WHIlE TRUMP TAlKS TOUGH, US QUIETlY CUTTING NUKE FORCE
Washington: The Air Force is quietly shrinking its deployed force of land-based nuclear missiles as part of a holdover Obama administration plan to comply with an arms control treaty with Russia. The reductions are nearing completion despite President Donald Trump’s argument that the treaty gives Moscow an unfair advantage in nuclear firepower. The reduction to 400 missiles from 450 is the first for the intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, force in a decade when the arsenal came down from 500 such weapons.
El-SISSI TO MEET TRUMP IN EARlY APRIl
Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and US President Donald Trump will meet in Washington next month, Egypt’s leading state-owned newspaper said on Sunday. Al-Ahram said in a front-page report the two leaders will meet during the first week of April, in what will be el-Sissi’s first visit to Washington since taking office in 2014.
BERlIN DOESN’T OWE ANY DEBT TO NATO: DEF MIN
Berlin: German Defence Minister Ursula von der leyen o Sunday rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that Berlin owes NATO “vast sums of money” and must pay Washington more for Defence. “There is no account where debts are registered with NATO,” Von der leyen, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in a statement.
US TEEN FINDS RARE 7.44 CARAT BROWN DIAMOND
Washington: A 14-year-old boy in the US has discovered the largest brown diamond registered in nearly 40 years - a rare 7.44-carat stone that has been named ‘Superman’s Diamond’. Kalel langford was visiting the Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park when he spotted the shiny, dark brown gem. “It was just a few inches from a stream of water, with a bunch of other rocks that were about the same size,” langford said.