TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras  two main opposition parties on Friday presented formal requests to annul the results of the still-unresolved presidential election, deepening a political crisis that has roiled the poor, violent Central American nation. The Nov. 26 vote has been marred by accusations of electoral fraud, sparking protests, a widespread curfew and a growing chorus of international concern over the situation in Honduras, which has one of the world s highest murder rates.  Opposition leader Salvador Nasralla, who trails conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez by 1.6 percentage points according to the widely criticized official count, arrived at the election tribunal shortly before the midnight deadline to present his center-left coalition s request.   We re asking for the result to be declared null at the presidential level, due to the scandalous fraud we have discovered,  Nasralla said.  Earlier, Octavio Pineda, the secretary of the third-placed Liberal Party, presented a similar document, saying the vote should be annulled due to a violation of constitutional norms.  There have been violations since the president of the republic was allowed to participate in the electoral process when the constitution prohibited it,  Pineda said. The Liberal Party s candidate, Luis Zelaya, has repeatedly said Nasralla won the election. Hernandez s 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. The election has been plagued with problems since voting stations closed.  The tribunal declared Nasralla the leader in an announcement on the morning after the vote, with just over half of the ballot boxes counted. However, it gave no further updates for about 36 hours. Once results then started flowing again, Nasralla s lead quickly started narrowing, sparking a major outcry.  On Thursday, tribunal chief David Matamoros said there would be a re-count of 4,753 ballot boxes that arrived after the 36-hour pause, and which the opposition has claimed are tainted. The OAS, which on Wednesday said it may call for new  elections if  irregularities  undermine the credibility of results, had previously called for a recount of those 4,753 ballot boxes.  Marlon Ochoa, Nasralla s campaign manager, reiterated that the coalition wants a full recount of the complete 18,000-odd ballot boxes. On Wednesday, Nasralla said he no longer recognized the Honduran tribunal because of its role in the process. The tribunal has 10 days to respond to the requests.

Summary: होंडुरास के विपक्षी दलों ने विवादित चुनाव को रद्द करने की मांग की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is preparing to lift decades-old economic sanctions against Sudan, citing improvement on human rights and progress on counter-terrorism, a U.S. official said on Thursday. President Donald Trump s administration is expected to announce its decision as early as Friday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Shortly before leaving office, former President Barack Obama temporarily eased penalties that had been in place for 20 years against the African nation. In July, the Trump administration postponed for three months a decision on whether to remove the sanctions completely, setting up an Oct. 12 deadline. Lifting the sanctions, which is opposed by some human rights advocates, will suspend a trade embargo, unfreeze assets and remove financial restrictions that have hobbled the Sudanese economy. It will also mark a major turnaround for the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who once played host to Osama bin Laden and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating genocide in Darfur. Sudan will remain, for now, on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism - alongside Iran and Syria - which carries a ban on weapons sales and restrictions on U.S. aid.  But the sanctions decision reflects a U.S. assessment that Sudan has made progress in meeting Washington s demands, including cooperation on counter-terrorism, working to resolve internal conflicts and allowing more humanitarian aid into Darfur and other rebellious border areas, the official said. U.S. officials also made clear in July their concern about Sudan s suspected ties to North Korea. The planned sanctions relief suggests that Khartoum has provided assurances it will abide by international sanctions against North Korea over its missile and nuclear programs, as Washington had urged. The White House declined comment. There was no immediate comment from the State Department. Sudan s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hamed Momtaz told Reuters on Wednesday in Khartoum:  Sudan has fulfilled all the necessary conditions relating to the roadmap, and the U.S. administration is a witness to that and therefore we expect the sanctions to be lifted.  Rights groups raised concerns that it would be premature to remove sanctions.  It s a serious mistake for these sanctions to be lifted permanently when Sudan has made no progress on human rights,  said Andrea Prasow, deputy director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch.  A government that continues to indiscriminately bomb its own population and imprison human rights activists shouldn t be rewarded.  Speaking before word of the U.S. decision, Al-Buraq al-Nazir al-Warraq, executive manager of the Sudanese Observatory for Human Rights, a group suspended by the government, said taking away sanctions could  pave the way  for further rights abuse by Sudan s government. The United States first imposed sanctions on Sudan in 1997, including a trade embargo and blocking the government s assets, for human rights violations and terrorism concerns.

Summary: अमेरिका सूडान पर प्रतिबंध हटाने के लिए तैयारः अधिकारी


RIYADH (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Abu Dhabi’s crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan discussed a series of regional conflicts in the Middle East in a private meeting ahead of a summit with Gulf leaders on Thursday, the White House said. Obama and the Crown Prince agreed on the need for a political settlement for the Yemen conflict, and the need to rally international support for Libya’s nascent government and to head off the “actions of potential spoilers” there, the White House said. (The story corrects headline to show it was Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, not UAE)

Summary: ओबामा और अबू धाबी के क्राउन प्रिंस ने यमन और लीबिया के संघर्षों पर चर्चा की


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican needs to bring cases of suspected money laundering to trial, a European finance watchdog urged on Friday, saying the good progress made by its financial regulators needed to be matched by judicial muscle. Moneyval, the monitoring body of the Council of Europe, said the Vatican s prosecutor also should be more  proactive  in other financial crimes, such as corruption, embezzlement or abuse of office, and  actively consider appealing sentences which he considers unduly lenient .  On the law enforcement side, after five years of development of (anti-money laundering legislation) it is somewhat surprising that no prosecution or indictment has so far been brought before the (Vatican) tribunal which involves a count of money laundering,  the report said. It said the success rate of the prosecutor before the Tribunal  is so far not encouraging . In a statement, the Vatican acknowledged  there are still areas for further improvement, in particular as regards law enforcement and the judicial side . Pope Francis has made cleaning up Vatican finances a priority since his election in 2013, and Holy See staff worked with the Moneyval evaluators. But his efforts appear to have hit obstacles in recent months. The Vatican s finance minister, Cardinal George Pell, has taken an indefinite leave of absence to face accusations of  historical sexual offences  in his native Australia. He denies them. In June, the Vatican s first auditor general resigned, and last week, the Vatican bank s deputy director general was fired under circumstances that the Vatican has not made clear. The 200-page report generally praised the work of the Vatican s financial intelligence authority, known by its Italian acronym AIF and headed by Swiss lawyer Rene Bruelhart. It said the number and quality of suspicious activity reports sent to the AIF by Vatican departments or individuals had increased significantly, meaning the bureaucratic reporting procedures  have steadily improved . The AIF passes on reports it deems worthy of further investigation to the prosecutor s office. But the report lamented the lack of prosecution in cases of suspected money laundering. In 2015, for example, an investigation was opened after an internal report said a department of the Holy See that oversees real estate and investments was used in the past for possible money laundering by Italian bankers, insider trading and market manipulation. The case still has not gone to trial. In April, Italy put the Vatican on its  white list  of states with cooperative financial institutions, ending years of mistrust. Hundreds of suspicious or dormant accounts at the Vatican bank, which was the officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) have been closed in recent years. The Moneyval report said the AIF s supervision of the IOR  is now firmly established .

Summary: वेटिकन को धन शोधन के मामलों को मुकदमे में लाना चाहिए, निगरानी एजेंसी ने कहा


PARIS (Reuters) - France’s foreign minister on Wednesday accused U.S. president-elect Donald Trump of showing a lack of respect toward China after comments that put into question the “one China” principle.    Trump said on Sunday the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of “one China”, further upsetting China which was already angered by Trump’s earlier telephone call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. “China is a big country. We can have our differences with China, but you don’t talk to a partner like that,” Jean-Marc-Ayrault told France 2 television. “When China feels questioned on its unity, that’s not exactly very clever.” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday any interference with or damage to the “one China” principle would have a serious impact on peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. The issue is highly sensitive for China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, and Beijing expressed “serious concern” about Trump’s remarks. “We need to avoid things spiraling out of control,” Ayrault said. “So I hope that the new team will have learnt enough so that we manage an uncertain world with more sang-froid and responsibility.”

Summary: फ्रांस के विदेश मंत्री ने कहा कि चीन को संभालने में ट्रंप का रवैया बहुत चतुराई भरा नहीं है।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An outside adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump called on Sunday for the firing of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager who still speaks regularly to the president, criticized a CFPB rule that would make it easier for consumers to sue financial companies. Currently, many consumers are required to settle disputes related to credit cards and other banking products through mandatory arbitration. “It’s my recommendation to the president of the United States to fire Richard Cordray,” Lewandowski told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The CFPB is the brainchild of Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. Created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, the bureau is charged with protecting consumers from predatory lending practices that were commonplace during the financial crisis. Under current law, the president can only fire Cordray for cause. The legal burden to show cause is high, and Cordray’s term does not expire until July 2018. Cordray is widely expected to run for governor in Ohio, though he has not announced any plans to do so. Lewandowski said Cordray’s potential political aspirations were part of the reason he should be ousted, saying “if he wants to run for governor of Ohio, go run for governor of Ohio, but don’t do so while you’re sitting in a federal office right now.” A CFPB spokesman did not have any immediate comment in response. Republicans fought the creation of the CFPB and have long complained the agency wields too much power without enough accountability to the president or Congress. They have accused it over imposing overly burdensome regulations that they say may unduly harm consumers. A U.S. appeals court is weighing a case involving whether the president should be allowed to fire Cordray at will, and not just for cause. If Trump were to remove Cordray prior to the court’s ruling, it would likely escalate the ongoing legal battle. When asked if his comments about the CFPB were driven by business interests he represents, Lewandowski said he had no clients with such interests before the agency. However, Lewandowski previously worked for Avenue Strategies, which is registered to lobby for Ohio-based payday lender Community Choice Financial.

Summary: ट्रम्प के बाहरी सलाहकार ने सी. एफ. पी. बी. के प्रमुख कॉर्ड्रे को बर्खास्त करने का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Banning Muslims from entering the United States is not in the nation’s interest, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday, standing in stark contrast to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to limit Muslim immigration. “I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country’s interests,” Ryan, the nation’s top elected Republican, told reporters, adding that people entering the country should face a “robust security test” but not a religious test.

Summary: मुस्लिमों पर प्रतिबंध अमेरिकी हितों में नहीं हैः अमेरिकी सदन के अध्यक्ष


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Secret Service is investigating a confrontation between a Time magazine photographer and a Secret Service agent at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Virginia, the White House said on Tuesday. “The Secret Service is working with local law enforcement to try to get to the bottom of what exactly happened,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a briefing. “The leadership of the Secret Service has indicated that they’ll take appropriate steps based on the conclusion of that investigation.”  The rally on Monday was interrupted by protesters, including some from the Black Lives Matter movement. A photographer who was trying to document their removal from the rally was grabbed by the neck and shoved to the ground by a U.S. Secret Service agent.  (Reporting by Clarece Polke; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: सीक्रेट सर्विस ट्रंप की रैली में हुई घटना की जांच कर रही हैः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang is a top contender to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under Republican President-elect Donald Trump, CNBC said on Tuesday.  Yang, who was appointed by fellow Republican former President George W. Bush for California’s Central District, was scheduled to meet with Trump on Monday in New York.

Summary: Ex-U.S. एस. ई. सी. का नेतृत्व करने के लिए कैलिफोर्निया के शीर्ष उम्मीदवार का वकीलः सी. एन. बी. सी.


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union nations, now unfettered by Britain s decision to quit, achieved a 70-year-old ambition on Thursday to integrate their defenses, launching a pact between 25 EU governments to fund, develop and deploy armed forces together. European Council President Donald Tusk deemed the move  bad news for our enemies . First blocked by the French parliament in the 1950s and later by Britain, which feared creation of an EU army, the pact aims to end the squandering of billions of euros by splintered defense policies. It is also aimed at lowering Europe s heavy reliance on the United States.  More than half a century ago, an ambitious vision of the European Defence Community was created but what was missing was the unity and courage to put it into practice,  Tusk, who chairs EU summits, said of the failed 1950s attempt.   The dream was at odds with reality. Today this dream becomes reality,  he said in a speech in front of EU leaders and military personnel from each of the 25 countries involved.  Denmark, which has an opt out from EU defense matters, and Malta, were the only EU countries not to sign up, along with Brexiting Britain. French President Emmanuel Macron, whose election victory in May gave new impetus to efforts to revive defense cooperation after Britons voted in 2016 to leave the bloc, hailed  concrete progress.  Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the pact would make the EU more agile abroad and would support NATO. The pact, called Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, is meant as a show of unity and a tangible step in EU integration, diplomats said, particularly after Britain s decision to leave. Caught off guard by Russia s Crimea annexation in 2014 and facing threats ranging from state-sponsored computer hackers to militant attacks, EU governments say the pact is justified by EU surveys showing most citizens want the bloc to provide security. EU governments proved unable to act as a group in the 1990s Balkan wars and relied on U.S.-led NATO to stop the bloodshed on their doorstep. In Libya in 2011, a Franco-British air campaign ran out of munitions and equipment and was again forced to turn to the United States, in what is considered an enduring embarrassment for the EU, a major economic power.  U.S. President Donald Trump s criticism of low European defense spending, a host of divisions on foreign policy, and Trump s warnings to allies that they could no longer rely on the United States if they did not pay up, have also played a role.  It s sad that we needed Donald Trump to give us a boost, but whatever, it is the right outcome,  said former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, who as minister backed NATO s intervention in Kosovo in 1999 but opposed the 2003 Iraq war. Unlike past attempts at European defense integration, NATO  backs the project, but NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who attended part of the summit, warned against duplication. Twenty-two EU countries are also members of NATO.  There has to be coherence between the capability developments of NATO and the European Union. We cannot risk ending up with conflicting requirements from the EU and from NATO to the same nations,  he told reporters.  Forces and capabilities developed under EU initiatives also have to be available for NATO because we only have one set of forces,  Stoltenberg said.  Issues remain about financing future EU missions. An EU defense fund, with money from the European Commission for the first time, still needs to be approved, although a pilot phase is already underway for defense research. In one irony noted by EU diplomats, British Prime Minister Theresa May, who attended the summit, was left seeking a way into the project now that it was an actuality.  A 1998 Anglo-French EU defense accord is considered the genesis of Thursday s agreement. In a possible compromise on PESCO, Britain may be able to join in later on, but only on an exceptional basis if it provides funds and expertise. Britain and France, both nuclear-armed, are Europe s two biggest military powers, and in 2010 set up a Combined Joint Expeditionary Force to cement long-standing ties in defense.  We do face a number of threats across Europe,  May said.  I m very clear that although the British people took a sovereign decision to leave the EU, that does not mean that we were going to be leaving our responsibilities in terms of European security,  she told reporters.

Summary: 'हमारे दुश्मनों के लिए बुरी खबर': यूरोपीय संघ ने रक्षा समझौता शुरू किया


(Reuters) - The  Great Firewall of China    the world s most extensive effort to try to control cyberspace   has become more formidable under President Xi Jinping.  Authorities have closed some video and audio streaming websites, limited online access to foreign and  foreign-inspired  television programs, stiffened penalties for  spreading rumor  via social media and restricted access to virtual private networks.  For the very wired  Class of 2012 , these measures are largely minor inconveniences. Some buy into the idea that the Internet needs to be closely managed. Others just find workarounds.  Here are their views on living with the Great Firewall.  Wang Siyue, a product specialist at an Internet education company:  "I'm sure these restrictions will exist in the short term, but over the long term they can't block the development of this industry domestically. I believe there will be even more internet companies and startup opportunities."  Zhang Weixuan, an assistant secretary at a software company:   For contemporary youth in China right now, our channels for information are broad, including the use of VPNs, or a variety of means through which we can be exposed to foreign news.    For me (blocking VPNs) won t have a great impact. Maybe for second- and third-tier cities, or for those young people who have never had the experience of going abroad, or whose English is not very good, they may be subject to the impact of the country s more stringent controls over propaganda.   Fu Shiwei, an assistant university teacher:   My students are very tech savvy so they help me solve things like looking up academic information or stay updated on global current affairs. I think it s okay. The government keeps everyone in line, so I don t have any strong opinions about the government.   Zuo Aining, a senior credit risk associate, based in Washington, D.C.:   I personally think that for the Internet, as a very open platform, certain strategies for oversight are very necessary ... what I m concerned about are things like terrorist attacks.    Maybe if you make better use of systems to supervise the Internet you ll have a more positive impact in terms of protecting national security.   Qin Lijuan, a senior wealth management consultant:   If I want some news I usually just ask friends abroad. I ve got a lot of classmates who are abroad, who studied there or are working there.   GRAPHIC: Great Firewall of China tmsnrt.rs/2kUuirU

Summary: इंटरनेटः चीन के महान फ़ायरवॉल के साथ रहना


(Reuters) - The U.S. Senate’s intelligence committee is seeking documents from Donald Trump Jr. and intends to call on him to testify before lawmakers, a Senate source told Reuters on Tuesday after Trump Jr. released an email chain citing Russian support for his father before last year’s U.S. election. The source said there is no date set yet to hear testimony from U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest son, and that the committee is in the process of sending Trump Jr. its request for information.

Summary: सीनेट का खुफिया पैनल ट्रंप जूनियर से गवाही मांगेगाः सीनेट सूत्र


BEIJING (Reuters) - The North Korean nuclear issue needs a peaceful resolution, Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call on Saturday, and called on the “relevant side” to exercise restraint, state television said. Trump issued a new threat to North Korea on Friday, saying the U.S. military was “locked and loaded”, as Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war and world powers expressed alarm. Xi told Trump that it was in the joint interests of both China and the United States to achieve the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and protect peace and stability there, state television said in a brief report. “The relevant side must at present exercise restraint, and avoid words and actions that exacerbate tensions on the Korean peninsula,” the report paraphrased Xi as saying. Resolving the nuclear issue ultimately needs to be done politically via talks, and China is willing to maintain communication with the United States on the basis of mutual respect to push for an appropriate resolution, Xi added. Chinese state television cited Trump as telling Xi that he fully understands the role China has been playing on the North Korean nuclear issue.

Summary: चीन के राष्ट्रपति शी जिनपिंग ने कहा, उत्तर कोरिया के परमाणु मुद्दे का शांतिपूर्ण समाधान जरूरी


BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil s top prosecutor on Friday charged six lawmakers from President Michel Temer s Brazilian Democracy Movement Party (PMDB) with forming a criminal organization, the latest in a barrage of charges in the country s sprawling corruption scandal. Those accused by prosecutor Rodrigo Janot in a filing with the Supreme Court include former senator and president Jose Sarney, the government s leader in the Senate Romero Juca and four other current senators. A corruption scandal involving cartels of companies bribing officials for public contracts has enveloped most of Brazil s political elite with Janot expected to issue another charge against Temer in coming weeks.  Temer defeated a first corruption charge from Janot, when the lower house of Congress voted not to allow it to proceed to trial. Separately on Friday, the Supreme Court said it would consider next week requests from Temer that would block Janot from issuing further charges. In the charges against the senators, Janot alleges the group  unduly received 864 million reais ($279.84 million) and generated related losses of 5.5 billion reais for state-controlled oil firm Petrobras and 113 million reais for its subsidiary Transpetro. Transpetro s former president, Sergio Machado, was also charged. The PMDB said in a statement that the prosecutor lacked evidence and that it trusted the Supreme Court would set the charges aside. Juca said in a statement he believes the Supreme Court will seriously analyze the charges and he hopes for a speedy investigation. A representative for Machado said he continues to collaborate with authorities, providing evidence of crimes involving politicians and Transpetro suppliers that resulted in several cases being filed. Janot s latest charges echo those against former presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff and six other members of the Workers Party for criminal organization earlier this week. Lula and Rousseff deny the charges. ($1 = 3.0875 reais)

Summary: ब्राजील के अभियोजक ने टेमर की पार्टी के सदस्यों पर आपराधिक संगठन का आरोप लगाया


WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration accused Russia on Tuesday of trying to shield Syria’s government from blame for a deadly gas attack, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson brought a Western message to Moscow condemning its support for President Bashar al-Assad. Trump, who has faced criticism for lacking a broader strategy to deal with the Syria crisis, insisted he has no plans to “go into” the war-torn country. Senior White House officials, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said Assad’s government carried out the April 4 sarin nerve gas attack on civilians in Syria’s Idlib province that killed 87 people, including many children, to put pressure on rebels making advances in the area. Russia has defended the Syrian leader against U.S. allegations that his forces carried out the attack, saying there was no evidence. Russia has blamed Syrian rebels. * COMMENTARY: Why Assad used chemical weapons  reut.rs/2o5FMEV * COMMENTARY: The worrying lessons of the Syria chemical attack reut.rs/2o6r55r “It’s clear that the Russians are trying to cover up what happened there,” one White House official said. White House spokesman Sean Spicer later told reporters that the facts backed up the U.S. version of events. “Russia is on an island when it comes to its support of Syria or its lack of, frankly, acknowledgment of what happened,” he told reporters. However, at the same briefing, Spicer drew criticism after he sought to underscore the ghastliness of the gas attack by saying: “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.” Nazi Germany used gas chambers to kill millions of Jews during the Holocaust. Spicer later apologized and said he should not have made the comparison. “It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it and I won’t do it again,” Spicer told CNN in an interview. “It was inappropriate and insensitive.” The White House officials said Russia has frequently offered multiple, conflicting accounts of Syrian government aggression including the incident in the village of Khan Sheikhoun to sow doubt within the international community. The United States launched 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield on Thursday to retaliate after the attack. The strikes thrust Trump, who came to power in January calling for warmer ties with Russia, and his administration into confrontation with Moscow. Chinese President Xi Jinping told Trump in a telephone call on Wednesday that “any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable” and urged a political solution for Syria, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said of the telephone exchange. “(We) must persevere with moving towards a political solution for the Syria issue. It is very important that the United Nations Security Council maintains unity on the Syria issue. (I) hope the Security Council can speak with a single voice,” CCTV cited Xi as saying.    Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Tuesday she thought Russia knew about the chemical attack in advance. “They didn’t look shocked. They didn’t look surprised. They were so quick to defend. And then the evidence comes out, and we see exactly what it is and we know exactly what the environment was. Then you realize,” she said on CNN. U.S. intelligence indicates that the chemical agent in the attack was delivered by Syrian Su-22 aircraft that took off from the Shayrat airfield, according to a White House report given to reporters. In a four-page document, the White House sought to rebut many of Moscow’s claims about the circumstances of the attack. It said the Syrian planes were in the vicinity of Khan Sheikhoun about 20 minutes before the attack and left shortly afterward. “Additionally, our information indicates personnel historically associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program were at Shayrat airfield in late March making preparations for an upcoming attack in northern Syria, and they were present at the airfield on the day of the attack,” the report said. Washington wants Russia to stop supporting Assad, who has been fighting a six-year-long civil war against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels, also with the backing of Shi’ite Muslim Iran. Tillerson carried a message from world powers to Moscow denouncing Russian support for Assad, as the Trump administration took on America’s traditional mantle as leader of a unified West. Tillerson earlier met foreign ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies and Middle Eastern allies in Italy. They endorsed a joint call for Russia to abandon Assad.         “It is clear to us the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end,” Tillerson told reporters in Italy. “We hope that the Russian government concludes that they have aligned themselves with an unreliable partner in Bashar al-Assad.” He said Russia had failed in its role as sponsor of a 2013 deal in which Assad promised to give up chemical weapons. Russia says the chemicals that killed civilians last week belonged to rebels, not Assad’s government, and accused the United States of an illegal aggression on a false pretext.  Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he believed Washington planned more missile strikes, and that rebels were planning to stage chemical weapons attacks to provoke them.  “We have information that a similar provocation is being prepared ... in other parts of Syria including in the southern Damascus suburbs where they are planning to again plant some substance and accuse the Syrian authorities of using” chemical weapons, Putin said. Trump denied further plans in Syria. “We’re not going into Syria,” he said in an interview with the New York Post. “Our policy is the same; it hasn’t changed. We’re not going into Syria.” A senior Trump administration official called Putin’s remarks part of a Russian “disinformation campaign.” The United States, Britain and France have proposed a revised draft resolution to the 15-member U.N. Security Council similar to a text they circulated last week pushing Syria’s government to cooperate with investigators.     The secretary of state’s role as messenger for a united G7 position is a turning point for Trump, who in the past alarmed allies by voicing skepticism about the value of U.S. support for traditional friends, while calling for closer ties with Moscow. Tillerson is a former chairman of oil company Exxon Mobil Corp, which has gigantic projects in Russia. Putin awarded him Russia’s “Order of Friendship” in 2013. He is due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday. The Kremlin has said Tillerson has no meeting scheduled with Putin this trip, although some Russian media have reported such a meeting could take place.  Western countries have been calling for Assad’s departure since 2011, the start of a civil war that has killed at least 400,000 people and created the world’s worst refugee crisis. Assad’s position on the battlefield became far stronger after Russia joined the war to support him in 2015. The United States and its allies are conducting air strikes in Syria against Islamic State, but until last week Washington had avoided targeting forces of Assad’s government directly. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday the United States’ military policy in Syria had not changed and remains focused on defeating Islamic State.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने सीरिया में रासायनिक हमले पर रूस पर 'पर्दा डालने' का आरोप लगाया


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday expressed his support for same-sex unions, after previously declaring his opposition to gay marriage, in an about-face that may displease bishops in the mainly Roman Catholic country. Speaking at a gathering of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in his hometown Davao City, Duterte vowed to protect the rights of homosexuals and invited them to nominate a representative to work in his government.  I said I am for (same) sex marriage if that is the trend of the modern times,  he said.  If that will add to your happiness, I am for it.  Duterte previously was quoted by local media as saying he was opposed to gay unions because marriage in the Philippines is only between a man and a woman. Duterte had brought up the gender issue in the past while attacking Western countries that allow it, especially those who criticize his brutal war on drugs. Many countries, mostly in Western Europe and the Americas, have already recognized same-sex unions. Australia is the latest to legalize it. Catholic bishops in the Philippines, who also oppose Duterte s bloody anti-narcotics campaign, have voiced concern over legalizing same-sex marriage after his top ally in Congress vowed earlier this year to push for it.  Why impose a morality that is no longer working and almost passed,  Duterte said, in an apparent reference to traditional church teaching on the issue.  So I am with you.  He asked the LGBT community to nominate a representative whom he could appoint to a government post, saying he needed  the brightest  to replace those he has recently fired over allegations of corruption.  You nominate somebody who is honest, hardworking. I give you until the second week of January to nominate,  he said.

Summary: फिलीपींस के दुतेर्ते का कहना है कि वह समलैंगिक संबंधों का समर्थन करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump may add a visit to Saudi Arabia to a trip to Europe in May in what will be his first overseas journey since becoming president, a senior administration official said on Wednesday. Such a trip is “being discussed,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Trump is already planning to attend a NATO summit in Brussels on May 25 and travel to Sicily for a Group of Seven leaders’ summit scheduled for May 26-28. Defense Secretary James Mattis was in Riyadh on Wednesday meeting with senior Saudi officials. He said he hopes his trip could potentially open the door for Trump to visit Saudi Arabia. Former President Barack Obama met leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman about a year ago. Trump has made the Middle East and the fight against Islamic State a focus of his young presidency. He ordered the U.S. Navy to fire cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield after a chemical weapons attack in Syria earlier this month. Saudi Arabia’s powerful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Trump in Washington in March in a visit that was touted by a senior Saudi advisor as one that hailed a “historical turning point” in U.S.-Saudi relations. [ Riyadh had an often fraught relationship with the Obama administration, especially in the wake of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Saudi Arabia felt the Obama administration considered Riyadh’s alliance with Washington less important than negotiating the deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear program.     White House spokesman Sean Spicer said it is possible a Trump visit to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis will be added to the schedule of his European trip. “We’ll be reaching out to the Vatican” to see if a visit can be arranged, Spicer told reporters.

Summary: ट्रम्प की सऊदी अरब की संभावित यात्रा पर चर्चा की जा रही हैः अमेरिकी अधिकारी


BERLIN (Reuters) - The premier of Germany s most populous region warned that the Green party would have to step back from some of its environmentalist red lines if it wanted to join a mooted three-party coalition led by conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel. Armin Laschet, premier of the industrial heartland state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said in an interview with Handelsblatt newspaper that his and Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) would not do a coalition deal at any price. Earlier, Christian Lindner, leader of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), the likely third coalition partner, had also said the Greens would need to sacrifice a commitment to environmentalist subsidies and accept tax cuts. With a  Jamaica coalition  of the conservatives (black), the FDP (yellow) and the Greens the most plausible coalition after last Sunday s national vote, the parties that enjoy the overwhelming support of Germany s business community rushed to hem in the leftist Greens with red lines.  A Jamaica coalition agreement must make clear that there will be no de-industrialization,  said Laschet, whose state is home to one of Germany s largest concentrations of heavy industry. The Greens  wish for fixed target dates for banning polluting combustion engines or coal-fired power stations would harm industry, he added. Lindner, whose party is popular among the family businesses traditionally seen as the backbone of the German economy, told mass-selling paper Bild am Sonntag that he would be happy to accept a tax-cutting Green as finance minister.  It would be fine to have a Green finance minister who cuts the tax burden on the middle classes,  said Lindner, seen as one of the leading candidates for the key finance job in a Jamaica coalition. The Greens voted on Saturday to start exploratory talks on a deal, indicating that they would like to see a softening of the FDP s tough line on immigration. Laschet said talks on a post-election three-way deal, the first in Germany since the 1950s, could last into next year, though he hoped for a deal before January.

Summary: व्यापार समर्थक पार्टियाँ जर्मन ग्रीन्स को लाल रेखाओं से घेरने की कोशिश करती हैं


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Overnight air strikes killed 28 people, including four children, in a village in rebel-held Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. Rescue workers have said Syria and Russia have killed scores of civilians in air strikes that began after insurgents launched an offensive against government-held areas in the north west of the country on Sept. 19. The Russian and Syrian militaries say they only target militants and deny killing civilians. Dominated by the jihadist group formerly known as the Nusra Front, the Idlib region had seen a six month lull in air strikes until the latest escalation. However, the overnight air strike targeted the village of Armanaz a few kilometres (miles) from the Turkish border. The Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue service operating in rebel-held areas, put the preliminary death toll at 26. Turkey said this week that recent Russian bombing in Idlib had killed civilians and moderate Syrian rebels, saying this violated an agreement concluded with Iran and Russia. Turkey, Iran and Russia to create a  de-escalation  zone in Idlib. Under the agreement, Turkey will deploy troops in Idlib, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Summary: सीरिया के विद्रोहियों के कब्जे वाले इदलिब में हवाई हमलों में 28 लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department welcomed a decision by China and South Korea on Tuesday to resume normal ties after a year-long standoff over a decision by Seoul and Washington to deploy a missile defense system to counter North Korea s nuclear program.  We ... were pleased to hear that the Republic of Korea, that our Korean friends, and also the Chinese are forging a closer relationship,  State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing.  We see that as providing better stability ... for a region that desperately needs it because of North Korea.  Nauert said there had been no change in the decision by South Korea and the United States to deploy the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea to protect against Pyongyang s nuclear and ballistic missile program.

Summary: अमेरिका ने मिसाइल विरोधी विवाद के बावजूद संबंधों में सुधार के लिए चीन, दक्षिण कोरिया के प्रयास का स्वागत किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday the U.S. Department of Justice was still deciding whether to appeal a court ruling challenging President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, but a spokesman predicted Republicans ultimately would lose the fight. “This suit represents the first time in our nation’s history that Congress has been permitted to sue the executive branch over a disagreement about how to interpret a statute,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a briefing. “It’s unfortunate that Republicans have resorted to a taxpayer-funded lawsuit to re-fight a political fight that they keep losing,” he added. “They’ve been losing this fight for six years and they’ll lose it again.” His comments came shortly after a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday in favor of congressional Republicans who challenged the implementation of the healthcare law, arguing that the administration cannot spend funds Congress did not appropriate.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने भविष्यवाणी की है कि रिपब्लिकन स्वास्थ्य सेवा कानून के लिए नई चुनौती खो देंगे


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s army said on Friday it had arrested Islamist militants who were planning attacks in the country after foreign embassies warned their citizens to avoid public places. Army intelligence  carried out several raids arresting 19 people linked to a cell  belonging to Islamic State, the army said in a statement. Security forces were taking extra precautions, it added. The cell which had  planned and prepared to carry out terrorist action  was led by Egyptian Fadi Ibrahim Ahmed, who was based in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, the army said. Lebanon s Interior Ministry said earlier it was looking into warnings issued by foreign embassies over potential attacks in the country, but that there was no need to panic.  These warnings are based on information from a foreign intelligence agency,  the ministry said.  Lebanese security services are following up to check its authenticity and accuracy ... There is no cause for fear or exaggeration.  The French Embassy in Beirut urged French citizens in Lebanon on Friday to be vigilant over the next 48 hours, citing an  elevated risk of attack targeting public places . The U.S. Embassy said earlier in the week it had barred staff from visiting the Casino du Liban in Jounieh, north of Beirut. Canada also warned its citizens on Thursday to avoid that area.

Summary: लेबनान का कहना है कि विदेशी दूतावासों की चेतावनी के बाद हमलों को विफल कर दिया गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of Congress on Thursday grilled the main U.S. banking regulator about a recent raft of data breaches, highlighting two incidents where workers downloaded more than 10,000 sensitive and private records onto portable storage devices before leaving the agency’s employ. After the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp uncovered those two breaches, it conducted a review and found five other instances when employees improperly stored and took personal information for tens of thousands of individuals, according to Representative Barry Loudermilk, a Republican who chairs a House of Representatives subcommittee on oversight and technology. Altogether, more than 160,000 people were affected, Loudermilk said at a hearing covering the breaches. “To date, FDIC has failed to notify any of those individuals that their private information may have been compromised,” he added.  The highest-ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, Representative Don Beyer, said the concerns were shared by members of both parties and added the FDIC was too slow in notifying Congress about the breaks in data security. It should have informed lawmakers within seven days of the incidents, he said. The FDIC’s chief information officer and chief privacy officer, Lawrence Gross, told the hearing the agency is working to eliminate employees’ use of portable media and has installed technology blocking most employees from downloading data from its systems to DVDs, CDs and flash drives. It is also looking into “digital rights management” software limiting the time period someone can access information and putting up other barriers to redistributing information. Gross, who started his role in November, said he is conducting a “top to bottom review” of the agency’s information technology policies and planned to hire an independent third party to conduct an assessment.  The FDIC has said the downloads were inadvertent.  But members of Congress remained skeptical that the breaches were not intentional.  “In at least one case...a former employee who downloaded such data was evasive about her actions and not cooperative when initially confronted,” said Representative Bill Johnson. “Some FDIC employees also suggest that it was highly improbable that this former employee’s actions were accidental. In addition this former employee is now working for a U.S. subsidiary of a non-U.S. financial services company which raises additional concerns.”

Summary: कांग्रेस की उपसमिति ने डेटा उल्लंघनों के बारे में अमेरिकी बैंकों के नियामक से पूछताछ की


ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Monday it would offer emergency compensation worth millions of euros to hundreds of households affected by flash flooding west of Athens that killed at least 20 people on Nov. 15. Hundreds of homes and businesses were extensively damaged in the coastal towns of Mandra and Nea Peramos when a torrent of mud and water smashed into the settlements, built along dry gullies on the foothills of a mountain range. Twenty people died and two remain missing from the early-morning deluge, the worst casualty toll from flooding since 1977 when more than 30 people died. The disaster has prompted recriminations and finger-pointing over a perceived inability of Greek authorities to act on prior warnings that areas with poor infrastructure and unlicensed construction were vulnerable to flooding. Critics also asked why flood prevention projects had been delayed. Authorities will offer flood victims up to 5,000 euros  ($5,896.50) for households and 8,000 euros for businesses, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said. It was not immediately clear how much the state had budgeted for compensation. Tzanakopoulos told Reuters the amount would come from the national budget. That assistance would be over and above compensation residents were entitled to, comprised of 60 percent government aid and 40 percent interest-free loan, he said. The flash flooding hit many areas of the country, including housing settlements where town planning regulations are often flouted.

Summary: बाढ़ पीड़ितों को लाखों का मुआवजा देगा ग्रीस


VIENTIANE (Reuters) - The United States announced on Tuesday it would provide an additional $90 million over the next three years to help Laos, heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, clear unexploded ordnance that has killed or injured more than 20,000 people. The figure announced during President Barack Obama’s first visit to Laos is close to the $100 million the United States has spent in the past 20 years on clearing its UXO in Laos. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. warplanes dropped more than 270 million cluster munitions on the communist country, one-third of which did not explode, the Lao National Regulatory Authority for UXO says. Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Laos when he arrived in the once-isolated country on Monday to attend two regional summits, half a century after America’s “secret war” left Laos with the unfortunate distinction of being the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in history. The White House said in a statement U.S. programs in Laos had helped slash UXO casualties from 300 to less than 50 a year and the additional funding would be used for a “comprehensive UXO survey of Laos and for continued clearing operations”. “The United States is helping Laos clear unexploded ordnance, which poses a threat to people and hampers economic development,” it said. The package would help support UXO victims needing rehabilitation, including orthotics and prosthetics, it added. Obama, in a speech on Tuesday in the capital, Vientiane, addressed the secret war. “As a result of that conflict many people fled or were driven from their homes,” Obama said. “At the time America did not acknowledge its role.” “I believe the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal.” UXO remains a stubborn problem in the region and experts say it could take decades to clear landmines and bombs in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, which were beset by conflicts in the 1960s and 1970s, and in Cambodia’s case, in the 1980s and 1990s too. In the central Lao province of Xieng Khouang, the area most heavily bombed by U.S. aircraft during the war in neighboring Vietnam, there is a trail of devastation. About 80 percent of the people of landlocked Laos rely on agriculture, but some of it is simply too dangerous to farm. Approximately a quarter of its villages are contaminated with unexploded ordnance, says the British-based Mines Advisory Group, which helps find and destroy the bombs. On Wednesday, Obama is expected to visit an organization in Vientiane that works with those disabled by unexploded ordnance, the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise Visitor Center.

Summary: अमेरिका ने अप्रकाशित हथियारों को हटाने में मदद के लिए लाओस को अतिरिक्त 90 मिलियन डॉलर दिए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday that a fourth soldier was killed during an attack on Wednesday in Niger, raising the death toll from an incident that has thrown a spotlight on the U.S. counterterrorism mission in the West African nation.  The United States had previously announced that three U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers had been killed and another two wounded when a joint U.S.-Nigerien patrol came under attack near the village of Tongo Tongo.  It did not disclose until Friday that a fourth soldier had been missing. Officials said his body was found by Nigerien forces on Friday morning near the site of the ambush, ending an extensive rescue and recovery mission. No group has taken responsibility for the killings, although officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the United States suspects a local branch of Islamic State was responsible. The U.S. military s Africa Command declined to publicly name any group but said the American military would hunt down the insurgents.  Absolutely, we are resolved and stalwart in our efforts to go after those who attacked this joint patrol of Nigerien and U.S. forces,  said Army Colonel Mark Cheadle, a spokesman for the U.S. military s Africa Command. From initial accounts, the 40-member patrol, which included about a dozen U.S. troops, came under a swift attack by  militants riding in a dozen vehicles and on about 20 motorcycles. Islamist militants form part of a regional insurgency in the poor, sparsely populated deserts of West Africa s Sahel.  Jihadists have stepped up attacks on U.N. peacekeepers, Malian soldiers and civilian targets since being driven back in northern Mali by a French-led military intervention in 2013. U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed joint counterterrorism operations in the Sahel  to defeat al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups during a call on Friday, the White House said.  LOW-RISK Cheadle said the U.S. and Nigerien troops had been meeting with local leadership at the time of the attack, in what had been seen as a relatively lower-risk endeavor for America s elite commandos.  There was not even any armed air cover at the time that could carry out air strikes if necessary.  It was not meant to be an engagement with the enemy. It was meant to establish relations with the local leaders and the threats at the time were deemed to be unlikely, so there was no overhead armed air cover during the engagement,  he said.  Cheadle acknowledged that loss of elite U.S. forces would trigger a review of how the U.S. military carries out operations but did not suggest any move to scale back the American mission.      The U.S. military on Friday published the names of the three Army Special Forces soldiers from 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) who were killed when their reconnaissance patrol with Nigerien forces came under fire.  They were Staff Sergeant Bryan Black, 35, of Puyallup, Washington, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio and Staff Sergeant Dustin Wright, 29, of Lyons, Georgia. The U.S. military said it had surged resources to Niger to try to locate the missing American soldier. Cheadle said that included U.S. fighter jets, helicopters and surveillance assets.   There was a full-court press,  he said.

Summary: पेंटागन का कहना है कि नाइजर में घात लगाकर किए गए हमले में चौथा अमेरिकी सैनिक मारा गया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The U.S. position on Syria remains a mystery to Moscow and Washington’s rhetoric tends to be primitive and loutish, Russian news agencies quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Wednesday. Ryabkov’s remarks were released minutes before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the highest level representative of the Trump administration to visit Russia, was due to start talks with his Russian counterpart. * Why Assad used chemical weapons  reut.rs/2o5FMEV * The worrying lessons of the Syria chemical attack reut.rs/2o6r55r Ryabkov said that at the talks Russia expected to discuss no-fly zones in Syria, and that North Korea and Ukraine would also be on the agenda. “As a whole, the administration’s stance with regard to Syria remains a mystery. Inconsistency is what comes to mind first of all,” RIA news agency quoted Rybakov as telling reporters. “In general, primitiveness and loutishness are very characteristic of the current rhetoric coming out of Washington. We’ll hope that this doesn’t become the substance of American policy,” RIA quoted Ryabkov as saying.

Summary: रूसी राजनयिक ने कहा कि सीरिया पर अमेरिकी रुख 'एक रहस्य' है-एजेंसियां


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is not pursuing the use of an executive order to shutter the Guantanamo Bay military prison after officials concluded that it would not be a viable strategy, sources familiar with the deliberations said. The conclusion, reached by administration officials, narrows the already slim chances that President Barack Obama can fulfill his pledge to close the  notorious offshore prison before leaving office in January. The White House has said repeatedly that Obama has not ruled out any options on the Guantanamo center, which has been used to house terrorism suspects since it was set up in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Obama is eager to fulfill his 2008 campaign pledge to close the prison and could still choose to use his commander-in-chief powers, but the option is not being actively pursued, the sources said. Without executive action, the chances of closing the prison would hinge on convincing a resistant Congress to overturn a long-standing ban on bringing possibly dozens of remaining prisoners to maximum-security prisons in the United States.  White House lawyers and other officials studied the option of overriding the ban but did not develop a strong legal position or an effective political sales pitch in an election year, a source familiar with the discussions said.  “It was just deemed too difficult to get through all of the hurdles that they would need to get through, and the level of support they were likely to receive on it was thought to be too low to generate such controversy, particularly at a sensitive (time) in an election cycle,” the source said. Republicans in Congress are opposed to bringing Guantanamo detainees to U.S. prisons and have expressed opposition to transfers to other countries over concern that released prisoners will return to militant activities. They have vowed to challenge any potential Obama executive action in court. At its peak, the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba housed nearly 800 prisoners, becoming a symbol of the excesses of the “war on terror” and synonymous with criticism of detention without trial and accusations of torture. Obama has called it a recruitment tool for terrorists. The number of Guantanamo detainees has fallen to 80 now, the lowest since it was opened.  The administration is focusing on getting the number of detainees at the prison down to such a low number, perhaps 20, that the cost of keeping it open could prove unpalatable to Congress. Republican lawmakers remain unswayed. The Guantanamo prison and associated military commissions cost $445 million in fiscal year 2015. That works out to more than $5.5 million a year for each of the 80 remaining prisoners. Thirty of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo have been approved for transfer to foreign countries and the State Department says it will move all of them out this summer. Those who would be left include 10 being prosecuted in military commissions, and other detainees deemed too dangerous to release or transfer. “The administration’s goal is to work with Congress to find a solution to close Guantanamo,” said Myles Caggins, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. He said the government had made “substantial progress”  moving prisoners to foreign countries and was working to identify more countries for additional transfers. Reviews to determine whether certain prisoners need to remain detained to prevent a threat to U.S. security had been accelerated and would be completed in the coming months, he said. Obama, who issued an order to shut the prison within a year on his first day in office, released his latest plan to close it to Congress in February, but it has not gained traction. The White House has not publicly ruled out the executive order option in part to keep pressure on the Pentagon to move prisoners who have been cleared for release to other countries, one of the sources said. “If Congress ... would finally say no to the president’s plan and the executive order option wasn’t on the table, there was a concern that the wheels could grind to a halt,” said the source familiar with discussions at the White House. Gregory Craig, who served as Obama’s first White House counsel, said that without an executive order, Obama would likely need the cooperation of Congress to shut down the prison. “I think the odds are probably challenging,” Craig said.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ओबामा प्रशासन ग्वांतानामो को बंद करने के लिए कार्यकारी आदेश का पालन नहीं कर रहा है-सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration has rolled out a new questionnaire for U.S. visa applicants worldwide that asks for social media handles for the last five years and biographical information going back 15 years. The new questions, part of an effort to tighten vetting of would-be visitors to the United States, was approved on May 23 by the Office of Management and Budget despite criticism from a range of education officials and academic groups during a public comment period.  Critics argued that the new questions would be overly burdensome, lead to long delays in processing and discourage international students and scientists from coming to the United States. Under the new procedures, consular officials can request all prior passport numbers, five years' worth of social media handles, email addresses and phone numbers and 15 years of biographical information including addresses, employment and travel history. (bit.ly/2qBSrpv) Officials will request the additional information when they determine “that such information is required to confirm identity or conduct more rigorous national security vetting,” a State Department official said on Wednesday. The State Department said earlier the tighter vetting would apply to visa applicants “who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny in connection with terrorism or other national security-related visa ineligibilities.” President Donald Trump has vowed to increase national security and border protections, proposing to give more money to the military and make Mexico pay to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. He has tried to implement a temporary travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority nations that a U.S. appeals court refused to reinstate, calling it discriminatory and setting the stage for a showdown in the Supreme Court. The Office of Management and Budget granted emergency approval for the new questions for six months, rather than the usual three years.  While the new questions are voluntary, the form says failure to provide the information may delay or prevent the processing of an individual visa application. Immigration lawyers and advocates say the request for 15 years of detailed biographical information, as well as the expectation that applicants remember all their social media handles, is likely to catch applicants who make innocent mistakes or do not remember all the information requested.  The new questions grant “arbitrary power” to consular officials to determine who gets a visa with no effective check on their decisions, said Babak Yousefzadeh, a San Francisco-based attorney and president of the Iranian American Bar Association. “The United States has one of the most stringent visa application processes in the world,” Yousefzadeh said. “The need for tightening the application process further is really unknown and unclear.”

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशासन ने सोशल मीडिया जांच सहित सख्त वीजा जांच को मंजूरी दी


VIENNA (Reuters) - An Austrian former finance minister went on trial on Tuesday accused of bribery and embezzlement in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country s recent history. Karl-Heinz Grasser and 15 former high-ranking politicians, managers and bankers are charged in connection with the privatization of state housing company Buwog in 2004. Grasser, 48, was one of Austria s most popular politicians and became the country s youngest finance minister in 2000 when he was appointed aged 31 to serve in a coalition between the conservatives and the far right Freedom Party. He is accused of embezzling part of a commission for the sale of 60,000 federal apartments. He denies the accusations and said in a television interview on Monday he was glad the trial was starting so he could prove his innocence. Defense lawyers say the case is politically motivated at a time when conservatives and the far-right are working to form a government to replace a coalition led by social democrats. Investigators spent eight years gathering evidence and working on an indictment that runs for more than 800 pages. It says he under-priced the biggest ever sale of state-owned flats. The tender came down to two bidders and the contract was awarded to a financial consortium that offered just 1 million euros ($1.2 million) more than its competitor.  After the sale, millions of euros in commissions flowed to two Grasser associates suggesting insider dealing, according to prosecutors. Grasser, who is married to socialite Fiona Swarovski, the heir of the Swarovski crystal manufacturers, says he is a victim of prejudice from the media and the judiciary. The trial is the latest to stem from the tenure of Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel who took power in 2000. Others have concerned the telecoms and real estate sectors. The court rejected a petition by Grasser s defense lawyer Manfred Ainedter to remove the chief of the four judges, Marion Hohenecker, due to conflict of interest because of tweets critical of Grasser sent by her husband who is also a judge.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रिया के पूर्व वित्त मंत्री पर भ्रष्टाचार के आरोप में मुकदमा चलाया गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. federal government will have enough cash flow to pay  its bills through at least early September despite the limit on more government borrowing, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Monday, while urging lawmakers to raise the debt limit soon. Mnuchin repeated his call for Congress to pass a bill authorizing further borrowing before lawmakers break for a long August summer recess. “I am comfortable saying that we can fund the government through the beginning of September,” Mnuchin told lawmakers in a hearing when asked how urgent it was to raise a limit on federal borrowing. “If we don’t raise this beforehand, I will be providing updated numbers based upon how revenues come in.” The U.S. government posted a wider budget deficit in May than analysts had expected, and has run $433 billion into the red since the fiscal year began in October.

Summary: अमेरिकी संघीय सरकार सितंबर की शुरुआत तक बिलों का भुगतान कर सकती हैः म्नुचिन


(Reuters) - Bangladesh plans to allocate more land for camps housing Rohingya refugees as concerns grow over a possible outbreak of disease in crowded, makeshift settlements clustered at the country s southern tip. About 625,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to sanctuary in Bangladesh from violence, looting and destruction in neighboring Myanmar after government forces launched a counter insurgency following attacks by Rohingya militants on Aug. 25. The swift exodus has taken the Rohingya refugee population to 837,000, making Bangladesh one of the world s largest, most crowded settlement of asylum-seekers. More than 60 percent of the water supply in the camps is contaminated with bacteria as temporary latrines overflow into hastily-built, shallow wells, a World Health Organization survey showed. Faecal sludge in the settlements goes largely untreated.  There is a high risk of a public health event, not just cholera and acute watery diarrhea,  said Naim Talukder of the group Action Against Hunger, who is coordinating the efforts of 31 groups and agencies to manage water, sanitation and hygiene. A Reuters graphic uses satellite imagery to document the mushrooming spread of the refugee areas. Data show the challenge of meeting international standards for water, sanitation and hygiene in the camps and spillover sites. Click on the link for the Reuters Graphic - tmsnrt.rs/2AoMIaV Most refugees live in flimsy bamboo and canvas shelters in an area crowded well beyond emergency standards, said Graham Eastmond, an official of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).        You are talking a third of the international standard,  he said.  We need to decongest urgently and obviously, to do that, we need more land.  The IOM is among the bodies that have urged Bangladesh to free up more land and allow a wider spread of settlements.  The government already allocated 3,000 acres of land for the Rohingya,  Shah Kamal, a disaster management official, told Reuters. That figure is equivalent to 1,214 hectares.  Considering the current situation, the government is planning to allocate 500 acres more land for them,  he added.   Last week, Bangladesh approved a $280-million project to develop an isolated and flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal to temporarily house 100,000 Rohingya, despite criticism from rights groups. The overcrowding spells health and safety risks, Eastmond added, from rapidly spreading water-borne and communicable diseases to landslides and flooding, besides swelling the threat to vulnerable children and women. Single women or children head about a fifth of households, preliminary findings of a population survey by the U.N. refugee agency and Bangladesh show. By Nov. 11, there were 36,096 cases of acute watery diarrhea since Aug. 25, as infection rates climbed, the U.N. children s agency said last month.     Bangladesh, in partnership with U.N. agencies and charities, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in responding to the crisis. New roads built by the army will open this month, boosting access for camp-dwellers, said Eastmond. Yet just 23 percent of funding needs for water, sanitation and hygiene services are being met, Talukder said.   Bangladesh and Myanmar vowed to begin the voluntary return of the Rohingya to Myanmar in the next two months. But the Rohingya will have to present identity documents in order to be accepted, said Myint Kyaing, a Myanmar labor and immigration ministry official. Relief officials fear that few Rohingya, a stateless and long-persecuted minority in Myanmar, carried such documents in their desperate scramble to leave. Hundreds of Rohingya villages have been razed, their land given to others and their crops harvested.

Summary: बांग्लादेश के भीड़भाड़ वाले शिविरों में रोहिंग्याओं के लिए खतरा बढ़ता जा रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will hurt low-income Americans by doing away with Obamacare subsidies and make it harder for him to engage in bipartisan talks with Democrats as Congress edges toward a possible government shutdown, lawmakers said on Sunday. The White House has announced that the Republican administration will stop paying billions of dollars to insurers to help low-income consumers meet out-of-pocket medical expenses, as part of the president’s step-by-step effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. The expected loss of cost-sharing subsidies, estimated to be worth $7 billion this year and $10 billion in 2018, has prompted worries about insurance market chaos and undermined the prices of insurer and hospital company shares. By antagonizing Democrats who support Obamacare, Trump’s actions could also lead to political turmoil over spending in December, when Republicans hope to put the final touches on a sweeping tax reform bill.   Republican Senator Susan Collins, who has opposed Trump-backed legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare, warned that the president’s move will also affect the ability of vulnerable low-income people to access healthcare and afford out-of-pocket medical costs.  “I’m very concerned about what the impact is going to be for people,” Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union”. “The funding that is available under the cost-sharing reductions is used to subsidize their out-of-pocket costs. And if they can’t afford their deductible, then their insurance is pretty much useless.” Asked if Trump’s actions would hurt Americans, she replied: “I do believe that.” Last week, the president also offered an invitation for Democratic leaders to come to the White House to negotiate on healthcare.   But House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi showed little interest on Sunday.  “We’re a little far down the road for that,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week” program. Pelosi indicated that the president’s actions and continued White House pressure to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border could make it harder for Republicans to win Democratic cooperation in December, when a current government spending measure is due to expire.  “He wants to negotiate the healthcare bill by repealing the Affordable Care Act and building a wall? No,” Pelosi said. “The Republicans have the majority. They have the signature of the president. It’s up to them to keep government open.” Collins and Pelosi see a bipartisan path on healthcare in discussions on possible legislation between Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Trump has also encouraged Alexander to get a bipartisan deal but also wants any future healthcare bill to reform the current system.  “The president is not going to continue to throw good money after bad, give $7 billion to insurance companies unless something changes about Obamacare that would justify it,” Graham said. “It’s got to be a good deal.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ओबामाकेयर के कदम से अमेरिकियों, द्विदलीय संभावनाओं को नुकसान हो रहा है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowed his deficit to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to 7 percentage points from 15 points late last week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday,  Polling was under way on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland to officially nominate Trump as the party’s candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Clinton is due to be officially nominated at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia next week. Forty-three percent of likely voters supported Clinton in the July 15-19 poll, while 36 percent supported Trump. The poll included 1,069 voters and had a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points.  The previous poll, in which Trump trailed Clinton by 15 percentage points, covered the five-day period that ended July 14.  Trump’s rise appeared partly fueled by a decline in the number of voters who remained on the sidelines. The percentage of voters who supported neither candidate dropped to 12 percent in the July 15-19 poll from 15 percent in the July 10-14 poll. Clinton has led in the poll most of the year.  The last time that Trump matched Clinton’s level of support was in mid-May, after his remaining rivals for the Republican nomination dropped out and many Republican leaders started to openly support his bid for the White House.  This week’s Republican convention provides another opportunity for party leaders to publicly embrace Trump’s campaign. Presidential nominees typically see a boost in voter support following their party conventions. In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney jumped by about 5 percentage points in the Reuters/Ipsos poll following the Republican convention. This year, however, Republican leaders have struggled to give a full-throated endorsement of Trump’s “America First” campaign over his hard line on immigration and trade, and his fiery rhetoric that some have called bigoted. Many Republican elders, including both former presidents Bush and the last two presidential nominees, Romney and John McCain, are staying away from Cleveland.  The convention also has been marred by protests from anti-Trump delegates and a controversy over a speech by Trump’s wife, Melania, that included a section that was strikingly similar to a portion of the speech given by Michelle Obama at the Democratic convention in 2008 when her husband, Barack Obama, was seeking his first term as president.

Summary: क्लीवलैंड में रिपब्लिकन रैली के रूप में ट्रम्प ने क्लिंटन के साथ अंतर को कम कियाः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has won the first major battle in his war on illegal immigration, and he did it without building his wall. The victory was announced last week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which released figures showing a 93 percent drop since December of parents and children caught trying to cross the Mexico border illegally.  In December, 16,000 parents and children were apprehended; in March, a month in which immigration typically increases because of temperate weather, the number was just over 1,100.  It was a remarkable decline - steeper than the 72 percent drop in overall apprehensions - but for eight DHS officials interviewed by Reuters it was not surprising.  Trump has spoken about the need to crack down broadly on all illegal immigrants. But, internally, according to the DHS officials familiar with the department’s strategy, his administration has focused on one immigrant group more than others: women with children, the fastest growing demographic of illegal immigrants. This planning has not been previously reported.  In the months since Trump’s inauguration, DHS has rolled out a range of policies aimed at discouraging women from attempting to cross the border, including tougher initial hurdles for asylum claims and the threat of prosecuting parents if they hire smugglers to get their families across the border. The department has also floated proposals such as separating women and children at the border. DHS Secretary John Kelly told a Senate hearing on April 5 that the sharp drop in illegal immigration, especially among women and children, was due to Trump’s tough policies. To date, it has been the threat of new policies rather than their implementation that has suppressed family migration. Mothers and children aren’t being separated - and DHS has shelved the plan; parents haven’t been prosecuted, and there is no wall along most of the border. Yet the number of migrants trying to cross – especially women and children – has dropped drastically.  Asked to comment on the policy of targeting women with children, DHS spokesman Jonathan Hoffman referenced the March drop, saying, “Those were 15,000 women and children who did not put themselves at risk of death and assault from smugglers to make the trip north.”   The White House declined to comment and referred Reuters to DHS. For months, Central Americans had heard about Trump’s get-tough policies. And public service announcements on radio and television presented bleak pictures of what awaited those who traveled north. Some of the ads were funded by the United States, others by United Nations agencies and regional governments. One radio ad in Honduras featured a mother, saying, “It’s been a year and I don’t know if she is alive or dead. I’d do anything to have her here with me. Curse the day I sent her north.” The possibility that mothers and children might be separated at the border caused particular alarm, Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister Maria Andrea Matamoros told Reuters “That worries any mother that wants to go to the United States with their kid, and being separated drastically changes their plans,” she said.  The policies targeting women and children have their roots in a working group consisting of Capitol Hill staffers and others called together by Trump’s transition team in the weeks after the Nov. 8 election. The group was asked to develop policies to discourage illegal border crossings and more quickly expel illegal immigrants after they crossed the border, according to two of the DHS officials and a congressional aide.  One goal was to help Trump fulfill a major campaign promise: ending so-called “catch and release,” the practice of apprehending illegal immigrants but then freeing them to live in the United States while their asylum or deportation cases were resolved.   The group quickly identified a major obstacle - the large numbers of women and children continuing to cross the border, said the DHS officials and the aide.  Because a federal court ruling bars prolonged immigration detention of juveniles, the Obama administration generally released mothers and children to live in the United States while awaiting resolution of their asylum or deportation cases. The incoming Trump administration viewed that policy as providing encouragement for women to make the dangerous journey north with their children in tow. But the new administration was bound by the same court ruling. After Kelly’s confirmation as Homeland Security chief in late January, several members of the original working group stepped into key roles at DHS. Gene Hamilton, who had worked for then Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, became senior counselor to Kelly, and Dimple Shah, who had been staff director of the House National Security Subcommittee, became deputy general counsel.  Kathy Nuebel-Kovarik, formerly a staffer for Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, became policy chief at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Julie Kirchner left her position as executive director of the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform to become a top policy adviser at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. None of the group’s members agreed to be interviewed by Reuters. Several DHS officials said that in their new roles they continued to focus on the issue of women and child migrants. Soon, they had the bare bones of a plan: Since the court ruling on children was an obstacle to prolonged detention, why not separate them from their mothers, sending children into foster care or protective federal custody while their mothers remained in detention centers, the two DHS officials and congressional aide said. The group also advocated two other policies directly affecting mothers and children: raising the bar for asylum and prosecuting parents as human traffickers if they hired human smugglers. The thinking was that “if they can just implement tough policies for eight weeks - or even threaten to do that - they would see the numbers of families crossing just plummet,” said one DHS official familiar with the planning. On Jan. 25, five days after taking office, Trump issued an executive order ending “catch and release.” (A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the agency still releases most women and children in compliance with the federal court order.)  A week later, in a town hall with U.S. Customs and Immigration Services officers, Chief Asylum Officer John Lafferty outlined the possibility of separating women and children in a semi-public setting for the first time, according to notes of the meeting seen by Reuters. For more than a month after that meeting, the proposal did not leak, but after Reuters broke news of it in early March, Kelly confirmed that it was under consideration. Democratic members of Congress blasted the proposal, and within days it had made headlines across Mexico and Central America.  That month, the number of children traveling with guardians apprehended at the border fell to one-third of what it had been in February.  When Kelly and his advisers saw the numbers dropping, they announced they were shelving the idea of separating women and children – at least for now. Asked whether it may be revived, DHS spokeswoman Jenny Burke said, “Families caught crossing the border illegally, generally will not be separated unless the situation at the time requires it.”

Summary: अलग माताएँ और बच्चेः कैसे ट्रम्प की धमकी ने अवैध प्रवासियों को रोका


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton took quick aim at presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying the United States should not take a risk on an unreliable candidate. “He is a loose cannon, and loose cannons tend to misfire,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN, citing Trump stances including an allegation that climate change was a Chinese hoax.  Clinton, a former secretary of state, said Trump would have to offer policy specifics in ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election and criticized him for his positions on issues including nuclear weapons and abortion. “He makes these grand statements and grand accusations,” Clinton said of the real estate magnate and former reality TV star. “At some point when you’re running for president, you actually have to put a little meat on the bones. You’ve got to tell people what it is you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it.” Clinton lost the Democratic primary contest in Indiana on Tuesday but still looks set to win her party’s nomination, leading her rival, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, by more than 800 delegates. Trump’s win in Indiana on Tuesday pushed his rivals out of the race and left him as the presumptive nominee. In a preview of the likely general election battle, Clinton laughed when asked if she was ready to take on Trump, saying: “Oh, please.” “This is to me a classic case of a blustering, bullying guy who has knocked out of the way all the Republicans because they were just dumbfounded,” she said. Clinton said she knew how to run a campaign against Trump and took a swipe at Trump’s 16 Republican presidential rivals who started out in the 2016 campaign. “They didn’t know how to deal with him,” Clinton said. “They couldn’t take him on the issues because they basically agreed with them. And they didn’t know how to counterpunch.” Asked how “scorched-earth” the campaign was likely to be, she replied: “You know, he’s the one making that decision. ... He’s the one who’s run the campaign insulting people, demeaning women, degrading people with disabilities, talking about keeping Muslims out of the country, he’s the one that’s been running that kind of very negative, aggressive, bullying campaign. “I’m going to keep staying on the kind of campaign I’m running,” she said.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने ट्रम्प को 'ढीला तोप' कहा, राष्ट्रपति के लिए जोखिम भरा विकल्प


HAVANA (Reuters) - Dozens of U.S. farm and agri-business groups on Thursday urged President-elect Donald Trump to build upon progress made by the Obama administration in relations with Cuba, calling trade with the former Cold War foe particularly important at a time of a severe downturn in farm incomes. The agricultural trade groups stated their views in a letter sent to Trump, who is to be inaugurated on Jan. 20. “As a broad cross-section of rural America, we urge you not to take steps to reverse progress made in normalizing relations with Cuba, but also solicit your support for the agricultural business sector to expand trade with Cuba,” the letter said. “It’s time to put the 17 million American jobs associated with agriculture ahead of a few hardline politicians in Washington,” the letter concluded. Signatories included a wide range of agricultural trade groups, from the American Farm Bureau and American Feed Industry Association to the soy bean, corn, rice, wheat, peas, beans, cattle, poultry lobbies and other associations The letter was arranged by the Washington-based Engage Cuba Coalition and USA Rice. Agricultural organizations in states that Trump won, such as Idaho, Alabama and Georgia, were also signatories. Trump, a Republican, has said he will dismantle the still fragile detente begun by President Barack Obama two years ago unless Cuba gives the United States a better deal, while providing no specifics. The letter was sent before the White House announced on Thursday that it was ending a policy that granted residency to Cubans who arrived in the United States without visas, the latest bid by Obama to make his Cuba policy irreversible. Trump is expected to review the Cuba engagement upon taking office and has named Jason Greenblatt, a Trump Organization executive and chief legal counsel, as negotiator for sensitive international issues, including Cuba. Under an exception to the U.S. trade embargo from the year 2000, Cuba may import agricultural products for cash. The letter calls on Trump to allow normal trade financing and credit so the sector can better compete for the Cuban market. While the sector has sold billions of dollars in products to Cuba over the years, the letter said sales have steadily declined as the embargo makes it difficult to compete with other suppliers. Cuba imports some $2 billion in food annually. The signatories cited a deep dip in farm income to bolster their argument that U.S. farmers needed more trade. “Net farm income is down 46 percent from just three years ago, constituting the largest three-year drop since the start of the Great Depression,” the letter said.

Summary: अमेरिकी किसानों ने ट्रम्प से क्यूबा पर अपना रुख बनाए रखने को कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s chances of cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, while Trump met with six senators including three Democrats who set clear conditions for future cooperation with him on taxes. The president is cranking up a publicity campaign to build public support for his general goals of lower and simpler taxes, but no detailed tax plan has been completed or proposed by the White House or the Republicans in control of Congress. Even after months of discussion within the party, basic questions are unanswered, such as whether tax cuts should be designed so they don’t add to the federal deficit and debt, and how deeply business and individual rates should be cut. Mnuchin told a conference in New York hosted by CNBC on Tuesday that Trump, as the president has said for months, would like to cut the corporate income tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent. Then Mnuchin, a top tax adviser to Trump, said, “I don’t know if we’ll be able to achieve that, given the budget issues, but we’re going to get this down to a very competitive level.” Later in the day, Trump held a dinner at the White House with the six senators. Reflecting his new willingness to engage with the political opposition, three Democrats attended the dinner. In contrast, Republican leaders in Congress have been trying for most of the year to write a tax bill while ignoring the Democrats. Also attending were Vice President Mike Pence, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn and Mnuchin. Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey, one of the attendees, said on a conference call later that Trump talked about competitive business taxes, ending taxation of U.S. corporations’ foreign profits, and a middle-class tax cut. After the meal, Trump took some of the senators on a tour of the West Wing. Later, the Democrats expressed an openness to working with Trump on taxes, but stressed certain conditions. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin said in a statement he would continue to fight for a simpler tax code, but “we must do this without adding to our staggering debt”. North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp said in a statement the dinner was a “good discussion” and that she told the president any tax package must support working families and farmers. Overhauling the tax code was one of Trump’s main campaign promises in 2016, but he has made little progress toward it. After nearly eight months in office, he has yet to win passage in Congress of any major domestic policy legislation. Besides Manchin and Heitkamp, others at the dinner were Indiana Democrat Joe Donnelly and three Republicans: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and fellow tax panel Republicans John Thune and Toomey. Donnelly said in a statement, “Tax reform should include measures to support companies that invest in our workers and penalize companies that ship American jobs to foreign countries.” A major concern on tax cuts is the federal budget deficit. It would balloon if tax rates were cut too deeply without providing offsetting federal spending reductions and closure of tax loopholes, both politically difficult tasks. White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney told Fox News on Tuesday that he hoped tax reform would not be revenue neutral, suggesting he is not overly concerned about the deficit and the national debt, now about $20 trillion. “We need as big and as a dramatic tax reduction and tax reform as we possibly can get,” Mulvaney said. Mnuchin declined to say what business tax rate was achievable. He said he was “incredibly hopeful” a tax plan could be enacted this year, adding it could be retroactive to January. Asked if Trump would hold out for a 15 percent corporate rate, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: “The president is prepared to push for as low of a rate as we can get.” Republican Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said last week that “the numbers are hard” to make Trump’s 15-percent corporate tax rate target work. Ryan set his own goal at around 22.5 percent. Trump’s legislative affairs director, Marc Short, said at a Christian Science Monitor event, “We think that what’s best for the American people is a 15-percent corporate rate right now.” Financial markets rallied after Trump’s election victory last November in anticipation of rapid tax cuts, especially for corporations, but those expectations have faded. “The likelihood of passing sweeping corporate reform has diminished,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management, said in a research note. Democrats, who generally oppose tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, will have negotiating clout in Congress in early December to resist tax changes they oppose, also potentially including a corporate rate cut. Trump may visit as many as 13 states to sell his planned tax cuts to voters in coming weeks, the White House said. The U.S. Senate will begin tax overhaul hearings this week. Republican Senator John Kennedy, a budget committee member, told Reuters he wanted tax plans “with specificity” and expressed frustration at the slow pace of the tax debate. “No more platitudes. Let’s see some meat on the bone,” Kennedy said. “And I’m tired of screwing around. ... The American people are tired of screwing around.”

Summary: अमेरिकी कॉर्पोरेट कर में कटौती का लक्ष्य संदेह में, ट्रम्प ने सीनेटरों के साथ भोजन किया


WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Just days after the United States said it would increase troop numbers in Afghanistan and ask its allies to do the same, New Zealand on Friday announced an extra three non-combat military personnel, boosting its military commitment to 13. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled his strategy to end the conflict in Afghanistan, committing the United States to an open-ended conflict and signaling he would dispatch more troops to America s longest war. U.S. officials have said Trump had signed off on plans to send about 4,000 more U.S. troops to add to the roughly 8,400 now deployed in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has since said exact troop numbers are yet to be decided. Trump said he would ask coalition allies to support his new strategy, with additional troops and funding, to end the 16-year conflict. New Zealand Defence Minister Mark Mitchell s announcement boosting the country s Kabul-based troops to 13 follows a request for NATO (National Atlantic Treaty Organization) to send more troops to Afghanistan earlier this year. New Zealand has had troops in Afghanistan since 2001. Its presence has been decreasing since 2013 but it has kept some personnel on the ground to train local officers.  New Zealand will continue to stand alongside our partners in supporting stability in Afghanistan and countering the threat of international terrorism,  said Mitchell. Prime Minister Bill English said the government has ruled out making a decision on sending combat troops to Afghanistan before New Zealand s election on Sept. 23. Opposition leader Jacinda Ardern told local media this week she would not back sending troops to Afghanistan at the moment but was not privy to intelligence such decisions were based on.

Summary: न्यूजीलैंड अफगानिस्तान में सैन्य कर्मियों की संख्या में तीन की वृद्धि करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Monday urged House Speaker Paul Ryan to insist that Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes recuse himself from the panel’s investigation of alleged ties between President Donald Trump’s associates and Russia. “Chairman Nunes’ discredited behavior has tarnished that office,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Speaker Ryan must insist that Chairman Nunes at least recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation immediately. That leadership is long overdue.”

Summary: हाउस डेमोक्रेटिक नेता पेलोसी का कहना है कि इंटेल पैनल के प्रमुख को खुद को अलग कर लेना चाहिए