Canada files WTO complaint against US
Canada has filed a comprehensive complaint with the World Trade Organization accusing the United States of breaking international trade rules.
The complaint challenges the ways that the US investigates products for subsidies and below-cost sales. However, the US called the claims unfounded.
The action comes amid disputes between the two countries over areas such as dairy, aircraft sales and lumber as well as efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Thirty-two-page complaint by Canada cites US investigations of products from countries around the world, with decisions that date back to 1996.
Iranian oil tanker partially explodes in East China Sea
The front section of an Iranian oil tanker that has been on fire for days off the east China coast has exploded.
Rescue boats are searching for 31 missing sailors and to retreat and sparking environmental concerns due to the oil spill.
Thirty-two crew members, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, went missing after the tanker carrying 136,000 tonnes of oil condensate from Iran to South Korea collided with a cargo Chinese freighter and caught fire last Saturday.
So far, no survivors from the tanker have been found and only one body has been recovered. All 21 crew members aboard the Chinese ship were rescued.
United States was willing to speak to North Korea
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday after the first intra-Korean talks in over two years that the United States was willing to speak to North Korea “under the right circumstances,” although it was far from clear whether this would pay dividends.
South Korea said Trump had also said in a phone call with its President Moon Jae-in that there would be no military action while North-South talks were going on and that a Wall Street Journal article saying he was contemplating a military strike against North Korea was “completely wrong.”
“Who knows where it leads?” Trump told reporters at the White House after his call with Moon to discuss Tuesday’s North-South talks, the first since 2015.
He said Moon told him the talks went well, and added: “Hopefully it will lead to success for the world, not just for our country, but for the world. And we’ll be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens.”
In conference with the visiting Norwegian prime minister, Trump said the United States had problems with North Korea, but “a lot of good talks are going on right now.”
“I see a lot of good energy. I like it very much … So, hopefully, a lot of good things are going to work out.”
“I think that we will have peace through strength,” he said, a reference to his policy of maintaining a powerful U.S. military.
South Korea’s Presidential Blue House said both men had said the dialogue “could naturally lead to talks between the United States and North Korea for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.”
At Tuesday’s intra-Korea talks, North Korea said it would attend the Olympics, which South Korea will host next month, while both sides agreed to resolve problems between them through dialogue and to revive military consultations to avoid accidental conflict.
Pyongyang said it would not discuss its nuclear weapons because they were aimed only at the United States and not its “brethren” in South Korea, or Russia or China, showing that a diplomatic breakthrough to the crisis remained far off.
Washington has welcomed the talks as a first step toward solving the crisis over North Korea’s program to develop nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States, it has reiterated that any talks involving the United States must be aimed at North Korea’s denuclearization.
The White House said Trump told Moon the United States was willing to talk to North Korea “at the appropriate time and under the right circumstances.”
Trump, who has swung between hurling insults and threats at North Korea to expressing a willingness to talk, said on Saturday he would be willing to speak to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, though not without pre-conditions.
The Trump administration has said it prefers a diplomatic solution, but that all options are on the table, including military ones.
Launch of Cartosat-2 series satellite
The Indian Space Research Organization will launch “Cartosat-2 Series” satellite meant for earth observation along with 30 other smaller co-passenger satellites into space loaded on PSLV tomorrow morning at 9.28 hours.
Twenty-eight of the 30 small satellites are from six foreign countries including Canada, Finland, France, South Korea, the UK and the USA while the two are from the ISRO. Our correspondent reports, PSLV-C40 has a lift-off mass of 320 tons and all the 31 satellites together weigh 1323 kilograms.
The filling operation of the two liquid fuel stages of the rocket PSLV C40 is one of the important procedures during the countdown process. System checks and rechecks using manual and remote modes are the other processes during the countdown. The ISRO scientists have said, the filling of the fourth stage of the rocket with liquid fuel has been completed and the filling of the second stage is going on.
The first and third stages have pre-packed solid stage fuels. The “Cartosat-2 Series” that will be launched by the rocket is essentially a remote sensing satellite similar to the six others launched under the series earlier. Its designed mission life is five years. The mission is being accomplished under the stewardship of Dr AS Kirankumar, chairman of the ISRO, who completes his tenure on the day of the launch.
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