MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he hoped that an international Syrian peace congress would take place in the near future.  The Russian-sponsored Syrian peace congress scheduled for Nov. 18 was postponed after objections by Turkey, President Tayyip Erdogan s spokesman said over the weekend.  Asked whether the congress was postponed, Lavrov told a briefing that the date had not been officially announced. He added that he hoped that the United Nations would support holding the congress.

Summary: रूस के लावरोव ने कहा कि उन्हें उम्मीद है कि सीरियाई कांग्रेस जल्द ही होगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg submitted a statement to the United Nations on Monday that over 1,000 U.S. governors, mayors, businesses, universities and others will continue to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement abandoned by President Donald Trump last week. Bloomberg, who is the U.N. Secretary-General’s special envoy for Cities and Climate Change, submitted the “We Are Still In” declaration to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa. He also launched a process to work with local governments and non-state entities to formally quantify the combined - and overlapping - emissions reduction pledges, which will be known as “America’s Pledge,” and submit the report to the United Nations. “Today, on behalf of an unprecedented collection of U.S. cities, states, businesses and other organizations, I am communicating to the United Nations and the global community that American society remains committed to achieving the emission reductions we pledged to make in Paris in 2015,”  Bloomberg said in a statement. Signatories to the new initiative include 13 Democratic and Republican governors, 19 state attorneys general, over 200 mayors, and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. Trump on Thursday pulled the United States from the landmark 2015 agreement designed to fight climate change, fulfilling a major campaign pledge despite entreaties from U.S. allies and corporate leaders. Although the formal process to withdraw from the Paris agreement takes four years, Trump said the United States will not honor the pledge the Obama administration submitted, known as the nationally determined contribution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2025.   To fill the void, “America’s Pledge” will be submitted to the UNFCCC as a “Societal NDC.” “The UNFCCC welcomes the determination and commitment from such a wealth and array of cities, states, businesses and other groups in the United States to fast forward climate action and emissions reductions in support of the Paris Climate Change Agreement,” said Espinosa. The coalition will align a number of different efforts to show U.S. support for the Paris agreement, including a commitment of over 260 corporations including Kellogg , Pepsi Co. and Walmart  to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the latest science. Thirteen governors have also pledged to continue to honor the Paris pledges. “It will be up to the American people to step forward-and in Virginia we are doing just that,” said Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Summary: ब्लूमबर्ग ने संयुक्त राष्ट्र को पेरिस जलवायु लक्ष्यों को जारी रखने के लिए अमेरिकी प्रतिज्ञा प्रदान की


(Reuters) - Several states said on Thursday they would move forward with legal challenges to a revised executive order signed by President Donald Trump this week that temporarily bars the admission of refugees and some travelers from a group of Muslim-majority countries. The new travel order, which is set to take effect on March 16, changed and replaced a more sweeping ban issued on Jan. 27 that caused chaos and protests at airports. The first order was hit by more than two dozen lawsuits, including a challenge brought by Washington state and joined by Minnesota. In response to Washington’s suit, U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle ordered an emergency halt to the policy last month. That ruling was upheld by an appeals court in San Francisco. Washington state Attorney General Robert Ferguson said on Thursday he planned to ask Robart to confirm that his ruling would also apply to Trump’s revised order, which would halt it from being implemented. Ferguson told a news conference the new order harmed a “smaller group” of individuals but that would not affect the state’s ability to challenge it in court.  He said the burden was on the Trump administration to show that the court ruling from last month did not apply to its new policy.  A U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman declined to comment on pending litigation. The government has said the president has wide authority to implement immigration policy and that the travel rules are necessary to protect against terrorist attacks. New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, said on Thursday he would be joining Washington’s lawsuit against the new ban and the state of Oregon said it would join too.  The opposition comes on top of a separate legal challenge to the new ban brought by Hawaii on Wednesday. Hawaii had also sued over the previous order and is seeking to amend its complaint to include the new ban. A hearing in that case is set for next Wednesday, a day before the clock starts on the new order.     The states and immigration advocates argue the new ban, like the original one, discriminates against Muslims. Trump’s new executive order was designed with the intention of avoiding the legal hurdles.  While the new order keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, it excludes Iraq.  Refugees are still halted from entering the country for 120 days, but the new order removed an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria. The revisions include explicit exemptions for legal permanent residents or existing visa holders and waivers are allowed on a case-by-case basis for some business, diplomatic and other travelers.      The first hurdle for the lawsuits will be proving “standing,” which means finding someone who has been harmed by the policy. With so many exemptions, legal experts have said it might be hard to find individuals a court would rule have a right to sue.

Summary: अधिक राज्य अदालत में ट्रम्प के नए यात्रा प्रतिबंध को रोकने की मांग करते हैं


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is now the leading candidate to become President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state, but even some Republicans say his tough-guy personality and global business ties may be at odds with international diplomacy. Giuliani, 72, has been one of Trump’s most vocal and high-profile supporters, and according to sources close to him and Trump, he is eager to become the top U.S. diplomat and expects a decision by Trump as early as next week. The other top candidate, the sources said, is former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, a foreign policy hawk. New York mayor at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al Qaeda militants, Giuliani is also considered a hard-liner on national security matters, but he has little diplomatic experience. Still, some prominent Republicans said he is qualified to take command of U.S. diplomacy at a time of chaos in the Middle East, rising nationalism in much of Europe, and growing challenges from Russia and China. Senator Lindsey Graham, a respected conservative voice on defense and foreign policy who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee and who made a rather short-lived bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, on Tuesday called Giuliani “competent and capable” of being secretary of state.  “Rudy is an internationally-known figure. He’s a personal friend. He has dealt with the unimaginable, which was 9/11. He’s a loyal supporter of President Trump. He should be rewarded in my view,” Graham told reporters. Giuliani himself extolled his foreign policy credentials in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday.  “I’ve been in 80 countries, 150 different foreign trips,” Giuliani said. “A lot of it for different reasons. Speeches. Security consulting, where I helped bring down crime.” Critics, however, said they are troubled not only by Giuliani’s combative nature and lack of experience, but also by his international business ties and his lucrative speaking engagements for an Iranian exile group that was on the U.S. terrorism list until four years ago. The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its consideration of Giuliani for secretary of state. After serving as New York mayor for eight years, Giuliani founded management and security consulting firm Giuliani Partners in 2002, which he left in 2007 when he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination and questions were raised about his foreign business ties.  The firm’s clients have included Colombia and, reportedly, the government of Qatar. Giuliani appears to have resumed work with the firm after his 2007 failed presidential bid, and is listed as chairman and chief executive officer of Giuliani Partners on the Giuliani Security and Safety website. He joined a Texas law firm as a name partner in 2005. The firm did lobbying work for Citgo, a U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, which at the time was  controlled by President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s late socialist ruler. At the time, Giuliani’s office said he was not personally involved in the lobbying and said Giuliani believed that “Chavez is not a friend of the United States.” Giuliani’s dealings in Russia may face scrutiny in Senate confirmation hearings. His ties to TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, a consulting firm that helps Western clients advance their business interests in emerging markets of the former Soviet Union, date back to 2004, when Giuliani visited Moscow to meet Russian businessmen and politicians, according to the company’s website. The consulting firm’s president, Vitaly Pruss, has “created and developed strategies” for companies including Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and has “worked closely” with Giuliani Partners, according to his profile on TriGlobal’s website. State-owned Transneft was among Russian oil companies targeted with sanctions by Western powers following Russia’s annexation of Crimea under President Vladimir Putin. Giuliani also has spoken in support of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran, a group of Islamic leftists who opposed Iran’s late shah, but fell out with the Shi’ite clerics who took power after the 1979 revolution and later aligned itself with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The U.S. government considered it a terrorist organization until 2012. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who also was a contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, told CNN on Tuesday he was worried about Giuliani’s ties to foreign governments.     “Whether or not you have divided loyalties obviously is very important,” Paul said. “I hope Donald Trump will pick somebody consistent with what he said on the campaign trail - Iraq war was a mistake, regime change in the Middle East is a mistake. “You want to have a diplomat in charge of diplomacy,” he said. Critics, however, say the bottom line is that Giuliani is no diplomat, either personally or professionally.    “The challenge for Giuliani if he becomes secretary of state would be to move beyond the tough guy persona he cultivated as prosecutor and mayor and instead stand up for some of the basic principles of human rights, democratic accountability, and the rule of law that enhance rather than shrink America’s influence abroad,” said Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, who worked for Giuliani when he was a federal prosecutor between 1983 and 1987.

Summary: शीर्ष अमेरिकी राजनयिक की भूमिका 'कठिन आदमी' गिउलिआनी के लिए असंभव रूप से उपयुक्त है


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired teargas to disperse a crowd that was protesting on Sunday against the overnight murder of four people in a slum in the capital Nairobi. Parts of the city have been gripped by tension since Friday when at least five people were killed in violence involving the police and opposition supporters who were accompanying their leader Raila Odinga after a trip abroad.  Japheth Koome, the police commander in the city, said investigations had started after four bodies were found in the Mathare Area Four slum on Sunday morning.   We went there and found those bodies with injuries,  he told a news conference, describing the murders as a criminal act rather than ethnic-driven violence. The violence took place a day before the Supreme Court rules on two cases seeking to nullify the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta in a repeat election held last month. Odinga, who successfully petitioned against Kenyatta s initial victory in the Aug. 8 vote and subsequently boycotted the repeat poll, visited the scene of the murders on Sunday and accused the government of being behind the killings.  Those who are doing these acts are the ones who already lost and want to hold onto power by force but we will remove them using the power of the people,  he told a crowd of his supporters. Police fired teargas and used water cannons to disperse protesters for the better part of the morning until calm was restored in the area in the afternoon. The broadcast industry regulator, Communications Authority of Kenya, said it had banned live broadcasts of political rallies, after all the main TV stations showed hours of live footage of the chaos that greeted Odinga s return. A source at the authority told Reuters on Sunday the ban was put in place to help manage the tension in the country.

Summary: केन्याई पुलिस ने झुग्गियों में चार लोगों की हत्या के बाद विरोध प्रदर्शनों को तोड़ने के लिए आँसू गैस के गोले दागे


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Six in 10 American voters support the new ban on people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States unless they can show they have a close relative here, according to opinion poll results released on Wednesday. The Politico-Morning Consult poll found 37 percent of voters said they “strongly supported” the new U.S. State Department guidelines that would deny visas to citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen who do not have close relatives in the United States. Another 23 percent of voters said they “somewhat support” the guidelines. The poll was conducted online on Thursday and Friday following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that partly upheld the ban, with 1,989 registered voters taking part. The poll results' margin of error was 2 percentage points, meaning results could vary that much either way. (Link to the poll: politi.co/2uJLfoO) The survey asked respondents whether they support or oppose the State Department’s new guidelines, “which say visa applicants from six predominately Muslim countries must prove a close family relationship with a U.S. resident in order to enter the country.” It did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump, nor the president’s executive orders on immigration.  The Supreme Court ruled on June 26 that the temporary travel ban could proceed so long as visa applicants with a “bona fide relationship” with a person or entity in the United States were exempted.  A year before his election, Trump promised voters he would seek a temporary “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. Trump said it was necessary to prevent attacks by Islamist militants, while critics said it was a needlessly discriminatory policy that could inflame prejudice against Muslims in the United States and abroad. The partial ban, which took effect on Thursday, was most strongly supported by Trump’s fellow Republicans, 83 percent of whom approved. Even among Democratic voters, only 46 percent said they were opposed.  Forty-one percent of Democrats said they support it, and the remaining 13 percent said they “don’t know.”   The Supreme Court allowed the ban, which bars people from the designated six countries for 90 days and refugees from any country for 120 days, to take effect until it can take up the case during its next term starting in October.

Summary: अधिकांश अमेरिकी मतदाता सीमित यात्रा प्रतिबंध का समर्थन करते हैंः सर्वेक्षण


(Reuters) - The legal document charging Michael Flynn with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation lays out a chronology of events connected with the offense that the former U.S. national security adviser pleaded guilty to on Friday. Here is a timeline based on the document, known as a statement of the offense, and events at the time. The document was drafted by prosecutors working on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of ties between President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russia.  The period covered includes the presidential transition that followed Trump’s election victory on Nov. 8, 2016, and the first few months of his presidency: * Dec. 21, 2016: Egypt submits a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building. * Dec. 22: A “very senior member” of the Trump transition team directs Flynn to contact officials from foreign governments, including Russia, to learn where each country stands on the resolution and to influence them to delay the vote or defeat the resolution. * On the same day, Flynn contacts Russia’s ambassador to the United States about the pending vote. Flynn informs the ambassador about the incoming administration’s opposition to the resolution and asks that Russia vote against or delay it. (The statement of offense does not name the ambassador; Russia’s envoy at the time was Sergei Kislyak.) * Dec. 23: Flynn again speaks with the ambassador, who informs Flynn that if it came to a ballot, Russia would not vote against the resolution. (Russia is among the 14 countries on the 15-member council that approves the resolution that day. The United States abstains, making passage possible, despite heavy pressure from Israel and President-elect Trump.)  * Dec. 28: President Barack Obama signs an executive order, to take effect the next day, imposing sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow’s actions intended to interfere in the presidential election.  * The Russian ambassador to the United States contacts Flynn. * Asked by reporters if the United States should sanction Russia, Trump suggests the two countries lay to rest the controversy over Moscow’s interference in the election, saying, “I think we ought to get on with our lives.” Trump, who is at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, has cast doubt on U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that Russian hackers took information from Democratic Party computers and posted it online to help Trump defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. * Dec. 29: Flynn calls a senior transition team official, who is with other senior transition team members at Mar-a-Lago to discuss what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian ambassador about the sanctions.  The discussion between Flynn and the official touches on the potential impact of the sanctions on the incoming Trump administration’s foreign policy goals. The officials and Flynn also talk about transition team members’ desire that Russia not escalate the situation. * Immediately after the conversation, Flynn calls the ambassador and asks that Russia not escalate and that it only respond to the sanctions reciprocally.  * Shortly afterwards, Flynn discusses the substance of the call with the ambassador with the transition official, including their discussion of the U.S. sanctions. * Dec. 30: Russian President Vladimir Putin releases a statement indicating Russia will not retaliate in response to the sanctions at that time. * Dec. 31: The ambassador calls Flynn and informs him that Russia has chosen not to retaliate in response to Flynn’s request. * After the call, Flynn speaks with senior transition team members about his conversations with the ambassador regarding the sanctions and Russia’s decision not to escalate. * Jan. 13, 2017: In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump suggests he might do away with the sanctions if Russia proves helpful in battling terrorists and reaching other goals important to Washington. * Jan. 16: The Times of London publishes an interview with Trump in which the president-elect says he will propose offering to end sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal. * Jan. 20: Trump takes office, and Flynn becomes national security adviser. * Jan. 24: Flynn agrees to be interviewed by FBI agents. During the interview, he falsely states he did not ask the Russian ambassador to refrain from escalation in responding to the U.S. sanctions. Flynn also falsely states he did not remember a follow-up conversation in which the ambassador said Russia had chosen to moderate its response to the sanctions due to Flynn’s request.  Flynn makes additional false statements about his phone calls to Russia and several other countries about the U.N. Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements. Specifically, Flynn falsely says he only asked the countries’ positions on the vote and did not ask any countries to take any particular action on the resolution. Flynn also falsely states the Russian ambassador never told him Russia’s response to his request regarding the resolution. * Jan. 27: At a joint news conference with visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump says he is only in the early stages of considering whether to lift sanctions on Russia. * Jan. 28: In their first conversation since Trump’s inauguration, Trump and Putin agree to try to rebuild U.S.-Russia ties and to cooperate in Syria, the Kremlin says. A Kremlin spokesman says two days later that sanctions were not discussed. * Feb. 2: The U.S. Treasury Department adjusts sanctions on Russia’s FSB intelligence agency, making limited exceptions to the measures Obama put in place. * Feb. 13: Flynn is fired following disclosures that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with Kislyak, Moscow’s U.S. ambassador, and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. * Feb. 16: Trump says he did not direct Flynn to talk to Russia’s ambassador about sanctions before taking office. * March 7: Flynn files multiple documents with the Justice Department involving the Foreign Agents Registration Act pertaining to a project conducted by him and his company, the Flynn Intel Group Inc, for the benefit of Turkey. In the filings, Flynn makes false statements and omissions.

Summary: समयरेखाः अमेरिकी अभियोजकों ने रूसी राजदूत के साथ फ्लिन के व्यवहार को निर्धारित किया


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday called for strict enforcement of a U.N. resolution against North Korea over its latest nuclear test, saying the world must force a change in Pyongyang s policies. Abe made the remarks during a visit to India aimed at deepening economic and defenses ties to balance the weight of a rising China. New Delhi stood with Tokyo in its resolve for a firm response to Pyongyang, he said.   I d like to appeal to the world, together with Prime Minister Modi, that we need to have North Korea change its policy through the thorough implementation of the newly adopted Security Council resolution by the international community.   Prime Minister Modi and I are in full agreement on this,  he said.  The 15-member Security Council voted unanimously on a U.S.-drafted resolution and a new round of sanctions against North Korea on Monday in response to its latest and most powerful test, banning North Korea s textile exports that are the second largest only to coal and mineral, and capping fuel supplies.

Summary: जापान के आबे का कहना है कि संयुक्त राष्ट्र के प्रस्ताव को उत्तर कोरिया में परिवर्तन के लिए मजबूर करना चाहिए


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s ruling African National Congress has adopted a resolution calling for the nationalization of the central bank and land expropriation without compensation, a senior party official said on Wednesday. Any mention of nationalization in South Africa is enough to spook investors, since left-wing elements of the ANC have also called for mines and banks to be state-owned. Similarly, land is an emotive issue two decades after the end of apartheid, and the ANC has been under pressure to redress racial disparities in land ownership. Unlike most central banks in the world, the South African Reserve Bank has been privately owned since it was established in 1921. But its shareholders have no control over monetary policy, financial stability policy or banking regulation. Following a meeting of party delegates, the head of the ANC s economic transformation committee, Enoch Godongwana, told reporters changing the ownership of the South African Reserve Bank would not affect its independence. He said the party had also agreed to initiate amendments to the constitution to achieve land expropriation without compensation, but gave no timeline. He said there would be no illegal occupation of land. Following the proposal made in July by the ANC at a policy conference to nationalize the bank s shareholding, South Africa s Reserve Bank said that changing its shareholding would not affect its mandate, because that mandate is derived from the constitution. Godongwana said no timeline had been laid down for the plan to acquire the central bank s shares or for any directives to parliament to change the country s laws to effect the change.  No change in the constitution, no change in the Reserve Bank Act,  he said.  We ve also said it s not likely to have an impact at all because shareholders in the Reserve Bank do not affect monetary policy in any way.   Godongwana said the changes would come after  more work  was done to prepare for the bank s nationalization. In July, when the party said it would like the central bank to be wholly state-owned, investors were initially worried and knocked the rand.  The currency was little changed on Wednesday immediately after the announcement by Godongwana, but analysts said markets would react negatively.  The SARB resolution will spook the markets even if it is ultimately unlikely to be implemented,  said Anne Fruhauf political analyst with consultancy Teneo. On the land issue, Godongwana said some of the delegates became  rowdy  during the heated debate that  nearly collapsed the conference . ANC officials rejected reports that delegates had come to blows during the debate. Godongwana said the delegates eventually agreed to initiate some amendments to the constitution in order to achieve expropriation of land without compensation.  The condition is that it must be sustainable and not impact on food  production and food security,  he said, adding that there should be no illegal occupation of land. Asked how the markets would react, Godongwana said:  My suspicion is they are going to say  wow  and react badly ... my sense is, if I was the markets, I would simply hold off.  Most of South Africa s land remains in white hands 23 years after the end of white minority rule. Experts say the plan to expropriate land in South Africa will not signal the kind of often violent land grabs that took place in neighboring Zimbabwe, where white-owned farms were seized by the government for redistribution to landless blacks. However, some economists and farming groups have said the reform could hit investment and production. Around 8 million hectares (20 million acres) of land have been transferred to black owners since apartheid ended, equal to 8 to 10 percent of the land in white hands in 1994, the government says. The total is only a third of a 30 percent  target by 2014 set by the ANC.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका की एएनसी ने केंद्रीय बैंक के राष्ट्रीयकरण, भूमि अधिग्रहण का आह्वान किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York’s top Democratic legislator drove home his budget priorities on Friday, touching on the minimum wage, paid family leave and education ahead of the release of the state Assembly’s spending plan scheduled for later that day. Assembly speaker Carl Heastie highlighted the proposals that have become a rallying point for Democrats both in the state and nationally, saying that he was “very optimistic” an agreement could be reached over a state-wide $15 minimum wage with the Republican controlled Senate. Heastie, speaking at an event in New York City, stressed his support for paid family leave. The Assembly passed a bill in February that would allow workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a new child or a sick relative. The initiative is supported by Governor Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat. The speaker highlighted $1.7 billion in higher education spending for the state and city public university systems, including funding a two-year tuition freeze, and a $2.1 bln increase in education funding for the state’s public schools. The Assembly’s school spending proposal is $1.2 billion over  Cuomo’s executive budget.  Confidence in the state capital Albany was shaken last year after the convictions on corruption charges of the speakers of both the Senate and the Assembly. Heastie became speaker after charges were brought against his predecessor Sheldon Silver. Heastie said he will release ethics proposals also on Friday that seek to limit outside pay for legislators, and put conditions on roles legislators can take in the private sector. The Assembly’s budget will be released later on Friday and passed by the Assembly on Monday, Heastie’s spokesperson Mike Whyland said. It follows the release of Cuomo’s $145 billion executive budget in January.  The Senate has also released parts of its one house budget, promising to cut middle class tax rates by 25 percent through 2025, leading to a reduction in the tax burden of $3.5 billion. The three budget plans need to be reconciled by the start of the state’s financial year on April 1. Cuomo has made passing an on-time budget a barometer of good governance and has managed to pass all five of his previous budgets on time.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क विधानसभा के अध्यक्ष ने बजट जारी करने से पहले घरेलू प्राथमिकताओं पर जोर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House special counsel Ty Cobb predicts the cloud of an investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election will soon be lifted from President Donald Trump and says he would be “embarrassed” if it still hangs over the president in 2018. Cobb told Reuters this week that he talks to Trump on an almost daily basis and has been in contact with the team of Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.   Mueller is investigating possible collusion between Trump’s  campaign team and Russia, as well as possible money laundering by at least one former aide.  But Cobb, who resigned from law firm Hogan Lovells to take the White House job on July 31, said in interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday he believed Mueller’s probe was “narrow” and that by the end of the year Trump should no longer be threatened by it. “I’d be embarrassed if this is still haunting the White House by Thanksgiving and worse if it’s still haunting him by year end,” Cobb told Reuters, adding: “I think the relevant areas of inquiry by the special counsel are narrow.” He declined to provide specifics backing his projected timeline, which suggests a speedier end to Mueller’s probe than several outside experts believe is likely. “The White House would be lucky if sometime in the spring of 2018 this started to wrap up, but even that I think is pretty optimistic,” said Andy Wright, former associate counsel in former President Barack Obama’s White House. “It’s a very complicated investigation.”  Wright said Mueller’s team would have to track down many leads in the United States and overseas, and gather evidence from email accounts, intelligence reports and other sources. Russia’s government has denied interfering in the election and the president has denied collusion took place. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment on any timeline for the probe, the scope of the investigation or any interactions with the White House. Like all senior White House staff, Cobb, 66, reports to retired general John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff. As a White House lawyer, he is in a different position than the president’s outside lawyers John Dowd and Jay Sekulow. Cobb would not be able to assert attorney-client privilege to protect his conversations with Trump from a grand jury subpoena. Trump has said he believes any investigations of his and his family’s finances would be beyond the scope of Mueller’s probe.  Cobb said he believed Mueller’s 16-lawyer team was “appropriately focused” and understood “the urgency to the country and to the presidency” of finishing the probe quickly.   “We have one objective, which is to bring this to a conclusion as quickly as possible,” Cobb said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के वकील कॉब ने मुलर की जांच के शीघ्र अंत की भविष्यवाणी की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to impose additional sanctions against North Korea very soon, a White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday after Pyongyang said it had it successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile and could now reach the U.S. mainland with its nuclear weapons.  We re going to add additional sanctions very shortly that will continue to put that maximum pressure on North Korea,  White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told Fox News in an interview.  Sanders also said the administration would also  try to push Russia to take a bigger and bolder stance to put more pressure on North Korea.

Summary: अमेरिका जल्द ही N.Korea के खिलाफ और प्रतिबंध लगाएगाः व्हाइट हाउस


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina sentenced 29 people, some with nicknames like  Blond Angel of Death  and  The Tiger,  to life sentences on Wednesday in a trial involving some 800 cases of kidnapping, torture and murder during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Many defendants, including former Navy Captain Alfredo Astiz and Captain Jorge Acosta, were already serving life sentences for Dirty War crimes committed at the ESMA Naval Mechanics School that was converted into a clandestine prison and torture center.  For the first time in the so-called ESMA mega-case, however, Wednesday s sentence included convictions for  death flights,  when people were drugged and their bodies dumped in the River Plate.  Giving sedatives to our loved ones before or during the flight before throwing them in the river or the sea is unbelievable; it s dismal,  said Lita Boitano, head of Relatives of the Disappeared and Detained for Political Reasons. Boitano, who lost two children during the dictatorship, was among the hundreds of people gathered outside the federal courthouse in Buenos Aires listening to the convictions. They took more than three hours to read.  In addition to the life sentences, 19 people received jail terms of eight to 25 years. Six were cleared of wrongdoing, including Juan Alemann, a finance minister during the dictatorship and one of few civilians who had been accused of planning rights abuses. Human rights groups estimate Argentina s military government killed up to 30,000 people during the dictatorship. Most of their bodies were never found. About 5,000 dissidents were held at the ESMA, and only about 200 people are known to have survived. Some of the initial 68 defendants died during the trial that started in 2012.  Astiz had been convicted in absentia in Europe of killing two French nuns held at the ESMA, which opened to the public as a human rights memorial in 2007.  Argentina has prosecuted many dictatorship-era crimes and last year convicted 15 ex-military officials of conspiring to kidnap and assassinate leftist dissidents as part of the Operation Condor program.  But a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year to decrease jail time for those convicted of human rights abuses spurred protests and stoked fears of backsliding.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना की अदालत ने तानाशाही के अपराधों के लिए 29 को उम्रकैद की सजा सुनाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Robert Michel, a gentlemanly Midwesterner who championed civility in Washington as House Republican leader but left Congress dismayed by the rise of conservative firebrands in his own party, died on Friday at age 93, a former aide said. Michel died at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, where he had been admitted in the last few weeks with pneumonia, said Michael Johnson, a former chief of staff to the congressman. Michel, a decorated World War Two veteran who was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, was first elected in 1956 to the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois and served for 38 years. His time in the House came during a four-decade era of Democratic control, but as minority leader starting in 1981 Michel helped shepherd the policies of Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush through Congress. In a statement, Bush called Michel “a great American for whom the words ‘duty’ and ‘honor’ and ‘country’ weren’t just a campaign slogan, but a lifelong creed.”  The courtly Michel (pronounced “Michael”), known as Bob, amassed a conservative voting record but believed in bipartisanship and maintained friendships with many Democratic colleagues, including House Speakers Tip O’Neill and Tom Foley. “It has always puzzled me that in Washington we have no public vocabulary to describe civility, which I believe is among the highest public virtues,” Michel said in 1991.  “Raising the level of your voice doesn’t raise the level of discussion. Listening with care is better than talking in sound bites and thinking in slogans. ... Peaks of uncommon progress can be reached by paths of common courtesy.” Michel served as House Republican leader for 14 years until deciding not to seek re-election to the House in the November 1994 elections. With the rise of conservative rabble-rousers like Georgia’s Newt Gingrich in the House Republican caucus in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Michel’s brand of leadership - consultation with Democrats instead of confrontation - was becoming obsolete. After Gingrich signaled he might try to depose him as Republican leader, Michel expressed confidence that he would have won but said such a fight would have been “fratricidal.” Gingrich and his allies sought to portray the Democratic leaders of the House as corrupt legislative dictators. In May 1993, Michel warned that the “politics of anger” was slowly destroying the United States’ civic environment. Michel announced in October 1993 he would retire from the House after the 1994 election. Michel lamented that Congress was becoming a place lacking camaraderie and deplored colleagues who resorted to “trashing the institution” for political gain. Gingrich helped engineer a Republican takeover of the House in the 1994 elections and rose to the job of speaker. His  ascendancy and Michel’s retirement ushered in a new combative style of leadership for House Republicans, who have remained largely uncompromising ever since. Michel served in the House under five Republican and four Democratic presidents. The last of them, Democrat Bill Clinton, honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award. “In the best sense he is a gentleman legislator who, in spite of the great swings in public opinion from year to year, has remained always true to the Midwestern values he represents so faithfully in the House,” Clinton said during the August 1994 ceremony. Michel was born in 1923 in Peoria, Illinois, long viewed as a symbol of small-town America, and grew up in the Great Depression. He served as an infantryman in Europe during World War Two and earned two Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart and four Battle Stars. After graduating from Bradley University in Peoria, Michel worked in a congressional office until winning his House seat in 1956. He married his wife Corinne in 1948 and the couple had four children. She died in 2003.

Summary: वरिष्ठ सदन के पद पर वाशिंगटन सभ्यता के चैंपियन रॉबर्ट मिशेल का 93 वर्ष की आयु में निधन हो गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday said one of the top goals of the Trump administration’s tax plan is to help the middle class, but he could not guarantee that every middle-class family would receive a tax cut. “It is our objective that the entire middle class will get a tax cut,” Mnuchin said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “You cannot make guarantees because every single person’s taxes are different, people take advantage of different things.” President Donald Trump last week outlined his plan, which includes reducing the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent, establishing a new 25 percent tax rate for pass-through businesses and lowering the top income tax rate for individuals to 35 percent. A report on Friday from the non-profit Washington-based Tax Policy Center found that taxpayers in the top 1 percent income bracket - above $730,000 - would receive about 50 percent of the total benefit from the overhaul, with their after-tax income forecast to increase an average of 8.5 percent. The group said about 12 percent of taxpayers would face an average tax increase of roughly $1,800. This includes more than a third of taxpayers making between about $150,000 and $300,000, as most itemized deductions, including for state and local taxes, would be repealed. Mnuchin and other Trump administration officials defended the plan, saying it is not aimed at helping the rich, while acknowledging the details were in flux. “The objective of the president is that rich people don’t get tax cuts,” Mnuchin said. “As we go through this process, we will explain to the American public how this works.”  Mnuchin was also asked on whether a proposed new rate of 25 percent for so-called pass-through businesses would end up being exploited by wealthy people looking to lower their tax bills. About 95 percent of American businesses are pass-throughs such as sole proprietorships, partnerships and S-corporations, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. The name comes from the profits and losses of such businesses that pass through directly to their owners, unlike public corporations. Mnuchin said the administration would seek to put “guard rails” around rules for pass-throughs to avoid people using them as a loophole. White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told CNN’s “State of the Union” program: “This really is about the middle class and the corporate tax rate, for the president.” Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic adviser, said no one knows how the plan would affect Americans because it has not been finalized.  “When people come out with these definitive statements of what the tax plan is going to do, or what the tax plan is not going to do, I find it hard to believe, because we don’t even know what the tax plan is going to look like in its entirety,” Cohn said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program. Mnuchin said the administration hoped to have the tax overhaul legislation passed in December.

Summary: पूरे मध्यम वर्ग के लिए कर कटौती की गारंटी नहीं दे सकतेः म्नुचिन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday he probably would not keep his holdings in a shipping company with business ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and that he had fully and properly disclosed investments. Pressed on whether he would retain the interest in Navigator Holdings, Ross told Bloomberg Television: “I’ve been actually selling it anyway, but that isn’t because of this.” Ross, a billionaire investor who is helping to shape Republican President Donald Trump’s trade policy, was criticized when several media outlets reported that he had failed to disclose that one of Navigator’s clients is Russian gas and petrochemical company Sibur. Sibur’s owners include Putin’s son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov, and Gennady Timchenko, a Putin associate who is subject to U.S. Treasury sanctions. The information is based on leaked documents from offshore law firm Appleby that are part of the so-called Paradise Papers, which show details of business dealings by wealthy people and institutions ranging from Ross to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and trading firm Glencore (GLEN.L). They were obtained by Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets and published on Sunday. Reuters has not independently verified the documents. The Paradise Papers are the second release of its kind by the ICIJ, which last year published the “Panama Papers,” leaked documents from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca that chronicled a shadowy world of offshore holdings and hidden wealth. Ross said in multiple media interviews that he had fully disclosed his stake in Navigator Holdings as part of government ethics requirements. “There was disclosure, there is no impropriety and if people draw a contrary conclusion that’s because the papers have twisted the story and made it into something that it’s not there,” Ross told the BBC. U.S. media said partnerships used by Ross have a 31 percent stake in Navigator Holdings, which was included in Ross’ 57-page public financial disclosure report filed in December, before he officially joined the Trump administration. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, said Ross had deceived the public as well as lawmakers who had confirmed his appointment to Trump’s Cabinet after he promised to divest holdings that posed conflicts. Blumenthal called for an investigation and hearings. “If he fails to present a clear and compelling explanation, he ought to resign,” Blumenthal told MSNBC. Senate Commerce Committee spokesman Frederick Hill said that Ross’ interest in Navigator was disclosed to the panel, but added: “The committee expects Secretary Ross will follow the advice of his department’s ethics officials should there be a determination that any holding creates a conflict of interest.” Navigator did not come up at Ross’ confirmation hearing in January, but he was asked about his decision to retain an interest in Diamond S Shipping, which operates 33 petroleum product tankers. Ross said his research showed that no ocean shipping cases had ever come before the Commerce Department. Ocean shipping is regulated by the Federal Maritime Commission, an independent agency. But asked by Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell if he would look at additional areas for possible further recusals from potential conflicts of interest, Ross replied: “I intend to be quite scrupulous about recusal in any topic where there is the slightest scintilla of a doubt.” Scrutiny of any ties between Russia and Trump administration officials has intensified with investigations into allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election campaign and potential collusion by the Trump campaign. The Kremlin has denied such meddling and Trump has denied any collusion.  Officials from Navigator could not be reached for comment. Appleby released a statement late on Sunday saying that the release of its documents was the result of “an illegal computer hack” and not a leak. “This was not the work of anybody who works at Appleby,” the firm with offices in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and other offshore jurisdictions said. Appleby said there was no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Summary: अमेरिकी वाणिज्य प्रमुख का कहना है कि वह रूस से जुड़ी शिपिंग हिस्सेदारी का विनिवेश कर सकते हैं


FORT LEE, Va. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday called the Senate’s vote to override his veto of legislation allowing relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue Saudi Arabia’s government a mistake. “If we eliminate this notion of sovereign immunity, then our men and women in uniform around the world could potentially start seeing ourselves subject to reciprocal loss,” Obama said during a town hall meeting-style interview on CNN, referring to potential lawsuits. “It’s a dangerous precedent,” he said.

Summary: ओबामा का कहना है कि 'आईडी1' कानून 'खतरनाक मिसाल' स्थापित करता हैः सीएनएन


(Reuters) - The European Union will soon ask Britain to take responsibility for solving the Irish border problems, according to documents leaked to the Guardian. Michel Barnier, the European Union s chief negotiator, will ask Britain to work out  solutions  that avoid the creation of a hard border with Ireland, the newspaper also reported.  The news comes after the Guardian earlier reported, based on a draft memo it reviewed, that Britain is considering measures to restrict immigration for all but the highest-skilled EU workers. The British government declined to comment on the report while the European Union was not immediately available for comment.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ब्रिटेन से आयरलैंड सीमा पर 'समाधान' खोजने के लिए कहेगाः गार्जियन


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - About 66 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide and weak international cooperation and solidarity are behind the rising numbers, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said on Thursday. Grandi, speaking to the United Nations Security Council, said the number of displaced is up from 42 million in 2009, the last time one of his predecessors addressed the 15-member group.  The sharp rise in forced displacement reflects weaknesses in international cooperation and declining capacity to prevent, contain and resolve conflicts,  Grandi said. The ongoing conflict in Syria and violence in Iraq account for about a fourth of those currently displaced, Grandi said, adding that a combination of poverty, lack of development, environmental degradation, inequality and persecution combine in poorly governed parts of the world to trigger more crises. He highlighted the importance of the U.N. s peace-keeping missions, whose role he called  critical.  Grandi criticized countries with closed borders and hurdles to asylum access and said some are  often those least impacted by refugee flows, and often wealthy.  Last month, Grandi singled out Europe, the United States, and Australia for increasingly unwelcoming policies. [nL8N1MD24C]  Many refugee-hosting states, particularly those neighboring conflict zones, keep their borders open and generously host thousands   sometimes millions   of refugees,  he said. Grandi asked the Security Council to find political solutions that could prevent even more people from being displaced.  They, the uprooted people,  Grandi said,  are counting on your leadership to help deliver those solutions.

Summary: कमजोर अंतर्राष्ट्रीय एकजुटता विस्थापितों की संख्या को बढ़ा रही हैः संयुक्त राष्ट्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If confirmed as expected this week by the U.S. Senate, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee would join his new fellow justices in time to act on divisive cases concerning religion, guns and big business, underscoring Neil Gorsuch’s importance  as the fifth conservative on a nine-justice court. The Senate’s Republican leaders have pledged to confirm the Colorado-based appeals court judge on Friday. His first official task after being sworn in would come at an April 13 private meeting among the justices to discuss taking various appeals from lower courts. There are appeals pending on expanding gun rights to include carrying concealed firearms in public, state voting restrictions critics say are aimed at reducing minority turnout, and allowing business owners to object on religious grounds to serving gay couples. All three could lead to landmark rulings if taken up. On April 17, the justices will begin hearing a new round of oral arguments, including a closely watched case on the separation of church and state focusing on whether a Missouri church was improperly denied state funds. The court is nearing the end of its current term, which runs from October to June. Gorsuch also would play a key role in important cases the justices already have agreed to hear in their next term, including a bid by employers to prevent workers from bringing class action claims, a goal of big business. The court has been divided between four conservatives and four liberals since the February 2016 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Major issues before the court highlight the significance of Gorsuch filling Scalia’s seat and restoring the court’s 5-4 conservative majority. Senate Republicans paved the way for Trump to replace Scalia by refusing last year to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama’s nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy. That would have given the court a liberal majority for the first time in decades. Legal experts suspect a conservative majority on the court could motivate conservative lawyers to bring cases in a hope that five justices will back abortion restrictions, oppose political spending limits, and favor wider gun and religious rights. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sides with the four liberals, will remain the court’s swing vote. Most experts expect Gorsuch to be more aligned with the court’s two most stalwart conservatives, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. “There’s no reason to think he will be anything other than extremely conservative,” said Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Carolyn Shapiro. With four votes needed to take up a case at the private meetings, each justice is important. Among pending appeals the court is likely to act on in the coming weeks is a case in which activists have asked the justices to rule for the first time that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms, extends to carrying firearms outside the home.  In another case, the court could decide whether to revive voter-identification and other restrictions in North Carolina blocked by a lower court. The justices also could hear a Christian baker’s religious claim that he should not be forced to sell a cake to a gay couple. Conservative justices generally take expansive views of gun and religious rights and may back state laws whose Republican backers say are intended to prevent voter fraud. On April 19, the court will hear a religious rights case in which a church contends Missouri violated the Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom by denying it funds for a playground project due to a state ban on aid to religious organizations. Gorsuch has ruled several times in favor of expansive religious rights during his decade as a judge. “Given Gorsuch’s solicitude for religious liberty, his joining the court can only help the church,” said Ilya Shapiro, a lawyer with the libertarian Cato Institute think tank. There are several cases the court has already heard but has not yet decided in which Gorsuch could play a role. The court has the option of hearing fresh arguments, with Gorsuch in a position to cast a potential deciding vote.  One such case is a bid by Miami to revive lawsuits accusing major banks of predatory mortgage lending to black and Hispanic home buyers. Another concerns whether the family of a Mexican teenager can sue a U.S. Border Patrol agent who fatally shot the 15-year-old from across the border in Texas. Longer term, an issue likely to return to the court is a conservative-backed challenge that could weaken organized labor. The court was expected to deny unions a vital source of cash last year. But after Scalia died, it issued a 4-4 ruling leaving in place a lower court’s decision favoring unions.  The court is also likely to weigh in on whether transgender students are protected under a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The court took up that question last fall but in March sent the case back to a lower court without resolving the main legal question.

Summary: विवादास्पद मामले ट्रम्प के अमेरिकी उच्च न्यायालय के नामित गोरसच का इंतजार कर रहे हैं


WASHINGTON/TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday followed Mexico in signaling that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez had won a heavily disputed presidential election last month, lending weight to his legitimacy in spite of ongoing opposition protests. The Honduran electoral tribunal at the weekend declared U.S. ally Hernandez the winner of the Nov. 26 election in spite of widespread misgivings about the count, which turned in favor of the incumbent after suddenly halting with the opposition ahead. Violent protests have broken out in Honduras over the vote, and the Organization of American States (OAS) urged the country to hold new elections to resolve the dispute. That proposal has, however, been rejected by senior Honduran officials. Hernandez s rival Salvador Nasralla traveled to Washington this week to urge the United States not to recognize the vote, but a senior U.S. State Department official said that his government had no evidence that would alter the results.  At this point ... we have not seen anything that alters the final result,  the official told reporters, saying Washington may wait to make a definitive judgment in case the opposition presents additional evidence of fraud in the election. Mexico on Tuesday congratulated Hernandez for being declared victor. Mexico s step, which followed the recognition of Hernandez by Colombia and Guatemala, strengthened the incumbent s hand and could tilt other countries in his favor.  The Mexican statement, and its review, indicates that a call for a new election is a pretty dramatic outcome in this case,  said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Washington may hold off on making a final judgment until the end of a five-day period when the opposition can produce further evidence to contest the results, the official added. He said a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state met with Nasralla, who has accused Hernandez of stealing the election.  He did not have any new (allegations of) fraud (or) evidence to present to us, and I think we are going to work through this quickly to get to a definitive U.S. statement, he added.  The Mexican statement is going to have a strong influence on whether we think we can move forward sooner. The Mexicans seem pretty certain in their statement.  Hernandez on Wednesday named a new head of the armed forces, Rene Orlando Ponce, who quickly indicated on local radio that solving the impasse would be for Honduras alone.  We re not going to accept any interference beyond Honduran law,  he said.

Summary: अमेरिका ने विवादित होंडुरान मतदान परिणाम का समर्थन करने में मेक्सिको का अनुसरण किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee blasted the U.S. State Department on Tuesday for cuts in staff and what they described as a failure to have a plan for a proposed reorganization. “I don’t think they are anywhere close to having a plan to present relative to the reforms that they want,” said Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the committee. Rex Tillerson, Republican President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, has embraced the White House’s proposal - rejected by key members of Congress - to cut the State Department budget by about 30 percent. He has imposed a hiring freeze while analyzing the agency’s operations and deciding how to reorganize them. Tillerson, a former chief executive at Exxon Mobil Corp who took office on Feb. 1, has offered few specifics to ease concerns, including in Congress, that the plan risks weakening U.S. standing in the world. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations panel, called the staff reductions a risk to national security and a “high-level decapitation of leadership.” “Folks, this situation is alarming. We put our country in danger,” Cardin said during a committee business meeting. Corker said the panel had had “a very unsatisfactory meeting last week with the State Department” and that concern was bipartisan. “We need to be much more focused on holding them accountable,” Corker said. Trump has several times contradicted Tillerson on foreign policy issues. The president said earlier this month that his opinion was the only one that mattered in U.S. foreign policy. “The one that matters is me,” Trump said on Fox News. “I‘m the only one that matters because, when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be.”

Summary: सीनेटरों ने कटौती को लेकर विदेश विभाग की निंदा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to make it “a lot better” for U.S. workers would not be a one-way street for his administration, as Canada and Mexico prepare their own list of demands that could require difficult U.S. concessions. The 22-year-old NAFTA and other trade deals became lightning rods for voter anger in the U.S. industrial heartland states that swept Trump to power this month.  Trump — who on Monday vowed to file notice of his intent to quit an Asia-Pacific trade deal on his first day in office — has pledged to leave NAFTA if it can’t be improved to his liking. But he has said little about what improvements he wants, apart from halting the migration of U.S. factories and jobs to Mexico. Trade experts, academics and government officials say Canada and Mexico would also seek tough concessions and that NAFTA’s zero-tariff rate would be extremely difficult to alter. And any renegotiation would likely take several years. “In a renegotiation, one side can come in with requests, but the other side is going to expect concessions,” said Wendy Cutler, a former deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). “We need to know what we’re going to ask for and what we can give.” When Cutler helped renegotiate a stalled trade deal with South Korea in 2010, USTR won concessions for U.S. automakers, but at the expense of a longer phase-out on steep Korean pork tariffs and allowing Korea to largely maintain a health care reimbursement system that favors domestic generic drugmakers. Trump, who during the campaign called NAFTA the “worst trade deal ever” and threatened to levy a 35-percent tariff on Mexican-assembled autos and other goods, would have a hard time raising U.S. tariffs without scrapping the agreement, trade experts say. “There is no precedent in free trade negotiations for one side raising tariffs more than the other,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington. “If U.S. workers are more expensive than Mexican workers, the only way to level the playing field is to do things that raise costs in Mexico,” Bown said.   Negotiating stronger environmental and labor protections would be one way of doing this, as it would increase manufacturing costs in a lower-income country like Mexico. The Trump transition leader for trade, Dan Dimicco, declined Reuters’ requests for comment. DiMicco, who is under consideration to be Trump’s top trade negotiator, is a former chief executive of steel giant Nucor Corp. who has long fought for protections against unfairly traded imports. In a YouTube video message published on Monday, Trump vowed to quit the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed 12-country Pacific-rim trade bloc. Although the TPP terms were settled more than a year ago, the pact was never taken up by U.S. Republican leaders in Congress due in part to anti-free-trade rhetoric in the presidential campaign.      Calling it a “a potential disaster for our country”, Trump said his administration would instead negotiate “fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores.”  His comments would appear to snuff out any hopes among other TPP countries that the pact championed by President Barack Obama could be revived under the new administration. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said at a Pacific Rim summit on Saturday that he would be willing to discuss NAFTA with Trump to “modernize” the treaty — but not renegotiate existing provisions. He said that modernization could include adding environmental, labor and other provisions that weren’t contemplated when NAFTA was being negotiated in the early 1990s. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who met with Pena Nieto on the APEC sidelines, said he was “keeping our options open” on trade discussions with the U.S. president-elect.    But if NAFTA is reopened, Canada will insist that any renegotiation bring an end to a decades-old dispute over Canadian exports of softwood lumber, said David MacNaughton, Canada’s ambassador to the United States. U.S. producers claim the Canadian wood is unfairly subsidized because it comes from federal lands and have threatened to seek billions of dollars in tariffs, which Canadian officials say would make a “mockery” of free trade. For Mexico’s part, any concessions that would favor U.S. industrial goods could be met with demands to increase U.S. import quotas for Mexican sugar and protections for Mexico’s potato crop. And both Mexico and Canada would likely demand greater access to compete for U.S. public sector procurements, now largely protected by “Buy America” laws. A major Trump administration infrastructure spending program would make this a more enticing target, Cutler said. Since NAFTA was enacted, total U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico has quadrupled to $1.3 trillion a year, but the U.S. combined goods trade deficit with Canada and Mexico has grown from $9.1 billion in 1993 to $76.2 billion in 2015. (Graphic showing trend in U.S. trade deficit, imports: tmsnrt.rs/2gajLSa) NAFTA’s effect on U.S. jobs is disputed. Critics such as the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute charge that it has led to the loss of some 850,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs, while proponents such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claim the trade growth has added a net 5 million jobs in the United States.   The non-partisan Congressional Research Service concluded that NAFTA has had only a small positive effect on U.S. growth, but has helped U.S. manufacturers become more competitive due to more efficient supply chains.      A renegotiated NAFTA could, ironically, end up borrowing key elements from the TPP to stiffen provisions on environment, labor and digital economy standards, trade experts said. Mexico and Canada have already agreed in the TPP to “fully enforceable” labor and environmental improvements, meaning that punitive duties could be imposed on countries that don’t comply — a major step-up from NAFTA. TPP also included provisions governing e-commerce and cross-border data flows — sectors that barely existed as NAFTA was negotiated in the early 1990s — to better protect intellectual property and ensure a free and open internet. Officials in all three countries say NAFTA needs modernization in this area. Trump economic advisers Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross have suggested, however, that the TPP environmental, health and safety standards aren’t strong enough.  In an economic white paper and various opinion pieces, Navarro, a University of California-Irvine business professor and Ross, a billionaire private equity investor who is being considered by Trump to lead the Commerce Department, said they want future U.S. trade deals to include “prompt triggers and automatic renegotiation if trade gains are not distributed fairly.” They also want “ironclad sanctions” against currency manipulation, and “zero tolerance” for intellectual property theft. “In any negotiation or renegotiation, our guiding principle should be this: Enter into a free trade agreement only if it both increases total trade and reduces our trade deficit,” they wrote.

Summary: ट्रम्प के नाफ्टा सुधार के लिए रियायतों की आवश्यकता होगी, टी. पी. पी. से उधार ले सकते हैं


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel offered his Qatari counterpart a small piece of the Berlin Wall on Tuesday, saying Germany s post-war history was proof it was possible to overcome deep divisions such as those now plaguing the Gulf region. Gabriel said Germany had a keen interest in maintaining good relations with all the Gulf countries and working for peace in the region, even if those countries were sometimes in conflict.  Especially in politically troubled times in which dialogue has sometimes slipped into the background, it is all the more important to build bridges, to emphasize the things that unite us and to help remove walls,  Gabriel said at the opening of a new Qatar-funded Arabic cultural center in Berlin. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said he hoped the new center, erected in a neo-classical villa in the southern part of Berlin, could showcase Arab culture and help battle stereotypes of Arabs in Europe. Sheikh Mohammed last week blamed what he called  reckless leadership  in the Gulf for a rift with Qatar and the current crisis in Lebanon, taking apparent aim at Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt this summer cut diplomatic, transport and trade ties with Qatar, accusing it of financing terrorism. Doha denies the charges. Gabriel did not refer to the Gulf dispute directly, but lauded Germany s World War Two enemies for building bridges and welcoming Germany back into the world community despite the devastation and horrors of the Nazi regime.  After 70 years, we saw that it s possible, even after a world war, to be partners in a first step and friends in a second,  he said.  Tearing down walls is exhausting but worth it.  Gabriel said a full segment of the Wall that once divided East and West Germany would be delivered to a museum in Doha, fulfilling a promise he had made to the sister of Qatar s ruler.  Because as a politician, particularly in these days in Germany, we ought to fulfill our promises,  he said.   That is a hot topic in my country at the moment.  Gabriel, a former leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), declined to comment further on Chancellor Angela Merkel s failure to forge a new coalition government with the pro-business Free Democrats and environmental Greens. Merkel is pressing the SPD to reconsider its refusal to join another  grand coalition  with the conservatives - a move that would stave off new elections that now loom.

Summary: जर्मनी ने अपने इतिहास का हवाला देते हुए खाड़ी विभाजनों को पाटने के लिए काम करने का आग्रह किया


BEIJING (Reuters) - China and the United States are in “close communication” on arranging a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The remarks were reported by China’s official Xinhua news agency on Saturday.

Summary: शी-ट्रम्प की बैठक पर 'करीबी बातचीत' में चीन, अमेरिका


DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahraini civil society group has defended sending a delegation to Israel as a gesture of tolerance and coexistence, state news agency BNA has reported, after news of the visit sparked wide anger on social media. The visit came amid high emotions in the Arab world over U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, a move that was widely condemned across the Arab world. The visit by 24 delegates from the group called  This is Bahrain  has prompted a hashtag #Bahrain_resists_normalisation, in which twitter users declaring their opposition to what some called an  act of treason  against Palestinians and Bahrainis. In a statement carried by state news agency BNA late on Sunday, the group said the visit was a private initiative to  Israel and occupied Jerusalem  comprising Bahrainis and expatriates of various faiths.  The initiative by  This is Bahrain  is based on the principle of tolerance and coexistence, an approach embraced by the Kingdom of Bahrain and a feature of its society, and aims to visit Islamic, Christian, Jewish and other holy sites across the world,  the group said. Most Arab countries see Israel as an occupier of Arab lands, and say any normalization of ties with the Jewish state must be in line with an Arab peace plan that calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Summary: इजरायल की यात्रा के बाद बहरीन का नागरिक समाज समूह दबाव में


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s Platform for Concerned Citizens, a civil society group, called on Tuesday for a far-reaching national dialogue involving all political parties to help plot a new course for the country after the resignation of Robert Mugabe.  A National Transitional Authority must be the final outcome of a national dialogue,  the PCC said in a statement.  We have informed both the government and the military of our view.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के नागरिक समाज ने मुगाबे के बाद 'राष्ट्रीय वार्ता' का आह्वान किया


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore is grappling with a controversy that refuses to go away, a month after rainwater flooded a tunnel of its mass rapid transit (MRT) service, leading to the partial suspension of train runs at weekends. A rare public apology by top transit executives and an assurance from the government that the cause was clear and the fix not complicated have done little to appease the public that has come to expect glitch-free efficiency.     The front page of the state-owned Straits Times newspaper this week featured a photo of grim-faced top transit executives in the gallery of parliament as the transport minister said they had to do better and could face pay cuts.  The facts of the 7 October incident are not complicated, and the cause of the incident is clear,  Minister Khaw Boon Wan said, adding that poor maintenance and neglect of duties by transit managers were to blame.  It is the responsibility of management to set the right culture of professionalism and excellence. It begins from the top. And if there is poor culture, the CEO is responsible.  The scrutiny of the disruption, which in most cities would be considered minor and barely newsworthy, reflected the pressure on the government to explain how it had failed to deliver a near-perfect public service.  Singapore residents are highly dependent on public transport. It is one of the world s most expensive places to own a vehicle and it recently announced that it will not allow any growth in its car population from February. Voter discontent with public services can be particularly alarming to the ruling party which saw its worst election showing in 2011 when 40 percent of voters went against it, partly in dismay over the growing strains on public transport. The People s Action Party has ruled Singapore, one of the richest and most stable countries in the world, without interruption since independence in 1965.  Transit operator SMRT chief Desmond Kuek was quoted in an email to staff as saying this week should have been a celebration marking the 30-year anniversary of the subway operations.  Instead, we were awash in collective shame because a few of our staff had let us down,  Kuek said in the email, according to the Straits Times.

Summary: मामूली ट्रेन व्यवधान ने गड़बड़ी-मुक्त सेवाओं के लिए सिंगापुर की प्रतिष्ठा को झकझोर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday that the directors of national intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency would both be members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. The Senate has confirmed former U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo as CIA director, but the nomination of former Senator Dan Coats as national intelligence director is awaiting confirmation. The decision follows a political controversy over a decision by Trump not to make the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff regular members of the Principals Committee, a key White House decision-making body. David Priess, a historian of U.S. intelligence, said former President Ronald Reagan’s CIA director, William Casey, was the first U.S. spy chief to sit in a presidential Cabinet. Priess said one of Casey’s successors, William Webster, asked not to be in the Cabinet because he felt intelligence should be kept separate from policymaking.  Under President Bill Clinton, CIA Directors John Deutch and George Tenet were Cabinet members. When Tenet continued as CIA director after George W. Bush became president, he left the Cabinet. In his memoir, “At the Center of the Storm,” Tenet wrote: “I was relieved that, unlike in the Clinton administration, where my job had Cabinet status, I no longer was obliged to attend ritual events like the State of the Union,” referring to the president’s annual speech to Congress.

Summary: ट्रंप के जासूस प्रमुख होंगे कैबिनेट के सदस्यः व्हाइट हाउस


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz refused to endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the party’s convention on Wednesday, drawing angry jeers from Trump supporters and shattering the facade of party unity that has been carefully built up in Cleveland this week. Anti-Trump Republican delegate Ken Cuccinelli told Reuters he escorted Cruz’s wife, Heidi, off the floor of the Republican National Convention out of concern for her safety following her husband’s speech. For the third day in a row, what was supposed to be a carefully scripted show of unity was thrown into turmoil by unexpected events that have raised questions about whether the party can unite around Trump to defeat the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, in the Nov. 8 election.  Cruz, who came in a distant second to Trump in the race for the Republican nomination, stopped short of endorsing Trump after a bitter and personal campaign and mentioned him only once, drawing boos and repeated chants of “We want Trump.” Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general, said: “When the speech ended, there was an ugly crowd behind us.” A witness said one person shouted: “Goldman Sachs” at Heidi Cruz in reference to her employment at the investment bank. Cruz began his speech saying: “I want to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night.”  Later in the speech, he urged: “Please, don’t stay home in November. Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.” Some critics saw the appeal for people to vote their conscience as a vote of no-confidence in Trump. Republican strategist Eric Fehrnstrom, who is not affiliated with any campaign, tweeted: “‘Vote your conscience’ was the rallying cry of the Never Trump movement. For Cruz to bring that message into #RNC hall was a colossal error.” “It’s taken me about 30 minutes to calm down and stop shaking with anger,” said Erik Layton, an alternate delegate from California who had shouted: “Go home” at Cruz after his speech. “I just don’t know why Cruz did this. It baffles my mind.” Trump, 70, a businessman and former reality TV star who has never been elected to public office, made his entrance to the convention hall near the end of Cruz’s speech, applauding Cruz’s remarks but, by his appearance, drawing attention away from his former rival. In a tweet after the convention adjourned for the night, Trump wrote that Cruz broke a promise they both had made to endorse the party’s White House choice. “Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn’t honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!” Trump wrote. During the campaign for the party’s nomination, Trump insulted Cruz’s wife’s looks and suggested the Texan’s father was with John F. Kennedy’s assassin just before the president was shot in Dallas in 1963.  Cruz, 45, who as a Tea Party conservative in the U.S. Senate angered many mainstream Republicans in Congress and spearheaded tactics that led to a government shutdown over the federal budget, called Trump a “serial philanderer” and a “narcissist” during the campaign. A Cruz adviser who asked to remain anonymous said Cruz anticipated a backlash from the crowd if he did not endorse Trump. “We knew people were going to be mad if he didn’t say the words, but he congratulated him and called for unity behind common values. He expected people to not be thrilled about this,” the adviser said.  Trump won the party’s nomination on Tuesday with 1,725 delegates, followed by Cruz with 475 delegates. Several delegates were outraged by the reaction to Cruz’s speech, saying it could undermine Trump’s support among Republicans who had supported the senator from Texas. “I thought it was shameful,” said Manette Merrill, a Cruz delegate from Washington state, adding she was now confident she would not vote for Trump in November. “They talk about unity ... and then they act like that. That is not going to get us to unify,” she said. The drama did not prevent Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, from receiving a raucous welcome inside the convention hall to end the day’s events. Accepting the convention’s nomination, Pence spoke of Trump as a friend of the working class who has persevered in the business world. “He’s a doer in a game usually reserved for talkers,” Pence said. Trump briefly joined Pence on the stage, shook his hand, patted him on the back, gave a thumbs-up and, in a signal to the crowd, pointed at Pence. But the Cruz speech, the latest in a series of disruptions, overshadowed any show of solidarity. Cruz swiftly became one of the top trending topics on Twitter and Facebook immediately following his speech, with about 157 tweets mentioning his official Twitter handle @tedcruz posted every minute. The overall immediate sentiment was slightly more positive than negative, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph. The most mentioned moment on Twitter on Wednesday was the crowd’s reaction to Trump’s arrival at the conclusion of Cruz’s speech. Cruz was also the most mentioned speaker of the night, followed by Pence. Cruz was the most searched speaker on Google. In a speech minutes after Cruz finished, former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich veered from his prepared text to defend Cruz. “I think you misunderstood one paragraph that Ted Cruz, who is a superb orator, said. And I just want to point it out to you. Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience for anyone who will uphold the Constitution. In this election, there is only one candidate who will uphold the Constitution,” Gingrich said. “To paraphrase Ted Cruz, if you want to protect the Constitution of the United States, the only possible candidate this fall is the Trump-Pence Republican ticket,” Gingrich said. The convention, due to end on Thursday with Trump’s speech accepting the party’s nomination, has been marked by turmoil from Day One. On Monday, chaos erupted when Trump opponents inside his party stormed out of the room and others chanted to vent frustration over a failed attempt to force a vote in opposition to Trump. On Tuesday, similarities between some phrases in a speech by Trump’s wife, Melania, and a 2008 speech by first lady Michelle Obama triggered accusations of plagiarism, putting the Trump campaign on the defensive. A staff writer for the Trump Organization on Wednesday took responsibility for the “chaos” over the speech. Eminent Republicans such as the party’s previous two presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain, and members of the Bush family that gave the party its last two presidents have stayed away from Cleveland in a show of displeasure at Trump and his rhetoric against illegal immigration and free trade. Opponents brand Trump a bigot with his calls to temporarily ban the entry of Muslims and to build a border wall with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants. Underscoring the problems Trump has faced with U.S. allies abroad, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Reuters on Wednesday that Trump threatened U.S. and world security with his “politics of fear and isolation.”

Summary: टेड क्रूज़ ने ट्रम्प का समर्थन करने से इनकार करने के लिए मजाक उड़ाया, रिपब्लिकन दरार को उजागर किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security terminated a program on Wednesday that allowed minors fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to settle in the United States, ending travel hopes for more than 2,700 children awaiting approval. In a notice published in the Federal Register that goes into effect Aug. 16, the government said it was ending the practice of granting parole under the Central American Minors (CAM) Program, which was offered to children even if they had been denied refugee status. The program started at the end of 2014 under the administration of former President Barack Obama as a response to tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border seeking entry into the United States.   An executive order on border security signed by U.S. President Donald Trump days after he took office in January triggered a review of the program, putting on hold applications of more than 2,700 children who had been conditionally approved for entry into the United States. Now those applications will be canceled. The bulk of the children approved for the program were from El Salvador. Immigration advocacy group Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) said that cancelling the program would lead to more children to try to find other means to enter the United States.  “These children have been repeatedly told by the U.S. government, including the Trump Administration, not to migrate to the United States due to safety concerns,” the organization said in a statement. “Now this Administration is cutting off the only authorized channel and leaving children no choice but to make the perilous journey to the United States.” The program allowed children under 21 years old with parents lawfully living in the United States to apply for a refugee resettlement interview before making the journey to the United States.  As of August 4, more than 1,500 children and eligible family members had arrived in the United States as refugees under the CAM program, according to the State Department.  Children who did not qualify for refugee status and had no other means of reuniting with their parents in the United States  could also apply for entry under the program. They would be approved for parole for two years, allowing them to travel and stay in the United States and apply for work permits.   Since its inception, more than 1,400 children were granted parole and allowed to travel to the United States. They included  1,110 from El Salvador, 324 from Honduras and 31 from Guatemala, according to a spokesman from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  Now, they will have to re-apply for parole once their two-year term expires but will only be able to have it renewed if they can demonstrate “an urgent humanitarian or a significant public benefit reason” for them to stay, the federal register said. Parole decisions would be determined on a case-by-case basis. More than 13,000 people have applied for the program since it began, the State Department said. Around 1 percent of applicants were denied both for refugee status and parole, according to the USCIS spokesman. The refugee portion of the program will not be affected by Wednesday’s termination and children stranded abroad can still apply as refugees.

Summary: अमेरिका ने हिंसा से भाग रहे मध्य अमेरिकी नाबालिगों के लिए कार्यक्रम समाप्त किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has not announced a point person dedicated to cyber security policy or staffing in his administration, an omission that could make the United States more vulnerable to threats and worsen a government cyber talent shortfall, current and former national security officials said. They and multiple sources involved with the Trump transition organization said they were unaware of any person in the Trump orbit who is dealing specifically with cyber security, and that there has been minimal contact with federal agencies. The apparent lack of expertise or prioritization coincides with U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, having   pivoted to digital warfare to address the growing national security and economic threats that nation-states and extremist groups pose in cyberspace. In response to a request for comment, a Trump spokeswoman referred to a cyber-security “vision” on Republican Trump’s campaign website, which calls for an immediate review of U.S. cyber defenses and vulnerabilities and lists high-profile hacks as “key issues” without further explanation. It did not mention cyber attacks on Democratic Party political organizations during the election campaign that the U.S. government said were carried out by Russia to interfere with the Nov. 8 vote. Trump praised WikiLeaks for publishing leaked emails from his opponent Hillary Clinton’s campaign and also questioned whether Russia was responsible for the hacks. A former National Security Agency (NSA) official who reviewed the “vision” statement said it was short on detail. Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to Trump who managed his campaign, told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower Wednesday that reports of a rocky transition process were false. “You don’t form a federal government overnight,” she said. The ousting of former Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers from Trump’s transition team on Tuesday left a void of expertise on cyber and intelligence matters for the president-elect, officials said.   Rogers, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee while in Congress was talked about in Washington as a potential CIA Director or Director of National Intelligence. Former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn and retired lieutenant general Ronald Burgess are part of Trump’s transition team. They were focused on intelligence and security matters, according to a Trump team document that has circulated among Washington trade and lobbying organizations in the week since the New York businessman’s stunning election victory. Flynn is a contender to be the next Director of National Intelligence or White House National Security Adviser, according to people close to him and multiple media reports. A less likely possibility, according to the people, is Flynn would be named head of the National Security Agency. But neither Flynn nor Burgess are experts on cyber security, nor have they indicated an interest in the subject to Obama administration officials, sources close to the Trump and Obama teams said. The federal government has struggled for years to keep pace with the rising need for cyber talent.  A July memo from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget found a critical shortage of talent across the country was worsened in government, caused in part by an inability to compete with lucrative salaries in the private sector.  James Norton, a former George W. Bush administration official who helped set up the Department of Homeland Security’s first cyber security team, said that Trump’s transition team may be waiting to move forward on the issue until after cabinet-level security posts are filled.  “Cyber will be a priority,” said Norton, now president of Washington-based consulting firm Play-Action Strategies LLC. “There’s a little bit of fog, but I think that will clear once the names of the nominees are out.”  But finding and retaining qualified technical people to serve in government may become even more difficult under a Trump presidency because of disagreements with his policies and politics, three former national security officials said.  The president-elect’s bombastic statements on the campaign trail frequently alarmed tech companies and at times elicited public mockery, such as when Trump called for closing off parts of the Internet to limit militant Islamist propaganda or urged his supporters to boycott Apple when it refused to help the FBI unlock an iPhone tied to one of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters. Susan Hennessey, a former attorney in the office of the general counsel at the NSA, said she has been urging people in the intelligence community to keep working in Trump’s administration because their expertise will be necessary to protect the country and resist potential abuses of executive power on issues such as surveillance. “In candor, I’m sad to be asking former colleagues whom I respect to consider setting aside their conscience in order to serve their country,” said Hennessey, who now serves as managing editor of the national security blog Lawfare. “I can’t and don’t blame anyone who feels they can’t stay.” A current national security official who has been approached by the Trump transition team said all or most political appointees in the Obama administration are expected to be sent packing after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. He predicted that as much as five to 10 percent of the federal workforce also might leave.  Richard Clarke, a former senior White House advisor on counterterrorism and cyber security in both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, said Trump’s election presents an opportunity to civil servants to help shape or resist the president-elect’s opinion on policy matters. He said many of the same concerns about Trump existed within the federal bureaucracy when former President Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. “These people like Reagan and Trump are not well-grounded in policy,” Clarke said. “They don’t have a lot of firm beliefs that stem from years of analysis and experience,” Clarke told Reuters. “You can change their mind if you do it subtly, if they trust you. And you may not even know you’ve changed their mind, because they don’t know what their mind is.” Some parts of government are more effective than others at “slow-rolling” the president’s impulses, Clarke said. But “you can’t slow-roll work that needs to be done,” such as improving cyber security and addressing cyber threats, he said.

Summary: ट्रंप की साइबर सुरक्षा टीम, नीति आकार लेने में धीमीः अधिकारी


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese F-15 fighters on Tuesday held drills with U.S. B1-B bombers, F-35 stealth aircraft and F-18 multirole combat jets  above the East China Sea, south of the Korean peninsula, Japan s Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) said. The exercise was the largest in a series aimed at pressuring North Korea following its ballistic missile tests. The latest launch, on Nov. 29, featured a new missile type the North said could hit targets in the United States, such as Washington D.C.  The drill was meant to bolster joint operations and raise combat skills,  the ASDF said in a statement. Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flew from Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam, joined by six F-35s four F-18s and a tanker aircraft from U.S. bases in Japan.  The Japanese air force dispatched four F-15 jet fighters and a patrol aircraft.

Summary: कोरियाई प्रायद्वीप के पास अमेरिकी बमवर्षक विमानों, गुप्त लड़ाकू विमानों के साथ जापान की वायु सेना का अभ्यास


ANKARA (Reuters) - A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.0 struck southeastern Iran on Friday, injuring at least 42 people and destroying several homes in an area where most people live in villages of mud-walled homes. State media said no deaths had been reported. Rescue workers, special teams with sniffer dogs and units of Iran s Revolutionary Guards and Basij militia forces were sent to the quake-hit areas in Kerman province, Iran s semi-official Fars news agency said. State TV said many residents rushed out of houses in Kerman city and nearby villages and towns, fearing more tremors after some 51 aftershocks following the 6:32 a.m. (0232 GMT) quake.  The quake destroyed some houses in 14 villages but so far there has been no fatalities,  a local official told state TV.  Fortunately no deaths have been reported so far.  The quake struck less than three weeks after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit villages and towns in Iran s western Kermansheh province along the mountainous border with Iraq, killing 530 people and injuring thousands of others.  The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday s quake, at first reported as magnitude 6.3, was centered 36 miles (58 km) northeast of Kerman city, which has a population of more than 821,000. The quake was very shallow, at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), which would have amplified the shaking in the poor, sparsely populated area. Head of Relief and Rescue Organization of Iran s Red Crescent Morteza Salimi told state television that at least 42 people were injured. Iran s state news agency IRNA said most of those hurt had minor injuries.   Assessment teams are surveying the earthquake-stricken areas and villages in Kerman province,  IRNA quoted local official Mohammadreza Mirsadeqi as saying.   Iran s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the quake had caused heavy damage in Hojedk town and some villages were hit by power and water cuts.  State TV aired footage of damaged buildings in remote mountainous villages near Hojedk town, the epicenter of the earthquake with a population of 3,000 people. TV said coal mines in the area had been closed because of aftershocks.  Iran s Red Crescent said emergency shelter, food and water had been sent to the quake-hit areas.  Criss-crossed by several major fault lines, Iran is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 quake in Kerman province killed 31,000 people and flattened the ancient city of Bam.

Summary: ईरान के दक्षिण-पूर्व में भूकंप के झटके, कई घर तबाह, कोई हताहत नहीं