Brexit impact not as bad as feared: EU
AFP, Brussels
The EU on Monday sharply improved its gloomy predictions for the British economy next year, admitting that the Brexit vote would have less impact than earlier thought.
In its winter forecasts, the European Commission said it was pencilling in growth of 1.5 percent for Britain in 2017, much higher than an earlier prediction of a lowly 1.0 percent in November.
“The impact of the vote by the UK to leave the EU in the referendum held on 23 June 2016 on growth has yet to be felt,” the commission said in its forecast.
Four killed in Kashmir gunbattle
AFP, Srinagar
Three Indian soldiers and a suspected militant were killed in a gunbattle in held Kashmir Tuesday after an army patrol came under fire in the north of the territory, officials said.
“Three soldiers were killed during a gunfight with militants that broke out at Hajin in Bandipora district,” army spokesman Rajesh Kalia told AFP, adding that five other soldiers were injured.
Travel snarled, two dead as storm hits UK
Reuters, Boston
Close to 1,000 flights were canceled and hundreds of vehicle crashes reported as a winter storm hit New England on Monday, dropping as much as two feet of snow on parts of Maine and leaving two dead in Massachusetts.
A 72-year-old man in Worcester, Massachusetts, died when he was struck by a snowplow on a roadway and a 60-year-old man died after being struck by a snowplow in a Bedford parking lot, police said.
Maine State Police urged people to stay off roadways due to large numbers of tractor-trailer crashes.
Libya rivals to discuss political settlement
AP, Cairo
The head of Libya’s U.N.-brokered government and the country’s most powerful army commander, who is allied with rival authorities, are expected to meet to discuss a political settlement.
A spokesman for the unity government said Tuesday that Fayez Serraj’s meeting with Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter could lead to a “180-degree turn.” The spokesman, Ashraf al-Tulty, said he hoped the Egyptian government will help bridge the gap. Egypt strongly supports Hifter.
