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Hollande to meet ministers over Alstom’s plans for Belfort plant

French President Francois Hollande will meet Prime Minister Manuel Valls and ministers in charge of economic and transport policy on Monday morning to discuss trainmaker Alstom's sudden decision to scale down its Belfort plant, the president's office said. Alstom said on Wednesday it planned to stop making trains at Belfort and transfer production to its plant in Reichshoffen in eastern France by the end of 2018. Valls said on Sunday Alstom's decision was unacceptable.

Zika virus may spread to Europe in coming months, WHO warns

By Kate Kelland LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) – The Zika virus, an infectious disease linked to severe birth defects in babies, may spread into Europe as the weather gets warmer, although the risk is low, health officials said on Wednesday. In its first assessment of the threat Zika poses to the region, the World Health Organization's European office said the overall risk was small to moderate. It is highest in areas where Aedes mosquitoes thrive, in particular on the island of Madeira and the north-eastern coast of the Black Sea.

GE wins EU approval to buy Alstom’s power unit

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) – General Electric won European Union antitrust clearance on Tuesday to buy Alstom's power unit after agreeing to sell some of the French company's assets to Italian competitor Ansaldo Energia. The European Commission said the concessions allayed its earlier concerns that the 12.4-billion-euro ($13.9 billion) deal would reduce competition to two major players, namely the merged company and Germany's Siemens . GE will divest Alstom's large turbine product line and the technology it is developing for very large turbines to Ansaldo, which is 40 percent owned by Italian state-backed investment fund Fondo Strategico Italiano and another 40 percent by China's Shanghai Electric .