TUNIS (Reuters) - Rail, bus and air traffic stopped in Tunisia on Thursday after the powerful UGTT union staged a one-day nationwide strike to protest against the government's refusal to raise the salaries of 670,000 public servants.

TUNIS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Rail, bus and air traffic stopped in Tunisia on Thursday after the powerful UGTT union staged a one-day nationwide strike to protest against the government's refusal to raise the salaries of 670,000 public servants.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A recent dip in euro zone inflation and growth was anticipated so it is not enough to unravel expectations of an interest rate hike, Sabine Lautenschlaeger, the most prominent hawk on the ECB Executive Board, said in an interview with Politico.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Turkey deported a journalist for the largest Dutch daily financial paper on Thursday, Het Financieele Dagblad, citing unspecified 'security-related concerns', the paper said.

MELBOURNE, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Australia reported its hottest day on record for December and it was also the warmest December ever, during a heatwave that began last month and has contined into January, the country's Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday.

BARCELONA, Jan 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - E nvironmentalists in France and Ireland are pushing forward with legal cases aimed at forcing their governments to step up action on climate change, motivated by a 2018 flagship ruling that the Netherlands must cut emissions faster to keep its people safe.

BENGHAZI, Libya, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Libya's oil ports of Es sider, Zueitina and Hariga reopened on Thursday upon an improvement in weather conditions, a port worker told Reuters.

BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States on Jan. 30 and 31 for the next round of trade negotiations with Washington, China's commerce ministry said on Thursday, confirming earlier reports of the planned talks.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - An Israeli woman who was killed in the Australian city of Melbourne had been on the telephone to her sister when she was followed from public transport and attacked close to the university where she was studying, police said on Thursday.