LONDON, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday asked Europe Union (EU) leaders to compromise on Brexit in order to secure "friendly relations" between Britain and its neighboring Republic of Ireland and to protect peace in Northern Ireland.

The foreign secretary made the remarks before traveling to France and Poland for talks with ministers, raising the threat of a no-deal Brexit or "Brexit paralysis" if the EU and Britain were unable to strike a deal.

13 Feb 2019; AFP: Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to meet with top US officials in Beijing this week, a report said Wednesday, as the world's two biggest economies rush to patch up their trade differences before a looming deadline.

Xi will meet on Friday with officials including US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who are in the capital for crunch talks towards a trade deal, the South China Morning Post reported.

BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- China has established the world's largest clean coal power generation system, setting a new milestone in cutting emissions and saving energy, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said Tuesday.

The country has beaten its target of ultra-low emission and energy conservation and transformation outlined in the country's 13th Five-Year Plan two years in advance, NEA said.

NEW YORK, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- A wintry mix of snow, sleet and rain hit New York City on Tuesday as a winter storm moved through the Northeast United States.

Snow arrived in the Big Apple in the morning and turned into icy sleet and eventually freezing rain, creating a wide swath of messy slush and a headache for pedestrians and drivers.

CARACAS, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on Monday that there are "no sanctions that will unnerve or fracture national dignity."

The minister said the Venezuelan military is underestimated by those who "have come with tricks by saying 'if you come out against the Constitution and the legitimate authorities, you will be exonerated' from those purported sanctions."

"We've said we'll remain with the sanctions and the fatherland," he added.

13 Feb 2019; AFP: A spate of anti-Semitic vandalism and graffiti in and around Paris at the weekend sparked widespread condemnation on Tuesday, stoking fresh concerns about an increase in hate crime against Jews.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told lawmakers that he shared their anger at the "loathsome" acts, urging people "to express their absolute rejection" of anti-Semitism.

CARACAS, Feb 12 (NNN-TELESUR) — Venezuela wants to double its oil sales to India and is open to barter payment arrangements with the world’s third biggest crude consumer, Venezuelan Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo said.

“India also wants to increase the intake,” Quevedo said after a meeting with Indian refiners. “We are selling more than 300,000 barrels a day but of course we want to increase that and India also wants to increase the intake from Venezuela. We want to double that amount.”

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Nearly a million U.S. jobs could be lost due to U.S. newly imposed tariffs on foreign imports and retaliatory tariffs by its trading partners, a recently released study showed.

The study examines the economic effects of tariffs imposed by the United States on imports of foreign products since March 2018, retaliatory tariffs from other countries, and threatened tariffs on the U.S. economy and U.S. workers, one to three years after they have been in effect.

Chennai, Feb 12 (PTI): The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday urged the Centre to allot an additional 1500 Hajj seats to the state's quota in view of the demand.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Centre has allotted 3,534 seats in 2019 for the people of Tamil Nadu to perform Hajj.

12 Feb 2019; DW:  All flights in and out of Belgium have been canceled until Wednesday night as public transport workers went on a 24-hour strike.  All sectors, from public transport to rubbish collection, postal services, hospitals and commercial centers have been affected.

Belgium's air traffic control authority said on Tuesday it was forced to close the country's airspace between Tuesday 10 p.m. CET (2100 UTC) and the same time on Wednesday.

13 Feb 2019; AFP: Mexican mobster Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was convicted Tuesday of crimes spanning a quarter-century in a trial that laid bare his lavish lifestyle and penchant for extreme violence as the head of one of the world's most powerful gangs.

The 61-year-old former boss of the notorious Sinaloa cartel -- famed for his brazen escapes from Mexican prisons -- faces life in prison for smuggling tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States.

Srinagar, Feb 12 A Kashmiri, claimed to have helped Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander Naveed Jatt escape from police custody at a hospital here last year, was killed by Indian security forces in Kashmir's Pulwama district. A soldier was also killed in the gunfight, police said.