COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Debt-stricken Sri Lanka signed a trade pact with Thailand on Saturday in a bid to boost trade and investment as the Indian ocean island nation is struggling to recover from its worst economic crisis that hit two year ago.
face with iran, not the inflammatory sound bites that have been characteristic of the debate up until now. while there is disagreement how bad the threat is there is agreement putting iranian officials on these state department terrorist list doesn t have impact on these guys, shep. shepard: catherine herridge in washington. thank you. at least nine people are reportedly dead and six others missing after torrential downpours caused chaos and flooding and that tops our news around the world in 80 seconds. italy, officials warning folks from the ams all the way from sicily to stay indoors. rivers overflowing banks, muddy water roaring through the street taking down bridges and slant slides rocking roads and railways. japan. farmers by the thousands protesting in tokyo. they are marching against the government s possible free trade pack with the united states and other nations.
fredricka, good morning from honolulu. the president hoping that this trip to the asia pacific region can help him escape a little bit from all the controversies that he s dealing with in washington. this is an ambitious trip. he ll travel to five different countries and meet with some of the most important leaders in this region, particularly leaders that are being forced to confront head on the growing tension with north korea and the kim jong-un administration. the president will meet with the leaders of china, the leaders of japan, south korea, philippines and vietnam. these are all important players not just as it comes to national security but also ek knollically economically and the president expected to talk about trade deals with these different nations, especially in the wake of the administration deciding to pull out of the free trade pack that was initially hatched by the obama administration. now, we get back to what s going on in washington. you mentioned it, fredricka.