MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian opposition activist Ivan Skripnichenko died after being attacked by a man angry he opposed Vladimir Putin. Over a month later, nobody has been arrested, his family can t see his autopsy, and authorities say he probably died of heart disease. The assault on the 36-year-old father-of-two is one of a growing number of vicious attacks on opposition figures in the run-up to a presidential election in March which Putin, the incumbent, is widely expected to contest. Most activists do not believe that Putin or the Kremlin have a hand in the attacks, which have included caustic liquid being thrown in a victim s eyes, a car being set alight, and, in one case, an activist being bashed over the head with an iron bar. But critics say the way the authorities have handled the cases - it s rare for anyone to be arrested and a nationalist group which says its carries out such attacks openly boasts about its activities - shows that they are at best turning a blind eye, and at worst tacitly condoning the violence. Yulia Latynina, a journalist critical of the authorities, was forced to flee Russia this summer after having faeces thrown at her, her car torched, and noxious gas pumped into her home.  For her, Skripnichenko s death is part of a dangerous trend, and she has accused the authorities of losing control of the violent extremists responsible.  When you splash antiseptic in people s faces, pour shit over people, beat up activists, puncture their tires, or burn something, sooner or later someone will be burned alive or die in a fight,  Latynina said on her own radio show.  And that s murder.  According to Skripnichenko s family, an unidentified man accosted him late on Aug. 15 as he stood by a makeshift memorial to slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on a Kremlin bridge, a rallying point for government critics. Nemtsov had been shot dead on the same spot in 2015 by a Chechen gunman in one of modern Russia s most high-profile killings.  Don t you love Putin?  the man asked Skripnichenko.  Is Putin a girl that I should love him?  the activist parried. The man knocked Skripnichenko s cap to the ground, and, as his victim rose after picking it up, punched him hard in the face, breaking his nose. Skripnichenko hit his head on the pavement as he fell. His attacker then kicked him as he lay prone. Mikhail Silich, an activist who was with Skripnichenko at the time of the attack, confirmed the family s account. After the attack, Skripnichenko left hospital and told other activists he thought he would be OK. His family say he went to a different hospital a week later to get his nose reset, and began to feel unwell in the canteen. When he didn t come home that day, they phoned the next morning to be told he had died. His family and activists say the authorities are not investigating his death properly. Investigators have neither identified nor arrested Skripnichenko s attacker, have not opened a criminal case, and the dead man s family say they can t obtain his autopsy report. Citing procedure, Moscow s Investigative Committee, which is handling the matter, told Skripnichenko s widow Olga that she would need to wait 40 days to get such a report. The committee did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on progress in the case. Despite the attack taking place in sight of the Kremlin s  walls on the same spot where Nemtsov was gunned down two and a half years earlier, investigators say there is no CCTV footage. Ilya Novikov, the family lawyer, says that s hard to believe.  The cause of death is in question too. Investigators  preliminary conclusion was that he had died of heart disease.  Skripnichenko s sister Nastya says doctors who examined her brother said he did not appear to have suffered serious head wounds. Yet she is skeptical he died of heart problems and suspects the attack triggered problems that took time to unfold.   My brother never complained about heart problems,  she told Reuters, saying doctors had given him a clean bill of health in a check-up as recently as this spring.  My brother was into cross-country skiing, flew a glider, did parachute jumps, and cycled at a semi-professional level. I absolutely link my brother s death with the attack.  Russia s liberal opposition has no seats in parliament and  scant hope of mounting a serious challenge to Putin next year, though Alexei Navalny, an opposition leader who doesn t fit the traditional liberal mould, is trying to make a run.  But in a country under Western sanctions because of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine s Crimea and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, pro-Kremlin politicians often cast anyone critical of the authorities as  the enemy within .  Critics say such rhetoric is fuelling attacks against the opposition and that those who carry them out feel a sense of impunity because they are rarely punished. Navalny became temporarily blind in one eye in April after having caustic liquid thrown at him. Soon afterwards, a pro-government TV channel broadcast footage of Navalny s attacker running away from the scene, but blurred out his face. Opposition activists identified the man as a member of a radical group; investigators said there was not enough evidence for a prosecution. In another incident, Nikolai Lyaskin, a Navalny ally, was hit over the head with an iron bar in Moscow last month, an assault Navalny said was designed to turn him into  an invalid.   Police detained a suspect and opened a criminal case, but they then issued a statement saying the suspect had told them that Lyaskin, the victim, had paid his assailant to stage an attack on him. Police released the suspect after 48 hours on conditions which were not disclosed. The spot where Skripnichenko was attacked is a favorite target for nationalists who dislike the makeshift shrine there to Nemtsov. For them, the former deputy prime minister turned Putin critic is a pro-Western traitor. They have sometimes trashed his shrine and picked fights with its defenders. SERB, a radical nationalist group, has vandalized the memorial several times. At an apartment block in Moscow where Nemtsov once lived, SERB s leader Igor Beketov tore off a plaque that activists had hung honoring Nemtsov. A state TV report about the incident complained the opposition was using Nemtsov s name  for various purposes  and gave Beketov air time to explain his grievances.   Outside the apartment block, Skripnichenko family lawyer Novikov became embroiled in a fist fight with Beketov after SERB members ripped up a photo of Nemtsov. SERB pelts its targets with faeces, antiseptic and urine. It has smashed cake into Navalny s face, but denies the caustic liquid attack. It has also hinted it threw faeces at Latynina.     Tamara Lugovykh, an activist who knew Skripnichenko, said she fears the authorities will do everything not to link his death to politics. In interviews with Reuters, seven activists said the attack chimed with the regular intimidation they face. They saw parallels with the investigation into Nemtsov s murder, which convicted a group of Chechens but failed to identify who ordered the killing and why.   Real blood has been spilled on the same spot a few meters apart,  said activist Andrei Margulev.  At the bridge shrine, a portrait of Skripnichenko is now on display next to that of Nemtsov.  Ivan had plans to have children with his wife,  Sergei Kireyev, an activist who knew him, said.   But anything can happen on the bridge. There are no rules.

Summary: 'कोई नियम नहीं': रूसी कार्यकर्ता की मौत चुनाव पूर्व हिंसा का प्रतीक


CAPE TOWN/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Thousands of South Africans marched in anti-corruption protests on Wednesday, in a rallying cry against scandal-plagued President Jacob Zuma and his powerful allies three months before a new ANC leader is chosen. The African National Congress will pick its next leader in December with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa expected to face off against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former chair of the African Union and Zuma s ex-wife. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which has backed Ramaphosa and operates in an alliance with the ANC, led marches in major cities across South Africa. Though the demonstrations were supposed to be against corruption, it became apparent protesters had come to vent their anger at Zuma and throw support behind his rivals. Throngs of protesters marched to parliament in Cape Town singing songs and waving  Zuma must go  placards, although the crowds never got close to the tens of thousands promised by COSATU.  Things are just going down under President Zuma,  textile worker Florence Titus told Reuters.  He needs to play a president s role not just be there to fill his pockets and his family s pockets. He must step down.  Senior members of the ANC have also called for Zuma to quit in recent months following a swell of allegations that his  friends, the Gupta family, wield undue influence over the award of state contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The Guptas and Zuma deny wrongdoing and say they are victims of a politically-motivated witchhunt. Zuma survived an attempt in parliament to force him from office in August, but was left politically wounded after some ANC members backed the opposition s no-confidence motion. He can remain head of state until a parliamentary election in 2019, although the next ANC leader could edge him out next year.  Allegations of widespread corruption and the raiding of taxpayer funds by outside interests - known locally as  state capture  - have further dented investor confidence in an economy which fell into a recession earlier in 2017.  We are marching against state capture. We are fighting the Guptas who are taking our money,  Ongeziwe Sisilana, a 26 year old teacher, said as she walked with around two thousand others in downtown Johannesburg. Sisilana held up a sign reading  State Capture is a criminal offense  while some in the relaxed crowd swigged from beer cans as idle police cordons watched on. Ramaphosa s camp has prioritized fighting corruption, boosting economic growth and winning back the trust of supporters who have become disillusioned with the party under Zuma.     Zuma s faction, backed by a powerful patronage network, is likely to throw its weight behind Dlamini-Zuma, although other candidates could still come into contention.  Wednesday s series of marches and protests that target corruption and state capture are also targeting Mr Zuma and his succession faction in the ANC,  said Gary van Staden, political analyst at NKC Research. Some analysts say an opposition coalition could unseat the ANC at the next election, an unthinkable scenario a few years ago for a party that has led comfortably since it swept to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका में ज़ूमा विरोधी प्रदर्शनों ने ए. एन. सी. के उत्तराधिकार विभाजन को कड़ा कर दिया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Friday accused the U.S. authorities of acting in an unacceptable way by not issuing entry visas to a Russian military delegation which had been due to attend a briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York. A group of senior officers from the general staff of the Russian armed forces could not attend the joint briefing on Thursday with the Chinese military at the U.N. because they had no U.S. visas, said Alexander Emelianov, from the Russian Defense Ministry international cooperation committee.   As a country hosting the United Nations headquarters and its structures, the U.S. authorities bear certain obligations. Certainly, in this case we are very worried by such a situation and consider it unacceptable,  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular conference call with reporters.

Summary: क्रेमलिन ने U.N.-bound अधिकारियों को वीजा जारी नहीं करने के लिए यू. एस. ए. को फटकार लगाई


ROME (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, marking a formal return to Italy s political stage, laid out his policy priorities on Sunday for the forthcoming election, portraying himself as a pro-European moderate. Speaking at a meeting of his Forza Italia (Go Italy) party, Berlusconi said he wanted to lead the group into the national ballot, which is expected by next March, promising hefty tax cuts if the center-right regained power. Subsumed by sex scandals and legal woes, Berlusconi largely vanished from politics after being ousted from power in 2011.  But he has emerged from the shadows this year and Forza Italia, with its traditional rightist allies the Northern League and Brothers of Italy, have combined backing of some 35 percent, according to polls, making them the largest single bloc.  We predict a great victory for the center-right,  said Berlusconi, 81, looking thin and fit during a speech near Rome that effectively launched the Forza Italia election campaign. While his allies have repeatedly denounced the European Union, Berlusconi said he wanted more Europe, not less, calling for common defense, foreign, industrial and fiscal policies.  I do not think we can leave the euro,  he said, further underscoring how the anti-euro rhetoric once heard from many Italian parties is receding as the vote nears. Berlusconi, who had open heart surgery last year, cannot run for office due to a 2013 tax fraud conviction. But he hopes the European Court of Human Rights overturns this ban when it reviews his case in November.  I expect that Europe completely restores my honor ... But court or no court, I promise you that I will take part in the election campaign,  said the four-times premier. If Forza Italia won power, he said he would introduce a flat tax and eliminate inheritance tax, hike minimum pensions, offer pensions to housewives and give more to impoverished families. Berlusconi dismissed the chances of the ruling center-left, saying the left was in retreat across Europe, and also took aim at the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which polls say is Italy s largest single party, with support under 30 percent. The 5-Star is expected to chose the 31-year-old lawmaker Luigi Di Maio as its prime ministerial candidate next weekend. Berlusconi dismissed him as a  little political meteorite  with no practical know-how. Highlighting his own long experience in business and politics, he said he wanted to make a pact with the devil to take 20 years off his life. He joked this his tan, brown hair and slim figure showed a deal might have been struck. He also looked to swat down the hopes of Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, who has put himself forward as the natural prime ministerial candidate for the center-right.  We have always had respect for their ideas, but we created the center-right and we have always been the leader to put its program into action,  Berlusconi said.

Summary: कायाकल्प बर्लुस्कोनी ने मतदान का मंच तैयार किया, इटली में जीत पर नजर


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is set to appoint a woman deputy after a special ruling party congress next month, the first lady said on Saturday and added that there was nothing wrong if her husband appointed her. The 93-year-old Mugabe has held power in the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980 and consistently refused to anoint a successor. He argues that the ruling ZANU-PF party would choose his replacement if and when he decides to retire. Grace Mugabe told a ZANU-PF rally in the second city of Bulawayo that the party would amend its constitution this month and the changes would be adopted at a special December congress to ensure that one of Mugabe s two deputies would be a woman. Allowing Mugabe to appoint a woman deputy could scuttle the presidential ambitions of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had been seen as a shoe-in to succeed Mugabe. Phelekezela Mphoko is the second Mugabe deputy, but lacks any political base. Mnangagwa, nicknamed  Ngwena  (Crocodile), has seen his political stock plummet in the last few months, on accusations by party rivals that he was plotting to get Mugabe to step down in his favor. He denies the accusation. On Saturday Grace cranked up the pressure against Mnangagwa, calling him the  root cause of factionalism  that was gnawing at the ruling party. She also accused the vice president s supporters of booing her while she gave her speech.  Before that special congress, this November we need the constitution to be changed accordingly so that when we are going we will adopt the proposal that one of the vice presidents should be a woman,  Grace said in a speech broadcast on state TV.  What if I get in (as vice president)? What s wrong with that? Am I not in the party? If people know that I work hard and they want to work with me what is wrong with that?  Grace said. A visibly angry Mugabe told the same rally that he and his wife were tired of constant insults from people who identified themselves as Mnangagwa s supporters.

Summary: मुगाबे महिला डिप्टी नियुक्त करने के लिए तैयार, सभी की नज़रें पत्नी पर


WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade adviser expressed optimism on Tuesday about reaching agreement on a revised free trade pact with South Korea, days after Trump suggested scrapping the deal with a key American ally. Senior U.S. lawmakers and America’s biggest business lobby urged Trump not to pull out of the five-year-old U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), especially at a time of heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear missile tests. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, speaking in Mexico City after a second round of NAFTA talks with Canada and Mexico, said negotiations with Seoul were continuing. “We have a negotiation we’re in,” Lighthizer told reporters when asked whether KORUS would be terminated. “My hope is that we’ll have a successful discussion with the Koreans as things proceed and that the problems with that agreement from our perspective will be worked out.” Trump said on Saturday he would discuss KORUS’s fate with advisers this week, prompting widespread concern among lawmakers and the business community. The chairmen and senior Democrats on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee said in a statement on Tuesday that North Korea’s sixth and largest nuclear bomb test on Sunday “underscores the vital importance of the strong alliance between the United States and South Korea.” The statement by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, senior Democrat Richard Neal and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and senior Democrat Ron Wyden said talks to improve South Korea’s implementation and compliance with the trade agreement were welcome. But it said the agreement itself was central to the U.S.-South Korean alliance. In a separate letter to Trump, Senator Joni Ernest, a Republican from Iowa in the U.S. corn belt, said the South Korean market was especially important for U.S. beef, corn and pork producers. “Terminating KORUS would leave our farmers at a competitive disadvantage to those in other countries that enjoy preferential trade access to Korea,” Ernst wrote. In a strongly worded statement the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 3 million businesses, also opposed any “rash and irresponsible” withdrawal. “We do not believe this move would create a single American job — but it would cost many,” said Tom Donohue, who warned that it would damage relations between the White House and business community. “Ironically, states across mid-America that voted for the president would take the hit from withdrawal as their agricultural and manufactured goods exports fell in the wake of such a move,” Donohue said.

Summary: ट्रम्प के व्यापार सलाहकार का कहना है कि दक्षिण कोरिया के साथ व्यापार समझौते पर पहुंचने की उम्मीद है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives could vote as soon as next week on legislation to toughen sanctions on North Korea by targeting its shipping industry and companies that do business with the reclusive state, congressional aides said on Thursday. The legislation, approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month, is intended to cut off supplies of cash that help fund North Korea’s nuclear program, and increase pressure to stop human rights abuses such as the use of slave labor, the bill’s sponsor, Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, said. It also calls on President Donald Trump’s administration to decide whether North Korea is a state sponsor of terrorism. Amid international concern over the escalation of North Korea’s nuclear program, top Trump administration officials held briefings on the issue on Wednesday for the entire U.S. Congress, busing the 100 senators to the White House and meeting with members of the 435-person House at the Capitol complex. As he left the House briefing, Royce said he expected the legislation to move quickly, as part of what he hoped would be a strong international effort to use every method possible to pressure Pyongyang to curb its nuclear ambitions. “In particular, it will focus on financial institutions as well as what you might call ‘slave labor.’ These are cases where the North Koreans send out work crews to do work, and instead of being paid, the money comes back to the North Korean regime, and is spent on their nuclear program,” Royce told reporters. The Trump administration said it wanted to push North Korea into dismantling its nuclear and missile programs through tougher international sanctions and diplomatic pressure, and remained open to negotiations to bring that about. Officials also said on Wednesday they wanted to return the country to the U.S. list of terrorism sponsors. A spokesman for Royce declined to comment on when there might be a vote, referring questions to House leadership, whose aides did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the timing. Trump’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is due to meet with the U.N. Security Council on Friday to press for tougher international sanctions on North Korea.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया पर सख्त प्रतिबंधों पर कुछ दिनों में मतदान कर सकता है अमेरिकी सदन


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The main Syrian opposition body said on Thursday a Russian-sponsored Syrian peace conference later this month represented a deviation from U.N.-led diplomacy and an attempt to rehabilitate President Bashar al-Assad s government.  We, in the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), insist on rejecting discussion of Syria s future outside the legal, U.N. framework,  the HNC said in a statement sent to Reuters.

Summary: सीरियाई विपक्षः रूस सम्मेलन का उद्देश्य असद का पुनर्वास करना है


HABUR BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan threatened to impose sanctions against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned independence vote, piling economic pressure on Kurdish authorities after Turkish troops deployed near the main commercial border crossing. Turkey, home to the largest Kurdish population in the region, has warned that any breakup of neighboring Iraq or Syria could lead to a global conflict, and is due to prepare a formal response on Friday, three days before the referendum. Erdogan said the Turkish cabinet and security council would discuss Ankara s options. They will  put forward their own stance on what kind of sanctions we can impose, or if we will,  he told reporters in New York, according to Anadolu news agency.  But these will not be ordinary,  Erdogan said. Iraqi Kurdish authorities have defied growing international pressure to call off the vote, which Iraq s neighbors fear will fuel unrest among their own Kurdish populations. Western allies say it could detract from the fight against Islamic State. On Monday, the Turkish army launched a highly visible military drill near the Habur border crossing, which military sources said was due to last until Sept. 26, a day after the planned referendum. Around 100 tanks and military vehicles, backed by rocket launchers and radar, deployed in open farmlands near the frontier, guns pointed south toward the Kurdish mountains. The military buildup hit the Turkish lira, which weakened on Tuesday beyond 3.500 to the dollar, before recovering on Wednesday to around 3.465. But it has so far had little impact on lines of trucks queuing to cross into territory controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government in north Iraq. Turkey, for years the KRG s main link to the outside world, has built strong trade ties with the semi-autonomous region which exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day through Turkey to international markets.  Russian oil major Rosneft will also invest in pipelines to export gas to Turkey and Europe. Erdogan did not spell out what sanctions Turkey might be considering, but truck drivers waiting at Habur on Wednesday said they feared for their livelihoods if cross-border trade, crucial to the local economy, dries up.  I have four kids, I am 35-years-old, and there is neither a job nor a factory in the region,  said tanker driver Abdurrahman Yakti, who carries crude oil from Iraq to Turkey s Iskenderun Rafinery in the southeastern province of Hatay.   We are stuck with this job. If this gate closes this would be our doom.  Ferhat, who has transported dry cargo across the border for 10 years, said closing Habur would paralyze Turkey s southeast.  It would not affect only people like me who work for 1,500 lira ($430 per month), but also the businessmen. We bring crude oil from Iraq, but just as many trucks are carrying goods from Istanbul and all around Turkey to Iraq,  he said. The show of military force at the border and the threat of sanctions reflects the depth of concern in Turkey that Monday s referendum could embolden the outlawed Kurdish PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey s southeast since 1984. The Turkish air force frequently strikes against PKK units operating from the mountains of northern Iraq, and limited detachments of Turkish infantry have made forays across the frontier in the past. Turkey stationed troops in Bashiqa near Mosul, ignoring protests from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, ahead of the military campaign to drive Islamic State out of the northern Iraqi city.  Ankara also sees itself as protector of Iraq s Turkmen ethnic minority, with particular focus on the oil city of Kirkuk which Kurds seized in 2014 as Iraqi troops retreated in the face of Islamic State advances. Erdogan said Kurdish determination to hold the referendum disregarded Turkey s support for KRG leadership until now.  We will announce our final thoughts on the issue with the cabinet meeting and national security council decision,  Erdogan said.  I think it would be better if they saw this.

Summary: तुर्की ने कुर्द स्वतंत्रता मतदान पर प्रतिबंधों की धमकी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will not attend the Kennedy Center Honors in December, the White House announced on Saturday, after several honorees said they would boycott a White House reception before the show. The Kennedy Center also said in a statement the White House reception “will no longer take place.” The White House said the president and first lady would not take part in the Kennedy Center Honors “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.” The announcement came after television producer Norman Lear, singer Lionel Richie and dancer Carmen de Lavallade said they would not attend the White House reception that was set to take place prior to the Dec. 3 annual gala event. The other honorees are singer Gloria Estefan and rapper LL Cool J.  The awards are presented each year in December to recognize honorees for their lifetime contributions to the arts.  All five honorees are expected to attend a Dec. 2 dinner and awards ceremony at the State Department, the Kennedy Center’s chairman, David Rubenstein, and its president, Deborah Rutter, in a statement. The Kennedy Center “respects” the decision made by the Trumps, they said. “In choosing not to participate in this year’s Honors activities, the administration graciously signaled its respect for the Kennedy Center and ensures the Honors gala remains a deservingly special moment for the honorees,” Rubenstein and Rutter said. De Lavallade, an African-American actress, dancer and choreographer, said in a statement on her website that she was honored to receive the award and would attend the show. But, she said that she would not go to the White House “in light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our existing leadership is choosing to engage in.” Her comments come after the president blamed “both sides” for violence that erupted last week between counter-demonstrators and neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and white nationalists holding a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. Trump’s comments prompted a slew of resignations from presidential councils, including all 17 members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. In a New York Times article on Aug. 3, Lear was quoted as saying that he would forgo the White House reception because, “This is a presidency that has chosen to neglect totally the arts and humanities — deliberately defund them — and that doesn’t rest pleasantly with me.” The Kennedy Center Honors is the second annual Washington event that Trump decided not to attend. The president, who called the U.S. news media as “enemies of the American people,” also withdrew from the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.

Summary: केनेडी सेंटर ऑनर्स में शामिल नहीं होंगे ट्रंप और प्रथम महिलाः व्हाइट हाउस


QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani police on Wednesday found 15 bullet-ridden bodies of kidnap victims near the border with Iran, a favored route for human traffickers taking workers illegally to Europe. The bodies were found abandoned in a mountainous region of Buleda, in Baluchistan province, 600 km (370 miles) south of the provincial capital of Quetta, district commissioner Bashir Ahmad Bangalzai told Reuters. He said documents and other belongings found on the bodies suggested that they were en route to Iran illegally. Human smuggling is big business in Pakistan and other poor South Asian countries. There have been instances of workers being killed in border areas, or sometimes dying during road or sea travel.      It was not clear what prompted the killings, said Bangalzai. He said all 15 came from Pakistan s eastern province of Punjab.  We re getting in contact with their families,  he said. A police official said all 15 were reported to have been kidnapped on Tuesday.  No one has claimed responsibility. Violence-plagued Baluchistan, which also borders Afghanistan, has long been home to separatist groups seeking a greater share of regional resources and Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda, the Taliban and Islamic State. The violence has raised concerns about security for projects in the $57 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a planned transport and energy link from western China to Pakistan s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.

Summary: दक्षिण-पश्चिम पाकिस्तान में गोलियों से अपहृत पंद्रह पीड़ित पाए गए


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the United States said on Friday that NATO allies needed to commit to increase defense spending every year, calling on countries who do not meet the alliance’s 2 percent spending target to “raise their game”. “Secretary Mattis and I have agreed that others must now raise their game, and those failing to meet the 2 percent commitment so far should at least agree to year on year real terms increases,” British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said during a joint news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Summary: ब्रिटेन और अमेरिका ने नाटो सहयोगियों से रक्षा खर्च पर 'अपना खेल बढ़ाने' के लिए कहा


(Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts said on Monday he placed a hold on President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration until the agency agrees to reform its process for approving opioid painkillers. Markey wants opioid-approval matters to be reviewed by an FDA advisory committee and believes the committee should consider the risk of addiction and abuse during the approval process. He also wants the agency to rescind approval of OxyContin for children and convene an advisory panel to guide that process. “Last year, the FDA approved a new pediatric use for OxyContin without convening an advisory committee even though its guidelines note that FDA decisions that relate to controversial issues or matters relating to children are particularly well-suited to advisory committee empanelment,” Markey said in a statement. A “hold” is a procedure by which a senator can prevent a measure from being voted on by the full Senate. The nominee, Dr. Robert Califf, a cardiologist and researcher, is widely expected to be approved when the Senate votes on the nomination later this year, although critics argue his ties to the pharmaceutical industry are too close. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, said it had made addressing the opioid crisis “a top priority.” “Work at FDA and across HHS will continue on this important effort,” spokesman Kevin Griffis said in a statement. “HHS will be in touch directly with the Senator regarding his concern.” The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted earlier this month to confirm Califf as FDA commissioner, a position open since Dr. Margaret Hamburg stepped down last February. Califf, who joined the FDA a year ago as a deputy commissioner, previously held senior positions at Duke University, where he founded a large academic research center that received more than half its funding from the drug industry. He has also led multiple large-scale, company-funded clinical trials and published more than 1,200 papers. His interest in streamlining the clinical trial process dovetails with those of patient groups and members of Congress who are eager to see new drugs brought to market faster. U.S. deaths from drug overdoses hit a record in 2014, increasing 6.5 percent to 47,055, propelled by prescription painkiller and heroin abuse, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug overdoses are seen as a major contributor to recently rising death rates among middle-aged white Americans. Since 2000, deaths from powerful, highly addictive opioids have jumped 200 percent, the CDC said, with those addicted to prescription painkillers, such as hydrocodone, increasingly turning to widely available, often cheaper heroin.

Summary: सीनेटर मार्की ने एफ. डी. ए. का नेतृत्व करने के लिए ओबामा के मनोनीत व्यक्ति पर रोक लगाई


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dominican-born Adriano Espaillat claimed victory on Tuesday in the U.S. congressional race to succeed longtime Representative Charles Rangel, signaling change in the historically black neighborhood of Harlem that has grown increasingly Hispanic. Nine Democrats ran in the primary to select the party’s candidate for November’s general election. In a district where Democratic voters heavily outnumber Republicans, Tuesday’s winner will have a virtual lock on taking Rangel’s vacated seat in the House of Representatives. Espaillat, once an illegal immigrant, would be the first Dominican-American member of Congress. A state senator, Espaillat, held a 3-point lead on state Assemblyman Keith Wright, an African-American who was endorsed by Rangel and benefited from the political machine of a man who held the job for 46 years. With 98 percent of polling places reporting, Espaillat had 36.7 percent of the vote compared with 33.7 percent for Wright, a difference of nearly 1,300 votes. “The voters of the 13th congressional district made history tonight,” Espaillat, 61, said in a victory speech. “The voters ... elected a country boy from Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic,” he said, mixing Spanish and English. Wright, however, refused to concede, telling supporters: “No candidate can declare victory tonight, not until every vote is counted.” The district is dominated by Harlem, long a leading cultural center, home to black political and commercial life, and an incubator for jazz.  Harlem notably has grown more white with gentrification, but it also has become more Hispanic. Besides Harlem, the district also includes predominantly Latino neighborhoods further to the north where Espaillat has his base. Rangel, 86, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, won his first congressional election in 1970, and since then Harlem voters routinely returned him to office every two years, even after his 2010 censure for ethics violations.  Espaillat tried and failed to unseat Rangel in 2012 and 2014 primary elections. Gentrification emerged as a leading issue in the campaign, as a decade-long influx of affluent people, many of them white, has transformed Harlem’s once-blighted blocks of 19th century brownstone town houses. Change has muted the distinctive black identity of the area, the home of the Apollo Theater, the Cotton Club and other monuments of African-American culture. Once an upscale Dutch neighborhood named after the city near Amsterdam, Harlem drew African-Americans during the northward migration of former slaves in the late 19th Century and again between the world wars.  In decades past, affluent New Yorkers avoided venturing too far north, or “uptown.” But soaring property values have turned Harlem into one of New York’s trendiest real estate markets.

Summary: हिस्पैनिक ने अमेरिकी कांग्रेस में रंगेल की जगह लेने के लिए हार्लेम दौड़ में जीत का दावा किया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO allies on Friday publicly raised concern about a Russian cruise missile system that the alliance says may break a Cold War-era pact banning such weapons, in a show of support for Washington. The United States believes Russia is developing a ground-launched cruise missile system with a range that is prohibited by a 1987 treaty, which could give Russia the ability to launch a nuclear strike on Europe on short notice.   Allies have identified a Russian missile system that raises serious concerns,  the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said in a statement.  NATO urges Russia to address these concerns in a substantial and transparent way, and actively engage in a technical dialogue with the United States.  In a separate statement, the U.S. envoy to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, said:  Russia s behavior raises serious concerns.  Russia has denied it is violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. U.S.-led NATO s concerns are likely to further strain relations between Moscow and the West that are already at a low over Russia s 2014 seizure of Crimea, Western sanctions on the Russian economy and U.S. accusations that Moscow used computer hackers to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Moscow denies that it interfered in the election. The NATO statement follows a meeting between Russia and the United States in Geneva this week to mark the 30th anniversary of the treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. According to an April U.S. State Department report, Washington determined in 2016 that Russia was in violation of its treaty obligations  not to possess, produce, or flight-test  a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 km to 5,500 km (310-3,417 miles),  or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.   Last week, the State Department said it is reviewing military options, including new intermediate-range cruise missile systems, the first response by U.S. President Donald Trump s administration to the U.S. charges. The Russian foreign ministry said last week it was ready for talks with the United States to try to preserve the treaty and would comply with its obligations if the United States did. In a statement marking the 30th anniversary of the IMF treaty last week, the Russian foreign ministry said Moscow considered  the language of ultimatums  and sanctions unacceptable.

Summary: नाटो ने प्रतिबंधित रूसी मिसाइल प्रणाली पर चेतावनी दी


MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin flew into Syria and ordered  a significant part  of Moscow s military contingent there to start withdrawing on Monday, declaring their work largely done. Putin, who polls show will be re-elected comfortably in March, made the announcement during a surprise visit to Russia s Hmeymim air base in Syria - his first since Russia intervened in the conflict. He held talks with President Bashar al-Assad and addressed Russian forces. The first leg in a three-country one-day whirlwind diplomatic visit which sees Putin also meeting his Egyptian and Turkish counterparts, Putin is keen to leverage the heightened Middle East influence that Syria has given him to cast himself as a leader who can do diplomacy as well as military force. The Kremlin first launched air strikes in Syria in September 2015 in its biggest Middle East intervention in decades, turning the tide of the conflict in Assad s favor. Now that it regards that mission complete, Putin wants to help broker a peace deal.    In just over two years, Russia s armed forces and the Syrian army have defeated the most battle-hardened group of international terrorists,  Putin told Russian servicemen.  A  significant part  of the Russian force could now return home.  The conditions for a political solution under the auspices of the United Nations have been created,  said Putin.  The Motherland awaits you.  Washington was skeptical about Putin s statement.  Russian comments about removal of their forces do not often correspond with actual troop reductions, and do not affect U.S. priorities in Syria,  said Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon. Putin made clear in any case that Russia would retain enough firepower to destroy any possible Islamic State comeback. Syrian state television quoted Assad as thanking Putin for Russia s help, saying the blood of Moscow s  martyrs  had been mixed with the blood of the Syrian army. It also showed the two men watching what it called a victory parade with Russian troops dressed in desert uniforms marching past. Russia s main contribution has been air strikes, and with Iran-backed Shi ite militias doing much of the fighting on the ground, the partial Russian withdrawal may not make a huge difference when it comes to the military situation. Russia s campaign, which has been extensively covered on state TV at home, has not caught the imagination of most Russians. But nor has it stirred unease of the kind the Soviet Union faced with its calamitous 1980s Afghanistan intervention.  The use of private military contractors, something which has been documented by Reuters but denied by the defense ministry, has allowed Moscow to keep the public casualty toll fairly low.  Officially, less than 50 Russian service personnel have been killed in the campaign, but the real number, including private contractors, is estimated to be much higher.   Russia s  mission accomplished  moment in Syria may help Putin increase the turnout at the March presidential election by appealing to the patriotism of voters.          Though polls show he will easily win, they also show that some Russians are increasingly apathetic about politics, and Putin s supporters are keen to get him re-elected on a big turnout, which in their eyes confers legitimacy. Putin, who with the help of state TV has dominated Russia s political landscape for the last 17 years, told Russian servicemen they would return home as victors.    Speaking in front of a row of servicemen holding Russian flags, Putin said his military had proved its might and that Moscow had succeeded in keeping Syria intact as a  sovereign independent state.   I congratulate you!  Putin told the servicemen. Putin is keen to organize a special event in Russia - the Syrian Congress on National Dialogue - that Moscow hopes will bring together the Syrian government and opposition and try to hammer out a new constitution.  When asked about Putin s announcement, Yahya Aridi, spokesman for the Syrian opposition in Geneva, said it welcomed any step that brought Syria closer to real peace.    Putin made clear however that while Russia might be drawing down much of its forces, its military presence in Syria was a permanent one and that it would retain enough firepower to destroy any Islamic State comeback. Russia will keep its Hmeymim air base in Syria s Latakia Province and its naval facility in the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartous  on a permanent basis,  said Putin. Both bases are protected by sophisticated air defense missile systems. Putin was told by the military that it had begun withdrawing 25 aircraft, a detachment of Russian military police, a detachment of Russian special forces, a military field hospital and a de-mining center.  However, Russia has announced partial force draw-downs before only to later bring in different capabilities.  We ve seen such announcements before, which turn about to be less significant than they might have initially appeared,  said one European diplomat who declined to be named.  The most significant contribution Russia can make to advancing peace in Syria is to pressure the Assad regime to engage seriously in Geneva (peace talks). Absent that, the suspicion will be that this announcement may have more to do with Russian politics than the Syrian situation.

Summary: सीरिया में पुतिन का कहना है कि मिशन पूरा हो गया है, उन्होंने आंशिक रूप से रूसी वापसी का आदेश दिया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump will work to ensure there is “proper separation” between his business empire and his job as president of the United States, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on Sunday, amid fresh concerns about conflict of interest following a meeting with Indian real estate executives. Trump, who has said he planned to turn over handling of the Trump Organization to his adult children, has come under criticism for meeting on Tuesday with three Indian businessmen who are partners in a project to build a Trump-branded luxury apartment complex in Mumbai. Pence said on the CBS program “Face the Nation” that Trump and his family would “work with the best legal minds in this country and create the proper separation from their business enterprise during his duties as president of the United States.” A photo of the three executives meeting with Trump was posted on Twitter. Indian newspapers reported last week that the business leaders talked with the Trump Organization about expanding the Trump branded projects in India. Incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” program, said Trump would comply with all laws and have the White House counsel’s office “review all of these things.” “And we will have every ‘I’ dotted and every ‘T’ crossed, and I can assure the American people that there wouldn’t be any wrongdoing, or any sort of undue influence over any decision-making,” Priebus said. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said his businesses will be overseen by his three grown children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump. Priebus was asked if it was appropriate for family members to sit in on official meetings after Ivanka Trump attended her father’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday. “Donald Trump has been very clear from the very beginning that his family is very important to him,” Priebus said on CNN.

Summary: ट्रम्प टीम ने व्यवसायों पर नैतिकता संबंधी चिंताओं को दूर करने का वादा किया


HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump hit the road on Saturday to celebrate his first 100 days in the White House with cheering supporters at a campaign-style rally, touting his initial achievements and lashing out at critics. Trump told a Pennsylvania crowd he was just getting started on meeting his campaign promises. He repeatedly attacked an “incompetent, dishonest” media, saying they were not telling the truth about his administration’s accomplishments. “My administration has been delivering every single day for the great citizens of our country,” Trump said in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “We are keeping one promise after another, and frankly the people are really happy about it.” The rally occurred on the same day as a climate march at which thousands of protesters surrounded the White House, and it also coincided with the annual black-tie White House press dinner in Washington. Trump and his staff chose to skip the press dinner because of what he said was unfair treatment by the press. Trump said he was thrilled to be away from the “Washington swamp”. “A large group of Hollywood actors and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation’s capital right now,” Trump said to loud boos from the crowd. “If the media’s job is to be honest and to tell the truth, the media deserves a very, very big fat failing grade.” Trump listed what he said were some of his key early accomplishments, including the successful confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court of Justice Neil Gorsuch and clearing away many regulations on the environment and business. He also listed his approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, killing a pending Asian trade pact, and enhanced security measures that have led to a sharp decline in illegal border crossings at the southern border. “The world is getting the message: if you try to illegally enter the United States, you will be caught, detained, deported or put in prison,” Trump said. He shrugged off his failure to score major legislative victories on his core campaign promises, such as repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act and construction of a Mexican border wall. Trump’s ban on visitors from some Muslim nations was blocked in court. He blamed Democrats for the legislative failures so far and said all of his promises would be kept eventually. “We’ll build the wall, people, don’t even worry about it,” he said. Some supporters in the crowd said they were willing to give Trump more time. “I voted for him and I’ll give him a year. That’s enough time to whip Congress into shape and get some deals done,” said Michael Casciaro, 54, a civilian contractor for the military. Trump said he reversed course on promises to name China a currency manipulator because he wanted its help in trying to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile development. Trump has said all options are on the table if Pyongyang persists in its nuclear development. In an excerpt of an interview with “Face the Nation” of CBS, set to air on Sunday and Monday and conducted during the trip to Pennsylvania, Trump said he would “not be happy” if North Korea conducted a nuclear test. Asked if that would mean military action, Trump said “I don’t know, I mean we’ll see.” Reveling in the cheers in Harrisburg, Trump made reference again to his upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, which he said “carried us to a big, beautiful win on Nov. 8.” Trump left Washington as another in a series of protests against his administration was winding up. Thousands of marchers made their way through Washington’s streets during the People’s Climate March, a protest against Trump’s moves to roll back environmental regulations. Asked by reporters accompanying him to Pennsylvania what he had to say to the climate change protesters, Trump said: “Enjoy the day, enjoy the weather.” After the rally, the White House said the president had signed two trade-related executive orders, one for top U.S. officials to review all U.S. trade pacts for potential abuses and another setting up an office in the White House to advise him on trade-related issues.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने राष्ट्रपति के रूप में पहले 100 दिन मनाए, मीडिया को लताड़ा


(Reuters) - The New York State on Wednesday confirmed Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pick to become the state’s top financial regulator. The confirmation vote for Maria Vullo, Cuomo’s nominee for superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), was unanimous. Cuomo, a Democrat, nominated Vullo in January. Her appointment is effective immediately.  Earlier on Wednesday, the New York Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on Vullo’s nomination and recommended that she be confirmed. Last week, the New York Senate’s banking and insurance committees also held separate hearings about Vullo.  Vullo, a lawyer who represented banks, described herself during recent state legislative committee meetings as “pro-business and pro-consumer.”  She has been running the NYDFS as its acting superintendent since February. Vullo will succeed former NYDFS Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, who left the agency last year. Under Lawsky, NYDFS earned a reputation as an aggressive regulatory body that extracted hefty fines from global banks and other financial institutions. The regulator, created in 2011 by consolidating the state’s banking and insurance agencies, had been in flux since before Vullo’s arrival in March.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क राज्य सीनेट ने वुलो को शीर्ष वित्तीय नियामक के रूप में पुष्टि की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus said on Sunday that Donald Trump is making it harder for himself to win the Republican presidential nomination by threatening to run as an independent if he is not treated fairly. In several television interviews, Priebus, who chairs the Republican National Committee, said candidates sometimes make such statements in hopes of gaining leverage over the party, but that it would not work. “Those kinds of comments, I think, have consequences,” Priebus said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And so when you make those kinds of comments and you want people to fall in line for you, it makes it more difficult.       “... And certainly, you know, if you were running for president of the Kiwanis Club or the Boy Scouts and you said you don’t know if you like the Kiwanis or the Boy Scouts, I think that makes your challenge even greater to ultimately win those kinds of posts,” he said. “It’s no different for the Republican Party.” On Tuesday, Trump backed away from the loyalty pledge he signed in September promising to support the party’s eventual nominee and not to run an independent campaign for the White House. The RNC pledge has unraveled as Trump’s remaining rivals, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich, also indicated they were unlikely to observe the pledge if Trump was the nominee.   Priebus said candidates signed the loyalty pledge as part of a deal in which the RNC agreed to provide data about voters. “We expect that when candidates make commitments, that they keep them,” Priebus told Fox News Sunday. Trump’s relationship with the RNC has been contentious at times. Talking to Fox News Sunday, he once again did not rule out running as an independent if he does not get the Republican nomination. “We’re going to have to see how I was treated,” Trump said. “I want to be treated fair.” Priebus said that if one candidate gets the support of 1,237 delegates before the Republican convention opens in Cleveland in July, that candidate will win the party’s presidential nomination. But if no one wins on the first ballot, delegates can switch their allegiances and “they can vote for who they want,” Priebus told ABC. Nonetheless, Priebus told CNN, the nominee is likely to be one of the three people now running and not someone like House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who some have speculated could be a dark-horse candidate - mainly because “he doesn’t want to do it.” Priebus also cited some practical reasons that the nominee most likely would have to be Trump, Cruz or Kasich: “That candidate would have to have a floor operation (in Cleveland) and an actual campaign going on to make that possible.”

Summary: स्वतंत्र रूप से चुनाव लड़ने की ट्रम्प की धमकीः पार्टी प्रमुख


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to confirm former Republican senator Dan Coats to be President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence and to approve Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster’s transfer to become his national security adviser. The vote was 85-12 to confirm Coats, who also served as ambassador to Germany under former President George W. Bush. Fifty-one votes were required for confirmation. The only Republican who voted against Coats was Senator Rand Paul, one of the Senate’s leading privacy advocates, as are several of the Democrats who also voted against Coats.  Democratic Senator Ron Wyden had said he would object to Coats’ nomination because he felt the office of the Director of National Intelligence had not provided the committee with enough information about how many Americans’ communication records had been subjected to government surveillance. McMaster was approved as Trump’s second national security adviser in an 86-10 vote. No Republican senator voted against him. McMaster had faced some opposition from Democratic senators who cited concerns about his past decision to allow two service members accused of assault to advance their careers while the case against them was open, in violation of Army regulations. The Senate does not normally approve a president’s national security adviser but McMaster’s reappointment to his new position had to be considered by the Senate because he is an active-duty military officer. McMaster, 54, who is known for speaking his mind and challenging his superiors, replaces retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser on Feb. 13 after reports emerged that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about speaking to Russia’s ambassador to the United States about U.S. sanctions before Trump took office. Coats, 73, replaces James Clapper, who retired as President Barack Obama left office in January. Coats was a member of the Senate’s intelligence committee until he retired from the Senate at the end of last year. He pledged during his confirmation hearing on Feb. 28 to support a thorough investigation of any Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Summary: सीनेट ने ट्रम्प के खुफिया उम्मीदवार, सुरक्षा सलाहकार की पुष्टि की


ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish prosecutor has called for jail sentences of up to 15 years on terrorism charges for a group of rights activists including the local head of Amnesty International, Amnesty said. The detention in July of the activists, who also include a German and Swedish national, deepened tensions between Ankara and European Union leaders who fear that Turkey is sliding toward greater authoritarianism under President Tayyip Erdogan. They were held after attending a workshop on digital security on an island off Istanbul. Eight of them have been held since then, accused of being members of and aiding an  armed terrorist organization .  This indictment is little more than a tawdry patchwork of innuendo and untruths and is itself a damning indictment of the flaws in Turkey s justice system,  John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International s Europe Director said in a statement.  The court must reject it in its entirety and ensure that our friends and colleagues are immediately and unconditionally released.  Shortly after they were detained Germany said it was reviewing applications for arms projects from Turkey. A minister in Berlin compared Ankara s behavior over the detention of the activists to the authoritarian former communist East Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel also said last month that Turkey s 12-year journey to join the European Union should be halted. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he was very worried about the latest development.   The demand for up to 15 years in prison is totally incomprehensible to us and not acceptable,  Gabriel said in a statement, adding Berlin had got in touch with the Turkish government about the matter. Among those arrested in July are Amnesty International s Turkey director  dil Eser, German citizen Peter Frank Steudtner and Swedish citizen Ali Gharavi. They have now been officially charged by an indictment, the first step in court proceedings.   We are doing all we can to bring the jailed German citizens, including Peter Steudtner, back to Germany,  said Gabriel. Erdogan s government says EU critics of the case, and of the wider crackdown in Turkey following last year s failed military coup in which more than 240 people were killed, do not understand the scale of the security challenges facing Turkey. More than 50,000 people have been detained since the failed coup and 150,000 people, including teachers, academics and lawyers, have been suspended from their jobs.

Summary: तुर्की के अभियोजक ने मानवाधिकार कार्यकर्ताओं के लिए 15 साल की जेल की सजा की मांग की


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained by police as he left his Moscow home on Friday to attend a pre-election rally in a provincial town. Russia holds a presidential election in March which incumbent Vladimir Putin is widely expected to contest. Navalny hopes to run despite Russia s central election commission declaring him ineligible because of a suspended prison sentence which he says was politically-motivated.   Navalny said on social media on Friday that police had detained him in the lobby of his apartment block and told him they wanted to interview him at a police station. He was released around 11 hours later and told to appear in court on Monday to face charges of repeatedly violating laws governing the organization of public meetings and rallies, Navalny s spokeswoman told Reuters. He faces up to 30 days in jail if found guilty, she said.  The press service of Moscow s interior ministry was cited by the TASS news agency as saying Navalny had been detained due to his  repeated calls to take part in unsanctioned public events .  The authorities say opposition protests must be pre-approved by them, but Navalny has in the past said that the Russian constitution enshrines the right to hold such events freely. On Friday, he denied the police s latest allegations, writing on social media:  I ve never done that.   Navalny had been due to address a pre-election rally in the city of Nizhny Novgorod later on Friday, part of a series of regional events he hoped would help him build support for his presidential run.

Summary: पुतिन के आलोचक नवलनी को चुनाव पूर्व रैली से पहले पुलिस ने हिरासत में लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans pressed ahead in their deregulatory push on Tuesday, with the U.S. House of Representatives Rules Committee officially adding a regulation on methane and one intended to root out pay discrimination to the list of rules the whole chamber will vote to kill on Wednesday. On Monday, the committee sent three other recently enacted rules on the environment, corruption and guns to the full House to axe under the Congressional Review Act, which has only been used effectively once, in 2001.  The Republican-controlled House is expected to vote to overturn all five regulations on Wednesday, and then hand them off to the Senate. Agencies cannot create a new rule to replace any part of an overturned regulation, and Democrats at Tuesday’s committee hearing argued that House Republicans were closing off the possibility of enacting regulations that could be needed in the future.  They also pressed for more time to consider rolling back regulations that often took months and years to craft. “What we’ve been doing today and yesterday ... I would characterize as mindless legislating,” said Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “I worry that this whole process is going to subject a lot of vulnerable people, and a lot of working people, as well as our environment to some pretty dark consequences.” New York’s Louise Slaughter, the committee’s senior Democrat, while talking about the methane rule during the one-hour hearing bluntly said: “I disagree wholeheartedly with what you’re doing.” Democrats, though, have little power to stop the overturning of regulations. Only simple majorities in both chambers are needed to kill a rule. In the past, Republicans’ nullification attempts were met with veto threats by former president Barack Obama, a Democrat. Now, a fellow Republican occupies the White House, President Donald Trump. Critics of the methane rule say the regulation, which covers emissions from oil and gas operations on federal and Indian land, is not necessary. They cast it as a duplicative regulation that usurps state rights and slows down the distribution of natural gas through excessive red tape. Supporters, meanwhile, say that the rule keeps oil and gas companies from polluting the environment, brings in royalties to the federal government, and reduces wasted methane. Those wanting to see the pay-discrimination rule overturned have similar complaints, saying that other rules already cover the area and that requiring federal contractors to collect information on their employees will be expensive and time-consuming.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन रिपब्लिकन ने बुधवार के मतदान में मारने के नियमों की सूची को अंतिम रूप दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Indiana Governor Mike Pence said on Friday he would vote for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in the state’s primary next week, calling him a “principled conservative” who represented the ideas of former Republican President Ronald Reagan. In announcing his decision to back Cruz, Pence praised Republican front-runner Donald Trump and said he would work hard to get the eventual Republican nominee elected in November.

Summary: इंडियाना के गवर्नर पेंस ने कहा कि वह राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए क्रूज़ का समर्थन करेंगे


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Donald Trump inches closer to becoming the U.S. Republican nominee, many of the party’s big donors fear they will tarnish their reputations should they contribute to a candidate who has insulted women, Hispanics and Muslims. Some flatly reject the notion of ever funding his campaign. In interviews with Reuters, 22 members of the Republican money class spoke of the “anguish,” “struggle,” and “Catch-22” they now find themselves in, especially in light of the violence at Trump rallies and the candidate’s refusal to denounce it. Two additional high-profile Republican donors, Gaylord Hughey of Texas, who backed Jeb Bush’s Super PAC, and Ronald Firman of Florida, who poured more than $2 million into a conservative Super PAC, said they were still undecided and hoped Trump would tone down his inflammatory rhetoric and urge his supporters to eschew violence. Trump won at least three states on Tuesday but his loss in Ohio means the Republican nominating convention in July may be contested if he falls short of winning a majority of delegates in the state-by-state contests. Republican donors are a testing ground for Trump, who is under pressure to soften his tone to win independent voters. Even an unorthodox campaign like his is expected to need some money for television ads and staff should he reach the general election. The billionaire real estate developer may find it difficult to fund this with his own wealth. Throughout the 2016 election, many establishment donors have viewed themselves as dedicated soldiers, willing to go to any lengths to prevent either Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, or her rival Bernie Sanders from winning the Nov. 8 election to succeed President Barack Obama. But some Republicans said they worried that becoming a Trump donor could taint legacies, family names and personal brands. Many said they disagreed with his protectionist trade policies, his calls for the building of a wall on the Mexican border and his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Energy magnate and mega donor Dan Eberhart said he was concerned about Trump’s lack of specificity on foreign policy and some of his rhetoric. “We won’t be donating to Trump, and I don’t know any of our donor peers that would donate,” said Eberhart, who was a supporter of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in the race. “If he’s the nominee, we will support him in spirit but not in cash. I mean, in some ways it’s refreshing to have a candidate who is not completely scripted but at the same time he lacks the decorum and stage presence and gravitas to deal with foreign leaders on the world stage.” Added Denver technology executive Chris Wright, “It’s an anguishing position to be in, but we just couldn’t support him if he were the nominee. We’re appalled. He’s anathema to the free society and civil society in which we believe.” The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment. In the run-up to the convention Trump has vowed to self-fund his campaign. He has pledged to do away with the pay-to-play, transactional politics that have long dominated Washington. But were he to become the party’s nominee, the growing consensus among campaign veterans is that a general election would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, a total that Trump may well be less able to self-fund. Trump will likely face a barrage of attack ads and negative mailings funded by Super PACs, labor unions and the campaign of his Democratic opponent. Answering the charges on the airwaves would require more than just giving interviews and prove costly.  In a debate last week Trump said he had yet to decide whether to seek donations in a general election campaign. To date, Trump’s controversial comments and his celebrity status - he is a former reality TV show host - have made him a regular presence on network television, allowing him to avoid spending as much as his rivals on paid television advertising.  He has run a threadbare campaign from his plane and employs a tiny staff with no strategists, consultants or pollsters.  Trump spent a mere $3.20 per vote versus now-dethroned rivals Bush and Marco Rubio, who spent $551.70 and $30.40, respectively. Trump could always try to keep up his unconventional low-budget tactics. But Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s failure to respond to President Barack Obama’s television attack ads in 2012 offer a cautionary tale about not responding when an opponent goes on the offensive. “What you (will) see is a lot of people concede if Trump is our nominee that we’ve lost the White House, let’s protect the majority in the Senate and the majority in the House,” said David McIntosh, president of the Club For Growth, a conservative organization that has spent millions of dollars on ads aiming to defeat Trump in the primaries. In the 2012 presidential race, Romney and Obama each spent $1 billion. Should Trump decide to seek campaign donations, some Republicans would be willing to open their wallets. Bob Grand, who led Romney’s Indiana fundraising in 2012, said he would write Trump a check. “We don’t have any alternative. We don’t have any choice, he’s going to be better than Hillary Clinton, that’s for damn sure,” Grand said. Trump could also use his large social media presence to solicit small donations via his website. That could add up to large sums.  Trump could decide to court business people who do not normally get involved in politics, potentially turning to supporters such as billionaire businessman Carl Icahn and NASCAR chairman Brian France. If Clinton is the Democratic nominee, she and her allies will have millions of dollars with which to attack Trump. But before Trump can take on Democrats, he will have to confront the internal battle within his own party. He may feel the pressure to fundraise if his opponents Ted Cruz and John Kasich keep the fight up through the convention as Democrats launch their own attacks.  “This is the coming donor apocalypse,” said Florida strategist Rick Wilson. “And for those donors who go turncoat like (New Jersey Governor) Chris Christie, and join up with Trump, they will be heaped with all the hate and opprobrium they deserve.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन धन वर्ग को ट्रम्प दाता बनने के कलंक का डर है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans plan to release the language of their tax legislation early Thursday morning, the head of the U.S. House Budget Committee told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Wednesday.  “That is going to be released tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. (1300 GMT),” U.S. Representative Diane Black said, adding that Republicans were still changing language overnight.

Summary: सदन की बजट समिति की अध्यक्षता में गुरुवार को जल्द जारी होगा कर विधेयक


(Reuters) - Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law on Wednesday a bill aimed at addressing public pension problems in the state’s two biggest cities, Dallas and Houston. The new law will increase retirement ages, hike worker and city contributions, limit cost-of-living (COLA) increases for retirees, and restructure governance.  In a tweet on Wednesday, Abbott wrote that he was “proud of the Texas legislature leading on pension reform that ensures fiscal soundness.” The Dallas police and fire pension system was projected to become insolvent within 10 years if the city or the state did not act.  The new law cuts the Dallas system’s nearly $3.7 billion unfunded liability to $2.18 billion and boosts the funded ratio to nearly 50 percent from the current 36.8 percent, according to a bill analysis.  The Houston bill would help reduce the $8.1 billion unfunded liability in the city’s municipal, police, and firefighter funds by reducing benefits. The law also lowers the fund’s assumed rate of investment return from as high as 8.5 percent, one of the most ambitious rates in the country, to 7.25 percent, closer to nation’s average.  The city of Houston estimated that without any type of reform, the city would contribute $3.7 billion to the pension systems over five years. With reforms, the city will contribute $2.0 billion. The city estimates a savings of $1.4 billion, and an estimated debt service cost of $0.2 billion.

Summary: टेक्सास के गवर्नर ने डलास और ह्यूस्टन के पेंशन बिलों पर हस्ताक्षर किए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia hacked into Republican state political campaigns and old email domains of the Republican National Committee but there is no evidence it successfully penetrated President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign, FBI Director James Comey said on Tuesday. Comey also told lawmakers Russia did not release information obtained from the state campaigns or the old RNC email domains, comments that may buttress the U.S. intelligence view that Moscow tried to help Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign. U.S. intelligence agencies on Friday released an assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a covert effort to help Republican Trump’s electoral chances by discrediting Clinton.      The report, which omitted classified details, was the U.S. government’s starkest public description of what it says was a Russian effort to manipulate the American electoral process by leaking hacked emails from Democrats. Russia has denied interfering in the election but President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian suspected spies from the United States and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies last month in response to the allegations. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a news conference on Tuesday those penalties were “a start and not the end” of U.S. retaliation for the hacks, and senior officials have suggested covert action may be taken. Comey told lawmakers the Federal Bureau of Investigation  “did not develop any evidence that the Trump campaign, or the current RNC, was successfully hacked.” He did not say whether Russia had tried to hack Trump’s campaign.        Trump has disputed the accusations of Russian cyber attacks during the election, but his incoming chief of staff said on Sunday that the New York businessman accepts the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusions that Russia was responsible, and that further action may be taken against Moscow. Comey declined to comment on whether or not the FBI might be investigating links between Russia and associates of Trump, who frequently called during the campaign for improved relations between Washington and Moscow.  The FBI director was pressed by Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, to publicly provide a declassified answer to the question before Jan. 20, the day Trump will be inaugurated, but Comey suggested he would unable to do so.             Comey appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee along with the director of national intelligence, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency and the chief of the National Security Agency at a time of controversy in Washington about the 2016 election. Testifying before Congress for the first time since Trump beat Clinton on Nov. 8, Comey has been criticized by Democrats for statements about a separate investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state. The controversy over Russia’s alleged role in attempting to influence the election has roiled Washington, with Democratic lawmakers calling for an independent commission to investigate the matter and Republicans worried that the affair might call into question the legitimacy of Trump’s victory. Comey said there was evidence Russia hacked Republican state-level political campaigns and “old” email domains that the RNC was no longer using. In contrast, Friday’s report assessed that Russian military intelligence used intermediaries such as WikiLeaks, DCLeaks.com and the Guccifer 2.0 “persona” to release emails that it had acquired from the Democratic National Committee and top Democrats as part of the effort to help Trump and harm Clinton.     The DNC denied “multiple requests” made by the FBI to examine its hacked servers, Comey said. He added that his agents relied on a forensic analysis conducted by the cyber security firm CrowdStrike, which was hired by the DNC to help clean up the hack when it was detected last spring.    Senior U.S. Republican and Democratic senators introduced legislation on Tuesday seeking to impose a wide range of sanctions on Russia over its cyber activities and actions in Syria and Ukraine.

Summary: रूस ने रिपब्लिकन राज्य अभियानों को हैक किया लेकिन ट्रम्प के नहीं कियाः एफ. बी. आई. प्रमुख


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the U.S. military in Africa on Tuesday backed the idea of gaining greater power to strike Islamic State, including in Libya, which he described as the group’s Plan B as it loses territory in Iraq and Syria. Marine Lieutenant General Thomas Waldhauser told his Senate confirmation hearing that the U.S. military was making preparations for possible military strikes in Libya against the militants. But Waldhauser noted limitations on the current commander’s ability to order strikes against the group in Libya, which require adhering to White House guidance. That differs from the rules of engagement in Iraq or Syria. Asked by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham whether it would be wise for Obama to give the commander of the Africa Command the authority to go after Islamic State targets in Africa “on your own,” Waldhauser said: “It would be wise.” “It would certainly contribute to what we’re trying to do inside Libya,” he responded. Islamic State established a presence in several parts of the country from 2014, and has been active between Benghazi and the militant group’s coastal stronghold of Sirte, about 380 km (240 miles) to the west. In recent weeks, however, the ultra-hardline group has retreated into the center of Sirte after forces aligned with Libya’s U.N.-backed unity government advanced from the western city of Misrata. One reason Islamic State established itself in Sirte, Waldhauser told the Senate Armed Services Committee, was “to be kind of a backup if Iraq and Syria fail,” he said.  Waldhauser estimated that Islamic State faced between 3,000 and 4,000 opponents fighting the group around Sirte, drawn from the Mirsratan militia forces and the Petroleum Facilities Guard Central Branch.  But he cautioned that alliances can shift among the Libyan militia, driven by everything from tribal ties and religious beliefs to material gain. “The unpredictable nature of paramilitary group patronage will most likely remain a significant obstacle to the GNA’s efforts to establish sovereignty,” he said in written testimony. For months, the United States has had a small number of U.S. forces rotating in and out of Libya, establishing contact with fighters inside the country.  Waldhauser said they were acting in an advisory role to support the unity government, and said no more U.S. troops were needed in the country at this time.

Summary: ओबामा ने अफ्रीका में अमेरिकी सेना का नेतृत्व करने के लिए इस्लामिक स्टेट पर हमला करने की शक्तियों का समर्थन किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was close to a deal with Democratic congressional leaders on protections for illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, astounding fellow Republicans again while alarming conservative supporters. Trump said any final agreement must include border security measures including surveillance systems but would not include funding for his planned wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, a central 2016 campaign promise. Trump said the wall would “come later” and warned Democrats not to obstruct it. Trump described the parameters of an agreement on the fate of the roughly 800,000 so-called Dreamers reached in his White House meeting on Wednesday evening with top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer and top House of Representatives Democrat Nancy Pelosi. “We have to have an understanding that, whether it’s in the budget or some other vehicle, in a very short period of time the wall will be funded. Otherwise, we’re not doing anything,” Trump said after landing in Florida to survey hurricane damage. Schumer and Pelosi reiterated their opposition to the wall, and Democrats in the past have promised to block funding for it. “I think we’re fairly close but we have to get massive border security,” Trump told reporters earlier in the day of a potential deal.  Trump said Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were both “on board” with the potential deal and that “we’re doing it in conjunction with the Republicans.” Trump spoke with Ryan and McConnell on Thursday morning only after he had reached the outline of the deal with the Democrats. The potential agreement was the latest development in the president’s newfound willingness to work with Democrats after Republicans, who control Congress, failed to deliver legislative victories on healthcare and other matters. Trump stunned Republican leaders last week by reaching an agreement with Schumer and Pelosi to fund the government and raise the U.S. debt ceiling through mid-December. The president defended his outreach to the opposition party, saying if Republicans did not stick together, “then I’m going to have to get a little bit of help from the Democrats.” “We have to get things passed,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program earlier this month but made that effective in March, giving lawmakers six months to come up with an alternative for the Dreamers. DACA, created by Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, shields the Dreamers, mostly Hispanic young adults, from deportation and provides work permits. Pelosi pointed to a bill offered by Republican House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul as a possible basis for a deal with Trump on border security. It calls for more money for high-tech surveillance equipment, stronger measures at U.S. ports of entry, more Border Patrol and customs agents and letting National Guard personnel help with aviation and intelligence support on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump said that “we’re not looking at citizenship” for the Dreamers, a comment that differed with how Pelosi and Schumer described their understanding with the president. They told reporters Trump had embraced the provisions of a bipartisan proposal called the Dream Act that would grant permanent legal resident status to Dreamers who qualify, allowing them to attend college, work and serve in the U.S. military without fear of deportation. It also would provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship after at least eight years. Before Trump made his comment on citizenship, a White House spokeswoman, Lindsay Walters, told reporters traveling with him to Florida that the administration would discuss “a responsible path forward” that could include “legal citizenship over a period of time.” McConnell and Ryan, both of whom have had a tense relationship with Trump, made comments that suggested they might not be on board, as the president said. “There is no agreement,” Ryan told reporters about DACA. “I think the president understands that he’s got to work the congressional majority,” he told reporters, referring to Republicans, adding that “we have not begun negotiations,” although he expected a compromise to be reached. McConnell issued a noncommittal statement. “As Congress debates the best ways to address illegal immigration through strong border security and interior enforcement, DACA should be part of those discussions. We look forward to receiving the Trump administration’s legislative proposal as we continue our work on these issues,” he said. Trump faced a quick backlash from his hard-line conservative political base over his potential deal on DACA. He had promised as a candidate to deport all of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, and said a border wall would be built, paid for by Mexico, to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs. Mexico has said it will not pay for the structure. “It looks to me like he’s preparing to keep Hillary Clinton’s campaign promise rather than his own,” Republican Representative Steve King told CNN, referring to Trump’s Democratic election rival.  Breitbart News, the hard-line conservative news website headed by Trump’s former top strategist, Steve Bannon, called the president “Amnesty Don” in a headline. Many conservatives oppose giving legal status or a path toward citizenship to illegal immigrants, calling such steps “amnesty” to lawbreakers. Trump said on Thursday he did not support amnesty. Conservative pundit Ann Coulter wrote on Twitter: “At this point, who DOESN’T want Trump impeached?”

Summary: सीमा पर दीवार के बिना डेमोक्रेट के साथ आव्रजन समझौता हुआः ट्रंप


LONDON (Reuters) - Manfred Weber, a leading lawmaker in the European Parliament, said on Wednesday he was more confident about Britain and the European Union ironing out difficulties in the Brexit talks. Weber, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the parliament, spoke after meeting Theresa May in London but would not say whether the British prime minister had signalled she was ready to move on a financial settlement with the EU. Negotiations to unravel more than 40 years of union have stalled over the divorce bill, with EU officials increasingly frustrated that Britain has not detailed its approach to settling what it owes the bloc when it leaves in March 2019.  After my meetings here in London my main message is I am more optimistic, there is progress ... That is the most important thing because the perspective from a European point of view towards London was in the last weeks not so clear,  Weber told a news conference. Asked whether there was any movement on the financial settlement, he declined to comment on what he described as private discussions with May. A spokesman for May said in a statement that she and Weber had discussed an  implementation period  to smooth Britain s departure from the bloc, and that Weber had asked what  this would look like in practice .  The Secretary of State for Exiting the EU (Brexit minister David Davis, who was also present) outlined the need to avoid a cliff-edge (exit) - including for the stability of the financial sector across Europe,  the spokesman said.

Summary: मर्केल के यूरोपीय संघ के सहयोगी ने कहा कि ब्रेक्सिट समस्याओं को हल करने के बारे में अधिक आश्वस्त हैं


PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Cambodia rejected government accusations of interference as  inaccurate, misleading and baseless  on Tuesday, and called for the immediate release of opposition leader Kem Sokha. The government of Prime Minister Hun Sen has charged Kem Sokha with treason, accusing him of conspiring to take power with the help of the United States, which has become an increasing target of Hun Sen s rhetoric.  On dozens of occasions over the past year, the United States has been subject to intentionally inaccurate, misleading and baseless accusations,  Ambassador William Heidt said in a statement.  All of the accusations you have heard in recent weeks about the United States - every one of them - are false,  he said. Heidt called for the immediate release of Kem Sokha.

Summary: संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका ने कहा कि कंबोडिया के सभी आरोप झूठे हैं


MADRID (Reuters) - Support for the creation of an independent state of Catalonia rose to an almost 3-year high in October according to an official regional survey published on Tuesday.  Some 48.7 percent of Catalans believe the Spanish region should be independent, according to the poll from Centre d Estudis d Opinio, up from 41.1 pct in June and the highest since December 2014.  The poll was based on 1,338 interviews taken between Oct. 16 and Oct. 29.

Summary: स्वतंत्र कैटेलोनिया के लिए समर्थन तीन साल के उच्च स्तर पर पहुंचाः सर्वेक्षण


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet new U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday seeking to reinvigorate what London views as the two countries’ “special relationship”.  May, the first foreign leader to visit Trump, aims to forge closer ties with the United States as Britain leaves the European Union. She hopes to enjoy the same closeness with him that Margaret Thatcher had with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.  “Unquestionably, this relationship has assumed way more importance than it might have had even a year ago,” said John Bew, a history and foreign policy professor at King’s College London. “Anglo-American relations are back in town in a big way.”  The history of the special relationship between the two countries has always been defined by personalities, Europe and security issues and has not always been easy.  The United States declared independence from Britain in 1776 but it was not until 1946 that Winston Churchill coined the term “special relationship” following World War Two.  The establishment of NATO in 1949 helped to deepen military ties but the alliance saw challenges in the early years of the Cold War.  In the 1956 Suez Crisis, when Britain attacked Egypt without informing the United States, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower was incensed and pressured Prime Minister Anthony Eden to seek a peaceful solution, resulting in Eden’s resignation.  The episode was arguably the worst crisis of U.S.-UK relations in the 20th century but demonstrated to the British establishment its fading imperial power and the importance of collaboration with the United States in international affairs.  The relationship was tested again in 1962 when the administration of U.S. President John Kennedy unexpectedly canceled its Skybolt missile program, angering Britain, which had been set to use the missiles.  But, as with Suez, the resolution of the crisis deepened ties between the countries and contributed to the decision of France to block Britain’s accession into the European Community in the early 1960s.  The defining image of British and U.S. relations by the end of the Cold War was of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan.  The grocers’ daughter and the Hollywood film star struck up a rapport on the basis of their shared commitment to small government, economic liberalism and anti-communism.  Even this relationship was subjected to strains, however. Thatcher was angered by the U.S. invasion of Grenada, a Commonwealth nation in 1983. In 2014 a recording of a phone call by Reagan, apologizing to Thatcher, was released.  WMDs  The special relationship was reinforced again with the co-operation of Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush over the Iraq War.  Following the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Blair was keen to offer support to the United States. However, while the initial military action to depose Saddam Hussein as Iraq’s leader in 2003 achieved its aims, the war became drawn out.  The lack of weapons of mass destruction, which had provided a justification for the action, drew opposition on both sides of the Atlantic, with some describing Blair as a puppet of Bush.  While Blair’s close friendship with Bush - they famously shared their toothpaste - became a political issue for him, British leaders tended to see good relations with president Barack Obama as an asset.  Obama was popular in Britain and Prime Minister David Cameron was keen to portray their closeness, in contrast to the more awkward manner of his predecessor Gordon Brown.  Cameron high-fived Obama as they played table tennis during a visit to London in 2011, while Cameron ate hotdogs with the president as they took in a university basketball game in Ohio.  However, Obama’s comment in April 2016 that Britain would be “at the back of the queue” in trade talks should it vote to leave the EU also raised questions among Britons about the value of the relationship.  Tom Packer, research fellow at the Rothermere American Institute in Oxford University, believes that the pragmatic relationship of Bush and Blair may be a better guide to May and Trump’s relationship than Reagan and Thatcher.  “I think it can’t be like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, because they shared an ideological vision, and also had important personal ties already,” Packer said.  “It could conceivably be like Bush and Blair, where people who share common objectives slowly become personally and in some ways ideologically close.”

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका और ब्रिटेन के बीच 'विशेष संबंध' के 70 साल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republicans in Congress are grappling with a thorny question about corporate taxes as they work to reconcile competing tax bills from the Senate and House of Representatives into a unified measure that they hope President Donald Trump will sign into law before the end of the year. The Senate bill that squeaked through on a 51-49 vote last week jettisoned a long-held Republican goal of repealing the corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT) to help pay for last-minute deals that secured the Republican votes for passage. That puts Senate Republicans on a collision course with Republicans in the House of Representatives, whose own tax bill repeals the corporate AMT and who are already calling for the tax to be eliminated in final legislation.  House and Senate Republicans also face potential sticking points over how their bills treat so-called pass-through enterprises, top earners, the estate tax on inheritances and international tax policy for corporations. But the corporate AMT could be the biggest challenge, because removing it could require lawmakers to cover a $40 billion revenue loss over a decade, possibly by scaling back their plan to cut the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. The 20 percent corporate AMT is an alternative to the regular corporate income tax in computing taxes owed. It is designed to limit the ability of corporations to reduce their tax bills through various deductions and credits, such as a credit for research and development that is especially popular with Silicon Valley technology companies. Corporations must compute taxes using both methods and then pay whichever rate is higher. With the top corporate rate now at 35 percent, few wind up paying the AMT. Because both the House and the Senate bills would reduce the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, the same as the corporate AMT, there is concern that corporations would not be able to use the R&D credit. “I think that has to be eliminated,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California said of the corporate AMT in a CNBC interview on Monday.  The House voted 222-192 on Monday to go to conference with the Senate on tax legislation, setting up formal negotiations that could take weeks to complete. A similar Senate vote could come later this week.  The decision to retain the corporate AMT in the Senate bill helped keep the legislation’s overall revenue loss within an agreed-upon limit of $1.5 trillion. “There would need to be some sort of alternative to raise that revenue and there isn’t a lot of latitude to make further trades,” said Jared Walczak, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, a Washington think tank. Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate called that “the $64,000 question. “The money’s got to come from somewhere,” Cornyn said. “That’s one of the things we’ll have to explore if (House Republicans) want to make some changes.” Trump has already signaled flexibility on the corporate tax rate, saying on Saturday that it could end up at 22 percent rather than 20 percent in both bills. His comments could help justify a bump up in corporate taxes to cover the cost of eliminating the corporate AMT. But Republicans worry that increasing the corporate income tax rate above 20 percent could make the U.S. economy less attractive in a global marketplace where national tax rates have fallen. “I would hope that we would not change the corporate rate,” Cornyn said. “I hope we don’t undermine our own message.”

Summary: कॉर्पोरेट एएमटी कर को लेकर हाउस, सीनेट रिपब्लिकन को चुनौती का सामना करना पड़ रहा है


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain s Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker may meet early on Friday to reach a deal on the Irish border after Brexit, a Commission spokesman said on Thursday.  We are making progress but not yet fully there. Talks are continuing throughout the night. Early morning meeting possible,  the spokesman said on Twitter.   Juncker spoke by telephone to May and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, the spokesman said.

Summary: आयरलैंड सीमा पर शुक्रवार तक हो सकता है ब्रेक्सिट समझौताः यूरोपीय संघ आयोग