NEW YORK (Reuters) - The federal appointees tapped to help map Puerto Rico’s economic future are technocrats more than political actors, and that could make the U.S. territory’s fiscal turnaround look more like a corporate restructuring than a politically charged municipal bankruptcy in the vein of Detroit.  The law known as PROMESA, which created the board when it passed the U.S. Congress in June with bipartisan support, envisioned a pragmatic solution for an island combating $70 billion in debt, 45 percent poverty and a brain drain as residents bolt in droves for the mainland United States. Its members, four Republicans and three Democrats appointed last week, were chosen by Republican and Democratic lawmakers and President Barack Obama. The board has broad powers to help stabilize the island’s economy, from investigating Puerto Rico’s government to working with that government on projects to spur economic growth. It must also approve the island’s annual budgets, and will eventually facilitate debt-restructuring talks with creditors. In the latter endeavor, it will have to navigate a minefield of competing interests.  The island has 18 separate debt issuers, backed by different revenues streams, as well as $18 billion in so-called general obligation debt backed by the “full faith and credit” of the territory’s government. While that promise is legally weak in a bankruptcy setting, it is a sacrosanct pledge in municipal debt markets. Holders of all that debt will jockey for payouts against government vendors and beneficiaries of the island’s public pensions, which have less than $2 billion in assets to cover some $45 billion in liabilities.   Detroit’s bankruptcy, which ended in December 2014, treated city pensions much better than its outstanding bonds, which were largely insured. Some Puerto Rico creditors, still suffering Detroit flashbacks, feared Puerto Rico could look similar - especially since Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla has pushed big haircuts and railed against the idea of reducing government services. But the makeup of the Puerto Rico board has offered some reassurance, said Nader Tavakoli, chief executive officer of Ambac, which insures $2.2 billion of Puerto Rican bonds and also insured some of Detroit’s bonds. “These board members are technocrats, and it gives us confidence that this is not going to be overly politicized,” he said. Deal makers also feature prominently, with an ex-bankruptcy judge, a banker and a hedge fund operator in the mix.  Republicans, generally seen as creditor-friendly, nominated a bankruptcy academic who favors restructuring the island’s debt, David Skeel. And Democrats nominated a banker, Jose Ramon Gonzalez, and a Democratic finance expert in Ana Matosantos who directed California’s budget under former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Experts see the group as likely to push a solution that sees all sides share a burden, a typical approach for companies restructuring under Chapter 11. “There are no ideologues in the group,” said Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Chas Tyson.     That does not mean there are not drawbacks. For one, the board will have to navigate a testy local political climate with residents who largely revile a panel they see as an extension of colonial rule. Island voters broadly unhappy with the Garcia Padilla administration in November will elect a new governor as well as members of the legislature and scores of mayors. “There are still politics here,” said veteran bankruptcy attorney Richard Levin, who is following the situation. “The governor and legislature retain some authority.”  For Height Securities analyst Daniel Hanson, the board is short on expertise in economic development. Any real solution for Puerto Rico requires fundamental economic changes, including at its underperforming education department, and it’s unclear whether the board can facilitate such change. But from a financial perspective, at least, the board seems less inclined to promote a political agenda than figure out a collaborative fix and then get out, said Matt Fabian, partner at Municipal Market Analytics.  “The board is not being installed to fight with Puerto Ricans or to impose some kind of federal view,” Fabian said. “They just want these troubles to be fixed.”

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको ऋण निर्धारण डेट्रॉइट के समान होने की संभावना नहीं है


(Reuters) - A U.S. congressional proposal that would eliminate income tax exemptions for certain airlines could affect major Gulf carriers, potentially worsening an international spat between U.S. airlines and their Middle East rivals. U.S. airlines have been petitioning the federal government for years to intervene in what they see as unfair competition by the three major Gulf carriers.    The proposal, tucked deep in the Senate tax-cut plan, calls for airlines headquartered in foreign countries to pay the U.S. incorporate tax rate if: 1) the carrier’s home country does not have an income tax treaty with the United States and 2) the carrier’s country of origin has fewer than two arrivals and departures, per week, operated by major U.S. airlines.  Airways, Emirates [EMIRA.UL] and Etihad Airways have for years been accused by U.S. competitors of being illegally subsidized by their governments. The Gulf carriers deny the accusation. They could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday. If the proposal passes, it could leave the Gulf carriers more vulnerable because their home countries – the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – do not have income tax treaties with the United States, according to the Internal Revenue Service website. A number of nations could possibly also be affected at a time when perceived discrepancies in U.S. trade agreements are facing a critical eye from U.S. corporations and the federal government.       The language in the Senate proposal sets the stage for a crackdown in tax leniency for these and other airlines. This would likely be well-received by American carriers, which have for years petitioned the U.S. government to intervene in the dispute. Under U.S. tax treaties, entities of foreign countries are either exempt or pay a reduced rate on their income, and vice versa for U.S. entities abroad. Reciprocity agreements, however, are less formal deals that fall short of an official accord, according to tax attorney Sam Brotman of Brotman Law. “Reciprocity agreements are usually with countries that are not necessarily 100 percent friendly with the U.S.” Brotman said on Thursday. “We’ll call it a handshake deal.” The bill’s wording stands to ramp up an already tense battle between U.S. airlines and Gulf carriers.  The addition was introduced by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia. Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), one of the most vocal critics of Gulf carrier practices, is headquartered in Atlanta.  A spokeswoman for Isakson did not mention the Gulf airlines.    “This provision supports American jobs by providing a level playing field and mutual fairness in international passenger aviation,” Isakson spokeswoman Marie Gordon said in an email on Thursday.  “Foreign airlines should not receive preferential tax treatment if their countries choose not to open their markets to U.S. companies.” Delta declined to comment.

Summary: विदेशी एयरलाइन यू. एस. कर छूट में कटौती के तहत खाड़ी वाहक ध्यान केंद्रित कर सकते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When President Donald Trump told the Palestinian president of his intention to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, he assured him a peace plan being put together would please the Palestinians, officials said, an apparent effort to limit fallout over his break with longtime U.S. policy.         Trump s phone call to Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, the day before he made his bombshell announcement on Jerusalem, appeared to shed new light on behind-the-scenes efforts by White House advisers to craft a peace blueprint expected to be rolled out in the first half of 2018 but which has now been thrown into doubt because of an angry outcry across the Middle East. With Palestinians declaring it will be difficult for the United States to act as an honest broker after essentially siding with Israel on one of the central disputes in the conflict, administration officials said they expected a  cooling-off period.  Trump s team, led by his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, will press on with development of a plan to serve as the foundation for renewed Israeli Palestinian negotiations, hoping the furor will blow over and that any pause in diplomatic contacts with the Palestinians will not last long, U.S. officials said. But amid protests in the Palestinian territories and uncertainty about whether the Palestinians will stay engaged in the peace effort, one U.S. official said the process could still be disrupted.  If they are still saying they re not going to talk, we re not going to do it then,  the official said. Washington s major Western and Arab allies have warned that Trump s decision on Jerusalem could doom attempts to achieve what the U.S. president has called the  ultimate deal  of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Details of the negotiating framework have yet to be finalized and there is little indication of tangible progress. But officials said it would deal with all the major issues, including Jerusalem, borders, security, the future of Jewish settlements on occupied land and the fate of Palestinian refugees, and would also call for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to provide significant financial support to the Palestinians. In his call to Abbas on Tuesday, Trump sought to temper the blow from his Jerusalem announcement by stressing that the Palestinians stood to gain from the peace plan that Kushner and U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt were crafting, according to two U.S. and two Palestinian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump told Abbas, a Western-backed moderate, that the final peace blueprint would offer the Palestinians an important settlement that they would be pleased with, but did not provide specifics, the sources said. Abbas told Trump in response that any peace process must result in the Palestinians having their capital in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian official said. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. A senior U.S. official said Trump told Abbas he wanted to discuss the issues in person and invited him to visit the White House, although the timing was unclear. Palestinians have grown increasingly concerned that any plan Trump unveils will shortchange them, a fear that deepened with Trump s formal endorsement of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, upending decades of U.S. policy that the ancient city s status must be decided in negotiations. Jerusalem is home to sites holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians. Kushner, who had no government or diplomatic experience before joining his father-in-law s White House, has mostly kept his discussions under wraps. U.S. officials say Kushner backed Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital and order the eventual relocation of the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, although he was aware of the potential for complicating his peace efforts. But one White House official said that because the peace effort had not yet led to negotiations between the two sides, Kushner s team believed the initial outcry over the Jerusalem decision could eventually be overcome. The official said the plan, which he described as comprehensive and going beyond frameworks put forth by previous U.S. administrations, would likely be unveiled before the middle of next year. A key test of keeping the peace efforts on track will be whether Abbas goes ahead with a scheduled meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence when he visits the region in mid-December.  A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday that Pence was  unwelcome in Palestine.  Trump, the officials said, had insisted that U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital was not meant to prejudge the outcome of future negotiations on that issue or others between the two sides. U.S. officials acknowledged that Trump s Jerusalem moves could also put a damper on cooperation from Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, which the administration is trying to enlist in the peace process. They contended, however, that the broader Arab world was also concerned about keeping Trump involved in confronting Iran and fighting Islamic State militants and was therefore unlikely to remain disengaged for long from efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One U.S. official said the Palestinians were in such a weak position that they would ultimately have no choice but to stay involved in U.S.-led peace efforts. Another argument that Trump s aides will likely make to Palestinians is that having granted Israel recognition of its claim to Jerusalem, the U.S. leader might now have more leverage for seeking concessions later on from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the U.S. official said.

Summary: जेरूसलम के आक्रोश को सीमित करने के लिए ट्रम्प ने मध्य पूर्व शांति योजना को लटकाया


MUNICH (Reuters) - The United States on Saturday redoubled its longstanding demand that Germany and other European countries spend more on defense, saying their failure to meet NATO’s 2 percent military spending target was eroding the foundation of the Atlantic alliance. “When even one ally fails to do their part, it undermines all of our ability to come to each other’s aid,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told the Munich Security Conference, even as he assured NATO allies of Washington’s unwavering support. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Germany remained committed to reaching the NATO target, but that it would be hard to boost its defense budget quickly by the 25 billion euros  ($26.5 billion) that would be required. Germany now spends about 1.2 percent of gross domestic product on the military. He called for a broader approach that also addressed security risks such as climate change, and said Germany should get credit for the 30 to 40 billion euros it is spending to integrate over a million refugees, many of whom were displaced as a result of failed military interventions of the past. “We are taking these people in and integrating them and preventing them going to other parts of the world as ‘freedom fighters’,” Gabriel said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the conference that Europe needed to better integrate its fragmented defense industry, but that this remained a political challenge for countries seeking to protect their own industries and jobs. EU Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska told a closed-door session that “we must progressively build a defense union in Europe”, according to one of those present. EU militaries operate 19 types of armored infantry fighting vehicles, compared with one in the United States, while 25 billion euros of defense spending are wasted every year, according to European Commission data. Gabriel also questioned the wisdom of pegging the NATO military spending target to gross domestic product, noting that Greece met the goal, but was having trouble paying its pensions. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told the conference that it was important to focus increased spending on equipment needs, rather than military pensions. “The question is not funding NATO or changing budgets, but how Europe can ... improve its deployability without creating a European army,” he said.

Summary: अमेरिका ने रक्षा खर्च बढ़ाने के लिए यूरोप पर दबाव बढ़ाया


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey intends to open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognize it as the capital of Palestine. It was not clear how he would carry out the move, as Israel controls all of Jerusalem and calls the city its indivisible capital. Palestinians want the capital of a future state they seek to be in East Jerusalem, which Israel took in a 1967 war and later annexed in a move not recognized internationally. The Muslim nation summit was a response to U.S. President Donald Trump s Dec. 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. His move broke with decades of U.S. policy and international consensus that the city s status must be left to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Erdogan said in a speech to members of his AK Party in the southern province of Karaman that Turkey s consulate general in Jerusalem was already represented by an ambassador.  God willing, the day is close when officially, with God s permission, we will open our embassy there,  Erdogan said. Jerusalem, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is home to Islam s third holiest shrine as well as Judaism s Western Wall - both in the eastern sector - and has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. Foreign embassies in Israel, including Turkey s, are located in Tel Aviv, reflecting Jerusalem s unresolved status. A communique issued after Wednesday s summit of more than 50 Muslim countries, including U.S. allies, said they considered Trump s move to be a declaration that Washington was withdrawing from its role  as sponsor of peace  in the Middle East.

Summary: एर्दोगन का कहना है कि तुर्की का लक्ष्य पूर्वी यरुशलम में दूतावास खोलना है


BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Syrian militias will not let government forces cross the Euphrates River in their bid to recover eastern Syria, their commander said on Friday, but Russia said army units had already done so near the city of Deir al-Zor. An aide to President Bashar al-Assad meanwhile said the government would fight any force, including U.S.-backed militias, in efforts to recapture the rest of the country. Syrian government forces supported by Russian air strikes and Iran-backed militias, and a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, are converging on Islamic State in separate offensives around Deir al-Zor. The government side has advanced into the city from the west. Last week, they broke an Islamic State siege of the provincial capital, which sits on the western bank of the river. The Deir al-Zor military council, fighting as part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has meanwhile advanced toward Deir al-Zor from the eastern side of the river since launching an offensive into the province a week ago. Military council commander Ahmed Abu Khawla warned government forces and their militia allies against firing across the river as his fighters close in   something he said had happened in recent days.  Now we have 3 km between us and the eastern riverbank, once our forces reach the area, any shot fired into that area we will consider an attack on the military council,  he said.  We have notified the regime and Russia that we are coming to the Euphrates riverbank, and they can see our forces advancing,  he said.  We do not allow the regime or its militias to cross to the eastern riverbank.  But Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Syrian army had already crossed.  The suburbs of this provincial center (Deir al-Zor) have been liberated. Advance units have successfully crossed the Euphrates and are holding positions on its eastern bank,  she said, without specifying where. Abu Khawla said this was  mere propaganda ... no one has crossed.  Assad aide Bouthaina Shaaban later said the Syrian government was ready to fight the SDF.  Whether it s the Syrian Democratic Forces, or Daesh (Islamic State) or any illegitimate foreign force in the country ... we will fight and work against them so our land is freed completely from any aggressor,  she said in an interview with Hezbollah s Al Manar TV.  I m not saying this will happen tomorrow ... but this is the strategic intent,  she said, dismissing suggestions that Washington and Moscow s military decisions would decide Syria s fate. The Russian- and U.S.-backed campaigns against Islamic State in Syria have mostly stayed out of each other s way as the sides seek to avoid conflict, with the Euphrates often acting as a dividing line between the sides. Talks have been underway to extend a formal demarcation line that has separated the campaigns, officials have said. The SDF accused Syrian government forces of attacking its positions near the town of Tabqa in Raqqa province and the United States shot down a Syrian government warplane in June. Abu Khawla said a civilian administration would be set up to run areas of Deir al-Zor province captured from Islamic State by his fighters, including oil fields. The Syrian government was  not fit to lead and rule the people , he said. Oil-rich Deir al-Zor province is Islamic State s last major foothold in Syria and Iraq. It is bisected by the Euphrates River and abuts Iraq.  Every village around the eastern riverbank of the Euphrates river until the Iraqi-Syrian border is a goal for our forces,  he said.  We are moving forcefully and quickly. We do not have a timeline, but we hope soon to free the entire eastern bank.  Reflecting the demarcation line, the U.S.-led coalition said on Thursday the SDF was not planning to enter Deir al-Zor city.     But while Deir al-Zor city was not an SDF target, Abu Khawla did not rule out the possibility it may become one, saying people in the city wanted to be liberated from  the regime and Daesh at the same time . But  right now, we have a schedule that we re following which is the liberation of the eastern riverbanks of the Euphrates , he said.      He said Islamic State had  shown fierce resistance  when SDF fighters entered the outskirts of Deir al-Zor on the eastern bank.  The battles are continuous,  he said. Abu Khawla, who is in his early 30s, said 10,000 fighters were taking part in the Deir al-Zor campaign, the bulk of them members of Arab tribes from eastern Syria. The campaign is supported by the Kurdish militia that dominate the SDF.  All our soldiers  training (is) in the Coalition training camps, they oversee our training and our armament,  he said. Abu Khawla was a member of a Free Syrian Army rebel group in Deir al-Zor until Islamic State took over most of the province in 2014 at the height of its expansion in Syria and Iraq. He fled to Turkey before returning to Syria and joining the SDF.  Now we are setting up a civil council parallel to the military council of Deir al-Zor, and this civilian council will run all areas freed from (Islamic State),  he said.

Summary: U.S.-backed सीरियाई लड़ाकों का कहना है कि वे सरकारी बलों को यूफ्रेट्स को पार नहीं करने देंगे


BERLIN (Reuters) - The wave of refugees that entered Germany in 2015-2016 has slowed its integration efforts, according to a study that also showed little progress since 2005 in leveling the playing field for immigrants on education, employment and incomes. At the height of Europe s migration crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel adopted an open-borders policy that drew more than one million refugees into Germany in two years. In the prior decade, education opportunities picked up for newly arrived immigrants and people born in Germany with at least one foreign parent. But the Federal Statistics Office study released on Thursday found the education gap between those categories of migrants and native Germans had since widened again, with the proportion of the former lacking a high school certificate growing between 2014 and 2016. The scale of future immigration has become a major sticking point in three-party talks that Merkel is leading on the formation of a new coalition government, for which she has set an initial deadline of Thursday night. While Germany s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest since the country s reunification in 1990, more immigrants were unemployed in 2016 than native Germans, the study said. In that year, 13.6 percent of immigrants and 6.2 percent of native Germans had low-paying jobs. Merkel s conservatives have proposed to the coalition talks that a suspension of reunifications between migrants and their family members outside Germany should be extended beyond a March 2018 deadline. Immigration expert Herbert Bruecker, a professor at the Berlin Integration and Migration Institute, said that would worsen the divide.   Our surveys show that people, who are living separated from their families, have a lower life satisfaction and also suffer more often from depression or bitterness,  he said.

Summary: शरणार्थी संकट जर्मन एकीकरण के लिए कोई वरदान नहीं हैः अध्ययन


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s Social Democrat (SPD) leader Martin Schulz told a television debate with Chancellor Angela Merkel that he would stop Turkey s bid to join the European Union if he was elected leader of Europe s most populous country.  When I m chancellor, I ll cancel ... the accession talks of Turkey with the European Union,  Schulz said in the debate.  No German citizen can travel safely to Turkey anymore,  Schulz said, referring to the detention of 12 German citizens on political charges in the past months.  Whoever is the next chancellor has the task to tell Turkey in order to protect the Federal Republic of Germany: all red lines have now been crossed, and therefore this country can no longer become a member of the EU,  Schulz said. Merkel repeated her standard position that she was in favour of stopping further discussions with Ankara about its participation in a EU customs union. But she cautioned against pulling the plug on Turkey s accession talks right now, adding such a step should be considered cautiously.

Summary: जर्मन एस. पी. डी. नेता ने कहा कि ई. यू. को तुर्की के साथ विलय वार्ता बंद करनी चाहिए


LONDON (Reuters) - British police were alerted to a suspect package in London s Islington area on Wednesday, and a cordon was in place, a police spokesman said. Earlier, London s transport authority said Angel underground station was closed while authorities responded to a security alert outside the station.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की पुलिस ने लंदन के इस्लिंगटन क्षेत्र में संदिग्ध पैकेज के बारे में सतर्क किया


(Story refiles to add dropped word  not , in paragraph 10, in the September 7th story) By Simon Lewis KUTAPALONG, Bangladesh (Reuters) - The villagers said the soldiers came first, firing indiscriminately. Then came civilians, accompanying the soldiers, to loot and burn. Now in Bangladesh, 20 Muslims and Hindus gave interviews in which they recounted how they were forced out of their village of Kha Maung Seik in Myanmar s Rakhine State on Aug. 25.  The military brought some Rakhine Buddhists with them and torched the village,  said Kadil Hussein, 55.  All the Muslims in our village, about 10,000, fled. Some were killed by gunshots, the rest came here. There s not a single person left.  Hussein is staying with hundreds of other new arrivals at the Kutapalong refugee settlement, already home to thousands of Rohingya who fled earlier. Nearly 150,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army launched attacks on security forces in Rakhine State. Reuters interviewed villagers from Kha Maung Seik and neighboring hamlets, who described killings and the burning of homes in the military response to the insurgent attacks. Reuters has been unable to verify their accounts. Access to the area has been restricted since October, when the same insurgent group attacked police posts, killing nine. Myanmar says its forces are in a fight against  terrorists . State media has accused Rohingya militants of burning villages and killing civilians of all religions. Myanmar does not recognize the 1.1 million Rohingya as citizens, labeling them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.  The refugees from Kha Maung Seik, and from numerous other villages across the north of Rakhine State, say Myanmar forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists are intent on forcing them out. One refugee, Body Alom, 28, said he hid in forest with thousands of others when the soldiers arrived. He waited for hours before emerging to look for his family. He says he saw corpses in paddy fields, and eventually found his mother and brother dead with gunshot wounds. Two other villagers said they saw bodies in the fields.  It wasn t safe, so I just left them,  he said.  I had no chance to give them a burial.  A military official denied that Buddhist civilians were working with authorities and instead accused Muslims of attacking other communities.  The military arrived at the village later but did not find any bodies,  said the military source, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to media. Another military source in the state capital, Sittwe, said Kha Maung Seik was in the conflict zone and clear information about what happened had yet to emerge. The main village of Kha Maung Seik was home to a mixed community, with Rohingya Muslims in the majority along with about 6,000 Rakhine Buddhists, Hindus and others. The village is known to the Rohingya as Foira Bazar for its market of about 1,000 shops where everyone did business. But relations have been strained for some time. A government plan to grant Hindus citizenship, violence in the state in 2012 and October, and an identity card scheme that the Rohingya rejected as it implied they were foreign, all contributed to tension, the refugees said. Since October, more soldiers were posted near the village, with border police. Patrols went house-to-house arresting anyone suspected of having militant links, they said. Abu Kalam, 31, showed Reuters welts on his back, arms and legs, and what he said were cigarette burns on his arms. He said he was detained by the military last month, before the attacks, as he was working in his vegetable patch with a knife.  After October, the military told us not to have knives. When they saw me using one they arrested me,  he said, adding he was kept in a barracks for six days.  They regularly tortured me, asking  are you connected with al-Yaqin? ,  he said, using another name for the rebels. Villagers in Kha Maung Seik say they heard shooting at 2 a.m. on Aug. 25. A military source in Maungdaw town and two Muslim residents said militants attacked a police post near the village that night. According to the military source, the rebels attacked with grenades then turned their attention to a Hindu neighborhood. Four Rohingya villagers separately gave Reuters accounts of how, at about 5 a.m., soldiers entered the village, firing indiscriminately. Thousands fled.  I was at the front of a big group running for cover, but I looked back and could see people at the back getting shot,  said Abul Hussein, 28. Later, grenades and mortar bombs were fired into the forest, according to Hussein and three other villagers.  I saw a mortar hit a group of people. Some died on the spot,  he said. From the forest, residents watched military and civilians loot and burn houses. Civilians helped gather bodies, according to Body Alom and two other villagers.  They collected the bodies, searching for belongings,  said Body Alom.  They took money, clothes, cows, everything. Then they burned the houses.  Members of Myanmar s small Hindu community seem to have been caught in the middle. The military source said some Hindus from Kha Maung Seik were unaccounted after the militant attack. A group of Hindu women refugees in Kutapalong said they saw eight Hindu men killed by Buddhist Rakhines after they refused to attack Muslims.  They asked my husband to join them to kill Rohingya but he refused, so they killed him,  said Anika Bala, 15. Six months pregnant, she said Muslims helped her get to Bangladesh. After seeing their homes burned, Kha Maung Seik s Muslim leaders decided it was too dangerous to stay.  We thought we might be able to return and live with other types of people,  said Mohammed Zubair, 30, assistant to the village chairman.   But we realized that s not possible.  About 100 men decided to stay and fight, Body Alom said.   One said to me  If I have to die, I will die here .

Summary: रोहिंग्याओं का कहना है कि उनका गाँव म्यांमार के बढ़ते संघर्ष में खो गया है


MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (Reuters) - In this flat, windy expanse just south of the Canadian border, U.S. Air Force pilots fly the same bombers their grandfathers flew, using mid-20th century cables and pulleys. Each spring, the airmen and airwomen must clear melting snow from the steel and concrete doors of the silos that house 150 nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles scattered across thousands of square miles of the upper Great Plains. The U.S. nuclear arsenal, patched, welded, and re-skinned countless times, was built between 25 and 62 years ago when the United States found itself locked in an arms race with a rival superpower, the Soviet Union. Now, its future is an issue in the campaign for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has said she would call for a nuclear posture review, last completed in 2010, as one of her first acts upon taking office. Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he would be open to reversing decades of U.S. policy and allowing allies such as Japan and South Korea to acquire their own nuclear weapons to deter a strike from North Korea, which carried out its fifth and largest nuclear test this month. On Monday, in his first visit to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota as U.S. Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter said America’s nuclear deterrence was the “bedrock” of its security, and the Pentagon’s No. 1 priority. “If we don’t replace these systems, quite simply they will age even more, and become unsafe, unreliable, and ineffective,”  Carter said, speaking at a lectern in front of a B-52 bomber loaded with cruise missiles. “The fact is, most of our nuclear weapon delivery systems have already been extended decades beyond their original expected service lives. So it’s not a choice between replacing these platforms or keeping them - it’s really a choice between replacing them or losing them,” Carter said. Russia, he said, had built new nuclear weapons systems, raising questions as to whether its leaders were cautious enough when it came to atomic weapons. And North Korea presents a sustained threat, Carter said. Carter’s speech coincides with a growing realization among defense officials and experts that budget constraints almost certainly will force the next president to decide whether and how quickly to proceed with the Obama administration’s plans to maintain and modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The crunch comes in the next decade as American ballistic missile submarines, bombers, and land-based missiles – the three legs of the nuclear triad – reach the end of their useful lives. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the total cost of nuclear forces through 2024 at $348 billion, but that does not include some of the costliest upgrades, scheduled for the latter half of the next decade. Independent estimates have put the cost of maintaining and modernizing the arsenal at about $1 trillion dollars over 30 years. “There’s a bipartisan commitment to doing that upgrade, so we have to assume those funds will come through,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told Reuters on Sept. 20. “But it will be a significant budget increase, especially in the next decade.” The Energy Department shares responsibility with the Pentagon for the nuclear arsenal, and some of its research and production facilities are 73 years old. The next administration could abandon or delay some aspects of modernization to cut costs. Or it could raise taxes, increase the budget deficit, or cut domestic programs, all unpopular steps with American voters. The most vulnerable elements of the modernization plans are a long-range standoff weapon, or LRSO – a nuclear-capable cruise missile launched from an aircraft – and new land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Ten U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, called on President Barack Obama in July to cancel the LRSO, saying it “would provide an unnecessary capability that could increase the risk of nuclear war.” Some Pentagon officials and defense experts have said the cruise missile would be a hedge against improved air defenses that are difficult for even a stealthy bomber to penetrate. A Clinton or Trump administration also could cut the number of land-based ballistic missiles below the 400 currently planned or delay a new missile by extending the life of the current Minuteman IIIs, which each carry a warhead with an explosive yield of at least 300 kilotons, 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which killed an estimated 140,000 people.  The United States is one of five nuclear weapons states allowed to keep a nuclear arsenal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The others are Russia, Britain, France and China. The U.S. Air Force has estimated the cost of a new ground-based system – including missiles, command-and-control systems and launch control centers – to be more than $60 billion.     Some former U.S. officials, including former defense secretary William Perry, have argued that land-based missiles are not essential and should be phased out; proponents say they are more important in the face of potential nuclear threats by Russia and North Korea. Much of the planned modernization is nearly locked in  because of the need for new weapons and because some of it is so far along, said Evan Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington-based research group. The B-21 long-range strike bomber and the replacement for the Navy’s 14 Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines are “the two most expensive items, and they’re arguably the two safest in a lot of ways,” Montgomery said. The bomber can deliver both conventional and nuclear weapons, and the submarine is considered a priority because it would survive any first strike by an adversary. The Navy plans to replace its Ohio-class submarines, first commissioned in 1981 and armed with up to 24 Trident missiles with multiple independently targeted warheads, with 12 boats costing about $100 billion. In his speech on Monday, Carter said that most people do not realize that spending on the nuclear program is a small percentage of total defense spending. At its peak, nuclear spending would make up about five percent of the Pentagon’s budget, which is now around $600 billion annually, defense experts said. Still, the funding gap means that despite the Pentagon’s massive budget, the next president will face an unavoidable dilemma. “There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re tens of billions of dollars short in that time frame from what it takes to execute a global strategy,” said James Miller, a former undersecretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration. “It’s not a rounding error anymore.”

Summary: अमेरिकी परमाणु हथियारों के आधुनिकीकरण की लागत अगले राष्ट्रपति पर आएगी


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday appeared skeptical toward a request from several states that want him to order the administration of Republican President Donald Trump to continue payments to health insurers under Obamacare.  At a hearing in San Francisco federal court, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said he aimed to issue a ruling on Tuesday.  The Trump administration earlier this month terminated the payments, which help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income Americans, as part of several moves to dismantle the signature healthcare law of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.  Trump had threatened to cut off the subsidies for months, prompting health insurers such as Anthem Inc, Humana Inc, UnitedHealth Group Inc and Aetna Inc to raise premiums or exit insurance markets. Democratic attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia sued the federal government and asked for an immediate order halting Trump’s move while the case is being litigated and argued that terminating the payments harmed customers by raising insurance rates.  But Chhabria on Monday suggested that California and other states had anticipated Trump’s move and worked with insurers to make sure most consumers would not be harmed. That weakens the case for a court order forcing the payments, Chhabria said.  “Why should I be ordering the administration to make these payments in the next few months while we get the case adjudicated?” Chhabria asked. Since cutting off the payments, Trump has alternately supported, and dismissed, an effort by Republican and Democratic senators that would reinstate the subsidies for two years until a broader replacement to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, can be negotiated. While Democrats accused Trump of sabotaging Obamacare, the president argued that the subsidies made insurance companies “rich.”  In a court filing on Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice pointed to a prior ruling from a Washington, D.C. federal court that said Congress had never appropriated the money for the subsidies. An appeal of that ruling is currently on hold. Either side could appeal Chhabria’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is weighted with Democratic-appointed judges.  From there, any further appeal would go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीश ने ओबामाकेयर भुगतान को बहाल करने की मांग करने वाले राज्यों से सवाल किए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will host Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni for an official working visit on April 20, the White House said on Thursday. “The leaders will discuss the upcoming G7 ... and a range of issues of mutual concern,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. Italy is hosting a summit of leaders from the Group of Seven biggest industrial economies in Sicily on May 26-27.

Summary: 20 अप्रैल को इटली के प्रधानमंत्री की मेजबानी करेंगे ट्रंप


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma appointed General Khehla Sitole as national police commissioner on Wednesday, filling the position on a permanent basis for the first time in nearly three years. South Africa has been without a permanent head of police since Zuma suspended Riah Phiyega in 2015 pending an investigation into her role in the killing of 34 platinum miners by officers during a violent strike over pay in 2012. South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, while burglary and car theft are common. Tackling violent crime is a top political priority for much of the public. Zuma has been criticized by opposition parties and civil society for previously appointing civilians rather career police officers to the top posts in the service. Sitole had  grown through the ranks of the police having joined the service as a constable until his promotion as a Lieutenant General in 2011,  Zuma s office said in a statement.   General Sitole brings a wealth of operational as well as management experience to the SA Police Service.  Zuma appointed his third police minister in under three years in March, drawing further criticism that he has failed to build a stable team to tackle crime.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका के राष्ट्रपति जुमा ने स्थायी पुलिस आयुक्त की नियुक्ति की


SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (Reuters) - A trip to Mexico s indigenous Maya heartland showed me how a vibrant Muslim community had sprung up in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. In the southern state of Chiapas, home to a lush mountainous landscape, I photographed members of a small Muslim community made up of hundreds of mostly indigenous Tzotzil men and women, many of whom converted to Islam from Catholic or other Christian denominations. The Muslim men here are distinguished by their prayer caps, or kufis, and the women by their hijabs which take the form of traditional Maya shawls. Locals say the conversions to Islam here began in the late 1980s, around the same time Mexico s Zapatista movement was gaining traction in Chiapas, as institutions including Christianity and capitalism came under increasing criticism. According to the last census, some 83 percent of Mexicans are Catholic. And although Muslims make up less than 1 percent of Mexico s 120 million population, a disproportionate number are indigenous clustered in and around San Cristobal de las Casas, a highland city in Chiapas that mixes both Maya and Spanish identity.  People gave us a weird look when we converted, they thought we were terrorists and were scared of us,  said Mustafa, a member of the nearby Ahmadia community.  But with the passage of time and our own actions, that opinion has changed,  he added. Umar, an indigenous former evangelical pastor, converted to Islam in the late 1990s and now serves as a bridge between local Christians and Muslims.  Ours is a monotheistic religion,  he said.  But we don t worship saints.  I later met 55-year-old Mohamed Amin who invited me to his home, offering me cookies and tea. He showed me where he prays five times a day and introduced me to his family. He asked me if I believed in God and I said no. That did not appear to bother him. He went on to explain the main reason behind his conversion to Islam.  I like to be clean and change my clothes,  he said.  This is a clean religion and that s what originally drew me to it.  For a related photo essay, see: reut.rs/2izhpmh

Summary: व्यापक छविः माया के केंद्र में मेक्सिको के स्वदेशी मुसलमान


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Searchers for an Argentine submarine missing since Nov. 15 battled gale-force South Atlantic winds on Sunday while a navy spokesman held out hope that the 44 crew members may still be alive in an  extreme survival situation.  The ARA San Juan had only a seven-day supply of air when it reported its last position, according to officials. Relatives of crew members focused on the possibility that the submarine may have been able to rise high enough in the ocean to refill its oxygen tanks at some point after its disappearance. Argentina s official weather service ordered an alert for  intense winds of between 50 and 90 kilometers per hour (31 and 56 mph), with gusts,  in Chubut province, the location from which search vessels were sailing.  The bad weather conditions really are adverse,  navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told a news conference.  Asked by a reporter about the chances that the crew may still be alive, Balbi left that as a possibility.  We ve been searching for 11 days but that does not remove the chance that they could still be in an extreme survival situation,  Balbi said. The U.S. Navy s Undersea Rescue Command sent a ship from Chubut s port Comodoro Rivadavia on Sunday, outfitted with a remotely operated mini-sub to be used as a rescue vehicle if the San Juan is found. The ship was expected to reach the search zone some 430 kilometers (267 miles) off Argentina s southern  coast by Monday afternoon. A sudden, violent sound detected underwater near the last known position of the 65-meter-long (213 feet) diesel-electric submarine suggested it might have imploded on the morning of Nov. 15th, after reporting an electrical problem and being ordered back to base. Oscar Vallejos, a naval veteran and father of San Juan crew member Celso Vallejos, told local television that he refused to believe his son would not return alive.  Hope always high,  said the burly Vallejos, his posture  ramrod straight and eyes hidden behind sunglasses. A black baseball-style cap identified him as a navy war veteran.  Other crew family members were less sure.  We are in a state of total uncertainty,  Maria Victoria Morales, mother of Luis Garcia, an electrical technician aboard the missing Cold War-era submarine, told Reuters by telephone. A Russian plane arrived in Argentina on Friday carrying search equipment capable of reaching 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) below the sea surface, according to the Argentine navy. The international search effort includes about 30 ships and planes manned by 4,000 personnel from 13 countries including Brazil, Chile and Great Britain.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना की पनडुब्बी की खोज करने वालों ने 11वें दिन तूफानी हवाओं का सामना किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser to two Republican U.S. presidents, on Wednesday endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president over Donald Trump, in a snub of the Republican Party’s likely nominee by a prominent member of its security wing. “The presidency requires the judgment and the knowledge to make tough calls under pressure,” the Republican elder statesman said in a statement. “I believe Hillary Clinton has the wisdom and experience to lead our country at this critical time.” Scowcroft, 91, served as national security adviser under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Ford was president from 1974 to 1977 and Bush from 1989 to 1993. He joined a number of well-known Republicans defecting due to the prospect of a Trump presidency, including Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush.  Armitage gave Clinton, 68, who was secretary of state under Democratic President Barack Obama, his backing last week. Trump “doesn’t appear to be a Republican, he doesn’t appear to want to learn about issues. So, I’m going to vote for Mrs. Clinton,” Armitage told Politico at the time.  The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Scowcroft’s endorsement of Clinton. Trump, 70, who has never held elected office, often boasts on the campaign trail his relative newness to politics, appealing to voters disillusioned by the current political climate.  Despite that facet of his appeal - which helped Trump beat 16 rivals in the campaign’s primary phase to become his party’s presumptive nominee - establishment Republicans worry that his inexperience and brash style will alienate foreign allies and other international partners. Among his proposals, Trump has criticized NATO, a cornerstone of U.S. security policy, and said he would consider letting Japan and South Korea develop their own nuclear weapons instead of relying on the United States for protection against North Korea and China. “Secretary Clinton shares my belief that America must remain the world’s indispensable leader,” Scowcroft said. “She understands that our leadership and engagement beyond our borders makes the world, and therefore the United States, more secure and prosperous.” Trump has said he would strengthen national security, but has offered few details about his plans, other than his proposals to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexican border and for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.  Many national security experts have expressed alarm over the proposed ban and have warned that Trump’s fiery rhetoric on the campaign trail is fueling extremism.

Summary: पूर्व फोर्ड, बुश के राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार स्कौक्रॉफ्ट ने क्लिंटन का समर्थन किया


LONDON (Reuters) - Significant gaps still remain between parties attempting to restore Northern Ireland s power-sharing administration, British Prime Minister Theresa May s office said on Monday after she  spoke with Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar. May and Varadkar agreed in a phonecall that it was in the interests of everyone that the executive was restored, but differences remained over issues such as the Irish language. Northern Ireland has been without a devolved administration since its collapse in January, raising the prospect of direct rule being re-imposed from London.

Summary: उत्तरी आयरिश सत्ता-साझाकरण को बहाल करने के लिए महत्वपूर्ण अंतराल बने हुए हैंः यूके पीएम मे का कार्यालय


HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf raised the minimum wage for state workers and employees of some contractors by 40 percent to $10.15 an hour on Monday, a gesture aimed in part at putting pressure on Republican lawmakers. Wolf, a Democrat, who signed an executive order to make the change, acknowledged that only 450 of the state’s 79,000 employees, mainly temporary workers hired during tax season, are currently paid less than $10.15 an hour. He said he hoped to send a message to the Republican-dominated Legislature to enact a similar increase for all Pennsylvania residents. “An increase in the minimum wage will lead to increases in employee morale, productivity, and quality of work and decreases in turnover and the cost of training and supervision,” said Wolf, who lacks the power to order the statewide increase.  At a press conference, Wolf said a statewide increase would benefit business in the long run. Fourteen states have a minimum wage of at least $10. The governor said inflation had pushed the value of the state’s current $7.25 minimum wage below the poverty line. Going forward, the state would adjust the minimum wage for government workers to keep up with inflation, he said. Wolf did not specify where the money would come from when questioned during the news conference.  Pennsylvania has been without a state budget since July 1 because of Republican resistance to raising taxes and Wolf’s refusal to sign a budget that he said would lead to a gaping structural deficit. The wage increase announced for state employees would cost the state $1.5 million and will take effect immediately. It would apply to many but not all contractors doing business with the state, costing the state an extra $2.6 million.  About 60 percent of that will go to contract employees at the state’s photo license bureaus, but only when those contracts are renewed.  The minimum wage increase will not apply for now to human service agencies funded by the state, Wolf said, because they are already “stressed” by delayed funding caused by the budget stand-off. Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman accused Wolf of acting like President Barack Obama by seeking to implement policy changes through executive orders. “Choosing to take symbolic executive action on this issue instead of working with the legislature underscores his failures to collaborate,” Corman said in a statement.

Summary: पेनसिल्वेनिया के गवर्नर ने राज्य के कर्मचारियों, ठेकेदारों के लिए न्यूनतम मजदूरी बढ़ाई


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - WikiLeaks documents showing the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency considered a “mission” against connected car technology underscores auto industry concern that the science behind the next generation of vehicles could be turned against them. Cyber security is considered key to the rollout of tomorrow’s self-driving and today’s connected cars, which resemble computers on wheels with a host of communications routes that hackers could target.  If consumers are to trust smart vehicles, they must deem them safe from attack. Security experts cite the terrifying hypothetical example of a remote attack on a fully autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or brakes, in which the passenger would have no recourse to regain manual control of the car. “You have a lot of car companies trying to design cars to be better suited to automation, which means they’re more attractive to hackers,” said auto consultant Roger Lanctot of Strategy Analytics. A major strategy for automakers is to reduce the number of communications gateways to crucial systems and to require services offered by third parties to go through a single secure path. WikiLeaks documents show the CIA citing “vehicle systems” and a car operating system from QNX, owned by Blackberry Ltd, as “potential mission areas” for the CIA’s “Embedded Devices Branch” to consider. The QNX operating system, which is used by most global automakers, provides a “a comprehensive, multi-level, policy-driven security model ... to mitigate attacks,” the company said in a statement to Reuters. But given the collection of software, hardware and network components that make up a connected car, “security is only as strong as its weakest link,” it said. While the CIA’s interest in cars brought widespread attention, the industry has already received wakeup calls about cars’ potential to be hacked. Researchers in 2015 used a wireless connection to turn off a Jeep Cherokee’s engine, prompting a recall of 1.4 million vehicles by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In September last year, Chinese cyber security researchers hacked a Tesla Inc Model S sedan, remotely tapping the brakes and popping the trunk. The electric carmaker subsequently patched the bugs using an over-the-air fix. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on its cyber security protocol.  The hacking of the Jeep and the Tesla “brought it home to the industry that even if its improbable it’s technically possible,” said Mark Wakefield, global co-head of the automotive practice at AlixPartners.  If a car was seen as vulnerable, it “could be a big brand problem,” Wakefield said. Hacks could also expose private information shared between car and third parties - credit card numbers, account numbers or passwords - to theft. A January survey by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute found that 33 percent of respondents said they were “extremely concerned” over hacking of full self-driving cars to cause crashes. The number of ways into cars has proliferated, from cell phone signals to dongles. One such gateway is the standard OBD-II port found under the steering wheel historically used for onboard diagnostics. Today, hundreds of after-market devices use the port, whether to monitor driving for insurance needs or provide conveniences like safety alerts. “The security of these devices is important, as it can provide an attacker with a means of accessing vehicle systems and driver data remotely,” warned the FBI in a March 2016 bulletin on cyber security risks to motor vehicles. Carmakers are also building walls between non-crucial infotainment systems and driving controls so that any breach is blocked before it could compromise key functions like brakes. The first step the industry is tackling is intrusion detection, said Lanctot. But what to do when a breach is detected is complicated, because shutting off parts of a car could be unsafe, he said.  Tesla was first to champion “over-the-air” technology in which wireless software updates are sent remotely to cars. Although some have argued such updates are a way in for hackers, Tesla and others see them a key protection to upgrade security and repair vulnerabilities quickly.  In January, U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill calling for cyber security standards for new cars but so far U.S. regulators have issued recommendations, not rules, on how carmakers should shield their computer systems from hackers. The industry is “years away” from solving the cyber security problem, Lanctot said, noting that the first generation of cars built after the Jeep hack that include some kind of detection capabilities will not be seen until early in 2018.

Summary: कारों पर सी. आई. ए. का 'मिशन' अगली पीढ़ी के वाहनों के बारे में चिंता दिखाता है


(This May 23 story corrects name to Fox Business Network in second paragraph) By Julia Edwards Ainsley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has tapped a longtime legal adviser to serve as his private attorney while a special counsel investigates whether his campaign worked with Russia in last year’s election, a source familiar with the decision told Reuters Tuesday.  Fox Business Network and ABC first reported that Trump hired Marc Kasowitz, a New York-based trial lawyer known as a tenacious litigator, to represent him in a Justice Department investigation headed by former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller. The appointment of a private attorney may indicate that Trump is seriously considering the impact the federal investigation could have on him personally and that he may wish to protect himself should others in his administration turn against him. The source said Kasowitz is expected to bring other lawyers on to work as a team to protect Trump.  Other candidates for the job, including Brendan Sullivan and Robert Giuffra, withdrew their names from consideration, the source said.  “He can be aggressive - he’s got that in him for sure,” said John Quinn of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan, who has worked with and opposite Kasowitz. “He also can be smooth as silk, respectful and deferential.”  Kasowitz and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Kasowitz has represented Trump for more than 15 years but he is not known as a criminal defense lawyer. During last year’s presidential campaign, Kasowitz threatened to sue the New York Times if it did not retract a story about women who accused Trump of touching them inappropriately. The Times did not retract the story. He also assisted in the defense of fraud claims against Trump University, a series of real-estate seminars. After the election, Trump settled the claims for $25 million. Trump has looked to Kasowitz’s firm to fill positions in his administration. He has described former Senator Joseph Lieberman, a senior counsel at the firm, as a top candidate to serve as FBI director and is considering Edward McNally, a white-collar defense lawyer at the firm, as the next U.S. attorney in Manhattan. A former partner at the firm, David Friedman, was chosen by Trump as U.S. ambassador to Israel. Kasowitz also represents OJSC Sberbank of Russia, the country’s largest bank, which is being accused in a U.S. federal court of conspiring with granite company executives and others to raid the assets of a competitor.  The outside counsel would be separate from the White House Counsel’s Office, led by Donald McGahn. Mueller was appointed as special counsel by the Justice Department last week to investigate the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. Several congressional committees and the FBI are also investigating the matter. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Moscow tried to sway the November vote in Trump’s favor. Russia has denied involvement, and Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia. Controversy has engulfed Trump since he fired FBI Director James Comey two weeks ago as Comey oversaw an investigation into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia.

Summary: ट्रंप ने रूस की जांच के लिए मार्क कासोविट्ज़ को निजी वकील के रूप में बरकरार रखाः सूत्र


(Reuters) - The governor of Kansas on Thursday vetoed a bill expanding eligibility for Medicaid for the poor under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) because the measure was not fiscally responsible and would still fund Planned Parenthood. State lawmakers in the Republican-controlled senate voted in favor of the measure on Tuesday, just days after President Donald Trump’s efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare, ended with the bill being pulled from a vote. Republican Governor Sam Brownback said the bill also failed to eliminate waiting lists for disability services, did not add work requirements and was not budget neutral. “The cost of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare is irresponsible and unsustainable,” he said.  He added it was “unwise to undertake such a drastic change” to the state’s Medicaid program while work on an ACA overhaul was underway in Washington. “I will not support this legislation that continues to fund organizations that undermine a culture of life,” he said, referring to groups such as Planned Parenthood, which provides a range of reproductive services including abortions. Planned Parenthood said in a statement that “the overwhelming majority of Kansans” support the health care provider and the expansion of Medicaid in the state.  The Republican-controlled House, which passed the bill last month 81-44, quickly took up a debate on overriding Brownback’s veto on Thursday, but a vote was postponed. “You are going to put a dagger right through the heart of our small communities,” Republican Representative Leonard Mastroni, who voted in support of expansion, told the House in Topeka after Brownback’s veto.  In the House, 84 lawmakers would need to vote in favor of the override for it to advance. The failed Obamacare replacement bill in Washington, pushed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, would have ended the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, the federal and state funded insurance program for the poor and disabled. Kansas was not among the 31 states that in 2016 had opted to expand Medicaid, with the federal government footing much of the cost under Obamacare. With the ACA’s enhanced federal funding, Medicaid expansion in Kansas, effective Jan. 1, 2018, would cost the state an estimated $31 million in fiscal 2018, which begins July 1, and $67 million in fiscal 2019 with more than 180,000 additional recipients, according to estimates cited in a legislative report on the bill. Without enhanced federal matching funds, the state’s costs would balloon to $465 million by fiscal 2019.

Summary: कैनसस के गवर्नर ने मेडिकेड विस्तार विधेयक पर वीटो लगा दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he has prepared an “economic-development” measure that would punish companies that globally outsource jobs. The bill would provide economic incentives for companies, Trump said in an interview published on Tuesday, and reward firms that maintain jobs in the United States, and deliver punitive measures against those that move operations offshore. “It’s both a carrot and a stick,” Trump said. “It is an incentive to stay. But it is perhaps even more so - if you leave, it’s going to be very tough for you to think that you’re going to be able to sell your product back into our country.” He did not specify what the rewards or punishments would be. The White House was not immediately available to comment. Trump, a New York real estate developer reality television host, has struggled to translate his business experience into government success, failing to push through any major legislative victories.  The Trump administration has repealed a number of regulations. The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday he planned to rescind the Clean Power Plan, which was former President Barack Obama’s cornerstone regulation to fight climate change. (This story corrects final paragraph to show Clean Power Plan has not yet been revoked.)

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कहा कि आउटसोर्स करने वाली कंपनियों को दंडित करने के लिए उपाय निर्धारित किए गए हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Ron Wyden thinks Republican leadership is moving away from trying to implement full-scale tax reform this year and instead are turning their attention to simply cutting rates.  “If you look at the language of Mitch McConnell in the last couple of days, he’s talking about tax cuts, he’s been saying, ‘Well, I don’t know about tax reform, let’s have a tax cut,’” Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.  “To me that would really be, again, contrary to what the president campaigned on,” he said. McConnell is the Senate majority leader.  Sweeping tax reform had been high on the Republican legislative agenda. But so far, House of Representatives and the Senate, both controlled by Republicans, have been unable to find consensus on a tax package that could pass both chambers and be signed into law by President Donald Trump.  Wyden argued there is robust bipartisan agreement that a tax overhaul is needed.  “There are plenty of Republicans in Congress - because they talk to me - who would really like to do major tax reform,” he said.      Last month, the White House weighed in on the tax discussion, offering only a one-page plan that included deep cuts in rates, many for businesses, but stopped well short of legislative language or providing detail on specific changes. “The tax reform proposal is shorter than drug store receipts I have,” Wyden remarked.  Several lawmakers have warned that if tax reform is not completed by the end of 2017, it will become more difficult to pass in 2018, when Congressional midterm elections will be held. The House has begun holding hearings and has developed a “blue print” - including a controversial border adjustment tax proposal that would tax imports while providing credit for exports.  Wyden, in an echo of other senators, including Republicans, said that a border adjustment tax would be unlikely to fare well in the Senate - going so far to call it a “grocery tax” that would unfairly hit consumers in the middle class.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट सेन. विडेन ने कर सुधार की घटती संभावना की चेतावनी दी


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police charged a 38-year-old man on Friday for allegedly assaulting former prime minister and same-sex marriage opponent Tony Abbott in the Tasmanian city of Hobart.   The man was charged with  Common Assault  following an investigation into a complaint made by Abbott, Tasmania police said on its Facebook page. Abbott told local media he was  headbutted  by a man wearing a  yes  badge in support of same-sex marriage on Thursday evening. Australia began a non-compulsory postal vote this month to determine whether it becomes the 25th country to legalize same-sex marriage. The emotionally charged campaign has seen an alarming volume of hate speech, spurring parliament to pass emergency legislation to outlaw opponents spewing their vitriol while the vote was in progress. Abbott, who is actively campaigning for the  no  side,  sustained minor injuries from the attack including a slightly swollen lip. Police did not comment on the motivation of the attack. Earlier this month, the godson of former prime minister Kevin Rudd was allegedly assaulted in Brisbane by a man who was tearing down rainbow flags put up in support of same-sex marriage. In May, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, who is openly gay, had a lemon meringue pie launched at his face in a protest about his advocacy for same-sex marriage.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलियाई पुलिस ने पूर्व प्रधानमंत्री एबॉट पर हमला करने के लिए एक व्यक्ति पर आरोप लगाया


(Reuters) - More than 80 percent of Americans want to limit firearms access for people with mental illness and require background checks at gun shows and in private sales, according to a Pew Research Center survey released on Thursday. Eighty-three percent also favor barring gun purchases by those on federal no-fly or watch lists, the survey found. But gun owners were far less supportive than non-owners of creating a federal database to track gun sales or to ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. The survey of 3,930 U.S. adults, including 1,269 gun owners, in March and April, provided a snapshot of American views on guns and gun policies as the nation grapples with gun violence. On June 14, an Illinois man opened fire on Republican members of Congress with legally purchased guns during a baseball practice near Washington, wounding Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise.  A few hours later, a UPS driver opened fire with a handgun inside a United Parcel Service Inc delivery center in San Francisco, killing three co-workers before fatally shooting himself. Some advocates called for a renewed push for gun control measures, as the Republican-controlled Congress has sought to relax existing gun laws. The National Rifle Association has opposed expanded background checks and argued the government was already being notified when someone on a no-fly list attempts to buy a gun. Pew’s survey respondents often diverged based on whether they were gun owners or non-owners, Republicans or Democrats and urban or rural residents. “Overall, 52 percent of Americans say gun laws should be stricter than they are today,” according to Washington-based Pew. Forty-four 44 percent of adults surveyed said they personally knew someone who was shot, accidentally or on purpose, and 83 percent believed gun violence was a very big or moderately big U.S. problem. As for violence in their local communities, 49 percent of black respondents said it was a very big problem, compared with 11 percent of whites.  A large majority said easy access to illegal guns contributed to gun violence, but just as many thought expanding gun ownership would boost crime as reduce it. Among all adults, 89 percent favored policies preventing the mentally ill from purchasing guns, and 84 percent favored background checks in private sales and at gun shows.  Tracking gun sales was favored by 71 percent overall, banning assault weapons by 68 percent, and banning high-capacity magazines by 65 percent, with gun-owners showing less approval than non-owners.

Summary: प्यू यू. एस. सर्वेक्षण ने कुछ बंदूक-नियंत्रण प्रस्तावों पर सहमति पाई


PRISTINA (Reuters) - Two Kosovo men pleaded guilty on Wednesday to planning attacks at a World Cup soccer match in Albania against the visiting Israel team last year. Kosovo police arrested 19 people in November 2016 on suspicion that they had links with the Islamic State militant group and were planning attacks in Kosovo and neighboring Albania. Nine of them were charged. The state prosecutor said some of them were in contact with Lavdrim Muhaxheri, Islamic State s self-declared  commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq , who ordered them to attack. Police said Muhaxheri was killed in June this year.  ... I accept guilty plea,  defendant Kenan Plakaj said in court. He is accused of making explosives, after police found half a kilo of explosives at his house, the indictment said. The other defendant, Besart Peci, also pleaded guilty. Sentences were not announced. Another defendant facing trial had kept in his basement 283 grams of self-made explosives. The same triacetone triperoxide explosive was used in attacks in Paris and Brussels and has been found in various foiled bombings in Europe since 2007. No militant attacks have been staged in Kosovo, whose population is largely ethnic Albanian Muslim. But at least 200 people have been detained or investigated over offences related to Islamic State, and a total of 300 Kosovars have gone to Syria to fight for Islamic State. More than 70 have been killed. International and local security agencies in Kosovo are worried that many of those returning from combat zones will pose a security threat. In 2015, Kosovo adopted a law introducing jail sentences of up to 15 years for anyone found guilty of fighting in wars abroad.

Summary: कोसोवो के दो पुरुषों ने इजरायली फुटबॉल टीम पर हमले की साजिश रचने का दोषी ठहराया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria s Raqqa said on Tuesday the alliance will capture the last parts of the city held by Islamic State in the coming hours.  The spokesman, Talal Selo, said by telephone that there was still fighting around the National Hospital, which the SDF said earlier it had taken, and around the city stadium.

Summary: U.S.-backed मिलिशिया घंटों में अंतिम रक्का क्षेत्रों पर कब्जा कर लेगीः प्रवक्ता


WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has asked the European Commission to withdraw its legal proceedings against Warsaw over its migrant relocation quotas and said it was ready to fight its case in court, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.  In July the Commission sent so-called  reasoned opinions  to Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary urging them to apply EU migration rules.  Poland has sent a motion to the European Commission requesting it to discontinue its ongoing infringement procedure. Should it be continued, Poland is prepared to argue its case before the Court of Justice of the European Union , the ministry said in a statement.  Poland s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has repeatedly criticized the EU s relocation scheme for each member state to host a given number of migrants to help ease pressure on Greece and Italy, struggling with mass arrivals of migrants across the Mediterranean. Earlier on Wednesday, Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said in a statement that the EU s relocation policy was dangerous.  Paris, Stockholm, Brussels, Berlin, Manchester, Barcelona,  Blaszczak said, referring to recent attacks by Islamist militants which have killed scores of people.   How many more European cities have to be hit by terrorists so the European Union wakes up? So the European Commission acknowledges that accepting blindly all those who come to the European shores is akin to putting a noose around Europe s neck?

Summary: पोलैंड ने यूरोपीय संघ से प्रवासी कोटा पर वारसॉ के खिलाफ कानूनी मामला छोड़ने को कहा


BERLIN (Reuters) - German consulates in the United States have seen a significant rise in requests for citizenship since November 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president, data collected by the German foreign ministry shows. Total citizenship applications - including those filed by U.S. citizens already living in Germany - are reported yearly, with data for this year not expected until summer 2018. However, German consulates receive citizenship requests filed overseas, including those filed by former Germans who were stripped of their citizenship during the Nazi era.  The German government s offices in the United States are currently seeing a significant increase in legal queries related to citizenship issues,  the German interior ministry said in response to an official query by the Greens party. Applications do not ask why an applicant wants to become a citizen, so the reasons for the increase are a matter of conjecture. But applications by German stripped of citizenship during the Nazi era and their descendants rose sharply after the U.S. election in early November. Such applications climbed from 92 in October 2016 to 124 in November, 144 in December and 159 in January 2017. At least 100 people living in the United States have applied every month through June.   Data from the German foreign ministry showed that, all told, 1,190 such applicants sought citizenship in the first eight months of 2017, compared with 792 in the full year of 2016.     Germany has also seen a surge in British nationals applying for German citizenship since the country voted to leave the European Union last year. The Federal Statistics Office said a total of 110,400 foreigners took up German citizenship last year, a 2.9 percent increase from the previous year, with Britons making up the largest share of the increase.

Summary: जर्मनी ने यू. एस. से नागरिकता आवेदनों में उछाल देखा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the moment, U.S. President Donald Trump is going it alone. After weeks of seeing his agenda imperiled by Republican divisions and infighting among his aides, Trump has been a whirl of activity this week, reasserting his campaign priorities and trying to deliver wins for his fervent but frustrated base of supporters. Trump took steps to dramatically undercut the Obamacare health system, sent notice he was willing to scuttle the nuclear deal with Iran, moved to roll back coal-plant limits, and again demanded a wall along the Mexican border.   And on social media the Republican president appeared to relish his feuds with the news media, senior Republicans in Congress, and National Football League players who have protested during the national anthem. In a sense, it was the vintage, freewheeling Trump: throwing red meat to his voter base, following his gut, and haranguing his critics. But by the end of the week, he had made more progress in undoing the policy accomplishments of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, than he had in some time.  “Trump knows he has to make good on several of his campaign promises,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist. “The clock is ticking, Congress is useless and portions of his base are growing frustrated.” At the same time, there is still chaos and uncertainty in the White House, so much so much so that Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, took the unusual step of telling reporters that he was not resigning. Meanwhile, the job status of his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, appears to remain tenuous.  The timing of some of Trump’s measures this week was driven by external deadlines, especially in the case of the Iran deal. And his administration has also been occupied by a spate of deadly hurricanes and the shooting spree in Las Vegas, which have hampered its ability to move forward on its policy agenda.  But Trump this week was also sending a clear message: that he plans on doing as much as he can without waiting for Congress to act.  “The president campaigned on a bold agenda, and Congress’s inaction won’t stop the administration’s tireless efforts to boost the economy, improve healthcare, and protect the American people,” said Raj Shah, the White House’s principal deputy press secretary.  When he sat in the Oval Office, Obama defiantly declared that he would circumvent a hostile Congress by using a “pen and a phone,” issuing executive orders where possible.  And when Trump ran for president last year, he frequently said that only he “alone” could fix the nation’s problems.  But once he took office, Trump attempted to follow the lead of Republicans on Capitol Hill, and he watched with dismay how little movement was made on priorities such as healthcare, immigration, and national security. Trump, too, remains bothered by another time he deferred to congressional Republicans and supported incumbent Senator Luther Strange in a divisive primary fight last month in Alabama.  Strange lost to Roy Moore, an archconservative backed by Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon, with many of Trump’s core supporters voting for Moore.   The loss came after Trump alarmed some conservatives by saying he could cut deals with Democratic congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to advance his agenda, particularly on providing relief from deportation for “Dreamers” - immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. That led to speculation that he was going to chart a more centrist course. But there was little of that talk this week after the White House released a series of hard-line immigration proposals that stand to threaten any bipartisan deal. Pelosi called the proposals “trash.” Trump, too, rejected the advice of Kelly, Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and other aides in decertifying the Iran nuclear deal, according to two administration officials, intent on staying true to his fierce criticism of the deal during the campaign.  Sam Nunberg, a former campaign aide to Trump, said Strange’s loss served as a reminder to Trump that he has to look after the interests of his political base.  “That was a big punch in the stomach,” Nunberg said, one that showed the president that “this is not a cult of personality. It’s about deliverables.” Those deliverables are the fulfillment of the campaign promises that Bannon once featured on a whiteboard in his White House office, said Nunberg, who added that Bannon’s shadow “still hovers over the West Wing.” Bannon has pledged to support primary challengers to Republican Senate incumbents in several states next year in a bid to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he blames for impeding Trump’s policy agenda. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week showed Trump’s approval slipping among the rural voters he so successfully courted in last year’s election. In September, 47 percent of people in rural areas approved of Trump while 47 percent disapproved, the poll found. That was down from Trump’s first four weeks in office, when 55 percent said they approved of the president while 39 percent disapproved. The poll found that Trump has lost support in rural areas among men, whites and people who never went to college. He lost support with rural Republicans and rural voters who supported him on Election Day.

Summary: अचानक हुए हंगामे में, ट्रम्प अपने मतदाताओं के लिए काम करना चाहते हैं


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Sunday that Turkey would employ an additional 110,000 public servants in 2018 including teachers, medical and religious personnel. Speaking in the southern border town of Kilis, Yildirim said that among the total, the government would hire an extra 36,000 medical personnel and 20,000 teachers.

Summary: तुर्की 2018 में 110,000 नए लोक सेवकों को नियुक्त करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defended his stock holdings and proposals to dismantle Obamacare on Wednesday, saying Americans would not suddenly lose health insurance. Representative Tom Price told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, one of two that oversee the health department, that there was no connection between his purchase of certain health company stocks and his promotion of legislation that would have helped the companies. He said the stocks were bought on his behalf by a broker. “I had no knowledge of those purchases,” he said. Price owns a variety of healthcare stocks, including biotech firm Amgen Inc, pharma companies Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Eli Lilly & Co and drug distributor McKesson Corp. He has said he will divest health and other stocks that could be affected by his position as health secretary. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, said he did personally direct his broker to buy shares of Australian biotech company Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd. He said he was made aware of the stock by Republican Congressman Chris Collins, who serves on Immunotherapeutics’ board, but denied he had been given any inside information or broken any laws. He said he did his own due diligence on the company. A spokesman for Collins, Michael McAdams, said in a statement that Collins’ relationship with Immunotherapeutics goes back more than 15 years, during which he has spoken with hundreds of people, including Price. “Congressman Collins has never disclosed any nonpublic or improper information related to Innate Immunotherapeutics and has followed all ethical and legal standards required by the House of Representatives during his time in office.” Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the panel, said the purchase raised questions that need a full investigation before the Senate goes forward with his confirmation. Stephen Crimmins, an attorney with Murphy and McGonigle and former lawyer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said the chain of events described by Price does not suggest insider trading. “What we’re seeing so far is a tip from a company director, who happened to be another congressman,” Crimmins said. “It’s a tip that the company was a good investment based on its ongoing public research on multiple sclerosis. That’s not insider trading, whether Price bought in the market or in a private placement.” Crimmins said the controversy illustrates the risk that all public officials take when they invest in individual stocks. “The safe play to avoid such questions is to stick to fund investments,” he said. Not everyone is as sanguine as Crimmins. James Cox, a securities law professor at Duke University School of Law, said Price appeared to have received the information about Immunotherapeutics by virtue of his public position. “What I heard and thought he admitted to doing was abusing his position by using information that was not generally publicly available for private gain,” he said. Price will face additional questioning the Senate Committee on Finance, which has set a confirmation hearing for Jan. 24.    Only members of the finance committee will vote on whether to send Price’s nomination to the Senate floor for review. Questioned about President Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, Price said “nobody is interested in pulling the rug out from anyone” as Republicans in Congress work to repeal the law and replace it with an alternative system. Price said an overhaul of Obamacare will initially focus on individual health plans sold on online exchanges and the Medicaid program but would not tackle changes to Medicare.     Trump has called for the immediate repeal of the law and its simultaneous replacement. Trump has said that he wants to keep some aspects of Obamacare, such as allowing young adults to be on their parents’ insurance, but that he wants plans that use health savings accounts. He also advocates for insurance to be sold across state lines. Price said that with these new tools, and the rollout of new forms of high-deductible so-called catastrophic insurance, the government can expand healthcare coverage to more people. He also echoed Trump’s recent call for “healthcare for all,” saying that he wants more people to be covered after the ACA is repealed. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday said a repeal of Obamacare would increase the number of people without health insurance by 18 million in the first year and 32 million by the year 2026.

Summary: ट्रम्प हेल्थ पिक ने शेयरों का बचाव किया, कहा कि अमेरिकी बीमा नहीं खोएंगे


(Reuters) - Maine’s two most prominent Republicans grabbed headlines this week with political moves that were widely different in style and substance, which some insiders said could risk the party’s stature in the northeastern state. U.S. Senator Susan Collins won praise from Democrats for saying she would not vote for a White House-backed healthcare reform bill while Governor Paul LePage revved up his conservative base by saying he was ready for a state government shutdown if legislators did not agree with his calls for budget cuts. The move by Collins, a four-term moderate, was in keeping with Maine’s reputation for producing independent-minded legislators willing to buck their party’s leadership in Washington. That tradition was challenged by LePage, who first ran for office in 2010 on a wave of populist Tea Party support and won two three-way races with less than a majority of the vote. “What you see is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican party in Maine,” said David Farmer, a Democratic political consultant who worked on the 2014 campaign of LePage’s Democratic challenger. “Is it going to be the belligerent, angry Governor LePage or is it going to be the thorough and pragmatic but still conservative Senator Collins?” Republican lobbyist and political operative Lance Dutson largely agreed. “It’s an ideological tipping point,” said Dutson, who worked on Collins’ 2014 reelection campaign, which she won with 68 percent of the vote. Maine has a tradition of successful third-party candidates, notably independent U.S. Senator Angus King, and has more unaffiliated voters than those registered as either Democrats or Republicans. “In the long run, the Collins model has proven itself,” Dutson said. “You can’t be an orthodox Republican and talk only to Republicans like LePage and win as much support.” Collins and LePage have publicly disagreed over President Donald Trump, whose brusque style and populist approach is similar to the Maine governor’s. LePage was an early supporter of Trump’s White House campaign. When Collins said last year that she would not vote for the New York real estate developer, LePage told local media he was “not a Susan Collins fan.” The chair of the state’s Republican party saw no downside to the diverging style and politics of the two, saying the wide gap represented by the two was an illustration of the party’s wide appeal in Maine. “We’re an inclusive party, we have strong conservatives, libertarians and we have our moderates, but we’re a party, we’re a party of reform and we are going to stick together,” said Demi Kouzounas, a dentist who was elected as the party chair in January. “We support both of them strongly.” The gap between the two was as clear in the style of their comments as it was in its substance. Collins said she had “serious concerns” about the Senate bill backed by Trump as a replacement to the Affordable Healthcare Act, known as Obamacare. After the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the measure would cause 22 million Americans to lose their healthcare insurance over the next decade, Collins became one of a handful of Senate Republicans to say they could not support the bill in its current form, leading to Tuesday’s decision to delay the vote. Also on Tuesday, LePage told a radio interviewer that he was ready to shut down the state government ahead of a holiday weekend that is crucial for businesses catering to tourists, if Democratic lawmakers would not agree to $145 million in spending cuts in the state’s next two-year budget of roughly $7 billion. “I’m the worst guy in the world to play chicken with, because I don’t veer either way,” LePage told WMOV radio. “If there’s a collision to be had, it’s coming.” The Democrats and Republicans blame each other for the state’s budget impasse, which is focused on a debate over how to fund the public schools. A government shutdown could further expose Republican rifts and turn more moderate Republicans against LePage’s tactics, suggested Phil Bartlett, a former state senator who now serves as chairman of the Maine Democratic party. “He’s been saved by the fact that cooler minds have prevailed to prevent the worst of his impulses,” Bartlett said. “But we’re now seeing that he and the House Republicans seem to be willing to shut down the government.”

Summary: मेन की राजनीति के दो चेहरों ने राज्य रिपब्लिकन पार्टी में दरार दिखाई


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump does not have the authority to withhold funding from the University of California at Berkeley where violent protests led to the cancellation of a speech by a far-right editor, academics and experts said on Thursday. Trump threatened to cut funds for the university’s flagship Berkeley campus in a Twitter posting accusing the institution of failing to support free speech and practicing violence against innocent people. But academics and experts interviewed by Reuters said state universities mostly receive federal funds in the form of research grants and financial aid to students, and these cannot be revoked for reasons related to freedom of speech. “There is nothing in current legislation that would allow President Trump to do that,” said Don Heller, a provost at the University of San Francisco and an expert in public education financing. UC Berkeley receives between $400 million and $450 million annually in federal funding for research, and about $216 million for student financial aid, officials said. Some of that can be withheld but only in very specific circumstances, such as the publication of fraudulent research or the refusal of a university to comply with the Title IX law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs. To add freedom of speech to that list of offenses would take new legislation in Congress, Heller and other experts said. And even if such a law were passed, Berkeley’s situation would be highly unlikely to be affected, said Terry Hartle, vice president for Government and Public Affairs at the American Council on Education.  That is because in Berkeley’s case, the university had attempted to facilitate the speech on Wednesday night, cancelling it only after police became concerned about safety. “Because the crowd had grown so violent and agitated, it was our recommendation to the speaker that his public safety was in jeopardy,” UC Berkeley police department spokeswoman Sergeant Sabrina Reich said in a telephone interview.  Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at Breitbart News, was escorted by police from the campus as a relatively small group among the 1500 protesters smashed windows and set fires and the campus was put on lockdown. There were no injuries. Yiannopoulos has been a provocative figure on the internet  for years, and has been widely criticized for comments he has made about Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists and feminists. Trump, whose aide Steve Bannon previously ran the right-wing, nationalist Breitbart site, tweeted his response shortly before dawn in Washington on Thursday. “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” the President wrote.   His administration was not immediately available for further comment on Thursday. Longer-term, there were some steps a Trump administration could take that would affect the university.  For instance, the Department of Energy could conceivably seek to relocate the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is in the hills above the campus and is managed by the University of California, said Bob Shireman, a former deputy undersecretary for education in the Obama administration. “There are things that if a president really wanted to punish some particular college they could influence those decisions but it would take a long time and there would be a lot of reaction,” said Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation.

Summary: क्या ट्रम्प यू. सी. बर्कले के कोष में कटौती कर सकते हैं? विशेषज्ञों का कहना है कि वास्तव में नहीं


LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday apologized for causing distress with remarks about a Iranian-British aid worker jailed in Iran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic s clerical establishment. She denies the charges. Johnson said on Nov. 1 that she had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in April 2016, contradicting her and her employer, who said she had been on holiday visiting her family.  Of course I apologize for the distress, for the suffering that has been caused by the impression I gave that I believed she was there in a professional capacity. She was there on holiday,  Johnson told parliament.  I do apologize. Of course I retract any suggestion she was there in a professional capacity.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के जॉनसन ने ईरान में जेल में बंद सहायता कार्यकर्ता पर टिप्पणी के कारण हुई पीड़ा के लिए माफी मांगी


LONDON (Reuters) - Presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Britain leaving the European Union would make no difference to a potential bilateral trade deal if he became president, according to an interview clip aired by broadcaster ITV on Sunday. During a visit to London last month President Barack Obama told Britons that if they elected to leave the EU in a June 23 referendum they would be at “the back of the queue” for a U.S. trade deal. “I am going to treat everybody fairly but it wouldn’t make any difference to me whether they were in the EU or not,” Trump said in an interview with Piers Morgan, due to be aired in full on ITV on Monday. “You would certainly not be back of the queue, that I can tell you.”

Summary: ट्रम्प का कहना है कि ब्रेक्सिट संभावित UK-U.S को प्रभावित नहीं करेगा. अगर वह राष्ट्रपति हैं तो व्यापार सौदाः ITV