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Hello, I'm Neil Nunes with the BBC News.

The French government is abandoning plans to increase fuel taxes that prompted weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations. Four people died and hundreds were injured. After suspending the measure temporarily earlier this week, the Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has announced that it'll be dropped altogether from legislation on next year's budget. He said the government had to maintain peace. If the state is to remain strong and firm, it is first of all, the guarantor of public peace. To set the course and hold it is necessary in order to govern France. And as I said yesterday, no tax is worth putting the unity of the nation in danger.

Serbia says it's considering military intervention as a possible response if its former province of Kosovo goes ahead with a plan to create its own army. President Aleksandar Vucic said the proposal was aimed at driving out Serbs still living in Kosovo.

The Liberian state energy company says about sixty percent of all electricity generated in the country is stolen. The theft is causing estimated losses of about thirty five million dollars a year as Warren Bull now reports. The Liberia energy corporation says large numbers of people are making illegal connections to their homes and businesses. Speaking to state radio, a spokesman said the theft was diverting cash that would have been used to improve power supplies to the west African country. Liberia is trying to rebuild an energy sector destroyed during a civil war which lasted from 1989 to 2003. The United States is giving financial and technical aid to increase connectivity as part of the Power Africa Initiative launched by the former US President Barrack Obama.

But the country still has one of the lowest access rates to energy in the world, only one in eight Liberians have electricity. There have been warm tributes to the former US President George H. W. Bush at his state funeral in the National Cathedral in Washington. Gary O'Donoghue was following the ceremony. With full pomp and ceremony, America paid tribute to its 41st President, a man who spent a lifetime in public service. George W. Bush, eldest son and 43rd President delivered the warmest of eulogies. But in America he leaves behind a country much changed since he controlled the levers of power, a country divided in ways that would have been anathema to his brand of politics.

This is the latest world news from the BBC.