NEW YORK (Reuters) - A proposal driven by President Donald Trump to overhaul the country’s tax system is moving through U.S. Congress, lifting the overall stock market and raising hopes that corporate earnings will get a boost. The S&P 500 .SPX rallied this week as the drive to push sweeping tax legislation through the U.S. Senate gained momentum, although gains were tempered by a report that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was prepared to testify that before taking office Trump had directed him to make contact with Russians. Senate Republicans said on Friday they had gathered the votes needed to pass a sweeping tax overhaul. While negotiations are ongoing, the legislation could cut the corporate tax rate to as low as 20 percent from 35 percent. UBS strategists project that overall S&P 500 earnings would rise by 6.5 percent should the corporate tax rate fall to 25 percent and increase by 9.5 percent should the rate go to 20 percent.  But certain stocks could benefit more than others from the Republican-led plans. “It will be favorable to companies with primarily domestic business that are paying close to the full tax rate,” said John Carey, portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management in Boston. Investors appear to have already rotated into some of these tax-sensitive areas. Some market watchers caution about generalizing winners, noting big differences in effective rates between companies in the same sectors.  But strategists point to industries with a concentration of companies poised to benefit, particularly from a lower corporate tax rate. (For a graphic on industries that stand to win from corporate tax cuts, click reut.rs/2zVJls9) (For a graphic on sector benefits from a corporate tax cut, click reut.rs/2AMn9AU) (High tax stocks underperform in 2017: reut.rs/2AMdrP5) Of the major S&P sectors, financials pay the highest effective tax rate at 27.5 percent, according to a Wells Fargo analysis of historical tax rates. Brian Klock, managing director in equity research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods who covers large regional banks, expects tax cuts to add 16 percent to median bank earnings in 2018 and 18 percent in 2019. “We’re assuming whatever the benefit is will drop right to the bottom line,” Klock said. “They won’t give up on loan pricing or put any big investments in. With the increased capital they’ll return it to shareholders.” Among large regional banks, Zions Bancorp (ZION.O), M&T Bank Corp (MTB.N) and Comerica Inc (CMA.N) stand to benefit the most, Klock said. Transportation ranks among the top industries expected to receive a big earnings boost from a lower corporate tax rate, according to UBS. U.S. railroads such as Union Pacific Corp (UNP.N) and CSX Corp (CSX.O) are almost entirely exposed to the U.S. statutory rates, said Morningstar analyst Keith Schoonmaker. Railroads would benefit from provisions allowing them to expense their capital expenditures in one year as opposed to over time, lowering their taxable income, Schoonmaker said. “We’ll see what comes out as far as the ability to depreciate immediately, but that certainly would be beneficial because they are all big capital spenders,” Schoonmaker said, noting that railroads spend 18 percent to 20 percent of revenue on capital expenditures. Airlines stand to gain from lower tax rates, analysts said, with UBS pointing to Alaska Air Group Inc (ALK.N) and Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) as possible winners. Domestically geared healthcare companies that focus on services would likely benefit more from tax rate reductions than pharmaceutical and medical device companies that sell their products overseas. “Healthcare services is one of the most taxed industries and would be a big beneficiary of reductions in corporate tax rates,” Lance Wilkes, an analyst at Bernstein, said in a recent note. The S&P 500 healthcare providers and services index .SPLRCHCPS, which includes health insurers such as Anthem Inc (ANTM.N), drug wholesalers like AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N), and hospital operators such as HCA Healthcare inc (HCA.N), has gained 5.4 percent this week. According to Leerink analyst Ana Gupte, a corporate tax rate cut to 20 percent could boost health insurer earnings by about 20 percent to 40 percent, but some of those gains would be expected to be passed through to employer and individual customers. Other potential big winners include home health services company Almost Family Inc (AFAM.O), lab-testing company Quest Diagnostics Inc (DGX.N) and pharmacy benefit manger Express Scripts Holding (ESRX.O), according to Jefferies analyst Brian Tanquilut. Department stores head the list of retailers that will benefit because they have among the heaviest U.S. exposure, said Bridget Weishaar, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.  Weishaar points to Macy’s Inc (M.N), Nordstrom Inc (JWN.N) and Kohls Corp (KSS.N) as potential winners among department stores, as well as  Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands (LB.N) and apparel retailer Ross Stores (ROST.O). “Retail companies will benefit from paying a lower tax rate,” Weishaar said. “Consumers hopefully will have additional cash, which will help consumer discretionary spending.” Telecom companies, including AT&T Inc (T.N) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), also stand to gain. “They’re domestically focused companies with a very high percentage of their employee base in the U.S. and significant amounts of investments in U.S. infrastructure,” said Amir Rozwadowski, telecom equity analyst at Barclays. “Therefore they’re predisposed to benefit from tax reform.” AT&T has climbed 4.9 percent this week, while Verizon has surged 9 percent.

Summary: कम कर, बड़ा लाभः कर में कटौती से शेयरों को लाभ होने की उम्मीद


(Reuters) - Cerberus Capital Management LP’s Chief Executive Officer Stephen Feinberg is in talks to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in a senior role, the private equity firm said on Thursday. Feinberg’s move would make him the latest Wall Street veteran to serve under Trump. U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Commerce Secretary designate Wilbur Ross, and Gary Cohn, director of the White House National Economic Council, are just some of the high-profile financiers who have agreed to join Trump’s administration. It is not clear what role Feinberg is discussing with Trump’s senior team. His appointment would require him to provide “voluminous information” and disclosures to the Office of Government Ethics and comply with all applicable conflict-of-interest rules and regulations, Cerberus told its investors earlier on Thursday in a letter seen by Reuters. Cerberus also told its investors that it has a succession plan in place that would result in minimal changes to the current management and operation of the firm. Feinberg, who served as one of Trump’s economic advisers during his U.S. election campaign, co-founded Cerberus in 1992.  A Princeton graduate, he previously worked at bond trader Drexel Burnham Lambert. Forbes Magazine currently pegs 56-year-old Feinberg’s net worth at $1.25 billion. Feinberg rarely gives interviews and has been photographed only a few times by news photographers. It is not clear how he would respond to the publicity of a job within the administration, assuming the role being discussed is a high-profile one.  Cerberus became well known for a $7.4 billion deal it struck in 2007, along with co-investors, to buy an 80 percent stake in car maker Chrysler and its financing arm Chrysler Financial. Chrysler was pushed to the brink of liquidation in 2009 before a bailout that was the subject of intense debate within the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Cerberus lost control of the automaker during its restructuring. In December 2010, Cerberus struck a deal to sell Chrysler Financial to Toronto-Dominion Bank for $6.3 billion. A source close to Cerberus said at the time that deal meant the private equity firm would end up close to break-even on its investment in Chrysler as a whole. Feinberg attracted more controversy in 2012, when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, using a Bushmaster rifle made by Freedom Group Inc, an arms manufacturer owned by Cerberus. Following unease by Cerberus investors, the New York-based buyout firm sought to sell Freedom Group but could not sell it for the $1 billion price tag it expected. Instead, Feinberg came up with a mechanism for Cerberus fund investors to sell their stakes in Freedom Group.  Cerberus has more than $30 billion in assets under management. Its investments include supermarket operator Albertsons Companies Inc and beauty products company Avon Products Inc.

Summary: निजी इक्विटी कार्यकारी फेनबर्ग ट्रम्प प्रशासन में शामिल होने के लिए बातचीत कर रहे हैं


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internal State Department instructions to implement President Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban on citizens of six Muslim-majority nations help demonstrate that the ban violates the constitution, the American Civil Liberties Union argued in court filings late on Thursday. The ACLU made the argument as part of its lawsuit in federal court in the Northern District of California on behalf of three student visa holders against Trump’s March 6 executive order barring travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days and refugees for four months. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, says the order discriminates against Muslims. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued instructions to implement Trump’s order in a series of four cables to consular officers worldwide last month, which were first revealed by Reuters. The ACLU pointed to language from one of the cables that directs consular officers to assess whether applicants from the six countries “found otherwise eligible” for U.S. visas could still be denied visas based on Trump’s order. The ACLU said the guidance “amounts to an unconstitutional amendment of existing law.” Tillerson issued the cable on March 10, and followed it with another set of instructions on March 15, the day before the ban was supposed to go into effect. After federal courts blocked the central tenets of Trump’s order, Tillerson issued two other cables that rescinded many of his previous instructions but left some tighter visa vetting procedures in place. A State Department official declined to comment on the litigation or the cables. The Department of Justice also declined to comment. The Trump administration has said that the travel ban and increased screening of foreigners are crucial to protecting the United States from terrorist attacks. The government is arguing in court that the president has broad authority under the law to make immigration decisions when there are concerns about national security. The March executive order replaced a more sweeping travel ban that Trump signed on Jan. 27, which sparked chaos and protests at airports and was challenged by more than two dozen lawsuits. The original ban had covered citizens of Iraq, as well as the six countries also included in the revised ban. Iraq was dropped from the revised order, as was an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria. The revised ban aimed to overcome legal hurdles by excluding legal permanent residents and allowing for waivers for people with ties to the United States. The ACLU, in its claims that the order discriminates against Muslims, points to calls by Trump on the campaign trail for a “Muslim ban” and to a speech he made last month calling the new ban a “watered-down” version of the first.

Summary: विदेश मंत्रालय का ज्ञापन ट्रम्प के यात्रा प्रतिबंध की असंवैधानिकता को दर्शाता हैः एसीएलयू


KABUL (Reuters) - Two Red Cross staff members kidnapped early this year in Afghanistan have been released, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday. The two were abducted on Feb. 8 while delivering assistance in Jawzjan province, in the north of the country, on the border with Turkmenistan.  Six of their colleagues were killed in the attack, which prompted the ICRC to suspend operations in Afghanistan for a time.  We are relieved and grateful that our colleagues are now back with us unharmed, the ICRC head of delegation in Afghanistan, Monica Zanarelli, said in a statement. At the time of the attack, officials in the area blamed Islamic State gunmen but the ICRC said it would not comment on the identity of the abductors, their motives or details of the release. Kidnapping has been a major problem in Afghanistan for many years. Most victims are Afghans abducted for ransom but foreigners or Afghans working for foreign organizations have also been targeted.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान में रेड क्रॉस के अपहृत कर्मचारियों को सात महीने बाद रिहा किया गया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Democratic Party said on Monday it would give U.S. presidential contender Bernie Sanders a prominent say in writing its platform this year, a gesture that could ease tensions between Sanders’ camp and party leaders, whom Sanders has accused of favoring rival Hillary Clinton.  Sanders has remained steadfast in his long-shot battle with Clinton for the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election, even though he lags her in the delegate count with only a few state contests remaining. The divisiveness among the Democrats stands in contrast to the Republicans, whose party leaders are slowly rallying behind Donald Trump, their presumptive nominee. Sanders’ tenacity appeared to be paying off. The U.S. senator from Vermont will be allowed to name five members to the 15-member committee that writes the platform at the Democratic National Convention in late July in Philadelphia even if he is not the nominee. Clinton will name six. The party said in a statement the split was based on the results of state votes to date “in an effort to make this the most representative and inclusive process in history.” The party’s chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, will name the committee’s final four members. The Democratic Party’s rules allow the chair to name all 15 members, suggesting the party was trying to accommodate Sanders and his fervent supporters, who still pack rallies by the thousands as he campaigns in California, which will hold its primary on June 7. Sanders did little to dispel the acrimony between himself and the party, which he joined only last year after more than two decades in Congress as an independent, when he said over the weekend he was endorsing Wasserman Schultz’s Democratic opponent in her Florida congressional district. On Monday, he repeated some of his criticisms of Clinton, who he has suggested is vulnerable to influence by corporate donors to her campaign, which she denies.  Sanders also told the Associated Press in an interview that if Democratic leaders open the convention’s doors “to working-class people and young people and create the kind of dynamism that the Democratic Party needs, it’s going to be messy.” “Democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle but that is where the Democratic Party should go,” he added. The Clinton campaign said it was pleased to see Sanders represented, describing the party as a “big tent.” “Hillary Clinton is committed to continue welcoming different perspectives and ideas,” spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement. Sanders, who has criticized Clinton for being too biased toward Israel, has named a pro-Palestinian activist and a prominent environmentalist among his picks for the committee. Clinton has said she now considers herself the de facto Democratic nominee. Increasingly, she has turned her attention to attacking Trump as a “bully” when speaking at campaign events while urging Sanders supporters to rally to her side. She told labor union members in Detroit on Monday that if elected, she would embrace issues important to Sanders’ supporters, including reform of campaign financing and reducing income inequality. Underlining Clinton’s confidence that she will become the Democratic candidate, her campaign said on Monday she would not participate in a debate with Sanders in California, despite having previously agreed to attend the event hosted by Fox News.     Trump is steadily escalating his criticism of both Hillary and Bill Clinton’s relationship with women, using rhetoric that has little precedent in U.S. presidential politics.  On Monday, Trump circulated a new online video that shows images of Bill Clinton, the former president, as voices of women play on the soundtrack saying he had assaulted them, before ending with the sound of Hillary Clinton, his wife, laughing. Although none of the women are identified in the video, one of the voices is that of Juanita Broaddrick in an NBC interview from 1999 in which the former nursing-home manager accused Bill Clinton of raping her in a hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1978. The Clintons’ lawyer, David Kendall, said in 1999 that the accusation was false. The Clintons have declined to discuss the accusation and are ignoring his personal attacks, with Hillary Clinton saying instead she will defend vulnerable Americans from the consequences of Trump’s proposals. “Trump economics is a recipe for lower wages, fewer jobs, more debt,” she told the union members on Monday. “He could bankrupt America like he bankrupted his companies. I mean, ask yourself: How can anybody lose money running a casino, really?”

Summary: डेमोक्रेट्स, एकता चाहते हैं, सैंडर्स को पार्टी के मंच पर कहें


(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday backed having companies from the United States develop Afghanistan s reserves of rare earth minerals, despite formidable obstacles to industrial mining in the country. The comments, at a meeting in New York, were the latest in a series in which both U.S. officials and the Afghan government have emphasized the potential strategic value of Afghanistan s vast and largely untapped mineral reserves. Both leaders also reiterated their commitment to Trump s new South Asia strategy to defeat terrorism. But after 16 years in Afghanistan, the U.S. is looking for ways to offset the billions of dollars spent every year in propping up the government in Kabul and mining is increasingly being seen as a way to do that.  They agreed that such initiatives would help American companies develop materials critical to national security while growing Afghanistan s economy and creating new jobs in both countries, therefore defraying some of the costs of United States assistance as Afghans become more self-reliant,  the White House said. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated the potential value of Afghanistan s minerals, including gold and gemstones as well as substances like lithium and rare earths vital in modern electronics, at as much as $1 trillion. But a lack of even basic transport and industrial infrastructure as well as a growing insurgency that has taken almost half the country out of government control has meant minerals have been impossible to exploit economically. Prices of some rare earths have shot up recently as demand for electric vehicle technology has grown, fuelling some talk that their value could compensate for the higher risks in getting them out of the ground. In addition, the rare earths sector is overwhelmingly dominated by China, causing some concern in Washington that Beijing has a stranglehold on raw materials vital to modern defense technology and prompting an interest in finding alternative sources. However, it remains unclear how a feasible development plan in Afghanistan could be developed in the future.  Extracting the minerals remains a difficult and costly process and the fact that large parts of the economic reserves of rare earths in Afghanistan are located in Helmand province, now mostly under Taliban control, mean that miners are likely to look at easier opportunities elsewhere. Mike Harrowell, an analyst at research firm Harwind, based in Sydney, said attempting rare earths extraction in Afghanistan at the moment  makes no sense on almost any level  unless it were treated as a government-funded, nation-building project.  It s not a simple business, and the technology is quite tightly held. It costs a lot,  he said.  There are so many well-studied projects in North America that were assessed during the rare earths boom after 2010 that still require funding. You would do any of those projects before you d do one in Afghanistan .

Summary: ट्रम्प, गनी सहमत हैं कि अमेरिका अफगानिस्तान के दुर्लभ पृथ्वी खनिजों को विकसित करने में मदद कर सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will soon decide whether to keep open a Taliban office in Qatar as America steps up its Afghan war effort, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday, adding he was looking at who represents the increasingly fractious insurgency.  Secretary (of State Rex) Tillerson and I have been in contact on this issue three times in the past 10 days,  Mattis told a Senate hearing.  He is looking to make certain we have the right (Taliban representatives), so it s just not an office in existence.

Summary: कतर में तालिबान कार्यालय के भविष्य पर जल्द फैसला लेगा अमेरिका


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama discussed Brazil’s political crisis in a bi-lateral meeting with neighboring Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, saying he hoped it could be effectively resolved. “Their democracy is sufficiently mature, their systems of laws and structures I think are strong enough that this will get resolved in a way that allows Brazil ultimately to prosper and be the significant world leader that it is,” Obama said.

Summary: ओबामा, अर्जेंटीना के मैक्री ने ब्राजील के राजनीतिक संकट पर चर्चा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to rehear a bid to revive President Barack Obama’s plan to spare from deportation millions of immigrants in the country illegally, a case in which the justices split 4-4 in June. In a brief order, the court rejected the Obama administration’s long-shot request, meaning the justices’ June 23 decision is final. That ruling left in place lower court decisions blocking the plan, which Obama announced in 2014 but never went into effect. The high court remains one justice short following Antonin Scalia’s February death. The Democratic president’s plan was challenged in court by Republican-governed Texas and 25 other states that argued he overstepped the powers granted to him by the U.S. Constitution by infringing upon congressional authority. Obama acted unilaterally by executive action, bypassing the Republican-led Congress. “This is the latest setback to the president’s attempt to expand executive power and another victory for those who believe in the Constitution’s separation of powers and the rule of law,” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said of the Supreme Court’s action on Monday. Obama’s plan was designed to let roughly 4 million people - those who have lived illegally in the United States at least since 2010, have no criminal record and have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents - get into a program that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits. The administration in July asked the court to take a second look at the case once it had a full complement of nine justices. “The inability of the Supreme Court in this situation to reach a decision and put forward a ruling has a negative impact on millions of people in the United States,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, calling on Senate Republicans to confirm a ninth justice. The administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, focusing on criminals, recent border-crossers and on people who pose a national security threat, will move forward, unaffected by the Supreme Court’s action, Earnest said. The Republican-led Senate, in a move with little precedent in U.S. history, has refused to consider Obama’s nominee to replace Scalia, federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, saying Obama’s successor should make the appointment. “By continuing their historic, unprecedented obstruction of Chief Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination, Republicans are spreading gridlock and denying justice to the American people,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said. An estimated 11 million immigrants live in the United States illegally.

Summary: अमेरिकी शीर्ष अदालत ने प्रमुख आप्रवासन मामले की सुनवाई के ओबामा के अनुरोध को अस्वीकार कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday: Congressional Democrats and some foreign nations, including key U.S. allies, put pressure on Trump over his temporary ban on entry to America by refugees and people from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The Pentagon says it is making a list of Iraqis who worked alongside American troops. Democratic U.S. senators try to force a vote on a bill to rescind Trump’s order, but are blocked by a Republican lawmaker. Washington state announces a legal challenge to the ban and former President Barack Obama takes a swipe at his successor. The chief executives of Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Ford Motor Co join the criticism of Trump’s ban. Tens of thousands of people protest in London and other British cities against Trump’s ban. The United States should revoke “dangerous” new immigration measures, France’s foreign minister says during a visit to Tehran. The U.N. refugee agency voices alarm at Trump’s decision to suspend entry of refugees, saying this week alone 800 people set to make America their new home were barred. Trump says he will announce his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday night as he seeks to quickly put his stamp on the court by restoring its conservative majority, even as Democrats gear up for a Senate confirmation fight. Senate Democrats delayed the Senate Finance Committee’s vote on U.S. Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin on Monday so they could protest against Trump’s order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority nations. The U.S. Senate advances the nomination of former Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Rex Tillerson to be Trump’s secretary of state. Trump will amend his recent National Security Council reorganization to add the CIA to the group, the White House says, following criticism of the restructuring, which included the addition of political adviser Steve Bannon. Trump signs an order aimed at dramatically paring back federal regulations, but it will not apply to most of the financial reform rules introduced by the Obama administration. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemns Iran after reports it conducted a ballistic missile test and says he will work with other lawmakers and Trump’s administration to hold Iran accountable.[nL1N1FK1VD Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Trump at the White House on Feb. 15, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer announces. Netanyahu says he plans to push Trump to renew sanctions against Iran.

Summary: हाइलाइट्सः 30 जनवरी को शाम 6.25 बजे ईएसटी/2325 जीएमटी पर ट्रम्प प्रेसीडेंसी


CAP-HAITIEN/PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti s president on Saturday heralded the re-establishment of the country s military after 22 years, a divisive issue in the impoverished Caribbean nation which has a history of bloody coups and political instability. Haiti has been without military forces since 1995, when former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide disbanded the army after returning to power following a coup, leaving the national police responsible for security.       The army s comeback has been a divisive topic in a country still suffering from a catastrophic earthquake and a fierce hurricane in recent years, with critics and activists concerned that armed forces would meddle in politics and rob essential resources from education and health care. Haitian President Jovenel Moise on Thursday named former army colonel Jodel Lesage as acting commander-in-chief, moving troops closer to full operation. The appointment still needs to be approved by Haiti s senate. On Saturday, Moise welcomed the army s anticipated return with a parade featuring dozens of camouflaged soldiers toting rifles in the northern coastal city of Cap-Haitien, calling on Haitians to recall the Battle of Vertieres won against French colonialists exactly 214 years ago.  The army is our mother,  he said.  When your mother is sick and wears dirty clothes, you do not kill her. You take her to the hospital. So let us join forces to provide needed care to our mother.      After Haiti s independence, the military mounted dozens of coups and its forces were accused of rampant human rights abuses. Moise acknowledged that history, but vowed that the new military would be different.  The United Nations has called for increased support for the Haitian National Police (HNP) with about 15,000 members.  A U.N.-backed mission to aid Haiti s justice system and law enforcement arrived in October, replacing a much larger peacekeeping mission that had focused on stability efforts since 2004.  Having demonstrated its ability to maintain stability and guard against security threats, the HNP has emerged as one of the most trusted governmental institutions in Haiti,  U.N. spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement last month. Haitian defense minister Herve Denis told Reuters the army will begin with 500 soldiers in engineering, medical and aviation corps, but is still working to fill its ranks. A recruiting process was well underway by last July, attracting many young men in a country that is the poorest in the Americas. Denis said the government plans to ultimately expand to 5,000 troops working to protect Haitian borders, fight terrorism, curb illegal trade and aid Haitians affected by natural disasters. Government opponents fear the Moise administration could use the military to crack down on foes despite the president s claims that troops will steer clear of politics.  I don t believe the Moise regime really wants to reinstate the army, but instead set up a political militia to persecute political opponents,  said Andre Michel, spokesman for an opposition coalition that has called for Moise s resignation.

Summary: हैती की सेना दो दशकों के बाद विवादास्पद वापसी करने के लिए तैयार है


(Reuters) - Democrats desperate to rebuild after losing the White House last year have scored a string of election victories for statehouse seats, testing a new generation of candidates and activists eager to resist President Donald Trump’s conservative agenda. From New Hampshire to Oklahoma, Democrats have flipped eight Republican-held seats in special legislative elections, having spent millions of dollars on low-turnout contests mostly being fought over local issues. The wins showcase how Democrats want to fight back after losing to Trump and hitting historic lows in statehouses. But the party faces challenges carrying this momentum into the 2018 midterm elections when thousands of seats are at stake, interviews with nearly two dozen Democratic leaders, campaigns and other political experts show. “Can we recruit enough capable candidates, and can we run enough modern races?” asked Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic political strategist. He said the party must test its future leaders in real time. “Are they ready? The answer is: We don’t know.” In November, Democrats will get an early read.  One critical test is in Washington state, where first-time candidate Manka Dhingra is running for an up-for-grabs senate seat in Seattle’s suburbs. A victory on Nov. 7 would give Democrats full control of the state.     A prosecutor and school parent volunteer, Dhingra is a Sikh Indian American whose political awakening began with businessman Trump’s surprise election victory over experienced politician Hillary Clinton. Still, Dhingra steers clear of mentioning the president in her pitch to swing voters. “The Trump reaction, the way it works is by invigorating volunteers,” Dhingra said. “There are a lot of people, like myself, who decided we cannot be bystanders.” Nearly 2,000 volunteers have signed up through her campaign website alone, evidence of what the party calls unprecedented interest in legislative contests.  An August primary, where Dhingra finished 10 points ahead of her Republican competitor, had a relatively robust turnout, including nearly 6,000 voters who normally skip primaries. Outside of Washington state, however, a few Democratic wins  will do little to change the political map going into the 2018 midterm elections. Republicans control 26 state governments and two-thirds of legislative chambers. Democrats hemorrhaged power at the state level during President Barack Obama’s eight years in office with their attention on national elections. Now Democrats see the states as critical for rebuilding, and an opportunity to advance legislation pushing back against Trump’s agenda of gutting Democratic health care reforms and environmental protections and cracking down on immigration. The party plans to recruit hundreds of thousands of volunteers to contact more than 30 million voters - double their outreach in statehouse contests in the 2016 presidential cycle.  “Because of the gridlock in Washington, people are turning to statehouses for security from Donald Trump,” said Jessica Post, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. But the party’s many inexperienced candidates must beat battle-tested incumbents in elections next year with greater voter turnout.     “If the Democrats have every bit of momentum and the wildest day they could think of, they may take us from super majorities to majorities,” said David Avella, chairman of the Republican group GOPAC. “But we will still have majorities.” Democrats have flipped legislative seats in Florida, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and New York in 2017. Republicans picked up an uncontested seat in Louisiana. In Oklahoma, where Trump won 65 percent of the vote in the 2016 general election, the Democrats flipped three seats in districts he carried. Candidates doubled down on local issues, such as a budget crisis forcing four-day school weeks. They had a chance to “represent themselves as real people that weren’t actually attached to Nancy Pelosi, or Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama,” said Anna Langthorn, Oklahoma Democratic Party chairwoman. Some of the special elections success reflects startup progressive groups rallying voters. But they have yet to figure out how to expand their scope for 2018. Chris Walsh, a cofounder of Flippable, which is working to win back state governments, went to Florida last month to help Democrat Annette Taddeo beat a Republican former legislator who once competed on Trump’s reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” “There is a lot of knowledge out there that is siloed,” Walsh said, adding the party could help by sharing information such as district voting data with new groups.  This year’s most revealing contests will come in a statewide election in Virginia, where Democrats face a long-shot bid in November to pick up 17 seats and take back the House of Delegates. In a show of enthusiasm to rebuild, the party is fielding a ticket that is more than 50 percent larger than two years ago. Yet fewer than one in four of the mostly women vying for Republican-held seats have raised more money than their competitors, Virginia Public Access Project data showed. Republicans are also ramping up in defense. They anticipate state contests will be central to Democratic efforts in 2018, given their longer odds of reclaiming the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress.     “The Democrats are trying to probe for the weakest link, and they are looking for that at the state level,” said Matt Walter, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee. “It is our job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Summary: डेमोक्रेट्स का उदय? शुरुआती राज्य सभा ने नए चेहरों की परीक्षा जीती


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May must seek parliamentary approval for a billion-pound deal with a Northern Irish party that propped up her government after an inconclusive election, a legal campaigner quoted government lawyers as saying on Monday. After losing her majority at the June 8 election, May s Conservative Party secured the support of the small Democratic Unionist Party which allowed her to form a minority government. Northern Ireland would get 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) extra funding as part of the deal, the government said at the time. [nL8N1JN0LL] But, citing correspondence with government lawyers, campaigner Gina Miller, who defeated ministers in an earlier high-profile legal case over the process for triggering Britain s exit from the European Union, said the deal could not be executed without parliamentary approval.  Alongside a statement condemning the government for not making the need for parliamentary approval public, Miller released a letter from the government s legal department.  The agreement does not, and could not, involve the Government providing or committing itself to any provision of additional funds to Northern Ireland which would not be authorised under standard procedures, including the consent of Parliament,  the letter said. A spokesman from May s office said all government spending required parliamentary authorisation, and that its focus in Northern Ireland was on ending a political stalemate that has left it without a regional government for eight months. Any parliamentary vote would be expected to pass with the support of Conservative and DUP lawmakers, but could invite further unwelcome scrutiny of a deal which has been heavily criticised by political opponents.  The opposition Labour Party described it as a  bribe  and said the government needed to be clear about how it would be paid for. In January, Miller successfully challenged the government s plan to begin EU divorce proceedings without first seeking parliamentary approval. After a Supreme Court ruling sided with Miller in that case, May was forced to pass legislation through parliament.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के मई को N.Irish पार्टी-प्रचारक के साथ सौदे का समर्थन करने के लिए संसद की आवश्यकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five Democratic U.S. Senators have asked Wells Fargo if it plans to take back bonuses and other compensation to executives linked to the 2 million phony bank accounts that employees created to meet sales quotas. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulators announced last week that they had reached a $185 million settlement with the bank over the scam. “...We write to ask whether the Board of Directors will invoke Wells Fargo’s clawback authority to recover any of the compensation the company has provided to its senior executives, including Carrie Tolstedt, the former senior executive vice president of community banking,” they wrote in a letter dated Thursday and released on Friday. The five - Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, Rhode Island’s Jack Reed, New Jersey’s Robert Menendez, and Oregon’s Jeff Merkley - said Wells Fargo has cause to claw back money under a policy it instituted after the 2007-09 financial crisis. “These clawback provisions are designed to prevent exactly what happened with Ms. Toldstedt: Shareholders and consumers bearing the burden of bank misconduct while senior executives walk away with multimillion-dollar awards based on what the company later finds out are fraudulent practices,” they wrote. Toldstedt led the bank division running the incentive program that pushed the employees to create fake accounts under real customers’ names, often hurting those customers’ credit scores, and received more than $20 million in annual bonuses between 2010 and 2015, they wrote. Wells CEO John Stumpf will testify on Tuesday before the Banking Committee, where Brown is the most senior Democrat.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसदों ने वेल्स से घोटाले के मामले से जुड़े बोनस वापस लेने के बारे में पूछा


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump’s selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate cheered the U.S. energy industry and dismayed green advocates, with both sides citing Pence’s support for coal mining and defiance of President Barack Obama’s climate-change agenda. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has called climate change a hoax and promised to gut U.S. environmental regulations in order to help the ailing oil and coal sectors. A Trump-Pence ticket will quash any expectation that the New York businessman might soften that stance heading into the Nov. 8 election. “Governor Pence has been a vocal opponent of the administration’s Clean Power Plan,” said Laura Sheehan, spokeswoman for the Washington-based lobby group American Council on Clean Coal Electricity.   “We would hope to see a continuation,” she said. Trump announced Pence as his running mate in a Twitter post on Friday morning, ending days of speculation over the choice ahead of the party’s national convention in Cleveland next week. [nL1N1A10HR] Pence, 57, is listed on Obama’s “call out the climate change deniers” website for arguing that the science behind climate change has not yet been resolved. In June 2015, Pence wrote to Obama saying that Indiana, America’s eighth largest coal-producing state, would not comply with the Clean Power Plan regulating power plant emissions, calling it “ill-advised.” Indiana is one of more than 25 states that have challenged the centerpiece of the Democratic president’s environmental agenda. In 2014, Pence alarmed local environmental groups by overturning an energy efficiency program enacted by his Republican predecessor, Mitch Daniels, saying it was too expensive for the state’s manufacturers. The Indiana Public Utility Commission had estimated the program would create more than 18,600 jobs. “The choice of Pence shows Trump has little interest in appealing to anyone outside of his extremist base and Big Polluters,” said Clay Schroers, a director at the League of Conservation Voters environmental group.     Trump has long signaled his support of traditional energy production - part of his broader appeal to blue-collar American voters.  He outlined plans in May to sweep away environmental regulations ushered in by Obama, scrap the Paris Climate Accord, and revive the Keystone XL pipeline proposal – moves that would reverse years of gains by the green movement. Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in contrast, has promised more stringent regulation of the energy sector, efforts to boost renewable fuels use, and a commitment to join other nations to combat global climate change. Pence ran for governor in 2012 after serving in the U.S. Congress. His campaign for governor received more than $850,000 from the energy sector, about 3 percent of the total, according to campaign finance disclosures. More than $300,000 of that came from the billionaire Koch brothers, strong advocates of small government and fiscal conservatism who took a liking to Pence. Both David and Charles Koch have said they will not support the Trump ticket. Trump has alarmed many Republican establishment figures with his fiery rhetoric on immigration and trade.  But a former high-ranking operative in the Koch political organization who is close to both brothers said Pence could help make the donor network more receptive to Trump’s campaign.

Summary: ट्रम्प के संभावित उपराष्ट्रपति चुनावः कोयला अधिवक्ता जिन्होंने ओबामा के जलवायु एजेंडे की अवहेलना की


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States could shortly broaden talks on a push for stronger U.N. sanctions on North Korea to include all 15 Security Council members, signaling a likely deal with China on new measures, diplomats said on Thursday. Since North Korea’s July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the United States has been negotiating with Pyongyang ally China on a draft resolution to impose new sanctions on North Korea, which fired a second ICBM last Friday, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. “We have been working very hard for some time and we certainly hope that this is going to be a consensus resolution,” China’s U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi told Reuters on Thursday. Some diplomats said the United States could give the draft resolution to all 15 council members as early as Thursday. Typically, the United States and China have agreed sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, China, Russia, France or Britain to be adopted. The United States has been informally keeping Britain and France in the loop on the negotiations, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said China had been sharing the draft and negotiating with Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and Washington has threatened to impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang. But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, on Friday that China would continue to fully and strictly implement Security Council resolutions on North Korea, the ministry said.  Haley said on Sunday the United States was “done talking about North Korea” and China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger U.N. sanctions. But she has also acknowledged that Russia’s engagement on the draft resolution would be the “true test.” Russia noted on Thursday that the permanent five (P5) veto powers had yet to formally discuss the draft. It was not immediately clear if poor relations between Russia and the United States, which imposed new unilateral sanctions on Russia on Wednesday, would hamper the negotiations. “Even if there is an agreement between the U.S. and China, it doesn’t mean there is an agreement between the P5 members,” said Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, who met with Liu earlier on Thursday and discussed a possible resolution. “Maybe there is a bilateral agreement (between Beijing and Washington), but that’s not a universal one,” he said, adding that while he was aware of what might be in the resolution he had not seen “the draft as it stands now.”  The U.S. mission to the United Nations declined to comment. Moscow has disagreed with assessments by Western powers that Pyongyang has launched two long-range missiles, saying they were mid-range. Diplomats say China and Russia only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible U.N. sanctions. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches.

Summary: अमेरिका जल्द ही उत्तर कोरिया प्रतिबंधों पर संयुक्त राष्ट्र वार्ता का विस्तार कर सकता है, चीन समझौते का संकेत दे रहा हैः राजनयिक


(Reuters) - Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s lawyers declined on Saturday to directly address sexual abuse allegations from federal prosecutors, who asserted that he molested at least four boys decades ago when he served as a high school wrestling coach. Hastert, 74, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison when sentenced later this month for his guilty plea in October to a federal charge of illegally structuring large bank withdrawals in small increments to evade currency-reporting rules. As part of that plea, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives admitted paying $1.7 million in cash to someone he had known for decades as hush money and compensation for unspecified wrongdoing toward that individual. Until this week, neither defense lawyers nor prosecutors had stepped forward to publicly reveal the underlying misconduct at issue. That changed on Friday, when prosecutors alleged in a court filing that Hastert had sexually abused at least four boys on the wrestling team he coached during his time as a teacher at Yorkville High School in the 1960s and ‘70s. Providing details of the alleged abuse, some of them quite graphic,  the prosecutors said Hastert offered massages to students in a locker room, where he had set up an easy chair in view of the boys’ shower, and inappropriately touched some of the students. They also cited an alleged incident that occurred during a wrestling trip in a motel room. Although statutes of limitations bar sexual abuse charges against Hastert, “with this case the government seeks to hold defendant accountable for the crimes he committed that can still be prosecuted,” the court filing said. Asked by Reuters if Hastert or his lawyers would comment on the court filing, a pre-sentencing memorandum, Hastert attorney Thomas Green issued a statement that neither confirmed nor denied the allegations. Hastert “acknowledges that as a young man he committed transgressions for which he is profoundly sorry,” the statement said. “He earnestly apologizes to his former students, family, friends, previous constituents and all others affected by the harm his actions have caused.” The wording closely mirrored a similar expression of remorse contained in a pre-sentencing memo filed by the defense earlier this week. It differed, however, in expressly mentioning “former students.” The defense has asked the federal judge in the case to spare Hastert prison time, citing his deteriorating health, his remorse and years he “dedicated to public service.” Prosecutors have recommended a prison term of no more than six months.  Sentencing is scheduled for April 27.

Summary: वकीलों ने ex-U.S के बारे में टालमटोल की. सदन के अध्यक्ष के कथित यौन शोषण


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian TV personality planning to run against Vladimir Putin in next year s presidential election, attacked his policies on Tuesday but said she would not personally insult him in the campaign because he was a family friend. Sobchak, 35, and the daughter of a former mayor of St Petersburg for whom Putin once worked, said she does not expect to beat Putin, who is a runaway favorite for re-election in March if he chooses to run again. But she said she wants to provide an alternative choice for Russian voters who are frustrated with mainstream politicians. Alexei Navalny, a fierce critic of Putin, has said he believes Sobchak is being used by the Kremlin to blunt protests by liberals alienated from the political process, though she has  denied doing the Kremlin s bidding.  I tell you honestly: I m running against everyone, and this refers to Vladimir Putin,  she said. But she added:  I personally will not insult Putin.   For some, he is a tyrant and dictator ... but for me this is a person who, first of all, helped my father in a difficult situation and de facto saved his life,  she told a news conference to unveil her campaign team. She did however state her opposition to Putin possibly running for a fourth term in power.  I am against the corrupt system which was built in our country during these years and I am against anyone, including Putin, being in power for 18 years.   The fact that the country has no fair elections is the result of those 18 years.  Sobchak is the daughter of Anatoly Sobchak, a reformist Petersburg mayor who hired Putin as an official in City Hall in the 1990s. Sobchak became his mentor. Sobchak lost the mayor s job in a 1996 election. He later moved to France and became the subject of a criminal investigation in Russia for receiving bribes and abuse of office. He denied wrongdoing, saying the case was politically-motivated. The case against him was dropped in 1999, soon after Putin became prime minister. When Sobchak died in 2000, Putin attended his funeral.  Opinion polls show that Putin, 65, who has dominated Russian politics for nearly two decades, will comfortably win re-election if, as most analysts expect, he decides to seek a fourth term in March. He has so far kept silent about his plans.

Summary: रूसी राष्ट्रपति पद की उम्मीदवारी का कहना है कि वह पुतिन पर कीचड़ नहीं फेंकेगी


(This version of the May 24 story corrects paragraph 9 to add reference to White House waiver) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A week after President Donald Trump said he was close to picking a new FBI director to replace the one he fired, the White House has decided to renew its search, CNN reported on Wednesday. The Republican president said last Thursday he was “very close” to selecting a new head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to replace James Comey, and that former Senator Joseph Lieberman was among the top candidates. Trump left the following day on his first trip abroad as president, a nine-day visit to the Middle East and Europe, without naming a replacement.  Citing an unidentified senior administration official, CNN said Trump now wants to consider additional candidates for the job. The White House and Lieberman did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Justice Department, which has played a lead role in the search, said it had no further information. Trump fired Comey on May 9 in a surprise announcement that sparked days of political turmoil. Comey was leading the FBI’s probe of possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian operatives whom U.S. intelligence officials say meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Trump and Russia deny any collusion. Lieberman is a senior counsel at the New York-based law firm of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, which has represented Trump on various matters for years.  Trump has tapped one of the firm’s partners, Marc Kasowitz, to be his private attorney while a special counsel investigates whether his presidential campaign worked with Russia to defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. If Trump were to nominate Lieberman, Lieberman might not have been able to participate in the Russia investigation for a period of two years without White House and Justice Department waivers, according to Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University School of Law. A federal regulation restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm’s clients for one year. This cooling-off period was extended to two years by an executive order Trump signed in January. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said last Wednesday that Trump was scheduled to interview four candidates for the position before departing on his trip: Lieberman; acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe; former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating; and former senior FBI official Richard McFeely.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. निदेशक की खोजः ट्रम्प टीम के लिए ड्राइंग बोर्ड पर वापस?


OFF THE TUNISIAN COAST (Reuters) - Tunisian smugglers are offering migrants seeking a fresh start in Europe a new route from Africa to Italy. Thousands have made the dangerous 300 km journey between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa this year and hundreds more are thought to have died trying to crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach European shores. A crackdown by the Libyan coastguard in August has forced migrants and smugglers to find alternatives, giving Tunisians an opportunity to sell spots on overcrowded boats between the Gulf of Tunis and Sicily. The number of migrants trying to make the trip, which can be as short as 150 km, has jumped in the last month while fewer are leaving from Libya.  Most are Tunisians fleeing economic hardship at home. Others want to avoid increased navy patrols off Lampedusa and prefer to arrive on the larger island of Sicily where it is easier pass unnoticed. Penalties for smugglers and migrants are also light in Tunisia if you are caught.    The route to Sicily is not as heavily guarded as to Lampedusa,  said Hassen Rebhi, captain of a Tunisian coast guard captain whose boat patrols the waters off Tunisia. Libya is still a much bigger departure point for Europe with 108,000 reaching Italy from Libya in 2017, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). But Tunisian arrivals are on the rise with 1,400 in September, up from 1,350 in the first 8 months of the year. Many others are believed to have reached Sicily but escaped detection and identification. Tunisian coast guard officials said they had foiled 900 departure attempts in September compared to 170 in August. About 80 percent are Tunisians but there are also Libyans, Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans. The route from Tunisia has been active before - some 20,000 left in 2011 as Tunisians tried to escape political turmoil when longtime president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted. Tunisia won international praise for its democratic progress and the numbers seeking to leave fell but successive governments have failed to create jobs for young people. Some 40 km offshore, Rebhi s boat pulled up alongside an inflatable boat overloaded with 14 young Tunisian men who had been hoping to make it to Italy. The coast guards ordered them to switch off their engine and climb aboard the ship.        I watched many videos of young people who arrived in Italy. I have been unemployed for five years and don t have any hope things will get better in Tunisia,  said Anwar, a Tunisian who was shivering after spending 8 hours on the damp boat. European officials are worried about an influx of Tunisian jihadists. Thousands of Tunisians have left to fight for Islamic State. Some have also made their way to Europe including Anis Amri who killed 12 people when he plowed a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin.  Italy last week urged Tunisia to increase patrols, an Italian interior ministry spokesman said. It also wants to increase the number of Tunisians that can be repatriated from 30 a week to at least 80. Tunisia s navy has stepped up controls but the arrival of many in Sicily celebrating and dancing on beaches in social media posts is a powerful draw. All those in the inflatable vowed to try the crossing again.  I prefer to die in the sea than to stay in Tunisia without dignity,  said Hassan Chouchan, a 27-year-old who had lost his job as an entertainer in a tourist resort.  Please let us continue our journey. We do not want to stay here,  he shouted at the coast guard.    Frustrated young people openly discuss plans to leave. Families from Aweld Amer, a village near the tourist resort of Sousse where an Islamist militant shot dead 39 foreigners in 2015, told Reuters that at least 300 of the 4,000 residents had left for Italy. More than 600 youths in the southern city of Tataouin left, while more than 1500 young people left the coastal towns of Hargeleh, Monastir, Sfax, Chebba, Bizerte and Kelibia last month alone, residents said.  The government says it encourages private projects,  said 25-year old Borhan Sallem in Monastir, a port two-hours from Tunis.  When I wanted to get a loan to buy a fishing boat they refused it.   Reuters met him and a group of friends in the port of Monastir in presence of a smuggler, a fisherman, who brought them days later safely to Sicily, relatives confirmed. The interviews came abruptly to an and when a police car arrived at the port to monitor possible smuggling activity. But migrants and the smuggler said they were not worried about getting caught.  They also feel the trips are safe as the boats are driven by  fishermen who are less likely to abandon local people in rough seas than Libyan armed groups.   You get detained a few days and that s it. The trip is safe. I don t go with more than 30 to 50 people,  said the smuggler. Farhat Mansour, a 26-year-old Tunisian who paid a smuggler 3,000 Tunisian dinars ($1,223) for the journey to Sicily said the Italian police put him and others in a detention center when he arrived a month ago. Only those suspected of having militant ties were still being held.  Mansour has not found work and is living with under bridges with other Tunisians but has no regrets.  Here maybe the opportunities are few, but in Tunisia the opportunities are totally non-existent,  he said.

Summary: तस्करों ने बेरोजगार ट्यूनीशियाई लोगों के लिए यूरोप के लिए नए मार्गों की पेशकश की


ZAM ZAM CAMP, North Darfur (Reuters) - Washington s top aid official, Mark Green, visiting Sudan s North Darfur state, stressed on Monday the importance of unfettered humanitarian access as a key demand for easing U.S. sanctions against the government of President Omar al-Bashir. Just two weeks into the job as U.S. President Donald Trump s new aid administrator, Green is on a fact-finding mission to Sudan before an Oct. 12 deadline for when the administration will decide whether to permanently lift 20-year-old sanctions. The United Nations has reported progress in the opening of aid corridors by Sudan s military to get food and medicine into once tightly-controlled areas of Darfur. Last month for the first time in seven years, aid workers were allowed into Jebel Marra, a mountainous region in central, north and south Darfur where fighting persists. There they found acute malnutrition and high levels of child mortality, according to a USAID report.  Before sanctions can be lifted the Sudanese government needs to comply with five U.S. demands, including improved humanitarian access, more cooperation between the U.S. and Sudan on fighting extremism and an end to internal conflicts.  While Green acknowledged there had been progress on all fronts, the question was whether it was enough for Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to permanently lift the sanctions, he said.  Certainly there has been progress particularly in recent weeks,  Green told Reuters and the Washington Post in a joint interview.  This is not a matter of whether things look perfect on the date that a decision made, it s whether or not long-lasting changes have been made.   It s not meant to be one-off, it s not meant to be a single moment, a snap shot, but instead the product of real change,  Green added. He said dialogue with Khartoum was an opportunity for a  new and closer relationship  and could mean a significant change in the lives of a population hard hit by the sanctions.  Then-U.S. President Barack Obama temporarily lifted sanctions for six months in January, suspending a trade embargo, unfreezing assets and removing financial sanctions. But any sanctions relief would not remove Sudan from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation it shares with Iran and Syria.   The sanctions about which we re talking are but one set of sanctions,  said Green.  At this point in time we re engaging in conversations with Sudan to see what is possible, and that is really all that these conversations are really about.   We will all know more about what is possible come October, so no one is pretending, or suggesting there is a magic wand and that everything changes on October 12,  he said.  Senior U.S. officials, who spoke before Green s trip on condition of anonymity, have expressed concern that once sanctions are lifted progress by the Bashir government could backslide. Others worry that if sanctions are not lifted in October the government will halt cooperation with Washington. Darfur s conflict began more than a decade ago when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum. The government responded with force, using militias known as the janjaweed, which were drawn from nomadic Arab tribes and blamed for much of the killing. Less than 10 miles (16 km) outside the North Darfur city of El Fashir, the Zam Zam camp was once a village that has become a sprawling home for 230,000 people who have fled Darfur s conflict. As he toured the camp Green saw for himself US-funded programs that help mothers and malnourished children.  I want to go home but it isn t safe,  said Hawad Abdullah Mohamad, 33, a mother of seven who has lived in Zam Zam for 13 years.  Nearby, under a large tree, Green spoke with about a dozen men, who complained about access to food and camp life.  Where do you see yourself in five years from now?  Green asked Ahmed Nour Mohamed from Tawila village. When he did not get a straight answer, Green persisted with the line of  questioning.  In my village or in the grave,  Mohamed replied. Green said later he was trying to understand what was keeping people at Zam Zam from returning home.  These are important questions for us to ask because for an agency like USAID ... we should be thinking about what it would take to tackle conditions so people can leave the camps,  he said.

Summary: युद्धग्रस्त दारफुर में, नए अमेरिकी सहायता प्रमुख ने मानवीय पहुंच की आवश्यकता पर जोर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed the agency on Tuesday to hire an asset forfeiture oversight chief, just months after he reinstated a program shut down by the Obama administration that lets police seize cash from crime suspects. In a memo to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Sessions instructed him to create a position for a director of asset forfeiture accountability who will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the program’s rules. “The American people and Congress must know this program is being administered professionally, lawfully and in a manner consistent with sound public policy,” Sessions wrote.  In July, the Justice Department revived a civil asset forfeiture policy that allows local, state and federal police to seize cash and other assets from people if they have probable cause to believe a crime was committed. Under the policy, the government can seize assets from people even if they are never convicted of any crime. In an arrangement with the Justice Department, law enforcement agencies can keep some of the assets they seize.  The Obama administration had rolled back the policy in 2015, amid widespread criticism that it was creating incentives for police forces to seize funds and trampling people’s rights. The new policy has also stirred criticism, including from many of Sessions’ fellow Republicans.  In addition to concerns about due process, many lawmakers have expressed alarm that the department’s policy lets local police departments seize assets from suspects even in states where such forfeiture practices are banned by state law. A  number of Republicans in the House of Representatives sought recently to block funding for the civil asset forfeiture program by tucking amendments into a broader spending package.  Sessions is scheduled to appear on Wednesday for a Justice Department oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee’s chairman, Senator Charles Grassley, has been highly critical of civil asset forfeiture.  After Sessions reinstated the policy, Grassley issued a statement saying he had concerns and urged the Justice Department to ensure there was adequate oversight of the program. Last month, Grassley’s office issued a memo to Sessions that accused the U.S. Marshals Service of wasting money from the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture fund.

Summary: न्याय विभाग परिसंपत्ति ज़ब्ती कार्यक्रम की देखरेख करने वाला पद बनाएगा


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Hackers probably linked to Iran s government have hit Saudi and Western aerospace and petrochemical firms, marking a rise in Iranian cyber-spying prowess, security firm FireEye (FEYE.O) said on Wednesday, an assessment shared by other U.S. experts. A FireEye report on Wednesday dubbed the hacker group APT33 and offered evidence of its activities since 2013 in seeking to steal aviation and military secrets, while also gearing up for attacks that might cripple entire computer networks. In a separate but related move last week, the U.S. Treasury Department added two Iran-based hacking networks and eight individuals to a U.S. sanctions list, accusing them of taking part in cyber-enabled attacks on the U.S. financial system. Iran s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, elements of which were also added to the U.S. sanctions list, was not immediately available for comment when contacted by phone by Reuters on Wednesday, the end of the country s working week. FireEye identified APT33 after it was called in to investigate cyber attacks on a U.S. aviation organisation, a Saudi business conglomerate with aviation holdings and a South Korean group with interests in oil refining and petrochemicals. FireEye declined to name the companies.  Iranian fingerprints are all over this campaign, and government fingerprints in particular,  John Hultquist, FireEye s director of cyber espionage analysis, told Reuters.  Right now we are seeing a lot of activity that seems to be classic cyber espionage.  APT33 was the first state-backed group from Iran to join a list FireEye has compiled over more than a decade that identifies campaigns by Chinese, Russian and North Korean cyber spies. APT stands for  Advanced Persistent Threat .  Hultquist said APT33 shared some tools with, but appeared to be distinct from, around 15 different hacking groups with Iranian ties that security researchers have identified in recent years, carrying names like  Shamoon ,  RocketKitten  and  Charming Kitten . The Kitten nomenclature reflected the low level of respect for Iran s hacking capabilities in the past, experts have noted. Several cyber experts described rising maturity and professionalism in Iran s cyber-espionage capabilities.   In recent years, Iran has invested heavily in building out their computer network attack and exploit capabilities,  said Frank Cilluffo, director of George Washington University s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. Cilluffo, a former homeland security advisor to President George W. Bush, estimated last year in testimony before the U.S. Congress that Iran s cyber budget had jumped twelve-fold under President Rouhani, making it a  top five world cyber-power .  They are also integrating cyber operations into their military strategy and doctrine,  he told Reuters on Wednesday. FireEye said attacks against the Saudi and South Korean groups hit as recently as May and used phishing techniques that involved posting fake job vacancies for Saudi oil jobs to lure corporate victims (goo.gl/mc1BLY). Speaking to reporters in Singapore, FireEye Chief Executive Kevin Mandia said Iranian cyber espionage had grown in sophistication since he first spotted Iranians conducting rudimentary attacks on the U.S. State Department in 2008.  They re good. (They ve) got a real capability there,  Mandia said of Iran. In the investigations of attacks on Western companies and governments that FireEye is hired to do, Iran now ranks with China and Russia in terms of frequency, he said. Iran has been scaling up its cyber capacities since the United States and Israel carried out a cyber assault on Iran in 2010, now known as the  Stuxnet  worm, aimed at disabling centrifuges in its nuclear programme, he said. FireEye s evidence linking Iran to the aviation attacks included the use of the Farsi language in malware that mounted attacks and the fact that hackers observed the Islamic Republic s work week - taking Thursdays off, among other evidence.      FireEye found some ties between APT33 and the Nasr Institute - which other experts have connected to the Iranian Cyber Army, an offshoot of the Revolutionary Guards - but it has yet to find any links to a specific government agency, Hultquist said. He said APT33 had built a destructive attack capacity into the malware used to infect Western companies, but there was no evidence so far it had been activated. However, FireEye believes it is only a matter of time before the group graduates from intelligence gathering to causing lasting damage. Adam Meyer, vice president of CrowdStrike, another top U.S. cyber security firm, said there has been a vast uptick in attacks by Iran against Saudi Arabia since last year. Five years ago, Iran was blamed for a virus attack against oil giant Saudi Aramco and Qatari RasGas, which crippled 30,000 computers at the two organisations. But Meyer said, in hindsight, the  Shamoon  attack was a narrow, unsustained operation. Broader-based attacks against Saudi Arabia since 2016 use similar malware, with some changes, demonstrating Iran s ability to mount on-going campaigns, he said.  This second campaign is being carried out in a sustained way in 2016 and 2017 against the Saudi government, related entities and the telecom sector: They are doing it in a way that seeks to destabilise the Saudi regime,  Meyers said.

Summary: साइबर जासूसी की दुनिया में एक बार 'बिल्ली के बच्चे' होने के बाद, ईरान ने ताकत हासिल कीः सुरक्षा विशेषज्ञ


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi welcomed the appointment of a special counsel in the Russia probe involving President Donald Trump but said on Thursday an independent commission was still needed to guard against political pressure from the White House. She said the counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller,  would still be subject to supervision by Trump’s Justice Department. “A special prosecutor cannot take the place of a truly independent outside commission,” Pelosi told reporters. “If the president has nothing to hide, then he and Republicans in Congress should welcome independent investigations to remove all doubt of a coverup,” she said.

Summary: शीर्ष सदन की डेमोक्रेट पेलोसी का कहना है कि स्वतंत्र रूस की जांच अभी भी आवश्यक है


(Reuters) - New York and Washington state on Monday vowed to sue President Donald Trump if he scraps a program shielding from deportation immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. The Trump administration is expected to announce on Tuesday that he will end the so-called Dreamers program but give the U.S. Congress six months to craft legislation to replace it, according to sources familiar with the situation. [nL2N1LL01P] U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce plans for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) on Tuesday, but will not take questions, the Justice Department said on Monday. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a joint statement with the state’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, said, “The president’s action would upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people who have only ever called America their home.” The attorney general of Washington state, Bob Ferguson, also threatened legal action. “I will use all the legal tools at my disposal to defend the thousands of Dreamers in Washington state,” he said in a statement. Ferguson and Schneiderman were among 20 attorneys general who wrote to Trump in July to say that if he ended the program, they would defend it “by all appropriate means.” Nine Republican state attorneys general have said they would file suit on Tuesday if Trump did not end the program. The White House declined to comment on Monday. DACA is a policy created by former President Barack Obama that protects nearly 800,000 young people, often called “Dreamers,” from deportation and allows them to work legally. Under the shift Trump is considering, any Dreamer with a valid work permit would be able to remain in the United States until the permit expires, in the absence of congressional action, sources familiar with the matter said. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security would not target Dreamers for deportation, one of the sources said. Dreamers are a fraction of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, most of them Hispanic. Trump as a candidate promised to deport all of them, but many Americans have rallied to support the young adults, who have spent large parts of their lives in the United States. While Republicans in Congress have generally taken a hard line on illegal immigration and are sympathetic to the argument that Obama overstepped his bounds in creating DACA, several have stepped forward to call for action to protect the Dreamers. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top elected Republican official, on Friday urged Trump not to rescind the program, as did Senator Orrin Hatch. Senator James Lankford said on Monday it was not appropriate to “hold children legally accountable for the actions of their parents.” Another Republican, Senator Tom Cotton, who has been particularly outspoken on reforming immigration laws, told the Washington Examiner he supports legislation that would protect dreamers and take legal steps to reduce illegal immigration. Many prominent business leaders, including the chief executive officers of Microsoft (MSFT.O), General Motors (GM.N) and Facebook Inc (FB.O)  — Satya Nadella, Mary Barra and Mark Zuckerberg, respectively — have also urged Trump not to reverse the Dreamer program.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क ने अप्रवासी बच्चों की सुरक्षा को लेकर ट्रंप पर मुकदमा करने की कसम खाई


Ankara (Reuters) - Iran and Turkey will work together to confront the disintegration of Iraq and Syria to ease tension in the crisis-hit region, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday after meeting with his Turkish counterpart in Tehran.  We want security and stability in the Middle East ... the independence referendum in Iraq s Kurdistan is a sectarian plot by foreign countries and is rejected by Tehran and Ankara,  Rouhani told a joint news conference with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

Summary: ईरान ने कहा, तेहरान, अंकारा इराक, सीरिया के विघटन का सामना करेंगेः टीवी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The solidly Republican South suddenly looks a little less solid. Tuesday’s upset win by Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama, coupled with last month’s Democratic sweep in Virginia, has given the party new optimism about its 2018 prospects in the South and other conservative, heavily rural regions where Republicans have dominated for decades. Jones, a former federal prosecutor, took advantage of the controversy over sexual misconduct allegations against his Republican opponent Roy Moore to become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in Alabama in a quarter-century. The Jones campaign also offered a template for how Democrats can win in the South, strategists said: Field a strong candidate, crank up turnout among the region’s sizable bloc of African-American voters, keep the liberal national party brand at arm’s length and compete hard in every county and region. Add in the grass-roots energy of the liberal resistance to President Donald Trump, the disaffection of moderate suburbanites turned off by Trump and a conservative wing sapped of enthusiasm by Republican infighting, and Democrats see an opportunity for a brighter future in the South starting in next year’s midterm elections. “You can hear that Republican wall in the South cracking. Doug Jones and Virginia are just the beginning,” said Phil Noble, a Democratic business and technology consultant who is running for governor in South Carolina. Republicans are not convinced, citing years of still unrealized Democratic predictions that demographic changes would turn Republican-dominated conservative states like Georgia and Texas into toss-ups. “Democrats still have issues with their brand in large swaths of the country. They are the party of Nancy Pelosi, and that image is cemented in many voters’ minds,” said Brian Walsh, a former strategist for the Republican party’s Senate campaign committee, referring to the House of Representatives Democratic leader, a liberal from San Francisco. In the fight for control of Congress next year, wins on once hostile Southern turf could be crucial to the Democratic cause.  In the Senate, where Republicans’ already narrow majority will be shaved to 51-49 once Jones is seated, Democrats will have to defend 26 seats, including 10 in states won by Trump. They would need to pick up two more Republican-held states to reclaim control. Nevada and Arizona had been viewed as the only Republican-held seats vulnerable to a takeover next year. But Democrats now see possibilities in Tennessee, where popular former Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen has jumped into the race for the seat of retiring Republican Bob Corker, and Mississippi, where incumbent Republican Roger Wicker could face a bruising primary challenge. In the House of Representatives, Democrats need to gain 24 seats to win a majority. Their target list of 91 districts includes one each in Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky, two in Georgia and four in North Carolina. “If the election were held today, I do think you could see Democrats winning in some areas of the country where Democrats haven’t won in the last decade,” said Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster based in Alabama. In addition to the congressional races, governors’ contests in Georgia and South Carolina and state legislative races across the region will give Democrats a shot to compete in areas where they once dominated local politics but are now a minority party defined by liberal views on cultural issues such as abortion and gay rights. McCrary said Jones and Democrat John Bel Edwards, who won the Louisiana governor’s office in 2015, have shown it is possible to build a winning coalition in the South by energizing  African-American voters while also appealing to white swing voters, soft Republicans and independents. In Alabama, Jones made inroads with voters in Shelby County, the Republican suburbs of the state’s biggest city, Birmingham, outpolling the results of Hillary Clinton there in last year’s presidential election by about 20 percentage points. That should be a warning sign to Republicans after Trump’s weak performance in wealthier, more educated suburban districts in 2016 and Democrat Jon Ossoff’s strong, though ultimately losing bid in a special election earlier this year for a congressional seat in a suburban Atlanta district that has been long held by Republicans, said David Hughes, a professor at Auburn University-Montgomery in Alabama. “If Democrats want to get out of the ditch they are in in Alabama and the South, they will do it in the suburbs,” said Hughes, an expert on Southern politics and judicial elections. In the nine states that form the political backbone of the Republican-dominated South - Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and South and North Carolina - Republicans will hold 17 of the 18 Senate seats once Jones takes office as well as 56 of the 70 House seats. Democratic Party Chairman Tom Perez acknowledged on Wednesday that the national party kept a low profile in Alabama even as it pumped money into turnout efforts targeting blacks and young voters because it knew that publicity about its involvement would not help Jones. But Perez said the victory showed that the party, which has launched a 50-state organizing effort aimed at electing candidates at the local and state levels, can compete in the South and elsewhere. “We can win in every zip code in America,” Perez told reporters. Democrats in Alabama said the party can start by learning lessons from Jones, who campaigned in every corner of the state and portrayed himself as a bridge builder who would listen to voters’ concerns and work across the aisle to help Alabama. “This is what we need to be doing more of, and not just at election time,” Thomas Jackson, a black Alabama state representative, said at a fish fry attended by Jones in rural Alabama last month. “We can get a lot accomplished if we just sit down and talk with people more.”

Summary: अलबामा के परेशान होने के बाद, डेमोक्रेट अमेरिका के दक्षिण में नई संभावनाएं देख रहे हैं


LONDON (Reuters) - Kate, Britain s Duchess of Cambridge, made her first public appearance on Tuesday since it was announced she was pregnant, joining husband Prince William and his brother Harry at events to mark World Mental Health Day. Last month William and Kate announced they were expecting her third child and that as with her two previous pregnancies, she was suffering severe morning sickness. Last month, she was too ill to take her eldest child George to his first day at school because she was too unwell and her last public appearance had come at the end of August when she joined William and Harry on a visit to a public garden at Kensington Palace dedicated to their late mother Princess Diana. However, Kate, whose official title is the Duchess of Cambridge, showed no sign of the sickness that has forced her to cancel all engagements since then when she, William and Harry hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday to celebrate the efforts of those working Britain s mental health sector.   The duchess  condition is improving but she is still suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum. She is delighted to be able to be here tonight,  an aide said. Hyperemesis gravidarum can cause severe nausea and vomiting and requires supplementary hydration and nutrients. The condition forced Kate to be admitted to hospital in the early months of her pregnancy with George.  The couple s third baby will be fifth in line to the British throne, after grandfather Prince Charles, father William and elder siblings George, four, and Charlotte, two. William, Kate and Harry have made campaigning about mental health one of their priorities, with both royal brothers saying in recent months how their mother s death in a car crash when they were children had left deep emotional scars.  All three of us have seen that mental health is at the heart of so many of the issues we are passionate about,  William said in a speech to the reception.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की शाही केट ने गर्भावस्था का खुलासा होने के बाद पहली बार सार्वजनिक उपस्थिति दर्ज कराई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress should give Puerto Rico the authority to restructure its debt, the White House said on Friday. Refusal by Congress to give the island’s government authority to deal with its financial challenges makes a future bailout more likely, a White House spokesman told a regular news briefing.

Summary: कांग्रेस को प्यूर्टो रिको को ऋण पुनर्गठन का अधिकार देना चाहिएः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators said on Sunday the White House has not been forthcoming with details about the military s presence in Niger after the deaths of four soldiers there earlier this month and they want more answers on U.S. operations in the west African country. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said in separate interviews that they support Republican Senator John McCain s effort to get answers from the Pentagon on the ambush and more broadly on the U.S. fight against ISIS in Niger. Graham and Schumer said they had been unaware of the large U.S. presence in the country and said Congress needs more information on what could become a long and open-ended involvement.  I didn t know there was 1,000 troops in Niger,  Graham said on NBC s Meet the Press.  This is an endless war without boundaries and no limitation on time and geography,  he added.  You ve got to tell us more and he [McCain] is right to say that.  Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Graham and McCain, who serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Friday that the military is shifting its counter-terrorism strategy to focus more on Africa and expanding the ability to use force against suspected terrorists. The attack earlier this month, which U.S. officials suspect was carried out by a local Islamic State affiliate, has thrown a spotlight on the U.S. counter-terrorism mission in Niger, which has about 800 U.S. troops. U.S. President Donald Trump drew attention to the ambush after sparring last week with Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who criticized the president for what she said were insensitive remarks to the widow of one of the fallen soldiers. Democrat Schumer said on the same program on Sunday that he, like Graham, had also been unaware of the large presence of U.S. troops in Niger and is also awaiting more answers from the military this week. He said Congress may need to re-examine the current authorization for what he said could be a long, open-ended involvement in the country and region.  We need to look at this carefully. This is a brave new world. There are no set battle plans,  he said, adding that Congress currently authorizes action as part of the authorization of military use that has been in place for 16 years since the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.  I would be for re-examining this. There is no easy answer but we need to look at it. The answer we have now is not adequate,  he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटरों ने नाइजर में घात के बाद अमेरिकी उपस्थिति पर जवाब मांगा


BERLIN (Reuters) - The hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which initially embraced Donald Trump and the populism that swept him into office last year, had a message for the U.S. president on Monday - he should tweet less, and govern more. Alice Weidel, one of the AfD s top two candidates in the Sept. 24 election in Germany, said Trump s response to a recent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, had been   completely unnecessary  and she had only a  limited understanding  for it.  Donald Trump should focus more on policies and less on tweeting and Twitter,  Weidel told journalists in Berlin.  If I had a wish list, then I would wish that Donald Trump would focus ... more on cleaning up his own house, and being a little more devoted to his governing responsibilities.  Trump was widely criticized for at first failing to condemn white supremacist groups after a man thought to have neo-Nazi sympathies drove a car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville, killing a woman and injuring over a dozen other people. Trump had said  both sides  were to blame for the violence and there were  very fine people  at the rally.  Weidel s comments came amid controversy over remarks made by a senior member of her own party, Alexander Gauland - the AfD s other top candidate - who said Integration Minister Aydan Ozoguz, a Social Democrat (SPD) politician born in Germany to Turkish parents, should be  dumped  in Turkey. Members of the SPD, and Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives, rejected Gauland s remarks as racist. Gauland conceded on Monday that his choice of words was  a little too tough  but Weidel said she agreed with his general concern about what he said was Ozoguz s lack of respect for  German culture.  Weidel said that although her party opposed Merkel s 2015 decision which has allowed more than a million migrants into Germany over the past two years, it condemned extremism in any form, whether it came from left-wing, right-wing or Islamic groups. Founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party, the AfD shifted its focus after the euro zone debt crisis peaked to campaigning against immigration after Merkel s move to open the borders.  It is expected to enter the German parliament for the first time after the September election, although its support has dropped to 7 to 10 percent from a height of around 15 percent in 2016, according to polls. Weidel, who is openly gay, chafed at a question about whether she was racist, noting that her partner of nearly 10 years, a Swiss filmmaker, also has a Sinhalese background.

Summary: कट्टर दक्षिणपंथी जर्मन पार्टी ने ट्रम्प से कम ट्वीट करने को कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stephen Feinberg, the chief executive of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management [CBS.UL] who backed U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign, is being considered to lead a review of the vast U.S. intelligence operation and whether it can be restructured, current and former officials told Reuters. While cautioning that the appointment was not final, the U.S. officials said Feinberg, if named to the role, would look for ways to streamline 17 separate agencies, a roughly $70 billion annual budget and tens of thousands of employees. Trump’s advisers have expressed particular interest in reforming the role of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to coordinate the work of U.S. spy agencies. The White House declined comment on Feinberg’s potential role. Cerberus declined to comment. Cerberus said last week that Feinberg was in talks to join Trump’s administration in a senior role, without specifying what that role could be. The firm told its investors that it had a succession plan in place that would result in  minimal changes to management and operations.  Potential conflicts of interest would also have to be resolved before Feinberg could join the administration. In a letter to investors last week, Cerberus said clearing that hurdle would require Feinberg to provide “voluminous information” and disclosures to the Office of Government Ethics. Feinberg, 56, who donated to Trump’s 2016 election campaign and served as an economic adviser to him, has no prior experience in government. A Princeton graduate, Feinberg was one of the co-founders of Cerberus in 1992. He previously worked at bond trader Drexel Burnham Lambert. Forbes Magazine currently pegs 56-year-old Feinberg’s net worth at $1.25 billion. Feinberg rarely gives interviews and has shunned public appearances.  Cerberus has investments in a wide range of brands and industries from guns and waste management to cosmetics and amusement parks. The firm became well known for a $7.4-billion deal it struck in 2007, along with co-investors, to buy an 80 percent stake in car maker Chrysler and its financing arm Chrysler Financial. Chrysler was pushed to the brink of liquidation in 2009 before a bailout that was the subject of intense debate within the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Cerberus lost control of the automaker during its restructuring. In 2010, Cerberus bought DynCorp, a defense contractor, for $1 billion. The company has had contracts to train Iraqi police and support U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It has business relationships with the U.S. military and other government agencies. Two other Wall Street figures who had been expected to work for Trump have had to bow out because of conflicts with their business activities. They are Anthony Scaramucci, who had been tapped as White House liaison to businesses, and Vincent Viola, Trump’s nominee for Army secretary. Several former U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged the potential for a review of spy agencies’ role, structure and inefficiencies. But they expressed concern that the study would  be run out of the White House, rather than under the aegis of the Director of National Intelligence, which was established with that oversight mandate. Trump has nominated former Senator Dan Coats to be director of national intelligence and said the post would be part of the Cabinet. Coats is awaiting Senate confirmation. Trump has had a fraught relationship with U.S. intelligence agencies. For weeks, he rejected their conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered cyber operatives to interfere in the election to help Trump’s chances against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, before appearing to accept it.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रम्प अमेरिकी खुफिया समीक्षा के लिए निजी इक्विटी के फीनबर्ग पर विचार करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives’ information technology team has blocked lawmakers from accessing software applications hosted on a Google cloud service to prevent possible hacking campaigns, two congressional sources said on Wednesday.  The move came after Yahoo Mail was also blacklisted by House authorities due to fears of ransomware infiltration. The two restrictions, which have hampered some internal communications in the lower chamber, have both been implemented within the past two weeks and are still in place. The episodes are not believed to be related, the sources said.    Devices connected to the House’s internet via wifi or ethernet cables have been barred from accessing appspot.com, the domain where Google hosts custom-built apps, after the FBI notified Congress of a potential security vulnerability, the sources said. “We began blocking appspot.com on May 3 in response to indicators that appspot.com was potentially still hosting a remote access trojan named BLT that has been there since June 2015,” one of the sources, a House staffer with direct knowledge of the situation, told Reuters. A Google (GOOGL.O) spokesman said the company was investigating reports of the restriction and would work with the House to resolve any issues. The FBI has so far not responded to a request for a comment. The FBI sent an advisory to private industry in June 2015 about a number of remote access tools capable of stealing personally identifiable information, including a trojan file named BLT found on the Google appspot.com domain.          Ted Henderson, a former House employee, said two Google-hosted apps he created specifically for use by congressional staffers to discuss politics and share alerts on votes are now effectively banned on their work network. The disabling of appspot.com occurred after the House Information Security Office sent an advisory email to lawmakers and staffers on April 30 warning of increased phishing attacks on the House network from third party, web-based mail applications including Yahoo Mail and Gmail. “The attacks are focused on putting ‘ransomware’ on users’ computers,” the email, seen by Reuters, states. It added that the primary focus of the attackers appeared to be Yahoo Mail, which was being blocked on the network “until further notice.” Two individuals fell victim to ransomware by clicking on infected Word document email attachments, sources familiar with the hacking said. The infected files were able to be recovered without paying any ransom, the sources said. Ransomware attacks, which involve accessing a computer or network’s files and encrypting them until a ransom is paid by the victim, have grown more severe and common in recent years.  Yahoo YHOO.O is working closely with the House to resolve the matter, a company spokesperson said.

Summary: हाउस ने सुरक्षा आशंकाओं को लेकर गूगल-होस्ट किए गए ऐप्स, याहू मेल को ब्लॉक कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate energy committee said late Monday it had delayed “until further notice” a meeting on Tuesday in which the panel had been slated to vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the interior, Rep. Ryan Zinke, and his pick for secretary of energy, Rick Perry. The panel gave no reason for the delay.

Summary: सीनेट ऊर्जा पैनल ने पेरी और ज़िंके पर मंगलवार को मतदान में देरी की