LONDON (Reuters) - Planned changes that President Barack Obama says are aimed at ensuring American companies do not avoid tax by shifting their headquarters overseas could also force foreign companies to adopt more conservative U.S. tax-planning strategies. One of the measures restricts the ability of U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies to deduct the interest they pay on loans from their parent firms from their taxable income. It aims to stop a redomiciled American firm from reducing its U.S. tax bill by piling inter-group debt on its U.S. operations, and effectively shifting profits overseas.  But it could also affect European companies that use similar strategies to reduce their tax bills in the United States after buying U.S. firms. The new rules announced by the Treasury department this week aim to curb so-called ‘inversions’ - where a U.S. group acquires a smaller overseas company and shifts its domicile to a lower-tax jurisdiction.  Drugmaker Pfizer’s plan to buy rival Allergan and move to Ireland was one of the planned inversions that prompted the Obama administration to act. The $160 billion deal fell apart last week as a result of other aspects of the Treasury reforms. Under the new rule regarding debt, if a U.S. subsidiary transfers money to its overseas parent within three years before or after borrowing money from it, by paying a dividend or buying shares in the parent, then U.S. tax authorities could potentially treat the loan as if it was equity. This means the interest on the debt would not be deductible for U.S. income tax purposes.  Experts said that European companies would still be able to shift profits via inter-group debt, but may have to do so gradually over a longer period of time. “It, without doubt, significantly changes the rules of the game,” said Stephen Shay, professor of law at Harvard University.  “In the old days you bought and then you levered up as much as you can and that is not going to happen in the same way, but how much of a constraint that becomes is unclear,” he added. Nancy McLernon, president of the Organization for International Investment, a trade group for the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies, denied non-U.S. groups were routinely shifting profit overseas through debt.  “Where’s the problem they (U.S. authorities) are trying to fix? It feels more like a tax grab,” she said.  She said the complexity of the issue and uncertainty over how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. tax authority, would seek to use their new powers would make investing in new U.S. projects less attractive.  “It will have a chilling effect on foreign direct investment in the United States,” McLernon added. The Treasury says it is targeting situations where large debts are incurred to fund dividends shortly after an inversion or foreign acquisition, rather than the most common way U.S. subsidiaries accumulate inter-group debt. That is by having the subsidiary gradually pay all its profit to its parent as dividends and then borrow money from its parent for new investment.  “The proposed regulations generally do not apply to related-party debt that is incurred to fund actual business investment, such as building or equipping a factory,” a Treasury factsheet released last week said. Providing the money a foreign company takes out of its U.S. subsidiary is in line with the U.S. company’s profits, the transactions should escape IRS scrutiny, Shay said. Companies don’t usually publish details of their inter-group financing so it’s impossible to put a figure on how much profit foreign companies shelter from U.S. tax through inter-group loans. Richard Murphy, professor of practice in international political economy at City University London, estimates the IRS could lose tens of billions of dollars in taxes each year in this way. Companies that have reduced their U.S. tax bills via inter-group lending include drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, education group Pearson, utility Scottish Power and telecoms group Vodafone.  All said their lending to U.S. subsidiaries had been unwound and that they complied with all tax rules. Details of their lending arrangements came to public attention following data leaks or legal action with tax authorities. A 2013 Reuters examination of tax planning by Europe’s largest software group, SAP AG, showed how the German company shifted profits from the United States, which has a corporate tax rate of at least 35 percent, to Ireland whose headline rate is 12.5 percent. here HIGH-INTEREST LOANS According to Reuters calculations based on 2015 corporate filings, SAP America Inc reduces its U.S. tax bill by around $200 million a year by borrowing $7.4 billion from SAP Ireland US Financial Services Ltd at an interest rate of at least 7 percent. The debt, which helped fund the acquisition of U.S. software groups, cuts its taxable income by around $600 million a year. A spokesman for SAP group declined to comment on the Reuters calculations but said the company followed all tax rules and that its funding structure was driven by business rather than tax reasons. Some measures previously proposed by Obama and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which advises developed nations on tax policy, would have limited interest deductions to the extent that they reflected an operating unit’s share of total group interest costs. Since SAP group’s total net interest expense was just 5 million euros last year, most of its U.S. subsidiary’s deduction may have been disallowed under such proposals.  But the Treasury plan is far more limited than these proposals. SAP filings suggest that it has not taken large amounts of cash from its acquired U.S. subsidiaries and recapitalized them with debt.  Debts accumulated as SAP has done – by acquiring and expanding U.S. companies - should not be captured by the new measures, even if that debt is out of proportion to the parent’s overall debt burden.  But it’s hard to be certain. Inter-group debts usually run for a period of a few years, and each time they extend them, there is an opportunity for the IRS to re-examine the arrangement.  “There is certainly is a risk when they roll over that instrument, that it is going to be recharacterised as equity,” said Victor Fleischer, professor of law at the University of San Diego, said of the SAP loans.

Summary: अमेरिकी कर 'व्युत्क्रम' पर अंकुश लगाने की योजना विदेशी कंपनियों को प्रभावित कर सकती है


DHAKA/YANGON (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Thursday for massive help for nearly 400,000 Muslims from Myanmar who have fled to Bangladesh, with concern growing that the number could keep rising, unless Myanmar ends what critics denounce as  ethnic cleansing . The Rohingya are fleeing from a Myanmar military offensive in the western state of Rakhine that began after a series of guerrilla attacks on Aug. 25 on security posts and an army camp in which about a dozen people were killed.  We urge the international community to step up humanitarian support and come up with help,  Mohammed Abdiker, director of operations and emergencies for the International Organisation for Migration, told a news conference in the Bangladeshi capital. The need was  massive , he added. The violence in Rakhine and the exodus of refugees is the most pressing problem Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since becoming national leader last year. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday urged Myanmar to end the violence, which he said was best described as ethnic cleansing.       The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects such accusations, saying it is targeting  terrorists . Numerous Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine have been torched but authorities have denied that security forces or Buddhist civilians set the fires. They blame the insurgents, and say 30,000 non-Muslim villagers were also displaced. Smoke was rising from at least five places on the Myanmar side of the border on Thursday, a Reuters reporter in Bangladesh said. It was not clear what was burning or who set the fires.  Ethnic cleansing  is not recognized as an independent crime under international law, the U.N. Office on Genocide Prevention says, but it has been used in U.N. resolutions and acknowledged in judgments and indictments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. A U.N. panel of experts defined it as  rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups .       The crisis has raised questions about Suu Kyi s commitment to human rights, and could strain relations with Western backers supporting her leadership of Myanmar s transition from decades of strict military rule and economic isolation. Critics have called for her to be stripped of her Nobel prize for failing to do more to halt the strife, though national security remains firmly in the hands of the military. Suu Kyi is due to address the nation on Tuesday. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday he had spoken with Suu Kyi and that she said she was working to get aid to areas affected by violence. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Murphy had what one U.S. official called a  tough conversation  with Myanmar s ambassador to the United States on Wednesday ahead of Murphy s trip to Yangon this weekend. Murphy will be meeting with Myanmar government officials next week to voice concern about the state of the Rohingya people and to press for greater access for humanitarian workers and reporters, the State Department said. China, which competes with the United States for influence in Myanmar, endorses the offensive against the insurgents and deemed it an  internal affair , Myanmar state media said.  The counterattacks of Myanmar security forces against extremist terrorists and the government s undertakings to provide assistance to the people are strongly welcomed,  the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted China s ambassador, Hong Liang, as telling government officials. But at the United Nations in New York, China set a different tone, joining a Security Council expression of concern about reports of violence and urging steps to end it. The council met on Wednesday to discuss the crisis and later  expressed concern about reports of excessive violence ... and called for immediate steps to end the violence in Rakhine, de-escalate the situation, re-establish law and order, ensure the protection of civilians ... and resolve the refugee problem . This week, the Trump administration called for protection of civilians. Bangladesh says the refugees will have to go home and has called for safe zones in Myanmar. Myanmar says safe zones are unacceptable. The IOM s Abdiker declined to say how many refugees he thought might end up in Bangladesh.  The number may rise to 600,000, 700,000, even one million if the situation in Myanmar does not improve,  he said. The most important thing was that the refugees be able to go home safely, said George William Okoth-Obbo, assistant high commissioner for operations at the U.N. refugee agency.  The international community has to support to ensure their return ... peacefully and with safety,  he told the news conference. On Wednesday, the Myanmar government said 45 places had been burned. It did not provide details, but a spokesman said out of 471 villages in the north of Rakhine, 176 had been deserted and at least some people had left 34 more. The spokesman, Zaw Htay, said the people going to Bangladesh were either linked to the insurgents, or women and children fleeing conflict. Government figures show 432 people have been killed, most of them insurgents, since Aug. 25.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने म्यांमार से भाग रहे रोहिंग्याओं के लिए 'बड़े पैमाने पर' मदद मांगी 'जातीय सफाया'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump intends to nominate former U.N. spokesman Richard Grenell to be U.S. ambassador to Germany, the White House said on Friday. Grenell served as U.S. spokesman at the United Nations from 2001 to 2008, during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush. Currently, Grenell is a contributor to Fox News. His nomination as envoy to NATO ally Germany must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Summary: रिचर्ड ग्रेनेल को जर्मनी में राजदूत के रूप में नामित करेंगे ट्रम्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday that amendments were necessary to a Puerto Rico debt bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said would be voted on by next week. Reid, speaking to reporters, said changes were needed to the federal board overseeing the restructuring of Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt under the bill, but he did not say whether Democrats would be successful in making any changes. The House of Representatives passed a Puerto Rico debt relief bill on June 9, following months of internal debate. Supporters hope the Senate passes that bill, without any amendment, before July 1, when Puerto Rico faces a deadline for making a $1.9 billion debt payment. The Caribbean island, which is a U.S. territory, is suffering a poverty rate of about 45 percent and has been hobbled by worsening debt problems. Some schools and medical facilities are closing and thousands of residents are relocating to the U.S. mainland, further shrinking Puerto Rico’s tax base. While Reid said he had “some serious concerns” with the current bill, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and lawmakers in the House, he did not say whether he expected any amendments to succeed in the Senate. A Senate debate over amendments could simply help put Democrats on record registering their concerns with the legislation. “At the very minimum, we need some amendments to make sure that people understand what is not in that bill,” Reid said. Democrats in both chambers have voiced concerns over some potential minimum-wage reductions for young workers that Republicans included in the House bill. They also have said the federal oversight board, to be appointed by Washington, might not have Puerto Rico’s best interests in mind. Supporters of the bill have argued it is the best measure that can pass the Republican-controlled Congress and that  Puerto Rico could slip into chaos without action.

Summary: सीनेट ने डेमोक्रेट की चिंताओं के बीच प्यूर्टो रिको ऋण बहस की तैयारी की


BEDMINSTER, N.J. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he has not given any thought to the possibility of firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Speaking to reporters at his New Jersey golf club, Trump also said he was surprised by the FBI raid last month of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, adding that it sent a “strong signal.”

Summary: रूस की जांच के विशेष सलाहकार को बर्खास्त करने के बारे में नहीं सोचाः ट्रम्प


DILI (Reuters) - East Timor is set to swear in Mari Alkatiri for a second stint as prime minister, the country s president said on Thursday, with Asia s youngest democracy facing stiff challenges to boost a flagging economy heavily reliant on oil and gas.  Alkatiri, the secretary general of the Fretilin party, was East Timor s first prime minister after independence from Indonesia in 2002. He stood down in 2006 after a wave of unrest sparked by the sacking of 600 soldiers.  Today I announce to all the people that the president of the republic ... has nominated Dr. Mari Alkatiri to become the prime minister,  President Francisco  Lu Olo  Guterres told a news conference. Guterres called for people to remain calm and said Alkatiri would form a minority government. He expected Alkatiri s  swearing-in to be held either later on Thursday or on Friday.  The most important thing is the politicians need to think about how to maintain government stability in the future and ensure peace,  he said. Fretilin, or the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, won the most votes in July s election but failed to get an outright majority. It intends to form a coalition with the small Democratic Party. It had been in a de facto coalition since 2015 with the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction, a party founded by former independence fighter Xanana Gusmao.  Alkatiri, who is a Muslim in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, spent several decades living in exile in Mozambique during East Timor s struggle for independence. The next prime minister will face pressure to lift flagging oil production in the tiny nation of 1.3 million people, where unemployment and poverty remain high.  Dwindling output from existing oil and gas fields, compounded by the slumping prices of the commodities, have hit the government s budget and crimped its ambition to develop manufacturing as an engine for economic growth.  Australia and East Timor reached a breakthrough agreement earlier this month on a maritime border, ending a decade-old row that has stalled a $40 billion offshore gas project. The long-running dispute has led the owners of the Greater Sunrise fields - Woodside Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Japan s Osaka Gas - to shelve the project.

Summary: पूर्वी तिमोर के राष्ट्रपति ने मारी अल्कातिरी को प्रधानमंत्री के रूप में शपथ दिलाई


ERBIL, Iraq/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey threatened potentially crippling restrictions on oil trading with Iraqi Kurds on Thursday after they backed independence from Baghdad in a referendum that has alarmed Ankara as it faces a separatist insurgency from its own Kurdish minority. Iraq s Kurds endorsed secession by nine to one in a vote on Monday that has angered Turkey, the central government in Baghdad, and other regional and world powers, who fear the referendum could lead to renewed conflict in the region. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi s office said he had been told by Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in a call that Turkey would break with past practice and deal only with the Baghdad government over oil exports from Iraq.  Most oil that flows through a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey comes from Kurdish sources and a cut-off would severely damage the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), which relies on sales of crude for almost all its hard currency revenues. So far the pipeline is operating normally despite Turkish threats to impose economic sanctions on the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq. Turkish officials, however, ramped up pressure on the Kurds on Thursday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin the Kurdish government  made a big mistake by holding the referendum  and must be prevented from  bigger mistakes.  He said Turkey and Russia agreed the territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria must be preserved. Yildirim said separately that Turkey would respond harshly to any security threat on its border after the referendum, although that was not its first choice. Yildirim also said he agreed with Abadi to coordinate economic and trade relations with the central government in Baghdad. He said Turkey, Iran and Iraq may meet to discuss the referendum. Turkish government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said Turkish armed forces would stop training Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces, which protected oil fields from capture by the Islamic State. With the region s largest Kurdish population, Turkey has been battling a three-decade insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast and fears the referendum will inflame separatist tensions at home. The United Nations offered on Thursday to help solve the problem between the KRG and Baghdad, the Iraqi foreign ministry said following a meeting between Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari and Jan Kubis, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq. The United States was willing, if asked, to help facilitate talks to try to ease tensions between the two sides, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. Kurdish officials say they can withstand an economic blockade because they are self-sufficient in terms of power generation and fuel supply and have fertile agricultural land. They also say that three quarters of the trucks that cross the Turkish border are heading to territory controlled by Baghdad rather than to the Kurdish region, so the Turkish and Iraqi economies would suffer from any blockade. But travel to the Kurdish region will become harder if  airports in Erbil and Sulaimaniya are closed to international flights. Their autonomous region in Iraq is the closest the Kurds have come in modern times to a state. It has flourished amid Iraq s civil war but may struggle to maintain investment if it is blockaded economically. Kurdish officials say that Abadi s tough response to the referendum vindicates Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani s decision to hold the referendum because they believe Baghdad will not cooperate under any circumstances. The officials feel that if Baghdad, Turkey, Iran, the United States and the world line up against them, and the Kurds cannot see an end to their hardship, Barzani could come under pressure at home to declare independence. A diplomatic drive to forestall Monday s referendum failed to persuade Kurdish leaders, some of the United States  closest Middle Eastern allies, former U.S. officials and experts said. There were expectations that the United States, which said it would not recognize the vote, could use its ties to the Iraqi Kurds to persuade Barzani to cancel the referendum in exchange for a guarantee of talks with Baghdad.  The U.S. bid to stop the referendum failed, experts said, in part because the aging Barzani sees fulfilling aspirations for an independent Kurdish state as his legacy. The United States, major European countries and nearby Turkey and Iran all opposed the referendum as destabilizing at a time when all sides are still fighting Islamic State. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said there had been a loss of focus in the fight against Islamic State since the referendum. Baghdad has heaped pressure on the Kurds, demanding they cancel their referendum, while parliament urged the Iraqi government to send troops to take control of oilfields held by Kurdish forces. Baghdad also demanded that foreign governments close their diplomatic missions in the Kurdish capital Erbil. Foreign airlines have begun cancelling flights to Kurdish airports after Iraq said international flights to Erbil and Sulaimaniya would be suspended from Friday. Turkey told its citizens to leave northern Iraq before the ban came into force. Kurdish authorities have rejected Baghdad s demands that they should annul the referendum and hand over control of their international airports, instead offering to hold talks with Baghdad in an attempt to defuse the airports crisis. Erdogan and Putin met in Ankara on Thursday. Russia s interest in the region is growing. Oil major Rosneft (ROSN.MM) is increasing investment in Kurdistan and the Kurds have been developing strong ties with Moscow.  Russia is one of the biggest investors in the economy of Iraqi Kurdistan at this moment,  said Kirill Vertyayev, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.  There is a certain conflict of interest because neither Baghdad nor Ankara are happy about Russia s economic expansion in Iraqi Kurdistan ... that s why Russia is acting carefully,  he said. The Kurds consider Monday s referendum to be an historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own, while    Iraq considers the vote unconstitutional. Barzani, who is KRG president, has said the vote is not binding, but meant to provide a mandate for negotiations with Baghdad and neighboring countries over the peaceful secession of the region from Iraq. Baghdad has rejected talks. The Kurds were left without a state of their own when the Ottoman Empire collapsed a century ago. Around 30 million live in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. The Kurds say the referendum acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army.

Summary: इराकी कुर्दों द्वारा स्वतंत्रता वापस लेने के बाद तुर्की ने तेल का खतरा उठाया


WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - A federal judge upheld a North Carolina law on Monday that requires voters to show certain forms of photo identification at the polls, in a key victory for Republicans in a presidential election year who say the law is needed to prevent fraud. The case tested a central piece of broad voting restrictions passed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that North Carolina and other states with a history of discrimination no longer needed federal approval for voting law changes affecting minorities. In siding with Republican Governor Pat McCrory and other state officials in dismissing challenges to the law, U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder in Winston-Salem wrote in a 485-page ruling that North Carolina “has provided legitimate state interests for its voter-ID requirement and electoral system.”  “In sum, plaintiffs have failed to show that any North Carolinian who wishes to vote faces anything other than the ‘usual burdens of voting,’” Schroeder wrote. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and individual voters backed by the U.S. Justice Department had argued that the law disproportionately burdened African-Americans and Hispanics, who are more likely than whites to lack the acceptable forms of identification. Democrats argue voter ID laws passed by Republican-led state legislatures target voters who typically support the Democratic party. Proponents of the measures say they are intended to prevent voter fraud. The trial in Winston-Salem was one of a number of closely watched voting rights battles across the country playing out as Democrats and Republicans fight for the White House in November. Governor McCrory, locked in a tough race for re-election this year, said in a statement: “This ruling further affirms that requiring a photo ID in order to vote is not only common-sense, it’s constitutional.” The North Carolina law requires voters to show approved credentials such as a driver’s license or passport before casting a ballot. Voters who cite a “reasonable impediment” to obtaining such identification are allowed to cast a provisional ballot.  Schroeder also upheld provisions that eliminated a week of early voting, same-day registration, and prohibited the counting of out-of-precinct ballots. Schroeder said that the plaintiffs did not establish that blacks or Hispanics had less opportunity than others to participate in the electoral process, and pointed out that North Carolina joins only South Carolina in extending voters the “reasonable impediment” accommodation. Opponents of the law said they would pursue an appeal.  William Barber, president of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, called the “restrictive provisions” in the law “an affront to democracy” and vowed to continue the fight against “regressive and discriminatory voter suppression tactics.”

Summary: संघीय न्यायाधीश ने उत्तरी कैरोलिना में मतदाता पहचान पत्र कानून को बरकरार रखा


LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May will only detail how big a divorce settlement Britain is willing to pay the EU when the bloc gives a commitment to moving talks forward, according to a plan rubber-stamped by even her most pro-Brexit ministers. The Brexit bill has become one of several hurdles to talks to unravel more than 40 years of union, with London reticent to offer too much too soon on what officials consider to be one of its strongest bargaining chips. In Brussels, British media speculation that May has won the backing of Brexit hardliners to offer more cash prompted talk among EU diplomats that a deal to unblock talks on future trade relations could be in the making ahead of a crunch Brussels summit in three weeks. At a meeting on Monday, May s Brexit committee - made up of some of her top ministers - backed the long-held strategy that Britain would honor commitments made when it was a member of the European Union. But the government will only offer any specifics when the bloc s negotiators give a commitment that talks will move to a discussion of the future relationship.  We are ready to move onto phase two, to see those talks about a deep and special partnership with the EU for the future, a comprehensive trade agreement with the EU,  May said on Tuesday.  I think that s in the interests of the UK and in the interests of the remaining EU-27. I think it s also important that the UK and the EU step forward together,  she added, a turn of phrase a source said expressed her desire for coordination. In public, Brussels is standing firm on the need for Britain to first make clear not a concrete  euros and cents  offer but a commitment to pay a share of EU spending for some items after Brexit - one of three key conditions the EU has set for opening trade talks. Asked if the EU was ready to give a promise to start those talks as soon as London offers more money, European Commission deputy head Frans Timmermans told CNN:  I hear them saying that. But as far as the EU27 is concerned, ... if we tackle the three issues ... if we deal with that satisfactorily, we can move to the next stage. And that s been crystal clear since Day One.  Nonetheless, EU negotiators are willing to help May with at least the appearance of cutting a deal. They could help  fudge  the amount of cash being handed over. And the EU already has an outline of a transition and free trade accord, which May could point to as something she had secured in exchange.  We are ready to present the exit bill in a way that would make it easier for the Brits to sell at home,  one diplomat said. He added that EU officials had looked at whether Britain might forgo its roughly 50-percent rebate on EU budget payments during a two-year transition period after Brexit, so reducing the gross amount Britain would otherwise hand over in advance. With only 16 months until Britain leaves the bloc, May is under increasing pressure not only from EU officials to move on the money, but also by businesses to provide certainty by early next year so they can make investment decisions. But she has a tightrope to walk.  Many in her governing Conservative Party want Britain to quit the talks, feeling the EU is holding the country hostage over money, which they want to spend at home rather than abroad. Her spokesman said no figures were discussed at Monday s meeting and other ministers gave no details of what was discussed.  Local media reported that she could increase the sum to 40 billion pounds ($53 billion), more than double the initial estimated offer of 20 billion euros ($23.5 billion). The Commission has cited a figure of 60 billion euros but EU officials have long said that is up for negotiation. For many in May s own party, however, the suggestion of any increase in how much Britain will pay at a time when talks had failed to move forward for five months was unpalatable.  I need to be able to look my voters in the eye and be able to say that I have backed a deal that is in the interests of Britain,  Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen told Reuters.  If I can t do that, I will vote against a deal and we will go to WTO rules of trade, rules with which we already trade with most of the world successfully.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के बातचीत को आगे बढ़ाने के लिए सहमत होने पर ब्रिटेन ब्रेक्सिट विधेयक का विवरण देगा


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European leaders agreed on Thursday to explore cuts in EU funds to Turkey that are linked to Ankara s stalled bid to join the bloc after German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed for action in response to what she described as  unacceptable  Turkish behavior on human rights. While praising Turkey for taking in Syrian refugees, Merkel stuck with the tougher tone she adopted during her reelection campaign last month, although she stopped short of calling for an outright end to Ankara s decade-long push to join the bloc.  We asked the Commission to make recommendations on changing and reducing the pre-accession aid,  Merkel told reporters after the first day of an EU summit.  There is no majority for breaking off the talks immediately. On the other hand there is a great deal of scepticism about the current situation. I made the case tonight that we should seek dialogue with Turkey.  Earlier she said that the rule of law in Turkey was  moving in the wrong direction , in a reference to the large-scale purge that President Tayyip Erdogan has carried out following a failed coup attempt in July 2016. Other countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium, backed a diversion of the funds that EU candidate countries receive while they are in talks to join the bloc.  Everyone knows that those negotiations are de facto frozen, are de facto almost dead,  Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told a news conference. Launched in 2005 after decades of seeking the formal start of an EU membership bid, Ankara s membership negotiations were always sensitive for France and Germany because of Turkey s status as a large, mainly Muslim country. But the scope of Erdogan s response to last year s coup attempt, his detention of U.S. and European citizens including dual nationals, and his jibes at Germany and the Netherlands for what he has called  Nazi-like  behavior. Aside from money that the EU gives Turkey as part of its  2016 migration deal, Ankara is set to receive 4.4 billion euros from the EU between 2014 and 2020. Some northern countries say aid meant to help Turkey reform politically now makes no sense because Ankara has cracked down so dramatically after the failed coup. With 50,000 people jailed pending trial, including German-Turkish nationals, EU membership also looks more distant than ever, EU officials say. Turkey is set to receive almost 500 million euros next year for the EU s common budget and European governments are discussing how much to limit that while not hitting projects such as infrastructure and agriculture. The European Parliament has proposed reducing the transfer by 50 million euros next year, with another 30 million euros set aside for further cuts should the relationship with Turkey deteriorate even more. A vote is expected on Wednesday.  Providing Turkey money for political reforms does not make sense given the situation,  said Siegfried Muresan, a center-right EU lawmaker who is leading EU budget in the parliament. However, EU governments are divided, with Poland, Britain and Sweden maintaining their strong support for Turkey s EU membership and countries such as Austria demanding not just a freeze to accession funds but an end to membership talks.

Summary: मर्केल ने तुर्की की यूरोपीय संघ की बोली के लिए धन में कटौती करने के लिए सहयोगियों पर दबाव डाला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump reveled in the biggest political victory of his presidency at a White House ceremony on Monday in which his Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch was sworn in, poised to make an instant impact on a court once again dominated by conservatives. Trump was able to fulfill a top campaign promise when the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted to confirm the conservative Colorado-based federal appeals court judge to the lifetime job on Friday despite vehement Democratic opposition. With Gorsuch aboard, the court has five conservative justices and four liberals, a majority that could be pivotal in deciding a range of issues including abortion, gun control, the death penalty, presidential powers, political spending, environmental regulation and religious rights.  Standing in the White House Rose Garden under bright sunshine on a warm spring day, Trump tied the occasion to the political aims of his administration, as the eight other members of the nation’s highest court looked on. “Together we are in a process of reviewing and renewing and also rebuilding our country,” Trump told an audience that included conservative activists and administration officials. “A new optimism is sweeping across our land and a new faith in America is filling our hearts and lifting our sights.” Gorsuch filled a vacancy that had lingered for nearly 14 months after conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s February 2016 death. Gorsuch’s judicial oath was administered by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch worked as a clerk as a young lawyer. Gorsuch becomes the first justice to serve alongside a former boss. Trump made a point of thanking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for his role in winning confirmation. McConnell last week led the effort to change long-standing Senate rules in order to end a Democratic blockade of Gorsuch’s nomination. Under McConnell’s leadership, the Senate last year refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to replace Scalia, an appointment that would have tilted the court to the left for the first time in decades. “I’ve always heard that the most important thing that a president of the United States does is appoint people, hopefully great people like this appointment, to the United States Supreme Court,” Trump said. “He will decide cases not based on his personal preferences but based on a fair and objective reading of the law,” Trump said of Gorsuch. During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump pledged to pick a justice who would overturn the landmark 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Gorsuch declined to answer about whether Roe v. Wade and other important court precedents were properly decided. “To the American people, I am humbled by the trust placed in me today,” Gorsuch said, with his wife Louise and the Republican president standing behind him. “I will never forget that to whom much is given, much will be expected. And I promise you that I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great nation.” Those attending included liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who called Trump “a faker” during the presidential campaign but later said she regretted the remark. Trump at the time called for her resignation, saying her “mind is shot.”  Scalia’s widow, Maureen, also attended. Gorsuch earlier in the day took his separate constitutional oath, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court with the other justices. Gorsuch, 49, could serve for decades. Trump may be able to make further appointments to make the court even more solidly conservative, with three justices 78 or older: Ginsburg, 84; fellow liberal Stephen Breyer, 78; and conservative swing vote Kennedy, 80. Gorsuch will take part in the court’s next round of oral arguments, starting on April 17. They include a religious rights case on April 19 in which a Missouri church is objecting to being denied state funds for a playground project due to a state ban on providing public money to religious organizations. Gorsuch can be expected to have an immediate impact on the court. He takes part on Thursday in the justices’ private conference to decide which cases to take up. Among cases up for discussion is one in which gun activists are seeking to expand gun rights to include carrying concealed firearms in public. Another is a bid to reinstate Republican-backed North Carolina voting restrictions that a lower court found were intended to suppress black voter turnout. A third concerns whether a Christian bakery owner can object on religious grounds to making a cake for a gay couple.  With Gorsuch sworn in, his new colleagues could decide to hear new arguments in their next term, starting in October, in cases argued during their current term in which they may have been split 4-4 and did not yet decide.

Summary: ट्रम्प द्वारा चुने गए गोरसच ने शपथ ली, शीर्ष अदालत के रूढ़िवादी झुकाव को बहाल किया


BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Europe must focus on preserving the free movement of EU citizens as its leaders make plans to overhaul the bloc. Orban, a fierce critic of perceived bureaucratic over-reach from the European Union, said proposals to tighten labor rules and internal border controls jeopardize significant achievements in the European project.  While we make grand plans about the future of Europe the Schengen system (of border-free movement within the EU) is crumbling away in our hands,  he told state radio.  We have free movement of labor and we (some EU leaders) plan to restrict it.

Summary: हंगरी के प्रधानमंत्री ने यूरोपीय संघ के नागरिकों के लिए मुक्त आवाजाही के खिलाफ चेतावनी दी


BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese diplomat said on Friday China has made its best efforts to resolve issues on the Korean peninsula, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump s state visit to Beijing next week when he is expected to press China to do more on North Korea. Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said the North Korean nuclear issue would be an important topic up for discussion at the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump. China firmly opposes conflict on the Korean peninsula and believes using force is not the correct way to resolve the issue, Zheng told reporters at a briefing in Beijing. China and the United States have a shared interest in peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, Zheng said.

Summary: चीन का कहना है कि उसने ट्रम्प की यात्रा से पहले उत्तर कोरिया पर सबसे अच्छा प्रयास किया है


MARFA, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s cause of death will not be officially determined for several days, the top official in the Texas county where Scalia died during a hunting trip said on Sunday. Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara said in an interview that she had misspoken when she told local television station  WFAA-TV that Scalia’s death certificate would list the cause of death as a heart attack. (This story corrects spelling of city in dateline to “Marfa,” not “Martha”)

Summary: सुप्रीम कोर्ट के जस्टिस स्कैलिया की मौत के कारण पर फैसला आने में कुछ दिन लग सकते हैंः जज


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A leading European rights watchdog called on Turkey on Friday to ease post-coup state of emergency laws that have seen thousands arrested and restore power to regional authorities. President Tayyip Erdogan has overseen a mass purge in the armed forces and the judiciary, as well as a crackdown on critics including academics and journalists since a failed military coup in July last year.  An advisory body to the Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member, acknowledged in a report  the need for certain extraordinary steps taken by Turkish authorities to face a dangerous armed conspiracy .  However...Turkish authorities have interpreted these extraordinary powers too extensively,  said the experts, known as the Venice Commission, in an opinion that has no legal force. It urged Ankara to lift laws allowing it to pick mayors, deputy mayors and members of local councils outside of local elections, a reference to rules the Turkish government has used to replace local pro-Kurdish politicians across the largely Kurdish southeast of the country. The experts at the Council of Europe, Europe s leading human rights organization with 47 member states, recommended Turkey set a time limit on the emergency rules and ensure proper judicial oversight of any counter-terrorism measures. Erdogan has accused U.S.-based, Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the coup, in which 250 people were killed. Gulen has denied involvement.  Since then, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial over links to Gulen, while 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors. Rights groups and Turkey s Western allies - including the European Union - have been taken aback by the scale of the purge, sounding alarm that Erdogan was using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent. The government in Turkey, a NATO member, says it must neutralize the threat represented by Gulen s network deeply rooted in the army, schools and courts.

Summary: यूरोप के अधिकार प्रहरी का कहना है कि तुर्की के आपातकालीन कानून बहुत आगे जाते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI and U.S. Justice Department are investigating possible U.S. ties to alleged corruption involving the former president of Ukraine, including the work of firms headed by political operatives Paul Manafort and Tony Podesta, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple U.S. law enforcement officials. The broad-based investigation was looking into whether U.S. companies and the financial system were used to enable corruption by the party of former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, CNN said. A person who answered a telephone number for Manafort said Manafort was not available for comment. The person, who said he was an associate of Manafort and who gave his name only as David, referred queries to a lawyer in Washington, who did not immediately respond to a phone call and an email. In response to a report in the New York Times on Monday, Manafort denied any impropriety in a statement. “I have never received a single ‘off-the-books cash payment’ as falsely ‘reported’ by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia,” he said. The New York Times reported that he had received cash payments worth more than $12 million over five years that were itemized on secret ledgers belonging to Yanukovich’s Party of Regions. Manafort, who resigned as chairman of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday, had not been the focus of the probe, CNN said, citing the officials. The probe was looking at the work of other firms linked to the former Ukrainian government, including the Podesta Group, a lobbying and public relations company headed by Tony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta is chairman of the campaign to elect Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Manafort’s attorney Richard Hibey did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment, CNN reported. The Podesta Group has hired an independent legal firm to investigate whether it had been misled by the Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a not-for-profit group linked to the ousted Ukrainian government, a spokeswoman for the group said in a statement. The Justice Department, asked to comment on the report, said it remained “committed to helping recover stolen assets on behalf of the people of Ukraine.”  Investigators in Ukraine have said Yanukovych and his party engaged in widespread corruption. He fled to Russia following a popular uprising in 2014.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. यूक्रेन के पूर्व राष्ट्रपति के भ्रष्टाचार से संभावित अमेरिकी संबंधों की जांच कर रहा हैः सी. एन. एन.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump, who insulted rivals during his 2016 campaign with nicknames such as “Crooked Hillary” and “Little Marco,” has a new nemesis: U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, a man he derides as a “clown.” The rhetorical banter that erupted between the two New Yorkers this week centered on a fight over Republican plans to dismantle Obamacare, an effort that Trump has put at the top of his domestic agenda. Just two weeks before he is to be sworn in as the 45th U.S. president, Trump has taken to Twitter to denigrate the hard-charging senator, someone he feted at a fundraiser in 2008 for Democratic senators at the real estate magnate’s posh Florida oceanside estate. Schumer, whose Democrats are in the minority in the Senate but still have enough muscle to potentially block some of Trump’s legislative initiatives, clashed with the president-elect as Republicans this week took the first steps to try to gut President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law known as Obamacare. Schumer used Trump’s “Make America Great” campaign slogan to mock the Republican repeal effort, saying it would “make America sick again.” On Twitter, Trump shot back that Democrats were to blame for what he called the “failed Obamacare disaster.” He added: “Don’t let the Schumer clowns out of this web.” On Thursday, Trump wrote on Twitter that Democrats were being led by “head clown Chuck Schumer.” That prompted the Senate Democratic leader to say that Trump should stop wasting his time calling people names and instead “roll up his sleeves” and come up with a workable substitute for Obamacare. At campaign rallies last year, Trump attacks on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as “Crooked Hillary” stirred enthusiasm among his supporters who chanted “lock her up.” During the heated primary campaign season, Trump swatted at rival Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio with cries of “Lyin’ Ted,” “low-energy” Bush and “Little Marco.” The mocking may have been unorthodox, but it proved part of a winning formula, sweeping Trump’s opponents off the stage. Matthew Green, a Catholic University political science professor, said Trump is tangling with a different kind of opponent in Schumer. “He can name-call Democratic leaders in Congress, but he can’t get rid of them. They still occupy the legislative branch,” Green said. On the other hand, engaging with Trump carries risks for Schumer, who undoubtedly will feel pressure from the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party if he cuts deals, especially given the ire Trump stirs among millions of Democratic voters. Trump has outlined an ambitious legislative agenda including overhauling the tax code, a $1 trillion infrastructure investment program and renegotiating major trade deals, while also pumping up U.S. defense spending. Thomas Quinn, a Democratic activist and long-time Washington lobbyist, said Trump was fortunate to have Schumer as the top Democrat in the Senate, because, like Trump, the senator likes to cut deals and is a somewhat moderate Democrat. In some ways, Schumer is tailor-made for Trump. Both are bold New Yorkers expert at capturing media attention. However, their paths have rarely crossed until now.       Tony Sayegh, a New York-based Republican campaign strategist whose Jamestown Associates firm did work for Trump, warned that unless Democrats cooperate with Trump, he will use his bully pulpit to win public support. “Can you picture Air Force One landing in Indiana, in Montana, in western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, central Michigan, and northern Wisconsin, and Donald Trump walks out and gets crowds these politicians could never dream of getting?”

Summary: डेमोक्रेटिक नेता शूमर ट्रम्प के नए पंचिंग बैग के रूप में उभरे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday it believed that Saudi Arabia would allow a blocked port in Yemen to open after President Donald Trump urged Riyadh to lift a blockade to let humanitarian aid reach the Yemeni people. The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Iran-aligned armed Houthi movement in Yemen s civil war started blockading ports a month ago after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired toward its capital Riyadh from Yemen. Although the blockade later eased, Yemen s situation remains dire. About 8 million people are on the brink of famine with outbreaks of cholera and diphtheria. Yemen s population of 27 million is almost entirely reliant on imports for food, fuel and medicine.  I believe there are actions that are taking place for a port to open and we ll keep you posted as those details become more available,  White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. Trump called for Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to  completely allow food, fuel, water, and medicine to reach the Yemeni people , suggesting Washington had run out patience with the blockade that has been condemned by relief organizations.  Progress has not been seen yet, but we hope that advocacy and those strong messages will open up the port from being a partially open port to being a fully open port,  Jamie McGoldrick, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, told reporters in New York.  McGoldrick said there were 15 ships, carrying mainly food and fuel, waiting to enter the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah and Salif. Around 80 percent of Yemen s food imports arrive through Hodeidah.  They need to come onshore now,  said McGoldrick, speaking via telephone from Sanaa.  There are some boats which are offshore which have been cleared by Riyadh already ... We see no reason why they should not be able to come onshore now.  A Reuters analysis of port and ship tracking data has shown that no fuel shipments have reached Yemen s largest port for a month.  What we have got right now is food trickling in to Yemen through the various ports, but we can t get it to the people without the fuel,  McGoldrick said.  Yemen s humanitarian response needs millions of liters of fuel a month to keep hospital generators running, transport food and to pump water.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का मानना है कि सऊदी अरब यमन बंदरगाह खोलेगा


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will build four coast guard radar stations on islands in the Sulu Celebes Seas separating the Philippines and Indonesia to help Manila counter a surge in piracy by Islamic insurgents, two sources said. An agreement to fund the facilities and provide training to local coast guard personnel may be signed as early next week by Japanese Prime Minister and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila, the sources said.  The seas in that area are an important waterway for merchant ships traveling to Japanese ports,  one of the people with knowledge of the plan said. The sources asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to talk to the media. Of 30 acts of piracy reported in the first half of 2017 six involved the use of guns, of which three were crew abductions from ships underway in the Sulu Celebes Seas, according to the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP). Four attempted abductions in the waters were also logged. Japan will fund construction of the radar stations through its Overseas Development Aid (ODA) budget, the sources said.  Japan is aware of the need to counter piracy in the region and is keen to help, but we can t discuss individual projects,  said an official at Japan s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which overseas ODA spending. The radar stations are part of a wider aid package that include helicopter parts for the Philippines military, financing for infrastructure projects such as rail lines and help to rebuild conflict-torn southern Marawi city after five months of military operations against Islamic State rebels. By providing such aid Tokyo is aiming to deepen economic and security ties with Manila as it looks to contain China s growing power. Japan sees the Philippines, which lies on the eastern side of the South China Sea, as a key ally in helping prevent Beijing s influence spreading into the western Pacific.  Abe will travel to the Philippines on Monday following a two day gathering of regional leaders at an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Vietnam.

Summary: समुद्री डकैती का मुकाबला करने के लिए जापान फिलीपींस के लिए चार रडार स्टेशन बनाएगाः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan made a trip to the White House on Friday to meet with President Donald Trump as the healthcare legislation was being hotly debated on Capitol Hill, its fate uncertain.  A White House official said Ryan and Trump would discuss Republican efforts to get enough votes to secure passage of the bill that aims to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Summary: स्वास्थ्य सेवा पर मतदान से पहले सदन के अध्यक्ष ने व्हाइट हाउस का दौरा किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to nominate a top economic aide, Kenneth Juster, as the next U.S. ambassador to India, two senior White House officials said on Friday. Juster is a top deputy on the White House National Economic Council. He is a familiar face among Indian officials, having chaired the U.S.-India High Technology Cooperation Group when Republican George W. Bush was president. Trump is to play host to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Monday.

Summary: ट्रम्प के सहयोगी जस्टर को भारत में अमेरिकी राजदूत के रूप में नामित किया जाएगाः अधिकारी


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican delegation met U.S. military officials in southern Mexico on Tuesday to discuss security initiatives, sources said on Wednesday, as the two countries try to find common ground in tough negotiations over trade, security and immigration.  The relationship between the United States and Mexico has become strained after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to build a wall between the two countries to keep out illegal immigrants, drug dealers and criminals and make Mexico pay for it. Lori Robinson, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, and Kurt Tidd, head of the Southern U.S. Command, attended the talks, two people familiar with the matter said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity so they could discuss the meeting. It was one of the first known meetings between U.S. and Mexican officials since Trump became president in January, after threatening to upend years of cooperation between the two neighbors with divisive rhetoric on trade and security. One of the sources said the talks focused on Mexico’s commitment to securing its southern border to keep out criminals and illegal immigrants. The source said that U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson also attended. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray was not present. A third source said Socorro Flores, deputy minister for Latin America and the Caribbean, represented Mexico at the meeting. U.S. Northern Command spokesman Michael Kucharek confirmed Robinson and Tidd visited Mexico on Tuesday as part of “continued coordination in partner nation security,” adding that the two also went to Honduras and Guatemala. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Mexico City said: “The southern border visit has been planned for months and gave U.S. authorities a chance to learn first-hand about the challenges Mexico faces in protecting its borders.” The spokesman did not provide further details. Mexico denied media reports on Wednesday suggesting that Trump, on a recent call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, had threatened to send U.S. troops into Mexico if the country did not step up efforts against its drug cartels.  CNN later published what it said was the real transcript from the call, showing Trump taking a more measured stance, and offering U.S. help to combat Mexico’s “tough hombres.”  Mexico’s presidential spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, was not immediately able to comment on CNN’s report but said “it sounded more logical.”   A summit between Trump and Pena Nieto that had been planned for January was canceled after Trump tweeted that it would be better for the Mexican leader not to come to the summit if Mexico would not pay for the wall. Pena Nieto canceled. Trump has threatened to levy a hefty tax on imports from Mexico to the United States.  Mexico said on Wednesday it expected to begin formal talks on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement from around the beginning of May.

Summary: अमेरिका, मैक्सिकन अधिकारी सुरक्षा पर साझा आधार खोजने की कोशिश करते हैंः सूत्र


LONDON (Reuters) - Once seen as an opportunity for investors to position themselves for a future North Korean turnaround, the country’s rarely traded defaulted debt may move further into the twilight zone after new sanctions were imposed this week on Pyongyang. Debt from North Korea - probably the most isolated of the frontier markets - has already been frozen for years as the secretive nation faces the most stringent sanctions regime in the world.  It is part of a highly opaque market in the legacy debts of countries isolated from the rest of the international community, such as pre-Castro Cuban debt. North Korea has syndicated loans with a face value of around $1 billion, tied to loans in default since the 1980s. It has not undertaken any restructuring with its creditors.  The debt was repackaged in 1997 into a special vehicle  called NK Debt Corporation by French bank BNP, making it into transferable securities.   Total debt accumulated by borrowing heavily from Western banks back in the 1970s - including principal and accumulated interest - amounted to about $3 billion, Washington DC-based think-tank Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated in 2013.  The securities had been regularly traded since around 2000, according to Stuart Culverhouse, head of research at Exotix Capital.  Prices spurted higher after the death of President Kim Jong-il in 2011 on hopes that his son Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s new Swiss-educated leader, would make progress with the international community and open up the economy.  That pushed prices to 14-18 cents on the dollar, up from 13-15 but investors’ hopes were soon dashed. Culverhouse was unable to say what price the securities could now trade at.   “There was a market, but it essentially got frozen at the beginning of 2013 after the United Nations and other sanctions were imposed, which people felt restricted trading in the notes,” he said. Exotix, a specialist in emerging and frontier debt, has not seen the loans trade in the past three to four years, Culverhouse said. This week’s developments will further dishearten holders of the debt. A war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim has raised fears of a nuclear standoff, while the U.N. Security Council imposed fresh sanctions on Saturday after Pyongyang’s intercontinental ballistic missile tests.  These curbs ban North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, and seafood, and could slash the Asian state’s $3 billion annual export revenue by a third. “A lot of people have taken a view that it is just not worth it, they won’t trade,” Culverhouse said. It is not just the more specialized distressed debt traders who once took a shine to North Korean debt: One of the holders of NK Debt Corporation’s notes is the Franklin Emerging Markets Debt Opportunities Fund. According to the fund’s annual report in July 2016, it held NK Debt Corporation’s zero-coupon bonds with a principal amount of $15.5 million and maturing in March 2020. It did not ascribe a value to the position. But in its July 2013 annual report, the fund had valued the debt, which was denominated in German marks and Swiss francs, at $830,000. It said it had acquired the securities between 2007 and 2011 for more than $3.1 million. The asset manager declined to comment. North Korea is only the latest frontier market to be moving further out of reach of investors desperate to expand into new high-return markets. Excitement over investment in Cuba for instance has gone tepid after Trump ordered a clampdown on U.S. business dealings with the Caribbean island’s military, saying he was cancelling his predecessor Barack Obama’s “terrible and misguided deal” with Havana. Investing in Iran too has proven a long slog, despite optimism after Tehran’s 2015 deal with six major powers to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of oil bans and most financial sanctions. “Nothing is going to happen with these (North Korean) issues for a long, long time,” said Charles Blitzer, a debt restructuring expert and former IMF staffer. Blitzer estimates that interest arrears on North Korean debt amount to around 4-5 times the outstanding $1 billion principal.   “North Korea is like Cuba in spades - they have similar ratios of principal to arrears and have not yet indicated much interest in dealing with the London Club,” said Blitzer, referring to debt owed to the private sector.

Summary: परमाणु गतिरोध के बीच, प्रतिबंधों के कारण जमे हुए N.Korea ऋण का व्यापार नहीं किया जा सकता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Democratic Senator said on Tuesday he wants answers from top Justice Department officials about why a career prosecutor was asked to resign days before a special counsel unveiled the first criminal charges in an investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election. Dana Boente was asked to quit in late October as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, whose district has played an important role in the investigation. Just days later, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators charged President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and another aide, Rick Gates, with conspiring to launder money and other charges. It was also announced on Oct. 30 that a third former Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty earlier in the month to a charge of lying to the FBI. U.S. Senator Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was writing to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to ask if Boente’s departure was “normal or justified.” “I’m concerned about the abrupt departure of Dana Boente after a career as a federal prosecutor ... There’s a lot of circumstances that connect the ongoing Mueller investigation to the Eastern District,” Coons said in an interview.  A Department of Justice spokesman said the agency does not comment on personnel matters. Boente could not immediately be reached for comment. Investigations into whether Republican Trump’s campaign associates colluded with Russia last year to help him defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the presidency arose after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Russia carried out a campaign of hacking and propaganda to interfere in the election. Russia has repeatedly denied meddling allegations and Trump has denied any collusion. A Justice Department veteran, Boente has stepped in to help stabilize the law enforcement agency in frequent periods of turmoil during the first year of the Trump administration. Boente has also been temporarily serving as the acting assistant attorney general for the department’s National Security Division. He previously was acting attorney general after Trump fired the prosecutor in that post, Sally Yates. After that, Boente also briefly was acting deputy attorney general. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Sessions, a former Alabama Republican senator and close Trump ally, asked Boente to tender his resignation in late October. Boente will step down as head of the National Security Division once Trump’s nominee John Demers is confirmed by the Senate. After that, Boente will continue as head of the Eastern District in Alexandria, Virginia, until he is replaced. Trump has not yet nominated anyone for that post.  The Eastern District post is the fourth most powerful position in the department’s line of succession. A judge in the district approved the search warrant for the Alexandria, Virginia home of former Trump campaign manager  Manafort in July. A grand jury in the district earlier this year became part of Mueller’s probe of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is under scrutiny for his work as a lobbyist for a Turkish businessman.

Summary: सीनेटर ने अमेरिकी अभियोजक के अचानक इस्तीफे के लिए स्पष्टीकरण मांगा


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s foreign minister Boris Johnson is expected to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday to discuss bilateral and regional issues, a UK Foreign Office official said on Saturday. Johnson held talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and other officials in Tehran on Saturday, where he stressed Britain s support for Iran s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and raised concerns about dual national consular cases between the countries.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के विदेश मंत्री रविवार को ईरान के राष्ट्रपति से मिलेंगेः ब्रिटेन का विदेश कार्यालय


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday China had  graciously  agreed at a summit of Asian nations to start negotiations towards a code of conduct in the South China Sea, and would abide by whatever was decided. Duterte said China had also agreed that access to waterways and airspace in the South China Sea would be  unbridled  and  unfettered . He also said North Korea s missile tests were a concern to every leader at the Manila summit meetings and people should pray that there was no conflict on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang, he said, was  toying  with bombs.

Summary: फिलीपींस के राष्ट्रपति ने कहा कि चीन दक्षिण चीन सागर संहिता पर काम करने के लिए सहमत है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bombers struck Islamic State targets near the town of Albu Kamal in Syria on Saturday, RIA news agency reported, citing Russia s Defence Ministry. Command centers and weapon depots were among the targets hit by the bombers which flew over Iran and Iraq.

Summary: रूसी बमवर्षकों ने सीरिया में इस्लामिक स्टेट के ठिकानों पर हमला कियाः आर. आई. ए.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. District Court judge ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday to turn over any potential evidence that could be material for when he sentences President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Flynn pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation during his interview in Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia. Flynn has agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation. Moscow has denied interfering in the election and Trump has denied any collusion. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan told the government in a filing to turn over any exculpatory evidence, known as “Brady” material, that could potentially help Flynn’s defense or information that is “material either to the defendant’s guilt or punishment.” The order by the judge is considered routine, and the government by law is required to turn over such information to the defense if it exists. A sentencing date has not been set, but a status report ahead of sentencing is due by Feb 1.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीश ने विशेष वकील को माइकल फ्लिन पर सबूत पेश करने का आदेश दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump urged a boycott of CNN on Wednesday, ramping up his fight against the television network as his administration fights AT&T Inc’s deal to buy CNN’s owner Time Warner Inc. Trump has criticized the proposed deal, which the Justice Department has sued to stop. Legal experts have said the president’s attacks on CNN could hobble his administration’s case. The president, who regularly assails mainstream media, has long criticized CNN, calling the network “fake news” and saying he no longer watches it, while lauding rival Fox News. His call for a boycott appeared to be a step up in his attacks. “Great, and we should boycott Fake News CNN. Dealing with them is a total waste of time!,” Trump wrote in a Twitter post. Trump was responding to a post by his spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, who in her own post on Tuesday night praised reports      that CNN would not attend an annual holiday party held at the White House for news media.  It was not immediately clear if Trump in his post was calling for a wider boycott against CNN or one by White House staff. Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Representatives for CNN also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s tweet on Wednesday. A CNN spokesperson told Politico that it would not attend the party “in light of the President’s continued attacks on freedom of the press and CNN” but would send a reporting crew to cover the event, Politico reported on Tuesday. The network and its journalists have repeatedly defended CNN’s work against previous presidential attacks.  The Department of Justice’s challenge is unusual move given that pay TV and wireless company AT&T does not directly compete with TV show maker Time Warner. The department has said the lawsuit is a law enforcement decision, not a political one.

Summary: ट्रंप ने टेलीविजन नेटवर्क सीएनएन के बहिष्कार का आह्वान कियाः ट्वीट


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government has dismissed a call from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for Iranian-backed paramilitary units that helped Baghdad defeat Islamic State to end operations in Iraq. Speaking after a meeting on Sunday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Saudi Arabia s King Salman, Tillerson said it was time for the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation forces and their Iranian advisers to  go home . Washington, which backed Baghdad against Islamic State, is concerned Iran will use its expanded presence in Iraq and in Syria to expand its influence in the region.   But Abadi showed unwillingness to meet Tillerson s demand.  No party has the right to interfere in Iraqi matters,  the statement from his office read. It did not cite the prime minister himself but a  source  close to him. Trained and armed by Iran, the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation forces often supported Iraqi government units in the fight against the militants who were effectively defeated in July when a U.S.-backed offensive captured their stronghold Mosul. They are paid by the Iraqi government and officially report to the prime minister, but some Arab Sunni and Kurdish politicians describe these militias as a de facto branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp. Iraq s Sunni neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, share Washington s concerns over Shi ite power Iran s influence in Iraq, where the population is also predominantly Shi ite. But the office of Abadi, himself a Shi ite, said the forces were under the authority of the Iraqi government.  Popular Mobilisation are Iraqi patriots,  it said in the statement. The United States trained tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers in the course of rebuilding the Iraqi armed forces and has over 5,000 troops deployed in the country, providing key air and ground support to the offensive on Islamic State.

Summary: इराक ने ईरानी समर्थित मिलिशिया के 'घर जाने' के अमेरिकी आह्वान को खारिज किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said on Friday that Mexico’s peso was reacting with volatility to “tension” in NAFTA talks, but Mexico wanted to reach a consensus to modernize the trade pact to benefit all three member countries. Meade, speaking on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington, said that Mexico was benefiting from a flexible and liquid exchange rate. The peso was hovering near a five-month low on Friday. “The main scenario that we’re working on is that there is scope in the negotiation of the agreement for a consensus that benefits the three countries. That’s what’s driving us in a negotiation we’re taking part in good faith,” Meade said.

Summary: मेक्सिको तनाव के बावजूद नाफ्टा पर सर्वसम्मति चाहता हैः वित्त मंत्री


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois’ first full-year budget since 2015 became law on Thursday after the House of Representatives overrode the governor’s vetoes of a $36 billion fiscal 2018 spending plan and a companion measure that implements it. The House’s actions followed the Senate’s successful override votes on Tuesday.

Summary: इलिनोइस हाउस ने वित्त वर्ष 2018 का बजट लागू किया, जिससे रिकॉर्ड गतिरोध समाप्त हुआ


(Reuters) - Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing four current and former U.S. officials. U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said, according to the Times. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election, the newspaper said. The officials interviewed in recent weeks said they had seen no evidence of such cooperation so far, it said. However, the intercepts alarmed U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Trump was speaking glowingly about Russian President Vladimir Putin. The intercepted calls are different from the wiretapped conversations last year between Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and Sergei I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, the Times said. During those calls, the two men discussed sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russia in December. Flynn misled the White House about those calls and was asked to resign on Monday night.  The White House did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment on the Times story. The Times reported that the officials said the intercepted communications were not limited to Trump campaign officials, and included other Trump associates. On the Russian side, the contacts also included members of the Russian government outside the intelligence services, the officials told the Times. All of the current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the continuing investigation is classified, the newspaper reported. The officials said one of the advisers picked up on the calls was Paul Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign chairman for several months last year and had worked as a political consultant in Russia and Ukraine, the Times said. The officials declined to identify the other Trump associates on the calls. Manafort, who has not been charged with any crimes, dismissed the accounts of the U.S. officials in a telephone interview with the Times on Tuesday. Several of Trump’s associates, like Manafort, have done business in Russia. It is not unusual for U.S. businessmen to come in contact with foreign intelligence officials, sometimes unwittingly, in countries like Russia and Ukraine, where the spy services are deeply embedded in society, according to the Times. Law enforcement officials did not say to what extent the contacts may have been about business, the Times said. Officials would not disclose many details, including what was discussed on the calls, which Russian intelligence officials were on the calls, and how many of Trump’s advisers were talking to the Russians. It is also unclear whether the conversations had anything to do with Trump himself, the Times said.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स का कहना है कि ट्रम्प अभियान ने रूसी खुफिया के साथ बार-बार संपर्क किया था


BERLIN (Reuters) - A German federal judge issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday against a 19-year-old Syrian man detained on suspicion of planning a bombing attack, the Public Prosecutor s Office (GBA) said in a statement. Police detained the man, identified only as Yamen A. under German privacy laws, on Tuesday and prosecutors said they believe he had planned an Islamist-motivated bomb attack with the aim of killing as many people as possible. He had been in contact online with jihadists including one who described himself as a  soldier of the caliphate , a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor s office said. Yamen A. was arrested in the northeastern town of Schwerin. Police searched his home and also those of other people not suspected of being directly involved. The arrest comes one month before the first anniversary of an attack in Berlin by a failed Tunisian asylum seeker who killed 12 people by plowing a truck into a Christmas market. Concrete blocks have been installed around Christmas markets at several central squares in the capital this year before the festive season opens in a couple of weeks.

Summary: जर्मनी ने सीरियाई बम साजिश के संदिग्ध के खिलाफ गिरफ्तारी वारंट जारी किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday he would reject any attempt to draft him as a Republican presidential candidate, trying to quash speculation that he could surface as a unity choice should Donald Trump or Ted Cruz falter. “Let me be clear: I do not want nor will I accept the nomination of our party,” Ryan said in remarks at the Republican National Committee’s Washington headquarters. Ryan, the top elected Republican in Washington and the party’s 2012 vice presidential candidate, has been the subject of persistent speculation that he could emerge as the nominee if an impasse over the party’s pick develops at the July 18-21 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Ryan has repeatedly said he is not interested in entering the presidential race, but advocates for such a scenario have pointed out that he was cool to becoming House speaker until he was finally persuaded to take over from John Boehner last year. Some recent steps taken by Ryan generated a new round of political chatter, such as his release of a campaign-style video and a trip to Israel. Ryan, who will preside over the Cleveland convention, said his goal is to ensure there is integrity in the process. He said the 2016 nominee should be someone who has actually run this year and said he would urge delegates to pass a rule limiting the nomination only to actual candidates. “I should not be considered. Period. End of story,” he said. Still, Ryan offered his views on the state of the race, complaining that “insults get more ink than ideas” and that Republicans still owe it to the voters to show what they would do if given a mandate. “I believe that we can once again be an optimistic party that is defined by our belief in the limitless possibility of our people,” he said. Republicans who see a disaster looming in the Nov. 8 presidential election if Trump or U.S. Senator Cruz of Texas is the nominee have harbored hopes of drafting a popular party figure like Ryan or 2012 candidate Mitt Romney. For that to happen, no candidate would have won the 1,237 delegates required to win the nomination on the first ballot at the convention, and delegates would have to approve a consensus alternative on a second or subsequent ballot. The latest national Reuters/Ipsos poll said Trump still leads Cruz among Republican voters but that his advantage has been narrowed. Trump had 41 percent support to 35 percent for Cruz of 598 Republicans surveyed from April 8-12.     In the Democratic race, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont each had 48 percent support, according to responses from 719 Democrats polled. The two have been tied frequently since February. Ryan’s announcement could give some hope to long-shot Republican candidate John Kasich, who portrayed himself as an antidote to what he called the divisive politics of Trump and Cruz. In a speech in New York City, Kasich criticized his rivals as wanting to take the United States down a “path of darkness” and offered himself as a more optimistic alternative, with a week to go before New York state’s Republican and Democratic primaries on April 19. Kasich - running a distant third behind Trump and Cruz and with no chance of capturing the Republican nomination unless he can emerge from a contested convention - did not mention Trump and Cruz by name but left no doubt as to who he was talking about. “Some who feed off of the fears and anger that is felt by some of us and exploit it feed their own insatiable desire for fame or attention. That could drive America down into a ditch, not make us great again,” Kasich said, referring to Trump’s signature line. Trump is favored to win the April 19 primary in his home state. He holds a huge lead in opinion polls there, with Kasich running a distant second and Cruz in third place. A victory for Trump would help tamp down concerns among supporters that he is suddenly vulnerable after Cruz beat him in Wisconsin last week and won all Republican delegates in Colorado on Saturday. At a rally in Rome, New York, Trump blamed the Republican National Committee for setting up a system in which Colorado Republicans picked their delegates without letting people vote. “The rules are no good when you don’t have democracy,” he said, reiterating his allegation that the delegate selection process was “rigged.” Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told Fox News on Monday that the process for choosing delegates had been set by states for more than a year and was no secret. In some good news for Trump on Tuesday, he was formally declared the winner of Missouri’s Republican primary, which was held on March 15.

Summary: 2016 की राष्ट्रपति पद की दौड़ में रिपब्लिकन पॉल रयानः काउंट मी आउट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on Wednesday called out fellow Republican President Donald Trump, saying his remarks in the wake of last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, were dividing the nation and at odds with many Republicans’ views. “Your words are dividing Americans, not healing them,” Graham said in a statement. On Tuesday, Trump “took a step backward by again suggesting there is moral equivalency between the white supremacist neo-Nazis and KKK members who attended the Charlottesville rally and” others opposed to such groups.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर ग्राहम का कहना है कि ट्रम्प की नस्लीय टिप्पणी अमेरिका को विभाजित कर रही है


NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Obamacare was “exploding” after Republican lawmakers shelved legislation that would have dismantled the healthcare law.  That’s not going to happen this month. Probably not even this year. The more than 12 million people who bought 2017 health insurance plans on HealthCare.gov and other websites the law created are not in danger of losing their healthcare or having their premiums go up right now, experts say. But 2018 is another story. Republicans could choose to pass a budget that defunds Obamacare’s cost-sharing subsidies, which help low-income people cover out-of-pocket and other medical costs. But that would be highly unpopular among consumers who would likely blame the president and Congress for skyrocketing healthcare costs, experts said.  “That is one of the ways that is available to monkey wrench the Affordable Care Act,” said Morgan Tilleman, an associate with the law firm Foley & Lardner, who represents insurers. Obamacare, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature legislation created by the Affordable Care Act of 2010, has had a tough beginning. The mix of sick and healthy customers has been worse than expected, and premium rates on the individual insurance market went up 25 percent this year. Other parts of the law, like the expansion of Medicaid to enhance coverage for the poor, and changes to allow young people to stay on their parents’ health plans, have been popular. And the defeat of the bill is a win for the hospitals that have benefited from those increased Medicaid dollars. But many counties across the country have only one insurer, after Humana Inc, Aetna Inc and UnitedHealth Group Inc pulled out after reporting hundreds of millions of dollars of losses.      The insurers who are left, Anthem Inc and other BlueCross BlueShield insurers across the country, as well as smaller players like Centene Corp and Molina Healthcare Inc need to decide in the next few months where to sell insurance and how much to charge.  And that is where the market’s slow burn takes off, with insurers leaving and premiums rising. Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds who focuses on health care, said that for consumers, 2018 looks uncertain, with a “death spiral” of decreasing competition and increasing premium rates ramping up.  After the failed Republican effort to push through the bill, insurers are looking at changes to help 2018, America’s Health Insurance Plans spokeswoman Kristine Grow said. That includes the market’s cost-sharing subsidies as well as other government payments for sicker-than-usual customers and finalizing a rule the Trump administration proposed that addresses issues insurers say drives up costs.  The Trump administration could do some of that itself if it wants to, such as using its regulatory authority to adjust the formula for how it compensates insurers for the sickest people, Elizabeth Carpenter at healthcare consultancy and research firm Avalere Health said.  But it is unknown if the administration will try to work within the law’s existing framework or take actions to undermine it and blame the Democrats for its failure. “If they fail to act and they don’t act in an appropriate way, that will further destabilize the marketplace,” Dr. Mario Molina, CEO of Molina Healthcare, said. Molina’s enrollment ballooned to 1 million exchange enrollees this year and the company is weighing if it will submit plans for next year. The administration could also decide to not enforce the individual mandate, which requires that everyone purchase health insurance or pay a fine. It already took steps to erode that provision last month, when it backed off implementing tougher oversight that was due to go into effect for 2016 taxes. Experts said the individual mandate still cost less than purchasing insurance, but as it increases each year more young and healthy people would have incentive to join the healthcare market, helping to offset the cost of sicker patients.  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that 14 million more people would be uninsured under the Republican bill next year, with most of the increase coming from the repeal of the penalty associated with the individual mandate. It’s unclear what the Republicans will do. Trump said this bill had been shelved but that Republicans would end up with a “great” healthcare bill in the future, but for now that they are moving onto tax reform.  Until they do that, they will have to work within the 2010 Affordable Care Act. It can also undercut the healthcare law through regulatory authority at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Summary: ओबामाकेयर विस्फोट? शायद बस एक धीमी जलन


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli ex-soldier who serves as a spokesman for a group that documents alleged abuses of Palestinians has set off a legal tussle with the Israeli authorities by saying he himself beat a detainee. After Dean Issacharoff, a former army lieutenant, spoke of the incident in a speech uploaded to YouTube in April, the Israeli Justice Ministry took the unusual move of launching an investigation, with him as a suspect. Issacharoff, the son of a senior diplomat, belongs to Breaking the Silence, a circle of army veterans that has long angered Israeli leaders by publicising abroad what it says are   confessions of war crimes in occupied Palestinian territory. The group portrayed as another example of Israeli military excess Issacharoff s account of what he said was his own beating of a Palestinian stone-thrower in the West Bank town of Hebron while trying to handcuff him in 2014. But the Justice Ministry last week declared the case closed, saying questioning of the alleged Palestinian victim showed the event had never happened and that Issacharoff had made a  mendacious claim . On Twitter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the decision as  further proof Breaking the Silence lies and slanders our soldiers . Issacharoff retorted on social media that the ministry had questioned the wrong Palestinian - a man he had detained separately in Hebron around the same time. Breaking the Silence issued what it said was video of the right incident, showing Issacharoff frog-marching a handcuffed man. The Palestinian appears to have dark patches on his cheeks, which the group said were bruises from Issacharoff having kneed him. Issacharoff said he bloodied the Palestinian, though no blood is seen on the detainee in the footage. Achiya Schatz, another Breaking the Silence spokesman,  accused the Justice Ministry of clearing Issacharoff in order to discredit the group.  This was a politicised investigation, made-to-order for the elimination of opposition (voices),  Schatz said. Prosecutor Nurit Littman denied any bias and said  Issacharoff s testimony had been too sketchy to produce corroboration.  We do not dabble in politics. We deal in evidence,  she told Army Radio, leaving open the possibility of a new investigation taking into consideration the new video.  Interviewed on Israeli television, the Palestinian, Faisal al-Natsheh, said he had been detained though he had not thrown stones, and had been beaten by troops. He could not confirm Issacharoff was among them.  They didn t let me look at them, not even once,  he said.

Summary: फिलिस्तीनी लोगों के साथ कथित दुर्व्यवहार को लेकर इजरायली पूर्व सैनिक और सरकार के बीच झड़प


RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi women will be allowed to drive from the age of 18, a government spokesman said on Thursday, partially allaying speculation they could still face tighter controls than men when finally allowed behind the wheel. In a royal decree issued on Tuesday, King Salman ordered an end by next year of the ban on women drivers, a conservative tradition that has limited women s mobility and been seen by rights activists as an emblem of their suppression. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women from driving.  The decree stipulated that the move must  apply and adhere to the necessary sharia standards , referring to Islamic law, but did not elaborate, sparking speculation that restrictions might include a higher minimum age or limited hours of the day. The king ordered a ministerial committee to report within 30 days on how to implement the new policy by June 24, 2018. Asked on al-Arabiya TV about the minimum age for Saudi women, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said:  Eighteen years is the age at which a person can obtain a driver s license and drive a car in the kingdom.  United Nations human rights experts praised the ban s removal as a major step towards women s autonomy and independence, but urged the kingdom to do more to ensure gender equality.  We now encourage the government to repeal all remaining discriminatory laws,  two experts who report to the U.N. Human Rights Council said in a joint statement.  If it is serious about the importance of women s rights for economic reform, addressing remaining barriers to the human rights of women should be the next step in its ambitious reforms,  said the UN investigator on extreme poverty Philip Alston and Kamala Chandrakirana, chair of the U.N. working group on discrimination against women. The interior minister said separately that lifting the ban would reduce the number of car crashes in Saudi Arabia, which has one of the world s worst traffic death rates. Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, who took over from his uncle in June, said security forces were ready to apply traffic laws to men and women, though he did not mention if women would be recruited as traffic police.  Women driving cars will transform traffic safety to educational practice which will reduce human and economic losses caused by accidents,  he was quoted as saying on the ministry s Twitter feed. He did not elaborate. Around 20 Saudis die each day in traffic accidents - in a population of 30 million. The government aims to reduce that by a quarter as part of its Vision 2030 reform program. While Saudi women have generally welcomed the lifting of the driving ban, some men expressed concern it would increase the number of cars on already crowded Saudi roads. A typical middle- to upper-class Saudi family has two vehicles, one driven by the man of the house and a second car in which a full-time chauffeur transports his wife and children. The royal decree promises to change lifestyles for many of the more than 10 million adult women, including foreigners, who live in Saudi Arabia and may help restore auto sales growth in a market dented by the economic fallout from weak oil prices. But because of conservative traditions, it may actually take years rather than months for women to become a major presence on the roads in some areas.

Summary: सऊदी अरब में 18 साल की उम्र से महिलाओं को पुरुषों के समान गाड़ी चलाने की अनुमति


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, could have an immediate impact on cases already pending before the justices, if he is confirmed by the Senate as expected by the end of the week. The nine-seat court has been operating with only eight justices since the death of conservative Antonin Scalia on Feb. 13, 2016. The court, with four liberals and four conservatives, has ended up with 4-4 split decisions in several cases. The new justice could cast the deciding vote in some cases being considered in the term that ends in June. But in cases argued before the new justice was seated, the court may need to order new oral arguments, which would likely not be heard until the court’s next term starts in October. Here is a look at five cases in which the new justice could be pivotal. Church v. state: Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer A religious rights case from Missouri to be argued on April 19 in which a church contends the state violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom by denying it funds for a playground project because of a state ban on aid to religious organizations. Employee class-action lawsuits: Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis A significant case for business and labor on whether companies can head off costly class-action lawsuits by forcing employees to give up their right to pursue work-related legal claims in court as a group. An issue that has closely divided the court in the past, this case is set to be argued in the autumn. Housing discrimination: Bank of America v. Miami The eight-justice court appeared closely divided when it heard arguments in this case in November on whether Miami could pursue lawsuits accusing major banks of predatory mortgage lending to black and Hispanic home buyers. The court may need to reargue the case with Gorsuch on board to avoid a 4-4 split.  Cross-border shooting: Hernandez v. Mesa A possible 4-4 split appeared on the cards when the court heard arguments in this civil rights case in February. The court has been asked to revive a civil rights lawsuit filed by the family of a Mexican teenager against a U.S. Border Patrol agent who fatally shot the 15-year-old from across the border in Texas in 2010. Corporate liability: Jesner v. Arab Bank In a case to be heard next term, the court agreed this week to consider reviving litigation that seeks to hold Arab Bank Plc ARBK.AM financially liable for militant attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories and accuses the Jordan-based bank of being the “paymaster” to militant groups. The question of whether companies can be held liable for actions overseas under a federal law called the Alien Tort Statute is one the court took up but failed to decide in 2013.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने लंबित मामलों को प्रभावित करने का फैसला किया