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Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, Feb. 13

Xinhua,February 13, 2018 Adjust font size:

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump and discussed the Middle East settlement, the Kremlin said Monday.

Putin revealed the phone call at the beginning of talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, a Kremlin statement said, adding that the Russian president forwarded Trump's "best wishes" to Abbas.

He was also quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that the situation in the region was far from satisfactory. (Russia-US-Middle East)

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WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump released a long-promised 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars infrastructure initiative on Monday, aiming to rebuild the nation's outdated roads, railways and other public works.

The 53-page document details Trump's plans of how to fund the investments, shorten project permitting time, remove regulatory barriers, help rural areas, and improve worker training.

"Our Nation's infrastructure is in an unacceptable state of disrepair, which damages our country's competitiveness and our citizens' quality of life," Trump said in a letter to the Congress.(US-Infrastructure)

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ZAGREB -- The presidents of Croatia and Serbia pledged Monday to work on easing tensions between the two neighboring countries issued from a bloody break-up of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, amid protests by Croatian war veterans.

At the invitation of the Croatian President Kolina Grabar-Kitarovic, her Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic came for a two-day visit to Croatia, in an attempt to start resolving some of the most painful issues in the relations between the two countries and boost economic ties.(Croatia-Serbia-Visit)

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WASHINGTON -- The United States and South Korea have agreed on terms for further engagement and even conversation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), U.S. media reported on Monday, citing Vice President Mike Pence.

In an interview aboard Air Force Two on the way home from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, Pence told the Washington Post that in his two substantive conversations with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during his trip, they agreed that the engagement shall be conducted "first by the South Koreans and potentially with the United States soon thereafter."

According to the Washington Post, Pence referred the still-nascent plan as "maximum pressure and engagement at the same time," revealing a change from the previous U.S. position that emphasized in building "maximum pressure" until Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear weapon program in exchange for direct engagement with Washington.(US-DPRK-Talk) Enditem

 

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