GUADALUPE, Mexico/TORNILLO, Texas (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s plan to end the policy of “catch and release” - where illegal immigrants are caught and then freed pending hearings - could hit a wall, immigrant advocates warn, and not the one he is planning to build on the Mexican border. “OK, Mr Trump, you don’t want them released, show me where you are going to hold them - show me the building,” said Ruben Garcia, the director of Annunciation House, a Roman Catholic charity in El Paso, Texas, that gives shelter to migrant families.  Garcia’s group received more than 400 migrants released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement just between Monday and Wednesday, the day Trump announced tougher measures to curb illegal immigration. “They are releasing them not because they want to do catch and release, but because detention centers don’t have enough space,” said Garcia. That underscores one potential problem of ending the practice of “catch and release” - almost half the immigrants apprehended by U.S. officials are now Central American families or children, and only a tiny number of detention spaces are available for those categories of immigrants. Trump did announce plans to increase the number of family detention centers, but establishing them will take time and could face legal challenges, legal experts on immigration said.   A Reuters review of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data shows an accelerating trend of Central American families who hand themselves in at the border and are released while awaiting deportation or a decision on an asylum request. In the last three months of 2016, the number of people - almost all of them families and children - who handed themselves in to agents along the U.S.-Mexican border rose by a quarter versus the same period the year before, CBP data shows.  Agents apprehended a total of 136,670 people crossing the Mexican border, the highest number since 2008, and 48 percent of those were unaccompanied children or families with children.  Nearly 45,000 parents with children were apprehended in the October-December quarter, but the border currently has beds for only around 3,300 people in this category of immigrants, mostly at the Karnes and Dilley detention centers in Texas, according to ICE data from 2016. Because most of the families are from Central America, they cannot immediately be turned around and sent back to Mexico. Lack of space in detention centers for parents with children means that almost all such migrants, who are mostly fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, are fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet, given a court date and released. Many end up requesting asylum, a process that can take five or more years to be resolved, immigration lawyers say. Even without requesting asylum, it can take years to deport families through the United States’ bunged-up immigration courts. Trump could expand a policy practiced under former President Barack Obama of using military bases to temporarily house more immigrants. The Fort Bliss base in El Paso has housed thousands of children since September, for example. He could also explore ways to refit other existing facilities to help handle the flood of families. Building more detention centers like Karnes and Dilley will take longer. They also typically face legal challenges by civil rights lawyers concerned about the living conditions in them. Trump could also seek to expand an Obama program aimed at increasing the number of Central American asylum seekers who make their initial claim from their home country. In the long term, he could ask Mexico to let immigrants make the asylum claims from there, although ties between the two countries are now seriously frayed because of Trump’s vow to force Mexico to pay for a wall on the southern U.S. border. Garcia, the shelter director, acknowledged that if Trump was finally successful in opening thousands more detention spaces for families, that would slow the numbers coming.  “The word would spread that the probability they will be locked up and put on a plane had become much higher,” Garcia said. Central Americans are usually deported from the United States on flights back to their home countries. While the number of “turn-ins” - those who hand themselves in to U.S. authorities - are highest around McAllen, Texas, the jump has been particularly noticeable in the El Paso sector of the border with Mexico. Here, 60 percent of the immigrants apprehended between October and December were children or families. For years a quiet spot on the immigration map, El Paso saw 5,200 families apprehended in the period, nearly three times as many compared to the same period a year ago, and 1,972, or double, the number of unaccompanied children. U.S Border Patrol agent Jose Romero has observed the trend first-hand along the tall, rust-colored fence punctuated with rural border crossings stretching some 40 miles (65 km) from El Paso to beyond Tornillo, Texas. “A lot of the traffic we are seeing right now is family groups ... coming across and they are looking for an agent right away to turn themselves in,” Romero said, calling it a change from the past, when more people were trying to sneak in undetected. “They want to be apprehended.” The fence, finished in 2010, ends abruptly near pecan orchards and irrigation ditches on the Texan side, across the Rio Grande from Mexico’s drug war-torn Valle de Juarez, a  cotton-farming region now littered with burned-out homes. Last February, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Obama’s secretary of commerce, Penny Pritzker, opened a major new border crossing from Tornillo on the Texan side, to Guadalupe on the Mexican side, hoping to boost trade between the countries. By November, truck traffic was still light across the bridge. Instead, ICE opened a temporary holding center, with 500 places in white tents on the asphalt on the U.S. side of the bridge, to help process some of the surging numbers of migrant families apprehended by U.S. officials in the surrounding area.

Summary: प्रवासियों की 'पकड़ और रिहाई' को रोकने की ट्रम्प की योजना दीवार से टकरा सकती है


BERLIN (Reuters) - Largely unperturbed by Angela Merkel s failure to form a government after a September election, many Germans are taking the prospect of several more months of coalition talks in their stride. The country is used to lengthy transitions but this is the longest since reunification in 1990. It is 87 days since the election and few experts see a government in place before March. EU leaders fear delays to euro zone integration plans, some of which are to strengthen the banking system, and many economists warn Europe s biggest economy must reform and invest in broadband and infrastructure to stay competitive. But as caretaker chancellor, Merkel is voting at EU summits,  parliament is passing laws required by international mandates, local authorities are wading through asylum applications and a bright outlook in Europe s biggest economy is buoying the mood.  I haven t noticed much difference from before, said Nadja Helling, 36, cradling a steaming mug of gluehwein at a Berlin Christmas market. It s not ideal but nobody is panicking.  Domestic and foreign demand are driving solid growth and the effects of low borrowing costs and European Central Bank stimulus are supporting record-high employment levels and rising real wages.  We have jobs and are enjoying the Christmas markets,  said Helling s friend, Silvia.  What s the problem?  The Munich-based Ifo institute raised its forecasts last week and expects the German economy to expand by 2.6 percent next year, the highest rate since 2011, adding, however, that this might be the peak. The IfW institute in Kiel said the delayed formation of a government  does not pose an economic risk , but also sounded a warning for the longer term.   A boom may feel good but it carries the seeds of a crisis. The view that a boom is harmless, as long as consumer prices are under control, falls short,  said the IfW s Stefan Kooths. The reality experienced by many Germans belies dire warnings from commentators last month about looming instability and even new elections after Merkel, weakened by losing votes to the far-right, was humiliated by the collapse of 3-way coalition talks. She is now wooing the Social Democrats (SPD), reluctant partners after voters punished them for sharing power with Merkel s conservatives over the last four years. Germany s transition pales into comparison with some other EU partners, such as Belgium and the Netherlands where a coalition took 225 days to clinch a deal this year.  I suspect the process will take some time yet but people who talk about instability are mistaken. We have a stable caretaker government, an effective parliament and a democracy that is functioning very well,  said Nils Diederich, politics professor at Berlin s Free University. Confounding some predictions, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), dogged by infighting, has so far failed to capitalize on the lack of a proper government despite being the third-biggest party. Opinion polls have barely changed since the Sept. 24 election, indicating there is little sense of crisis. The Ifo institute said on Tuesday uncertainty about the shape of the government was growing but that a surprise drop in its business moral survey in December after a record high the previous month was nothing too unusual. Indeed, seasonally adjusted unemployment is at the lowest level since 1990 and Christmas sales forecasts are bright, with the HDE retail industry association expecting sales over the festive season to rise by 3 percent to a record high. Merkel, unruffled as ever, has sought to reassure voters and investors that it is business as usual in Germany, with most incumbent ministers staying on in an interim government.  If anything, there is a striking lack of urgency about the talks, partly to keep skeptical SPD rank and file on board. After party leaders meet on Wednesday to draw up a rough timetable, no further talks are expected before January.  Meanwhile, the Bundestag lower house has agreed to roll over military missions in Afghanistan and Mali and debated topics from Brexit to planned job cuts by Siemens.   Germany s federal structure means much business that affects ordinary people, including dealing with asylum applications, housing and school issues, goes ahead regardless of Berlin. Deutsche Bahn has launched a much delayed fast train link between Berlin and Munich, complete with the usual teething problems, and Christmas markets have opened, albeit with tight security after last year s attack. The impasse has had little effect on Brexit talks because there is consensus among Germany s main parties about the German, and EU, position towards Britain. Plans for euro zone reform, however, are more contentious, although Merkel said on Monday, she hoped to make progress on the issue by March.  The main possible negative effect is that the momentum in Europe (for reform), that was desired after the Brexit vote might be lost,  said Thomas Jaeger, politics professor at Cologne University. The SPD, determined to stamp its identity on any coalition deal with Merkel, backs deeper integration than Merkel s conservatives, but is split over whether it should agree to a  grand coalition  with Merkel. Its leader Martin Schulz has championed French President Emmanuel Macron s proposals for a euro zone budget and finance minister and wants a  United States of Europe  by 2025.  The only political crisis in Germany is the struggle for direction by the main parties, in particular the SPD,  said Diederich.  The SPD needs time to overcome this.

Summary: जर्मनी ने अभी के लिए अपनी प्रगति में राजनीतिक रिक्तता ले ली है


DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish government was on the verge of collapse on Thursday after the party whose votes Prime Minister Leo Varadkar depends on to pass legislation said it would seek to remove the deputy prime minister in a breach of their cooperation agreement. The crisis comes three weeks ahead of a European Union summit in which the Irish government has an effective veto on whether Britain s talks on leaving the bloc progress as it determines if EU concerns about the future of the Irish border have been met. In a row that escalated rapidly, the opposition Fianna Fail party said it would put a motion of no confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald before parliament on Tuesday over her handling of a legal case involving a police whistleblower.  That would break the three-year  confidence and supply  agreement that allowed Varadkar s Fine Gael party to form a minority government 18 months ago. Fianna Fail initially indicated it might withdraw its threat if Fitzgerald resigned but Fine Gael members of parliament passed a unanimous motion of support in Fitzgerald at an emergency meeting on Thursday evening. Asked after Fine Gael s statement whether the country was headed for an election, a senior Fianna Fail source replied:  Straight towards one.  The source declined to be named as the party s frontbench was due to hold an emergency meeting early on Friday to decide its next move.  This is ... dangerous politically at a time when the country does not need an election,  Foreign Minister Simon Coveney of Fine Gael told national Irish broadcaster RTE, in an apparent reference to the Brexit talks he had earlier described as a  historic moment  for the island of Ireland. The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which will be the UK s only land frontier with the bloc after its departure, is one of three issues Brussels wants broadly solved before it decides next month on whether to move the talks onto a second phase about trade, as Britain wants. Coveney told parliament on Thursday that the government was not yet ready to allow the talks to move on to the trade issues at the Dec. 14-15 summit and needed more clarity from London. A breakdown of the government s cooperation deal, which has worked relatively smoothly up until now between two parties that differ little on policy but have been bitter foes for decades, would likely lead to an election in December or January. The Fianna Fail move comes after Fitzgerald admitted she was made aware of an attempt to discredit a police whistleblower in a 2015 email, but failed to act. Fine Gael say she adhered to due process. Since Varadkar s appointment as Fine Gael leader in May, his party has narrowly led Fianna Fail in opinion polls that suggest both parties would increase their support but still struggle to form anything but another minority government.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के ब्रेक्सिट शिखर सम्मेलन से पहले आयरिश सरकार पतन के कगार पर


BEIJING (Reuters) - British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, on his Chinese microblog Weibo account, praised the lead singer of China s most popular boy band for asking about life beyond Earth.  Wang Junkai, leader singer of the wildly popular TFBOYS, posted a video of himself on his Weibo account on Friday asking the author of  A Brief History of Time  how humanity should prepare for interstellar migration in years to come.  Hawking recently warned that the human race must evacuate Earth in 600 years before soaring energy consumption turns the planet into a  ball of fire .  Earlier this month, Hawking made a video appearance at a science summit organized by Tencent Holdings and pleaded for investors to support his idea of traveling to the closest star outside our solar system in the hope of finding an inhabitable planet. The 75-year old physicist said in a video posting on his Weibo account that Wang asked  an excellent question , which gave him insight into Chinese millennnials and their  curiosities  regarding the future.  Wang and his two other band mates each have more than 30 million followers on their Twitter-like Weibo microblog accounts.  Owned by Weibo Corp, Weibo is China s biggest social media platform with more than 200 million active users.  Hawking, who opened his Weibo account last year, has 4.3 million followers, while British Prime Minister Theresa May has more than 900,000, having inherited her account from David Cameron.

Summary: स्टीफन हॉकिंग ने अंतरिक्ष प्रवास के सवाल के लिए चीनी पॉप स्टार की सराहना की


BEIRUT/RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi authorities are striking agreements with some of those detained in an anti-corruption crackdown, asking them to hand over assets and cash in return for their freedom, sources familiar with the matter said. The deals involve separating cash from assets like property and shares, and looking at bank accounts to assess cash values, one of the sources told Reuters. Dozens of princes, senior officials and businessmen, including cabinet ministers and billionaires, have been detained in the graft inquiry at least partly aimed at strengthening the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. These include billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the kingdom s most prominent businessmen. One businessman had tens of millions of Saudi riyals withdrawn from his account after he signed. In another case, a former senior official consented to hand over ownership of four billion riyals worth of shares, the source said.   The Saudi government earlier this week moved from freezing accounts to issuing instructions for  expropriation of unencumbered assets  or seizure of assets, said a second source familiar with the situation. There was no immediate comment from the Saudi government on the deals and the sources declined to be identified because these agreements are not public. Analysts said the deals may help end uncertainty about the anti-corruption crackdown but could have an impact on Saudi Arabia s risk perception among investors.   Eliminating uncertainty about what the Saudi authorities are going to do goes a long way toward giving the market comfort that the regime is getting its house in order, and plugging its deficit,  said Louis Gargour, founder and senior portfolio manager at London-based hedge fund LNG Capital. Riyadh has been cutting spending while raising taxes and fees to curb a state budget deficit caused by low oil prices. The deficit, which hit $98 billion in 2015, is shrinking but at a high cost to the economy - data in late September showed Saudi Arabia in recession during the second quarter. The Saudi government has in recent years been pressing wealthy individuals to invest more in the kingdom and bring home some of their wealth from overseas. The United States is closely watching the situation in Saudi Arabia, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday. Asked about agreements to hand over wealth for detainees  freedom, Mnuchin told CNBC:  I think that the Crown Prince (Mohammed bin Salman) is doing a great job at transforming the country.  Gargour said:  From a civil liberties point of view obviously incarcerating people doesn t give us comfort, and that s why we ve seen spreads on Saudi bonds go 50 basis points or so wider.  Funds started selling Middle East bonds early this month after Saudi Arabia detained dozens of senior officials and businessmen in an unprecedented crackdown on graft. Credit spreads and the cost of insuring debt against default have increased not only for Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, but across the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.  From a trading point of view you want to identify the private companies most impacted and short or sell them, and conversely public sector companies will benefit,  said Gargour. The market value of the portfolio of Saudi equities held by the Public Investment Fund, the kingdom s sovereign wealth fund, has gained, even as the arrest or questioning of more than 200 people in the inquiry caused stocks in many privately controlled firms to slump. Reuters could not immediately verify a Financial Times report that in some cases the government is seeking to appropriate as much as 70 percent of suspects  wealth to channel hundreds of billions of dollars into depleted state coffers. The Saudi authorities have help from international auditors, investigators and people with experience in tracing assets. Bank representatives are on hand to execute the decisions immediately, one of the sources said. Saudi authorities have said they have questioned 208 people in an anti-corruption investigation and estimate at least $100 billion has been stolen through graft, an official said last week as the inquiry expanded beyond the kingdom s borders into the United Arab Emirates. Those detained include other high-profile businessmen such as Mohammad al-Amoudi, whose wealth is estimated by Forbes at $10.4 billion, with construction, agriculture and energy companies in Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia; and finance and healthcare magnate Saleh Kamel, whose fortune is seen at $2.3 billion. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to use the anti-corruption purge as a way of boosting his popularity with the Saudi population, said Jason Tuvey, Middle East economist at Capital Economics.  But he may have realized that by doing this he s gone a step too far and ruffled too many feathers, and he is maybe trying to find a way out that means these people don t end up in prison forever and can carry on their business operations as before.

Summary: भ्रष्टाचार के मामलों में पकड़े गए कुछ लोगों की रिहाई के लिए संपत्ति की अदला-बदली कर रहा है सऊदी अरबः सूत्र


WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand s ruling National Party regained a wide lead over the opposition Labour Party in an opinion poll on Wednesday after party leaders went head-to-head in the final debate before Saturday s election. It was the second poll in recent weeks to show Prime Minister Bill English s party, which has held power for a decade, holding a near double-digit lead. The poll boosted the New Zealand dollar to $0.7375 - its highest in over six weeks.  The One News-Colmar Brunton poll showed the National Party jumped 6 points to 46 percent, while Labour slumped by seven points to 37 percent. But opinion polls have been very volatile and have largely indicated the race is still too close to call. The New Zealand First party, which could emerge as a possible kingmaker for the next government, saw support fall right to the threshold needed for a seat in parliament. Despite the fall in support for New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters, the debate still centered around its potential deciding role to English s frustration.  I am suggesting to the voters that they cut the middle men, I don t like this view that Mr Peters has that he decides who the government of New Zealand is,  English said. Both English and rival Labour leader Jacinda Ardern said their parties were  neck and neck  in the contest regardless of the latest opinion poll.  I remain an absolutely optimistic person when it comes to this campaign,  Ardern said during the debate. Having become leader in August the 37-year-old Ardern has invigorated Labour, and at times opinion polls have showed the party comfortably ahead. During the debate, Ardern at times appear to notch up points. She criticized the government for not having taken any measures to avoid the kind of infrastructure failure that caused widespread disruption to air travel this week, when a burst pipeline led to a fuel shortage. Minor parties often have an outsize role in New Zealand s proportional representation system, in which a party, or combination of parties, needs 61 of Parliament s 120 members - usually about 48 percent of the vote - to form a government. Support for New Zealand First dropped 1 point to 5 percent. The Green Party, with which Labour has a working agreement, rose 1 point to 8 percent. Together with the Greens, voter support for Labour was near that for National in the poll.  More than any election since 1996, it s going to be the minor parties that ultimately decide which of Labour or National end up governing,  Bryce Edwards, analyst at Wellington-based Critical Politics. Ardern reiterated her first call would be to the Green Party but that this did not necessarily mean a coalition with them.  We ve said we ll have a phone call, that doesn t mean it s a stitched up, done deal,  she said.

Summary: मतदान से पहले अंतिम टीवी बहस के बाद सर्वेक्षण ने न्यूजीलैंड के नेशनल्स को नौ अंकों की बढ़त दी


DUBAI (Reuters) - Fighters loyal to the armed Houthi movement on Wednesday decried as  evil  the group s main ally in Yemen s civil war, ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, widening an unusual public rift as they fight a Saudi-led coalition for control of the country. The  Popular Committees , a body of rank and file pro-Houthi combatants, condemned Saleh s description of them in a speech as a  militia,  criticizing the former leader who remains one of Yemen s most powerful politicians and military figures.  What (Saleh) said transgressed a red line and he could have only fallen into this because he s evil and void of every good, patriotic or religious characteristic,  the collection of tribal and volunteer fighters said in a statement. The tactical alliance between Saleh and the Houthis has often appeared fragile, with both groups suspicious of each other s ultimate motives and sharing little ideological ground. While president, Saleh waged six wars against the Houthis from 2002 to 2009 and was for many years an ally of convenience for Saudi Arabia. Big switches of loyalty are a feature of Yemen s byzantine political landscape, particularly since 2011  Arab Spring  unrest which led to Saleh s fall in 2012. A war of words has escalated in recent days between the Iran-allied Houthis and Saleh, who together run northern Yemen. The two factions have traded barbs on responsibility for challenges such as unemployment and mounting hunger after 2-1/2 years of fighting the internationally recognized government, based in the south and backed by the Saudi-led coalition. The alliance intervened in the civil war in 2015 to restore the government to power in the capital Sanaa. But the conflict, which has killed at least 10,000 people, is in stalemate. At least 30 people were killed in an air strike that hit a small hotel north of Sanaa on Wednesday, the Houthis said. The  Saudi-led coalition has controlled Yemeni air space since the war began. Based in the southern port city of Aden, the government struggles to impose its writ over militias and armed groups there, but strife now looms for its northern foes. In a speech on Sunday, Saleh summoned party supporters to hold a mass rally in Sanaa on Aug. 24, a planned show of force that has deeply irritated the Houthis. Their leadership convened on Wednesday and recommended the announcement of a state of emergency and suspension of all  party activity , telling Saleh s supporters any mass gatherings should be made on battlefronts, not in public squares. In comments that may deepen Houthi suspicions, the United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, spoke approvingly of the rift, saying it  may represent an opportunity to break (Yemen s) political deadlock.

Summary: हाउती समर्थक लड़ाकों ने यमन के शक्तिशाली सहयोगी को 'दुष्ट' कहा, बढ़ा विवाद


DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates airline has changed pilot and flight attendant rosters  on flights to the United States following the sudden U.S. travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, highlighting the challenges facing airlines trying to deal with the new rules. The world’s largest long-haul carrier, which flies daily to 11 U.S. cities, has made “the necessary adjustments to our crewing, to comply with the latest requirements,” an Emirates spokeswoman told Reuters by email on Sunday. She added U.S. flights continue to operate to schedule. President Donald Trump on Friday suspended the entry of people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The decision caught airlines off guard, according to the International Air Transport Association. “I cannot think of anything comparable. This brings a mix of administrative confusion, impact and uncertainty for many travelers as well as practical operational headaches and complexities for airlines in planning their flight programs,” independent aviation consultant John Strickland told Reuters. The ban applies to pilots and flight attendants from the seven countries, even though all flight crew who are not U.S. citizens already need a special visa to enter the country.  Nicoley Baublies, from the German cabin crew union UFO, said the move was very unusual and meant uncertainty for airlines in terms of planning. “Lufthansa has always ensured it has very diverse crews, with staff of different nationalities and that means that we are for the first time in decades having to look at where people come from,” he told Reuters at Frankfurt airport. A spokesman for Lufthansa said on Sunday it was too early to comment on the effects of the order but that airlines and passengers were required to follow the new rules. Another Emirates spokeswoman said the impact of the ban on operations would be minimal. The airline employs over 23,000 flight attendants and about 4,000 pilots from around the world, including the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi said the airline had “taken steps to ensure there will be no issues for flights departing over the coming weeks.” Japan Airlines (9201.T) (JAL) on Monday said it had begun screening passengers from the countries affected Trump’s travel ban before their departure for the United States. JAL officials would contact the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency to confirm whether passengers would be allowed entry, a spokesman for Japan’s second-biggest carrier said.      It is unclear if the ban applies to dual nationals - those who hold one passport from a country on the list and another from a non-U.S. country that is not. Etihad said on its website that dual citizens could travel to the U.S. using their non-banned passport. IATA have told its members that the ban does not apply to dual nationals if they have a passport not on the list, according to an email seen by Reuters. However, the Guardian reported on Saturday, quoting State Department officials, that dual nationals were banned. US officials said on Sunday holders of green cards need to check with a U.S. consulate and will be cleared on a case by case basis. On Sunday, IATA sent another email to member airlines, seen by Reuters, asking for examples of Green Card holders being denied boarding. It also said it was seeking more information from authorities in Washington. Baublies said the uncertainty over the rules was not helping. “Trump reacts in 140 characters, we don’t know what it means - for people with the wrong entries in their passports or with dual nationality or married to someone from one of the countries affected, are they allowed to travel?” There are also concerns the restrictions could dampen travel demand.  “Ultimately this could feed through to the role airlines play in the global economy in supporting business and tourism due to as yet unquantifiable impacts on demand & cost,” Strickland said. Baublies said airlines were usually among the first affected by global crises. “We hope it doesn’t mean that seats are left empty because people don’t know where they can travel with which passport.” Dubai-based Emirates and Etihad Airways are both owned by the governments of the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally and Muslim-majority country. Both carriers said they would continue to comply with the new rules on U.S. immigration but where possible would offer to refund or re-book affected passengers. Emirates and Etihad have also said that passengers were affected by the ban over the weekend but their flight crews had not been impacted. Qatar Airways declined to comment on the impact of the ban on flight operations, although on Saturday it issued a statement on its website that passengers would need a green card or diplomatic visa to enter the U.S. Emirates and Etihad issued similar statements.

Summary: ट्रंप के आदेश के बाद अमीरात ने अमेरिकी उड़ानों में पायलट और चालक दल की सूची बदली


MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least one person was killed and three others injured when a car bomb went off in Somalia s capital Mogadishu on Monday, police said. The bomb was concealed in a car parked on Al Mukaram street in the capital, Mohamed Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters.

Summary: सोमालिया की राजधानी में कार बम हमले में एक व्यक्ति की मौत


THE HAGUE (Reuters) - A U.N. tribunal that was stunned by the courtroom suicide of a Bosnian Croat war criminal said on Thursday it was working with Dutch investigators to piece together how he smuggled a fatal dose of poison into the high-security building. Slobodan Praljak, 72, died on Wednesday at a hospital in The Hague within hours of drinking a vial of liquid during the reading of his appeals judgment at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. [L8N1NZ2YM] Preliminary testing confirmed that the cause of death was  drinking a liquid that can kill,  spokesman Vincent Veenman of the public prosecutors office in The Hague said.  We cannot yet say what that substance was. Further testing is needed,  he said. A 5-member ICTY appeals bench upheld Praljak s conviction on charges of crimes against humanity over persecution, murders and expulsions of Bosnian Muslims from territory captured by nationalist Bosnian Croats and the brutal imprisonment of wartime detainees. It also upheld his 20-year prison sentence. The criminal investigation was immediately launched by Dutch authorities, who sealed off the ICTY courtroom to take evidence after Praljak told the court:  I have just taken poison , denounced the verdict and slumped back in his chair. Dutch prosecutors said the inquiry was focused on assisted suicide and violation of the Medicines Act. It will also try to determine how the poison was smuggled into the court.  The court on Thursday declined to provide further comment, citing the ongoing independent investigation. Stricter procedures at the U.N. detention unit were adopted following the 2006 death of suspect Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian and Yugoslav president. Milosevic, who died of a heart attack before his verdict on genocide and war crimes charges, had banned medication in his cell which may have worsened an existing heart condition. Emotional reactions in Bosnia to Praljak s death highlighted lasting division in the Balkans, where the court had aimed to bring reconciliation, but convicted war criminals are often revered as heroes. About 1,000 nationalist supporters gathered to hold a Mass for Praljak, a former film and theater producer, in the Bosnian town of Mostar, known for the destruction of its iconic Old Bridge. Muslim victims of wartime violence welcomed his 20-year sentence and expressed hope it would deter future crimes. Croatian newspapers on Thursday focused on a lack of security measures at the tribunal and the government s rejection of the court s finding that Croatia, now a member of the European Union, was also responsible for war crimes.  A verdict with consequences for Croatia , read a headline in the Novi List daily.  The appeals chamber found (former president Franjo) Tudjman and Croatia responsible,  it said.  A horrific end for The Hague Tribunal , read the front-page headline in the Jutarnji List daily, which like all papers ran a prominent photo of Praljak swallowing poison. The dramatic events unfolded in the last minutes of the court s final ruling before it closes next month after 24 years. [L8N1NL7ZT] Previously, two defendants awaiting their ICTY trial, both Serbs, committed suicide by hanging themselves in their U.N. cells, according to court documents. The ICTY indicted 161 suspects in all from Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo in connection with atrocities in the ethnic wars during the 1990s. Of the 83 convicted, more than 60 were ethnic Serbs.

Summary: अदालती आत्महत्या से स्तब्ध संयुक्त राष्ट्र न्यायाधिकरण ने जवाब मांगे


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda on Thursday asked Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to stop attacks on Hispanic communities, inviting him in a letter to meet with the group’s leadership. “As we have expressed numerous times, your rhetoric of relentless attacks against our community is an issue of serious concern and has had a significant impact, fueling an alarming trend in our nation,” the group, a coalition of 40 Latino nonpartisan advocacy organizations, wrote to Trump. “We call upon you to consider the consequences of your disparagement of our community and to cease propagating this rhetoric immediately,” they added.

Summary: हिस्पैनिक गठबंधन ने ट्रम्प से 'हमले' रोकने को कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Trump told reporters on Friday that Democratic leaders should come to the White House to negotiate a deal on healthcare, while calling the cost-sharing reduction payments under Obamacare a payoff to the insurance industry. “If the Democrats were smart, what they’d do is come and negotiate something where people could really get the kind of healthcare that they deserve,” he said.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कहा कि डेमोक्रेट नेताओं को स्वास्थ्य सेवा सौदे पर बातचीत करने के लिए व्हाइट हाउस आना चाहिए


LONDON (Reuters) - As Britain s pound declines against the euro, talk has begun to circulate about the potential for parity. Less noted, however, is the fact that the more the pound weakens and euro strengthens the more the eventual leaving bill Britain will pay the European Union may cost. The bill in pounds, if it came today, would have risen nearly 17 percent since the vote to leave the EU in June 2016   1.4 percent since mid-August alone. Britain and the EU return to the negotiating table on Monday with the leaving bill high on the agenda. A net 60 billion euros ($70.8 billion) has been floated in Brussels. It has been shot down by British officials. Were it to be correct, however, Britain would now owe around  9.4 billion pounds ($12 billion) more than it would have at the time of the vote. For a graphic on the Brexit bill, click: reut.rs/2iw4pNQ

Summary: यूरो के मजबूत होने से ब्रेक्सिट बिल बड़ा हुआ


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan tried to tamp down the furor on Wednesday over reports that President Donald Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to quash part of his Russia investigation, saying “we need the facts” and adding he has confidence in the president. “I’m sure we’re going to want to hear from Mr. Comey if this happens as he allegedly describes; why didn’t he take action at the time? So there are a lot of unanswered questions,” Ryan told reporters. “What I told our members is: now is the time to gather all the pertinent information.”  Asked if he had confidence in Trump, Ryan said, “I do.”

Summary: रयान ने कोमी के मेमो को दबाने की कोशिश की, कहा कि उन्हें ट्रम्प पर भरोसा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Monday tapped Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai to head the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which is expected to roll back many of the Obama Administration’s telecommunications and internet policies. Pai, a former Justice Department, FCC and Capitol Hill staffer, in December predicted landmark “net neutrality” rules adopted in 2015 would not last. The son of Indian immigrants who grew up in Kansas, Pai said the commission should take a “weed whacker” to unneeded rules and was harshly critical of many FCC regulations imposed during the Obama administration. “During the Trump administration, we will shift from playing defense at the FCC to going on offense,” he said in December. “We need to fire up the weed whacker and remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation.” Pai will also have a key role in deciding whether to approve or reject or impose conditions on mergers involving cable and telephone companies. In May, Pai opposed FCC conditions imposed on Charter Communication’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable. Last week, then FCC chairman Tom Wheeler urged Republicans against dismantling internet access protections that bar service providers from slowing consumer access to web content. Internet providers fear net neutrality rules make it harder to manage internet traffic and make investment in additional capacity less likely. The Republican-controlled Congress is also considering rewriting the net neutrality rules. Pai said in 2015 that consumers would be worse under net neutrality and should “expect their bills to go up, and they should expect that broadband will be slower going forward.” Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat, criticized Pai in a letter to President Donald Trump Monday as “not a supporter of the FCC’s strong rules to protect an open internet, putting at risk our robust net neutrality rules and the three million internet economy jobs it supports.” Under Wheeler, the FCC and major telecom and cable companies have been at odds over a number of big issues in recent years, including tougher broadband privacy rules and a proposal to allow pay-TV consumers to ditch set top boxes. Comcast Corp, AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc, Frontier Communications Corp, T-Mobile US Inc and Charter all praised Pai’s appointment in separate statements. “Chairman Pai will work with his fellow commissioners to quickly and decisively put back in place the commonsense regulatory framework necessary to support the president’s agenda,” AT&T said. However, advocacy group Free Press President Craig Aaron said Pai “has been on the wrong side of just about every major issue that has come before the FCC during his tenure. He’s never met a mega-merger he didn’t like or a public safeguard he didn’t try to undermine.” U.S. Telecom, an industry trade group, said in a statement it shares Pai’s vision for a “future based on a bold but pragmatic strategy to erase the many regulatory barriers impeding the expansion of our nation’s communications infrastructure, and the jobs and economic opportunity that depend on it.” Pai does not need Senate confirmation as chairman but his current term expires at year end and he will need to be reconfirmed to continue.

Summary: ट्रंप ने नेट न्यूट्रैलिटी प्रतिद्वंद्वी अजीत पई को एफसीसी का प्रमुख बनाया


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is expanding ties throughout the Middle East but not with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, accusing his country s arch-foe of trying to dominate the region. Addressing a Jerusalem diplomatic conference, Netanyahu said Israel has relations  with nearly every single one  of nations that do not formally recognize it, due to their growing need for its economic and security expertise.   See that country in red? By the way that s not on our list of diplomatic allies,  he said, pointing to Iran on a regional map. He deemed Iran an  aggressive regime  seeking nuclear arms and a  land bridge  via its allies to the Mediterranean sea.

Summary: नेतन्याहू का कहना है कि इज़राइल मध्य पूर्व संबंधों का विस्तार कर रहा है, लेकिन ईरान के साथ नहीं


ON BOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday downplayed talk of division among President Donald Trump’s advisers after Secretary of State Tillerson and economic adviser Gary Cohn appeared to criticize Trump for his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. In an interview on Fox News Sunday over the weekend, Tillerson said “the president speaks for himself” when asked about Trump’s values. Cohn, who was standing near the president in Trump Tower this month when Trump said there were “very fine people” on both sides of the demonstration that was sponsored by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, told the Financial Times in an interview that citizens standing up for freedom could never be equated with such groups. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday that senior administration officials were not distancing themselves from the president despite the comments from Tillerson and Cohn. She said Trump’s relationship with Tillerson was “very strong” and that Cohn was committed to working on tax reform. “I think that ... at moments you have people that disagree, I think that’s a healthy thing,” she told reporters on Air Force One.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने टिलरसन और कोहन की चार्लोट्सविले की टिप्पणियों को तवज्जो नहीं दी


WEST BEND, WIS. (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday delivered his most aggressive call yet to woo African-American voters, vowing to restore law and order, only days after a fatal police shooting of a black man sparked more street violence. Speaking a few miles from Milwaukee, which was rocked by weekend riots, Trump accused his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of “bigotry” and vowed to protect the jobs of minorities from immigrants. Trump has been repeatedly called a “bigot” by his Democratic opponents. “I’m asking for the vote for every African-American citizen struggling in our society today who wants a different and much better future,” Trump said. “Jobs, safety, opportunity, fair and equal representation: We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton which panders to, and talks down to, communities of color and sees them only as votes – that’s all they care about – not as individual human beings worthy of a better future.” Earlier, Trump held three events in Milwaukee, a city still reeling from violent protests after the death of Sylville Smith, 23. Authorities said Smith was stopped for acting suspiciously and was shot by police because he was carrying an illegal handgun and refused orders to drop it.  Trump encountered only a handful of peaceful protesters while in the city, including some at a closed fundraiser. He held a brief meeting with veterans and law enforcement, including Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and Inspector Edward Bailey. But news media representatives were escorted out and not permitted to hear the discussions.  Clarke, who is black and spoke at last month’s Republican National Convention, has criticized the protests, writing in an opinion piece for The Hill that they were “a collapse of the social order, where tribal behavior leads to reacting to circumstances instead of waiting for facts to emerge.” Trump also taped a town hall meeting with Fox News, in which he blamed President Barack Obama for what he sees as hostility toward police. “He has not been good to the police, simply, and the police are not big fans of his,” Trump said. Trump traveled 45 minutes outside of Milwaukee, which is 40 percent black, to deliver his appeal to African-American voters in the suburb of West Bend, Wisconsin, a community that is 95 percent white. He spoke before an almost entirely white audience.  “A vote for her (Clinton) is a vote for another generation of poverty, high crime and lost opportunities,” Trump said. “Crime and violence is an attack on the poor and it will never be accepted in a Trump administration.”  Clinton won the Democratic nomination in part thanks to her large victory margins among minorities in nearly every state, including overwhelming support from African-Americans in the South. “With each passing Trump attack, it becomes clearer that his strategy is just to say about Hillary Clinton what’s true of himself,” Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said. “When people started saying he was temperamentally unfit, he called Hillary the same. When his ties to the Kremlin came under scrutiny, he absurdly claimed that Hillary was the one who was too close to Putin. “Now he’s accusing her of bigoted remarks - we think the American people will know which candidate is guilty of the charge.” Trump also took aim at Clinton’s past acceptance of large speaking fees, saying he would force top administration officials to sign a pledge not to accept speaking fees from corporations with registered lobbyists or foreign countries for five years after leaving office. Police violence against African-Americans has set off intermittent, sometimes violent protests in the past two years, igniting a national debate over race and policing in the United States and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. Trump said critics of the police “share in the responsibility for the unrest in Milwaukee and other places in our country.” “The war on our police must end and it must end now,” Trump said. “The war on police is a war against all peaceful citizens.” The shooting of Smith was likely justified, Trump argued in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday morning. “But the gun was pointed at his (a police officer’s) head, supposedly ready to be fired. Who can have a problem with that? That’s what the narrative is,” Trump said. “Maybe it’s not true. If it is true, people shouldn’t be rioting.”  Officials from the Office of Director of National Intelligence are expected to give Trump a briefing on national security issues this week, an adviser to Trump and a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Presidential candidates are entitled to a briefing of classified information after formally securing the nomination, which Trump did last month. Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival for the Nov. 8 election, is also entitled to receive a briefing if she requests one. Democrats have criticized Trump’s positions on foreign policy and national security, besides some freewheeling remarks. Democratic President Barack Obama has called Trump “unfit” for the presidency and this month warned the Republican candidate that briefing information must be kept secret.

Summary: कानून और व्यवस्था के भाषण में ट्रम्प ने अफ्रीकी-अमेरिकी समर्थन का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 90 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives has signed a letter urging President Barack Obama to use U.S. veto power to block any United Nations resolutions seen as biased against Israel, one of the letter’s lead sponsors said on Friday. U.S. Representative Nita Lowey said 394 members of the 435-member House signed the letter that was sent to Obama on Thursday. It was written as the Palestinian Authority renewed its drive to persuade the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The United States vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council five years ago. With U.S. efforts to broker a two-state solution in tatters since 2014, France has been lobbying countries to commit to a conference that would get Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiations to end their conflict. The congressional letter backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but insisted that negotiations between the two sides are the only path to peace, not United Nations action or an international conference. “The only way you can get there is if the two parties can be brought together and really go over all the issues,” Lowey said in a telephone interview. Lowey is the top Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid. Republican Representative Kay Granger, who chairs the subcommittee, also sponsored the letter. Lowey said she had not yet had a response to the letter, but she hoped administration officials were carefully reading it. Support for Israel is one of the few issues that has the support of Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress.

Summary: अधिकांश सदन के सदस्यों ने संयुक्त राष्ट्र में इज़राइल का समर्थन करने वाले पत्र पर हस्ताक्षर किए।


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance of jihadist factions in Syria, on Saturday decried Turkey-backed Syrian rebel factions planning an operation in the northwestern Idlib province where it dominates, saying it would  not be a picnic  for them.   The lions of jihad and martyrdom are waiting to pounce on them,  it added in a statement posted on a social media site.  Earlier on Saturday Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian rebel fighters were preparing to launch  a serious operation  in Idlib backed by Turkish forces from inside Turkey s borders.  The operation comes after an agreement last month between Turkey, Russia and Iran to set up a  de-escalation zone  in northwest Syria where Idlib is located to reduce warfare there.  Erdogan said Russia, which backs the Syrian government against rebel groups, would support the operation, but rebels taking part said Russia s role was only in areas controlled by the Syrian government.  Tahrir al-Sham s statement described the rebel groups involved as traitors, accusing them of working with Russia and the Syrian government, but without mentioning Turkey.

Summary: सीरियाई जिहादी गठबंधन ने घुसपैठ की योजना बना रहे विद्रोही समूहों की निंदा कीः बयान


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it hoped Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani would not hold an independence referendum, saying such a move could bring risks for Iraq and the region. Saudi Arabia  looks to the wisdom of President Barzani in not holding the referendum , a foreign ministry statement on state news agency SPA said.

Summary: सऊदी अरब का कहना है कि उम्मीद है कि कुर्दिस्तान में मतदान नहीं होगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday he was confident that Congress would raise the federal debt limit  “before there’s an issue” with U.S. creditworthiness, and he pledged that the Trump administration’s tax reform plans would be paid for. “We’re going to get it increased,” Mnuchin told Fox Business Network about the debt limit. “The credit of the United States is the utmost. I’ve said to Congress they should do it as quickly as they can. But we are very focused on working with them and I’m confident we’ll get there before there’s an issue.” Mnuchin said last week that he wanted a “clean” debt ceiling increase before the start of Congress’ summer recess in early August. Mnuchin said that it “makes no sense” to view the Trump administration’s tax reform plans through a “static” budget analysis that does not account for economic growth effects. He has previously pledged that increased economic growth would generate more revenue to offset lower tax rates. “We’re about creating economic growth, we’re about broadening the base and we’re going to make sure that this is tax reform, not just tax cuts, and that they’re paid for,” Mnuchin said.

Summary: ट्रेजरी प्रमुख को 'विश्वास' है कि कांग्रेस अमेरिकी ऋण सीमा बढ़ाएगी


NEW YORK/SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s governor on Monday said the island’s vote in favor of becoming a U.S. state, despite low voter turnout and widespread boycotts, was “a fair and open” process that U.S. Congress should act upon. An island-wide referendum on Sunday favored statehood in a 97 percent landslide, though voter turnout reached just 23 percent as opponents of Governor Ricardo Rossello’s push to become a state boycotted the vote. The non-binding plebiscite is not expected to sway the U.S. Congress, which would have to agree to make Puerto Rico a state. Currently a U.S. territory, the island is struggling with $70 billion in debt and a 45 percent poverty rate, and is not viewed as a priority in Washington.   Rossello, who campaigned on a push for statehood, said in a telephone interview with Reuters that he will go to the U.S. capital this week to urge federal lawmakers to begin the process of admitting Puerto Rico into the union. “We will make sure this becomes an issue,” Rossello said. The vote comes at a critical time for Puerto Rico, whose hazy status - which dates to its 1898 acquisition by the United States from Spain - has contributed to its ongoing economic crisis. Last month, the island filed the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Its woes make statehood even more urgent, Rossello said. “Statehood brings stability, allows us to have fewer rule-changes from Congress, provides resources to our people,” he said.  Sunday’s referendum, which cost Puerto Rico between $5 million and $7 million, according to government estimates, was the island’s fifth since 1967 - and the third in which pro-statehood sentiments triumphed, though none have moved Congress to act. “If the U.S. is going to go to Venezuela and Cuba and Afghanistan and push democracy abroad, they’ve got to do the same” with their own territories, he said.  But Puerto Ricans are skeptical the island’s status will change. “This has all been a waste of time,” said taxi driver Felix Salasarar, 54, adding that federal lawmakers will “look at the voter turnout and say, ‘where’s the will of the people?’”  Working against the governor may be a perception in Washington that Sunday’s vote was not fair.  The U.S. Department of Justice in April called on Rossello to change ballot language that initially did not give voters an option to remain a U.S. territory.  Rossello told Reuters he made that decision because the territory option - which Rossello equates to colonialism - already lost in a previous status referendum, in 2012, making this year’s vote a choice between statehood and independence.  The Justice department viewed the language as politically unfair to millions of Puerto Ricans who favor territory status, prompting Rossello to add the territory option. But the Justice department never reviewed or approved the new language. To be sure, Sunday’s results do not reflect the true nature of Puerto Ricans’ views on statehood, which are fairly evenly divided between those who favor it and those who do not, based upon historical election results. Statehooder Rossello, for example, won his own election with just 42 percent of the vote. But that, the governor said, is how democracy works: “Everybody knows that those who go through the voting process have a louder voice than those who don’t,” he said. Carolina Santos, a single working mother struggling to make her mortgage payments, said bankrupt Puerto Rico has more important things to worry about than a status vote. “Maybe we should focus more on fixing our financial problems and our schools,” she said.

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको के गवर्नर ने जनमत संग्रह में जीत के बाद राज्य का दर्जा बढ़ाने का संकल्प लिया


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday revoked landmark guidance to public schools letting transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice, reversing a signature initiative of former Democratic President Barack Obama.   Reversing the Obama guidelines stands to inflame passions in the latest conflict in America between believers in traditional values and social progressives, and is likely to prompt more of the street protests that followed Trump’s Nov. 8 election. Obama had instructed public schools last May to let transgender students use the bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity, threatening to withhold funding for schools that did not comply. Transgender people hailed the step as  victory for their civil rights. Trump, a Republican who took office last month, rescinded those guidelines, even though they had been put on hold by a federal judge, arguing that states and public schools should have the authority to make their own decisions without federal interference.     The Justice and Education departments will continue to study the legal issues involved, according to the new, superseding guidance that will be sent to public schools. About 200 people gathered in front of the White House to protest against Trump’s action, waving rainbow flags and chanting: “No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here.” The rainbow flag is the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, people. “We all know that Donald Trump is a bully, but his attack on transgender children today is a new low,” said Rachel Tiven, chief executive of Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBT people. Conservatives such as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who spearheaded the lawsuit challenging the Obama guidance, hailed the Trump administration action. “Our fight over the bathroom directive has always been about former President Obama’s attempt to bypass Congress and rewrite the laws to fit his political agenda for radical social change,” said Paxton, a Republican. Transgender legal advocates have criticized the “states’ rights” argument, saying federal law and civil rights are matters for the federal government to enforce, not the states. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the administration was pressed to act now because of the pending U.S. Supreme Court case, G.G. versus Gloucester County School Board. That case pits a Virginia transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, against officials who want to deny him use of the boys’ room at his high school. Although the Justice Department is not a party in the case, it typically would want to make its views heard. The Trump administration action on Wednesday also withdrew an Education Department letter in support of Grimm’s case. “I’ve faced my share of adversaries in rural Virginia. I never imagined that my government would be one of them. We will not be beaten down by this administration,” Grimm, 17, told the protest outside the White House. The federal law in question, known as Title IX, bans sex discrimination in education. But it remains unsettled whether Title IX protections extend to a person’s gender identity.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the Obama guidelines “did not contain sufficient legal analysis or explain how the interpretation was consistent with the language of Title IX.” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman vowed to ensure Title IX and his state’s civil rights protections are enforced. “President Trump’s decision to rescind anti-discrimination protections for transgender students is yet another cruel move by an administration committed to divisive policies that roll back the clock on civil rights,” he said in a statement.  The courts are likely to have the final say over whether Title IX covers transgender students. The Supreme Court could pass on that question in the Virginia case and allow lower courts to weigh in, or go ahead and decide what the law means. Obama’s Education Department issued the guidance in response to queries from school districts across the country about how to accommodate transgender students in gender-segregated bathrooms. It also covered a host of other issues, such as the importance of addressing transgender students by their preferred names and pronouns and schools’ responsibility to prevent harassment and bullying of transgender children. Thirteen states led by Texas sued to stop the Obama guidelines, and a U.S. district judge in Texas temporarily halted their full implementation. The White House previously boasted of Trump’s support for LGBT rights, noting in a Jan. 31 statement that he was the first Republican presidential nominee to mention the community in his nomination acceptance speech. “Revoking the guidance shows that the president’s promise to protect LGBT rights was just empty rhetoric,” James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT project, said in a statement.

Summary: ट्रंप ने ट्रांसजेंडरों के शौचालयों पर ओबामा के दिशानिर्देशों को रद्द किया


STRASBOURG/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU lawmakers accused their own parliament on Wednesday of failing to protect staff from sexual harassment, as allegations of abuse in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein case have raised questions over standards also in Brussels  institutions. Debating an emergency motion calling on authorities to beef up rules and enforcement of gender equality laws and sanctions for abuse in workplaces across Europe, members of the European Parliament also demanded the EU legislature stop turning a blind eye to  disgusting  practices by some of their own colleagues.  Here, today, in the very heart of European democracy, we have women being molested and harassed,  Polish member Jadwiga Wisniewska told the chamber.  This is unimaginable.  This month s allegations about Hollywood producer Weinstein - who denies all accusations of non-consensual sex - has set off a wave of reflection about sexual harassment in Europe as in other parts of the world. Several MEPs held signs bearing the Twitter hashtag #metoo.  I have been sexually harassed, just like millions of other women in the European Union,  German member Terry Reintke said.  It is about time that we very clearly say that we should not be ashamed. The perpetrators should be ashamed.  In the EU institutions themselves, with an unusual mix of powerful hierarchies, politics and a culturally diverse workforce drawn from across the continent, women are accusing managers of doing too little for too long to stamp out abuse.  We ve all heard the stories and rumors going on for many years,  Britain s Margot Parker said during the debate in Strasbourg, the Brussels-based parliament s second home.  The very place that claims to legislate against this sort of disgusting behavior is turning a blind eye to its practice.  This week, Parliament President Antonio Tajani spoke of his  shock and indignation  after a Sunday Times report on more than a dozen mostly young female parliamentary aides who complained of groping, stalking and other harassment by male lawmakers. He pledged to step up existing protections to encourage people to come forward, something campaigners say is overdue.  It comes as no surprise to those of us working for years on the fight to end violence against women that sexual harassment is also widespread throughout the EU institutions,  said the European Women s Lobby, a Brussels-based, pan-European organization.  There is still inadequate means to ensure that women still feel safe enough to come forward to report incidences.  At the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU which employs 32,000 people, 55 percent of them women, measures have been in place since 2006 to prevent any form of harassment and to protect whistleblowers. Over the past five years an average of 13 complaints have been made each year, with disciplinary sanctions being imposed in about four cases each year, Commission figures show. Commenting on those figures, European Women s Lobby secretary-general Joanna Maycock, told Reuters that the number of complaints seemed  very low  for the size of the workforce. The Commission s gender equality chief, Czech Commissioner Vera Jourova, said last week that she had herself been a victim of sexual harassment in the past but saw  stigmatization  as preventing many women in Brussels from speaking up. The Weinstein affair was, she feared, the  peak of the iceberg . Jourova was speaking to Brussels  Politico news service, which has set up a confidential website that has garnered more than 30 allegations in a week, from both women and men, of offences including rape, connected to the European Parliament.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने भी? सांसदों ने ब्रसेल्स में उत्पीड़न की निंदा की


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan urged the United States on Friday to review charges against a Turkish former minister for violating U.S.-Iran sanctions, saying Ankara had never agreed to comply with the embargo and the prosecution was politically motivated.  There are very peculiar smells coming from this issue,  Erdogan said. Former economy minister Zafer Caglayan and the ex-head of a state-owned Turkish bank were charged with conspiring to violate the sanctions by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran s behalf. The indictment, announced this week, marked the first time an ex-government member with close ties to Erdogan had been charged in an investigation that has strained ties between Washington and Ankara.  For the moment, it is impossible to evaluate this within legal logic,  Erdogan told reporters at Istanbul s Ataturk airport.  I see this step against our former economy minister as a step against the Turkish Republic.  We didn t decide to impose sanctions on Iran. We have bilateral ties with Iran, sensitive relations,  he said, adding he had told former U.S. President Barack Obama as much, when the sanctions were in force.  We said to the relevant people, we said we would not take part in sanctions... These steps are purely political.  Prosecutors in New York said on Wednesday they had charged Caglayan and former Halkbank general manager Suleyman Aslan and two others with  conspiring to use the U.S. financial system to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars  worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities, which were barred by United States sanctions.  The charges stem from the case against Reza Zarrab, a wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was arrested in the United States over sanctions evasion last year. He has pleaded not guilty. Reuters was not able to reach Caglayan or Aslan for comment. Relations between Washington and NATO ally Turkey, an important partner in tackling the Syrian conflict, were strained after a failed coup against Erdogan in July last year and the president s subsequent crackdown on opposition.  The United States needs to revise this decision (to charge Caglayan),  Erdogan said.  I hope we ll get a chance to discuss this issue in the United States. You may be a big nation, but being a just nation is something else. Being a just nation requires the legal system to work fairly.

Summary: एर्दोगन ने अमेरिका से तुर्की के पूर्व मंत्री के खिलाफ 'राजनीतिक' आरोपों की समीक्षा करने का आग्रह किया


(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s picks for two open spots on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors may push for tighter monetary policy if they receive the Senate confirmation needed to join the Fed’s rate-setting panel, their records suggest. Trump will nominate Carnegie Mellon University professor Marvin Goodfriend and former Treasury Department staffer Randal Quarles to fill two of the three open seats on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, the New York Times said on Friday, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the decision.   The conservative picks come as Fed Chair Janet Yellen continues to slowly raise interest rates and lay out plans to shed some of the trillions of dollars of bonds bought in the wake of the financial crisis.  Goodfriend in particular has been skeptical of the Fed’s bond-buying programs, saying that it is too close to fiscal policy. Goodfriend and Quarles did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for comment. A White House spokeswoman said officials were not ready to make an announcement yet.     Goodfriend, 66, a former Richmond Fed policy advisor, also has urged the central bank to adopt simpler rules governing policy decisions.  That view has support among many congressional Republicans, though Yellen has strongly opposed their proposed legislation on grounds that it would tie the Fed to make mechanical decisions that would harm the economy. The rule at the center of that legislation suggests the Fed should be raising rates more aggressively than the three annual rate hikes policymakers currently expect for both 2017 and 2018. That could make for an interesting dynamic with bond investors increasingly skeptical of faster rate hikes amid uncertainty over the outlook for tax cuts under Trump’s young administration.  After Friday’s report that employers added fewer than expected jobs in May, short-term interest-rate futures traders were still pricing in a June rate hike, but Treasury yields fell as investors reduced bets on subsequent hikes. 	 One area Goodfriend may agree with Yellen is on the Fed’s plan to start shrinking its $4.5-trillion balance sheet before the end of the year. Though the Fed has not published its plan in detail, policymakers have said the portfolio would shrink as if on “autopilot.” In an interview with Reuters last November, Goodfriend appeared to also support such a preset plan. “The Fed should choose a rule for shrinking the balance sheet so that, as it sold off its assets, it was pre-committed and markets could anticipate sales and prepare for them,” he said. Despite differences of opinion with Yellen, he said then, “If there is interest in my point of view and my 30-something years of thinking, writing, and teaching about the Fed and central banking, then I would have to consider serving.”  A lawyer by profession, Quarles, 59, worked on financial regulation at the U.S. Treasury for years, including during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Reuters had earlier reported he was a leading candidate to be Trump’s pick for the Fed’s vice chair in charge of banking supervision.  “Many market participants have been barking up the wrong tree, arguing that Trump is an easy money guy because he borrowed a lot when he was a real-estate tycoon,” said Stephen Stanley, Amherst Pierpont’s chief economist, who worked for Goodfriend when he was at the Richmond Fed. “If these two nominees are eventually confirmed, the tone of the Fed Board will instantly swing to a far more hawkish tenor.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने फेड के लिए दो रूढ़िवादी विकल्प चुनेः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to discuss the administration’s proposed budget, the panel’s chairman said on Wednesday, after heated opposition in Congress to President Donald Trump’s plan to slash funding for diplomacy and foreign aid. “I’ve let Secretary Tillerson know there’s a lot of concern about the budget issue,” Senator Bob Corker, the committee’s Republican chairman, said at a hearing on the global humanitarian crisis. Members of the Senate panel will have lunch with Tillerson at the State Department on Thursday, he said. Corker also made clear that when Congress takes up agriculture-related legislation next year he would push to reform current rules for distributing U.S. food aid, which make it more expensive and time-consuming to provide assistance after international crises. “We could feed 4 to 6 million more people each year,” he said, saying some interest groups pushing to keep current rules are “extorting us.” Yves Daccord, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Somalia, plus Ethiopia and Kenya, may be among the worst in recent history. “We’re talking about 20 million directly affected, plus ... several other dozen millions possibly affected,” Daccord told the hearing. The ICRC said on Wednesday the world has just a few months to save millions in Yemen and Somalia from starvation, as war and drought ruin crops and block deliveries of food and medical care. Many of Trump’s fellow Republicans, as well as Democrats, objected to his first budget outline last week, which boosted military spending and cut international programs by 28 percent. They said humanitarian assistance and diplomacy are at least as important to security as weapons. “It’s essential that we maintain our international affairs budget, from this senator’s perspective,” Republican Senator Todd Young told the hearing.  The budget as presented by Trump is unlikely to pass. Congress, not the White House, determines government spending.  Corker told reporters on Tuesday that he supported efforts to make State Department programs more efficient, but wanted a more thorough review of various programs. “I think every department of government should be looked at continuously, and so I’m all for us looking into that,” Corker said. “But I would like to walk through some of the areas that he (Tillerson) feels he wants to stress and obviously Congress ultimately will have the say (on the budget).”

Summary: टिलरसन के साथ अमेरिकी सीनेटरों के दोपहर के भोजन के रूप में मेनू में ट्रम्प बजट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Mark Warner on Monday asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Yahoo YHOO.O and its senior executives fulfilled obligations to inform investors and the public about a hacking attack affecting 500 million user accounts. “Disclosure is the foundation of federal securities laws, and public companies are required to disclose material events that shareholders should know about,” Warner said in a letter to SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White. Yahoo has faced pointed questions about exactly when it knew about the 2014 cyber attack announced last week that exposed the email credentials of half a billion accounts, a critical issue for the company as it seeks to prevent the breach from affecting a pending takeover of its core business by Verizon Inc (VZ.N). Warner also asked the SEC to probe whether Yahoo has “made complete and accurate representations” about the security of its information technology systems, and for the agency to evaluate its current thresholds for how and when companies need to report a material data breach. Although the SEC has longstanding guidance on when publicly traded companies should report hacking incidents, companies that have experienced known breaches often omit those details in regulatory filings, according to a 2012 Reuters investigation.(reut.rs/2dblx5S) In a Sept. 9 regulatory filing with the SEC, Yahoo stated it did not have knowledge of “any incidents of, or third party claims alleging ... unauthorized access” of personal data of its customers that could have a material adverse effect on Verizon’s acquisition. Establishing that Yahoo is liable for damages under SEC rules is a “pretty high bar” in data breach cases, said Robert Cattanach, a lawyer at Dorsey & Whitney who specializes in cyber security.  Yahoo is additionally protected from liability given the relative lack of sensitivity of the data compromised, Cattanach said, though he said both the SEC and Federal Trade Commission were likely to open investigations. At least one state, Massachusetts, is also seeking more information from Yahoo about the breach, a spokesperson for the state’s attorney general told Reuters on Monday.  Yahoo has so far not provided a clear, detailed timeline about when it was made aware of the breach announced Thursday.  Cyber security services firm Stroz Friedberg has been hired by Yahoo to help investigate the breach, firm spokeswoman Carolyn Vadino said.  The FBI is also investigating the hack, which Yahoo has blamed on a “state-sponsored actor” although the company has not provided technical information to support that claim.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटर ने हैकिंग पर याहू के खुलासे की एसईसी जांच की मांग की


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Thursday called a U.S. decision to withdraw the Congressional press credentials of Russia s RT broadcaster because of its status as  a foreign agent  in the United States an unfriendly step. Kremlin-backed RT on Wednesday night published a letter from the Executive Committee of the Congressional Radio And Television Correspondents Gallery saying the channel s Congressional press credentials had been withdrawn due to its registration as a foreign agent in the United States. That means RT s reporters will not be able to have as much access to Congress as other foreign media.  It is a very unfriendly step. We are deeply disappointed,  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Thursday. The United States decided to designate RT as a foreign agent in retaliation for what Washington described as Russia s attempts to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, something Moscow has repeatedly denied. In response, Russia introduced its own law allowing it to designate U.S. and other foreign media as foreign agents. Peskov said that the Russian parliament might give an emotional response to the new Congressional restrictions on RT.

Summary: क्रेमलिन ने आरटी टीवी स्टेशन के खिलाफ अमेरिकी कांग्रेस के कदम को 'बहुत प्रतिकूल' बताया


BERLIN (Reuters) - German prosecutors said on Wednesday they were investigating letters telling voters that their political preferences had already been worked out from their internet postings and there was no need to go to the polls on Sunday. Some of the fake letters carried the logo of federal election authorities, meaning the sender could be guilty of forgery, said the state prosecutor s office in Wiesbaden. The messages were crude and  it would be surprising if people fell for it , a spokesman for the federal election director said.  Still, it s frustrating.  There was no indication of who was behind the letters, and they appeared to be based on a recent joke in a German magazine. But German government officials and security experts have been on the look out for evidence of meddling ahead of the Sept. 24 national vote, following allegations of Russian interference in polls in the United States and France. German computer magazine c t carried a satirical article this month in which a fictional voter is told that their vote will be automatically cast for a certain party given their behavior on the internet and credit card charges. The actual letters sent to German voters suggested the voters would cast their ballots for the  Party of Bible-abiding Christians  or the  Basic Wage Coalition,  RND newspapers reported. Prosecutors said the investigation started after a complaint from the German federal election director, whose office is in Wiesbaden.  The letters looked real, which is why we are investigating possible forgery of documents,  a spokesman for the prosecutor s office said.

Summary: नकली पत्र जर्मनों को बताते हैं कि वेब ने उनके वोट का काम कर लिया है


LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori late on Sunday, triggering Christmas Eve street clashes as protesters denounced the decision as part of a crude political deal. The decision clears Fujimori of convictions for human rights crimes and graft when his right-wing government was in power from 1990 to 2000, and could define Kuczynski s legacy and rewrite political alliances. At least two ministers in Kuczynski s cabinet who objected to the pardon told him they wanted to resign, and Kuczynski might reshuffle the cabinet as early as this week, a government source said. Two ruling party lawmakers quit his party as his political group planned next steps. Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker who vowed as a candidate not to pardon Fujimori, based his decision on a medical review that found Fujimori suffered from  a progressive, degenerative and incurable disease , according to a statement from the president s office. Late on Sunday, Fujimori was taken to hospital from prison by ambulance to treat a drop in blood pressure and abnormal heart beat. But many in Peru saw the pardon as part of a quid pro quo. Three days earlier, Fujimori s loyalists - led by his lawmaker son Kenji - unexpectedly saved Kuczynski from a vote in Congress that nearly removed him from office. In a video Kenji shared on social media, a gray-haired Fujimori, connected to tubes in hospital, was seen smiling after reading Kuczynski s announcement of the pardon on a cellphone with Kenji.  To save his own skin he cut a deal with Fujimori s supporters to infamously pardon a corrupt killer,  said Veronika Mendoza, a leftist leader who competed against Kuczynski in last year s presidential election. Kuczynski s center-right government has repeatedly denied that a pardon for Fujimori was part of political negotiations. Fujimori is a deeply divisive figure in Peru. While many consider him a corrupt dictator, others credit him with ending an economic crisis and bloody leftist insurgency when in power.  He s the best president Peru ever had,  said Maria Luisa Cuculiza, a friend and former minister of Fujimori, adding that he no longer had any political ambitions.  He doesn t want to return to politics. He just wants to be a good grandfather,  Cuculiza told Reuters by telephone. Police fired teargas at scores of Fujimori s opponents in downtown Lima, who waved pictures of the victims of a bloody counterinsurgency campaign during his term.  Officers in riot gear stood guard at Kuczynski s house in the capital s San Isidro financial district as protesters called for the march to make its way there. Fujimori s family and supporters cheered the pardon as a long-overdue vindication for a misunderstood hero. Holding a vigil at the hospital where Fujimori remained late on Sunday, his followers waved banners reading  Freedom for Fujimori!  But the pardon was a blow to the relatives of victims, prosecutors and human rights activists who helped put Fujimori behind bars in a lengthy judicial process that earned Peru global plaudits for fighting impunity. Kuczynski,  you ve betrayed justice, democracy and victims. History will never forgive you,  said Indira Huilca, a leftist lawmaker whose union leader father was shot dead in 1992 in what the Inter-American Court of Human Rights deemed an extrajudicial killing. Kuczynski, who like Fujimori is 79, ran for office to cap a prestigious career in finance and public administration. The pardon may expose him to allegations of ideological bias as he leads regional criticism of leftist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom he has called a  dictator.  The pardon might also prompt one of the biggest political realignments in Peru since Fujimori fled to his parents  homeland of Japan in 2000 as a corruption scandal brought his decade in power to an end. Fujimori was extradited back to Peru in 2007 and later found guilty of commanding death squads that massacred civilians, bribing lawmakers and having a hand in the kidnapping a journalist, among other crimes. Despite his downfall, the right-wing populist movement that Fujimori built has remained one of the most potent political forces in Peru. His eldest daughter, Keiko, leads the opposition party Popular Force that controls Congress, while Kenji has courted ties with Kuczynski s government as he challenges his sister s past decade of leadership of their father s populist following. On Thursday, Kenji led a surprise defection in Popular Force that deprived Keiko s followers of the votes they needed to remove Kuczynski from office in the wake of a graft scandal.  We re eternally grateful to you,  Kenji told Kuczynski on Twitter, noting that he was speaking for Fujimori s family. Kenji said Fujimori was recovering in intensive care and would not likely go home for a few days. As the pardon inflamed long-dormant political tension in Peru, a representative of the political arm of the Maoist-inspired rebel group Shining Path called for Kuczynski to release its historic leader.   Freedom for Dr Abimael Guzman Reinoso!  Guzman s attorney, Alfredo Crespo, wrote in a message to journalists.   Enough of hate and persecution!

Summary: पेरू के राष्ट्रपति ने पूर्व नेता फुजीमोरी को माफी दी, दुश्मन सड़कों पर उतरे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would impose taxes on Carrier air conditioning units manufactured in Mexico in light of the company’s decision to move production from Indiana, a position in line with his strong opposition to international trade deals. Video of the company’s announcement last week to employees went viral on the Internet, showing emotional reactions to the loss of jobs while a representative of the company explained the move was “strictly a business decision.” Carrier, a manufacturer of air conditioning units, is owned by United Technologies Corp and announced it would be moving 1,400 jobs to Monterrey, Mexico. During Saturday night’s Republican debate, Trump said if he were president, he would approach Carrier officials and give them two choices. “I’m going to tell them, ‘Now I’m going to get consensus from Congress and we’re going to tax you,’” Trump said. “‘So stay where you are [in Mexico] or build in the United States.’ Because we are killing ourselves with trade pacts that are no good for us and no good for our workers.” A central part of Trump’s campaign message has been his opposition to international trade pacts that allow products manufactured overseas to be imported with limited or no tariffs. It’s a policy position that reverberates with middle- and low- income Americans, who have watched manufacturing jobs leave the country in the last several decades. Trump cited the video of the workers, which has more than 2.8 million views on YouTube, at the debate.  “If you saw the people, because they have a video of the announcement that Carrier is moving to Mexico, they were laid off,” he said. “They were crying. It was a very sad situation.”  (Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Bill Trott) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: मेक्सिको जाने पर वाहक वातानुकूलन इकाइयों पर कर लगाएंगे ट्रंप


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will ensure that federal officials are held accountable if any wrongdoing is uncovered in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s handling of the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, the White House said on Thursday. “The president believes that the principle of accountability is important, particularly when the stakes are this high,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a briefing.  Noting that the Justice Department was investigating the contamination of Flint’s water supply, Earnest said Obama will make sure that EPA officials are held responsible for any “errors or wrongdoing” that may be uncovered. Obama on Wednesday said it was “inexplicable and inexcusable” that families in Flint were not immediately notified about the contaminated water. Federal and local government agencies have faced criticism for their response to the crisis in Flint, where a switch in water supply for the cash-strapped city of 100,000 north of Detroit led to elevated levels of lead in drinking water. High levels of lead in the blood can cause brain damage and other health problems.  While the Obama administration has repeatedly stressed oversight of the Flint’s water was primarily the responsibility of state and local authorities, the EPA has said it did not act fast enough to address the problem. Complaints about Flint’s water began within a month after the city switched to Flint River water in April 2014 to save money. The city had been using the Lake Huron as its water source.  Flint did not return to the Lake Huron water supply until October 2015, after tests showed elevated levels of lead in Flint tap water and in some children.

Summary: फ्लिंट जल संकट में ईपीए की कार्रवाइयों की जांच की जाएगीः व्हाइट हाउस


BANGKOK (Reuters) - Authorities in Thailand s southeastern Chonburi province braced for more demonstrations on Wednesday after hundreds of furious residents gathered a day earlier in a rare protest to complain about bureaucratic incompetence. Residents complained about long lines that lasted more than 12 hours and general disorganization surrounding activities to mark the funeral of late King Bhumibol Adulyadej who was cremated in Bangkok last week in a $90 million funeral. The protest defied a junta ban on gatherings of more than five people that has been in place since a May 2014 coup. It is also rare because anything remotely related to the monarchy is a sensitive topic in Thailand - the royals are protected by a draconian lese-majeste law, which criminalize all perceived insults toward the monarchy. The Chonburi protests, however, were directed at the local authorities and not at the palace. Protesters in the sea-side province shouted  Get out!  on Tuesday as they demanded that provincial governor Pakarathon Tienchai step down over what they said was poor organization of ceremonies to mark the funeral.  Many wore yellow, the king s color. There have been similar calls for the governor of Nonthaburi province, north of Bangkok, to step down. Some in Nonthaburi reported waiting for up to eight hours to lay flowers for the late king. Chonburi Governor Pakarathon spoke to the crowd on Tuesday and denied his staff had mismanaged the event. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Tuesday urged Thais to forgive those involved in the funeral organization and overlook any problems that arose.  The number of people who took part in the funeral caused a few problems,  he said. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to see King Bhumibol s funeral in Bangkok last week.  The late king, who ruled for more than seven decades, was seen as a father-figure. For those unable to make the trip to Bangkok, 85 miniature replicas of the cremation pyre were arranged across Thailand. Hundreds of other areas were designated as places for mourners to lay flowers.  I waited 13 hours!  shouted one Chonburi protestor on Tuesday. Similar stories have emerged around the country as netizens took to social media to vent their anger. Some said the mismanagement exposed Thailand s jarring class divide. Chonburi protesters said they were unhappy with the funeral s $90 million budget. The late king frequently spoke about self-sufficiency and was portrayed as a frugal man despite his own enormous wealth. Others still argued that government officials were given preferential treatment when laying flowers.  Officials went first before the public,  Tanarit Kumwivat, form the northern province of Chiang Mai, said in a Facebook post. The Chonburi protest comes at the end of an epoch. King Bhumibol, who was also known as  the people s king , was a rare figure of unity in the politically divided nation and his death has left some Thais anxious about the future.

Summary: अराजकता में शोक व्यक्त करने के बाद जुंटा शासित थाईलैंड में दुर्लभ विरोध प्रदर्शन


BERLIN (Reuters) - Later this year, Angela Merkel may form a new government with a party whose leader says Greece should leave the euro, Russia can keep Crimea and refugees will have to go home. The Free Democrats (FDP), a socially liberal, pro-business party, were long seen as the natural partners of Chancellor Merkel s conservatives. They ruled in coalition with her mentor, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, for 16 years and were junior partners in Merkel s second government, from 2009 to 2013.  But after crashing out of the German parliament four years ago, the FDP   also known as the Liberals   were forced to reinvent themselves. And the new incarnation, led by an ambitious 38-year-old who preaches an ultra-hard line on Europe, has unsettled the German political establishment, including members of Merkel s party.  Nevertheless, if her conservatives can form a government with the FDP after a Sept. 24 election, Merkel will have little choice but to link up with the party and its young leader Christian Lindner. (For a graphic on German federal elections click tmsnrt.rs/2h0NqCT)  For her center-right CDU/CSU, the prospect of reviving an alliance with the party s historic partner will be hard to resist, especially after four years of a right-left coalition with their longtime rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD).   Merkel s horror scenario is a narrow majority with the FDP,  said Frank Decker, a political scientist who was Lindner s thesis adviser at Bonn University.  She would have no choice. She would be condemned to govern with them.  Polls give Merkel s CDU/CSU bloc and the FDP a combined score of roughly 45 percent, just shy of a majority. If they do fall short, the FDP could still enter the government as part of an unwieldy three-way coalition that also includes the Greens. In 2013, after its former leader Guido Westerwelle failed to deliver on his promise of tax cuts, the party scored just 4.8 percent, the first time in the post-war era it failed to make the 5 percent threshold needed to enter parliament. Later this month, it is expected to double its score of four years ago. Lindner, with his banker suits and designer stubble, has almost single-handedly hauled the FDP back from the political wilderness. German media have likened him to French President Emmanuel Macron: the two are just a year apart in age and share a healthy self-esteem. In the FDP s highly personalized campaign posters, a brooding Lindner is shown in black and white, staring off-camera, like a model from a 1990s Calvin Klein ad. Look beneath the surface however, and there are big differences between Lindner and Macron. The French leader is promising to work with the next German government on an overhaul of the euro zone, introducing a budget and finance minister for the currency bloc. Lindner has dismissed those ideas with an aggressiveness that has surprised even some of his closest allies. If one takes Lindner and the FDP s campaign manifesto at face value, the party would introduce automatic sanctions for countries that violate EU budget rules, do away with the euro zone s bailout fund and make it easier for countries to leave the currency. Greece is a favorite target. Two weeks ago, Lindner told a banking conference in Frankfurt that a reintroduction of the drachma would be a boon for the country.  All those who vacation in Mallorca would go to the Greek islands instead,  he said. Martin Lueck, an investment strategist at Blackrock, sees a risk that the euro crisis could return, with Italian borrowing costs spiraling higher, if the FDP makes it into government. FDP officials play down such risks, pointing to moderating  influences in the party like members of the European parliament Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and Michael Theurer.  Our program is about direction. It shows what we would do if we were able to govern alone, which of course won t be possible,  one senior official said. But aides to Merkel acknowledge that she would probably be more limited in what she could achieve with Macron if the FDP were a partner, particularly if Lindner became finance minister.  He could make our European partners nostalgic for Wolfgang Schaeuble,  one aide quipped, referring to Merkel s current finance minister, who is seen as a hardliner himself. If the FDP were to end up in a three-way coalition with the Greens, its more radical ideas would surely be blunted. That is why some members of Merkel s party say she would prefer a  Jamaica  coalition   so named because the colors of the parties would match those of the green, yellow and black Jamaican flag   to a two-way alliance with the FDP. In the final stretch, Lindner has floated an array of controversial ideas in an apparent attempt to lure voters from the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Last month, he recommended accepting Russia s 2014 annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine as a  permanent provisional arrangement . Last week, he said refugees should be forced to go home as soon as peace returned to the Middle East countries from which they fled.  Even FDP members say they have trouble discerning how much of this is mere pre-election posturing. As the party s identity has become intertwined with its leader Lindner, its core beliefs have become muddied. The picture may become clearer on Sunday, when the FDP is due to unveil a l0-point list of policy priorities. Expect a modern twist on classic FDP positions   tax cuts, investments in broadband and a Canada-style immigration law making it easier to bring in skilled workers   that are closer to those of other European liberals like Macron. Regardless, the FDP faces a steep learning curve if it makes the leap from outside parliament into government   a feat no party has achieved since the 1950s. Two-thirds of the FDP candidates who could win Bundestag seats have never worked there before. Only one has cabinet-level experience in Berlin.  We ll see whether they have learned the lessons of the past,  said Decker.  Westerwelle was a great opposition leader but struggled in government. Lindner must avoid the same fate.

Summary: पुनर्जन्म लेने वाले जर्मन उदारवादी मर्केल के लिए परेशानी का सबब बन सकते हैं