DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - “Unbelievable”, “embarrassing” even “dangerous” are some of the words the financial elite gathered at the World Economic Forum conference in the Swiss resort of Davos have been using to describe U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.  Although some said they still expected his campaign to founder before his party picks its nominee for the November election many said it was no longer unthinkable that he could be the Republican candidate.  Some noted that whatever the outcome, a heated campaign, which has also seen self-proclaimed Socialist Bernie Sanders provide a tough challenge to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, could alter the U.S. political environment, giving vent to new populist anger on both sides of the political divide.  Trump's nationalist rhetoric, particularly proposals to ban Muslims from entering the United States, tax goods made abroad and build a wall on the Mexican border, were never the sort of thing to appeal to the free trade crowd that typically gathers at events like the annual Davos economic forum.  “Clearly it is not a rhetoric that is inviting for integration,” said Chile’s Finance Minister, Rodrigo Valdes, referring to his comments on the campaign trail.  “In Chile we have a deep view that integration of the Americas is a good thing, whether it is goods, financing and yes people. So I’d be happier with a more welcoming rhetoric.”  Among the present and former government officials in the Swiss resort was Eric Cantor, former Republican majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, now vice-chairman of Moelis & Co, an investment bank. Like much of the Republican party’s establishment, he had cold words for Trump.  “He’s not serious. He’s amazing at promoting his personal brand and reflecting an underlying anger at home,” Cantor said.  “Trump Fever is an unsustainable phenomenon that will not translate into a victory for the candidate.”  But for Ray Nolte, chief investment officer of Skybridge Capital, a $13 billion hedge fund whose founder has supported other Republican candidates including Jeb Bush, such establishment pronouncements sound like wishful thinking.  “Is Donald going to be the nominee? I don’t know. It’s sure looking that way now,” Nolte said. “Anyone here (at Davos) who is in the mainstream says there is no way he could possibly get the nomination. When I hear that, it probably means it is going to happen.”  Noting the challenge to Clinton from Sanders, which he said could pull her to the left on issues like financial regulation, Nolte said institutional investors were already paying attention to the prospect of increased U.S. political volatility from the election.  Arianna Huffington, whose Huffington Post news website once insisted on covering Trump, a former reality TV star, as an entertainment figure rather than a politician, said the site reversed its policy once he announced his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, which made him too "dangerous" to ignore.   “I feel the mainstreaming of Donald Trump, instead of him being treated as an extreme, dangerous candidate, is really the most troubling aspect of American politics right now,” she said.  “He’s being interviewed on all the main shows, and he’s being asked questions about what his first State of the Union address would be like if he wins, instead of actually being forced to answer the tough questions about his policy, especially his policy of wanting to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., which is so dangerous, so un-American and should really be the center of the coverage of Trump.”  For Dominic Barton, global managing director for business consultancy McKinsey, Trump has turned the political campaign itself into “entertainment”, which could hurt the global image of the United States.  “It’s a bit embarrassing globally. But I think there’s a big difference between the rhetoric and the reality, and I think most people will see that and discount it. But it’s incredible how long its been going for. It’s just unbelievable,” he said.  But not everyone is worried. Sandeep Dadlani, executive vice president of Indian outsourcing firm Infosys, said his firm has earned the majority of its revenue in the United States for more than 30 years.  "We have seen many elections come and go. It is common in all election seasons for rhetoric and extreme personalities to shine. Inevitably we have found governments from both sides to eventually come up with sensible policies," he said.   (Reporting by Martinne Geller, Carmel Crimmins, Noah Barkin and others; Writing by Peter Graff; editing by Anna Willard)

Summary: दावोस के अभिजात वर्ग ने ट्रंप के उम्मीदवार बनने की संभावना पर चिंता जताई


HAVANA (Reuters) - An association of Cuban businesswomen has asked to meet with Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida to explain the impact on the country’s nascent private sector of rolling back a detente in U.S. relations. Rubio, a Cuban-American politician who advocates a “no contact” policy with the Communist-run island, has advised President Donald Trump on Cuba policy and welcomed his reversal of the Obama administration’s efforts at a rapprochement. “The current situation has us very worried and we would like to share our personal histories and perspective from Cuba,” the association, which represents women who own small businesses, said in a letter to Rubio last month. The entrepreneurs took advantage of an economic opening under President Raul Castro to build businesses, which they said took off as more Americans visited Cuba from 2015 in the wake of the detente. Now, they say those businesses are imploding. They would like Rubio, who was born in the United States and has never been to Cuba, to visit the Caribbean island and witness the impact of U.S. policy. “We want to invite him or part of his team to come and learn about Cuba, the Cubans here and our businesses,” said Niuris Higueras, owner of the Atelier restaurant in Havana, where she said business is down 60 percent from a year ago. The association said Rubio’s office had not responded to their letters but they would continue to seek a meeting.  His office did not respond to requests for comment. Rubio welcomed Trump’s announcement in June that he would reverse former President Barack Obama’s policies in Cuba until democracy was restored but he said this month that new restrictions on business and travel did not go far enough.   The entrepreneurs say they speak for much of Cuba’s private sector, which employs 600,000 of the island’s 11 million people.  “We began to have a lot of cancellations after President Trump in June made his statement ending Obama’s policy,” said Nidialys Acosta, who runs a business renting vintage U.S. automobiles, Nastalgicar. “People said they were scared and uncertain.” Julia de la Rosa, who runs a 10 room bed and breakfast, said rentals were down 20 percent in October and she expected a further decline as new U.S. regulations on individual travel kick in this month. The new rules limit individual travel, make group visits more onerous and ban Americans from doing business with or patronizing 180 Cuban military-run businesses and their products. “We are not asking for anything. Simply that they do not take from us the opportunity to keep working,” de la Rosa said.

Summary: क्यूबा की व्यवसायी महिलाएँ रूबियो के साथ बैठक करना चाहती हैं क्योंकि यू. एस. नीति काटती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday launched the first salvo in the renegotiation of the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying its top priority for the talks was shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico. In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he would seek to reduce the trade imbalance by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico under the three-nation pact.  For the first time in a U.S. trade deal, the administration also said it wants an “appropriate” provision to deter currency manipulation by trading partners. The move appeared aimed at future trade deals rather than specifically at Canada and Mexico, which are not considered currency manipulators. The 17-page document asserted that no country should manipulate its currency exchange rate to gain an unfair competitive advantage, an often-cited complaint about China in past years. Shortly before the release of the document, President Donald Trump lashed out against trade deals and unfair trade practices, saying he would take more legal and regulatory steps during the next six months to protect American manufacturers.  Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said the U.S. list was “part of its internal process” although a source familiar with the Canadian government’s thinking said the document was “not earth shattering.” The source said officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada would meet in Washington on Tuesday to discuss logistics of the talks. No date has been announced for the NAFTA talks, but they are expected in mid-August. Mexico’s economy ministry said in a statement it would work “to achieve a constructive negotiation process that will allow trade and investment flows to increase and consolidates cooperation and economic integration to strengthen North American competitiveness.” Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Mexican government official said the list of priorities was “not as bad as I was expecting” and welcomed that the United States was not pushing to impose punitive tariffs, as Trump has threatened. Trade experts have argued that shrinking the yawning U.S. trade deficit will not be achieved through trade deals but rather by boosting U.S. savings.  “The first bullet point shows their preoccupation with bilateral trade deficits and that’s unfortunate,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “There’s not much that trade policy and trade agreements can do to change those. That’s more of a macroeconomic issue.” Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms. There was no mention of active disputes between the United States and Canada over softwood lumber and dairy products, but the document targeted a range of agricultural non-tariff barriers, including subsidies and unfair pricing structures, that are currently at the heart of those standoffs. USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA’s rules of origin to ensure that the pact’s benefits do not go to outside countries and to “incentivize” the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product’s components must originate from NAFTA countries. Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, a group representing U.S. automakers, welcomed the decision to include objectives on the removal of regulatory barriers and the provision on currency manipulation. A spokesman for Ford Motor Co said: “Foreign currency manipulation is the 21st century trade barrier, and we strongly support the inclusion of this top-tier issue in the U.S. negotiating objectives for NAFTA.” The document also outlined plans to upgrade standards for labor and the environment and govern digital trade. Canada and Mexico have already agreed to upgrade these areas as part of the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Earlier on Monday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said NAFTA had been an “unequivocal failure” and should be completely renegotiated although he stopped short of calling on Trump to abandon the agreement if there was no agreement. “We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation,” the head of the 12.5-million-strong union umbrella group told a conference call with reporters.  “If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal,” Trumka said. NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015, but the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico exceeded $63 billion last year.

Summary: नाफ्टा वार्ता में अमेरिका ने कम व्यापार घाटे को सर्वोच्च प्राथमिकता दी


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia has arrested seven Philippine men suspected of involvement in activities of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, police said on Thursday, as concern grows in Southeast Asia over the possible expansion of militant Islamist activity. The Abu Sayyaf, whose members have pledged loyalty to Islamic State, is notorious for bombings, beheadings, extortions and kidnap-for-ransom activities in the Philippines  volatile south. The men worked as security guards for private companies in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the surrounding state of Selangor, Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said.  One suspect, a 22-year-old, was an Abu Sayyaf group member involved in clashes with the military and kidnapping of hostages in the southern Philippines,  he said in a statement. An extremist faction of the Abu Sayyaf helped seize large parts of Marawi city in the southern Philippines in May, leading to a siege that has killed about 670 militants and 149 soldiers.  Reuters could  not reach the men to seek comment as they are in custody. It was not immediately clear if they have lawyers to represent them. Malaysian police said their arrests were based on information received after authorities thwarted a plan by an Abu Sayyaf member to stage an attack at the closing ceremony of the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur last month.     All seven men arrived in Malaysia in September 2015 through the town of Sandakan in the state of Sabah on Borneo island, off the southern coast of the Philippines, before traveling to Kuala Lumpur on forged documents, Mohamad Fuzi said.   Since 2013, Muslim-majority Malaysia has detained more than 300 people with suspected links to Islamic State.  This year, Malaysia has arrested 41 foreigners classified as foreign terrorist fighters, Mohamad Fuzi added. Governments in Southeast Asia have been worried over the possible expansion of Islamic State as the group loses ground in the Middle East.

Summary: मलेशिया ने अबू सय्याफ आतंकवादी समूह के साथ संलिप्तता के सात संदिग्धों को गिरफ्तार किया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - An official document seen by Reuters shows that at least 131 Russian citizens died in Syria in the first nine months of this year, a number that relatives, friends and local officials say included private military contractors.  The document, a death certificate issued by the Russian consulate in Damascus dated Oct. 4, 2017, does not say what the deceased was doing in Syria. But Reuters has established in interviews with the families and friends of some of the deceased and officials in their hometowns that the dead included Russian private military contractors killed while fighting alongside the forces of Moscow s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The presence of the Russian contractors in Syria - and the casualties they are sustaining - is denied by Moscow, which wants to portray its military intervention in Syria as a successful peace mission with minimal losses. The Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to detailed questions submitted by Reuters. Requests for comment from the Russian consulate in Damascus did not elicit a response.     Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement provided to Reuters on Friday:  We do not have information about individual citizens who visit Syria. With that, I consider this question dealt with.  Reuters sent questions to a group of Russian private military contractors active in Syria through a person who knows their commanders, but did not receive a response. The official death toll of military personnel in Syria this year is 16. A casualty figure significantly higher than that could tarnish President Vladimir Putin s record five months before a presidential election which he is expected to contest. A Reuters count of the number of Russian private contractors known to have been killed in Syria this year, based on interviews with relatives and friends of the dead and local officials in their hometowns, stands at 26. Russian authorities have not publicly released any information this year about casualties among Russian civilians who may have been caught up in the fighting.  The Russian Foreign Ministry, in response to Reuters questions, said the consulate in Syria was fulfilling its duties to register the deaths of Russian citizens. It said that under the law, personal data obtained in the process of registering the deaths was restricted and could not be publicly disclosed. In August, Igor Konashenkov, a Russian defense ministry spokesman, said in response to a previous Reuters report that information about Russian military contractors in Syria was  a myth , and that Reuters was attempting to discredit Moscow s operation to restore peace in Syria. A Russian diplomat who has worked in a consulate in another part of the world, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the figure of 131 registered deaths in nine months was unusually high given the estimated number of Russian expatriates in Syria. Although there is no official data for the size of the community, data from Russian national elections shows there were only around 5,000 registered Russian voters in the country in 2012 and 2016.   It is as if the diaspora is dying out,  he said. High numbers of deaths are usually recorded by Russian consulates only in tourist destinations such as Thailand or Turkey, he said. Russian consulates do not register the deaths of military personnel, according to an official at the consulate in Damascus who did not give his name. The consular document seen by Reuters was a  certificate of death  issued to record the death of Sergei Poddubny, 36. It was one of three death certificates seen by Reuters. Poddubny s certificate, which bears the consulate s stamp, lists the cause of death as  carbonization of the body  - in other words, he was burned.  It said he was killed on Sept. 28 in the town of Tiyas, Homs province, the scene of heavy fighting between Islamist rebels and pro-Assad forces. Several Russian contractors were killed in the area earlier this year, friends and relatives told Reuters. Poddubny s body was repatriated and buried in his home village in southern Russia about three weeks later. He had been in Syria as a private military contractor, one of his relatives and one of his friends told Reuters.  Poddubny s death certificate had a serial number in the top right corner, 131. Under a Justice Ministry procedure, all death certificates are numbered, starting from zero at the start of the year and going up by one digit for each new death recorded. The Russian diplomat confirmed that is the procedure.  Reuters saw two other certificates, both issued on Feb. 3. The numbers - 9 and 13 - indicate certificates for at least five deaths were issued on that day. They were both private military contractors, according to people who know them. The death of a Russian citizen would have to be registered at the consulate in order to repatriate the body back to Russia via civilian channels, according to the Russian diplomat. A death certificate from the consulate would also help with bureaucracy back home relating to the dead person s assets, the  diplomat said. The bodies of Russians fighting on the rebel side are not repatriated, according to a former Russian official who dealt with at least six cases of Russians killed in Syria and the relatives of four Russian Islamists killed there. A few thousand Russian citizens with Islamist sympathies have traveled to rebel-held areas since the conflict began in 2011, according to Russian officials.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः मृत्यु प्रमाण पत्र सीरिया में रूसी हताहतों पर सुराग प्रदान करता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The NATO alliance’s mutual defense guarantee,  Article 5, is inviolable, U.S. Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday in response to a question during his Senate confirmation hearing.

Summary: नाटो की आपसी रक्षा गारंटी अलंघनीयः टिलरसन


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s surprise election as U.S. president has Pakistanis wary that he may accelerate what they see as a shift in American policy to favor arch-foe India in the long rivalry between nuclear-armed neighbors, analysts said on Wednesday. Historical allies in the region, Islamabad and Washington have seen relations sour over U.S. accusations that Pakistan shelters Islamist militants, a charge Pakistan denies. They hit new lows in May when a U.S. drone killed the leader of the Afghan Taliban movement on Pakistani territory. At the same time, Pakistan’s ties with traditional rival India have also deteriorated this year, with India saying Pakistan-based militants killed 19 of its soldiers in a September attack on an army base in the disputed Kashmir region. To many Pakistanis, Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric - he once proposed banning Muslims entering the United States - and business ties to India are signs that his administration could shift further toward New Delhi. “America will not abandon Pakistan, but definitely, Trump will be a tougher president than Hillary Clinton for Pakistan,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, Lahore-based foreign policy analyst. “I think India will have a better and smoother interaction compared to Pakistan.” Trump has yet to lay out a detailed policy for South Asia, although he recently offered to mediate between India and Pakistan in their dispute over the divided territory of Kashmir. He also told Fox News in May he would favor keeping nearly 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan “because it’s adjacent and right next to Pakistan which has nuclear weapons.” On Wednesday, a U.S. diplomat in Pakistan sought to assure the country that Trump’s election did not signal a drastic policy change. “Our foreign policy is based on national interest and they don’t change when the government changes,” Grace Shelton, U.S. Consul General in Karachi, told Geo News television. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif congratulated Trump. “Your election is indeed the triumph of the American people and their enduring faith in the ideals of democracy, freedom, human rights and free enterprise,” Sharif said in a statement. Still, the uncertainty of a Trump presidency has many Pakistanis on edge, even if the country has leaned towards China in recent years for investment and diplomatic support. “Trump is a bit of a wild card,” said Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani senator and former ambassador to the United States.     “Pakistan obviously cannot rule out engaging with whomever America elects, but his anti-Muslim rhetoric may cast a shadow on relations in times of uncertainty.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Trump on Wednesday.  “We look forward to working with you closely to take India-US bilateral ties to a new height,” Modi said in a tweet. Trump has partnered with Indian businessmen on a handful of real estate ventures, but apart from courting the Indian-American vote he has not articulated how he would develop the bilateral relationship. India-U.S. ties have flourished under President Barack Obama and Modi, who came to power in 2014, with the two countries striking key defense agreements this year. Modi’s government has also waged a campaign to isolate Pakistan diplomatically. Shaurya Doval, director of the India Foundation, a think-tank close to Modi’s government, called Trump’s election “a very positive development”, but added that India and the United States would have continued to grow closer under a Hillary Clinton presidency as well. “My sense is that India-U.S. relations are not dependent on individuals – there are strong institutions and processes there,” he said. One fringe Hindu nationalist group in India held a victory gathering at New Delhi’s speakers’ corner on Wednesday. “He’s an American nationalist. We are Indian nationalists. Only he can understand us,” Rashmi Gupta of the Hindu Sena, or Hindu Army, told Reuters. “We expect him to support us when it comes to terrorist attacks on India from Pakistan.” Trump will also have to decide whether to maintain the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan or change the scope of the mission, 15 years after a U.S.-led campaign toppled the hardline Islamist Taliban government.     The United States has spent some $115 billion in aid for Afghanistan since 2002, but the country is still caught in conflict, with a third of the country out of government control and thousands of Afghan civilians, soldiers and police dying every year. Afghan officials have voiced concern that the conflict is being forgotten in Washington, and warned privately that the West will pay a huge price if that continues.     “The people of Afghanistan are tired of war. We want (Trump) to invest heavily in bringing peace to war-torn Afghanistan and stabilize our region,” said Umer Daudzai, former Afghan minister of interior. Obama’s original aim of pulling out of Afghanistan entirely has been put on hold in the face of mounting gains by Taliban militants, with U.S. air power and special forces still regularly involved in combat.     As recently as last week, two U.S. Green Berets were killed near the northern city of Kunduz. Although Afghan security forces have been fighting largely alone since the end of the main NATO-led combat mission in 2014, their performance has been patchy and they continue to rely heavily on U.S. air power. The Taliban on Wednesday urged Trump to withdraw all U.S. troops. “They should not cause damage to their economy and their military in this failed war,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said of the American government in a statement.

Summary: पाकिस्तानियों को चिंता है कि राष्ट्रपति ट्रम्प प्रतिद्वंद्वी भारत का पक्ष ले सकते हैं


SINGAPORE/CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A nephew of Singapore s prime minister said a contempt of court proceeding against him, stemming from comments he made about the country s legal system, was  meritless  and he had appointed a lawyer to represent him. The Singapore attorney-general s office started court proceedings in August against Li Shengwu over a Facebook post in which he said the Singapore government is  very litigious and has a pliant court system.  Li, who is a grandson of the city state s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, said at the weekend he had retained Singapore attorney Abraham Vergis, of the firm Providence Law Asia, to represent him.  It s sad that the Singapore government continues to press these meritless charges against me,  Li, a U.S.-based academic, told Reuters. Vergis, a veteran litigation lawyer, appeared at the Singapore High Court on Monday in a closed-door conference on the case. He said the case was likely to be a drawn out process and when asked how Li planned to proceed, Vergis told Reuters:  It is premature to be talking about that.  Lawyer Francis Ng, the senior state counsel from the attorney general s chambers, declined to comment. Singapore parliament last year passed a bill that made it punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine of up to S$100,000 (US$73,530) for anyone who alleges the country s judiciary is bias. Ng has previously described Li s Facebook post as  an egregious and baseless attack  on the Singapore legal system. On Aug. 4, Li said he did not mean to attack the Singapore judiciary and he had amended the  private  post to avoid misunderstanding, though he hasn t disclosed what changes he made. Li told Reuters in separate comments in an interview in August that he had left the country in July after friends expressed concerns he might be detained by the authorities. In the interview, Li did not identify the friends or specify the information they had. Reuters has no independent evidence that Li faced any threats to his safety.  In Singapore, it is possible that one can be detained and interrogated for some time without a lawyer,  Li said at the time. The case relates to a feud between Lee Kuan Yew s three children over the fate of Lee s house, which earlier this year gripped the nation not accustomed to such disputes erupting into public view. Lee Hsien Yang and sister Lee Wei Ling accused their elder brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, of abusing power to try to save the house as a historic monument in defiance of their father s wishes. The premier called a special sitting of parliament to  clear the air  over the issue and afterwards said the debate had failed to find any substantial evidence of abuse of power. Lee Kuan Yew, who died in 2015 at the age of 91, had lived in the house for most of his life.

Summary: सिंगापुर के संस्थापक के पोते ने अवमानना मामले में वकील का नाम लिया


(Reuters) - A peace activist who laughed at then U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing to become U.S. attorney general will no longer be prosecuted on charges of disrupting a session of Congress and demonstrating at the Capitol. The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia filed court papers on Monday, notifying a judge her office was dropping its case against Desiree Fairooz, a children’s librarian. Fairooz had faced up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if she were convicted on both charges at trial. She belonged to Code Pink, an anti-war group that often stages protests against politicians. The group accused federal prosecutors of overreaching and wasting money on the case.  “We hope they will scale back this massive overreach and that the success we just saw in Desiree’s case will encourage more people to protest in the halls of Congress and on the streets,” Code Pink said in a statement on Tuesday.  Fairooz laughed during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January, after a lawmaker’s asserted Sessions treated all Americans equally. It was at the confirmation hearing for Sessions, who was then a Republican senator from Alabama and was later confirmed to become U.S. attorney general. Fairooz shouted, “This man is evil, pure evil” as police led her away. A jury found Fairooz guilty in May of disrupting a session of Congress and demonstrating on Capitol grounds.  But a judge for the District of Columbia Superior Court overturned the guilty verdict in July and ordered a new trial. Chief Judge Robert Morin found it was unclear whether Fairooz was convicted for laughter or for speaking out as she was removed, Fairooz’s attorney, Samuel Bogash, said at the time. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia said in an email on Tuesday that his office had no comment on the decision to dismiss the case.  A second trial for Fairooz had been scheduled for Nov. 13, but Morin canceled it after prosecutors dropped the case.

Summary: ट्रंप के उम्मीदवार सेशंस पर हंसने वाली महिला के खिलाफ आरोप हटाए गए


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Russia threw its weight behind China s massive Belt and Road plan to build trade and transport links across Asia and beyond, suggesting to India on Monday that it find a way to work with Beijing on the signature project.  India is strongly opposed to an economic corridor that China is building in Pakistan that runs through disputed Kashmir as part of the Belt and Road initiative.  India was the only country that stayed away from a May summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping to promote the plan to build railways, ports and power grids in a modern-day recreation of the Silk Road. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said New Delhi should not let political problems deter it from joining the project, involving billions of dollars of investment, and benefiting from it. Lavrov was speaking in the Indian capital after a three-way meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj at which, he said, India s reservations over the Chinese project were discussed.  I know India has problems, we discussed it today, with the concept of One Belt and One Road, but the specific problem in this regard should not make everything else conditional to resolving political issues,  he said. Russia, all the countries in central Asia, and European nations had signed up to the Chinese project to boost economic cooperation, he said.   Those are the facts,  he said.  India, I am 100 percent convinced, has enough very smart diplomats and politicians to find a way which would allow you to benefit from this process.  The comments by Russia, India s former Cold War ally, reflected the differences within the trilateral grouping formed 15 years ago to challenge U.S.-led dominance of global affairs. But substantial differences between India and China, mainly over long-standing border disputes, have snuffed out prospects of any real cooperation among the three.  India, in addition, has drawn closer to the United States in recent years, buying weapons worth billions of dollars to replace its largely Soviet-origin military. Swaraj said the three countries had very productive talks on economic issues and the fight against terrorism.

Summary: रूस ने भारत से चीन की बेल्ट एंड रोड पहल का समर्थन करने का आग्रह किया


KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian lawmaker on Friday divulged more details of what he said were payments made to Donald Trump’s campaign chief in the U.S. presidential race by the political party of the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich. MP Serhiy Leshchenko said money was allocated for Trump aide Paul Manafort to finance services such as carrying out exit polls at elections, buying computers and conducting research. The largest single payment was $3.5 million.  Manafort has denied allegations - first made in the New York Times on Monday - that he received cash payments worth more than $12 million over five years that were itemized on secret ledgers belonging to Yanukovich’s Party of Regions.  Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators have corroborated the existence of what they called a “black ledger” of payments made by Yanukovich’s party but stressed that they could not establish whether Manafort himself received money. Leshchenko, a member of President Petro Poroshenko’s parliamentary faction, called on Ukrainian authorities to send a request for assistance to Washington to investigate Manafort.   “Manafort didn’t work for free in Ukraine, he served the Party of Regions for over 10 years and it is clear that his work was paid,” Leshchenko told a news conference. “The money was transferred in cash and it is impossible to trace the transactions, but I have no doubt as to the authenticity of these documents,” he said.  “If Mr Manafort denies any allegations, I think he has to be interrogated into this case and prove his position that he was not involved,” Leshchenko added.  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign has previously said the allegations were evidence of “more troubling connections between Donald Trump’s team and pro-Kremlin elements in Ukraine”. Trump, a Republican, has spoken favorably in the past of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last month, he invited Russian hackers to find “missing” emails from Clinton’s time as secretary of state, when she used a private email server to conduct government business, although he later described that call as sarcasm. In response to the earlier report in the New York Times, Manafort denied any impropriety in a statement on Monday. “I have never received a single ‘off-the-books cash payment’ as falsely ‘reported’ by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia,” he said. Trump overhauled his top political team this week, demoting Manafort, who was brought on as campaign chief in June to professionalize its approach but struggled to get the wealthy businessman to rein in his freewheeling ways.

Summary: यूक्रेनी सांसद ने ट्रम्प अभियान प्रमुख को कथित भुगतान के बारे में अधिक जानकारी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers on Thursday that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton did not lie to the FBI about her handling of emails as secretary of state and did not break the law. Comey told a Republican-led oversight panel in the U.S. House of Representatives that no reasonable prosecutor would charge Clinton with a crime over her use of private email servers while she was secretary of state, some of which were used to transmit classified information.

Summary: एफ़. बी. आई. निदेशक का कहना है कि क्लिंटन ने झूठ नहीं बोला, ईमेल संभालने में कानून तोड़ा


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel was upbeat about U.S. President Donald Trump s anticipated announcement on Friday of major steps against the international nuclear deal with Iran, but voiced doubt that the tougher tack by Washington could turn around Tehran. While the White House s distaste for the 2015 pact may be sweet to the ears of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his government is mindful of the limits of any unilateral U.S. action in the face of dissent from other big power signatories. Some Israeli officials quietly question whether Washington has the will to follow through, noting what they deem insufficient U.S. efforts to stem the entrenchment in next-door Syria of Iran-allied forces helping Damascus in the civil war. Trump was expected to say in a 1645 GMT speech that he will not re-certify the nuclear agreement in light of Iran s ballistic missile projects and involvement in regional trouble-spots. That would give the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran that were suspended in return for it rolling back technologies with nuclear bomb-making potential.  Netanyahu spokesmen declined to comment on the pending speech. A veteran Israeli cabinet minister from Netanyahu s Likud party sounded cheered by Trump s resolve, but appeared to note the depth of partisan rifts around the U.S. administration.   The outcome that could happen, and this is the only positive outcome we can see at this stage, is that Congress manages to come together around new, significant sanctions,  the minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Tel Aviv radio station 102 FM.  (That) will confront a lot of gigantic international companies which are today streaming to the Iranians ... with a dilemma of having to choose between the Iranians and trading with the world s biggest economy, which is the United States.  Netanyahu has lobbied hard against the Iran deal, delivering a speech in Congress shortly before it was signed that angered then-U.S. President Barack Obama. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly last month, Netanyahu urged world powers that negotiated the deal to  fix it or nix it.  He called specifically for cancelling a core  sunset clause  that removes caps on Iran s nuclear projects after a number of years.  Asked about the sunset clause in the radio interview, Hanegbi gave no indication Israel believed it would be reviewed. He noted the resistance that Trump s new measures faced from European powers, Russia and Iran, which has threatened to quit the nuclear deal if the U.S. imposes new sanctions against it. Iran, Hanegbi assessed,  will not yield at all - period - in other words, not just not within 60 days, but neither within 60 months or 60 years, because they really do not believe that the world will reverse course. They look rather mockingly at the United States.   But he added,  If the United States reverses course and begins a process of building delegitimation for the agreement, it could be that the world, part of the West, will join it in a process that could take time ... There is still a long way to go until the dangers of this deal pass.  Israel is believed to have the Middle East s only nuclear arsenal with about 200 warheads and sees Iran s nuclear activity as a threat to its existence. It refuses to confirm or deny that it has nuclear weapons. There has been dissent within Israel over the nuclear deal, with several Netanyahu ex-advisers grudgingly coming out in its favor. His former defense minister, Ehud Barak, told the New York Times on Wednesday:  Like many Israelis, I think the Iran deal is a bad deal. But it is a done deal.  Barak warned that any U.S. withdrawal from the agreement would not be followed by other world powers and could prompt Iran - which denies seeking nuclear weapons - to work on a bomb. Hanegbi dismissed such predictions as  nonsense .   Iran has no interest in withdrawing from the agreement (because that) would immediately unite Russia and China to the United States  against it, he told the radio station. He noted - as have U.N. nuclear inspectors - that the Iranians  have not budged a hair s breadth from their commitments under the deal .

Summary: ईरान परमाणु समझौते के खिलाफ ट्रंप के कदम से इस्राइल उत्साहित, लेकिन अभी लंबा रास्ता तय करना है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Senate s East Asia subcommittee is asking China and 20 other nations on Monday to clamp down on North Korea by cutting ties, closing down diplomatic facilities and working to oust the country from the United Nations. As North Korea has defied U.N. Security resolutions to conduct nuclear and ballistic missile tests, Washington has been scrambling for an effective response. Many of President Donald Trump s fellow Republicans have been calling for tougher action, imposed more quickly, including calling for stiff  secondary  sanctions and other punishments for companies, banks and countries that do business with North Korea. In a letter seen by Reuters that will be sent to ambassadors from China and 20 other countries, Republican Senator Cory Gardner, the subcommittee chairman, asked that the countries immediately end diplomatic and economic relations with Pyongyang.  Maintaining official diplomatic relations with a regime that continues to defy international law and threaten nations across the globe only serves to reward nefarious behavior,  wrote Gardner.  In addition to cutting off bilateral ties, I urge your government to support expelling the DPRK from the United Nations,  the letter said. Gardner recently introduced legislation that would impose a U.S. economic embargo against any entity that does business with North Korea. The U.S. military staged bombing drills with South Korea over the Korean peninsula and Russia and China began naval exercises ahead of a U.N. General Assembly meeting on Tuesday where North Korea s nuclear threat is likely to loom large. Gardner s letter will be sent to ambassadors to the United States from China, Brazil, Britain, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden and Vietnam.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसद चाहते हैं कि उत्तर कोरिया संयुक्त राष्ट्र से बाहर हो।


OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Ethnic Koreans living in Japan are nervously watching growing tensions over North Korea and are wary of a possible backlash against their community as Pyongyang ramps up its sabre-rattling. While public antipathy towards Koreans does not appear to have escalated in reaction to the North s latest nuclear test and missile launches, the community has been the target of abuse by Japanese nationalists after similar incidents in the past. The North conducted its most powerful nuclear test ever last week, and in late August fired a ballistic missile over Hokkaido in northern Japan in a new show of force.     In the western Japanese city of Osaka   home to the country s largest population of ethnic Koreans   few are willing to talk publicly about North Korea, and those that do have mixed views on Pyongyang s actions. Pu Kyon Ja, owner of the store selling Korean traditional clothes and a second-generation Korean resident in Japan, said she felt the North s pursuit of nuclear weapons was a natural reaction against threats from the United States.  I can t say this loudly but I secretly think well done  on  North Korea s development of missile and nuclear capabilities, she said. North Korea is  under great pressure (from the international society), which I believe should end.   I m watching over the current situation with great hope,  she added. On the other hand, Chung Kap-su, another second-generation Korean in the town, said he hopes North Korea stops further provocations and pursues a peaceful path by seeking dialogue with South Korea.  North Korea can t defeat (the United States), so I hope it changes its way.  Some 453,096 South Koreans and 32,461 North Koreans lived in Japan last year, according to government data. Many were forced to move there during Japan s occupation of the Korean peninsula before and during World War Two. Japan passed an anti-hate law last year, which may be discouraging fresh acts of abuse against the community, but the issue still bears watching, said Moon Gyeong-su, professor of ethnic Korean studies at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.  When North Korea launches missile or conducts nuclear tests, for example, Korean schools have been an easy target for bullies and accusations (in Japan),  he added.

Summary: जापान में कोरियाई लोग उत्तर कोरिया के साथ तनाव से सावधान, प्रतिक्रिया को लेकर चिंतित


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A U.S. consulate worker detained by Turkish authorities last week saw his lawyer on Friday.  We had the necessary meeting with my client,  lawyer Halit Akalp told Turkish television channels as he left a jail complex at Silivri, west of Istanbul.  There were no restrictions on our meeting.  Metin Topuz was arrested over alleged links to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of orchestrating last year s coup attempt. His arrest sparked a dispute between the NATO allies and suspension of visa services.

Summary: तुर्की में गिरफ्तार अमेरिकी वाणिज्य दूतावास कर्मचारी ने वकील से मुलाकात की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump softened his stance on torture on Friday, saying he would not order the U.S. military to break international laws on how to treat terrorism suspects, as the top U.S. military commander was asked to weigh in on his comments. “I do, however, understand that the United States is bound by laws and treaties and I will not order our military or other officials to violate those laws and will seek their advice on such matters,” Trump said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. “I will not order a military officer to disobey the law. It is clear that as president I will be bound by laws just like all Americans and I will meet those responsibilities.” In a Republican presidential debate on Thursday night, Trump indicated he might order the U.S. military to break the law on interrogation tactics, including waterboarding. Trump also suggested his willingness to target the families of terrorist suspects.  The exchange prompted Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a former 2016 White House contender and frequent Trump critic, to send Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a letter asking his thoughts on whether targeting relatives of terrorist suspects was legal under the laws of war and whether waterboarding or other more extreme interrogation techniques were legal for the U.S. military. Dunford has yet to make a public response to Graham’s letter. Waterboarding is the practice of pouring water over someone’s face to mimic drowning as an interrogation tactic. Critics say it is torture. Democratic President Barack Obama banned use of the method days after taking office in 2009.  Asked during the debate what he would do if the U.S. military refused to carry out such orders, Trump said, “They won’t refuse. They’re not going to refuse me. Believe me.” “Can you imagine? Can you imagine these people, these animals over in the Middle East, that chop off heads, sitting around talking and seeing that we’re having a hard problem with waterboarding? We should go for waterboarding and we should go tougher than waterboarding,” Trump said on the Fox News debate.  (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Tim Ahmann, James Dalgleish and Andrew Hay) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन उम्मीदवार ट्रम्प ने यातना पर अपना रुख बदला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is likely to pick Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell as the next head of the U.S. central bank, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday, prompting investors to push down yields on Treasury notes.    The Republican president, who is considering Powell, current Fed Chair Janet Yellen and three others for the top central bank job, will announce his decision on Thursday, a White House official said separately. By picking Powell, a soft-spoken centrist and Fed governor since 2012, Trump would get the combination of a leadership change and the continuity offered by somebody who has been a part of the Yellen-run Fed that has kept the economy and markets steady in recent years. Powell, 64, has supported Yellen’s general direction in setting monetary policy, and in recent years has shared her concerns that weak inflation justified a continued cautious approach to raising interest rates. “Powell has not offended people, and that’s a huge advantage in Washington. He’s the kind of guy who can get through Senate confirmation, and this administration has so many other problems to deal with,” said John Silva, chief economist at Wells Fargo. The main challenger to Powell is Stanford University economist John Taylor, a favorite of conservative Republicans who believe monetary policy has been too loose under Yellen and want the central bank to rely more on rules when setting rates. Taylor has spent the last two decades refining and pushing for wider use of a rule that sets out where rates should be, given certain conditions of inflation and the broader economy. His rule implies they should be higher than they are now. Critics say that a Taylor-run Fed would run the risk of tightening monetary policy too fast and choking off the recovery from the 2007-2009 financial crisis and recession.  The race for the Fed job has shifted between Yellen, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama to a one-year term in 2014, Powell and Taylor in recent weeks. Financial markets had pushed Treasury yields higher on talk Taylor would get the job. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR were yielding 2.37 percent in mid-afternoon trading on Monday, down from 2.43 percent on Friday. The Fed, which is holding a two-day policy meeting this week, has lifted rates twice this year and is expected to do so again in December.

Summary: ट्रंप केंद्रीय बैंक का नेतृत्व करने के लिए फेड के पॉवेल को चुन सकते हैंः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump met on Thursday with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, a White House official said, as he considers whether to give Yellen a new term or nominate someone else. Yellen was the fifth of five people on the president’s short list to get a formal sit-down with Trump as he considers whom to pick for Yellen’s job when her current term expires in February. The others consist of his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, along with former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, Fed Governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economist John Taylor. Trump is expected to announce his decision on who to nominate by Nov. 3, the day he leaves on a tour of Asia.  Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he likes all five candidates. “I’ll make a decision over the next fairly short period of time,” Trump said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के अधिकारी ने बताया कि ट्रम्प ने फेड की कुर्सी की खोज में फेड के येलेन से मुलाकात की


The following bullet points are from the U.S. President Donald Trump’s Twitter accounts (@realDonaldTrump and @POTUS). Reuters has not edited the tweets. @realDonaldTrump : - Nancy Pelosi and Fake Tears Chuck Schumer held a rally at the steps of The Supreme Court and mic did not work (a mess)-just like Dem party! [621 EST] - When will the Democrats give us our Attorney General and rest of Cabinet! They should be ashamed of themselves! No wonder D.C. doesn’t work! [627 EST] - Getting ready to deliver a VERY IMPORTANT DECISION!  8:00 P.M. [1931 EST] - Join me live from the @WhiteHouse. here … [2001 EST] - Hope you like my nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the United States Supreme Court. He is a good and brilliant man, respected by all. [2245 EST] - Today I met with pharmaceutical executives at the @WhiteHouse...here:0 … [1359 EST] - Highlights From The President's Listening Session With Pharmaceutical Industry Leaders at the @WhiteHouse today: here … [1621 EST]  - Join me live from the @WhiteHouse at 8:00pm tonight. #SCOTUS  m.facebook.com/POTUS/ [1653 EST] - Join me live from the @WhiteHouse as I announce my nomination for United States Supreme Court Justice. here … [1949 EST] - #JusticeGorsuch #SCOTUS [2011 EST] - President Trump's Nominee for the Supreme Court Neil M. Gorsuch. #SCOTUS #JusticeGorsuch here#page … [2016 EST] - President Donald J. Trump Nominates Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court #JusticeGorsuch #SCOTUS www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump posts/10158580999910725:0 … [2308 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (31 जनवरी)-पेलोसी, डेमोक्रेट, गोरसच


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said a meeting on Thursday with presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump and U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan was a step toward unifying the divided Republican Party. “The meeting was great. It was a very positive step toward party unity,” Priebus posted on Twitter after the meeting.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन पार्टी के अध्यक्ष ने ट्रम्प के साथ बैठक को एकता की दिशा में एक कदम बताया


DUBAI (Reuters) - A 14-year-old boy who was detained by Saudi police for dancing to the song  Macarena  at a traffic intersection has been released with a warning about road safety, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. The boy was filmed dancing to the catchy 1990s hit song in front of five lanes of cars stopped at a traffic light, in a clip widely shared on social media. Police had said the teenager, whose name and nationality were not given, was being questioned because he had shown  improper public behavior  and disrupted traffic.  An interior ministry statement said the boy had been released without charge, after he and his legal guardian were summoned for questioning.  They signed a written pledge that the teen will not engage in behavior that could endanger his life and the life of others again,  it said.  The notification was solely intended to warn the boy about potential consequences for his own safety, as well as to safeguard the overall safety of motorists and pedestrians.

Summary: सऊदी पुलिस ने सड़क पर नाचने के आरोप में हिरासत में लिए गए किशोर को रिहा कर दिया


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Water entered the snorkel of the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, causing its battery to short-circuit before it went missing on Nov. 15, a navy spokesman said on Monday as hope dwindled among some families of the 44-member crew. The San Juan had only a seven-day oxygen supply when it lost contact, and a sudden noise was detected that the navy says could have been the implosion of the vessel. Ships with rescue equipment from countries including the United States and Russia were nonetheless rushing to join the search. Before its disappearance, the submarine had been ordered back to its Mar del Plata base after it reported water had entered the vessel through its snorkel, causing a battery short circuit, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told a news conference.  They had to isolate the battery and continue to sail underwater toward Mar del Plata, using another battery,  Balbi said. After contact with the San Juan was lost, the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts, detected a noise the navy said could have been the submarine s implosion.  The search for the 65-meter (213-foot) diesel-electric submarine is concentrated in an area some 430 km (267 miles) off Argentina s southern coast. The effort includes ships and planes manned by 4,000 personnel from 13 countries, including Brazil, Chile and Great Britain.  Among the crew s family members, fissures started appearing on Monday between those who refuse to give up hope and those who say it is time to accept that their loved ones will not come back alive. Some relatives have said they are focusing on the lack of physical evidence of an implosion and the possibility that the submarine might have risen close enough to the ocean surface to replenish its oxygen supply after it went missing. But Itati Leguizamon said she believed her husband, crew member German Suarez, had died.  There is no way they are alive,  she told reporters, her voice shaking and eyes welling with tears.  It is not that I want this. I love him. I adore him. He left his mother and sister behind, but there is no sense in being stubborn.  The other families are attacking me for what I am saying,  she said,  but why have they not found it yet? Why don t they tell us the truth?

Summary: लापता अर्जेंटीना पनडुब्बी के स्नॉर्कल में पानी घुस गया, जिससे शॉर्ट सर्किट हो गया


HONG KONG (Reuters) - Three judges in Hong Kong s Court of Appeal are set to decide the fate of a former British banker who was jailed for life last year for the murder of two Indonesian women he tortured and raped after his appeal hearing closed on Wednesday.    Rurik Jutting, 32, a former Bank of America employee, had denied murdering Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, in his luxury apartment in 2014 on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to alcohol and drug abuse and sexual disorders. The Cambridge-educated Jutting pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in a case that gripped the Asian financial hub. During the one and a half day appeal hearing in the former British colony, Jutting s lawyers said the judge who presided over the gruesome trial last year had misdirected the jury. Defence lawyer Gerard McCoy argued that the judge had narrowed down the scope of the defence case by conflating an abnormality of mind with a psychiatric disorder. Jutting s defence is that while a disorder can cause an abnormal mind, his mental state can be abnormal without a disorder. McCoy said Jutting showed severe traits of psychiatric disorders, far beyond the normal range and was therefore not in control of his actions, said McCoy.  Abnormality of mind is absolutely not confined to a disorder or a disease. Here the judge locks it down, reinforcing to the jury it is disorder,  he said. Jutting, dressed in a navy blue shirt and thick squared glasses, watched animatedly throughout the hearing and occasionally chuckled, particularly during the presentations by prosecutor John Reading. Reading stated that the previous judge had  exercised considerable care in crafting his directions on the law in consultation with both sides . Judges Michael Lunn, Andrew Macrae and Kevin Zervos are to return judgement on the appeal which may include granting Jutting the opportunity for a new trial, but they did not give a time frame.  Deputy High Court Judge Michael Stuart-Moore said in strongly worded closing remarks at the end of the trial last year that the case was one of the most horrifying the Chinese-ruled territory had known. He described Jutting as the  archetypal sexual predator  who represented an extreme danger to women, especially in the sex trade, and cautioned that it was possible he would murder again if freed. The jury unanimously found Jutting, the grandson of a British policeman in Hong Kong and a Chinese woman, guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life in prison in November 2016. Jutting s defence team had previously argued that cocaine and alcohol abuse, as well as personality disorders of sexual sadism and narcissism, had impaired his ability to control his behavior. The prosecution rejected this, stating Jutting was able to form judgments and exercise self-control before and after the killings, filming his torture of Ningsih on his mobile phone as well as hours of footage in which he discussed the murders, bingeing on cocaine and his graphic sexual fantasies. In previous high profile murder cases such as that of Nancy Kissel, an American woman serving a life sentence for the  milkshake  murder of her Merrill Lynch banker husband, retrials have been given.  Kissel lost her final appeal against her conviction in 2014.

Summary: न्यायाधीशों ने पूर्व ब्रिटिश बैंकर द्वारा दोषी ठहराए जाने की एच. के. दोहरी हत्या की अपील पर विचार किया


(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced two appointments to the National Security Council on Thursday: retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg as chief of staff and executive secretary, and former Fox News Channel analyst Monica Crowley as senior director of strategic communications. Kellogg served in the Vietnam War and has worked in the private sector since retiring from the Army in 2003, said a statement by Trump’s transition team. The statement said Crowley is a foreign affairs and political analyst for the Fox News Channel, but a Fox News spokeswoman said Crowley’s contract had been terminated.  The two will serve under Michael Flynn, a retired general Trump earlier named as his national security adviser.

Summary: ट्रंप ने एनएससी पदों के लिए सेवानिवृत्त जनरल, टीवी विश्लेषक को चुना


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Risking a historic drop to junk bond status, Illinois began its third straight fiscal year without a budget on Saturday as political maneuvering dimmed hopes for a bipartisan spending and revenue package anytime soon. While the House scheduled session on Sunday to take up a revenue package, the Senate is not slated to return until Monday. The nation’s fifth-largest state has lacked a full operating budget since July 2015 and is under a warning from S&P that it will drop Illinois’ creditworthiness to the lowest of any state in history if it fails to pass a fiscal 2018 budget that starts to address a chronic structural deficit. Talks between Democrats who control the Illinois House and Republicans had shown signs of progress as both sides rallied behind a $36.5 billion spending blueprint on Friday and were poised to build on that positive movement in a rare Fourth of July holiday weekend legislative session. Instead, tensions broke out on the House floor between House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who initially informed the legislative chamber that no budget votes would be taken on Sunday. “Saying we’ll gavel out and return at some point [Sunday] to me does not send a message to Illinoisans that we’re prepared to bring this to resolution any time soon,” said Durkin, the Republican Party’s legislative proxy for Governor Bruce Rauner, who has stayed on the sidelines of recent budget negotiations. Madigan walked off the floor a short time later to the shout of “Speaker Junk” from State Representative Grant Wehrli, a suburban Chicago Republican. By late afternoon, Madigan reversed course and said there indeed would be a vote on a tax-increase package Sunday, neglecting any mention of accompanying votes on a local property tax freeze or workers compensation reforms that are two of Rauner’s key demands under negotiation. In a statement, Madigan said he was “encouraged by the progress” in talks with Durkin and vowed to vote Sunday on a revenue package “modeled on the bill supported by the governor and House and Senate Republicans.” Durkin made clear in his own statement that “there is no agreement on a comprehensive budget package that includes reforms and revenue,” contradicting Madigan and painting a dim outlook for bipartisan consensus on Sunday. “This impasse can only be resolved in a negotiated manner,” Durkin said. “It is our hope that Democrats will remain at the negotiating table.”

Summary: जैसे-जैसे नया वित्तीय वर्ष शुरू हो रहा है, इलिनोइस के बजट की उम्मीद कम हो रही है


BEIJING (Reuters) - China wants dialogue with the new U.S. administration to manage disputes and promote bilateral relations, but only on the basis of respecting each other’s core interests, like the “one China” principle, China’s foreign minister said. U.S. President Donald Trump, who was inaugurated on Friday, upset Beijing before taking office by casting doubt on the “one China” principle, under which Washington acknowledges Beijing’s position of sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan. China views Taiwan as a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. However, proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being ruled by Beijing. Speaking at a reception for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the future direction of Sino-U.S. ties had “attracted attention”. “We are willing, on the basis of strictly abiding by the ‘one China’ principle and respect of each other’s core interests, to have dialogue with the new U.S. government,” Wang said, in comments posted on the ministry’s website late Tuesday. China is willing to “increase mutual trust, focus cooperation, manage and control disputes and promote the healthy development of China-U.S. relations, to bring even greater benefits to both peoples”, he added. Separately, state news agency Xinhua quoted Chinese ambassador to Washington, Cui Tiankai as saying that while the Trump administration has yet to formulate a China policy, the general trend of China-U.S. cooperation cannot be reversed as it is “the only right choice” for both. In any trade war, both countries would suffer, he added. “Currently, the world economy needs a strong engine to lead to stronger development and faster growth, it’s inescapable responsibility for China and the United States to do this, rather than heading toward a trade war,” Cui said. With Trump’s decision to quit the Transpacific Trade Partnership (TPP), Cui said China cannot take over the U.S. role as the global leader who makes trade rules. “I think this is a misleading notion, because international trade rules cannot be made by the United States or China alone, and rather, they should be made and implemented by all nations in the world,” Cui said.

Summary: चीन के विदेश मंत्री का कहना है कि वे अमेरिका के साथ विवादों का प्रबंधन करना चाहते हैं।


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jerome Powell was not on President Donald Trump’s early radar as a possible successor to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, and was angling instead for a job as the U.S. central bank’s vice chair for supervision. But when he was passed over for that position last summer, it was one in a chain of events that set the stage for the 64-year-old Fed governor and former investment banker to take over as head of the world’s most powerful central bank. Trump on Thursday nominated Powell to replace Yellen when her term expires in early February, saying at the White House that the 64-year-old lawyer and former investment banker has the necessary “wisdom and leadership.”[nL2N1N80D3]  Other contenders for the job fell for different reasons, as Trump soured on top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, decided against renominating Yellen despite largely approving of her policies and came to view two others as posing risks to the economy, according to current and former Fed and government officials familiar with the decision.  In the end it was Powell, a Maryland native, avid cyclist, and guitar hobbyist, who checked all the boxes that mattered but carried none of the negatives.  If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Powell would become the first person without an advanced economics degree to hold the job since William Miller in the late 1970s. Powell, who lists personal assets of between $20 million and $60 million on government disclosure forms, has served on corporate boards as a managing partner at the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm. But he has also burrowed deep over the last five years into the nuts and bolts of central banking, and schooled himself on broader monetary policy issues.    “Jay does not come with baggage... He has never been at the extremes,” said Steve Bell, who worked with Powell at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank and when Powell was at the Treasury Department in former President George H.W. Bush’s administration. When compared to other possible nominees, some of whom called for sweeping but ill-defined changes at the Fed, Powell took “a straight tactical line” that offered a continuation of Yellen’s policies, a moderate approach to bank regulation and, perhaps most importantly, the prospect of no surprises, Bell said. Powell’s private-sector background appealed as well to Trump’s preference for business figures over those with Phds. A senior White House official on Thursday called his experience “unique” and “refreshing” at a central bank increasingly dominated by economists.  Stanford University economist John Taylor, who developed the “Taylor Rule” for guiding monetary policy, and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, who resigned over the central bank’s massive bond-buying stimulus program credited by many with spurring the U.S. economy after the 2007-2009 recession, were also interviewed for the Fed job. They arguably had a head start, the backing of conservatives, and steady support from the Wall Street Journal’s influential editorial board.  But they also carried the risk of financial market volatility, with investors regarding each as somebody who could tighten monetary policy at the central bank. That is something Trump has indicated he wants to avoid. The first two names Trump floated were Yellen and Cohn. But Cohn fell out of favor after he criticized Trump’s response to violence sparked by a white supremacist rally in Virginia in August. A former Fed official, contacted over the summer as part of the White House’s Fed chief search, said it was clear the administration wasn’t interested, for example, in Taylor and his reliance on “rules” that generally call for interest rates to be higher than they currently are. The administration officials vetting Fed candidates were “very much opposed to Taylor-type rules and systematic policy,” said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Warsh, meanwhile, became the target of an aggressive grassroots campaign that highlighted what some critics viewed as a history of bad calls on inflation during his tenure as a Fed policymaker, portending a tough confirmation fight. Powell also benefited from burgeoning relationships through his work on the technical aspects of markets, and his assumption of the role as the Fed’s regulatory point person after the resignation of former Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo in April. That prompted Powell to initially set his sights on the job of vice chair for supervision, though it soon became clear he would not get it, according to a person who had discussions with White House and Fed officials involved in the process.  Yet Powell’s close work with the Treasury resulted in Secretary Steven Mnuchin becoming a strong advocate of his nomination to the top job, Fed and government officials said on condition of anonymity. Fed Governor Randal Quarles, a friend and colleague who got the vice chair job that Powell had wanted, was an additional ally in the mix. But it was Powell’s support of the Yellen Fed’s policies, often credited with paving the way for a 4.2 percent unemployment rate, steady economic growth and calm markets, that may have been his strongest advantage in the race.  “Trump is savvy enough to look at the numbers and who is in the chair,” said Peter Conti-Brown, an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Powell solves the problem of a Republican administration that wants “the Yellen Fed without Yellen,” Conti-Brown said.

Summary: पॉवेल ने फेड के लिए सुरक्षित, समझदार विकल्प के रूप में ट्रम्प की सूची में शीर्ष स्थान हासिल किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans are looking for the quickest ways to tear down Obamacare following Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president, including rapidly confirming a new health secretary who could recast regulations while waiting for lawmakers to pass sweeping repeal legislation. Trump’s victory on Tuesday means Republicans will control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives. But congressional Democrats are expected to put up a huge fight against Republican efforts to repeal the 2010 law considered President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. The Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare, has provided 25 million previously uninsured Americans with health coverage. Republicans have launched repeated legal and legislative efforts to dismantle the law, which they call a government overreach. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, a member of Senate Republican leadership, said one way for the incoming president and Congress to attack Obamacare immediately after Trump takes office on Jan. 20 would be to quickly confirm a new secretary of Health and Human Services, the official who writes the rules and regulations that enforce the law. “We could confirm someone on Jan. 20 who could come in immediately and could be working right now on rewriting rules and regulations to give more freedom and choice to the states, to insurance companies and to businesses that are trying to provide affordable care to their workers,” Barrasso said in a telephone interview. Barrasso noted that the Senate needs only a simple majority vote in the 100-seat chamber to confirm Cabinet members, as opposed to 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles the Democrats could present to repeal legislation. Passing repeal legislation “is not a ‘Day One’ activity. But a new secretary of HHS going after the regulations can be a ‘Day One’ activity,” Barrasso added. Trump during the campaign called Obamacare “a disaster” and joined fellow Republicans in vowing to repeal and replace it with proposals like tax-free health savings accounts. His transition website says Trump wants a solution that “returns the historic role in regulating health insurance to the states.” In repealing Obamacare, congressional Republican may have to resort to a special procedure known as reconciliation to get around Democrats in the Senate, where rules protect the rights of the minority party. Republicans in Congress used reconciliation to try to undo large chunks of Obamacare in January, but Obama vetoed the legislation. The bill would have wiped out tax subsidies provided to help people afford insurance coverage, as well as tax penalties on people who do not obtain insurance as required by the law, and would have eliminated expansion of the Medicaid insurance health insurance program.  Republican Representative Chris Collins of New York, one of Trump’s earliest supporters on Capitol Hill, said he hopes Congress can pass a similar bill gutting Obamacare within Trump’s first 100 days in office, a promise Trump made during the presidential campaign. But some changes will doubtless be phased in over time, Collins said. “There’s nothing that we will be able to do or would want to do that would impact anyone’s health insurance plan for 2017,” Collins said in an interview. “From a replacement standpoint, our position has always been as Republicans to move forward in a step-by-step fashion,” Barrasso said. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Friday, Trump said he was considering retaining parts of Obamacare including provisions letting parents keep adult children up to age 26 on their insurance policies and barring insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. While waiting for Congress to act on legislation, the new HHS secretary could be reworking Obamacare regulations, Barrasso said. For example, regulations could give U.S. states more flexibility under a provision that lets states seek waivers from key provisions of the law, such as exemptions from the so-called individual mandate requiring Americans to obtain insurance and the employer mandate to provide it. Kim Monk, an analyst at Capital Alpha Partners, which provides policy research to financial institutions, said Trump’s HHS might be able to tighten up the rules governing special enrollment periods for Obamacare. Insurers complain that these periods have allowed some people who initially skipped buying insurance to sign up after becoming ill. HHS might also be able to alter the language on “essential benefits” that the law requires insurance plans to cover, which include trips to the emergency room, maternity and newborn care, and mental health services, Monk said. “The law requires they have to cover 10 essential health benefit categories, but how that gets defined, a lot of that is interpretative,” Monk said. “And of course, everything the Obama administration interpreted was more, more, more, more expensive coverage, and all these things lead to premium increases.” Collins, a member of the Trump transition team’s executive committee, said the job of HHS secretary or surgeon general “would be great for Ben Carson,” referring to the neurosurgeon who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination and later endorsed Trump.

Summary: कुछ रिपब्लिकन विनियमन के माध्यम से ओबामाकेयर पर हमला करते हुए देखते हैं


LONDON (Reuters) - London police said they had lifted a cordon put in place in part of the city s financial district on Wednesday morning after determining that an item found there was not suspicious.  Earlier, officers had sealed off an area in Moorgate and Liverpool Street after a report of a suspicious package.   We re all clear at Moorgate. Thank you for your patience; cordons have been lifted,  City of London police posted on Twitter.

Summary: लंदन पुलिस ने वित्तीय जिले की घेराबंदी पूरी तरह से साफ कर दी है


PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has cut short the final leg of his Asia trip to race back to Washington, where the Trump administration faces a critical week on tax reform and a funding plan to keep the government running, an aide said on Sunday.     Pence, who has been traveling in Asia to reassure allies and partners about President Donald Trump’s commitment to the region, had originally planned to spend two nights in Honoluluat the end of a trip that took him to South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia. While he spoke with business leaders in each country, Pence’s trip was overshadowed by rising tensions in North Korea, where it is feared another nuclear test could be conducted soon in defiance of United Nations sanctions. Pence will now spend one night in Hawaii and is slated to be back in Washington on Tuesday morning, his aide told reporters before Air Force Two landed at Pago Pago in American Samoa for refueling.     Trump has a busy week ahead. Funding appropriated by Congress to run the government runs out on Friday, so he and lawmakers must agree on new legislation or the government will shut down on Saturday.     Saturday is also Trump’s 100th day in office, a benchmark used by pundits to assess the initial accomplishments and shortfalls of his young presidency.     Trump plans to outline principles for tax reform onWednesday, a top brief for Pence.     While in Honolulu, Pence will meet leaders of the U.S.Pacific Command and is also slated to speak to U.S. troops and their families, the aide said.     Pence had planned to tour the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor but will no longer do that, the aide said.

Summary: पेंस ने घरेलू प्राथमिकताओं से निपटने के लिए एशिया यात्रा में कटौती की


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia s high court on Tuesday began a hearing on the validity of a government plan for a postal vote to legalize same-sex marriage, a challenge that risks destabilizing the ruling center-right coalition. If the court rules against the plan, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull could find himself presiding over a government fractured on the issue, endangering his razor-thin parliamentary majority of one.  With the non-compulsory vote a couple of weeks away, its opponents have launched a legal challenge, saying the vote needs the backing of parliament - which has twice rejected such a national ballot.   This case is about dignity and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians,  Anna Brown, director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, which leads the opposition to the vote, told reporters in Melbourne.  We re here because we all believe and want marriage equality. This postal plebiscite has big question marks around its legal validity.   Conservative lawmakers have threatened to resign if the ballot policy is not adhered to, risking Turnbull s parliamentary majority.  But he may not be able to stick to the postal vote policy, as a group of liberal politicians has threatened to rebel and side with the opposition, which would probably end his tenure as leader, analysts say. Turnbull supports same-sex marriage, as do two-thirds of Australians, but his party s conservative wing has threatened a revolt if he deviates from the policy of a national ballot. Frustrated by the political impasse, a group of backbenchers  this year said they were ready to vote with the opposition Labor Party to secure same-sex marriage, a plan only abandoned when Turnbull offered a postal vote. While a rejection of the legal challenge offers a political solution, an increasingly vitriolic campaign forced Turnbull to urge both sides to show mutual respect. Turnbull s plea has gone largely unheeded, however.      Opponents of same-sex marriage last week launched a contentious campaign advertisement that the government immediately rejected as inaccurate. Since the postal vote is not a formal election it is not subject to the same rules on political advertisements, and activists fear a surge in malicious campaigning in the run-up.  Our concern is around a sustained, intense campaign. It will make a question that should be a private matter between two people, a matter for public discussion,  Elaine Pearson, director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, who supports same-sex marriage but opposes the national vote, told Reuters.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया के उच्च न्यायालय ने समलैंगिक विवाह मतदान की चुनौती पर सुनवाई की


(Reuters) - Delegates at both the Republican and the Democratic conventions sported outrageous outfits - but the views from their respective gatherings were a study in contrast. Republican National Convention delegates in Cleveland last week embraced a freewheeling, policy-light lineup, reveling in messages of salvation from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s inner circle, while expressing their fears that America has become less safe.  A man wearing an orange jumpsuit and Hillary Clinton mask told Reuters he had been asked to take pictures standing next to “hundreds” of convention-goers, while “lock her up” - a cry to imprison Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - became the crowd’s go-to chant.  A woman wearing a red cape with “TRUMP” spelled out in twinkle lights happily posed for the dozens of passersby requesting photos. The few remaining, weary Ted Cruz supporters found a rallying cry in the former Republican presidential candidate’s refusal to endorse Trump, a moment of party discord that prompted security to escort Heidi Cruz out of the convention hall and away from irate, yelling Trump supporters.  At this week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, erstwhile candidate Bernie Sanders worked to build a bridge over troubled waters (yes, Paul Simon performed the song of that name). At the end of a roll call of state delegations, he called for Clinton to be nominated by voice vote - a show of support and a bid for unity after a bitter primary campaign. The move prompted deafening cheers on the convention floor - as well as a boos from Sanders supporters, who, on occasion, could be seen angrily arguing with Clinton backers. And there were celebrities - actresses Eva Longoria, Lena Dunham, America Ferrera, Sigourney Weaver and Elizabeth Banks drew shrieks and cheers from the crowd. But Clinton’s convention was heavy on policy and calls to public service.  Former President Bill Clinton received a rock star’s welcome before ticking off a list of his wife’s civic accomplishments. First lady Michelle Obama drove some members of a rapt audience to tears when she declared, “I wake up in a house built by slaves.” Reuters photographers caught up with several convention-goers, both Republican and Democrat, and asked “If you could speak to your nominee, What would you like them to know about your hopes for the future of America?” Here are some of their responses: “Thank you for having my back,” Sharon Jackson, a delegate from Alaska at the Republican convention, said, referring to Trump. Barbara Finger, a delegate from Wisconsin at the Republican conclave, also expressed gratitude to the New York businessman. “Keep going the way you are,” she said. “Make America great again.” Lavon Bracy, a Democratic delegate from Florida, expressed her support for Clinton at her party’s convention, emphasizing the importance of unity. She said she hopes, “We can all live together in harmony and understand that we have differences and appreciate those who are different.” Democratic delegate Alvin Peters of Panama City, Florida, said he, too, hoped for brighter days. “Spread the joy,” said Peters. “Dispel the doom and gloom.”   Reuters photo slideshow: reut.rs/2aAmRRd

Summary: अधिवेशनों के भीतर से प्रेषण


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had phoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday to discuss the Syria situation and how the  anti-terrorism  battle on the ground was playing out.  The call occurred after U.S.-backed militias in Syria said they had come under attack on Saturday from Russian jets and Syrian government forces in Deir al-Zor province, a flashpoint in an increasingly complex battlefield. The Russian Foreign Ministry did not say in its statement about the Lavrov-Tillerson call if the two men had discussed that allegation and how Moscow had responded if they had.

Summary: रूस के लावरोव और टिलरसन ने बमबारी के आरोपों के बाद सीरिया पर बात की


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union s executive on Thursday stepped up its pressure on the nationalist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary over its treatment of immigrants, non-governmental groups and a prominent university. Orban has been locked in a series of running battles with the EU, where Western states and the Brussels-based executive Commission decry what they see as his authoritarian leanings, the squeezing of the opposition and the free media. In a series of legal announcements, the European Commission said it was taking Budapest to the bloc s top court, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, over its NGO laws as well as a higher education law that targets a university founded by U.S. financier George Soros, a public enemy of Orban.  Brussels, influenced by the Soros Empire, has released a burst of fire on Hungary. The legal procedures are now openly used as tools of political blackmail and exerting pressure,  Orban s Fidesz party said in reaction to the announcements.     Brussels also confirmed it was taking Hungary - along with eastern EU peers Poland and the Czech Republic - to the tribunal over refusing to host asylum-seekers under an EU-wide quota system. The ECJ cases could lead to financial penalties but take months, or years, to conclude. The Commission has also stepped up its legal case against Budapest over Hungary s asylum laws. Separately, European lawmakers were debating on Thursday whether the rule of law and democratic standards in Hungary were under threat more generally, and to an extent that would merit the triggering of an unprecedented EU punishment against Budapest. The so-called Article 7 procedure would shame Orban by denouncing his government as undemocratic and could even lead to the maximum - though practically highly unlikely - sanction of stripping Hungary of its voting rights in the EU. Hungary s case has been the first time the European Parliament has called for the launching the Article 7 mechanism. At the debate in one of parliament s committees, some lawmakers said Orban was making untruthful accusations against the EU and diverging from European values with his brand of  illiberal democracy . Even before the debate, Orban s spokesman Zoltan Kovacs likened it to an amalgamation of a medieval witch hunt and communist-era show trial. The Commission s First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, however, made clear the executive arm did not side with the parliament s broader and at times tougher view of Hungary.  We believe that we are dealing with very specific issues where we have disagreements with the Hungarian government,  Timmermans told a news conference.   The situation in Hungary is not in that sense comparable to the systemic threats to the rule of law which we see in Poland,  he said of Orban s closest EU ally, the eurosceptic, nationalist Polish government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party. In power for two years, PiS has sought to replicate some of ideas Orban has introduced over his seven years in office.  The party s moves on the courts and the media have provoked concern elsewhere in the EU that the biggest ex-communist member in the bloc is backpedalling on democracy and the rule of law.  Warsaw faces its own Article 7 proceedings from the Commission. Warsaw and Budapest, which share a broad world view that often goes against the more liberal one of the western EU states, have each other s back in their battles with the bloc and have vowed to shield one another from any sanctions.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने सोरोस विश्वविद्यालय, गैर सरकारी संगठनों के कानूनों, प्रवास को लेकर हंगरी पर दबाव बढ़ाया


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday it is making unremitting efforts on the North Korean nuclear issue, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Beijing had tried but failed to persuade Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear weapons program.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comment at a daily news briefing.

Summary: चीन का कहना है कि वह उत्तर कोरिया के परमाणु मुद्दे पर लगातार प्रयास कर रहा है


(Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Friday it has dispatched additional inspectors to the Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear plants in Florida in preparation for the effects of hurricane Irma on those sites. Turkey Point was expected to close on Friday evening and St. Lucie is to shut about 12 hours later, depending on the storm s path. The nuclear plants are located along Florida s Atlantic Coast, about 20 feet (6 meters) above sea level. The NRC inspectors are verifying that all of the preparations have been completed, and the plants  emergency diesel generators are available to be used if the storm affects off-site power supplies, the agency said in a statement. The inspectors will remain at the nuclear plant sites and the incident response center will remain staffed until the agency is assured that the storm no longer poses a risk to these facilities, the agency said.  The NRC expects to activate the regional incident response center in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday. Electricity generator Florida Power & Light (FPL), a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc, generates enough power for about 1.9 million homes at the Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants.  Hurricane Irma is expected to hit Florida as a powerful Category 4 on Sunday. It threatens to knock out power to more than 4.1 million homes and businesses served by FPL, affecting around nine million people based on the current storm track, the utility s chief executive said.

Summary: इरमा से पहले फ्लोरिडा के परमाणु संयंत्रों में अतिरिक्त निरीक्षक भेजे गएः एन. आर. सी.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s plan for overhauling the U.S. tax system faced growing opposition from interest groups on Sunday, as Republicans prepare to unveil sweeping legislation that could eliminate some of the most popular tax breaks to help pay for lower taxes. Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives will not reveal their bill until Wednesday. But the National Association of Home Builders, a powerful housing industry trade group, is already vowing to defeat it over a change that could affect the use of home mortgage deductions, while Republican leaders try to head off opposition to possible changes to individual retirement savings and state and local tax payments. Trump and Republicans have vowed to enact tax reform this year for the first time since 1986. But the plan to deliver up to $6 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals faces challenges even from rank-and-file House Republicans. House and Senate Republicans are on a fast-track to pass separate tax bills before the Nov. 23 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, iron out differences in December, send a final version to Trump’s desk before January and ultimately hand the president  his first major legislative victory. Analysts say there is a good chance the tax overhaul will be delayed until next year. The NAHB, which boasts 130,000 member firms employing 9 million workers, says the bill would harm U.S. home prices by marginalizing the value of mortgage interest deductions as an incentive for buying homes. The trade group wants legislation to offer a tax credit equaling 12 percent of mortgage interest and property tax payments but says it was rebuffed by House Republican leaders. “We’re opposed to the tax bill without the tax credit in there, and we’ll be working very aggressively to see it defeated,” NAHB chief executive Jerry Howard told Reuters.  House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, the top House Republican on tax policy, suggested in a statement that the NAHB credit could still be included, saying: “I hope members of Congress will examine it closely to determine if they want it included.” Republicans warned that the Trump tax plan is entering a new and difficult phase as lobbyists ramp up pressure on lawmakers to spare their pet tax breaks.  “When groups start rallying against things and they succeed, everything starts unraveling,” Senator Bob Corker, a leading Republican fiscal hawk, told CBS’ Face the Nation. ANXIETY IN HIGH-TAX STATES One of the biggest challenges involves a proposal to eliminate the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT), which analysts say would hit upper middle-class families in high income tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California. The states are home to enough House Republicans to stymie legislation.  Brady gave ground over the weekend, saying he would allow a deduction for some local taxes to remain. “We are restoring an itemized property tax deduction to help taxpayers with local tax burdens,” Brady said in another statement.    But the gesture appeared to do little to turn the tide of opposition to SALT’s elimination.  “I’m not going to sign onto anything until the full package is fully analyzed by economists,” Representative Peter King of New York told the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures.  “The fact that we’re getting it at the eleventh hour raises real issues with me,” he added. A lobby coalition representing state and local governments, realtors and public unions rejected Brady’s statement outright, saying the move would “unfairly penalize taxpayers in states that rely significantly on income taxes.” House Republicans have also faced opposition from Trump and others after proposing to sharply curtail tax-free contributions to 401(k) programs and move retirement savings to a style of account that allows tax-free withdrawals, rather than the tax-exempt contributions that are popular with 401(k) investors. House Republicans now say they could permit higher 401(k) contribution limits but continue to talk about tax-free withdrawals. “We will expand the amount that you can invest. But we’ll also give you an option to actually not be taxed later in life,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News. The current cap on annual 401(k) tax-free contributions is $18,000.  Corker said congressional tax committees seem to be falling short of their goal to eliminate $4 trillion in tax breaks to prevent the Trump plan from adding to the federal deficit.  “They’re having great difficulty just getting to $3.6 trillion,” said the Tennessee Republican, who has vowed to vote against tax reform if it increases a federal debt load that stands at more than $20 trillion.  Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, told Fox News Sunday that spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security should also be reviewed as part of the effort to pay for tax cuts. “It may be separate from the tax bill, but it needs to happen,” Kasich said.

Summary: कांग्रेस के विधेयक की तैयारी के बीच तीखी आलोचनाओं के बीच कर में बदलाव कर रहे हैं ट्रम्प