WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican President-elect Donald Trump defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by 10,704 votes in the state of Michigan, according to certified unofficial county-by-county results released on Wednesday by the Michigan secretary of state. Trump received 2,279,543 votes compared with Clinton’s 2,268,839, according to figures posted on the secretary of state’s website. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson received 172,136 votes and Green candidate Jill Stein won 51,463. Nine other candidates shared a total of nearly 30,000 additional votes in the presidential campaign in Michigan, the figures showed. The results will remain unofficial until they are reviewed and approved by the Board of State Canvassers on Nov. 28. Some media organizations did not call a winner of the presidential race in Michigan on election night because of the closeness of the race. Michigan is the last state where the winner was not yet clear. The final unofficial tally gave Trump a slightly narrower victory than previous counts. A count as of Nov. 15 reported by CNN, for example, showed Trump winning 2,279,805 votes and Clinton winning 2,268,193, a margin of 11,612 votes. If Trump is declared the winner in Michigan, he will have accumulated 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232. Clinton is leading in the popular vote by more than 2 million, according to the Cook Political Report.

Summary: मिशिगन में ट्रंप ने क्लिंटन को 10,704 मतों से हराया


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered a 24-hour suspension to military operations against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, to allow for the peaceful deployment of Iraqi troops at the border crossings with the Kurdistan region. A Kurdish spokesman earlier said the two sides reached an agreement on Friday to stop fighting which broke out on Oct. 16, after Iraqi forces seized the oil-city of Kirkuk. Abadi ordered the offensive on Kirkuk and other Kurdish-held territory in retaliation to the Sept. 25 vote for independence in a referendum organized by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) - a drive that was all but crushed by the surprise attack. The 24-hour truce  should allow a joint technical committee ... to work on the deployment of federal Iraqi forces in all disputed areas, including Fish-Khabur, and the international border , Abadi said in a statement.   This should prevent bloodshed between the children of the same country.  He wants to take control of border crossings with neighboring countries, including one in the Fish-Khabur area through which an oil export pipeline crosses into Turkey, carrying Iraqi and Kurdish crude oil. The KRG on Wednesday proposed an immediate ceasefire, a suspension of the referendum result and  starting an open dialogue with the federal government based on the Iraqi constitution  - call rejected by Baghdad.     According to the KRG, which is based in the Kurdish autonomous region s capital of Erbil, the ceasefire entered effect at 1 a.m. on Friday (2200 GMT Thursday).  The ceasefire is holding,  Vahal Ali, the director of KRG  President Masoud Barzani s media office, told Reuters.  U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has also urged dialogue to start, in a call to Abadi, the Iraqi central government said in a statement on Friday morning. U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces, Iranian-backed paramilitaries and Kurdish fighters fought alongside each other to defeat Islamic State, also called ISIS, but the alliance has faltered with the militants largely defeated in the country. The multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, which lies outside the KRG official boundaries, fell to Iraqi forces without much resistance on Oct. 16 but the Kurdish Peshmerga began to fight back as they withdrew closer to the core of the Kurdish region. The fall of Kirkuk, considered by many Kurds as the heart of their fatherland, was a major symbolic and financial blow to the Kurdish drive for independence championed by Barzani, as it halved the region s oil export revenue.  The most violent clashes happened in the northwestern corner as the Peshmerga fought back offensives toward Fish-Khabur, and also south of their capital Erbil, leaving dozens of casualties on both sides. Speaking in Geneva on Thursday, Tillerson said he was  disappointed that the parties have been unable to reach an entirely peaceful resolution  and that he had encouraged Abadi to accept the KRG  overtures for talks on the basis of the Iraqi constitution . Abadi demanded on Thursday that the Kurds declare their referendum void, rejecting the KRG offer to suspend its independence push to resolve a crisis through talks.  We won t accept anything but its cancellation and the respect of the constitution,  he said in a statement during a visit to Tehran. The spokesman of the U.S.-led anti Islamic State coalition in Baghdad, U.S. Colonel Ryan Dillon, told Reuters:  Both parties are talking with one another, but it is not an official ceasefire.   In an interview with Kurdish TV Rudaw, Dillon called on the two sides to extend the deal to a complete halt in hostility and  refocus our efforts on defeating ISIS .  We are encouraging dialogue, we are trying to get the tensions down,  he added. Iraqi forces on Thursday launched an offensive to recapture the last patch of Iraqi territory still in the hands of Islamic State, on the border area with Syria. Abadi has expressed hope the group will be completely defeated in Iraq before the end of the year. The militant group also holds parts of the Syrian side of the border, but the area under their control is shrinking as they retreat in the face of two sets of hostile forces - a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led coalition and Syrian government troops with foreign Shi ite militias backed by Iran and Russia. Islamic State s self-declared cross-border caliphate effectively collapsed in July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group s de facto capital in Iraq, in a gruelling battle which lasted nine months. The militants  Syrian stronghold, Raqqa, fell to U.S.-backed forces earlier this month. Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared the caliphate from Mosul in mid-2014, released an audio recording on Sept. 28 that indicated he was alive, after several reports he had been killed. He urged his followers to keep up the fight despite setbacks.

Summary: इराक ने सीमा पार शांतिपूर्ण तैनाती की अनुमति देने के लिए कुर्दों के साथ संघर्ष विराम का आदेश दिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday signed into law a minimum wage increase that takes a two-tier approach, setting a higher $15 per hour minimum for New York City and its environs and a lower legal minimum for less-costly areas. Cuomo held a rally celebrating the event with Hilary Clinton, who is campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in her home state before its April 19 primary. Democrats have rallied behind the $15 minimum wage ahead of the presidential election in November. “This new economy is not a fair economy for the middle class and the working families of this country,” Cuomo said at the signing in a New York City convention center. “They feel that the American dream is slipping away.” States and cities have moved to surpass the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009. California Governor Jerry Brown on Monday also signed into law a plan to raise the minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour by the year 2023, making the nation’s most-populous state among the first to boost pay to that level for the working poor. Clinton’s Democratic opponent for the nomination, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, issued a statement from the campaign trail in Wisconsin praising both New York and California for pushing through the legislation. In New York, the minimum wage rises to $15 per hour from its current $9 by the end of 2018 for most businesses in New York City. Commuter counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester will reach $15 by the end of 2021, while the rest of the state will reach $12.50 by the end of 2020. The two-tier approach was a compromise deal reached with the state’s Republican lawmakers, who said an increase to $15 in the poorer upstate areas in the north of the state would be unfair to business owners. After 2020 the $12.50 minimum wage upstate has the potential to rise by an amount determined by the state labor commissioner and the director of the budget. Any increase would be indexed to inflation and wage growth. New York’s law also carves out a slow-lane for New York City business with up to 10 employees, giving them four years instead of three to implement $15 per hour. The law also contains a “safety valve.” From 2019, state budget officials will look at the effects of the wage increases on regional economies and determine whether they should continue or be suspended. In addition to the minimum wage law, Cuomo also signed a bill granting 12-week paid family leave that will phase in by 2021.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क के कुओमो ने राज्य भर में $15/घंटे के लिए दो-स्तरीय न्यूनतम मजदूरी कानून पर हस्ताक्षर किए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With his administration on the defensive over investigations into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s election, U.S. President Donald Trump is no longer tweeting praise for his Kremlin counterpart. Less than five weeks after he took office, the chances of a spring thaw in relations between Washington and Moscow – once buoyed by an apparent “bromance” between Trump and President Vladimir Putin during the U.S. political campaign – are looking much dimmer, U.S. officials say. His top foreign policy advisers have started talking tougher on Russia, and the apparent cooling of Trump’s approach follows the resignation last month of his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, a vocal advocate of warmer ties with Moscow. He was replaced by Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, who is more hawkish on Russia and allied with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general. In one other sign of a stiffening attitude, two officials said the administration had offered the job of top Russia adviser at the National Security Council to Russia scholar Fiona Hill, a leading Putin critic. Her books include “Mr. Putin, Operative in the Kremlin”, an allusion to the Russian leader’s past as a KGB officer. It was not immediately known whether she had accepted the post.  Pressure also has come to bear from Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress, long wary of his campaign overtures to Putin, and from European allies anxious over any sign that the president might prematurely ease sanctions imposed on Russia after its annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. Posing fresh obstacles to rapprochement with Russia, analysts say, is mounting evidence that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and other members of Trump’s team communicated with Russian officials during and after the presidential campaign. The mushrooming inquiry - which is now focused on Sessions and his contacts with Moscow’s ambassador to Washington - has fueled calls for expanded investigations into allegations that Moscow sought to sway the election’s outcome. “There is so much panic in the U.S. political establishment over Russia right now that Trump will be boxed in on what he can do,” said Matthew Rojansky, a Russia expert at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington. White House officials say there were no improper contacts, and Russia denies any meddling. While Trump has yet to lay down his Russia policy, most signs suggest no swift changes in the relationship, which sank to a post-Cold War low under his predecessor Barack Obama, mostly due to bitter differences over Syria and Ukraine. Mattis sought to reassure NATO allies during a visit to Europe last month, telling them there would be no military cooperation between the United States and Russia in the near future. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley this week denounced Russia for casting a veto to protect the Syrian government from Security Council action over accusations of chemical weapons use, and also recently insisted the United States would not recognize Russia’s seizure of Crimea. Trump’s openness to closer ties to Russia and his emphasis, particularly during the campaign, on fighting terrorism sparked concerns among current and former U.S. officials that he might trade away U.S. interests in other areas in exchange for military and intelligence cooperation against groups such as Islamic State. Trump’s language on Russia now has shifted somewhat from campaign days, when he tweeted his admiration for Putin as a strong leader, and the Russian president paid him compliments. Trump told a news conference in mid-February that, “I would love to be able to get along with Russia,” but added that, “It’s possible I won’t be able to get along with Putin.”     Two senior European officials this week told reporters in Washington they discerned an evolution in the Trump administration’s stance toward Russia, saying there appeared to be no desire to engage in such a “grand bargain” in which, for example, Ukraine-related sanctions might be eased in return for Russian action on other issues.     “What we consider reassuring is that, at least during our meetings, nobody came with this idea of a grand bargain, with the idea of a big deal,” said one senior European official on condition of anonymity.     Said a second senior European official: “Vis-a-vis Russia, to be frank I have the impression that the analysis and the positions of this administration are probably now closer to our position than (they) may have been two or three months ago.”  Recent Russian actions have created new complications, including a stepped-up offensive by pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and what the Pentagon described as the bombing this week by Russian and Syrian aircraft of U.S.-backed Syrian rebels – something Moscow denied had happened. For its part, the Kremlin said on Wednesday it was patiently waiting for “some kind of actions” from the Trump administration so that it could understand what the future holds for relations. “We have heard different statements from President Trump,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told reporters. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee and former 2016 presidential candidate, had words of caution for Trump about future dealings with Putin. “We have had two presidents - a Republican and a Democrat - previous to the current president who thought they could do such a deal with Vladimir Putin,” he said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “Both of them fell on their face because they did not  understand what they were dealing with. It is my sincerest hope that our current President doesn’t make the same mistakes,” Rubio said. (This version of the story corrects defense secretary’s first name, paragraph 3.)

Summary: रूस के पुतिन के साथ ट्रम्प का 'ब्रोमांस' शांत प्रतीत होता है


BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday urged the United States not to set itself up as a  human rights judge  and denounced the U.S. Treasury Department for punishing a Chinese public security official for alleged rights abuses.  Gao Yan was one of the targets of an executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday blocking the property of foreigners involved in human rights abuses. Gao had been in charge at Chaoyang Detention Centre in Beijing where a Chinese rights activist, Cao Shunli, was held and questioned prior to her death in hospital under police custody in March 2014. Rights groups say Cao was tortured and denied medical care. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing that China opposed the United States using sanctions to target other countries  citizens based on their own domestic laws.  We urge the United States to impartially and objectively look upon China s human rights development and to stop acting as a so-called human rights judge,  she said, adding that China s police maintain public security in accordance with law. The head of the Russian republic of Chechnya and four other Russians and Chechens were also included on the list of individuals to be targeted under the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law which freezes the bank accounts of those targeted. Hong Kong-based group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement that they welcomed Gao being named, but that they regretted the inclusion of only a low-level Chinese official, calling for Fu Zhenghua, a deputy minister of public security, to also be included.  Other higher-level police officials, who had  command responsibility  for Cao Shunli s death in custody and for other incidents of torture and human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, continue to enjoy impunity,  they said. Beijing regularly rejects foreign criticism of its human rights record saying that its people are best placed to judge the rights situation in China and that the country is governed by law. President Xi Jinping has presided over a crackdown on rights activists and lawyers that has seen hundreds detained or jailed since 2015 in what advocacy groups have called an unprecedented attack on human rights in China.

Summary: चीनी अधिकारी पर प्रतिबंधों के बाद चीन ने अमेरिका को 'मानवाधिकार न्यायाधीश' नहीं बनने को कहा


PARIS (Reuters) - French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot said on Friday extreme weather conditions like the powerful hurricane bearing down on Florida risked becoming the norm, and took a dig at U.S. President Donald Trump s stance on climate change. In an interview with France 2 TV about Hurricane Irma, Hulot implied that Trump - who has called global warming a hoax - was ignoring the reality of man-made climate change, which most mainstream scientists regard as an established fact. Trump said in May he was pulling the United States out of the landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change that was brokered in Paris, saying it would harm the U.S. economy and cost jobs. Irma - described by Trump as a storm of  absolutely historic destructive potential  - pummeled Cuba and the Bahamas on Friday, and a second powerful hurricane was tracking towards the northeastern Caribbean. Asked if the storms might force Trump to rethink his  climate change policy, Hulot said:  What will change in the United States are the federal states, the cities, a whole section of society. I think that is what will make up for the reservations of the American president on the links between cause and effect.

Summary: फ्रांस के मंत्री ने जलवायु परिवर्तन पर ट्रंप को आड़े हाथों लिया क्योंकि इरमा ने कहर बरपाया


WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - During his 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump signaled his presidency would be a boon for Israel and tough on Palestinians. The U.S. Embassy would move to Jerusalem, he would name an ambassador who backs Israeli settlements on land Palestinians seek for a state and there would be no pressure for peace talks. But as Trump prepares for his first White House meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his administration has not only toned down its pro-Israel bravado but also taken the first tentative steps toward a more cautious Middle East diplomacy, including consultations with Sunni Arab allies and U.S. lawmakers, according to people familiar with the matter. While any strategy is still far from complete, there is growing consensus in the White House that tackling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could require gentle nudging of Israel together with assurances to the Arab world that Trump will be more even-handed than his campaign rhetoric suggested. “This is a case where campaign promises run head-on into geopolitical reality and they have to be adjusted accordingly,” said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. As a result, relocating the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a step world leaders including Jordan’s King Abdullah warned against and which would probably inflame the Muslim world - has been put on hold for now.  At the same time, the White House has adopted a more measured stance on Israeli settlement-building in occupied territory than candidate Trump appeared to advocate. Even so, there is little doubt that when Netanyahu meets Trump on Wednesday, he will find a Republican president determined to show more warmth to Israel than his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, with whom he had an acrimonious relationship. Social media exchanges have suggested a budding “bromance” between Netanyahu and Trump, who has pledged to be the “best friend” Israel has ever had in the White House. As a result, Palestinians fear their leaders will be frozen out and their statehood aspirations pushed aside. One White House aide cautioned that the administration is still in “listening mode” on the issue. Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has spoken by phone to Egyptian, Saudi and United Arab Emirates leaders and heard Abdullah’s concerns in person. All of these countries have growing contacts with Israel, mostly behind the scenes and centered on a shared desire to counter Iran, a point that Netanyahu has often cited as among the grounds for his country’s eventual thaw with the Arab world. Signaling an emerging view that U.S. Arab allies could be helpful on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, assigned to a senior role in Middle East diplomacy, has met Arab officials, including the UAE’s ambassador to Washington, the New York Times reported. In his talks with Trump, Netanyahu is expected to try to keep the focus on forging a common front against Iran, Israel’s regional enemy and a target of Trump’s ire. The Israeli-Palestinian dispute will nonetheless be on the agenda, especially after Israel’s parliament drew international condemnation for approving a law retroactively legalizing 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land. Barring a curve ball from the sometimes unpredictable U.S. president, Trump is unlikely to use the talks to press Netanyahu for concessions toward the Palestinians in the way Obama did. But neither can Trump afford to be seen to abandon the U.S. commitment to a two-state solution, the bedrock of Washington’s Middle East policy since the 1993 interim peace accords and a principle embraced internationally. A White House statement on Feb. 2 set forth a more nuanced position, backing away from a longstanding U.S. view of settlements as an “impediment” to peace but instead saying new settlements or the expansion of existing ones beyond current boundaries “may not be helpful” to that goal. That shift transpired just hours after Trump met briefly with King Abdullah on the sidelines of an event in Washington. Even so, the emerging shape of Trump policy remains more accommodating toward Israel than at any time since Republican George W. Bush occupied the White House. “It seems we are headed for a new policy with this administration that is different from its predecessor in how it deals with the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian cause,” said Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee.  There has been no contact between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration so far, Palestinian officials said. Moderate, Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was among the first world leaders Obama called on his first full day in office in 2009. A White House official insisted, however, that the administration intends to develop a relationship with the Palestinian Authority. All the same, many Israeli officials do not read the White House’s settlements statement as a warning to Israel or a reining-in of Netanyahu. Not only does it conclude that settlements do not block peace prospects, it also says construction within established settlements is acceptable to Washington. “Bibi will be happy,” said an Israeli diplomat, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “He can put new settlements on hold and hold off the right wing by pointing to Trump. At the same time, he can build as much as he wants within existing settlements.” In that regard, the lines drawn by the White House help Netanyahu fend off demands from the far right in his coalition for sweeping steps, like annexing portions of the West Bank. Palestinians would be especially alarmed if Trump decided to proceed with moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, essentially recognizing the city as Israel’s capital despite international insistence that its status must be decided in negotiations. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognized internationally, as the capital of their future state. Trump and his aides have played down the prospects for a quick embassy move since he took office. Some experts see a moderating influence in Trump’s national security team. It has members such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil chief executive with extensive contacts among Gulf Arab governments, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine general. They will have to deal with other, sometimes ideologically driven advisers with close personal ties to Trump. David Friedman, Trump’s former bankruptcy lawyer and now nominee as ambassador to Israel, has raised funds for a West Bank settlement and voiced doubt about Palestinian statehood. Kushner’s family has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the same settlement. Aides may be moving circumspectly also in hope of keeping the door open if Trump – who has touted his skills as a master dealmaker – decides to seek what he has called the “ultimate deal”: Israeli-Palestinian peace.  To pursue such an initiative, the United States needs to be seen as an even-handed mediator, while also overcoming the rigid disputes that have scuppered so many peace efforts over the years: settlements, borders, the status of Jerusalem, what to do with Palestinian refugees, and Palestinian political divisions. The last, U.S.-brokered round of peace talks collapsed in 2014. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will be inclined to devote much attention to the Israeli-Palestinian issue at a time when it is distracted by other priorities. In the Middle East alone, the fight against Islamic State and countering Iran are higher on the agenda.  However, if Trump at some point does opt to wade in where so many of his predecessors have failed, for Netanyahu – who is looking for a reset of U.S.-Israeli relations – it might be a case of “be careful what you wish for”.

Summary: नेतन्याहू की यात्रा से पहले ट्रंप ने इजरायल समर्थक दृष्टिकोण में सूक्ष्मता जोड़ी


(Reuters) - A teenaged singer with a transgender sister, best known for performing the U.S. national anthem at President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner have both asked to discuss the issue with him. Jackie Evancho, 16, requested the meeting in a Twitter message late on Wednesday, minutes after the administration revoked landmark guidance to public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice. “I am obviously disappointed in the @POTUS decision to send the #transgender bathroom issue to the states to decide.  #sisterlove,” she wrote from her account, @jackieevancho.  Trump “gave me the honor” of singing at the inauguration, she added in another tweet. “Pls give me & my sis the honor 2 meet with u 2 talk #transgender rghts.”  On Thursday evening former Olympic gold medalist and transgender activist Jenner also weighed in on social media, telling Trump on Twitter that “from one Republican to another, this is a disaster” and asking the president to call her. White House spokesman Sean Spicer, asked at a briefing if Trump would meet with Evancho, said the president would welcome a meeting with her. As of Thursday evening, more than 10,000 Twitter users had liked the request by Evancho, a classical crossover singer who rose to fame on the TV show “America’s Got Talent.”  Evancho was the first performer announced for Trump’s inauguration ceremony, an event that a number of other entertainers shunned because of the president’s views.  Trump, a Twitter user, has not responded to the request, Evancho said on Thursday during an appearance with her sister, Juliet, on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I just want to enlighten him on what my sister - I’ve seen her go through every single day in school,” she said.  Juliet Evancho, a high school senior, said the president needed to know about the threats facing students who identify as a gender other than the one with which they were born. “I’ve had things thrown at me,” she said. “I’ve had people say pretty horrible things, and the unsafe environment is just very unhealthy.” The Evancho family is suing Juliet’s Pittsburgh-area school district over her right to use women’s bathrooms.  The Trump administration’s action on Wednesday reversed a signature initiative of former president Barack Obama, whose Justice and Education departments had threatened to withhold funding for schools that did not comply with its guidance.

Summary: कैटलिन जेनर, किशोर गायिका ने ट्रांसजेंडर अधिकारों पर ट्रम्प से अपील की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama might seem an unlikely investor in the firearms industry. But the U.S. president, a fierce advocate for gun regulation, has money in a pension fund that holds stock in gun and ammunition companies. Although Obama’s stake is minuscule, worth no more than $30, it reflects a much larger surge of investment. The president is among millions of Americans buying into gun companies - often unwittingly - as mutual funds have increased such holdings to record levels, according to a Reuters analysis of institutional investment in firearms companies. Since Obama was elected in 2009, mutual funds have raised their stakes to about $510 million from $30 million in the nation’s two largest gun manufacturers with publicly traded shares, Smith & Wesson Corp SWHC.O and Sturm, Ruger & Co (RGR.N). That means such stocks are now common in retirement and college savings plans.  The influx has helped to boost both companies’ shares by more than 750 percent during the Obama presidency; each now has a market value of about $1 billion. Beyond mutual funds, such investments also are held in the portfolios of hedge funds and public pension plans, which are harder to track. The White House declined to comment on Obama’s holdings in the Illinois General Assembly’s pension plan, which he earned while serving in that state’s senate. The president has disclosed between $50,000 and $100,000 in the plan.  Other indirect investors in firearms companies include advocates for gun regulation in the U.S. Congress and several parents of children who attended Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut - site of the 2012 massacre of 20 students and six staff members.  Fund managers are drawn to the stocks by surging sales. Buyers are arming themselves, analysts said, in response to mass shootings and calls for tougher gun laws. By the end of 2015, more than 150 mutual funds owned Smith & Wesson shares, up from 53 at the end of 2008, and nearly 130 held stock in Ruger, up from 52, according to data from Morningstar Inc. It would have taken investors “minimal due diligence” to see massive profit potential in Ruger stock when Obama was first elected, said Ruger Chief Executive Mike Fifer. Shares hit a low of $4.50 the Friday after that Tuesday election; the stock was changing hands today at $61.61. “Orders at every level of the distribution channel exploded” the week of Obama’s election, Fifer recalled. “And continued to do so for months afterward.” America’s leading ammunition maker, Vista Outdoor Inc (VSTO.N), has drawn investments from 319 funds in its first year of public trading and now has a market value of $2.9 billion. Its bonds are owned by a who’s-who of U.S. investment and insurance companies. (For a graphic of top mutual fund investors in the leading gun and ammo stocks, see tmsnrt.rs/1TlCwBz )     Such investments can be hard to identify within large funds, even with concerted effort. Eric Milgram, a corporate research analyst whose two children were at Sandy Hook Elementary during the rampage, tried to purge his portfolio of firearms holdings. But he gave up after a frustrating search through mutual fund stock lists, holding companies and subsidiaries. “I’m disgusted with this industry; I don’t want to be invested in it,” said Milgram. But, he added, “There are only so many hours in the day.” Vanguard Group, the nation’s largest fund company, said it was unrealistic to balance political sensibilities with obligations to meet performance benchmarks. “It would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill these obligations while managing portfolios that reflect the social concerns of all our clients,” said Vanguard  spokeswoman Arianna Stefanoni Sherlock. Vanguard does, however, offer a Social Index fund – with about $2 billion in assets out of Vanguard’s total of about $3.4 trillion – that excludes firearms companies along with other stocks involved in an array of ethically sensitive industries. Smith & Wesson declined to comment for this story. Vista Outdoor did not respond to requests for comment. Obama and his tiny stake are typical of most Americans with holdings in firearms investments: They are invested in funds that buy shares of the relatively small part of the firearms industry that is publicly traded. But collectively, their investments are a boon to the gun industry and amount to a sizable stake in major gun and ammo makers.  For some gun safety advocates, the amounts are less important than the principle. Po Murray, who put four children through Sandy Hook Elementary, has also struggled to determine whether her investments include firearms companies. “It’s a real surprise: You find out you could be invested indirectly in Smith & Wesson,” said Murray, who chairs the Newtown Action Alliance, a gun safety group. “I don’t want to be invested in gun companies.” The $16 billion Illinois pension fund that includes Obama’s investment holds at least $4.8 million in shares of gun industry stocks, including Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Vista and ammunition maker Olin Corp (OLN.N).  Until 2014, the pension fund owned about $1.5 million of the debt of Remington Outdoors, another gun manufacturer. Remington did not respond to requests for comment.  The Illinois pension plan also invests in at least one mutual fund with gun industry exposure. The $1.1 billion Templeton Global Smaller Companies Fund owned $9.5 million of Smith & Wesson stock at the end of December, fund disclosures show. Obama and other plan participants have no say in how the money is invested. That’s controlled by the Illinois State Board of Investment, which said it has no policy on investing in firearm and ammo companies.  (For a graphic showing firearms investments by Obama’s Illinois pension fund, see: tmsnrt.rs/1TlCRV0 ) In its analysis, Reuters used mutual fund holdings data from Morningstar and Lipper Inc, a Thomson Reuters company, to examine firearms investments during the Obama presidency.  The list of funds holding such stocks includes some of the biggest and most prominent, such as Vanguard and the second-largest fund group, Fidelity Investments. It extends to BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), and Dimensional Fund Advisors. The analysis is based on disclosures made by individual funds. Some of the gun stockholders are passively managed index funds. But many are actively managed, such as Fidelity’s $40 billion Low-Priced Stock Fund (FLPSX.O), which has become Smith & Wesson’s second-largest mutual fund investor under storied stock-picker Joel Tillinghast. The fund held about 1.1 million shares worth $20 million as of Oct. 31, according to fund disclosures. Fidelity and Dimensional declined to comment. BlackRock - the world’s largest asset manager with $4.6 trillion under management - manages $200 billion of that total in investment options that screen out certain stocks, including companies involved in  firearms, tobacco and alcohol businesses, spokesman Peter McKillop said. Obama isn’t the only gun-regulation advocate with gun-industry holdings. Former congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy - elected after her husband was killed in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting - pushed relentlessly for gun safety legislation. While in office, she held shares worth between $3,003 and $45,000 in at least three exchange-traded funds with stakes in gun and ammo companies, according to her last financial disclosure before retiring last year. She also invested between $2,002 and $30,000 for two grandchildren in so-called 529 college-savings plans that include a Vanguard fund holding firearms stocks, disclosures show. The New York Democrat could not be reached for comment. As a federal retirement benefit, members of the U.S. Congress can participate in a Thrift Savings Plan, which offers an investment option - the S Fund - that holds stock in firearms companies. Financial disclosures show that S Fund investors include Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Senate Democrat and a leading advocate for stricter background checks for gun buyers. Durbin disclosed an S Fund investment of about $115,000.  Durbin’s office declined to comment. Some members of Congress welcome the investment option. “I’m just grateful the fund managers are investing in something that’s making money,” said Representative Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican who opposes gun restrictions and has a small investment in the S fund. For all the debate, Obama has made no progress in passing tougher gun laws. Measures such as universal background checks have withered in Congress, where the number of anti-gun control Republicans has grown.  Calls for tighter controls have been met with bursts of gun sales, according to U.S. background-check data on gun purchasers. Gun store owners attribute the extra sales to consumers who fear the president will make it harder to buy arms. “Let’s just say he’s been good for business,” Jack Lesher, manager of Chuck’s Firearms in Atlanta, said of Obama. Gun sales jumped again recently after the president blasted congressional inaction on gun control and vowed to use executive powers to expand background checks for buyers and bolster licensing requirements for dealers. His announcement followed yet another mass shooting, on Dec. 2 in San Bernardino, California, where a couple pledging allegiance to Islamic State killed 14 people.  For the week that ended Dec. 20, firearms background checks - a proxy for guns sales - totaled 839,109, the second-highest week since 1998. Only the week after the Sandy Hook shootings was higher, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Vista’s main factories have churned out bullets 24 hours, seven days a week for at least two years, Vista Chief Financial Officer Stephen Nolan told investors in November.  Now the industry is ready for an election-year surge.  “The politics of gun control could stay in the headlines, which we believe could lead to a record year,” wrote Chris Krueger, senior research analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets, in a note to investors in January. Ruger is boosting inventories to prepare, after learning a costly lesson going into the last presidential election. Demand peaked that year, based on the number of FBI background checks sought for new gun purchases. The surge followed Obama’s re-election and the Sandy Hook shooting. “When we went into late 2011, we got cleaned out of inventory … even though we increased production dramatically,” company CEO Fifer told investors during a November conference call.  The company, he said, “probably left money on the table.”

Summary: विशेष रिपोर्टः क्यों ओबामा और अन्य बंदूक नियंत्रण अधिवक्ताओं के पास आग्नेयास्त्र निर्माताओं में स्टॉक है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has told Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi that Moscow remains committed to the Iran nuclear deal, Russia s Foreign Ministry said in statement on Thursday.

Summary: मास्को ने तेहरान से कहा कि रूस परमाणु समझौते के लिए प्रतिबद्ध है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gasoline stations around Florida struggled to keep up with demand from customers anxious to fill tanks as Hurricane Irma approached, with some locations running out of supply on Wednesday. Some convenience stores are out of fuel as delivery trucks wait three to four hours to get cargoes from Port Everglades, the main supply source for the southern part of the state, said Ned Bowman, executive director at the Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, which represents 98 percent of fuel sold in Florida. Deliveries in the southern part of the state have been slowed by heavy traffic as residents evacuate.  The Category 5 storm, with winds exceeding 185 mph (295 km/h), clobbered Caribbean islands on Wednesday as Florida officials called for evacuations ahead of expected landfall this weekend. It would be the second powerful storm to hit the U.S. mainland in as many weeks, following Tropical Storm Harvey.  Filling stations in Orlando struggled to keep up with demand as early as Tuesday, with some running out of fuel or facing long lag times for resupply. Deliveries are usually made on an as-needed basis within an hour of a station signaling low fuel levels.  We re normally not even super busy at our pumps, and there are people parked behind each other right now, waiting,  said Eli Brito, shift manager of a RaceTrac station in Orlando that was out of regular fuel on Wednesday after waiting four hours for delivery on Tuesday.  Gasoline prices in Florida hit $2.71 a gallon on Wednesday, up 42 cents from a month ago, according to motorist advocacy group AAA. Florida has no refineries and its more than 20 million residents rely on refined products delivered by tanker and barge at its ports. On Wednesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would allow diesel fuel normally restricted to off-road use like farm equipment to be sold for highway vehicles that use diesel through Sept. 22, due to the approaching storm. The U.S. Coast Guard limited movement of ships into and out of the ports, including Port Everglades, which houses about a dozen fuel terminals. Commercial traffic is still allowed, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Brandon Murray.  The Coast Guard plans to further restrict traffic at the port midday Thursday, and require ships to make final mooring plans by midday Friday. No timeline for port closure has been set. Port Everglades had supplies on hand through mid-September when Harvey hit Texas, spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy said. The port usually has about two weeks of fuel available, she added. The state s other fuel-receiving ports, including Jacksonville and Tampa, remained open, said Bowman.  We ve been down this horse race before,  Bowman said from Florida s emergency operations center ahead of the storm.

Summary: फ्लोरिडा स्टेशनों को ईंधन की कमी का सामना करना पड़ रहा है, इरमा से पहले देरी हो रही है


WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland s President Andrzej Duda designated Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as the country s new prime minister after Beata Szydlo tendered her resignation. The ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party decided on Thursday to swap Szydlo for Morawiecki as they gear up for a series of elections due in the next three years.

Summary: पोलैंड के राष्ट्रपति ने वित्त मंत्री मोराविकी को नया प्रधानमंत्री नामित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to bring federal intervention to bear in Chicago to quell the “carnage” of gun violence plaguing America’s third-largest city unless local officials can curb the murder rate on their own. Trump appeared to be seizing on a story published by the Chicago Tribune on Monday reporting at least 228 people shot in the city so far this year, up 5.5 percent from the same period last January, with at least 42 homicides to date, an increase of 23.5 percent. A Chicago Police Department spokesman, Frank Giancamilli, disputed the Tribune’s numbers, saying there were 182 shootings in the city from Jan. 1 to Jan. 23, “which is exactly flat from last year.” He said homicides have numbered 38 year to date, compared with 33 for this time in 2016.   Still, the Tribune said its latest figures put the city on track to exceed last January’s 50 homicides, the most for that month in at least 16 years. Chicago’s homicide toll for 2016 as a whole reached 762 killings, the most in 20 years. “If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!” the president said in a Twitter post. It was not clear what Trump meant by “the Feds,” or what kind of unilateral government intervention he could order to address the issue. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson responded by saying he was “more than willing to work” in partnership with U.S. law enforcement and to help “boost federal prosecution rates for gun crimes in Chicago.” Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a Twitter post: “We need a plan, not a threat. We need jobs, not jails.” Urban violence, drug trafficking and poverty were recurring themes in Trump’s campaign appearances, and he periodically has cited Chicago as an example of rising inner city crime, which ticked up nationally in 2016 after a two-decade decline. Speaking in his inauguration address about drugs and crime that “have stolen too many lives,” Trump declared: “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” Chicago, with a population of 2.7 million, posted more shootings and homicides last year than any other U.S. city, according to FBI and Chicago police data, and its murder clearance rate, a measure of solved and closed cases, is one of the country’s lowest. On Jan. 2, Trump tweeted about Chicago’s effort to lower its  murder rate, saying: “If Mayor can’t do it he must ask for Federal help!” A spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, said then that the mayor welcomed the prospect of working with Trump and that the two men had previously spoken together on the issue.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने शिकागो बंदूक हिंसा को दबाने के लिए संघीय हस्तक्षेप का वादा किया


(Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama is heartened by the political activism he sees across the country and disagrees with discrimination against people based on their religion, a spokesman said on Monday. Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Obama, said the former president who left office 10 days ago “fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.” “Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake,” Lewis said. He said Obama was “heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country.”

Summary: ओबामा ने धर्म के आधार पर भेदभाव से असहमति जताईः प्रवक्ता


LONDON (Reuters) - The head of Iran s justice ministry was quoted on Friday as saying Tehran would decide the fate of a detained British-Iranian aid worker sentenced to five years in jail and that he could not confirm Western media reports relating to her case. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she was heading back to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after a family visit. She was convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran s clerical establishment, a charge denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.  Zaghari-Ratcliffe s husband Richard Ratcliffe told the Guardian newspaper and other British media on Thursday that her lawyer had said that her case had been marked as being eligible for early release.  Iran s judiciary cannot confirm any of the claims in Western media about this case,  Iran s semi-official Tasnim news agency on Friday quoted Gholamhossein Esmaili, the head of the justice department in Tehran province, as saying.  When a decision is made, it will be announced by the Islamic Republic s judiciary or through diplomatic channels.   British foreign minister Boris Johnson traveled to Iran this month to lobby for her release. Esmaili was also quoted by Tasnim as saying that a second case had been brought against Zaghari-Ratcliffe - the first such acknowledgement from a justice ministry official.  Her family said in October that the second case carried charges that could bring mean another 16 years in prison, including joining and receiving money from organizations working to overthrow the Islamic Republic and attending a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London.  Besides serving her current sentence, she has also another ongoing case against her in court... We do not know if she would be found guilty or not,  Esmaili was quoted as saying. Tasnim said Esmaili also dismissed reports of a swap deal, but did not make clear which reports he was referring to. The release of dual national prisoners in Iran in recent years has been mainly done through prisoner swaps.      Iran refuses to recognize dual nationals and denies them access to consular assistance. It has arrested at least 30 dual nationals during the past two years, mostly on spying charges.

Summary: ईरान के न्याय मंत्रालय ने कहा कि ब्रिटिश-ईरानी सहायता कार्यकर्ता पर अभी कोई निर्णय नहीं लिया गया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, who pledged to help protect young people known as “Dreamers” brought illegally to the United States as children, called on Sunday for money to fund a border wall to be part of any immigration deal. In a list of “principles” laid out in documents released by the White House, the Trump administration also pressed for a crackdown on unaccompanied minors who enter the United States, many of them from Central America. The plan, which was delivered to leaders in Congress on Sunday night, drew a swift rebuke from Democrats, who are seeking a legislative fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that Trump ended last month. “The administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans,” said House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the president was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so,” they said in a statement. The Trump administration wants the wish list to guide immigration reform in Congress and accompany a bill to replace DACA, the Obama-era program that protected nearly 800,000 “Dreamers” from deportation and allowed them to secure work permits. If enacted, the White House priorities could result in the deportation of Dreamers’ parents. The proposals emphasize immigration enforcement and include a request for funds to hire 370 more immigration judges, 1,000 attorneys for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, 300 federal prosecutors and 10,000 additional ICE agents to enforce immigration laws. “These priorities are essential to mitigate the legal and economic consequences of any grant of status to DACA recipients,” Trump’s legislative affairs director, Marc Short, told reporters on a conference call. The White House made clear it would not be pushing for Dreamers to achieve U.S. citizenship, only legal status, in a potential deal. Trump told Congress it had six months to come up with legislation to help Dreamers, who are a fraction of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, most of whom are Hispanic. The documents call for tighter standards for those seeking U.S. asylum, denial of federal grants to “sanctuary cities” that serve as refuges for illegal immigrants, and a requirement that employers use an electronic verification system known as “E-Verify” to keep illegal immigrants from securing jobs. Trump campaigned for president on a pledge to toughen immigration policies and build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. He vowed repeatedly that Mexico would pay for the wall, but began prodding Congress earlier this year to approve funding. Mexico has said it will not pay for the wall. Trump’s suggestion after a meeting with Schumer and Pelosi  that wall funding would not have to be part of a DACA fix alarmed some of his supporters. The White House sees the wall as a priority but has indicated that it could be established as part of a DACA bill or through other legislative avenues. Administration officials said that legislation that did not include all of the priorities on the list would not necessarily trigger a presidential veto. Republicans in Congress have introduced several bills that include aspects of Trump’s ideas, but many Democrats and immigration groups see the proposals as too harsh. “The Trump administration has put forth a serious proposal to address the enforcement of our immigration laws and border security,” said Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte in a statement. “We cannot fix the DACA problem without fixing all of the issues that led to the underlying problem of illegal immigration in the first place.” The White House’s wish list targets the flow of unaccompanied minors into the United States. It would require such children to be treated the same, regardless of their countries of origin “so long as they are not victims of human trafficking and can be safely returned home or removed to safe third countries,” the White House documents said. It would expand the list of “inadmissible aliens” to include members of gangs, those who have been convicted of an aggravated felony, and former spouses and children of drug and human traffickers if they receive benefits from such behavior. The plan also seeks to reduce the number of people who overstay their visas and reform how green cards that establish legal permanent residents are granted.  Trump’s White House has so far not been able to achieve a major legislative victory, casting doubt on the potential for a breakthrough on immigration reform, which Republican and Democratic presidents have tried before without success. Since Trump took office in January, his fellow Republicans have failed to repeal and replace former Democratic President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and a White House plan for tax reform needs more support.

Summary: ट्रंप ने 'ड्रीमर' सौदे के लिए सीमा पर दीवार बनाने और नाबालिगों पर कार्रवाई की मांग की


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump muscled himself to the front of the world stage in Brussels on Thursday, firmly pushing aside the leader of soon-to-be member Montenegro at a NATO summit. Footage showing the leaders caught Trump pushing his way past Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, then confidently adjusting his suit as he emerged in the front of the group, closer to NATO head Jens Stoltenberg. Video of the incident went viral and came as Trump delivered a tough message to NATO allies to dramatically increase their defense spending to ease financial burden to the United States. White House spokesman Sean Spicer, asked about Trump moving past Markovic, said he had not seen the video but assumed the U.S. president was moving to his designated spot. The NATO mission of Montenegro, which is joining the Western military alliance against stiff opposition from Russia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The small Balkan country will formally become NATO’s 29th state in June but Markovic joined the Brussels summit, Trump’s first, and a ceremonial opening of the alliance’s new headquarters. During the leaders’ joint photo shoot in the new building, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau encouraged his counterparts to wave for the cameras. Some did as Trudeau requested, but Trump did not raise his arm. Trump smiled briefly, but otherwise kept a serious expression on his face for the brief session.

Summary: ट्रंप ने अपने पहले शिखर सम्मेलन में नाटो के साथी नेता को दरकिनार कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican President-elect Donald Trump has turned to his long-time company’s top lawyer to serve as a special negotiator for trade deals and other talks, Trump’s team said in a statement on Tuesday. Jason Greenblatt, chief legal officer for The Trump Organization who served as Trump’s adviser to the Middle East, will work as Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, the statement said.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने विशेष वार्ताकार के लिए अपनी कंपनी के वकील को चुनाः बयान


GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s attorney general and a U.N-backed anti-graft body on Friday said they are seeking to investigate President Jimmy Morales over suspected illicit campaign financing. Ivan Velasquez, head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), told reporters there was evidence that Morales broke the law when he was head of the conservative National Convergence Front (FCN), and that prosecutors had filed a motion to investigate him.  In order to advance the investigation, it s necessary to remove his immunity,  said Velasquez, who on Thursday unveiled a probe into all political parties over suspected wrongdoing related to financing for the 2015 election campaign. To remove Morales  immunity, prosecutors need the go-ahead from both the Supreme Court and a two-thirds majority in Congress. He could then be formally investigated and charged. In a statement, the president s office said,  The President of the Republic has been and is respectful of the law and due process, and thus is confident in the objectivity of justice.   Morales took office in 2016, winning the election on an anti-corruption ticket after the CICIG helped to bring down his predecessor over a multi-million-dollar corruption scandal. Earlier this week, two government officials told Reuters that Morales would ask U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to replace Velasquez, who is already investigating a graft case that involves the president s elder brother and one of his sons.  He better have some really valid reasons ... to seek my removal from the post,  said Velasquez, adding he would not resign. Morales met with Guterres in New York on Friday. The secretary-general reiterated his backing for Velasquez and the CICIG s work at the meeting, with Guterres citing  the Organisation s continuing support to the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala,  the United Nations said in a statement. The president s office, in its statement, said it was worried about  manipulation  of information about the visit. The statement said Morales told Guterres it was important the CICIG stick to its original mandate.  Guatemala s foreign minister, Carlos Morales, who is not related to the president, told Reuters that there had been no request made on Friday to remove Velasquez from office. In 2015, the CICIG was instrumental in removing former President Otto Perez from office after identifying him as a key player in an alleged multi-million-dollar corruption racket. Perez is now in prison on trial with his former vice president.

Summary: अभियोजकों ने अभियान के वित्तपोषण को लेकर ग्वाटेमाला के राष्ट्रपति को निशाना बनाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump faced criticism from an unusual source on Wednesday when a buttoned-down U.S. government ethics office issued an apparently sarcastic stream of Twitter messages applauding him for selling off his assets. Trump, in fact, has not said whether he will sell the hotels, golf courses and other businesses that make up his global Trump Organization, as the U.S. Office of Government Ethics subsequently acknowledged. But the agency sent out a series of tweets as if he had done just that. “OGE is delighted that you’ve decided to divest your businesses. Right decision!” one tweet said. “We told your counsel we’d sing your praises if you divested, we meant it.” Trump promised only that he will be “leaving his great business in total” in a series of early morning tweets, one of his most common methods of communicating. Democratic lawmakers and other critics said Trump’s business interests could pose conflicts of interest when he takes office on Jan. 20 because he will be in a position to influence tax laws, environmental regulations and other government policies that could affect his assets.  Ethics office spokesman Seth Jaffe said Trump would more clearly resolve potential conflicts if he sold off his assets, rather than simply transferring control. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Previous presidents have opted to put their savings and investments into blind trusts so they do not know how their decisions in office influence their personal fortunes. Republican Trump, also a former reality TV star who has never previously held public office, has said this would be impractical because it would be difficult to sell off apartment buildings and other properties. He said on Wednesday he is drawing up legal documents that would remove him from day-to-day business operations. He said he would provide details on Dec. 15 at a news conference with his adult children, who are all involved in his enterprises.  “While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses,” Trump tweeted. Democratic lawmakers said that announcement was “vague” and urged Republicans who control Congress to hold hearings. Sixteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee wrote a letter asking whether Trump will transfer his assets to his children; whether his children will be involved in his administration; and whether businesses, foreign governments, and others will “continue to be able to take actions that benefit Mr. Trump and his family.” Democrats need the committee’s Republican chairman, Representative Bob Goodlatte, to agree to move forward with hearings. A Goodlatte spokeswoman said she did not expect the chairman would have a statement.

Summary: अमेरिकी नैतिकता कार्यालय ने व्यापारिक संघर्षों पर ट्रम्प पर व्यंग्य किया


WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - Bharat R. Ramamurti, a legislative aide for Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, is a contender for one of the vacancies on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the matter. Ramamurti is senior counsel to Warren on banking and economic policy and she is staunchly backing him for the SEC job, one of the sources told Reuters. The sources spoke anonymously because deliberations on candidates for the SEC, which is the primary regulator that polices and writes rules for Wall Street, are not public. Ramamurti declined to comment. A source said a decision on the post was not imminent. In prior instances with President Donald Trump’s administration, candidates in the running for positions were sometimes dropped after their names became public. Other names that are in the mix include Vermont Law School professor Jennifer Taub, the AFL-CIO’s office of investment director Heather Slavkin Corzo and Andy Green, a managing director at the Center for American Progress who previously worked for SEC Democratic Commissioner Kara Stein, the sources told Reuters. Taub and Green declined to comment and Slavkin Corzo could not be immediately reached. A spokesperson for the White House declined to comment, saying he could not discuss personnel matters. Trump must nominate three people to fill out the five-member panel, which currently is down to two commissioners - Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar, a Republican, and Stein. The nomination of Wall Street deal-making attorney Jay Clayton, Trump’s choice to lead the SEC, was approved by the Senate Banking Committee earlier this month. Clayton, an independent, is still awaiting confirmation by the full Senate, which is currently away for Easter recess. Trump has not yet formally nominated anyone else for the remaining SEC spots - one Democrat and one Republican. Warren, a progressive Democrat, has been critical of the Trump administration’s plans to roll back the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. She voted against Clayton’s nomination, saying his employment as a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell representing large banks creates too many conflicts of interest and may prevent him from being a tough regulator. As her counsel on the banking committee, Ramamurti has played a prominent role in shaping Warren’s policy agenda. He helped steer her investigative efforts into the Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal and worked on bipartisan efforts to broker a deal on housing reforms for mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Summary: सीनेटर वारेन के सहयोगी को एसईसी नौकरी के लिए दौड़ में कहा गयाः सूत्र


MADRID (Reuters) - A statement by the leader of Spain s northeastern region of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont due to have been made at 1430 CET (1230 GMT) on Thursday has been canceled, the regional government said.

Summary: कैटलन नेता का संबोधन रद्दः क्षेत्रीय सरकार


PARIS (Reuters) - Spanish and Catalan leaders should open talks as soon as possible to safeguard civil peace, the head of France s Occitanie region, which borders Catalonia, said on Saturday. Madrid on Friday sacked Catalonia s regional government to block its push for independence and called a snap election in the region on Dec. 21 in a bid to draw a line under Spain s worst political crisis in 40 years.   Our region... has a special history with Spain, and we have had close ties with our neighbor Catalonia for decades,  Occitanie president Carole Delga said in a written statement. Occitanie includes the Pyrenees-Orientales, whose territory was part of Catalonia until the signing of a treaty to end a war between France and Spain in 1659. The Catalan language is still spoken by a few people living in the French region.  Faced with this deadlock situation, I want to stress the need to find a way to open talks as soon as possible, notably to safeguard the civil peace,  Delga added.  Occitanie is France s second-biggest region with a total population of more than 5 million people. It was created in January 2016 and comprises two former regions, including the cities of Toulouse and Montpelier. Separately, the nationalist president of the Corsican Assembly, Jean-Guy Talamoni, said on Twitter that he recognized the  birth of the Republic of Catalonia  but called for European authorities to mediate between Madrid and Barcelona.   On the European side, what s troubling is this unfailing support for Madrid, which has used extremely violent means to prevent peaceful people from voting,  Talamoni later said on France Info radio station.  Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy praised the police for carrying out their duties and upholding the law while they attempted to prevent the banned independence referendum taking place.

Summary: फ्रांस के ऑक्सिटेनी क्षेत्र ने स्पेन और कैटेलोनिया शांति वार्ता का आह्वान किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saad al-Hariri, who quit as Lebanese Prime Minister in a weekend broadcast from Saudi Arabia, has been held under house arrest in the kingdom, a pro-Hezbollah daily said on Tuesday citing unnamed sources. Hariri s office and Saudi-owned media said he flew to the UAE, a Saudi ally and fellow Gulf monarchy, on Tuesday. Aides to Hariri, Lebanon s most influential Sunni politician and a close Saudi ally, have denied claims that he was detained.  Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, which is aligned with the Shi ite militant group and political movement Hezbollah, said Hariri  was placed under house arrest hours after arriving in Riyadh last Friday  and had remained in detention since.  On Monday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir dismissed as  nonsense  allegations that the kingdom forced Hariri to resign, and said he was free to leave at any time. Speculation in Lebanon over Hariri s status continued even after Saudi media showed him meeting with King Salman and reported him leaving for the UAE. Hariri s resignation has thrust Lebanon back onto the frontline of the rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran that has also wrought upheaval in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.  The coalition government, which Hariri s shock resignation collapsed, included Iran-backed Hezbollah. His declaration came as Saudi Arabia undertook an anti-corruption purge in which royals, ministers and investors have been arrested as the putative next king tightens his grip on power. In a dramatic escalation of the crisis, Saudi Arabia accused Lebanon on Monday of declaring war because of aggression by Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused Riyadh last week of forcing Hariri to step down, and said there were  legitimate questions  over whether he had been detained. The al-Akhbar newspaper said that a Saudi security team had been supervising Hariri, citing unnamed sources close to him. The prime minister, whose family made their fortune in the Saudi construction industry, had very limited access to his phones, it said on Tuesday.    Fouad Siniora, a former prime minister and senior member of Hariri s political party, said Hariri would return to Lebanon.

Summary: लेबनान के प्रधानमंत्री सऊदी अरब में नजरबंदः हिजबुल्ला समर्थक अखबार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate said bipartisan negotiations to protect undocumented people who immigrated to the United States as children were making very good progress, and that he hoped a bill could clear Congress by year-end. “There are very good negotiations going on between Democrats and Republicans,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “We’re very hopeful that there will be bipartisan support so that we can get DACA done by the end of the year,” he added, referring to legislation to replace the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Donald Trump is terminating.

Summary: शीर्ष अमेरिकी सीनेट डेमोक्रेट को उम्मीद है कि कांग्रेस वर्ष के अंत तक 'ड्रीमर्स' की मदद करेगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders of two committees in the U.S. House of Representatives launched an investigation on Tuesday into the purchase by a Russian firm several years ago of a Canadian company that owned some 20 percent of U.S. uranium supplies. Republican lawmakers say they want to know whether the transaction was fully investigated by the FBI and other agencies before it was approved by a panel that oversees foreign investment in U.S. strategic assets. Some Republicans have claimed that Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved the deal after her husband’s charitable foundation received a $145 million donation, but the State Department controls only one seat on the panel that approved the transaction and the New York Times has reported that Clinton did not participate in the decision.

Summary: हाउस में रिपब्लिकन ने अमेरिकी यूरेनियम से जुड़े रूस सौदे की जांच शुरू की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday slammed Republican lawmakers for their plan, reversed the next day, to weaken the outside ethics watchdog charged with investigating lawmakers’ behavior. “House Republicans showed their true colors last night, and reversing their plans to destroy the Office of Congressional Ethics will not obscure their clear contempt for ethics in the People’s House,” Pelosi said in a statement after House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Republicans had withdrawn their proposal to weaken the panel.

Summary: पेलोसी का कहना है कि रिपब्लिकन ने नैतिकता में 'असली रंग' दिखाया


DETROIT (Reuters) - United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams said on Thursday the union will endorse either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders for U.S. president “soon,” and called for unity among Democrats behind the eventual nominee. Williams, head of the richest U.S. union, vowed that the labor group will be “all in” to support the eventual Democratic nominee. The UAW has more than 1 million current and retired members. In a news conference at UAW headquarters, Williams did not say whether the UAW would endorse a candidate before the June 7 Democratic primary in California, but said he and top union leaders could decide quickly over the phone when the time comes to announce a decision. In early polling of UAW members, 28 percent preferred Donald Trump, who is now the presumptive Republican nominee. Williams said the poll was conducted at a time when Trump talked about bringing jobs back to the United States and before the union distributed comments Trump made last August in a Detroit News interview when he said U.S. automakers should shift production from Michigan to states where wages could be lowered. Williams would not reveal how Clinton or Sanders fared in the early polling among UAW members when Trump received about 28 percent of the support. Williams said he did not know the current level of support among UAW members for Trump, but he indicated that he is confident most of the onetime Trump supporters would side with a Democratic candidate. Williams said the Republican Party is for “free trade” and not “fair trade” and that the result of a Republican presidency would be lower wages for U.S. workers. “I don’t want a president that has a good line,” said the UAW chief. “I want to know what the detail is.” Williams said, “It’s not a game show.” Separately, he said he may seek a meeting with Tesla Motors Inc’s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk when he calls on other corporate leaders. Williams said he met twice with Musk five years ago, before he became UAW president in mid-2014. Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, which is nonunion, has increased production and the number of employees greatly since then. Williams said the UAW continues to work to organize the Tesla plant but he would not give any details on how intense that effort is. “It’s still a priority,” he said.

Summary: यू. ए. डब्ल्यू. प्रमुख ने कहा कि यूनियन जल्द ही क्लिंटन या सैंडर्स में से किसी एक का समर्थन करेगी


YANGON/SHAMLAPUR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Myanmar said on Wednesday it was negotiating with China and Russia to ensure they block any U.N. Security Council censure over the violence that has forced an exodus of nearly 150,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh in less than two weeks. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi blamed  terrorists  for  a huge iceberg of misinformation  on the strife in the northwestern state of Rakhine but, in a statement, she made no mention of the Rohingya who have fled. Suu Kyi has come under increasing pressure from countries with Muslim populations, including Indonesia, where thousands led by Islamist groups rallied in Jakarta on Wednesday to demand that diplomatic ties with Buddhist-majority Myanmar be cut. In a rare letter to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern the violence could spiral into a  humanitarian catastrophe .  He warned on Tuesday that there was a risk of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar that could destabilize the region. Myanmar National Security Adviser Thaung Tun said Myanmar was counting on China and Russia, both permanent members of the Security Council, to block a U.N. resolution on the crisis.  We are negotiating with some friendly countries not to take it to the Security Council,  he told a news conference.  China is our friend and we have a similar friendly relationship with Russia, so it will not be possible for that issue to go forward.  Russia s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said he believed the 15-member Security Council had sent a signal, by meeting behind closed doors on the issue a week ago, that it would like to see the situation calm down.   We called for restraint,  he told reporters on Tuesday.  The Security Council for the time being did what it could do.  The U.S. State Department said Washington was  deeply concerned by sustained reports of significant violence and the impact on civilian populations, including the Rohingya community.  These reports include allegations of violence conducted by security forces and civilians, as well as additional attacks by ARSA,  a spokesman said, referring to Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Organization insurgents.  The spokesman said the United States had discussed the issue with Myanmar  at the highest levels  and was also in touch with its neighbors and other international partners.  We welcome indications that the government is committed to providing access to humanitarian aid via the Red Cross, and we look forward to learning further details.  he added.  Reuters reporters in Bangladesh s Cox s Bazar region have witnessed boatloads of exhausted Rohingya arriving near the border village of Shamlapur. According to the latest estimates from U.N. workers operating there, arrivals in 12 days stood at 146,000. This brought to 233,000 the total number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since last October. New arrivals told authorities that three boats carrying a total of more than 100 people capsized in early on Wednesday. Coastguard Commander M.S. Kabir said six bodies, including three children, had washed ashore. The surge of refugees, many sick or wounded, has strained the resources of aid agencies and communities helping hundreds of thousands from previous violence in Myanmar. Many have no shelter, and aid agencies are racing to provide water, sanitation and food.  People have come with virtually nothing so there has to be food,  a U.N. source working there said.  So this is now a huge concern   where is this food coming from for at least the elderly, the children, the women who have come over without their husbands?  Suu Kyi spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has pressed world leaders to do more to help a population of roughly 1.1 million he says are facing genocide. In a statement issued by her office on Facebook, Suu Kyi said the government had  already started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible  and warned against misinformation that could mar relations with other countries. She referred to images on Twitter of killings posted by Turkey s deputy prime minister that he later deleted because they were not from Myanmar.  She said that kind of fake information which was inflicted on the deputy prime minister was simply the tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems between different countries and with the aim of promoting the interests of the terrorists,  her office said in the statement. Suu Kyi on Wednesday met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said he shared Myanmar s concern about  extremist violence  in Rakhine state. Modi s government has taken a strong stance on an influx into India of some 40,000 Rohingya from Myanmar over the years, vowing last month to deport them all. The latest violence began when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive killed at least 400 people and triggered the exodus of villagers to Bangladesh. Suu Kyi has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution, and some have called for the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991 as a champion of democracy to be revoked. Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against  terrorists  it blames for a string of attacks on police posts and for burning homes and civilian deaths. It says 26,747 non-Muslims have been displaced. Fleeing Rohingya and rights monitors say the Myanmar army is  conducting a campaign of arson and killings to force them from their homes. Two Bangladesh government sources said Myanmar had been laying landmines across a section of its border for the past three days, possibly to prevent the return of fleeing Rohingya. Bangladesh will formally lodge a protest on Wednesday against the laying of land mines so close to the border, said the sources who had direct knowledge of the situation but asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.  A Myanmar military source said landmines were laid along the border in the 1990s to prevent trespassing and the military had since tried to remove them, but none had been planted recently.

Summary: रोहिंग्या पर संयुक्त राष्ट्र की निंदा को टालने के लिए म्यांमार ने राजनयिक कार्ड खेला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday said that he wanted to focus on “substance” and not “labels,” when asked about support for a two-state solution for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. “Rather than deal with labels, I want to deal with substance,” Netanyahu said during a news conference with President Donald Trump at the White House. “There are two prerequisites for peace. First the Palestinians must recognize the Jewish state ... Second, in any peace agreement, Israel must retain the overriding security control over the entire area west of the Jordan River,” he said.

Summary: दो राज्यों के बारे में पूछे जाने पर नेतन्याहू ने कहा कि वह 'लेबल' पर नहीं बल्कि 'पदार्थ' पर ध्यान केंद्रित करना चाहते हैं


BRANCHBURG, N.J./VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Leonard Lance, who has held more than 40 town hall-style meetings with constituents in his central New Jersey district, has never faced a crowd like he did on Wednesday. The Republican endured catcalls, chants and caustic questions from more than 1,000 residents at a local college, while hundreds of others outside brandished signs with messages like “Resist Trump.” Parallel scenes have played out across the country this week during the first congressional recess since Donald Trump became president. Republican lawmakers returning home confronted a wave of anger over a spectrum of issues, including immigration, healthcare and Trump’s possible ties to Russia. The raucous meetings are the latest in a relentless series of rallies, marches and protests that shows no signs of abating more than 30 days into the new administration. The anti-Trump energy has prompted talk of a liberal-style Tea Party movement, in reference to the protests in 2009 that helped reshape the Republican Party and arguably laid the groundwork for Trump’s surprise electoral victory last year. “Some of the lessons to draw from that are persistence, repetition, not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” said Victoria Kaplan, the organizing director for the grassroots progressive group MoveOn. Since the day after Trump’s inauguration, when millions of protesters joined women’s marches worldwide, left-wing organizers have sought to harness that anger to fuel a lasting political campaign. Hundreds of progressive groups have sprung up across the country - some affiliated with national organizations like Indivisible or MoveOn - to help coordinate. At town halls in New Jersey and Virginia this week, constituents came armed with red “disagree” signs they held aloft to register their disapproval of what they heard from their representatives.  Some U.S. senators, such as Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, have faced weekly protests outside their offices, and a Pennsylvania healthcare network set up a “town hall” this week with an empty suit in place of Toomey, who declined to attend. More marches are scheduled across the country in the coming months, including several major events in Washington, tied to gay rights, science and a push for Trump to release his tax returns. The sheer volume of protests - last week, there were three nationwide calls for action within a five-day span - has some political observers wondering how long it can last. But several experts who study protests said the level of outrage may be increasing, rather than subsiding, after a tumultuous first month in which Trump’s words and actions created fresh outrage among liberals almost daily. “We’re not anywhere near reaching a saturation point for protest,” said Michael Heaney, the author of “Party in the Street: The Antiwar Movement and the Democratic Party after 9/11” and a University of Michigan professor. “If anything, it’s just getting started.” The key for organizers is to convert large-scale protests into sustained action by building databases of names and encouraging locally based events, experts said. “You can’t just have the diehards,” said Dana R. Fisher, a University of Maryland professor who studies collective action. “And then you need to channel them into new types of activism.” When Fisher surveyed participants at the women’s march in Washington, she found one-third were attending their first protest - the highest percentage she has ever observed. “This is unprecedented,” she said. “But there’s nothing that’s not unprecedented about the Trump presidency.” Some Republicans have dismissed the protests as manufactured. Trump on Tuesday tweeted that “so-called angry crowds” in Republicans’ districts were “planned out by liberal activists.” But Kaplan of MoveOn said the vast majority of actions were “organic.” A weekly conference call the group hosts to discuss the movement has attracted a bigger number of participants each week, with 46,000 people joining the latest discussion. “We are firing on all cylinders to catch up” with grassroots protests, she said. “That is a demonstration of energy and sustainability.” Experts also said social media has made it far easier to organize mass protests quickly and efficiently. In what Kaplan said was a sign the protests are having an impact, many Republicans have eschewed town halls this week to avoid confrontations. There were fewer than 100 in-person Republican town halls scheduled for the first two months of the year, compared with more than 200 in the same period in 2015, according to a Vice report. In Louisiana on Wednesday, residents shouted down Republican Senator Bill Cassidy as he tried to explain his healthcare proposal. Scott Taylor, a freshman Republican representative in Virginia, sparred with hundreds of impassioned constituents on Monday at his own event. Like Lance, whose district voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump, Taylor is already a midterm target for Democrats. Taylor said in an interview after the town hall that he recognized many of the attendees from the local Democratic Party. “It’s not like they’re just some new organic people who just came about and are concerned,” Taylor said.  But not everyone was a Democrat. Austin Phillips, a 22-year-old Trump voter, told Taylor at the town hall he was worried about losing healthcare coverage if Obamacare is repealed. “Trump has talked about wanting to repeal it,” Phillips, who is self-employed and purchased insurance through an exchange created by the law, said in a later interview. “If they quickly repeal it with no replacement lined up, then theoretically everybody would lose their insurance.”

Summary: एक महीने में, ट्रम्प विरोधी आंदोलन ने निरंतर गति के संकेत दिखाए


(Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump’s declaration of love for “the poorly educated” in his Nevada victory speech lit up social media on Wednesday, sparking a battle between those dumbfounded by the remark and those saying it had been taken out of context.  After winning the vote of the state’s Republicans by a wide margin on Tuesday, the real estate billionaire rattled off a list of those groups who swept him to victory: “We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”  By Wednesday morning, the phrase “I LOVE THE POORLY EDUCATED” was trending heavily. On Twitter, it was tweeted roughly 15 times a minute, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph.  "I am, by modern standards, poorly educated, and I think that Donald Trump is a threat to America," tweeted Aaron Camp (@AaronApolloCamp).  Another Twitter user, Kat (@VTweddingPhoto), wrote, “This is an embarrassment. For the GOP and for us as Americans. The world is once again laughing.”  Others said Trump’s remark was being taken out of context, as he also touted having won the support of “the highly educated.”  "To be fair with Trump, he said 'I love the highly educated and the poorly educated'. Don't take it out of context," tweeted Super Bowl Champs (@Josh_D_Manning).  Dan Slott (@DanSlott) was not swayed. “We won the poorly educated vote. I love the poorly educated” - Trump Not a joke. Not parody. Not out of context. Trump ACTUALLY said this.”  Trump has won three of the four state-by-state Republican nominating contests, including Nevada, in the run-up to the party nominating convention in July and the Nov. 8 general election to succeed President Barack Obama.

Summary: ट्रम्प 'कम शिक्षित' से प्यार करते हैं... और सोशल मीडिया पर हंगामा


MANILA (Reuters) - Islamic State-inspired militants who battled troops in a southern Philippine city for 154 days sought a way out two months into the fierce conflict, but the government ignored their proposal, a separatist negotiator and a minister said. The takeover of Marawi was the biggest security crisis in decades in the Philippines, fuelling concern that Islamic State and Indonesian and Malaysian extremists might have greater sway among its minority Muslims than previously thought. Abdullah Maute, one of those leading the Dawla Islamiya rebel alliance in the city, had engaged Muslim leaders to urge President Rodrigo Duterte to let the militants escape in return for the release of scores of captives, one cleric said. Agakhan Sharief, a Marawi Muslim cleric well known to the militant Maute clan, said that around July 27, Abdullah Maute asked for help in arranging for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a separatist group at peace with the government, to receive hostages and escort militants out of the city.  He agreed to negotiate to leave Marawi on the condition the MILF is involved,  Sharief told Reuters.  I told him when he goes out of Marawi, there s no guarantee the military will not kill him. He said,  No problem .  He was very serious at the time.  The violence in Marawi killed more than 1,100 people, mostly rebels, and the city center has been destroyed by artillery and government air strikes. The military believes Abdullah was killed in an air strike in early August, but the body was not found. His brother and co-leader, Omarkhayam, was killed on Oct. 16, along with Isnilon Hapilon, Islamic State s   emir  in Southeast Asia. The government allowed the MILF to operate a  peace corridor  in Marawi that helped rescue hundreds of civilians. The MILF s top peace negotiator, Mohagher Iqbal, confirmed Maute made the proposal, but the government had ignored it.   There was no formal negotiation and our role was only to facilitate. It s up to two sides to agree,  he told Reuters.  We had some reservations about the deal. Although some of the Maute members were former MILF, we doubted their intentions and sincerity. We do not know if they would honor the deal.  Scores of hostages escaped or were rescued in the last few months of the fighting, but it is unclear how many may have been killed. Authorities have yet to retrieve all bodies from a battle zone that is still littered with unexploded munitions and homemade bombs. The army says a few militant holdouts are still hiding in what is now ground zero. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told Reuters Duterte was aware of Maute s request to flee Marawi in exchange for hostages, but the offer was too little, too late.   Too many soldiers had been killed,  he said.  If they had proposed that in the first week, when there had not been so many casualties, then it would have been OK.  It was too late, he (Duterte) was no longer inclined to entertain any deals with them.

Summary: फिलीपींस के उग्रवादियों ने मरावी संघर्ष को समाप्त करने के लिए जुलाई समझौते की मांग की, मध्यस्थों का कहना है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Friday said it delivered documents to congressional committees responding to their request for information that could shed light on President Donald Trump’s claims that former President Barack Obama ordered U.S. agencies to spy on him. The information was sent to the House and Senate intelligence and judiciary committees, said Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Devin Nunes, said in a statement late on Friday that the Justice Department had “fully complied” with the panel’s request. A government source, who requested anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said an initial examination of the material turned over by the Justice Department indicates that it contains no evidence to confirm Trump’s claims that the Obama administration had wiretapped him or the Trump Tower in New York. The House Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing on Monday on allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers will testify and are expected to field questions on Trump’s wiretap claim. Leaders of both the House and Senate intelligence committees, including from Trump’s Republican Party, have said they have found no evidence to substantiate Trump’s claims that Obama ordered U.S. agencies to spy on Trump or his entourage. The White House has publicly offered no proof of the allegation.  On Monday, the House panel sent the Justice Department a letter asking for copies of any court orders related to Trump or his associates which might have been issued last year under an electronic surveillance law or a wide-ranging anti-crime statute.

Summary: न्याय विभाग ने कांग्रेस को वायरटैप दावे पर दस्तावेज सौंपे


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Navy on Thursday fired seven cruise missiles at Islamic state targets in the suburbs of Syria s Deir al-Zor, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. It said the missiles were fired from two submarines in the eastern Mediterranean from a distance of 500-670 kilometers (727 miles).   The targets were command posts, communication centers, as well as militants  weapons and ammunition stockpiles in areas of south-east Deir al-Zor under the control of Islamic State,  the ministry said.

Summary: रूसी पनडुब्बियों ने सीरिया में इस्लामिक स्टेट पर क्रूज मिसाइलें दागीं


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia does not believe that Iran is abiding by the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and six world powers, the kingdom s foreign minister said on Wednesday, without elaborating.  We expect the international community to do whatever it takes to ensure that Iran is in compliance,  the minister, Adel al-Jubeir, told reporters at the United Nations.

Summary: सऊदी अरब नहीं मानता कि ईरान परमाणु समझौते का पालन कर रहा हैः मंत्री


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s highest court ruled on Wednesday in favor of the introduction of a third gender category for people who do not identify as either male or female or are born with an ambiguous sexual anatomy. The Federal Constitutional Court called on lawmakers to enact legislation by the end of 2018 to either allow the introduction of a third category or dispense with gender altogether in civil status documents. In 2013, Germany became the first European country to recognize indeterminate sex by allowing babies born with no clear gender-determining anatomy to be put on the birth register without a male or female classification. Wednesday s decision overturned a ruling by a lower court last year in a case brought by a German citizen born in 1989, identified as Vanja by the Third Option campaign group that supported the plaintiff in the case. The lower court said it was not possible to be registered as third gender because Vanja could leave the gender identity blank. However, the Federal Constitutional Court said Germany s Basic Law, or constitution, protected the personality rights of individuals who do not define themselves as male or female, adding that the current law on civil status interfered with that right.  The Basic Law does not require that civil status be exclusively binary in terms of gender,  the court said in a statement. The Third Option group described the ruling as  historic , but said it is only the  first step on improving the situation of inter and transgender people .  Finally it s recognized by the Federal Constitutional Court that there are more genders than man or woman,  said Mortiz Schmidt, the spokesman of the group. Antke Engel, the director of The Institute of Queer Theory in Berlin, said she was impressed that ruling gave lawmakers the possibility of dropping the gender category altogether.   Of course that would be the more radical version,  Engel said. Jamie Zulauf, a 30-year-old medical student who identifies as transgender, welcomed the move but said it could mean new problems when traveling to countries where a third gender is not accepted.   It s going to be visible and it s not always safe to be visible,  Jamie said. The government in Berlin estimated in 2013 there were 8,000 to 10,000 intersex people in Germany but interest groups say the number could be closer to 80,000.

Summary: जर्मनी की अदालत ने तीसरे लिंग की श्रेणी के पक्ष में फैसला सुनाया


GENEVA (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. fact-finding mission probing violence in Myanmar s Rakhine state said on Tuesday he is still waiting for permission to enter the country.  We have not been able to proceed further in planning the presence of a fact-finding team on the ground until there is a clear signal from the government of Myanmar that the fact-finding mission is in fact enabled to access into the country,  Marzuki Darusman told the U.N. Human Rights Council.  We continue to hold hopes, high hopes in fact, that this may be resolved.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र के जांचकर्ता का कहना है कि उन्हें म्यांमार जाने की अनुमति नहीं है