WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and leaders in Congress appeared to be pulling back Tuesday from a government shutdown over his $5 billion request for border wall funds, with the first signs of movement toward a possible end to the standoff.

The White House set the tone early when Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Trump — who just last week said he’d be “proud” to shut down the government — doesn’t want to after all. The president would consider other options and the administration was looking at ways to find the funding elsewhere, Sanders said.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel submitted his resignation Tuesday amid pressure on his government after the biggest coalition party quit over Michel’s support for a United Nations compact on international migration.

“I am taking the decision to offer my resignation. I am now going to see the king” to inform him,” Michel told Belgian lawmakers.

Before the prime minister gave his notice, lawmakers had been demanding he submit his new minority government to a confidence vote. But Michel refused, and a confrontation this week seemed likely.

KANPUR: Furore engulfs the Indian Institute of Technology as the institution's administration has decided to terminate as many as 135 students for failing to do well in examinations. This decision was taken at the institute’s senate meeting here on Monday. A total of 150 cases related with the students were received at the Senate meeting. 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban say “another” meeting is to be held with the United States, this time in the United Arab Emirates and involving representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

The terse statement from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the meeting would be held Monday without offering details.

The State Department has neither denied nor confirmed previous meetings, but U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad previously said he has met with all Afghans involved in the 17-year war.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Soldiers and police fanned out across Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday to enforce a security lockdown for a second straight day to stop anti-India protests and foil a call by separatists for a march toward India’s main military garrison in the disputed region.

Government forces patrolled streets in the region’s main city of Srinagar and sealed off all the roads leading to India’s military garrison in the city.

Islamabad, Dec 17 (PTI) Pakistan on Monday released Indian prisoner Hamid Nihal Ansari, who was detained by the country's intelligence agencies in 2012 and subsequently sentenced to three years' imprisonment by a military court in 2015 for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.

Ansari, a 33-year-old Mumbai resident, was lodged in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by the military court on December 15, 2015. His three-year jail term ended on December 15, 2018 but he was not able to leave for India as his legal documents were not ready.

17 Dec 2018; DW: A lawyer who represented victims of far-right violence had her daughter threatened, possibly by extremist police. The resulting investigation has revealed a neo-Nazi network within the Frankfurt police force.

State criminal police (LKA) are investigating an alleged right-wing extremist network in the Frankfurt police force, respected German newspaper Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported Sunday.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban say they are holding “another” meeting on Monday with U.S. officials, this time in the United Arab Emirates and also involving Saudi, Pakistani and Emirati representatives in the latest attempt to bring a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s 17-year war.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid offered no further details.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has stressed his country's resolve to support Syria to surpass all of the troubles caused by the more than seven-year war, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper said Sunday.

"We are determined to stand by the side of Syria to overcome all the woes that it has been through over the past seven years," the Russian official told al-Watan in an interview.

The Russian-US standoff in Syria has been intensifying, thus stonewalling efforts on stabilizing the situation to the east of the Euphrates River and in the south near Al-Tanf controlled by Washington, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in a message to his US counterpart Jim Mattis last week, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pushing the government to the brink of a partial shutdown, the White House is insisting that Congress provide $5 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border despite lawmaker resistance from both parties.

Without a resolution, parts of the federal government will shut down at midnight Friday.

“We’re going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration,” White House senior adviser Stephen Miller said Sunday.

 17 Dec 2018; AFP: Nuclear-armed North Korea condemned the United States over its latest sanctions measures, warning Washington's approach could "block the path to denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula forever".

After a rapid diplomatic rapprochement this year that culminated in the Singapore summit in June between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, progress has stalled in talks on Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal.