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News ID: 61833
Publish Date : 09 January 2019 - 21:15

News in Brief

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia is ready to hold consultations with the United States about the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty at diplomatic and military levels, Tass news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying Wednesday.
"We are ready for dialogue if the United States will be ready for this," Ryabkov told reporters in New Delhi, Tass reported. "If it happens tomorrow, then we are ready tomorrow. But the dialogue should be on the basis of equality of rights," Ryabkov said.
The Kremlin also rejected a British suggestion it might use a former U.S. Marine detained in Russia on espionage charges as a pawn in a diplomatic game and said it reserved the right to conduct counter-intelligence activities.
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who also holds a British passport, was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service on Dec. 28. His family have said he is innocent and that he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.

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 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top congressional Democrats said President Donald Trump "has chosen fear" in his drive to build a southern border wall and called on him to reopen the government shuttered because of the standoff over his demand for money for the barrier.
Speaking moments after Trump made his case for the wall in an Oval Office address Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a national television audience that the president's rhetoric has been "full of misinformation and even malice."
Standing alongside her, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said America's symbol "should be the Statute of Liberty, not a 30-foot wall." He accused Trump of trying to "stoke fear and divert attention" from his tumultuous administration.
 They spoke moments after Trump warned of a "growing humanitarian and security crisis" at the border with Mexico.

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WARSAW (Dispatches) --Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini wants Poland and Italy to work together on a new Europe, he said at a press conference in Warsaw on Wednesday.
"Poland and Italy will be part of the new spring of Europe, the renaissance of European values," he told reporters during a press conference with Poland's Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski.
"The Europe that will come to form in June (after May's European Parliament elections) will lead us all than the one that exists today and is run by bureaucrats."

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LONDON (Dispatches) -- Airport operators need do more to counter the illegal use of drones after flights were disrupted at Heathrow and Gatwick, Prime Minister Theresa May's de-facto deputy said Wednesday.
Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington said the government would consider toughening laws that ban the use of drones near airports but that operators could also invest more in protection systems.
Departures from Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, were halted for an hour Tuesday evening after a drone was sighted, raising fears that operations could face the serious levels of disruption that hit London's Gatwick last month.
Gatwick Airport said it had upgraded its systems after it was targeted for three days in the run-up to Christmas.

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ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) -- Madagascar’s top court proclaimed former leader Andry Rajoelina winner of a hard-fought presidential vote, rejecting his rival’s accusations of fraud.
High Constitutional Court chairman Jean Eric Rakotoarisoa ratified results given by the Indian Ocean island’s electoral board last month saying Rajoelina won 55.66 percent of votes versus 44.34 percent for Marc Ravalomanana.
"The victory is not only mine. It is also the victory of Malagasy people,” Rajoelina, a 44-year-old businessman, told jubilant supporters at his party’s headquarters.
He had ousted Ravalomanana, 69, who is known as "the milkman” for his ownership of a dairy business, in a 2009 coup.
Both men said this time they would accept the outcome of the vote. However, after a Dec. 19 runoff, Ravalomanana’s team asked the court to nullify the results and submitted more than 200 complaints about balloting and vote counting.

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KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Anti-riot police with water cannon and armored vehicles surrounded Congo’s electoral commission on Wednesday ahead of the delayed announcement of the results of the presidential election.
Residents of the capital, Kinshasa, said the heavy security presence was a bad sign, with some recalling the violence that followed past disputed elections.
It "may be a message that the publication (of the results) won’t meet the expectations of the Congolese people,” resident John Kabamba said.
The first results could be announced as early as Wednesday. Police installed metal barriers and blocked traffic outside the electoral commission as it continued meetings that began late Tuesday to discuss the results compiled so far.

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KHARTOUM (Bloomberg) -- Sudan’s embattled long-time president Omar al-Bashir danced a jig on stage and told thousands of supporters that elections are the only way out of the current crisis, as he looked to reverse a tide of protests that have swept across the impoverished nation.
In a televised rally in Khartoum, the capital, Bashir rejected calls to step down, saying there "are those who conspire against Sudan and seek to attack it.” There are no other options but a national dialog and elections, he said, as chants broke out of: "There is no alternative to al-Bashir.”
Flanked by supporters, and sporting a brown leisure suit, Bashir danced on stage and waved his cane to cheers. The show of force by one of the region’s longest-serving rulers comes as the government faces continuing protests against soaring living costs.