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Conflict over Russia is rocky start for Trump and intelligence agencies

Sandesh Chaudhary

Link Author

Title: Conflict over Russia is rocky start for Trump and intelligence agencies
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

source : The Himalayan Times WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump’s rejection this weekend of US intelligence analysts’ conclusion ...

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source : <a href="http://thehimalayantimes.com/world/conflict-russia-rocky-start-trump-intelligence-agencies/">The Himalayan Times</a><br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">WASHINGTON: </strong>President-elect Donald Trump’s rejection this weekend of US intelligence analysts’ conclusion that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help him win the White House is the latest in a string of conflicts between Trump and the intelligence community he will command.</div>
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Most of them involve Russia, which has grown increasingly aggressive – according to what US intelligence agencies have told Congress and the administration of President Barack Obama – in Syria and Ukraine. The agencies also reported that Russia has ratcheted up activities in cyberspace including meddling, sometimes covertly, in European and US elections.</div>
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The intelligence agencies have concluded with “high confidence” that not only did their Russian counterparts direct the hacking of Democratic Party organizations and leaders, but they did so to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton,</div>
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not just to shake confidence in the US electoral system, a senior US official said on Friday.</div>
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The president-elect’s transition office responded by releasing a statement that exaggerated his margin of victory and attacked the US intelligence community’s work on Iraq, but did not address the analysts’ conclusion about Russia.</div>
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“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction,” the statement said. “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.'”</div>
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In a statement issued on Saturday, California Democrat Adam Schiff, a member of the House intelligence committee, called the Russian hacking of the US election “spectacularly successful.”</div>
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“One would also have to be willfully blind not to see that these Russian actions were uniformly damaging to Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton and helpful to Donald Trump,” Schiff said. “I do not believe this was coincidental or unintended.”</div>
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Trump has rejected the intelligence agencies’ finding.</div>
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“I don’t believe they interfered,” he told Time magazine about Russia in an interview published this week. “That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say, ‘Oh, Russia interfered.'”</div>
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Russian officials have denied all accusations of interference in the US election.</div>
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The president-elect has been receiving the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), one of the most highly classified documents in the US government and which can include details of US and allied covert operations, only once a week. That is far less often than most of his predecessors.So far, intelligence officials said, Trump has not requested a special briefing on Russia, despite the agencies’ warnings that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to undermine trans-Atlantic unity and test US and allied resolve.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: navy;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">‘INCIDENTAL CONTACT’</strong></span></div>
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In fact, two officials with knowledge of the situation said on Saturday that Trump’s transition team has made only “incidental contact” with the Central Intelligence Agency. This is despite the fact that Trump’s choice to head the CIA, US Representative Mike Pompeo, has limited experience working with the agency. The Kansas Republican served on the House Intelligence Committee and the select committee investigating the 2012 attack on US diplomatic and intelligence facilities in Benghazi, Libya.</div>
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Democrats and some Republicans in Congress who have been briefed on the Russian activities share the intelligence agencies’ alarm about Trump’s plans for the 17-agency intelligence community, which includes the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center.</div>
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Privately, some members of the clandestine service, the CIA’s body of spies, said they would resign rather than obey any order to resume waterboarding or other “enhanced interrogation techniques” that Trump endorsed during his campaign.Elsewhere in the $70 billion-a-year intelligence community officials on Saturday said they fear that Trump might invite legal trouble by trying to vastly expand electronic and physical surveillance of suspected terrorists based on their religion or national origin.</div>
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None of that may come to pass, of course, and campaign rhetoric and tweets do not always predict policies, the officials conceded.However, Trump’s statements about Russia and business dealings there, as well as those of retired Army Lieutenant Michael Flynn, his choice for national security adviser, are worrisome to many of the officials tracking Putin’s growing aggressiveness from seas to skies to cyberspace.</div>
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Obama has ordered the intelligence agencies to review cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 election and deliver a report before he leaves office on Jan. 20, the White House said on Friday.</div>
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Obama’s homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters on Friday the report’s results would be shared with lawmakers and others.</div>
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“The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process … and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress,” she said during an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.</div>
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Conflict over Russia is rocky start for Trump and intelligence agencies

source : The Himalayan Times WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump’s rejection this weekend of US intelligence analysts’ conclusion ...

Finance Minister English named as New Zealand prime minister

Sandesh Chaudhary

Link Author

Title: Finance Minister English named as New Zealand prime minister
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

source : The Himalayan Times WELLINGTON: New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English was confirmed as the country’s new prime minister on...

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source : <a href="http://thehimalayantimes.com/world/finance-minister-bill-english-named-new-zealand-prime-minister/">The Himalayan Times</a><br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">WELLINGTON: </strong>New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English was confirmed as the country’s new prime minister on Monday, as expected, a week after John Key announced his surprise resignation after eight years in the role.</div>
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English, who was the sole contender for the job, announced Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett as the deputy leader, following a special caucus meeting of the ruling center-right National Party.</div>
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English, who will be sworn in later in the day, has already lined up senior cabinet minister Steven Joyce, the minister for economic development, to replace him in the finance ministry.</div>
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He is expected to announce further cabinet changes in the coming weeks and has also signaled a “stocktake” on policy.</div>
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“I am both excited and humbled by this opportunity,” English, who comes from a conservative, Catholic family in New Zealand’s south, told reporters after the meeting.</div>
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English, who 13 years ago oversaw a disastrous election loss for the National Party to the center-left Labour Party, takes the reins of a country in good economic shape compared to much of the developed world.</div>
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On Monday, Moody’s said it expects New Zealand to remain among the fastest growing of triple-A rated economies.</div>
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English has held several ministerial posts across education, health and finance since he joined parliament in 1990.</div>
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As finance minister, his key policies included moves to partly privatize several state-owned energy firms and Air New Zealand, cutting personal tax and corporate tax rates and increasing the goods and services tax.</div>
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Finance Minister English named as New Zealand prime minister

source : The Himalayan Times WELLINGTON: New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English was confirmed as the country’s new prime minister on...

Deuba, Oli to continue bid to end deadlock

Sandesh Chaudhary

Link Author

Title: Deuba, Oli to continue bid to end deadlock
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

source : The Himalayan Times Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and leader of the main opposition CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli today a...

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source : <a href="http://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/sher-bahadur-deuba-kp-sharma-oli-continue-bid-end-deadlock/">The Himalayan Times</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and leader of the main opposition CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli today agreed to hold further talks to forge consensus on the second amendment to the new constitution.</span><br />
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The leaders reached understanding after they met at the UML’s parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar today.</div>
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The UML has been obstructing House meetings since the government registered the bill on November 29 and pressing the government to withdraw it. The government, on the other hand, wants to table the bill in the next meeting of the House on December 15.</div>
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“Talks were held to end the deadlock. We have decided to find a solution by holding another round of talks,” Deuba said after the 50-minute meeting which was also attended by UML deputy parliamentary party leader Subas Chandra Nembang. The talks were held to end the crisis of confidence among the political parties, Deuba said.</div>
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The two leaders have agreed to sit again and try to forge consensus before tabling the bill, according to Deuba’s Personal Secretary Keshav Joshi.</div>
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Oli had urged Deuba to withdraw the bill and create atmosphere for holding civic polls. Oli had hinted that the UML would be ready to clear the House obstruction if the government put the constitution amendment bill on hold and tabled election-related bills, said Oli’s Press Coordinator Chetan Adhikari.</div>
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“UML wants the government to announce dates for holding civic polls and the party is flexible about clearing the way for this. However, the party is not ready to clear the House obstruction for tabling the constitution amendment bill without forging consensus on it,” Adhikari said.</div>
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The seven-point amendment bill proposes to amend constitutional provisions related to redrawing provincial boundaries, recognition of languages, citizenship and representation in the National Assembly.</div>
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The bill proposes revision of boundaries of provinces 4 and 5 by keeping the region east of Bardaghat in Nawalparasi district and the eastern part of Rukum district in Province 4 and the region west of Bardaghat in Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Dang, Banke and Bardia districts in Province 5.</div>
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Deuba, Oli to continue bid to end deadlock

source : The Himalayan Times Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and leader of the main opposition CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli today a...

Taliban chief reinforces position with backing of two key members

Sandesh Chaudhary

Link Author

Title: Taliban chief reinforces position with backing of two key members
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

source : The Himalayan Times KABUL: Hardline cleric Mullah Haibatullah Akundzada has reinforced his position as the new leader of the A...

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source : <a href="http://thehimalayantimes.com/world/taliban-chief-reinforces-position-backing-two-key-members/">The Himalayan Times</a><br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">KABUL:</strong> Hardline cleric Mullah Haibatullah Akundzada has reinforced his position as the new leader of the Afghan<span class="highlight" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Taliban </span>by winning the support of two senior members, the insurgent group said on Saturday.</div>
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Former<span class="highlight" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Taliban </span>interior minister Mullah Abdul Razaq Akhund and Mullah Abdul Sata Akhund “pledged their full support” to Akundzada during a meeting of<span class="highlight" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Taliban </span>scholars at an undisclosed location on Friday, the group said on its website.</div>
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Akundzada in May replaced former<span class="highlight" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Taliban </span>leader Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour who was killed by a US drone strike.</div>
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Senior members of the insurgent group hope Akundzada will be able to bring disparate factions together and repair the splits that emerged last year when Mansour was appointed.</div>
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Afghan security forces have struggled to hold off resurgent<span class="highlight" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Taliban </span>fighters, who are estimated to control more territory in Afghanistan than at any time since 2001 when the US invaded.</div>
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Taliban chief reinforces position with backing of two key members

source : The Himalayan Times KABUL: Hardline cleric Mullah Haibatullah Akundzada has reinforced his position as the new leader of the A...

Pushpa Basnet nominated for CNN Super Hero December 10, 2016

Sandesh Chaudhary

Link Author

Title: Pushpa Basnet nominated for CNN Super Hero December 10, 2016
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

Source : The Himalayan Times KATHMANDU : Winner of CNN Heroes 2012 and social worker Pushpa Basnet has been nominated for CNN Super Hero...

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Source : <a href="http://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/pushpa-basnet-nominated-for-cnn-super-hero-2016/">The Himalayan Times</a><br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">KATHMANDU</strong>: Winner of CNN Heroes 2012 and social worker Pushpa Basnet has been nominated for CNN Super Hero: Above and Beyond.</div>
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Basnet, founder of the Early Childhood Development Centre (ECDC), has been involved in providing shelter to the children forced to live with their convicted parents in prison.</div>
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Apart from Basnet, four others including Liz McCartney, Efren Peñaflorida, Robin Lim and Chad Pregracke have been nominated for the title. They had won the title of CNN Heroes in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013 respectively.</div>
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To vote for Basnet people are advised to visit cnnhero.com, said Gaurav Kandel, who has been running the voting campaign in Kathmandu.</div>
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Pushpa Basnet nominated for CNN Super Hero December 10, 2016

Source : The Himalayan Times KATHMANDU : Winner of CNN Heroes 2012 and social worker Pushpa Basnet has been nominated for CNN Super Hero...

Turkish air strikes kill 23 Islamic State militants in Syria’s al-Bab region December 07, 2016

Sandesh Chaudhary

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Title: Turkish air strikes kill 23 Islamic State militants in Syria’s al-Bab region December 07, 2016
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/ ANKARA: Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes against 12 Islamic State targets in the al-Bab...

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source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/<br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">ANKARA:</strong> Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes against 12 Islamic State targets in the al-Bab region of northern Syria on Wednesday and killed 23 militants according to initial assessments, Turkey’s military said.</div>
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The statement also said one Turkish soldier was killed and six were wounded, one of them seriously, in a vehicle-borne bomb attack in the area on Wednesday morning. Media reports earlier said two soldiers were killed in the attack.</div>
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Turkish air strikes kill 23 Islamic State militants in Syria’s al-Bab region December 07, 2016

source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/ ANKARA: Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes against 12 Islamic State targets in the al-Bab...

Aleppo rebels call for five-day ceasefire, talks about city’s future December 07, 2016

Sandesh Chaudhary

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Title: Aleppo rebels call for five-day ceasefire, talks about city’s future December 07, 2016
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/ BEIRUT: Syrian rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo called for an immediate five-day ceasefire, neg...

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source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/<br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">BEIRUT:</strong> Syrian rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo called for an immediate five-day ceasefire, negotiations about the future of the city and for medical and civilian evacuations, in a humanitarian plan published on Wednesday.</div>
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A Turkey-based rebel official told Reuters the plan had been sent to international parties which had yet to respond.</div>
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The “humanitarian initiative” document signed in the name of the Aleppo Leadership Council asked for all involved parties to discuss the future of the city once the humanitarian situation in the rebel-held sector of the divided city has been alleviated.</div>
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The document also called for the evacuation of around 500 critical medical cases from east Aleppo under United Nations supervision.</div>
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Civilians wanting to leave east Aleppo should be evacuated to the northern Aleppo countryside, rather than Idlib province.</div>
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Fighters and civilians from rebel-held areas around Syria have often previously been transferred to rebel-held Idlib under settlement agreements reached with the Syrian army. But the document said Idlib is now too dangerous because of intense air strikes, as well as being unable to cope with more displaced persons.</div>
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The document said rebels in Aleppo will support any regional or international initiative to lighten the suffering of their people, and repeated their readiness to guarantee the safety of United Nations and humanitarian organisations wanting to carry out humanitarian operations</div>
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Aleppo rebels call for five-day ceasefire, talks about city’s future December 07, 2016

source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/ BEIRUT: Syrian rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo called for an immediate five-day ceasefire, neg...

US estimates 50,000 Islamic State fighters killed so far: US official December 09, 2016

Sandesh Chaudhary

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Title: US estimates 50,000 Islamic State fighters killed so far: US official December 09, 2016
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/ The US military believes that some 50,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since the Unite...

US estimates 50,000 Islamic State fighters killed so far: US official December 09, 2016

source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/ The US military believes that some 50,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since the Unite...

New Zealand finance minister emerges as likely PM as rival drops out of race December 08, 2016

Sandesh Chaudhary

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Title: New Zealand finance minister emerges as likely PM as rival drops out of race December 08, 2016
Author: Sandesh Chaudhary
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source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/ WELLINGTON: New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English emerged on Thursday as the country’s likel...

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source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/<br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">WELLINGTON: </strong>New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English emerged on Thursday as the country’s likely next leader after his closest competitor for the prime ministership dropped out of the race.</div>
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Police Minister Judith Collins said it had become clear that English had the support of half the 59-member caucus.</div>
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“As far as I’m concerned, he has won,” Collins told reporters in Wellington. “I would like to say to my supporters that we should get in behind him and support Bill as the leader.”</div>
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The snap race for the top job was prompted by Prime Minister John Key’s sudden resignation on Monday. Key has been New Zealand’s leader since 2008, heading up the National Party, over a period marked by political stability and economic reform.</div>
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Health Minister Jonathan Coleman, the only other candidate, said he was not conceding, but the more junior lawmaker is considered unlikely to get enough support to pose a real challenge.</div>
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English further shored up support by naming senior cabinet minister Steven Joyce, the minister for economic development, as his finance ministry replacement if he wins the top job.</div>
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“If I become the leader that will be the case,” English told reporters. “I have worked with Steven for the last eight years. He has got a fantastic set of skills.”</div>
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Joyce had been considered a potential threat to English.</div>
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New Zealand finance minister emerges as likely PM as rival drops out of race December 08, 2016

source : http://thehimalayantimes.com/ WELLINGTON: New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English emerged on Thursday as the country’s likel...

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