Lucknow, Mar 18 (PTI) A day after the Congress said it was leaving seven Lok Sabha seats for the SP-BSP-RLD combine in Uttar Pradesh, BSP supremo Mayawati Monday asked the national party not to "spread confusion" and said the alliance was capable of defeating the BJP on its own.

At the same time, she dared the Congress to go ahead and field candidates in all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The parliamentary elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Russia has decreased it holdings in US Treasury Securities to $13.180 bln in January from $13.216 bln in December last year, according to the Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for January 2019.

The share of long-term bonds accounted for $6.322 bln, short-term bonds - $6.858 bln.

Russia began to drastically reduce investments in the US national debt in the spring of 2018.

In April 2018, investments fell from $96 bln to $ 48.7 bln, and then in May to $ 14.9 bln.

Panaji, Mar 18 (PTI) BJP's Pramod Sawant willl be the new chief minister of Goa, party sources said Monday.

Two MLAs from the BJP alliance partners will be made deputy chief ministers as part of the compromise reached with allies, they said.

BAKU, March 18 / TASS /. The average daily oil production in Venezuela in February was 1.43 million barrels, said Venezuelan oil industry minister Manuel Quevedo at a meeting of the OPEC + ministerial monitoring committee on Monday.

"1.432 million barrels per day," he said, answering the relevant question. At the same time, Quevedo did not mention the volume of production in March, citing the fact that the month is not over yet.

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) Days after having unanimously decided to go it alone in Delhi, the Congress is again mulling options to align with the Aam Aadmi Party in the national capital in its bid to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha elections.

Sources said the Congress leadership is in talks with AAP leaders and senior leaders within the party are trying to convince Delhi Congress leaders for an alliance with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP.

DONETSK, March 18. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces have shelled the western outskirts of Donetsk which led to interruptions in electricity supply, the mission of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) said on Monday.

19 Mar 2019; DW: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Tuesday cleared the way for Germany to deport asylum-seekers to other EU member states.

Judges in the Luxembourg-based court ruled that weak social benefit systems and living conditions in certain countries were not grounds to block transfers.

They said deportations should be only be halted in cases where individuals were likely to face "extreme material need" and "inhuman or degrading treatment."

Islamabad, Mar 18 (PTI) Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been admitted to a hospital in Dubai after suffering a reaction from a rare disease that has weakened his nervous system, his party has said.

General (retd) Musharraf, 75, who has been living in Dubai since March 2016, is facing the treason case for suspending the Constitution in 2007, a punishable offence for which he was indicted in 2014.

A conviction for high treason carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.

BAKU, March 18 / TASS /. OPEC + has invited Iraq, Kazakhstan and Nigeria to join the monitoring committee, said the Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy Khaled al-Faleh, before the start of the meeting of the ministerial monitoring committee on Monday.

"We invited Iraq, Kazakhstan and Nigeria," he said.

SIMFEROPOL, March 18. /TASS/. Russia will lift counter-restrictions if the European Union abolishes its sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at a meeting with Thierry Mariani, head of a delegation of French politicians and the President of the French-Russian Dialog Association.

Itanagar, Mar 19 (PTI) Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said Tuesday his party will restore the special category status to Arunachal Pradesh and other states in the northeast if elected to power.

There are some states in the country which require special status because of their "unique problems and difficulties" such as connectivity, terrain, infrastructure, Gandhi said at an election rally here.

During the Congress rule at the Centre, he said, Arunachal Pradesh and other NE states used to enjoy special category status.

Bhopal, Mar 18 (PTI) Days after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath asked Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh to choose a tough seat to enter the Lok Sabha election fray, the latter Monday said he was ready to contest from wherever party chief Rahul Gandhi wants him to.

Sigh also said that accepting challenges was his habit.

Rumours are around in political circles that Singh might be fielded from either Bhopal or Indore Lok Sabha constituency, which are the traditional strongholds of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).