WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The seven-year Republican quest to scrap Obamacare, a major campaign vow by President Donald Trump, lay in ruins on Friday after the Senate failed to dismantle the healthcare law, with congressional leaders now planning to move on to other matters. John McCain, the maverick 80-year-old senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee, cast the deciding vote in the dramatic early-morning showdown on the Senate floor as a bill to repeal key elements of Obamacare was defeated, 51-49, dealing Trump a crushing political setback. McCain, who flew from Arizona this week after being diagnosed with brain cancer and was heading back for further treatment starting on Monday, joined fellow Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski in voting with Senate Democrats unified against the legislation. “It’s time to move on,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose reputation as a master strategist was diminished, said on the Senate floor after the vote at roughly 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT). While House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said fellow Republicans should not give up on healthcare, he cited other pressing issues that needed attention, including major tax-cut legislation sought by Trump. “We have so much work still to do,” Ryan said in a statement. The Senate’s healthcare failure called into question the Republican Party’s ability to govern even as it controls the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.  Trump has not had a major legislative victory after more than six months in office, and his administration is mired in investigations into contacts between his election campaign and Russia and high-level White House staff infighting. He had promised to get major healthcare legislation, tax cuts and a boost in infrastructure spending through Congress in short order. Also on the legislative agenda are spending bills for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 to avoid a government shutdown and raising the U.S. debt limit. Speaking in Brentwood, New York, on Long Island, Trump expressed dismay at the bill’s failure, saying, “I said from the beginning, let Obamacare implode and then do it (pass legislation). I turned out to be right. Let Obamacare implode.” Trump, who earlier on Twitter said the three Republicans who voted no “let America down,” again took aim at lawmakers in his own party. “Boy, oh boy, they’ve been working on that one for seven years,” he said in Brentwood. “Can you believe that? The swamp. But we’ll get it done.”               Some lawmakers urged a bipartisan effort to buttress the existing healthcare system. With the partisan divide as wide as ever in Washington, it remained to be seen if a bipartisan approach can get off the ground.  McCain said the defeated bill did not offer meaningful reform and that its defeat presents “an opportunity to start fresh” on legislation crafted by lawmakers in both parties. “I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to trust each other, stop the political gamesmanship and put the healthcare needs of the American people first,” McCain said. Top congressional Democrats urged a bipartisan effort to fix problems in the Obamacare law without repealing it. “Change it, improve it, but don’t just take a knife and try to destroy it and put nothing in its place,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said. Democratic Senator Bill Nelson said he was working with Republican Collins on a bipartisan effort on healthcare. While Ryan was able to secure House passage of a comprehensive bill to gut Obamacare in May, McConnell earlier in the week was unable to win passage of similarly broad healthcare legislation amid intraparty squabbling and competing demands by hard-line conservatives and moderates. On Friday morning, he failed to get even a stripped-down, so-called skinny bill over the finish line. Killing the Affordable Care Act, Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement dubbed Obamacare, has been a passion for Republicans since its 2010 enactment over their unified opposition, and was a key campaign promise by Trump last year. Republicans lawmakers, some of whom have been gleeful about razing Obama’s presidential legacy, now fear a backlash from their conservative political base that could affect the 2018 congressional elections. For the moment, the Affordable Care Act, which extended health insurance to 20 million people and drove the percentage of uninsured people to historic lows, remains in place and must be overseen by an administration that is hostile to it. This leaves health insurers unsure of how long the administration will continue to make billions of dollars in Obamacare payments that help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income Americans. Schumer warned against any efforts to sabotage the law. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which represents insurers across the country, said it would work to ensure a smooth open enrollment period from Nov. 1-Dec. 15 and stabilize the individual insurance market under Obamacare for the long term. Shares of health insurers, which had fought against the bill’s proposed repeal of the mandate that Americans obtain insurance, were up. Aetna Inc rose 0.9 percent, Anthem Inc gained 2.3 percent and Humana Inc edged up 0.2 percent.  On Wall Street, shares of hospitals were mostly higher because of the dwindling prospects for big cuts in the Medicaid insurance program for the poor and disabled. Community Health Systems Inc rose 2.2 percent, HCA Healthcare Inc gained 0.6 percent and Tenet Healthcare Corp edged up 0.1 percent.     Republicans have long denounced Obamacare - which expanded Medicaid and created online marketplaces for individuals to obtain coverage - as an intrusion by government on people’s healthcare decisions. Veteran House Republican Tom Cole said he thought there were “a number” of other Republican senators who were uncomfortable with the Senate’s healthcare legislation but were able to vote “yes” knowing McCain’s vote would kill it. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close friend of McCain, met on Friday with Trump to discuss Graham’s proposal to take tax money raised by Obamacare and send it back to the states in the form of healthcare block grants, the senator’s office said. The skinny bill, released just three hours before voting began, would have retroactively repealed Obamacare’s penalty on individuals who do not obtain health insurance, repealed for eight years a penalty on certain businesses that do not provide employees with insurance and repealed a tax on medical devices until 2020.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन स्वास्थ्य देखभाल की हार के बाद टुकड़ों को उठाने की कोशिश करते हैं


ASTANA (Reuters) - The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. global nuclear watchdog, opened a uranium bank in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, a $150-million facility designed to discourage new nations from enriching the nuclear fuel. The Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank in the city of Oskemen, in eastern Kazakhstan, will store up to 90 tonnes of the fuel, enough to power a large city for three years, and sell it to IAEA members if they are unable to procure it elsewhere.   The LEU Bank will serve as a last-resort mechanism to provide confidence to countries that they will be able to obtain LEU for the manufacture of fuel for nuclear power plants in the event of an unforeseen, non-commercial disruption to their supplies,  IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement on Monday. Countries such as Iran have said they need enrichment facilities to ensure a steady supply of fuel for nuclear power plants, and the idea behind the bank is to make such supply available without domestic enrichment. Russia has operated a similar bank since 2010 but the one in Kazakhstan will be the first one fully owned and operated by the global nuclear watchdog.  By hosting the IAEA LEU bank, Kazakhstan has made another contribution to strengthening the global non-proliferation regime,  Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said as he handed Amano a symbolical key to the facility at a ceremony in the Kazakh capital, Astana.  I am confident that the IAEA LEU Bank will make a valuable contribution to international efforts to ensure the availability of fuel for nuclear power plants,  Amano said. The IAEA said in a statement it would begin buying uranium soon, with the aim to ship it to the bank next year. The project was funded by donors, including the United States, the European Union, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Norway and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र परमाणु प्रहरी ने कजाकिस्तान में यूरेनियम बैंक खोला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional investigations into alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 U.S. election and potential ties to President Donald Trump’s associates have expanded to include his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, ABC News reported on Tuesday. Citing a statement from Cohen, ABC News said he confirmed that he had been asked to provide information and testimony to investigators in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, but that he declined because “the request was poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered.”

Summary: अमेरिकी कांग्रेस की रूस जांच का विस्तार ट्रम्प के निजी वकील तकः एबीसी न्यूज


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The parliament group for Lebanon s Hezbollah said in a statement on Thursday that Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri s return from abroad and his  positive statements  signal a possible return to normality in Lebanon, al-Mayadin TV channel reported.  Hariri resigned abruptly while in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 4, sparking a political crisis in Lebanon, but returned to Beirut late on Tuesday and shelved his resignation.

Summary: हिज़्बुल्लाह संसद समूह ने हरीरी की वापसी को सकारात्मक बताया


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday allegations of private businesses wielding undue influence in his government will be investigated by a judicial commission of inquiry. The country s High Court ruled on Wednesday that Zuma must set up a judicial inquiry into state influence-peddling within 30 days, upholding the findings of a graft watchdog report entitled  State of Capture . The report focused on allegations that Zuma s friends, the businessmen and brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, had influenced the appointment of ministers. Zuma and the Guptas have denied all accusations of wrongdoing. Zuma was speaking on Saturday at the start of a weekend conference of his African National Congress that will vote on a new party leader.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका के जुमा ने कहा कि उनकी सरकार में प्रभाव डालने की जांच की जाएगी


After going through a week reminiscent of Napoleon’s at Waterloo, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will likely claim that Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s performance in Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate gave a boost to their campaign.  That would be overstating it.  The debate probably changed few votes in the 2016 presidential election. The question is whether it will change any votes in the 2020 contest.  In this year’s race, the debate was something of a wash. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, came across like an over-caffeinated prosecutorial chipmunk – interrupting at every occasion. And at moments that weren’t occasions at all.  A gentle soul who’s uncomfortable in the attack-dog role that the Clinton campaign has assigned him, Kaine plainly overcompensated by piping up whenever Pence sought to evade debate moderator Elaine Quijano’s questions.  And because Pence spent the evening evading, Kaine spent the evening interrupting. Though at the start, the interruptions actually preceded the evasions, and often interrupted Quijano’s interjections as well.  Pence surely had the better podium manner (no great achievement), even if his response to all Kaine’s and Quijano’s questions about the true man of the hour – Trump – was to change the subject. Or, if pressed, to deny that Trump had said what, in fact, Trump had said.  When the 10-second clips are aired and re-aired, Kaine’s attacks on Trump and Pence’s non-responses will redound mildly to Clinton’s advantage.  But what does the debate tell us about the future of both parties? Pence was surely playing to the GOP’s religious right on Tuesday, with his anti-choice religiosity.  In that sense, he was trying to supplant Texas Senator Ted Cruz as the Holy Rollers’ favorite son in the 2020 Republican primaries. (I’m assuming, of course, that Trump will not be running for his second term.)  Pence would bring some clear advantages to this contest. Unlike Cruz, Pence didn’t desert the party’s nominee (though Cruz came slinking back last week and finally endorsed Trump). Pence hasn’t waged a scorched-earth war against the Republican leadership. He doesn’t bear a disquieting resemblance to Bela Lugosi. For all these reasons, Pence will likely be the religious right’s candidate to take on President Hillary Clinton in 2020.  Should Pence become the nominee, however, the GOP standard-bearer would likely only widen the already-yawning gap between Republicans and a majority of the American electorate. The affirmation of traditional right-wing positions that Pence delivered last night – against progressive taxation and all regulation, against a woman’s right to choose – would yield the party precious little support among millennials, who will be by far the largest age group in the 2020 electorate.  As for Kaine, it’s hard to think of any wing of the Democratic Party that would flock to him as a future standard bearer after last night’s gravitas-free performance. It’s increasingly unclear why Clinton chose him to be her running mate, because that apparently meant miscasting him as her surrogate Trump-attacker.  In both his convention speech and his debate performance, Kaine has shown himself not up to the task. Some alternatives to Kaine – Labor Secretary Tom Perez comes to mind – would clearly have been better suited to the role. Perez would also have been better suited to help Clinton win more support from the one constituency that she most needs to do better: millennials. Many still don’t see Clinton as signifying any change or embodying the values that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders championed.  Kaine is a man of many virtues, and certainly could step into the presidency if he had to. But as a candidate and as a politician able to speak to younger voters and the Sanderistas – that is, the future of the Democratic Party – he’s been distinctly underwhelming.  Meanwhile, Quijano jumped around, one topic to another, almost as manically as Kaine. Moderating is no easy job, but it must be said that Quijano shaped an uncommonly disjointed evening.  More important,, both her questions on the economy – still the American public’s No. 1 concern – focused on the debt and balancing the budget. At a time when the disabling effects of economic inequality and the need for greater public investment in infrastructure are belatedly receiving the recognition they deserve – and when the candidates’ differences on these and other economic issues are vast – the size of the debt was hardly the topic on which the public needed to hear from the candidates.  Between Quijano’s topic-hopping, Kaine’s interruptions and Pence’s evasions, the debate flashed by as cacophonously and at times as incomprehensibly as a game of pinball.  Despite all the clamor, it was resoundingly clear by evening’s end that Kaine is not the Democrats’ future leader, and Pence, while he could be the Republicans’, is not likely to be America’s.

Summary: टिप्पणीः उन्मादी या टालमटोल करने वाले-ये वीप लोग निश्चित रूप से नेताओं की तरह महसूस नहीं करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on Saturday that “new hope dawns” for Cuba after the death of Fidel Castro. “The tyrant Castro is dead. New hope dawns. We will stand with the oppressed Cuban people for a free and democratic Cuba. Viva Cuba Libre!” Pence said on Twitter.

Summary: उप-राष्ट्रपति-निर्वाचित पेंस ने कहा कि क्यूबा के लिए 'नई उम्मीद की शुरुआत' हुई है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is set this week to hear a closely watched case testing the limits of religious rights, and new Justice Neil Gorsuch’s judicial record indicates he could tip the court toward siding with a church challenging Missouri’s ban on state funding of religious entities. Trinity Lutheran Church, which is located in Columbia, Missouri and runs a preschool and daycare center, said Missouri unlawfully excluded it from a grant program providing state funds to nonprofit groups to buy rubber playground surfaces. Missouri’s constitution prohibits “any church, sect or denomination of religion” from receiving state taxpayer money. Gorsuch, who embraced an expansive view of religious rights as a Colorado-based federal appeals court judge, on Monday hears his first arguments since becoming a justice last week. He will be on the bench on Wednesday when the justices hear the Trinity Lutheran case, one of the most important of their current term. Gorsuch, appointed by President Donald Trump, restored the Supreme Court’s 5-4 conservative majority. Trinity Lutheran wanted public funds to replace its playground’s gravel with a rubber surface made from recycled tires that would be safer for children to play on. The U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state and guarantees the free exercise of religion. At the very least, a victory for Trinity Lutheran would help religious organizations nationwide win public dollars for certain purposes, such as health and safety. But it also could bolster the case for using public money for vouchers to help pay for children to attend religious schools rather than public schools in “school choice” programs backed by many conservatives. For example, Colorado’s top court in 2015 found that a Douglas County voucher program violated a state constitutional provision similar to Missouri’s. Trinity Lutheran’s legal effort is being spearheaded by the Alliance Defending Freedom conservative Christian legal activist group, which argues Missouri’s policy violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free exercise of religion and equal protection under the law. If the church wins, “religious organizations cannot be excluded from general public welfare benefits that apply to everybody,” said Erik Stanley, an alliance lawyer representing the church. Referring to Gorsuch, Stanley said, “He has definitely been a friend of religious liberty. So we are hopeful that will continue when he’s on the court, and we’re grateful he gets to participate on this important case.”  In 2013, Gorsuch sided with the evangelical Christian owners of arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby and allowed owners of private companies to object on religious grounds to a provision in federal healthcare law requiring employers to provide medical insurance that pays for women’s birth control. Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion that Hobby Lobby’s owners faced a choice “between exercising their faith or saving their business.” The Supreme Court later affirmed the ruling. Missouri said there is nothing unconstitutional about its grant program. “Trinity Lutheran remains free, without any public subsidy, to worship, teach, pray and practice any other aspect of its faith however it wishes. The state merely declines to offer financial support,” the state said in legal papers. The church has drawn support from the religious community including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Mormon Church and Jewish groups. Groups filing legal papers opposing Trinity Lutheran, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said government funding of churches is precisely what the Constitution forbids. “Forcing states to provide cash to build church property could open the floodgates to programs that coerce taxpayers to underwrite religion,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU’s program on freedom of religion and belief. Mach said three-quarters of the U.S. states have provisions like Missouri’s. Alliance Defending Freedom, which also opposes gay marriage, transgender protections and abortion, has another major case involving religion that the Supreme Court could take up in its term beginning in October. It represents a Colorado bakery’s Christian owner who argues the Constitution’s promise of religious freedom means he should not have to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Trinity Lutheran sued in federal court in 2012. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015 upheld a trial court’s dismissal of the suit. The appeals court said accepting the church’s arguments would be “unprecedented,” noting the Supreme Court’s 2004 decision in the case Locke v. Davey that upheld a bar on Washington state scholarships for students preparing for the ministry. The justice who Gorsuch replaced, the late fellow conservative Antonin Scalia, was one of two dissenters in the Locke ruling. When a state withholds a generally available benefit solely on religious grounds, it is like an unconstitutional “special tax” on religion, Scalia said. Judicial observers have described Gorsuch as very much in the mold of Scalia. Missouri’s grant program was meant to keep tires out of landfills while also fostering children’s safety. The church’s brief to the high court stated, “A rubber playground surface accomplishes the state’s purposes whether it cushions the fall of the pious or the profane.”

Summary: ट्रम्प के चयन के साथ, शीर्ष अमेरिकी अदालत धार्मिक अधिकारों से निपटती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday will take up, and likely pass, a resolution to repeal a new Labor Department rule aimed at protecting retirement savers from profit-hungry brokers, a move that President Barack Obama has threatened to veto. A notice sent to senators on Monday showed that a debate and vote on the resolution were scheduled for Tuesday morning, less than a week before the chamber recesses for the Memorial Day holiday. The vote requires a simple majority, which Republicans command in both houses of Congress. The House of Representatives passed its version of the resolution last month, in a vote along party lines.  But the resolution will have a short life span. Obama has threatened to veto legislation undoing a key financial initiative of his second term. His administration in April released the rule to set a fiduciary standard for financial brokers who sell retirement products, requiring them to put clients’ best interests ahead of their bottom lines.  Republican leaders and some in the financial industry said complying with the rule would be expensive for brokers and result in higher costs for retirement advice that many Americans could not afford. They also said the rule did not take into account other laws and regulations on financial advice. The Senate fight started early, with Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, saying on Monday that Republicans wanted to “make it easier - easier - for giant Wall Street financial institutions to cheat Americans out of their retirement savings.” Speaking on the Senate floor, the advocate for stricter financial regulation also said the vote was motivated by election-year politics and that the resolution “will sure help fill up the campaign accounts of the Republican senators who vote for it.”

Summary: सीनेट नए सेवानिवृत्ति सलाह नियम को निरस्त करने के लिए मतदान करने के लिए तैयार है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation defended his  employees on Thursday against a growing chorus of accusations by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, that its agents were allowing political bias to seep into their investigations. In testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Christopher Wray said he believed the reputation of the FBI was not, as Trump recently wrote on Twitter, “in tatters.” “The agents, analysts and staff of the FBI are big boys and girls. We understand we will take criticism from all corners,” Wray said.  “My experience has been that our reputation is quite good.” Republicans had in recent weeks stepped up criticism of the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether Trump campaign aides had colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The move is widely seen as a tactic to undermine Mueller’s investigation, which has so far led to criminal charges against four people from Trump’s inner circle. It comes as Republicans prepare to head into a potentially challenging midterm 2018 congressional election cycle. Republicans have sought to re-litigate questions relating to the FBI’s handling of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, and questioned whether Justice Department officials gave her preferential treatment in their decision not to charge her with a crime. They have criticized former FBI Director James Comey for publicly announcing a decision not to refer Clinton for prosecution and asked whether the decision-making was politically tainted.  Wray took over the helm of the FBI after Trump abruptly fired Comey earlier this year.     Most recently, Republicans got fresh ammunition against Mueller and the FBI, after media reports said FBI agent Peter Strzok was removed from the Russia probe because he had exchanged private text messages that disparaged Trump and supported Clinton. Strzok was involved in both the Clinton email and Russia investigations.  Wray acknowledged Thursday that Strzok was removed from Mueller’s investigation, but said he was reassigned, not disciplined. “We cannot afford for the FBI - which has traditionally been dubbed the premier law enforcement agency in the world - to become tainted by politicization or the perception of a lack of even-handedness,” Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said.  Wray repeatedly refused to weigh in on how his predecessor handled the Clinton matter, and deferred to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is conducting a wide-ranging review into the topic. Horowitz recently told lawmakers he expects his review to be complete by late winter or early spring. “When those findings come to me, I will take appropriate action if necessary,” Wray said. Democrats, meanwhile, urged Wray to stand up against bullying by the president. “Your job requires you to have the courage to stand up to the president, Mr. Director,” said the committee’s Ranking Democrat Jerrold Nadler. “There are real consequences for allowing the President to continue unchecked in this manner.”

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. निदेशक रे ने रिपब्लिकन आलोचना के बाद ब्यूरो का बचाव किया


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council needs to push Iran to abide by an arms embargo, outgoing U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said on Wednesday amid U.N. concerns that Tehran has supplied weapons and missiles to Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah. Most U.N. sanctions were lifted a year ago under a deal Iran made with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, the United States and the European Union to curb its nuclear program. But Iran is still subject to an arms embargo and other restrictions, which are not technically part of the nuclear agreement. In her last appearance at a public Security Council meeting before U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration steps aside on Friday, Power said that recognizing “progress on Iran’s nuclear issues should not distract this council from Iran’s other actions that continue to destabilize the Middle East.”Under a Security Council resolution enshrining the 2015 deal, the U.N. secretary-general is required to report every six months on any violations of sanctions still in place. U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman briefed the 15-member council on the second U.N. report and said there had been no reports of nuclear-related or ballistic missile-related violations of the council resolution. However, the report expressed concern that Iran may have violated the resolution by supplying arms to Hezbollah. Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator said in 2015 that Tehran had no intention of complying with the arms embargo or ballistic missile restrictions. “We on the council need to come together to push Iran to effectively implement the binding provisions of resolution 2231 - especially restrictions that ban Iran’s export of arms and related material,” said Power. She did not specify how. The council could impose further sanctions over breaches of the arms embargo, but Russia and China - which are council veto powers along with the United States, France and Britain - were unlikely to agree to such a move, diplomats said. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to scrap the nuclear agreement or seek a better deal. Trump’s nominee to replace Power, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, said it would be better to review the deal rather than withdraw from it. She also told lawmakers at her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday that Iran should be held accountable for sanctions violations. She said: “Anytime that we put sanctions forward we should follow through on those when there are violations.”

Summary: निवर्तमान अमेरिकी राजदूत का कहना है कि संयुक्त राष्ट्र को ईरान पर हथियार प्रतिबंध लगाने के लिए 'दबाव' डालने की आवश्यकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will likely make a decision by June on whether it will release some classified material withheld from the public 9/11 Commission Report, a former U.S. senator who co-chaired the congressional inquiry into the attacks said on Sunday. The withheld section of the official report on the 2001 attacks is central to a dispute over whether Americans should be able to sue the Saudi Arabian government for damages. The Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence is reviewing the material to see whether it can be declassified.     Former Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, has been pressing for the release of the information and said that it may shed light on the financial backers for 19 hijackers who killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept 11, 2001. Graham told NBC’s Meet the Press that he believed that some of the withheld classified material could soon be released. “The president’s staff at least has said that they will make a decision by June, and I hope that decision is to honor the American people and make it available,” Graham said. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said last week that he also supported releasing the material. “The release of these pages will not end debate over the issue, but it will quiet rumors over their contents,” Representative Adam Schiff said in a statement. “As is often the case, the reality is less damaging than the uncertainty.”

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस जून तक 9/11 रिपोर्ट पर निर्णय लेगा-बॉब ग्राहम


GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition delegation at peace talks in Geneva is aiming for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad and plans to engage his negotiators in serious and direct talks, the head of the opposition delegation Nasr Hariri said on Monday. Hariri called for major powers, especially Russia, to pressure the Assad government into real negotiations on a political transition followed by a new constitution and free elections, in line with a U.N. roadmap to end the six-year war.  We stress that political transition which achieves the ousting of Assad at the beginning is our goal,  Hariri told a news conference after arriving in Geneva for a round of U.N.-led talks that is scheduled to start on Tuesday.   Our goal in the negotiation will be the departure of Bashar al-Assad from the beginning of the transition,  he said. A breakthrough in U.N.-backed Syria peace talks in Geneva this week seems hardly more likely than in seven failed earlier rounds as Assad pushes for total military victory and his opponents stick by their demand he leave power. All previous diplomatic initiatives have swiftly collapsed over the opposition demand that Assad must go and his refusal to do so. The Syrian government delegation, led by its U.N. ambassador and chief negotiator Bashar al-Ja afari, failed to arrive in Geneva on Monday when it had been due. It was not clear whether the delegation would arrive on Tuesday, when U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura is due to meet the opposition.  We don t have high hopes, the regime is using delaying tactics to obstruct progress toward a political solution, at a time when the opposition comes with one unified delegation,  Hariri said.  Russia .. .is the only entity capable of bringing the regime to the table of negotiations.  For many years, Western and Arab countries backed the opposition demand that Assad leave office. However, since Russia joined the war on behalf of Assad s government two years ago it has become increasingly clear that Assad s opponents have no path to victory on the battlefield. The Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and caused the world s worst refugee crisis, driving 11 million from their homes. The Syrian government continued its bombing and sieges of areas including 400,000 people in eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held Damascus suburb, Hariri said on Monday.  We are here for the hundreds of thousands who under siege who are in grave need of humanitarian aid and for hundreds of thousands of detainees who are at the verge of death, suffering but living death every day,  he said.

Summary: सीरियाई विपक्ष का लक्ष्य जिनेवा वार्ता में असद को हटाना है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved an export license for Ukraine to buy certain light weapons and small arms from U.S. manufacturers, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Wednesday. Department records show Ukraine has bought small amounts of those types of weapons for several years, both before and after the 2014 Russian annexation of Ukraine s Crimean peninsula. The department notified Congress of the decision on Dec. 13, Nauert said, adding that the U.S. government was not selling the weapons directly to the Kiev government but was allowing Ukraine to buy from U.S. manufacturers.   Under the previous two administrations, the U.S. government has approved export licenses to Ukraine, so this is nothing new,  Nauert said. The license covers weapons in categories such as semi-automatic and automatic firearms up to, and including, .50 caliber weapons. It also includes combat shotguns, silencers, military scopes, and flash suppressors, as well as parts. Nauert said the U.S. government had not directly provided lethal defensive equipment to Ukraine, nor had it ruled out doing so. U.S. exporters can apply for direct commercial sales licenses at any time and those are reviewed by the State Department on a case-by-case basis, she said.

Summary: अमेरिका ने यूक्रेन को अमेरिकी कंपनियों से छोटे हथियार खरीदने के लिए लाइसेंस को मंजूरी दी


ROME (Reuters) - Italy s traditional political parties have pledged to back a new electoral law this week that is seen penalizing the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement ahead of next year s national election. The lower house of parliament is due to start voting on Tuesday on an electoral law supported by the country s main right- and left-wing parties. Unlike the current system, it would allow the formation of broad coalitions before a vote, a factor likely to hurt 5-Star, which refuses to join alliances.  The only aim (of the law) is to allow others to gang up on us,  5-Star lawmaker Danilo Toninelli said on Sunday, a day after a parliamentary committee signed off on the new proposal. For the traditional parties,  the important thing is to stop the 5-Star,  he said. A national vote is due to be held during the first half of 2018, between March and May. Polls show Matteo Renzi s ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD), which proposed the new law, is neck-in-neck with the 5-Star. But if the PD runs in alliance with smaller centrist and left-wing parties, together they would likely surpass the 5-Star, now led by the 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio. The new law may be even more beneficial to Silvio Berlusconi s center-right Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party and the far-right Northern League, which also back the bill. In a coalition, polls show they could win the most votes.  The wind is blowing in the sails of the center-right and of Forza Italia,  the lower-house speaker of Berlusconi s party, Renato Brunetta, said.  But polls give neither Renzi s center-left or Berlusconi s center-right enough votes to govern alone, suggesting a right-left alliance may be the only way to form a government after the election.  The bill could pass as early as this week in the Chamber, after which it would go to the Senate for approval. The risk is that it could be sunk by dozens of secret votes in which parliamentarians can break with the official party line. Secret voting is what killed a previous election law proposal in June that initially had been supported by the 5-Star Movement. The 5-Star catapulted into parliament in 2013 with nearly a quarter of the national vote, but it has struggled to further expand its support. It has vowed to rescue Italy from the clutches of what it says is a corrupt political system.  Five-Star s policies include the introduction of universal income support for the poor, rewriting European Union public spending limits, and phasing out fossil fuels. It now says holding a referendum whether to dump the euro, which had been a pillar of its platform, is not a priority. The proposed election law would distribute almost two-thirds of the seats in parliament on a proportional basis, while a third would be decided in a first-past-the-post vote on specific candidates. Coalitions would need to get 10 percent of the national vote to get into parliament, while parties running alone would need only 3 percent. Candidates would be chosen by party chiefs.

Summary: इटली के मुख्य दलों ने 5-स्टार को अलग करने वाले चुनाव कानून का समर्थन किया


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday the route to leadership was long and full of  pitfalls and death , as he accused his fired deputy and former protege of showing impatience in his bid to succeed him. Addressing supporters at the headquarters of his ZANU-PF party in Harare, 93-year-old Mugabe accused Emmerson Mnangagwa of consulting witchdoctors and prophets as part of a campaign to secure the presidency. Mnangagwa, who was sacked by Mugabe on Monday and expelled from the ruling Zanu-PF party on Wednesday, said he had fled Zimbabwe because of death threats and was safe.  My sudden departure was caused by incessant threats on my person, life and family by those who have attempted before through various forms of elimination including poisoning,  he said in a statement on Wednesday. The head of the influential war veterans association, Chris Mutsvangwa, said that Mnangagwa, 75, would travel to Johannesburg in neighboring South Africa  very soon .  Mugabe said Mnangagwa, nicknamed  Crocodile , had made the same mistakes as Joice Mujuru, who was the president s deputy for 10 years until she was fired in 2014.  You should not try to say because the journey is long, then I should take a short cut to arrive quickly. The road has lions. There are pitfalls. There is death, beware,  he said.  There is no short cut to being the leader of the people. Just as there was no short cut to our independence.  ZANU-PF would move to discipline Mnangagwa s  co-conspirators , Mugabe added. Mnangagwa has not been seen in public since his dismissal from government but his ally Mutsvangwa said he was  safe and beyond the reach of the assassins . Mutsvangwa ruled out trying to remove Mugabe by force and said war veterans, who had publicly backed Mnangagwa and broke ranks with the president last year, would form a broad front with the opposition in elections next year.  We don t want to abuse the military to resolve a political problem. We don t want them to become the arbiter of political power,  Mutsvangwa said. He was critical of Mugabe s wife Grace, who looks set to become vice president after a special ZANU-PF congress in December.  This is a coup by marriage certificate ....and it will be resisted,  he said.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के राष्ट्रपति मुगाबेः राष्ट्रपति बनने के रास्ते में होने वाली मौतों से सावधान रहें


MILAN (Reuters) - Italy s Fincantieri and France s Naval Group may exchange between 5 and 10 percent of their share capital to cement a future naval alliance between Rome and Paris, a document published on the website of Italy s Treasury showed. France and Italy said on Wednesday they would study a possible tie-up between the two shipbuilders. They also agreed that Fincantieri would take effective control of French shipyard STX, ending a months-long dispute.  The opportunity and modalities of an exchange between the two companies of 5 percent to 10 percent of their respective share capital will be analyzed, and concrete actions aiming at developing synergies will be defined and presented to both governments,  the document detailing the agreement said.  This roadmap should include the creation of a balanced joint-venture in which common projects would progressively be developed, with a priority given to surface vessels  platforms, systems and equipment,  it said.

Summary: फिनकेंटियरी, नौसेना समूह भविष्य के सैन्य गठबंधन में हिस्सेदारी का आदान-प्रदान कर सकते हैं


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez extended the lead over his rival to just over one percentage point in a seesawing, delayed vote count for a presidential election that has sparked a political crisis, latest results showed on Thursday. The website of the electoral tribunal said that with 90.4 percent of ballots counted after Sunday s election, Hernandez had secured 42.68 percent of the vote in the Central American nation, with his centrist opponent Salvador Nasralla on 41.6 percent. The process has been disrupted by technical glitches, and Nasralla initially held a five point lead over pre-election favorite Hernandez until the count ground to a halt on Monday with more than half of the ballots counted. When the count restarted some 36 hours later, the results started to swing in favor of Hernandez, and Nasralla cried foul, rejecting the figures and saying that he was being robbed.

Summary: होंडुरास के वोटों की गिनती ने हर्नांडेज़ को प्रतिद्वंद्वी पर 1 अंक की बढ़त दी


TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese teenager is suing the government of Osaka, saying her public high school repeatedly forced her to dye her naturally-brown hair black or be banned from attending school, local media reported on Friday. In a lawsuit filed in Osaka District Court, the 18-year-old girl said her mother informed Kaifukan School in Habikino city upon her enrolment that she was born with brownish hair, as the school had a policy banning hair coloring, media reported. Educators, however, instructed her to color her hair black, telling her repeatedly that the dye job was insufficient and forcing her to  either dye the hair black or quit school , Kyodo news reported, citing the lawsuit. The girl has not attended school since September 2016, suffered pain and irritation from the hair dye, and is seeking damages of about 2.2 million yen ($19,300), said media, adding that Osaka prefecture is asking the court to reject the claim. Masahiko Takahashi, head of Kaifukan School, said he could not comment directly on the case, but noted the school s policy prohibiting students from dyeing or bleaching hair. He declined to say whether it was permissible to dye brown hair to black. The girl could not be reached for comment. In Japan, where conformity is the cultural norm, many schools have strict rules about hair color, accessories, make-up and uniforms, including the length of skirts for girls.

Summary: जापानी लड़की का कहना है कि स्कूल ने उसे बाल काले रंगने के लिए मजबूर किया, सरकार पर मुकदमा दायर कियाः मीडिया


(Reuters) - Storm-battered Puerto Rico, with a population of 3.4 million, is still without electricity five days after Hurricane Maria struck with ferocious winds and torrential rains, the most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. territory for nearly a century. Eighty percent of the power lines in Puerto Rico are down, the island s electricity utility PREPA said on Monday. PREPA spokesman Carlos Monroig said the utility is evaluating all of Puerto Rico s electrical infrastructure by air.  The following are responses from multinational companies with a presence in Puerto Rico on how they are dealing with the aftermath of Maria: WAL-MART STORES INC Wal-Mart spokesman Phillip Keene said:  We don t have a timetable yet on being fully operational, but we are working very hard to recover operations on the island as quickly as possible. As of this morning, hundreds of loads of water, emergency supplies and other needed resources like generators have either been delivered to the island or are on the way there. We will send trucks to open stores and those that are able to accept deliveries as soon as safely possible. No details to share on economic or operational impact.  Lisa Belot, media relations at Sprint, said:  Due to the severe damage caused by Hurricane Maria and the impact on Sprint s network, technical staff have mobilized to review the state of our sites in Puerto Rico and to expedite the reconstruction process to reestablish communication as quickly and safely as possible for all of our customers. Our first shipment has already arrived in Puerto Rico with generators and parts required for restoration, and crews of engineers and technicians from the U.S. have already joined the local team on the island. A second shipment is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.  The company said:  We are closely monitoring our network in Puerto Rico and working to address the full effects of Hurricane Maria. Storm damage is significant across the region and commercial power is unavailable, both of which can affect our ability to provide service. And, unfortunately, some cleanup crews working in the area have accidentally damaged additional communications infrastructure.  We are coordinating with local authorities and deploying resources as rapidly as possible to assist in restoration and recovery efforts as quickly as conditions allow.  Nat lia Salom o, global corporate media relations at drugmaker and consumer Johnson & Johnson, said:  Our preliminary assessment is that our physical facilities fared well given the magnitude of the storm. We are partnering with local and federal authorities to monitor the state of the infrastructure.  While we helped our employees and campuses prepare, we continue to work with customers and our emergency aid partners to restock products and relief supplies that have been in heavy demand. Prior to the storm, we took steps to adjust our raw material and product supply flow to account for potential interruptions, and we will continue to assess the situation.  BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB CO         Bristol-Myers Squibb spokesman Ken Dominski said:  Puerto Rico sustained significant damage, and our primary concern is with our employees, their families and the citizens of Puerto Rico.  We have some damage to one of our three facilities, however we are executing contingency plans that we believe mitigates product supply risk as we assess the situation on the island and work to bring our operations back online. We are contacting employees to provide support in their recovery from Hurricane Maria while the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is responding with a $250,000 cash donation to support emergency relief efforts.  Scott Sayres, a spokesman for Honeywell International, said the company s focus is on making sure their employees are safe.  They re still working on it ... our folks on the ground are making sure everyone s accounted for and what their needs are ... we re still assessing the facilities.

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको में बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपनियों ने तूफान मारिया का जवाब दिया


BARCELONA/MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s government said on Tuesday police would take control of voting booths in Catalonia to help thwart the region s planned independence referendum that Madrid has declared illegal. The dispute has plunged Spain into one of its biggest political crises since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s after decades of military dictatorship. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said the referendum is against the law and the constitutional court has ordered it be halted while its legality is determined. Catalonia s separatist government, however, remains committed to holding it on Sunday. Rajoy, speaking on Tuesday alongside U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, said it would be  ridiculous  if the affluent northeastern region declared independence from Spain.  Trump said he opposed the referendum and wanted a united Spain.  I really think the people of Catalonia would stay with Spain. I think it would be foolish not to,  he told reporters.  Senior Spanish government officials said on Tuesday authorities had done enough to prevent a meaningful referendum as Catalonia lacked an election commission, ballot boxes, ballot papers, a transparent census and election material.  Today we can affirm that there will be no effective referendum in Catalonia. All the referendum s logistics have been dismantled,  the Spanish government s representative in Catalonia, Enric Millo, told reporters in Barcelona. Catalonia s prosecutor has ordered the regional police - known as the Mossos d Esquadra - to take control of any voting booths by Saturday, a spokesman for the Madrid government s Catalan delegation said. In an order to police issued on Monday, the prosecutor s office said they would take the names of anyone participating in the vote and confiscate relevant documents.  Anyone in possession of the keys or entrance codes to a polling booth could be considered a collaborator to crimes of disobedience, malfeasance and misappropriation of funds, the order said. The Madrid government has in recent weeks taken political and legal measures to prevent the referendum by exerting more control over the use of public funds in Catalonia and arresting regional officials. Hundreds of police reinforcements have been brought into Barcelona and other cities. Madrid has also threatened fines against bureaucrats working on the ballot, including the region s election commission, which was dissolved last week. These actions have provoked mass demonstrations and drawn accusations from Catalan leaders that the Madrid government was resorting to the repression of the Franco dictatorship. A  yes  vote is likely, given that most of the 40 percent of Catalans who polls show support independence are expected to cast ballots while most of those against it are not.  But the unrelenting opposition from Madrid means such a result would go all but unrecognised, potentially setting up a new phase of the dispute.  The Catalan regional government, which plans to declare independence within 48 hours of a  yes  victory, maintained on Tuesday the vote will go ahead and it sent out notifications to Catalans to man polling booths across the region. Many had not yet received information about where or when they would be working after the state-run postal service was ordered to stop all mail related to the vote, a parliamentary spokeswoman for one separatist party said.

Summary: कैटलोनिया में स्वतंत्रता के लिए मतदान को विफल करने के लिए स्पेन की पुलिस मतदान केंद्रों को अपने कब्जे में लेगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s new communications director Anthony Scaramucci said on Tuesday he would probably restructure the communications operation at the White House and would fire staff if leaks did not cease. “If the leaks continue, then I’ve got to let everybody go,” he told reporters on Air Force One after Trump’s trip to Ohio.  Scaramucci said there were no immediate plans to fire anyone else following the resignation of senior assistant press secretary Michael Short earlier on Tuesday. He said he would take some time to look at the communications operation at the White House. “We will probably restructure,” he said. Both he and Trump were adamant that leaks needed to be stopped, Scaramucci said. “We’ve got a plan,” he said, without offering details.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस लीक करने वालों को निशाना बनाता है, संचार का पुनर्गठन कर सकता हैः स्कारामुची


LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May has reaffirmed Britain s commitment to a 2015 Iran nuclear deal in a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of a key U.S. decision on whether Tehran has stuck to the terms of the pact. Trump has cast doubt on the future of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which sought to curb Iran s nuclear program in return for lifting most Western economic sanctions.  A senior U.S. administration official said last week that Trump - who has criticized the pact as an  embarrassment  and  the worst deal ever negotiated,  - was expected to decertify Iran s compliance ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline.  The (prime minister) reaffirmed the UK s strong commitment to the deal alongside our European partners, saying it was vitally important for regional security,  said a statement from May s office following the call on Tuesday evening.  (The prime minister) stressed that it was important that the deal was carefully monitored and properly enforced.  In contrast, a White House statement on the phone call said Trump  underscored the need to work together to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its malign and destabilizing activities, especially its sponsorship of terrorism and its development of threatening missiles.  In a separate statement, Britain s Foreign Office said Iran had upheld its nuclear commitments, adding to international pressure on Trump not to jeopardize security in the region.  The nuclear deal was a crucial agreement that neutralized Iran s nuclear threat,  foreign minister Boris Johnson said.  It was the culmination of 13 years of painstaking diplomacy and has increased security, both in the region and in the UK. It is these security implications that we continue to encourage the US to consider.  Johnson spoke by telephone with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Tuesday and will on Wednesday meet the head of Iran s nuclear agency in London to press for continued compliance with the deal. May and Trump also discussed the need for Britain, the United States and others to work together to counter destabilizing Iranian activity in the region, May s office said. Britain and the United States are two of eight signatories to the deal, along with Iran, China, France, Russia, Germany and the European Union.  China, Russia and the European states have already expressed their continued support for the deal, while Iran has said Trump would not be able to undermine the pact. If Trump declines to certify Iran s compliance, U.S. congressional leaders would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran suspended under the agreement. Earlier, the White House said Trump would make an announcement later this week on an  overall Iran strategy , including whether to decertify the nuclear deal. May s office said she agreed with Trump that their teams should remain in contact ahead of the decision on recertification.

Summary: ब्रिटेन ने ट्रम्प के साथ फोन पर ईरान परमाणु समझौते के लिए प्रतिबद्धता की पुष्टि कीः मे का कार्यालय


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany should act as a “bridge-builder” to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and help clear up unanswered questions about his views on conflicts in Iraq, Syria and U.S. ties to Europe, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. Von der Leyen, asked whether she feared that the United States under Trump could weaken its support for Europe or Germany in the face of a heightened threat from Russia, told Reuters that she expected Washington to stick to its longstanding commitment to trans-Atlantic ties. “Our expectation is that the American commitment to that friendship will continue unabated,” she said. “My wish is that we find a common basis for understanding because the problems    are big enough and we must tackle them together.”

Summary: जर्मनी को उम्मीद है कि अमेरिका यूरोप के प्रति लंबे समय से चली आ रही प्रतिबद्धता के साथ खड़ा रहेगाः रक्षा मंत्री


GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Friday to the Saudi-led military coalition to fully lift its blockade of Yemen, saying up to eight million people were  right on the brink of famine . Earlier this week the coalition partially eased its blockade to let aid into the ports of Hodeidah and Salif and U.N. flights into Sanaa. But aid shipments cover only a fraction of Yemen s needs, since almost all food, fuel and medicine are imported. The coalition, which is backed by the United States and other countries, began the blockade on Nov. 6 after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired from Yemen toward its capital Riyadh. A second missile was shot down on Thursday.  That blockade has been partially wound down but not fully wound down. It needs to be fully wound down if we are to avoid an atrocious humanitarian tragedy involving the loss of millions of lives, the like of which the world has not seen for many decades,  U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said.  Yemen has a population of 25 million people. Twenty million of them need assistance and something like seven or eight million of them are, right now, right on the brink of famine,  he said as he launched the U.N. s 2018 humanitarian appeal. Lowcock sidestepped reporters  questions on whether the Saudi-led blockade amounted to a violation of international law, though he said the United Nations had consistently urged all parties in the conflict to respect their obligations.  I m not a lawyer but clearly international humanitarian law includes a requirement to facilitate unhindered access for aid agencies, and that s what I ve been trying to secure both in what I ve said publicly and also in my private dialogue,  he said. U.N. officials are often shy of criticizing parties to a conflict for fear of losing access or funding. Saudi Arabia has been a major donor to aid appeals for Yemen. Others have been less reticent. Jan Egeland, a former U.N. aid chief, has called the blockade  illegal collective punishment , while  Alfredo Zamudio, director of the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue in Norway, told Reuters he thought the International Criminal Court should investigate whether it was a war crime. Speaking at Friday s event in Geneva, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, head of Save the Children International, said:  What we ve seen in Yemen has been actually a very clear breach of the rules and also it s been very clear that denial of aid coming in has also become a weapon of war.  The coalition joined the Yemen war in 2015 after the Iran-allied Houthi group and its allies forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh sees the Houthis as a proxy for Iran, its arch-foe in the region. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced over 2 million and triggered a cholera epidemic as well as pushed the country to the verge of famine.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र सहायता प्रमुख ने यमन की नाकाबंदी पूरी तरह से हटाने की अपील की


LONDON/WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Friday that British Prime Minister David Cameron had asked him to visit, but a UK spokesman said no invitation had been extended. The apparent crossed signals were the latest sign of tension between the presumptive Republican Party nominee and the leader of a major U.S. ally, who has criticized Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Trump, in a morning interview with MSNBC, said Cameron extended the invitation to visit 10 Downing Street two days ago and that he “might do it.” He gave no other details. A spokesman for Cameron’s office said it was a longstanding practice for the prime minister to meet with the Republican and Democrat presidential nominees if they visited Britain.  “Given the parties have yet to choose their nominees, there are no confirmed dates for this,” the spokesman said. However, a Downing Street source said a formal invite would not be sent out to presidential candidates.        Trump’s comments followed a transatlantic exchange between the two men over Cameron’s criticism.  In December, Cameron called Trump “divisive, stupid and wrong” and suggested Trump would unite Britain against him if he visited the United Kingdom.  After Trump clinched his party’s nomination this month, Cameron acknowledged the achievement but said he stood by his earlier comments and would not apologize.  Trump fired back this week, saying on Monday that he was likely not to have a good relationship with Cameron.    But the next day he said he expected to have “a good relationship” and on Friday Trump said Cameron had invited him to London. “I will do just fine with David Cameron. I think he’s a nice guy. I will do just fine,” Trump told MSNBC. “But they have asked me to visit 10 Downing Street - and I might do it.” Cameron has said he will work with the winner of the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election and is committed to maintaining the special U.S.-UK relationship, his spokesman has said. Trump’s proposed ban also drew criticism from Sadiq Khan, who was elected mayor of London this month and is the first Muslim to hold the post. Khan said last week that Trump’s “ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe.”

Summary: ब्रिटेन ने 10 डाउनिंग स्ट्रीट के लिए ट्रम्प के निमंत्रण पर कहाः अभी तक नहीं


WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump are likely to discuss the sanctions that Washington imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine when the two leaders speak by telephone on Saturday, a senior White House aide said. Trump has said in the past that, as part of a rapprochement he is seeking with Russia, he is prepared to review sanctions that his predecessor, Barack Obama, imposed on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula. That move would face resistance from both influential figures in Washington and foreign leaders who believe sanctions should only be eased if Moscow complies with the West’s conditions on Ukraine. Among the U.S. sanctions causing the most pain to Russia are those targeting its financial services, limiting the Russian economy’s ability to raise debt, and its energy companies.  On the same day he speaks to Putin, Trump will have telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, White House spokesman Sean Spicer wrote in a Tweet. Both Hollande and Merkel have argued that it is premature to ease the sanctions. Trump senior aide Kellyanne Conway said in U.S. television interviews on Friday that Trump and Putin would likely discuss a range of issues, including joint efforts to combat terrorism.  Asked on FOX News’s “Fox & Friends” program to comment on suggestions that the Obama administration sanctions would be on the agenda, Conway said: “All of that is under consideration.” The call will be the first between the Russian and U.S. leaders since Putin called Trump to congratulate him on his election victory in November.  It is a first step towards what Trump has billed as a normalization of relations after three years of tensions sparked by the conflict in Ukraine. Trump and Putin have never met and it was unclear how their very different personalities would gel. Trump is a flamboyant real estate deal-maker who often acts on gut instinct, while Putin is a former Soviet spy who calculates each step methodically. Both have spoken about ending the enmity that has dragged U.S.-Russia relations to their lowest ebb since the Cold War.     “Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along with people? Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with Russia? I am all for it,” Trump told a news conference in July last year. Trump is under intense scrutiny at home from critics who say he was elected with help from Russian intelligence — an allegation he denies — and that he is too ready to cut deals with a country that many of his own officials say is a threat to U.S. security. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian leader would use the call to congratulate Trump on taking office and to exchange views on U.S.-Russian ties. Asked by reporters if Ukraine would come up, Peskov said: “This is the first telephone contact since President Trump took office, so one should hardly expect that (it)...will involve substantive discussions across the whole range of issues.  “We’ll see, let’s be patient.” If Putin and Trump can establish a rapport, it could pave the way for deals on Ukraine and Syria, two sources of friction during the administration of Barack Obama. For the Russian leader, there is much to gain. Putin is expected to run for re-election next year, but is hampered by a sluggish economy. A softening or removal of sanctions would allow Western investment and credit to flow in, lifting growth and strengthening Putin’s election prospects. Any move by Trump to ease sanctions would create a dilemma for the European Union, which has its own set of sanctions against Russia linked to the Ukraine crisis. Some governments in Europe are sympathetic with Trump’s stance and keen for relief from sanctions that are hurting trade with Russia. Others in the bloc believe Moscow has not met the conditions for the sanctions to be lifted. Merkel, who faces a re-election battle, has invested considerable political capital in keeping the EU aligned behind the sanctions. A German diplomat told Reuters last month: “If Trump lifts the sanctions, I fear the consensus in Europe would crumble.” Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met in Berlin on Friday, underlining the challenges for European unity in the face of a new U.S. president who has promised to shake up the status quo in international affairs. “Let’s say it honestly, there is the challenge posed by the new U.S. administration, regarding trade rules and what our position will be on managing conflicts in the world,” Hollande, who will leave office after an April-May election, told reporters.

Summary: पुतिन और ट्रम्प यूक्रेन प्रतिबंधों पर चर्चा कर सकते हैंः व्हाइट हाउस के सहयोगी


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner on Friday vetoed a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature in April to spend nearly $3.9 billion on state services that have not been funded due to an ongoing fiscal 2016 budget impasse. The Republican governor called the legislation “an empty promise.” “The bill purports to appropriate $3.89 billion, including more than $3 billion in general funds that the state does not have, for higher education and social service providers, but provides no source of funding,” Rauner said in his veto message.  The political stalemate between Rauner and Democrats has left Illinois as the only U.S. state without a complete fiscal 2016 budget, operating instead on court-ordered spending and a muddled patchwork of ongoing and stopgap appropriations. Rauner called on lawmakers to pass complete balanced budgets for the current and next fiscal years, although the governor has proposed funding most fiscal 2017 services with a temporary spending plan and K-12 schools with a full-year budget. Illinois’ new fiscal year begins on July 1. The Democrats’ spending bill passed with enough votes in the Senate to override a veto, but fell short of that margin in the House. The measure would have sent money to cash-starved state universities and colleges, covered tuition grants for low-income college students, and funded health and human services that were not subject to court orders. The measure also appropriated about $63 million for unpaid wage increases owed to about 24,000 unionized state workers.

Summary: इलिनोइस के गवर्नर ने वित्त वर्ष 2016 में 39 करोड़ डॉलर के खर्च बिल पर वीटो लगा दिया है।


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela  systematically  abused anti-government protesters this year, two rights groups said on Wednesday, including through beatings, firing tear gas canisters in closed areas and forcing detainees to eat food tainted with excrement. Unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro faced four months of near-daily protests asking for early elections, humanitarian aid to combat food and medicine shortages, respect for the opposition-led congress, and freedom for jailed activists.  Demonstrators say heavy-handed National Guard soldiers clamped down on their right to protest, while Maduro says his administration faced a U.S.-backed  armed insurgency.   More than 120 people died in the unrest, with victims including demonstrators, government supporters, security officials, and bystanders. In a joint report, New York-based Human Rights Watch and Venezuela-based Penal Forum documented 88 cases between April and September, from excessive use of force during marches to protest against arbitrary detentions. Around 5,400 people were detained, with at least 757 prosecuted in military courts, the report said.   The widespread vicious abuses against government opponents in Venezuela, including egregious cases of torture, and the absolute impunity for the attackers suggests government responsibility at the highest levels,  said Chilean lawyer Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.  Venezuela s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.  In one case cited, intelligence agents allegedly hanged a 34-year-old government critic from the ceiling and gave him electric shocks as they interrogated him. The man, whose name was not revealed, was ultimately released and left Venezuela.  In another case, a 32-year-old detained during a protest in Carabobo state was allegedly beaten for hours by National Guard soldiers who also threatened to rape his daughter. He said officials also fired tear gas into his cell.  Others interviewed recounted being handcuffed to a metal bench, hit with sticks, and witnessing a man being raped with a broomstick. At least 15 detainees in Carabobo said officials forced them to eat human excrement mixed in with uncooked pasta. The government failed to acknowledge such violations, the report said, adding that instead officials  often downplayed the abuses or issued implausible, blanket denials.  Maduro s government says Human Rights Watch is in league with a Washington-funded conspiracy to sabotage socialism in Latin America. Rights activists are in league with the opposition and compliant foreign media, officials say, and downplay opposition violence, including setting a man on fire during a demonstration and targeting police with explosives. The two rights groups said there were cases of protesters hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails at security forces, but that abuses by authorities went far beyond attempts to quell unrest.

Summary: वेनेजुएला ने 2017 के विरोध प्रदर्शनों में दुश्मनों के साथ व्यवस्थित रूप से दुर्व्यवहार कियाः अधिकार समूह


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union have agreed on the three key divorce issues of a financial settlement, citizens  rights and how to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Britain leaves the EU, a joint report said. The report did not specify a sum that Britain would owe the EU as a result of its exit from the bloc in 2019, but said:  Both Parties have agreed a methodology for the financial settlement.  On Northern Ireland, the report said that unless otherwise agreed, Britain would keep laws in Northern Ireland aligned with those of the European Union s internal market and customs union to avoid the need for a border.  In the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement,  the report said.

Summary: ब्रिटेन, यूरोपीय संघ तलाक विधेयक, उत्तरी आयरलैंड, नागरिकों के अधिकारों पर सहमतः संयुक्त रिपोर्ट


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The leader of Zimbabwe s influential liberation war veterans called on Wednesday for South Africa, southern Africa and the West to re-engage with Zimbabwe after the military seized power from 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. Chris Mutsvangwa hailed the military s overnight move as the  correction of a state that was careening off a cliff  and said the military administration would usher in a  better business environment  after years of disinvestment and economic decline.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के युद्ध पशुचिकित्सकों ने सेना द्वारा सत्ता पर कब्जा करने के बाद पश्चिमी फिर से जुड़ाव का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald J. Trump nominated Brian Quintenz, a former fund manager, consultant and congressional policy adviser, to serve as commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the White House said in a statement on Friday. Quintenz, who founded and was managing principal at Saeculum Capital Management LLC for three years ending in 2016, was nominated to serve the remainder of a five-year term ending on April 13, 2020, the statement said.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने पूर्व फंड मैनेजर क्विंटेंज़ को सी. एफ. टी. सी. में सेवा के लिए नामित कियाः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, concerned about infighting among his team, is considering a major shakeup of senior officials on his staff in an effort to eliminate some of the White House drama, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The crisis in Syria sharpened Trump’s desire to reduce the infighting and he is expected to make some staffing decisions soon, the Journal said, citing a senior administration official. Asked about the article, a White House spokeswoman said it was “completely false.”  The Journal said Trump has spoken to some of the people close to him in recent days about the performance of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and has asked for the names of possible replacements. Some people close to the president have suggested Gary Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council and a former executive at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the Journal reported. Another aide who could be reassigned is Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, who has tangled with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a close adviser, the Journal said. Trump removed Bannon from the National Security Council this week in what was seen as a victory for new national security adviser H.R. McMaster, a former Army lieutenant general who was working to exert control over the national security apparatus.     White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the Journal story was an attempt to distract from Trump’s “bold and decisive” action in ordering missile strikes on Syria, the Senate’s confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and the visits of foreign leaders this week. “Once again this is a completely false story driven by people who want to distract from the success taking place in this administration.” she said. “The only thing we are shaking up is the way Washington operates as we push the President’s aggressive agenda forward,” she said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस की अंदरूनी लड़ाई से चिंतित हैं ट्रंपः डब्ल्यूएसजे


DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland s minority government looked set to collapse within days on Friday after the party propping it up submitted a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister, weeks before a summit on Britain s plans to leave the European Union. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that if the motion was not withdrawn by Tuesday, he would be forced to hold an election before Christmas, a prospect EU officials say would complicate a key EU summit on Dec. 14-15 on Brexit.   What that would mean is me throwing a good woman under the bus to save myself and my own government, and that would be the wrong thing to do,  Varadkar told national broadcaster RTE, dismissing demands for his deputy Frances Fitzgerald to quit. Varadkar is due to play a major role in the Brexit talks, telling EU leaders whether Ireland believes sufficient progress has been made on the future border between EU-member Ireland and Britain s province of Northern Ireland. The border is one of three issues Brussels wants broadly resolved before it decides whether to move the talks on to a second phase about trade, as Britain wants. While Varadkar could go into the summit in a caretaker role, he said that any election would have to happen before Christmas so that he or his successor could attend the next meeting of EU leaders in February with a fresh mandate.  The head of opposition party Fianna Fail, Micheal Martin, earlier said an election  can be avoided if the government takes action  by asking Fitzgerald to resign. Varadkar said he would not seek, nor did he expect to be offered, a resignation. Fianna Fail supports the minority Fine Gael government in a  confidence and supply  arrangement. Voting no confidence in a minister would break that agreement. Varadkar and Martin met on Friday and were due to speak again over the weekend ahead of the motion of no-confidence in Fitzgerald, to be debated on Tuesday. The trigger is her handling of a legal case involving a police whistleblower.  At a time when issues and decisions will need to be made that will reverberate in our country for decades to come, the prospect of either an election taking place or a government not being in place afterwards is actually unconscionable,  Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told RTE. However a source familiar with Fine Gael s planning said it had begun to make preparations on Friday for a snap poll. As well as the border, the other issues Brussels wants resolved before Brexit talks move on to trade arrangements are Britain s financial settlement on leaving the bloc and the rights of EU citizens living in Britain. EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier assured Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney on Friday that the EU would defend Dublin s position in talks with Britain over the coming weeks. Coveney told parliament on Thursday the government was not yet ready to allow the talks to move on to trade issues, and needed more clarity from London. Fianna Fail s Martin said parliament would be united behind Varadkar at the December summit. University College Dublin politics professor David Farrell said Varadkar may be tempted to take an even harder line against the United Kingdom in the talks in a bid to shore up support among Irish voters, who are overwhelmingly against Brexit.   I suppose the only card he can try and play to distract from the crazy shenanigans around the causes of this election is leadership in Europe,  he said. An election would likely be dominated by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, two centre-right parties that differ little on policy but have been bitter foes for decades, something that has always left the minority government one serious row away from collapse.  But it would also present an opportunity for left-wing opposition party Sinn Fein to see if its veteran leader Gerry Adams  decision last week to step down will boost its support. The party said deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald would lead them into the election, if one is called.  While Sinn Fein, the third largest party in the Republic, has said it wants to enter government, the two largest parties have ruled out doing a deal with the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).  Since Varadkar s appointment as Fine Gael leader six months ago, his party has narrowly led Fianna Fail in opinion polls, which suggest both parties would increase their support but struggle to form anything but another minority government.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट शिखर सम्मेलन से कुछ हफ्ते पहले गिर सकती है आयरलैंड की सरकार


BRASILIA (Reuters) - Congressmen from Brazil s Social Democratic Party (PSD) on Wednesday invited Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles to run for president in 2018, growing the list of potential contenders from within President Michel Temer s fragmented coalition. Meirelles, after meeting with PSD lawmakers at his house in Brasilia, wrote on Twitter that he felt honored but was not a candidate. The PSD leader in the lower house of Congress, Marcos Montes, nevertheless said Meirelles received the invitation with  enthusiasm  but would not respond immediately. Reuters reported late in August, citing a source close to Meirelles, that he wanted to run for president on the PSD ticket, but knew he would have a strong chance only if the economy improved substantially. Meirelles, in his Twitter post, said that he was focusing his energies on helping Brazil obtain  sustainable growth  after emerging from its worst recorded recession.  Under Brazilian rules, ministers who wish to run in the October 2018 election will need to leave their posts by April, although a formal register would only happen in August. Other potential contenders being floated by ruling parties include Sao Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin and Sao Paulo city mayor Jo o Doria Jr., both from the PSDB party.  A civil engineer by training, Meirelles is the former chairman of now defunct BankBoston Corp and former president of Brazil s central bank.

Summary: ब्राजील की पीएसडी पार्टी ने मीरेलेस की 2018 की राष्ट्रपति पद की दावेदारी पेश की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul said on Sunday that the Obamacare replacement bill he plans to unveil would get rid of some of the mandates for health insurance coverage with the aim of bringing down the cost of insurance. Speaking on the CNN program “State of the Union,” Paul also said his proposal would overhaul healthcare regulations to allow small businesses to band together to buy insurance.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर ओबामाकेयर विधेयक में जनादेश को समाप्त करने का प्रस्ताव रखेंगे


(This Oct. 18 story corrects age in paragraph 19 to five, not six) By Tom Bergin LONDON (Reuters) - The bill for compensating families of those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire in London may be as low as 4 million pounds ($5 million), according to several lawyers and a Reuters analysis of how damages laws apply in England. The blaze engulfed a 24-storey social housing block in west London on June 14, killing an estimated 80 people in the country s deadliest fire since World War Two. While similar disasters in the United States have led to massive payouts, any compensation for Grenfell would be far lower because English laws offer less generous damages and don t allow punitive claims, even if companies are found criminally responsible, said Brett Dixon, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). The four main firms that have been linked to the Grenfell fire - U.S. companies Arconic Inc. and Whirlpool Corp. and Britain s Harley Facades and Rydon Group - declined to comment on the size or calculation of potential payouts. The Reuters calculation of a bill of 4 million pounds is based on the compensation amounts stipulated in the Fatal Accidents Act of 1976, precedents set in previous cases and the individual circumstances of the 70 victims identified so far. Three personal injury lawyers have verified the methodology used by Reuters and said the estimate for the total payout is reasonable. If the courts find there was no unlawful behavior by any of the companies or public bodies involved, victims will not be entitled to sue for compensation and would only get the financial support and temporary housing already provided by the government and public donations, personal injury lawyers said.  The British judicial system is not renowned for being generous,  said Rebecca Thomas of law firm Duncan Lewis, which is representing some victims  families.  It s not about money for the families,  said Tim Murphy, whose brother Denis, a disabled former painter who lived on the 14th floor, died in the fire.  Nothing can ease our pain, (but) I think it s quite insulting.  The U.S. legal system sees punitive damages as a way of encouraging companies to behave lawfully, but British and European governments have taken the view this approach would put excessive burdens on the judicial system, businesses, insurers and state bodies that might be liable, some legal experts say. While APIL said the Grenfell Tower disaster demonstrated the inadequacy of payouts to victims, Duncan Fairgrieve, who has advised the UK government on compensation rules, said more generous payouts could also harm society. They could drive up insurance costs for all and lead to big claims against government bodies such as the National Health Service and the police, he said.  There is an affordability issue,  said Fairgrieve, a Senior Research Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. If the courts find someone was wrongfully killed, the claim categories are a flat 12,980 pounds per victim for bereavement, costs such as funeral bills, dependency damages where minors or dependent spouses are left behind, and property damage - all to be paid by the party found responsible. Under the 1976 law, only family members who were supported by those who died can claim dependency damages. Reuters has identified only five people who died leaving dependents who could definitely claim damages - on the basis they were financially dependent on the deceased. Daniel Machover, a lawyer at Hickman and Rose, which is representing some victims  families, also said he didn t expect there to be many claims. Most of the others who died in the fire were minors, single or elderly and did not leave family members who were financially dependent upon them. The biggest dependency payout will be for children who lost both parents, said lawyers representing some of the victims. One five-year-old girl, Tasnim Belkadi, lost her mother, father and all her siblings in the fire. Lawyers said she could get 300,000 pounds, based on a share of her parents  income and some childcare costs up to her 18th birthday. Her aunt, with whom she now lives, did not respond to requests for comment on the Reuters calculation. Grenfell plaintiffs can also claim expenses they incurred as the result of a death, such as the cost of a modest funeral. Heirs to the deceased could also claim the value of goods lost in the fire. The Association of British Insurers puts the cost of replacing the contents of an average three-bedroom home at 55,000 pounds. However, Thomas said Grenfell claims would probably be less than 30,000 pounds per property because compensation is based on the market value of personal belongings rather than replacement value, and the flats destroyed had only one or two bedrooms. Based on the victims  circumstances, Reuters has calculated the payout for dependency damages could be 1.2 million pounds, for property it could be 1.4 million and for bereavement it could come to 1.0 million. Other smaller claims for costs and loss of parental guidance take the total to 4 million pounds. Police said the fire started in a fridge freezer made by a subsidiary of U.S. company Whirlpool and have been investigating whether the tower s cladding, made by U.S. firm Arconic Inc., played a role in the spread of the blaze. Arconic said it was up to contractors to ensure its products were used correctly. Whirlpool said it was investigating the fire. Rydon Group, the contractor that oversaw the refurbishment when the new cladding was added, said it had complied with all regulations. Sub-contractor Harley Facades Ltd said it was not aware of any link between the fire and the cladding. Fears among investors that companies linked to Grenfell could be sued for large sums in the United States hit their shares. Whirlpool s market value fell about $250 million on June 23 when police identified the maker of the appliance as Hotpoint, a brand owned by Indesit, which is a subsidiary of Whirlpool based in Italy. More than $1 billion was wiped off Arconic Inc. s value after Reuters reported in June that internal emails showed it had supplied flammable cladding panels, knowing they would be used on the tower and despite warning in its brochures that only non-combustible panels should be used on tall buildings. Arconic s share price has recovered since its late June lows but it and Whirlpool s stock are below the levels they were at just before the fire, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 7 percent over the same period. Awards against companies in U.S. courts have run into the tens of millions of dollars per family in some cases. In 1980, a fire blamed in part on inadequate fire safety measures killed 85 people at the MGM Grand Hotel in Nevada and injured hundreds. The hotel operator and contractors agreed to pay victims  families and survivors more than $200 million. Foreigners have often tried to sue U.S. corporations in U.S. courts over alleged wrongdoing abroad. However, judges have consistently ruled they lacked jurisdiction in such cases, saying adequate tribunals existed in the plaintiff s own country and that it would be hard for defendants to make their case in the United States. Machover at Hickman and Rose said he was considering whether Grenfell victims could bring a U.S. case on the basis that two of the companies involved were based there. But Thomas at Duncan Lewis and Leigh Day partner Jill Paterson were skeptical that U.S. courts would agree to hear Grenfell claims given the United Kingdom offers a reasonable forum for redress and because the U.S. companies were involved through European-registered subsidiaries.  I can t see any circumstances under which they could bring this in the United States,  said Thomas. Arconic and Whirlpool declined to comment on the possibility of legal claims against them.

Summary: ग्रेनफेल आग पीड़ितों के लिए नुकसान केवल $5 मिलियन हो सकता हैः रॉयटर्स विश्लेषण


BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will hold a general election in November 2018, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday, the most precise date he has given yet for the vote since taking power in a 2014 military coup. Prayuth, head of the ruling junta, said the exact date would be announced in June 2018. The junta has announced election dates at least two times in the past, only to push them back later, citing concerns such as changes to the constitution and security issues.  Around June we will announce the date for the next election,  Prayuth told reporters at Bangkok s Government House.  In November we will have an election.  Former army chief Prayuth, who led the May 2014 coup widely criticized by Western nations, said it was necessary to end a decade of political turbulence and root out corruption. In April, King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed into law a military-backed constitution that kickstarts the process for an election the junta has promised will restore democracy. The new charter provides for a proportional voting system likely to reduce the influence of major political parties, which critics say aims to strengthen the role of the military.  Analysts expect political activities to resume slowly after the funeral of King Bhumibol Adulyadej this month ends a year of mourning for a monarch many Thais saw as a father figure.   Prayuth wants to delay the election but he knows that after the king s cremation, there will be pressure for an election,  said Kan Yuenyong of the Siam Intelligence Unit think tank.  This announcement for the election in November next year will act to reduce that pressure, because if not, there could be chances for protests,  he told Reuters. Thailand s main stock index rose 0.7 percent after the news, having opened Tuesday down 0.3 percent. The government has faced increasing pressure to lift a ban on political activities levied soon after the coup. Prayuth will consider lifting the ban  at an appropriate time , he told reporters, without giving details. The junta had initially promised an election in 2015, after seizing power from the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin s governments, or those backed by him, have won every election since 2001, partly because of their overwhelming popularity with politically-powerful rural voters. But the Shinawatras made enemies, including those among the military-backed establishment who accused Thaksin and his allies of corruption.  Thaksin was ousted in 2006 and lives abroad in self-imposed exile. Yingluck followed suit in August, when she fled Thailand ahead of the verdict in a criminal case.  Some politicians expressed skepticism over the election date.  It isn t really believable, because they have changed it many times,  said Chaturon Chaisang, a member of Thaksin s Puea Thai Party. Ong-art Klampaiboon, deputy leader of the Democrat Party, Puea Thai s biggest competitor, welcomed the news.  The election date creates clarity,  Ong-art said.  This should be good for the country and the people.

Summary: थाई जुंटा ने कई झूठी शुरुआतों के बाद चुनाव के लिए ठोस तारीख निर्धारित की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans announced plans to vote next week on their latest bid to scuttle Obamacare even as a popular comedian who has become part of the U.S. healthcare debate denounced the bill and former President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned of “real human suffering.” President Donald Trump, who has expressed frustration at the Senate’s failure thus far to pass legislation dismantling Obama’s signature legislative achievement, said “47 or 48” Republicans back the bill, which needs 50 votes for passage in the 100-seat Senate, which his Republican Party controls 52-48.  “We think this has a very good chance,” Trump, who made replacing Obamacare a top 2016 campaign promise, told reporters during an appearance with Egypt’s president in New York. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul opposes the bill. At least five other Republicans are undecided on it: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, John McCain of Arizona and Jerry Moran of Kansas. Republican Senator John Thune on Fox News said: “We’re a handful of votes short of having the 50 that we need.” As they worked to gather enough votes to win, after prior legislation failed in July, congressional Republicans and the White House were on the defensive after Jimmy Kimmel used his late-night TV show to blast the proposal and call Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, one of its two sponsors, a liar. “This guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied right to my face,” Kimmel said on his show on Tuesday night, referring to the senator who since May had touted a “Jimmy Kimmel test” of standards any Obamacare replacement would need to possess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was noncommittal on Tuesday about scheduling a vote, now intends to bring it to the Senate floor next week, said his spokesman David Popp. Republicans are using the measure Cassidy is sponsoring with fellow Senator Lindsey Graham to make one last push this year to pass legislation to roll back the 2010 Obamacare law, a goal of theirs for seven years, facing a Sept. 30 deadline. Avalere Health, a healthcare consultancy to hospitals and insurers, forecast that the bill would slash federal funding to states by $215 billion through 2026, with 34 states facing cuts. Hit hard would be Democratic-governed California and New York, which expanded the Medicaid insurance program for the poor and disabled under Obamacare, while Republican-governed Texas, which did not expand Medicaid, would be a winner, Avalere said. It remained unclear if the bill, opposed by Democrats and top medical groups and hospitals, can attract the 50 votes needed for passage, with Vice President Mike Pence ready to cast a tie-breaking vote. In a speech in New York, Obama defended the Affordable Care Act, known informally as Obamacare, which expanded medical insurance to 20 million Americans. “So when I see people trying to undo that hard-won progress for the 50th or 60th time, with bills that would raise costs or reduce coverage or roll back protections for older Americans or people with pre-existing conditions ... it is aggravating,” the Democratic former president said. “And it’s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents.” Cassidy defended his bill, which would divvy up healthcare money as block grants to states, let them opt out of some Obamacare consumer protections and waive requirements that insurers cover certain benefits. It also would end Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Kimmel entered the healthcare debate after revealing on his show in May that his newborn son had undergone life-saving emergency surgery for a congenital heart condition, and pleaded that no family be denied medical care because they cannot afford it. Cassidy appeared that month on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “He said he would only support a healthcare bill that made sure a child like mine would get the health coverage he needs no matter how much money his parents make,” Kimmel said on Tuesday. “Stop using my name, OK? Because I don’t want my name on it. There’s a new ‘Jimmy Kimmel test’ for you. It’s called the lie detector test. You’re welcome to stop by the studio and take it any time,” he said to cheers from his audience. Cassidy, a gastroenterologist who represents Louisiana, gave a measured response to Kimmel’s remarks, telling reporters on Capitol Hill, “It was a personal attack and I can’t help that.”  Graham blasted the comedian. “I bet he looked at some liberal talking point, bought it hook, line and sinker, and went after Bill Cassidy without talking to him. And I think that’s unfair,” Graham said on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” show.  Cassidy said his proposal would protect people who are already ill, although it does let states waive an Obamacare mandate that insurers cannot charge people who have pre-existing medical conditions more than those who are healthy. “There is a specific provision that says that if a state applies for a waiver, it must ensure that those with pre-existing conditions have affordable and adequate coverage,” Cassidy told CNN. Trump, in a tweet late on Wednesday, said he would not sign the bill if it did not include coverage of pre-existing conditions. “It does! A great bill,” Trump said.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने हेल्थकेयर वोट की योजना बनाई; ओबामा और टीवी होस्ट ने बिल की निंदा की


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s ambassador to the United States discussed a row over retweets sent by President Donald Trump with senior White House officials on Wednesday, a British government source said on Thursday. The source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, did not give further details of the discussion. Trump has sparked outrage in Britain’s political establishment with a sharp rebuke of Prime Minister Theresa May on Twitter after she criticised him for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के अमेरिकी राजदूत ने व्हाइट हाउस के वरिष्ठ कर्मचारियों के साथ ट्रम्प रीट्वीट पर चर्चा कीः सूत्र