Briefly

AUSTRALIA

Qantas turns to Airbus for domestic fleet

Qantas Airways on Thursday picked Airbus as the preferred supplier to replace its domestic fleet, switching from Boeing in a major win for the European plane maker that also triggered an upheaval in engine supplies. The Australian national airline said it had committed to buying 20 Airbus A321XLR planes and 20 A220-300 jets, along with options for 94 aircraft, pushing shares in France-based Airbus 3 percent higher in early European trading.

CHINA

New book tells Belt and Road stories

La Chine & l'espace arabo-africain, a book in French on the collaboration among China and Arab and African nations on the Belt and Road Initiative, was launched by China National Publications Import and Export Group in Beijing on Thursday. The book was written by Fathallah Oualalou, former Moroccan finance minister. Now a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Oualalou said that China has become a driving force of globalization and the Arab and African nations should learn from the experiences of China's development, and it's necessary to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

UNITED STATES

More files released on JFK assassination

US authorities released thousands of pages of secret documents on Wednesday on president John F. Kennedy's assassination, a case that still fuels conspiracy theories despite the official conclusion he was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. The CIA and FBI files show US investigators spread their net wide and deep to find out if Oswald conspired with others in the Nov 22, 1963, murder that shocked the world.

Agencies - Xinhua