China

BELGRADE - Reconstruction works at the National Museum in Belgrade are in full swing - the roof has been relaid with copper and all is proceeding as planned, even faster than we had expected, and I hope the reconstruction will be complete in late January 2018, Serbian Culture Minister Vladan Vukosavljevic said during a tour of the works on Friday.

Serbia's goal should be to "reboot" its ties with the U.S., but also continue good relations with Russia and China, says Ivica Dacic.

In an interview for the Beta agency, the foreign minister also listed "progress on the path towards the European Union" among these goals.

Turkish police believe the gunman who claimed 39 lives in a nightclub in Istanbul may be from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan, according to Hürriyet Daily News.

Another hypothesis, appearing in daily Habertürk and cited by Hürriyet, suggests the man might be from Xinjiang in China.

Eight people have been detained so far over alleged links to the deadly attack.

Turkmenistan halted gas supplies to Iran on Jan. 1 amid tensions between the two countries over arrears, the Iranian National Gas Company was quoted by oil ministry news agency Shana as saying.

"The gas company of Turkmenistan has cut gas exports to Iran, contrary to the agreement reached, by demanding immediate payment of arrears," Shana cited an official statement as saying.

Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria has defeated Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan in the Shenzhen tournament in China.

Bulgaria's highest-ranking female tennis player has won 6:4, 5:7, 6:3, thus making it into the tournament's second round, local sports media report.

The death toll from a mine collapse in eastern India's Jharkhand state rose to 16 yesterday as rescue workers continued to search for the bodies of seven missing miners.

A massive mound of earth caved in late Thursday at Lalmatia open cast mine, around 390 kilometers from the state capital Ranchi.

At the end of each year it has become a tradition to evaluate the past year and write about expectations from the coming one. Scenarios about the country, the region and the world are being specified in newspapers and columns. This year I will restrain myself from doing this for a couple of reasons.

BELGRADE - Reconstruction works at the National Museum in Belgrade are in full swing - the roof has been relaid with copper and all is proceeding as planned, even faster than we had expected, and I hope the reconstruction will be complete in late January 2018, Serbian Culture Minister Vladan Vukosavljevic said during a tour of the works on Friday.

Beijing has pledged to open up more economic sectors to foreign investment, an official statement said, as foreign chambers of commerce complain of a worsening business environment in the country.

Turkey's foreign trade deficit regressed to $4.11 billion in November with a 4.1 percent decline compared to the same month of 2015, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Dec. 30. 

The country's trade gap declined to $50.4 billion in the first 11 months of the year, with an around 12 percent of drop compared to the same period of 2015, according to TÜİK data.