22 Feb 2019; DW: Germany closed 2018 with its highest budget surplus of €58 billion ($65.8 billion) since reunification in 1989, the federal statistics bureau Destatis announced Friday.

Revenues collected by government — at federal, regional state and communal level — amounted to €1,543.6 billion. Offset against expenditures of €1,485.6 that left coffers €58 billion in surplus, an overhang of 1.7 percent in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).

Diphu (Assam), Feb 22 (PTI) A hardcore militant of People's Democratic Council of Karbi-Longri (PDCK) was apprehended Friday along with arms and ammunition in Karbi Anglong district of central Assam, police said.

The operation was jointly carried out by the Army and police at Borlangfer area of the district.

22 Feb 2019; AFP: US biotechnology manufacturer Thermo Fisher on Thursday announced it would stop selling to China equipment used to create a DNA database of the country's Uighur minority.

Since 2016, there have been regular reports of Chinese authorities taking blood samples in the Xinjiang region.

JUBA, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government on Thursday donated about 9,660 tonnes of rice to South Sudan to assist civilians at risk of starvation in the world's youngest nation, which is in the process of reconstruction after nearly five years of civil strife.

Manasseh Lomole, chairperson of Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, said the first batch of Chinese rice has already arrived in the capital Juba and the remainder will be delivered later.

The food donation will be channelled to returnees, internally displaced people and survivors of floods and drought.

Seoul, Feb 22 (PTI) India and South Korea signed seven agreements on Friday to enhance cooperation in key areas, including infrastructure development, media, start-ups and combating trans-border and international crime, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the country.

Modi, who is on a two-day visit to South Korea to strengthen India's strategic ties with the country, was accorded an official reception at the Blue House, the executive office and official residence of the South Korean President Moon Jae-in here. He also met First lady Kim Jung-sook.

Jalpaiguri (WB), Feb 21 (PTI) An elephant stood guard to protect a four-year-old girl, who had fallen down from a scooter, from other members of the herd in Jalpaiguri district Thursday, forest officials said.

The incident occurred on National Highway 31 near Garumara forest when a family of three was returning to Lataguri after offering puja at a temple inside the forest.

Thane, Feb 22 (PTI) Three persons have been sentenced to life in prison by a court in Thane in Maharashtra for gang-raping a newly-wed teen.

District Judge S A Sinha, in a recent order, convicted Naveen Ashok Bagade (43), Santosh Yashwant Shelke (22) and Rajkumar Tikeshwar Sahani (29) under section 376 D (rape by one or more persons constituting a group) and 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code.

22 Feb 2019; AFP: An unmanned rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night carrying Israel's Beresheet spacecraft, aiming to make history twice: as the first private-sector landing on the Moon, and the first from the Jewish state.

The 585-kilogram (1,290-pound) Beresheet, which means "Genesis" in Hebrew, lifted off at 8:45 pm (0145 GMT Friday) atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the private US-based SpaceX company of entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Baruipur (WB), Feb 21 (PTI) A 28-year man died after he was allegedly beaten up by members of a club when he protested the molestation of his two female friends by them in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, police said Thursday.

Though police was yet to arrest anyone in connection with the incident, around five persons, named in the FIR lodged by the family members of the deceased, were slapped with murder charges, a senior officer of South 24 Parganas district said.

Balasore (Odisha) Feb 20 (PTI) A local court Wednesday sentenced three people to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment in connection with the rape of a minor girl for four years.

She was raped between 2010 and 2013 during her stay at a short-stay home here, and when she became pregnant, they terminated it.

KANPUR: There was confusion at the paucity of oxygen at the emergency block of Hallet Hospital on Thursday. The attendants were worried at this odd situation for the patients’ gulp of air started reducing at the intensive care unit. It was later known that the low pressure in the supply of the oxygen. It arose because of the decreasing quantity of the oxygen level in the cylinders.

21 Feb 2019; DW: US authorities have arrested a Coast Guard lieutenant who compiled a hit list of prominent political targets. Christopher Paul Hasson was allegedly "dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth."

Prosecutors said Christopher Paul Hasson was to appear in court on Thursday on gun and drug offenses, but that those charges were "the tip of the iceberg."