WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump International Hotel in Washington is not in violation of federal conflict-of-interest rules that bar elected officials from taking part in a lease of federal property, the U.S. General Services Administration said on Thursday. Critics argued that the luxury hotel housed in the historic Old Post Office a few blocks from the White House was a conflict of interest for Republican President Donald Trump because he is both landlord and tenant of the building. Lawyers for the hotel said the claim had no merit. Democratic lawmakers asked the GSA, which oversees federal property, to clarify the status of the lease arrangement. “We would like to thank the GSA for their diligent review of this matter,” Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the hotel, said in an email.  In January, Trump said he would maintain ownership of his global business empire, but hand control to his two oldest sons while president. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., subsequently took the reins of the Washington hotel. In a letter from GSA contracting officer Kevin Terry to Donald Trump Jr., the agency said the issue had been resolved by the younger Trump taking over as head of the company that runs the hotel and by changes to its internal operating agreement. The GSA said the company, the Trump Old Post Office LLC, was in full compliance with the section of the lease prohibiting elected federal officials from having any part of it. The hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue has become a rallying point for anti-Trump protesters. Two Democratic U.S. congressmen, Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Peter DeFazio of Oregon, voiced displeasure with the GSA decision. “Any elected official can now defy the restriction by following this blueprint,” they said in an email statement, calling the agency’s letter “completely inadequate.” “This decision allows profits to be reinvested back into the hotel so Donald Trump can reap the financial benefits when he leaves the White House,” they added. “This is exactly what the lease provision was supposed to prevent.”  A Washington restaurant sued the president and Trump Old Post Office LLC this month, claiming patrons had shifted business there to curry favor with his administration. A Trump Organization attorney said the lawsuit lacked merit.

Summary: एजेंसी ने पाया कि ट्रम्प के वाशिंगटन होटल में हितों का टकराव नहीं है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Trump administration plan to sell off half the U.S. emergency crude oil stockpile to help balance the budget faces opposition in Congress, with lawmakers from both parties worried the proposal would undermine the drilling industry and make the country vulnerable to supply shocks.  The White House’s 2018 budget proposal, sent to Congress on Tuesday, proposes raising nearly $16.6 billion by 2027 by gradually selling millions of barrels from the reserve, which now holds about 688 million barrels of oil in underground caverns in Texas and Louisiana. News of the proposal had briefly sent oil prices tumbling on concern it would oversupply the market, but prices recovered and finished slightly higher on hopes that OPEC and other countries would extend supply cuts.     “We should not be selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve now,” said Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, a leading oil producer state. “We should use the SPR for emergencies, and selling now would disrupt the markets.” The SPR sell-off plan is part of a broader White House proposal to balance the U.S. budget that is meant as starting point to debate policy with Congress - which will ultimately pass its own version.  Whether the SPR proposal will survive the budget process could depend in part on Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a member of the appropriations committee and the head of the chamber’s energy panel. In 2015, when Congress was considering selling a modest amount of oil from the reserve to help fund a transportation bill, Murkowski opposed the idea, saying the reserve should not be used as an ATM.  Murkowski did not directly address the SPR plan in a statement on Tuesday, but she said “a President’s budget is more of a vision than anything else.” Efforts to reach Murkowski on Tuesday were not successful.     Murkowski’s Democratic counterpart on the energy panel, however, raised concerns that liquidating half of the reserve would run counter to the original purpose of the facility, which Congress created in 1975 to protect against global oil disruptions that could harm the U.S. economy.      “We are not going to let Donald Trump auction off our energy security to the highest bidder,” Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington said in an email. The Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s led to chaos at U.S. filling stations and fears of long-term damage to the economy. Much has changed since then: U.S. oil production has surged in recent years and supply from Canada has increased, displacing a large portion of the imports from some less stable Middle Eastern suppliers. U.S. oil imports from the producer group OPEC have fallen to less than 3.2 million bpd in 2016 from more than 5.4 million barrels per day in 2008, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Richard Newell, a former head of the EIA, noted that the plan could cause the United States to break its obligation as a member of the International Energy Agency to hold 90 days’ worth of oil imports on reserve. Currently, the SPR holds about 145 days’ worth of oil imports.    “There are a number of possible scenarios under which reducing the SPR to the levels proposed would violate our IEA treaty obligations,” he said.  Lawmakers from both parties also said releasing oil from the SPR could dampen crude prices and hurt drilling companies still recovering from a price crash in 2014. Trump had campaigned on a promise to revive the drilling industry. “Putting that much oil on the market, you will see a lot of layoffs in the energy business,” said Representative Gene Green, a Democrat from Texas.  Mick Mulvaney, the head of the Office of Management and Budget told reporters on Tuesday, however, there are ways to tap the SPR slowly and “telegraph it over the course of time” to avoid having a dramatic impact on prices.  Representative Pete Olson, a Texas Republican, said the SPR infrastructure needs improvement because tanks and other equipment are constantly exposed to corrosive salt air. But he did not rush to embrace a sell-off of oil, saying that the larger budget deserves careful scrutiny. Some oil industry representatives also came out against the proposal. Randall Luthi, President of the National Ocean Industries Association said the plan to cut the SPR in half threatened national security. He added he also opposed a proposal in the budget to cut federal oil royalty payments to U.S. Gulf Coast states - funds meant to help them defend their coasts from hurricane damage.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसद तेल भंडार को कम करने की ट्रम्प की योजना को रोकने के लिए तैयार हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Thursday extended a state of emergency in Flint until April 14, as the Michigan legislature gave final approval of $28 million to address the drinking water crisis. Snyder’s move approved by the state legislature means the state emergency declaration will continue as long as the federal emergency declaration issued earlier this month by President Barack Obama. The state declaration was originally set to end Feb. 1. “Extending this emergency will help us continue these efforts while working on long-term solutions to help Flint recover,” Snyder said of providing access to bottled water, filters and testing kits. Separately, Michigan Democrats in Congress said Thursday they want to win backing for up to $600 million in U.S. support of Flint. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters and Rep. Dan Kildee of Flint said they will offer an amendment to a pending Senate Energy bill that would provide up to $400 million to replace or fix lead pipes. The proposal would require the state of Michigan to match any federal funding. The proposal would also direct $200 million in federal funds for a research center to focus on the needs of children and would also require the Environmental Protection Agency to warn the public of high lead levels in drinking water if a state fails to do so. Peters said Democrats also want a change in the law to allow the federal government to forgive $20 million in loans to Flint. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Obama administration does not have a position yet on the proposal, and was not aware of any plans to place Flint under some kind of special category. Soul singer and Detroit native Aretha Franklin told MSNBC on Thursday she was donating 50 hotel rooms nightly and money for food during the crisis, and has urged other Motown artists to help. U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra, speaking in Baltimore at a Democratic retreat, said someone should be arrested. “What went down in Flint should cause someone to have a rap sheet,” he said. “There should be some indictments.” The Detroit Free Press reported on Thursday, citing state government emails released by liberal group Progress Michigan, that in January 2015 while state officials were telling Flint residents their water was safe to drink they were arranging for coolers of purified water in Flint’s state office building. The $28 million approved by the state will be used to provide bottled water and other supplies, put nurses in local schools and more.

Summary: राज्यपाल ने फ्लिंट जल आपातकाल को बढ़ाया क्योंकि राज्य ने धन को मंजूरी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to endorse two fellow Republicans, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and U.S. Senator John McCain, in their upcoming re-election battles after both Republicans criticized his remarks about the family of a slain Muslim U.S. Army captain. Mirroring the language Ryan used about supporting Trump before his eventual endorsement, Trump told The Washington Post he’s “not quite there yet” on supporting the congressman in Tuesday’s primary in Wisconsin.

Summary: ट्रंप ने रेयान, मैक्केन को फिर से चुनाव के लिए समर्थन देने से किया इनकारः वाशिंगटन पोस्ट


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have charged a former Turkish economy minister and the ex-head of a state-owned bank with conspiring to violate Iran sanctions by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran s behalf. The indictment marks the first time an ex-government member with close ties to President Tayyip Erdogan has been charged in an investigation that has strained ties between Washington and Ankara. Ex-minister Zafer Caglayan was also charged with taking bribes in cash and jewelry worth tens of millions of dollars. The charges stem from the case against Reza Zarrab, a wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was arrested in the United States over sanctions evasion last year. Erdogan has said U.S. authorities had  ulterior motives  in charging Zarrab, who has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have now charged Caglayan and former Halkbank general manager Suleyman Aslan and two others, according to the U.S. Attorney s Office for the Southern District of New York. They were charged with  conspiring to use the U.S. financial system to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars  worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities, which were barred by United States sanctions,  U.S. prosecutors said in a statement dated Wednesday. They were also accused of lying to U.S. government officials about the transactions, laundering funds and defrauding several financial institutions by concealing the true nature of the transactions, prosecutors said. Reuters was not immediately able to reach Caglayan or Aslan for comment. Halkbank said all of its transactions have always fully complied with national and international regulations, adding that news regarding the U.S. case  misleads  the public and investors. Relations between Washington and NATO ally Turkey, an important partner in tackling the Syrian conflict, were strained after a failed coup against Erdogan in July last year and the president s subsequent crackdown on opposition. Ankara is seeking, so far without success, extradition of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric it accuses of backing the coup attempt. The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, denies the allegation. Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci defended his predecessor and said U.S. prosecutors had yet to prove their accusations.  Caglayan did not do anything against Turkey s interests,  Zeybekci told reporters.  It is no concern to Turkey if Caglayan acted against interests of other countries.  Both Caglayan and Aslan are also accused of taking bribes, according to the indictment.  Caglayan, who was serving as Minister of the Economy... received tens of millions of dollars  worth of bribes in cash and jewelry from the proceeds of the scheme to provide services to the government of Iran and conceal those services from U.S. government officials,  prosecutors said. U.S. prosecutors have said that between 2010 and 2015 Zarrab and others worked to conceal his ability to supply currency and gold to Iran through the Turkish bank, avoiding U.S. sanctions. As part of that scheme, Zarrab and others used front companies and fake invoices to trick U.S. banks into processing transactions disguised to appear as though they involved food, and thus were exempt from the sanctions, prosecutors have said. The U.S. indictment echoes charges in a leaked 2014 Turkish police document, reported by Reuters, which detailed allegations that a  crime organization  had helped Iran exploit a loophole in Western sanctions that allowed it to purchase gold with oil and gas revenues. When the West prohibited the gold trade in 2013 as a sanctions violation, the police report alleged the network concocted records of shipments of food at preposterous volumes and prices to continue giving Iran access to foreign currency. Iran emerged from years of economic isolation in January 2016, when world powers lifted the crippling sanctions in return for Tehran complying with a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions. The sanctions had cut off the country of 80 million people from the global financial system, slashed its exports and imposed severe economic hardship on Iranians.  Caglayan, Aslan and others indicted in the case on Wednesday remain at large, prosecutors said.  Zarrab and a Halkbank deputy general manager, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, were arrested while in the United States. Zarrab was detained in March 2016 and Atilla a year later. Both are scheduled to appear for trial in October. Zarrab has hired former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to defend him against the charges.  Giuliani has said that both U.S. and Turkish officials remained  receptive  to a diplomatic solution due to the nature of the charges against Zarrab and the importance of Turkey as an ally. A decree issued two weeks ago gave Erdogan authority to approve the exchange of foreigners detained or convicted in Turkey with people held in other countries  in situations required by national security or national interests . Shares of Halkbank were down 3.4 percent at 13.81 lira as of 1337 GMT, underperforming the benchmark BIST 100 index, which was flat.

Summary: अमेरिका ने तुर्की के पूर्व मंत्री पर ईरान के प्रतिबंधों से बचने का आरोप लगाया


ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that the best way for the government to fight tax avoidance would be for Congress to take action after the U.S. Treasury Department issued major new rules on tax inversions on Monday. “I know that if they are working on any future actions the most impactful thing we could do is if Congress took some action here,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters when asked if the Treasury Department would issue more regulations on tax avoidance.  U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc agreed on Tuesday to terminate its $160 billion agreement to acquire Allergan Plc in a victory for the Obama administration’s push to stop tax-dodging mergers. (Story corrects quote to reflect spokesman saying Congress would have most impact on countering tax avoidance, not that Treasury is working on more action.)

Summary: व्हाइट हाउसः कर से बचने के खिलाफ लड़ाई में कांग्रेस का सबसे अधिक प्रभाव पड़ेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Security Agency risks a brain-drain of hackers and cyber spies due to a tumultuous reorganization and worries about the acrimonious relationship between the intelligence community and President Donald Trump, according to current and former NSA officials and cybersecurity industry sources. Half-a-dozen cybersecurity executives told Reuters they had witnessed a marked increase in the number of U.S. intelligence officers and government contractors seeking employment in the private sector since Trump took office on Jan. 20.  One of the executives, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, said he was stunned by the caliber of the would-be recruits. They are coming from a variety of government intelligence and law enforcement agencies, multiple executives said, and their interest stems in part from concerns about the direction of U.S intelligence agencies under Trump.   Retaining and recruiting talented technical personnel has become a top national security priority in recent years as Russia, China, Iran and other nation states and criminal groups have sharpened their cyber offensive abilities. NSA and other intelligence agencies have long struggled to deter some of their best employees from leaving for higher-paying jobs in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. The problem is especially acute at NSA, current and former officials said, due to a reorganization known as NSA21 that began last year and aims to merge the agency’s electronic eavesdropping and domestic cyber-security operations. The two-year overhaul includes expanding parts of NSA that deal with business management and human resources and putting them on par with research and engineering. The aim is to “ensure that we’re using all of our resources to maximum effect to accomplish our mission,” NSA Director Mike Rogers said. The changes include new management structures that have left some career employees uncertain about their missions and  prospects. Former employees say the reorganization has failed to address widespread concerns that the agency is falling behind in exploiting private-sector technological breakthroughs. A former top NSA official said he had been told by three current officials that budget problems meant there was too little money for promotions. That is especially important for younger employees, who sometimes need two jobs to make ends meet in the expensive Washington D.C. area, the official said. “Morale is as low as I’ve ever seen it,” said another former senior NSA official, who maintains close contact with current employees. Asked about the risk of losing talent from NSA and other agencies, White House spokesman Michael Anton said Trump had sought to reassure the intelligence community by visiting the CIA headquarters on his first full day in office. Anton also pointed to the military spending increase in Trump’s budget proposal released on Monday.  It will likely take more than a visit to the CIA to patch up relations with the intelligence community, the current and former officials said. Trump has attacked findings from intelligence agencies that Russia hacked emails belonging to Democratic Party operatives during the 2016 presidential campaign to help him win, though he did eventually accept the findings.  In January, Trump accused intelligence agencies of leaking  false information and said it was reminiscent of tactics used in Nazi Germany. The breadth of any exodus from the NSA and other intelligence agencies is difficult to quantify. The NSA has “seen a steady rise” in the attrition rate among its roughly 36,000 employees since 2009, and it now sits at a “little less than six percent,” according to an NSA spokesman. NSA director Michael Rogers said last year that the attrition rate was 3.3 percent in 2015, suggesting a sharp jump in departures since then. Several senior NSA officials who have left or plan to leave, including deputy director Richard Ledgett and the head of cyber defense, Curtis Dukes, have said their departures were unrelated to Trump or the reorganization. Some turnover is normal with any new administration, government and industry officials noted, and a stronger economy has also improved pay and prospects in the private sector.  “During this time the economy has been recovering from the recession, unemployment rates have been falling and the demand for highly skilled technical talent has been increasing,” an NSA spokesman said, when asked to comment on the reports of employee departures. In a statement, Kathy Hutson, NSA’s chief of human resources, said the agency continues “to attract amazing talent necessary to conduct the security mission the nation needs.” Some NSA veterans attribute the morale issues and staff departures to the leadership style of Rogers, who took over the spy agency in 2014 with the task of dousing an international furor caused by leaks from former contractor Edward Snowden. Concern about Rogers reached an apex last October, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper recommended to then-President Barack Obama that Rogers be removed.  The NSA did not respond to a request for comment on the recommendation last fall that Rogers be replaced.  Rogers is now expected to retain his job at NSA for at least another year, according to former officials. Rogers acknowledged concerns about potential morale problems last month, telling a congressional committee that Trump’s broadsides against the intelligence community could create “a situation where our workforce decides to walk.”  Trump’s criticism of the intelligence community has exacerbated the stress caused by the reorganization at the NSA, said Susan Hennessey, a former NSA lawyer now with Brookings Institution.  The “tone coming from the White House makes an already difficult situation worse, by eroding the sense of common purpose and service,” she said.  A wave of departures of career personnel, Hennessey added,  “would represent an incalculable loss to national security.”

Summary: एन. एस. ए. ने मनोबल गिरने के बीच प्रतिभाओं के पलायन का जोखिम उठाया, ट्रम्प को आशंका


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker pushed President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday to respond to concerns that Russia was responsible for a hacking attack on the campaign of French President-elect Emmanuel Macron. “Mr. Macron’s victory in Sunday’s election does not diminish the need for the Trump Administration to take this attack seriously and to work closely with the French government to bring the perpetrators to justice and prevent similar attacks from taking place in the future,” Senator Richard Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, wrote in a letter to administration officials, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general, has removed himself from probes of Russian election interference after failing to disclose his meetings with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. “Quite frankly it is the height of irresponsibility that President Trump still denies Russia’s act of cyber war against our election,” Durbin wrote in the letter, seen by Reuters. Durbin asked for information, including how the administration was responding to such attacks, and said Trump’s attitude could result in inadequate efforts to help U.S. allies and U.S. states protect against future Russian hacking. Russia denies allegations that it has sought to meddle in foreign elections. Trump has also pushed back against suggestions that his surprise victory in November was boosted by Moscow’s efforts. Trump took to Twitter on Monday after a Senate hearing on the subject, saying, “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?”

Summary: वरिष्ठ अमेरिकी सीनेटर ने रूस, फ्रांस के चुनाव पर ट्रम्प को धक्का दिया


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces are deploying tanks and artillery south of a Kurdish-held area of northern Iraq where a section of a Kurdish oil export pipeline is located, security sources said on Monday. The buildup is taking place northwest of Mosul, an official from the Kurdistan Regional Government s (KRG) security council said by phone from the Kurdish capital, Erbil.  An Iraqi government security advisor said the Fish-Khabur area, northwest of Mosul, is the location of crossings into Turkey and Syria that Baghdad wants to bring under its control. But he declined to say if a military move was being prepared.  A pipeline carrying crude across Iraqi Kurdistan connects to a metering station in Fish-Khabur before feeding another pipeline that takes the crude to the Turkish Mediterranean coast for exports. The military buildup is taking place around Rabi a, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the Fish-Khabur, the Kurdish security official said. Turkey and Iran both support measures taken by the Iraqi government to isolate the KRG after it held a referendum on Kurdish independence on Sept. 25 and to bring the Kurdistan region s oil exports and land crossings under Baghdad s authority.  Iraq has shown zero signs of de-escalating,  said a statement by the KRG Security Council about the deployment, adding that units being brought to the region include Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation paramilitaries. The Fish-Khabur crossing has been under Kurdish control since 1991, when the United States and western powers imposed a no-fly zone over northern Iraq to protect the Kurds from Saddam Hussein s army. The Syrian side of the border in the region is now under the control of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces.

Summary: इराक ने कुर्द तेल निर्यात पाइपलाइन के दक्षिण में बलों का निर्माण कियाः सुरक्षा सूत्र


KABUL (Reuters) - A car bomber attacked a Danish convoy belonging to the NATO-led military mission in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Sunday, wounding a number of civilians but leaving international forces unharmed, security officials said. A Danish military spokesman said some civilians may have been killed but Afghan officials reported no fatalities. Security officials say five civilians had been wounded while the interior ministry put the figure at three.  Captain William Salvin, a spokesman for NATO s Resolute Support mission, confirmed an attack had occurred and said a team was on the scene to recover the vehicle.  There are no Resolute Support casualties as a result of the explosion,  Salvin he said in an emailed statement. The Danish spokesman said the Danish soldiers were part of a security team normally engaged in protecting advisers traveling to and from the Afghan military academy near Kabul. NATO personnel traveling by road normally travel in convoys of three heavily armored personnel carriers which can resist all but the heaviest explosions. Past suicide attacks on such convoys have usually caused casualties among nearby civilians while leaving their targets relatively unharmed. NATO personnel now often travel even short distances in Kabul by helicopter. The Taliban, which often exaggerates casualty estimates from its attacks, said 16 Americans had been killed and three armored vehicles destroyed. It said it was preparing to step up the pace of attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान में कार बम हमलावर ने नाटो के काफिले पर हमला किया, नागरिक घायल


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - An opposition alliance in Mexico wants to launch a universal basic wage to combat the poverty that blights the lives of almost half the population, touting an experimental reform discussed globally as a solution to job losses from automation. The center-right National Action Party and center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution are running on a joint ticket with the leftist Citizens Movement (MC) for next July s presidential election, and the income plan is a key part of their manifesto. Officials inside the alliance say details of the plan are still being worked out, though its contours are emerging. A basic income of 10,000 pesos ($537) per year for everyone, including children, could be provided by consolidating funds from federal, state and municipal welfare programs, Jorge Alvarez, an MC congressman working on the plan told Reuters in a recent interview.  If you multiply that by four or five, which is the typical size of a Mexican family, you get an annual income of 40,000 to 50,000 pesos per family, Alvarez said, adding that providing the income to children could be conditional on school enrollment. Home to the richest man in Latin America, Carlos Slim, Mexico is laden with oil and minerals, boasts a large manufacturing base and has the world s 15th biggest economy. But poverty has remained stubbornly stuck above 40 percent of the population for decades. Government social development agency Coneval defines poverty as a person living on no more than 2,925 pesos a month in cities and 1,892 pesos in rural areas. The agency also takes into account other factors like healthcare and education. Getting to 40,000 or 50,000 pesos per family could be achieved  without increasing taxes,  Alvarez said. Still, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development argues that providing an unconditional basic income to everyone of working age would do little to combat poverty if not funded by extra taxes. The idea of universal basic income has gained currency due to the increasing robotization of the workforce. Finland is running a pilot project to test whether unconditional payments could serve as a plausible alternative welfare model. Mexico has seen job growth in recent years thanks to a manufacturing boom, and could face a smaller workforce as robots take over more tasks.  Swiss voters rejected a basic income plan in a referendum last year, while the defeated Socialist candidate in France s presidential election this year, Benoit Hamon, championed it, saying it would be funded by a tax on robots that replace human labor. Mexican gross domestic product was worth $1.046 trillion in 2016, according to the World Bank, but some 53.4 million Mexicans, or 43.6 percent of the population, live below the poverty line, according to Coneval.  ($1 = 18.6239 Mexican pesos)

Summary: मुफ्त में जाँचः गरीबी से निपटने के लिए एक मैक्सिकन योजना


HAVANA (Reuters) - The Obama administration and Cuba continue to sign cooperation agreements this week, scrambling to complete negotiations on a range of issues with just days to go until Donald Trump is sworn in as U.S. president, potentially bringing a chill to relations.  An agreement to cooperate on air and maritime search and rescue in the Florida Straits was signed on Wednesday in Havana, and another setting territorial limits in contested Gulf of Mexico waters was scheduled for signing on Wednesday or Thursday, according to diplomatic sources.  A third agreement on health protocols for dealing with issues such as bird flu was scheduled for signing on Wednesday, but postponed for later this week. It would be the last of 22 accords that have been concluded in the last 18 months. Seeking to reverse more than 50 years of U.S. efforts to force Communist-run Cuba to change by isolating it, Democratic President Barack Obama agreed with Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014 to work to normalize relations. Since then the two countries have restored diplomatic relations and Obama has taken a number of steps to increase travel and trade with Cuba. Trump, a Republican who will be sworn in on Friday, has threatened to end the detente if Cuba does not make further political and other concessions, although he has not specified what these should be. The prospect of a fresh chill has prompted both governments to wrap up negotiations on five agreements since the November election, including one on fighting international crime and another on preventing and containing oil spills.  The Obama administration last week ended a 21-year-old special arrangement by which all Cubans arriving in the United States, including without visas, were entitled to stay and seek residency. The policy had long been criticized by the Cuban government.  John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council which has followed business ties between the two countries for two decades, noted that while there had been a large array of recent agreements and memorandums of understanding, not all were binding treaties. “The commercial, economic and political bilateral relationship between the United States and Cuba remains tentative, fragile, and immensely subject to the impact of winds from the north and winds from the south,” Kavulich said. The Trump transition team has included five Cuban-Americans who are vocal opponents of detente and who have close ties to Cuban-American lawmakers calling for a return to efforts to isolate Cuba. A number of Trump appointees, including his  national security advisor, Michael Flynn, have expressed opposition to the effort to normalize relations. Obama has used executive orders, which can be scrapped by Trump, to circumvent the longstanding U.S. trade embargo on Cuba and ease some restrictions on travel and business. The embargo can be lifted only by the U.S. Congress, which is controlled by Republicans. (This story corrects paragraph 8 to say that not all the deals were binding treaties, rather than none of the deals)

Summary: संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका और क्यूबा ने समझौते पूरे किए क्योंकि ट्रम्प युग शुरू होने वाला है


PARIS (Reuters) - Battered and bruised from electoral defeat by Emmanuel Macron s centrists, France s Socialist Party is laying off most of its staff and selling its Paris base, while the centre-right Republicans limp on in search of a leader. Facing falling membership after winning just six percent of the vote in the presidential election, the centre-left party told staff on Wednesday it would have to fire most of them, days after its historic headquarters was put up for sale to raise funds. On the other side of the political divide, the conservative Republicans are leaderless and have struggled for months to decide whether to expel party members who have signed up to serve with Macron. The two parties ruled France for decades, but Macron s Republic on the Move has stolen the middle ground from under their feet.  Macron benefits from a large political space left vacant by the opposition,  said Vincent Thibault of Elabe pollsters.  He has to face very few attacks from the other parties.  Fewer lawmakers and local officials mean the Socialist Party s income has fallen to 8 million euros ($9.42 million) a year from 28 million previously. Party treasurer Jean-Francois Debat told Reuters around 60 of 97 staff would have to go.     While the Republicans are the largest opposition group in the lower house of parliament and hold a majority in the senate, they are in barely better shape. For the past five months they have struggled to stem Macron s poaching of their top officials, or to oppose economic policies that mirror their own. In the latest of several meetings on membership, the party decided in principle on Tuesday to expel Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and other ministers serving in Macron s government.     But having failed to gather enough officials at the meeting, they were forced to postpone the actual decision for a week, drawing scorn from critics.  It s grotesque,  Sebastien Lecornu, a junior minister and one of those facing expulsion, told Le Parisien daily.  They are punishing us for backing reforms that are useful to the country ... the right is committing suicide.       The far left and far right are also struggling to mount a credible opposition to 39-year-old Macron. The far-right National Front, weakened by its own divisions, has become close to inaudible. Its leader Marine Le Pen had the worst ratings on record for France 2 television s top political show last week, with only 1.7 million viewers. The far-left France Insoumise has been more vocal, and polls show it is seen as the strongest opponent. But it has struggled to get voters out on the streets against Macron s reforms and surveys show it is regarded more as a protest movement.

Summary: मैक्रों की जीत के मलबे से बाहर निकलने के लिए फ्रांसीसी विपक्ष संघर्ष कर रहा है


YANGON (Reuters) - Facebook posts from Myanmar s army detailing the opening phase of its crackdown last month on Rohingya Muslim insurgents - an operation now being probed by the United Nations - are no longer visible on its official page, Reuters found. Posts for the period between Aug. 1 and Aug. 29 appear to have been  hidden  on the Facebook page of the office of the commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, which has covered the military s actions, including those in western Myanmar, in detailed dispatches. The posts, which can still be found using specific date or keyword searches, included detailed accounts of the operation launched by the army following attacks on security forces on Aug. 25. It is unclear why, or when exactly, the posts disappeared. They were not visible on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday from several locations across Asia.  We don t hide anything, it might be some kind of error,  said Ministry of Defense spokesman General Aung Ye Win. Zaw Htay, the spokesman for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, referred questions to Aung Ye Win. A spokesman for the military-run home affairs ministry, Police Colonel Myo Thu Soe, said he  had no idea  about the issue. A Facebook spokesperson said it was at the discretion of page administrators to hide posts if they wished. Around 480,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the military counter-offensive began. The United Nations has described the campaign as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has rejected that accusation, saying it is waging a legitimate fight against terrorists. A U.N.-mandated fact-finding mission is looking into  alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces and abuses in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State . The probe includes the violence that followed the Aug. 25 attacks. It was established after a similar, smaller military operation late last year. The official military Facebook page shows a gap of nearly a month between a post on July 31 and the next one on Aug. 30. Like other news organizations, Reuters had used the detailed, timely postings in much of its early coverage of the August crisis. The August posts can still be seen if searched for with a specific date or a keyword, suggesting they have not been deleted but removed from the page s timeline using Facebook s  hide  function.  Keep in mind that if a post you ve hidden was shared, it may still be visible to the audience it was shared with in other places on Facebook,  says Facebook about the function on its website. The feature can be undone by the account holder to restore the posts. The hidden August posts include very detailed accounts of clashes with militants, often accompanied by pictures. The military first posted on the attacks on Aug. 25, attaching a map showing police posts and military base that had been attacked.  The timeline updates resume on the military page after Aug. 31, with more than 360 posts in September, mostly about operations in Rakhine. Myawady, a media group which covers the military and publishes daily newspapers, has kept the August issues available online.

Summary: म्यांमार की सेना ने फेसबुक पर हमले की महत्वपूर्ण अवधि को कवर करने वाली पोस्ट 'छिपी' रखी


CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump called Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday and said he was keen to overcome any obstacles in the way of cooperation, just days after the U.S. said it would withhold some financial aid to Egypt.  President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received a phone call tonight from U.S. President Donald Trump who affirmed the strength of the friendship between Egypt and the United States and expressed his keenness on continuing to develop the relationship and overcome any obstacles that might affect it,  Sisi s office said in a statement late on Thursday. On Tuesday, two U.S. sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Washington had decided to deny Egypt $95.7 million in aid and to delay a further $195 million because it had failed to make progress on respecting human rights and democracy. Egypt, an important regional partner for the United States because of its control of the Suez Canal and its border with Israel, receives $1.3 billion in aid annually and was critical of the U.S. decision. Its foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the decision to withhold aid reflected  poor judgment  and that it could have  negative implications  on achieving common goals and interests between the two countries. The decision reflects a U.S. desire to continue security cooperation as well as its frustration with Cairo s stance on civil liberties. In particular, a new law regulating non-governmental organizations is widely seen as part a growing crackdown on dissent, said the U.S. sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Egyptian rights activists have said they face the worst crackdown in their history under Sisi, accusing him of erasing freedoms won in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak s 30-year rule. Egyptian lawmakers have said the NGO law was needed for national security. The Egyptian government has long accused human rights groups of taking foreign funds to sow chaos, and several are facing investigation regarding their funding. Sisi and his Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met Trump s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner in Cairo on Wednesday but neither the presidency nor the ministry mentioned the aid issue in statements released after the meetings.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने मिस्र के सिसी को फोन किया, कहा कि वे बाधाओं को दूर करने के लिए उत्सुक हैं


HAMAR, Norway (Reuters) - Young Norwegians, politicized by the massacre of 77 people by far-right militant Anders Behring Breivik, will play a key role in an election next week that could hinge on issues close to their hearts such as climate change. In 2011 Breivik killed eight people in a bombing in central Oslo and gunned down another 69 at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoeya Island, in the worst attacks in Norway since World War Two.  They motivated a generation of young people, often children or teenagers at the time, to become more involved in mainstream politics - both on the left and the right - in a backlash against his xenophobic and anti-Muslim world view. And data shows young voters are now more likely than in the past to actually cast their ballots. (For a graphic on Norway's parliamentary elections click tmsnrt.rs/2ugJCjo)   I felt so powerless that day. It was a way to fight back,  said Anja Ariel Toernes Brekke, 21, who joined the youth wing of the Labour Party a few weeks after Breivik s attacks. She is now the general secretary of the far-left Red party s youth wing.   I wanted to prove that the left was not weakened, that there would be people with those beliefs to replace those who had died,  she told Reuters. Brekke is touring schools in Norway to get the youth vote out. On a recent morning, she was at the Cathedral School in Hamar, 120 km (75 miles) north of Oslo, to take part in a debate with other young politicians in front of 1,250 high-school students packed in a gym hall.   Our society is more unequal. What we lack is justice. We need a new politics,  she told the crowd, to applause.  Her party, the Reds, could be one of several kingmakers in Monday s parliamentary election, in which the right-wing bloc of Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg is neck-and-neck in opinion polls with an opposition grouping led by Jonas Gahr Stoere s Labour. Younger voters tend to care more than the average Norwegian about issues such as schools, climate change and the environment, especially linked to Norway s oil and gas production, researchers say. The trend has been called  Generation Utoeya  by the political scientist who identified it, Johannes Bergh at the Institute of Social Research in Oslo. According to Bergh s research, published in the 2015 book  The Vote and Voters  he co-edited with Bernt Aardal, some 13.8 percent of first-time voters said they belonged to a party in 2013, the last time a parliamentary election took place, up from 6.0 percent in 2009. This more-than-doubling was higher than the increase reported for all voters, to 9.3 percent from 7.2 percent, and it was spread across the political spectrum - not just for Labour, the target of Breivik s attack.  It did come as a surprise. We had sort of expected that young people would (go) for Labour,  Bergh told Reuters.   We saw a spike in the membership of the youth wing of the Labour party immediately after the attacks. But the same thing happened with the Conservatives too. The attacks were an attack on Norwegian democracy, not on a political party.   Young people are also voting more since  July 22  - the common shorthand for the killings by Breivik, who is serving a 21-year jail term that can be extended indefinitely. At the last election in 2013, 66.5 percent of 18- to 21-year-olds cast ballots, up more than 10 percentage points from 2009. Parties are paying more attention to this young constituency.  Politicians have to listen to young people and have to make an effort to appeal to young people,  said Bergh. In the longer term, he believes the Utoeya generation effect will help ensure the renewal of democracy in Norway.  It is going to be positive. Once young people start voting, they tend to continue later in life.  The future of Norway s oil industry has emerged as a key issue for voters this time around. The small but growing Green Party, which pledges to stop oil exploration and phase out production within 15 years, is emerging as a potential key in deciding who will get to govern the Scandinavian country.  It was certainly on the mind of some first-time voters in Hamar.  We need to phase out oil production and respect the Paris climate agreement,  said 17-year-old student Signe Dahl.  We need to turn Norway into an environmental nation from an oil nation,  she told Reuters. Dahl, who can vote as she is turning 18 later this year, said she had whittled down her choice of party to between the Green Party and the Reds. Her friend Silje Fugleberg, 18, agreed:  We must think about other resources to use than oil. We must think about Norway s future and the environment.  Before the debate, she was considering voting either for the Socialist Left Party or the Red Party. After the debate and listening to Brekke,  I think I have decided and will vote for the Reds,  she said.

Summary: ब्रेविक द्वारा अस्वीकृत युवा पीढ़ी नॉर्वे के चुनाव को प्रभावित कर सकती है


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday there could be no normal relations with Russia until Moscow ended its support for separatists in Ukraine and returned Crimea, in comments likely to reassure Western allies. Speaking after a dinner where he discussed Russia with NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday, Tillerson took a tougher stance than U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sought better relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said last month after meeting Putin in Vietnam that he believed Putin s denial of accusations that Moscow meddled in the 2016 U.S. election. That was despite U.S. intelligence agencies  evidence of Russian interference.  At NATO, Tillerson criticized  Russia s continued use of hybrid warfare  and its attempts  to undermine Western institutions  in a reference to the mix of state-sponsored computer hacks and Internet disinformation campaigns that NATO allies  intelligence agencies say is targeted at the West.  This stands as a significant obstacle to normalizing our relations,  Tillerson told reporters. At the NATO dinner with ministers, Tillerson also blamed Russia for interfering in the U.S. election, said a diplomat who was present. Russia has denied meddling. Trump, whose former aides are being investigated after accusations that Putin influenced the election that brought him to the White House, has repeatedly emphasized that it would be better if Russia and the United States could work together.      Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil chief executive, has spent much of his time as secretary of state trying to smooth the  America First  foreign policy that has alarmed Trump s allies, but the president has publicly undercut the secretary of state s diplomatic initiatives. His trip to Europe this week was partly overshadowed by reports the White House had a plan to replace him, which Tillerson denied on Wednesday. [L8N1O63LC]   Tillerson stressed to ministers that the Ukraine crisis, which was sparked by Moscow s 2014 annexation of Crimea, was the central issue that blocked better U.S.-Russia ties because seizing sovereign territory was unacceptable, according to a second diplomat present.  The conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it erupted in 2014. Russia denies accusations it fomented the conflict and provided arms and fighters.  People are still dying every day from that violence,  Tillerson said.  Tillerson, who in 2013 as head of Exxon Mobil was awarded the Order of Friendship by Putin, a Russian state honor, said he hoped to agree to deploy U.N. troops to eastern Ukraine, an idea the Russian president floated in September. With an internationally-agreed ceasefire long broken and efforts to revive a 2015 peace deal stalled, peacekeepers could end hostilities and allow trade to resume between Russia and Ukraine. But Tillerson warned there was still a  significant difference between the mandate that a peacekeeping force would be given and the scope of their mandate .  We hope we can close those gaps,  Tillerson said. Russia is keen to see the end of Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis but European officials fear U.N. peacekeepers would freeze the conflict rather than solving it. Tillerson also cautioned against treating Russia as a partner, saying all meetings with Moscow should be based on issues, not agreed on the basis of a calendar, quashing any hopes of a detente in Moscow s relations with Washington.   I think there is broad consensus among all the NATO members that there is no normalization of dialogue with Russia today,  he said.

Summary: टिलरसन ने रूस पर कड़ा रुख अपनाया, शांति सैनिकों के लिए खुला रुख


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in some of his most candid and personal comments on the sexual abuse of children by priests, said on Thursday that the Catholic Church had  arrived late  in dealing with the problem. Francis, speaking in unscripted remarks to a commission advising him on how to root out sexual abuse, also acknowledged that early in his papacy he had made one bad call in being too lenient with an Italian priest who later went on to abuse again. He also said he had decided to change current procedures for dealing with abusive priests by eliminating appeals trials in cases where there was definitive proof. Francis surprised members of the commission by putting aside his entire prepared speech and chatting to them.  There is the reality that the Church arrived at the consciousness of these crimes a bit late,  he said.  When consciousness arrives late, the means to resolve the problems also arrive late. I am aware of this difficulty but it is reality and I say it plainly: We arrived late.  Church sexual abuse broke into the open in the United States with reports of cases in Louisiana in 1984 and exploded in 2002, when journalists in Boston found that bishops had systematically moved abusers to new posts instead of defrocking them. Thousands of cases have come to light around the world as investigations have encouraged long-silent victims to go public, shattering the Church s reputation in places such as Ireland, and more than $2 billion has been paid in compensation.  The old practice of moving people around and not confronting the problem made consciences fall asleep,  he said. Francis acknowledged that the commission, which was founded in 2014, had to  swim against the tide,  a reference to high level defections from its ranks. Marie Collins of Ireland, a non-clerical member who was victim of priestly abuse when she was a child, quit in frustration in March, citing a  shameful  lack of cooperation within the Vatican. Another, Peter Saunders of Britain, took a leave of absence last year in protest over a lack of progress. Francis said that everyone had to realize that sexual abuse is  a sickness  with a high probability of relapse.  That person may repent today ... but may commit it again after two years. We have to put it into our heads that this is a sickness,  he said. Francis said he would change current Vatican procedures to severely limit chances of appeal for pedophile priests convicted by church tribunals, saying they often were overly legalistic, allowing for reduced sentences on procedural grounds.  I have decided to balance this out and say that if an abuse of a minor is proven, it is sufficient and there should be no recourse. If the proof is there. Period. It s definitive,  he said. Francis, who was elected in 2013, acknowledged he made one bad judgment early in his papacy concerning an Italian priest, Mauro Inzoli. In that case, the bishop of Crema, had ruled that Inzoli would be removed from the public ministry while remaining a priest but a Church tribunal ruled that he be defrocked. The pope sided with the bishop.  I was new (in the papacy) I did not understand these things well and chose the more benevolent of the two sentences but after two years the priest had a relapse. I learned from this,  Francis said.

Summary: पोप ने खुले तौर पर स्वीकार किया कि चर्च दुर्व्यवहार का सामना करने में 'देर से आया'


SYDNEY (Reuters) - China is behaving like a “bully” with its militarization of islands in the South China Sea, Republican U.S. Senator John McCain said on Tuesday, activity Washington must confront with its allies to find a peaceful solution. In a speech in Sydney, McCain said China was asserting itself globally, best illustrated by militarizing artificial islands in the South China Sea, a claim repeatedly rejected by Beijing. “I think it is very clear that the Chinese by filling in these islands are militarizing them and that is in violation of international law,” the Arizona senator said.    McCain’s comments are set to escalate tensions between the United States and China just days before delegates from both countries are scheduled to attend a regional security conference in Singapore.  China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the strategic waterway. The United States estimates Beijing has added more than 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) of land on seven features in the South China Sea over the past three years, building runways, ports, aircraft hangars and communications equipment. To counter the perceived Chinese aggression, the United States has conducted so-called freedom-of-navigation exercises, the most recent of which was conducted by a U.S navy warship near Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands. At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking China’s cooperation to rein in ally North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Allies such as Australia have so far refused to participate in freedom-of-navigation exercises in the fear of alienating Beijing. While McCain stopped short of calling on Australia to undertake the exercises, the former U.S. presidential nominee said allies must work together to find a peaceful solution.

Summary: चीन दक्षिण चीन सागर में 'बदमाशी' जैसा व्यवहार कर रहा हैः मैक्केन


(Corrects Comey firing to May 9 in fifth paragraph.) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, is under scrutiny by the FBI in the Russia probe, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday. Kushner is being investigated because of his meetings in December and other possible interactions with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation. Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe, the newspaper reported. The FBI, several congressional committees and a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department are looking into allegations of meddling by Russia in the 2016 U.S. election and possible ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian officials seeking to influence the election. The controversy has engulfed Trump’s administration since he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations and Trump denies collusion with Russia.     The interest in Kushner does not mean investigators suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, the officials told NBC News. It is not known whether Kushner has received any requests from the FBI for records, NBC News said. One of Kushner’s attorneys, Jamie Gorelick, said in a  statement her client would cooperate with the investigation. “Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry,” Gorelick said. The FBI and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Summary: ट्रम्प के दामाद कुशनर रूस की जांच में एफ. बी. आई. की जांच के दायरे मेंः मीडिया रिपोर्ट


SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Reuters) - Illinois’ long-running budget stalemate was set to spill into the summer on Monday, as Democratic lawmakers worked to pass a 2017 spending plan that Republican Governor Bruce Rauner has threatened to veto, possibly jeopardizing public schools re-opening in August. As a midnight Tuesday deadline to pass legislation approaches, Rauner and his Democratic rivals who control the state legislature reported no headway toward ending the 11-month long dispute that has left Illinois as the only state without a full operating budget for the current fiscal year. The second-year governor says the budget is $7 billion short on revenues. He has insisted that the budget should be tied to a series of labor-weakening, business-friendly changes that Democrats argue will harm the state’s working class. In recent weeks, legislative working groups convened by Rauner have tried to bridge differences between the governor and top Democrats. Rauner and the Democratic legislative leaders met for less than a half hour on Monday with House Speaker Michael Madigan declaring plans to keep his legislative chamber in session during June, when a tougher three-fifths majority vote is required to pass a budget. “My view is that if there’s no agreement (Tuesday) night, I would ask the governor to keep his working groups functioning on a regular schedule because the House is going to be in continuous session,” Madigan told reporters after the meeting. Senate President John Cullerton signaled his chamber could vote on a budget bill passed by the House last week, or on an alternative plan he declined to outline. He also said he was trying to round up votes for the House budget bill. “[Tuesday] would be a good day to call it,” Cullerton said. Republican legislative leaders slammed Democrats for their refusal to accept pieces of Rauner’s non-budgetary agenda or offer revenue sources to pay for their spending plan. “They’re just forcing a tax increase. That’s what they’re doing,” said Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno, adding that Democrats plan a post-November election tax hike vote. Contained within the Democratic spending package is a $760 million increase in funding for Illinois’ public-school system for the fiscal year that begins July 1. A complete Rauner veto of the package would mean schools would be left without adequate state funding in August when schools are set to open for the fall, a gambit Cullerton predicted the governor could not risk.

Summary: इलिनोइस डेमोक्रेट गवर्नर के बजट वीटो की धमकी की अवहेलना करने के लिए तैयार हैं


LONDON (Reuters) - Many international banks and financial services firms based in Britain will decide in the first quarter of next year whether to move operations away from Britain ahead of Brexit, a senior official at Britain s finance ministry said on Wednesday. Katharine Braddick, the ministry s director general for financial services, said banks using Britain to serve clients in the European Union were showing the most urgency in considering relocation plans.  Those plans, if you like, harden, become more firm, at the point at which they start to alter contractual paperwork. For most of the firms that we talk to that will fall at some point in the first quarter of next year,  Braddick told lawmakers.

Summary: 2018 की शुरुआत बैंकों के ब्रेक्सिट फैसलों के लिए संकट का समयः ब्रिटेन के अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - He misses driving, feels as if he is in a cocoon, and is surprised how hard his new job is.  President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days in office with a wistful look at his life before the White House.  “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” Trump told Reuters in an interview. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”  A wealthy businessman from New York, Trump assumed public office for the first time when he entered the White House on Jan. 20 after he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an upset.  REUTERS RECOMMENDSRacism on the rise: Reuters pollHow North Korea gets its oil from China More than five months after his victory and two days shy of the 100-day mark of his presidency, the election is still on Trump’s mind. Midway through a discussion about Chinese President Xi Jinping, the president paused to hand out copies of what he said were the latest figures from the 2016 electoral map.  “Here, you can take that, that’s the final map of the numbers,” the Republican president said from his desk in the Oval Office, handing out maps of the United States with areas he won marked in red. “It’s pretty good, right? The red is obviously us.”  He had copies for each of the three Reuters reporters in the room.  Trump, who said he was accustomed to not having privacy in his “old life,” expressed surprise at how little he had now. And he made clear he was still getting used to having 24-hour Secret Service protection and its accompanying constraints.  “You’re really into your own little cocoon, because you have such massive protection that you really can’t go anywhere,” he said.  When the president leaves the White House, it is usually in a limousine or an SUV.  He said he missed being behind the wheel himself.  “I like to drive,” he said. “I can’t drive any more.”  Many things about Trump have not changed from the wheeler-dealer executive and former celebrity reality show host who ran his empire from the 26th floor of Trump Tower in New York and worked the phones incessantly.  He frequently turns to outside friends and former business colleagues for advice and positive reinforcement. Senior aides say they are resigned to it.  The president has been at loggerheads with many news organizations since his election campaign and decided not to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday because he felt he had been treated unfairly by the media.  “I would come next year, absolutely,” Trump said when asked whether he would attend in the future.  The dinner is organized by the White House Correspondents’ Association. Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason is its president.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रंप का कहना है कि उन्होंने सोचा था कि राष्ट्रपति बनना उनके पुराने जीवन की तुलना में आसान होगा


(Reuters) - Vanguard Group Chief Executive Bill McNabb said on Thursday he was encouraged by the U.S. Department of Labor’s steps to make new rules on the advice brokers provide on retirement savings “more workable.” “We are encouraged that the DOL has taken important steps to establish meaningful protections for retirement investors while making the final rule more workable,” McNabb said in a statement posted online. The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled its final version of a retirement advice rule aimed at ensuring that broker-dealers put their clients’ interests ahead of their own profits, though it was softened in response to industry complaints. Vanguard, a major manager of retirement investments that oversees more than $3 trillion in assets, had criticized an earlier version of the proposal as being applied too broadly to its activities and to situations in which investors would not reasonably expect that they were receiving investment advice. Yet Vanguard said the new rule makes disclosure and contract requirements “more practical and easier to follow.” “All of the effort within the industry to improve the DOL proposal appears to have produced positive results,” according to John Schadl, a member of the company’s legal department, according to a statement also posted online. The company praised the government’s efforts to align its rules better with existing standards laid out by other regulatory bodies, although Vanguard said “the DOL could have done more to harmonize these standards.” The Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based company said it has not fully reviewed the 1,023 pages of rules the department released. “It is almost certain that we will find provisions of the new rule that will adversely affect some within the industry,” Schadl said in the statement.

Summary: वैनगार्ड के सी. ई. ओ. ने सेवानिवृत्ति सलाह नियम को संशोधित करने के प्रयासों से 'प्रोत्साहित' किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday that the Senate will not vote on President Barack Obama’s signature Asian trade deal this year, punting it to the next president for changes and consideration. The statement appeared to dash White House hopes for a vote to approve the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement after the Nov. 8 election and before Obama leaves office in January. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who controls the Senate’s voting agenda, has previously said that chances for a TPP “lame duck session” vote were “slim” or “bleak.” “The current agreement, the Trans-Pacific (Partnership) agreement, which has some serious flaws, will not be acted upon this year,” McConnell told a Kentucky State Farm Bureau breakfast in Louisville. “But it will still be around. It can be massaged, changed, worked on during the next administration. So, I hope America will stay in the trade business,” McConnell said. The Obama administration is in the midst of a major push to promote the TPP deal, with cabinet officials holding dozens of events this month across the United States to try to build political support. Obama is expected to tout the TPP in the next two weeks at summits of the Group of 20 major economies in China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos. A spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office could not immediately be reached for comment on McConnell’s statement. A number of senators in recent weeks have declared their opposition to the TPP deal in its current form, including Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia, who is now the party’s vice presidential candidate alongside Hillary Clinton. Republican Senator Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is in a tough re-election race in a state hit by manufacturing job losses, has also said he cannot support the deal. Support for the TPP deal has been stronger in farming states, where proponents argue that it would boost exports of agricultural products. Clinton has said she would seek to renegotiate the trade deal if elected and has criticized its lack of enforceable provisions to prevent currency manipulation. Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has said that he will not pursue multilateral trade deals, only bilateral deals. McConnell said that he hopes the United States will continue its tradition as a trading nation since its founding, adding: “To do that, it’s going to have to be done on a bipartisan basis.” Earlier this month, House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said he saw no point in bringing up the TPP deal for a vote in any “lame duck” session of Congress later this year because “we don’t have the votes.”

Summary: ओबामा के टी. पी. पी. सौदे को इस साल सीनेट का वोट नहीं मिलेगाः मैककोनेल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and India signed an agreement on Monday governing the use of each other’s land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply, a step toward building defense ties as they seek to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China. The agreement, a relatively mundane one concerning day-to-day military logistics, is nonetheless a milestone in the U.S.-India defense relationship because of the outsized political importance it had taken on in India, where it had touched on domestic sensitivities, experts said.  The signing of the agreement will “make the logistics of joint operations so much easier and so much more efficient,” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a news briefing with Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. The agreement will allow the Indian and U.S. navies to have an easier time supporting each other in joint operations and exercises and when providing humanitarian assistance, Parrikar said. Washington’s desire for deeper security cooperation with India had been complicated without the signing of the logistics agreement as well as two other pacts that would allow for secure communications and the exchange of nautical and other data. The agreements are considered routine between the United States and its other defense partners. But India has had concerns such an agreement would commit it to hosting U.S. troops at its bases, or draw it into a military alliance with the United States and undermine its traditional autonomy. Carter and Parrikar reached an agreement “in principle” in April, but had yet to finalize the details. Carter has made closer military ties with India a priority, and established a special unit within the Pentagon last year to promote cooperation with that country. Parrikar’s visit to Washington this week marks the sixth interaction between the two top defense officials. The signing of the logistics agreement indicates the priority the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi places on a closer defense relationship with the United States, said Benjamin Schwartz, until last year the India country director at the Pentagon.  “For years, there has been tremendous misinformation put out into the Indian press about these agreements,” said Schwartz, now with the U.S.-India Business Council, which promotes trade ties between the two countries. “What the signing of this shows is that the Modi government is willing to take and suffer the short-term political criticism of signing these things for the longer-term benefit of building the defense relationship with the United States.” Both Carter and Parrikar went to pains on Monday to make clear that the logistics agreement did not allow for basing of U.S. troops in India. “It’s not a basing agreement of any kind,” Carter said. The debate over the logistics agreement had served as a vehicle for the distrust some of India’s political class has towards the United States, said Shane Mason, a research associate at the Stimson Center. The United States had previously imposed sanctions on India related to its 1998 nuclear test, although the sanctions were eased later. “From the U.S. perspective this was kind of a low hanging fruit,” Mason said. “We have logistic support agreements with many, many other countries and in most cases it’s a relatively uncontroversial thing.” The U.S. military has made clear it wants to do more with India, especially in countering China, which U.S. officials say is risking stoking conflict through its claims in the South China Sea, a vital trade waterway. Without naming China, both Carter and Parrikar mentioned the importance of the free flow of trade to both countries. “India and the United States have a shared interest in freedom of navigation and overflight and unimpeded commerce as part of rule-based order in (the) Indo-Pacific,” Parrikar said. China hoped cooperation between India and the United States would be “constructive and positive” for the region’s peace and stability and development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular briefing on Tuesday. “So, we look favorably on this sort of normal relationship between India and the United States,” Hua said.

Summary: अमेरिका और भारत ने सैन्य रसद समझौते पर हस्ताक्षर किए


CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. farm groups on Tuesday pushed back against President Donald Trump’s proposal to slash agriculture spending, viewing it as a fresh threat to a struggling farm economy. The White House on Monday proposed $46.54 billion in cuts to federal government funding for the agriculture sector over the next 10 years, including limits on federal subsidies for crop insurance premiums. Congress has the final say on the government’s budget and lawmakers said the president’s plan stands little chance of passing. U.S. Agriculture Department Secretary Sonny Perdue said there was no “sugarcoating” the budget proposal, which could lead to the elimination of 5,263 jobs at the department if implemented, or about 5 percent of its workforce. USDA requested $18 billion for department spending in fiscal 2018, down from $24 billion in 2017. Farmers in the U.S. agricultural heartland overwhelmingly supported Trump last November and are struggling with low crop prices that are hurting incomes. “This budget seems to really go after the people that got the president elected,” said Zack Clark, director of government relations for the National Farmers Union. Some of the biggest proposed cuts come from changes to the crop insurance system, which many farmers rely on to keep their operations running. “It’s clear that this budget was written without input from farmers who would be severely affected,” Ron Moore, president of the American Soybean Association, said in a statement.  But changes in crop insurance that cause farmers to cut back on plantings could provide relief to a global balance sheet heavy with supplies. Falling production could pay off in the long run by helping to lift prices, said Scott Irwin, agricultural economist for the University of Illinois. Trump’s budget imposes a $40,000 limit on crop insurance premium subsidies, which could prevent some farmers from insuring their entire acreage. There is currently no limit. Typically, farmers pay a portion of their insurance premiums and USDA covers the rest, said Jeff Harrison, a lawyer who represents the Crop Insurance Professionals Association.  “In practical terms, you’re really going after full-time farm families.”  U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said she would oppose the cuts, which “would leave our farmers, families, and rural communities vulnerable in tough times.”  House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, both Republicans, said they “will fight to ensure farmers have a strong safety net.”

Summary: अमेरिकी कृषि समूहों ने कृषि खर्च में ट्रम्प की कटौती का विरोध किया


VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday there will not be war on the Korea peninsula, even though tensions have risen considerably since North Korea s latest nuclear test less than a week ago.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया का मून कहता है कि कोरियाई प्रायद्वीप पर कोई युद्ध नहीं होगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday he did not think people brought to the United States illegally as children should be deported but fixing a program that shields them must be part of larger immigration changes. “I do believe that kicking these 800,000 kids out to countries that they’ve probably not been to since they were toddlers, in countries that speak languages they may not even know, is not in our nations’ interest,” Ryan told The Associated Press in an interview.

Summary: रयान ने व्यापक आप्रवासन सुधार के साथ डी. ए. सी. ए. को ठीक करने का आग्रह कियाः ए. पी.


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev complained on Friday that U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian airbase were one step away from clashing with the Russian military. U.S. officials informed Russian forces ahead of the strikes — intended to punish the Syrian government for what they say was a chemical weapons attack earlier this week — and avoided hitting Russian personnel. Satellite imagery suggests the Shayrat air base that was struck is home to Russian special forces and military helicopters, part of the Kremlin’s effort to help the Syrian government fight Islamic State and other militant groups. Medvedev, writing on social media, said the U.S. strikes were illegal and had been “one step away from military clashes with Russia.”

Summary: रूस के प्रधानमंत्री का कहना है कि अमेरिकी सीरिया हमला रूस के साथ टकराव से 'एक कदम दूर' है


LONDON (Reuters) - Iran has sentenced to death a person found guilty of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists, Tehran s prosecutor said on Tuesday. Dolatabadi did not identify the defendant, but Amnesty International said on Monday that Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian doctor who studied and taught in Sweden, had been sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges. At least four scientists were killed between 2010 and 2012 in what Tehran said was a program of assassinations aimed at sabotaging its nuclear energy program. Iran hanged one man in 2012 over the killings, saying he had links to Israel. On the latest conviction, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told the judiciary s news agency:  The person had several meetings with (Israeli intelligence agency) Mossad and provided them with sensitive information about Iran s military and nuclear sites in return for money and residency in Sweden.   The headline of the report described the convicted person as a  Mossad agent . Amnesty said the court verdict against Djalali stated that he had worked with the Israeli government which then helped him obtain a Swedish residency permit.  Neither Iran nor Amnesty said when the verdict was issued. Sweden condemned the sentence and said it had raised the matter with Iranian representatives in Stockholm and Tehran.  We condemn the use of the death penalty in all its forms. The death penalty is an inhuman, cruel and irreversible punishment that has no place in modern law,  Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in an emailed comment. Djalali, a doctor and lecturer at Stockholm medical university the Karolinska Institute, was arrested in April 2016 and held without access to a lawyer for seven months, three of which were in solitary confinement, according to London-based Amnesty.   Djalali was sentenced to death after a grossly unfair trial that once again exposes not only the Iranian authorities  steadfast commitment to (the) use of the death penalty but their utter contempt for the rule of law,  said Philip Luther, Amnesty s Middle East advocacy director. The United States has denied Iran s accusation that it was involved in the scientists  deaths, while Israel has a policy of not commenting on such allegations. Dolatabadi said the convicted person gave Mossad information about 30 nuclear and military scientists including Massoud Ali Mohammadi, who was killed by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle outside his home in Tehran. The judiciary said the defendant was also linked to the assassination of nuclear engineer Majid Shahriari, killed in a bomb attack in November 2010. Djalali s wife Vida Mehrannia, who lives in Sweden with their two children, has told Amnesty that his physical and mental health has sharply deteriorated since he was detained.   We are calling for his release because he has not committed any crime,  Amnesty quoted her as saying. The vice-chancellor of the Karolinska Institute, where Djalali received his PhD in disaster medicine in 2012, said he was deeply concerned.  For many years, he has worked with researchers from all over the world to improve the capacity of hospitals in countries suffering from extreme poverty or affected by disasters and armed conflicts,  Ole Petter Ottersen said in a statement published on the university s website.  We ask that Dr Djalali be subjected to due process and fair trial.

Summary: ईरान ने वैज्ञानिक हत्याओं के मामले में 'मोसाद एजेंट' को मौत की सजा सुनाई


GENEVA (Reuters) - A U.S.-funded famine survey said on Tuesday that thousands of Yemenis could die daily if a Saudi-led military coalition does not lift its blockade on the country s key ports. The warning came a day after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said 2.5 million people in Yemen s crowded cities had no access to clean water, raising the risk that a cholera epidemic will spread. Using the internationally recognized IPC 5-point scale for classifying food security, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said that even before the current blockade, 15 million people were in  crisis  (IPC Phase 3) or worse.  Therefore, a prolonged closure of key ports risks an unprecedented deterioration in food security to Famine (IPC Phase 5) across large areas of the country,  it said.  It said famine is likely in many areas within three or four months if ports remain closed, with some less accessible areas at even greater risk. In such a scenario, shortages of food and fuel would drive up prices, and a lack of medical supplies would exacerbate life-threatening diseases.  Thousands of deaths would occur each day due to the lack of food and disease outbreaks,  said FEWS NET, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Famine remained likely even if the southern port of Aden is open, its report said, adding that all Yemeni ports should be reopened to essential imports. The United Nations has said the Saudi-led coalition must allow aid in through Hodeidah port, controlled by the Houthis, the Saudis  enemies in the war in Yemen.  U.N. humanitarian agencies have issued dire warnings about the impact of the blockade, although U.N. officials have declined to directly criticize Saudi Arabia. Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former U.N. aid chief, was blunt in his criticism, however.  US, UK & other allies of Saudi has only weeks to avoid being complicit in a famine of Biblical proportions. Lift the blockade now,  he wrote in a tweet.   Last year Saudi Arabia was accused by then U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of exerting  unacceptable  undue pressure to keep itself off a blacklist of countries that kill children in conflict, after sources told Reuters that Riyadh had threatened to cut some U.N. funding. Saudi Arabia denied this.

Summary: अकाल सर्वेक्षण ने चेतावनी दी है कि अगर बंदरगाह बंद रहे तो यमन में रोजाना हजारों लोगों की मौत हो सकती है


AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A group of Texas business leaders urged state lawmakers on Monday to abandon plans to pass a bill to restrict bathroom access for transgender people, calling such a measure bad for the economy. The Republican-dominated legislature begins a 30-day special session on Tuesday with 20 items on the agenda, including one of the “bathroom bills” that have been a flashpoint in U.S. culture wars. Supporter of the legislation have said it is a common-sense measure that protects public safety. Critics call it discriminatory. Texas, the most powerful Republican-controlled state, could lose about $5.6 billion through 2026 and businesses could find it difficult to recruit top talent if such a measure is enacted, according to the state’s leading employer organization. “The distraction of a bathroom bill pulls us away from being competitive as a state,” Jeff Moseley, chief executive of the Texas Association of Business, told a rally outside the Capitol.  “On this discussion, conservatives can disagree with conservatives,” said Moseley, whose group has typically aligned itself with the state’s Republican leaders. The legislation restricts access to places like bathrooms and locker rooms based on the gender listed on people’s birth certificates and not the gender with which they identify. A similar law in North Carolina, partially repealed in March, prompted the relocation of sporting events and economic boycotts that was estimated to have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. The stakes are higher in Texas, which has an economy larger than Russia’s. A bill similar to North Carolina’s passed the Texas Senate in the regular session and was killed by pro-business Republican leaders in the House, who ran out the clock on the measure. The bathroom bill’s main backer, Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a social conservative who sets the state Senate’s legislative agenda, has said economic losses would be inconsequential. “(The Texas Republican majority) want to maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities for men and women and boys and girls, and they don’t care if the media thinks it is politically incorrect,” his political campaign said in a statement on Monday. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Joe Straus and companies including IBM, American Airlines, Apple and Southwest Airlines have spoken out against the bill. “On the bathroom bill, there is no real compromise because even the most mild bill is going to be interpreted as discriminatory,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.

Summary: टेक्सास के व्यापारिक नेताओं ने सांसदों से 'बाथरूम बिल' को हटाने का आह्वान किया


PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) - Earnings for minimum-wage workers in Portland, Oregon will rise by $5.50 an hour over the next six years, with lesser increases set for smaller towns and rural areas under a first-of-its-kind measure signed into law on Wednesday by Oregon’s governor. Oregon has been in the vanguard of a growing number of U.S. states and cities that have moved in recent years to bolster the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009. The latest measure builds on a current Oregon wage floor that already stands at $9.25 an hour statewide under a law enacted in 2002. Supporters say such measures are necessary to help low-paid workers who have been slipping into poverty due to stagnant earnings and rising living expenses. Opponents say raising the mandatory wage floor puts an undue strain on businesses still struggling to rebound from a prolonged U.S. economic slump. The bill passed by Oregon’s Democratic-led legislature and signed by Governor Kate Brown, also a Democrat, seeks to strike a balance by setting different pay tiers based on geography. Starting July 1, the minimum wage for Oregon workers statewide will climb by 50 cents an hour, with graduated increases set at higher rates for the state’s biggest city, Portland, as compared to smaller municipalities and rural communities where the cost of living is generally lower. By 2022 under the new statute the hourly minimum wage will rise to $14.75 in Portland, to $13.50 in smaller cities and towns, and to $12.50 in rural areas. “It means just an extra $15 or $20 a month starting in July, but for a mom of three just that small amount makes a big difference,” Brown said in signing the measure. She said the gradual, differentiated pay hikes would ensure that “businesses have time to plan for the increase. That’s the Oregon way.” U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez hailed Oregon’s approach, adjusting the wage floor according to regional economic differences, as a model for other states to follow until Congress passes a higher national minimum wage supported by President Barack Obama. A Democratic-backed proposal to raise the federal minimum to $10.10 stalled on Capitol Hill in 2014. More recent proposals by some lawmakers call for a federal minimum wage of up to $15 an hour. Oregon Republicans who opposed the increase predicted it would cost businesses in the state $1.2 billion.

Summary: ओरेगन के गवर्नर ने न्यूनतम मजदूरी को कानून में बदलने के लिए हस्ताक्षर किए


LUXEMBOURG/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union ministers on Monday congratulated Austria s Sebastian Kurz on his election victory but some were uneasy about the far-right, eurosceptic party that may enter the new government and has clashed with the bloc before. The Freedom Party (FPO) got around 26 percent of votes in Sunday s parliamentary vote, boosted by a European migration crisis in 2015 that affected Austria and also led Kurz to campaign on an anti-migration platform.  I don t have a problem with Sebastian Kurz as a person. We re not following the same line politically, that has never been the case and it never will be,  Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said on arriving to talks with his EU peers.  He listed pro-European Austrian politicians as role models for Kurz and warned Vienna not to side with migration hardliners, including Hungary, whose government is also eurosceptic. Austria became a member of the European Union in 1995 after voting in favor of joining the bloc with a two-thirds majority. Recent opinion polls suggest three quarters of Austrians want the country to stay in the bloc. While the FPO had been a member of socialist-led governments in the 1980s, the anti-immigrant rhetoric of party leader Joerg Haider led to fierce criticism from EU neighbors when his party joined a government with the Christian Democrat OVP in 2000. The EU s 14 other member states at that time reduced bilateral cooperation with Austria until a report by senior diplomats found that the country s respect for human rights had not been diminished since the FPO joined the government. The party demanded a referendum only last year to exit the EU, as Britain is doing now. The FPO has toned down its anti-EU rhetoric in recent months but continues to call for weaker members to leave the euro zone and Austria to pay less into the common EU budget. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, entering the same talks in Luxembourg in which Kurz would normally also take part, said the 31-year-old Austrian conservative was his friend.   We are happy that a sister party of ours won the elections ... and we are happy that their candidate has won who in many cases represented similar positions regarding migration to the Hungarian government,  Szijjarto told reporters.  Szijjarto expected that the anti-immigration eastern EU states - Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - to work more closely with Austria now, which would only deepen the east-west divides weakening the bloc s unity.  As Austria turns to the right, the bloc s top official dealing with EU s ties vis- -vis its neighbors, Commissioner Johannes Hahn of Austria, sought to ease concerns that Vienna may become a new enfant terrible in the bloc.  One should not forget that only a year ago Austria elected the first Green president and now it looks as if the Greens will be kicked out of parliament. There is a huge volatility among voters,  Hahn said in Luxembourg.  Each government will have a very pro-European agenda because all the major political parties are very much committed to the European Union,  he added.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने ऑस्ट्रिया के कुर्ज़ को बधाई दी लेकिन संभावित सत्तारूढ़ भागीदार को लेकर असहज


ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Four Moldovan nationals were killed and two others were injured when a propeller-engine cargo plane crashed into the sea near the international airport in Ivory Coast s main city Abidjan on Saturday, the Ivorian security minister said. Four French citizens also survived the crash but were injured, Sidiki Diakite told reporters at the scene of the accident. Several Ivorian security sources said they were French soldiers.

Summary: आइवरी कोस्ट विमान दुर्घटना में मोल्डोवा के चार लोगों की मौतः सुरक्षा मंत्री


(Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday approved a bill to provide financial incentives to companies developing treatments for the Zika virus, and the White House said President Barack Obama was expected to sign the legislation although it is insufficient to meet the challenge. The measure allows the Food and Drug Administration to include Zika drug developers in the agency’s priority review voucher program. The program encourages manufacturers to study treatments for diseases that might not be profitable by expediting the regulatory review of a more lucrative drug in their research pipeline. The House of Representatives passed the bill on a voice vote, without a roll call, weeks after the same measure was approved by the Senate. White House spokeswoman Katie Hill said Obama was expected to sign the bill, which she called a “small step” that could encourage the private sector to tackle Zika. “But it contains no funding and is ultimately insufficient on its own, since it doesn’t provide the $1.9 billion in funding that our public health experts have said is needed right now to prepare Americans for the imminent local transmission of Zika in this country,” she said in a statement. Democrats and administration officials are urging the Republican-controlled Congress to grant nearly $1.9 billion in emergency funds to combat the spread of Zika. In a temporary fix, the White House said last week that it would redirect $589 million in allocated funds to prepare for the mosquito that carries the disease to emerge in the continental United States. According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong scientific consensus that the Zika virus can cause the rare birth defect microcephaly in newborns. But the link between the virus and the birth defects has not been scientifically established. On Tuesday, Brazil confirmed 1,113 cases of microcephaly and considers most to be related to Zika infections in the mother. Drugmakers who are working on Zika-related drugs, or considering such research, include Sanofi SA, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.  Zika was first detected in Brazil last year and is spreading through the Americas. The World Health Organization had declared a global health emergency due to the virus’s possible link to microcephaly in babies and Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, in adults. On Monday, top health officials said the mosquito that spreads the virus is now present in about 30 U.S. states, making local outbreaks a possibility. They have also predicted hundreds of thousands of people would be infected in Puerto Rico when the mosquito season kicks in this summer. A pharmaceutical company may be given a priority review voucher to develop a drug for an infectious disease, in this case Zika, which may not generate much profit for the manufacturer. The voucher gives the company the right to an accelerated review by the FDA of any other, more lucrative, drug in its pipeline. Developing a new drug can take years and cost millions of dollars. A standard FDA review takes at least 10 months to complete - longer if the agency requires additional information. Being able to shave time off that process and get a profitable drug onto the market faster can be worth millions of dollars to a manufacturer. Under the agency’s priority review program, companies who submit a drug for review that is intended to treat serious conditions or whose drug shows a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness over existing treatments is eligible to be reviewed in six months, at least four months faster than usual. A priority review voucher gives a company the right to a six-month review on any product, regardless of whether it meets the conditions normally required to receive an accelerated review. It also gives the company the right to sell the voucher to another company. The law currently makes any company eligible for a priority review voucher that is developing a drug for one of more than 20 tropical diseases listed under the voucher program. These include malaria, cholera, leprosy, dengue, tuberculosis, and Ebola. The FDA has the authority to add other infectious diseases to the list which primarily affects poor countries.

Summary: जीका दवा के विकास पर कांग्रेस ने ओबामा को भेजा विधेयक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary plans to visit Japan and South Korea next week, choosing the two close U.S. allies for his debut trip abroad as Pentagon chief, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. James Mattis, a retired Marine general, was sworn into the Pentagon’s top job shortly after Trump’s inauguration on Friday and a quick departure to Asia could be seen as a nod to the importance the new U.S. administration places on security ties. The trip would closely follow Trump’s withdrawal from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, fulfilling a campaign pledge but disappointing many key U.S. allies in Asia. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for example, had touted TPP in part as a counter-weight to a rising China. No further details were immediately available about Mattis’ proposed itinerary. Still, Mattis, in his confirmation hearing this month, described “the Pacific theater” as a priority and analysts expect new U.S. military spending under Trump’s administration would strengthen America’s military presence in Asia over time. Topping U.S. concerns in the region are North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs and China’s military moves in the South China Sea. Tension with Beijing escalated this week when Trump’s White House vowed to defend “international territories” in the strategic waterway. China responded by saying it had “irrefutable” sovereignty over disputed islands there. Mattis, in his Senate testimony, also voiced concern about North Korea, describing Pyongyang’s activities as a “serious threat” that required U.S. attention.    There are about 28,500 U.S. troops based in South Korea helping to defend the country against North Korea, which has technically remained in a state of war with the South since the 1950-53 Korean conflict. South Korea and the United States say the upcoming deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system will better help to protect Seoul against North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic capabilities. But China says THAAD’s powerful radar could penetrate its own territory, prompting calls from some South Korean opposition leaders to delay or cancel its deployment.

Summary: ट्रम्प के रक्षा प्रमुख की अगले सप्ताह जापान, दक्षिण कोरिया की पहली यात्रा पर नजर