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New Delhi, Jan 3 (PTI) The Delhi unit of Youth Congress Thursday staged a protest near Parliament House, demanding the Modi government's response to a tape allegedly connected to the Rafale deal.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had tried to play the audio tape of purported conversation between a Goa minister and a person in the Lok Sabha but was denied permission by the Speaker on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — No one budged at President Donald Trump’s closed-door meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday, so the partial government shutdown persisted through Day 12 over his demand for billions of dollars to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. They’ll all try again Friday.

In public, Trump renewed his dire warnings of rapists and others at the border. But when pressed in private by Democrats asking why he wouldn’t end the shutdown, he responded at one point, “I would look foolish if I did that.”

03 Jan 2019; AFP: Disney posted its second best year at the box office ever, raking in $7.325 billion worldwide for everything from "Black Panther" and "Avengers: Infinity War" to hit animated sequel "Incredibles 2" and the latest "Star Wars" film.

Disney remains the only studio to ever post more than $7 billion in annual box office receipts. In 2016, it recorded its best year at $7.6 billion.

02 Jan 2019; DW: Chinese President Xi says he will "leave no room" for separatist activities, and that Beijing "reserves the option of taking all necessary means," including the use of force, for the Taiwan "reunification."

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday that the island's "unification" with China was not possible under the "one country, two systems" model. She, however, agreed to start a dialogue with Beijing as an exchange between two sovereign states.

03 Jan 2019; DW: Up to 270 containers had fallen off the Panamanian-flagged MSC ZOE, one of the world's biggest cargo ships, in rough weather near the German island of Borkum in the North Sea, the Dutch Coast Guard said on Wednesday.

The containers floated southwest toward Dutch waters and by mid-afternoon on Wednesday, more than 20 containers had washed up on the Dutch islands of Terschelling, Ameland and Vlieland.

LISBON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's public debt rose by 400 million euros in November last year, compared to the previous month, reaching a new record of 251.48 billion euros, according to the data released by the Bank of Portugal on Wednesday.

The Portugal's central bank said that loans and debt emissions essentially contributed to the increase in the month.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday held firm on his initial request for 5 billion U.S. dollars for funding the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, hours ahead of a planned meeting with congressional Democrats to bridge their bitter divide, which has dragged a partial government shutdown into the 12th day.

Trump was asked by a reporter at a cabinet meeting Wednesday morning in the White House whether he would accept a bill containing border wall funding below 5 billion dollars.

New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) The government Wednesday approved the merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda (BoB) to make it a globally competitive lender.

With the merger, BoB will become the third largest bank after State Bank of India and ICICI Bank.

"There will be no impact on the service conditions of the employees and there will be no retrenchment following the merger," Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters about decisions taken by the Union Cabinet.

New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) The Train 18 will run from Delhi to Varanasi, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal confirmed on Wednesday, saying the run-time would be eight hours, about "one-and-a-half-times" faster than the fastest train on the route.

While the railways had been saying that it had proposed two routes for the train, Delhi to Bhopal and Delhi to Varanasi, this is the first time that the route has been officially confirmed.

KHARTOUM, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Sudan said on Tuesday that it intends to reduce the country's inflation rate to 27.1 percent in 2019.

"The policies of the Central Bank of Sudan for 2019 intend to achieve monetary and financial stability to realize sustainable growth," Mohamed Khair al-Zubair, governor of Sudan's central bank, said at a press conference in the capital Khartoum.

The central bank hopes to "contribute to achieving a real growth rate in GDP estimated at about 5.1 percent," he added.