Reactor block 1 at Beznau nuclear power plant can restart after a three-year shutdown for repairs, the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate said on Tuesday.

Mar 11, 2018  -  Europe’s biggest aluminium trade group added its voice to the chorus of condemnation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 10-percent blanket tariff on imported aluminium earlier this week, petitioning the European Union and its member states to act in defense of the continent’s aluminium sector.

Economic adviser Gary Cohn is leaving the White House after a dispute over trade, the latest in a string of high-profile departures.

PYEONGCHANG/GOSEONG, South Korea (Reuters) – When South Korean businessman Park Nam-suh was forced to abandon his factory in a North Korean industrial complex two years ago, he thought his business was finished. Now, he dares to hope. The Kaesong complex, funded by South Korean firms and manned by workers from the North, shut in 2016 after the South accused North Korea of taking workers’ wages to fund its arms programme. But now South Korea is in the mood to re-engage with its old enemy, using its first Winter Olympics this month to attempt a thaw in relations — and giving…

Here is the introduction to the TheGuardians summary of the election: Angela Merkel is set for a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor after her centre right CDU/CSU won a projected 33% of the vote in federal elections, making it the largest party in the Bundestag with an estimated 218 seats. The Christian Democrats’ score, sharply down on the 41% of the vote it collected in the previous 2013 elections, was widely seen as disappointing and is likely to leave Merkel diminished on the domestic political stage. Continue here to follow the full summary and updates . . .

 Latin America’s oldest English-language daily, the Buenos Aires Herald, announced its closure this week, ending an impressive 140-year run. “There’s not much to say right now to be honest. We have been told the last edition was this Friday’s. No more to add at this point,” said News editor James Grainger on Twitter. The paper cited modifications to government-paid advertising, distribution, and the recession in Argentina as reasons for its shutdown. “For the journalists and the fighters for Argentine human rights, the Buenos Aires Herald was a myth. So its final closure was a hard blow,” said Carlos Cué, El…

  CHINA’S manufacturing activity eased slightly last month amid hot weather and flooding. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures vitality in the sector, slowed to 51.4 in July from June’s 51.7, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Though slower than the market’s expected 51.6, it remained in expansionary territory for a 12th consecutive month. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction. Zhao Qinghe, the bureau’s senior statistician, said the July reading had remained between 51 and 52 over the past seven months. The slower expansion was partly due to hot weather nationwide and…

British Prime Minister Theresa May called for international regulation of the Internet to combat terrorism at a news conference Sunday as reported by the Daily Caller yesterday. “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed,” May said. “Yet that is precisely what the Internet and the big companies that provide Internet-based services provide,” May continued. “We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning.” |  A The DailyCaller release  ||  June 6, 2017   |||  Watch video here

Quai D’Orsay and Lambton Quay share a nightmare The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade must now begin the difficult and counter-ideological process of accepting that Marine Le Pen’s National Front Party might win the pending Presidential Election in France. The reason is that Miss Le Pen has pledged to extricate France from both the EU and also the eurocurrency. Miss Le Pen (pictured) and her party according to the polls is now the front runner to take over the Presidency and thus the government of France. The former Prime Minister Francois Fillon has dropped in the polls…

US president Donald Trump is speeding ahead with his plans to build the controversial wall along the country's border with Mexico, with a deadline for prototype proposals set for early next month. Last week, the US Department of Homeland Security issued a notice outlining its intent to open calls for the design and construction of the border wall on 6 March 2017. The statement describes the project as the "design and build of several prototype wall structures in the vicinity of the United States border with Mexico". Those interested will then have a five-day window to submit their proposals, with…

Five questions for Washington insider Scot Faulkner The newly installed Trump Administration continues to catch New Zealand officialdom by surprise. So MSC Newswire asked Washington insider Scot Faulkner (above) what Wellington’s response should in fact be? Mr Faulkner was elected the first Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. His reforms became a model for the operation of national parliaments around the world. The New Zealand Foreign Ministry has set up a special focus group solely for the purpose of identifying early warning of new policies promulgated by President Trump, the ones which will have an impact on…