WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former CIA director James Woolsey pitched a $10 million contract to two Turkish businessmen to help discredit a controversial U.S.-based cleric while Woolsey was an adviser to Donald Trump’s election campaign, three people familiar with the proposal said.     Just eight days after formally joining Trump’s campaign as an adviser on national security issues, Woolsey met on Sept. 20, 2016 with businessmen Ekim Alptekin and Sezgin Baran Korkmaz over lunch at the Peninsula Hotel in New York, they said.      Woolsey and his wife, Nancye Miller, proposed a lobbying and public relations campaign targeting Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in Pennsylvania.     Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Gulen of instigating a failed coup in July 2016 and wants him extradited to Turkey to face trial. Gulen has denied any role in the coup.     In an email memo seen by Reuters, Woolsey and Miller sketched a plan to “draw attention to the cleric’s possible role in the coup attempt” and encourage an official investigation into his activities.     Alptekin, an ally of Erdogan, had already agreed through one of his companies to a $600,000 contract with the consulting firm of Michael Flynn to research Gulen. Flynn was also a Trump campaign adviser and later became his national security adviser before being fired in February.       Woolsey was a member of Flynn’s firm, the Flynn Intel Group, according to a Justice Department filing by the firm and an archive of the company’s website, although a spokesman for Woolsey disputed that characterization, saying he was an unpaid adviser and his affiliation was “loosely defined.”      At the Sept. 20 meeting, Miller said she and Woolsey were in a better position than Flynn to influence decision-makers about Gulen’s alleged role in the coup, according to Alptekin and two other people familiar with the discussion.     Bidding for a lobbying or consulting contract with a foreign company or government is not illegal, and Woolsey and Miller did not win the contract in any event.     But the previously undisclosed meeting shows for the first time that two Trump aides were competing with each other to win the lucrative business deal with Alptekin. The deal with Flynn is now being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his wider probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians who tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.   Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment.     Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for Woolsey and Miller, said his clients were not under investigation. Flynn is a central figure in Mueller’s investigation because of conversations he had with then-Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year and because he waited until March to retroactively register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for the work he did for Alptekin. In that filing, Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, said the work done for Alptekin’s company “could be construed to have principally benefited the republic of Turkey.”       Flynn was fired as national security adviser in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations with Kislyak.     Franks described the Sept. 20 meeting as “unremarkable” and said Miller could not locate the email memo or remember writing it.     He also said Woolsey had pursued with Turkish interests an “economic development proposal in the wake of the coup that centered around reassuring folks that Turkey was a safe place to do business” but that the project’s focus was not on Gulen.      Alptekin said Woolsey and Miller pursued his business at the Sept. 20 meeting, pitching the project to target Gulen, but he decided to stick to his contract with Flynn’s firm.      Kelner declined to comment for this story.     The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The disclosure in March of Flynn’s contract to discredit Gulen sparked intense media scrutiny of people who had worked with Flynn, including Woolsey.      Shortly after, Woolsey alleged in media interviews that Flynn and others had, at a Sept. 19, 2016 meeting in New York, discussed with Turkey’s foreign and energy ministers the idea of covertly spiriting Gulen out of the United States and to Turkey.      Flynn has denied through a spokesman ever discussing such a plan. Alptekin also denied it was ever discussed and said Woolsey’s claim was “all the more astounding” because he had sought Alptekin’s business at a meeting the following day.     “His story is fiction,” Alptekin told Reuters.     Franks said Woolsey stands by his account of the meeting.     Woolsey first proposed the $10 million project to Korkmaz, the second Turkish businessman, at a meeting in California in August 2016. The proposal was outlined in an email sent from Miller to Woolsey on Aug. 18, printed out and shown by Woolsey to Korkmaz, who then forwarded it on to Alptekin.  Korkmaz, who had known Woolsey for some years, invited Woolsey to the meeting, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Korkmaz told Woolsey that he was looking for someone who could handle a lobbying and public relations project related to Gulen.      Korkmaz and Alptekin have no business ties but knew each other through a U.S-Turkey trade group, according to two people with knowledge of their relationship. Anil Leylek, a spokeswoman for Korkmaz’s company, declined to comment.     Franks confirmed the August meeting but described it as “brief” and “not a pitch.”     Woolsey and Miller’s proposal included getting Washington insiders like then-Senator Jeff Sessions, who is now Trump’s attorney general, to co-author articles on the situation in Turkey, engaging with influential lawmakers such as Republican Senator Bob Corker, and getting Woolsey on Fox News and CNN, the memo said.      “The cost of this engagement will be $10,000,000,” it said.     Woolsey, who led the CIA for two years under former President Bill Clinton, joined the Trump campaign in September. He was on the transition team after Trump’s election victory in November but he stepped down in January.     Franks said Woolsey was an unpaid adviser to the campaign, had no obligation to report any efforts to pursue work for Turkish interests, and was now being smeared.     “With growing speculation that indictments could be handed down soon, it’s not a surprise that others are attempting to accomplish in the press what they cannot in the grand jury room,” Franks added.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः 2016 में ट्रम्प को सलाह देते हुए, पूर्व सी. आई. ए. प्रमुख ने तुर्की के मौलवी को बदनाम करने की योजना का प्रस्ताव रखा


YANGON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will stress the need to halt violence and stabilize Rakhine State when he meets the head of Myanmar s military on Wednesday in a bid to ease the Rohingya refugee crisis, a senior State Department official said.  More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a counter-insurgency clearance operation of Myanmar forces in Rakhine. A top U.N. official has called the operation a textbook case of  ethnic cleansing . Attending an East Asia summit in Manila on Tuesday, Tillerson met Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose less than two-year-old civilian administration shares power with the military and has no control over its generals. He will meet Suu Kyi again in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw on Wednesday, and hold separate talks with the head of the armed forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Asked what approach Tillerson would take with Myanmar s army chief, the State Department official told journalists in a briefing by teleconference that the emphasis would be on restoring peace in Rakhine.  We are focusing on trying to stabilize areas in northern Rakhine so that people can return there, stopping the violence, making sure that the military would protect all populations in that area equally and that they conduct a credible investigation that leads to accountability for people who have perpetrated abuses,  said the official, who was with Tillerson in Manila and declined to be identified. The official said the consequences for the country, also known as Burma, if it failed to respond to the crisis with accountability could be part of the conversation with the military leader.  Burma made a lot of progress and we would not want to see that progress reversed,  the official added. U.S. senators in Washington are pressing for economic sanctions and travel restrictions targeting the Myanmar military and its business interests.  The secretary will reiterate support for Burma s democratic transition and urge the Burmese government to protect the local population and allow unhindered humanitarian and media access, (and) support for a credible investigation of abuses,  the official added. Accusations of organized mass rape and other crimes against humanity were leveled at the Myanmar military on Sunday by another senior U.N. official who had toured camps in Bangladesh where Rohingya refugees have taken shelter. Mass Exodus: tmsnrt.rs/2xTAOon Pramila Patten, special representative of the U.N. secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, said she would raise accusations against the Myanmar military with the International Criminal Court in the Hague. The military, known as the Tatmadaw, has consistently protested its innocence, and on Monday it posted the findings of an internal investigation on the Facebook page of Min Aung Hlaing. It said it had found no instances where its soldiers had shot and killed Rohingya villagers, raped women or tortured prisoners. It denied that security forces had torched Rohingya villages or used  excessive force . The military said that, while 376  terrorists  were killed, there were no deaths of innocent people. Human rights groups poured scorn on the military s investigation, branding it a  whitewash  and calling for U.N. and independent investigators to be allowed into Myanmar.  The Burmese military s absurd effort to absolve itself of mass atrocities underscores why an independent international investigation is needed to establish the facts and identify those responsible,  Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Amnesty International also dismissed the military s internal investigation.  There is overwhelming evidence that the military has murdered and raped Rohingya and burned their villages to the ground,  the London-based rights group said. The government in mostly Buddhist Myanmar regards the Muslim Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. And Suu Kyi s failure to speak out strongly over their plight has widely damaged the Nobel Peace Prize winner s international reputation as a stateswoman. Many diplomats, however, believe Myanmar s fragile transition to democracy after 49 years of military rule would be jeopardized if she publicly criticized the armed forces.  Both parts of the government will have to work together in order to solve this problem...Trying to get two of them to work together, to try to solve the problem, is certainly going to be very important,  the U.S. official said. The U.S. official said Suu Kyi had been forthcoming in her talks with Tillerson and others during the past few days about the steps that needed to be taken to improve the situation, including plans for the voluntary repatriation of Rohingya. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among those she met in Manila to discuss the Rohingya crisis.  This is a tremendous concern to Canada and to many, many countries around the world,  Trudeau told a news conference. Japan s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged up to 117 billion yen ($1 billion) of development aid to Myanmar in his meeting with Suu Kyi. While world leaders wrung their hands, thousands of Rohingya remained stranded in Myanmar, on beaches around the mouth of the Naf river, hoping to find a boat to make the short, sometimes perilous crossing to Bangladesh.  They re still coming, risking their lives, driven by fears of starvation and violence,  Shariful Azam, a police official in Bangladesh s Cox s Bazar, a narrow spit of land where the world s most urgent humanitarian crisis is unfolding.  Trail of destruction: tmsnrt.rs/2fDBxTc A desperate escape: tmsnrt.rs/2A1ATUP

Summary: टिलरसन म्यांमार के सेना प्रमुख पर हिंसा रोकने के लिए दबाव डालेंगे ताकि रोहिंग्या वापस लौट सकें


MANILA (Reuters) - A draft of the statement to be issued after a Southeast Asian summit makes no mention of the exodus of Rohingya Muslims from  Myanmar s Rakhine state following a military crackdown that has been described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing. One paragraph of the communique, seen by Reuters on Monday, mentions the importance of humanitarian relief provided for victims of natural disasters in Vietnam and a recent urban battle with Islamist militants in the Philippines, as well as  affected communities  in northern Rakhine state. The statement was drawn up by the Philippines, current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - which includes Myanmar - whose leaders met for a plenary session in Manila on Monday. The draft did not give any details of the situation in northern Rakhine or use the term Rohingya for the persecuted Muslim minority, which Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has asked foreign leaders to avoid. The government in mostly-Buddhist Myanmar regards the Rohingya as illegal migrants from Bangladesh and does not recognize the term. Well over 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to find shelter in refugee camps after military clearance operations were launched in response to attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts on Aug. 25. The plight of the Rohingya has brought outrage from around the world and there have been calls for democracy champion Suu Kyi to be stripped of the Nobel peace prize she won in 1991 because she has not condemned the Myanmar military s actions. In September, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the situation in Rakhine was best described as ethnic cleansing. Some members of ASEAN, particularly Muslim-majority Malaysia, have voiced concern. However, in keeping with ASEAN s principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of one another, the issue appears to have been put aside at the summit. In September, Malaysia disavowed a statement issued by the Philippines on behalf of ASEAN s foreign ministers as misrepresenting  the reality  because it did not identify the Rohingya as an affected community in Rakhine state. Suu Kyi, who did not mention the crisis in a speech after arriving in Manila on Sunday, criticized ASEAN s principle of non-interference herself in 1999 when she was fighting for democracy in a country then ruled by a military junta.  This policy of non-interference is just an excuse for not helping,  she wrote in an opinion column in the Thai daily the Nation at the time.  In this day and age, you cannot avoid interference in the matters of other countries.  Roberto Romulo, a former Philippine foreign minister, told the Philippine news channel ANC that there appeared to be no discussion about the Rohingya at the ASEAN summit.  They re treating with a great deal of respect a discredited Nobel Peace Prize winner like Aung San Suu Kyi,  he said. Amnesty International Philippines representative Wilnor Papa told ANC that the ASEAN leaders would talk about  terrorism and peace and order ... but there are a whole lot of elephants in the room they won t be talking about, that people are trying to ignore.

Summary: रोहिंग्या संकट पर दक्षिण पूर्व एशिया शिखर सम्मेलन के मसौदा बयान को छोड़ दिया गया


TOKYO (Reuters) - A special panel to debate the timing of Emperor Akihito s abdication, Japan s first in nearly two centuries, meets on Friday, setting the stage for a formal decision by the government. Akihito, who turns 84 on Dec. 23 and has had heart surgery and been treated for prostate cancer, said last year he feared age might make it hard to fulfill his duties. Following are some highlights from Akihito s career as the first emperor not to be considered divine from the time he ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne in 1989.  MIDDLE-CLASS MONARCHY    Akihito s 1959 marriage to Michiko Shoda, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, was the first by an emperor to a commoner and was hailed as a symbol of a new Japan. The two courted at a tennis club and he won her promise to marry him over the phone. They worked to craft an image of a  middle-class monarchy   in an attempt to draw the imperial family closer to the people.  All three of their children went to university and married commoners, and the public was informed when Akihito was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002 - in contrast to the secrecy around Emperor Hirohito s ultimately fatal illness. Akihito and Michiko have worked to smooth relations across Asia, which suffered from Japan s aggression before and during World War Two, with numerous visits abroad. In 1992, he became the first Japanese monarch in living memory to visit China, where bitter memories of the war run deep, and  deeply deplored  an  unfortunate period in which my country inflicted great suffering on the people of China . At a news conference marking his birthday in 2001, he said he felt  a certain kinship  with Korea because one of his ancestors had come from there, an unprecedented statement from a Japanese royal that made front page headlines in Seoul. In 2005, the couple went to the island of Saipan, the scene of bloody fighting during World War Two, to pay respects at memorials honoring Japanese, American and Korean war dead.  Akihito has often urged Japan to remember the suffering of the war, comments that have attracted increased attention in recent years, when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appears to be pushing for a less apologetic tone towards Japan s past. On Aug. 15, 2015, the 70th anniversary of the war s end, Akihito departed from his annual script to express  deep remorse . The day before, Abe had expressed  utmost grief  but said future generations should not have to keep apologizing. One of the duties the royal couple has taken most seriously has been comforting victims of disasters. Akihito has knelt to talk to evacuees and Michiko has hugged women who lost their homes. In 2011, Akihito took the unprecedented step of addressing the nation in a televised speech after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the world s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.  He again turned to television in 2016 to tell the people he feared he was getting too old to carry out his duties, implying he wished to abdicate.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः जापानी सम्राट अकिहितो ने लोगों को सांत्वना देने, एशिया के साथ सुलह करने का काम किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s campaign paid $50,000 to the law office now representing Donald Trump Jr. a little more than a week before news surfaced of an unreported meeting with a Russian attorney that has prompted new accusations of collusion. The payment to the Law Offices of Alan S. Futerfas, dated June 27, was disclosed in a filing with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday. It was described as covering “legal consulting” fees.  Trump Jr. admitted to meeting with a Russian lawyer in New York City during the 2016 presidential campaign after he was told she might have damaging information about his father’s rival, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The payment was made to Futerfas’ firm days before the story about the meeting broke, which caused a scramble inside the White House and Trump Tower to contain it.  The disclosures do not say who Futerfas was hired to represent. Spokesmen for Trump’s re-election campaign and Futerfas did not respond to requests for comment.  Futerfas was revealed as Trump Jr.’s lawyer on Monday after a New York Times report detailed meetings between the president’s eldest son and the Russian lawyer. Futerfas has not said when he was hired.      Separately, the campaign also paid more than $538,000 to Jones Day, the law firm that represented Trump’s campaign during the election. The campaign also paid $89,561 for “legal consulting” to The Trump Corporation, which is owned by the president. The payment was dated June 30th. A federal special counsel and several congressional panels are investigating allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as potential connections between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Moscow has denied any interference and the president and Trump Jr. have denied any collusion. The Federal Election Commission has previously ruled that candidates and federal office holders may spend campaign funds on legal fees incurred because they were a candidate. Trump has also hired a longtime legal adviser, Marc Kasowitz, as outside counsel. His campaign finance disclosure did not list any payments to Kasowitz. The White House confirmed in a statement on Saturday that veteran Washington attorney Ty Cobb will serve as special counsel, and sources familiar with the hiring said Cobb would handle the White House’s response to the Russia-related investigations. Cobb, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, is expected to be an intermediary between the White House and Congress, as well as outside attorneys as the probes continue.  In the second quarter of 2017, Trump’s re-election campaign raised about $8 million and spent $4.4 million, according to Saturday’s disclosures. Much of the money raised from individuals came in the form of “small dollar” donations, classed as donations of less than $250. Trump and his campaign have frequently touted the number of small-dollar donors as proof of his widespread support. Trump filed for re-election the day after taking office - allowing his campaign to continue to raise and spend money while he is in office.

Summary: ट्रम्प अभियान ने जून में बेटे का प्रतिनिधित्व करने वाले वकील को $50,000 का भुगतान किया


TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A hundred meters from the office of Libyan Prime Minister Fayaz al-Seraj in Tripoli, guards at a detention center for migrants had a message for a visiting French delegation: no minister, no journalists, nobody is allowed in.      French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian went to Libya on Thursday to revive U.N. talks between rival groups controlling the west and east, with a view to stabilizing a nation in turmoil since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. But the Tripoli leg of the visit showed how difficult it will be to find anyone capable of imposing authority, with a weak U.N.-backed government depending on an array of armed factions, each with its own agenda. After meeting Seraj in his impressive office, Le Drian was meant to visit the nearby detention facility to see conditions for African migrants caught as they try to reach Europe. But after CNN aired a video appearing to show migrants being auctioned off as slaves, Libyan officials are on edge, with guards refusing to let the French visitors through the detention camp s thick steel door.  What do you want to call it?   said a visibly tetchy man who described himself as the supervisor.  It is a detention center. Nobody is allowed. Not the minister and not journalists. Not allowed.  French officials played down the incident, saying there had been no time for a visit anyway. But it was symptomatic of how Seraj s government is struggling to make an impact, failing to fix anything from electric power cuts to a collapsing currency. Seraj promised to tackle migrant trafficking, but French officials say that will depend on which armed groups are prepared to help him.  While armed factions are vying for control in Tripoli, power in Benghazi is in the hands of one man, General Khalifa Haftar, whose forces have driven out Islamist fighters.  It s a lot more ordered here. There s no doubt here that there is just one chief,  said a European security contractor in Benghazi. Haftar s self-styled Libyan National Army is made up of different groups, which he struggles at times to control. But the general, who hopes to run for the Libyan presidency next year, sought to impress his French visitor with as much fanfare as possible. Soldiers stood at strategic points, uniforms spotless and boots polished, in contrast to other parts of Libya, where armed groups are more informally dressed in a mixture of uniforms and civilian clothes.  Opponents accuse Haftar of Gaddafi-style high-handedness and of trying to revive a police state, something his supporters vehemently deny. He did not leave his office during the French visit, leaving Le Drian to review air, sea and land forces as a military band struggled to play La Marseillaise. Haftar s aides did not allow journalists to film his meeting with le Drian with their phones.   I appreciate the frankness of our exchanges,  Le Drian said after an hour-long discussion.  That s quite natural,  Haftar responded loftily.     Haftar is attempting to position himself as a presidential candidate, but there is still sporadic fighting in Benghazi despite his having declared victory in July. One diplomat recalled how Haftar was envious of Seraj after he met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington last month, perhaps sensing a shift in the Libyan balance of power.      I don t know how comfortable he (Haftar) is feeling, because I sense that this time the security was much more stringent than when we were last here (in August),  said a French official.  He may be feeling some pressure.

Summary: फ्रांसीसी मंत्री की यात्रा के लिए लीबिया में वास्तविकताओं की तुलना


(Reuters) - Kentucky’s Republican Governor Matt Bevin has filed a lawsuit asking a judge to close an abortion clinic in Lexington, saying it was operating without a license. The lawsuit filed in Fayette Circuit Court on Wednesday alleges that the EMW Women’s Clinic was unsanitary, maintained expired medication on the site and does not have an adequate agreement to transfer patients to a hospital in case of an emergency, according to court documents. A call placed to the clinic was not immediately returned. The Lexington clinic is one of three in Kentucky that provide abortions, according to local media. The Lexington Herald Leader said that the governor’s office filed a lawsuit last month against Planned Parenthood, saying it did not have the proper license to perform abortions at its Louisville clinic. Planned Parenthood has responded that it does have the proper licensing under an agreement with the former governor, the Herald Leader reported. According to this week’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the state health service, and signed by the governor’s general counsel, EMW Women’s Clinic does not provide any care other than abortions, and therefore needs a specific type of license that it does not have. Bevin ran for governor on an anti-abortion platform and in February signed an informed consent law that requires women to consult with a doctor before having an abortion.

Summary: केंटकी के गवर्नर ने गर्भपात क्लीनिक को बंद करने के लिए मुकदमा दायर किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was elected president of Germany s Bundestag or lower house of parliament, on Tuesday at its first session after Sept. 24 elections. Schaeuble, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives, agreed last month to step aside as finance minister, clearing the way for another party to take the job as part of tricky negotiations to forge a new coalition government. Schaeuble, 75, is known for his hardline insistence on a balanced budget and his leadership during the euro zone crisis, but he faces new challenges in leading the Bundestag, which will include a far-right party - the Alternative for Germany (AfD) - for the first time in decades.

Summary: पूर्व वित्त मंत्री शेयबल जर्मन संसद के प्रमुख चुने गए


AMMAN (Reuters) - A senior commander defected to Turkey on Wednesday from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a leading combatant in the fight against Islamic State, Syrian rebel officials said, in the first such departure from its higher ranks. They said Brigadier General Talal Silo handed himself in at dawn to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an adversary of the SDF, near Jarablus city in northern Syria where he was then escorted to Turkey, which backs some FSA groups in that area. The officials gave no reason for move by Silo, who was the SDF spokesman, but it follows months of growing discontent by some Arab tribes with the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces that is dominated by the Kurdish YPG.  Many local Arab tribes in areas controlled by the SDF complain they are marginalized in decision making and blame the YPG for discrimination against them, including the forced     conscription of their youths. The YPG denies these allegation.  Silo was secretly coordinating with commanders from the FSA and when he entered areas under their control he then crossed into Turkish territory,  said Ibrahim al-Idlibi, an FSA spokesman.  Kurdish fighters, alongside Arab allies, U.S. advisers and coalition jets, have driven Islamic State from swathes of territory including its former Syrian headquarters in Raqqa city. The Kurdish YPG militia and its political allies have carved out autonomous cantons in the north, and now control nearly a quarter of Syria. Their influence angers neighbor Turkey, which considers the YPG an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers  Party that has fought a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil. The U.S.-led coalition said it was  aware of reports of Talal Silo s apparent departure from the SDF, but have no further details on his current status at this time.  Reuters could not immediately reach the SDF for comment.  U.S.-backed militias and the Syrian army have been advancing in separate offensives against Islamic State in eastern Syria, piling pressure on a small stretch of remaining territory the group still holds in oil-rich areas near the Iraqi border.

Summary: अमेरिका समर्थित सीरिया बलों के वरिष्ठ अधिकारी तुर्की-विद्रोहियों के पक्ष में हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday the Congressional Budget Office report on a Republican healthcare plan indicated a path to lower insurance premiums, a lower deficit and significant entitlement reform. McConnnell said the Senate would bring up the House of Representatives legislation and have it open to amendment before passing it. At the same news briefing, Republican Senator Roy Blunt said the CBO is “notoriously bad” at anticipating what will happen in the marketplace. McConnell also said lawmakers would talk to the Treasury secretary about timing but “obviously we will raise the debt ceiling.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सीनेटरों ने सी. बी. ओ. की आलोचना की, स्वास्थ्य देखभाल योजना का स्वागत किया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia s King Salman said at the start of talks in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday that the territorial integrity of Iraq must be preserved. In opening remarks broadcast on Russian television, the king said a political solution to the conflict in Syria must be found that keeps that country in one piece.  He also said the international community must take responsibility for what is happening to the Muslim Rohingya community in Myanmar.

Summary: सऊदी राजा ने पुतिन से कहा कि इराकी क्षेत्रीय अखंडता को संरक्षित किया जाना चाहिए


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Trump administration will temporarily delay processing of most refugees from 11 countries identified as high-risk, while resuming refugee admissions for other countries, government officials said on Tuesday. Most of the affected countries are in the Middle East and Africa, according to documents seen by Reuters. The administration also will place on hold a program that allows for family reunification for some refugees resettled in the United States, according to a Trump administration memo seen by Reuters and sent to Congress on Tuesday. The resettling of so-called following-to-join refugees will resume, according to the memo, once screening “enhancements have been implemented.” U.S. officials said the changes were aimed at protecting U.S. national security, but refugee advocates said they amounted to a de facto ban on refugees from the 11 countries and were unnecessary, since refugees are already heavily vetted. The changes come at the close of a 120-day ban on most refugees ordered by President Donald Trump to allow a review of vetting processes. The 120 days ended on Tuesday, and Trump issued an executive order allowing the general resumption of the U.S. refugee program. The memo expressed concerns about admitting refugees from the 11 countries and said the government will conduct a 90-day review “to determine what additional safeguards, if any, are necessary to ensure ... the security and welfare of the United States.” Trump took office in January with a goal of sharply cutting refugee admissions, in line with promises he made during the 2016 election campaign. He quickly issued temporary bans on refugees and travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, which were challenged in court. Opponents of the bans argued that the policies were aimed at barring Muslims from the United States. The administration has denied any intent to discriminate and says its travel ban and security changes are meant to protect the United States from terrorist acts. The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the last remaining challenge to an earlier version of Trump’s travel ban. The 11 countries to face further hurdles are those whose refugees are currently required to undergo higher-level security screening known as Security Advisory Opinions, or SAOs.  As of the end of 2016, SAOs were required for most adult male refugees who were nationals of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, as well as Palestinians who lived in those countries, according to a State Department document seen by Reuters. Three sources familiar with refugee processing said that list was still current. Officials declined to name the 11 countries. A senior U.S. official told reporters on condition of anonymity that during the 90-day review period, refugees from the 11 countries can still be admitted to the United States on a case-by-case basis, “if it’s deemed to be in the national interest and they pose no threat.”   But the administration’s memo, signed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, said the government will reallocate resources used to process refugees from SAO countries to those from other locations where “the processing may not be as resource intensive.” Refugees International, an advocacy group, said the decision amounted to “a new and near-total ban on admission of refugees from 11 nationality groups.” Citizens of the 11 countries comprised 44 percent of the nearly 54,000 refugees admitted into the United States in the 2017 fiscal year, according to State Department data. Of the countries, Iraq, Syria, Somalia and Iran sent by far the most refugees to the United States. All but two of the countries, North Korea and South Sudan, are majority Muslim, though many of the refugees that come from those countries are religious minorities in their own states.  Of nearly 2,600 Iranian refugees resettled in the United States last year, for instance, a majority were Christian, according to State Department data.  The “follow-to-join” refugee program being put on hold allows refugees who have entered the United States to apply for close family members to join them. About 2,000 such refugee family members came to the United States in 2015, according to DHS data. In a separate State Department memo seen by Reuters and issued this week, the administration also laid out additional screening for all refugees seeking admission into the United States, including details of their whereabouts going back a decade, twice as long as before. Refugees will also have to provide more detailed information about their family members. The new requirements could put an additional burden on refugees fleeing war, famine or ethnic cleansing, whose lives have often been upended and whose family members may be scattered across the world, refugee advocates said.

Summary: ट्रम्प योजना के तहत, 11 देशों के शरणार्थियों को अतिरिक्त अमेरिकी बाधाओं का सामना करना पड़ता है


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry paid tribute to the European Union on Monday as it tries to heal the wound of Britain’s vote to leave, saying detractors were overlooking what it had achieved in alliance with America. “I ask anyone who questions the importance of the EU or its relationship with the United States, (to consider) not just the history that I articulated, but the increase of prosperity, the rise in the standard of living ... the better protection of rights for individuals in the EU, as a consequence of what we have done together,” Kerry said in Brussels. He was speaking at a joint news conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after a meeting with his European counterparts including Boris Johnson, Britain’s new foreign minister, who led the Leave campaign. His comments sounded like a jab at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who last month forecast the break-up of the EU due to fears over immigration, and at Johnson, who during the campaign compared the EU’s ambitions with those of Hitler and Napoleon. Kerry, a Democrat, spoke of the close ties between the United States and European Union dating back to the U.S. role in freeing Europe from Nazism in World War Two. But he acknowledged that such memories were fading.  “There’s a whole separation of time which has changed attitudes of some people,” he said, adding that in the face of common threats such as Islamist militancy, the EU-U.S. partnership was “as important as it has ever been”. Mogherini responded that it sometimes took a clear-sighted transatlantic view to put Europe’s value into perspective. “I would like to thank you personally, and through you the U.S. administration of President Obama for the strong message and clear message that we always hear from you on the need for a strong and united Europe,” she said.  “Sometimes we need our closest friends, our best friends, to remind us of the extraordinary value of the European Union.”

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट के बाद केरी ने यूरोपीय संघ की उपलब्धियों को श्रद्धांजलि दी


HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland s state prosecutor on Tuesday said three Finnish men accused of planning to travel to Syria in 2013, join the Katiibat al-Mhajireen group and kill or assault Syrian government troops should be jailed for 18, 21 and 24 months. The men, aged 33, 33 and 37, have denied charges, saying they had no plans to join the group. The men told Helsinki district court they did not consider Katiibat al-Mhajireen to be a terrorist group.

Summary: फिनलैंड ने सीरिया के आतंकवादी समूह में शामिल होने की योजना बनाने के आरोपी पुरुषों के लिए जेल की मांग की


(Reuters) - Richard Cordray, a Democrat whose resignation as head of the U.S. consumer bureau last month triggered a political battle over who should replace him, plans to run for governor of Ohio, an advisor said on Monday. Cordray will make the announcement at an event on Tuesday at a restaurant in his home town of Grove City, Ohio, said the advisor, who asked to remain anonymous. Cordray will later tour Ohio, meeting with Democratic activists, community leaders and voters, the advisor said. When he resigned last month, Cordray named his deputy to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But the appointment was mired in turmoil after President Donald Trump assigned White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney to the role. A federal judge last week sided with Trump, but the deputy, Leandra English, is challenging the decision. The 2018 election is to replace Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican who cannot seek a third term because of term limits in the pivotal election battleground state. Kasich ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016. Many Democrats have said Cordray, with his reputation for being tough on banks and defending consumers, is their best hope for taking the Ohio governor’s mansion and chipping away at Republicans’ dominance in state government. Several candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties announced they would run for Ohio governor, according to local media. Cordray delivered a campaign-style speech at a Labor Day celebration in Cincinnnati in September, but at the time he stopped short of saying whether he intended to run for governor. The Ohio native was the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a consumer watchdog agency created under former President Barack Obama in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.  In Washington, Mulvaney on Monday said he has no intention of firing English.

Summary: Ex-U.S. उपभोक्ता ब्यूरो के प्रमुख कॉर्ड्रे ओहियो के गवर्नर के लिए चुनाव लड़ने के लिए तैयार हैं


CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Republican Party’s grip on U.S. state legislatures could loosen in next month’s election as Democrats seek to link Republican candidates to the sinking fortunes of the party’s White House candidate, Donald Trump. Republicans, who have dominated control of legislatures since the mid-term election in 2010, currently hold the majority in 67 of the country’s 98 partisan legislative chambers, while Democrats have 31. Nebraska’s single chamber is nonpartisan. More than 80 percent of the nation's 7,383 state legislative seats are up for grabs on Nov. 8 and the race between Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is expected to influence races further down the ballot papers. (See related graphic tmsnrt.rs/2ePmLDI) The bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) estimates 18 legislative chambers in 12 states could switch party control, including in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, Washington and Wisconsin. “More than three-fourths of the time the party winning the White House also makes gains in state legislatures. So the odds are Democrats would pick up chambers and seats on the whole if (Clinton) wins,” said Tim Storey, a NCSL elections analyst. National opinion polls show Clinton leading Trump with just under two weeks to go until Election Day. Democrats are also getting a big boost for down ballot races with Clinton surrogates such as President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and first lady Michelle Obama on the campaign trail stumping for party candidates.  Trump, on the other hand, is openly feuding with Republican leaders, many of whom distanced themselves from the candidate after a 2005 video surfaced earlier this month in which he is heard bragging about groping women and making other unwanted sexual advances. Storey said while Trump has his pockets of popularity, the top Republican on the party’s ticket has become a main line of attack by Democrats in swing districts.  “Instead of taxes or health care or public safety or education, Trump has been an issue in many places,” he said. According to Jessica Post, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), which is working to elect Democratic state lawmakers, “Trump is quicksand for legislative Republicans.” But Matt Walter, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), which hopes to spend $40 million on legislative and other state races this election cycle, said the Democrats’ strategy of using Trump to campaign against Republicans is not working. He contended his party’s candidates can win even without presidential coattails. “A good candidate who understands her district, who presents viable solutions for that district in that state has a better than even odds of winning in any type of environment,” he said. In addition to defending legislative turf, Republicans are trying to play offense, targeting 13 chambers in 10 states for seat gains, including Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Vermont, Colorado and Oregon. Post said Democratic candidates are offering voters “a crucial firewall against Republican overreach” in states dominated by Republicans, like North Carolina, where there has been a backlash against a law on use of public bathrooms that critics say discriminates against transgender people.   With all of Minnesota’s legislative seats up for election, Democrats need a net gain of seven seats to take control of the House and turn the state, which has a Democratic governor, in their favor. Larry Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor, said a Democratic sweep could open the way for  legislation funding capital projects and transportation as well as early childhood education. In Illinois, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, his wife and two of his wealthiest donors have contributed a combined $18 million since the March primary to House Republican leader Jim Durkin and to a super-PAC devoted to chipping away at Democrats’ veto-proof majorities in the state’s House and Senate. Democrats have been in a political stalemate with Rauner for nearly two years over the budget and other issues. In West Virginia, historically a Democratic stronghold state, Republicans took control of the state’s House, Senate, and governor’s office in 2014 for the first time in 83 years. This election, Democrats want the Senate back. Tom Susman, president of TSG Consulting, a Charleston, West Virginia-based government affairs public relations firm, said the likely scenario is the Senate remains Republican, with much of the power ceded to a growing fiscally conservative faction. “Moderate Republicans are in trouble,” said Susman. “We could be looking at a Kansas-like situation. Then, it would basically be the Tea Party running the state Senate. No new taxes. All cuts.”

Summary: अमेरिकी राज्य विधानसभाओं पर रिपब्लिकन की पकड़ चुनाव में फिसल सकती है


ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Three United Nations soldiers from Bangladesh were killed by an explosive device that detonated as they were escorting a convoy in northern Mali on Sunday, the West African country s peacekeeping mission and Bangladesh s military said.  Attacks on peacekeepers in Mali, where Islamist groups continue to operate in the vast desert in the north of the country, have made the U.N. mission there, MINUSMA, the organization s deadliest. Another five U.N. troops were seriously wounded in Sunday s explosion, which occurred at around 7 a.m. (0700 GMT) on the main road between the towns of Anefis and Gao, MINUSMA said in a statement.  Our thoughts go firstly to the families and loved ones. We pledge our complete support to them during this painful ordeal,  the head of MINUSMA, Koen Davidse, said.  The mission will use all means to ensure that justice is rendered.   The U.N. did not immediately release the nationalities of the soldiers. But the Bangladesh military s media department confirmed that three of its soldiers had died by an improvised explosive device during an encounter with militants, adding that four other Bangladeshi peacekeepers were injured in the attack. West Africa s arid Sahel region has in recent years become a breeding ground for jihadist groups   some linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State   that European countries, particularly France, fear could threaten Europe if left unchecked. Despite a 2013 French-led military operation that drove back militants who had seized control of Mali s north, the area remains home to groups that have staged assaults on high-profile targets in the capital Bamako, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. MINUSMA, established in the wake of the French intervention, has struggled to quell the unrest. The U.N. Security Council established a sanctions regime this month that allows the body to blacklist anyone who violates or obstructs a fragile 2015 peace deal signed by Mali s government and separatist groups. Anyone who attacks peacekeepers, hinders the delivery of aid, commits human rights abuses or recruits child soldiers could also face sanctions, including a global travel ban or asset freeze.

Summary: माली में विस्फोट, बांग्लादेश के तीन संयुक्त राष्ट्र सैनिकों की मौत


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker blasted Britain s failure to answer  huge numbers of questions  on its Brexit plans as negotiators held a new round of talks on Tuesday on a divorce due in less than two years. Hours after his chief negotiator Michel Barnier urged his British counterpart to  start negotiating seriously  when they met in Brussels on Monday, European Commission President Juncker echoed the bloc s refusal to discuss the future free trade deal London wants before penciling in terms for leaving the EU. Juncker scoffed at a raft of British negotiating papers published over the summer which Prime Minister Theresa May s government said had shown London was responding seriously to the detailed proposals agreed by the other 27 EU states.  I would like to be clear that I did read with the requisite attention all the papers produced by Her Majesty s government; I find none of them truly satisfactory,  he told European Union envoys gathered in Brussels for an annual conference.  So there are huge numbers of questions that need to be settled.  These included issues of rights for EU citizens in Britain and Britons in Europe after Brexit and the EU-UK border that will stretch across the island of Ireland, he said.   We need to be crystal clear that we will begin no negotiations on the new economic and trade relationship between the UK and the EU before all these questions are resolved ... that is the divorce between the EU and the UK,  Juncker said.  We cannot mix these issues up,  he continued. Barnier, he said, had firm instructions from the other 27 governments on the phasing of talks, even if he accepted that some issues could not be fully settled without knowing how trade will work.  First of all we settle the past before we look forward to the future,  he insisted. The head of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, joined Juncker in piling pressure on London:  The British government must come forward with clear positions in order for talks to advance,  he said in a statement on Tuesday evening. Negotiators who began two full days of talks on Tuesday morning are also trying to settle how much Britain may owe the Union on departure - a particularly explosive issue as both sides hope to reach some kind of outline divorce terms this year so as to give time to work out a transition to free trade. British negotiators, of whom over 100 were taking part in up to five separate forums at the EU headquarters, presented their legal assessment of an EU demand that Juncker has said might leave London paying Brussels some 60 billion euros ($72 billion) - a sum May s ministers have dismissed as unacceptable. Despite the EU rhetoric, which some in Britain see as ill-judged, government officials played down any tensions and described Monday s hour-long meeting between Barnier and Brexit Secretary David Davis as cordial and constructive.  May s spokeswoman said Britain feels it is in a good position in the negotiations and wants to agree with the European Union to move on to discussions about its future relationship by October, when EU leaders next hold a summit.  We believe we re in a good position and we would like to move on to discuss our future relationship,  May s spokeswoman told reporters.   We believe that we need the EU to show some more imagination and flexibility when it comes to these discussions,  she said.  We are seeking to agree by October Council that we can move to talk about our future relationship.  Davis is due back in Brussels late on Wednesday and to hold a final news conference with Barnier on Thursday to sum up the results of what is the third formal round of talks.

Summary: जंकर ने 'बड़े' अनुत्तरित ब्रेक्सिट प्रश्नों के लिए ब्रिटेन की आलोचना की


TOKYO (Reuters) - The mayor of Japan s western city of Osaka plans to cut ties with U.S. sister city San Francisco after the latter accepted the donation of a  comfort women  statue from a private group there. The issue of  comfort women , as those forced to work in Japan s wartime military brothels were euphemistically known, has long embittered the ties of neighbors, such as China and South Korea, with Japan.   This is highly regrettable,  Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura told reporters, describing Wednesday s endorsement by San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee of a city council decision.  The relationship of trust has completely been destroyed.  Yoshimura aims to complete the procedures necessary to snap ties by the end of the year, he said in a statement on Thursday. No officials at the San Francisco mayor s office were immediately available for comment.   Erecting comfort women statues in the United States and other countries is in conflict with our country s stance and extremely regrettable,  Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference on Friday.  We plan to continue making every effort so that things like this won t happen again.  In January, Japan temporarily recalled its ambassador to South Korea over a  comfort women  statue put up near its consulate in the southern city of Busan.   In 2015, Japan and South Korea agreed the issue of  comfort women  would be  irreversibly resolved  if both sides fulfilled their obligations, including a Japanese apology and a fund to help victims.    But South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said many South Koreans did not accept the deal reached by his conservative predecessor and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. On Friday, Suga said Japan had protested to Seoul after the South Korean parliament passed a bill designating Aug. 14 as a day of commemoration for  comfort women , adding that the move risked affecting ties, Kyodo news agency reported.

Summary: जापान की ओसाका 'आरामदायक महिलाओं' की प्रतिमा को लेकर सैन फ्रांसिस्को के साथ बहन शहर का संबंध तोड़ लेगी


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama used a trip to a lithium-ion battery factory on Friday to defend his economic record against arguments made by Republicans in the race to succeed him after the Nov. 8 presidential election. Obama said his policies, including the $760 billion economic stimulus he brought in when he first took office, helped the American economy bounce back from the 2007-2009 recession that he inherited much faster than European nations that adopted austerity measures. “If we don’t recognize the progress we’ve made and how that came about, then we may chase some snake oil and end up having policies that get us back in the swamp,” Obama told workers at the plant built by French company Saft with $95.5 million from the stimulus. “We knew that it’s going to take more than one year or even one president to get to where we need to go, but we can see real tangible evidence of what a new economy looks like. It looks like this facility right here.” The Saft plant, which opened in 2011, created almost 300 jobs in the region but has struggled with sluggish demand for lithium-ion batteries. The French company had to take a writedown and its chief executive has said it would probably take two to three years to become profitable. Obama acknowledged the pace of changes in the economy has been “scary sometimes.” Those economic fears have helped propel the campaign of Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman who is the front-runner in the race to be the Republican candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Florida, home to Republican presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio, is critical to both the March 15 primary vote and the general election that follows. Obama brought Democratic U.S. Representative Patrick Murphy from Florida with him on the trip. Murphy is running for Rubio’s Senate seat. Stimulus investments to advanced battery makers were panned by Republican lawmakers after A123 Systems, a lithium-ion battery maker, went bankrupt in 2012 and was bought by Chinese auto parts maker Wanxiang. Battery maker LG Chem came under fire after a 2013 Energy Department Inspector General report found that the company used some of its funding for a Michigan battery plant to pay employees to watch movies, volunteer at non-profits and play games because there was little work for them to do. But Obama said the stimulus helped America compete in the global race to boost solar and wind power. “Taxpayers are getting their money back, and some,” he said.  (Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Bill Trott) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: ओबामा, बैटरी संयंत्र में, आर्थिक 'सांप के तेल' पर रिपब्लिकन को फटकार लगाते हैं


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Observers cannot be certain of the results of Honduras  Nov. 26 presidential vote due to irregularities, errors and systematic problems, the top representative of the Organization of America States (OAS) in Honduras said on Monday. Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga and head of the OAS mission to Honduras told reporters that electoral authorities should carry out a wider recount after a ballot count pointed to a win for incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Summary: ओएएस का कहना है कि 'अनियमितताओं' के कारण होंडुरास के मतदान पर संदेह है


NICOSIA (Reuters) - Talks on the reunification of Cyprus should resume only if the  political status  of Turkish Cypriots is addressed should the new talks fail, a senior Turkish Cypriot official said. Outlining positions likely to be rejected outright by Greek Cypriots, Ozdil Nami, the chief Turkish Cypriot negotiator, said the Turkish Cypriots needed assurance that their political status would be spelled out if the talks failed. Cyprus was split by a Turkish invasion in 1974 that followed a Greek-inspired coup. Northern Cyprus is now a Turkish Cypriot state of about 300,000 people that is recognised only by Turkey. For Greek Cypriots, who run the island s internationally recognised government which represents the whole island in the European Union, any recognition of the north without reunification is out of the question.   We as the Turkish Cypriot side would insist that the new process, whatever it is going to be, would have to bring clarity to the status of the Turkish Cypriots in international fora,  Nami told Reuters in an interview. Asked to clarify, Nami said:  It would have to spell out what our political status be, should the Greek Cypriot side once again say  no . Either  no  to taking a deal to referendum, or going to a referendum and saying  no .  Pressed further on whether that meant Turkish Cypriots should be accorded some form of recognition if a new initiative sank because of Greek Cypriot recalcitrance, he said:  Exactly . Talks to unite Cyprus collapsed in July, ending one of the most promising negotiations to resolve the long-running conflict, which is a source of tension between Greece and Turkey and hampers Ankara s hopes of joining the EU.   Each side blamed the other for scuppering a deal that would have seen the island united under a two-zone federal system. With a slight shift of present boundaries, northern Cyprus would have become a  constituent state  of the new federal system.  This political ambiguity hovering about our heads for almost 50 years must end,  said Nami, whose office lies a short distance from the green line controlled by the United Nations that splits the Cypriot capital, Nicosia. Since 2003, several crossing points have opened along a 180-km (116 mile) ceasefire line patrolled by the UN. Thousands of people cross daily from one side to the other. Largely peaceful - apart from serious incidents in 1996 in which several people died - both sides say the status quo is not acceptable.   We need to change the status quo, it is mutually agreed,   Nami said.  We either change it by finalizing a federal settlement, or we change it some other way. In both scenarios, in a mutually agreed way.   A year after the checkpoints opened, Greek Cypriots rejected a UN reunification blueprint that critics said ran roughshod over the rights of thousands of people uprooted in the 1974 conflict. Proponents called it a realistic, workable alternative reflecting realities on the ground. Turkish Cypriots had voted in favor of the blueprint.  No one can convince the Turkish Cypriots to once again engage in negotiations that will be hostage of a Greek Cypriot  no ,  Nami said.   Nami, a former Turkish Cypriot foreign minister, said he sensed  huge fatigue  in his community and that he believed the same applied on the Greek Cypriot side.  I think in order for us to have a credible process we must be able to tell our people this process will have a specific end period, at the end of which, a decision will be taken,  he said.  Otherwise it will be extremely difficult to have the public support necessary behind the process.

Summary: नई साइप्रस वार्ता से तुर्क साइप्रस के लोगों को स्पष्टता मिलनी चाहिएः अधिकारी


BEIJING (Reuters) - The former head of China s powerful internet regulator is under investigation for suspected corruption, the ruling Communist Party said, the latest senior official to be caught up in a sweeping campaign against graft. Lu Wei was suspected of serious discipline breaches, the party s corruption-busting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a brief statement late on Tuesday, using a euphemism for graft. Reuters was unable to reach Lu or a representative to seek comment. At the height of his influence, Lu, a colorful and often brash official by Chinese standards, was seen as emblematic of China s increasingly pervasive internet controls.  Organizers of China s first World Internet Conference in 2014, set up under Lu to promote Beijing s vision of internet governance, irked foreign tech firms by seeking their agreement on a last-minute declaration on  internet sovereignty .  Tech industry representatives ultimately declined to sign the pledge, and rights groups condemned the declaration as an attempt to undermine internet freedom. In 2015, he told reporters,  Indeed, we do not welcome those that make money off China, occupy China s market, even as they slander China s people. These kinds of websites I definitely will not allow in my house.  But courting China s powerful internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, was a key task for companies hoping to stay in his good graces or gain access to the huge internet market. When Lu visited Facebook Inc s U.S. campus in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the social networking site that has long been blocked in China, greeted Lu in Mandarin, according to a Chinese government website. But Lu s downfall, foreshadowed by his June 2016 replacement as head of the internet regulator and the loss of his other posts, is unlikely to signal a reversal of internet control policies, which have tightened further under successor Xu Lin. In a separate statement on its website on Wednesday, the CCDI emphasized the significance of Lu being the first  tiger , or senior official, to be brought to heel for corruption since the key 19th Communist Party Congress held last month. It said that under Lu, the cyberspace administration did not carry out President Xi Jinping s instructions in a timely or resolute fashion.  The improper use of power occurred on occasion, and the safeguarding of political security was not strong enough,  it said, without elaborating on any of Lu s specific wrongdoings.       Lu worked his way up though China s official Xinhua news agency before becoming head of propaganda in Beijing and then moving to internet work in 2013. He became a deputy propaganda minister after being replaced at the internet regulator.  The government has blocked sites it deems could challenge Communist Party rule or threaten stability, including sites such as Facebook and Google s main search engine and Gmail service. Xi has waged war against deep-rooted corruption since taking office five years ago, punishing hundreds of thousands of officials.

Summary: चीन ने इंटरनेट नियामक के पूर्व प्रमुख की संदिग्ध भ्रष्टाचार के लिए जांच की


YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Crop-eating fall armyworms have attacked nearly 37,000 hectares of maize in northern Cameroon, officials said on Wednesday, accentuating an already dire humanitarian crisis provoked by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram s cross-border insurgency. More than two dozen African nations have reported outbreaks of the invasive Central American variety of the pest, which is harder to detect and eradicate than its African counterpart. They have now spread to all of Cameroon s 10 administrative regions, though maize crops in the Extreme North region have only been heavily affected since July, Deputy Agriculture Minister Clementine Ananga Messina told Reuters.  The armyworm attack endangers the entire maize sector and is creating serious risks of food insecurity, because it s the most commonly grown cereal in Cameroon,  she said.  The Extreme North region bordering Chad and Nigeria has been hit hard by Boko Haram, whose campaign of violence and cross-border attacks has sent more than 93,000 Nigerians fleeing into Cameroon where some 235,000 people have also been displaced. Across the Lake Chad region around 1.5 million people are confronting a food crisis, according to the United Nations. Cameroonian authorities have launched an action plan to fight against the infestation, but so far pesticides have failed to contain it.   There are no effective means to fight armyworm currently existing in Cameroon,  said Agriculture Ministry expert Andre Marie Elombat Assoua.  The chemical products now being used by farmers are ineffective and too expensive.   Around 12 million Cameroonians, more than half of the national population, regularly consume maize. It is also an important ingredient for the central African nation s breweries and in the production of feed for livestock. Though the fall armyworm prefers maize, it also attacked sorghum and millet, two of Cameroon s other staple crops, earlier this year.

Summary: उत्तरी कैमरून में सेना का कीड़ा आया, खाद्य संकट बढ़ा


CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) - Tribal leaders protesting the construction of a controversial North Dakota pipeline vowed on Tuesday to fight U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to revive the $3.8 billion project, calling his decision a “bad move.” Protesters have rallied for months against plans to route the Dakota Access pipeline under a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it threatened water resources and sacred Native American sites. The tribe, which has fought to stop the pipeline since last year, won a major victory last month when the government denied Energy Transfer Partners LP the right to run the pipeline under Lake Oahe, a water source upstream from the reservation. Trump’s order instructed the Army and the Army Corps of Engineers to review the decision. The Republican president also signed an order reviving the C$8 billion ($6.1 billion) Keystone XL pipeline project, which was rejected in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama.   As a small airplane circled over the main protest camp near the Dakota Access pipeline on Tuesday, the mood following the White House’s announcement was calm but defiant. “I’m staying here,” Benjamin Buffalo, a 45-year-old Blackfeet tribal member from Browning, Montana, told a reporter. “I’m standing with the natives. This is our future.”  Buffalo has been at the camp since August, when tensions started to flare up between law enforcement officers and protesters, who have been backed by Hollywood celebrities, veterans and other activists.    The tribe had recently called for protesters to leave after the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to an environmental review last month, saying the battle had moved beyond the camp and into the courts or back rooms for negotiations with the government. The tribe also warned that the camp itself might contaminate the river if hit by heavy flooding in March, when waters are expected to rise. On Tuesday, Standing Rock leaders said they would meet in the coming days to plan next steps. Some said they feared fresh violence after past clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers. Dana Yellow Fat, Standing Rock Sioux tribal council member at large, called Trump’s order “a poor decision and a bad move” and said he worried about injuries if new violence broke out. “Now you’re going to see both sides gear up for even more actions on the ground because you have a group of people that is determined to stop that pipeline one way or another,” he told Reuters. Yellow Fat said he was unsure whether the tribe would back away from its request for protesters to leave the camp, but said Trump’s order has prompted “a total re-evaluation of our recent actions.” Since the exit of the Standing Rock Sioux, the camp has been less organized, with no regular sunrise prayers and communal kitchens that now only serve food sporadically. In some spots, tents are buried under snow and as many as 60 cars have been abandoned. Tribal officials expect the cleanup of the site to take about a month. The Morton County Sheriff’s Department urged activists to remain peaceful in light of Trump’s order and said they were bracing for a possible resurgence in protests. “We’re preparing for anything that might come,” department spokeswoman Maxine Herr said. “We continue to monitor the situation.” She declined to say whether additional officers would be sent to the protest site. Morton County spokesman Rob Keller on Monday said police had no plans to forcibly remove people from the campsite, where protesters now number 500 to 600, down from the nearly 10,000 once there. Many in the camp, some of them members of Native American tribes from other parts of the country, had already planned to defy the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s call to leave, saying the fight against the pipeline was not over. Forest Borie, 33, of Magalia, California, said the protest will only become more intense. “Our struggle to protect the planet is getting more intense, and the stakes are getting higher, said Borie, who has been at the camp since early November.

Summary: प्रदर्शनकारियों ने पाइपलाइन को पुनर्जीवित करने के लिए ट्रम्प के 'खराब फैसले' से लड़ने का संकल्प लिया


GAZA (Reuters) - The powerful Palestinian Islamist group Hamas called on Thursday for a new uprising against Israel after U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.  We should call for and we should work on launching an intifada in the face of the Zionist enemy,  Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech in Gaza. Haniyeh, elected the group s overall leader in May, urged Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs to hold rallies against the U.S decision on Friday, calling it a  day of rage .  Let December 8 be the first day of the intifada against the occupier,  he said. Israel and the United States consider Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2007, a terrorist organization. It does not recognize Israel s right to exist and its suicide bombings helped spearhead the last intifada, from 2000 to 2005.  We have given instruction to all Hamas members and to all its wings to be fully ready for any new instructions or orders that may be given to confront this strategic danger that threatens Jerusalem and threatens Palestine,  said Haniyeh.  United Jerusalem is Arab and Muslim, and it is the capital of the state of Palestine, all of Palestine,  he said, referring to territory including Israel as well as the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Haniyeh called on Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw from peacemaking with Israel and on Arabs to boycott the Trump administration.  It should be announced that the so-called peace agreement was buried, once and for all, and that there is nothing called a partner for the Palestinians in peace,  he said. Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, upsetting the Arab world and Western allies alike.

Summary: हमास ने इजरायल के खिलाफ फिलिस्तीनी विद्रोह का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump lashed out on Saturday at the growing number of states refusing to give voters’ names, addresses and sensitive personal information to a commission he created to investigate alleged voter fraud. “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL,” he wrote on Twitter. “What are they trying to hide?” More than 20 states, including Virginia, Kentucky, California, New York and Massachusetts, have declined to provide some or all of the information, saying it was unnecessary and violated privacy. “This commission was formed to try to find basis for the lie that President Trump put forward that has no foundation,” Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes told Reuters previously in an interview. The Republican president has made unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in last November’s election. Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, created in May, sent a letter to 50 states asking them to turn over voter information including names, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, political affiliations, felony convictions and voting histories. The request from commission Vice Chairman Kris Kobach has caused a backlash from state election officials. Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said in a statement on Friday that while certain voter information is available to the public, the media, and any other person who requests the information, “the information is restricted to name, address and congressional district assignment.” Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann had said in a statement that he did not see the letter but would rebuff the commission. “They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from,” he said. Trump won the White House through victory in the Electoral College, which tallies wins in states, but he lost the popular vote to Clinton by some 3 million votes. He has claimed he would have won the popular vote had it not been for voter fraud. Civil rights activists say the commission will encourage voter suppression by justifying new barriers to voting, such as requiring identity cards to vote.

Summary: मतदाताओं का आंकड़ा देने से इनकार करने पर ट्रंप ने राज्यों को लताड़ा


(Reuters) - Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will meet this week with prominent conservatives in the media, a spokesman said on Sunday, to address allegations of political bias at the popular social networking site. Some 12 “conservative thought leaders” will join the meeting with Zuckerberg on Wednesday, a Facebook spokesman said. Among the invitees are media personality Glenn Beck, Fox News Channel’s “The Five” co-host Dana Perino and Zac Moffatt, co-founder of Targeted Victory, a technology company that aims to bring transparency to media buying. Facebook came under fire last week when an unnamed former employee told technology news website Gizmodo that workers often omitted conservative political stories from the company’s “trending” list of topics. Zuckerberg said Facebook has “found no evidence that this report is true,” but would continue to investigate. A U.S. Senate committee has also opened an inquiry into Facebook’s practices. Beck, a former Fox News host, took to Facebook early Sunday to say he is going to the meeting in Menlo Park, California, and  “it would be interesting to look him (Zuckerberg) in the eye as he explains.” “While they are a private business and I support their right to run it any way they desire without government interference,” Beck said, “it would be wonderful if a tool like face book [sic] INDEPENDENTLY CHOSE to hold up Freedom of speech and freedom of association as a corporate principle.” On Friday, Facebook outlined its “Trending Topics” guidelines in its media relations section and stated that reviewers are neither allowed nor advised to discriminate against sources.  Facebook, now valued at around $350 billion, has become a bigger source of news for its more than 1 billion daily active users. Sixty-three percent of users, or 41 percent of all U.S. adults, say they get news from the site, according to a study last year by the Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation.

Summary: राजनीतिक पूर्वाग्रह पर रूढ़िवादियों से मिलेंगे फेसबुक के जुकरबर्ग


SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The mayor and city manager of a south Texas town that bills itself as the “spinach capital of the world,” were arrested on Thursday on charges including strong-arming contractors into paying bribes in exchange for doing business, authorities said. A federal indictment claims five current and former city officials of Crystal City demanded payments from contractors so they could pay off personal gambling bills, bar tabs, car loans, and other expenses. A businessman was also charged for running an illegal gambling operation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Texas Rangers padlocked the City Hall for Crystal City, with a population of about 7,500 people as part of a probe into corruption where city officials are also accused of dipping into city coffers for their own personal gain, law enforcement officials said. None of those arrested, who include Mayor Ricardo Lopez, made statements after being taken into custody. If convicted, each faces up to 10 years in a federal prison, prosecutors said. City Manager William Jonas, according to the indictment, was elevated to that position from city attorney to reward him for procuring bribes, the indictment said. Businessman Ngoc Tri Nguyen, known as “Mister T,” is charged with paying bribes in exchange for opening an illegal gambling room, and getting city officials to use their muscle to shut down a competing business, it said. Crystal City is known for a quirky tourist attraction of a large statue of the spinach-eating cartoon character Popeye in front of City Hall which celebrates the area’s history as a spinach producer. It holds an annual spinach festival. “Public corruption is one of the most insidious crimes confronting our communities today,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs said in a statement. “It contributes to the cynicism we are seeing from members of the public who often feel as though all politicians are corrupt.” The arrests took place without incident and the FBI also seized documents at a San Antonio office in San Antonio, which is leased to Jonas, said FBI Special Agent Michelle Lee. Jonas, a San Antonio attorney, is a former prominent Texas Republican lobbyist who is also facing state charges of assault after police said he is suspected of pushing a woman who attempted to enter the City Hall using the wrong entrance.

Summary: टेक्सास 'पालक राजधानी' के महापौर, शहर प्रबंधक भ्रष्टाचार के आरोप में गिरफ्तार


SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis flew into Seoul on Friday for annual defense talks as tensions with North Korea climb ahead of a visit to the region next month by President Donald Trump. Mattis has emphasized diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis during his week-long trip to Asia, even as North Korea s weapons tests and bellicose verbal exchanges between Pyongyang and Washington stoke fears of an armed confrontation.  I carried the message that the more we do together today the greater the chance for enduring peace in the future,  Mattis said earlier this week, looking back at three days of meetings with Asian defense chiefs in the Philippines.   That s really what it was all about   to keep the (North Korea) effort firmly in the diplomatic lane for resolution.  Even before landing in Seoul, Mattis held a meeting in the Philippines on Monday with his South Korea and Japanese counterparts, where they agreed to keep bolstering intelligence sharing about North Korea and enhance exercises.   Now we got to do the  roll up our sleeves  (work) and do the pragmatic planning and coordination,  he told reporters. Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera warned the threat from North Korea has grown to a  critical and imminent level . CIA chief Mike Pompeo said last week North Korea could be only months away from developing the ability to hit the United States with nuclear weapons, a scenario Trump has vowed to prevent.  U.S. intelligence experts say Pyongyang believes it needs the weapons to ensure its survival and have been skeptical about diplomatic efforts, focusing on sanctions, to get Pyongyang to denuclearize. The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on seven North Korean individuals and three entities for  flagrant  human rights abuses, including killings, torture, forced labor and the hunting down of asylum seekers abroad. Mattis is expected to meet South Korean leaders on Friday before he joins the top U.S. military officer, Marine General Joseph Dunford, at the annual  Security Consultative Meeting  with South Korea s military on Saturday. The visit comes just before Trump s departs on Nov. 3 to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, a trip which is expected to be dominated by the nuclear and ballistic missile threat posed by North Korea. Trump, in a speech last month at the United Nations, threatened to destroy North Korea if necessary to defend itself and allies. Kim has blasted Trump as  mentally deranged.  Despite the rhetoric, White House officials say Trump is looking for a peaceful resolution of the standoff. But all options, including military ones, are on the table.  Mattis, for his part, dismissed the idea that U.S. allies were confused about the U.S. approach, noting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson s recent trip to Beijing to get China to do more to pressure Pyongyang.  China is North Korea s biggest trading partner.   Do we have military options in defense for attack, if our allies are attacked? Of course we do. But everyone is out for a peaceful resolution,  Mattis told reporters traveling with him earlier this week.  No one s rushing for war.

Summary: तनाव बढ़ने पर मैटिस ने रक्षा वार्ता के लिए सियोल का दौरा किया


ATHENS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama extolled the strengths of democracy from its Greek birthplace on Wednesday in a valedictory speech aimed at highlighting the values he sought to respect in office and prodding his Republican successor, Donald Trump, to follow suit. On a farewell trip to Europe, Obama tried to reassure allies that core U.S. priorities, including a commitment to the NATO military alliance, would continue under Trump, despite the New York businessman’s campaign trail statements that called that commitment into question. Obama portrayed the United States as an example of democracies prizing the peaceful transfer of power, even when ideas between the incoming and outgoing leaders are opposed. “The next American president and I could not be more different,” he said to an audience in Athens. “We have very different points of view, but American democracy is bigger than any one person.”  Obama took care of some local business in his speech. He urged creditors to help Greece dig out of its mountain of debt and called on young people to stay in the country to spur its economic recovery. But his broader message extended beyond Athens.  Step-by-step, Obama listed the values of U.S. democracy that he and fellow Democrats in the United States have accused Trump of violating during his presidential campaign, an implicit call on his successor to change course. In the same way that democracies are based on the peaceful resolution of disagreements within society, so cooperation is  the best way to resolve conflicts with nations, he said. “That’s how with diplomacy we were able to shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot (and) with diplomacy the United States opened relations with Cuba,” Obama said, referring to two important milestones of his presidency. He noted how U.S. democracy had evolved to provide rights to women, African Americans, people with disabilities, and the gay community. Trump has been criticized for his attitudes toward women and for making fun of a disabled reporter. He has pledged to ban Muslims temporarily from entering the United States and to deport undocumented immigrants who are living in the country illegally. Democracy is why the United States welcomes “people of all races, and all religions and all backgrounds and immigrants who strive to give their children a better life,” Obama said. “Our democracies show that we are stronger than terrorists, fundamentalists and absolutists, who can’t tolerate difference.  “Democracy is stronger than organizations like ISIS,” he said, using one of the names for Islamic State. “Because our democracies are inclusive, we are able to welcome people, and refugees in need, to our countries. And nowhere have we seen that compassion more evident than here in Greece,” he said, referring to the Greek response to Europe’s migrant crisis. Obama highlighted the importance of a free press to expose injustice. Trump banned certain news outlets from his campaign events for writing stories he did not like. The Obama administration has been criticized for its record on press freedom as well, particularly for prosecuting government sources who leak information to journalists.  In his speech, Obama highlighted the importance of an independent judiciary to uphold the rule of law. During his campaign, Trump accused a U.S. judge of not being able to be impartial because of his Mexican heritage. Obama also noted that elections hold leaders accountable. “Any action by a president or any result of an election or any legislation that is proven flawed can be corrected through the process of democracy,” he said.

Summary: समापन भाषण में ओबामा ने उन मूल्यों पर ध्यान दिया जो वे अपने कार्यकाल के दौरान चाहते थे


(Reuters) - Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc and SpaceX on Monday joined a legal brief filed by businesses opposed to President Donald Trump’s order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, according to a court filing.  Musk agreed to become part of Trump’s business advisory council in December, and has advocated discussing issues directly with the president. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick quit the council last week amid mounting pressure over Trump’s immigration policies.  (This story corrects to Muslim-majority ‘countries’ instead of ‘companies’ in first paragraph.)

Summary: एलन मस्क की टेस्ला और स्पेसएक्स ने ट्रंप के आव्रजन आदेश का विरोध किया


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday said he felt “almost obliged” to say sorry for verbal attacks on Mexico in the U.S. presidential campaign, in which Republican front-runner Donald Trump has labeled Mexican migrants rapists and drug runners. Speaking alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a visit to Mexico City, Biden never mentioned Trump, who nonetheless loomed large over the proceedings. “There’s been a lot of damaging and incredibly inaccurate rhetoric, and I would argue, I feel almost obliged to apologize for some of what my political colleagues have said ... about Mexico, about the Mexican people,” said Biden, a Democrat. Property mogul Trump, who has built up a big early lead in the race to become Republican nominee, has vowed to make Mexico pay for a wall to seal off the United States from its southern neighbor, prompting widespread criticism in both countries. “I just want you to know, Mr. President, that the most heated rhetoric you’ve heard from some of the competitors for the nomination for president, is not who we are as the American people .... It’s the exact opposite,” Biden added. Without naming Trump, Pena Nieto also weighed in, saying “building walls is just isolating oneself.” The 2016 U.S. presidential election is on Nov. 8.     At an event earlier on Thursday, Biden had expressed concern about what the election race said about views held in the United States, calling some of the Republican campaign language “dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised.”  “The message that is coming out of the United States as a consequence of the presidential campaign, about American attitudes toward Mexicans and Mexico generally, (and) the entire hemisphere and our place in the world, is disturbing,” he said. Trump, 69, has vowed to deport the 11 million migrants living illegally in the United States, a position shared by his younger Republican rival, the Texas Senator Ted Cruz. For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, "Tales from the Trail" (here).  (Reporting by Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein; Editing by Richard Chang) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: बाइडन ने अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति पद की दौड़ में मेक्सिको के खिलाफ 'हानिकारक' लहजे का इस्तेमाल किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn turned down an invitation to join Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s economic advisory council because Icahn is considering funding a Super PAC focused on regulatory reform, Icahn’s general counsel told Reuters on Friday.  This would be his second Super PAC. Technically known as independent expenditure-only committees, Super PACs may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals, then spend unlimited sums to advocate for or against political candidates.  DON’T MISS: Factbox: Trump's economic team Want to build your own Economic Dream Team? Try this machine. Trump looks to right the ship The first Super PAC Icahn formed had an initial commitment of $150 million and was targeted at “tax inversions,” which occur when a company moves its headquarters outside the United States to take advantage of lower tax rates elsewhere.  “Mr. Icahn declined the opportunity to join the Trump economic advisory council because at this time, we’re still considering whether to fund and manage our own Super PAC focused on regulatory reform,” Jesse Lynn, general counsel to Icahn, said by telephone.  “FEC (Federal Election Commission) rules would limit that activity if Mr. Icahn were to become directly involved in the campaign by joining the council,” Lynn said.  There was no immediate comment from the Trump campaign.  Trump announced his economic advisory team on Friday, and said he would release his plan to boost the U.S. economy in a speech on Monday.  Trump has floated Icahn’s name for U.S. Treasury secretary if he was elected president. Icahn, 80, has repeatedly rejected the notion of accepting such an offer.  Lynn did not give any details on what kind of regulatory reforms a new Super PAC may target.  In September, Icahn released a video titled “Danger Ahead,” in which he endorsed Trump for president and criticized the Federal Reserve for creating a new bubble in the corporate bond market.  BEST OF BIZ: Reuters Investigates: Big coal summoned Wall Street and faced a whirlwind Again at highs, stocks to take cues from consumer Breakingviews: Wal-Mart has long unicorn ride in Amazon chase He said the rich paid too little in taxes and called for an end to the loophole that allows private equity firms and some hedge fund managers to pay low tax rates on their investments by classifying them as “carried interest.”  The activist investor has recently been a vocal critic of the dangers of retail investors buying junk bonds, debt sold by highly leveraged companies. Much of this debt is sold to “Mom and Pop” investors via exchange-traded funds, a popular vehicle for trading baskets of bonds and stocks.  In October, Icahn announced his first Super PAC, which was the biggest one-time injection of money in the history of such political action committees. Icahn said the incentive for companies to leave the United States via inversion deals could be eliminated by legislation allowing big companies to repatriate funds held offshore at a discounted tax rate - an approach also favored by Trump.  A Wall Street veteran, Icahn made his fortune buying stakes in companies such as RJR Nabisco, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, Netflix Inc, Apple Inc and eBay Inc and pushing their management to change their strategies.

Summary: इकान ने ट्रंप की आर्थिक टीम में शामिल होने से किया इनकार, दूसरे सुपर पीएसी पर विचार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Wednesday headed toward a possible 4-4 split over a legal challenge by Christian nonprofit employers who object to providing female workers insurance covering birth control as required by President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. An evenly split ruling, with the court’s four liberals backing the Obama administration against the four conservative justices, would leave in place lower-court rulings rejecting challenges brought by the Christian organizations that oppose providing contraception coverage for religious reasons.     Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often casts the deciding vote in close cases, appeared more aligned with the court’s three other conservatives in favoring the challengers, which primarily were Roman Catholic including the archdiocese of Washington. The Christian employers call contraception immoral and argue that the government should not compel religious believers to choose between following their faith and following the law. They argue they should get the complete exemption from the mandate already given to places of worship such as churches, mosques and temples. Kennedy said if religious employers were forced to comply with the contraception mandate they would be “in effect, subsidizing the conduct that they deemed immoral.” Only eight justices heard the latest high-profile conservative challenge to the law, considered Obama’s signature legislative achievement, following conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s Feb. 13 death. The court heard 90 minutes of arguments in the case, Zubik v. Burwell, on the sixth anniversary of Obama signing into law the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The law has expanded medical insurance coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans. Conservatives have mounted numerous legal challenges to the law. The Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015 issued high-profile rulings leaving Obamacare intact. The court heard arguments on seven consolidated cases focusing on whether nonprofit entities that oppose the requirement can object under a 1993 U.S. law called the  Religious Freedom Restoration Act to a compromise measure offered by the government. A ruling is due by the end of June.     A 4-4 split would set no national legal precedent against such claims, and would allow them in some parts of the country depending on lower-court rulings. The justices also potentially could order the case reargued. The Christian groups object to a 2013 compromise offered by the Obama administration that allowed groups opposed to providing insurance covering birth control to comply with the law without actually paying for the required coverage. Groups can certify they are opting out of the mandate by signing a form and submitting it to the government. The government then asks insurers to pick up the tab for  contraception. The challengers contend the accommodation violates their religious rights by forcing them to authorize coverage for  employees even if they are not paying for it. One question before the hearing was whether Kennedy would be more sympathetic to the government than he was in a 2014 case concerning the same contraception requirement. Kennedy was in the majority when the court ruled 5-4 that family-owned companies run on religious principles, including craft retailer Hobby Lobby Stores Inc, could object to the provision for religious reasons. Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion then saying an accommodation like the one now at issue could be acceptable. Nothing he said during Wednesday’s arguments indicated he thinks the accommodation now before the court passes legal muster. The federal government asserts it has a compelling interest in protecting the health of female workers, and that contraceptive coverage is part of that. The challengers say the government has imposed a substantial burden on their religious rights and that the waiver is not the least restrictive means, as required under the religious freedom law, toward its goal. Kennedy questioned whether it would be difficult for the government to arrange alternative access to contraception coverage that would not force religious groups to be complicit. “If it’s so easy to provide, if it’s so free, why can’t they just get it through another (insurance) plan?” Kennedy asked. Liberal justices raised concerns about giving nonprofit religious organizations the same exemptions churches get. Justice Elena Kagan said Congress might stop giving churches exemptions when it passes laws, posing a “mortal danger” to them. Liberal Sonia Sotomayor referred to the danger of widespread exemptions from government requirements, asking, “How will we ever have a government that functions?” Liberal Stephen Breyer said religious groups often contend with government decisions they oppose. He cited Quakers, who opposed the Vietnam War but were still required to pay taxes that funded military spending. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said the challengers’ contention that the government was seeking to “hijack” their insurance plans in order to provide contraception coverage appeared to be an “accurate description of what the government wants to do.” Among other challengers in the case were: the Little Sisters of the Poor order of Roman Catholic nuns that runs care homes for the elderly; and Bishop David Zubik and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Summary: ओबामाकेयर गर्भनिरोधक मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट 4-4 विभाजन का सामना कर रहा है