BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish political parties opposed to regional leader Masoud Barzani reported attacks on their offices in several cities overnight, hours after Barzani announced his resignation, brought low by a failed push for independence. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Movement for Change and Gorran said in separate statements several of their offices in the Duhok region, north of the Kurdish capital Erbil, were looted or burnt overnight. No casualties were reported. The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq said it had ordered the local police forces, known as Asayish, to stop the attacks.  Barzani, 71, said on Sunday he would give up his position as president on Nov. 1 after an independence referendum he championed in northern Iraq backfired and triggered military and economic retaliation by the Iraqi government. The veteran guerrilla leader has run Iraq s Kurdish autonomous region since 2005, presiding with a firm hand as the region prospered while the rest of Iraq struggled in civil war. But he but has been brought low in recent weeks by his decision to push the independence vote, and his downfall has exposed deep fractures among the Kurds. Armed protesters supporting Barzani stormed parliament as it met on Sunday to approve his resignation. Opposition lawmakers who had been barricaded inside managed to leave later, according to their parties. The PUK, which has been the main rival of Barzani s Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) for decades, supported his decision to hold the independence referendum, but half-heartedly. The reformist Gorran party opposed the vote, arguing that the timing was poor. In a televised speech announcing his plan to step down, Barzani said followers of his longterm rival, PUK founder Jalal Talabani who died in early October, had been guilty of  high treason  for handing over the oil city of Kirkuk to Iraqi forces without a fight two weeks ago. Kurdish fighters known as Peshmerga had held Kirkuk, one of Iraq s main oil centres, since 2014 when they seized it after government troops fled in the face of an advance by Islamic State. Although Kirkuk is outside the borders of the Kurdish autonomous region, Kurds consider it the heart of their homeland. This month, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered his forces to recapture it and all other disputed territory in retaliation after Barzani staged the independence referendum, which Baghdad considers illegal. The Iraqi body in charge of supervising media in Baghdad issued on Sunday a ban on two major Kurdish TV channels close to Barzani s KDP: Rudaw and Kurdistan 24. The Baghdad-based Communication and Media Commission accused the two networks of  inciting violence and hatred.   This is an assault on freedom of press and expression,  replied Erbil-based Kurdistan 24 s management in a letter to the International Federation of Journalists. Rudaw accused Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitaries who are operating alongside government forces on Monday of killing a Kurdish journalist, Arkan Sharif, in the region of Kirkuk. While the Iraqi Kurds have mostly shown outward unity since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, they have a deep history of conflict between Barzani s KDP and Talabani s PUK, which fought each other in a civil war in the 1990s. The KDP is based mostly around Erbil, the regional capital, while the PUK draws its support mostly from Suleimaniya, the other main city in the region. The two political parties run separate units of Peshmerga, their former underground guerrilla armies that have since become the official security forces of the Kurdish autonomous region. After Saddam s fall, Barzani ran the Kurdish autonomous region while his rival Talabani served as ceremonial president of all of Iraq in Baghdad from 2005-2014.

Summary: कुर्दिश दलों ने बरज़ानी के कार्यालयों पर रात भर हमलों की रिपोर्ट का विरोध किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to extend offshore oil and gas drilling to areas that have been off limits - a move meant to boost domestic production but which could fall flat due to weak industry demand for the acreage. The order could open up swathes of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans, as well as the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, that former President Barack Obama had sought to protect from development after a huge BP (BP.L) oil spill in 2010. “We’re opening it up....Today we’re unleashing American energy and clearing the way for thousands and thousands of high-paying American energy jobs,” Trump said as he signed the order. Trump had campaigned on a promise to do away with Obama-era environmental protections that he said were hobbling energy development without providing tangible benefits, pleasing industry and enraging environmental advocates. But the executive order, called the America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, comes as low oil prices and soaring onshore production have pushed industry demand for offshore leases near their lowest level in years, raising questions over the impact. A Reuters review of government data showed the amount of money that oil companies spent in the central Gulf of Mexico’s annual lease sale dropped more than 75 percent between 2012 and 2017. Dollars bid per acre and the percentage of acreage receiving bids both declined more than 50 percent. The figures were similar in the western Gulf of Mexico, the only other zone that got offers for leases during that period, according to the figures from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “The Trump administration’s hasty move today toward expanding offshore oil drilling ... defies market realities and is as reckless as it is unnecessary,” said David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, a non-profit conservation group. “Why on earth would someone choose to push drilling in the riskiest and most expensive places on the planet when the current oil glut will make such ventures unprofitable for the foreseeable future?” he said.     The president of the American Petroleum Institute trade group welcomed the order in a statement, while an API official said the order could help the industry over the long term. The official did not respond to a request for comment directly about current offshore lease demand. “In order to meet U.S. energy needs, it is important to keep options open for the long term, so industry can start planning for and determining where the best prospects are and then make those investments the global economy will require over time,” the official said, asking not to be named.  The order directs the U.S. Department of Interior to review and replace the Obama administration’s most recent five-year oil and gas development plan for the outer continental shelf, which includes federal waters off all U.S. coasts. Weeks before leaving office, Obama had banned new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, protecting 115 million acres (46.5 million hectares) of waters off Alaska and 3.8 million acres in the Atlantic from New England to the Chesapeake Bay. In addition to requiring a new five-year drilling plan, the order reverses Obama’s decision to place certain parts of the Arctic permanently off limits to drilling. It also requires Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to review previous presidents’ designations of marine national monuments and sanctuaries. Jill McLeod, a partner at international law firm Dorsey & Whitney, said Trump’s order was a positive signal to the oil industry but was unlikely to trigger a surge in exploration in the near term given the costs. “The lifting of the ban does not necessarily make drilling in the Arctic a compelling proposition,” she said.   Environmental groups, including Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity, criticized the order and promised to fight it in court. Democratic senators also opposed the order, saying it could threaten the fishing and tourism industries. Friday’s order came on the heels of a separate decree by Trump this week triggering a review of federally managed land to determine if they were improperly designated as national monuments by former presidents. The move is intended to expand federal areas available for development.

Summary: उद्योग की कम मांग के बावजूद, ट्रम्प का लक्ष्य अमेरिकी अपतटीय ड्रिलिंग का विस्तार करना है


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Monday that a U.S. law allowing citizens to sue the kingdom over the Sept. 11 2001 attacks represented a threat to international relations and urged Congress to act to prevent any dangerous consequences from the new legislation. The cabinet, at its weekly meeting in the capital Riyadh, also said that the law, known as JASTA, represented a violation of a leading principle preventing lawsuits against governments that regulated international relations for hundreds of years. “Weakening this sovereign immunity will affect all countries, including the United States,” the statement by Saudi Information Minister Adel al-Toraifi, carried by Saudi state news agency SPA, said. “(The cabinet) expressed hope that wisdom will prevail and that the U.S. Congress would take the necessary steps to avoid the bad and dangerous consequences that may result from the JASTA legislation,” it added. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly last Wednesday to approve legislation that will allow the families of those killed in the 2001 attacks on the United States to seek damages from the Saudi government. Fifteen out of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.    Riyadh has always dismissed suspicions that it backed the attackers, who killed nearly 3,000 people under the banner of Islamist militant group al-Qaeda.  Riyadh is one of Washington’s longest-standing and most important allies in the Middle East and part of a U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The Saudi government lobbied strongly against JASTA, which stands for the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,  in the run-up to the vote, and warned it would undermine the principle of sovereign immunity. But Saudi officials stopped short of threatening any specific retaliation if the law was passed.

Summary: अमेरिका का 11 सितंबर का कानून अंतरराष्ट्रीय संबंधों को कमजोर करता हैः सऊदी कैबिनेट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Democratic and a Republican congressmen have asked the National Security Agency to halt a reported plan to share more raw intelligence data with other federal agencies, warning the policy shift would be “unconstitutional and dangerous,” according to a letter seen by Reuters. U.S. Representatives Ted Lieu and Blake Farenthold, who sit on the House Oversight Committee, said in a letter dated March 21 to NSA Director Michael Rogers that the proposal would violate Fourth Amendment privacy protections because the collected data would not require a warrant before being searched for domestic law enforcement purposes. “If media accounts are true, this radical policy shift by the NSA would be unconstitutional, and dangerous,” Lieu, a California Democrat, and Farenthold, a Texas Republican, wrote. The New York Times reported last month that the proposal would allow the NSA to share intercepted private communications with other U.S. intelligence agencies before applying any privacy protections to the data.  Bob Litt, general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told the Times the Obama administration was finalizing a 21-page draft of the new permissible procedures. The draft has not been made public. Civil liberties advocates have interpreted the change as potentially allowing NSA foreign intelligence data, which sometimes can include collection of communications to, from or about Americans, to be used for domestic policing purposes. The NSA has said its analysts scrub out certain personal information before handing any communications data over to other agencies. “Our country has always drawn a line between our military and intelligence services, and domestic policing and spying,” the lawmakers wrote. “We do not — and should not — use U.S. Army Apache helicopters to quell domestic riots; Navy Seal teams to take down counterfeiting rings; or the NSA to conduct surveillance on domestic street gangs.” The executive branch is able to change its rules for some surveillance programs without congressional approval. Without a law from Congress, the government relies on executive order 12333, which was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and later modified by President George W. Bush.  Critics have said the order is overly broad and vague. The NSA did not respond to a request for comment about the letter. Congress last year passed a law curtailing certain aspects of the NSA’s surveillance authority, most notably ending its bulk collection of domestic phone records exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.

Summary: सांसदों का कहना है कि एनएसए की डेटा साझा करने का विस्तार करने की योजना 'असंवैधानिक' है


(Reuters) - Former President Barack Obama, back on the campaign trail on Thursday for the first time since he left the White House, called on voters to reject a growing “politics of division” that he said was corroding American democracy. Without mentioning Republican President Donald Trump by name, Obama told campaign rallies in New Jersey and Virginia that voters could send a powerful message about the type of politics they want by backing Democrats in Nov. 7 elections in the two states. “What we can’t have is the same old politics of division that we have seen so many times before, that dates back centuries,” Obama told a cheering crowd in Newark, New Jersey, that chanted: “Four more years.” “Some of the politics we see now, we thought we put that to bed. That’s folks looking 50 years back,” Obama said. “It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century.” At a later stop in Richmond, Virginia, Obama said modern politics increasingly did not reflect basic American values of inclusiveness and were driving people away from the process. “We’ve got folks who are deliberately trying to make folks angry, to demonize people who have different ideas, to get the base all riled up because it provides a short-term tactical advantage. Sometimes that feels frustrating,” Obama said. Many of Obama’s comments appeared to be thinly veiled swipes at Trump, whose combative style and inflammatory rhetoric have led to frequent controversy and stoked political tensions. Obama made the remarks just hours after former President George W. Bush, a Republican, also took an indirect swing at Trump with a speech decrying “bullying and prejudice” while defending immigrants and trade.  Obama’s appearances were aimed at driving up Democratic turnout in New Jersey and Virginia, the only two states holding elections for governor this year. Democrats hope Obama can bring some of the young, minority and infrequent voters who powered his two elections to the White House out to the polls in off-year elections. The two contests will be closely watched to see if Democrats can convert the grassroots resistance to Trump into electoral wins after falling short earlier this year in four competitive special congressional elections. The governor’s races, and a special election in December for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, could offer clues to the national political mood ahead of next year’s congressional elections, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the Senate’s 100 seats will be up for grabs. Republicans currently control both chambers. Since leaving the White House in January, Obama has frequently been forced to defend his record as Trump and Republicans have tried to gut his signature healthcare law and roll back his immigration and environmental policies. While he has rarely spoken out about politics in the past nine months, Obama said it was critical that supporters get their friends and families to vote. In Newark, he said no one should assume victory just because opinion polls show Phil Murphy, a former investment banker and U.S. ambassador to Germany, has a comfortable lead on Republican opponent Kim Guadagno, the state’s lieutenant governor. “I don’t know if you all noticed that, but you can’t take any election for granted,” he said in a reference to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s surprise loss last year in the presidential race. In the political battleground of Virginia, polls show a close contest between Democrat Ralph Northam, the state’s lieutenant governor, and Republican Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman who has been endorsed by Trump. Obama carried Virginia in both 2008 and 2012, and Democrat Hillary Clinton won the state over Trump by 5 percentage points in 2016.

Summary: ओबामा ने चुनाव प्रचार में वापसी पर 'विभाजन की राजनीति' की आलोचना की


HANOI (Reuters) - Tensions are high on the South China Sea as Vietnam faces off against China over their overlapping maritime claims. But for the boatmen on the junks cruising the calm expanse of Vietnam s Ha Long Bay, another growing Chinese presence in the region is very welcome indeed.  More than half our tourists are Chinese now,  said Nguyen Van Phu, 33, who has spent six years working on the boats that chug between the bay s spectacular stone towers.  If they stopped coming it would be a big problem, if not a disaster.  The number of Chinese tourists in Vietnam has surged this year, just one sign of the growing economic ties between two long-time enemies. Chinese investment in Vietnam is also increasing rapidly, as is trade between the two countries. But while tourists, trade and investment are being welcomed, they also present a challenge for a fiercely independent country like Vietnam, which has been wary of China s growing influence in the region.  The rising economic dependence on China makes it more difficult for Vietnam to decide how far to confront China on the South China Sea,  said Nguyen Khac Giang, a researcher at the Vietnam Economics and Policy Research Institution.  Vietnam would suffer far more than China economically in the event of political instability given its smaller size, he said. China exports more goods to Vietnam than any other country in Southeast Asia, sending textiles to be made into shirts and sneakers, and electronic components for mobile phones and large flat-panel displays. Those completed products are exported around the world, as well as back to China.     Vietnam also makes electronics components for factories in China, and exports computers for Chinese consumers. Manufacturers see Vietnam as an attractive base, with wages as little as a third of those in coastal regions of China, according to employment consultants. And while proximity has historically been a source of friction between the two countries - they fought a border war as recently as 1979 and armed clashes flared for years afterwards - for manufacturers it s a boon.  We strategically invested in Vietnam because of its geographical advantage   closer to China and hence lower cost on materials, transportation and relatively shorter production lead time,  said Bosco Law, chief executive of the Hong Kong-based Lawsgroup. The company makes clothes for brands such as Gap, whose global operations include scores of outlets in China. Businesses contacted by Reuters declined to talk openly about the risks for them of tension between Vietnam and China. Chinese trade and investment has surged across Southeast Asia in recent years as companies search out new bases for manufacturing and consumers for their goods.  China has also invested in infrastructure and plans to pour development funds into Southeast Asia as part of its sprawling Belt and Road initiative. That has already had a political effect.  Big recipients of Chinese investment such as Cambodia and Laos are promoting China s line on the South China Sea at regional meetings.  President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, meanwhile, has cited Chinese investment pledges as he softens his country s stance on its maritime disputes with China. Tensions between Beijing and Hanoi have been high since mid-June, when Chinese pressure forced Vietnam to suspend oil drilling on a block that overlaps the line China says marks its claim to almost all the South China Sea. As Vietnam has emerged as the most vocal regional opponent of China s maritime claims in Southeast Asia, it has drawn Beijing s ire. Its growing defense links to the United States, Japan and India also make China suspicious. The Vietnamese government has also had to contend with public pressure at home. A row over Chinese oil drilling in disputed waters in the South China Sea in 2014 sparked anti-China riots in Vietnam in which foreign factories thought to be Chinese were set on fire, before the rig was removed. Tourism dipped in the aftermath, but quickly bounced back. Trade has also risen steadily since then.   Exports to China jumped nearly 43 percent to $13 billion in the first half of 2017 from a year earlier, according to customs data. Imports rose more slowly, climbing 16 percent. Chinese tourist arrivals, meanwhile, soared 60 percent to nearly 1.9 million in the first half of 2017 to account for around one third of all foreign visitors. For the most part, the government has welcomed the boost from Chinese tourism, as it strives to meet a 6.7 percent target for annual economic growth. Vietnam is also welcoming Chinese investments, if cautiously.   We should be careful but at the same time we should take advantage,  said Nguyen Mai, the president of Vietnam s Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises. The biggest foreign direct investors in Vietnam have long been from South Korea and Japan, particularly in the electronics sector. More than 100,000 Vietnamese work for Samsung alone in Vietnam. However, Chinese investment is growing quickly, nearly doubling last year to almost 8 percent of total foreign direct investment. Investment went into solar panel and plastics factories, among other areas. Direct U.S. investment accounts for about 2 percent of the total so far this year; the United States is also Vietnam s second-largest trade partner. For a graphic on Vietnam-China trade, click: tmsnrt.rs/2fIhfYc

Summary: तनाव के बावजूद, वियतनाम और चीन ने घनिष्ठ आर्थिक संबंध बनाए


TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya s coastguard intercepted 299 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries on two rubber boats east of Tripoli on Tuesday, officials said. The migrants were intercepted near the town of Zliten by one of several coastguard vessels that Italy repaired and delivered to Libya earlier this year. Libya s western shoreline is the main departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe by boat, many of them fleeing conflict or poverty. Crossings have dropped sharply since July, when an armed group in the smuggling hub of Sabratha began blocking departures. Under pressure from Italy and other European states, Libya s coastguard has also become increasingly active, patrolling more widely and intercepting migrants before they can reach international rescue vessels. As of Oct. 24, more than 18,800 migrants had been intercepted so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. More than 111,000 had crossed to Italy, the vast majority from Libya.  The group picked up on Tuesday was brought back to Tripoli port and was being transferred to a detention center in Tajoura, a suburb of the capital. It included about 15 children and 25 women, said coastguard official Ali al-Shebrak.  A reporter saw one newborn child crying from hunger as his mother, barely able to walk, was given medical treatment from an ambulance. (Refiles to correct day of week from Thursday to Tuesday)

Summary: लीबिया के तटरक्षक बल ने त्रिपोली के पूर्व में लगभग 300 प्रवासियों को रोका


(Reuters) - Hurricane Irma poses a bigger menace to power supplies in Florida than Hurricane Harvey did in Texas because Irma is packing near 200 mile-per-hour winds (320 km/h) that could down power lines, close nuclear plants and threats to leave millions of homes and businesses in the dark for weeks. Irma s winds rival the strongest for any hurricane in history in the Atlantic, whereas Harvey s damage came from record rainfall. Even as Houston flooded, the power stayed on for most, allowing citizens to use TV and radio to stay apprised of danger, or social media to call for help.  When Harvey made landfall in Texas it made it fully inland and weakened pretty quickly. Irma, however, could retain much of its strength,  said Jason Setree, a meteorologist at Commodity Weather Group. Irma has killed several people and devastated islands in the Caribbean.  Current forecasts put almost the entirety of the Florida peninsula in the path of the storm, which made landfall in the Caribbean with wind speeds of 185 mph (295 km/h). The threat of the Category 5 storm, at the top of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, is grave enough that electricity generator Florida Power & Light (FPL) plans to shut its two nuclear power plants in the state, and officials warned that it may have to rebuild parts of its power system, which could take weeks.  Most Florida residents have not experienced a major storm since 2005, when total outages peaked around 3.6 million during Hurricane Wilma. Some of those outages lasted for weeks. Setree compared the projected path of Irma to Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which knocked out power to about 1.2 million FPL customers in October. FPL, a unit of Florida energy company NextEra Energy Inc, restored service to most customers affected by Matthew in just two days. But FPL spokesman Chris McGrath said:  With a storm as powerful as Irma, we want customers to prepare for damage to our infrastructure and potentially prolonged power outages.  He said it was too soon to speculate on the number and location of customers Irma could affect.  In a statement this week, FPL estimated about half of its near five million customers - particularly in the trio of populous southeast counties Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward - had not experienced a major hurricane since 2005.  Should Irma s worst fears be realized, our crews will likely have to completely rebuild parts of our electric system. Restoring power through repairs is measured in days; rebuilding our electric system could be measured in weeks,  FPL Chief Executive Eric Silagy said. FPL, Florida s biggest power provider, said it had invested nearly $3 billion since 2006 to strengthen its grid, including placing 60 main power lines underground and installing nearly five million smart meters and other devices. Other publicly traded utilities in the Sunshine State, including units of Duke Energy Corp, Southern Co and Emera Inc, said in statements that they had also invested in intelligent, self-healing devices. Smart meters allow utilities to see outages as they occur, rather than waiting on customer calls, and utilities also use automated devices that can reenergize lines without damage that were taken offline because of contact with trees or other objects, said Jay Apt, director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center in Pittsburgh. Olivia Ross, a spokeswoman for CenterPoint Energy, which serves the greater Houston area, said these devices helped the utility keep the lights on for more people in the aftermath of Harvey as some issues were resolved remotely. But such devices can only do so much. Harvey s outages were limited to 312,000 customers, of which CenterPoint was responsible for about 109,000, as it quickly lost force after landfall and turned into a tropical storm. By contrast, Ross noted, Hurricane Ike in 2008 caused 2.1 million of CenterPoint s customers to lose power when it hit the Texas coast near Houston.

Summary: तूफान इरमा ने फ्लोरिडा में लाखों लोगों के लिए बिजली के नुकसान की धमकी दी


(Reuters) - An initial check showed that Takata Corp 7312.T air bag parts and material involved in a deadly explosion in a truck in Texas last week were being shipped properly, a U.S. regulator said on Wednesday. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said the agency’s hazardous material team made the determination along with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which conducted an initial survey of shipping documents.  The NTSB said it will decide in the next few weeks whether a deeper investigation is needed into the incident, which occurred on Aug. 22 near Quemado, Texas, and left one woman dead and four other people injured.. Such a probe was called for earlier on Wednesday by two U.S. senators, Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey, both Democrats who are members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The NTSB said in a statement that it has asked to review all documents related to the incident. “Initial indicators are that the materials were packaged properly. If the review of documents and other information shows cause to investigate, the NTSB will do so,” it said in a statement. Takata’s air bag inflators, which contain ammonium nitrate, have been linked to at least 14 deaths and more than 150 injuries and resulted in the largest vehicle recall in history. Prolonged exposure of the defective Takata inflators to hot and humid conditions has been found to cause air bags to explode with excessive force, spraying shrapnel into passenger compartments. The NTSB “must investigate this incident and determine whether this company took appropriate precautions,” said a statement by the senators, both Democrats. The senators noted that ammonium nitrate is also used in agricultural fertilizers and as an explosive for construction and mining industries. They said they want to protect against future incidents in highway shipments of the chemical compound. “We also seek answers on what steps must be taken to ensure other towns and communities aren’t endangered by the shipment of ammonium nitrate on our highways,” they said.          The NTSB, an independent safety investigation agency, focuses on studying accidents to determine if lessons can be learned that could lead to increased safety. The Texas Department of Public Safety is also investigating the incident, and the NTSB said it stands by to assist Texas officials upon request.

Summary: विस्फोट में शामिल टकाटा भागों को ठीक से भेज दिया गया थाः एन. टी. एस. बी.


DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen s Houthi group has fired a cruise missile toward a nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the group s television service reported on its website on Sunday, without providing any evidence. There were no reports of any missiles reaching the UAE.  The Iran-aligned Houthis control much of northern Yemen and had said Abu Dhabi, a member of the Saudi-led coalition fighting against them since 2015, was a target for their missiles.     The missile force announces the launching of a winged cruise missile ... toward the al-Barakah nuclear reactor in Abu Dhabi,  the website said. It gave no further details. The Barakah project, which is being built by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) (015760.KS), is expected to be completed and become operational in 2018, the UAE energy minister has said. It is the second time this year the Houthis have said they have fired missiles toward the UAE. A few months ago they said they had  successfully  test fired a missile toward Abu Dhabi.

Summary: यमन के हौती समूह का कहना है कि उसने अबू धाबी परमाणु रिएक्टर की ओर मिसाइल दागी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee have been undertaking their own investigation, without Republicans, on what they term “Russia’s malign influence around the world,” a spokesman for the Democratic side of the committee said on Wednesday. Sean Bartlett, a spokesman for Senator Ben Cardin, who has been leading the effort, said the Democrats are preparing a “major report” on how Russia seeks to sow distrust and confusion, promote radical voices on divisive issues and gain leverage, while eroding support for democracy and institutions. The investigation was first reported by The Daily Beast. It comes as a handful of Republican-led congressional committees, including the Senate and House of Representatives Intelligence Committees, as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller, investigate alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and whether there was collusion between Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign and Moscow. Trump has denied any collusion. Moscow denies meddling. While the Foreign Relations Democrats are not looking into the U.S. contest, they said they had discovered Russian-led efforts to influence elections in many countries. “The report describes how these efforts are led by the government’s security services and buttressed by state-owned enterprises, Kremlin-aligned oligarchs, and Russian criminal groups that have effectively been nationalized by the state,” Bartlett said in an emailed statement. The committee’s investigations have included contacts with foreign governments. Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are among countries that have discussed Russian meddling. Committee Republicans said they were aware of the investigation, but not involved. “We are aware that Senator Cardin is developing a report on Russian efforts to interfere in European elections, but his staff has not yet shared it with us,” said Micah Johnson, a spokeswoman for Senator Bob Corker, the committee’s Republican chairman. It was not clear when the report might be released publicly.

Summary: स्वतंत्र रूस की जांच पर काम कर रहे डेमोक्रेट


BERLIN (Reuters) - Support for Germany s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) has slumped to its lowest level this year just 10 days before an election in which conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel looks set win a fourth term, a poll showed on Thursday. The weekly survey, conducted by Infratest dimap for ARD television, showed support for Merkel s CDU/CSU bloc unchanged at 37 percent, with the SPD dipping one percentage point to 20 percent. That was the SPD s lowest level since January, when it also scored 20 percent. The party has not polled a lower level in the Infratest dimap survey. The anti-immigration, euro-hostile Alternative for Germany (AfD) came in at 12 percent, up one point, making it the third-strongest political force. The business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) followed with 9.5 percent. The radical Left party scored 9 percent, and the environmentalist Greens were on 7.5 percent.

Summary: जर्मन एस. पी. डी. के लिए समर्थन इस साल सबसे कम हुआः सर्वेक्षण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The organization behind the presidential campaign for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, along with one other group, on Friday filed a petition with the Wisconsin Elections Commission for a recount of votes in the Nov. 8 election, the commission said. “The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates,” Commission Administrator Michael Haas said in a statement.

Summary: ग्रीन पार्टी ने विस्कॉन्सिन में मतों की फिर से गिनती के लिए दायर कियाः राज्य चुनाव आयोग


CINCINNATI (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump kicked off his post-election “thank you tour” on Thursday by railing against globalization, promising the return of manufacturing jobs to American workers, and vowing to shut U.S. borders to some Middle East migrants. Speaking in an arena that was about three-quarters full, Trump rallied the crowd by repeatedly attacking the “extremely dishonest” media and invoking the populist message that resonated with millions of voters. “There is no global anthem, no global currency, no certificate of global citizenship. We pledge allegiance to one flag and that flag is the American flag,” Trump said. “From now on it’s going to be America first, okay?” Trump said as he stressed job-creation spurred by trade deals he intends to renegotiate, including the North American Free Trade Agreement. The New York real estate magnate also announced that he would nominate Marine General James Mattis - calling him “Mad Dog Mattis” - to be his secretary of defense. Noting an attack on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus earlier this week by a Somali immigrant, Trump said such threats against Americans were “created by our very, very stupid politicians; refugee programs.” In order to keep the United States safe from further attacks, Trump said he will suspend immigration “from regions where it cannot be safely processed,” including some countries in the Middle East. “People are pouring in from regions of the Middle East. We have no idea who they are, where they come from, what they’re thinking and we’re going to stop that dead, cold flat,” Trump said. In the past, Trump also has said he would stop the entry of all Muslims into the United States. In a Twitter message earlier on Thursday, Trump said: “ISIS is taking credit for the terrible stabbing attack at Ohio State University by a Somali refugee who should not have been in our country.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations accused Trump of seeking to exploit the “tragic situation in Ohio.” Trump’s remarks came at the end of a day in which he also traveled to neighboring Indiana to celebrate a decision by the Carrier Corp., an air conditioner maker, to keep about 1,000 jobs in the United States rather than move them to Mexico. That decision came after Trump, during the long presidential campaign, publicly called on the company to retain the jobs in Indianapolis and threatened to punish American companies that move operations abroad with stiff import tariffs. The company, which is owned by United Technologies (UTX.N), still intends to move 1,300 other jobs from Indiana to Mexico. In the run-up to his Jan. 20 swearing in as president, Trump is expected to tour cities in swing states, like Ohio, that contributed to his shock election victory on Nov. 8. During a nearly hour-long speech in this southwestern Ohio city, Trump promised to deliver new tax cuts to the middle-class, roll back federal regulations that he said hurt companies and build a wall along the southwestern border with Mexico. While he promised in the speech to talk about the “action plan” that would guide the beginning of his administration, Trump did not provide new details on policies he has been pushing since announcing his White House run in 2015. In mocking detractors who did not think he could burst through the “blue wall” of states that have typically voted for Democrats, Trump proclaimed to roaring cheers, “We didn’t break it, we shattered that sucker.” Over the past few weeks, Trump has mainly been holed up in the Trump Tower in New York City, weighing who to name to top jobs in his incoming administration. He has interviewed several candidates for secretary of state, including the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, who attacked Trump throughout the 2016 campaigns but lately has spoken glowingly of the president-elect. On Wednesday, Trump said he would nominate former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin to lead the Treasury Department. Trump named Wilbur Ross, a billionaire known for his investments in distressed industries, as his nominee for commerce secretary. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he has whittled a list of potential Supreme Court nominees down to “probably three or four” and that an announcement would be made soon. A seat on the nine-member Supreme Court has been vacant since last February, when Justice Antonin Scalia died and the Republican-controlled Senate refused to consider President Barack Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland.  Trump stirred controversy in recent days by suggesting that those who protest the United States by burning the American flag should possibly lose their citizenship or serve a jail sentence. While flag burning is protected under the U.S. Constitution, according to a Supreme Court ruling, Trump nevertheless returned to the issue again on Thursday, telling his audience in Cincinnati: “If people burn the American flag, there should be consequences.”

Summary: ट्रम्प 'धन्यवाद' दौरे में अमेरिकी हृदयभूमि में लोकलुभावन संदेश ले जाते हैं


CARACAS (Reuters) - Washington has asked the government of leftist Nicolas Maduro for access to Venezuelan-American executives of U.S.-based refiner Citgo detained in Caracas this week, a State Department official said on Thursday.       Five of six Citgo [PDVSAC.UL] executives arrested on graft allegations are U.S. citizens, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. All six men are being held in the headquarters of Venezuela s military counterintelligence department in Caracas, the country s state prosecutor said in a statement on Thursday.  Socialist Maduro has said that the United States, his ideological foe, had requested the men be freed, but he vowed on Wednesday they would be tried as  corrupt, thieving traitors  for allegedly seeking to personally profit from a financial deal that was detrimental to the nation.   The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela has asked that (Venezuelan) authorities grant consular access to all U.S. citizen detainees in Venezuela. We call on the (Venezuelan government) to do so immediately in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,  the State Department official said.  Relations between Caracas and Washington have long been tense. They have further soured under President Donald Trump since his administration imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials including Maduro, and economic sanctions that have impeded the OPEC nation s access to international banks. U.S.-based Citgo Petroleum Corp (Citgo) is a Venezuelan-owned refiner and marketer of oil and petrochemical products and the arrests come amid a wider anti-corruption sweep in Venezuela s oil industry. Around 50 managers at state oil company PDVSA have been arrested since August.  Sources in the energy sector say the arrests owe more to Maduro s move to sideline rivals and increase his control of money-making companies as the country struggles in a devastating recession.  The political opposition says PDVSA is rife with corruption, and a congressional investigation concluded that at least $11 billion went  missing  between 2004 and 2014.  The legacy of socialism: To have destroyed PDVSA and the oil industry and turned it into a den of corruption and nepotism,  opposition lawmaker Jose Guerra said on Twitter.  They need to blame someone and some  gringos  are ideal,  Guerra later told Reuters.  The arrests rid Citgo of much of its top brass and have instilled fear throughout Venezuela s oil industry, snarling up decision making, sources close to PDVSA have told Reuters.  The arrests also come at a highly delicate time for Venezuela, which was declared in selective default this month after some late payments. But as Venezuela is making efforts to pay, bondholders of some of the world s highest yielding debt have so far been tolerant of the delays.

Summary: अमेरिका ने वेनेजुएला से हिरासत में लिए गए सिटगो अधिकारियों तक पहुंच के लिए कहा


BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. public pension funds normally prefer a backseat role in overseeing the future of companies where they have billions of dollars invested. But a new effort by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer could show how public sector finance officials might become more involved by putting forward their own candidates for boards of directors. It could also mean another shake-up for corporations still learning how to deal with election contests brought by big activist investors like Carl Icahn or Nelson Peltz.     With New York City having the fourth-largest U.S. public pension system with some $170 billion in assets, Stringer has led the charge on bylaw changes known as “proxy access” under which hundreds of U.S. companies have made it easier for groups of shareholders to run their own candidates for corporate boards.  Now aides to Stringer say they may take their efforts another step and start suggesting specific board candidates at companies whose shares New York City pension funds own — which could include nearly any firm in the S&P 500. Goals would include making boardrooms more diverse or accountable for poor performance. While the comptroller’s office still prefers quiet talks, the new rules will give activists more leverage in those rare cases when corporate directors will not budge, said Michael Garland, an assistant comptroller. “We’re committed to being able to have a discussion about a particular nominee. We have the firepower to do that,” Garland said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. Garland and Rhonda Brauer, recently named as Stringer’s director of corporate engagement, declined to name any companies where they might suggest such nominations soon. By Stringer’s count more than 300 U.S. companies, including about half the S&P 500, have adopted rules to open up the nominating process, including Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N). Exxon is under pressure to add a climate expert to the oil company’s board.     Still, even talk of specific directors brings the New York City funds into new territory as other big public pension managers have preferred a secondary role.  The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation’s largest public pension system, and the Florida State Board of Administration have been vocal about issues like board diversity and voting rights but representatives of each said they are not currently pursuing nominations.  According to a December study by FactSet, companies won board seat proxy contests 67 percent of the time in 2016, up from 54 percent in 2015.  Jill Fisch, a University of Pennsylvania law professor who follows corporate governance, said investors have wondered if pension funds might use proxy access like big hedge funds to push their own candidates - and if so, whether their nominees would be successful. “I can imagine that being really effective, or a real disaster,” she said.

Summary: नए लाभ के साथ, एनवाईसी का स्ट्रिंगर बोर्डरूम को नया रूप दे सकता है


LAHORE/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A newly freed Pakistani Islamist accused of masterminding a bloody 2008 assault in the Indian city of Mumbai called ousted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a  traitor  on Friday for seeking peace with neighbor and arch-foe India. The release of Hafiz Saeed from house arrest raised fresh questions as to whether Saeed might enter politics to run a new, unregistered political party founded by his supporters. India and the United States expressed concern at his release, calling for Saeed to be prosecuted over the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including Americans. Saeed, who has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, spoke at Friday prayers in a mosque in the city of Lahore after being freed from house arrest by a court that said there was no evidence to hold him. Saeed was placed under house arrest in January while Sharif was still prime minister, a move that drew praise from India, long furious at Saeed s continued freedom in Pakistan. In July, a Supreme Court ruling disqualified Sharif from office over a corruption investigation, though his party still runs the government with a close ally as prime minister. Saeed, however, said Sharif deserved to be removed for his peace overtures with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  Nawaz Sharif asks why he was ousted? I tell him he was ousted, because he committed treason against Pakistan by developing friendship with Modi, killers of thousands of Muslims,  Saeed said. India s Ministry of External Affairs condemned Saeed s release, saying it showed Pakistan was not serious about prosecuting terrorists. A U.S. official said Washington was  deeply concerned  about the release.  The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes,  U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the 2008 Mumbai violence in which 10 gunmen attacked targets in India s largest city, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a railway station. The assault brought nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India to the brink of war.  I m happy that no allegation against me was proved,  Saeed told supporters after his release, according to a video released by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Islamist charity, which he heads. The United States says the JuD is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, which Saeed founded and which has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks in India. Pakistan officially banned the Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002. Saeed blamed India for his incarceration in Pakistan, saying  Pakistan s rulers detained me on the aspiration of Modi because of their friendship with him . Saeed has long campaigned in support of Muslim separatists in the Indian-ruled portion of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, which Pakistan also claims. India accuses Pakistan of supporting the LeT and other separatists battling in the Indian part of Kashmir. Pakistan denies that. While Saeed was under house arrest, his JuD charity launched a political party, the Milli Muslim League (MML), which has won thousands of votes in by-elections.  Senior government and retired military figures say the party has the backing of Pakistan s powerful military. The military denies any direct involvement in civilian politics. MML officials have privately said that the party is controlled by Saeed, but it is not clear if Saeed will seek to contest elections or launch a political career.

Summary: भारत, पूर्व प्रधानमंत्री शरीफ के खिलाफ पाकिस्तानी आतंकवादियों को रिहा किया गया


STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Support for the far-right, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party has fallen to its lowest level since surging during the migration crisis of 2015, a government poll showed on Tuesday.  The Sweden Democrats  approval rating shot to nearly 20 percent in November 2015 after hundreds of thousands of people arrived in Sweden to seek asylum. But a stricter immigration policy has led to a big reduction in numbers, and the issue has slipped from the top of the political agenda.  Support for the Sweden Democrats stood at 14.8 percent in November, compared to 18.4 percent in June, Sweden s Statistics Office found in its twice yearly poll for which it interviewed  9,000 people between Oct. 27 and Nov. 28.  The government, comprised of the Social Democrats and Greens, had a 36.4 percent approval rating, compared with 35.6 percent in the June poll. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has wooed voters with a pledge to boost spending by almost 44 billion crowns ($5.23 billion) in the budget for 2018 with much of the money going on welfare, education and the police.  Immigration is no longer dominating the political debate in Sweden,  Jonas Hinnfors, political scientist at Gothenburg University said. Together with the Left Party, which supports the coalition in parliament, the government has 43.4 percent support, up from 41.9 percent in June.     At its current level of support, the Sweden Democrats would still have enough clout to block either the centre-left or centre-right blocs from forming a government after the next election in September 2018, should they fail to reach a majority.  The Sweden Democrats, shunned by all the major parties due to their far-right roots, have said they would help vote down either a centre-left or centre-right coalition in 2018, making it unclear how either bloc will be able to form a government.

Summary: आप्रवासन विरोधी स्वीडन डेमोक्रेट्स का समर्थन गिरा-सर्वेक्षण


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will raise concerns about Israeli settlement activity in Arab lands during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on Wednesday, White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said. Rhodes told reporters on Tuesday that the United States has discussed its concerns about Israeli settlements and “the potential viability of a Palestinian state in the face of that settlement activity ... I’m sure President Obama will do so tomorrow as well.”

Summary: नेतन्याहू के साथ समझौते को लेकर ओबामा उठाएंगे चिंताएंः व्हाइट हाउस


AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan will open its main border crossing with Iraq on Wednesday for the first time since 2015, now that Iraqi forces have gained control of the main highway to Baghdad from Islamic State militants, both governments said. Iraqi troops pulled out of the Tureibil post, on the 180 km (110 mile) border, in summer 2014 after the militants secured nearly all the official crossings of the western frontier as they swept through a third of the country. Commercial traffic continued for a year after until Iraq launched an offensive in July 2015 to reclaim the predominately Sunni Anbar province and deprive the militants of funds raised from truck drivers forced to pay a tax on cargo coming in from Jordan. Tureibil would open on Wednesday after the road was secured  from attacks and criminal gangs,  the Iraqi and Jordanian governments said in a joint statement. Officials have said that customs and border arrangements have been finalised, with security measures in place to ensure the 550 km highway from the border to Baghdad was safe.  The opening of the crossing is of great importance to Jordan and Iraq ... It s a crucial artery. Jordan and Iraq have been discussing reopening it for a while,  Interior Minister Ghaleb al Zubi said last week. Several trade and business officials had said they had been invited to an event on Wednesday to mark the re-opening that would include senior Jordanian and Iraqi officials. Since last year, the Iraqi army has regained most of Anbar province s main towns that fell to the ultra-hardline jihadist group. The vast desert province is an historic hotbed of the hardline Sunni insurgency sparked by 2003 s U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which empowered the oil-rich nation s Shi ite majority. Iraq has also been working on securing the highway that  connects Iraq s Basra port in the south to Jordan, where the Red Sea port of Aqaba has long served as a gateway for Iraqi imports coming from Europe. Although the highway has been secured after driving out the jihadists, the threat of hit-and run attacks on convoys and the army are ever present, according to security experts.  There have been several attacks by militants near al-Rutba town, the last town before the border with Jordan. A senior Western diplomatic said Iraqi authorities have awarded a contract to a U.S. security company that will employ a local force to secure the highway. The source gave no further details.  Jordan hopes the reopening of the route will revive exports to Iraq, once the kingdom s main export market, accounting that accounted for almost a fifth of domestic exports or about $1.2 billion a year, according to the International Monetary Fund. They have fallen by more than 50 percent from pre-crisis levels.  This will increase industrial exports and also revive the two countries  trucking industry. It s a major boost to the economy,  Nael Husami, general manager of the Amman Chamber of Industry, adding transport costs would fall by nearly half. Jordanian exporters have had to use more expensive sea routes to Iraq s Um Qasr port or another land route across Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, businessmen have said.  The restoration of trade links will also give a push to an oil pipeline project running from Basra to Aqaba. Prime Minister Hani al Mulki had visited Baghdad earlier this year to revive the frozen project. Jordanian officials are hopeful the crossing with Syria on its northern border can also open by the end of the year once a U.S.-Russian de-escalation zone in southwest Syria that includes the area is cemented. The International Monetary Fund recently said that prolonged conflicts in neighbouring Syria and Iraq were weighing on the kingdom s debt-ridden economy and the opening of these export routes would boost economic growth.

Summary: संबंधों को बढ़ावा देने के लिए इराक के साथ जॉर्डन सीमा फिर से खुलेगी


MADRID (Reuters) - The Madrid Wax Museum on Friday unveiled clay busts of U.S. presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as they gear up for Tuesday’s vote, waiting to hear who the winner will be before creating their full-body wax replica. The busts of the Democrat and Republican candidates have been placed on either side of a wax figure of outgoing President Barack Obama at the museum in the Spanish capital. “The museum traditionally, as it has done with candidates in Spain, France or Russia and also Britain, always makes the (clay replicas of the) presidential hopefuls,” Gonzalo Presa, head of communications at the museum, said. “Next week, when we know who has won the election we will start working on the wax sculpture which we hope to have ready by January 20 to coincide with the swearing-in ceremony.”

Summary: मैड्रिड वैक्स संग्रहालय ने क्लिंटन और ट्रम्प की मिट्टी की प्रतिमाओं का अनावरण किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized a federal appeals court one day after it handed him another legal setback by refusing to revive his U.S. travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority nations, and appeared poised for the nation’s top court to weigh in. On Monday, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the second federal appeals court to reject the Republican Trump administration’s bid to undo a Hawaii federal judge’s decision that blocked the temporary travel ban in a dispute headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The three-judge panel said Trump’s March 6 order violated existing immigration law, but did not address whether it was unconstitutional discrimination against Muslims.  Trump’s 90-day ban targets travelers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.  “Well, as predicted, the 9th Circuit did it again - Ruled against the TRAVEL BAN at such a dangerous time in the history of our country. S.C.” Trump said in a post on Twitter, apparently referencing the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s top court, which leans conservative after Trump’s appointee won confirmation as the ninth justice earlier this year, could act as soon as this week on his administration’s request to reinstate the order. The 9th Circuit, headed by Democratic appointees, largely left in place a nationwide injunction by Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii that stopped parts of the order, which Trump contends is needed to prevent terrorism in the United States.  Those who have challenged the travel ban dispute that it is needed to protect Americans and argue that the order violates the U.S. Constitution’s bar against favoring or disfavoring a particular religion. Another appeals court, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, last month upheld a Maryland judge’s ruling that also blocked Trump’s ban.  Trump has been on the losing side in all four court rulings on the March order and has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency review. In a statement on Monday, U.S. Attorney General Sessions said Trump’s executive order was lawful and that the court rulings have had a “chilling effect” on security operations.

Summary: यात्रा प्रतिबंध खारिज होने के बाद ट्रंप की नजर सुप्रीम कोर्ट पर


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, signing executive orders calling for a re-examination of some Obama-era financial regulations, said on Friday he would have a major tax reform announcement next week. “We’ll be having a big announcement on Wednesday having to do with tax reform. The process has begun long ago but the reform will begin on Wednesday,” Trump said at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Summary: ट्रम्प का कहना है कि वह बुधवार को कर सुधार की घोषणा करने की योजना बना रहे हैं


WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - Images released by North Korea on Thursday appeared to show it has succeeded in developing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon anywhere in the United States and it could be only two or three tests away from being declared combat ready, U.S.-based experts said on Thursday.    North Korea released dozens of photos and a video after Wednesday s launch of the new Hwasong-15 missile, and leader Kim Jong Un declared the country had  finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force . U.S.-based experts, some of whom have been skeptical about past North Korean claims to have put all of the United States in range, said data from the latest test and the photos appeared to confirm North Korea has a missile of sufficient power to deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in America. Experts and U.S. officials say questions remain about  whether it has a re-entry vehicle capable of protecting a nuclear warhead as it speeds toward its target and about the accuracy of its guidance systems. In an analysis for the Washington-based 38 North think tank, missile expert Michael Elleman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said the North Korean photos showed a missile considerably larger than its predecessor.  Initial calculations indicate the new missile could deliver a moderately sized nuclear weapon to any city on the U.S. mainland,  Elleman said. Elleman said the missile was large and powerful enough to carry simple decoys or other countermeasures to challenge U.S. missile defenses.  A handful of additional flight tests are needed to validate the Hwasong-15 s performance and reliability, and likely establish the efficacy of a protection system needed to ensure the warhead survives the rigors of atmospheric re-entry,  Elleman wrote. Only two or three more tests might be needed if North Korea could accept low confidence in the missile s reliability. Another missile expert, whose employer does not allow him to speak publicly to the media, agreed with Elleman s assessment.  If North Korea does not make high demands on the reliability or accuracy of the missile ... two or three more tests would suffice.  So long as North Korea can hit U.S. cities with thermonuclear warheads, they probably don t need the ability hit every city they target or target specific aim points within those cities to convince the U.S. leadership that war with North Korea would be too expensive to contemplate.  In a call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the missile was North Korea s most advanced so far. But it was unclear if Pyongyang had the technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead, and it still needed to prove other things, including re-entry technology. U.S. based experts said North Korea had almost certainly developed a warhead light enough to be carried by the Hwasong- 15, which Elleman said should be capable of delivering a 1,000 kg payload. Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of Strategic Studies said on Twitter the Hwasong-15 was  so big that the warhead wouldn t need to be miniaturized.  On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis acknowledged  the missile went higher than any previous test and was part of a North Korean effort  to continue building ballistic missiles that can threaten everywhere in the world, basically.   North Korea said the missile soared to an altitude of about 4,475 km (2,780 miles), more than 10 times the height of the International Space Station, and flew 950 km (590 miles) during its 53-minute flight before landing in the sea near Japan. The missile s large size was immediately apparent in the photos, which analysts said allowed for a more powerful propulsion system.  This is a very big missile,  said Michael Duitsman, a research associate at the Centre for Nonproliferation Studies.  And I don t mean  big for North Korea.  Only a few countries can produce missiles of this size, and North Korea just joined the club.  U.S. experts and officials said the missile still appeared to be powered by liquid fuel, something that made it vulnerable as it could take to up to two hours to fuel on-site before launching.  Earlier, one U.S. official told Reuters the missile could have been powered by solid fuel, but experts said North Korea could still be a few years away from being able to field a more versatile solid-fueled ICBM.   The photos appeared to show the missile with at least two large nozzles on its first stage, instead of the one large and several smaller nozzles on the Hwasong-14.  The first stage seems to use essentially the same case (as the Hwasong-14) but has two engines,  said David Wright, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S.-based nonprofit science advocacy group.  The second stage looks like it can carry more than twice as much propellant. The combination of those two things means it really is a new, more capable missile.  While the photos show a mobile erector vehicle being used to position the missile upright, it is not seen in photos of the launch itself. U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that the test missile was fired from a fixed position, not a mobile launcher, three U.S. officials said. The massive vehicle was  100 percent  a domestic product of North Korea, state media quoted Kim Jong Un as saying. Western analysts said it is more likely the truck was one of about half a dozen vehicles obtained years ago from China, which North Korea has modified since then. (For a graphic on Rocket science click tmsnrt.rs/2j2S5T3) (For a graphic on North Korea's missile and nuclear tests click tmsnrt.rs/2vXbj0S)

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया की छवियों से पता चलता है कि मिसाइल पूरे अमेरिका को मारने में सक्षम हैः अमेरिकी विशेषज्ञ


WASHINGTON/HAVANA (Reuters) - The U.S. government made it tougher on Wednesday for Americans to visit Cuba and do business in the country, making good on a pledge by President Donald Trump to roll back his Democratic predecessor’s move toward warmer ties with Havana. The restrictions, which take effect on Thursday, are aimed at preventing the military, intelligence and security arms of Cuba’s Communist government from benefiting from American tourists and trade, the White House said. They fill in the regulatory detail on a Trump policy speech in June, in which the Republican president called for a tightening of restrictions. He said then that the Cuban government continued to oppress its people and former President Barack Obama had made too many concessions in his 2014 diplomatic breakthrough with Washington’s former Cold War foe. The regulations include a ban on Americans doing business with some 180 Cuban government entities, holding companies, and tourism companies. The list includes 83 state-owned hotels, including famous hotels in Old Havana such as Ernest Hemingway’s erstwhile favorite haunt the Hotel Ambos Mundos, as well as the city’s new luxury shopping mall. “All these measures hurt the Cuban people,” said Cuba’s Foreign Ministry chief for U.S. Affairs Josefina Vidal. She said that government revenue funds Cuba’s free education and healthcare systems. Speaking to reporters in Havana, she called the list “arbitrary” and the regulations a further “setback” in U.S.-Cuban relations. The new rules were criticized as too lax by Republican leaders who favor a hard line, but as counterproductive by those who agreed with Obama’s rationale for the detente: that Washington’s many decades of isolating the Caribbean island failed to force change. The Cuban hotels listed included those run by military-linked chains Gaviota and Habaguanex. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American, said the list failed to go far enough because it omitted companies like Gran Caribe Hotel Group and Cubanacan that have ties to the Cuban government. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said the regulations were unfair to Cuba, coming as Trump was being “feted in Beijing” by a Communist government “in a country to which Americans can travel freely.” “The hypocrisy of the White House ideologues is glaring,” Leahy said in a statement.  While U.S. travelers will still be able to make authorized trips to Cuba with a U.S.-based organization and accompanied by a U.S. representative of the group, it will be harder for them to travel individually, according to the new regulations. Before Obama’s opening, travel by many Americans was similarly restricted to such organized trips. Travelers need to be able to show a “full-time schedule” with activities that support Cuban people and show “meaningful interaction,” going beyond merely staying in rooms in private homes, eating in private restaurants, or shopping in private stores, a U.S. official told reporters on a conference call. The administration says it is keen to support such small private enterprises that have sprung up around the country under President Raul Castro’s reforms to the largely state-controlled economy. “Staying or eating or shopping in some of those privately owned places is something that we wanted to encourage. But what we wanted to say is, that alone is not enough,” the official said. However, Cubans in the fledgling private sector say the Trump administration’s more hostile stance toward Havana has already hurt their business. “He is putting us in serious danger by frightening away American visitors looking to rent our properties,” said Norma Hernandez, who rents out rooms on Airbnb and who said her  business flourished over the last year thanks to a surge in U.S. visitors. Trump’s rollback of Obama’s opening has not affected a  centerpiece of the detente, the restoration of diplomatic ties and the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington. Business contracts and travel arrangements already in place will be allowed to go ahead and will not be subject to the restrictions, officials told reporters. The list of entities that Americans cannot do business with includes a special development zone at Cuba’s Mariel port, which Cuba hopes to develop into a major Caribbean industrial and shipping hub with tax and customs breaks. The National Foreign Trade Council, a business lobby group in Washington, called the Mariel restriction “counterproductive” because it would hurt a Cuban government initiative that could potentially benefit Cuban workers. The head of an educational travel company said there were still many legal avenues - as well as commercial flights, cruise ships, U.S.-owned hotels, and tour providers - to enable Americans to visit Cuba. But he said the new restrictions would hurt Cuba’s private sector, at a time when the economy is already struggling. “U.S. backtracking on Cuba could not come at a worse time,” said Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel.

Summary: अमेरिकी सरकार के नए नियम क्यूबा के साथ यात्रा और व्यापार को प्रतिबंधित करते हैं


ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece s Supreme Court will decide on Dec. 13 whether to extradite a Russian to the United States where authorities want to put him on trial for laundering $4 billion via a bitcoin platform. Alexander Vinnik, who says he is a bitcoin consultant, is accused by U.S. authorities of running the BTC-e exchange, which they allege was a conduit for laundering proceeds from illicit activities.  Vinnik denies the charges and is fighting his extradition to the United States.  I don t think there is independent justice in the United States for a Russian citizen,  Vinnik told the court in session in Athens. He also said conditions in American prisons were  terrible . Addressing the court, a Greek public prosecutor recommended Vinnik s extradition. The 38-year-old was arrested in northern Greece on the basis of a U.S. warrant in July, one of seven Russians arrested or indicted worldwide this year on U.S. cybercrime charges. Since his arrest, Russia has also sought Vinnik s extradition there on lesser charges of fraud. Vinnik has agreed to be extradited to Russia. In competing requests of this nature, the final decision of where Vinnik will be extradited rests with Greece s justice minister.

Summary: रूस के साइबर संदिग्ध के प्रत्यर्पण पर 13 दिसंबर को फैसला करेगी यूनान की शीर्ष अदालत


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey, Russia and Iran will hold a summit to discuss developments in Syria next week in the Russian resort of Sochi, Turkish broadcaster NTV said on Thursday. The three countries will discuss the ongoing ceasefire in Syria at their Nov. 22 meeting, NTV said.

Summary: तुर्की, रूस, ईरान 22 नवंबर को सोची में सीरिया शिखर सम्मेलन आयोजित करेंगेः एनटीवी


WISMAR, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is on track to win a fourth term in Sunday s national election despite a dip in support for her conservatives, a poll showed on Tuesday, and she shrugged off calls to quit from far-right hecklers. Merkel has been repeatedly booed during the election campaign, particularly in Germany s formerly Communist east, where support is strongest for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), set to enter parliament for the first time. An opinion poll published on Tuesday by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily put the AfD on 10 percent, up two points since the end of August, while Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian CSU allies slipped two points to 36.5 percent. However, the CDU/CSU remain far ahead of the center-left Social Democrats, which were also down two points on 22 percent, according to the poll conducted by Allensbach for the FAZ, while the business-friendly Free Democrats edged up to 11 percent.  People who whistle and heckle contribute little,  Merkel told a CDU rally in the northeastern port town of Wismar, not far from where she grew up. Merkel was unperturbed when a man shouted  Traitor to the fatherland  during her speech, while several dozen supporters of the far-right National Democratic Party gathered outside,  carrying posters reading  Merkel must go!   Hundreds of AfD party members and anti-Islam activists rallied together in the eastern city of Dresden on Monday, counting down the days to a vote set to make the AfD the first far-right group in Germany s parliament in more than 50 years. The AfD has capitalized on discontent over the influx of  one million migrants into Germany in 2015 and 2016, but the other parties all refuse to work with the AfD and no one wants to sit next to them in parliament. Merkel contrasted Tuesday s hecklers with the contribution of 30 million Germans who are involved in voluntary associations, including those who help support refugees. But she added that the recent wave of migrants  should not and will not be repeated . Another poll, conducted by Forsa for RTL television and Stern magazine, showed support for Merkel s CDU/CSU bloc fell one percentage point in the last week to 36 percent, its lowest since April, while the SPD was unchanged on 23 percent. SPD leader Martin Schulz has been campaigning against inequality, but his message has failed to gain traction at a time when unemployment is at its lowest in decades. The Allensbach poll showed that 21 percent think the CDU has done the best job to address the issues that interest voters, compared to 15 percent for the SPD and 14 percent for the AfD. In fresh positive news from the economy, the Mannheim-based ZEW research institute said the mood among German investors improved more than expected in September as worries about the stronger euro faded. The ZEW survey suggested markets expect Europe s biggest economy to continue its solid performance in the coming months, buoyed by record-high employment, rising real wages and ultra-low borrowing costs that are supporting a consumer-led upswing. With Merkel s conservatives commanding a solid poll lead, the main question in Germany now is who she will govern with after the election, rather than whether she will stay in power. The latest polls put support for the far-left party Die Linke at 9-10 percent, and the environmentalist Greens on 8 percent. This means that only another grand coalition of Merkel s conservatives with the SPD or a three-way alliance of the conservatives, FDP and Greens would have a stable majority. The Allensbach poll showed 23 percent of voters would prefer a coalition of conservatives with the FDP, while 14 percent want a continuation of the current grand coalition and 10 percent favor an alliance of SPD, Linke and Greens.

Summary: चुनाव के चौथे कार्यकाल की ओर इशारा करते हुए मर्केल ने हंगामा करने वालों को किया खारिज


(Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he was running for re-election in part to provide a counter-weight to whomever might win the White House in November, whether Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump. Rubio criticized Clinton in a statement he released to explain his decision, but added: “The prospect of a Trump presidency is also worrisome to me.” “If he is elected, we will need senators willing to encourage him in the right direction, and if necessary, stand up to him. I’ve proven a willingness to do both,” Rubio said.

Summary: रूबियो ने कहा कि ट्रम्प के राष्ट्रपति बनने की संभावना 'चिंताजनक' है


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the rival Social Democrats (SPD) are neck-and-neck ahead of a crucial regional election in the state of Lower Saxony, an infratest dimap poll showed on Thursday. The Oct. 15 snap election is being followed unusually closely because it follows just three weeks after national elections and will delay federal coalition negotiations, since parties are reluctant to alienate core voters by making compromises ahead of a key regional vote. The poll placed the CDU on 35 percent, just ahead of the SPD on 34 percent. The Greens were in third place on 9 percent, followed by the pro-business Free Democrats on 8 percent. The radical Left party was on 5 percent and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was on 6 percent.

Summary: क्षेत्रीय मतदान से पहले, मर्केल के रूढ़िवादी सोशल डेमोक्रेट्स के साथ गले मिलते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on Monday she will not open the party’s national convention in Philadelphia, the Sun Sentinel newspaper reported. “I have decided that in the interest of making sure that we can start the Democratic convention on a high note that I am not going to gavel in the convention,” Wasserman Schultz told the Florida paper.

Summary: वासरमैन शुल्ट्ज़ डेमोक्रेटिक कन्वेंशन नहीं खोलेंगेः मीडिया रिपोर्ट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator John McCain on Sunday urged President-elect Donald Trump to accept that Russia interfered in November’s presidential election. “The facts are there,” McCain said in a television interview on CBS “Face the Nation.”

Summary: रूसी हैकिंग पर मैक्केन ने ट्रम्प से कहाः 'तथ्य हैं'-सीबीएस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm Heath Tarbert to be an assistant secretary of the Treasury. Tarbert is expected to oversee the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which assesses proposed transactions to ensure they do not harm national security.  Tarbert, now at the law firm Allen & Overy LLP, takes the reins of CFIUS at a time when the inter-agency panel has balked at approving deals involving China in areas as disparate as semiconductors, insurance and aluminum.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट ने हीथ टार्बर्ट को सहायक वित्त मंत्री बनाए जाने की पुष्टि की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee on Thursday cleared the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee of charges that he had disclosed classified information, potentially clearing the way for him to resume leadership of the panel’s Russia investigation. Republican Representative Devin Nunes, who had consistently  denied wrongdoing, thanked the committee for its finding, but said the probe had taken too long and the accusations against him were politically motivated. Nunes stepped aside from leading the intelligence committee’s investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. presidential election in April as the Ethics panel said it was investigating allegations that he had disclosed classified information. The accusations against Nunes arose after President Donald Trump tweeted in March, without giving evidence, that former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, had wiretapped him as he competed for the presidency. Two and a half weeks later, Nunes, a Trump ally, told reporters that an unidentified source had shown him intelligence reports containing “unmasked” names of Trump associates swept up in foreign surveillance, prompting accusations that Nunes had disclosed classified information to provide cover to Trump. Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have frequently raised the “unmasking” issue during the investigation of allegations that Russia sought to influence the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump’s chances of defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton and whether Trump associates colluded with Russia. Russia had denied the accusations, and Trump has dismissed any talk of collusion. Some Republicans contend that the potential surveillance of Americans and release of their names, possibly for political purposes, should be addressed by investigators. Former Obama administration officials have denied such accusations and labeled the issue a distraction from serious investigations of U.S. election integrity. Nunes criticized the ethics panel for taking “an unbelievable eight months” to dismiss the matter, and called on the panel to publicly release all transcripts related to his case. Ethics committee staff could not immediately be reached for comment. In a statement, the panel said intelligence experts had concluded the information Nunes disclosed was not classified, so it would take no further action and the matter was closed. It was not clear whether Nunes would formally resume  leadership of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation. His spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Republican Representative Mike Conaway has been leading it since April. Nunes has remained chairman of the intelligence panel.

Summary: हाउस इंटेलिजेंस के अध्यक्ष को गोपनीय जानकारी का खुलासा करने से मुक्त कर दिया गया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to discuss the North Korean crisis with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during the meeting in Vienna this week, RIA news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.

Summary: रूस के लावरोव, अमेरिकी टिलरसन वियना में उत्तर कोरिया पर चर्चा करेंगेः आर. आई. ए.


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Republicans may have failed to overthrow Obamacare this week, but there are plenty of ways they can chip away at it. The Trump administration has already begun using its regulatory authority to water down less prominent aspects of the 2010 healthcare law.  Earlier this week, newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price stalled the rollout of mandatory Medicare payment reform programs for heart attack treatment, bypass surgery and joint replacements finalized by the Obama administration in December. The delays offer a glimpse at how President Donald Trump can use his administrative power to undercut aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion that Republicans had sought to overturn. The Republicans’ failure to repeal Obamacare, at least for now, means it remains federal law. Price’s power resides in how to interpret that law, and which programs to emphasize and fund. Hospitals and physician groups have been counting on support from Medicare - the federal insurance program for the elderly and disabled - to continue driving payment reform policies built into Obamacare that reward doctors and hospitals for providing high quality care at a lower cost. The Obama Administration had committed to shifting half of all Medicare payments to these alternative payment models by 2018. Although he has voiced general support for innovative payment programs, Price has been a loud critic of mandatory federal programs that dictate how doctors should deliver healthcare. Providers such as Dr. Richard Gilfillan, chief executive of Trinity Healthcare, a $15.9 billion Catholic health system, say they will press on with these alternative payment plans with or without the government’s blessing. But they have been actively lobbying Trump officials for support, according to interviews with more than a dozen hospital executives, physicians and policy experts. Without the backing of Medicare, the biggest payer in the U.S. healthcare system which Price now oversees, the nascent payment reform movement could lose momentum, sidelining a transformation many experts believe is vital to reining in runaway U.S. healthcare spending. Price “can’t change the legislation, but of course he’s supposed to implement it. He could impact it,” said John Rother, chief executive of the National Coalition on Health Care, a broad alliance of healthcare stakeholders that has been lobbying the new administration for support of value-based care. The move Friday to pull the Republican bill only reinforces the risk to the existing law, which Trump said on Friday “will soon explode.”  “It seems that the Trump Administration now faces a choice whether to actively undermine the ACA or reshape it administratively,” Larry Levitt, senior vice president at Kaiser Family Foundation, wrote on Twitter. “The ACA marketplaces weren’t collapsing, but they could be made to collapse through administrative actions,” he added. The United States spends $3 trillion a year on healthcare - more by far than 10 other wealthy countries - yet has the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate, according to a 2013 Commonwealth Fund report. Link to Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2nkTWoC Health costs have soared thanks in part to the traditional way doctors and hospitals get paid, namely by receiving a fee for each service they provide. So the more advanced imaging tests a doctor orders or pricey procedures they perform, the more money he or she makes, regardless of whether the patient’s health improves. “We have a completely broken economy in healthcare,” said Blair Childs, senior vice president at hospital purchasing group Premier Inc. “Literally, all of the incentives in fee-for-service are for higher cost.” Alternative payment models are designed to remove incentives that reward overtreatment of patients. Private insurers are on board, with Aetna Inc, Anthem Inc, UnitedHealth Group and most Blue Cross insurers announcing plans to shift half of their reimbursement to alternative payment models to control costs. To promote the shift to alternative payments, the ACA created an incubator program at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The CMS innovation center is funded by $10 billion over 10 years to test payment schemes aimed at improving quality and cutting the cost of care.  The Obama administration’s decision to make some of these payment programs mandatory has drawn the ire of Price, a former U.S. senator and orthopedic surgeon. In response to a mandatory payment program for joint replacements last September, for example, Price charged that the CMS innovation center was “experimenting with Americans’ health.” In his January 17 confirmation, Price said he was a “strong supporter of innovation,” but said he believed the CMS innovation center “has gotten a bit off track.” President Trump has already signed an executive order directing the HHS to begin unraveling Obamacare. In the early hours of his presidency, Trump directed government agencies to freeze regulations and take steps to weaken the healthcare law. The order directed departments to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation” of provisions that imposed fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals. These moves were meant to minimize the costs and regulatory burdens imposed on states, private entities and individuals. David Cutler, the Harvard health economist who helped the Obama Administration shape the ACA, said Price could do all sorts of things to undermine the law. “If he wants to blow it up, he can,” Cutler said in an email. But if they do, he added, “they alone will own the failure.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन बिना निरस्त किए भी ओबामाकेयर को कैसे बाधित कर सकते हैं


BEDMINSTER, N.J. (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday assessed several more contenders for top U.S. posts including Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani, as blunt-spoken retired Marine Corps General James Mattis emerged as a leading candidate for defense secretary. Trump held meetings at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, with candidates for senior administration jobs after he takes office on Jan. 20. On Saturday, he conferred with Mattis and Mitt Romney, formerly a fierce Trump critic now under consideration for secretary of state. Summing up two days of talks as he said goodbye to retired U.S. Marines Corps General John Kelly on Sunday evening, Trump said he had made decisions on a couple of appointments. “We really had some great meetings, and you’ll be hearing about them soon.” Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer said no decisions would be announced on Sunday night. Trump discussed the treasury secretary job with Jon Gray, a board member of the Blackstone Group, two sources familiar with their meeting said. A Trump transition team statement said their discussion included the U.S. economy, global capital markets and the world financial situation, as well as tax reform and long-term debt. The last person Trump escorted out of the clubhouse was Giuliani, the former New York mayor. Trump said earlier that Giuliani was a candidate for secretary of state “and other things.” The Trump team statement said Trump and Giuliani discussed “administration priorities” as well as “restoring America’s prominence in the world, ongoing national security issues and threats at various hotspots on a global basis.” Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, advised Trump during the presidential campaign but was dismissed as the head of his transition team. Asked by reporters before the meeting whether there was a place for Christie in his administration, Trump sidestepped the question but called him “a very talented man, great guy.” Trump met with billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who he said was under consideration for commerce secretary. Asked whether he wanted the job, Ross told reporters: “Well, time will tell.”  Trump also received Jonathan Gray, the global head of real estate at the Blackstone Group, who is being considered for Treasury secretary, according to a person briefed on the matter. The president-elect has already tapped three senior leaders of his national security and law enforcement teams, choosing U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general, U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo as CIA director, and retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as national security adviser. The selections so far suggest that Trump, true to his campaign promises, intends to steer national security and foreign policy in a sharply different direction from that of Democratic President Barack Obama, whose record Trump harshly criticized during his campaign. Obama campaigned extensively for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton before the Nov. 8 election and warned during the campaign that Trump lacked the temperament and qualifications to be president. In Peru, as he wrapped up his last foreign trip, one that was overshadowed by Trump’s surprise election, Obama encouraged Democrats on Sunday to work with the new administration but said he would weigh in as a citizen if the Trump administration challenged values he holds dear.  In another sign of Trump’s novel approach to politics, the New York businessman who has never held public office said he planned to live in the White House but that his wife, Melania, and their 10-year-old son, Barron, would not move in immediately. He said they would move from New York to the White House “very soon, right after he finishes school.” While Trump received lawmakers, politicians and business leaders behind closed doors over the weekend, he gave some hints about his thinking and possible Cabinet choices on Twitter.  On Sunday, he tweeted that “General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, who is being considered for Secretary of Defense, was very impressive yesterday. A true General’s General!” From 2010 to 2013, Mattis headed the U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees operations stretching from the Horn of Africa through the Middle East and into Central Asia including Afghanistan and Pakistan. During that time, he was at odds with the Obama administration on the need to prepare for potential threats from Iran and about resources for Afghanistan. Mattis, 66, served as an American commander in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was known to be popular among the troops. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who now heads Trump’s transition team,” said Mattis had “a legendary military career.” Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said it was a “very real possibility” Mattis would get the job, telling the ABC program “This Week:” “I know that President-elect Trump loves leaders like General Mattis.” Pence said that Trump and Romney had a good meeting and “a warm and a substantive exchange.” “I can say that Governor Romney is under active and serious consideration to serve as secretary of state of the United States,” Pence said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”    Romney, the unsuccessful 2012 Republican presidential nominee, was a leader of the Republican establishment movement that tried to block Trump from becoming the nominee this year. In March, Romney called Trump “a phony,” “a fraud” and “a con man.” A source close to Romney from his time as Massachusetts governor expressed concern he might be “frozen out” by officials whose thinking appears to be closer to Trump’s, such as Flynn, Mattis, White House counselor Steve Bannon, and members of Trump’s family. “How much influence and latitude he will have will be up to Trump, and they don’t appear to be on the same page about much,” the source said. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who made unsuccessful bids for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and 2016, will meet with Trump on Monday and is being considered for Cabinet posts including defense, energy and veterans affairs, Trump’s transition team said.

Summary: विचार-विमर्श के सप्ताहांत में, मैटिस ने ट्रम्प पेंटागन प्रमुख का पक्ष लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia’s ambassador to Washington Sergei Kislyak, a key figure in ongoing U.S. investigations into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election, ended his tenure on Saturday. The Russian embassy in Washington said on its Twitter feed that Minister-Counseler and Deputy Chief of Mission Denis V. Gonchar would serve as Charge d’Affaires until Kislyak’s successor arrived. Kislyak, who held the post since 2008, is expected to be replaced by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Antonov. Antonov’s nomination for the post, which has yet to be approved by the Kremlin, comes at a time of intense scrutiny over Moscow-Washington relations following U.S. allegations that Russia meddled in the U.S. election last year. Kislyak’s name has emerged in relation to several of Trump’s associates as a special counsel and congressional panels investigate Russian meddling and possible ties with the Trump campaign.      On Friday, the Washington Post reported Kislyak was overheard by U.S. spy agencies telling his bosses he had discussed campaign-related matters, including issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race. As Attorney General, Sessions recused himself in March from matters connected to an investigation by the FBI following his admission he had talked to the Russian envoy. Sessions has denied discussing campaign issues with Russian officials and has said he only met Kislyak in his role of U.S. senator. Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign in February after it became known that he had failed to disclose the content of conversations he had with Kislyak and misled the vice president about their meetings. Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner also failed to disclose contacts with Russia when seeking his security clearance, the New York Times reported in April. The White House disclosed in March that Kushner met with Kislyak at Trump Tower in December 2016, in addition to seeing Kislyak when he attended an April 2016 campaign speech in Washington. The White House said the December meeting was to establish “a line of communication.” Kushner also had phone calls with Kislyak between April and November 2016, Reuters reported. Kushner’s attorney has said that Kushner had “no recollection” of the calls as he had participated in “thousands of calls in this time period.” Moscow has denied any interference, and Trump has said his campaign did not collude with Russia. The White House said this week Trump would nominate Jon Huntsman as his new ambassador to Russia.

Summary: अमेरिकी जांच के केंद्र में रूसी राजदूत ने वाशिंगटन में अपना कार्यकाल समाप्त किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Monday urged President Donald Trump to release logs of visitors to the White House and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida under a policy that made public the names of nearly six million visitors to the White House during the administration of Barack Obama. If Trump continues the policy, under which visitor logs were released 90 to 120 days after they were created, the public could learn who has been visiting the Trump White House as soon as April 20, according to the lawmakers’ letter.  Two of its eight signatories, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Tom Udall, received no reply to a Feb. 3 request that Trump publicize visitor lists from Mar-a-Lago, which Trump has described as the “Winter White House” and  visited four times since becoming president, according to Monday’s letter.  The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A page on the White House website’s “Disclosures” section entitled “Visitor Access Records” says the page will post records of White House visitors on an ongoing basis, once they become available. It does not mention Mar-a-Lago. Photos taken by private guests at the Florida resort in February showed Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe conferring after North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test, prompting a Republican-led congressional oversight committee to ask the White House whether security protocols were followed. “One way to provide assurances that your Administration is listening to the voices of all Americans, not just friends and donors who have a financial self-interest to influence government policy, is to let everyone know who is meeting with you and your staff,” Monday’s letter to Trump read. The senators sent a similar letter on Monday to William Callahan, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, asking how the agency will conduct background checks on people who will be present during Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower in New York City, Trump’s golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, or other Trump properties where he may conduct official business. The Secret Service declined to comment.

Summary: सीनेटरों ने व्हाइट हाउस, मार-ए-लागो आगंतुक लॉग जारी करने के लिए ट्रम्प पर दबाव डाला