WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. Congress wield little clout nowadays, but they will likely have plenty of influence on the looming issue of the U.S. debt ceiling and party leaders are considering whether they should try to convert that advantage into bargaining power on tax reform. Even though they control the White House and both chambers of Congress, Republicans are again divided among themselves as pressing fiscal issues rattle financial markets and test President Donald Trump’s ability to keep the country’s accounts in order. The debt ceiling is a legal cap on how much money the federal government can borrow to fund its budget deficits and meet debt obligations. Failure to meet payments could lead to a default and a downgrade in America’s credit rating, with the potential to trigger global financial shockwaves. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was “100 percent confident” that the debt ceiling would be raised in September. “There is no scenario where the government won’t be paying its bills,” Mnuchin said. Action is needed to raise the debt ceiling by Sept. 29, the administration has warned, although some fiscal experts say the deadline may actually be mid-October. The Trump administration wants Congress to pass a “clean” increase, without extraneous political measures attached. But, reflecting long divisions in the party over fiscal policy, many conservative Republicans have said they will not  vote for a debt-limit bill that does not also contain promises of federal spending cuts. So, analysts say, Trump and Republican leaders will need the votes of Democrats, who generally favor a clean bill, to raise the debt limit and avoid a default. Armed with this edge, Democrats are considering using the debt debate to press Republicans for bipartisan tax reform, said Democratic Senate aides, which would inject new uncertainty into the debt limit issue. Overhauling the tax code is a top priority for Trump and his fellow Republicans, but they have made little progress since the president took office in January. Their behind-closed-doors planning process so far on tax reform has ignored the Democrats. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi are skeptical about supporting a debt ceiling increase while Republicans pursue tax cuts that Democrats say would cause the federal deficit to balloon. “We’re telling Republicans that if it is their intention to use that debt limit increase to allow for tax cuts for the wealthy, that they are going to have a harder time getting Democratic votes,” said a Senate Democratic aide. Senate Democrats offered earlier this month to move forward with bipartisan legislation on taxes, on condition that changes do not add to the deficit or benefit the wealthy. For now, Senate and House Democrats are watching  Republicans and the Trump administration wrangle over the debt ceiling, with no clear plan yet in sight. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have not said if they want a clean bill. Ryan said on Thursday that Congress will pass legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling, noting that lawmakers have several options. McConnell has said the debt ceiling will be raised, a spokesman said on Thursday. Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in an email: “Leader Pelosi has expressed support for a clean debt ceiling hike, but has also echoed the concerns that many House Democrats have about supporting such a move while Republicans simultaneously blow a multi-trillion dollar hole in the deficit with tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.” Given the stakes, Schumer and Pelosi would face a daunting task in holding their parties’ lawmakers together if they want to squeeze concessions out of Republicans with the country on the brink of a potential default. Some Democrats are skeptical such a strategy could work. “We ought to get the debt ceiling done. It’s a bad precedent to try to use the debt ceiling for leverage for other political objectives,” said Representative John Yarmuth, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell expressed concern on Friday about the possibility of the debt ceiling not being raised.  “If the debt ceiling were not to be raised, the United States would not be able to pay all of its bills. That’s never happened before; it would be unprecedented and that could be a major shock to the economy,” Powell said in an interview with CNBC during a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Democrats have been talking about using the debt ceiling as a lever against Republican tax reform since June and laid out their conditions for working together on tax legislation in an Aug. 1 letter to Trump and Republican leaders. McConnell flatly rejected the idea of broad bipartisanship. But it could be the only way forward on taxes if Republicans cannot agree on a budget resolution for fiscal 2018. That is needed to unlock a legislative provision that would allow them to pass a tax bill in the Senate, where Republicans have only a slim majority, without Democratic support.

Summary: ऋण सीमा की कुंजी रखते हुए, डेमोक्रेट कर मांगों पर विचार करते हैं


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An interim Brexit deal struck by Theresa May and the European Commission is not legally binding but the British prime minister has committed her government to honoring a gentlemen s agreement, an EU spokesman said on Monday.  Formally speaking, the joint report is not legally binding,  the European Commission s chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters when asked about suggestions from some of May s ministers that the terms of Friday s accord could change.  But we see the joint report of Michel Barnier and David Davis as a deal between gentlemen and it is the clear understanding that it is fully backed and endorsed by the UK government,  he added, referring to each side s negotiator. Referring to EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker, he said:  President Juncker had a meeting with Prime Minister May last Friday morning to ascertain that this is precisely the case. They shook hands.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट सौदे पर सज्जनों के समझौते पर यूरोपीय संघ ने कहा, हो सकता है हिल गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Bob Corker said on Monday that he could oppose his party’s tax bill over deficit concerns in an expected Senate Budget Committee vote this week, but added that Republicans were working to resolve his concerns. “I’m not threatening anything. I’m just saying it’s very important for me to know that we’ve got this resolved,” Corker told reporters. Asked if he could vote ‘no’ on the tax bill at a committee hearing slated for Tuesday, he replied: “Very possible. Yeah. Sure.” Corker is among a group of deficit hawks who want the tax  legislation to contain a backstop measure that would raise revenues in the event that expected economic growth does not materialize to compensate for nearly $1.5 trillion in deficit spending over the next decade.

Summary: सीनेट रिपब्लिकन ने कर विधेयक पर संभावित समिति के मतदान 'नहीं' के संकेत दिए


TARRAGONA, Spain (Reuters) - The Catalonian government on Thursday launched its official campaign for an independence referendum, which Madrid has declared illegal, buoyed by the support of the capital  Barcelona. Crowds filled a bull ring in the northeastern city of Tarragona, applauding and shouting  We will vote!  as regional president Carles Puigdemont arrived to rally support for the Oct. 1 vote. In a boost for the credibility of the referendum, the mayor of Barcelona said earlier on Thursday that the vote would go ahead in the city, having previously expressed concern that civil servants involved may lose their jobs. A town hall spokesman was unable to comment further or explain how civil servants could be protected.      Puigdemont himself is facing criminal charges of misuse of public money, disobedience and abuse of office for organizing the referendum, and prosecutors have summoned hundreds of the region s mayors for questioning.    Police raided a newspaper office and a printing press last week, looking for signs of preparation, and the regional court has ordered Civil Guard agents to shut down web pages providing information about the referendum.  Regional home affairs councillor Joaquim Forn said there was a bigger than usual presence of national police in Catalonia.  They are moving throughout the region. They must be looking for ballot boxes,  he told RAC1 radio. A majority of Catalonia s 5.5 million voters want to have their say on the northeastern region s relationship with Spain, but the independence cause has lost support in recent years and surveys indicate less than 50 percent of the population would choose full self-rule.

Summary: बार्सिलोना के समर्थन से कैटलोनिया का स्वतंत्रता अभियान शुरू


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s comments that President Barack Obama was “raised white” prompted backlash on social media on Tuesday, with many users criticizing the neurosurgeon for stereotyping the experience of African-Americans. Carson, who is black and grew up poor in Detroit in the 1960s, said of Obama in a podcast posted on Politico’s website, “He was, you know, raised white.” He added, “I mean, like most Americans, I was proud that we broke the color barrier when he was elected, but … he didn’t grow up like I grew up … Many of his formative years were spent in Indonesia. So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch.” Several Twitter users expressed anger over the remarks.   Keith Simmons (@Foreignstorian) said “You cannot distill the black experience into something so narrow. Being ‘poor’ or ‘rich’ does not grant authenticity.” Warren Holstein (@WarrenHolstein) said, “Ben Carson says Obama was “raised white” and doesn’t understand black Americans. That fails to explain why no one understands Ben Carson.” Shaun King (@ShaunKing), civil rights activist and New York Daily News writer, said, “Please @RealBenCarson. Step away from ALL microphones...forever. Saying Obama “grew up white” is foolishness.” The comments also prompted some to contemplate Obama’s upbringing. Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) said, “I’ve often wondered why Obama is regarded as black, not mixed race, despite a white mother and a white upbringing.” Carson did not back away from his comments in an interview with CNN on Tuesday afternoon. “Anybody who is sensible knows that the way that he was brought up is very different from the way most black people in this country are brought up,” he said, adding, “I don’t think anyone would deny that someone who was raised in Hawaii by his white grandparents and then spent formative years in Indonesia with his white mother does not have the typical black experience.” For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, “Tales from the Trail” (here).  (Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Chris Reese) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: बेन कार्सन का कहना है कि ओबामा की परवरिश सफेद रंग में हुई थी, जिससे ट्विटर पर हंगामा मच गया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - President Michel Aoun told Saudi Arabia s envoy to Lebanon on Friday that Saad al-Hariri must return to the country, Lebanese media reported. Aoun also told the Saudi Charge d Affaires Walid al-Bukhari that the circumstances of Hariri s resignation were unacceptable, the reports said. Hariri resigned while in Saudi Arabia last Saturday.

Summary: लेबनान के औन ने सऊदी राजदूत हरीरी को वापस लौटने को कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday that representatives of Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) should appear before the panel to discuss Russian activity during the 2016 election. “We do, I think, need the representatives of social media companies to come before our committee either in open or closed session,” Representative Adam Schiff told reporters at the U.S. Capitol. Schiff’s committee is one of the main congressional panels investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, including allegations that associates of President Donald Trump colluded with Moscow as it sought to boost his chances of winning the White House. Trump and the Russian administration deny interference or collusion. The investigations include looking into how Russian entities may have used social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to promote events and spread false news stories attacking Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. A spokesman for Facebook declined specific response, but said: “We will continue our cooperation with the relevant investigative authorities looking into that subject.” A Twitter representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook said on Tuesday that some ads bought by Russians last year promoted events during the U.S. presidential campaign. The company said its takedown of what it last week called Russian-affiliated pages included shutting down “several promoted events.” [nL2N1LT2IT] “It certainly appears that the Russians were engaged in a multi-pronged approach in using social media, through paid advertising, through paid event organizing, through dissemination and amplification of false and negative stories,” Schiff said. He said the committee needed to hear from the companies in either classified or public settings, to assess how the Russians had used social media, how the companies had investigated on their own and what else needed to be done.

Summary: शीर्ष सदन की खुफिया समिति डेमोक्रेट ने फेसबुक, ट्विटर से गवाही मांगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. senators on Monday sharpened a potential line of attack against Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court by questioning whether he would be sufficiently independent as a justice in light of President Donald Trump’s vigorous use of unilateral presidential power including his travel ban. Their comments came after Trump criticized James Robart, the U.S. district court judge who put on hold the Republican president’s Jan. 27 order temporarily barring entry into the United States of people from seven Muslim-majority nations and halting the U.S. refugee program. Trump called Robart a “so-called judge” who made a “ridiculous” decision. Democrats have expressed worry that Gorsuch, nominated by Trump last week, could act as a rubber stamp for the Republican president’s policies on a nine-seat Supreme Court poised to revert to a conservative majority.  “It’s a serious concern with a president who attacks the judiciary and seems to not respect the rule of law and the Constitution that you have a really independent justice,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, set to meet with Gorsuch on Tuesday, told Reuters. Gorsuch, continuing a series of private meetings with senators ahead of his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings, met on Monday with Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the panel’s top Democrat, at her Senate office. Afterward, she said Gorsuch is “clearly very smart, caring, and he’s well thought of in Colorado,” where he serves as a federal appeals court judge. But Feinstein said she will make up her mind after the hearing about whether or not to support his confirmation. “What we would like to see is an independent judge, and the hearing will determine that,” Feinstein told Reuters. Gorsuch must be confirmed by the Senate to the lifetime post on the high court. “It’s incumbent upon Judge Gorsuch to make it clear to the American people that he does not believe in ‘so-called judges,’ that he thinks it’s imperative that the judiciary has to be respected as an independent one-third of our government,”     said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year. “I would look forward to hearing him speak out on that issue,” Sanders added. Conservative lawyers and Republican senators who are favorable toward Gorsuch cite his record of supporting limited federal powers and his skepticism about courts deferring too much to executive branch interpretations of the law when issuing regulations as signs he would be willing to stand up to Trump. “I have zero concerns about his independence being compromised,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee. Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, another Republican, said Gorsuch “has a trail of decisions and publications a mile long that suggest how talented he is, that are instructive as to how he would rule on any number of issues.”  With four liberals and four conservatives now on the court, Gorsuch’s confirmation would restore the conservative majority that had existed for decades until the death last year of Justice Antonin Scalia. Gorsuch’s supporters point in particular to a recent case in which Gorsuch criticized a landmark high court ruling known as Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. That 1984 ruling directed judges nationwide to defer to federal agencies’ interpretation of laws that may be ambiguous. Gorsuch in a concurring opinion called that doctrine the “elephant in the room” that concentrates federal power “in a way that seems more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution.” If Gorsuch is confirmed to serve on a court that would have five conservatives and four liberals, Democrats have expressed concern about setbacks for their positions on divisive issues such as abortion, gun control, environmental regulation and transgender rights.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट्स ने ट्रम्प सुप्रीम कोर्ट के उम्मीदवार की स्वतंत्रता पर सवाल उठाए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. Democratic Senators on Friday raised concerns over the possibility that President Donald Trump’s administration will permanently shelve the “fiduciary rule,” aimed at preventing brokers from recommending inappropriate retirement investments. The most senior Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing pensions, Washington’s Patty Murray, and two of the party’s liberal stars who advocated for the rule, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, wrote to newly confirmed Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta about reports that he was looking for a way to freeze the rule and make it “stick.” Earlier this month, the National Association of Plan Advisors cited Acosta as saying he was seeking the long-term freeze in a meeting with Republican Senator Tim Scott, of South Carolina. He added that he was in constant communication with the White House and “recognized the urgency of the situation,” the group said in a blog post citing a “communication from Scott’s office.” Scott’s spokeswoman Michele Exner told Reuters she did not know what the two discussed in their meeting, what Acosta had said, or anything about the communication cited.  Labor Department Spokeswoman Jillian Rogers said she would ask Acosta, currently in Germany, about the conversation and if permanently paralyzing the rule was a department priority. Approved last year under former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, the rule was intended to ensure that financial advisers put their clients’ interests first, and to protect consumers from buying unnecessary investment products that line brokers’ pockets. Heavily criticized by Wall Street and Republicans for potentially raising the cost of investment advice, the rule has faced a rocky time becoming effective, with Trump last month delaying its enactment date, originally April 10, for 60 days. Trump has also ordered a review of the rule. “Instead of meeting with all stakeholders and considering multiple points of view, you appear to have prejudged the outcome of the review,” the senators wrote in a copy of the letter seen by Reuters. They said an analysis accompanying the rule’s release that found conflicts of interest would cost those saving for retirement $17 billion annually. They warned there are “steep legal standards” that the Labor Department would have to meet to “justify further delaying, substantially revising, or rescinding this rule.”

Summary: सीनेटरों ने सेवानिवृत्ति सलाह नियम को स्थगित करने के बारे में चेतावनी दी


PARIS (Reuters) - Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has said it is possible to improve the lives of French citizens without leaving the single European currency, in a marked shift from the anti-EU stance she pushed during her failed presidential bid. Le Pen s National Front party has been in turmoil since her heavy defeat to Emmanuel Macron in May s presidential election, split by deep internal divisions over its view on Europe that forced the departure of Le Pen s deputy last month.  In numerous areas it is possible to improve the daily life of the French without quitting Europe or the euro currency,  Le Pen told weekly magazine Valeurs Actuelles in comments to be published on Thursday.  We have heard the French people,  she said. Her remarks are the clearest indication yet that the National Front will focus on policies around immigration and national identity, and soften the anti-EU rhetoric that cost her dear in the election. While public discontent toward Brussels has fueled nationalist sentiment in France, in particular in rural and low income areas, opinion polls show there is little appetite for France to follow Britain out of Europe, or to drop the euro. The departure of Florian Philippot, for years Le Pen s closest aide and a staunch advocate of an anti-euro, protectionist line, split the National Front but also paved the way to a policy change as the far-right party seeks to rebrand itself.  During her election campaign, Le Pen promised a referendum on EU membership. After suffering a bruising defeat to Macron in the May run-off vote, Le Pen s National Front won just eight seats in the National Assembly, leaving it with a weak voice and unable to form a parliamentary group. Last month, already toning down her language, she said that  national sovereignty  would be a mainstay of the party s struggle.  We will continue to fight the European Union with all our soul because it is an instrument for the impoverishment of people,  she said in the wake of Philippot s resignation.

Summary: उथल-पुथल में दूर-दराज़ के साथ, फ्रांस के ले पेन ने यूरोपीय संघ विरोधी रुख को नरम किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will name David Kautter as acting commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the White House said in a statement on Thursday. Kautter, who is assistant secretary of the Treasury for tax policy, would become the acting head of the federal government’s revenue collection service effective Nov. 13, the White House said.

Summary: ट्रंप ने सहायक वित्त मंत्री को कार्यवाहक आईआरएस प्रमुख के रूप में नामित कियाः व्हाइट हाउस


DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Russia would respond in kind to what he said were Washington s measures to restrict the freedom of speech of Russian media organizations operating on U.S. soil. Putin said however that possible plans to retaliate by declaring U.S. media operating in Russia as foreign agents may be  a little too harsh,  and that the Kremlin was still formulating its exact response. Kremlin-backed broadcaster Russia Today has been told to register in the United States as a  foreign agent.  U.S. intelligence officials say the broadcaster tried to influence the U.S. presidential election on the Kremlin s behalf, an allegation the broadcaster and the Kremlin deny. On Friday, the pro-Kremlin speaker of the lower house of Russia s parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said legislation could be introduced next week designating U.S. and some other foreign media operating in Russia as foreign agents. Speaking to reporters at the end of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Vietnam, Putin said:  An attack on our media in the United States is an attack on freedom of speech, without a doubt. We re disappointed.   What is being discussed in the State Duma (lower house of parliament), I saw it yesterday, it might be a little too harsh but it s natural because at the level of the legislative arm you often hear extreme views, harsh judgment and tough proposals.   But we will have to formulate some kind of response and it will mirror,  the measures adopted by U.S. authorities towards Russian media in the United States, Putin said.  I want to draw your attention to the fact that there is no   and there can t be   confirmation that Russian media meddled in election campaigns,  Putin said. Being designated as  foreign agents  in Russia would oblige foreign media to submit regular reports to the authorities about their staffing and their sources of funding.

Summary: रूसी मीडिया पर प्रतिबंध अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता पर हमला हैः पुतिन


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A German nurse serving a prison sentence for murdering two patients is suspected of killing a total of 102 people, more than previously known, police and public prosecutors said on Thursday.  That would make him Germany s deadliest serial killer if he was found guilty. The man, identified only as Niels H. under reporting rules, has admitted to deliberately injecting patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs and then trying to revive them in order to play the hero. He has confessed to some killings, but police said in August that he could not remember all the details of his actions, prompting them to exhume the remains of 134 people with links to Niels H. to identify further victims. The investigation has now turned up evidence leading authorities to suspect Niels H. killed 38 people at a clinic in the northern German city of Oldenburg and 62 at one in nearby Delmenhorst, Oldenburg police and the city s public prosecutor s office said in a statement on Thursday. That is in addition to two counts of murder for which an Oldenburg court sentenced him in 2015. Police said in August he was suspected of killing 84 other people in addition to those two and that the toll may rise as toxicology reports were examined. It could rise further still, the statement said on Thursday, as police were seeking for the remains of some people to be exhumed in Turkey. It said the prosecutor s office was likely to bring charges against Niels H. early next year. Ten years ago, a German nurse was convicted of killing 28 elderly patients. He said he gave them lethal injections because he felt sorry for them. He was sentenced to life in prison. In Britain, Dr. Harold Shipman was believed to have killed as many as 250 people, most of them elderly and middle-aged women who were his patients. Known as Dr. Death, Shipman was sentenced to 15 life terms in 2000; he died prison in 2004, apparently a suicide.

Summary: जर्मन हत्यारा नर्स की संदिग्ध मौतों की संख्या 100 के पार, पुलिस का कहना है


HAVANA (Reuters) - The mansion in Havana where U.S. President Barack Obama and his family will spend two nights has survived war, revolution and an Albanian occupation. Now, with U.S.-Cuban diplomatic ties restored and overall relations warming, the U.S. ambassadorial residence is re-emerging as a center of influence on the Communist-ruled island.  Built from 1939 to 1942, the two-story building is more than half the size of the White House, according to U.S. State Department data, and was constructed with the finest materials and craftsmanship of the time. The United States abandoned it from 1961 to 1977 after the 1959 Cuban revolution overthrew a pro-American government and Washington severed ties with Fidel Castro, leaving the home to at first Albanian and later Swiss caretakers. The coral limestone exterior and marble floors and columns are both imposing and inviting, said one man who lived there and likened it to the finest U.S. ambassadorial residences in London or Paris or Buenos Aires. “This is a place that was built to impress,” said John Caulfield, who was America’s chief diplomat in Cuba from 2011 to 2014 and inhabited the upstairs two-bedroom, two-bath residential suite with a living room. The upper level also has four other large bedrooms with private baths, among them the presidential suite. Obama, Michelle Obama, their two daughters and the first lady’s mother will stay there Sunday and Monday nights during the first visit by a U.S. president to Cuba in 88 years. The public and working areas are on the ground floor.     The State Department bought the land and built the residence as America was being drawn into World War Two and sought the profile of a nation on the rise. “It’s really an example of soft power. You walk through that door and it impresses. It’s expensive, but not as expensive as an aircraft carrier,” Caulfield said. The neighborhood, now known as Cubanacan, was called Country Club Park when it was built. The 5-acre (2-hectare) plot has a swimming pool and tennis court.  “Not bad for public housing,” Caulfield said. The highest ranking official to previously stay there was Vice President Richard Nixon in 1955. According to lore, it was built as a winter White House for President Franklin Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair. While the State Department could not confirm that, the elevator, ramps and wide doorways made it wheelchair-friendly 50 years before the Americans With Disabilities Act required such features in government buildings.

Summary: हवाना में ओबामा के ठहरने की जगह 'प्रभावित करने के लिए बनाई गई'


BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese importers of foreign publications must verify the products are legal, China said on Friday, weeks after a British academic publisher which blocked access to hundreds of scholarly articles in the country reposted the material. Cambridge University Press (CUP) said in August that it had removed some 300 papers and book reviews published in the China Quarterly journal from its website in China following a request from the Chinese government.  It said it had blocked the articles, which covered sensitive topics, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, the 1960s Cultural Revolution and Tibet, in order to keep its other academic and educational materials available in the country. The move sparked an outcry from academics, who attacked the decision as an affront to academic freedom. CUP, the publishing arm of Britain s elite Cambridge University, later reversed its decision and reposted the articles. China s State Council Information Office, responding by fax two weeks after a Reuters request for comment, said that publishers choose for themselves to import materials based on market demand and the law.  All publications imported into China s market must adhere to Chinese laws and regulations. Publication importers are responsible for checking the content of their imported publications,  it said without elaborating. It did not mention CUP. At the time, China s education ministry, foreign ministry, cyberspace administration and state publishing authority all declined to comment. The ruling Communist Party s efforts to censor news and information have sometimes backfired or left outsiders perplexed. In 2009, software designed to check pornographic and violent images on PCs blocked images of a movie poster for cartoon cat Garfield, dishes of flesh-colour cooked pork and on one search engine a close-up of film star Johnny Depp s face. But under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has stepped up censorship, tightened controls on the internet and various aspects of civil society, and reasserted party authority over academia and other institutions.

Summary: अकादमिक लेखों पर विवाद के हफ्तों बाद, चीन ने कहा कि आयातित प्रकाशन कानूनी होने चाहिए


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel appointed Jan Hecker, her refugee policy coordinator, as her new foreign policy adviser, as she braced for tricky talks on a new coalition government next week, where immigration is likely to be a key issue, a government spokeswoman said. Merkel, humbled in last month s national election by a surge of the anti-immigrant far right, is seeking to put together a three-way coalition of her conservatives, the pro-business Free Democrats and the environmentalist Greens - a combination previously untested at the federal level. Members of her conservative bloc resolved their own differences and agreed to limiting migration on Monday, paving the way for talks to begin with the other parties. Hecker, a former federal judge, took over the newly created position of refugee coordinator in October 2015 after Merkel s decision to allow in over a million migrants. He led Germany s migration treaties with African states and accompanied Merkel on a number of foreign trips focused on migration. The decision reflects  growing awareness that refugee and asylum policies are inextricably linked to security issues,  said Judy Dempsey, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe.  He had the overview of Libya, of the traffickers, of the security of the borders, of the agreement with Turkey,  she said. Hecker replaces Christoph Heusgen, who had advised Merkel for all 12 years of her role as chancellor, before becoming Germany s U.N. ambassador in New York in late July. With Hecker s appointment, Merkel breaks for the second time with a longstanding tradition of tapping diplomats to fill foreign and political jobs in the chancellery.

Summary: मर्केल ने शरणार्थी विशेषज्ञ को विदेश नीति सलाहकार के रूप में नामित किया


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s Communist Party opened a meeting on Wednesday to make final preparations for a key party congress later this month, state media said, a five-yearly event where President Xi Jinping is expected to further tighten his grip on power. The seventh plenary session of the party s Central Committee will review draft reports on the work of the party, its discipline and anti-corruption commission, and amendments to be made to the party s constitution, all of which will be delivered at the 19th Party Congress that opens on Oct. 18, the official Xinhua news agency said. The congress will  summarize historical progress and precious experiences  in advancing socialism with Chinese characteristics gained with Xi at the party s core, Xinhua said.  The congress will also thoroughly examine the current international and domestic situation and draw out guidelines and policies that respond to the call of the times,  the news agency said, without giving specifics. Details of the speech that Xi, the party s general secretary, will give at the opening session of the congress are closely guarded secrets, although the event is more about ideology than concrete policies. It is unclear how long the plenum will last, but it could be just a single day. It will end with a long communique, issued by Xinhua, that is usually full of party phraseology but could be short on specifics. Last October, the party gave Xi the title of  core  leader, a significant strengthening of his position ahead of the congress, at which a new Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China, will be constituted. The party s constitution will be amended at the end of the congress, likely to include a reference to Xi s thinking or ideology as a guiding party principle. Mao Zedong and the reformist former leader Deng Xiaoping already have their names enshrined in the document, although Xi s two immediate predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, do not.

Summary: चीन की कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी ने प्रमुख कांग्रेस के लिए अंतिम तैयारी की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday a lot of progress was being made on tax reform after the “Big Six” Republican tax negotiators made up of administration officials and congressional leaders issued a statement on preparations for a tax reform bill. “We’re making a lot of progress on this front,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said at a news briefing. She singled out “simplification,” relief for the middle class and dropping the proposal for a border adjustment tax.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि कर सुधार पर 'बहुत प्रगति' हो रही है


COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A Danish inventor accused of murdering Swedish journalist Kim Wall on board his submarine did not say she died from carbon monoxide poisoning, police said on Wednesday, correcting an earlier statement. On Monday Danish police said Peter Madsen had told them in an Oct. 14 interrogation that Wall, 30, had died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine, while he was on the deck of the vessel. Reacting to comments by Madsen s defense lawyer, the police said on Wednesday he had not specifically said how Wall died but had mentioned the possibility of such a cause of death. Madsen is facing charges of murder, mutilating Wall s body and sexual assault without intercourse, based on 14 interior and exterior stab wounds found on her body. He denies killing Wall but has admitted to dismembering her body and dumping the parts in the sea, police have said. Wall, who was researching a story on Madsen, went missing after he took her out to sea in the 17-metre (56-foot) submarine in August. On Aug. 23, police identified a headless female torso that washed ashore in Copenhagen as Wall s.

Summary: डेनमार्क की पनडुब्बी के मालिक ने यह नहीं बताया कि पत्रकार की मौत कैसे हुईः पुलिस


LONDON (Reuters) - A teenager who moved to Britain after his parents were killed in Iraq will go on trial in March over a bomb attack on a packed commuter train that injured 30 people in London in September. Ahmed Hassan, 18, is accused of intent to kill and cause serious injury by planting a home-made bomb at Parsons Green station in London. The bomb shot flames through a carriage but failed to fully explode. Hassan appeared via video link at London s Central Criminal Court on Friday where a judge said a two week trial would start on March 5. He is set to appear in court next on Jan. 19.

Summary: लंदन बम हमले के मामले में किशोर पर मार्च में मुकदमा चलेगा


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt said on Thursday its air force had hit 10 four-wheel-drive vehicles carrying arms, ammunition and contraband at Egypt s western borders with Libya. Egyptian security forces have been battling an insurgency by Islamic State that was until recently concentrated in the Sinai Peninsula but has extended to other parts of the country.  A number of criminals gathered and prepared to sneak into the Egyptian border, using a number of four-wheel-drive vehicles,  the Egyptian military said in a statement that gave no details of casualties.

Summary: मिस्र की वायु सेना ने लीबिया की सीमा पर हथियारों के काफिले पर हमला किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After an internet-fueled furor over rules barring women in sleeveless attire, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan pledged on Thursday that House officials would review and perhaps modernize the chamber’s dress code. Ryan made his announcement a week after a CBS News report about the long-standing rules went viral on social media. It prompted a slew of reports, including some falsely accusing Ryan of unfairly targeting women, especially given Washington’s notoriously hot summers. The current dress code has been in place for years, including under Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who was the only woman to serve as House Speaker, from 2007-11. “This is nothing new and certainly not something that I devised,” Ryan said at a news conference. “At the same time, that doesn’t mean that enforcement couldn’t stand to be a bit modernized.” The dress code requires men to wear suit jackets and ties in the House chamber and speaker’s lobby, which is just outside it, and women are not supposed to wear sleeveless tops or dresses without a sweater or jacket. Neither men nor women are allowed to wear open or athletic footwear. Ryan made clear that all of those standards would not go away. “Decorum is important, especially for this institution,” he said. “And a dress code in the chamber, in the lobby makes sense. But we also don’t need to bar otherwise accepted contemporary business attire. So look for a change on that soon.” Amid a flurry of news articles, women House members jumped into the fray. Democratic Representative Jackie Speier circulated a flyer urging women lawmakers to wear sleeveless dresses on “Sleeveless Friday” on July 14, with a photo on the Capitol steps after the day’s first vote. Republican Representative Martha McSally noted she was wearing an outfit that violated the code as she ended a speech in the House chamber on Wednesday. “I want to point out that I’m standing here in my professional attire, which happens to be a sleeveless dress and open-toed shoes,” McSally said. It was not McSally’s first brush with dress codes. In 2001 when she was an Air Force fighter pilot, McSally sued then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld over the military’s policy of requiring military women in Saudi Arabia to wear a head-to-toe “abaya” when off base. Pelosi took to social media to welcome Ryan’s statement.  “These unwritten rules are in desperate need of updates,” she said on Twitter.

Summary: अमेरिकी कांग्रेस में महिलाओं के लिएः नंगे हथियार रखने का अधिकार?


CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for several explosions that targeted the area in and around Kabul airport on Wednesday hours after U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis arrived in the Afghan capital, the group s AMAQ news agency said.  The news agency said  infiltrators  used SPG-9 rockets and mortars for the attack.  There were no reports of casualties or damage and Mattis was not near the airport when the rockets hit.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट ने काबुल हवाई अड्डे पर रॉकेट और मोर्टार से गोलीबारी की जिम्मेदारी ली


(Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s full remarks to several Wall Street audiences appeared to become public on Saturday when the controversial transparency group Wikileaks dumped its latest batch of hacked emails. The documents showed comments by Clinton during question-and-answer sessions with Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and Tim O’Neill, the bank’s head of investment management, at three separate events in 2013 in Arizona, New York and South Carolina.  Some excerpts of Clinton’s speeches had already been released. For more than a week, Wikileaks has published in stages what it says are hacked emails from the account of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman.  Clinton’s campaign has declined to verify the emails. Goldman Sachs did not immediately provide any comment on Saturday. Clinton came under fire for months for not releasing full details of her paid speeches to big business audiences, as opponents accused her of a cozy relationship with bankers and other members of the U.S. financial system. The excerpts that have surfaced so far angered voters who backed Clinton’s former Democratic opponent, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who endorsed her after losing the party’s primary. Few of these voters are expected to vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump, who is dealing with his own larger scandal after the release last week of a 2005 video in which he bragged about making unwanted sexual advances toward women. But Democratic strategists worry that disappointment with Clinton could hurt turnout in the Nov. 8 election among liberals and younger voters, posing a potential problem for the former secretary of state. In the email released on Saturday containing the transcripts, Clinton campaign staff highlighted sections that could pose problems, including saying “political reasons” factored into passing the 2010 Dodd-Frank law on Wall Street reforms and, while talking about regulation, saying the people who work in the industry know it best.

Summary: क्लिंटन की वॉल स्ट्रीट वार्ता के प्रतिलेख नए विकीलीक्स डंप में जारी किए गए


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis strongly defended immigrants at his Christmas Eve Mass on Sunday, comparing them to Mary and Joseph finding no place to stay in Bethlehem and saying faith demands that foreigners be welcomed. Francis, celebrating his fifth Christmas as leader of the world s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, led a solemn Mass for about 10,000 people in St. Peter s Basilica while many others followed the service from the square outside. Security was stepped up, with participants checked as they approached St. Peter s Square even before going through metal detectors to enter the basilica. The square had been cleared out hours earlier so security procedures could be put in place.  The Gospel reading at the Mass in Christendom s largest church recounted the Biblical story of how Mary and Joseph had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered for a census ordered by Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus.  So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary. We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away, but driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones,  Francis said. Even the shepherds who the Bible says were the first to see the child Jesus were  forced to live on the edges of society  and considered dirty, smelly foreigners, he said.  Everything about them generated mistrust. They were men and women to be kept at a distance, to be feared.  Wearing white vestments in the flower-bedecked church, Francis called for a  new social imagination ... in which none have to feel that there is no room for them on this earth.  The 81-year-old pope, who was born of Italian immigrant stock in Argentina, has made defense of migrants a major plank of his papacy, often putting him at odds with politicians. Austria s new chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has aligned himself with central European neighbors like Hungary and the Czech Republic in opposing German-backed proposals to distribute asylum seekers around EU member states. In elections in Germany in September, the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made significant gains, with electors punishing Chancellor Angela Merkel for her open-door policy and pushing migration policy to the top of the agenda in talks to form a coalition government. Italy s anti-immigrant Northern League, whose leader Matteo Salvini often gives fiery speeches against migrants, is expected to make gains in national elections next year. A law that would give citizenship to children born in Italy to migrant parents is stalled in parliament. In his homily, Francis said,  Our document of citizenship  comes from God, making respect of migrants an integral part of Christianity.  This is the joy that we tonight are called to share, to celebrate and to proclaim. The joy with which God, in his infinite mercy, has embraced us pagans, sinners and foreigners, and demands that we do the same,  Francis said. Francis also condemned human traffickers who make money off desperate migrants as the  Herods of today  with blood on their hands, a reference to the Biblical story of the king who ordered the killing of all newborn male children near Bethlehem because he feared Jesus would one day displace him. More than 14,000 people have died trying to make the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe in the past four years. On Christmas Day, Francis will deliver his twice-yearly  Urbi et Orbi  (To the City and to the World) blessing and message from the central balcony of St. Peter s Basilica.    (In fourth paragraph, this story corrects to say Mary and Joseph, not Mary and Jesus.)

Summary: क्रिसमस की पूर्व संध्या पर पोप ने कहा कि आस्था प्रवासियों के सम्मान की मांग करती है


WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders turned up the pressure on President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday about his pledge to try to stop an Indiana air conditioner manufacturer from moving 1,400 jobs to Mexico. Both Sanders, who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, and Trump seized on an announcement earlier this year by United Technologies Corp’s Carrier division that it would shift production to Mexico as an example of how trade deals hurt U.S. workers. Sanders on Saturday warned “it is not good enough to save some of these jobs” and said Trump should use as leverage United Technologies’ defense contracts, Export-Import Bank financing, and tax breaks. “I call on Mr. Trump to make it clear to the CEO of United Technologies that if his firm wants to receive another defense contract from the taxpayers of this country, it must not move these plants to Mexico,” the senator from Vermont said in a statement. A representative for Carrier declined to comment on Sanders’ statement. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, said on Thursday that he was “working hard, even on Thanksgiving” to get the plant to stay and said he was “making progress” on the issue. Carrier Corp. confirmed it had “discussions with the incoming administration.” Neither side has provided details. Trump had threatened to slap taxes on the company’s air conditioners made in Mexico and shipped back to the United States. A spokesman was not immediately available for comment on Sanders’ statement on Saturday. Sanders said he would soon introduce legislation that would prevent companies that outsource from receiving federal contracts, grants and loans, and force companies that outsource jobs to pay a penalty tax and pay back tax breaks.

Summary: सैंडर्स ने ट्रम्प से कहाः वाहक नौकरियों के लिए लाभ के रूप में रक्षा अनुबंधों का उपयोग करें


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A diplomatic dispute between Turkey and the United States has not affected military operations or personnel out of Turkey, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. “I can confirm that these developments have not impacted our operations or personnel,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told reporters. “The Turkish air force base in Incirlik continues to fulfill an important role supporting NATO and coalition efforts.” He said that Turkey was a close NATO ally and the U.S. would continue to coordinate joint and separate military activities with Ankara.

Summary: पेंटागन का कहना है कि तुर्की के साथ राजनयिक तनाव सैन्य अभियानों को प्रभावित नहीं कर रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers called on U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Monday to overhaul proposed regulations intended to crack down on American companies that try to reduce their U.S. taxes by rebasing abroad in a process known as inversion. In separate letters, top Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee warned on Monday that Treasury is moving too quickly to adopt regulations to prevent overseas mergers known as tax inversions, in which U.S. firms relocate their headquarters in countries with lower corporate tax rates. “If the proposed regulations are not completely overhauled, they would damage our economy, increase the barriers to investment for American businesses and innovators, and interfere with the growth of ... good-paying jobs,” said a letter to Lew from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and other Republicans on the panel.  “We cannot allow this to happen,” they wrote.   The regulations were proposed in April and Treasury has indicated that it intends to move swiftly to finalize the rules. Industry leaders fear the rules could be in place permanently as early as September. One new inversion rule, which has already been imposed on a temporary basis, was challenged this month in federal court by business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Brady and other Republicans including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch trained their sights on proposals that industry officials say would swamp business with new red tape and cripple internal cash management operations at companies that are not involved in tax inversions. “The only prudent way to move forward — given the complexity of the subject matter, given the many significant substantive concerns that have been pointed out, and given the procedural irregularities — is to issue the regulations in re-proposed form,” Hatch said in his letter to Lew.  The proposed debt-equity rule is aimed at stopping a practice known as earnings stripping, which occurs when a newly inverted company eludes U.S. taxes by moving profits overseas as tax-deductible interest payments on loans to its foreign parent. Treasury has proposed requiring debt interest payments to be converted into stock dividends, which are not tax deductible. Critics say the regulations, as proposed, could play havoc with the internal finances of a range of unsuspecting businesses, from multinational corporations to limited partnerships.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने अमेरिकी कोषागार से कर व्युत्क्रम प्रस्तावों में बदलाव करने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate confirmed former Utah governor Jon Huntsman on Thursday to be President Donald Trump s ambassador to Russia, sending an experienced diplomat to fill the crucial post in Moscow. The Senate confirmed Huntsman, who also served as ambassador to China under former Democratic President Barack Obama, by voice vote. Huntsman served as ambassador to Singapore under former Republican President George H.W. Bush. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee had approved Huntsman unanimously earlier this week, as members from both parties praised his qualifications and experience. The Senate also confirmed three other diplomatic positions by voice vote: John Bass, currently the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, to be envoy to Afghanistan; career diplomat Justin Siberell to be ambassador to Bahrain and Wess Mitchell, a think-tank founder, to be Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Huntsman takes on the post in Moscow as congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller investigate allegations that Russia sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Trump s behalf, as well as potential collusion with Moscow by Trump associates. Moscow denies such activity and Trump dismisses any talk of collusion. Huntsman said at his confirmation hearing that there was no question Russia interfered during the 2016 campaign.

Summary: सीनेट ने हंट्समैन को रूस में राजदूत के रूप में नियुक्त करने की पुष्टि की


WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - When U.S. President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, their summit will be marked not only by deep policy divisions but a clash of personalities between America’s brash “tweeter-in-chief” and Beijing’s cautious, calculating leader. They may have one thing in common: their rhetoric about restoring their nations to greatness. But the two men differ in almost every other respect, from their political styles to their diplomatic experience, adding uncertainty to what has been called the world’s most important bilateral relationship. Five months after his election on a stridently anti-China platform, Trump appears to have set himself on a course for collision rather than conciliation with Xi, raising doubts as to whether the world’s two biggest economies can find common ground. Topping the agenda at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida will be whether he will make good on his threat to use crucial U.S.-China trade ties to pressure Beijing to do more to rein in its nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea, which is working to develop missiles capable of hitting the United States. Trump, a 70-year-old former real estate magnate with no foreign policy experience before entering the White House, has tweeted that it will be a “very difficult” meeting with the veteran Communist Party leader seven years his junior, given Chinese trade practices he says are killing U.S. jobs. He has also demanded that Beijing do more to “solve” the North Korean problem – his biggest national security challenge - or he will act alone to deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs. Some White House aides believe Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner could be an influential moderating voice on how he handles Xi in their talks on Thursday and Friday. Contacts between Kushner and China’s U.S. envoy helped smooth the way for the meeting, according to current and former U.S. officials. Even so, what worries the protocol-conscious Chinese more than policy clashes is the risk that the unpredictable Trump could publicly embarrass Xi, after several foreign leaders experienced awkward moments with the new U.S. president. “Ensuring President Xi does not lose face is a top priority for China,” a Chinese official said. U.S. presidents’ meetings with their Chinese counterparts are usually more tightly scripted than with other foreign leaders, something Chinese officials insist on to make sure they are treated with the decorum they believe befits a global power. This summit should offer a study in contrasts: Trump impatient, outspoken and prone to angry tweet-storms; Xi, outwardly calm and measured, with no known social media presence. Their shared nationalist tendencies could aggravate  friction between their countries, which are increasingly global rivals. Trump insists the United States has been cheated economically for decades by countries like China and must regain its luster, while Xi wants China, once an ancient empire, to be able to flex its muscles on the world stage. “Xi and Trump are not natural friends,” said a former senior U.S. official specializing in Asia. “The question is when Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ hits Xi’s ‘Chinese Dream’, what’s the result?” It remains unclear how far Trump will go in translating populist rhetoric into policy that steps up pressure on China, given the risk of a trade war neither country can afford. But aides say he won’t pull his punches, especially on trade, on which he has held an outspoken view for decades. This adds to doubts as to whether the two leaders can find  common ground on North Korea and China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea. Some analysts question whether Trump can get the better of Xi, who was born into a life of politics and has a reputation for being a tough tactician. “Xi’s performed pretty well in these types of environments,” said Christopher Johnson, a China expert and former CIA analyst at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies. While Trump has been in office little more than 10 weeks, Xi has honed his U.S. strategy since assuming the Chinese leadership in 2013. The son of a revolutionary leader, Xi has sought to project the image internationally of a strong advocate of globalization at a time when Trump has stoked fears of U.S. protectionism. Still, Chinese officials are mindful of the pitfalls if Trump veers off-script. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe found himself in a long, uncomfortable handshake at the White House in February, and Trump appeared to ignore German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s offer of a handshake during their meeting last month. An acrimonious call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull caused particular concern in Beijing, officials there say.  Still, the decision to hold a summit so early in Trump’s presidency suggests both Washington and Beijing see the value of trying to build a personal relationship between the two leaders. Trump goes into the meeting with significant gaps in his team of Asia advisers and his China policy still not fully formulated. Hardliners like trade adviser Peter Navarro, who authored a book “Death by China,” have feuded over the administration’s approach to China with more pragmatic aides such as economic adviser Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president, current and former U.S. officials say. Administration officials argue Trump can use his “Art of the Deal” sales techniques to convince Xi that China needs the United States more than the United States needs China, especially when it comes to market access. But analysts say the Chinese are shrewd enough at geopolitics to fend off U.S. demands. Xi may also see Trump politically weakened by his high-profile legislative failure on healthcare as well as his low public approval ratings. Trump has already backed down on China’s most sensitive issue - Taiwan - having first infuriated Beijing by suggesting he might not abide by Washington’s long-standing “one China” policy. Trump may now feel he is owed a favor in return. A fence-mending phone call in February was arranged by Kushner and China’s U.S. ambassador, Cui Tiankai, officials say, after Cui invited Trump’s daughter Ivanka to the Chinese Embassy’s Lunar New Year reception, where her daughter sang in Mandarin. Both sides are keeping expectations low for tangible outcomes from the summit, billed as informal “get to know you” meetings similar to the 2013 Sunnylands summit in California between Xi and Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. And whatever else, unlike Abe’s February visit to Mar-a-Lago, there will be no golf diplomacy: China’s Communist Party associates golf with shady dealings and has sought to stop officials from playing it as part of Xi’s fight against corruption.

Summary: 'स्वाभाविक दोस्त नहीं': पहली शिखर बैठक में 'अजीब जोड़ी' होंगे ट्रंप और शी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A powerful Senate committee blasted the Trump administration on Friday in a report accompanying its spending plan for the State Department, saying its approach to foreign policy weakens U.S. standing in the world. On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 31-0 for legislation allocating more than $51 billion for the State Department and foreign operations, nearly $11 billion more than requested by President Donald Trump’s administration. In the report released on Friday accompanying the legislation, the committee criticized the administration’s request to cut spending on such operations by 30 percent from the year ending on Sept. 30, 2017. “The lessons learned since September 11, 2001, include the reality that defense alone does not provide for American strength and resolve abroad. Battlefield technology and firepower cannot replace diplomacy and development,” it read. “The administration’s apparent doctrine of retreat, which also includes distancing the United States from collective and multilateral dispute resolution frameworks, serves only to weaken America’s standing in the world,” it said. Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the State and Foreign Operations subcommittee, which wrote the bill, said on Thursday that he had asked for more details from the White House about its spending plans. “We’ve got nothing back,” he said. Senator Patrick Leahy, the top subcommittee Democrat, called the “soft power” work of the State Department “absolutely essential.” Democrats and many of Trump’s fellow Republicans have blasted his budget request since it was released earlier this year. Congress, not the administration, controls spending. The administration says the State Department would be more effective if it were run more efficiently, arguing that the country needs to cut in other areas to fund a large increase in military spending. The bill passed by the Appropriations Committee is still several steps from becoming law. It must pass the Senate, and be reconciled with legislation passed by the House of Representatives, and then signed by Trump - or garner enough votes to override a Trump veto. The bill passed by the Senate committee on Thursday departed from Trump policy in other ways, including approving funding for the U.N. climate body and rejecting prohibitions on funding for international organizations that perform or provide counseling on abortions. Those measures, however, stand little chance in the House. Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, conservative Republicans most skeptical about climate change and opposed to abortion exert more control in the House than in the Senate.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने विदेश नीति पर ट्रम्प के 'पीछे हटने के सिद्धांत' को खारिज किया


In a speech weighted with America’s complicated racial history, Democrat Hillary Clinton laced into Republican presidential rival Donald Trump on Wednesday, accusing him of fueling divisions among Americans over race and religion. “His campaign is as divisive as any we have seen in our lifetimes,” Clinton said at a campaign appearance at the Illinois state house in Springfield. “It is built on stoking mistrust and pitting American against American. It’s there in everything he says and everything he promises to do as president.” Clinton ticked off Trump’s proposals to ban Muslims from entering the country, create a database of Muslims already in the country and step up deportations by creating a special deportation force as policies intended to drive Americans apart. She lambasted Trump’s decision to re-tweet an image from a neo-Nazi and his statements about women. “We need a president who can help pull us together, not split us apart,” Clinton said. The two presumptive nominees are heading into July nominating conventions where they are to formally become the Democratic and Republican candidates who will square off in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Clinton’s speech comes a week after a sniper shot and killed five Dallas police officers during a protest of police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. She addressed these incidents and other race-related deaths in Springfield. Clinton’s speech on Wednesday carried the echo of history. The state house in the Illinois capital of Springfield was the site where President Abraham Lincoln delivered an anti-slavery speech during his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1858, warning that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” As the 16th president of the United States, he went on to guide the country through most of the Civil War. Clinton acknowledged that while “the challenges we face today do not approach those of Lincoln’s time,” the country’s “long struggle with race is far from finished.”  The Illinois state house is also where President Barack Obama, the first African-American to hold the highest office in America, launched his first campaign for president in 2007. Trump spent months “trying to discredit the citizenship and legitimacy of our first black president,” Clinton said.  Trump was loudly fixated on the issue of Obama’s birthplace during the 2012 presidential campaign and had also suggested that Obama was a Muslim, despite clear evidence that the president was born in Hawaii and is a Christian. Clinton acknowledged that she has made some missteps on race. She faced early criticism from the Black Lives Matter movement for past statements, such as one in the 1990s, when she was first lady, calling violent minority youth “super predators.” She told the Washington Post earlier this year that she “shouldn’t have used those words.” “As someone in the middle of a hotly fought political campaign I cannot stand here and claim that my words and actions haven’t sometimes fueled the partisanship that often stands in the way of progress, so I recognize I have to do better, too,” she added.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने कहा कि ट्रम्प 'हमारे जीवनकाल' में सबसे अधिक विभाजनकारी उम्मीदवार हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans are more likely to believe the wealthy will benefit most from the tax reform currently being pushed in the U.S. Congress by Republicans who insist their goal is to help the middle class, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Thursday.  The poll found 32 percent of Americans think the wealthy will benefit most, compared to 14 percent who think all Americans will benefit and 14 percent who think large U.S. corporations will benefit most.  Congress is working to try to enact the most sweeping overhaul of the tax code since the 1980s that would lower taxes for millions of individual tax payers and slash the rate paid by corporations. The proposal would also eliminate most individual tax deductions, a move that could result in some taxpayers seeing an increase in their total bill to the government while others see a decrease. Despite an insistence by Republicans that their goal is help the middle class, only 8 percent of Americans think that demographic will benefit the most, the poll, which was conducted Nov. 3-8, found.  Republicans and Democrats are divided on who they think tax reform would help the most. Among Republicans, 26 percent think all Americans will benefit, followed by 16 percent who think the wealthy will benefit most, the poll found.  But among Democrats, 46 percent think that wealthy will benefit most, with only 7 percent thinking all Americans will benefit and 17 percent who think corporations will benefit. And while those polled did not think that the middle class will benefit most, an overwhelming majority thought that they should.  The poll found 79 percent think its more important to cut taxes for the middle class than for corporations, and 76 percent think its more important to cut taxes for the poor than for corporations.  However, 76 percent said it was more important to cut taxes for corporations than it was to cut taxes for the wealthy. When it comes to specific changes, the poll found that 46 percent of Americans oppose limiting the mortgage interest deduction, compared to 35 percent who support the change.  The strongest opposition came to the Republican proposal to eliminate deductions for medical expenses, with 54 percent saying they are against the change and 32 percent saying they support it.     The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted in early November online in English throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,608 adults and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points.

Summary: अधिक अमेरिकी सोचते हैं कि कर सुधार से मध्यम वर्ग को नहीं, बल्कि अमीरों को लाभ होगाः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump, testified to U.S. lawmakers that he met with a Russian deputy prime minister on two trips to Moscow in 2016 and consulted with senior Trump campaign staff about one visit. In testimony made public on Monday, Page initially said he did not meet with any senior Russian officials during a trip in July 2016 but later said he “briefly” greeted Russian deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich, and saw him again at a dinner in December 2016. When asked if he had a private meeting with Dvorkovich on that second trip, Page replied: “We did - he stopped by a dinner I went to in December with people from the university.” Page also said he let senior members of Trump’s campaign staff know of his trip in July 2016, including then-Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, who is now U.S. attorney general, as well as senior Trump aides Hope Hicks and Corey Lewandowski. Page said he reported back to other campaign officials about the July 2016 trip, saying in one email that he had received “incredible insights and outreach”.  He has for months said the trip was made as a private citizen, not as part of his role with the Trump campaign.  Page was interviewed for seven hours last Thursday by members of the House of Representatives’ Intelligence committee, which is probing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion by Trump campaign officials. Special prosecutor Robert Mueller is leading a criminal investigation into the same issues and last week charged two former Trump campaign advisers, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, with money laundering and other crimes. Page, a former Merrill Lynch investment banker in Moscow, has attracted the scrutiny of investigators for his numerous contacts with Russia. His trip to Moscow in July 2016 came after he joined the  Trump campaign and he used it to deliver a pro-Russia speech at a university.  But Page, who declined to have an attorney present during the testimony to the House committee, said his trips to Russia were “benign” and blasted the congressional investigations as a waste of time and money.  Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House’s Intelligence committee, said Page’s testimony showed that his denials of formal meetings with senior Russian officials were inaccurate.  “Perhaps most important, Page — after being presented with an email he sent to his campaign supervisors, and which he did not disclose to the Committee prior to the interview and despite a subpoena from the Committee — detailed his meetings with Russian government officials and others, and said that they provided him with insights and outreach that he was interested in sharing with the campaign,” Schiff said. In his testimony, Page said he has been interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about Russia and the election four or five times this year. When asked if he had been contacted by Mueller, he said he would rather not discuss it.

Summary: ट्रम्प के पूर्व सलाहकार पेज ने 2016 की मास्को यात्राओं में रूसी अधिकारियों से मुलाकात की थी।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Senator Al Franken will announce his resignation on Thursday, a day after a majority of his Democratic Senate colleagues called for him to step down following a string of sexual misconduct allegations against him, CNN reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.

Summary: डेमोक्रेटिक सीनेटर फ्रैंकन इस्तीफा देंगेः सीएनएन, सूत्रों का हवाला देते हुए


YANGON (Reuters) - Pope Francis landed in Yangon on Monday, the start of a delicate visit for the world s most prominent Christian to majority-Buddhist Myanmar, which the United States has accused of  ethnic cleansing  its Muslim Rohingya people. The pope will also visit Bangladesh, to where more than 620,000 Rohingya have fled from what Amnesty International has dubbed  crimes against humanity  by Myanmar security forces, including murder, rape, torture and forcible displacement. The Myanmar army denies the accusations. Only about 700,000 of Myanmar s 51 million people are Roman Catholic. Thousands of them have traveled by train and bus to Yangon, the country s main city, to catch a glimpse of the pope.

Summary: पोप ने रोहिंग्या संकट की छाया में म्यांमार की यात्रा शुरू की


BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China urged the United States on Friday not to allow Taiwan s president to travel through U.S. territory en route to the island s diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a sensitive visit shortly ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump s trip to Beijing.  China considers democratic Taiwan to be a wayward province ineligible for state-to-state relations and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.  China regularly calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue between it and the United States, and Beijing always complains to Washington about transit stops by Taiwanese presidents. President Tsai Ing-wen leaves on Saturday on a weeklong trip to three Pacific island allies - Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands - via Honolulu and Guam. In a statement on Friday, a Taiwanese government spokesman said Tsai s trip was aimed at strengthening ties with friendly nations and also to provide support for the island s frontline diplomats. It said Taiwan was grateful to the United States for helping to arrange the stopovers  in accordance with comfort, safety, convenience and dignity principles.  Grace Choi, the State Department spokeswoman for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said Tsai would transit Hawaii Oct. 27-29 and Guam Nov. 3-4. Choi said Tsai s transits would be  private and unofficial  and were based on long-standing U.S. practice consistent with  our unofficial relations with Taiwan.  She noted the transits were out of consideration for the safety and convenience of the traveler and there was  no change to the U.S. one-China policy.  Ambassador James Moriarty, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, the organization that carries out unofficial U.S. relations with Taiwan, will greet Tsai in Hawaii and Guam, Choi said. Trump is due to visit China in less than two weeks. He angered Beijing last December by taking a telephone call from Tsai shortly after he won the presidential election. China has made  stern representations  to the United States over the matter, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, urging the United States to strictly abide by the  one China  policy.   China hopes the United States does not allow Tsai  to transit, not send any wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces and take real actions to protect the overall picture of China-U.S. relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait , Geng told a news briefing. The trip to the United States will be Tsai s second this year. In January she stopped over in Houston and San Francisco on her way to and from Latin America, visiting the headquarters of micro-messaging service Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), which is blocked in China, while in California. In Houston, she met Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott. She also spoke by telephone with U.S. Senator John McCain, head of the powerful Senate Committee on Armed Services.      China suspects Tsai wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s democracy and security. China has pressured Taiwan since Tsai took office last year, suspending a regular dialogue mechanism and slowly peeling away its few remaining diplomatic allies. Just 20 countries now maintain formal ties with Taiwan, instead of China, mostly small states in Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island s main source of arms. Tsai s call with Trump was the first between U.S. and  Taiwan leaders since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979.

Summary: ट्रम्प यात्रा से पहले, चीन ने अमेरिका से ताइवान के राष्ट्रपति को प्रवेश की अनुमति नहीं देने का आग्रह किया


CAIRO (Reuters) - Three policemen, one security guard and a civilian were killed and a number of other people injured in an attack by militants in Egypt s North Sinai province on Monday, the interior ministry said.  The militants attacked a security post securing a National Bank of Egypt branch in Arish, the provincial capital, with explosives and guns, a statement said.  Egypt is fighting an insurgency against militants affiliated with Islamic State in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula where hundreds of security forces have been killed since 2013. Attacks on security forces have been common since Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was ousted in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. The militants raided the bank branch and stole an amount that had yet to be valued, the statement said. Forces were searching the area for the perpetrators and had defused some explosives.  Security sources told Reuters that three Egyptian policemen, one security guard and three civilians were killed and 22 others were injured in the attack.  Witnesses said armed militants in five cars fired on security forces near a church and the NBE branch before fleeing the scene.   The militants fired shots randomly in the street as if they were celebrating, with some of them raising their black flags (of Islamic State). They roamed the streets for about 20 minutes then disappeared,  said Alaa Lotfy, a shop owner in the area who witnessed the clashes.  At least 24 militants and six soldiers were killed on Sunday in attacks on military outposts in North Sinai.

Summary: मिस्र के सिनाई में आतंकवादियों के हमले में पांच की मौत, गृह मंत्रालय ने दी जानकारी


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has invited bondholders to unspecified  negotiations  over the country s foreign debt in coming days, in response to recent U.S. financial sanctions.  With Venezuela deep in recession and its currency reserves at their lowest in more than two decades, the Maduro government and state oil company PDVSA have to pay about $4 billion in debt and interest during the rest of 2017.      All bondholders are invited to various rounds of negotiations over the next few weeks,  the president said in a speech late on Thursday to the new Constituent Assembly. He reiterated Venezuela would keep honoring debt, but said he wanted to talk with bondholders affected by sanctions recently imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.  Maduro said Vice President Tareck El Aissami, already under U.S. financial sanctions over drug trafficking allegations, and Finance Minister Ramon Lobo would coordinate talks and some  bilateral conversations  with bondholders had already begun. In the same speech, Maduro said Venezuela would seek to  free  itself of the U.S. dollar and  implement a new system of international payments  using currencies such as the yuan, yen, rupee, euro and ruble. The president did not, however, specify whether paying in a different currency was an option his government wanted to discuss with bondholders. The Washington-based Institute of International Finance, which represents large banks and financial institutions, said it was advising a group of holders of Venezuelan bonds.  This informal group will take note of the Venezuelan announcements and discuss how to proceed,  IIF Executive Managing Director Hung Tran told Reuters. The group was made up of bondholders from the United States and elsewhere, he said. Tran said Venezuela could not change the currency of bonds without agreement by all or a large majority of holders. Last month, Trump, who brands Maduro a  dictator,  signed an executive order that prohibits Americans from dealing in new debt issued by the Venezuelan government or PDVSA. That could complicate any debt refinancing attempts. Washington has also sanctioned PDVSA s finance boss Simon Zerpa, meaning U.S. businesses are barred from dealing with him, and even Maduro himself in measures intended to punish the Venezuelan government for alleged corruption and rights abuses.   I will be announcing Venezuela s definitive response to the financial aggression we - and the international investors - have suffered from Donald Trump and (opposition leader) Julio Borges,  Maduro added in the speech on Thursday. Borges, the head of the opposition-led congress whose role has been overridden by the Constituent Assembly, has been spearheading an opposition campaign for foreign financial institutions to put the squeeze on Venezuela s government.  Venezuela will take a position to defend the judicial and financial security of the republic and its investors or holders of financial instruments,  Maduro added. Though Maduro gave no further details of what his government wanted to discuss with bondholders or where talks would be held, he did say 74 percent were American or Canadian.  Three bondholders consulted by Reuters said they had not received any formal approach to dialogue, though two said intermediaries for the government had been communicating with some investors informally.  We didn t receive an invitation or anything like that. Even if we had we don t think we would take it too seriously,  said one portfolio manager at a large New York firm that owns Venezuelan debt, asking not to be named.  In trading on Friday, Venezuelan government and PDVSA bonds were little changed in price. The OPEC nation of 30 million people is in the fourth year of a recession, with its population grappling with triple-digit inflation and shortages of food and medicine.  Critics say a long-failing socialist economic system is to blame for Venezuela s financial troubles, while the government blames an alleged  economic war  by domestic foes and Washington.  International reserves stood at $9.873 billion on Wednesday, compared with nearly $30 billion five years ago, central bank data shows. They are at their lowest level since 1995. Most of the country s reserves are tied up in gold that cannot be used in financial transactions without going through a certification process in another country.  In another speech on Friday, Maduro said that Venezuela would begin selling its oil, gas, gold and  all products  in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, but gave no further details of the intended changes in export transactions.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के मादुरो अमेरिकी प्रतिबंधों के बाद ऋण वार्ता चाहते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans are poised to repeal a U.S. Senate rule that allows minority-party Democrats to block confirmation of Supreme Court nominees, including President Donald Trump’s choice of Neil Gorsuch for the lifetime post. The expected rule change, amid deepening partisanship in a chamber known as “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” is raising questions over whether there could be a future move to prohibit “filibusters” on legislation. Here is how the filibuster has been used and what curtailing it could mean: It is a procedural move, often by a minority of senators, to block legislation or Supreme Court nominations that typically enjoy the support of majority-party senators, in this case, Republicans. According to Senate historians, “filibuster” comes from a Dutch word meaning “pirate.” The practice became popular in the 1850s and was also used by House of Representatives members, until that body became so large with an expanding U.S. population as to require stricter rules governing floor debates. Senate Democrats have gathered more than the 41 votes they need in the 100-seat chamber to mount a filibuster against Gorsuch, a conservative appeals court judge. The first U.S. president is said to have observed that the Senate was created to cool legislation from the hot-tempered House just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea. The filibuster is just such a coolant. When a bill or Supreme Court nomination hits the Senate floor, senators who oppose it can talk until at least 60 senators band together to limit debate. That gives a minority of senators huge power. If a bill or a nomination fails to draw the needed 60 votes, it is effectively killed. The all-time record for a Senate filibuster speech - 24 hours, 18 minutes - was set by the late segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, who tried unsuccessfully in 1957 to kill a civil rights bill. This week, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley delivered the eighth-longest speech, against Gorsuch, that was 15 hours, 26 minutes. It is Senate slang for banning filibusters through a rules change by the majority party. In recent years, as filibusters have added to Senate gridlock, there have been threats to execute the nuclear option. Groups of senators, known as “gangs,” have sometimes defused the threats. In 2013, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid deployed the nuclear option when he became fed up with Republican filibusters against then-President Barack Obama’s nominees. He changed Senate rules to ban filibusters against the president’s judicial and executive-branch nominees but left it in place for Supreme Court appointees. Now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, is thought to be ready to expand the ban to Supreme Court nominees. McConnell has told reporters he will not broaden the ban on filibusters to legislation and does not believe Republican senators would want to do that. Some political scientists think Democrats have more to gain than Republicans by ending filibusters on legislation. “My sense has always been that Democratic policy priorities have suffered more from the filibuster than Republican priorities,” said George Washington University political science professor Sarah Binder. That is because Democrats are more likely than Republicans to back an expansion of government programs, which generally requires legislation. But Binder said she could imagine Democrats or Republicans trying to score a major win on an issue central to their constituencies. For Democrats: No filibuster could mean trying to pass another major healthcare or campaign finance reform or new gun controls. For Republicans: Some sort of major deregulation of an industry or changes to “entitlement” programs such as Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः गोरसच की लड़ाई ने लंबे समय से चली आ रही सीनेट परंपरा को दांव पर लगा दिया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Saturday seeking to identify any problems caused by the nation’s existing trade agreements, including an examination of U.S. involvement in the World Trade Organization, a top trade official said. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said his department would work to issue a report in 180 days outlining challenges with these trade deals and possible solutions. Ross singled out the World Trade Organization as an entity that may need to make some changes, although he cautioned that the administration had not made any decisions yet. “There’s always the potential for amending organization’s charters like the WTO, particularly when you’re in the position we are,” he said. “We’re the number one importer in the whole world.” Ross raised concerns that the WTO is too bureaucratic and does not hold meetings often enough. He also argued that the WTO has an “institutional bias” in favor of exporters and against countries that are being “beleaguered by inappropriate imports.” Remaking U.S. trade relations has been a top priority for Trump, who has argued that the United States has been treated unfairly in international trade. Trump said on Thursday that he had been prepared to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, but backed off after calls from the leaders of those two countries. The effects of NAFTA on the U.S. economy will also be examined in the new study. Last month, Trump also issued an order calling for a major review of the causes of all U.S. trade deficits.

Summary: अमेरिकी व्यापार समझौतों के दुरुपयोग पर अध्ययन का आदेश देंगे ट्रम्प


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - At 70 euros ($82) a night, with the rumble of the Brussels metro thrown in, Carles Puigdemont is hardly living the high life of a political fugitive charged with abusing public funds. The Catalan leader, ousted by Madrid and facing charges of rebellion and sedition as well as wasting money on a referendum on independence, has been staying since his arrival in Belgium on Monday at the 3-star Chambord Hotel, staff said. And while it may be named after the grandest French chateau on the Loire, once home to the 18th-century deposed King of Poland, it offers rather more modest accommodation for today s exile behind an elegant 1920s Art Deco facade. It does, however, offer a rapid getaway into the adjacent underground station. Puigdemont told a news conference on Tuesday that he had not come for the Belgian asylum which at least one Flemish nationalist government minister has said might be offered, but to lobby the European Union institutions. He forswore, however, staying in the European Quarter itself, and its upscale hotels which regularly house EU heads of state during summit meetings. His plans remain unclear and he has had only the coolest of welcomes from the EU and the Belgian government. With prosecutors summoning him to testify before Spain s High Court on Thursday, Puigdemont may face demands from Madrid for his arrest if he fails to heed the summons. As television camera crews set up outside in the hope of catching Europe s most wanted politician step out for dinner, no Belgian police were visible at the hotel on Tuesday evening.

Summary: कैटलन नेता को बेल्जियम से निर्वासित किया गया


(Reuters) - The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia judge presiding over the criminal case for President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has been recused from handling the case, a court spokeswoman said on Thursday. According to a court filing, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras, who presided over a Dec. 1 hearing where Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his contacts with Russia, will no longer handle the case. Court spokeswoman Lisa Klem did not say why Contreras was recused, and added that the case was randomly reassigned.  Reuters could not immediately learn the reason for the recusal, or reach Contreras. An attorney for Flynn declined to comment. Now, Flynn’s sentencing will be overseen by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan. Sullivan was appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton.  Flynn was the first member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging probe into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential collusion by Trump aides. Russia has denied meddling in the election and Trump has dismissed any suggestion of collusion. Flynn has agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s ongoing investigation. A sentencing date has not yet been set, but the parties are due to return to court on February 1 for a status report hearing. Contreras was appointed to the bench in 2012 by former Democratic President Barack Obama.  He was also appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in May 2016 for a term lasting through 2023. That court issues warrants that allow Justice Department officials to wiretap individuals, a process that has been thrown into the spotlight amid the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election.  The most recent controversy related to FISA warrants involves Peter Strzok, a senior FBI agent who was removed from the Russia investigation for exchanging text messages with a colleague that expressed anti-Trump views.  At a hearing on Thursday at the House Judiciary Committee, Republican lawmaker Jim Jordan pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray on whether a former British spy’s dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to Trump’s campaign and associates was used by Strzok to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil Trump’s transition team.  Judge Sullivan previously served on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals under appointments by Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, respectively.

Summary: माइकल फ्लिन आपराधिक मामले की अध्यक्षता करने वाले न्यायाधीश को अलग कर दिया गयाः अदालत


(Reuters) - The following are the top five agricultural exports by volume in the key regions along the U.S. Atlantic coast that could be impacted by Hurricane Irma. Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, was expected to hit Florida on Sunday morning, bringing massive damage from wind and flooding. It has already killed 21 people and left catastrophic destruction on its way through the eastern Caribbean. Nearly half of U.S. poultry exports transit through these five ports. (Percentages are of total U.S. exports. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Soy Transportation Coalition) NORFOLK region 1. Soybeans - 4 percent 2. Grain products, cereal, flour - 3 percent 3. Bulk grains - 2 percent 4. Grocery items - 10 percent 5. Animal feed - 3 percent In addition, 18 percent of U.S. soybean oil exports leave from the Norfolk port region along with 8 percent of meat exports and 5 percent of poultry shipments. None of these are in the top five by tonnage for the port. 1. Poultry - 32 percent 2. Raw cotton - 16 percent 3. Animal feed - 1 percent 4. Grocery items - 3 percent 5. Bulbs and seeds - 18 percent 1. Grocery items - 8 percent 2. Poultry - 2 percent 3. Non-alcoholic beverages - 3 percent 4. Fruit - 3 percent 5. Meat - 1 percent 1. Poultry - 9 percent 2. Grocery items - 8 percent 3. Beer, ale - 25 percent 4. Animal feed - 1 percent 5. Non-alcoholic beverages - 6 percent 1. Grocery items - 7 percent 2. Non-alcoholic beverages - 9 percent 3. Grapefruit - 31 percent 4. Citrus fruit juices - 12 percent 5. Poultry - 1 percent

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः शीर्ष कृषि निर्यात इरमा के लिए असुरक्षित


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers said on Monday they wanted another $18.5 billion added to President Donald Trump’s proposed defense budget of $603 billion to hire more troops and buy more aircraft and ships in fiscal 2018. Republican House of Representatives Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry released a proposed defense policy bill intended to address military readiness and the Department of Defense’s unfunded requirements list, which is hovering at $33 billion, House staff told reporters on Monday. The $621.5 billion proposed base spending plan for the Pentagon and defense related expenses at the U.S. Department of Energy was more than 13 percent higher than the 2018 defense spending budget cap of $549 billion which would need to be raised by Congress for the legislation to be enacted. The proposal also included $75 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) to pay for ongoing wars. This funding would not count against the budget caps. The House proposal would put total defense-related spending at $696 billion for fiscal 2018.  Trump’s budget proposal included $65 billion for OCO funding, and total spending of $668 billion.  If enacted, the House proposal would mean the Pentagon could commit to buying 17 more F-35 jets from Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Co for a total of 87 in 2018. It would increase the Army by 10,000, to 486,000 active service troops.  The proposal would allow the Pentagon to buy a total of 22 Boeing Co F-18s, up from 14 in Trump’s budget proposal. The proposal also gives the Navy authorization for an additional five ships above Trump’s original budget request. The ships include an Arleigh Burke class destroyer made by General Dynamics Corp and Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc and a total of three Littoral Combat Ships built by Lockheed Martin and Australia’s Austal Ltd. The proposal also includes defense acquisition reform measures that would change how the Pentagon buys services and would allow the military to buy commercial off the shelf products from existing business to business e-commerce markets, such as Amazon.com Inc or W W Grainger Inc. On Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee are slated to meet to discuss and potentially alter the proposal.

Summary: हाउस कमेटी की नजर ट्रंप के रक्षा बजट में 18.5 करोड़ डॉलर की वृद्धि पर