum cam-paign.Johnson was both a mem-ber of parliament and mayor of London in the

run-up to the highly con-tentious vote.His most famous claim was that Britain would no longer have to make weekly payments of £350 million ($445 million, 395 million euros) to Brussels.The case against him ar-gued that he had commit-ted the criminal offence of misconduct in a public of-fice by using his position to knowingly make a false claim. A district judge at the lower Westminster Magistrates Court in Lon-don decided to summons Johnson to court. ...(More on P4)...(12)

MOSCOW - Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin has praised Ukraine’s Volody-myr Zelensky for his skill in his area of expertise – acting. He then pointed out the obvi-ous difference between play-ing a president on TV and actually being one.Putin elicited chuckles from the audience at the St. Peters-burg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday, speaking about the possibility of meeting the new Ukrainian leader without any precondi-tions. Putin said he wouldn’t mind meeting the former comedian, though he hasn’t been approached by the Ukrainian side yet.“I don’t know this man, but I hope we will get to know each other at some point,”

Putin said, before giving a brief characterization of Zelensky, a political novice who blindsided the previous Ukrainian president, confectionery mag-nate Petro Poroshenko, with a landslide victory in April’s election. He seems to be an expert in what

used to be his job until recently – he is a good actor.Putin’s words were met with laughter from the au-dience, but he said he was serious about the merits of his acting skills. Whether those skills are applica-ble when leading a country is another matter.

“It is one thing to play somebody, and another to actually be somebody,” Pu-tin said. He admitted that Zelensky may well have the necessary presidential traits – apart from political expe-rience – but so far he isn’t projecting a clear image of himself.“He has not revealed him-self yet. We’ve seen contra-dictory statements. We’ll see.” One of Zelensky’s last pre-presidency shows was the comedy series ‘Servant of the People’, in which he played a former high school history teacher whose anti-government rant propels him to the presidency – al-most exactly the same route that took Zelensky to power in real life. (RT)

partners are not inter-ested in this. President Trump is my friend and I am convinced he is also not interested

in this,” Xi said in Chi-nese, interpreted into Russian and then trans-lated into English by Reuters. (Reuters)