Britain to submit ‘Brexit bill’ proposal before Dec EU meeting LONDON, November 19 (Reuters): Britain will submit its proposals on how to settle its financial obligations to the European Union before an EU Council meeting next month, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Sunday. British Prime Minister Theresa May was told on Friday that there was more work to be done to unlock Brexit talks, as the European Union repeated an early December deadline for her to move on the divorce bill. “We will make our proposals to the European Union in time for the council,” Hammond told the BBC. Last week, May met fellow leaders on the sidelines of an EU summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, to try to break the deadlock over how much Britain will pay on leaving the bloc in 16 months. She signalled again that she would increase an initial offer that is estimated at some 20 billion euros ($24 billion), about a third of what Brussels wants. Ireland’s Sinn Fein leader to step down in 2018 London, November 19 (IANS): Gerry Adams has announced he is stepping down as President of Sinn Fein, once the political arm of the now inactive Irish Republican Army (IRA), after 34 years in charge of the party, a media report said. In his address at the party’s annual conference on Saturday, Adams said this will be his last year as its leader and that he will not be a candidate in the next elections, Efe news reported. “Leadership means knowing when it is time for change and that time is now.” Adams noted that the party will hold a special meeting next year to elect his successor. Adams, 69, a member of the Irish Parliament for Louth County, has been the President of Sinn Fein since 1983. “I have always seen myself as a team player and a team builder.” Sinn Fein has achieved solid progress in the Republic of Ireland, according to the latest opinion polls. Mary Lou McDonald, 48, is considered the clear favourite to take Adams’s place. Mexico City reconstruction to take seven years: Mayor Mexico City, November 19 (IANS): The reconstruction of the damage in Mexico City caused by the September 19 earthquake will take seven years, Mayor Migual Angel Mancera said. Mancera on Saturday said the authorities are working in every aspect of the reconstruction effort, but warned it was not a short-term goal, Xinhua news agency reported. He said that concrete actions were being taken and rejected claims that things were moving slowly, days after some of the displaced blockaded streets to demand help. “The reconstruction will take six or seven years in Mexico City. This is not a task of a month or two, this is a task that will take a long time.” Mancera added that the full work plan for the reconstruction will be presented before the end of November. At least 369 people were killed in the country’s most devastating earthquake in 32 years which brought down 38 office and residential buildings in Mexico City and damaged around 5,700 more buildings. Kenyan police fire teargas to break slum protests after four murdered NAIROBI, November 19 (Reuters): Kenyan police fired teargas to disperse a crowd that was protesting on Sunday against the overnight murder of four people in a slum in the capital Nairobi, a Reuters witness said. Parts of the city have been gripped by tension since Friday when at least five people were killed in violence between the police and opposition supporters who were accompanying their leader Raila Odinga after a trip abroad. Japheth Koome, the police commander in the city, said investigations had started after four bodies were found in the Mathare Area Four slum on Sunday morning. “We went there and found those bodies with injuries,” he told a news conference, describing the murders as a criminal act rather than ethnic-driven violence. The violence comes a day before the Supreme Court rules on two cases seeking to nullify the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta in a repeat vote last month. Odinga visited the scene of the killings on Sunday and later police fired teargas to disperse crowds that were gathering to protest.
