SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia: A flagship economic forum has returned to Saint Petersburg, with Russia aiming to signal it has moved beyond the coronavirus pandemic and is open for business despite political tensions.

PARIS: A year after the coronavirus pandemic emptied airports, air travel associations fear chaos during Europe’s summer holiday season as travellers could wait hours before boarding planes due to health checks.

BRUSSELS: Rules against overspending by EU governments will remain suspended through 2022, leaving more time for stimulus plans to boost the economy to pre-crisis levels, the European Commission said yesterday.

PARIS: Oil majors are under growing pressure to stop drilling for crude to help curb climate change, but companies say they will wean themselves off fossil fuels at their own pace. The demand for change is coming from many sides: lawsuits, shareholders and the International Energy Agency have all turned up the heat on firms recently.

WASHINGTON: After kicking their massive lending powers into overdrive to help the nations hardest hit by COVID-19 last year, the IMF and the World Bank are now focusing on getting vaccines to poor countries to keep the pandemic from derailing the global economic recovery.

OTTAWA: Canada’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 5.6 percent in the first three months of 2021, the government statistical agency said yesterday. 

COLOMBO: A fire aboard a cargo ship off Sri Lanka carrying hundreds of tons of chemicals, plastics and cosmetics was finally extinguished yesterday after a 13-day international operation, the navy said. 

BEIJING: Fifteen tutoring firms have been hammered with millions of dollars of fines over alleged fraud, Chinese state media said yesterday, as the government’s chastening of the tech sector seeps into the private education businesses. 

PARIS: Former Australian finance minister Mathias Cormann became head of the influential Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) yesterday, kicking off the job with a pledge to keep the global body focused on the fight against climate change.