WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Students and faculty at Georgetown Law School gathered on Tuesday to protest that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was delivering an address about the right of free speech on college campuses to an invitation-only audience without giving critics of the Trump administration an opportunity to ask questions. Several dozen protesters stood on the front steps of the school, some with duct tape over their mouths to symbolize that they felt their views were censored from the event. Some held signs denouncing racism, censorship and U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind “DACA,” the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that shields immigrants who were brought to the United State as children. Taking turns with a bullhorn, students and some faculty members accused the school of shutting them out from attending the speech and asking questions.  In his address, Sessions focused on concerns about whether the rights of speakers on college campuses were being trampled by student protesters who find their views offensive. Sessions complained that protesters were silencing speakers. He also said the department plans to file a brief in a college free speech case this week. Protesters “are now routinely shutting down speeches and debates across the country in an effort to silence voices that insufficiently conform with their views,” he said. One protester, third-year law student Charlotte Berschback, complained on the sidelines of the protest that invitations to the Sessions speech had been withdrawn from students who had RSVPed and had initially been told they would have a seat. “We pay a ton of tuition,” she said. “We should have a role in deciding who comes to our school.” She added that liberal students had been excluded from attending the Sessions event and that the school should have used a lottery process to let students attend. Sessions cited concerns about multiple incidents at college campuses around the country, including the University of California at Berkeley and Middlebury College in Vermont. Sessions mentioned recent violent protests at Berkeley. He said the school “was reportedly forced to spend more than $600,000 and have an overwhelming police presence simply to prove that the mob was not in control of the campus.” The Justice Department later said it was also filing a brief on behalf of students at Georgia Gwinnett College who are challenging a school policy that requires them to use “free speech zones” to express their views.

Summary: जॉर्जटाउन में छात्रों ने अमेरिकी अटॉर्नी जनरल के भाषण का विरोध किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is maintaining pressure on the Senate to approve his Supreme Court nominee, but the need for Republican U.S. senators seeking re-election to keep conservative voters happy before primary elections in the coming months is working against him. From April 26 to Sept. 13, nine states where incumbent Republicans’ grip on U.S. Senate seats is tenuous will hold party primaries ahead of the Nov. 8 congressional and presidential elections. During that period, Republicans seem unlikely to break with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s hard-line stance against holding confirmation hearings or a vote on Obama’s nominee, appellate judge Merrick Garland. McConnell has insisted that Obama’s successor, to be elected in November and take office in January, should fill the vacancy left by February’s death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Republicans are hoping their party’s candidate wins the presidency and can make the appointment. A Supreme Court appointment requires Senate confirmation. Voicing support for holding Garland hearings during the primary season, political experts say, could enrage conservatives already upset over the prospect of Obama making a third lifetime appointment to the nine-member court, which could give the bench a liberal tilt for the first time in decades. That anger could bolster primary candidates challenging incumbent Republicans from the right or encourage new challengers to come forward. Political science professor Sheldon Goldman of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who has tracked Supreme Court nominations since the 1960s, said of the Garland fight: “The real obstacle is getting over the primaries.” The danger of straying from McConnell’s blockade was illustrated when Kansas Republican Jerry Moran last month backed hearings on Garland but reversed course after rumblings of a right-wing challenge materializing in Moran’s Aug. 2 primary. Other key battlegrounds for Senate Republicans include Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida and New Hampshire. New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte is viewed as one of the most vulnerable Senate Republican incumbents. Ayotte will meet with Garland but said she wants the Senate to wait until after November’s elections to act on the nomination. Arizona Senator John McCain, facing at least two opponents in his Aug. 30 Republican primary, downplayed the political difficulties presented by Garland’s nomination. He said when he was home during the recent Senate recess, he heard few complaints. Of his constituents, McCain said, “They would ask. I would explain.” Obama and fellow Democrats in the Senate continue to press Republicans to allow hearings by summer. “So what you have here is, I think, a circumstance in which those (Republicans) in the Senate have decided that ‘placating our base’ is more important than upholding their constitutional and institutional roles in our democracy in a way that is dangerous,” Obama said in Chicago on Thursday. Some Democrats think McConnell’s gambit gives them a campaign issue for the elections. Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said, “If there was any question about obstruction in the United States Senate, what’s happening with the vacancy on the Supreme Court is Exhibit A of Republican obstructionism.”

Summary: सीनेट की प्राथमिक दौड़ का दबाव ओबामा की अदालत के उम्मीदवार के खिलाफ काम करता है


RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia this weekend will reinforce the “strategic partnership” between Riyadh and Washington and boost their joint fight against Islamist militants, the kingdom’s foreign minister said on Thursday. Saudi Arabia has been enthusiastic about Trump’s arrival at the White House after seeing his predecessor Barack Obama as too soft on its arch foe Iran and cool toward Washington’s bilateral relationship with Riyadh that is a mainstay of the Middle East’s security balance. Trump’s visit to Riyadh, the first stop on his maiden international trip since taking office in January, will include concluding political and commercial agreements with Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said. “It will bolster the strategic partnership between the two countries,” he told a news conference. “Saudi Arabia agrees with the U.S. administration’s view in relation to the role of the United States in the world and in relation to uprooting terrorism,” he added, referring to the hardline Islamic State group and al Qaeda. Jubeir said Riyadh and Washington were discussing several “initiatives” related to arms sales, economic and security cooperation and tackling terrorism. “Several agreements will be signed, whether political agreements... and big economic agreements,” he said. Riyadh backs Trump’s efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also agrees with Washington on  “confronting Iran’s aggressive policies and its support for terrorism”, he said. Saudi Arabia will be seeking assurances that the Trump administration will continue its harsher tone towards Iran and keep up pressure, through both rhetoric and action, to stop what Riyadh sees as Tehran’s destabilizing activities in the region. The Trump administration has heavily criticized the West’s nuclear agreement with Iran that was backed by Obama. Senior  administration officials have also criticized Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its ballistic missile activities and backing for militant groups in the region. Apart from Saudi officials, Trump will also meet leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and have lunch with leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia will use the opportunity of this gathering to increase cooperation with countries opposing Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Jubeir said. Jubeir said Saudi Arabia was not concerned about sharing intelligence with the United States, despite a storm over reports that Trump had discussed intelligence with Russia during a White House meeting last week. “We share a very, very large amount of intelligence with the United States and vice versa,” Jubeir said. “We have had no hesitation about doing so and we will not have any hesitation about continuing to do so.”

Summary: सऊदी ने कहा, सुरक्षा, व्यापार संबंधों को मजबूत करने के लिए ट्रम्प की यात्रा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump talked trade with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during a White House visit on Wednesday and welcomed the signing of business deals worth billions of dollars and the jobs they would create. The U.S. Commerce Department announced 13 new transactions with Vietnam worth $8 billion, including $3 billion worth of U.S.-produced content that would support more than 23,000 American jobs. These include deals for General Electric Co (GE.N) worth $5.58 billion for power generation, aircraft engines and services, its largest-ever combined sale in Vietnam. Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) and its dealer in Vietnam also agreed to provide generator management technology for more than 100 generators in Vietnam, the company said.  “They (Vietnam) just made a very large order in the United States - and we appreciate that - for many billions of dollars, which means jobs for the United States and great, great equipment for Vietnam,” Trump told reporters at the White House. The Commerce Department estimate of the deals was considerably less than the $15 billion figure given by Phuc during a speech at the Heritage Foundation, adding that most of the total involved the import of U.S. equipment. Communist Vietnam has gone from being a Cold War enemy to an important partner for the United States in the Asia-Pacific, where both countries share concerns about China’s rising power. Phuc told Trump the relationship had undergone “significant upheavals in history” but that the two countries were now “comprehensive partners.” Phuc’s meeting with Trump makes him the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the White House under the new administration. However, while Hanoi and Washington have stepped up security cooperation in recent years, trade has become a potential irritant, with a deficit widening steadily in Vietnam’s favor, reaching $32 billion last year, compared with $7 billion a decade earlier. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said it was important to shrink the U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam but noted that the southeast Asian country of 80 million people was the fastest-growing market for U.S. exports, rising 77 percent since 2014 to $4.4 billion. “The growth of the middle class and the increasing purchasing power in Vietnam are further incentives to strengthening our long-term trade and investment relationship,” Ross said. Trump, who has had strong words for countries with large trade surpluses with the United States, said he would be discussing trade with Phuc, as well as North Korea.  Washington has been seeking support to pressure North Korea to drop its nuclear and missile programs, which have become an increasing threat to the United States. Hanoi has said it shares concerns about North Korea. In his Heritage speech, Phuc welcomed Trump’s plans to attend the November APEC summit in Hanoi. He called it a sign of U.S. commitment to the region and “an important occasion for the United States to assert its positive role.” In a reference to somewhat warmer ties between Washington and Beijing under Trump, who has been courting China’s support on North Korea, Phuc said Vietnam welcomed good relations between the two powers, but hoped these would serve the interest of other nations in the region too. He urged Washington and Beijing “to act with full transparency and in a responsible manner so as not to impact negatively the region and relations among other nations.” Vietnam’s government said on its website Trump and Phuc had agreed to promote defense ties and discussed the possibility of U.S. vessels, including aircraft carriers, visiting Vietnamese ports. It said they had expressed concern about the South China Sea, where Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei are involved in maritime disputes with China, which claims nearly all the strategic waterway. Taiwan also stakes a claim. “They emphasized that parties must not take actions accelerating tension such as the militarization of disputed structures,” it said, an apparent reference to China’s construction work. Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at Washington’s  Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that while the Trump administration welcomed new business deals with Vietnam, its view was they were “nice, but not enough.” “They want Vietnam to bring some ideas about how to tackle the surplus on an ongoing basis,” he said.   On Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed concern about the rapid growth of the deficit with Vietnam. He said it was a new challenge for the two countries and he was looking to Phuc to help address it. The deficit is Washington’s sixth largest and reflects growing imports of Vietnamese semiconductors and other electronics products in addition to more traditional sectors such as footwear, apparel and furniture. On Tuesday Vietnam’s trade minister, Tran Tuan Anh, presented Lighthizer with suggestions to address some U.S. concerns, such as advertising on U.S. social media, electronic payment services and imports of information security and farm products, Vietnam’s trade ministry said. Vietnam was disappointed when Trump ditched the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, of which Hanoi was expected to be one of the main beneficiaries, and focused U.S. trade policy on reducing deficits.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने वियतनाम के साथ अरबों डॉलर के सौदों की सराहना की


GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt will face a second trial on Friday for genocide, a lawyer for victims said, reviving a case against the strongman accused of ordering massacres of Maya Indians during a long civil war. Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala in 1982 and 1983 after a military coup, was convicted of genocide four years ago along with another military officer but the ruling was overturned. A Supreme Court tribunal will hear the case, Edgar P rez, a lawyer for the relatives of victims who have led a years long campaign against Rios Montt, said on Wednesday. The 91-year-old retired general was diagnosed with senile dementia in 2015. He will be represented in court by two lawyers and will not make a personal appearance. The lawyers were not immediately available for comment.  The new trial will revisit the earlier accusations that Rios Montt ordered massacres leading to deaths of at least 1,771 Ixil Mayan Indians during his 17-month rule. Rios Montt maintains his innocence, saying junior officers acted without his knowledge. Guatemala s 1960-1996 civil war led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people and was the bloodiest among the Cold War conflicts that tore through Latin America when U.S.-backed military government battled leftist governments and rebels.

Summary: ग्वाटेमाला के पूर्व तानाशाह रियोस मोंट के खिलाफ नरसंहार का मुकदमा फिर से शुरू होगा


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Monday that regional cooperation should neither be politicized nor exclusionary, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump s use of the term  Indo-Pacific  during his trip to Asia.  Indo-Pacific  has grown in usage across diplomatic and security circles in Australia, India and Japan in recent years, shorthand for a broader and democratic-led region in place of the  Asia-Pacific , which to some places an authoritarian China too firmly at the center.  Trump and his team have given it fresh currency in recent days, starting during stops in Tokyo and Seoul, building on the rhetoric of his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who last month talked of the need to support a  free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific . Although Trump was addressing a meeting alongside the APEC summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in the Vietnamese city of Danang on Friday, he repeatedly referred to the Indo-Pacific region and mentioned the importance of India in his speech. Asked about China s view of the Indo-Pacific concept, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that peaceful development and win-win cooperation were the trends of the times.   All sides can come up with their own plans and positions on how to promote regional cooperation,  Geng told a daily news briefing in Beijing.   But we hope that plans and positions can accord with and conform to this trend, can suit the general trend of events in the world, and that the relevant plans and positions are open and inclusive, benefiting the promotion of win-win cooperation by all sides, and avoid politicized or exclusionary arrangements.  China has been busy promoting President Xi Jinping s Belt and Road initiative, an extensive infrastructure plan to recreate the ancient Silk Road, linking Asia with the Middle East and Europe, which critics say is more about spreading Chinese influence. China says it is simply a development project for common prosperity that any country is welcome to join.

Summary: चीन का कहना है कि क्षेत्रीय सहयोग का राजनीतिकरण नहीं किया जाना चाहिए


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Poland s new prime minister said on Thursday he expected the European Commission to launch an unprecedented punishment procedure against Warsaw next week after months of wrangling over the rule of law. Several thousand people gathered in Poland s largest towns on Thursday evening to protest against a judiciary system overhaul, while the upper chamber of parliament discussed the proposed legislation. Mateusz Morawiecki, who took over as Poland s premier this week, has defended the judicial changes pushed over two years by his predecessor from the same Law and Justice (PiS) party, saying they were necessary to heal the courts. Western European Union peers, the bloc s executive Commission, opposition at home and democracy advocates say the reforms undermine court independence by putting them under more direct government control.  Under the legislation, parliament would have a virtual free hand in choosing members of the National Judiciary Council (KRS), a body that decides judicial appointments and promotions - a right earlier reserved chiefly for the judges themselves. A second bill envisages lowering the mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court judges to 65 years from 70, which would force a significant part of them to leave. This, as well as the eurosceptic, nationalist PiS s changes to the state media, have prompted the Commission to threaten for many months to launch the so-called Article 7 against Warsaw. PiS faced renewed accusations that it was muzzling free media after Poland s media regulator slapped a $415,000 fine on a leading, U.S.-owned news broadcaster TVN24 over its coverage of opposition protests in parliament last year. Morawiecki rejected the view that the penalty amounted to an assault on the freedom of media in Poland, saying the country of 38 million people enjoyed full media pluralism. He expected TVN to challenge the move in courts which would make the final call.  PiS has also locked horns with the EU over large-scale logging in the unique Bialowieza forest, which Warsaw says is necessary to keep the woods healthy but Brussels and environmental groups say violate wildlife protection laws. Bitter feuds over migration - which Morawiecki on Thursday called a political  hot potato  - have added to the growing isolation of the bloc s largest ex-communist country since PiS won elections in late 2015. Article 7 would see Poland s government denounced as undemocratic and could lead to the suspension of Warsaw s voting rights in the EU. The latter, however, is unlikely as it would require the unanimous backing of all the other EU states, something PiS ally Hungary has vowed to block.  But Morawiecki, speaking ahead of his first summit of EU leaders in Brussels, seemed to accept that the blow was coming.  If a process has started and, as far as I understand, the decision has already been made that next Wednesday the European Commission plans to start (the procedure), then it will most likely be triggered,  he told reporters.  From the start of such an unfair procedure for us, until it ends, we will certainly talk to our partners.  A senior EU official said the Commission s head, Jean-Claude Juncker would still seek to dissuade Warsaw from going ahead with the two judiciary laws, which were passed by Poland s lower chamber of parliament.  They must still go through the PiS-dominated upper house and be signed by the PiS-allied president to take effect.   If the court changes go through then we will trigger Article 7,  the senior official said.  If the changes are postponed until January, then we will see.  Morawiecki stuck to his guns over the courts and Poland s refusal to host some of the refugees who reach the bloc. He said Poland would respect the final ruling of the bloc s top court on the Bialowieza forest. So far, Warsaw has continued the logging despite an interim order by the court to stop immediately. Morawiecki added he would seek to convince France to soften its stance on a reform of the bloc s labor laws. President Emmanuel Macron wants them tightened because he sees them as giving too much of a competitive edge to cheaper labor from the poorer eastern Europe at the expense of France s own workers.

Summary: पोलैंड के नए प्रधानमंत्री को ब्रसेल्स से सजा मिलती दिख रही है


RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama gathered with leaders from Southeast Asia on Monday to strengthen trade ties and form a common stance over the South China Sea in a summit that the White House hopes will solidify U.S. influence in the region. Obama, who leaves office next year, has championed a  foreign policy pivot to Asia during his presidency and is determined to present the United States as a Pacific power. His meeting with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was aimed at cementing that legacy. “This reflects my personal commitment, and the national commitment of the United States, to a strong and enduring partnership with your 10 nations,” he said at the start of the two-day summit at Sunnylands, a California resort. The meeting, at the same location where Obama once hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping, was designed to demonstrate Washington’s role as a counterweight to Beijing and as an eager trading partner with ASEAN members. White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice told reporters U.S. companies had more than doubled investment in the region since 2008. On Monday the leaders were slated to focus on economic issues, including discussion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which includes four ASEAN members: Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia. Others are interested in joining, and the White House wants to make sure the pact takes effect. On Tuesday, the leaders will discuss maritime issues, particularly the South China Sea, where China and several Southeast Asian states have conflicting and overlapping claims. White House officials have said Obama would deliver a tough message to China that disputes over the South China Sea must be resolved peacefully and not by bullying. “Here at this summit, we can advance our shared vision of a regional order where international rules and norms, including freedom of navigation, are upheld and where disputes are resolved through peaceful, legal means,” Obama said. The challenge may be to get all ASEAN countries to agree on a strong statement on the issue. Officials say China has put pressure on countries such as Cambodia and Laos not to sign. “I’m ... confident that our shared commitment to upholding these norms will be reinforced,” Rice said. China’s role in the region hung over the meeting. Rice said she expected China would support new international sanctions on North Korea for its recent rocket launches.  An editorial in the influential Chinese tabloid the Global Times on Tuesday said the summit was the wrong place to discuss South China Sea issues and that it would not yield “striking geopolitical decisions”.  “ASEAN countries have no such desire, and the U.S. knows it is not able to do so,” the Global Times said, repeating Beijing’s stance that disputes in the sea should be handled bilaterally. Advocacy group Human Rights Watch urged the Obama administration to object to human rights violations in countries such as Cambodia and Thailand during the summit. The president touched on the issue without specifics during his remarks. “Here at the summit, we can reaffirm that strong, prosperous and inclusive societies require good governance, rule of law, accountable institutions, vibrant civil societies and upholding human rights,” he said. Combating climate change and cooperating on counter-terrorism and the fight against Islamic State militants were also on the agenda.  Obama returns to Washington on Tuesday.

Summary: ओबामा, दक्षिण पूर्व एशिया के नेताओं की नजर कैलिफोर्निया शिखर सम्मेलन में चीन और व्यापार पर


(Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday: U.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday.    With warm words from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ends his first trip to Asia since taking office with an agreement to work together with China on North Korea and putting aside trickier issues. Despite a long list of potential pitfalls, Tillerson’s visit to China, the first by a senior member of the Trump administration, passed off relatively smoothly although there were no tangible gains to show. German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen rejects Trump’s claim that Germany owes NATO and the United States “vast sums” of money for defense. Trump criticizes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying he is “acting very, very badly.” U.S. lawmakers from both parties say they have seen no proof to support the claim by Trump that his predecessor, Barack Obama, had wiretapped him last year, adding pressure on Trump to explain or back off his repeated assertion. A detailed version of Trump’s budget to be released in May will lay out plans to eventually erase U.S. deficits, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney says. Trump may begin his overhaul of the U.S. tax code as early as late spring, White House spokesman Sean Spicer has told Ireland’s Sunday Independent newspaper. A 29-year-old man who was arrested near the White House late on Saturday falsely told the U.S. Secret Service he had a bomb, according to a police report.

Summary: हाइलाइट्सः ट्रम्प प्रेसीडेंसी 19 मार्च को शाम 6.50 बजे ईडीटी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is scaling back its request to obtain a broad swath of data in connection with an anti-Trump website, after critics accused the department of trampling the free speech rights of political dissidents. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia had previously issued a broader search warrant in July to DreamHost, a Los Angeles-based web hosting company, to obtain data about visitors to website disruptj20.org. Disruptj20 is home to a coalition of political activists who organized disruptive protests during President Donald Trump’s inauguration.  The Justice Department said it sought the records connected to the site amid concerns that it helped facilitate the planning of violent riots on Inauguration Day in which more than 200 people were arrested for rioting and vandalizing businesses in downtown Washington. DreamHost resisted the request, saying the scope of the warrant was too broad and trampled on the rights of 1.3 million visitors to the site, many of whom were simply exercising their First Amendment rights to express their political views. The Justice Department on Tuesday proposed amending the scope of its warrant in a filing with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Criminal Division, which is slated to hold a hearing over the dispute on Thursday morning. “The warrant - like the criminal investigation - is singularly focused on criminal activity. It will not be used for any other purpose,” it wrote.  “The government has no interest in records relating to the 1.3 million IP addresses that are mentioned in DreamHost’s numerous press releases and opposition brief.” The department proposed asking the court to amend the warrant, and said that DreamHost “should not disclose the contents of unpublished draft publications” or “HTTP request and error logs.” An attorney for DreamHost called the Justice Department’s action “a tremendous win for DreamHost, its users and the public.” But in a statement, DreamHost counsel Raymond Aghaian added: “There remains, unfortunately, other privacy and First and Fourth Amendment issues with the search warrant, which we will address in a separate filing and at the hearing Thursday morning.”

Summary: अमेरिकी न्याय विभाग ट्रम्प विरोधी साइट पर वारंट के दायरे को कम करना चाहता है


MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday she understood that some are finding the Brexit talks frustrating but that she was confident of getting a deal that will work for both Britain and the European Union. According to the text of her closing speech at the Conservative Party annual conference, she told members that the government was planning for every eventuality in the Brexit talks and said EU citizens living in Britain were welcome.

Summary: ब्रिटेन, यूरोपीय संघ के लिए काम करने वाले ब्रेक्सिट सौदे को जीतने का विश्वास हो सकता है


(Reuters) - Presidential candidate John Kasich, the governor of Ohio and a former congressman, has positioned himself as a conservative Republican who is nonetheless willing to listen to all sides in order to solve problems. Kasich is challenging outsiders Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who is known for antagonizing his party, as an alternative who can win the party’s support in the July convention ahead of the Nov. 8 election. These policies are drawn from his website, statements made at debates and interviews. Kasich has said it is “silly” to think the United States could round up more than 11 million undocumented immigrants and send them back to their home countries.  While he does not support a path to full citizenship for undocumented immigrants, Kasich believes the focus of immigration policies should be keeping families together and creating a path to a legal status for those already in the country who are working and have not committed violent crimes, including establishing a guest worker program.  Kasich does believe this should be underpinned by sealing U.S. borders and has said he would support building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. “I’m a free trader,” Kasich said in a January presidential debate, saying he supported both the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  He has supported granting the president authority to fast-track trade deals in the past. He has opposed withdrawing from the World Trade Organization. Kasich’s top priority is a balanced budget and he did a national “balanced budget tour” last year; his presidential campaign events often have a clock with numbers ticking upward, tracking the level of national debt.  Kasich has pledged to cut taxes for individuals and families and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit, along with eliminating the estate tax. Kasich would also like to lower taxes and create incentives for those who create jobs, including by lowering the top business tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent.  Under Kasich’s tax plan, the highest individual tax rate would be lowered to 28 percent from 39.6 percent. He has said he would launch a “top-to-bottom review” of the Internal Revenue Service to eliminate inefficiencies.  Kasich wants to increase defense spending by $102 billion. He has called for a no-fly zone over Syria and a “combat coalition” to fight the Islamic State militant group.  He has said the Syrian refugee crisis is a fundamentally European problem, but the United States should play a role. He believes the United States should “pause” accepting Syrian refugees and that there should be stringent checks.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः रक्षा खर्च बढ़ाएँ, व्यक्तिगत कर की दर कम करें। राष्ट्रपति कासिच क्या करेंगे?


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential envoy to the coalition fighting insurgent group Islamic State said on Friday that Kuwait would hold a conference on reconstruction in Iraq early next year. The envoy, Brett McGurk, also told reporters that military rules of engagement with Russia aimed at avoiding conflicts in Syria were unchanged from previous arrangement.

Summary: कुवैत में 2018 की शुरुआत में इराक पुनर्निर्माण सम्मेलन की योजना बनाई गई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will appear before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Feb. 10 to deliver the central bank’s semi-annual monetary policy report, the committee said on Wednesday. The head of the central bank last testified before the committee in July.

Summary: येलेन 10 फरवरी को हाउस फाइनेंशियल सर्विसेज पैनल में गवाही देंगेः समिति


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The successful conclusion of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade talks remains the top legislative item for the United States, a top economic adviser to President Barack Obama said on Tuesday. White House National Security Council adviser Christina Segal-Knowles told a news conference ahead of the Sept. 4-5 G20 summit in China that talks on a trade pact with Europe were still in progress, despite comments from France and Germany that they were in doubt. The Asian talks are stalled in Congress and both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump have said they would not approve the deal in its current form, if elected president in November. Segal-Knowles said corporate tax issues would be on the G20’s agenda in China, although when asked whether the European Union’s tax ruling on Apple Inc’s deal with Ireland would be discussed, she did not directly address the issue facing the company.

Summary: ओबामा प्रशासन के लिए प्रशांत व्यापार समझौता शीर्ष मुद्दा बना हुआ है


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minster Theresa May published on Friday a code of conduct for all her lawmakers and party officials to follow, the latest step in her response to growing allegations of improper conduct in parliament. Britain s parliament is the latest institution to become embroiled in a sex scandal after abuse allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein prompted thousands of women and men to share stories about improper behavior. On Wednesday, defense minister Michael Fallon resigned saying his past conduct had fallen below the required standard, costing May a trusted ally in a fragile minority government and underlining her political vulnerability to further allegations. On Friday, she set out the code of conduct on the Conservative Party website, detailing standards expected of elected and appointed party members, the procedure for breaches of those standards and the party s definitions of discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and bullying.  This code sets out for the first time in one place the procedure which the party uses in dealing with complaints, along with a number of additional measures which we have introduced in light of recent allegations,  May said in a letter to the speaker of parliament s lower chamber.    In the letter, May said parliament also needed to take more responsibility for protecting workers within the system, repeating her call for a common, transparent and independent grievance procedure for all at Westminster. May said she would meet other party leaders on Monday to discuss a separate proposal for a non-political way to handle complaints in parliament.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की मे ने उत्पीड़न, बदमाशी पर अपनी पार्टी के लिए नियम निर्धारित किए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House official on Sunday attacked a U.S. court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration as a “judicial usurpation of power” and said the administration was considering a range of options, including a new order. Sustained criticism of the judiciary from the White House comes amid concern among Democrats and legal scholars over Trump’s view of the constitutional principle of judicial independence as the administration seeks to overcome legal setbacks to its travel ban issued on Jan. 27. It has also become the backdrop against which U.S. senators consider Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, for a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court.  The Republican president said on Friday that he may issue a new executive order rather than go through lengthy court challenges to the original one, which temporarily barred entry to the United States of people from seven Muslim-majority countries. “We have multiple options and we are considering all of them,” White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said on ABC’s “This Week.”  Miller sharply criticized the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Thursday that upheld a Seattle federal judge’s suspension of Trump’s executive order. He accused the San Francisco-based court of having a history of overreaching and of being overturned. “This is a judicial usurpation of power,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The president’s powers here are beyond question.” The Trump administration has defended the travel ban on grounds it will prevent potential terrorists from entering the country, although no acts of terrorism have been perpetrated on U.S. soil by citizens of the targeted countries. The ban’s announcement, late on a Friday, sparked a weekend of confusion at airports around the globe and within the federal agencies charged with enforcing it. It also triggered widespread protests and legal challenges. Aware that a new executive order would allow critics to declare victory against the travel ban, the White House has deflected blame and intensified its criticism of the judiciary. “I think it’s been an important reminder to all Americans that we have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government,” Miller said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “One unelected judge in Seattle cannot make laws for the entire country. I mean this is just crazy,” he said. Miller’s performance on several Sunday news shows won a plaudit on Twitter from Trump, who has himself attacked individual judges and called the courts “so political.” “Great job!” Trump tweeted. Gorsuch condemned the attacks on the judiciary as “disheartening” in private meetings last week with a number of U.S. senators, who pressed the judge to go public. Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist, confirmed the conversations. Legal experts said the Trump administration statements could undermine respect for the constitutional division of powers. Cornell University law professor Jens David Ohlin said that accusing the judiciary of usurping the president’s powers demonstrated “an absurd lack of appreciation for the separation of powers.” “Miller is coming dangerously close to reviving a discredited and dangerous theory that each branch of government, including the president, has independent authority to decide what the law and Constitution mean,” Ohlin said in an interview on Sunday.  “In our system of government, the commander in chief executes the laws, but it is the judiciary which interprets both the laws and statutes passed by Congress and the Constitution. That’s their solemn duty,” he added. Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said Trump’s remarks could diminish popular respect for institutions of law and order by making Americans think “the government’s a joke, that you don’t have to follow what judges say.” Immigration laws give the U.S. president broad powers to restrict who enters the country on national security grounds. But the same laws forbid discrimination based on race, sex, nationality or place of birth or residence. The case also could involve First Amendment protections involving religion. Trump’s executive order banned entry into the United States to refugees and citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except refugees from Syria, who were banned indefinitely. Options for the administration include formulating a new executive action, appealing the 9th Circuit panel’s decision to the full appeals court and appealing the emergency stay to the U.S. Supreme Court, Miller said.

Summary: आव्रजन पर कानूनी अड़चनों के बाद व्हाइट हाउस के अधिकारी ने अदालत पर हमला किया


GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Reuters) - European Union leaders proclaimed a set of 20  social rights  on Friday in an attempt to make the EU more appealing to voters and counter rising eurosceptic sentiment across the bloc. The set of social rights, supported by all EU governments and institutions, spells out what the EU believes are the foundations of fair and well-functioning modern labor markets and welfare systems. It encompasses principles ranging from equal access to jobs and fair working conditions and wages to social protection and unemployment benefits and training.  Our Union has always been a social project at heart. It is more than just a single market, more than money, more than the euro. It is about our values and the way we want to live,  European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.  Today we assert our common values and commit ourselves to a set of 20 principles and rights. From the right to fair wages to the right to health care; from lifelong learning, a better work-life balance and gender equality to minimum income,  he said. Recent elections in Germany, France, Austria and the Czech Republic, in which populist parties have performed well, have shown citizens have lost confidence in governments or in the European Union.  There is certainly a need to respond,  a senior EU official said. Britain s decision last year to leave the EU served as a wake-up call for the bloc and made it reflect on the way forward, including putting more emphasis on social policies.  I think people believe there s been maybe an excessive focus in recent years on economic matters, banking, and we want to re-fire the engine of social Europe, advancing things like equality, workers rights, pension rights and other things,          Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. Juncker and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will now produce a report that will allow leaders meeting again next month to see how the principles should be followed. Some eastern European countries are wary that the push for social rights could be used by some nations to undermine current rules that allow their citizens to work elsewhere in the EU at salaries lower than the local labor force. The proclaimed set of rights - known as the European Pillar of Social Rights - says everybody has the right to quality education throughout their lives and that men and women must have equal opportunities in all areas and be paid the same. The unemployed have the right to  personalized, continuous and consistent support , while workers have the right to  fair  wages that provide a  decent standard of living . Minimum wages should be ensured to satisfy the needs of  workers and their families, the leaders agreed. While the rights would not be directly enforceable by the EU, except where they already exist in national laws and therefore subject to national courts, they establish a common EU standard and language for discussion of social issues. Trade unions and business associations backed the set of European social rights, saying a particular effort was needed to boost the employment chances of young people.  We want Europe to continue to have the most highly developed social systems in the world,  the business and trade union organizations said in a joint statement.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के नेताओं ने मतदाताओं को लुभाने के लिए यूरोपीय सामाजिक मानकों की घोषणा की


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former U.S. Justice Department official has become the latest lawyer to join special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, a spokesman for the team confirmed. Greg Andres started on Tuesday, becoming the 16th lawyer on the team, said Josh Stueve, a spokesman for the special counsel. Most recently a white-collar criminal defense lawyer with New York law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, Andres, 50, served at the Justice Department from 2010 to 2012. He was deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division, where he oversaw the fraud unit and managed the program that targeted illegal foreign bribery. Mueller, who was appointed special counsel in May, is looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and  Russia during the election, among other matters. Congressional committees are also investigating the matter. That Mueller continues to expand his team means the probe is not going to end anytime soon, said Robert Ray, who succeeded Kenneth Starr as independent counsel for the Whitewater investigation during the Clinton administration. “It’s an indication that the investigation is going to extend well into 2018,” said Ray. “Whether it extends beyond 2018 is an open question.” The special counsel last month asked the White House to preserve all of its communications about a June 2016 meeting that included the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Russian officials have denied meddling in the U.S. election, and Trump denies any collusion by his campaign.  Among the cases Andres oversaw at the Justice Department was the prosecution of Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford, who was convicted in 2012 for operating an $8 billion Ponzi scheme.    Before that, Andres was a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn for over a decade, eventually serving as chief of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office there. He prosecuted several members of the Bonanno organized crime family, one of whom was accused of plotting to have Andres killed. A graduate of Notre Dame and University of Chicago Law School, Andres was a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin from 1989 to 1992. He is married to Ronnie Abrams, a U.S. district judge in Manhattan nominated to the bench in 2011 by Democratic President Barack Obama. Others on the special counsel team include Andrew Weissmann, chief of the Justice Department’s fraud section; Andrew Goldstein, former head of the public corruption unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan; and James Quarles, who was an assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation that helped bring down President Richard Nixon. (Story refiles to correct typographical error in paragraph 11 to Andres instead of Andrews.)

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः न्याय विभाग के पूर्व अधिकारी म्यूलर की टीम में शामिल हुए


LONDON (Reuters) - Iran on Sunday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron over his tough stance toward Tehran and said Paris would soon lose its international credibility if it  blindly follows  U.S. President Donald Trump. Tensions between Iran and France have risen in recent months after Macron said Tehran should be less aggressive in the Middle East, citing in particular its involvement in Syria s civil war. Macron, unlike Trump, has reaffirmed his country s commitment to the deal Iran signed in 2015 with world powers under which it curbed its disputed nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of most international sanctions. However, he has been critical of Iran s ballistic missile tests and wants to raise the possibility of new sanctions over the program, which Tehran calls solely defensive in nature.  To sustain its international credibility, France should not blindly follow the Americans ... The French president is now acting as Trump s lapdog,  Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency. Velayati also criticized U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who last week presented pieces of what she said were parts of an Iranian missile supplied to the Tehran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen. She described the objects as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions.  This claim shows she lacks basic scientific knowledge and decency. She is like her boss (Trump) as he also says baseless, ridiculous things. Iran has not supplied Yemen with any missile,  Velayati said. Tasnim news agency quoted the spokesman for Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards, Ramezan Sharif, as saying on Sunday that  they show a cylinder and say Iran s fingerprints are all over it, while everyone knows that Yemen acquired some missile capabilities from the Soviet Union and North Korea in the past . France took a cautious stance on Haley s report.  The United Nations secretariat has not, at this stage, drawn any conclusions. France continues to examine the information at its disposal,  Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Alexandre Giorgini said on Friday. Saudi Arabia, who has long accused Iran of smuggling missiles to the Houthis and has intervened against them in Yemen s war to try to restore its internationally recognized government, welcomed Haley s report. Iran has one of the Middle East s biggest missile programs and some of its precision-guided missiles have the range to strike its arch-regional enemy Israel. Israel has also called for world powers to take punitive steps against Iran over its missile ambitions. An Israeli cabinet minister said last month that Israel has had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia amid common concerns over Iran. Velayati said on Sunday that reported meetings between Saudi and Israeli officials were no threat to Iran as both countries were  weak and insignificant.  Last month, the Revolutionary Guards warned Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the Guards will increase the range of missiles to above 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles).

Summary: ईरान ने फ्रांस के मैक्रों से कहा कि वे 'आंख मूंदकर' ट्रम्प का अनुसरण न करें


LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has thwarted a bid in Congress to force him out over a graft scandal, as an opposition lawmaker accused him of securing votes by promising to free ex-president Alberto Fujimori from jail. Before Thursday evening s vote on a motion to push him out, Kuczynski urged lawmakers to set aside unproven allegations of graft against him to defend Peru from what he called a coup attempt by the right-wing Popular Force party. Popular Force emerged from the populist movement started in the 1990s by Fujimori, who is now serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and human rights crimes. Kuczynski s government had denied that a pardon would be part of a political negotiation. But Popular Force lawmaker Cecilia Chacon told reporters that the government had promised a faction of her party that Fujimori would be pardoned if it backed him. The bulk of Popular Force, led by Fujimori s daughter Keiko Fujimori, sought to depose Kuczynski as  morally unfit  to govern after discovering business ties he once had with a firm at the center of the region s biggest graft scandal. But the party, which last week mustered 93 votes to begin proceedings, failed to secure the 87 needed to pass the motion, thanks to 10 Popular Force abstentions. The vote capped a week of political turmoil in one of Latin America s most stable and robust economies, also the world s second-biggest copper producer. Television images showed Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker, dancing a jig amid cheering supporters outside his home in Lima s financial district.  Tomorrow a new chapter in our history begins: the reconciliation and rebuilding of our country,  he tweeted. But Kuczynski s political troubles might not be over. Popular Force has vowed to continue to investigate deposits totaling $4.8 million that Brazilian builder Odebrecht made to consultant firms owned by Kuczynski or a close business associate of his over a decade, starting in 2004. Odebrecht has rocked Latin American politics with its confession exactly a year ago that it bribed officials across the region, landing elites in jail from Colombia to the Dominican Republic.  Kuczynski once denied having any professional ties to the company, and has since said he was unaware of the transactions but that there was nothing improper about them. Kuczynski took office promising that his decades of experience in finance and public administration would help usher in an era of clean government and robust growth. But his first 16 months in power have been marked by clashes in Congress, where Popular Force has helped oust four ministers. His triumph on Thursday was the first clear sign that he might be able to exploit a family feud in Popular Force to defend his government from Congress. Keiko Fujimori faces competition from her younger brother Kenji for leadership of their father s following. Hours before the vote, Kenji threw his support behind Kuczynski in a video, without specifying who else he spoke for, saying:  We re going to prioritize making the president s administration stronger.  Kenji has been more vocal than his sister in calling for a presidential pardon for their father. Alberto Fujimori remains a divisive figure. While some considered him a corrupt dictator, others credit him with ending an economic crisis and leftist rebellion in the 1990s.     Congresswoman Chacon, loyal to Keiko, said the abstainers had been swayed by the government.  They ve spoken to several of them, offering to free President Fujimori,  she said.  Let s see if they follow through with it.  After the vote, Kenji shared a clip from the movie  The Lion King , saying only:  The time has arrived.  Many interpreted the post to mean a pardon was pending. Kuczynski s government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hours before the vote, Prime Minister Mercedes Araoz had denied that the government would trade a pardon for Fujimori in exchange for votes.  That s not something that s negotiated,  she told a news conference. A Justice Ministry spokesman said Alberto Fujimori had sent Kuczynski s presidential pardons committee a request last week to free him by reducing his prison sentence. The person who filed the request was one of the Popular Force lawmakers loyal to Kenji who cast an abstention. Prior to the political crisis, Kuczynski said he would make a decision on a pardon for Fujimori by the end of the year.

Summary: पेरू के राष्ट्रपति ने निष्कासन को रोकने के लिए विरोध को विभाजित किया


MAUNGDAW, Myanmar (Reuters) - Along the main road that stretches nearly 40 kilometers north from Maungdaw town in Myanmar s violence-riven Rakhine State, all but one of the villages that were once home to tens of thousands of people have been turned into smouldering ash. Hundreds of cows roam through deserted settlements and charred paddy fields. Hungry dogs eat small goats. The remains of local mosques, markets and schools - once bustling with Rohingya Muslims - are silent. Despite strict controls on access to northern Rakhine, Reuters independently traveled to parts of the most-affected area in early September, the first detailed look by reporters inside the region where the United Nations says Myanmar s security forces have carried out ethnic cleansing. Nearly 500 people have been killed and 480,000 Rohingya have fled since Aug. 25, when attacks on 30 police posts and a military base by Muslim militants provoked a fierce army crackdown. The government has rejected allegations of arson, rape and arbitrary killings leveled against its security forces.  We were scared that the army and the police would shoot us if they found us ... so we ran away from the village,  said Suyaid Islam, 32, from Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son, near the area visited by Reuters north of Maungdaw. He was speaking by phone from a refugee camp in Bangladesh after leaving his village soon after the attacks. Residents of his village told Reuters it had been burned down by security forces in an earlier operation against Rohingya insurgents late last year. Those that did not flee have been surviving since in makeshift shacks, eating food distributed by aid agencies. Satellite photos showed that tens of thousands of homes in northern Rakhine have been destroyed in 214 villages, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. The U.N. detected 20 sq km (8 sq miles) of destroyed structures. The government said more than 6,800 houses have been set on fire. It blames the Rohingya villagers and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which staged the Aug. 25 attacks.  The information we obtained on this side is that terrorists did the burnings,  said Zaw Htay, spokesman for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Reuters reporters have made two trips to northern Rakhine, visiting the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, and driving from Maungdaw through the most affected area along the main road north to the town of Kyein Chaung. (For a graphic of the area, click: tmsnrt.rs/2y8FgQ8) The reporters talked briefly to residents but, because many were scared of being seen speaking to outsiders, most interviews were carried out by phone from outside the army operation area. Little aid has made it to northern Rakhine since the U.N. had to suspend operations because of the fighting and after the government suggested its food was sustaining insurgents. Convoys organized by the Red Cross have twice been stopped and searched by hostile ethnic Rakhines in the state capital Sittwe. In U Shey Kya, where last October Rohingya residents accused the Myanmar army of raping several women, a teacher who spoke to Reuters from the village by phone said only about 100 families out of 800 households have stayed behind. Those who remain are playing a cat-and-mouse game with the soldiers, who come to the village in the morning prompting the residents to hide in the forest and return at night.  We don t even have food to eat for this evening. What can we do?  said the teacher.  We are close to the forest where we have leaves we can eat and find some water to survive.  He refused to give his name because he had been warned by the authorities not to talk to reporters. The man said escaping through bush in monsoon rain with his elderly parents, six children and pregnant wife was not an option. Zaw Htay said the government has prioritized humanitarian assistance to the area.  If there are any locations where aid has not reached yet, people should let us know, we will try to reach them as soon as we can,  he said. About 30,000 non-Muslim residents of northern Rakhine have also been displaced. Before the latest exodus there were around 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, mostly living in Rakhine, where they are denied citizenship and are regarded as interlopers from Bangladesh by the Buddhist majority. Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh and human rights organizations say ethnic Rakhine vigilantes have aided the military in driving out the Muslim population.  Kamal Hussein, 22, from Alel Than Kyaw, south of Maungdaw town said his village was destroyed in early September, after which he fled to Bangladesh, where he spoke to Reuters. Hussein said Rakhine mobs  poured petrol on the houses. Then, they came out and the military fired a grenade launcher at a house to set it alight . Government spokesman Zaw Htay said some empty buildings in the area had been burned by ethnic Rakhines.  We told the regional government to take action on that,  he said.  The damage caused by the fires, Reuters interviews and satellite pictures show, is by far the largest in Maungdaw, where the bulk of insurgent attacks took place. Across the mostly coastal area, stretching more than 100 km (60 miles) through thick bush and monsoon-swollen streams, most villages have been burned. Maungdaw town itself, until recently ethnically mixed with Rakhine Buddhists, Muslims and some Hindus, is now segregated, with the remaining Rohingya shuttered in their homes. Some 450 houses in Rohingya parts of the town were burned down in the first week after the attacks, HRW said citing satellite photographs.  Those who stored food, sold it and raised money to flee to Bangladesh,  Mohammad Salem, 35, who used to sell cosmetics at the market, told Reuters by phone from the town. In ethnically-mixed Rathedaung township, 16 out of 21 Rohingya villages have been burned, according to residents and humanitarian workers. Of the remaining five, two villages in the south are now cut off from food and threatened by hostile Rakhine neighbors. In many places people have no access to medicines, residents said. Reuters talked to two Rakhine Buddhist officials who corroborated the scale of the damage. Tin Tun Soe, a Rakhine administrator in Chein Khar Li, where a security post had come under attack, said the army response was rapid and all the Rohingya had been driven out. Nearly 1,600 houses were burned down a day after the attacks, he said, though he blamed the fires on the insurgents.  They have so many people. If they are here, we re afraid to live,  said Tin Tun Soe.  I am very happy that now all of them are gone.

Summary: म्यांमार के 'जातीय सफाई' क्षेत्र में जीवित रहने के लिए पत्ते खाना


ANKARA (Reuters) - The mayor of Ankara said on Monday he will step down this week, the fifth mayor from the ruling party to quit in recent weeks in the face of demands for a purge of local politics by President Tayyip Erdogan. Melih Gokcek, a staunch Erdogan loyalist who has been mayor of Ankara for 23 years and won five consecutive elections, said on Twitter on Monday that he would leave office on Saturday, after meeting with Erdogan at the presidential palace. Four other mayors from the ruling party have already stepped down in recent weeks, including Istanbul s Mayor Kadir Topbas, following demands that they resign from Erdogan, who says he is seeking a renewal of his ruling AK Party.  Three mayors from our party have handed in their resignations so far, and there are three more. I believe they will hand theirs in as soon as possible,  Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara last week before Gokcek and one other mayor resigned. Erdogan decision to target the mayors follows his narrow victory in a referendum to grant himself sweeping powers last year, which was more popular with rural than urban voters. Seventeen of the country s 30 largest cities voted against it. Since then, Erdogan has spoken of the need for renewal in local government and the ruling AK Party, citing signs of  metal fatigue  within administrations. Gokcek, generally regarded as a staunch Erdogan loyalist, is well known in Turkey for tweets in which he has engaged in spats with journalists and with other senior members of the AKP. In February he suggested the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Erdogan for a failed coup last year might be plotting an earthquake, with the help of foreign powers.

Summary: अंकारा के महापौर ने स्थानीय सरकार से एर्दोगन की सफाई में इस्तीफा दे दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would “not do anything to enrich” insurance companies, strengthening his opposition to a deal between Republican and Democratic senators to stabilize Obamacare by restoring subsidies to health insurers. Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, who reached the agreement with Democratic Senator Patty Murray, said earlier that Trump had “completely engineered” the proposal.  “We’re going to see the bipartisan and Lamar Alexander’s working on it very hard from our side and if something can happen that’s fine, but I won’t do anything to enrich the insurance companies,” Trump told reporters when asked about the deal. “Right now the insurance companies are being enriched. They’ve been enriched by Obamacare like nothing anybody’s ever seen before,” he said.

Summary: स्वास्थ्य सेवा सौदे पर ट्रंप ने कहा कि वह बीमा कंपनियों को 'समृद्ध' नहीं करेंगे


TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government defended Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Friday as an “important corporate citizen” of the United States, after President-elect Donald Trump singled out the automaker and threatened to slap punitive tariffs on its Mexico-built cars. Trump has repeatedly hit out at U.S. companies for using lower-cost factories abroad at the expense of jobs at home. He has slammed U.S. automakers, including Ford (F.N) which this week scrapped a planned $1.6 billion Mexico plant. But the attack overnight on Toyota is his first against a foreign automaker. “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax,” Trump tweeted. Toyota shares fell more than 3 percent before recovering, and Honda Motor Co (7267.T) and Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) slid around 2 percent - even as the government and analysts sought to brush off the impact of the attack.  Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday that Toyota was an “important corporate citizen”, while Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko stressed the contribution of Japanese companies to U.S. employment. “We think the impact on business performance is limited,” Akira Kishimoto, a senior analyst at JP Morgan, said in a note. “A cool judgement is needed.”     Toyota’s exposure to Mexico is limited, Kishimoto said, adding that even an “extreme case” tariff of 20 percent would hit its operating profit by around 6 percent. Trump has threatened a 35 percent tariff on cars imported from Mexico. Toyota is just one of a host of companies operating in Mexico. It has an assembly plant in Baja California, where it produces the Tacoma pick-up truck, and where it could increase production. Trump’s tweet, however, confused Toyota’s existing Baja plant with the planned $1 billion plant in Guanajuato, where construction got under way in November, days after the election. The Guanajuato plant will build Corollas and have an annual capacity of 200,000 when it comes online in 2019, shifting production of the small car from Canada.  Baja produces around 100,000 pick-up trucks and truck beds annually. Toyota said in September it would increase output of pick-up trucks by more than 60,000 units annually.  Other Japanese automakers and suppliers in Mexico include Nissan, which has been in Mexico for decades after choosing it as the site for its first assembly plant outside Asia. Nissan has two facilities there, producing 830,000 units in the year to March 2016. Honda operates two assembly and engine plants with a total annual capacity of 263,000 vehicles, and a transmission plant with an annual capacity of 350,000 units.       Aisin Seiki Co (7259.T) and Denso Corp (6902.T), both suppliers to Toyota and other carmakers, have two and three plants, respectively, in Mexico. Parts makers tend to cluster near assembly plants under the industry’s “just-in-time” production philosophy.

Summary: जापान ने टोयोटा का बचाव किया, मैक्सिकन संयंत्र को लेकर ट्रंप ने दिया बड़ा बयान


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Nearly 50,000 people marched through Brussels  European quarter on Thursday in support of Catalan independence and the region s ousted president, who has avoided arrest in Spain by taking refuge in Belgium.  Before Carles Puigdemont addressed the crowd, many draped in Catalan flags, police estimated its size at 45,000. There were chants of  Puigdemont, President  from a generally good-natured throng, many of whom had traveled from Spain. Some carried placards criticizing the European Union for not pressuring Madrid. One sign showed the face of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker with the question:  Democracy? Some defend it when it suits them. Shame on them.  Puigdemont, who like many in the crowd wore yellow in support of jailed separatist leaders, addressed the crowd in Catalan before switching to French to direct a message to Juncker.  Is there any place in the world that holds demonstrations like this to support criminals?  he said.  So maybe we are not criminals. Maybe we are democrats.  Spain s Supreme Court on Tuesday withdrew an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont in order to bring his case back solely under Spanish jurisdiction, leaving him without an international legal stage to pursue his independence campaign. Puigdemont and four of his cabinet members fled to Belgium when Madrid imposed direct rule on Catalonia and sacked his government after an Oct. 27 declaration of independence by his local government. He is likely to be detained if he returns to Spain, pending investigation on charges of sedition, rebellion, misuse of public funds, disobedience and breach of trust.  Puigdemont said on Wednesday he would remain in Belgium for the time being.  Brussels is a kind of a loudspeaker for us,  said Gloria Cot, a clerk from Barcelona at Thursday s march who had just arrived by coach.  It is a loudspeaker so that people can know that we really don t have a 100 percent democracy in Spain and that Catalonia has always been subjected to problems with Spain.  Juncker s deputy Frans Timmermans said he welcomed the  very positive atmosphere  of the demonstration, which took place as campaigning gets under way for a Catalan election on Dec. 21. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy hopes pro-independence parties will lose their majority in the Catalan parliament in the election and end the deadlock created by his government s refusal to recognize a banned independence vote Puigdemont held in September. Polls have separatists and unionist parties in a tie. Timmermans said there was no change to Commission policy that the dispute with Catalan authorities remains an internal one in which the EU has no need to intervene because Spain s democratic constitution is functioning in line with EU values. He accused Puigdemont and his allies of undermining the rule of law by choosing to ignore a Spanish constitutional ban on secession rather than trying to change the constitution.  If you do not agree with the law, you can organize yourselves to change the law or the constitution,  he said.  What is not permissible under the rule of law is to just ignore the law.

Summary: कैटलन अलगाववादियों ने ब्रसेल्स में मार्च किया


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers in the California legislature said on Wednesday they retained former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help in any legal battles with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The move is more evidence that lawmakers in the nation’s most populous state, where Democrats hold two-thirds majorities in both houses of the legislature, are girding for possible court battles after Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Last month, leaders of both houses introduced bills to protect undocumented immigrants from anticipated efforts by a Trump administration to increase deportations.  In addition, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has made combating climate change a priority for the state.  “Mr. Holder and his team will serve as outside counsel to the Legislature, advising us in our efforts to resist any attempts to roll back the progress California has made,” Kevin de León, the Democratic leader of the state Senate, said in a statement.  A representative from de León’s office could not immediately be reached for comment. Holder served as attorney general under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015. He is a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling, which represents companies and helps them navigate government regulations.  “I am honored that the Legislature chose Covington to serve as its legal adviser as it considers how to respond to potential changes in federal law that could impact California’s residents and policy priorities,” Holder said in a statement. California voted decisively for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election, choosing the former first lady over Trump by 28 percentage points. The hiring of Holder was reported earlier by the New York Times.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के सांसदों ने ट्रम्प के साथ लड़ाई के लिए होल्डर को नियुक्त किया


SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - When a 17-year-old Bollywood actress took to social media this week alleging she was sexually assaulted on an airplane, she appeared to catch the airline industry off-guard. Her allegations - denied by the man accused of the assault on a domestic Vistara flight in India - triggered online outrage and prompted a rare police investigation. The incident, coming shortly after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg s sister Randi, a Silicon Valley executive, said via social media that she had been a victim of sexual harassment on an Alaska Airlines flight, highlights a risk to airlines: they need to do more than just respond once an incident goes public and their brand comes under fire.  It s a global issue and every country has to deal with the fallout,  said Saj Ahmad, a London-based analyst at Strategic Aero Research.  Being prepared to address passenger concerns rather than being reactive to social media complaints will arguably help address these problems in real time.  Most people Reuters contacted about in-flight sexual misconduct, against passengers and crew - including airlines, flight attendant unions and airline training consultants - said incidents are vastly under-reported. Last year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), airlines globally reported just 211 instances of  inappropriate sexual behavior . That s among 3.8 billion passengers on more than 40 million flights. In a statement, IATA said fewer than half those cases were reported to the authorities, which is why there are so few police investigations.  Victims are required to press charges, the airline can t do that for them,  said Taylor Garland, spokeswoman for the U.S. Association of Flight Attendants.  We believe under-reporting occurs.  Andrew Herdman, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said the IATA data needs to be viewed with caution  as event descriptions are not always standardized  and there are  significant variations in the level of voluntary reporting by airlines.   With regard to incidents involving sexual harassment, ranging from verbal intimidation to actual physical assault, these are relatively rare, but always taken seriously,  he said. Among nearly two dozen major airlines contacted by Reuters, only Japan Airlines Co Ltd gave actual figures on incidents of sexual harassment on its flights: around 10-20 a year, with police called in on some cases. Suhaila Hassan, head of cabin crew at Malaysia-based budget airline AirAsia Bhd, said there had been no reported cases of passenger-on-passenger harassment, though there were occasional instances of cabin crew being harassed. She said it was possible some incidents were not reported to the airline.  That could be the case because of the culture. People feel shy and embarrassed if revealed,  she said. The airlines  comments fit with broader studies that estimate three of every four sexual harassment incidents in the workplace in United States go unreported. In Asia, there s less of a culture of public discourse on sexual harassment.  We tend to have a culture where ... people don t generally speak up,  said Jason Tan, a former Singapore Airlines flight attendant who works as a consultant training cabin crews in Asia and the Middle East.  Victims tend to suffer in silence.  ElsaMarie D Silva, a former flight attendant at Jet Airways, now runs a website crowdsourcing cases of sexual harassment and abuse. She said cases are under-reported in India because of the associated shame and a culture where the onus is on the victim to prove the allegations.  The time has come for Indian aviation to take this more seriously,  she said. Most airlines train their cabin crews to deal with a broad category of  unruly passenger incidents  - ranging from physical abuse and obscene behavior to verbal threats and tampering with aircraft equipment.  Crews are trained in these incidents, but to a limited extent,  said Philip Baum, managing director of Green Light, an aviation security training firm and consultancy.  Most cabin crew security courses around the world are completed in one day. Some take two days. There are so many scenarios, you could spend a week just going through all the types of unruly passenger.  According to IATA, a third of almost 10,000 unruly passenger incidents reported last year involved intoxication. Just 2 percent were of inappropriate sexual behavior.  While such incidents are rare, our crew are highly trained to manage any situation which may be dangerous or threatening,  said a spokeswoman for European budget airline easyJet. American Airlines recently decided to provide  enhanced  training in sexual harassment matters as part of a broader diversity and inclusion drive, a spokeswoman said, declining to give further details. And United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz this week told the carrier s over 90,000 employees there was  zero tolerance  for sexual harassment of customers or staff, according to a memo on the airline s website, but he did not specify any extra training. A survey by the U.S. Association of Flight Attendants this year found a fifth of cabin crew respondents had experienced a passenger-to-passenger assault while working on a flight. The union has expressed concern that policies related to passenger sexual misconduct are rarely highlighted. More than half those surveyed said they had no knowledge of specific policies. The same appears to apply in India, too, said Satvik Varma, a New Delhi-based independent litigation lawyer.  There s no lack of regulations,  he said.  What we re grappling with here is a lack of implementation and a lack of knowledge of these regulations.

Summary: उड़ान में यौन हमलों की अक्सर सूचना नहीं दी जाती है; विमानन कंपनियों को कदम बढ़ाने की आवश्यकता है


DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - The Turkish military killed three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in a clash in northern Iraq near the border with Turkey on Thursday evening and one Turkish soldier was also killed, security sources said. The sources said four Turkish soldiers were wounded in the firefight in the Kanimasi area of Iraq s Dohuk region, across the border from Turkey s Cukurca district. The clash occurred as Turkish and Iraqi troops hold military exercises some 100 km (60 miles) to the west at the Habur border gate, part of coordinated steps by the two countries in response to the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum. Turkish soldiers have for years been deployed in various parts of northern Iraq, including at Kanimasi, to prevent PKK militants crossing the border into Turkey, security sources say.  Commanders of the PKK, which is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, are based in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish warplanes frequently carry out cross-border air strikes against PKK targets there but reports of clashes on land there are rare. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its separatist insurgency in 1984.

Summary: तुर्की की सेना ने उत्तरी इराक में सीमा के पास तीन पीकेके आतंकवादियों को मार गिरायाः सूत्र


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said on Wednesday that Lebanon will continue taking steps in  a brotherly way  to resolve the issue of its prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, who resigned while in Saudi Arabia and has yet to return.  Speaking at a news conference in Italy, Bassil said Lebanon wants good relations with Saudi Arabia, but also described Hariri s presence in Riyadh since his resignation on Nov. 4 as  not a normal situation .  Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Wednesday said Hariri was being held in Saudi Arabia.

Summary: लेबनान सऊदी अरब के साथ अच्छे संबंध चाहता हैः विदेश मंत्री


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut will cancel pay raises for managers at state agencies after the latest projections suggest the state’s fiscal situation may be much worse than previously thought, top officials said on Monday. The canceled raises are an early indication of the harm done by the state’s fiscal crisis. Many more cuts are expected this year as officials struggle with a budget deficit that could be as high as $900 million in the coming fiscal year. Although high-profile, the amounts involved are largely symbolic. The cancellations will affect 1,950 employees and represent savings of $12.74 million over two years. The figure does not include pay freezes in the judicial branch.  Connecticut has had to slash its revenue forecast because the weak stock market is cutting into capital gains tax receipts, which play a large role in the budget. It also met resistance when it tried to raise taxes. General Electric moved its headquarters out of the state earlier this year.   “We have a responsibility to the taxpayers of Connecticut not to move forward with managerial raises at a time when so many state programs will see reductions and while many state jobs are likely to be eliminated,” wrote Ben Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management. The letter was co-signed by Brian Durand, chief of staff to Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy. A report last week from the non-partisan Office of Fiscal Management said the deficit could be as high as $900 million in the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1. An earlier estimate from Barnes’ office put the deficit at $570 million.    Most of the raises, which have already been postponed twice, would have been awarded on Friday. They will be suspended indefinitely.

Summary: कनेक्टिकट ने बजट संकट के कारण प्रबंधकों के वेतन में वृद्धि को रद्द किया


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Prosecutors pressured a Swiss man accused of spying on a German tax authority to name his inside source or face up to five years in jail.    The 54-year-old man, identified only as Daniel M., appeared in a Frankfurt court on Wednesday charged with spying on the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia s (NRW) tax authority and some of its staff for nearly four years up to February 2015.     Prosecutors say he was trying to find out how German states obtained CDs containing details of bank accounts held secretly in Switzerland by Germans hoping to avoid tax.     They also say he placed a source at NRW s tax authority, which his lawyers have denied.     The case triggered outrage in Germany but Swiss authorities have defended their efforts to combat the theft of business secrets.    At the trial, federal prosecutor Lienhard Weiss said he would agree to a suspended sentence of between 18 months and two years, plus a fine of 50,000 euros ($58,735) in cash, in exchange for information.      If there is a confession and the defendant makes plausible statements on the identity of the informant, then a plea ... would be imaginable,  he said.  Otherwise, Daniel M. may face a prison sentence of up to five years if found guilty of espionage on behalf of a foreign state. He had not made a plea or responded to the charges. The German state of NRW has for years irritated Switzerland by buying data as part of a crackdown on Germans stashing cash in secret accounts to avoid paying tax.     The state has spent 17.9 million euros since 2010 on data that has helped it recover nearly 7 billion euros in tax revenue.    The Swiss government has acknowledged that police asked intelligence agency NDB in 2011 to help with an investigation related to the stolen data in Germany but has declined to give more details.     Germany s federal prosecutor s office has said Daniel M., who has in the past worked as a police officer in Switzerland and then provided security for Swiss bank UBS, gathered personal information on state tax investigators so that Swiss authorities could prosecute the officials involved in buying the tax data CDs.      The office has said payments totalling more than 100,000 euros were made in connection with his efforts to obtain information, some of which went to Daniel M. and some of which was passed on to unidentified third parties.      We need concrete information on the ... payments, to whom they were made and for what,  presiding judge Josef Bill said on Wednesday.     Robert Kain, one of Daniel M. s lawyers, said the defendant would make a statement when the trial continues on Oct. 26.     ($1 = 0.8513 euros)

Summary: अपने स्रोतों का खुलासा करेंः स्विस संदिग्ध को जर्मन जासूसी मुकदमे में बताया गया


DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) - In the shadows of a Dresden church, hundreds of Alternative for Germany party members rallied with anti-Islam activists, counting down the days to a vote set to make the AfD the first far-right group in parliament in more than half a century. Supporters of both movements stood side by side waving Germany s black, red and gold flag - a public demonstration of the fellow feeling between AfD and hardline PEGIDA, though they are officially separate groups. Outside the city s towering Frauenkirche - destroyed by Allied bombing in World War Two, then rebuilt after reunification - supporters stood by a huge blue banner that urged people to vote for the AfD on Sept. 24. One supporter held an AfD poster bearing the slogan:  Get your country back . The AfD could become the third largest party with up to 12 percent of the vote, polls show, built on its calls for Germany to shut its borders to immigrants and stop refugees bringing in their families. The party rejects its mainstream rivals  efforts to compare it to the Nazis. Some AfD members have also been keen to keep their distance from PEGIDA - full name the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West. But PEGIDA founder Lutz Bachmann told supporters to cast their ballots for the AfD on Monday night.  Both votes should go to what is currently the only alternative for Germany, which also bears this name, the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Together, we can make it,  Bachmann said. In Germany voters cast two ballots in a mixed-member proportional voting system - the first directly for a candidate in his or her constituency and the second for a party. The second vote determines the distribution of seats in parliament. PEGIDA has been meeting in Dresden regularly for almost three years and at its peak in early 2015 drew crowds of around 25,000 but has since largely disappeared from the headlines as its support base has dwindled. Alexander Gauland, one of the AfD s top candidates, told a news conference that Islam was a political doctrine and did not belong to Germany. The 76-year-old was widely criticized for saying Germans should be proud of what their soldiers achieved during World War One and Two. One of the officers he named was Claus von Stauffenberg, who led an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 with a bomb in a briefcase. Von Stauffenberg s grandson wrote an article for newspaper Die Welt saying he was outraged by Gauland s comments and his grandfather and other leading figures of German culture would be proud of immigration and diversity in Germany s history. On Monday Gauland said recent estimates showed 95 percent of German soldiers were not involved in war crimes and their families wanted to be proud of their sacrifices.  This has nothing to do with the crimes committed by the leaders. I addressed the individual performance of German soldiers in two world wars. I reiterate that,  he added. Alice Weidel, the AfD s other top candidate, said the arrival of more than a million migrants over the last two years had made Germany  a safe haven for criminals and terrorists . Weidel, who is openly lesbian, also said that perpetrators of attacks against homosexuals were  always the same,  namely  people with Muslim backgrounds, Arabs .

Summary: जर्मन झंडा लहराते हुए, अति-दक्षिणपंथी और इस्लाम विरोधी समूहों ने मतदान से पहले एक साथ रैली की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday weighed in on the debate over allowing consumers to switch from pricey cable television boxes to less expensive devices, urging regulators to set an example for the rest of government on how to boost competition.     Consumers can spend nearly $1,000 over four years renting cable set-top boxes. Allowing consumers to chose devices or apps they can own could mean quick savings, according to the administration.   “Competition is good for consumers,” President Barack Obama said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “And ultimately it’s good for business. The more competition we have, the more products, services, innovation takes place.” The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in February proposed a rule to open competition in the $20 billion television set-top box market.  It set a 60-day comment period for the rule that could deal a financial blow to cable companies. The administration issued a rare filing on the rule by the FCC, an independent agency.  The rule would allow consumers to obtain video services from providers such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Apple Inc and TiVo In, instead of cable, satellite and other television providers such Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc. It was unclear if the rule will be implemented before Obama leaves office in January. Cable and television companies have lashed out against the proposal, saying it could stifle innovation. Under the rule, minority programmers would be damaged, consumers would lose privacy protections and be saddled with the costs of re-engineering networks, said Michael Powell, the head of trade group National Cable & Telecommunications Association.   The companies also contended the White House is pressuring the FCC, which they said was inappropriate. “This action not only damages the only companies seriously investing to build broadband infrastructure for this country, it also does great harm to the confidence we should be able to have in the impartiality of the FCC’s proceedings,” said Jim Cicconi, a senior executive vice president at AT&T Inc. Obama will also sign an executive order on Friday calling on federal agencies and departments to report in 60 days on areas where additional measures can be taken to open competition. In a teleconference call with reporters, Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, would not speculate on what kind of pro-competition measures the order could spur. The administration is looking to add to consumer-friendly actions on cell phones, net neutrality and retirement advice.  “This is going to be a whole of government effort to empower consumers, workers and small businesses,” Furman said.

Summary: ओबामा ने केबल टीवी सेट-टॉप बॉक्स के लिए अधिक उपभोक्ता विकल्पों का आग्रह किया


DETROIT (Reuters) - Detroit Public Schools’ emergency manager Darnell Earley is stepping down later this month, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said on Tuesday. Earley, who has drawn criticism from the teachers union and black state lawmakers for the crumbling state of the city’s schools, will leave the school district on Feb. 29, the governor said in a statement.  Earley, who had formerly presided over the city of Flint and its now lead-contaminated water system, has served as manager of the Detroit schools since January 2015. The school system is drowning under $3.5 billion of debt, including $1.7 billion of bonds backed by property taxes. Detroit Public Schools is suffering from declining enrollment. Heavy pension and debt obligations have left the district in danger of running out of cash in April. The governor said if the state Senate passes legislation  reorganizing the school and tackling the debt soon, the school system could revert to some form of local control. If the debt is not addressed, the system will be “virtually insolvent” by April, Snyder said. A November report by Earley said a bankruptcy by Detroit’s school system could shift liabilities for pensions and bonds to the state and local governments. The governor, whose approval is needed for the system to file for bankruptcy, is unlikely to support such a move. Snyder said on Tuesday that Earley has done a “very good job under some very difficult circumstances,” restructuring the school system, cutting costs and working to stabilize student enrollment.    The governor said he will appoint a transition leader before the end of the month to set in place his plan to restructure the system to address the district’s academics and finances.     The Michigan black legislative caucus last week asked Snyder to fire Earley. Also last week, the union for Detroit public school teachers sued the district, demanding Earley’s immediate removal and a return of local control with a plan to repair the district’s crumbling buildings. Ivy Bailey, interim president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, called Earley’s departure a “step in the right direction.” Under Earley’s leadership as emergency manager of Flint, the city switched its water supply from Detroit to the Flint River in April 2014. It switched back last October after tests found high lead levels in blood samples from Flint children. Lead is a neurotoxin that can damage the brain and cause other health problems. Earley has said he is not to blame for the problem since the decision was made before his tenure.

Summary: डेट्रॉइट स्कूल प्रणाली के प्रबंधक इस महीने पद छोड़ देंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Monday it was not known whether any Americans helped Russia in an alleged hacking campaign aimed at swaying the Nov. 8 election in Donald Trump’s favor. “We do not yet know whether the Russians had the help of U.S. citizens, including people associated with the Trump campaign,” Schiff said at a congressional hearing on possible Russian intervention in the election. It is no crime for Trump or his associates to have ties to Russia, he added.  “On the other hand, if the Trump campaign, or anybody associated with it, aided or abetted the Russians, it would not only be a serious crime, it would also represent one of the most shocking betrayals of our democracy in history,” he said.

Summary: शीर्ष डेमोक्रेट का कहना है कि यह स्पष्ट नहीं है कि क्या अमेरिकियों ने चुनाव हैकिंग में रूसियों की मदद की थी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she trusted President Donald Trump’s sincerity in working to protect so-called Dreamers brought to this country illegally and that the effort to shield this group from immigration would not include cuts to legal immigration. “When we’re talking about this legislation to protect the Dreamers, yes I do trust that the president is sincere in understanding that the public supports that overwhelmingly, the public supports not sending these young people back,” Pelosi told reporters.

Summary: पेलोसी का कहना है कि उन्हें ड्रीमर्स की रक्षा करने में ट्रम्प की ईमानदारी पर भरोसा है


DUBAI (Reuters) - An Indian priest kidnapped by gunmen in Yemen last year has been freed, Oman s state news agency ONA said on Tuesday, posting a picture of him appearing in good health after being transferred to the Omani capital Muscat. Father Tom Uzhunnalil was abducted in March 2016 when four unidentified gunmen attacked a care home in Yemen s southern port city of Aden, killing four Indian nuns, two Yemeni female staff members, eight elderly residents and a guard. ONA said Omani authorities had coordinated with  Yemeni parties  to locate Uzhunnalil and transfer him to the sultanate. He will return home to India, it said, without mentioning which group had been holding him in Yemen.  I am happy to inform that Father Tom Uzhunnalil has been rescued,  Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj wrote on Twitter. Oman has frequently helped facilitate the release of foreign nationals detained in Yemen. The ONS picture showed the white-bearded Catholic priest standing in a palatial room in front of a portrait of Oman s ruler. Uzhunnalil was last seen appealing for help in a video recording carried by a Yemeni news website in May, saying his health was deteriorating and he needed hospitalization.

Summary: यमन में अपहृत भारतीय पादरी को रिहा कर दिया गया हैः ओमान


SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A settlement with U.S. regulators gives Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) too much authority over how to spend $2 billion on electric vehicle technology, a U.S. congresswoman from California said this week in a letter, echoing concerns from states and others who fear the German automaker gains undue influence in the deal. Volkswagen agreed to spend $1.2 billion nationally and $800 million more in California on electric vehicle technology as penalties for equipping hundreds of thousands of diesel vehicles sold in the United States with software designed to cheat tailpipe emissions tests. The letter from Representative Anne Eshoo comes ahead of an Oct. 18 hearing at which a federal judge will consider whether to give final approval to $15.3 billion in settlements for owners, state and federal regulators or require changes and renegotiation. A provision “of particular concern” allows VW to make “possible investments in its own proprietary technology and subsidiaries,” Eshoo, a Democrat, said in the Oct. 4 letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa McCarthy. The EPA declined to comment. VW was not immediately available for comment. It has urged the court approve the deal. Eshoo’s fears mirror those raised by electric car-charging station companies in August. Four members of the California state legislature, in comments to the U.S. Department of Justice, also urged independent oversight and administration of the VW funds “to ensure that multiple vendors with cutting-edge technology are able to enter the market.”  The Justice Department said last month it received 1,195 comments period from private citizens, state and local government offices and agencies, businesses, and institutions and associations. The DOJ urged the agreements be approved with only minor changes.  Objectors face an uphill battle since U.S. courts generally give the government significant latitude to negotiate settlements.  The Justice Department said nearly half of the comments were submitted on behalf of a company that provides truck-stop electrification services to long-haul truck drivers, IdleAir, urging that the VW program be allowed to fund such projects.

Summary: कांग्रेसवुमन ने वीडब्ल्यू निपटान निरीक्षण के बारे में चिंता जताई