our top story: there are conflicting versions of what caused the collapse of the summit between president trump and kimjong—un in hanoi. mr trump said the north koreans had made unacceptable demands that all sanctions be lifted in exchange for limited denuclearisation, but north korea's foreign minister says they only asked for a partial lifting. india has welcomed pakistan's announcement that it will release a captured indian fighter pilot. tens of thousands of troops remain positioned along the border of the disputed kashmir region. and this story is trending on bbc.com: the world—renowned conductor, pianist and composer andre previn has died aged 89. born in berlin, he began his career in hollywood, performing and arranging music while still at school. he went on to win four oscars. that's all, stay with bbc world news.

and the top story in the uk: a woman who killed her husband in a hammer attack, after saying she suffered decades of abuse, has won an appeal to have her murder conviction quashed. sally challen will now face a retrial. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. driving down prices. kessler tries to make electric cars more affordable for the masses, but it is cutting retail outlet in an effort to break even —— kessler. we look at the impact of the kashmir conflict on the travel sector. good morning and welcome to this friday edition of asia business report, live from singapore, with me, mariko oi. now, tesla says it will start selling its

model three for $35,000 in the united states. it is a promise the company made more than two years ago. it was always hoped this model could be the first electric car for the masses, but to make the numbers work, tesla is shifting to an online only sales model and closing down retail stores in a bid to balance the books. i asked a north american technology reporter dave lee whether this will be enough to make the car affordable. yes, i think that's right, on the good news side they managed to get that $35,000 sweet spot for the electric car, which i still don't think seems particularly cheaper most of us, but many a nalysts cheaper most of us, but many analysts think that might be a good pricing point to bring on a whole new sector of society, frankly, they can now afford a higher end luxury electric car, a tesla at that price. it has taken a bit of time, two yea rs, it has taken a bit of time, two years, as you say, just to get to that point. in order to do it, in

order to make the company afford to be able to do that, becomes comes at a big price. as you mentioned, tesla are going to close almost all of its retail stores, the stores you normally see in fairly high end shopping malls throughout the world, it is going to close them in favour of this online only sales model. that might have an impact on the company's that might have an impact on the compa ny‘s ability to that might have an impact on the company's ability to convince people to buy the cars, but it is certainly how tesla thinks it will go forward. certainly you would think people would want to try it out at those retail stores, don't you? would want to try it out at those retailstores, don't you? elon would want to try it out at those retail stores, don't you? elon musk also sang the company will not make also sang the company will not make a profit this quarter, either. yes, and that certainly troubled investors in after—hours trading. since the announcement, shares have gone down despite investors all along saying this is something they we re along saying this is something they were waiting for. that is because, unlike what tesla was suggesting just a few weeks ago, they are not actually going to turn a profit in the first quarter of this year. so that has always been a struggle for the company as it has been ramping up

the company as it has been ramping up its production schedule. i think many investors hoped that by now turning a profit each quarter would become a lot more regular than it has been in the past. so news that he is not going to be able to do that in this coming quarter has shook investors, but i do think if tesla could pull off this $35,000 vehicle, if it can make them quickly enough and not let standards slip, then i think in the long—term investors are likely to be pretty happy. david lee in san francisco. now to the ongoing conflict in kashmir, because pakistan says it will release an indian pilot later today in a move it describes as a piece gesture. tensions between the two countries grew after the plane was shot down, and that meant thousands of air travellers got stranded because airspace was closed. some flights between asia and europe have been cancelled while others have been rerouted. i asked airline expert ellis taylor if this piecejester is airline expert ellis taylor if this piece jester is enough to ease

tension and the impact on the airline —— peace gesture. tension and the impact on the airline -- peace gesture. looks like it will be one of the things that will help to do that. we have seen overnight that pakistan is going to reopen the airspace to civilian traffic. it will probably still take a while for airlines to sort of have the confidence that they can fly through that airspace. there are still memories fresh off mhi7 of course flying over a conflict zone in the ukraine and being shot down. of course no—one wants to take a risk and go to quickly on this. i think for airlines to be comfortable to resume, i guess, normalflying, they will want to see that there is going to be above tensions between india and pakistan before they go back to normal operations, as it were. indeed, because if the conflict was to get extended, then they would have been an impact on fuel cost and all the cancellation costs, as well. that's right, what we have seen in the last couple of days was thai airways cancelled a

number of flights between bangkok and europe. other airlines did their best to try and go around the conflict areas and avoid the close pakistani airspace. so a few measures that were in place, these are things that airlines tend to do quite reactively and quite easily. it is just that it is kept going on, especially the airspace over pakistan was closed, they would probably have to be some longer term measures put in place. it looks like with the tension is coming down with the release of this pilot, hopefully things will return to normal soon. back to the us, because the latest growth figures have just been released. remember, it was delayed because of the government shutdown, and the figures showed growth continued to slow in the last three months of 2018 amid weakness in consumer spending. months of 2018 amid weakness in consumerspending. michelle months of 2018 amid weakness in consumer spending. michelle fleury isa consumer spending. michelle fleury is a north american business correspondent, and she told me the details. well, look if you went over what economists have been forecasting, then this report was better than expected. in that sense it was a sigh of relief, but it

confirms what many people have been talking about for a while, and that is that the momentum in the us economy is shifting. you saw this sort of pick up and strong growth emerging out of the world's largest economy for much of 2018, certainly in the second and third quarter. but in the second and third quarter. but in the fourth quarter, those final months of last year, when we saw that stock market wobble, growth started to slow down, not as badly as some had feared, but certainly a noticeable slowdown, and that is expected to carry on into 2019. let's look at some other business news making headlines this morning. us clothing retailer gap says that plans to split into two companies, separating its old navy brand. it will also shut 230 stores. shares have surged in after—hours trade. huawei has pleaded not guilty to charges of trade secret theft, a day after the company learns whether canada were launched extradition proceedings against its chief financial officer. they appeared in

the seattle court amid allegations they attempted to steal trade secrets from t—mobile. meanwhile, huawei has run full—page ads in newspapers urging readers not to believe everything they hear about the chinese tech firm. it has been defending itself against accusations of 5g equipment could be used by the chinese government to spy on its consumers. as the us— china trade war drags consumers. as the us— china trade wardrags on, we consumers. as the us— china trade war drags on, we have had yet more evidence of the slowdown in the world's second—biggest economy. yesterday, officialfigures world's second—biggest economy. yesterday, official figures showed that the country's manufacturing sector contracted for a third straight month burbury. it is a new three—year low and came ahead of an unofficial but more accurate index due out later today —— third straight month in february. china's economic growth could fall to 6.3% in the first quarter, which would be

the wea kest in the first quarter, which would be the weakest level on record. so how was beijing's dispute with washington impacting investment by chinese companies in america? i put that question earlier to a correspondent. we have seen a slight drop off in chinese outbound investment last year. most of it was actually outbound investment into the us, which fell by more than 40% in 2018 as compared to the previous yea rs. in 2018 as compared to the previous years. that is as a result of trade tensions, but there are also other reasons. however, china has still been investing very heavily in the rest of the world, and particularly here in southeast asia, where we have seen a continued chinese investment and interest in any sector in line with the belton road initiative. so you say while the investment in the us is falling, southeast asia is gaining ——

belt—and—road initiative. southeast asia is gaining —— belt-and-road initiative. because of the trade war, lots of companies are moving their manufacturing and supply of chain operations down to southeast asia. examples would be thailand, which has established itself as an automotive manufacturing hub, as well as vietnam, which has a growing textile and electronic manufacturing sector. investors are also cognisant of the slowdown in china and are looking at new investmentjurisdictions slowdown in china and are looking at new investment jurisdictions for driving their investment returns. in southeast asia, with its rising population and middle—class, represents huge growth opportunities for them. so anything related to the consumer or infrastructure or power are consumer or infrastructure or power a re key consumer or infrastructure or power are key investment destinations. let's now show you the markets before we go, because asian markets have opened higher. in fact, japan's

nikkei upi have opened higher. in fact, japan's nikkei up i almost 1%, reversing the losses that we saw after that trump— kim summit wrapped up in hanoi rather abruptly, sending shares down across the region and in the us as well. but investors were also less optimistic about the us— china trade war, as well as they were concerned about that weak manufacturing data from china. but they are now seeing a bit of game this morning on friday, before the weekend. that bit for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: president chun has just arrived back in the united states following the failed summit with north korea in vietnam. around 145,000 people in the uk have parkinson's disease,

a degenerative brain condition with no cure. but scientists have been trialling a new technique that patients say alleviated their symptoms. here is hugh pym. there's more ending up on the floor than in the pot, isn't there? yeah. my legs would be too weak to stand as i got out of bed. rolling over in bed was just impossible. life with parkinson's at times was a real struggle for lesley. that one's come out. she and her husband carefully plan her regular medication, but four years ago she volunteered for the trial of a new drug, gdnf, involving pioneering brain surgery. this involved four small tubes implanted inside the skull, to deliver the drug directly to parts of the brain affected by parkinson's. it was pumped in through a metal port on the head. patients went in for monthly infusions of the drug. throughout the trial, they did a series of physical tests. there were signs of improvement, though not enough to scientifically

prove that the drug had made a significant difference. but scans showed there had been positive effects on damaged brain cells. the surgeon who devised the radical new technique says the big breakthrough was proving that drugs could be delivered right into the brain. the critical thing about this trial was the demonstration that you could actually do this every month to patients, over months or years. and this opens up huge prospects for treating neurological diseases, be it brain cancer, or neurodegenerative diseases like parkinson's. lesley hopes the trial she took part in will eventually pave the way for a long—term solution. i think it's too easy to sort of sit back and worry about the future, and just think, "well, that's my lot, i'm going to end up in a wheelchair or in a nursing home." and ijust wanted to do something, if not for me, then for future generations. lesley is convinced the drug has made her feel better, and with other participants,

is now fundraising so another trial can take place. hugh pym, bbc news. a man has been convicted of manslaughter for supplying his girlfriend with a class—a drug at a music festival. 24—year—old louella fletcher—michie, who was the daughter of the holby city actorjohn michie, died at bestival, in dorset, after taking the hallucinogenic drug 2cp. ceon broughton had denied he was responsible for her death. don't forget you can get in touch with me and my team on twitter. i'm @bbcnuala. now on bbc news sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: australia's men break their own world record to win team pursuit gold at the track cycling world championships in poland. out for two european matches as sergio ramos is banned for an intentional yellow card in the champions league.

and still on course for a 100th atp tour title as roger federer moves through to the semi—finals in dubai. hello and welcome to the programme where we start with the track cycling world championships in poland and it was a good day for the australians as they picked up three of the four gold medals on offer. that included the men's team pursuit in which the quartet of leigh howard, sam welsford, kelland o'brien and alex porter set a new world record as they beat great brtitain in the final. they clocked 3 minutes, 48.012 seconds, breaking the record they set at last year's commwealth games, and laying down a marker ahead of next year's olympics in tokyo. we knew coming in had good form, doing good timings in practice. but to be able to qualify after the

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