WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump upped the stakes on Friday in a back-and-forth exchange with President Vladimir Putin over nuclear weapons that tested the Republican’s promises to improve relations with Russia.   Offering a glimpse of how he might conduct diplomacy after taking office on Jan. 20, Trump reportedly welcomed a nuclear arms race with Russia and China and boasted that the United States would win it.     MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski said Trump told her in an off-air phone call: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.” The television station did not play his comments on air.        It was the second brusque comment about atomic weapons in two days from the New York businessman that alarmed nuclear non-proliferation experts worried about fueling global tension. The broadsides from Trump’s resort in Florida appeared to be aimed mostly at Putin even though the two men have vowed to patch up relations between their countries once the Republican enters the White House. Trump tweeted unexpectedly on Thursday that, “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,” but gave no further details. That comment appeared to be a response to Putin who said earlier on Thursday that Russia needed to “strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces.”     Russia and the United States are at odds over Syria’s civil war and Ukraine but Cold War-style nuclear tensions have greatly eased in recent years. Moscow and Washington signed the New START nuclear treaty in 2010 which reduced strategic weapons and delivery systems.  Putin, accused by the Obama administration of overseeing a wave of cyber attacks against U.S. political organizations during the presidential campaign, said on Friday he had no interest in competing with the U.S. nuclear weapon program. “If anyone is unleashing an arms race it’s not us ... We will never spend resources on an arms race that we can’t afford,” he said at a news conference. The Russian president said he was surprised by State Department comments that the U.S. military is the most powerful in the world. “Nobody is arguing with that,” Putin said.  He said he did not regard the United States as a potential aggressor and said he saw nothing new or remarkable about Trump’s own statement about wanting to expand U.S. nuclear capabilities.            The United States is in the midst of a $1 trillion, 30-year modernization of its aging nuclear arsenal and replacement of its ballistic missile submarines, bombers and land-based missiles. It is a price tag that most experts say the United States can ill afford.     Russia, also bound by New START limits, is carrying out its own costly modernization program but is not expanding its warhead stockpile. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said the president-elect’s nuclear comments were meant to send a general message of strength to countries like Russia and China rather than indicate the United States planned to build up its nuclear capabilities.    “He is going to do what it takes to protect this country and if another country or countries want to threaten our safety and sovereignty, he is going to do what it takes,” Spicer said onCNN. Trump was elected president unexpectedly last month partly on a platform of building up the U.S. military but he also pledged to cut taxes and control federal spending.   His nuclear comments suggest that improving relations with Moscow might not be easy.  Trump on Friday released what he said was “a very nice letter” from Putin dated Dec. 15 in which the Russian leader sought bilateral cooperation and a “new level” of relations. In an accompanying statement, Trump said he hoped both countries could “live up to these thoughts” rather than “have to travel an alternative path.”           The Obama administration has accused Russia of trying to interfere with the U.S. election by hacking Democratic Party accounts. Information from those hacks was leaked online, causing political problems for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.     Putin dismissed suggestions Moscow had helped Trump to victory. “The current administration and the leadership of the Democratic Party are trying to blame all their failures on external factors,” he said at his Friday news conference.   “(We are talking about) a party which has clearly forgotten the original meaning of its own name. They (the Democrats) are losing on all fronts and looking elsewhere for things to blame. In my view this, how shall I say it, degrades their own dignity. You have to know how to lose with dignity.” Trump expressed his agreement with Putin’s view of the Democrats. “So true!” Trump tweeted Friday evening. Putin, who spoke positively of Trump before his election win, said that only Moscow had believed in his victory. “Trump understood the mood of the people and kept going until the end, when nobody believed in him,” Putin said, adding with a smile. “Except for you and me.”

Summary: ट्रम्प की परमाणु टिप्पणी ने रूस के संबंधों को सुधारने के प्रयास का परीक्षण किया


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela s government criticized Canada s Friday announcement of targeted sanctions against 40 of its senior officials, accusing Ottawa of  submission  to U.S. President Donald Trump in a bid to overthrow the South American country s leftist administration. Canada s move, which followed a similar decision by the United States, came after months of protests against President Nicolas Maduro s government. At least 125 people were killed in the demonstrations.  Critics say Maduro has plunged the nation into its worst economic crisis ever and brought it to the brink of dictatorship. Maduro says he was facing a U.S.-backed  armed insurrection  seeking to foment a coup. Canada s measures include freezing the assets of the officials and banning Canadians from having any dealings with them. Caracas late on Friday night decried the sanctions as a sign of external meddling and an attempt to churn up turmoil in Venezuela.  Canada s government established ... an immoral association of subordination with the government of President Donald Trump with the clear aim of overthrowing Venezuela s constitutional government using economic sanctions as political weapons,  the government said in a statement. Last month, Trump signed an executive order that prohibits dealings in new debt from the Venezuelan government or its state oil company in an effort to halt financing that the White House said fuels Maduro s  dictatorship.  The Trump administration also sanctioned Maduro in July.

Summary: वेनेजुएला ने कनाडा के प्रतिबंधों की निंदा की, कहा ओटावा ने ट्रम्प के समक्ष समर्पण किया


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s ruling African National Congress (ANC) is holding hundreds of branch meetings as grassroots members nominate candidates to take over from President Jacob Zuma as party chief in December. The frontrunners are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former chair of the African Union and Zuma s ex-wife, but with several other senior ANC figures running, the contest is too close to call. The ANC s next leader will probably become president in 2019 given the party s electoral dominance. First they face the tough task of winning back voters disillusioned with Zuma s rule and investors spooked by ratings downgrades. The fractious, sometimes violent, branch meetings start the decisive final stretch of the race to succeed Zuma, whose rule has been marred by corruption allegations and a sharp economic slowdown. Ramaphosa, a former union leader and one of the country s richest people, is viewed more favourably by foreign investors, who help cover the country s deficits. Many of them are unsettled by Dlamini-Zuma s calls to radically redistribute wealth and change the ownership structure of the central bank. Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma s campaign teams did not reply to requests for comment on reports of intimidation and manipulation of the nomination process in some provinces.  The real fight is in December, but psychologically the battle for the soul of the ANC has begun,  said Stan Itshegetseng, who chaired a branch meeting in the Diepkloof district of the sprawling Soweto township on Sunday. It took 11 hours for Itshegetseng s branch of over 320 members to nominate Ramaphosa for ANC president, recommend more than 20 other officials for the party s National Executive Committee and agree on a delegate to send to the December party conference. Nominations in the branches matter because they send 90 percent of the more than 5,000 delegates who will vote in December. Branch meetings started last month and are due to end in mid-November. For a factbox on the ANC leadership contest, see: Unless change comes under the ANC s next leader, some analysts believe the ANC could lose the 2019 election, a once unthinkable scenario for a party that has led comfortably since sweeping to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994. As the ANC s electoral majority has shrunk, so the battle for control of the party has intensified between the factions backing Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa. Zuma and the ANC s youth and women s leagues he controls want Dlamini-Zuma, while Ramaphosa is backed by a diverse group of labor unions, communists and ANC members who say the party has lost its way under Zuma. Provincial ANC leaders are split. Carol Sono, a branch member in Diepkloof, said Dlamini-Zuma s stints as health minister, foreign minister and home affairs minister meant she was the most qualified.  It s only because of patriarchy that she wasn t chosen sooner,  Sono said. Kedi Saletese, a branch secretary in the Orlando district of Soweto, said only Ramaphosa could tackle corruption and help the ANC reclaim its image as a defender of ordinary South Africans.  Now people see the ANC as a stepladder to enrich themselves. It makes you ashamed to wear an ANC T-shirt,  she said. Saletese s branch - like Itshegetseng s in Diepkloof - nominated Ramaphosa on Sunday. The Gauteng province, where Soweto and the country s commercial capital, Johannesburg, are based, is an area where Ramaphosa enjoys strong support. Ramaphosa also polls well in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces, whereas Dlamini-Zuma is likely to receive a greater share of votes in provinces including her native Kwa-Zulu Natal and Mpumalanga, where the premier is viewed as a Zuma ally. Earlier this year there was a spate of political killings in Kwa-Zulu Natal, and some officials have expressed concern there could be more bloodshed as the leadership race nears its climax. At the three branches Reuters visited in Soweto on Sunday, there was no sign of violence, though a coordinator for Ramaphosa s campaign said he had been threatened with being  taken out permanently  for his choice of leader. Activists for Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma mingled with party members, urging loyalty before the nominations began. As Ramaphosa supporters emerged victorious from their branch meeting in Diepkloof, they started singing  Things will change .

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका की अनियंत्रित एएनसी शाखाओं ने ज़ूमा के उत्तराधिकारी बनने की दौड़ शुरू की


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany may need to wait until next year for a new government as the three blocs trying to form an alliance are so far apart they will need a deeply detailed coalition deal, a senior Bavarian ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Reuters. Alexander Dobrindt, parliamentary floor leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), said a coalition agreement would have to be more precise than the one that accompanied the right-left grand coalition in the last parliament.  After 12 years in power, Merkel was humbled in last month s national election by a surge of the anti-immigrant far right and she must now broker a three-way coalition of her conservatives, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens - a combination previously untested at the federal level. The task is further complicated by the fact that Merkel s conservative bloc compromises her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the right-leaning Bavarian CSU, whose alliance has been strained by her open-door migrants policy. The conservative allies removed one obstacle to forming a new coalition on Sunday by agreeing a limit on the number of migrants arriving in Germany, sought by the CSU. But Dobrindt said in an interview with Reuters television that securing a three-way alliance would be difficult.  As we know that the points that separate us outweigh those we have in common, one can have doubts about whether a coalition agreement is possible this year,  he said.  It is conceivable that we can t complete in December and that final talks - if there even are any - will only possible next year.  The three-way tie-up - dubbed a  Jamaica  coalition after the black, green and yellow colors of the three party blocs that match the Caribbean nation s flag - is Merkel s only realistic option of forming a government. The center-left Social Democrats, her previous partners in an awkward  grand coalition , insist they now want to go into opposition. A Jamaica coalition was formed in the tiny western German state of Saarland in October 2009, but collapsed in January 2012. The same formation took power in the far northern region of Schleswig-Holstein after elections there in May this year. At a national level, the CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens have deep differences on issues ranging from migration to European Union reform, tax and the environment.  But Merkel, asked in an interview with the RND group of newspapers whether such a coalition could nonetheless come to pass, said the parties had a mandate from voters that they needed to take on.  It s our joint responsibility, our duty in fact, to form a government from that and to pursue sensible policies for our citizens and country. I think that s possible,  she said. Dobrindt said diverging opinions between the three parties meant they would have to nail down an in-depth deal.  We need, in a possible Jamaica coalition agreement, a significantly higher level of detail than was the case with the grand coalition,  he said.  The differences between the parties are big, so the agreements need to go deeper.  In their compromise struck on Sunday, the CDU and CSU agreed to limit to 200,000 the number of newcomers Germany would accept per year on humanitarian grounds. The FDP and Greens insist the conservatives  agreement cannot simply be copied into a coalition deal.  Senior Greens member Juergen Trittin accused the conservatives on Tuesday of violating Christian values because they wanted to keep suspending family reunifications for migrants granted subsidiary protection - those who do not qualify as refugees but need international protection. FDP deputy head Wolfgang Kubicki told Deutschlandfunk radio the conservative deal would not form the basis for cooperation and would not be implemented the way it had been agreed, saying:  That won t happen.  But Dobrindt, whose CSU is worried about losing its regional dominance in Bavaria s state election next year, said the allies  accord must be reflected in a coalition deal.  The regulations we have made in our joint paper -  Rules on Migration  - are of course an essential part of the negotiations and must also be found in a coalition agreement.  The intransigence of the CSU, Greens and FDP on the migrants issue points to difficult coalition talks that risk clouding the political outlook in Germany, which has been a source of stability in Europe during Merkel s tenure.  We want Europe to concentrate more on the big tasks and less on the small tasks,  Dobrindt said.  That means we must talk about bringing back responsibilities from Brussels to Germany - and the details of that will no doubt be difficult.

Summary: जर्मनी अगले साल तक नए गठबंधन पर सहमत नहीं हो सकता हैः मर्केल की सहयोगी


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The funeral of Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned as Archbishop of Boston 15 years ago after covering up years of sexual abuse of children by priests, was held in the Vatican on Thursday without a mention of what led to his downfall. About 200 people attended the funeral Mass in a chapel in the apse of St. Peter s Basilica and presided over by a senior cardinal, Angelo Sodano. The wooden coffin lay on the floor with an open book of the gospels resting on it. Pope Francis entered the chapel for a few minutes after the Mass to bless the coffin and conduct a brief service known as the Final Commendation and Farewell - which he does for all  cardinals who die in Rome.  He dedicated his whole life to the Church,  Sodano said in his homily in praise of Law, who died on Wednesday.  Sodano listed the stages of Law s clerical life and said the late Pope John Paul had  called him to Rome  to be archpriest of a Rome basilica. But Sodano made no mention of the reason why he left Boston.  Unfortunately, each of us can sometimes be lacking in our mission,  Sodano said. The pope read out a Latin prayer, part of which reads:  May he be given a merciful judgement . About 15 cardinals attended, though not Law s successor in Boston, Cardinal Sean O Malley. O Malley said on Wednesday that Law served at a time  when the Church failed seriously in its responsibilities ...  Law was Archbishop of Boston for 18 years when he resigned on Dec. 13, 2002, climaxing a tumultuous year that sparked the greatest crisis in the history of the American Catholic Church. A succession of devastating news stories by Boston Globe reporters showed how priests who sexually abused children had been moved from parish to parish for years under Law s tenure without parishioners or law authorities being informed. Victims groups have expressed outrage that Law s funeral was being in St. Peter s and that he would be buried in a crypt in a chapel of the Rome Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he served as archpriest.  Survivors of child sexual assault in Boston, who were first betrayed by Law s cover-up of sex crimes and then doubly betrayed by his subsequent promotion to Rome, were those most hurt,  SNAP, a victim s group, said in a statement on Wednesday. After Pope Francis left Thursday s funeral, two nuns in brown robes knelt by the coffin and arched over it to pray. After the funeral, Cardinal Franc Rode of Slovenia praised Law as  a good man with good intentions .  All these provisions about paedophilia were not as severe as they are now so one can t say that he made that many mistakes,  Rode told Reuters Television, saying it was  another era . He did not elaborate. About a half dozen ambassadors attended. The United States  official representative was Louis Bono, the current chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican. U.S. Ambassador-designate Callista Gingrich and her husband Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives, attended in a private capacity. Callista Gingrich officially becomes ambassador on Friday.

Summary: वेटिकन में कार्डिनल लॉ का अंतिम संस्कार किया गया, जिसमें यौन शोषण संकट का कोई उल्लेख नहीं था


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that church-affiliated hospital systems do not have to comply with a federal law governing employee pensions, overturning lower court decisions that could have cost the hospitals billions of dollars.  The court ruled 8-0 that church-affiliated organizations are exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a 1974 law that forces private employers to follow rules aimed at protecting pension plan participants.  The ruling was a victory for New Jersey-based Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, Illinois-based Advocate Health Care Network and California-based Dignity Health, which had faced separate employee lawsuits accusing them of wrongly claiming a religious exemption under ERISA. Federal agencies had long interpreted the law as exempting not just church plans but also those of church-affiliated organizations.  The employees challenged that view, in effect accusing the hospital systems of being big businesses posing as church organizations in order to avoid minimum funding and reporting requirements under ERISA. The three hospital systems maintained that their religious affiliation made them exempt from ERISA. St. Peters is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Dignity operates both Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals. Advocate is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Writing for the court, Justice Elena Kagan said the law’s religious exemption applies to plans whether they were established by churches themselves or organizations affiliated with the churches.  Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed with the ruling based on the text of the law. But, in a separate opinion, she wrote that she was “troubled” with the outcome, noting that some church-affiliated organizations operate for-profit subsidiaries, earn billions of dollars in revenues and compete with companies that must comply with ERISA.  Sotomayor suggested that the U.S. Congress take action, adding that “scores of employees - who work for organizations that look and operate much like secular businesses - potentially might be denied ERISA’s protections.” The ruling is the latest in which the justices endorsed the idea that certain businesses deserve wider latitude because of religious considerations. In 2014, the justices sided with Hobby Lobby, a retailer owned by conservative Christians, that objected to a federal requirement that it pay for insurance coverage for women’s birth control, saying that violated a U.S. law protecting religious freedom.  Three separate regional federal appeals courts had ruled against Saint Peter’s, Advocate and Dignity in separate cases, refusing to dismiss employees’ lawsuits against them.  Hundreds of hospitals and hospital systems have claimed the exemption since 1980, when Congress amended ERISA to extend what is known as the “church plan” exemption, originally only for churches, more broadly to certain religiously affiliated entities.  The plaintiffs were seeking retroactive penalties for past violations of ERISA, which the hospitals said could add up to hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined the court after the arguments were presented in the case, did not participate in Monday’s decision.

Summary: शीर्ष अदालत ने चर्च से संबद्ध अस्पतालों को पेंशन कानून से छूट दी


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Saturday it was fully committed to a Cold War-era pact with the United States banning intermediate-range cruise missiles, a day after Washington accused Moscow of violating the treaty.  The U.S. State Department said on Friday Washington was reviewing military options, including new intermediate-range cruise missile systems, in response to what it said was Russia s ongoing violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The warning was the first response by President Donald Trump s administration to U.S. charges first leveled in 2014 that Russia had deployed a ground-launched cruise missile that breaches the pact s ban on testing and fielding missiles with ranges of 500-5,500 kms (310-3,417 miles). Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said those allegations were  absolutely unfounded .  They are not supported by the technical characteristics of the launch installation which allegedly does not comply with the treaty, or by flight telemetry data. Nothing. And it is understandable why - because it simply does not exist,  he said in written comments published by the foreign ministry. Echoing previous Russian statements, Ryabkov said Moscow was fully committed to the treaty, had always rigorously complied with it, and was prepared to continue doing so.  However, if the other side stops following it, we will be forced, as President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has already said, to respond in kind,  he added. The U.S. allegation has further strained relations between Moscow and Washington, and the State Department on Friday hinted at possible economic sanctions over the issue. Washington has already sanctioned Russian entities and individuals, including people close to Putin, for Moscow s 2014 seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied interfering in the election. Ryabkov said the  attempts to frighten us with sanctions  were laughable.  It s time for American politicians and diplomats to understand that economic and military pressure on Russia will not work,  he said. (This version of the story has been refiled to clarify in paragraph 2 that it is U.S. administration, not State Department, reviewing military options)

Summary: रूस ने कहा कि वह परमाणु मिसाइल समझौते के लिए पूरी तरह से प्रतिबद्ध है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative commentators on Sunday mistakenly accused Reuters of pulling the plug on the final moments of broadcast coverage of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s appearance at a black church this weekend. Reuters said it had no role in filming the Trump event. CBS News filmed on behalf of a pool of media companies and discontinued the feed in the final moments of Trump’s appearance because of the schedule set by the campaign, according to a CBS producer involved. “The Detroit Trump footage being circulated on Twitter and elsewhere was not filmed by Reuters,” Abbe Serphos, Reuters global head of communications, said in a statement. Despite having no involvement in filming the Saturday event, Reuters was targeted for criticism by commentators including Ann Coulter. They were apparently under the false impression that Reuters had ordered its camera operator to shut down as Trump was receiving a blessing from the pastor. Sopan Deb, a CBS journalist who was the pool producer for the event at the Detroit church, said the decision to cut off the video feed was made because Trump campaign staffers were hurrying reporters into a waiting motorcade. “I was the pool producer,” Deb said in a tweet. “We were forced to pack up our cameras and leave during this.” CBS News and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday. Deb could not be reached for further comment beyond his remarks on Twitter. Coulter could not be reached. The sudden controversy was fanned by social media and came on the holiday weekend that traditionally marks the start of major campaigning for the Nov. 8 election. It followed Trump’s visit to a largely black church in Detroit on Saturday, where he told the crowd his economic agenda would create jobs and educational opportunity for African-American voters as part of what he called a “civil rights agenda for our time.” At the end of the nearly hour-long Saturday morning service at the Great Faith Ministries church, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson draped a prayer shawl over Trump to applause from the crowd in the church. “I have prayed over this personally, and I have fasted over it,” Jackson said. Shortly after Trump accepted the shawl, the pool feed used by broadcast networks was cut off as reporters prepared to move to the next campaign event. “How convenient that at one of the compelling moments…(the) satellite feed dropped,” conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham said on Twitter. Deb, the CBS reporter, said the suggestion of bias was “totally inaccurate.” In a tweet responding to Ingraham, he said: “If you want to make this an issue, please take it up with the campaign. We tried to stay and shoot this whole thing.”  Ingraham could not be immediately reached for comment. In a point of contention with journalists, Trump staffers have sometimes told reporters traveling with the candidate they need to leave events before Trump if they want to avoid risking their spot in the group of reporters traveling in the motorcade with the candidate. A video posted on a website affiliated with conservative radio show host Alex Jones claimed to capture a difference of opinion between the camera operator and a producer on site about whether to continue filming the Trump event on Saturday. Before the video cuts, one person can be heard to say, “I’m shooting this,” and then, almost inaudibly, “I’ll take a demotion.” A second voice says “Shut it” and then “blackout,” the site said. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the offstage audio. “Reuters obtained the footage from third-party providers and the voices heard on the video are not Reuters staff or contractors,” Serphos said. Trump has criticized media organizations including the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN and others for what he has claimed are biases in their coverage of his campaign. On the day of his visit to the Detroit church, Trump lashed out at CNN. “Great visit to Detroit church, fantastic reception, and all CNN talks about is a small protest outside,” Trump said in a tweet.

Summary: ट्रम्प के सहयोगियों ने रॉयटर्स को यह दावा करने के लिए गलत तरीके से जोड़ा कि डेट्रॉइट वीडियो फ़ीड को कम कर दिया गया था


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The No. 2 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday the Senate would likely vote on its tax bill this week and that lawmakers from both chambers would get together “as quickly as possible” to resolve differences between their two bills. “I know the Senate is continuing to work hard to pass tax reform,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters. “We want to make sure we move to go to conference as quickly as possible.”

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन में नंबर 2 रिपब्लिकन जल्द ही कर विधेयक पर सम्मेलन देखता है


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - A Republican, a Democrat and a lobbyist for leading businesses in Florida huddled this spring at the state Capitol, mapping out the next move in a campaign to enact the first statewide LGBT anti-discrimination law in the U.S. South. A record number of Republican lawmakers had thrown their support behind proposed protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and hundreds of companies backed the cause. While the bill has so far fallen short with time running out on the legislative session, its lead backers were heartened by their progress and determined to retool for next year. “We definitely need to ramp up the grassroots,” said Joseph Salzverg, a lobbyist for Florida Competes, a group of more than 450 state businesses supporting LGBT protections. “There’s a lot of Republicans that agree with the policy but are worried about the effect it has back home.” A year after transgender bathroom access erupted as a U.S. culture wars flashpoint, Florida is among the conservative statehouses where LGBT activists see momentum building for affirmative legislation. The nation’s third most-populous state, Florida could offer the next breakthrough in a national movement to advance LGBT civil-rights protections, viewed by advocates as stepping stones to their ultimate goal of federal anti-discrimination law. Only 18 states, mostly concentrated in the U.S. West and Northeast, and the District of Columbia have laws that fully guard against LGBT people being fired from jobs, kicked out of housing or denied services in restaurants, hotels and other businesses. This fight continues even after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2015 that legalized same-sex marriage nationally. Florida’s strategy, years in the making, aims to build bipartisan support with economic arguments and the passage of similar measures locally that show the LGBT protections can succeed. The bill’s backers must convince a Republican-controlled state legislature that all of Florida benefits from LGBT protections. “It’s really about the math of being based here in Florida, but competing on a global market,” said John “J.T.” Tonnison, president of Florida Competes.  Tonnison is chief information officer of Tech Data Corp, a technology distributor. In the state capital of Tallahassee this spring, he told legislators about a prized recruit reluctant to relocate from California, concerned about a gay son visiting a state without strong protections.   “It sets us apart in a less-than-positive light,” Tonnison said. Local LGBT protections are now in place in communities representing 60 percent of Florida’s more than 20 million residents. In conservative north Florida, the state’s largest city, Jacksonville, recently passed a nondiscrimination policy after a fight that lasted years. Local successes helped convince 19 Republican legislators to join 52 Democrats this year to cosponsor legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Florida’s civil rights statutes, just shy of a majority in the 160-member legislature. Representative Joe Gruters, an anti-abortion activist who co-chaired President Donald Trump’s state campaign, was among the first Republicans to sign on. Perhaps an unlikely LGBT ally, the first-term lawmaker said the case made by advocates, and a prominent conservative colleague’s support, resonated with him. “I will continue to fight for this, and for any type of right, that treats people fairly,” Gruters said. “It’s going to happen.”  By contrast, the Florida Family Policy Council, advocating for conservative social values, decried the legislation as an intrusion on religious freedoms and public safety by allowing men into women’s bathrooms and private facilities. Such LGBT measures are “weapons to punish Christians for simply acting out their faith in the marketplace,” said its president, John Stemberger.  “People are trying to force other people to do things,” he added. “Why can’t we just disagree?” But backers see Florida as a model for other states engaged in long-term legislative efforts, including Ohio and Pennsylvania. “Attracting bipartisan support really proves this isn’t an urban versus a rural issue, or a Republican versus Democratic issue,” said Dan Rafter, a spokesman for the advocacy group Freedom for All Americans. Florida, and most other states, avoided fights this year over transgender bathroom access, possibly dissuaded by the national boycotts organized against North Carolina before its recent roll-back of restrictions enacted in 2016. Nonetheless, Florida’s LGBT protection bill never got a hearing during this session, which will end within days. The legislature’s leaders did not comment on what stalled the measure. Supporters are reorganizing for next year with a more pointed message. “Inaction is not neutral,” said Hannah Willard, public policy director for the advocacy group Equality Florida. During the strategy meeting last month at the state Capitol, Republican Representative Rene Plasencia proposed mobilizing business supporters to engage legislators in their hometowns. “We are protecting people’s rights to live freely, to not be disadvantaged economically, because of the personal choice of who they love,” he said. Looking over a list of lawmakers not yet on board, the lead Democrat behind the House bill agreed. “We need to persuade people before they get to Tallahassee,” Representative Ben Diamond said. “That’s the challenge.”

Summary: फ्लोरिडा एल. जी. बी. टी. अधिकारों पर जोर बदलते समय को दर्शाता है।


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York appeals court issued a ruling on Tuesday that apparently made it highly unlikely that a state fraud case against Trump University, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s venture, will be heard before the Nov. 8 general election. The mid-level appeals court ruled that Trump’s lawyers can argue to the state’s highest court that the fraud claims against Trump University brought by the state attorney general should be dismissed.  Trump suffered a legal setback in the case in March when the appeals court allowed multimillion-dollar fraud claims against the now-defunct venture to proceed.  The claims are part of a state lawsuit filed in 2013 that accuses Trump University of misleading thousands of people who paid up to $35,000 for seminars to learn the billionaire businessman’s real estate investment strategies. The trial judge in the case had been waiting to hear whether the mid-level appeals court, the Appellate Division, First Department, in Manhattan, would give Trump permission to go to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. “It’s no surprise that Donald Trump is using every legal option to avoid standing trial for operating a sham for-profit university,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement responding to the ruling.  “As our lawsuit makes clear, Mr. Trump’s phony university defrauded thousands of students through an illicit scheme that cost them millions of dollars,” Schneiderman continued. “I am confident that the Court of Appeals will agree with the lower court’s unanimous decision to reject virtually all of Mr. Trump’s claims.” Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization, said, “We are pleased with the court’s decision and look forward to going to the Court of Appeals.” Garten has said the claims are “without merit and baseless” and that almost all those who participated in the programs filled out written surveys giving the seminars high ratings. Class actions are pending in California on similar claims by Trump University students. One of those cases is scheduled for trial on Nov. 28. The fraud claims against Trump University were an issue early in the Republican primary campaign.  With Trump allowed to appeal the pretrial rulings to the state’s highest court, it is very unlikely the New York case will be resolved before November’s election. It takes an average of 12 months from the time an appeal is allowed for the Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments in a case, according to court spokesman Gary Spencer. A decision on whether or not the fraud claims can proceed would normally take another month and, if not dismissed, the case would then go back to the trial court.  In the March decision, Schneiderman was allowed to proceed on fraud claims that require proof of intent to defraud and those that do not. The court also ruled that the statute of limitations for the claims stretches back to 2007 instead of 2010. The program stopped taking students in 2010.

Summary: न्यायाधीशों का फैसला, ट्रंप विश्वविद्यालय न्यूयॉर्क की सर्वोच्च अदालत में अपील कर सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A defense policy bill that President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law this month will give President-elect Donald Trump greater influence over U.S. foreign broadcasting entities. The National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress last week includes a provision abolishing the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent body that oversees government-backed media outlets such as the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and replaces it with a chief executive nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The election victory of Republican businessman Trump, who has had a stormy relationship with some media outlets he accuses of being biased against him, has raised concerns among some officials about whether the media outlets can maintain their editorial independence under a Trump-appointed CEO.It is not clear, however, if the change is intended to give the president greater influence over news, information and fact-checking that U.S. government-supported broadcasters send to Russia, Cuba, China and other authoritarian states, or whether it is simply an effort to make those efforts more effective. There has been support from both Republicans and Democrats for reorganizing the broadcasting operation to reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency.  A senior U.S. official familiar with the broadcasting agencies said he was not aware of the Trump transition team making contact with the Board of Broadcasting governors and associated agencies. “We have no (concrete) indication that anything bad’s going to happen,” the official continued.   Congressional aides familiar with the issue said they thought such concerns were overblown, noting that the chief executive must be confirmed by the Senate and that the organization’s basic structure would remain in place, minus the nine-member board. They said the reorganization plan was developed with input from members of both parties in Congress, as well as Democratic officials from the Obama White House. However, some officials in the State Department and the U.S. intelligence community have said they are worried that Trump is not wary enough of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who considers Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s efforts “to promote democratic values” an attempt to undermine his government. The board of governors would first be transitioned into an “International Broadcasting Advisory Board” to advise the new CEO, but that also would be phased out.

Summary: वॉयस ऑफ अमेरिका, रेडियो फ्री यूरोप के लिए नए निरीक्षण ने चिंता जताई


BOGOR, Indonesia (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday unveiled a new policy aimed at deepening ties with Southeast Asia, as the North Asian economic powerhouse seeks to curb its reliance on traditional trading partners like China and the United States. Moon made Indonesia, Southeast Asia s biggest economy, his first state visit to the region and was accompanied by a delegation of around 200 business leaders.   The  New Southern Policy  aims to better connect South Korea to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping and expand the economic influence of Asia s fourth-largest economy in the region home to more than half a billion people.  Korean diplomacy in Asia has been more toward Japan, China and Russia. But I see that it should expand to new horizons,  Moon told a business forum in Jakarta, where he pledged to  dramatically strengthen cooperation with ASEAN .  South Korea s presidential Blue House has said the policy will mirror Moon s  New Northern Policy  aimed at expanding cooperation with China, Japan, Russia, and Mongolia. Indonesia and South Korea signed on Thursday a memorandum of understanding on a light rail transit (LRT) system in Jakarta, part of a series of pacts reported to be worth up to $1.9 billion.   A recent year-long diplomatic standoff between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system has exposed the dependence of Korean companies on Chinese customers  and likely exacerbated Seoul s urgency to diversify ties.  During a joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump this week, Moon said he was aiming for a more  balanced diplomacy,  which would include Russia, ASEAN countries, and members of the European Union. Moon held talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at a state palace in Bogor, south of Jakarta, and discussed infrastructure, trade, and also tension on the Korean peninsula.  I appreciate President Moon s position that he remains open to resolving any disputes through dialogue,  Widodo told a news conference in the Dutch colonial-style palace.  Indonesia has traditionally had good relations with North Korea and maintains diplomatic ties and is one of a small number of countries with an embassy in Pyongyang.  A number of South Korean companies already have or are planning big investments in Indonesia. Steel giant POSCO has a multi-billion-dollar joint venture with Indonesia s Krakatau Steel, Hyundai Motor is setting up a car factory, and Samsung Electronics Co assembles smartphones in the country. Indonesia is also emerging as an important market for South Korean defense equipment and the countries are cooperating on a venture to jointly build a fighter plane, dubbed KF-X. Moon said South Korea aimed to boost trade with Indonesia to $30 billion by 2022 and eventually to more than $50 billion. Trade between the countries was worth about $10 billion in the first nine months of 2017, up nearly a fifth from the corresponding 2016 period. Korean foreign direct investment rose about a quarter to $1.37 billion. Both leaders said the relationship between the countries had been redefined as a  Special Strategic Partnership .     South Koreans make up one of Indonesia s largest expatriate groups, with numerous Korean restaurants and bars in parts of Jakarta. Besides corporate muscle, Korea s soft power has also grown in Indonesia alongside other countries in Southeast Asia. Korean K-Pop is hugely popular among Indonesians, with long-established fan clubs and bands, like BTS, touring the Southeast Asian country. Indonesian Twitter accounts dedicated to Korean pop idols have around a million followers.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया के चंद्रमा ने दक्षिण पूर्व एशिया पर नए फोकस का खुलासा किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon can no longer handle vast numbers of Syrian refugees, its president said on Monday, urging world powers to help them return to the calmer parts of their war-torn homeland. More than six years into the Syrian war, 1.5 million refugees who fled the violence now account for a quarter of Lebanon s population.  Lebanese President Michel Aoun told international envoys he wanted to find ways for them to return safely but would not force people back to places where they could face persecution.  My country cannot handle it anymore,  Aoun told  representatives of the European Union, the Arab League and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council at a meeting in Beirut, his media office said. The long-term presence of refugees is a particularly sensitive issue in Lebanon where some politicians say the influx of mainly Sunni Syrians might destabilize the delicate sectarian balance with Christians, Shi ite Muslims and others.  As the Syrian government regains more territory from rebels and militants, calls have increased in Lebanon for Syrians to return. A series of ceasefire deals has reduced fighting to some extent in parts of western Syria.  But rights groups have warned against forcing people back to a country still at war, and refugees have often said they fear facing arrest or conscription into the army.  The U.N. refugee agency does not yet consider Syria safe for refugee to return  to. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has said there can be no forced returns.  Aoun told the envoys there were parts of Syria not currently at war and territory where calm has returned, a spokesman said.   The return of displaced to stable and low-tension areas must be carried out without attaching it to reaching a political solution,  the president s Twitter account said.  Aoun said it was in the everyone s interest to solve the refugee crisis so that political, economic and social problems in Lebanon do not get out of hand.  Officials at the meeting thanked Lebanon for its generosity in hosting refugees.  They expressed their full understanding of the concerns that are being voiced,  a statement from the envoys said.   A return of refugees to their country of origin must take place in safety, dignity and voluntarily, in accordance with principles of international law,  it said.

Summary: सीरियाई शरणार्थियों को शांत क्षेत्रों में लौटना चाहिएः लेबनान के राष्ट्रपति


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The secretive U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has issued its first order allowing the National Security Agency to collect telephone records under a new electronic spying law Congress passed last year. According to an order from the court posted Tuesday on a website operated by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the court issued the order on Dec. 31. The order, signed by FISC Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, said the court concluded that a surveillance application, apparently submitted by the NSA, met the requirements of the USA Freedom Act, which President Barack Obama signed last year. That law replaced an older one that allowed NSA to collect telephone “metadata” - records of American citizens’ and residents’ calls, including their origin and destination, when a call was placed and how long it lasted. However, U.S. intelligence officials have said the NSA did not collect the content of phone calls under this program and did not look at the data without some specific justification. Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed classified details of the collection program in 2013, and last year, Congress and the Obama administration narrowed the government’s power to collect such domestic telephone metadata. Under the new law and revised procedures, the government no longer collects bulk telephone metadata, but must request targeted information from telecoms companies after obtaining authorization from the foreign intelligence court. The identities of the telecoms “providers” and the individuals or numbers whose metadata the NSA has targeted were redacted from the version of the court order released on Tuesday. Hogan says in the opinion that the government was seeking “the ongoing daily production of detailed call records relating to an authorized international terrorism investigation”, but does not offer further detail about the nature of the investigation. In his order, the judge accepts the argument that while the government was obliged to explain why targeting the telephone numbers of individuals is “relevant” to its investigation, it does not need to demonstrate the same relevance when examining numbers called from the initially targeted phones. The judge also said that although the new surveillance law requires government agencies to promptly destroy telephone metadata that it might have mistakenly collected on U.S. persons, they sometimes can retain such data for as long as six months if they have reason to believe it could provide evidence of a crime.

Summary: गुप्त अमेरिकी अदालत ने नए कानून के तहत फोन डेटा के लिए पहला आदेश जारी किया


AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who has spent nearly a week at a Houston hospital where he is being treated for pneumonia, watched the inauguration of President Donald Trump from the intensive care unit, a family spokesman said. Bush, who at 92 is the nation’s oldest living ex-president, was breathing on his own after a breathing tube was removed on Friday, spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement. He is in stable condition in the intensive care unit of Houston Methodist Hospital, he added. “He was extubated this morning, and is breathing well on his own with minimal supplemental oxygen,” McGrath said. Former first lady Barbara Bush, 91, was admitted to the same hospital on Wednesday as a precaution after experiencing fatigue and coughing, McGrath has said. She is being treated for bronchitis and is expected to remain in the hospital over the weekend as a precaution, he said. “Mrs. Bush, meanwhile, continues to feel better and is focusing on spending time with her husband,” the spokesman said. The Bushes marked their 72nd wedding anniversary on Jan. 6. Prior to being hospitalized, they had said they would not attend the inauguration of Republican Trump due to health concerns. He was the only living former president who did not attend the inauguration in Washington, DC. In a letter to the then president-elect, Bush said he and his wife would be with Trump in spirit at the inauguration and wished him the best. Bush, a Republican, did not endorse Trump in his race against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Summary: पूर्व राष्ट्रपति जॉर्ज एच. डब्ल्यू. बुश ने अस्पताल के कमरे से उद्घाटन देखा


LONDON (Reuters) - Failure to pass the government s flagship piece of Brexit legislation through parliament will result in holes in the statute book and increased uncertainty, two junior British ministers said on Thursday.  This bill is about how we leave, it s about delivering certainty and continuity in the law as we leave the European Union,  said Steve baker, a minister in the Brexit department.  If this bill were not to pass ... then of course there would be holes in the statute book. The result would be that the statute book would not function as intended.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के ब्रेक्सिट विधेयक को पारित करने में विफलता कानूनी खामियां पैदा करेगीः मंत्री


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) reached a deal on migrant policy with her conservative Bavarian allies on Sunday, removing a major obstacle to pursuing talks on a coalition with other parties. In an apparent concession, Merkel agreed to put a number on how many people Germany would accept per year on humanitarian grounds, namely a net total of around 200,000 individuals.   The CDU and Christian Social Union (CSU) reached the migrant deal after about seven hours of talks and later adjourned their meeting. It was unclear whether they had agreed on other issues, such as Europe and pensions. Further details will be made available at a news conference on Monday.  Merkel won a fourth term as chancellor in a Sept. 24 election but was weakened by heavy losses to the far right.  She wants to build a coalition between her conservative bloc and two other parties, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens, which are far apart on issues from tax and energy to Europe.  First, however, she must get her own house in order and overcome some major differences between her CDU and the CSU, its sister party in Bavaria, a state that accounts for 15 percent of Germany s population. The two parties have formed a parliamentary bloc together for decades, but have diverged over migrant policy since Merkel left the border open to a huge wave of migrants in 2015, most of whom entered the country through Bavaria.  The CSU has demanded a cap on refugees, but Merkel has resisted that, arguing it would breach Germany s constitution, which guarantees the right of asylum to anyone facing political persecution. Under the face-saving compromise brokered on Sunday, Germany would accept a net of about 200,000 people a year on humanitarian grounds, including families of refugees already in Germany. Authorities will not turn people away at the border, however, and the parties avoided using the term  upper limit  that Merkel has consistently rejected.  We want to achieve a total number of people taken in for humanitarian reasons (refugees and asylum seekers, those entitled to subsidiary protection, family members, relocation and resettlement minus deportations and voluntary departures of future refugees) that does not exceed 200,000 people a year,  states the agreement. The leaders also agreed they wanted to set up centers where asylum seekers would stay until decisions on their applications were made. Rejected asylum seekers would be returned to their home countries. They also agreed to declare Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia as countries of safe origin, meaning Germany can return rejected asylum seekers there more easily.  It is a good day for the conservatives and a good day for Germany,  CSU General Secretary Andreas Scheuer said after the talks. Setting a number is a climbdown for Merkel and may not be acceptable to the Greens.   This is an agreement between the CDU and CSU and far from the result of exploratory talks for a coalition with the FDP and Greens,  said Greens co-leader Simone Peter. The target looks achievable, however, given that the number of people arriving in Germany fell to about 280,000 last year from 890,000 in 2015. A further drop is expected this year.  In addition, the two parties agreed to push for an immigration law that would give priority to migrants with skills to plug gaps in the labor market. There is broad support for that from the FDP and Greens.   Fearing heavy losses to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a state election next year, the CSU has dug in its heels on the issue of a cap to the number of migrants. The stakes are high for the CSU s combative leader, Horst Seehofer, who is fighting for his political survival after a poor election performance. The CSU slumped to 6.2 percent, measured nationally, from 7.4 percent in 2013.  Once the CDU and CSU have agreed on all their policies, they can start exploratory talks with the FDP and Greens.  It could still take months to get a full coalition deal and investors are concerned about the prospect of a policy standstill in Europe s biggest economy. If no deal is reached, the prospect looms of either a minority government or new elections.

Summary: मर्केल ने गठबंधन को आगे बढ़ाने के लिए सहयोगियों के साथ प्रवासी विवाद को सुलझा लिया


ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece called on Spain s ambassador to Athens on Sunday to rescind statements to a Greek newspaper suggesting that Athens was not supportive of Spanish unity, revealing strains between the European Union partners over a Catalan independence drive.  It is with surprise that we note the comments made by the ambassador of friend and ally Spain, criticising publicly the Greek government,  the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement. EU leaders, wary of encouraging separatists across the bloc, have largely backed the Madrid government during a deepening political crisis which culminated last week in the Catalan parliament voting to unilaterally declare the region s independence from Spain. The Spanish Ambassador to Greece, Enrique Viguera, was quoted in Sunday s Eleftheros Typos newspaper as saying that while he had clear assurances of support for Spanish unity from Greece s conservative opposition and from President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the same was not true of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras s left-wing government.  Statements on the issue from the part of the (Greek) government are absent. However, other European governments warmly supported the territorial integrity of Spain and our government s position,  he said. On Saturday, Greece, through its government spokesman, said it fully supported Spain s territorial integrity and cohesion as well as any initiative to restore democratic dialogue in the framework of Spain s constitution.  We are particularly concerned over the situation in Spain and reiterate that Europe can only advance united. Unilateral actions cannot be acceptable,  government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said in a statement. The Foreign Ministry accused the ambassador of  insulting Greece s constitution  by suggesting that the country s president did not speak for the government. It also said that by adopting the arguments of the political opposition, Spain s ambassador was interfering in Greece s domestic politics.  We call on the ambassador to avoid behaving in a way that is not in line with diplomatic norms and expect that he will proceed to rescind his unfortunate statements and provide the Greek government with the necessary explanations,  the ministry said.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया को लेकर स्पेन के राजदूत के साथ ग्रीक सरकार की नोकझोंक


(Reuters) - Utilities in the U.S. Southeast returned power to almost half of the homes and businesses knocked out by Hurricane Irma, leaving about 4.3 million customers in the dark as of midday Wednesday, in one of the biggest restoration efforts in U.S. history.   The total number of customers still out, representing about 9 million people in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, dipped from a peak of more than 7.8 million customers, or over 16 million people, on Monday. Major utilities in Florida - including NextEra Energy Inc s Florida Power & Light (FPL), Duke Energy Corp and Emera Inc s Tampa Electric - have mobilized tens of thousands of workers to deal with the outages after Irma landed early Sunday and carved a destructive path up Florida, which has a population of about 20.6 million. FPL, the state s largest utility, said its outages dropped to around 1.9 million customers on Wednesday from a peak of more than 3.6 million on Monday. Some Florida utilities, including FPL, warned customers it could take weeks to restore power in the hardest hit areas. FPL said on Tuesday it planned to restore power to eastern Florida by this weekend and to western Florida by Sept. 22. Irma, categorized as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record when it rampaged through the Caribbean, has killed at least 77 people, including 36 in the United States, officials said. FPL said on Wednesday it had provided power to some parts of a nursing home where people died after the facility lost electricity during Irma and that the home was not on a list   critical facilities  prioritized for emergency power restoration.  Parts of the facility itself were energized by FPL, I can t give you anything more specific than that at this point,  FPL spokesman Rob Gould told a news conference. Two elderly residents were found dead at the Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills and three later died at a hospital. FPL, like other utilities, follows a plan to restore power to the largest number of customers as quickly as possible. FPL said after repairing any damage to its power plants and the lines that carry electricity from the generating facilities, the company next restores  critical facilities,  like hospitals, police and fire stations, communication facilities, water treatment plants, transportation providers and shelters. About 150 of Florida s nearly 700 nursing facilities do not have power restored, according to the Florida Health Care Association, an advocacy group representing facilities statewide. Locations without power have been flagged to the state to help utilities prioritize their work, the group said in a statement.  The loss of these individuals is a profound tragedy within the larger tragedy of Hurricane Irma,  the association said in a statement. Irma hit southwestern Florida on Sunday morning as a Category 4 storm, the second most severe on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It had weakened to a tropical depression on Monday. More than 60,000 workers from across the United States and Canada were involved in the restoration efforts, including those from the affected companies and other utilities, according to the Edison Electric Institute, an industry trade group.

Summary: अमेरिका के दक्षिण-पूर्व में उपयोगिताओं ने इरमा से प्रभावित लगभग आधे हिस्से में बिजली बहाल की


ADEN (Reuters) - Yemen s Sanaa airport, damaged in an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition last week, has been repaired and is ready to receive international flights, the Houthi-led government which runs the capital city said on Tuesday. The Nov. 14 raid destroyed radio navigation equipment at the airport and in effect put the facility out of service. The attack happened after the coalition banned naval, air and land transportation to Yemen following a missile fired by the Houthis that was shot down over the Saudi capital Riyadh. The transport minister in the Houthi-run government, Zakariya al-Shami, said that technical civil aviation teams had completed implementation of technical alternatives necessary to restore services to the airport .  It is ready to receive international flights,  Shami said, according to Houthi-controlled news agency Saba. The airport had been mainly used by international relief agencies, including U.N. staff, using United Nations flights to Sanaa. The coalition has said that all Yemeni land crossings, air and sea ports would remain closed until assurances are made that no weapons can reach the Houthis. The coalition accuses Iran of smuggling weapons, including the missile fired towards Riyadh airport on Nov. 4, to the Houthis through Yemeni ports controlled by the group. Iran denies sending any weapons to the Houthis. The closure of Yemen s ports, including the main Hodeidah port where most of the country s food supplies enter, has raised alarm around the world. The European Union on Tuesday urged the Saudi-led coalition to reopen Yemen s ports and airports.  While fully recognizing the serious security threat incoming from Yemen, it is our firm belief that hindering vital humanitarian access to the Yemeni population that is already on the brink of famine and subject to a spreading cholera outbreak will not effectively address these security concerns,  EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.

Summary: यमन के हौथियों का कहना है कि सना हवाई अड्डे की मरम्मत की गई, उड़ानें प्राप्त करने के लिए तैयारः एजेंसी


BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Saudi official has visited northern Syria with a U.S. envoy to discuss reconstruction of Raqqa, which Kurdish and Arab militias backed by a U.S.-led coalition, captured from Islamic State on Tuesday, an adviser to the militias said.  Saudi Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer al-Sabhan visited the area with Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, and met the Raqqa Civil Council said Amed Sido, an adviser to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance.  The Saudi Okaz newspaper also reported on Thursday that Sabhan had visited northern Syria and that Riyadh and Washington had discussed the reconstruction of Raqqa.  Saudi Arabia is a member of the U.S.-led international coalition against Islamic State, set up in 2014, but no senior officials from Riyadh are known to have visited areas held by coalition allies in Syria. Saudi Arabia s Foreign Ministry was not immediately available for comment.  The SDF s four-month battle against Islamic State in Raqqa, aided by coalition air strikes, left much of the city in ruins and forced much of its population to flee to camps nearby. International charity Mercy Corps said on Thursday that most of the city was uninhabitable.  The SDF and its allies set up the Raqqa Civil Council to run the city after the fighting was over.  The international coalition s 73 members also include European countries, other Arab countries and Turkey. Its work includes supporting stabilization and restoration of public services to areas taken from Islamic State militants. The Saudi officials who visited Raqqa to check the area were there to listen to discussions rather than take part, Sido said, adding that they met a reconstruction committee set up by the council.  They promised that they would contribute in construction in Raqqa in the future,  Sido said. Sido is also an SDF coordinator with the coalition.  The main priority for the city s reconstruction now is clearing landmines and bodies, and working on water and electricity projects, Sido said. While no concrete plans were set in motion, Sido continued,  we consider it a first visit, a first step, that could be the beginning of future relations .

Summary: सऊदी मंत्री रक्का वार्ता के लिए उत्तरी सीरिया गए


DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian court has re-imposed the death penalty on the founder of a spiritual movement after the first sentence was struck down by the supreme court, the judiciary said on Sunday. Mohammad Ali Taheri, founder of Erfan Halgheh which calls itself  Interuniversalism  in English, was arrested in 2011 and given five years in prison for  insulting Islamic sanctities .  He was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in 2015 for  corruption on earth  but the Supreme Court later quashed the sentence.  (Taheri s) case was sent back to court and tried with the presence of a lawyer and various advisors and the judge has again reached,  Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei was quoted as saying by the news agency ISNA. The sentence can be appealed, he added. Amnesty International says Taheri is a prisoner of conscience and has condemned Iran s use of capital punishment  for vaguely worded or overly broad offences, or acts that should not be criminalized at all . Tehran dismisses such criticism as part of an effort from the West to heap political pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Summary: ईरान ने आध्यात्मिक व्यक्ति को फिर से मौत की सजा सुनाई जिसे सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने रद्द कर दिया था


ARLINGTON, Va. (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday demanded that U.S.-made  content account for half the value of the cars and trucks sold under the North American Free Trade Agreement, raising further doubts about any potential deal to renew the pact. Three sources briefed on the protectionist U.S. proposal, which is in line with President Donald Trump’s goal of shrinking a trade deficit with Mexico and stemming the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, said it also seeks sharply higher North American automotive content overall. The proposal was made during contentious talks in Washington, in the fourth of seven planned rounds of negotiations to overhaul the treaty. Some Mexican sources denounced it as “absurd,” but Juan Carlos Baker, Mexico’s deputy economy minister, put a brave face on the state of NAFTA negotiations at the halfway point. “There’s no question there are some difficult proposals,” Baker told reporters at Mexico’s embassy in Washington. He said Mexico will consider all of them, though he said, “It’s clear to us that there are certain things that are proposals that go against the country’s objectives.” Trump, who claims that the original 1994 pact has been a disaster for the United States, is threatening to walk away from the agreement unless major changes are made. Washington’s auto industry gambit came hot on the heels of its demand that NAFTA also contain a so-called sunset clause. That could mean any new deal expires in five years, an idea that Canada and Mexico also strongly oppose. Although sources briefed on the talks describe the mood as sour, Mexican and Canadian politicians say there is no question of leaving the table for now. A collapse of NAFTA would wreak havoc throughout the North American economy, disrupting highly integrated manufacturing supply chains and agricultural exports with steep tariffs that would snap back into place. Trade among the three countries has more than quadrupled since 1994 to over $1.2 trillion annually. Sources close to the talks said Washington wants to increase the North American content requirement for trucks, autos and large engines to 85 percent from 62.5 percent over a period of years. That is in addition to its insistence that 50 percent of the products used in vehicle be U.S.-made within the first year of a signed deal. The proposal also requires that steel, aluminum, copper, plastics, electronics and other parts be sourced from North America for vehicles to qualify for NAFTA tariff-free status. Trump has made clear he prefers bilateral trade deals, and skeptics wonder whether the U.S. demands are part of an “America First” strategy designed to ensure the current talks fail. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has listed the demand for a greater use of U.S.-made products for vehicles among a number of “poison pill” proposals that it said would torpedo the talks. {nL4N1ML4JW] The chamber says the proposal would cost jobs, since automakers and parts suppliers would likely forgo NAFTA benefits and simply pay the 2.5 percent U.S. tariff for imported cars and many parts. Unifor, the union which represents most of Canada’s auto workers, said the U.S. proposals were deliberately untenable.  “Frankly, I think this is a bully move by the American government,” Unifor President Jerry Dias said in a statement. Trump officials say current rules are too lax and allow auto companies to bring in too many cheap parts from China and other low-wage Asian countries. Mexico is heavily dependent on the United States and NAFTA for its economic viability, and uncertainty over the outcome of the talks helped push the Mexican peso to near five-month lows this week. Canadian officials said it was too soon to write off the deal-making process. They noted that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo were due to meet in Washington on Tuesday to take stock of the negotiations. Separately, U.S. negotiators on Friday formally asked Canada to address a bilateral dispute over dairy pricing, a request the Canadians are set to resist, sources familiar with the talks said.

Summary: ऑटो उद्योग पर अमेरिकी रुख ने नाफ्टा ओवरहाल के बारे में अधिक संदेह पैदा किया


MONTERREY (Reuters) - A Mexican presidential hopeful and governor of a wealthy border state said he would cut taxes to compete with lower rates in the United States if President Donald Trump s fiscal reform passes Congress, hinting at a broader potential response in Mexico. Jaime Rodriguez, the governor of Nuevo Leon who is seeking to become the first independent to take the presidency, said he would lower  many taxes  if successful.  We re going to compete,  he told Reuters on Monday.  If I make it and am able to be president, I would lower taxes,  he added, though he declined to give details. Mexico s government has been watching Trump s fiscal plans closely, and some senior officials and lawmakers say the country may have to cut taxes if the United States does. The U.S. Senate approved a bill on Saturday that could see corporation tax slashed to 20 percent from 35 percent, raising questions over whether this could make investment in Mexico, where the corporate tax rate is 30 percent, less attractive. Two years ago, Rodriguez pulled off a surprise win with a social media-led campaign and became the first independent governor of a Mexican state. Nuevo Leon, home to the major industrial hub of Monterrey, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which spurred an influx of investment from companies seeking access to U.S. consumers. That included a $1 billion investment from South Korea s Kia Motors under a 2014 deal, although Rodriguez and others were critical of the incentives the company received.  We don t want any more car assembly plants,  he said.  We won t give incentives like the ones we gave to Kia to any other company, it s excessive.  Trump has threatened to withdraw from NAFTA if he cannot rework it in favor of the United States. However, Rodriguez, who in May 2016 predicted that Trump would win the presidency, was adamant that NAFTA would survive.  It s not going to collapse,  he said. Known in Mexico as  El Bronco  due to his blunt style, the 59-year-old Rodriguez leads aspiring independents to gather the 866,593 signatures needed by Feb. 19 to get on the ballot for the July 1 election, according to statistics from electoral regulator INE. However, he has reached the threshold of 1 percent of voters in just three states, and the law requires getting that share in 17 states. Polls so far suggest Rodriguez is unlikely to mount a serious challenge for the presidency.

Summary: मेक्सिको के राष्ट्रपति को उम्मीद है कि ट्रम्प सुधार का मुकाबला करने के लिए कर में कटौती की जाएगी


MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Kremlin-backed television station RT America registered Monday with the U.S. Department of Justice as a  foreign agent  in the United States, the outlet s editor in chief said and the Department of Justice confirmed later in the day. U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report in January that the television station, which broadcasts on cable in the United States, is  Russia s state-run propaganda machine  and that it contributed to the Kremlin s campaign to interfere with last year s presidential election in favor of Republican Party candidate Donald Trump.  After that report, the Department of Justice insisted that RT America comply with registration requirements under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). Under the act, RT will be required to disclose financial information.      Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations of election meddling and said it views the actions against RT as an unfriendly act. But RT s editor in chief, Margarita Simonyan, said on Monday that it would comply with the demand in order to avoid further legal action by the U.S. government.      Between a criminal case and registration, we chose the latter. We congratulate American freedom of speech and all those who still believe in it,  Simonyan said on Twitter. The Department of Justice confirmed that it received a registration from T&R Productions LLC, which has operated studios for RT, hired and paid U.S.-based employees and produced English-language programming.   Americans have a right to know who is acting in the United States to influence the U.S. government or public on behalf of foreign principals,  said acting Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente.  In October, Twitter announced it would no longer allow advertisements from RT and another Kremlin-backed news organization, citing intelligence that the television station participated in efforts to influence the election. FARA requires foreign governments, political parties and the lobbyists and public relations firms they hire in the United States to register with the Department of Justice. FARA was first passed in 1938 in the lead up to World War Two in an effort to combat German propaganda efforts. Foreign government-owned news organizations, including China Daily, the English-language newspaper owned by China s government, register under FARA. The law applies to companies that are owned or controlled by foreign governments. The United States and Russia are engaged in a back-and-forth over  foreign agent  registration.  Russia s parliament warned on Friday that some U.S. and other foreign media could also be declared  foreign agents  in response to the actions against RT, requiring them to regularly declare full details of their funds, financing and staffing. U.S. government-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), CNN and Germany s Deutsche Welle could all be affected by the retaliatory measures, a senior Russian lawmaker said earlier on Monday.   While traveling in Asia, Trump touted the relationship between himself and Russia and posted on Twitter that improved relations with the country would  a good thing, not a bad thing.

Summary: रूस का आरटी अमेरिका अमेरिका में 'विदेशी एजेंट' के रूप में पंजीकृत है।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told a congressional panel on Wednesday that there was a delay between the time the FBI first made contact with the Democratic National Committee about Russia hacking its servers and the time he was notified at the Department of Homeland Security.  Johnson, who served under President Barack Obama, was testifying about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.  The Department of Homeland Security issued warnings about hacking into voter registration databases, but Johnson said the notices did not get the attention he would have liked.  Johnson blamed the emergence of a 2005 tape, in which Donald Trump brags about sexually assaulting women, for distracting the American public at the time of the warnings.  Asked why the Obama administration did not do more to warn the public about the hacking, Johnson said, “We were very concerned that we would not be perceived as taking sides in the election, injecting ourselves into a very heated campaign.”

Summary: पूर्व गृह सचिव का कहना है कि एफ. बी. आई. ने साइबर हैकिंग की अधिसूचना में देरी की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is set to toast the five leaders of Nordic nations at a lavish state dinner at the White House on Friday, an unusual summit aimed in part at sending a message to a nation not on the guest list: Russia. Obama will laud the humanitarian and environmental accomplishments of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland, but also wants to talk about how to deal with their increasingly aggressive neighbor Russia ahead of a NATO summit in July. “We share the concern of countries in the region, particularly those who have a border with Russia, about the increasing presence of Russian military assets in the area,” said Charles Kupchan, Obama’s senior director for European affairs. “We will be discussing ways to enhance the security of the region, writ large, and also what we can do through dialogue and diplomacy to urge Russia to be more transparent and to be more restrained and careful in its military exercises,” Kupchan told reporters. Obama last met Nordic leaders in Stockholm in 2013 on his way to a G20 summit in St. Petersburg after canceling a planned bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because of tensions over Syria and surveillance issues. Since then, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region, prompting Nordic nations to step up their military cooperation and the United States to boost military spending to help NATO do more to try to deter Russia. During a recent visit to Europe, Obama sought to reassure allies about the U.S. commitment to the continent, but pushed nations to increase their defense spending and stay united amid the strain of dealing with an influx of migrants fleeing Middle East conflicts. The leaders will discuss a long-term approach for dealing with refugees, Kupchan said, as well as new contributions to the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. He declined comment on specific commitments from the meeting. Typically, the White House rolls out the red carpet for one leader at a time. Friday will be a bit trickier, juggling five guests of honor and their entourages. The state dinner itself will be in a large tent with a transparent ceiling evoking the northern lights and “shadowy spaces in the arctic night,” the White House told reporters. Guests will sit at long, rustic wooden tables bedecked with columns of ice, fiddlehead ferns, and fragrant hand-rolled beeswax candles, and dine on braised Nebraska beef short ribs and salt-cured Atlantic ahi tuna served in a large ice cube.  The summit is expected to be heavy on “feel-good” messages about the outsized role Nordic nations play in international diplomacy, said Julie Smith, a former Obama administration official now with the Center for a New American Security. “In many ways, the actual visit is the deliverable,” Smith said, noting it was unlikely major new initiatives would emerge. “We’re at the end of the president’s tenure so there are limits on what new things he can drive forward,” Smith said. In Washington, preparations for the leaders’ arrival have been overshadowed by a visit by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to meet with congressional leaders as the race intensifies to replace Obama in the White House in the Nov. 8 election. Trump has said NATO is obsolete and European nations should look after their own defense, which has sparked concern among Nordic nations, said Heather Conley, a former State Department official in the George W. Bush administration. “They hear with great clarity the statements of Donald Trump and they don’t know exactly how this is going to work in November,” said Conley, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg plans to stress the importance of American participation in NATO for Nordic nations, she said in an interview this week with the Norwegian daily Aftenposten. “With an unpredictable Russian presence in the northern areas, it’s important that the Americans have a focus on the Arctic regions,” Solberg said.

Summary: ओबामा ने असामान्य नॉर्डिक शिखर सम्मेलन में छह लोगों के लिए राजकीय रात्रिभोज की मेज़ रखी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote overwhelmingly on Tuesday for a bill that would slap new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, potentially complicating President Donald Trump’s hopes of pursuing improved relations with Moscow. The bipartisan measure aims to punish Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The measure’s fate in the Senate is uncertain after a key senator said the deal announced over the weekend may not be final. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that negotiators had a “very good weekend” but any announcement “seemed somewhat premature.” “We’re about there, there’s still some procedural issues we’re discussing but, you know, I think it worked out very, very well. We’ve still got a couple of things to talk about on North Korea,” Corker said. If the Republican-led Senate passes the measure, Trump will need to decide whether to sign the bill or veto it. Rejecting it would carry a risk that his veto could be overridden by lawmakers. The Trump administration has objected to a provision in the sanctions bill that the president obtain congressional approval before easing any sanctions on Moscow. “He’s going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Monday, when asked whether Trump would support it. An earlier version of the bill, including sanctions on Russia and Iran, passed the Senate by 98-2 on June 15. A North Korea sanctions bill passed the House by 419-1 in May and House lawmakers were becoming increasingly impatient with the Senate’s failure to take up that legislation. House members saw the Iran and Russia sanctions bill as a chance to finally get the North Korea measure through the Senate. Trump’s relationship with Russia has been an issue during the first six months of his presidency as investigations continue into whether his associates colluded with Russian hackers to influence the election on his behalf. Russia denies interfering in the U.S. election. Trump has denied his campaign colluded with Moscow, calling the probes politically motivated and repeatedly criticizing them. In a series of tweets early on Tuesday, Trump lashed out at both U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Andrew McCabe, acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Without offering evidence, Trump cited “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage” his presidential campaign in order to aid his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, will visit Capitol Hill for a second straight day to be interviewed about his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign and the presidential transition. Trump on Tuesday praised Kushner, saying he had done “very well yesterday in proving he did not collude with the Russians.”

Summary: सदन ने रूस के प्रतिबंध विधेयक को पारित करते हुए ट्रम्प की शक्तियों को सीमित कर दिया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an Islamic State attack on Thursday cut off the main road between Deir al-Zor city and Palmyra, but a Syrian military source denied this. The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said Islamic State seized the town of al-Shoula on the road, as Syrian troops and their allies battled around it with heavy air cover.  But the Syrian military source said the army thwarted the attack and denied that Islamic State fighters had taken the town and cut off the route. The militants tried to mount an attack from territory they control southeast of Deir al-Zor city, near the border with Iraq, the source added.   They received a blow and did not succeed,  the source said. The road, which the army and its allies seized in recent weeks, serves as a major supply route from government territory into the eastern city.  With Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, the Syrian army reached Deir al-Zor city last month, breaking an Islamic State siege of an enclave there that had lasted three years.  The towns along the Euphrates river, downstream of the city, have fast become the last major IS footholds in Syria and a focus of the multi-sided war. Islamic State militants have been on the back foot in both Iraq and Syria, where they have lost vast territory to different enemies this year. With U.S.-led jets and special forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias is also battling Islamic State on the river s eastern bank. The separate offensives have both advanced as they race to capture swathes of Deir al-Zor province.     IS media unit Amaq said on Thursday that the militants took al-Shoula and a nearby village as they waged an attack that included suicide bombers, capturing two Russian forces.  The Russian defense ministry denied any military personnel were taken hostage, RIA news agency said citing a Russian military official at the Hmeimim air base in Syria.   There were no incidents with capturing or losing Russian servicemen in Deir Al-Zor province and other Syrian provinces,  the official said. Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi exhorted his followers on Thursday to stand fast and keep fighting, in his first purported audio communication in almost a year.

Summary: सीरियाई वेधशाला का कहना है कि आईएस ने देइर अल-ज़ोर सड़क को काट दिया, सैन्य सूत्र ने इनकार किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Supporters of billionaire Donald Trump appear unfazed by his decision to accept money from outside donors, despite his earlier vow to self-fund his presidential campaign and his  criticism of rivals as puppets of wealthy special interests. The vow has been a cornerstone of Trump’s election strategy to present himself as an outsider who is not in the pocket of rich donors, even though he has accepted more than $12 million in contributions so far. The strategy paid off last week when the New York businessman emerged as the Republican party’s presumptive presidential nominee, after sweeping a series of state nominating contests. Since then, Trump has said he would no longer self-finance and would work with the party to raise more than $1 billion to help him fight his eventual Democratic Party challenger. Critics accused him of flip flopping, but some supporters don’t agree. Three dozen of the 40 pro-Trump voters Reuters interviewed said they were not concerned about his reversal. Only four indicated the switch made them uneasy, though all of them said they would still support him. Most of those interviewed applauded the way the celebrity businessman billed himself as a “blue-collar billionaire” who didn’t need other people’s money, but said they understood Trump would need far more resources to compete in the general election. They would have no problem donating to the billionaire, albeit in the same kind of small increments that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has used to build his nearly $200 million fundraising juggernaut.  “Even though I’m on welfare, I would donate to Trump,” said Pamela Thompson, a 46-year-old mother of three school-age kids from Tulsa, Oklahoma. “And my kids would run a lemonade stand to help elect him.” The supporters interviewed said Trump’s pledge to self-finance his campaign was less important to them than his promises to crack down on undocumented workers and ease the pain of mostly white, blue collar towns that have seen manufacturing jobs lost to developing countries. Sharon Jones, a 53-year old Wal-Mart cashier from Coleman County, Alabama, says her anger over undocumented immigrants shopping at her store on welfare benefits is animating her support for Trump, who has promised to deport undocumented workers and build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. “They are doing better than I am on my $9.45 an hour,” Jones said. The majority of supporters interviewed said they thought Trump’s decision to fundraise was strategically wise given that Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, has raised more than $250 million so far.  In the 2012 election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney and his Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama, each raised $1 billion. “You gotta fight fire with fire. Bring it on,” said Cheryl Ressler Halvorson, a cattle rancher from Williston, North Dakota  whose support for Trump stems mainly from her ire over having to pay $1,100 a month for health insurance with a $13,000 deductible due to the government mandate known as Obamacare. Halvorson is not an outlier. Most Trump supporters have stayed loyal despite the candidate frequently reversing or updating policy positions on key economic and social issues. Trump is not the first U.S. presidential candidate to change his mind about financing his election campaign. In the 2008 election, Obama also did an about-face. He said he would forego public financing of his general election campaign against Republican John McCain. This was a reversal of his earlier stance and it allowed him to pursue a record fund-raising effort. Supporters were unfazed by the shift and Obama went on to win the election.

Summary: धन जुटाने के बारे में ट्रम्प के आमने-सामने होने से उनकी लोकप्रियता में कमी आने की संभावना नहीं है।


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers said Thursday they will seek to recover the missing emails of Colin Powell from his time as U.S. secretary of state by going directly to AOL Inc, whose email service he used for his work. The decision came a few minutes after U.S. State Department officials testified in a hearing that the department never contacted AOL to recover the missing records, despite repeated requests by the National Archives and Records Administration over the last year. The hearing, by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was the latest in the fallout from Hillary Clinton’s decision to use an unauthorized private email system for official email while secretary of state.  Clinton, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, has said her decision was wrong, but it has continued to dog her effort to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election. Her defenders have pointed to some similarities in Powell’s earlier use of private email, which drew fresh scrutiny at Thursday’s hearing. “I don’t get this, it’s ridiculous,” said Democrat Stephen Lynch, a committee member. “This is the National Archives asking you to contact AOL, but you didn’t do that.” Patrick Kennedy, the State Department’s most senior management official, said that Powell, a Republican, never replied to the department’s request to ask AOL to attempt to recover his work emails, which were not properly archived at the agency. He said the department’s lawyers decided to decline the National Archives’ requests that the department go to AOL directly. “We cannot make a request for someone else’s records from their provider,” Kennedy said in his testimony. “That request has to be made by them.” Jason Chaffetz, the Republican who chairs the committee, then agreed to a request by the committee’s most senior Democrat, Elijah Cummings, to try to recover the emails from AOL, using a subpoena if necessary. AOL is owned by telecommunications provider Verizon Communications Inc. A spokeswoman for Powell did not respond to a request for comment. AOL did not immediately respond to questions, and has previously said the its privacy policy precludes it from discussing a customer’s emails. The State Department did not have a fully functioning email system when Powell joined it in 2001, according to agency officials. Powell has said he told technology officials to set up a computer with his AOL account in order to become the first secretary of state to use email. In contrast, Clinton eschewed the official state.gov email system when she took office in 2009. Department officials have said she would not have received permission for this had she asked.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसद पॉवेल के विदेश विभाग के ईमेल के लिए एओएल पर दबाव डालेंगे


PARIS (Reuters) - France and the United States are determined to  vigorously  raise pressure on Iran over its ballistic missile program, including possibly through sanctions, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said during a visit to Washington.  Le Drian was in the American capital on Monday to meet U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster and U.S. President Donald Trump s special adviser Jared Kushner.  Tensions between Iran and France have risen in recent months with both sides repeatedly trading barbs in public, including le Drian accusing Iran of  hegemonic temptations  in the region. Iran on Sunday criticized President Emmanuel Macron over his tough stance toward Tehran and said Paris would soon lose its international credibility if it  blindly follows  U.S. President Donald Trump.  They didn t like the word, but I stand by it,  le Drian told reporters.  Iran s hegemonic temptations in the region is a matter of urgency because it s within the framework of getting peace in Iraq and Syria that we will stop this process.  Iranian officials have been particularly aggrieved by France s criticism of its ballistic missile tests and suggestions of possible new sanctions over the program, which Tehran calls solely defensive in nature. Le Drian, who is due in Iran at the beginning of January, said he would tell them clearly of Paris  concerns.   We are fully determined to press very vigorously on Iran to stop the development of an increasingly significant ballistic capability ,  Le Drian said, reiterating that sanctions were possible. Macron, unlike Trump, has reaffirmed his country s commitment to the deal Iran signed in 2015 with world powers under which it curbed its disputed nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of most international sanctions. After talks with the U.S. officials, Le Drian said he believed that Washington was beginning to understand European messages on the need to maintain the accord.

Summary: बैलिस्टिक हथियारों को लेकर ईरान पर दबाव बनाने के लिए 'दृढ़' है फ्रांस और अमेरिका


HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean court on Tuesday freed activist pastor Evan Mawarire, a critic of President Robert Mugabe, following his weekend arrest on new charges of attempting to subvert the government. It was the second time he has been detained for a similar offense. Mawarire went on trial on Monday on separate subversion charges stemming from protests last year against Mugabe s handling of the economy. The magistrates court said the rights of Mawarire, who appeared in khaki prison uniform, had been violated after police failed to bring him to court within 48 hours following his arrest on Sunday morning, as stipulated by the law. Mawarire had earlier attended trial at the High Court but the judge postponed the case to Thursday. The 40-year-old pastor faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted, and even if acquitted could soon be on trial again.  He is due to face yet another trial at a later date on charges of promoting violence after he addressed protesting university students in June.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे की अदालत ने विध्वंस के आरोप में गिरफ्तार कार्यकर्ता पादरी को रिहा किया