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WORLD NEWS Saturday 11 November 2017
Negotiators optimistic as German govt talks face key week

BERLIN (AP) — Negotiators mands for a 2030 deadline
from parties in talks to form to phase out combustion
Germany’s next govern- engines and shut down
ment said Friday they’re coal-fired power stations,
optimistic ahead of what while the Free Democrats
they called a decisive conceded there’s no ma-
week, though significant jority for a wide-ranging tax
differences remain. reform.
The pro-business Free Dem- In an interview Friday with
ocrats and the tradition- the weekly Der Spiegel,
ally left-leaning Greens Free Democrat leader
would join Chancellor An- Christian Lindner kept up
gela Merkel’s conservative his party’s tough tone on
Union bloc in government if eurozone financial policy.
talks succeed. But he said a party that
The parties want to decide won around 11 percent
next Thursday whether support in the last election
there’s enough common can’t “dictate” the way
ground to move from ex- ahead.
ploratory talks to formal co- The party had wanted the
alition negotiations. lending capacity of the
They have never previ- European Stability Mecha-
ously joined together in a German Chancellor Angela Merkel smiles as she arrives for talks about a potential coalition nism rescue fund to be
national German govern- between her Christian Democrats, the Free Democratic party FDP and the Greens in Berlin Friday, gradually reduced and for
ment however, and went Nov. 20, 2017. it to be phased out even-
into the talks with wide dif- (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP) tually. But Lindner said the
ferences on immigration Broemer, the parliamen- week.” Greens’ general secretary, fund has “built up compe-
and climate policy, among tary chief whip of Merkel’s Still, party officials made Michael Kellner. tence” in overseeing Euro-
other issues. party, said Friday. clear that many differenc- But “I would still like more pean stability targets and
Negotiators have “devel- “We are looking forward es still have to be bridged. tail wind from all sides.” added “if the ESM stays, it
oped a lot of common confidently to next week. “We have set sail, we are The Greens signaled this could become an instru-
ground,” Michael Grosse- We face the decisive moving forward,” said the week they may drop de- ment for more discipline.”q

Russia named as likely source

of Europe radioactivity spike

By A. CHARLTON cident in a nuclear reactor
Associated Press because that would have
PARIS (AP) — An apparent released other elements.
accident at a Russian facil- Germany’s Federal Of-
ity is suspected of causing fice for Radiation Protec-
a recent spike in radioac- tion said last week that el-
tivity in the air over much evated levels of Ruthenium
of Europe, according to a were reported in Germany,
report by France’s nuclear Italy, Austria, Switzerland
safety agency. and France since Sept.
The Institute for Radiologi- 29, but posed no threat to
cal Protection and Nuclear public health. After reports
Safety says the release of of a Ruthenium-106 leak
the isotope Ruthenium-106 from a plant in the south-
posed no health or en- ern Urals first appeared,
vironmental risks to Euro- Russia’s state-controlled
pean countries. It said the Rosatom corporation said
“plausible zone of release” in a statement last month
was between the Volga that it hadn’t come from
River and the Ural Moun- its facilities. “The claim that
tains, and suggested ran- the contamination had a
dom checks on food im- Russian origin is unfound-
ports from the region as a ed,” it said. The French re-
precaution. In a report re- port says the radioactivity
leased Thursday based on peaked in late September
monitoring in multiple Euro- and early October and af-
pean countries, IRSN said fected a “majority of Eu-
the Ruthenium appeared ropean countries” but is
to come from an accident no longer detected in the
in late September involving atmosphere over Europe.
nuclear fuel or the produc- Ruthenium-106 is used for
tion of radioactive materi- radiation therapy to treat
al. The French agency said eye tumors, and sometimes
the Ruthenium didn’t ap- as a source of energy to
pear to come from an ac- power satellites. q