WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers this week will consider three Republican-backed measures targeting the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran, which bitterly divides Washington a year after it was announced and could play a role in November’s elections. One bill would impose new sanctions on Iran over any sponsorship of terrorism or human rights violations. Another would bar the purchase from Iran of “heavy water,” a non-radioactive byproduct from making nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The third would block Iran’s access to the U.S. financial system, including the use of the dollar. Republican lawmakers, who control the House of Representatives and Senate and unanimously opposed the nuclear deal announced last July 14, have said the measures are necessary to send Iran a strong message that it will face consequences if it violates international agreements. Many, joined by several Democrats, have been especially concerned by Iran’s actions since the deal was officially implemented in January, including its test-firing of ballistic missiles in March. “It makes sense to do all we can to check this very dangerous Iranian activity,” Republican Representative Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Rules Committee, which sets up rules for debate of bills headed to the House floor. Thanks in part to the nuclear agreement, Iran has begun to rejoin global politics and economics after more than three decades of isolation. Business and political leaders are visiting the country, which is also hosting trade conferences. In his first report on the deal, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Iran’s ballistic missile launches “are not consistent with the constructive spirit” of the nuclear deal. He said it was up to the U.N. Security Council to decide if the launches violated the resolution backing the agreement. However, he also said he was “encouraged by Iran’s implementation of its nuclear commitments.” Republicans worry that President Barack Obama is so eager to preserve the pact as a legacy that his administration will give Tehran too much leeway before he leaves office in January. ELECTION-YEAR POLITICS? Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, backs the nuclear deal. Republican candidate Donald Trump has promised to tear it up if he is elected on Nov. 8. Most of Obama’s fellow Democrats in Congress backed the agreement. They say the new legislation is intended to undermine or even derail it. The White House issued a threat on Monday to veto all three bills, saying they would affect the continued viability of the nuclear agreement. The deal “is critical to ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is and will remain exclusively peaceful, which is profoundly in the national security interest of the United States and the international community,” it said in a statement. The bills are not expected to win enough votes to advance in the Senate, even if they pass the House. And if they did pass the Senate, they would lack enough support to override a veto. Backers of the Iran deal said Republicans were trying to appeal to voters just days before the convention where Trump is due to become the party’s presidential nominee. Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans have an unfavorable view of Iran. Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at J Street, a pro-Israel group that supported the nuclear deal, said such legislation plays into voters’ frustration with what they see as a do-nothing Congress. “This kind of grandstanding not only endangers our security by endangering the deal, it’s exactly the type of politics that people are sick of,” he said.

Summary: एक साल बाद, अमेरिकी सांसद अभी भी ईरान परमाणु समझौते पर निशाना साधते हैं


SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Taxi drivers protesting the growth of mobile ride hailing applications such as Uber and Cabify blocked the main road to Chile s principal airport in capital Santiago on Monday, leading to one death and wreaking havoc on travelers  plans. Santiago-based LATAM Airlines, the region s biggest carrier, as well as budget carrier Sky suffered delays, local media reported. Television images showed traffic backed up for miles (kilometers), while many passengers resorted to walking along the highway. One 65-year-old Brazilian tourist stuck in traffic died of a cardiovascular event, Chilean police said without offering any further details. A medical helicopter evacuated the man, but it was too late, they added.   This takeover of the airport by the taxi drivers has significantly hurt the image of Chile, the image of the airlines, and has hurt people traveling or arriving in the country,  Claudio Orrego, the governor of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, told reporters. He added that the government would bring charges against those responsible for the protests, and that at least 15 people had already been arrested. Legislation is advancing slowly through Chile s Congress to regulate Uber and Cabify, which remain in a legal gray zone. While some authorities have promised to sanction users of the widely used applications, they have also expressed a desire to bring the services within Chile s existing regulatory framework.

Summary: उबेर विरोधी प्रदर्शनों ने चिली के प्रमुख हवाई अड्डे को बाधित किया; एक की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said on Tuesday that U.S. policies toward China under President-elect Donald Trump may be uncertain, but he is optimistic because of the U.S. business community’s enthusiasm for U.S.-China trade. At a luncheon with U.S. and Chinese business people and government officials, Wang said he believed that businesses and the U.S. government would ultimately make the “right choices” to take advantage of market opportunities in China’s economy. “What the U.S. government will do we will wait and see, and I think it’s difficult to predict, just like the U.S. presidential election,” Wang said through an interpreter. “The large crowd here tells us one thing. Although there will be a change in the U.S. government, the passion of the U.S. business community for economic cooperation with China has remained unchanged.” Two weeks after Trump’s stunning election on the back of anti-trade sentiment among workers in U.S. industrial states, the president-elect’s plans for managing tense relations with China remain unclear. On the campaign trail, Trump had said China is “killing us” on trade. He threatened to declare Beijing a currency manipulator, levy a 45 percent punitive tariff on all Chinese goods to reduce a massive U.S. trade deficit with China and pull out of the World Trade Organization, the global trade body that allowed China to join in 2001.     As he builds his administration, Trump has added some harsh critics of China’s trade practices to his transition team, including Dan DiMicco, a former chief executive officer of steel giant Nucor Corp (NUE.N) and Washington trade lawyer Robert Lighthizer, a former trade negotiator during the Ronald Reagan administration.     Wang made his remarks at the start of a round of talks of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), which include officials from the two countries who focus on technical issues such as safety and regulatory approvals that can become barriers to trade. Wang said the JCCT and other forums such as the cabinet-level Strategic and Economic Dialogue talks promoted by the Obama administration have helped to reduce trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.    Wang also said China would continue to offer major opportunities to American companies, including buying more than $8 trillion in total imports over the next five years. China also anticipates $500 billion in foreign direct investment from all countries and investing $720 billion overseas, while 600 million Chinese are expected to travel overseas in the same period, he said. “This will generate enormous business opportunities for the companies of all countries including the United States,” Wang said. “I think in the face of a emerging big market like China, the American companies and government will make the right choices.”     Major problems in the U.S.-China relationship would be bad for both economies as well as the global economy, he added.

Summary: ट्रंप की अनिश्चितता के बीच चीनी अधिकारी अमेरिकी व्यापार को लेकर आशावादी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump has chosen former Texas Governor Rick Perry to head the U.S. Department of Energy, a source close to the president-elect said, putting him in charge of an agency he proposed eliminating during his bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The choice of Perry adds to the list of oil-drilling advocates skeptical about climate change who Trump has picked for senior positions in his Cabinet, worrying environmentalists but cheering an industry eager for expansion. The selection of Perry, who also had been mentioned as a candidate for agriculture secretary, was disclosed on Monday night after Perry met the president-elect at Trump Tower in New York. The department is responsible for U.S. energy policy and oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons program. Perry has advocated lighter regulation on the fossil fuel industry, and has called the science around climate change “unsettled.” Perry’s proposal to get rid of the Energy Department caused what has become known as his “oops” moment during a November 2011 Republican presidential candidate debate when he could not remember all of the three Cabinet-level departments he wanted to eliminate. After mentioning the departments of Commerce and Education, he said, “I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.” A few minutes later in the debate Perry said with a laugh, “By the way that was the Department of Energy I was reaching for a while ago.” Perry, who also briefly ran in the 2016 presidential race, would have to be confirmed by the Senate to head the Energy Department. Perry served as governor of Texas, a leading oil-producing state, from 2000 when he succeeded President George W. Bush until 2015. In his unsuccessful presidential runs, he touted his record of job creation in the second-most-populous state. Perry was a fierce critic of Trump last year before dropping out of the race, calling him “a cancer on conservatism” who offered “a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense.” Trump also had harsh things to say about Perry during the campaign, even belittling his eyeglasses by saying, “He put on glasses so people will think he’s smart.” Once Trump secured the nomination, Perry endorsed him as “the people’s choice.” There were indications of a possible rocky handover for the Energy Department after Trump transition officials asked the agency for the names of employees who have worked on climate change issues. Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said on Tuesday the department will not comply and that the request had “left many in our workforce unsettled.” Perry’s selection is another indication that the incoming Trump administration may be friendly toward the fossil fuel industry. He is on the board of directors for Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota that has been stalled by protests by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and supporters. Trump on Tuesday named Rex Tillerson, chief executive of oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp, as his choice for secretary of state. Trump has settled on U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a climate-change skeptic and an advocate for expanded oil and gas development, as interior secretary. Trump’s choice for the Environmental Protection Agency is  Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, an ardent opponent of President Barack Obama’s measures to curb climate change who has sued the EPA to block in a bid to undo a key regulation to curb greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from coal-fired power plants. An overwhelming majority of scientists believe that carbon dioxide emissions from burning oil, gas and coal is a significant contributor to global climate change, causing sea level rise, drought and more frequent violent storms. The Energy Department was established by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 after an embargo by oil-exporting nations led to shortages in the United States.  Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer said he hoped Perry’s nomination would be blocked. “Trump no longer has to abolish departments. He can dismantle them from within,” Steyer said. “It’s now up to the Senate to defend our health, our economy and our democracy by defeating this nomination.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने टेक्सास के पूर्व गवर्नर पेरी को ऊर्जा मंत्री के रूप में चुना


SEOUL (Reuters) - Footage released last week by North Korea purporting to show the firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) appears to be fake, according to studies by U.S. experts. In defiance of a U.N. ban, North Korea has said it has ballistic missile technology which would allow it to launch a nuclear warhead from a submarine, though analysis of North Korean state media images casts doubt on the claim. North Korea released the submarine launch footage after it separately conducted a fourth nuclear weapons test last Wednesday. North Korean state television aired footage on Friday of the submarine test said to have taken place in December. Unlike a previous SLBM test in May, it was not announced at the time. South Korea’s military said on Saturday North Korea appeared to have modified the video and edited it with Scud missile footage from 2014 although an official told Reuters the ejection technology might have improved since the May test.   An analysis by the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) shows two frames of video from state media where flames engulf the missile and small parts of its body break away. “The rocket ejected, began to light, and then failed catastrophically,” Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute’s CNS, said in an email. “North Korea used heavy video editing to cover over this fact.” Hanham said North Korea state media used different camera angles and editing to make it appear the launch was several continuous launches, when in fact it was a single event. North Korean propagandists used rudimentary editing techniques to crop and flip old video footage of an earlier SLBM test and Scud missile launch, the CNS study showed. In an analysis on the 38 North monitoring website, John Schilling, an aerospace engineer who is a specialist in satellite and launch vehicle propulsion systems, said it appeared from the video that the launch was conducted from a submerged barge rather than a submarine. “The failed launch, combined with testing from a barge shows that North Korea still has a long way to go to develop this system,” he said. “An initial operational capability of a North Korean ballistic-missile submarine is not expected before 2020.” North Korea’s claim that its most recent nuclear test was of a more advanced and powerful hydrogen bomb drew skepticism from the U.S. government and experts. It remains unclear if North Korea has developed a nuclear device small enough to mount on a missile.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया ने नकली मिसाइल परीक्षण फुटेज बनायाः अमेरिकी विशेषज्ञ


DENVER (Reuters) - A federal judge in Colorado blocked enforcement of a 19th-century state law that bans voters from showing a completed ballot to others, the latest in a flurry of mixed legal rulings on whether to restrict election “selfies” on social media. U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello in Denver issued a preliminary injunction against an 1891 Colorado statute that makes it a misdemeanor offense to reveal the contents of one’s ballot. The ruling came in response to two separate lawsuits by voters challenging enforcement of the law on grounds that it violates their free-speech rights. “By issuing an injunction in this case, Coloradans get what they are entitled to - clarity on an issue that implicates fundamental constitutional rights,” Arguella wrote in her 26-page ruling. The controversy erupted last week after Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey reminded voters of the law, which he said would “include posting your completed ballot to social media.” However, prosecutors from several jurisdictions, including Denver, filed declaration with the court this week saying they would not enforce the misdemeanor law unless evidence showed that voter intimidation or coercion was involved. “Based on our review of applicable law and societal changes, including the ubiquity of social media ... the District Attorney’s Office would not charge anyone with an offense ... for taking a photograph or video of a completed Colorado mail-in ballot,” Denver prosecutor Joseph Morales wrote. Colorado is among 18 states that have laws restricting the taking of photographs in voting booths or of completed ballots. Courts in other states and federal jurisdictions have issued mixed rulings against enforcing such bans. Federal judges in New York and California refused this week to block enforcement of state laws barring voters from taking photographs of marked ballots, saying it was too close to next Tuesday’s presidential election to issue such injunctions. Colorado’s attorney general cited the California and New York decisions in defending Colorado’s law. Lawyers for the Colorado voters said the state’s mail-in voting system, which allows ballots to be filled out anywhere and then either mailed or dropped off, sets Colorado apart from California and New York, where voters must cast ballots at a polling place. Last month, a federal court sided with a voter who challenged a Michigan anti-selfie statute as a free-speech violation.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीश ने कोलोराडो को मतदाता 'सेल्फी' पर प्रतिबंध लगाने वाले कानून को लागू करने से रोक दिया


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood is gearing up for a concerted response to the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, planning a pre-Oscar rally and  a political action group as the show business world moves beyond angry speeches. Talent agency WME-IMG, which represents actors, musicians, writers and sports figures, said it was forming a national political action committee (PAC). In a memo to employees on Tuesday, WME-IMG, one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood, said it also planned to develop “actionable public policy solutions,” connect clients with politicians from both political parties, and support donations of time and money by employees. The memo, seen by Reuters, does not mention Trump and avoids taking a direct political stance. But it adds “this company’s greatest asset is the diversity of our backgrounds and beliefs. Please know that we will do everything in our power to support and protect this diversity now and in the months and years ahead.” United Talent Agency (UTA) on Wednesday canceled its annual Oscars party and said it will instead hold a rally in Beverly Hills two days before the Feb. 26 Oscar ceremony to protest “anti-immigrant sentiment” in the United States. “If our nation ceases to be the place where artists the world over can come to express themselves freely, then we cease, in my opinion, to be America,” UTA chief executive Jeremy Zimmer said in a statement. UTA said it will also donate $250,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union and the International Rescue Committee. The twin moves follow widespread opposition by celebrities to Trump during the 2016 election campaign, and fiery speeches at recent awards shows and rallies condemning Trump’s travel restrictions on  seven predominantly Muslim nations. On Monday, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said that barriers to artistic freedom have “made Academy artists activists.” Trump’s attempts to temporarily ban travel have hit Hollywood hard ahead of the movie industry’s most prestigious night. Oscar-nominated Iranian director Asghar Farhadi and actress Taraneh Alidoosti have said they will boycott the Academy Awards to protest Trump’s actions. Syrian civilian rescue workers featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “The White Helmets,” will be unable to attend, producers said this week. UTA represents Farhadi. The agency said the Tehran-based director said he felt “honored and in tears” when he heard about the announcement.

Summary: ट्रम्प युग में हॉलीवुड शब्दों से कार्रवाई की ओर बढ़ा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as a leading candidate to be U.S. secretary of state for President-elect Donald Trump, a source familiar with the situation said on Monday. The source said John Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, was also under consideration to head the State Department. Giuliani, 72, was one of Trump’s most vocal and high-profile supporters on the campaign trail, introducing him frequently at rallies with slashing attacks against Democrat Hillary Clinton. He was New York’s mayor during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and led the city during the crisis after the destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers, working closely with then-President George W. Bush. Giuliani was an early supporter of Trump, has been his  friend for many years, and defended him vigorously through the various controversies that ensnared the New York businessman. His rhetoric was notable for repeatedly accusing Clinton of having violated laws through her handling of classified information on a private email server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. “If Rudy wants it, he’ll get it,” former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich told “The Kelly File” on Fox News. Gingrich, who has also been mentioned as possibly having a role in the Trump administration, said he thought Giuliani might have been interested in being nominated instead as the U.S. attorney general or secretary of homeland security. However, he said Giuliani would do a fabulous job as Trump’s secretary of state. “He’s already known worldwide,” Gingrich said. Bolton, 67, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, was U.N. ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 to December 2006 during the Bush administration. Before that he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security. He has frequently provided foreign policy advice to Republican presidential candidates. Trump is working on choosing the people he wants to place in his Cabinet for when he takes over the presidency on Jan. 20. In a sign that Trump might be getting closer to some decisions, his spokesman Jason Miller said Trump would meet Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is in charge of Trump’s transition effort, at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday. Miller said Trump and Pence would be “reviewing a number of names for key jobs.” “If the vice president-elect is getting together with the president-elect to discuss names, then I would say that it’s serious, obviously,” he said. U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a possible pick for defense secretary, was seen entering Trump Tower on Monday.

Summary: गिउलिआनी ट्रम्प के विदेश मंत्री बनने के लिए एक प्रमुख उम्मीदवार हैंः सूत्र


BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia s Senate has backed a law to regulate transitional justice under the country s peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels, including special tribunals that will try guerrilla leaders for war crimes.  The law, approved late on Wednesday, is considered the cornerstone of the agreement signed last year between the government and the FARC, known then as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The measure still needs approval from the lower house of Congress, which is likely to vote on it early next week. The special courts will mete out alternative sentences like landmine removal for ex-guerrilla leaders who are convicted of war crimes. Under the peace deal, those convicted will not serve time in traditional jails. The law can also apply to members of the military and civilians who funded illegal groups like paramilitaries. Congress has until the end of the month to approve the law using the court-approved  fast-track  mechanism to reduce the number of required debates in an effort to implement the peace accord as quickly as possible. In a move that invigorated the previously slow debate in the Senate chamber, the nation s top court ruled this week that the majority of the law, including provisions that allow former rebels to participate in politics, is constitutional.  The court made several modifications however. A provision in the agreement prohibits extradition of former FARC members, but the ruling said that only applied to crimes that occurred before the deal. It said ex-rebels who commit crimes after demobilization would be subject to regular laws that include the possibility of extradition.  That did not sit well with the FARC, which is now officially a political party.  The extradition prohibition as it stands in the final accord is a right and not a benefit,  senior FARC member Ivan Marquez told journalists on Thursday.  Making the prohibition ineffectual constitutes a flagrant and very grave non-compliance with the deal.  Under the agreement the FARC will have 10 guaranteed seats in Congress until 2026. The group has already announced a slate of candidates for elections next year.

Summary: कोलंबिया की सीनेट ने पूर्व विद्रोहियों के लिए शांति न्यायाधिकरणों को मंजूरी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials are striving to put finishing touches on a slew of banking rules before President Barack Obama leaves office and hands regulatory power to Donald Trump who has vowed to rewrite the existing financial rule book. President-elect Trump will take over on Jan. 20 and his fellow Republicans will have control of Congress and government agencies, allowing the new administration to block or roll back many of the last-minute changes. But by completing far-advanced work on some banking standards in the next 10 weeks, Obama officials would raising the chances that some elements of the regulatory framework will survive. Some rules are meant to flesh out the Dodd Frank Act of 2010 designed to prevent the next global financial crisis. Trump campaigned on a pledge to scrap the law but now he says only some provisions must go to lighten the regulatory burden. The Federal Reserve is working on rules to govern matters such as executive pay, market stability and what investments Wall Street may hold. Last month, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White said her agency would “in the near term” finish a rule on one thorny issue: how mutual funds manage derivatives. The SEC and bank regulators have also for years struggled to finalize a rule that would tie more banker pay to the long-term health of their firms rather than short-term performance of Wall Street firms. With only about 40 working days until the handover, it is not clear which, if any, of those standards will get across the finishing line. “Just look at the calendar,” said Tom Quaadman of the Chamber of Commerce. “These are intricate rules and there’s not much time.” The executive pay rule exemplifies the challenge. Six federal agencies have a say on the compensation standard meant as part of Dodd Frank and a final draft has not yet been offered, industry officials told Reuters. It would be nearly impossible to circulate a final rule and get the agencies to endorse it while still satisfying standards for clearing such paperwork, several lobbyists who have opposed the rule said. Banking regulators declined to comment on when the compensation rule might be completed. Simple logistics also pose a challenge. New federal rules come into force once they have been published in the Federal Register and employees there typically need several days to typeset a rule. That means Obama officials need to lodge paperwork with the Federal Register at the beginning of the inauguration week at the latest. Some sixteen copy editors are due to forego leave and be on hand in the coming weeks to process final rules expected from dozens of agencies, said an official familiar with the operation, but not authorized to speak to the media. “These days, people do not spend a lot of time hanging around the coffee maker,” he said. Some freshly-minted rules also face the prospect of getting erased under a 1996 law known as the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to block a regulation within 60 working days of being drafted. One such rule allows students who were defrauded by for-profit colleges to seek loan forgiveness. The Department of Education finalized it days before the Nov. 8 election, meaning Republicans who have raised objections to it will have a chance to block it. President George W. Bush was the first to trigger the Review Act when he block labor regulations that his predecessor Bill Clinton had enacted at the end of his term.

Summary: ओबामा के अधिकारी बैंकिंग नियमों को समेटने के लिए समय के खिलाफ काम करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday it expects additional transfers of prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison to be announced before President Barack Obama leaves office on Jan. 20. “I would expect at this point additional transfers to be announced before January 20,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters when asked about a message on Twitter by President-elect Donald Trump earlier on Tuesday saying “There should be no more releases” from the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. Last month a source close to the matter said Obama planned to transfer as many as 18 more prisoners from Guantanamo, nearly a third of the remaining 59 at the facility where the United States has held terrorism suspects since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि ग्वांतानामो के स्थानांतरण की घोषणा 20 जनवरी से पहले होने की उम्मीद है


ANKARA (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will make an official visit to Turkey on Monday, Dec. 11, to discuss developments in Syria and Jerusalem with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish presidential sources said on Friday. The Kremlin confirmed the visit by Putin on Friday, saying the two leaders would discuss energy projects and  key international problems . Erdogan and Putin held a phone call on Thursday where they agreed that the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital will negatively impact the region s peace and stability.

Summary: तुर्की में बैठक के दौरान एर्दोगन, पुतिन सीरिया, जेरूसलम पर चर्चा करेंगेः सूत्र


(Editor’s note: please be advised that paragraphs 4-6 contain language that may be offensive to some readers) By Bernie Woodall FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida state senator resigned on Friday after coming under pressure for yelling obscenities and racial slurs inside a lounge frequented by lawmakers at the state capital in Tallahassee. Senator Frank Artiles, a Republican from Miami-Dade County, made the comments on Monday night to two Democratic senators, both of whom are black, at the members-only Governor’s Club, the Miami Herald reported on Tuesday. “I am responsible and I am accountable and effective immediately, I am resigning from the Florida State Senate,” Artiles wrote in a resignation letter delivered to the state Senate Majority Leader Joe Negron on Friday. Artiles yelled at Democratic Senator Audrey Gibson, who earlier that day had questioned some bills Artiles sponsored, according to the Miami Herald. He called the Jacksonville senator a “bitch” and a “girl.” Artiles also called Democrat Perry Thurston, a black senator from Fort Lauderdale, an “asshole.” He also said Negron had risen to majority leader because of the support of six Republican senators he called “niggas,” the newspaper reported. Artiles on Wednesday apologized on the state Senate floor. He did not directly mention the comments he made on Monday night, but admitted he made offensive comments. Thurston on Thursday filed a formal complaint to have Artiles expelled from the legislative body. He could not be reached for comment on Friday. Gibson issued a statement on Friday, saying, “This has been an ordeal that no one should have to endure.” On Tuesday, Negron said in a statement that he has been informed of Artiles’ comments by the senate’s minority leader, Democrat Oscar Braynon. “Racial slurs and profane, sexist insults have no place in conversation between senators and will not be tolerated,” Negron’s statement said. Public protests followed, including one at Artiles’ Miami-area headquarters where signs were posted on his office windows demanding that he resign. Artiles, a former Marine, was elected in November to the senate after serving six years in the Florida House of Representatives. “My actions and my presence in government is now a distraction to my colleagues, the legislative process and the citizens of our great state,” he said in his resignation letter.

Summary: नस्लीय टिप्पणी के बाद फ्लोरिडा राज्य के सीनेटर ने दिया इस्तीफा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has received an updated proposal from the Pentagon to close the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects, and is in the “final stages” of reviewing it before releasing it to Congress, an administration official said on Friday. The administration has been trying for years to make good on a pledge Obama made at the beginning of his presidency in 2009 to close down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but has faced stiff political opposition. Its latest plan, which includes a recommendation that prisoners who cannot be prosecuted or transferred to other countries be sent to a U.S.-based prison, has been delayed for several months. Obama told the Pentagon to reduce the cost in its latest draft, which is now at the White House. “The president’s national security team is in the final stages of reviewing the proposal recently submitted by the Pentagon,” said the senior administration official. The White House declined to say when the plan would be released. Lawmakers, especially Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, have been calling for the plan for some time. The prison was opened in 2002 by Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, to house foreign terrorism suspects but quickly drew international criticism from human rights activists and many foreign governments. There are 93 prisoners still housed there. Republicans and some Democrats in Congress largely oppose proposals to move any of the prisoners to U.S. soil, an option currently prohibited by law. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Thursday he had proposed to Obama bringing some detainees to a secure location in the United States, adding Congress had indicated a willingness to consider such a proposal. Senator Kelly Ayotte, an ally of McCain’s, said the administration’s plan should involve keeping the prison open. “If the Obama administration were to move Guantanamo detainees to the United States, that would ignore the will of the majority of Americans, make all of our citizens less safe, and represent a blatant and serious violation of the plain language of the law,” she said in a statement. The plan was not filled with surprises and would be presented to Congress and the public when it was ready, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. Echoing an argument the administration has made frequently, he said it cost $4 million a year per prisoner to keep the prison open.  The White House believes closing it would reduce costs and take away a recruiting tool for militant Islamist groups overseas.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने ग्वांतानामो जेल को बंद करने की पेंटागन की योजना की समीक्षा की


MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish economy could grow less than initially expected in 2018 due to uncertainty over Catalonia, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sainz de Santamaria said on Friday. The wealthy region s intention to break away after a referendum has plunged Spain into its worst political crisis since an attempted military coup in 1981.  The events that we are experiencing in Catalonia make us more prudent,  Sainz de Santamaria said after the weekly cabinet meeting.  In fact, if there were no quick solution to this issue we should be forced to lower expectations of economic growth for the year 2018,  she said. The government expects Spain s economy to grow 2.6 percent in 2018. The deputy prime minister also said that hotel reservations in Catalonia were currently falling 20 percent to 30 percent.

Summary: स्पेन 2018 में कैटेलोनिया के कारण आर्थिक विकास का अनुमान खतरे मेंः उप प्रधानमंत्री


MANILA (Reuters) - Fire swept through a shopping mall in the Philippines killing at least 37 people, most of them workers at a call center, city government officials said on Sunday. The vice mayor of the southern city of Davao, Paolo Duterte, said the chance of survival for any of the 37 people missing at the NCC Mall was  zero .  Let us pray for them,  said Duterte, the eldest son of President Rodrigo Duterte. The fire broke out on Saturday at a furniture store on the mall s third level and quickly engulfed an outsourcing business on the upper floor, said a spokeswoman for the city government, Ma. Teresita Gaspan, The cause was not known but an investigation was being launched, she said. President Duterte and his daughter, Sara Duterte, who is mayor of the city, visited the scene late on Saturday to meet anxious relatives of the missing and survivors.     Six people were rescued and taken to hospital.

Summary: फिलीपींस के शॉपिंग मॉल में आग लगने से 37 लोगों की मौत


WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters began talks on Thursday with the governing National Party and opposition Labour Party aimed at forming a coalition government after last month s inconclusive election. Peters, whose nationalist party holds the balance of power, has said no decision will be made until after a final vote count is released on Saturday.  It s like being between the devil and the deep blue sea here,  Peters told reporters at Parliament, according to the New Zealand Herald.  Peters held talks with Prime Minister Bill English and members of his center-right National in the morning and an afternoon meeting with Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, who told local media the conversation was  a great start .  It s setting the agenda, the ground rules, the protocols, how we re going to go about it. Let s have an agreement about precisely how we re going to do this,  Peters said in a video posted on Fairfax Media. English s National Party won a 10-point lead over center-left Labour in the Sept. 23 election, but neither won enough seats to govern alone. This is the third time Peters, 72, has held the balance of power after an election and he has previously formed coalitions with both National and Labour. A complete count is due on Oct. 7 when  special votes  which make up 15 percent of the total and include overseas ballots are released. The final count is not expected to change the outcome. Peters has said he will make a final decision by Oct. 12. Observers said Peters  focus in talks will likely be on domestic policies, especially regional development to shore up his voter base, despite his rhetoric about limiting Asian investment and slashing immigration.  Regional development is surely going to figure highly...I think there s no doubt New Zealand First is shifting to be more of a provincial, country party and that the important points are going to be directly related to that development,  said Bryce Edwards, political analyst at Critical Politics in Wellington. In one of the only indications of his priorities going into negotiations, Peters this week promised to revive the country s forestry sector, which has been a hot topic in his remote home region in the country s far north. Peters plans to create state-owned forests and a quota system to favor local processors over those exporting logs to overseas, largely to China.

Summary: न्यूजीलैंड में गठबंधन सरकार बनाने के लिए बातचीत शुरू, अंतिम गिनती तक कोई निर्णय नहीं


MILAN (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he was confident that the United States would keep moving “in the right direction” on climate change, although the process might slow down under the current administration.      Before taking office, President Donald Trump pledged to cancel a deal signed by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015, which aims to limit rising temperatures by phasing out use of fossil fuels. Trump, who wants to boost the U.S. coal industry, is expected to announce in the coming days whether he will scrap an accord for which his predecessor campaigned. Just over three months after leaving office, Obama told a food industry conference in Milan that climate change was a challenge “that will define the contours of this century more dramatically, perhaps, than any other”. He urged big industrialized countries such as the United States and China to lead the way.  “Because of current debate in Washington, it could be that policies move more slowly but I am confident that the United States will continue to move in the right direction,” he said. Policy-making in the last decade has prompted the private sector to invest in both renewable energy and technology to improve fuel efficiency, Obama said.  The United States committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by between 26 percent and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 - a level that Trump is unlikely to support.     The European Union has been scrambling to persuade Trump to stick to the deal. Many U.S. companies and several Republican lawmakers, who see it as a way to protect American industrial interests overseas, have also urged him to stay in. The Paris treaty did not set high enough standards to solve the issue entirely, Obama said but “it put together the architecture and mechanism so that each country can reduce its problem of emissions”.

Summary: ओबामा को विश्वास है कि अमेरिका जलवायु पर सही दिशा में आगे बढ़ेगा


GREENSBORO, N.C. (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday accused Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim of trying to help Democrat Hillary Clinton win the Nov. 8 election through his connection to the New York Times. At a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, Trump also again said a variety of women who have accused him of making unwanted sexual advances are making up their stories. Trump said Slim, as a major New York Times shareholder, is helping bankroll what he called the Times’ attempt to help Clinton win the presidential election. The Times published a story from two women accusing Trump of groping them. “They’re not journalists,” Trump said of the Times reporters. “They’re corporate lobbyists for Carlos Slim and foreign corporations.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने मेक्सिको के कार्लोस स्लिम पर क्लिंटन की मदद करने की कोशिश करने का आरोप लगाया


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s election board chairman Wafula Chebukati said on Wednesday ahead of a repeat presidential poll on Oct. 26 that it was  difficult  to guarantee the election would be free and fair. He invited political leaders in the country to discuss impediments to the vote, which was ordered by the Supreme Court on Sept. 1, adding he would not tolerate further threats to board staff.

Summary: केन्याई चुनाव बोर्ड के अध्यक्ष ने कहा कि स्वतंत्र चुनाव की गारंटी देना मुश्किल है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative activist groups that generally support Republicans but oppose a pro-export, anti-import Republican tax proposal, released a study on Thursday estimating its impact on individual U.S. states, underscoring the party’s division over taxes. With taxes at the top of Republican priorities, the two groups, backed by the wealthy Koch brothers, reported that seven states won by President Donald Trump in November’s election would be among the 10 hardest hit by the proposal. Freedom Partners and Americans for Prosperity, both based in the Washington area, said the “border adjustment tax,” or BAT, would harm all 50 states, but that those heavily dependent on imports could suffer most. The report predicted economic harm to Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas - all states Trump won in the 2016 presidential election. The list of hard-hit states also includes California, New Jersey and Illinois, which were carried by Democrat Hillary Clinton. The study was sharply criticized by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican who intends to include the BAT in tax reform legislation this spring. “That so-called study will be easily discredited and probably fits the definition of fake news,” Brady told reporters. “It takes one provision, pretends the economy freezes ... applies it in our current tax code and comes up with fantasy figures.” BAT, billed as a way to boost U.S. manufacturing, would exempt export revenues from federal tax, while ending the deductibility of import costs by corporations, making imports for production or resale costlier. The plan is part of a tax reform blueprint supported by House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump is also working on a tax plan. Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have funded both groups behind the study. The Kochs exert strong financial and ideological influence on the Republican Party. Opposition to BAT from the Kochs and import-dependent industries suggests a rocky road ahead for Trump’s stated priority of tax reform. The proposal is also opposed by a number of Senate Republicans who could prevent its passage, should the House approve a tax reform bill that contains it.  Koch organizations, including the brothers’ privately held conglomerate Koch Industries, have warned that BAT could devastate the U.S. economy by raising prices on consumer goods, including gasoline. Refineries owned by Koch Industries rely on oil imports from Canada. The Koch groups say they support tax reform but oppose BAT.

Summary: रूढ़िवादी हमला प्रस्तावित अमेरिकी सीमा कर


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday that a $5.5 million increase requested for the agency’s enforcement budget this year will have a “real impact” in cracking down on unfair trade practices and export security violations. Ross told a House Appropriations subcommittee that an additional $4.5 million requested by the Trump Administration for the International Trade Administration’s enforcement and compliance section will fund 29 new positions whose primary focus will be the self-initiation of antidumping and antisubsidy investigations. Ross has pledged to have the Commerce Department take the lead in launching trade cases on behalf of industries that lack the resources or the organization to pursue them.  “We will ensure that no country or foreign corporation can take unfair advantage of U.S. markets,” Ross said. The enforcement increases are contained in the Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget requests, which propose deep cuts to food assistance, health care and other social programs along with increases in military spending. Commerce also would get a $1 million increase in funding for the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the division that enforces export controls on sensitive technologies. Ross said this would fund 19 new special agents at the division that took the lead in an investigation that led to a criminal fine of $1.19 billion against China’s ZTE (000063.SZ) for violating trade sanctions on Iran and North Korea.   “BIS took the lead in cracking this case open. So I am confident that these 19 additional agents, and the bandwidth they represent, will have real impact,” Ross said.

Summary: विल्बर रॉस ने व्यापार प्रवर्तन के लिए बड़ा बजट मांगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday narrowly blocked legislation that would slow the entry of refugees from Syria and Iraq to the United States in a contentious vote cloaked in presidential election-year politics. The vote was 55-43, with “yes” votes falling short of the 60 needed to advance the Republican-backed measure in the 100-member Senate. No Republicans voted against the bill, and only two Democrats backed it. Among other things, the bill would halt the admission of refugees and require high-level U.S. officials to verify that each refugee from Iraq and Syria posed no security risk before being allowed into the United States. Republicans said the tighter screening was essential to ensure the safety of Americans and prevent attacks within the country by Islamic State and other militant groups. “This bipartisan bill would allow Washington to step back, take a breath and ensure it has the correct policies and security screenings in place,” Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in the Senate before the vote. Democrats called the legislation an attack on people who  are fleeing war. They accused Republicans of holding the vote to allow their 2016 presidential candidates serving in the Senate to back legislation touted as tough on security. All three Senate Republican 2016 presidential hopefuls, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, backed the bill. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders missed the vote. Democrats also sought to play politics. They tried and failed to reach a deal with Republicans to set up a vote on an amendment establishing a religious test for would-be immigrants. That vote was planned to see if Republicans would side against presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has advocated barring Muslims from entering the United States.   The Syria refugee bill passed the House by a large margin days after the Nov. 13 Islamic State attacks in Paris. The bill was supported by dozens of Democrats who defied Democratic President Barack Obama’s veto threat. “We need to talk about efforts to defeat ISIS, not creating more paperwork for cabinet secretaries,” Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, told reporters before the vote. It currently takes 18-24 months for Syrian refugees to be screened before they can move to the United States. Washington has offered refuge to far fewer of the millions fleeing war in Syria and Iraq than many of its closest allies in Europe and the Middle East. Obama announced last year that he would admit 10,000 Syrians.

Summary: सीनेट डेमोक्रेट्स ने सीरिया शरणार्थी विधेयक को अवरुद्ध किया


(Reuters) - A top North Carolina lawmaker vowed on Tuesday to correct the “radical course” taken by leaders in Charlotte, the state’s largest city, after they voted to allow transgender people to use public bathrooms matching their gender identity. The Charlotte City Council expanded the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance late on Monday to add protections for marital and familial status, sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity. A provision that permits bathroom choice based on gender identity drew opposition ahead of the 7-4 vote from Christian evangelist Franklin Graham and North Carolina’s Republican governor, Pat McCrory, a former mayor of Charlotte. State House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican, said he would consider legislation to block the measure, which some critics fear would allow sexual predators to gain access to women’s bathrooms.  “The Charlotte City Council has gone against all common sense and has created a major public safety issue by opening all bathrooms and changing rooms to the general public,” Moore said in a statement. “I join my conservative colleagues and Governor McCrory in exploring legislative intervention to correct this radical course,” he added. Civil rights groups rejected the public safety concerns as overblown. They praised the council for passing what they said was the first ordinance in the state to prohibit discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people in public accommodations, including restaurants, hotels and taxis. Charlotte was one of the largest U.S. cities without a law explicitly protecting the LGBT community from discrimination, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights group based in Washington. The revised law takes effect on April 1.  “Charlotte has full authority to enact this ordinance, and we hope the General Assembly will respect this local government’s decision to protect its residents and visitors from discrimination,” said Sarah Preston, acting executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.  Voters in Houston, the fourth most populous U.S. city, last fall rejected a similar measure that would have banned discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation and let transgender men and women use bathrooms that corresponded with their gender identity.

Summary: ट्रांसजेंडर अधिकारों का विस्तार करने के लिए एन. सी. शहर के मतदान ने राज्य के विरोध को आकर्षित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday will call on the U.S. Labor Department to delay for 180 days the implementation of its fiduciary duty rule requiring brokers offering retirement investment advice to put their clients’ interest first, according to a draft memo seen by Reuters. The draft memo also calls for the Labor Department to conduct a legal and economic review of the rule. If the department then concludes the rule is out of step with the administration’s policies, the draft memo says the department should take steps to rescind it.

Summary: श्रम विभाग के 'प्रत्ययी' नियम में 180 दिनों की देरी का आदेश देंगे ट्रंप


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saad al-Hariri, who resigned from his post as Lebanon s prime minister on Nov. 4 from Saudi Arabia, reaffirmed on Wednesday he will return to Lebanon.  I want to repeat and affirm that I am perfectly fine and I will return, god willing, to dear Lebanon as I promised you, you ll see,  he wrote on Twitter.

Summary: ट्विटर पर हरीरी ने पुष्टि की कि वह लेबनान लौटेंगे


LONDON (Reuters) - Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, who has said he wants to be a bridge between the British government and the new U.S. administration, will attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month. Farage, who will attend the event as a guest of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, spoke at a Trump rally in Mississippi during the U.S. presidential campaign and was the first British politician to meet the president-elect after his victory, ahead of Prime Minister Theresa May. Farage spent decades campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union and helped to force then Prime Minister David Cameron to call the June 2016 referendum that resulted in the Brexit vote. Trump has said Farage - the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) - would be great as Britain’s envoy to Washington, but the British government has dismissed the suggestion. Asked if he would be attending Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Farage told Sky News: “I certainly am, I can’t wait.” “The governor of Mississippi has invited me and I’m there for a few days and it’s going to be a great, historic event. In America they’ve had a political revolution and it’s complete; the problem in Britain is our revolution is not complete because the same people are still in charge.”

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट प्रचारक फराज ट्रंप के उद्घाटन समारोह में शामिल होंगे


ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran harshly reacted to President Donald Trump s decision not to certify its nuclear deal with six major powers, and President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran might walk away if the continuing agreement does not serve the country s national interests. Defying Trump, Rouhani said Tehran will double its efforts to expand the country s defense capabilities, including the country s ballistic missile program despite the U.S. pressure to suspend it. Trump said in an address at the White House that he would not continue to certify the multinational agreement and warned he might ultimately terminate it.   No president can revoke an international deal ... Iran will continue to respect it as long as it serves our interests,  Rouhani said in a live television address, adding that Trump s speech was full of  insults and fake accusations  against Iranians.  While Trump did not pull the United States out of the agreement, aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, he gave the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the pact. That increases tension with Iran as well as putting Washington at odds with other signatories of the accord such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union, who say the U.S. cannot unilaterally cancel the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers .   The Iranian nation has not and will never bow to any foreign pressure... Iran s deal cannot be renegotiated,  Rouhani said. Trump announced the major shift in U.S. policy in a speech in which he detailed a more confrontational approach to Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and its support for extremist groups in the Middle East. Pragmatist Rouhani backed Iran s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), saying the IRGC will continue its fight against  regional terrorists.  The IRGC has always protected our nation against terrorists ... It will continue to help oppressed nations in the region,  Rouhani said. Iran accuses its regional rival Saudi Arabia of fuelling regional tension and the Sunni Muslim kingdom is at odds with Tehran s revolutionary Shi ite leaders in struggles across the Arab world, including Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon. The IRGC is Iran s most powerful security entity and wields control over large swathes of Iran s economy as well as considerable influence within its political system.

Summary: रूहानी का कहना है कि ईरान परमाणु समझौते में तभी रहेगा जब वह हितों की पूर्ति करेगाः टीवी


KAMPALA (Reuters) - At least five Ugandan lawmakers received hospital treatment for injuries sustained while being dragged out of the parliament by plain-clothes security guards that opposition MPs said were really soldiers from President Yoweri Museveni s special forces. The clashes erupted in the chamber on Tuesday and Wednesday over a motion to end a constitutional limit on the president s age, effectively allowing 73-year-old Museveni, one of Africa s most entrenched  Big Men , to extend his 31 years in power.    Reinforcing lawmakers  suggestions that soldiers had been involved in the incidents, television footage showed Uganda s special forces commander was in parliament just before dozens of MPs were forcibly removed. Ugandan authorities have not commented on the suggestions. Rights groups denounced the incidents as a violation of the parliament s bar on police or soldiers entering the chamber.  In effect what happened was an overthrow of the constitutional order,  said Nicholas Opiyo, a Kampala-based human rights lawyer and political analyst. One of the ejected MPs, Gaffa Mbwatekamwa, sported a cracked left arm in bandages and a sling as he described his ordeal.  These guys grabbed me from behind and one twisted my arm. I started screaming and another one squeezed my balls,  he told Reuters at a Kampala hospital where he was visiting a fellow injured legislator. He and other MPs said they had also been punched and kicked by the security guards. Mbwatekamwa added that some of the alleged guards were recognized as members of the armed forces. That claim was backed up by footage aired on Thursday by the private NTV Uganda channel of Special Forces Command (SFC) Colonel Don Nabasa pacing the corridors of parliament moments before the security guards burst into the chamber. Police chief Kale Kayihura also told the NBS television channel police had enlisted the help of  sister  security agencies to clear parliament, a term frequently used by police to refer to the armed forces. Police spokesman Asan Kasigye denied legislators had been beaten by security personnel. A spokesman for the Special Forces Command said he could not comment beyond the statement from the police chief. U.S. ambassador Deborah Malac criticized the  rough treatment  of the lawmakers and said she expected them to be treated  humanely . Despite the growing cries of autocracy against Museveni, Washington has backed him as a strongman who has turned Uganda into a bulwark of stability in Africa s troubled Great Lakes region. Nabasa s predecessor as head of the special forces was Museveni s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who many Ugandans believe is being groomed as a successor to his father. Uganda s next election is in 2021. Museveni s moves to extend his term mirror similar attempts in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, where they have sparked serious political instability, including armed insurrection.

Summary: युगांडा के विशेष बलों पर संसद से सांसदों को बाहर निकालने का आरोप


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday a policy of engagement with Cuba has financially benefited the island’s government in violation of U.S. law, further fueling expectations that President Donald Trump this week will roll back parts of former President Barack Obama’s opening to Havana. Speaking ahead of Trump’s expected trip to Miami on Friday to announce his new Cuba policy, Tillerson insisted that Havana “must begin to address human rights challenges” if it wants Washington to continue normalizing relations between the Cold War-era foes. Tillerson, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, acknowledged that rapprochement with the communist-ruled island has led to an increase in U.S. visitors and U.S. business ties. However, Tillerson added: “We think we have achieved very little in terms of changing the behavior of the regime in Cuba .... and it has little incentive today to change that.” His comments came as Trump’s aides sought to finalize rules that, according to U.S. officials and people familiar with the discussions, are likely to bar U.S. trade with Cuban enterprises linked to the military – which controls a large part of the economy – and tighten some rules on Americans traveling there.  But the new policy will stop short of closing embassies or breaking off relations re-established in 2015 after more than five decades of hostility, the sources said. In his speech, Trump is expected to claim fulfillment of a campaign promise to the Cuban-American community to tighten the screws on the government of Cuban President Raul Castro. While Tillerson declined to confirm any details, he left no doubt that the Trump administration was prepared to undo some pieces of Obama’s policy that it sees as boosting the Cuban government financially, which would violate U.S. law. “As we’re developing these business relationships and as we’re enjoying the benefits on the economic and development side, are we inadvertently or directly providing financial support to the regime? Our view is we are,” Tillerson said. “And the question is ... how how do we bring that back into compliance with longstanding statutory obligations” he said. Many of Trump’s fellow Republicans, and some Democrats, objected to Obama’s policy shift, saying he gave too much for too few concessions from Cuba. But Obama’s measures have proven popular with the public, U.S. businesses and many lawmakers from both parties. Tillerson agreed that moves toward more normal relations with the United States have helped some Cubans lift themselves out of poverty and provided opportunities for U.S. companies. However, Tillerson said there is a “dark side” to relations with Cuba, noting that the government in Havana continues to jail political opponents and harass dissidents. “We are supportive of the continued economic development, as long as it is done in full compliance with our existing statutes to not provide financial support to the regime,” Tillerson said. “That’s the focus of our current policy review.” But divisions remain within the Trump administration over how far to go. Some aides have argued that Trump, a former real estate magnate who won the presidency promising to unleash U.S. business and create jobs, would have a hard time defending any moves that close off the Cuban market. But other advisers have contended that it is important to make good on a promise to Cuban-Americans whose support they considered significant in winning Florida in the 2016 election. Miami is home to the largest Cuban-American community. One proposal under consideration, according to the U.S. sources, would tighten enforcement to make sure Americans legally fit the authorized categories they claim to be traveling under. Another tougher change being weighed would revert to regulations requiring at least some types of U.S. travelers to seek a special license to travel to Cuba. However, airline officials say they do not expect the Trump administration to revoke any flights to Cuba approved by the Obama administration but said new measures to restrict visits to Cuba could result in less demand for seats.

Summary: टिलरसन ने क्यूबा पर ट्रंप प्रशासन के सख्त रुख का संकेत दिया


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine troops on Tuesday killed a pro-Islamic State gunman in the southern city of Marawi, a military official said, eight days after the government declared the end of hostilities. Soldiers have focused on securing Marawi against surviving militant fighters since ending five months of operations against Islamic State-inspired militants who seized control of parts of the city in May, in a bid to win a foothold in the region. The conflict displaced about 350,000 residents and killed more than 1,100 people, mostly militants, stirring concern that the southern Philippines is becoming Islamic State s hub in  Southeast Asia.     The military engaged in a gunfight with one of the suspected remaining gunmen in the main battle area, after foiling his bid to escape, army spokesman Colonel Romeo Brawner said.  We still have to put in troops, because there s a possibility for stragglers,  Brawner told a news conference in Marawi.  In the main battle area, there are many possible hiding spots.  Indonesians, Malaysians and Middle Easterners were among the fighters who flocked to Marawi to support the Islamic State s emirate in Southeast Asia. Thousands of Marawi residents have started returning home, only for some to find dwellings ransacked. Brawner said an army official and five more personnel were detained in barracks after being charged with looting. The main battle area in downtown Marawi remains off limits, pending the removal of booby traps and unexploded ordnance.

Summary: फिलीपींस की सेना ने मरावी में भाग रहे इस्लामी आतंकवादी को मार गिराया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump stressed to the emir of Qatar the importance of unity in fighting terrorism, the White House said on Friday, a day after the U.S. president offered to mediate the Gulf country s dispute with its Arab neighbors. In a telephone call Thursday with the emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani,  The President underscored the importance of all countries following through on commitments from the Riyadh Summit to maintain unity while defeating terrorism, cutting off funding for terrorist groups, and combating extremist ideology,  the White House said. They also discussed the continued threat Iran poses to regional stability, it said.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने खाड़ी एकता, आतंकवाद की लड़ाई पर कतर के अमीर से बात कीः व्हाइट हाउस


PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron told Israel s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that he needed to make gestures to the Palestinians to enable to break the impasse between the two sides.    Netanyayu was in Paris ahead of a meeting with EU foreign ministers on Monday when they will try present a unified front after U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  While condemning all acts of terrorism against Israel, Macron said that he told Netanyahu that he was against Trump s decision, which was a  dangerous threat to peace.   I asked Prime Minister Netanyuhu to make some courageous gestures toward the Palestinians to get out of the current impasse,  he said, suggesting that a freeze of settlement construction could be s first step.  He reaffirmed that France believed that a two-state solution was the only viable option to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. European countries, like most nations, have criticized the Trump administration s decision last week which reversed decades of U.S. policy. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as capital of a future independent state. Most countries have maintained the position that decisions about Jerusalem s status should be left to future negotiations. The Trump administration argues that any future peace deal is likely to place Israel s capital in Jerusalem, and old policies need to be abandoned to revive the moribund peace process.  Netanyahu responded to Macron by saying that once the Palestinians recognized the  reality  that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, it would enable peace efforts sooner.  The most important thing about peace is first of all to recognize that the other side has a right to exist,  he said.  One of the manifestations of this refusal is the mere refusal to sit down with Israel.  Here is the gesture I offer .. to Mr Abbas to sit down and negotiate peace. That s a gesture for peace. Nothing could be simpler,  he said, referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Macron said that he did not expect any breakthrough in the short-term, but it was important to see what a proposed U.S. peace initiative expected early next year would look like before writing Washington off as a mediator in the conflict.  I don t think we need more initiatives,  Macron said, ruling out a new French mediation effort after holding a peace conference in Paris last January. When asked about discontent across the region over Trump s decision, including harsh criticism from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Netanyahu said he would not be given morality lectures by the Turkish leader. He said that many Arab nations were increasingly aligned with Israel to tackle Iran s regional threat.   Many Arab countries recognize that Israel is not their enemy but their indispensable ally,  he said.  Countries in the region who do not have formal relations with us yet. Those can grow, but it doesn t mean there will be a formal peace without some progress with the Palestinians.   Netanyahu said he sought to use closer ties with Arab countries to isolate extremists and counter Iran.  What Iran is trying to do is to entrench itself militarily with land, air and naval forces in Syria with the express purpose of fighting and destroying Israel. We will not tolerate that and we back up our words with actions,  he said.

Summary: मैक्रों ने नेतन्याहू से शांति गतिरोध को तोड़ने के लिए इशारे करने को कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a final push on Tuesday to persuade Congress to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite strong opposition from lawmakers who do not want detainees transferred to the United States. The president, a Democrat, pressed the Republican-led legislature to give his proposal a “fair hearing” and said he did not want to pass the issue to his successor in January. The Pentagon-authored plan proposes 13 potential sites on U.S. soil to hold some 30-60 detainees in maximum-security prisons but does not identify the facilities. U.S. law bars transfers to the United States, and lawmakers are unlikely to lift those restrictions, especially in an election year. “We’ll review President Obama’s plan,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “But since it includes bringing dangerous terrorists to facilities in U.S. communities, he should know that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal.” Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said Obama had yet to convince Americans that moving the prisoners to the United States was smart or safe. Obama is considering taking executive action to close the facility, situated in a U.S. naval station in southeast Cuba, if Congress does not change its position. The White House declined to rule out a unilateral option on Tuesday. Republicans oppose any executive order, and issuing one would almost certainly generate legal challenges. The Guantanamo prisoners were rounded up overseas when the United States became embroiled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The facility came to symbolize aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. Most detainees have been held without trial for more than a decade. “Let us go ahead and close this chapter,” Obama said at the White House. “I don’t want to pass this problem on to the next president, whoever it is. And if, as a nation, we don’t deal with this now, when will we deal with it?” Obama pledged as a presidential candidate in 2008 to close Guantanamo. Doing so would fulfill that pledge and boost his legacy during his final year in office. Pressing his case now thrust the issue into the 2016 presidential campaign. “Not only are we not going to close Guantanamo - when I am president, if we capture a terrorist alive, they are ... going to Guantanamo and we are going to find out everything they know,” said Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio. The plan would send detainees who have been cleared for transfer to their homelands or third countries and transfer remaining prisoners to U.S. soil to be held in maximum-security prisons. Congress has banned such transfers to the United States since 2011.      Though the Pentagon has previously noted some of the sites it surveyed for use as potential U.S. facilities, the administration wants to avoid fueling any political outcry in important swing states before the Nov. 8 presidential election. Republican Senator John McCain, Obama’s 2008 presidential opponent and an advocate of closing the prison, scoffed at the plan as not being focused. “Thirteen different possible sites. That’s a recommendation?” he said. The White House has sought to buttress its argument for closing the prison by focusing on its high cost. Obama said nearly $450 million was spent last year alone to keep it running. The new plan would be cheaper, officials said. The transfer and closure costs would be $290 million to $475 million, an administration official told reporters, while housing remaining detainees in the United States would be $65 million to $85 million less expensive than at the Cuba facility, meaning the transfer bill would be offset in 3 to 5 years. The administration hopes sending the plan to Congress will spur lawmakers to help choose a facility they find amenable, but the White House is well aware the plan may not move at all. “I am very clear-eyed about the hurdles to finally closing Guantanamo. The politics of this are tough,” Obama said. “Part of my message to the American people here is we’re already holding a bunch of really dangerous terrorists here in the United States ... and there have been no incidents.  We’ve managed it just fine.” The Guantanamo facility, which Obama said once held nearly 800 people, now houses 91 detainees. Some 35 prisoners will be transferred to other countries in the coming months, bringing the final number below 60, officials said. More prisoners could be transferred other countries as well, potentially lowering that number further. Obama said military commissions would continue to be used to try some of the prisoners, but he said that process also required reform. Obama noted that his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush, transferred hundreds of prisoners out of Guantanamo and wanted it closed.

Summary: ओबामा ने ग्वांतानामो को बंद करने के लिए कांग्रेस को मनाने का अंतिम प्रयास किया


WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Support for New Zealand s National Party has surged, a poll published on Tuesday suggests, indicating the ruling party will grab enough votes at looming national elections to govern. The Newshub-Reid poll is the latest twist in the rollercoaster ride of New Zealand s electoral campaign, coming just weeks after a separate poll showed support for the opposition Labour Party surging above the Nationals. That had given rise to speculation that Labour would return to power as the lead of a coalition government after almost a decade in opposition. The unusual volatility has been giving investors jitters.. The New Zealand dollar, the 11th most traded currency in the world in 2016, jumped to $0.7265 after the poll was released from $0.7224. The Newshub-Reid poll showed backing for the National Party up 4 points at 47.3 percent and, in a double whammy for Labour, showed the opposition party s support down 1.6 points at 37.8 percent.  It s a huge setback for Labour,  said Bryce Edwards, Wellington-based analyst at Critical Politics.  It really just shows how volatile this election campaign is.  The National Party has vowed to support free trade as global protectionism rises, in particular, by championing the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, which Labour has said it would renegotiate.  The surprisingly strong result for National suggested it might not need the nationalist New Zealand First Party, long considered the likely kingmaker, to form a government at the Sept. 23 election. Labour changed its leader last month in a bid to jolt life into its struggling campaign, appointing 37-year-old Jacinda Ardern. That last-minute gamble had appeared to be paying off with Labour climbing dramatically in previous polls. An average of previous polls, compiled by Radio New Zealand on Friday, showed Labour s support had surpassing National s. The latest Newshub-Reid poll suggested that the two minor parties traditionally needed to form a coalition government would not have a role to play this time around. New Zealand First, led by populist politician Winston Peters, slipped 0.6 points to 6 percent. The Green Party, which is aligned with Labour for a potential coalition, fell to 4.9 percent, below the 5 percent threshold needed to gain seats in parliament.

Summary: सत्तारूढ़ नेशनल्स ने न्यूजीलैंड के चुनाव अभियान में समर्थन हासिल किया


(Reuters) - The Obama Administration plans to increase the number of refugees admitted to the United States by 30 percent in fiscal year 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an annual refugee report submitted to Congress.  Secretary of State John Kerry presented the new target of 110,000 in the 2017 fiscal year starting Oct. 1, up from 85,000 in 2016, during a closed session to members of the House and Senate judiciary committees on Tuesday, according to the newspaper.  Kerry has said repeatedly over the past year that the United States would admit at least 100,000 refugees in fiscal 2017 and try to admit more if it were able.

Summary: ओबामा की अमेरिका में भर्ती शरणार्थियों की संख्या बढ़ाने की योजनाः मीडिया


NICOSIA (Reuters) - Two boats crowded with 305 Syrian refugees arrived in Cyprus overnight, police said on Sunday, one of the largest group landings of migrants to the island since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011. The vessels were tracked sailing to the north-west of the island and were thought to have set off from the Turkish coastal city of Mersin.   For their safety they were towed to harbor,  a police spokesman said. One of the vessels had been taking in water, the spokesman added. Cyprus is the closest European Union member state to Syria, yet many fleeing conflict have largely avoided the island because it has no direct easy access to the rest of the continent.  The single largest group arrival since the Syrian conflict started was 345 people who were rescued in September 2014.  Police said they were questioning a 36 year old Syrian man believed to have been steering one of the vessels. The others would be taken to a reception center west of the capital, Nicosia.  The Syrians, who included many minors, appeared in good health. A woman and her infant were taken to hospital for precautionary reasons, the spokesman added.

Summary: 300 से अधिक सीरियाई शरणार्थियों को बचाया गया, वे साइप्रस पहुंचे


LONDON (Reuters) - While many Kenyans fear Thursday s election re-run will provoke serious trouble, foreign investors are cautiously confident that the country s debt can ride out the crisis, although they remain hesitant about local stocks. Their base scenario is that the vote can conclude largely smoothly. However, given that Kenya s external debt is rated B+ but trading at levels more akin to bonds with ratings two notches lower, this means assets have already adjusted to the uncertainty and any negative surprises may have less of an impact. And Nairobi s $1.5 billion stand-by facility deal with the International Monetary Fund provides additional comfort. East Africa s largest economy has slipped into turmoil since a Supreme Court ruling annulled the result of presidential elections in August. Matters worsened when opposition leader Raila Odinga quit the re-run against incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta.  In the very, very near term ... with the ruling we had in September, the period of uncertainty was extended to up until this point,  said Diana Amoa, portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management.  But the outlook going forward - once we get past this period - should be a positive one.  Police clashed with opposition supporters on Thursday and gangs of youths prevented voting in some towns. A handful of polling officials who pitched up to work in Kisumu, the scene of major ethnic violence after a disputed election in 2007, cowered behind closed doors, unable to distribute any voting material. However, the government said the security situation was by and large  OK , with polling stations open in over 90 percent of the country. For funds active in Africa and across frontier markets - a sub-set of riskier, smaller developing countries - the $55 billion Kenyan economy has been a firm part of their portfolios. The country s $2.75 billion in dollar-denominated bonds  maturing in 2019 KE102895185= and 2024 KE102895240= form part of major emerging market debt benchmarks and frontier indexes .JPMEGDR .JPMNG.  Year-to-date, Kenyan dollar bonds .JPMEGKENR .JPMEGDKENR have chalked up solid returns of more than 12 percent compared with nearly 9 percent on the index .JPMEGR .JPMEGDR. However, the political stand-off has blunted economic growth in Kenya, which has been largely stable since the violence a decade ago.  Kenyan debt has still underperformed its peers, said Gabriele Foa, a strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He noted that yield premiums over U.S. debt had not narrowed as much as those on other sub-Saharan debt.  When you look at the spreads with Angola, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, that has been widening over this year,  said Foa, who has an  overweight  rating on Kenya s dollar bonds.  We saw a compression in line with the region, but Kenya is definitely lagging.   Still, investors are also upbeat on the local government bond market, worth 1,387 billion shillings ($13.4 billion). The Kenyan shilling has been broadly unshaken by the political events, softening just over 1 percent since the start of the year. Previous experience points towards the shilling bouncing back swiftly. When violence ripped through the country following the 2007 elections, the shilling fell about 15 percent against the dollar, but recovered to pre-vote levels within three months.  Any softness in the currency, coupled with low foreign positioning overall in those assets, made local debt attractive, said JPMorgan s Amoa. Investors in Kenya s $22.3 billion stock market have been more cautious. While the Nairobi Stock Exchange All Share Index .NASI has risen around 17 percent since the start of the year in dollar terms, the gains fall well short of the 30 percent jump across emerging equities .MSCIEF more broadly.   Foreign investors have been generally in wait-and-see mode with some net selling at the margin,  said Hasnain Malik, head of equity research at Exotix Capital. The percentage of Nairobi-listed stocks owned by foreigners has edged down to 21 percent in 2017 from a peak of 22.5 percent in 2013. Yet those waiting on the sidelines may well be happy to return if and when the political impasse has been resolved.   Kenya is the great hope for investors in Africa as a non-commodity producing country, which has the potential to industrialize ahead of its peers, with money going into railways, roads and ports,  said Daniel Salter, head of equity strategy at Renaissance Capital.   It is a country that investors want to like, but what they don t like is the current uncertainty.

Summary: केन्या के विदेशी ऋण निवेशकों ने चुनावी उथल-पुथल को शांति से लिया


WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Three of the 19 Democratic state attorneys general who joined Washington state’s legal challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban are making a politically tricky maneuver: they are from states that went for Trump in the November election. The attorneys general of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Iowa - key states for Trump in his presidential election victory - say they signed on to the legal action seeking to overturn the travel restrictions because of the potential impact of the presidential order on their states.  “When someone says to me you’re doing this in a state that Trump won,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro told Reuters, his response is: “Trump is doing this in a state that I won.” Pennsylvania was a crucial swing state in the 2016 election between Trump, a Republican, and Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Trump ended up winning the state with nearly 3 million votes. On the same night Shapiro, a Democrat, won 86,000 more votes than Trump to become the state’s attorney general.  Shapiro said political considerations played no role in his decision to help coordinate a Democratic legal response on the Trump travel ban, which he believes is unconstitutional. If Trump enacts policies that enhance the rights of Pennsylvanians, Shapiro said he would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with him. Charlie Gerow, a Republican political strategist in Pennsylvania, said he doubts Shapiro took much of a risk in opposing Trump’s order, in part because he was just elected and voters likely will not care in four years when he runs again. “My guess is he believes that it is important to his base that he be perceived as a leader in this fight,” Gerow said. Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order barred entry to the United States to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and imposed a 120-day halt on all refugees, except refugees from Syria, who are barred indefinitely.  Washington state challenged the legality of the order, claiming it discriminated against Muslims, and a Seattle federal judge suspended the order on Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is now reviewing that ruling. Just two of the nation’s Democratic attorneys general did not sign on to the fight, and both were from deeply Republican states where the political risk was potentially greater.  Jim Hood, Mississippi’s attorney general since 2004, told Reuters budget concerns kept him from joining with his colleagues in other states on the legal action.  But he said he was “grateful to these attorneys general for carrying the fight on this important issue.” Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear, who won his election by just 2,000 votes in 2015, said in a statement that he declined to join his colleagues because “when you join in other large groups that make statements, you lose your own particular voice.” As for his own views, Beshear said as a Christian he believes “we have a duty to help families facing terrorism and oppression,” but he did not say whether he thought Trump’s order was illegal. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, was elected by a slim margin of 20,000 votes on the same night that Trump took the state with nearly 200,000 votes more than Clinton.  Stein, previously a state senator, said he decided to sign on because Trump’s order is hurting his state.  “I ran for the position of attorney general to protect the people of North Carolina,” he told Reuters. “I did not run to engage in battle with the federal government.”  Tom Miller, Iowa’s attorney general since 1995, told Reuters he supported Washington state in the fight but did not expect to take a lead. He said he hoped to identify areas to work with Republican attorneys general, none of whom have so far made any court filings over the Trump travel ban. “One of the areas I will be looking at in particular is consumer protection,” Miller said. Dave ‘Mudcat’ Saunders, a Democratic political strategist in rural Virginia, said attorneys general in swing states are unlikely to pay a high price for opposing Trump on immigration. “They aren’t going to gain any votes. They’re going to satisfy their base,” he said. “The people who are going to get pissed off about it weren’t going to vote for them anyway.”  For graphic on states seeking to block Trump's travel ban, click tmsnrt.rs/2kncgd0

Summary: यात्रा प्रतिबंध से लड़ना ट्रम्प राज्यों में डेमोक्रेटिक अधिकारियों के लिए जुआ है


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s plan to make it easier for small businesses to band together and buy stripped-down health insurance plans could violate a federal law governing employee benefit plans and will almost certainly be challenged in court, legal experts said. Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at letting small businesses join nationwide associations for the purpose of buying large-group health plans that are not subject to coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Industry experts said Trump’s order could ultimately enable such associations to purchase insurance from states with the fewest regulations. That would undermine Obamacare, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, which Republicans have failed to repeal. Several healthcare and employment law experts said if Trump’s plan moves forward, states could argue the federal government had overstepped its authority in violation of the U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a law that governs large-group plans. In Thursday’s order, Trump asked the Department of Labor to propose rules that would allow more employers to participate in association health plans. Legal experts said lawsuits might not be brought until such regulations are issued. Dania Palanker, an assistant research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, said ERISA granted states the right to regulate association health plans.  Attorneys general could argue the federal government had overreached if the Trump administration winds up allowing associations to buy health coverage across borders that only complies with a single state’s regulations.  “Any attempt to allow the sale of association plans to small groups across state lines will be open to legal scrutiny as to whether it is violating ERISA and undermining state authority,” said Palanker. A White House official said that “departments will be drafting rules in a way that minimizes litigation risk.” The Department of Labor “will be reviewing ERISA in the course of following the President’s direction” in the order, the official said. A number of state attorneys general from Democratic-leaning states said on Thursday they would fight any efforts to weaken Obamacare, which extended health insurance to 20 million Americans, but which Republicans call intrusive and ineffective. “It should come as no surprise that California is prepared to fight in court to protect affordable healthcare for its people,” said Xavier Becerra, the state’s Democratic attorney general. Legal experts said states may argue the associations formed for the purpose of buying insurance are not employers under ERISA. Although ERISA allows associations to qualify as employers and manage large-group plans, federal regulators have generally required that members of such associations have a high degree of common interest beyond buying insurance, said Allison Hoffman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. Trump’s order asks the secretary of labor, who enforces ERISA, to consider expanding the common-interest requirements to permit broader participation in association health plans. SHORT-TERM PLANS The idea of expanding association health plans across state lines has long been championed by Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul, who made it a key plank of his own proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare. The Kentucky Republican was at Trump’s side when the president signed the executive order. Paul’s proposal said ERISA was too restrictive in its definition of associations and that the law needed to be amended.  Thursday’s order also asked the Labor, Treasury and Health and Human Services Departments to look into expanding participation in cheaper, bare-bones, short-term limited-duration insurance plans, which are not subject to the ACA. Timothy Jost, a professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, said such a move would face fewer legal hurdles than the expansion of association health plans. The current three-month limitation on the use of such plans was a rule adopted by the Obama administration last year, so the Trump administration could roll it back through the normal rulemaking process. Such plans are typically marketed to individuals who are between jobs or have a gap in coverage. They are much cheaper than ACA plans, but cover less and can exclude those with pre-existing conditions.

Summary: ट्रम्प का स्वास्थ्य सेवा आदेश सेवानिवृत्ति योजना कानून का उल्लंघन कर सकता है


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The result of Honduras  presidential election remained in limbo on Tuesday, with a gregarious TV host s surprise lead narrowing sharply, prompting him to call on supporters to take to the streets of the capital to defend the vote. President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who won U.S. praise for helping tackle the flow of migrants and deporting drug cartel leaders, was favored to win before Sunday s vote in the poor Central American nation with one of the world s highest murder rates. But a delayed, partial count on Monday morning pointed toward an unexpected victory for TV entertainer Salvador Nasralla, 64. Inexplicably, election authorities then stopped giving results for more than 24 hours. When, under mounting criticism from international election monitors over a lack of transparency, the electoral tribunal began updating its website again, the tendency rapidly began to change. In a television interview on Tuesday evening, an angry Nasralla said the election was being stolen from him and asked his supporters to flock to the capital, Tegucigalpa, to protest.   We ve already won the election,  he said.  I m not going to tolerate this, and as there are no reliable institutions in Honduras to defend us, tomorrow the Honduran people need to defend the vote on the streets.  The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (EOM/OAS) in Honduras urged people to remain calm and wait for official results, which it said should be delivered as quickly and transparently as possible.   The credibility of the electoral authorities and the legitimacy of the future president depend on this,  it said in a statement.   On Tuesday evening, Nasralla s original five-point lead had thinned to under 2 percentage points, with nearly 71 percent of ballots counted, according to the election tribunal. Nasralla said in a later television interview that the election tribunal was only counting ballots from regions where Hernandez had won, skewing the results and giving the false sense that the president was heading for victory. He asked the tribunal to include ballots from regions where he was stronger.  A self-described centrist, Nasralla headed a center-left coalition called the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, and claimed victory on Monday - as did Hernandez. Election official Marcos Ramiro Lobo told Reuters on Monday afternoon that Nasralla was leading by a margin of five points, with about 70 percent of ballots counted.  Lobo said Nasralla appeared certain to win, signaling that experts at the electoral body regarded his lead as irreversible. On Tuesday, Hernandez reiterated that he had won, and refused to concede, telling supporters they should wait for final results. After Hernandez spoke, thousands of his blue-clad supporters gathered outside the presidential residence to celebrate his supposed victory.  We won the election with Juan Orlando Hernandez, and we won t let them remove him from power,  said 35-year-old housewife Maria Aguirre, who hailed from a rough neighborhood on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. The election tribunal s delay was due to difficult negotiations between Hernandez s National Party and Nasralla s alliance, according to two European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity. Behind closed doors, the parties were discussing immunity from prosecution for current officials and how to carve up positions in government, the diplomats said. In an interview on Tuesday, Nasralla denied he was in talks with the National Party. He vowed to review whether to keep a base stationed with U.S. troops if he wins the election, but also promised to deepen security co-operation. Hernandez s National Party appears set to retain control of Congress in the election, giving it the second-most important perch in the country.      The European Union s chief observer for the election, Marisa Matias, urged election officials to maintain an open channel of communication as they finalized the results. The electoral body had been so certain Hernandez would win that it showed unprecedented transparency during the contest, one of the diplomats said. That left the body with little room to maneuver when Nasralla came from nowhere to take a strong lead.         With a booming voice and finely coiffed hair, Nasralla is one of the country s best known faces as the host of game shows that feature scantily clad women by his side.      He is backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in 2009 after he proposed a referendum on his re-election. The possible return to a position of influence for one-time leftist Zelaya risks fuelling concern in Washington. The United States has longstanding military ties to Honduras and few ideological allies among the current crop of Central American presidents. Hernandez, 49, was credited with lowering the murder rate and boosting the economy, but he was also hurt by accusations of ties to illicit, drug-related financing that he denies. His bid for a second term, which was made possible by a 2015 Supreme Court decision on term limits, divided opinion in the coffee-exporting nation of 9 million people.

Summary: टीवी स्टार ने होंडुरास के मतदान में अपनी बढ़त कम होने पर विरोध का आग्रह किया