Abyzemen

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has denied reports that a preparatory trade meeting with the United States scheduled for next week had been canceled by the Americans. “The reports which said the U.S. canceled a trade planning meeting with China is not true," MOFCOM spokesperson Gao Feng told a regular press briefing. "Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will pay a visit to the U.S. on January 30 to 31 for a new round of trade negotiations."   Gao made the remarks after the reports were published by international media outlets. "China and the U.S. have maintained close contact on the upcoming trade talks, during which the two sides will make in-depth negotiations on issues of common concern," he said. Gao also said in the briefing that the trade volume of China with countries along the Belt and Road Initiative has reached 3 trillion U.S. dollars in 2018, an increase of 16.3 percent from last year. Chinese companies' non-financial direct investme

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday he was breaking diplomatic relations with the United States, after the Trump administration recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the South American country's interim president. Speaking to supporters outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Maduro said he would give U.S. diplomatic personnel 72 hours to leave Venezuela, which is suffering from a hyperinflationary economic collapse. Trump said on Wednesday that the United States had recognized Guaido as the nation's "interim president," a move that came after Nicolas Maduro was inaugurated as president of the Latin American country earlier this month. "Today, I am officially recognizing the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela," Trump said in a statement issued by the White House. Trump added that the United States would continue to use economic and diplomatic powe

Called the Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan, a string of volcanic islands are at the heart of a feud between the two countries. At their closest point to Japan, the disputed islands lie just a few kilometers off the northern coast of Hokkaido. They are the southernmost islands in a volcanic chain that separates the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. The islands also sit close to the Russian island of Sakhalin and are administratively part of the same region. These islands have remained at the center of a dispute between Tokyo and Moscow, ever since Soviet troops took over them in the final days of World War II. Russia argues that U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt promised Soviet leader Joseph Stalin he could annex the islands, in exchange for joining the war against Japan when they met at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. The Soviet control of the islands has since prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal peace treaty to end the war. I

A video clip recently captured the scene of a chimpanzee learning from breeders how to clean her own enclosure with a broom in a zoo in Shenyang City, northeast China's Liaoning Province.  According to a study from Lund University in 2017, zoo chimpanzees can imitate common actions of zoo visitors, such as hand clapping and knocking on windows, which shows their natural ability to imitate. "One day we found she stared at us cleaning and then we observed that she imitated us to clean the room with a broom seriously. She even cleaned the corners carefully," said Wang Jingjing, a breeder with the zoo.  To match the height of the broom, she bent over and slightly adjusted her knees to clean. Even the tree leaves in the corners were swept into an empty yogurt box.  "There are dried leaves in the pavilion of primates, which were collected after the fall. First, we want to imitate its living environment in the wild and second the tree leaves can help reduce the o

Officials and business leaders gathered at Davos on Tuesday to brainstorm economic and other global issues. They called for governments to act together to embrace Globalization 4.0, which is also known as the 4th Industrial Revolution, at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting. The opening ceremony was marked by speeches from Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF, and Swiss President Ueli Maurer. The theme for this year's event is Globalization 4.0. Klaus Schwab said all countries are part of the global community and are all interconnected and interdependent. Globalization should be more human-centered and inclusive. "Let's not forget multilateralism has helped lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, but today we cannot afford anymore to leave people behind in the age of social media..." said Klaus Schwab. Ueli Maurer said that Globalization 4.0, the 4th Industrial Revolution are day-to-day lives,

The leaders of France and Germany signed a new treaty on Tuesday to update their 1963 post-war reconciliation accord, aiming to reinvigorate the EU's main axis as growing euroskeptic nationalism tests the bloc's cohesion. At a warm ceremony in the German border city of Aachen, a historical symbol of European concord, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron sought to show they are ready to give fresh leadership to the troubled EU project. The leaders want the 16-page Aachen Treaty, negotiated over the past year to update the 1963 Elysee Treaty of post-war reconciliation, to give an impulse to European unity that has been strained by Brexit, immigration and the eurozone crisis. "We are doing this because we live in special times and because in these times we need resolute, distinct, clear, forward-looking answers," said Merkel, noting Aachen was home to Charlemagne, whom she dubbed "the father of Europe." Macron added, &

A Russian Aeroflot flight SU1515, from Surgut to Moscow, landed at the airport of Khanty-Mansiysk after a man on board reportedly demanded to divert the plane to Afghanistan, TASS reported on Tuesday.