POMPEO: NO END TO SANCTIONS UNTIL DENUKED

Top U.S. diplomat Mike Pompeo said Sunday that economic sanctions on North Korea won’t be reduced until it completes “denuclearization” after leader Kim Jong Un offered to close the North’s main nuclear site in exchange for U.S. concessions.

Kim said last week at a summit with South Korea’s president that he was willing to dismantle the Nyongbyon nuclear complex in the presence of outside inspectors if the U.S. takes unspecified “corresponding measures.” He also promised to dismantle the North’s main rocket launch site.

That has helped revive U.S.North Korea diplomacy that had failed to make headway since President Donald Trump met Kim in Singapore in June and won a vague commitment on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. considers limit on green cards for immigrants on benefits.

S AN

DIEGO» The Trump administration has proposed rules that could deny green cards to immigrants if they use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers and other forms of public assistance.

Federal law already requires those seeking green cards to prove they will not be a burden — or “public charge” — but the new rules detail a broad range of programs that could disqualify them.

Maldives’ opposition presidential candidate claims victory.

M A LE,

ES» Opposition

M A LDI V presidential candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a longtime but littleknown lawmaker in the Maldives, declared victory early Monday in a contentious election widely seen as a referendum on the island nation’s young democracy.

Solih’s win, announced at his party’s campaign headquarters in the capital city of Male, was unexpected. The opposition had feared the election would be rigged in favor of strongman President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, whose first term was marked by a crackdown on political rivals, courts and the media.

German government reaches deal to solve spy chief dispute.

Leaders of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition reached a deal Sunday to resolve a standoff over the future of the country’s domestic intelligence chief, a dispute that has further dented the image of their fractious sixmonthold alliance.

The centerleft Social Democrats have insisted that HansGeorg Maassen be removed as head of the BfV spy agency for appearing to downplay recent violence against migrants, but conservative Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has stood by him.