WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to the White House on Tuesday, using the pomp of the formal state visit to highlight the link between the sluggish European economy and populist discontent in the continent. The spotlight comes at an opportune time for Renzi, who seeks a boost ahead of a constitutional referendum on Dec. 4 that could determine his political future. But even Renzi admitted that the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8 loomed larger. “I have a feeling, and I think that rightly so, our American friends are a little more interested in November 8 than in the Italian vote on constitutional reform, and so are we, might I add,” Renzi said, drawing laughter from the Rose Garden press conference. Obama slammed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for “whining” that the U.S. election was “rigged.” He praised Renzi’s proposed economic reforms and said he supported the attempt to modernize political institutions at the referendum because it would help accelerate economic changes. “I do believe that there is a connection between stagnation and some of the less constructive, populist impulses that have been rising up,” Obama said, saying more jobs needed to be created for Europe’s younger generation. This is the second time this year Obama has weighed in on domestic political battles facing his European allies. In April, he visited London in support of former Prime Minister David Cameron’s unsuccessful efforts to persuade Britain to vote to remain in the European Union. On Tuesday he said he expected Renzi to stay in office for some time. “As you fight for the cause of reform, know that we stand with you. I believe that Italy and the world will continue to benefit from your leadership for many years to come,” Obama said during a toast at the state dinner.  The leaders discussed the fight against Islamic State and the battle to take the Iraqi city of Mosul from the militant group, something Obama called a “key milestone.” Obama insisted the U.S.-led coalition had an extensive strategy to deal with what could be “heart-breaking” humanitarian consequences of the fight. The state dinner was the last scheduled for Obama before he leaves office in January. Notable guests included former racing driver Mario Andretti, designer Giorgio Armani, actor Roberto Benigni and celebrity chef Mario Batali, who helped plan and cook the meal.

Summary: ओबामा और इटली के रेंजी की मुलाकात के साथ राजनीतिक उथल-पुथल, विकास की धीमी गति


BEIJING (Reuters) - A Beijing court on Tuesday sentenced the architect of the $9 billion Ezubao online financial scam to life imprisonment, and handed down jail time to 26 others, marking the close to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in modern Chinese history. The ruling comes at a time when the government is stepping up efforts to crack down on risky and illicit behavior in the country s financial sector, including the unruly peer-to-peer industry that continues to attract high volumes. Beijing First Intermediate People s Court sentenced Ding Ning - chairman of Anhui Yucheng Holdings Group that launched Ezubao in 2014 - to life in prison and fined him 100 million yuan ($15.29 million) for crimes including illegal fundraising, illegal gun possession and smuggling precious metals. Ding Dian, the chairman s brother, was also sentenced to life, while Zhang Min, Yucheng s president, and 24 others were sentenced to imprisonment for 3 to 15 years, according to an article on the Beijing Courts social media account. Ezubao, once China s biggest P2P lending platform, folded last year after it turned out to be a Ponzi scheme that collected 59.8 billion yuan ($9.14 billion) from more than 900,000 investors through savvy marketing. By the time police made arrests in early 2016, the company had failed to repay 38 billion yuan. The incident sparked a crackdown on the freewheeling online financial services market and led to new regulations to control China s P2P industry - where monthly volumes are above $50 billion, statistics published by industry portal P2P001 show. Ezubao s excesses also became a cautionary tale following its collapse. Ding collected a monthly salary of 1 million yuan, and admitted on state television to spending an estimated 1.5 billion yuan in Ezubao funds on himself.  We fabricated projects to raise money,  Ding said, according to a Xinhua report published last year, and then used fabricated project companies to re-circulate cash back into accounts linked to his companies. Ding also asked dozens of his secretaries to dress only in Chanel, Gucci and other luxury branded clothing to make the company appear highly successful.  He told Zhang, the group president, to buy up everything from every Louis Vuitton and Herm s store in China.  (reut.rs/2xsfaHH)

Summary: चीन के 9 अरब डॉलर के एजुबाओ ऑनलाइन घोटाले के नेता को उम्रकैद; 26 को जेल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump will not wait for Congress to confirm his Cabinet  positions to act on his vows to withdraw from the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a spokesman for the president-elect said on Thursday. Trump, who takes office as president on Friday, declared in November he would give notice of U.S. intent to withdraw from the TPP on “day one” of his presidency, terming it “a potential disaster for our country.” Spicer told reporters Trump had said the moves would be made via executive order. “So I think you will see those happen very shortly,” Spicer added. “I don’t think he’s going to wait. He’s made it very clear that some of those things are huge priorities for him.” Trump’s nominee to run the Treasury Department, Steven Mnuchin, said on Thursday that Washington can renegotiate NAFTA, which was signed by the United States, Canada and Mexico in 1994, in a way that benefits both the United States and Mexico. “I think most people acknowledge NAFTA was negotiated a long time ago, that we should reopen this agreement,” Mnuchin told U.S. senators in his confirmation hearing. “I’m optimistic that we can renegotiate that deal (in a way) that’s both advantageous to us and advantageous to Mexico. That it’s a win-win for both countries.”  An adviser to the Trump transition told Reuters last week that Trump would not revive TPP, which has yet to be ratified by the United States, but would quickly pursue bilateral trade agreements. The TPP has been the main economic pillar of the Obama administration’s “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region in the face of a fast-rising China.  Proponents of the pact have expressed concerns that abandoning the project, which took years to negotiate, could further strengthen China’s economic hand in the region at the expense of the United States. The trade minister of New Zealand, Todd McClay, said this week that it would be “interesting” to see whether momentum builds around the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), an Asian trade pact that includes China and India, if the United States pulls out of the TPP.

Summary: व्यापार समझौते पर अमल के लिए इंतजार नहीं करेंगे ट्रंपः प्रवक्ता


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea s latest defector, a young soldier known only by his family name Oh, is a quiet, pleasant man who has nightmares about being returned to the North, his surgeon said on Thursday.  He s a pretty nice guy,  said lead surgeon John Cook-Jong Lee, who has been operating and caring for the 24-year-old. Oh has become a focus of worldwide attention after he was badly wounded by fellow North Korean soldiers as he scrambled across the border in the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South on Nov. 13. Video of Oh s escape released on Wednesday showed him stumbling over the border and being dragged unconscious through the undergrowth by South Korean troops. Surgeon Lee has been almost the only person to speak with Oh since he arrived at the hospital, he told Reuters in an interview at his office at Ajou University Hospital, just a few floors away from where the defector lies guarded by South Korean special forces and intelligence officers. The surgeon, who has hung a South Korean flag in the soldier s room, said he is avoiding subjects that may disturb his patient. Oh is eating his first  clear liquid  food such as broths, and can smile, talk, and use his hands, Lee said. But when his patient woke on Sunday he cried out in pain, and Lee said he is still anxious about the South Korean guards. Lee said Oh told him that he had joined the North Korean army when he was 17, right after secondary school graduation. The soldier s hair is styled  like a jarhead, like a U.S. Marine, so I actually joked  why don t you join the South Korean Marines?  He smiled and said that he would never ever go back to the military system again.  Medical teams have worked for days to remove the shards of at least four bullets from Oh s body, stitch up his shredded organs, and treat pre-existing conditions including tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and a case of massive intestinal worms, Lee said.  He s a quite strong man,  said Lee.  Since Oh s defection, North Korea appeared to have replaced all its security guards on the border, an intelligence source in the South told Yonhap news agency on Thursday.  Lee said that when the defector arrived in an American military helicopter at the hospital   which is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and is used to treat VIP visitors such as visiting U.S. presidents - he came with zero personal information. On the flight in, American army flight medics had fought to keep Oh alive, jabbing a large needle into his chest to treat a collapsed lung.   Oh was immediately wheeled into a diagnostic room where doctors confirmed he was suffering from massive internal bleeding.  We knew then that we didn t have time to hesitate,  Lee said, standing in that room Thursday night. Two major surgeries were required to remove the bullets and patch Oh back together, and the medical team pumped as much as 12 liters of new blood into his body. The normal body has less than half as much blood.  He told me that he is so thankful for South Koreans for saving his life and giving him that much blood,  Lee said. Lee has been playing South Korean pop music and American films and TV shows for his patient, but has not exposed him to any news coverage. Among the shows, Oh showed a liking for the French-American thriller  Transporter 3,  comedy  Bruce Almighty  starring Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman; and the crime-solving TV series  CSI,  Lee said. Most North Korean defectors undergo security questioning by South Korea s intelligence agency once they arrive in the South before being sent to a resettlement center for a three-month education on life in the South. After they are released, central and local governments provide 7 million won ($6,450) in cash over a year, as well as support in housing, education and job training. Police officers are assigned to each of the defectors to ensure their security and safety. Even if Oh fully recovers, some scars will stay for the rest of his life, the surgeon said.  Among the longest lasting wounds will be the damage to his colon, which was shredded by a bullet and had to be stitched back together in seven places.  It s a lifelong complication for the patient, so he s better to be very cautious in his diet,  said the surgeon. Besides the potential for further medical complications, Lee says he is most worried about making sure Oh recovers psychologically. The soldier has already told him he had a nightmare about being returned to the North.  The surgeon said he has asked senior South Korean military officials who are eager to question the soldier to hold off  while he recovers.  This North Korean guy is not going anywhere,  Lee said.  He is staying in South Korea. So we don t need to be hasty.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया का घायल दलबदलू 'अच्छा आदमी' है, उसे सी. एस. आई. पसंद हैः सर्जन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday the Trump administration’s tax reform plan will not change the deductibility of mortgage interest and charitable contributions. “Let me first clarify, we are not taking away the charitable deduction and we are leaving the mortgage interest deduction as is,” Mnuchin said in an interview on Fox Business Network. “We think those are both very, very important. But what we are going to do is we are looking at other things where the reduction in deductions will offset the rate,” he said. On Dec. 1, prior to President Donald Trump taking office, Mnuchin told CNBC that Trump wanted to cap the amount of mortgage interest that taxpayers can deduct. The mortgage interest deduction is already capped at loans up to $1 million if you are married and filing income taxes jointly, and at $500,000 if you file separately. Trump, in a speech to Congress on Tuesday night, said he wanted to provide “massive tax relief” to the middle class and cut corporate tax rates, but he did not offer specifics. Mnuchin said he expects a tax reform plan to be passed by Congress and signed by the president by August. Trump has said tax reform should reduce tax rates for individuals and businesses, do away with longstanding tax loopholes and broaden the tax base in order to drive U.S. economic growth.

Summary: ट्रम्प की कर योजना में बंधक ब्याज कटौती में कोई बदलाव नहीं किया गया हैः म्नुचिन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday said he was weighing options to help deal with Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis but that any move by Congress to help the territorial island cannot cost U.S. taxpayers any money. McConnell, whose comments follow a letter sent earlier by Senate Democrats and independents, did not commit to any legislative action.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट के बहुमत के नेताः प्यूर्टो रिको की मदद करने के तरीकों पर विचार कर रहे हैं


XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that any decision by the United States to supply defensive weapons to Ukraine would fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine and possibly prompt pro-Russian separatists to expand their campaign there. On a visit to Kiev last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he was actively reviewing sending lethal weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself, an option that previous U.S. president Barack Obama vetoed. Ukraine and Russia are at loggerheads over a war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 10,000 people in three years. Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, which Russia denies.  Putin, answering a question after a BRICS summit in China about the possibility of the United States supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons, said it was for Washington to decide whom it sold or gave weapons to, but he warned against the move, something Kiev wants.   The delivery of weapons to a conflict zone doesn t help peacekeeping efforts, but only worsens the situation,  Putin told a news briefing.  Such a decision would not change the situation but the number of casualties could increase.  In comments likely to be interpreted as a veiled threat, Putin suggested that pro-Russian separatists were likely to respond by expanding their own campaign.  The self-declared (pro-Russian) republics (in eastern Ukraine) have enough weapons, including ones captured from the other side  said Putin.  It s hard to imagine how the self-declared republics would respond. Perhaps they would deploy weapons to other conflict zones.  Putin also said Russia intended to draft a resolution for consideration in the United Nations Security Council, suggesting armed U.N. peacekeepers be deployed to eastern Ukraine to help protect ceasefire monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) there.  It would help resolve the problem in eastern Ukraine,  said Putin, saying that a slew of preconditions would need to be met before any such deployment happened.

Summary: पुतिन ने अमेरिका को यूक्रेन को रक्षात्मक हथियारों की आपूर्ति नहीं करने की चेतावनी दी


(Reuters) - Two U.S. senators are seeking details from Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s (GS.N) chief executive on the extent to which the bank’s employees were involved in drafting of the recent executive orders on banking and fiduciary regulations. In a letter to CEO Lloyd Blankfein dated Feb. 9 and made public on Friday, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin asked for details on “lobbying” activities in the bank related to review of the Dodd-Frank Act and the Obama-era fiduciary rule on financial advice.  Blankfein was also asked to detail the profits Goldman would make if these reforms came into effect. “We’ve had no involvement in the drafting of any executive orders,” a Goldman spokesman said on Friday.  In December, Trump appointed Gary Cohn, former Goldman president and chief operating officer, to head the White House National Economic Council, a group that coordinates economic policy across agencies. Trump last week ordered reviews of major banking rules that were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, drawing fire from Democrats who said his order lacked substance and squarely aligned him with Wall Street bankers. “The executive orders released by President Trump on Friday last week raise our concerns about the degree to which Cohn’s advice to Trump is good for Wall Street, but bad for Americans,” the senators wrote on Thursday. “Goldman Sachs would be a major beneficiary of these efforts to deregulate the financial industry,” they added in the letter. Trump also named former Goldman partner Steven Mnuchin as his pick for Treasury secretary in December. The senators have asked for any communication between the bank’s employees and Cohn, Mnuchin, nominee for the SEC chair Jay Clayton and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Summary: सीनेटरों ने गोल्डमैन सैक्स से ट्रम्प की बैंकिंग नीति में उसकी भूमिका पर सवाल किया


BELFAST (Reuters) - Britain will have to bring in legislation to set a budget for Northern Ireland if the province s political parties cannot reach an agreement to restore their power-sharing government by Monday, a British government spokesman said. Northern Ireland has been without a regional administration since its collapse in January, raising the prospect of direct rule being reimposed from London, potentially destabilizing a delicate political balance in the British province. The British minister for the region, James Brokenshire, said last week that talks had stalled with the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party and the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) stuck over the rights of Irish language speakers.   If a deal is struck by Monday, Brokenshire would return to London to begin the processes required to form a new Northern Ireland Executive, the spokesman added. However, if a budget is imposed by London, it would be the closest Northern Ireland has come to a return to direct rule in a decade. Brokenshire has warned the parties that they are on  a glide path to greater and greater UK government intervention . The DUP and Sinn Fein shared power in the previous devolved administration under a system created following a peace deal which ended three decades of violence in the province. The head of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), one of the region s smaller parties, has said that handing over budgetary responsibility to London effectively constitutes direct rule and  cannot be painted any other way . Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said a new phase of talks would begin if an agreement could not be struck by Monday.  If there is no deal done by the time the British minister brings forward a budget, that will signify that this phase of the talks - and there will obviously have to be other phases - has been exhausted,  Adams told Irish national broadcaster RTE. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, who is co-facilitating the talks with Brokenshire, has said reverting to direct rule would be a  devastating  blow for reconciliation in the region. Coveney has also urged the parties to reach a deal so that Northern Ireland can have a greater say in Britain s talks to leave the European Union, set to have a bigger impact on the province than on any other part of the United Kingdom.

Summary: ब्रिटेन ने उत्तरी आयरलैंड में राजनीतिक वार्ता के लिए सोमवार को नवीनतम समय सीमा निर्धारित की


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that law enforcement agencies must take tough action against persons and groups using the Internet for extremist ends.  The security of Russia s Internet must be heightened, we must fight against those using the information space to spread extremist ideas,  Putin told a meeting of Russia s Security Council.  At the same time, I would like to stress that there can be no talk about restricting access of law-abiding citizens to the worldwide web, about any pervasive barriers and filters,  he said.

Summary: रूस के पुतिन ने ऑनलाइन चरमपंथ के खिलाफ कड़ी कार्रवाई का आग्रह किया


MADRID (Reuters) - The Catalan government is considering calling a snap election, pro-independence party CUP politician Carles Riera said on Tuesday, though he added that the far-left party would oppose such a move.  The regional elections are a weapon to cancel the Oct.1 (referendum) and the will of the majority of Catalonia,  Riera told a news conference. Secessionists in Catalonia say that a banned independence vote held on Oct. 1 - which drew only a 43 percent turnout and was mostly shunned by Catalans who wish to remain in Spain - has accorded them a mandate to claim statehood.

Summary: कैटलन सरकार मध्यावधि चुनाव कराने पर विचार कर रही हैः स्वतंत्रता समर्थक पार्टी सीयूपी


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders gave a green light to the main phase of Brexit negotiations on Friday after applauding Prime Minister Theresa May s efforts to settle divorce terms for Britain s withdrawal in March 2019. But despite a surge in optimism that the coming year can set a smooth glide path to a free trade pact via a seamless period of transition, 2018 is studded with pitfalls to test the nerves of negotiators, businesses and millions of ordinary folk. This is the theory. EU negotiator Michel Barnier is set to calm worried investors and in January offer May the roughly two-year transition she wants to offer stability while a future trade agreement is hammered out. Like all tempting quick deals, though, it comes at a price and the EU s demands are not ones May will find easy to sell to Brexit enthusiasts. You can keep single market membership, Barnier tells Britain, but you will keep paying Brussels and be bound by all EU rules including ones not yet made, without having a say on making them. Plus, there are quite a few wrinkles that mean  status quo  cannot be quite so simple. Stand by for more long arguments. EU leaders want to agree their common negotiating position on trade at a summit on March 22-23, allowing talks with Britain to start some weeks after that. But while the 27 member states quickly agreed this year on what to demand from London on the divorce   notably money and rights for their citizens living in Britain   they have divergent interests for the future. Close neighbors do a lot of trade with Britain, others further east are more interested in keeping Britain s military muscle on hand than in tariff-free commerce. The EU has done big trade deals before, but none with an economy so big and so close. This might take some time   though time is in short supply. On the other side of the Channel, there is also internal negotiation to be done before trade talks open. Barnier says he understands what Britain doesn t want   being in the single market and customs union, accepting EU court rulings, and open immigration. But, he says, what does Britain want? He s looking for an answer before finalizing the EU position. And May is facing battles inside her own government team, or cabinet, and  with opponents in parliament, where she has a slim majority, on whether quitting the single market and/or customs union is really such a good idea for the British economy. Those keen on Brexit want a clean slate to cut deals with other parts of the world, but many worry about the cost of new barriers in Europe.  One reason her fellow leaders gave May a round of applause over dinner on Thursday night was to offer encouragement for her perseverance, despite deep splits in her own party, in keeping a semblance of order in a Brexit process she did not want. But can she keep it up? A host of scenarios could see May out before Brexit. Dependent on Northern Irish allies after a botched snap election in June, she was defeated on Wednesday in a vote that now gives parliament a final say on a Brexit deal. When her strongest card seems to be that no one else is keen to take on a thankless job with little future, then stability is not a given. Last week s  joint report  with Barnier that unlocked the EU agreement to open trade talks depended on fudging how they will avoid erecting the infrastructure of a  hard  EU-UK border that could disrupt peace in Belfast. Brussels and Dublin will say May must honor a pledge to keep Northern Ireland in  regulatory alignment  with the EU to the south   effectively in a customs union. But she also promised to keep the north aligned with the rest of the UK and to let the UK diverge from the EU. With her Belfast allies determined to avoid any barriers with mainland Britain and pro-Brexit London ministers set on breaking with EU regulations, May faces a tough task agreeing a  framework  for future relations before Brexit. Despite all those problems, both sides are clear that a treaty settling the terms of withdrawal   including as yet undecided and potentially explosive issues such as how they will be enforced   must be ready by about October. That is so the process of ratification in the European and British parliaments can be completed in good time for Brexit in March 2019. But months of negotiations so far have produced relatively little in the way of detailed outcomes, so that target looks ambitious. The risk for both sides is that failure to reach any deal will see a  cliff edge  Brexit in which Britain, under Article  50 of the EU treaty, simply ceases to be a member as midnight chimes in Brussels going into Saturday, March 30, 2019. Without any treaty, that will open up a vast expanse of legal limbo. No one can rule out extending the deadline, though neither side wants it to be long   British Brexit voters want delivery on their referendum and EU states, though they are sorry to see it go, do not want the upset of endless negotiations with Britain.  May s government talks about having a free trade deal ready to be signed almost as soon as Britain leaves   it cannot be signed before. But Brussels says the best Britain can hope for as it leaves is a  political declaration , alongside the withdrawal, on what the framework of a future relationship will be. That will not be legally binding and leaves huge scope for the kind of detailed trade negotiation that usually takes years. Barnier says an agreement, similar to one the EU has with Canada, can be ready by January 2021, when the transition may end. But that uncertainty also creates another  cliff edge . Could the transition period go on longer, with Britain, like Norway today, a taker of EU rules without having a say on them? France and others want that kind of endless limbo avoided, though some in Brussels can envisage an extra year or so. Brexit supporters hate the idea but some of who campaigned against leaving   including Scottish nationalists eyeing a new bid for independence   see a tempting possibility to stay in the Union s ante-chamber before trying to get back in. Cue more furious debate in Britain, and an uncertain response in Europe.

Summary: व्याख्याकर्ताः संभवतः क्या गलत हो सकता है? 2018 के लिए नौ ब्रेक्सिट भालू जाल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Frustrated U.S. lawmakers called on Tuesday for a high-powered response to North Korea’s nuclear tests, saying Washington should act alone if necessary to stiffen sanctions on companies from China, Russia and any country doing business with Pyongyang. “I believe the response from the United States and our allies should be supercharged,” said Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. “We need to use every ounce of leverage ... to put maximum pressure on this rogue regime,” the Republican congressman told a hearing on North Korea. “Time is running out.” The U.N. Security Council stepped up sanctions on Monday following Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, imposing a ban on textile exports and capping oil imports.  It was the ninth sanctions resolution unanimously adopted by the council since 2006 over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs. To win Chinese and Russian support, Washington dropped demands including a bid for an oil embargo. At the hearing, U.S. officials released American intelligence findings on how North Korea smuggles coal and commodities to Russia and China. Assistant Treasury Secretary Marshall Billingslea displayed slides showing ships he said picked up coal and other commodities in North Korea, illegally turning off their electronic identification systems to hide the fact that they were carrying cargo to China and Russia. “Pyongyang falsifies the identity of vessels to make it harder for governments to determine if ships docking in their ports are linked to North Korea,” Billingslea said. An Aug. 5 U.N. resolution banned North Korean exports of coal. Russia and China both say they respect U.N. sanctions. Committee members expressed frustration that previous sanctions had not deterred Pyongyang. “We’ve been played by the Kims for years,” Republican Representative Ted Poe said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his predecessors. Lawmakers pressed Billingslea, and Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton for evidence new sanctions would be more effective. They acknowledged there had not been sufficient evidence that past sanctions had worked, but insisted the administration would work for a better result this time. “We can designate Chinese banks and companies unilaterally, giving them a choice between doing business with North Korea or the United States,” said Royce, who had breakfast on Tuesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “We should go after banks and companies in other countries that do business with North Korea the same way,” he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसद उत्तर कोरिया के परमाणु परीक्षणों पर 'सुपरचार्ज्ड' प्रतिक्रिया चाहते हैं


SEATTLE (Reuters) - Donald Trump on Monday widened his attack on defense contractors, slamming Lockheed Martin Corp’s (LMT.N) F-35 fighter jet program as too expensive as aides to the president-elect said he intends to keep pushing to cut the costs of military hardware.   Trump’s latest Twitter broadside sent defense shares tumbling and fanned concerns that the incoming administration will reduce defense contractors’ profit margins and cut broader federal spending, threatening U.S. factory jobs even as Trump promises to boost manufacturing employment. “The F-35 program and cost is out of control,” Trump said on Twitter, echoing campaign promises to cut waste in federal spending. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.” Last week, Trump targeted Boeing Co (BA.N) with tweets for “out of control” costs on new Air Force One planes, urging the federal government to “Cancel order!” The new administration’s focus is likely to be “wide-reaching and impact all of government as we look to come up with better deals,” Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller said.  “We’re going to look for opportunities to go back through and make sure that we’re not getting taken advantage of.”  Trump’s F-35 tweet drew support from U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, who has voiced support for the fighter jet in the past. While a president cannot cancel a program after funds have been allocated, it can purchase less. “He can reduce the buy over time, next year, as we look at it again,” McCain told Reuters. But Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks bristled others in Congress. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, home to F-35 engine maker Pratt & Whitney, said the program supports 2,000 Pratt jobs and thousands more at suppliers.  “The suggestion that costs are out of control is just plain wrong,” he said. Trump should “learn more about the facts” before discussing “arbitrary cuts in the program,” he added. “He’s the president-elect. What he says matters.” Lockheed shares fell 2.5 percent after being down 5.4 percent earlier. Shares of General Dynamics (GD.N), Northrop Grumman, BAE and Raytheon also fell, while United Technologies and Boeing shares were slightly higher. The F-35 has been dogged by problems, with the Pentagon’s chief arms buyer once describing as “acquisition malpractice” the decision to produce jets before completing development.  That led to retrofits and helped escalate costs to an estimated $400 billion, prompting the F-35 to be described as the most expensive weapon system in history. The Pentagon’s chief weapons tester has continued to criticize it, but the jets are now in use by the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force, and by six countries: Australia, Britain, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands and Israel. Japan took delivery of its first jet last week, according to a program spokesman. Australian and Japanese defense officials both said they have no plans to alter their commitments to the F-35. “We are very confident that the Joint Strike Fighter is the right jet for Australia, and for the United States and the rest of the world,” said Christopher Pyne, minister for Australia’s defense industry. Australia has ordered 72 F-35s, while Japan has agreed to purchase 42 fighters to replace its aging F-4 fleet. “We will have to watch Trump’s policies closely when he becomes president, but at this moment, we have no intention of changing direction,” Japan’s Minister of Defense Tomomi Inada said. Lockheed’s F-35 program leader, Jeff Babione, said Monday the company had invested millions to reduce the jet’s price by 60 percent from original estimates. “We project it to be about $85 million in the 2019 or 2020 timeframe,” he told reporters in Israel. The Pentagon is now paying about $102 million each for the conventional takeoff A-model, according to sources familiar with the program. The savings reflect larger quantities and the ironing out of technical issues.  As a practical matter, it was unlikely the U.S. would unwind such a large program involving contractors in nearly every U.S. state and eight partner nations, Baird Equity Research analyst Peter Arment wrote in a note Monday.  “But what is likely ... is the message to the industry of potentially more risk-sharing on costs,” he said. “This is potentially a new paradigm for the industry.”

Summary: लॉकहीड मार्टिन पर ट्रम्प का हमला रक्षा उद्योग पर युद्ध का पूर्वाभास देता है


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - An Istanbul prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for the parents of a former police investigator who gave evidence at the trial of a Turkish banker in the United States last week, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on Wednesday. Turkey has called for the arrest of Huseyin Korkmaz after he testified at the trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a former executive of state-lender Halkbank who is accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. The Istanbul prosecutor s office was not immediately available for comment. U.S. prosecutors have accused Atilla of working with Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab and others to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions through fraudulent gold and food transactions. The case has strained relations between Turkey and the United States, which are NATO allies. Atilla has pleaded not guilty and Halkbank has denied involvement with any illegal transactions. But Zarrab has pleaded guilty and testified for U.S. prosecutors. Korkmaz said he fled Turkey in 2016 fearing retaliation from the government after leading an investigation in 2013 into Zarrab which implicated high-ranking officials. Hurriyet said the Istanbul prosecutor s order to arrest Korkmaz s parents came after his testimony in the U.S. case in which he said he gave documents related to the 2013 investigation to his mother to keep. Last week, Turkish police summoned a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official over statements made by Korkmaz in the U.S. court, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Summary: तुर्की ने पूर्व पुलिस जांचकर्ता के माता-पिता की गिरफ्तारी का आदेश दियाः हुर्रियत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bob Corker, the influential Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Tuesday he will not run for re-election, a blow to a party already struggling to balance divisions between mainstream and more populist wings. A former mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a businessman, Corker, 65, had said when he was elected that he could not imagine serving more than two Senate terms. He said early this month he had not decided whether he would seek a third next year. An establishment Republican, Corker has been criticized from the right, and a conservative activist had already announced a primary challenge. But he was expected to keep the seat, and had amassed a $7.5 million campaign war chest. Corker has ruled out running for governor of Tennessee. “I have no idea what I’m going to do. No idea whatsoever,” Corker said in an interview. But he said he was not leaving out of frustration over deep party divides that have often paralyzed Congress. Corker announced his retirement on the day of the failure of the latest Republican effort to repeal former Democratic President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. “I am not going to be one of the people who leaves here badmouthing what is one of the greatest privileges of one’s life,” Corker said. “I know I’ll miss this place,” he said. He said he realized he was ready to retire on Aug. 24 during a factory groundbreaking in Clarksville, Tennessee, and almost announced his decision at least twice before Tuesday. Corker said that he made his announcement now to allow a strong candidate time to enter the Senate race. Corker is the first senator to announce his retirement ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections, when one-third of the 100-seat chamber will be up for grabs. Tennessee is a solidly Republican state and the party, which currently holds a 52-seat majority in the Senate, is favored to keep his seat. In his official announcement, Corker said that “after much thought, consideration and family discussion” over the past year, he and his wife Elizabeth “have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires at the end of 2018.” Corker has been a close national security adviser to President Donald Trump and was on the short list last year to be both his vice president and Secretary of State. But he has also clashed with the White House. In August, after Trump’s much-criticized reaction to violence at a white supremacist rally in Virginia, Corker told reporters in his home state Tennessee that Trump had not been able to demonstrate the “stability” or competence that he needed to be successful as president. Trump struck back on Twitter, where he said Corker’s statements were “strange” considering that he is “constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in ‘18.” “Tennessee not happy!” Trump tweeted. After the exchange, the two men had an hour-long meeting at the White House this month that Corker has described as a wide-ranging and friendly discussion. Corker will remain chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee until he leaves in January 2019. He said he wanted the panel to address issues including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s State Department reorganization, food aid reform, and the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery. Corker said the committee would address the international nuclear agreement with Iran, as Trump faces a mid-October deadline for deciding whether to certify that Tehran is complying with that pact. That decision could force Congress to decide whether to reimpose sanctions. Corker would not say whether Trump had decided to certify or not. It was not immediately clear who would succeed him as foreign relations chairman if Republicans maintain their Senate majority. Jim Risch is the next Republican in line, but Marco Rubio, one of Trump’s rivals last year for the presidential nomination, is also considered a contender. Corker is known for working with Democrats on a range of issues, from foreign relations to immigration and Obama’s auto industry bailout.  His statement alluded to his desire to continue to work “thoughtfully and independently” in the next 15 months, which could signal more conflicts with Trump.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन अमेरिकी सीनेटर कॉर्कर अगले साल फिर से चुनाव नहीं लड़ेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared likely to rule that property owners can challenge the federal government in court over the need for permits under a national water protection law in a case involving a company’s plans for a Minnesota peat mine. The court heard a one-hour argument in a case balancing property rights and environmental law, in this instance the landmark 1972 U.S. Clean Water Act. A majority of the eight justices appeared sympathetic toward North Dakota-based Hawkes Co Inc, which is fighting an Obama administration finding that its property includes wetlands. The law mandates that property owners get permits in such situations. Whether a particular plot of land falls under the law’s jurisdiction is important to developers and other property owners because such a finding triggers a lengthy and expensive permitting process. Hawkes’ lawyers argued the company should be able to contest whether it even needs to go through the permit process. Liberal and conservative justices alike expressed concern about the current arrangement’s burden on property owners. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said applicants who disregard a government finding that they need a permit do so at “great practical risk.” Liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the process “very arduous and very expensive.” Liberal Stephen Breyer called the government decision that Hawkes needed a permit “perfectly suited for review in the courts.” Only liberal Elena Kagan expressed support for the government, raising concerns about the impact a ruling favoring property owners would have on actions by other government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. Property rights advocates said the permitting process can take two years and cost up to $270,000, with owners facing penalties of up to $37,500 a day for noncompliance. Business groups including the National Association of Home Builders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 29 states filed court papers opposing the Obama administration in the case. The case follows the justices’ unanimous 2012 ruling that property owners facing enforcement action under the Clean Water Act can ask a court to intervene before being forced to comply or pay financial penalties. The Obama administration last year issued a new regulation defining the scope of federal jurisdiction over bodies of water. A federal appeals court put the rule on hold after it was challenged by 18 states. Only eight justices participated in the case following Justice Antonin Scalia’s February death. A ruling is due by the end of June.

Summary: आर्द्रभूमि विवाद में संपत्ति के मालिक के प्रति सुप्रीम कोर्ट की सहानुभूति


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee will ask the directors of FBI and the National Security agency to appear in a closed session in its probe of allegations of Russian interference in U.S. elections and U.S. spy agency surveillance of President Donald Trump’s team, the head of the panel said on Friday. Nunes also told reporters that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s lawyers informed the committee that he is volunteering to be interviewed by the committee, and that the panel will work with his lawyers to decide whether the interview would be open or closed to the public. The committee hopes to hold a closed session with FBI Director Comey and NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers on Tuesday.

Summary: हाउस पैनल ने रूस की जांच में एफ. बी. आई., एन. एस. ए. प्रमुखों से और गवाही मांगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday authorized an increase in the level of federal funding for debris removal and emergency protective measures as a result of Hurricane Harvey to 90 percent from 75 percent, the White House said. “President Trump increased cost sharing to 90 percent federal funding for debris removal, including direct federal assistance, and a 100 percent federal funding for emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance,” the White House said in a statement.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने मलबा हटाने के लिए संघीय वित्त पोषण बढ़ायाः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan assured five Republican senators on Thursday that if a healthcare bill passes the Senate, he will take it to a conference committee rather than have the House vote on it, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters. Graham, who had vowed to oppose a “skinny” Obamacare repeal bill unless assured by Ryan, said the House speaker told lawmakers that he did not see such legislation as good policy. Asked if he would now vote “yes” on such a bill, Graham said: “Yes. Based on what I heard, I am.”

Summary: रयान ने ओबामाकेयर को निरस्त करने पर अमेरिकी सीनेट रिपब्लिकन को आश्वासन दिया


BOSTON (Reuters) - The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said on Friday it has sharply cut back an online ad that had used the names and faces of mass shooters and urged the news media not to identify them after the group drew criticism from other gun control activists. The group, named for former White House spokesman James Brady, who was wounded in 1981 when a gunman tried to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan, rolled out the “Zero Minutes of Fame” campaign earlier this week. Its goal, the group said, was to promote research showing that mass shooters, such as those who carried out the 2012 attacks in Newtown, Connecticut and Aurora, Colorado, had studied past gun attacks before carrying out their own. The prominent use of the names and images of Adam Lanza, who shot dead 20 children and six educators at a Newtown elementary school, and James Holmes, who fatally shot 12 people at an Aurora movie theater, in the two-minute online spot angered fellow anti-gun-violence campaigners. The Brady Campaign's ad prompted a petition (chn.ge/1SCfovp) on activist website Change.org calling for the ad to be taken down. Some 93 people had signed that petition as of midday Friday.  “It was very hurtful to many gun violence victims and survivors,” said Anita Busch, a Los Angeles-based entertainment journalist whose cousin was slain in the Aurora massacre and who said she posted the petition. “For the Brady Campaign to not get it is just shocking, honestly.” The ad marked the launch of a piece of software for Google’s (GOOGL.O) Chrome web browser that promised to remove the names and images of serial killers from news accounts and Google web searches, replacing them with “(name withheld out of respect for the victims).” The Brady Campaign, one of the most prominent U.S. gun control organizations, said on Friday it had cut back the ad’s contents after the complaints. A 14-second version of the ad viewed on Friday featured no names or images of mass shooters. “Our video was meant to educate the broader American public about what we can do to prevent gun violence, not to upset those hardest hit by it,” Dan Gross, the group’s president, said in an e-mailed statement. “We take this matter seriously and hope the steps we have taken to fix this are satisfactory to our victim advocates.” James Brady survived the 1981 attack and went on to become a prominent gun control activist. He died in 2014.

Summary: ब्रैडी कैम्पेन के विज्ञापन ने यू. एस. बंदूक विरोधी हिंसा कार्यकर्ताओं को आकर्षित किया


SHERMANS DALE, Penn. (Reuters) - While Donald Trump often rails against a “rigged” election on Twitter and at rallies nationwide, he goes a few steps further in Pennsylvania, a state crucial to the Republican’s fading chances to win the White House. Here, he has made direct appeals since August to recruit voters as poll monitors on Election Day and has pointed specifically at Philadelphia as a city beset by voter fraud. Despite offering little evidence for any of his claims, his “rigged” election message is resonating with his followers in this traditional battleground state where Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has opened up a wide lead. But his calls for poll watchers on Nov. 8 is drawing a mix of confusion, concern and tepid support. In some cases, Trump’s talk of fraud appears to have made some of his own followers more resigned to an election loss, even though independent studies show U.S. voting chicanery is exceptionally rare and certainly never on a national scale. Since Aug. 8, when Trump first urged supporters in the state to “watch other polling places and make sure that it’s 100-percent fine,” civil rights groups have expressed fears that some supporters will take the idea too far by forming roaming, vigilante-style crowds intimidating voters. Trump supporter Mark Bowman, 53, says he isn’t the type to attend a political rally or put campaign stickers on his car. And he isn’t confident the election results will be correct. “I hate to say it, but I don’t have a lot of faith,” Bowman said. “Voter fraud is rampant especially in the cities.” But, in a comment echoed by nearly two dozen Trump supporters in the state’s reliably Republican central regions, he said he thinks nothing can be done to stop it and that becoming an amateur poll watcher is a step too far. “What authority do I have to confront someone?” said the resident of Shermans Dale, a rural community of about 5,000 people. “Your average citizen, you’re going to end up in a confrontation with someone. You’re going to end up in a bad situation.” There are official channels to monitor elections. Pennsylvania has a system that allows campaigns and political parties to designate official poll monitors, who are allowed into the polling places and can register official complaints if they think someone isn’t a valid voter. A form on the Trump campaign’s website asks voters to help Trump “stop crooked Hillary from rigging this election” by becoming a volunteer Trump election observer. But in an example of the Trump campaign’s near non-existent effort to organize field operations in key swing states, there is little evidence that the recruitment drive is translating into legions of officially sanctioned volunteers. Repeated inquiries from Reuters about efforts to staff polling places went unanswered by his campaign. The rules allow each candidate and the state parties to name monitors. With federal and local candidates both on the November ballot, there could be dozens of watchers in a single precinct. But those familiar with past elections say rarely does that happen. Instead, campaigns tend to focus on only the most fought over swing districts. Steve Reigh, 57, a realtor from Elliottsburg, Pennsylvania, agrees with Trump that the election is likely to be rigged, but says he also resigned to the outcome of the election, win or lose. “What are you going to do?” he said. Some Trump supporters are branching out on their own. Jack Posobiec, a navy veteran and special projects director at Citizens for Trump, a grassroots support group, says he hopes to mobilize 3,000 volunteers in several key swing states in the final days of the campaign, including busing supporters from Texas to Ohio. On Oct. 1, Trump told a largely white rally of supporters in Manheim in central Pennsylvania that they should go to neighborhoods other than their own on election day and “watch”. “You’ve got to get everybody you know and you got to watch your polling booths, because I hear too many stories about Pennsylvania, certain areas,” Trump said. “So go and vote and then go and check out areas because a lot of bad things happen and we don’t want to lose for that reason.” Dale Ho, a voting rights lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said on Twitter that Trump’s calls for “poll watchers” were a “recipe for intimidation and discrimination.” The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.      Married Trump supporters Gina, 75, and Larry Snyder, 77, of Newport agree the election could be rigged but doubt anything can be done about it, including poll-watching.  Candace Lowe, 40, of Elliottsburg, Pennsylvania, said she is resigned to a Trump loss because the government “can fudge stuff.” Turning out en-masse to watch polling centers on election night won’t change that, she said. In Mechanicsburg, an overwhelmingly Republican borough of nearly 9,000 people, realtor Steve Johansen helped to set up a Trump field office in a skating rink, but he has no plans to monitor any polling places. “I have faith in the system,” he said.

Summary: चुनाव पर्यवेक्षकों के लिए ट्रम्प की अपील को कुछ समर्थकों से नरम प्रतिक्रिया मिली


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council is due to vote on Thursday on rival U.S. and Russian bids to renew an international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria, diplomats said, a move that could trigger Russia s 10th veto to block action on Syria. The mandate for the joint inquiry by the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which found the Syrian government used the banned nerve agent sarin in an April 4 attack, expires at midnight Thursday. The United States was first to ask for a vote on its draft resolution, followed quickly by Russia. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Russia, Britain or China to be adopted. Diplomats say there is little support among the 15-member council for the Russian draft, which Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has said aims to correct  systemic errors  of the inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM). Russia has vetoed nine resolutions on Syria since the conflict started in 2011, including blocking an initial U.S. bid on Oct. 24 to renew the JIM, saying it wanted to wait for the release two days later of the inquiry s report that blamed a sarin gas attack on the Syrian government.  The United States hopes the Security Council will stand united in the face of chemical weapons use against civilians and extend the work of this critical group,  the U.S. mission to the United Nations said in a statement on Wednesday.   Not doing so would only give consent to such atrocities while tragically failing the Syrian people who have suffered from these despicable acts,  it said. While Russia agreed to the 2015 creation of the inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), it has consistently questioned its findings, which also concluded that the Syrian government used chlorine as a weapon several times. A spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said on Monday that Russia has refused to engage in negotiations on the U.S. draft resolution. Diplomats said the United States had amended its draft in a bid to win Russian support. British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft warned on Wednesday that if the inquiry ended:  The only victors would be people who want to use chemical weapons in Syria, which is the (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad regime plus Daesh (Islamic State).   Everyone in the Security Council would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we allowed that to happen,  he said.  The Russian mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment on the impending council vote. If the inquiry is not renewed, Nebenzia said on Monday:  It may send a bad signal, but the way the investigation has been conducted sends an even worse signal.  Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र प्रतिद्वंद्वी अमेरिका पर मतदान करेगा, रूस सीरिया जांच को नवीनीकृत करने के लिए बोली लगाएगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans plan to unveil the text of their draft healthcare bill on Thursday as senators struggle over issues such as the future of the Medicaid program for the poor and bringing down insurance costs. Republicans in the chamber have been working for weeks behind closed doors on legislation aimed at repealing and replacing major portions of the Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, popularly known as Obamacare. The effort has been plagued from the start by tensions between moderates and conservatives, which surfaced again on Tuesday. Democrats have also criticized the behind-the-scenes meetings, staging a protest on the Senate floor on Monday. “Republicans are writing their healthcare bill under the cover of darkness because they are ashamed of it,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer charged.  President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to repeal Obamacare. The 2010 law extended insurance coverage to millions of Americans through both subsidized private insurance and an expansion of Medicaid. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved its version of repeal last month. Trump has urged the Republican-led Senate to pass a more “generous” bill than that approved by the House, whose version he privately called “mean,” according to congressional sources. An estimated 23 million people could lose their healthcare under the House plan, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday the Senate healthcare bill would be different from the House version, but he did not elaborate. In the Senate, moderates including Senator Shelley Moore Capito have argued for a long, seven-year phase-out to the Medicaid expansion that happened under Obamacare. But Senator John Thune, a member of the Republican leadership, said on Tuesday the phase-out in the bill might just be three years. Capito said on Tuesday she was also concerned the Senate healthcare plan might cap Medicaid spending and shift it to a lower growth rate in 2025. “That’s an issue,” she said. Senate conservatives also seemed wary of the emerging bill. Ted Cruz, a member of a core group of 13 Republicans who have been working on the legislation, told reporters the bill did not yet do enough to lower health insurance premiums. “If it is going to pass, the bill is going to have to make meaningful steps to reduce premiums,” he said. Given the opposition of all Senate Democrats to repealing Obamacare, Republican leaders will need the support of at least 50 of the chamber’s 52 Republicans to ensure passage. McConnell announced a discussion draft would be laid out on Thursday. The bill will be brought to the Senate floor once the CBO has assessed its cost and impact, “likely next week,” McConnell said. Thune said the bill was not yet finalized, saying: “We’re trying to get definitive determinations” on a range of issues. Vice President Mike Pence predicted that new healthcare legislation would be enacted this summer. “I want to assure you, before this summer is over ... President Donald Trump and this Congress will keep their promise to the American people, and we will repeal and replace Obamacare,” Pence told a meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Summary: हफ्तों की गोपनीयता के बाद, सीनेट स्वास्थ्य सेवा विधेयक का अनावरण करेगी


BERLIN (Reuters) - A Syrian man living in Germany was jailed for three and a half years on Wednesday for his part in the kidnapping of a U.N. peacekeeper near Damascus four years ago. The man, who was not named, was found guilty of being an accessory to the abduction, according to a statement from the German court that tried him which did not go into details on what he did. The U.N. peacekeeper, who served in the demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights, was kidnapped in Feb. 2013, the Higher Regional Court in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart said.  Prosecutors had in January 2016 identified the Syrian man as Suliman A.-S. under German privacy laws and said they suspected him of being a member of the Islamic militant Nusra Front group. They said the group had demanded a ransom from the United Nations, the Canadian government and the peacekeeper s family in exchange for his release. The court did not give his nationality. The U.N. peacekeeper eventually escaped eight months after his abduction, the court said. It said there was not enough evidence to conclude that Nusra Front was behind the kidnapping nor that the Syrian man was a member of the militant group.  The accused was found guilty under the Code on International Criminal Law of being an accessory to a war crime against a peacekeeping mission that involved kidnapping for ransom, three counts of attempted robbery by blackmail and grievous unlawful detention,  the court wrote in a statement.

Summary: जर्मन अदालत ने संयुक्त राष्ट्र शांति सैनिक के अपहरण पर सीरियाई को दोषी ठहराया


(Reuters) - The Republican Party will resume funding the U.S. Senate campaign of Roy Moore after President Donald Trump endorsed the Alabama Republican, who is accused of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls. The Republican National Committee had transferred $50,000 to the Alabama Republican Party in support of Moore, an RNC official said on Tuesday. No RNC staff have been deployed to the state. The state party can use the money as it sees fit, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Later on Tuesday, an RNC official said a second transfer for the sum of $120,000 was made to the Alabama state Republican Party on Moore’s behalf, making the total $170,000. The RNC cut ties with Moore last month after several women accused the former Alabama judge of sexual assault or misconduct when they were teenagers and Moore was in his early 30s.    Moore, 70, has denied the accusations. Reuters has not independently verified the reports. On Monday, the White House said Trump had called Moore to give him his support. In a tweet that acknowledged the president’s endorsement, Moore quoted Trump as saying: “Go get ‘em, Roy!” In a sign of the deep divide within the Republican Party around the allegations facing Moore, former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized Trump’s endorsement, as did former RNC Chairman Michael Steele. “Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation,” Romney wrote on Twitter. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last month he believed Moore’s accusers and joined other senators in urging him to quit the race. But on Sunday, the Republican McConnell said it was up to Alabama voters to decide whether to send Moore to Washington. Moore will face off with Democratic candidate and former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones in a special election on Dec. 12. “As I have said before - I believe these women. And so should you,” Jones said in speech on Tuesday. At the White House, Trump told reporters he thought Moore was going to do “very well” in next week’s election.  “We don’t want to have a liberal Democrat in Alabama,” Trump said. “We want strong borders, we want stopping crime, we want to have the things that we represent. And we certainly don’t want to have a liberal Democrat that’s controlled by Nancy Pelosi and controlled by Chuck Schumer,” he added in reference to the Democratic leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन पार्टी ने सीनेट उम्मीदवार मूर का समर्थन कियाः अधिकारी


BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - The unraveling of the coalition that was supposed to carry Hillary Clinton to the White House had a lot to do with voters like Jim McAndrew in counties like Northampton, Pennsylvania. McAndrew, 69, a retired steel worker, voted Democrat in every presidential election for half a century. This year he stayed home. And Northampton County, a heavily white, heavily Democratic, largely working class area that backed President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, went for Donald Trump, a Republican. McAndrew, who voted for Obama in the two previous races, was intrigued by Trump, but decided eventually that “all he does is insult everybody ... women, black people, white people, rich, poor. He’s an idiot.” He considered Clinton, but was concerned by the scandal over her handling of classified material on a private email server as secretary of state. “I hated both of them, so I just said, ‘the hell with it,’” McAndrew said. His wife, also a life-long Democrat, went to the polls without him - and voted Republican.  “First time ever,” he said. Trump’s ability to flip reliably Democratic counties like Northampton helped drive his victory in the presidential election this week. It was critical to his win in Pennsylvania and other Rust Belt states, a bulwark in the Democrats’ electoral strategy for winning the White House, and it helped fuel his victories in critical swing states, such as Florida and North Carolina. It’s not that Trump’s economic populism and “America First” messages generated widespread enthusiasm; he won some of those counties with far fewer votes than Mitt Romney captured as the Republican nominee in 2012. Nationwide, Trump’s 59.7 million votes are about 1.2 million behind the 60.9 million Romney got when he lost four years ago, based on initial projections. But Clinton’s troubles holding on to Democratic voters were far more stark. Some crossed party lines for Trump or backed an independent.  Many just stayed home.  Clinton won the popular vote with 59.9 million votes, 6 million fewer than the 65.9 million Obama won in 2012. And her weakness in traditionally Democratic areas helped cost her the electoral college that chooses the winner of the election. Clinton came across as a status quo candidate unlikely to shake up the Washington establishment, says Mike Sly, 74, a retiree and independent voter in Pinellas County, Florida, who backed Obama in 2012 and voted for Trump this year. Clinton’s message failed to convince him that she would address his concerns about the state of the economy and rising health insurance premiums under Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The race “came down to basically what change do I think is going to happen, and how I think it is going to happen,” Sly says. “I felt that Hillary really carried too much baggage to be trusted.” Clinton’s loss in Florida, a key battleground state, stemmed partly from her inability to hold voters like Sly in white, middle- and working-class areas that previously went Democrat. In vote-rich Pinellas, a beach community popular with retirees in the Tampa Bay region, Trump won 48 percent of the vote, besting Clinton’s 47 percent. In 2012, Obama won 52 percent. Nationally, initial projections show low voter turnout of just over 55 percent, the worst since the contested election of 2000, when Republican George W. Bush defeated then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore. In Obama’s first victory, turnout was more than 62 percent. Clinton beat Trump among black and Hispanic voters, but her effort to forge a winning coalition by leveraging that strength in diverse, urban areas was upended by Trump’s strength among whites. Meanwhile, Trump still managed to hold roughly the same level of minority support that Romney got in 2012. The pattern held true not only in rural areas, but also in many suburbs, particularly in the Rust Belt and the South, that tipped towards Obama in the previous two presidential races. “It was pretty much a base election, but one group was better at turning out their voters than the other,” says Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political science professor. In Gates County, North Carolina, Trump’s vows to crack down on illegal immigration and police Muslim communities for radicalism resonated, says Eric J. Earhart, 49, pastor of the evangelical Upper Room Assembly church. “There has been a definite shift over the past eight years away from us being a Judeo-Christian nation,” Earhart adds, and many congregants worry about that. The rural county of 12,000 people went for Obama in 2012 with 52 percent of the vote, but it flipped into Trump’s column in this year’s race, giving him 53 percent. Thomas Hill, 38, chairman of the Gates County Republican Party, says voters also were attracted to Trump’s blunt speaking and his pledge to bring back manufacturing jobs that went overseas.  Trump’s economic message, which included a promise to kill free trade agreements that are unpopular among many working-class voters in industrial areas, also succeeded in Macomb County, Michigan, a predominantly white area north of Detroit. The number of voters casting ballots in the county jumped by more than 14,000 over 2012, and Trump captured 53 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 42 percent. Four years ago, Obama won the county with just under 52 percent of the vote.  “You’ve got a lot of blue collar workers here (and) ... a lot of union guys, and they went Republican,” says David Phair, 59, a construction worker and Trump voter who didn’t cast a ballot in 2012. “They’re tired of politicians.” Phair also liked Trump’s promise to end illegal immigration. “I’m looking forward to how he’s going to handle illegal aliens.” In Pennsylvania, Northampton County and neighboring Lehigh County, once reliant on steel companies, have bounced back from the industry’s decline. In Bethlehem, which straddles the two counties, new development has mushroomed around the old steel mill, including a Sands casino resort with 2,400 employees.  E-commerce companies, white collar firms and big corporations, such as Olympus, the Japanese imaging giant, have also  moved to the region. Lehigh and Northampton counties have a larger share of households than the state as a whole that earn more than $75,000, about 36 percent. All that suggests ripe country for Clinton. But the counties also are whiter and older than the country as a whole.  And Trump dominated voting among older whites. Around the table where McAndrew has a weekly poker game in the basement of the United Steel Workers office in Bethlehem, the retired men of the city’s steel mills have different opinions on why Clinton failed to match Obama’s success in the region. But they agree that she didn’t offer a compelling message. Among the five at the table, all lifelong Democrats, only three cast votes for Clinton. “She was going to continue everything the way it is and a lot of people think there are things that need to be changed,” says Ken Rayden, 80, who voted for Clinton, but mainly out of party loyalty. “She didn’t show the people anything new.”

Summary: कैसे हिलेरी क्लिंटन के श्वेत मतदाताओं ने मतदान किया


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday she would continue to govern in the interests of all Northern Ireland and uphold the agreement that ended decades of sectarian violence in the province. The statement comes as an impasse over the future of the Irish border once Britain leaves the European Union looked to have been resolved.   This Government will continue to govern in the interests of the whole community in Northern Ireland and uphold the Agreements that have underpinned the huge progress that has been made over the past two decades,  a statement published on the government s website said.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के प्रधानमंत्री मे ने ब्रेक्सिट गतिरोध समाप्त होने पर उत्तर आयरलैंड शांति प्रक्रिया को बनाए रखने का वादा किया


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, two cabinet ministers and the head of the military met South African envoys on Thursday in his office, a day after the military seized power, the state Herald newspaper said. Photos on the Herald s website showed Mugabe, General Constantino Chiwenga, Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi and State Security Minister Kembo Mohadi speaking with South African officials alongside Catholic priest Fidelis Mukonori. The South African officials in the photos included Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and State Security Minister Bongani Bongo.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मुगाबे ने स्टेट हाउस में दक्षिण अफ्रीकी राजदूतों से मुलाकात कीः सरकारी समाचार पत्र


BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont will address the regional parliament next Tuesday on the  current political situation,  the Catalan parliament said on Twitter. The speaker of the Catalan assembly, Carme Forcadell, has called the plenary session for 6 pm (1600 GMT) on Tuesday, it said.

Summary: कैटलन नेता पुइग्डेमोंट मंगलवार शाम को कैटलन संसद को संबोधित करेंगे


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa gave his clearest signal yet on Tuesday that he would appoint as vice president the military leader who led the de facto coup that ousted former leader Robert Mugabe last month. At a ceremony marking Constantino Chiwenga s retirement and handover of the military reins to Phillip Sibanda at an army barracks near Harare s international airport, Mnangagwa lauded Chiwenga for his consistency and steadfastness.  I therefore urge you to maintain the same loyalty, robustness and dedication to duty as you move to your next assignment which is quite prominent,  he said without elaborating. Mnangagwa said on Friday he would fill the two vice presidential posts in the following few days. Chiwenga is the top contender in what is seen as a reward for helping to end Mugabe s 37-year rule.  Mnangagwa has appointed several senior military officers to his cabinet and the ruling party s executive politburo since he was sworn in as president on Nov. 24 in what some political analysts say reflects the army s consolidation of power since it turned against the 93-year-old Mugabe. Chris Mutsvangwa, special adviser to the president and the influential leader of the war veterans  association, rejected criticism of the military appointments, saying they were not unique to Zimbabwe. He pointed to the former generals in U.S. President Donald Trump s cabinet. He also denied a report by the privately owned NewsDay newspaper that he had said the army would play a role in elections due next year.  It s a lie ... I said there was a team which helped to undo the dynastic tendencies of geriatric Mugabe and his mid-wife (sic),  he told reporters at his offices in Harare.   I promised to the new president that we are going to deliver an electoral victory but that team specifically excludes the army because the army had played a role earlier and because the army is a professional army and does not get involved in election campaigns.  The elections are due by July 2018 but Mnangagwa has said they may be held sooner than expected. Mnangagwa told members of his ruling ZANU-PF party on Friday they would have to start fixing the economy if they wanted a chance of winning next year s vote. The southern African nation s economy collapsed in the latter half of Mugabe s rule, especially after the violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मनांगाग्वा ने उपराष्ट्रपति पद के लिए सैन्य प्रमुख के नाम का संकेत दिया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for sealing an arms deal and other investments worth hundreds of billions of dollars with Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s arch-rival in the Middle East. Zarif’s comments came hours after Trump, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, urged Arab and Islamic leaders to unite and defeat Islamist extremists. Trump singled out Iran as a key sponsor of militant groups, sending a tough message to Tehran the day after Hassan Rouhani won a second term as Iran’s president.  “Iran - fresh from real elections - attacked by @POTUS in that bastion of democracy & moderation. Foreign Policy or simply milking KSA of $480B?,” Zarif wrote in a Twitter post, referring to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Iran and Saudi Arabia have long accused each other of sponsoring militias aligned to their competing sects of Islam in conflicts across the Middle East. Introducing Trump, Saudi King Salman described Tehran as a mutual foe and a source of terrorism they must confront together. In his first keynote speech abroad, Trump sought to redefine his relationship with the Muslim world, and focused on his desire to curb Iran’s influence in the region.  “For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror,” he said.

Summary: ईरान के विदेश मंत्री ने भाषण और हथियारों के सौदे के बाद ट्रम्प की निंदा की


ROME (Reuters) - Italy s parliament will be dissolved between Christmas and the New Year with national elections likely set for March 4, a parliamentary source in contact with the president s office said on Wednesday. The source said the vote could also be held on March 11, with a final decision due to be taken shortly. A national election must be held by May, but most political parties are keen to hold elections as soon as possible. While the centre-right is seen winning most seats at the forthcoming ballot, opinion polls suggest it will not win an absolute majority, making a hung parliament the most likely outcome.

Summary: इटली में राष्ट्रीय चुनाव 4 मार्च को होने की संभावनाः संसदीय सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House Intelligence Committee on Saturday said it had reached an agreement related to its subpoena of a Washington research firm’s bank records that would secure access to records for the panel’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The announcement came a day after a federal judge had given an unnamed bank more time to respond to the congressional panel’s subpoena to Fusion GPS, the research outfit that hired a former British spy to compile a dossier on presidential candidate Donald Trump.  The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online publication backed by billionaire Republican mega-donor Paul Singer, said on Friday it was the original funder of the Fusion GPS project to compile opposition research on multiple Republican presidential candidates, including Trump. Trump and other Republicans have alleged that Russians paid Fusion GPS for research on their own dealings with the president and his campaign. But the Free Beacon said all the material it was provided came from public sources and that the effort was separate from a former British spy’s dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to President Donald Trump’s campaign and associates. Known as the Steele dossier because it was compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, the document identified Russian businessmen and others whom U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or working on behalf of the Russian government. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee began paying Fusion GPS in April 2016 for research on Trump, an arrangement that later produced the Steele dossier. Trump, who has called allegations of campaign collusion with Moscow a hoax, has repeatedly called the dossier fake news. Much of the inflammatory and at times salacious content of the dossier has not been verified. However, U.S. officials have confirmed certain details. In a closed-door hearing with Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson said there was no connection between the firm’s work on the dossier and its legal research on a lawsuit involving Russians who attended a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law and close aide, Jared Kushner, and former campaign chief Paul Manafort, sources familiar with the hearing said.

Summary: अमेरिकी हाउस पैनल का कहना है कि फ्यूजन जी. पी. एस. बैंक रिकॉर्ड पर समझौता हुआ


(Reuters) - While one focus of the leak crackdown announced on Friday by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is on journalists who receive leaked information, another is on suspected leakers. Republican President Donald Trump has complained for months about leaks to the news media, but his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, also took a hard line on leaking.  Eight of the 12 cases where federal prosecutors charged individuals with violating the Espionage Act, a World War One-era law aimed at keeping sensitive information out of the hands of the United States’ enemies, were brought under Obama. Here are the 12 cases, dating back 46 years. Daniel Ellsberg became the first such case in 1971 when prosecutors accused the national security analyst and his colleague, Anthony Russo, of providing what would become known as the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other media outlets. The secret documents revealed the extent of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Charges against the two men were dismissed when a judge found that the government had wiretapped Ellsberg, possibly illegally. Samuel Morison, a former Navy intelligence analyst, was charged in 1984 with illegally passing secret photographs of Soviet ships to a magazine, Jane’s Defence Weekly. He pleaded not guilty, but a jury convicted him, making him the first person convicted under the Espionage Act for divulging secrets to the press. He was sentenced to two years in prison but paroled. President Bill Clinton pardoned him. Lawrence Franklin, a Defense Department employee, was charged in 2005 with passing classified information about Iran to two pro-Israel lobbyists, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. Franklin pleaded guilty and received a 12-year sentence. Eventually, after the government’s case against Rosen and Weissman collapsed, a judge reduced Franklin’s sentence to 10 months in a halfway house. Shamai Leibowitz was an FBI translator when material that he heard while translating ended up on a blog. He reached an agreement with prosecutors before he was charged, and pleaded guilty in 2009 to one count of disclosing classified information. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake was suspected in 2010 of revealing information about the agency’s warrantless wiretapping program. He was indicted under the Espionage Act but said the only information he leaked was about waste in an NSA program, which he gave to the Baltimore Sun. The 10 felony counts were dropped when he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and received no prison time. Chelsea Manning, an Army private first class formerly known as Bradley Manning, turned over more than 700,000 classified files to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in the biggest breach of secret data in U.S. history. Manning was found guilty of 19 counts but acquitted of the most serious one, aiding the enemy. She was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years in a military prison but was released in May after Obama, in his last days in office, commuted the final 28 years of Manning’s sentence.  Stephen Kim, a U.S. State Department contract analyst, allegedly divulged to a Fox News reporter what U.S. intelligence believed about how North Korea would respond to new sanctions. A grand jury indicted him in 2010 for disclosing defense information and making false statements. He pleaded guilty in 2014 and was sentenced to thirteen months in prison. He was released in May 2015.  Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was charged in 2011 with illegally disclosing classified information about Iran to James Risen, a New York Times reporter, for his book “State of War.” A jury convicted Sterling in 2015. A judge sentenced him to 42 months in prison.  Former CIA officer John Kiriakou was charged in 2012 with divulging to journalists secret information about the CIA’s interrogation program, including the identity of a covert officer. In an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to one count and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He was released in February 2015 on condition that he serve three months of house arrest. U.S. officials said in June 2013 they had filed sealed criminal charges against former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for unauthorized leaks and theft of government property. Snowden prompted a worldwide debate after he gave documents to newspapers showing the extent of U.S. surveillance programs. Russia granted him asylum. Former FBI bomb analyst Donald Sachtleben agreed in September 2013 to plead guilty to disclosing national defense information for telling an Associated Press reporter details of a failed airline bombing attempt by Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. A judge sentenced Sachtleben that year to a 43-month prison term for the national security offenses and a consecutive 97-month term for unrelated child pornography charges. The Justice Department charged U.S. intelligence contractor Reality Leigh Winner with violating the Espionage Act for leaking a classified report on Russian interference in U.S. elections to The Intercept. The NSA report described Russian efforts to launch cyber attacks on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and send “spear-phishing” emails to more than 100 local officials days before the Nov. 8, 2016 election.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः आरोपों का सामना कर रहे मीडिया को अमेरिकी लीक करने वालों का लंबा इतिहास


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen discussed risks to the economy and progress from Wall Street reform during a rare meeting in the Oval Office on Monday, the White House said. “They discussed both the near and long-term growth outlook, the state of the labor market, inequality, and potential risks to the economy, both in the United States and globally,” the White House said in a statement about the meeting. “They also discussed the significant progress that has been made through the continued implementation of Wall Street Reform to strengthen our financial system and protect consumers.”

Summary: ओबामा, फेड के येलेन ने व्हाइट हाउस की बैठक में आर्थिक जोखिमों पर चर्चा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After failing to repeal Obamacare, Republicans in the U.S. Congress quickly pivoted on Friday to President Donald Trump’s next priority: overhauling the federal tax code, but their plan has already split the business community. Division among Republicans was the chief cause of the embarrassing setback on Obamacare, and similar fault lines have been evident for months in the Republicans’ tax plan, mainly over an untested proposal to use the tax code to boost exports. House of Representatives tax committee Chairman Kevin Brady conceded the demise of a Republican plan to roll back Obamacare could make the path to tax reform harder. “This made a big challenge more challenging. But it’s not insurmountable,” he told Fox News after Ryan canceled a vote on an Obamacare rollback bill. But Brady said he and House Speaker Paul Ryan are all-in on tax reform. Brady said House Republicans plan to begin moving on tax reform this spring and to pass legislation before Congress’s summer recess in late July. “We’re going to work with the administration to get this done,” he said. Trump has been unclear about his position on the most problematic feature of the House Republicans’ tax “blueprint,” a proposal known as the border adjustment tax that would cut taxes on exports and raise them on imports.  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that tax reform in many ways is “a lot simpler” than healthcare reform. “We’re able to take the tax code and redesign things and I think there is very, very strong support,” Mnuchin said at an event hosted by news website Axios. Comprehensive tax reform is a policy goal so complex that it has defied successive Congresses and presidents since 1986 when it was last accomplished under former President Ronald Reagan. The U.S. tax code is riddled with narrow subsidies and loopholes, many of them deeply embedded in the economy and defended by the interests they benefit, such as the mortgage interest deduction and the business interest deductibility. Brady’s panel has been working on a plan since mid-2016 that would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, end taxing foreign profits for U.S.-based multinationals and cut other tax rates for businesses and investors. The plan has divided businesses, prompting import-dependent industries to warn of higher prices for consumer goods from clothing and electronics to gasoline. Brady has been adamant that border adjustment will be part of the House tax reform, saying earlier this week that the provision was “a given” for final legislation but would include a transition period for import-heavy industries.

Summary: स्वास्थ्य सेवा बिल के समाप्त होने के साथ, रिपब्लिकन करों की ओर मुड़ते हैं


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico s newest political force formally emerged on Friday when a right-left coalition presented its official request with the electoral institute to compete in next year s presidential election.  The coalition, known as  For Mexico in Front,  brings together the conservative National Action Party (PAN), the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Citizens Movement party.  The coalition will compete against the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and leftist frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), in next July s vote. President Enrique Pena Nieto is constitutionally barred from running again. With the formalizing of the coalition, the contours of the election are beginning to take shape. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen who  For Mexico in Front  will pick as its candidate.  PAN president Ricardo Anaya is seen as the most likely figure, although Mexico City s PRD Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera is also seen as a contender. Former Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala broke with the PAN in October in order to run as an independent.  Last week, Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade resigned to seek the presidential nomination of the PRI, which has broken with tradition by seeking outside help to clean up its tarnished image and stay in office for another six years. The PRI faces an uphill battle to reclaim the presidency, and is banking on Meade, who is not a PRI member and has a reputation for honesty, to win over voters tired by years of graft, violence and lackluster growth.

Summary: मेक्सिको दक्षिण-वाम गठबंधन ने 2018 के चुनाव में भाग लेने के लिए बोली पेश की


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Editors Note: Attention to language that may be offensive to some readers in paragraph 3 The National Mall in Washington could become a sea of bright pink the day after Donald Trump is inaugurated as U.S. president if the vision of a pair of Los Angeles women is realized.   For two months, Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman have called on people around the world to make 1.17 million pink “pussyhats” for those attending the Women’s March, a rally on Jan. 21 organized with hopes of bringing attention to civil and human rights issues. The name of the hats comes partly from President-elect Trump’s comments in an infamous 2005 tape that came to light during his campaign in which, discussing women, he said: “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” The project is meant to “create a sea of pink hats which is going to be a strong collective visual statement,” Zweiman said.  It is also meant to involve “people across the country and the world who want to be a part of the march but can’t physically be there and want to support the marchers,” she said.  The women have asked volunteers around the world to help sew, crochet or knit pink hats with ears by using simple patterns available on the project’s website. They say it is easier than knitting a scarf, the typical starter project for novices. “It’s a rectangle folded in half, stitched up the sides and when you put it on your round head, these ears come out,” said Zweiman, surrounded by women stitching away at a knitting store on Friday night. Marchers can get a hat by contacting a maker through an online distribution system, through social media or at sites in Washington. “So it’s a distribution system that’s very grassroots and our aim is to get a hat on every marcher’s head who wants one,” Zweiman said. Organizers have said the protest could draw around 200,000 people, but Suh and Zweiman decided to aim for the 1.17 million people that could feasibly fit in the Mall. For some knitters at Friday’s “pussyhat party,” it was hard to put the needles down as the deadline nears. “Doing this is taking my mind off things,” said Marina Mont’Ros.  “This will be my 35th hat. Every time I think ‘OK, that’s enough. I’ve made enough, I’m going to stop,’ I read something in the news and, give me that yarn! I’m making more.”

Summary: ट्रम्प के उद्घाटन के बाद महिलाओं ने रैली के लिए गुलाबी 'पुसीहाट' बुने


SANAA/DUBAI (Reuters) - The powerful exiled son of Yemen s slain ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed on Tuesday to lead a campaign against the Houthi movement that killed his father after he switched sides in the civil war. The intervention by Ahmed Ali Saleh, a former leader of the elite Republican Guard once seen as a likely successor to his father, gives the anti-Houthi movement in Sanaa a potential figurehead, after a week of fighting that saw the Houthis rout Saleh s supporters in the capital. Yemen s war, pitting the Iran-allied Houthis who control Sanaa against a Saudi-led military alliance backing a government based in the south, has brought what the United Nations calls the world s worst humanitarian crisis. The world body says millions of people may die in one of the worst famines of modern times, caused by warring parties blocking food supplies. Saleh had helped the Houthis win control of much of the country s north including Sanaa, and his decision to switch allegiances and abandon the Houthis in the past week was the most dramatic change on the battlefield in years. But the Houthis swiftly crushed a pro-Saleh uprising in the capital and shot him dead in an attack on his convoy. Tens of thousands of Houthi supporters staged a rally in the capital on Tuesday to show support for their leader and celebrate the death of Saleh. They chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and its allies.  Mahmoud Ali al-Houthi, head of the movement s Revolutionary Committee, denied allegations that the group was executing members of Saleh s party after their capture:  We have been treating some of Saleh s sons and we haven t executed them,  he told the crowd.  Sanaa saw no fresh fighting on Tuesday after five days of combat that the Red Cross said killed more than 230 people. The Saudi-led coalition struck the city with 25 air strikes overnight, but U.N. and Red Cross aid flights were able to land at the airport, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said.  People are now emerging from their houses after five days being locked down basically as prisoners,  McGoldrick told a U.N. briefing by phone from Sanaa.  They are now seeking safety, moving their families in case things erupt again and at the same time seeking medical treatment and trying to pacify very terrified kids who have endured five days of relentless shelling, shooting and ground fire and air strikes.  The Saudi cabinet, in a statement that did not mention Saleh by name, said it hoped the Sanaa uprising against the Houthis would  help rid sisterly Yemen of repression, death threats, ... explosions and seizure of private and public property . The death of Saleh, who once compared ruling Yemen to dancing on the heads of snakes, deepens the complexity of the multi-sided war. Much is likely to depend on the future allegiances of his loyalists, who had previously helped the armed Houthi group, which hails from the Zaidi branch of Shi ite Islam that ruled a thousand-year kingdom in northern Yemen until 1962. In a statement sent to Reuters by an aide, his son said his father was killed at  the hands of the enemies of God and the country . Ahmed Ali said he would  confront the enemies of the homeland and humanity, who are trying to obliterate its identity and its gains and to humiliate Yemen and Yemenis . In an earlier statement carried by Saudi state media, Ahmed Ali said he would lead  the battle until the last Houthi is thrown out of Yemen ... the blood of my father will be hell ringing in the ears of Iran.  The Arabian peninsula s poorest country, Yemen is one of the most violent fronts in a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, who have also backed opposing sides in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere across the Middle East.  The Saudi-led coalition appears to have been counting on Saleh s decision to switch sides to tip the balance of the war. Saleh, who ruled in Sanaa from 1978-2012, had a strong following in Yemen, including army officers and armed tribal leaders who once served under him. During the years the ex-president was allied to the Houthis, Yemeni political sources say Ahmed Ali was living incommunicado under house arrest at a guarded villa in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, where he had served as ambassador. The UAE is a key member of the mostly Gulf Arab alliance that sees the Houthis as a proxy of their arch-enemy Iran. The Gulf countries had struggled to make gains against the Houthi-Saleh alliance despite thousands of air strikes backed by Western arms and intelligence. They have used their air and sea power to tightly restrict imports, action that the United Nations says could lead to mass hunger. Ahmed Ali may be the family s last chance to win back influence. A nephew of the former leader, Tareq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, a senior military commander, was also killed during clashes with the Houthis, Saleh s party said on Tuesday. Residents reported that fighting had subsided but that  Saudi-led coalition jets pounded several targets, including the downtown presidential palace where a governing body led by Houthi-Saleh politicians had regularly convened. The Houthi leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi, hailed Saleh s death in a speech on Monday as a victory against a treasonous conspiracy by Yemen s Saudi enemies and called for Tuesday s mass rally at a parade ground near the site of the air strikes. In the southern city of Aden, where the Saudi-backed government is based, residents set off fireworks and expressed joy. Saleh was hated throughout southern Yemen after he launched a war to unify the country in 1994, lobbing ballistic missiles at the city. But his legacy is mixed. He is still loved in much of the north and many supporters will bear a grudge towards his killers. Some feared Saleh s death would only create more instability in Yemen.  We expect things will get worse for us. This will be the beginning of a new conflict and more bloodshed. The war will not end soon,  said Aswan Abdu Khalid, an academic at the psychology department at the University of Aden.

Summary: यमन के निर्वासित सालेह के बेटे ने हौती विरोधी मुद्दा उठाया