MOSCOW (Reuters) - The U.S. decision to supply weapons to Ukraine is dangerous as it will encourage Kiev to use force in eastern Ukraine, Russian officials said on Saturday. The U.S. State Department said on Friday the United States would provide Ukraine with  enhanced defensive capabilities   as Kiev battles Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country. U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the weapons included Javelin anti-tank missiles. Washington has argued in the past that such weapons would help stabilize the situation and cannot effectively be used to take territory.  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Facebook on Saturday the weapons would be used to protect Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. Supplies of any weapons now encourage those who support the conflict in Ukraine to use the  force scenario,  Russia s RIA state news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin as saying on Saturday. Franz Klintsevich, a member of the upper house of the Russian parliament s security committee, said Kiev would consider arms supplies as support of its actions, Interfax news agency reported.  Americans, in fact, directly push Ukrainian forces to war,  Klintsevich said. Since Moscow s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads over a war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 10,000 people in three years. Poroshenko said in his Facebook post that he had confirmed the weapons deal with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, calling it  a transatlantic vaccination against the Russian virus of aggression.   American weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers are not for offensive, but for stronger rebuff of the aggressor, protection of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, as well as for effective self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter,  Poroshenko said.  Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, which Russia denies. The Russian foreign ministry said the U.S. decision once again undermines the Minsk agreements, TASS state news agency reported on Saturday. The agreements, intended to end the fighting in Ukraine, were signed by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in the Belarussian capital in early 2015.

Summary: मास्कोः अमेरिकी हथियार पूर्वी यूक्रेन में कीव द्वारा बल प्रयोग को बढ़ावा दे सकते हैं


JACKSONVILLE, Fla (Reuters) - When U.S. manufacturing employment peaked, Jimmy Carter was president, inflation was 11 percent, and craftsmen at Frontier Contact Lenses made the company’s products one at a time on diamond-tipped lathes. As presidential candidates promise to reclaim jobs lost in the intervening decades, they might want to visit the company now. Bought by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) in 1981, the fully automated factory allows four workers to produce in a 12-hour shift what more labor-intensive methods produced in a year. The Jacksonville plant and one in Ireland make 4 billion soft contacts a year, and between the robots and lasers and computer algorithms no worker touches the product from the start of the process through final packaging. “I don’t think you could even make 4 billion lenses” using the old method, said David Turner, vice president of research and development for Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. “You’d need a guy with a lathe in every town.” Since peaking at 19.5 million in 1979, the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs has fallen 37 percent to around 12.2 million as of March, or just over 10 percent of the private sector workforce. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/1WqpioK) That may be as good as it gets. Despite the promises made on the campaign trail by Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and other candidates, the next president will find it hard to raise manufacturing’s share of a U.S. labor force that keeps shifting toward services. While much of the jobs debate has centered on trade pacts  that Democrats and Republicans have backed over the last quarter century, both successful and struggling companies and sectors offer evidence of long-term trends that neither sharp trade negotiators nor aggressive political leaders can easily reverse. Even critics of trade deals acknowledge that labor intensive industries, such as textiles, which once employed hundreds of thousands of less-skilled workers, are probably gone for good. Technology continues to diminish the share of labor in production and its spread around the world has made other nations - notably China, but also Korea, Brazil, Mexico and former Soviet bloc countries - competitive both as exporters and in their own markets. Investment worldwide is drifting steadily toward services, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and Americans are spending relatively less of their income on manufactured goods.     A Reuters analysis of federal data for 1,267 categories of goods shows that the United States has been running a trade deficit in more than 500 of them since at least 1992 - before the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force or China joined the World Trade Organization, events often cited as turning points for U.S. manufacturing. Since the 2007-2009 recession manufacturing has added about 800,000 jobs, but that has lagged overall job growth. As a result manufacturing’s share of private employment has continued to fall, from about 11 percent since the recession ended. “The move toward a more global market hurts the marginal, low-skilled worker, but it was inevitable and you cannot roll it back,” said Brookings Institution senior fellow Barry Bosworth. At CareerSource Northeast Florida, a job development group, President Bruce Ferguson, Jr. said by necessity he focused on finding a “path” for entry level service sector employees to move up a career ladder, because services are where the growth is.   “The raw (manufacturing) numbers don’t look anything like the service sector and they never will,” he said.  A majority of 6,500 Americans surveyed in March as part of Reuters/Ipsos 2016 campaign polling acknowledged that free trade brings lower prices, but also saw it as a drag on wages and jobs and an “important” issue for the next president to confront. Tapping such concerns, Trump has promised punitive tariffs to “bring back” jobs for those left behind in the current recovery, particularly the roughly two thirds of Americans without a college degree.    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton switched gears as a candidate to oppose a major Pacific trade deal and promises billions in public support for manufacturing. Her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders calls for worker protection against what he considers unfair trade, while Republican Ted Cruz has focused on trimming government red tape. However, playing tough on trade carries some risks and there are limits to what trade talks and tariffs can accomplish. The U.S. steel industry is a case in point. The American Iron and Steel Institute estimates around 12,000 jobs were lost to a recent jump in imports, mainly from China. It reckons those jobs could be recovered with steps, such as the anti-dumping duties imposed by Washington late last year. That pales, however, in comparison with more than 200,000 jobs that the sector has lost since the early 1980s, some because of imports, but some because the amount of labor needed to produce a ton of steel has fallen from 10 hours to less than two.  “There has been a short term loss that is definitely attributable to imports, while a longer term trend reflects technological innovation,” said Kevin Dempsey, the institute’s senior vice president.  Such dynamic is not limited to old industries like steel. Florida is home to successful manufacturers big and small in a wide range of sectors, which export nearly half of their output - double the national average. Yet, as is the case nationally, the share of jobs available to those with a high school degree has been shrinking since 2000, according to federal data, and wages have been stagnant. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care’s recent approval of a $300 million expansion, which added some 100 jobs, cements the company’s U.S. presence, but also shows how technology and innovation reshape the landscape. The company’s local workforce has risen to around 1,700, but about 60 percent of that are white collar and non-manufacturing jobs - from research positions for PhD scientists to those in sales and a highly automated shipping operation. Florida development officials say the trend is clear: manufacturers keep cutting the labor content of their products and each round of investment tends to drive up the skill levels that workers need. That may benefit the state’s economy, but acts as a reality check for workers who hope that the November 8 presidential vote can reverse decades-old trends. “How do you evaluate a company that says we will spend a lot of money and make the workforce more qualified but not create many jobs?” said Aaron Bowman, senior vice president for business development at JAXUSA Partnership, a regional economic development agency and division of the local chamber of commerce. “Over time you see more projects that bring in fewer jobs but a bigger bang.”

Summary: मैन्युफैक्चरिंग हॉटस्पॉट में भी ट्रम्प की नौकरियों की लंबी अवधि के लिए वापसी हो रही है


BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - The latest U.N. sanctions against North Korea are an act of war and tantamount to a complete economic blockade against it, North Korea s foreign ministry said on Sunday, threatening to punish those who supported the measure. The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday for its recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, seeking to limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and its earnings from workers abroad. The U.N. resolution seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed. The U.S.-drafted resolution also caps crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year and commits the Council to further reductions if it were to conduct another nuclear test or launch another ICBM. In a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea s foreign ministry said the United States was terrified by its nuclear force and was getting  more and more frenzied in the moves to impose the harshest-ever sanctions and pressure on our country . The new resolution was tantamount to a complete economic blockade of North Korea, the ministry said.  We define this  sanctions resolution  rigged up by the U.S. and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region and categorically reject the  resolution ,  it said.  There is no more fatal blunder than the miscalculation that the U.S. and its followers could check by already worn-out  sanctions  the victorious advance of our people who have brilliantly accomplished the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force , the ministry said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Nov. 29 declared the nuclear force complete after the test of North Korea s largest-ever ICBM test, which the country said puts all of the United States within range.  Kim told a meeting of members of the ruling Workers  Party on Friday that the country  successfully realized the historic cause of completing the state nuclear force  despite  short supply in everything and manifold difficulties and ordeals owing to the despicable anti-DPRK moves of the enemies . North Korea s official name is the Democratic People s Republic of Korea (DPRK). South Korea s foreign ministry told Reuters it is aware of the North Korean statement on the new sanctions, again highlighting its position that they are a  grave warning by the international community that the region has no option but to immediately cease reckless provocations, and take the path of dialogue for denuclearization and peace . The North Korean foreign ministry said its nuclear weapons were a self-defensive deterrence not in contradiction of international law.  We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the U.S. nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the U.S,  it said.  The U.S. should not forget even a second the entity of the DPRK which rapidly emerged as a strategic state capable of posing a substantial nuclear threat to the U.S. mainland,  it added. North Korea said those who voted for the sanctions would face its wrath.  Those countries that raised their hands in favor of this  sanctions resolution  shall be held completely responsible for all the consequences to be caused by the  resolution  and we will make sure for ever and ever that they pay heavy price for what they have done.  The North s old allies China and Russia both supported the latest U.N. sanctions. Tension has been rising over North Korea s nuclear and missile programs, which it pursues in defiance of years of U.N. Security Council resolutions, with bellicose rhetoric coming from both Pyongyang and the White House. In November, North Korea demanded a halt to what it called  brutal sanctions , saying a round imposed after its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 constituted genocide. U.S. diplomats have made clear they are seeking a diplomatic solution but proposed the new, tougher sanctions resolution to ratchet up pressure on North Korea s leader. China, with which North Korea does some 90 percent of its trade, has repeatedly called for calm and restraint from all sides.  China said on Saturday the new resolution also reiterated the need for a peaceful resolution via talks and that all sides needed to take steps to reduce tensions. Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said on Saturday  the tougher resolution was aimed at preventing war. It suggested the United States had wanted an even harsher resolution, and noted there was no indication in the resolution that the United Nations could grant the United States permission for military action.  The difference between the new resolution and the original U.S. proposal reflects the will of China and Russia to prevent war and chaos on the Korean Peninsula. If the U.S. proposals were accepted, only war is foreseeable,  it said in an editorial.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया ने संयुक्त राष्ट्र के नए प्रतिबंधों को युद्ध का कार्य बताया


MUMBAI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India s biggest dam on Sunday, ignoring warnings from environment groups that hundreds of thousands of people will lose their livelihoods. The controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river in the country s western state of Gujarat that will provide power and water to three big states was dedicated to the people of India by Narendra Modi. The project has been beset by controversies since the laying of the foundation stone by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961. The construction of the project began in 1987. The dam is the second biggest dam in the world after the Grand Coulee Dam in the United States. Ahead of the inauguration Modi said in a tweet,  This project will benefit lakhs of farmers and help fulfill people s aspirations.  (1 lakh = 100,000) The dam is expected to provide water to 9,000 villages and the power generated from the dam would be shared among three states - Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.  The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), led by social activist Medha Patkar, has been protesting against the project, raising several environmental concerns.  Construction on the dam had been suspended in 1996 following a stay by the Supreme Court which allowed work to resume, four years later, but with conditions. Patkar and her supporters started the protest against the inauguration of the dam on Saturday and the opening of its gates which would raise the level of water and risk displacing several villages.  Today is a very sad day for India, and for one of our biggest peoples  movements and struggle - the Narmada Bacchao Andolan,  Ravi Chellam, executive director at Greenpeace India said in a statement.  The Sardar Sarovar Project... signals ruin not development for tens of thousands of unsuspecting, hapless and poor farmers,  Chellam added.

Summary: प्रधानमंत्री मोदी ने विवादास्पद बांध परियोजना का उद्घाटन किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday rejected a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to prevent the U.S. military from accepting transgender recruits starting Jan. 1, the second court to issue such a ruling this week. Four federal judges around the country have issued injunctions blocking Trump’s ban on transgender people from the military, including one that was also handed down on Friday. The administration has appealed the previous three rulings. In a six-page order, the three-judge-panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the administration had “not shown a strong likelihood that they will succeed on the merits of their challenge” to a district court’s order blocking the ban. On Thursday the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was denying the administration’s request while the appeal proceeds. The two courts’ actions could prompt the administration to ask the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Also on Friday, a federal trial court in Riverside, California, blocked the ban while the case proceeds, making it the fourth to do so, after similar rulings in Baltimore, Seattle and Washington, D.C. U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal said without the injunction the plaintiffs, including current and aspiring service members, would suffer irreparable harm. “There is nothing any court can do to remedy a government-sent message that some citizens are not worthy of the military uniform simply because of their gender,” he added. The administration had argued that the Jan. 1 deadline for accepting transgender recruits was problematic because tens of thousands of personnel would have to be trained on the medical standards needed to process transgender applicants, and the military was not ready for that. The Obama administration had set a deadline of July 1, 2017, to begin accepting transgender recruits, but Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, postponed that date to Jan. 1. In an August memorandum, Trump gave the military until March 2018 to revert to a policy prohibiting openly transgender individuals from joining the military and authorizing their discharge. The memo also halted the use of government funds for sex-reassignment surgery for active-duty personnel.

Summary: दूसरी अदालत ने ट्रांसजेंडर सैन्य भर्तियों को रोकने के लिए ट्रम्प की बोली को खारिज कर दिया


TUNIS (Reuters) - The Tunisian navy has arrested more than 550 Tunisian and African migrants trying to sail to Europe in September, nearly three times more than last month, official data showed. Human traffickers increasingly use Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading for Europe as Libya s coast guard, aided by armed groups, has tightened controls. Tunisia s navy stopped boats with migrants departing from beaches in the south and north of the country, arresting 555 people in September, the data showed. In August only 170 people had been caught trying to depart from Tunisia by boat.  We succeeded in foiling many attempts, which have increased significantly as the weather improves and smugglers are promoting that journeys coming out of Tunisia are more safe than other destinations,  Colonel Major Khelifa Chibani of Tunisia s national guard told Reuters. He said pregnant women and children had been among the migrants caught while trying to depart by boat.

Summary: ट्यूनीशिया ने सितंबर में 555 प्रवासियों को यूरोप जाने से रोका


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government could provide up to $80 billion in aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey, only a fraction of what the total impact could be from the storm, Texas Representative Pete Sessions said on Thursday. “(People) think the federal government is going to pay for this. In fact ... it may be $60, 70, 80 billion, but it’s a $1 trillion impact,” Sessions told Fox Business Network. He did not specify what he meant by impact and all damage estimates remain preliminary.

Summary: अमेरिकी सरकार हार्वे को 80 अरब डॉलर तक की सहायता प्रदान कर सकती हैः टेक्सास के सांसद


PARIS (Reuters) - France, the European Union s largest farm producer, plans to raise regulated minimum food prices and limit bargain sales in supermarkets in a bid to increase farmers  income, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday. The move is part of a wider field-to-fork review that closed on Thursday. Farmers, an important constituency in French politics, have long complained of being hit by a price war between retailers, which has benefited consumers but hurt producers down the chain. The measures will be put in place for a trial period of two years, Philippe said. Selling at a loss is forbidden in France.  To determine the minimum level at which retailers are allowed to sell a product, France has set a Resale Below Cost (RBC) threshold. The RBC threshold is currently defined by the product s basic purchase price, minus discounts, plus transport costs to the retailer s warehouse. The government will propose to raise the RBC threshold by 10 percent, Philippe said at the close of the food review.  The aim is to rebalance trade relations for the benefit of farmers  income,  he said when describing the proposal. The rise would include some of the additional costs already supported by retailers, such as the cost of logistics and staff needed to bring products from warehouses to the shelves, food industry group Ania said. This will increase the end-price of all products sold between the current RBC threshold and the new one - but not necessarily more expensive ones. The government will propose limiting discounts on food products to 34 percent of a product s price and to 25 percent of available volumes, Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said. This means that retailers will be able to do promotion offers such as  three products for the price of two  but only for a fourth of their supplies for that product. The war in prices had led to rebates of up to 70 percent, which are most often supported by food producers. The aim of the measure is to avoid consumers losing the  sense of prices.  It would now be promotions, not sell-offs,  Christiane Lambert, head of France s largest farm union FNSEA, said. Analysts say the measures would reduce aggressive price competition among French retailers and accelerate food inflation, potentially benefiting retailers  profit margins in the short-term.  This should calm down the (price) game a bit but the most aggressive players on prices may be tempted to parry an attack,  Raymond James analyst Cedric Lecasble said. A softer competitive climate could come as a relief for retailers like Carrefour (CARR.PA) and Auchan [AUCH.UL], whose profitability is under pressure and whose hypermarkets sales suffer from aggressive price discounting from the market s dominant player, Leclerc, Barclays analyst Nicolas Champ said. Leclerc is now the leading retailer in France with a national market share of 21 percent against 20.5 percent for Carrefour, the latest Kantar data show. Accelerated food inflation could also lead some consumers to trade down, which could benefit hard discounters like Lidl. The limitation of promotions could also benefit discounters who have mostly Every Day Low prices strategies and reduce the attractiveness of the hypermarket stores, which are more focused on promotions. The government s aim is to present draft legislation to Parliament early next year, Philippe said. Analysts say the measures are unlikely to have an impact on the food chain before the second half of 2018. Ania had estimated that a rise of 15 percent in the RBC threshold would cost consumers an average of 30 cents ($0.36) per person and per week. Prices of products currently sold lower than the new RBC floor level - mostly products used to attract consumers such as Ferrero s Nutella or Coca Cola (KO.N) soft drinks - would rise mechanically. The government hopes that the measures will prompt retailers to loosen pressure on suppliers and food makers who would then pass at least part of the rise onto farmers. But some are doubtful that this will happen.  We will increase some products  prices by 10 percent, promising that miraculously this money, taken from consumers, will go down to the agri-food industry and that industry will give this money back to farmers. By what miracle, we do not know, there are no tools,  Olivier Andrault from consumer rights group UFC-Que choisir told Europe 1 radio. The government will also reinforce the so-called renegotiation clause that allows parties to ask that contracts - concluded on an annual basis in France - be reviewed if there is a large swing in production prices. To ensure that farmers are not paid below their costs, France also plans to reverse the process of determining prices by taking farmers  production costs as the starting point. ($1 = 0.8432 euros)

Summary: खाद्य पदार्थों की न्यूनतम कीमतें बढ़ाने, प्रचार को सीमित करने का फ्रांस का कदम


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s opposition Democratic Alliance will lay a criminal complaint against McKinsey for  fraud, racketeering and collusion  over work the global consultancy did with businessmen friends of President Jacob Zuma, it said on Monday. Reuters reported last week that McKinsey ignored suspicions raised over several years by local senior staff that companies it worked with were set up to steer state contracts. The deal relates to work McKinsey carried out for South African state power company Eskom alongside Trillian, a firm controlled by the Gupta family.  The allegations that McKinsey ignored warnings from senior South African staff, as far back as the beginning of 2013, of possible dodgy deals with Trillian, Eskom and other Gupta-linked companies must be fully investigated,  the DA said.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका का विपक्ष मैकिन्से के खिलाफ आपराधिक शिकायत दर्ज कराएगा


DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzanian prosecutors charged two government officials on Friday with economic sabotage after they were accused of undervaluing an export-bound consignment of diamonds seized from a mine majority owned by London-listed Petra Diamonds. Archard Kalugendo, director of the state-run diamond and gemstone valuation unit, and government gemstone valuer Edward Rweyemamu were jointly charged with being responsible for $1.1 million of lost tax revenue. The court case is the latest twist in a government crackdown on the minerals industry this year, with President John Magufuli accusing the sector of not giving the government a fair share of Tanzania s mineral wealth.  Kalugendo, 49, and Rweyemamu, 50, are both employees of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals. They were not allowed to enter pleas at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate s court in Tanzania s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. Lawyers said the two officials will enter their pleas when the case is transferred to the high court, which has jurisdiction to hear economic sabotage trials. The accused were denied bail and will be held on remand until the next hearing on Sept. 29. The pair face maximum jail terms of 20 years if found guilty. The diamonds were seized as they were being exported to Antwerp, Belgium, from Tanzania s main airport in Dar es Salaam on Aug. 31. Petra Diamonds said on Monday that it had halted operations at its Williamson mine after the government seized the diamonds and questioned some of its employees. Petra owns 75 percent of the mine, with the Tanzanian government holding the remaining shares. Petra has denied that it under-declares its diamond exports, saying that it follows all government laws and procedures in its business. The government said it will nationalize the diamonds, the value of which it puts at $29.5 million, twice the provisional value approved by the two government officials charged in court. The government has not disclosed how it came to its $29.5 million valuation.  Magufuli had ordered the examination of exports by individual companies after a parliamentary investigation found that the country s diamonds and other precious gemstone exports were under-declared. Mining accounts for about 4 percent of Tanzania s GDP.

Summary: तंजानिया ने जब्त हीरे को लेकर अधिकारियों पर आर्थिक तोड़फोड़ का आरोप लगाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of Democrats in Congress urged the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission in a letter this week to conduct a more in-depth review of online retailer Amazon.com Inc’s plan to buy grocer Whole Foods Market Inc.  The lawmakers asked that the review include consideration of what effect the $13.7 billion deal could have on access to healthy foods in so-called food deserts where residents may have limited access to fresh groceries.  “While we do not oppose the merger at this time, we are concerned about what this merger could mean for African-American communities across the country already suffering from a lack of affordable healthy food choices from grocers,” the letter said on Thursday. The letter was signed by U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge and 11 other Democrats, including Senator Cory Booker.  Amazon and Whole Foods hope to expand access to fresh food, said Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of policy, in a letter to Fudge, also on Thursday.  “We agree with you that access to food is an important issue for the country, and we share your goal of improving that access,” Huseman said in the letter. Amazon has lobbied to be able to accept food stamps online and is participating in a pilot program. “We deliver low-cost, healthy food to zip codes across the country that before Amazon had limited access to a large selection of high quality foods,” Huseman wrote to Fudge. Fudge’s letter was made public by the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), which represents many of the unionized grocery workers in the United States. Fudge’s office confirmed she had sent the letter. Amazon’s plan announced in June to buy premium grocer Whole Foods roiled the grocery industry and sparked worries the deal could raise prices, reduce the quality of products and hurt employment.  Still, most antitrust experts expect the Federal Trade Commission to approve the planned merger. The letter asking for more scrutiny was praised by the UFCW union. “Political concerns about Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods are growing for good reason,” UFCW President Marc Perrone said on Friday. “Amazon’s monopolistic desire to control the retail market and replace good jobs with automation is not only a direct threat to the hard-working men and women at Whole Foods, it’s also a direct threat to our economy and consumers.”  Amazon has sought to dispute that it would monopolize the grocery industry. Wal-Mart Stores Inc currently controls the largest market share.  “We also do not plan job reductions as part of the acquisition, which if approved would result in a company with a combined less than 3 percent of national grocery sales,” Huseman wrote.

Summary: अमेरिकी कांग्रेस में डेमोक्रेट ने अमेज़ॅन के होल फूड्स सौदे की समीक्षा का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday brushed off billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s blistering critique of his business acumen. “I don’t care much about Warren Buffett,” Trump said on the FOX Business television network Tuesday morning, a day after Buffett lashed out at Trump in a speech at a campaign rally for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Buffett, a widely followed investor who is chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, scorned Trump’s 1995 move to list Trump hotels and casino resorts on the New York Stock Exchange, saying it lost money for the next decade and that “a monkey” would have outperformed Trump’s company. He also challenged Trump to release his tax returns, something the real estate mogul and television star has declined to do so far citing an Internal Revenue Service audit. Trump, who has held up his career in business as a qualification to lead the country, defended his record running his hotel and casino business in Atlantic City, New Jersey. “I had great timing. I got out,” after seven years, he told FOX Business on Tuesday. “I took a lot of money out of Atlantic City, which is what I’m supposed to do. I’m a businessperson.”  Trump said he “did well in the good times in Atlantic City, but then times started going very bad.”  Trump said he used to invest in U.S. stocks but got out because “I don’t like what I’m seeing at all,” pointing to U.S. immigration policies, Syrian refugees and what he said were “artificially low” interest rates. He also vowed to spend twice as much on U.S. infrastructure as Clinton, who has pledged $275 billion on rebuilding the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges, among other structures. Trump, who has been criticized by fellow Republicans and others for responding too readily to opponents, declined to target Buffett personally for his comments: “There’s no counter-punch.”  Buffett on Monday vowed to do “whatever it takes” to get out the vote in his congressional district in Nebraska, including driving voters himself to the polls to cast ballots.  With Clinton by his side, Buffett told the crowd that his “final straw” was Trump’s critical response to the Muslim parents of a decorated U.S. soldier killed by a bomb in Iraq 12 years ago.  Buffett is No. 3 on Forbes magazine’s list of the richest billionaires, with a net worth calculated at $60.8 billion.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने अपने व्यावसायिक फैसले पर बफेट की फटकार को खारिज किया


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Two-thirds of Mexicans reject offering an amnesty to members of criminal gangs as a way of reducing violence in the country, a poll showed on Monday, days after a top leftist presidential candidate floated the idea of exploring the step. At the start of December, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told supporters in the violence-wracked state of Guerrero he was prepared to analyze all the options, including an amnesty, to bring peace to Mexico after years of violence between gangs.  You can t fight fire with fire,  he said. Asked by a reporter whether his amnesty could include drug cartel bosses, Lopez Obrador his campaign would  consider it  in a recording published by newspaper El Universal. A telephone survey by polling firm Buendia & Laredo for El Universal showed only 23 percent of the respondents agreed somewhat or strongly with the idea of brokering an amnesty with the gangs in exchange for pledges to reduce violence. Some 66 percent took the opposite view, while eight percent said they had no opinion either way. The rest gave no answer. Violence between drug cartels and security forces has been blamed for well over 100,000 deaths in the past decade, and Mexico is on track to register its highest murder total this year since it began keeping regular monthly tallies in 1997. Lopez Obrador, who has led most of the early polls for the July 2018 election, did not provide details about the potential scope of the amnesty, and aides to the 64-year-old consulted by Reuters have so far declined to flesh out how one might work. A former mayor of Mexico City, Lopez Obrador was runner-up in the last two elections, and his adversaries seized on the amnesty to paint the proposal as a threat to security and an affront to the victims of organized crime. A gang truce in El Salvador in 2012 initially cut violence, but when it broke down, murders soared to new heights. The Buendia & Laredo survey, which polled 600 people Dec. 7-8, said that only 16 percent of those polled felt the amnesty would improve the security situation in Mexico, while 62 percent took the opposite view. Some 18 percent believed it would make no difference and the rest gave no answer. The poll was conducted had a margin of error of 4.0 percentage points, El Universal said.

Summary: मैक्सिकन के दो-तिहाई लोगों ने गिरोह के सदस्यों के लिए माफी को अस्वीकार कर दियाः सर्वेक्षण


HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba took another step on Sunday toward the end of the Castro era, with millions of residents placing paper ballots in cardboard boxes for ward delegates to municipal assemblies. The vote comes the day after the first anniversary of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro s death and precedes another election early next year for provincial and national assembly deputies. The new national assembly, where 50 percent of the deputies must be ward delegates elected on Sunday, is expected on Feb. 24 to select a new president to replace Raul Castro, Fidel s 86-year-old younger brother, who has said he will step down after serving two five-year terms. The Castro brothers have headed the government since the 1959 revolution. Raul Castro will remain head of the Communist Party until 2021, the only legal party in Cuba. Nearly 27,000 candidates are running for 12,515 ward positions in Sunday s election, the only part of the electoral process that is contested publicly and with direct participation by ordinary Cubans. The results will be announced on Monday. The candidates for the provincial and national assemblies are nominated by commissions composed of representatives of Communist Party-controlled organizations, such as the trade union federation, then presented as a slate for a public vote. Those slates have had the same number of names as seats in previous elections. Fifty percent of those names must be ward delegates. The electoral cycle comes at a tricky time for the Caribbean nation as the revolutionary generation passes, an economic reform program appears stalled, aid from key ally Venezuela shrinks, and the Trump administration threatens. Yet candidates debated none of these issues before Sunday s vote. First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is expected to succeed Castro, lauded the electoral process and refused to speculate about his future.  Today is a day to talk about what we are doing and Fidel,  he told reporters after casting his ballot. Asked about relations with the United States, he said Cuba remained interested in improving them, but reiterated its position that negotiations would have to be based on mutual respect and equality and without dictates.  The future depends on them, not us,  he said. Campaigning is prohibited in Cuba, and candidates for the ward posts were nominated at neighborhood meetings based on their personal merits, not policy positions. They need not belong to the Communist Party, and many candidates are independents, but only a few government opponents have ever competed.  I am happy to vote, but I must say, like most young people I do not think it makes any difference,  said a young woman, who requested anonymity because she holds an important government job. She added that there was an ongoing discussion on how to reform the electoral process and make government more responsive. This year a coalition of opposition groups ran more than 160 pre-candidates, but most were blocked by state security from nomination meetings, and none are running on Sunday.

Summary: क्यूबा में नगरपालिका चुनाव, कास्त्रो युग के अंत की राह पर


NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Raj, a Sri Lankan fisherman, sought refuge in the United States in 2005, he had precisely the kind of fear of returning home that U.S. asylum laws require. In 2004, he was kidnapped by the separatist rebel group the Tamil Tigers and had to pay $500 to secure his release, according to Raj, his lawyer and court records reviewed by Reuters. The group then demanded more money, which he could not pay after a tsunami destroyed his house and fishing boat.  Raj, 42, who asked that only his first name be used because of the sensitive nature of his situation, decided to flee. He boarded a plane using a false Canadian passport and requested asylum upon arriving in the United States.  There was a catch, however. U.S. laws ban immigration by anyone who has provided "material support" to terrorists, and the Tamil Tigers are designated as a terrorist group by the United States. A judge ruled that Raj's ransom payment to them constituted material support. (Read an excerpt of the letter petitioning the U.S. government for a waiver in this case: tmsnrt.rs/2oPsqQM) Ultimately, Raj was granted asylum in 2011 because of rules that allow for waivers for people who provided aid to terrorists under duress. He now lives in San Diego, California, works in an Indian restaurant and hopes to become a citizen. (Read an excerpt of the letter from the U.S. government granting the waiver: tmsnrt.rs/2oPy7yx)  Raj said it was “a big relief” when he finally received his green card around a year after receiving asylum. “I am not a terrorist,” he said.  Now the Trump administration is debating whether to rescind the waivers that have allowed Raj, and tens of thousands of others, to immigrate to the United States in the past decade (See graphic on waivers: tmsnrt.rs/2oPssIo). Some immigration hardliners are concerned the exemptions could allow terrorists to slip into the country. U.S. President Donald Trump directed the secretaries of State and Homeland Security, in consultation with the attorney general, to consider abolishing the waivers in an executive order in March. That directive was overshadowed by the same order’s temporary ban on all refugees and on travelers from six mostly Muslim nations.   The bans on refugees and travel were challenged in lawsuits, and their implementation has been suspended pending full hearings in court. But the waiver review was not included in the court rulings, so that part of the order remains in effect. Rules governing the waivers have been hammered out over the last decade with both Democratic and Republican support. But in recent years they have drawn fire from some conservative lawmakers, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he was a senator. A State Department official said this week the department is working with DHS to review the waivers and is “looking at actually pulling them back in accordance with the executive order.”  The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to give details on the timing of the review or its likely outcome. The Department of Justice declined to comment. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Congress expanded the definition of who could be considered a terrorist and what constituted “material support” to terrorism in rules now known as the Terrorism Related Inadmissibility Grounds.  Those changes ensnared people like Raj who were coerced or inadvertently provided support to terrorists, as well as members of persecuted ethnic groups that supported rebel organizations, and even U.S.-allied groups fighting against authoritarian regimes.  Without an exemption, members of Kurdish groups that battled Saddam Hussein’s forces in Iraq, Hmong groups who fought alongside U.S. troops in Vietnam, or some Cubans who fought Fidel Castro’s regime would not be allowed to immigrate to the United States.  Under the exemptions, U.S. authorities have the discretion to grant people residency in the United States after they have passed background checks and are found to pose no threat to national security. Congress initially passed waivers to the terrorism bars in 2007 with bipartisan support, and in the years that followed both the Bush and Obama administrations added additional groups and circumstances to the exemptions. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has granted nearly 22,000 TRIG exemptions in total over the last decade, according to the latest data available, which goes through September 2016. The State Department also grants TRIG exemptions, but a spokesman could not provide data on how many. Refugees from Myanmar are the largest single group of beneficiaries to date of TRIG exemptions granted by USCIS, with more than 6,700 waivers. The wave of Myanmar refugees dates to 2006, when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ruled that thousands of members of the Karen ethnic group, then living in a camp in Thailand, could resettle in the United States, even if they had supported the political wing of an armed group that had fought the country’s military regime.  One high-profile supporter of scrapping the waivers is  House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia whose staffers were instrumental in drafting Trump’s travel ban. Goodlatte told Reuters he was “pleased that the Trump Administration is reviewing the dangerous policy.” Groups favoring stricter immigration laws have also applauded the review. Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, called the waivers “a potential security risk.”  “I personally don’t think that a bureaucrat should be deciding how much support for terrorism is enough to be barred,” she said. A USCIS spokeswoman, when asked if a recipient of an exemption had ever been involved in a terrorism-related case after arriving in the United States, referred Reuters to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which said it was a question for the State Department to answer. “I don’t know of any cases where beneficiaries of exemptions have gotten into trouble after arriving,” the State Department official said, noting that the department does not typically track people after they arrive in the United States. Trump’s order to review the waivers “is another example of an attempt to address a non-existent phantom problem,” said Eric Schwartz, who served in the State Department during the Obama administration. Schwartz and immigration advocates say the waivers are granted after lengthy review and are extremely difficult to get.  “These are case-by-case exemptions for people who represent no threat to the United States but rather have been caught in the most unfortunate of circumstances,” said Schwartz. For Raj, the initial ruling that his ransom payment supported a terrorist group led to more than two years in U.S. immigration detention, followed by more years of electronic monitoring. His waiver allowed him to bring his wife to the United States after nine years apart. She now studies nursing.

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशासन उन नियमों को बदल सकता है जो आतंकवादी पीड़ितों को अमेरिका में प्रवास करने की अनुमति देते हैं।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden discussed Iran, the threat from Islamic State militants and the crisis in Syria in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the White House said in a statement. Biden also discussed with Netanyahu ongoing violence and tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, the statement said. The meeting comes a day after an American was killed and 11 people were wounded in a stabbing attack by a Palestinian in Tel Aviv.

Summary: बाइडन, नेतन्याहू ने जेरूसलम में ईरान, इस्लामिक स्टेट, सीरिया पर चर्चा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected New Hampshire’s bid to revive a state law barring voters from taking “selfie” photos with their ballots during elections that a lower court struck down as a violation of free speech rights. New Hampshire banned such selfies in 2014, saying the photos could set the stage for a return of the kind of vote-buying or voter intimidation that was rampant in the 19th century.  The Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s appeal of a ruling by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last September that the law ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which guarantees free speech. The state cannot curtail speech based on a hypothetical danger, the appeals court stated. Ballot selfies have become a popular way for voters to show support for favored candidates through postings on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat.  Three New Hampshire residents who were under investigation for violating the law, including a man who wrote in the name of his dog to express dismay at his choices in the 2014 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, sued the state that year claiming the measure violated the First Amendment. The 1st Circuit agreed last year, noting that New Hampshire had no complaints of vote-buying or evidence that people were being coerced to vote a certain way. New Hampshire’s secretary of state, William Gardner, appealed to the Supreme Court, noting that 18 states had laws that in some form prevented voters from displaying their ballots.  Digital photography and social media could allow an invasion of the sanctity of the voting booth and “eliminate the anonymity of the secret ballot,” Gardner said. “With recent advances in technology, one’s right to vote freely without fear of retaliation is in jeopardy,” Gardner added. Some states, including nearby Rhode Island, have passed laws explicitly allowing ballot selfies, reasoning in part that the trend has helped younger voters show their enthusiasm for the democratic process.

Summary: अमेरिकी शीर्ष अदालत न्यू हैम्पशायर मतपत्र 'सेल्फी' प्रतिबंध को पुनर्जीवित नहीं करेगी


DHAKA (Reuters) - Pope Francis ended a diplomatically tricky trip to Asia on Saturday, seeking the forgiveness of Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh after his controversial decision to not directly refer to their plight when he visited their homeland, Myanmar. On the last day of his three-day visit to Bangladesh, which came after meetings in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, the pope went to a home in Dhaka founded by Mother Teresa for orphans, unwed mothers and destitute elderly. Later in a speech to an audience of around 7,000 young Catholics, Muslims and followers of other religions, the pope spoke about welcoming and accepting those who  act and think differently than ourselves .  When a people, a religion or a society turns into a  little world , they lose the best that they have and plunge into a self-righteous mentality of  I am good and you are bad ,  Francis said at the Notre Dame College, founded by Catholic priests. He also asked his young listeners to  not spend the whole day playing with your phone and ignoring the world around you!  Francis said he was very pleased by an inter-religious meeting on Friday night, where he had an emotional meeting with refugees from Myanmar and then used the word Rohingya for the first time on his current trip, saying they had God within them and should be respected. He also sought their forgiveness in the name of all who persecuted them. Previously, in Myanmar, he followed the advice of Myanmar Church officials who said his use of the word could prompt a backlash against Christians and hurt that country s fragile path to democracy. That had disappointed rights groups such as Amnesty International, which has said Myanmar s  security forces were carrying out a systematic, organized and ruthless campaign of violence against the Rohingya population.  Myanmar s military has denied the allegations. The country does not recognize the stateless Rohingya as an ethnic group with its own identity and considers them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Mother Teresa, who started the Missionaries of Charity to serve  the poorest of the poor,  opened the Dhaka home in the early 1970s to look after Bengali women who became pregnant as a result of rape by Pakistani soldiers during the war of independence. The pope made an impromptu address to nuns and priests at the home during which he praised Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country where Catholics make up less than one percent of its around 169 million people, for having what he called some of the best inter-religious relations in the world. His words of appreciation have been welcomed by Bangladesh, which was already home to around 400,000 Rohingya Muslims before nearly 625,000 more came since August after the Myanmar army launched an offensive in response to attacks on security posts by Rohingya militants. Bangladesh last week signed an agreement to return the refugees over time,  while at the same time expanding refugee camps and constructing tens of thousands of shelters for them in Bangladesh until they are able to return , a statement issued on behalf of the government said.  Dear friends in Myanmar and Bangladesh, thank you for your welcome!  Francis said on Twitter as his flight took off.  Upon you I invoke divine blessings of harmony and peace.

Summary: पोप ने रोहिंग्याओं से माफी मांगने के बाद एशिया की संवेदनशील यात्रा समाप्त की


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday it wanted to develop smooth military-to-military ties with the new U.S. administration of Donald Trump. While the world’s two largest economies are frequently at odds over issues like the disputed South China Sea, both have been trying to improve trust between their armed forces to reduce the risk of misunderstanding in any encounters. This month, China and the United States staged a three-day humanitarian relief military drill as part of that trust-building exercise. New concern looms with Trump’s election as U.S. president. He lambasted China on the campaign trail and has suggested Japan and South Korea be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Asked about Trump’s election, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said it went without saying there were tensions in the military relationship and China hoped the United States would respect its core interests and concerns. “China is willing to work hard together with the defense department of the next U.S. government to promote the healthy and stable development of military-to-military relations,” Yang told a monthly news briefing. Trump will take over as president in January.

Summary: चीन का कहना है कि वह ट्रम्प के साथ सुचारू सैन्य संबंध चाहता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - He has been attacked over countless issues in partisan Washington, but U.S. President Barack Obama drew the line at this one: the idea that he is responsible for the rise of Donald Trump and the attendant Republican Party disarray. “I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they’re selecting for their party (nominee) is novel,” Obama told a news conference on Thursday. “What I’m not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crack-up that’s been taking place is ... a consequence of actions that I’ve taken,” the Democratic president said. Obama had been asked how he viewed being identified as the cause of Trump’s ascent to front-runner in the Republican race to pick a presidential candidate for the Nov. 8 election.    Obama seemed to relish the question, replying with both serious criticism of Republicans and some pointed mockery of Trump. The New York billionaire is well ahead in the Republican race after the first six weeks of primary nominating contests but his bombastic style and statements on Muslims, immigrants and trade have dismayed many in the party establishment. Many party leaders worry Trump would lose to the eventual Democratic nominee in November’s election to replace Obama.  Obama, whose White House tenure has been marked by steady resistance to most of his policies by Republicans in Congress, has said previously he regretted not being able to reduce the polarization between the two parties in Washington. But he scoffed on Thursday at the suggestion that his presidency had fueled the chaos among the Republicans. Conservative news outlets on television, radio and the Internet had convinced the Republican political base for seven years that cooperation with him was a “betrayal” and that “maximalist absolutist” positions were advantageous, Obama said. He was holding a joint news conference with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a clear dig at Trump, Obama said he had not prompted critics to question his U.S. citizenship or birth in Hawaii.    Before he launched his longshot presidential run last year, Trump was a high-profile leader of the so-called “birther” movement, which believed Obama was born abroad and not eligible to be president, until he produced his Hawaii birth certificate to put the issue to rest.  “What you’re seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all those efforts over a course of time creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive,” Obama said. For good measure, he took a swipe at two of Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination, saying the real estate magnate’s position on immigration was not much different from that of U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Obama urged conservatives who were troubled by the party’s position to “reflect on what it is about the politics they’ve engaged in that allows the circus we’ve been seeing to transpire.”   (Additional reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Frances Kerry) 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: ट्रंप के लिए मुझे दोषी ठहराएँ? ओबामा ने कहा, कोई रास्ता नहीं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama’s State of the Union pledge to better manage fossil fuel development will face a test within days, when federal officials rule on whether to open public lands containing more than 600 million tons of coal to more mining. Interior Department officials are due to decide Jan. 27 on whether to lease two mine sites on federal land in Wyoming’s coal-rich Powder River Basin, where the black rock runs in 10-story seams. Environmentalists strongly oppose more coal mining on federal land, saying burning all that coal would exacerbate climate change. Reforming government controls on federal lands is one of the few actions still available to Obama in his final year in office.  Developing the two Wyoming sites would make more than 640 million tons of coal available to mining companies, according to the Interior Department. Each ton of burned coal creates 1.66 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to government data. That means burning all the coal at the lease sites would add more than a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The Energy Information Administration says roughly 41 percent of U.S. coal production occurs on federal land, and environmentalists have argued strongly against permitting more mining there.  The Interior Department must assess the environmental impact of each energy lease under a law enacted during the 1970s under President Richard Nixon, decades before climate change became a concern to policymakers. Conservationists say those  environmental studies should account for the wider climate impact. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama vowed to “change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.” In Obama’s first term, the Interior Department mulled but  balked at raising royalty rates on companies that tap federal land. Since then, environmentalists have urged the White House to undertake a sweeping review of fossil fuel extraction. In the meantime, they have called on the administration to refrain from awarding further leases, including the two in Wyoming. “Until the administration steps back and considers all the impacts, we need a moratorium,” said Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians which joined several other conservation groups in a letter on Wednesday urging Obama to freeze coal leases. The two leases under consideration are West Antelope III and Decker South, which abut existing mines. The administration has not indicated its position on those two leases, and the Interior Department on Wednesday declined to comment. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell visited western states last summer, calling for “an honest and open conversation about modernizing the federal government’s coal program.” Last year, Obama used his authority to help secure a global climate agreement between nearly 200 countries. He also denied a permit to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline and issued new rules to crack down on carbon pollution from U.S. power plants. In coming weeks, the Interior department’s Bureau of Land Management is also expected to release a plan to curb emissions from oil and gas production on federal land. “This is the obvious low-hanging fruit on climate change that he hasn’t touched yet,” said a Congressional aide who tracks the administration’s coal policies.

Summary: अमेरिकी संघीय भूमि पर अधिक कोयले के खनन की बोली ओबामा के हरित एजेंडे का परीक्षण करती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans on Friday won passage of a measure starting the process of dismantling Obamacare, despite concerns about not having a ready replacement and the potential financial cost of repealing Democratic President Barack Obama’s landmark health insurance law. The House of Representatives voted 227-198 to instruct committees to draft legislation by a target date of Jan. 27 that would repeal the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. The Senate approved the same measure early Thursday. No Democrats supported the initiative. Nine Republicans voted against the measure. With this vote, Republicans began delivering on their promise to end Obamacare, which also was a campaign promise of Republican President-elect Donald Trump. The program, which expanded health coverage to some 20 million people, has been plagued by increases in insurance premiums and deductibles and by some large insurers leaving the system. The resolution passed by the House and Senate does not need presidential approval, since it is part of an internal congressional budget process. But once the Obamacare repeal legislation is drafted, both chambers will need to approve it, and a presidential signature will be required. By that time, Trump will have been sworn in as president. He has urged Congress to act quickly to repeal and replace the Democratic program. Obamacare was enacted nearly seven years ago - over Republican objections - in an effort to expand coverage and give new protections for people with pre-existing health conditions and other barriers that left them without insurance. In the past few years, the House has voted more than 60 times to repeal or alter Obamacare, but Republicans had no hope a repeal would become law as long as Obama was president and could veto their bills. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said Obamacare was collapsing and action was urgent. For people who have health insurance through the Obamacare system, he said, “The deductibles are so high it doesn’t feel like you’ve got insurance in the first place. “We have to step in before things get worse. This is nothing short of a rescue mission,” Ryan said. Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi rebutted Republicans’ claims that the law was a failure. “The rate of growth in healthcare costs in our country has been greatly diminished by the Affordable Care Act,” she said. “In the more than 50 years that they have been measuring the rate of growth, it has never been slower than now.” The choice before lawmakers, she said, is “affordable care versus chaos.” Harvard University economist David Cutler warned that there could be trouble in U.S. insurance markets if lawmakers do repeal the law but a replacement is slow in coming. “You could create a lot of havoc,” he said, adding that some insurers “may get out of the market entirely.” Trump applauded Congress’s efforts with a Friday morning tweet saying, “The ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act will soon be history!”  The president-elect, who takes office on Jan. 20, pressed lawmakers this week to repeal and replace it “essentially simultaneously.” Republican leaders would like to finish the repeal process within weeks, but some lawmakers think it could take far longer. Some Republicans have expressed concern about starting a repeal before agreeing on how to replace provisions of the complicated and far-reaching law.  The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated repealing Obama’s signature health insurance law entirely would cost roughly $350 billion over 10 years. Republicans say a good replacement would give states more control of a healthcare program and provide more stability on health insurance premiums.

Summary: ओबामाकेयर को निरस्त करने के लिए सदन में मतदान शुरू


CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has shifted $81 million in funds from other projects to continue work on developing vaccines to fight Zika in the absence of any funding from U.S. lawmakers. In a letter addressed to Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said she was allocating $34 million in funding to the National Institutes of Health and $47 million to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to work on Zika vaccines. Burwell said the funding was intended to keep Zika vaccine research going despite the lack of funding from U.S. lawmakers, who left for summer recess before allocating any funding to Zika research and preparedness. The mosquito-borne Zika virus has spread to more than 50 countries and territories since the outbreak began last year in Brazil. On Thursday, Governor Rick Scott said state health officials have identified three additional people in the affected area with locally transmitted Zika, bringing the total to 25. The Obama administration in February requested $1.9 billion to fight Zika, but congressional lawmakers have been considering a much smaller sum. A bill providing $1.1 billion was blocked by Democrats after Republicans attached language to stop abortion-provider Planned Parenthood from using that government funding for healthcare services, mainly in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico. The Republican legislation also would siphon off unused money under President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 healthcare law to combat Zika. In addition, Democrats balked at a Republican provision that they said would gut clean water protections. The new bolus of funds from HHS comes on top of the $589 million in repurposed funds previously allocated for Ebola efforts. HHS has said these funds will run out at the end of August. At a press briefing in Washington, Dr. Anthony Fauci,  director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he needs $33 million to prepare to move the first potential Zika vaccine to the second phase of human clinical trials. The first phase of that testing is expected to end in late November or December. Fauci said the health secretary has the authority to transfer 1 percent of NIH’s $33 billion budget per year from one Institute to the other. He said the director of the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins, will decide which existing programs the funds will be drawn from. “He will probably do it on a prorated basis across the Institutes,” he said. Fauci said the budget transfer will not fill the longer-term NIH funding needs to fight the virus and to develop a second or third potential vaccine candidate. Drugs frequently fail to realize the promise they show in early trials. “We still need about $196 million more,” he said. Fauci said the health secretary’s action was essentially one of desperation given the failure of Congress to authorize additional funding. Taking money from other research programs “is extremely damaging to the biomedical research enterprise,” he said. “We’re taking money away from cancer, diabetes, all those things.” Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said at the briefing that local health authorities are similarly siphoning off money from other programs. “We’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he said.  In her letter, Burwell said the $47 million in funding for BARDA will allow the agency to enter into contracts with key partners to develop vaccines. But, she said BARDA will need an   estimated $342 million in additional funding to continue its work with outside partners in the development of vaccines, diagnostics and pathogen inactivation technology used to protect the U.S. blood supply.

Summary: अमेरिकी सरकार ने जीका वैक्सीन अनुसंधान के लिए 8.1 करोड़ डॉलर स्थानांतरित किए


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to reshuffle his cabinet over the next two days and some mid-level ministers have offered to quit to pave the way for changes, sources in the party and aides to the ministers said. A revamp of the cabinet has been on the cards for months because some ministers are holding multiple portfolios which is seen as a drag on efficiency. Modi is also seeking to improve governance before he seeks re-election in 2019.     With economic growth slowing to its slowest pace in three years, Modi is coming under pressure to deliver the promises he made in 2014.     There was no official announcement of the cabinet revamp but  sources Reuters spoke to said if it took place it would have to be done before Modi leaves on a foreign tour on Sunday.     The death of Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave and the election of Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu as vice-president opened vacancies, giving Modi an opportunity to bring in members from regional political parties.     According to four party sources, Sanjeev Balyan, minister of state for water resources, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship, Kalraj Mishra, minister of micro, small and medium enterprises, and Mahendra Nath Pandey minister of state for human resource development have all offered to resign.

Summary: भारत के प्रधानमंत्री ने मंत्रिमंडल में सुधार की योजना बनाई, कुछ मंत्रियों ने इस्तीफे की पेशकश कीः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for about an hour on Tuesday and covered topics including Syria, Ukraine, Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan, a White House official said.

Summary: ट्रम्प और पुतिन ने सीरिया, यूक्रेन, उत्तर कोरिया के बारे में एक घंटे तक बात की


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian police detained four people over a foiled attack in 2015 on a high-speed train linking Brussels and Paris, federal prosecutors said on Monday. In August 2015 a machinegun-toting attacker wounded three people on a high-speed train before being overpowered by passengers, one in a series of militant attacks that has rocked Belgium and France over the past two years. Police carried out six house searches in Brussels and elsewhere in Belgium early on Monday, but did not find any explosives or weapons. A judge will decide at a later stage whether those detained could be kept further, prosecutors said.

Summary: बेल्जियम पुलिस ने तेज गति वाली ट्रेन पर हमले को विफल करने के आरोप में चार लोगों को हिरासत में लिया


ABUJA (Reuters) - A key community leader from Nigeria s tense Delta oil-producing region called on militants on Sunday not to resume their attacks until they had further time to negotiate their demands with the government.  Chief Edwin Clark, who leads the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), which has been holding peace talks with the government since last year, called on the Niger Delta Avengers militant group to  be patient.  The Avengers, whose attacks last year wrought havoc on the nation s oil output, promised on Friday a  brutish, brutal and bloody  return to violence because they said they had  lost faith  in local leaders to get what they wanted from the government.  This is not  the time to resume hostilities,  Clark said in a statement issued by the Presidential Amnesty Programme.  It is true that the federal government has not been quite serious about the negotiations, but we are asking the Niger Delta Avengers to maintain the peace.   He added that PANDEF was sending a delegation to meet the group s leaders.  The Avengers, like many in the Niger Delta, say they want a greater share of Nigeria s energy wealth to stay in the impoverished swampland region, which produces the bulk of the oil but is largely underdeveloped.  The statement came after a government delegation led by Brigadier General Paul Boroh, special adviser to the president on the Niger Delta, visited Clark at his Abuja home on Sunday. Clark said Boroh assured him that the talks were  back on track , and that PANDEF leaders would meet soon in Warri. The 2016 attacks slashed oil output to close to 1 million barrels per day from roughly 2.2 million bpd. That along with low oil prices pushed the nation into its first recession in 25 years.

Summary: नाइजर डेल्टा के नेता ने एवेंजर्स से तेल हमलों को रोकने का आह्वान किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said on Friday a crisis triggered by the resignation of its prime minister was part of an  attempt to create chaos in the region , in an interview with Russia Today. Saad al-Hariri quit as prime minister in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, saying he feared assassination and criticizing the Saudis  regional arch-rival Iran along with its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.  The actions of Hariri, a Sunni Muslim leader and long-time Saudi ally, plunged Lebanon into a political crisis, putting the country center stage in the rivalry.  He has yet to return to Beirut and is expected to leave Saudi Arabia this weekend for France, where he will meet with President Emmanuel Macron. Bassil is touring European and other capitals seeking diplomatic help to end the crisis.    We will respond and we have the full capacities to do so, but we hope it doesn t get to that,  Bassil said in Moscow. His comments to Russia Today were reported earlier on Friday by Lebanese broadcasters al-Jadeed, al-Manar and LBC without attribution.  French officials said they did not know how long Hariri would stay before returning to Beirut, but hoped his visit would help ease the crisis by demonstrating he was not being held in Saudi Arabia.

Summary: लेबनान के वित्त मंत्री ने कहा कि हरीरी संकट क्षेत्रीय अराजकता पैदा करने का प्रयास है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two aides in charge of running Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign were taken aback as news broke in March 2015 of Clinton’s use of private email for her work as U.S. secretary of state, according to stolen emails published on Thursday by WikiLeaks. The late-night exchange between Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, and John Podesta, the campaign chairman, happened within hours of the New York Times breaking the news that Clinton exclusively used a private email account in a way that may have broken records rules. “Did you have any idea of the depth of this story?” Podesta wrote to Mook at 10:27 p.m. on the night the Times story appeared online, according to an exchange published by WikiLeaks. A few hours later, at 1:32 a.m., Mook wrote back: “Nope. We brought up the existence of emails in research this summer but were told that everything was taken care of.”  The exchange took place hours before the Associated Press reported for the first time the following morning that Clinton’s email system was run off a private server Clinton kept in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, New York. The exchange appears to show that even Clinton’s most senior aides were initially unprepared for the scale of revelations about Clinton’s email practices, which would end up dogging her campaign all the way through to the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 8 election. Clinton, the Democratic candidate, remains the front-runner in opinion polls over Republican opponent Donald Trump. Many voters have pointed to the unauthorized email system, which stymied attempts by the public to seek Clinton’s emails through open-records laws, as a reason they find Clinton untrustworthy. Trump has repeatedly attacked her over her emails, saying Clinton should be in prison because she sent and received classified government secrets through the server.  After a yearlong investigation, James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in July that Clinton and her staff were “extremely careless” with classified information, but that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges. The same night of the Mook-Podesta exchange, Neera Tanden, a longtime Clinton confidante, wrote to Podesta to express her frustration, according to other emails stolen from Podesta’s account and published in daily batches this month by WikiLeaks, a publishing organization that advocates extreme government transparency. “Why didn’t they get this stuff out like 18 months ago?” Tanden wrote, criticizing Cheryl Mills, a lawyer working for Clinton and Clinton’s former chief of staff at the State Department. “So crazy.” Podesta replied with a single word: “Unbelievable.” “I guess I know the answer,” Tanden, an outside adviser who does not have a formal role in the campaign, responded. “They wanted to get away with it.”  Podesta also suggests in the exchange that other Clinton aides withheld information about the emails, although it is unclear if he meant from the public or other colleagues. “Speaking of transparency, our friends Kendall, Cheryl and Phillipe sure weren’t forthcoming on the facts here,” Podesta wrote. David Kendall is another lawyer working for Clinton, and Philippe Reines, whose first name Podesta appeared to have misspelled, is a Clinton adviser who handled her news coverage at the State Department. Tanden did not respond to questions. Glen Caplin, a Clinton campaign spokesman, declined to comment on the exchanges, saying the campaign was not confirming the authenticity of the emails. It has not pointed to any instances of doctored messages. He criticized Trump for supporting WikiLeaks, which Caplin said was “weaponizing” the emails he said were hacked by the Russian government. “Every American, regardless of party, should be concerned by this national security issue,” he said in a statement. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said this month the accusation his government is behind a spate this year of stolen emails from Democratic Party operatives was “flattering” but without proof. Nearly five months after the news of Clinton’s private email first broke, Tanden again wrote to Podesta to link the arrangement to unfavorable public polling that week. “Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email?” she wrote. “And has that person been drawn and quartered?”

Summary: हैक्ड ईमेल से पता चलता है कि क्लिंटन के सहयोगी 2015 के ईमेल के खुलासे से हैरान हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law legislation broadening sanctions to punish North Korea for its nuclear program, human rights record and cyber crimes, the White House said.

Summary: ओबामा ने उत्तर कोरिया प्रतिबंध विधेयक पर हस्ताक्षर किएः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Vincent Viola, an Army veteran and founder of a high-speed trading firm, to be secretary of the Army, adding another figure from the business world without government experience to his Cabinet. Viola is a West Point graduate who founded the highly profitable high-frequency trading firm Virtu Financial Inc in 2008, Trump’s transition team said in a statement on Monday.  Viola is a former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where he began his financial services career, and is a leader in electronic trading. Along with Virtu CEO Douglas Cifu, he bought the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League in 2013. In the Army, Viola trained as an Airborne Ranger infantry officer and served in the 101st Airborne Division, the transition team said. “Whether it is his distinguished military service or highly impressive track record in the world of business, Vinnie has proved throughout his life that he knows how to be a leader and deliver major results in the face of any challenge,” Trump was quoted as saying in a transition team statement. After the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, Viola helped found the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “A primary focus of my leadership will be ensuring that America’s soldiers have the ways and means to fight and win across the full spectrum of conflict, Viola said in the statement.   As Army secretary, Viola would oversee 473,000 active duty soldiers. Trump met with Viola on Friday as the Republican president-elect considered candidates for top posts in his administration, which begins on Jan. 20. Cabinet positions yet to be filled include secretaries of agriculture and veterans affairs and the U.S. trade representative. Viola, 60, whose net worth is $1.8 billion according to Forbes magazine, is the latest wealthy financier or businessman tapped to join Trump’s administration. Those nominees, with little or no experience in government, include Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Goldman Sachs chief operating officer Gary Cohn for director of the National Economic Council, private equity firm owner Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary and Andrew Pudzer, CKE Restaurants Inc chief executive as labor secretary.  FROM WEST POINT TO HIGH-SPEED TRADING Viola was a leading figure in the emergence of high-frequency trading, in which rapid-fire machines place thousands of very short-term bets, making markets and profiting on tiny price imbalances.  In 2014, Virtu Financial received a letter of inquiry from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as part of a wider investigation of such firms, which came amid heightened attention to such trading after the publication of author Michael Lewis’ book “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.” The firm was never charged with anything and has always backed more regulation for trading and market making. If Viola is confirmed by the Senate as secretary of the Army, his ownership stake in the Panthers would be placed in a trust, while Cifu would take over Viola’s role as chairman and governor of the team’s parent company, Sunrise Sports and Entertainment, the Panthers said in a statement. Cifu currently has the role of vice chairman and alternate governor of the club. Viola was born to Italian immigrant parents in New York’s Brooklyn borough, and was the first in his family to attend college. He left the Army after five years because his father suffered a massive heart, he told the West Point Center for Oral History, which he helped fund. Friends in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where Viola grew up pointed him to Wall Street after he failed to find work elsewhere. Viola stood out on entering the trading pits in 1982 as a “local” on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as many of the floor traders did not have a college education. Viola has said the principles of West Point - duty, honor, country - are overwhelming and become ingrained.  “It’s very hard to come here and not leave not having a selfless sense of what duty means, what honor is, and the importance of your country,” Viola said in 2011 the Oral History interview.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने व्यापारिक फर्म के संस्थापक वियोला को सेना सचिव के रूप में नामित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barbara Comstock is trying to untether herself from Donald Trump in her re-election bid for the U.S. Congress, but the Virginia Republican’s struggles show how difficult that can be. Comstock represents a wealthy House of Representatives district in northern Virginia where Trump has become a burden, one that her opponent is wrapping around Comstock’s neck. In local campaign ads, Democratic challenger LuAnn Bennett takes every opportunity to tie Comstock to the New York real estate developer and Republican presidential nominee. The strategy may be working. The Cook Political Report, a non-partisan election tipsheet, moved the Comstock-Bennett race from “lean Republican” to “toss up” on Wednesday, citing Trump’s unpopularity in much of the district. This is despite Comstock’s months-long effort to jettison Trump. In April, the former lobbyist and state legislator said Trump was actually a Democrat who knows “nothing” about the economy. She said in December that his plan to ban Muslim immigrants was “un-American” and “a silly idea.” In March, she gave campaign donations she got from Trump to charity. Earlier this month, she said Trump’s boasts about groping women, revealed in a video tape, were “vile.” She said she would not vote for him and urged Trump to drop out of the race against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But it may be too late to undo the damage, political analysts said, with just 19 days remaining until Election Day. “In a normal year, Comstock would be a clear favorite, but right now her front runner status is in question because of Trump,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the Virginia Center for Politics.     “He (Trump) was a gift” to her campaign, said Bennett, a 63-year-old real estate executive. Bennett said Comstock, 57, waited too late in her re-election campaign to announce she would not vote for Trump, and argued that Comstock’s views on immigration, abortion and climate change are “shockingly similar” to Trump’s. Asked on Wednesday about voters’ view of her repudiation of Trump, Comstock said Bennett, if elected to the House, would be a “rubber stamp” for Clinton. “I’m the only one of the two of us who ... has a record of speaking out against people, whether it’s in my own party or not,” Comstock, a Georgetown University-educated lawyer, told reporters after a debate with Bennett. “I’ve made clear that I’m going to be my own woman.” Stretching from suburban Washington to the Shenandoah valley and the West Virginia border, Comstock’s district is home to thousands of government workers, as well as many well-heeled lobbyists and what Trump might call the Washington “elites.”  The area has been represented by a Republican in Congress since 1981, but has been a swing district in presidential years. Bennett said Democrats expect about 140,000 more voters to turn out in the district in this presidential election year than when Comstock was elected in a mid-term election two years ago. “We have a growing Latino community, we have a growing Asian community, and those communities are very unsettled by the rhetoric they’ve heard on the Republican side of the fence, and really worried about where this country is going,” she said. Kondik said, “This is one of the most highly educated districts in the country, and it’s filled with the kinds of Republicans that Trump could very well turn off.” A recent poll by the Wason Center for Public Policy in Newport News, Virginia, showed Clinton leading Trump by 55 percent to 21 percent in northern Virginia. That suggests that for Comstock to win, some Clinton backers will need to “split” their tickets to vote for Comstock, who made a name for herself in the 1990s as a congressional staffer dedicated to investigating members of the Clinton administration. Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and international affairs at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said: “With the lewd tape, Trump went from being a drag on the Comstock campaign to an anchor.”

Summary: वर्जीनिया में कांग्रेस की दौड़ से पता चलता है कि ट्रम्प रिपब्लिकन पर खींचते हैं


HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba s foreign minister and his North Korean counterpart rejected the United States   unilateral and arbitrary  demands on Wednesday while expressing concern about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, the ministry said. North Korea is searching for support amid unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs, which it carries out in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The country, which has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, has maintained warm political relations with Cuba since 1960, despite the island s opposition to nuclear weapons. Some diplomats said Cuba was also one of the few countries that might be able to convince North Korea to move away from the current showdown with the United States that threatens war. The ministers, meeting in Havana, called for  respect for peoples  sovereignty  and  the peaceful settlement of disputes,  according to a statement released by the Cuban foreign ministry.  They strongly rejected the unilateral and arbitrary lists and designations established by the U.S. government which serve as a basis for the implementation of coercive measures which are contrary to international law,  the statement said. U.S. President Donald Trump has also increased pressure on Cuba since taking office, rolling back a fragile detente begun by predecessor Barack Obama and returning to the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War. A U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the United States had made clear it wanted a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue.  The DPRK s belligerent and provocative behavior demonstrates it has no interest in working toward a peaceful solution,  the official said. DPRK stands for North Korea s official name, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea. Cuba said in the statement the Cuban and North Korean foreign ministers had  expressed concern about the escalation of tensions  on the Korean peninsula.  The ministers discussed the respective efforts carried out in the construction of socialism according to the realities inherent to their respective countries.  Cuba and North Korea are the last in the world to maintain Soviet-style command economies, though under President Raul Castro, the Caribbean nation has taken some small steps toward the more market-oriented communism of China and Vietnam. Cuba maintains an embassy in North Korea, but publicly trades almost exclusively with the South. Last year, trade with the latter was $67 million and with the North just $9 million, according to the Cuban government. North Korea defends its weapons programs as a necessary defense against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such intentions.

Summary: क्यूबा, उत्तर कोरिया ने 'एकतरफा और मनमाना' अमेरिकी मांगों को खारिज किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives nominated Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday for re-election to his post next year, as lawmakers giddy with election success smoothed over their differences and pledged to unite behind Republican President-elect Donald Trump. Ryan, who faced no challengers from Republican ranks, was nominated in a unanimous voice vote in a closed-door meeting of all Republican lawmakers in the House. He will face an election in January, when all members of the new House, both majority Republicans and minority Democrats, vote on a new speaker. While January’s outcome is not guaranteed, Republicans who had been feuding with each other and Trump before the election said Tuesday they thought Ryan was in a solid position to be re-elected speaker now that intra-party tensions have dramatically lessened with the Republican election victory. “Politics is politics, but this is as unified as I’ve ever seen it,” said New York Republican Representative Peter King, who has been in Congress since 1993. Republicans kept their majorities in both the House and Senate in the Nov. 8 elections in which voters elected Trump to the White House over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Ryan, 46, had criticized Trump numerous times during the campaign, which angered some of Trump’s supporters in the Republican caucus. Had Trump lost the election, these Republicans and some conservatives who already had doubts about Ryan might have sought to blame him and block his re-election. But lawmakers said Trump’s election, along with a stronger-than-expected performance at the polls by House Republicans, changed the outlook. “To suggest that President-elect Trump’s victory didn’t weigh as a factor in terms of the speaker’s race would be disingenuous” said Representative Mark Meadows, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus. However, one conservative lawmaker, Representative Raul Labrador, continued to express skepticism about Ryan ahead of Tuesday’s vote, and said he would not consider Tuesday’s outcome binding on his vote in January. “I haven’t heard from him what he wants to change — what’s going to be different the next two years than the last two years?” Labrador asked reporters. Ryan, for his part, said House Republicans would be working “hand in glove” with Trump. “We’re going to do everything we can to help him be as successful as he can,” Ryan told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s vote. Republicans also re-elected three other lawmakers to leadership positions: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, and the chairwoman of the Republican conference, Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

Summary: सदन के अध्यक्ष पॉल रेयान को सदन के शीर्ष पद के लिए फिर से नामित किया गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House spokesman Josh Earnest, on Tuesday, chided Republicans for failing to push forward with the president’s request for funding to combat the Zika virus and address an urgent public health crisis.  “They need that money right now,” Earnest told reporters at a daily briefing, referring to U.S. agencies that he said are on the frontlines of battling the virus, especially in the U.S. South. Senate Democrats earlier on Tuesday blocked a Republican funding proposal that they said was inadequate.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने जीका को धन देने में विफल रहने के लिए कांग्रेस की निंदा की


BERLIN (Reuters) - Nominally, they are at odds on Europe. But Germany s Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP) gave remarkably similar messages on European reform on Monday as they began exploring a coalition alliance with Chancellor Angela Merkel s humbled conservatives. After her conservative bloc hemorrhaged support to the far-right in Sunday s election, Merkel has little choice but to try to work out a three-way coalition with the Greens and FDP - an tie-up untested at national level and widely seen as risky. If their party programs are taken at face value, the Greens want to press ahead with deeper European integration and the FDP wants to hold it back - a conflict that could frustrate coalition talks with Merkel, who wants a  stronger Europe . But at back-to-back news conferences on Monday, the FDP and Greens both made conciliatory noises toward French President Emmanuel Macron, who ran for the French presidency on a pledge to  relaunch  the European Union in tandem with Germany. Macron is due to set out his proposals for EU reform and strengthening monetary union on Tuesday.  We have a great interest in the success of the French republic and in its strength,  FDP leader Christian Lindner told a news conference.   Germany will not become stronger if France becomes weaker, but Europe will profit as a whole if all its members return to a path of economic success. That is why we wish Mr. Macron all the best.  Less than an hour later, Greens co-leader Cem Ozdemir delivered almost exactly the same message.  It is clear that we have a vital interest in France being successful,  he said. The headline comments glossed over deeper differences between the two parties on Europe, but indicated a  glass half full  attitude suggesting both want to find common ground on Europe that will help them forge a ruling coalition with Merkel. Both the FDP and Greens played down the prospect of such a three-way bloc during the election campaign, but as they have been out of government for four and 12 years respectively, they may be lured into an alliance by the prospect of power. Pledging to form a stable government, Merkel herself said she would not set out red lines on Europe policy for now - an open-minded approach that gives the three parliamentary groups wiggle room to work out a compromise.  My view is that we can use more Europe but this has to lead to more competitiveness, more jobs and more clout for the European Union,  she said in a message that could appeal to the pro-business FDP and the Greens, who are keener on regulation.  Merkel also urged the center-left Social Democrats not to shut the door on a re-run of their  grand coalition . The Greens and Free Democrats are from opposition ends of the political spectrum and must navigate differences on tax policy and immigration, as well as Europe, before they team up.  In their party program the Greens say they reject a division of Europe. The FDP, by contrast, favors a  multi-speed Europe  - differentiating a northern core of fiscally disciplined, wealthy member states from the rest.  The FDP wants euro zone countries to be able to leave the bloc rather than stay under an  interminable rescue policy , and favors winding down the lending capacity of the euro zone s ESM rescue fund - unlike Merkel s finance minister, who has proposed developing it into a European monetary fund. Lindner, who said during the election campaign that Greece should leave the euro, said on Monday his party could not agree to a common euro zone budget that would help redress economic imbalances within the bloc. That position seems to be at odds with the vision presented by Macron, who wants to overhaul the euro zone and introduce a budget and finance minister for the single-currency region. The euro EUR= snapped a two-day rising streak on Monday after a surge in support for the far right in the election prompted investors to lock in gains in one of the most profitable currency trades of the year. But investors remained sanguine about the prospects for European reform under a three-way coalition of conservatives, FDP and Greens - known as a  Jamaica  alliance after their respective party colors: black, yellow and green.  Where the FDP might push back on the next potential government s European policies, expect the Greens to pull forward, enabling Chancellor Merkel s middle-ground to prevail,  said Andrew Bosomworth, a senior portfolio manager at Pimco, one of the world s largest bond funds.

Summary: खुशबूदार शक्ति, संभावित मर्केल गठबंधन साझेदार यूरोप के करीब हैं