BAGHDAD/LONDON (Reuters) - After helping Iraq stifle a Kurdish push for independence, Iran is now positioning itself to take control of oil exports from the region s giant Kirkuk field, with the first deliveries expected within days, officials and trading sources said. In the weeks since September s failed Kurdish independence referendum, Iraq has agreed for the first time to divert crude from Kirkuk province, which it retook from the Kurds, to Iran, where it will supply a refinery in the city of Kermanshah. Iran is locked in a proxy war with its regional rival and U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia. As well as Iraq, it has been extending its influence in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, raising increasing concerns in Washington and Riyadh. Under the new arrangement, the first oil will be trucked across the border in the coming days. Initially Iran will receive 15,000 barrels per day worth nearly $1 million, rising gradually to 60,000 bpd, according to Iraqi officials and trading sources. Baghdad and Tehran have also revived a project to build a pipeline to carry oil from Iraq s Kirkuk fields to central Iran and onwards for export from the Gulf. Hamid Hosseini, the Iranian secretary-general of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce, said Iran want to build a pipeline that can take as much as 650,000 bpd of Kurdish oil for its domestic refineries and for exports. The pipeline would replace existing export routes for crude from northern Iraq via Turkey and the Mediterranean and would be a blow to Ankara s hopes of becoming an energy hub for Europe. It would also be evidence of a U.S. failure to prevent a rapprochement between its ally Iraq and one of its biggest political foes, Iran, which is rapidly regaining influence in the Middle East. That is in part due to general Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds force, the international branch of the Revolutionary Guards, which is also taking a keen interest in Iran s oil business in Iraq. Soleimani visited Iraqi Kurdistan in September to warn the region against holding an independence vote. He was also involved in the Iraqi army s recapture of Kirkuk.  In Iraq, Iranian forces are working to sow discord as we recently saw in Kirkuk, where the presence of Quds force commander, Qassem Soleimani, exacerbated tensions among the Kurds and the government in Baghdad,  U.S. Senator John McCain said in Washington last week.  The Kurdish dream of being a big oil exporter is in tatters,  said a source close to the government in Erbil, who predicted that  Iran will be king of the game . The Kurds  bid for independence angered Turkey and Iran, which both have large Kurdish populations and condemned the referendum  as destabilizing the region. The United States also called on Kurdistan to scrap the vote.  But it was probably internal Kurdish divisions which doomed the referendum to failure, local political sources believe. Oil was at the heart of this dispute. The Kirkuk fields were controlled by Iraq s state oil firm SOMO before being taken over by Kurdish forces in 2014, when the Iraqi army retreated in the face of attacks by Islamic state. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party (PUK), in Sulaimaniya, then accused the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) party of then President Massoud Barzani, based in the capital Erbil, of not sharing the oil wealth. The PUK wanted to export oil from Kirkuk to Iran.  We tried to make Barzani accept joint management between Erbil and Sulaimaniya over the fields but he strongly opposed it,  said Sherzad Yaba, a political adviser close to the PUK.  To put an end to the illegitimate control of the KDP over Kirkuk oil, senior members from the PUK contacted both Baghdad and Tehran and encouraged the Iranians to build a pipeline to export Kirkuk crude through Bandar Abbas port,  said Yaba. The project lay dormant even though Iraqi oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi and his Iranian counterpart Bijal Zanganeh signed a memorandum on the project in February.  After the referendum, the KDP accused the PUK of striking a deal with Iran to withdraw from Kirkuk, which the PUK denies. The recapture of Kirkuk was coordinated with Soleimani and left Iraqi government troops in control of half of all Kurdish oil output. As Kurdish engineers fled the fields, output from Kirkuk was suspended and has remained shut for the past five weeks as Baghdad and Erbil argue over the revenue split. With output of over 300,000 bpd suspended since mid-October, losses are approaching $1 billion, according to Kurdish industry sources. To stop the losses, Iraq and the PUK resumed talks with Iran, according to Iraqi and Kurdish officials. Officials from Iraq s and Iran s state oil firms, SOMO and NICO, met last month to iron out details of oil sales to the Kermanshah refinery, the acting chief of SOMO, Alaa al-Yasiri, said. He also said active discussions were taking place about the pipeline project. Even though discussions between Baghdad and Tehran have been conducted between oil ministry officials and the Chamber of Commerce, the Revolutionary Guards are poised to step in.  Any oil transaction between Iran and Iraq should be approved by the Revolutionary Guards, not the oil ministry.  said Reza Mostafavi Tabatabaei, president of London-based ENEXD, a firm involved in the energy equipment business in the Middle East. Those dealings are overseen by the desk responsible for Iran s investments in Iraq at the president s office and are run by the Revolutionary Guards. The pipeline project will be the Revolutionary Guards  reward to the Kurds for helping with the recapture of Kirkuk, said Tabatabaei.

Summary: तेल को ईरान के कुर्द साहसिक कार्य के वास्तविक पुरस्कार के रूप में देखा जाता है


BANGKOK (Reuters) - The Thai government said on Thursday it plans to take legal action against a radical Buddhist monk detained by police for posting anti-Islamic views on social media, and posing a threat to national security. Phra Maha Aphichat Punnajanto is based at a temple in Bangkok, but police detained him on Tuesday in southern Thailand, a region where Muslim separatist insurgents have been fighting for decades. A spokesman for Thailand s military-led government told Reuters that Aphichat had been warned in the past that his  social media activities could spark religious conflict.  His actions demean another religion and are considered inappropriate,  Lieutenant General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.  The government now has to take legal action against him.   The 31-year-old firebrand rose to prominence in 2015 when he urged Buddhists across the country to burn down a mosque as retribution for every monk killed in the insurgency. The outspoken monk has also been active in campaigning to make Buddhism a state religion of Thailand. Aphichat has voiced admiration for Ashin Wirathu, a monk in Myanmar well known for his anti-Muslim views, and sees his actions as a model for safeguarding Buddhism in Thailand. Police told Reuters that Aphichat was being detained at the Crime Suppression Division unit in Bangkok.  Images appeared on social media on Wednesday evening showing Aphichat being disrobed in his temple. Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said on Thursday Aphichat had left his religious order voluntarily. Reuters was unable to reach Aphichat for comment. The Buddhist Association of Thailand issued a statement protesting the Aphichat s detention saying that it was disrespectful and breached personal rights.  A monk from the same temple, who declined to be named, told Reuters that Aphichat had not breach any laws governing their order and he could not be defrocked.

Summary: थाई सरकार ने मुस्लिम विरोधी विचारों पर भिक्षु के खिलाफ कार्रवाई की


BEIJING (Reuters) - The police of Beijing s Chaoyang district have detained a teacher on suspicion of abuse at a RYB kindergarten, the police said in an statement posted on its official Weibo account. The Chaoyang police have also arrested another person for disrupting social disorder by spreading false information about the alleged kindergarten abuse and causing odious social influence, it said in a separate Weibo posting.

Summary: बीजिंग पुलिस ने आर. वाई. बी. किंडरगार्टन में कथित दुर्व्यवहार से संबंधित शिक्षक को हिरासत में लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government is offering to help states protect the Nov. 8 U.S. election from hacking or other tampering, in the face of allegations by Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump that the system is open to fraud. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told state officials in a phone call on Monday that federal cyber security experts could scan for vulnerabilities in voting systems and provide other resources to help protect against infiltration, his office said in a statement. Trump has questioned the integrity of U.S. election systems in recent weeks, but his allegations have been vague and unsubstantiated. The attempts to sow doubts about the 2016 election results  coincided with Trump’s slide in opinion polls against Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton and missteps in his campaign. His complaints have focused on fears of voter fraud - that people will vote more than once - rather than election rigging. “I mean people are going to walk in, they’re going to vote 10 times maybe. Who knows? They’re going to vote 10 times. So I am very concerned and I hope the Republicans are going to be very watchful,” Trump said in an Aug. 3 interview. President Barack Obama dismissed the claims as “ridiculous.” “Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean?” Obama said at a news conference the next day. In his phone call, Johnson encouraged the state officials to comply with federal cyber recommendations, such as making sure electronic voting machines are not connected to the internet while voting is taking place, the department said. Concerns in both parties about manipulation of electronic electoral systems are not new. Hackers can wreak havoc in myriad ways, from hijacking a candidate’s website to hacking voting machines or deleting or changing election records. An Electronic Privacy Information Center report this week said 32 of the 50 states would allow voting by insecure email, fax and internet portals in this election cycle.

Summary: अमेरिका ने चुनावी हैकिंग से लड़ने के लिए राज्यों को मदद की पेशकश की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan deal from two senators to stabilize Obamacare by restoring subsidies to health insurers suffered major setbacks on Wednesday with the White House saying President Donald Trump now opposes it and senior Republicans speaking out against it. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, Senate Republican leadership member John Thune and others expressed hostility to the deal announced on Tuesday by Republican Lamar Alexander and Democrat Patty Murray. It was uncertain if it would ever come to a vote in a Congress controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans. The agreement would shore up Obamacare by reviving billions of dollars of federal subsidies to insurers for two years to help lower-income Americans obtain medical coverage. Alexander said on Wednesday that Trump had “completely engineered” the bipartisan proposal, but the president backed away from support he had expressed a day earlier. On Tuesday, Trump said the White House was involved in the negotiations and that the agreement was “a very good solution” for a short-term approach, but said on Wednesday he could “never support bailing out” insurance companies. Trump has cut off subsidies to the companies, saying Congress has not provided money for them and that they enrich insurers. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump did not support the deal in its current form, although she called it “a good step in the right direction.” “Look, we’ve said all along that we want something that doesn’t just bail out the insurance companies but actually provides relief for all Americans,” she said at a briefing. “And this bill doesn’t address that fact.” The confusion among lawmakers in both parties over Trump’s position on the healthcare deal and the lack of trust some of them have in the president come as Congress is entering a crucial period when important bills on federal spending, the U.S. debt limit and tax cuts are due for consideration. Thune said the agreement might have “stalled out” and that its future was an “open question.” Republicans have a 52-48 Senate majority, but other than Alexander only a few have publicly embraced the plan, including Senators John McCain, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mike Rounds and Bob Corker. “No way to pay for it,” Hatch said. “Oh my gosh, give me a break. I appreciate the innovation and the attempt to do it right. But it doesn’t help.” Trump, who campaigned on a promise to get rid of Obamacare but has been frustrated by the failure of Republicans in Congress to pass legislation to do so, also made clear he wanted broader legislation to repeal and replace the law. “Lamar Alexander’s working on it very hard from our side. And if something can happen, that’s fine,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “But I won’t do anything to enrich the insurance companies. ... They’ve been enriched by Obamacare like nothing anybody’s ever seen before.” Insurers say they do not profit from the subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement dubbed Obamacare, but pass them on directly to consumers to reduce deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income people. Ending the subsidies, which are called cost-sharing reduction payments, could create chaos in the 2018 health insurance markets set up under Obamacare. Some leading insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, Aetna Inc and Humana Inc, have largely exited those markets, citing financial losses. Others including Anthem Inc have significantly reduced their presence in the state-based markets. Ryan gave no indication of willingness to consider the Alexander-Murray agreement. “The speaker does not see anything that changes his view that the Senate should keep its focus on repeal and replace of Obamacare,” Ryan spokesman Doug Andres said. The proposal drew broad Democratic support. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer ripped Trump for his shifting stances on the Alexander-Murray deal. “This president cannot govern if, whenever the hard right frightens him and says: ‘Jump,’ he says: “How high?’” Schumer told reporters. “The president is pointing fingers,” Schumer said. “He blames (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell for obstruction. He blames the Democrats for obstruction. He’s the obstructionist in chief because he cannot stick to a position.” The proposal would meet some Democratic objectives, such as reviving subsidies for Obamacare and restoring $106 million in funding for a federal program that helps people enroll in insurance plans. In exchange, Republicans would get more flexibility for states to offer a wider variety of health insurance plans while maintaining the requirement that sick and healthy people be charged the same rates for coverage. Democratic attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia who have filed a legal challenge to the subsidy cutoff asked a judge in California to direct the administration by Thursday to continue the payments. At a hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco said he would likely rule on the states’ request next week. Murray, speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, said her agreement with Alexander was still very much alive. “Absolutely,” Murray said. “Lamar and I are working to have a good set of co-sponsors,” and hope to formally introduce it as a Senate bill on Thursday.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने कहा कि ट्रम्प ने सीनेट के द्विदलीय ओबामाकेयर सौदे का विरोध किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former British spy who compiled a dossier with allegations that Russia helped Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has met with investigators working for the special counsel on the case, a source familiar with the contact said on Thursday. Christopher Steele, a former senior operative for MI6, the British foreign intelligence agency, met representatives of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team “recently,” said the source, who declined to provide further details. A spokesman for Mueller declined comment. While President Trump and some of his supporters have dismissed the dossier as “fake news”, two sources familiar with Mueller’s probe and a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of suspected Russian meddling in the election said on Thursday that investigators have not dismissed it. Russia has repeatedly denied any interference in last November’s election won by businessman Trump, a Republican. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said on Wednesday that his panel had made several attempts to contact Steele and to meet him and “those offers have gone unaccepted.” “The committee cannot really decide the credibility of the dossier without understanding things like who paid for it, who are your sources and sub-sources,” Burr said. The meeting between members of Mueller’s team and Steele was first reported by CNN earlier on Thursday.     Reuters reported on Wednesday that Mueller’s team had taken over multiple strands of FBI investigations related to possible financial and personal links between Trump, his associates and Russia. Steele met with FBI representatives before the election to discuss his findings on Trump and Russia. A copy of his so-called Trump dossier was posted publicly on the BuzzFeed website in January. Although several news organizations, including Reuters, were briefed on Steele’s dossier, most decided not to report on the material because its inflammatory and sometimes salacious content could not be verified. The information on Trump collected by Steele, whom officials say was one of MI6’s most respected Russia hands, was laid out last year in political “opposition research” initially financed by supporters of one of Trump’s Republican primary election opponents. After Trump won the Republican nomination in July, backers of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton picked up the support of Steele’s work.

Summary: अमेरिकी विशेष वकील के जांचकर्ताओं ने 'ट्रम्प डोजियर' के लेखक से मुलाकात कीः स्रोत


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump picked three conservative loyalists to lead his national security and law enforcement teams on Friday, underscoring his campaign promise to take a hard line confronting Islamist militancy and curbing illegal immigration. Trump picked U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general, rewarding a staunch supporter whose tough and sometimes inflammatory statements on immigration have reflected his own. The choice was applauded by the top Republican in the Senate but drew sharp criticism from civil rights activists. Retired Army Lieutenant General Mike Flynn, who has championed Trump’s promises to take a more aggressive approach to terrorism, was chosen as his national security adviser.  Trump named Representative Mike Pompeo, a vocal critic of the Obama administration’s security policy, as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The three choices, announced by Trump’s transition team, come as the Republican president-elect works to fill key positions in his administration, which will take over from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20. The picks could heighten concerns abroad that the Trump administration might carry out campaign promises of banning Muslims from entering the United States or imposing more severe restrictions on migrants from countries or regions with high levels of militant Islamist activity, such as Iraq and Syria.  Sessions and Pompeo seem likely to be confirmed by the Senate despite heavy resistance from Democrats. Republicans will control a majority, with at least 51 seats in the 100-seat chamber, when Congress reconvenes in January. Flynn’s post does not need Senate confirmation.   One of the earliest Republican lawmakers to support Trump’s White House candidacy, Sessions opposes any path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and was an enthusiastic backer of Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico. He has also argued for curbs on legal immigration on the grounds that it drives down wages for U.S. workers. A former Alabama attorney general and U.S. attorney, Sessions, 69, has been in the Senate for 19 years. Allegations that he made racist remarks led the Senate to deny his confirmation as a federal judge in 1986. The chamber’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said he would want Sessions to answer  “tough questions” about his civil rights positions. The attorney general acts as the country’s chief law enforcement officer and head of the Justice Department. Civil rights groups slammed Sessions as a poor choice to head a department charged with protecting voting rights and running immigration courts. “How can we trust someone in that role who has demonstrated he thinks all forms of immigration are bad for America?” said Beth Werlin, head of the American Immigration Council.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he strongly supported Sessions for attorney general, calling him “principled, forthright, and hardworking.” Sessions has been one of Trump’s most enthusiastic backers on Capitol Hill and the president-elect has hired several of Sessions’ staffers, including policy chief Stephen Miller and Rick Dearborn, who has a top job managing the transition. Also on Friday, the first set of transition “landing teams” were starting work at the departments of State, Justice, Defense and the National Security Council to begin hashing out the details of shifting to a new administration.  Flynn, one of Trump’s closest advisers, was fired from the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, a move he has attributed to his outspoken views about fighting Islamist militancy. Other officials who worked with Flynn cited his lack of management skills and leadership style as reasons for his firing. An Army intelligence veteran of three decades, Flynn was assistant director of national intelligence under Obama. He views the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a strategic blunder and has refused to condemn Trump’s support for the renewed use of waterboarding. This is an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, is widely considered torture and was banned by Obama. Pompeo, 52, a third-term Republican congressman and former U.S. Army officer who founded an aerospace company, was a surprise pick to lead the CIA. A member of the House Intelligence Committee, Pompeo has called for a revival and expansion of a now-defunct domestic spying program to include “financial and lifestyle information” as well as phone records. He has said that Edward Snowden, a former government contractor who uncovered the spying program and who now lives in Russia, should get the death penalty if he is ever tried and convicted. Pompeo has been one of the most aggressive critics of the Obama administration’s handling of a 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.  Nevertheless, Democrats who have worked with him joined Republicans in describing Pompeo as knowledgeable and hard working. “While we have had our share of strong differences - principally on the politicization of the tragedy in Benghazi - I know that he is someone who is willing to listen and engage,”  Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said on Friday.  Trump met on Friday with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a possible pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a possible candidate for defense secretary. Trump is considering retired General David Petraeus, who resigned as CIA chief in 2012 after an extra-marital affair, is being considered for the post of defense secretary, the Wall Street Journal said. Trump was expected to spend the weekend in Bedminster, New Jersey, the home of the Trump National Golf Club. On Saturday he was scheduled to meet with Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Romney was one of the fiercest Republican critics of Trump during his unorthodox election campaign but is now under possible consideration for secretary of state. Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, is the leading candidate to serve as Trump’s director of national intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने शीर्ष सुरक्षा, कानून प्रवर्तन नौकरियों के लिए रूढ़िवादी वफादारों को चुना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans narrowly agreed on Tuesday to open debate on a bill to end Obamacare, but the party’s seven-year effort to roll back Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law still faces significant hurdles. The Senate deadlocked 50-50 on moving forward with the healthcare debate, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote. Senator John McCain, who was diagnosed this month with brain cancer and has been recovering from surgery at home in Arizona, made a dramatic return to the U.S. Capitol to cast a crucial vote in favor of proceeding. The outcome was a huge relief for President Donald Trump, who had pushed his fellow Republicans hard in recent days to live up to the party’s campaign promises to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Minutes after the vote, Trump called it “a big step.” But the narrow victory on a simple procedural matter raised questions about whether Republicans can muster the votes necessary to pass any of the various approaches to repeal. Moderates are worried repeal will cost millions of low-income Americans their insurance and conservatives are angry the proposed bills do not go far enough to gut Obamacare, which they consider government overreach. In a first vote of the many likely to come this week, the plan to repeal and replace Obamacare that Senate Republicans have been working on for months failed to get the 60 votes needed for approval on Tuesday night. The vote was 43 in favor and 57 against. Nine Republicans, ranging from moderates such as Susan Collins of Maine to conservatives such as Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the bill, which would have made deep cuts to Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, and reduced Obamacare subsidies to lower-income people to help them defray the cost of health insurance. Earlier McCain, 80, received an ovation from his fellow senators when he entered the chamber to cast a vote to open debate. After that vote, he decried growing partisanship in the Senate and urged members to learn how “to trust each other again.” Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski were the only Republicans to oppose the measure to open debate, and with Republicans controlling the Senate by a 52-48 majority, those were the only votes the party leadership could afford to lose. Democrats were united in opposition to the motion to proceed. Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who cast the last and deciding vote to open debate, engaged in a heated discussion with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before casting his vote and ending the suspense. A loss on the vote to open debate on Tuesday could have been a death blow for Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare and cast doubt on Trump’s prospects to achieve any of his other top legislative agenda items, including tax reform. “We have a duty to act,” McConnell told senators before the vote, reminding Republicans they had promised to repeal Obamacare in four straight elections. “We can’t let this moment slip by.” Republicans have found it difficult to fulfill their campaign promises to repeal Obamacare, which enabled 20 million more Americans to get health insurance. Polls show Obamacare is now far more popular than the Republican alternatives. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the Senate’s replacement bill could lead to as many as 22 million fewer Americans being insured. The health industry has watched the debate nervously, and after the vote some groups urged the Senate to reconsider its approach. America’s Essential Hospitals, a group representing safety-net hospitals, said in a statement it strongly opposed all the Republican plans and feared the big cuts in Medicaid in the bills “would jeopardize the health and financial security of millions of working people and families.” Shares in health insurer Centene Corp (CNC.N) turned sharply lower after the Senate vote. Earlier on Tuesday, the company had reported a better than expected profit as it benefits from a strong Obamacare business.     As the debate vote opened, more than two dozen protesters in the Senate chamber chanted “kill the bill” before they were removed. Senators said several approaches have been discussed, including a straight repeal of Obamacare with no replacement plan, or repealing and replacing the law while also overhauling Medicaid. Senate Republicans also could consider a shortened version of repeal, called a “skinny repeal,” which would end the mandates in Obamacare on individuals and employers to obtain or provide health insurance, and a medical device tax, a Senate aide and a lobbyist said. “Some of us want clean repeal, some of us want the Senate leadership bill, they’re both going to get a vote early on and I think that’s a fair way to do it,” Republican Senator Rand Paul said. “If either one of them fails and another one succeeds, maybe we can find something in between that actually succeeds.” Republican Senator Bob Corker said the goal was to gain enough votes to get a bill through the Senate and send it to the House of Representatives, which passed its own bill to replace Obamacare in May, for negotiations. “Everybody understands this is just a first step,” he said. Several of the Democrats opposing the motion for debate were from conservative states that backed Trump in 2016 and face tough re-election bids next year, including Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Jon Tester of Montana. “We have a good chance to beat this,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the vote. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, praised Collins and Murkowski for taking a principled stand against the Republican move to open debate. “That wasn’t easy,” Durbin said. “That was an act of political courage on their part; I’m sure they were under tremendous pressure.”

Summary: सीनेट ने स्वास्थ्य सेवा पर प्रगति की, मैक्केन की नाटकीय वापसी के साथ


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will be presented with multiple options regarding the future of the Iran nuclear deal ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline to certify whether Tehran is complying with the pact, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday. Tillerson did not disclose details about the kinds of options he will present to Trump. He also declined to directly answer a question about whether he shared Defense Secretary Jim Mattis  assessment to Congress on Tuesday that Iran was  fundamentally  in compliance with the accord.  We ll have a recommendation for the president. We re going to give him a couple of options of how to move forward to advance the important policy toward Iran,  Tillerson told reporters at the State Department. A collapse of the 2015 deal, which Trump has called  an embarrassment,  but which is supported by the other major powers that negotiated it with Iran, could trigger a regional arms race and stoke Middle East tensions. A senior U.S. official said last month that Trump was leaning toward not certifying that Iran is complying with the pact. Trump himself has said he already had made up his mind whether to keep the pact, but has declined to disclose his decision. If Trump declines to certify Iran s compliance, U.S. congressional leaders would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran suspended under the accord. Unlike Mattis, who publicly suggested Trump should consider sticking with the agreement, Tillerson has been highly critical of the accord and said it must be changed. He has taken aim at the deal s so-called sunset clauses, under which some of the restrictions on Iran s nuclear program expire over time. Tillerson on Wednesday suggested that whatever path the United States chooses on the nuclear accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it would only represent one component of America s broader policy toward Iran.  The JCPOA represents only a small part of the many issues that we need to deal with when it comes to the Iranian relationship,  he said.  So it is an important part of that, but is not the only part. And I ve said many times, we cannot let the Iranian relationship be defined solely by that nuclear agreement.

Summary: ईरान परमाणु समझौते पर ट्रंप को मिलेंगे कई विकल्पः टिलरसन


WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday shared anti-Muslim videos posted on Twitter by a far-right British party leader, drawing condemnation from Britain, U.S. Muslim groups and some members of Congress. The White House defended the retweets by the Republican president, who during the 2016 U.S. election campaign called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” saying that he was raising security issues. As president, Trump has issued executive orders banning entry to some citizens of several Muslim-majority countries, although courts have partially blocked the measures from taking effect. “Look, I’m not talking about the nature of the video,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. “The threat is real and that’s what the president is talking about is the need for national security, the need for military spending, and those are very real things. There’s nothing fake about that.” Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of anti-immigration Britain First, posted the videos which she said showed a group of people who were Muslims beating a teenage boy to death, battering a boy on crutches and destroying a Christian statue. Fransen was convicted earlier this month of abusing a Muslim woman and was ordered to pay a fine and legal costs. Some British lawmakers demanded an apology from Trump for sharing the videos with his nearly 44 million Twitter followers and U.S. Muslim groups said he had been incendiary and reckless. “It is wrong for the president to have done this,” the spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May said. “Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions. They cause anxiety to law-abiding people,” the spokesman said. Trump fired back at May over her criticism. “Theresa @theresamay, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine,” Trump tweeted, using an incorrect Twitter handle for May. He later issued a tweet with her correct handle, “@Theresa_May”.     Reuters was unable to immediately verify the videos and Fransen herself said they had come from various online sources which had been posted on her social media pages. “I’m delighted,” Fransen, who has 53,000 Twitter followers, told Reuters. She said Trump’s retweets showed the president shared her aim of raising awareness of “issues such as Islam”. The White House repeatedly refused to be drawn into the content of the videos or whether Trump was aware of the source of the tweets. “It’s about ensuring that individuals who come into the United States don’t pose a public safety or terrorism threat,” White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters aboard Air Force One. Fransen thanked Trump and said, “The important message here is Donald Trump has been made aware of the persecution and prosecution of a political leader in Britain for giving what has been said by police to be an anti-Islamic speech.” ANTI-IMMIGRATION One of the videos that Trump retweeted first circulated on social and Egyptian state media in 2013, showing what appeared to be supporters of now-ousted Islamist President Mohammed Mursi throwing two youths from a concrete tower onto a roof. In reference to another video that was titled “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!”, the Netherlands embassy in the United States tweeted back at Trump saying: “@realDonaldTrump Facts do matter. The perpetrator of the violent act in this video was born and raised in the Netherlands. He received and completed his sentence under Dutch law.” Trump’s promotion of the videos contrasts with the way he often criticizes mainstream U.S. media, lambasting some outlets for “fake news” when they air segments he regards as being against him. “What we saw today is one of many videos that is circulating on anti-Muslim hate websites,” said Ilhan Cagri with the U.S.-based Muslim Public Affairs Council. “It is years-old and simply aims to breed fear for Muslims and Islam and breed violence. It  has nothing to do with the practice of Islam itself,” Cagri said. The Anti-Defamation League said the retweets would only encourage “extremists and anti-Muslim bigots in the United States and abroad who exploit the propaganda value.” “Such content is the engine that fuels extremist movements and will embolden bigots in the U.S. who already believe the president is a fellow traveler,” the ADL said in a statement. Democrats in Congress and at least one Republican lawmaker were also critical of Trump.  “The violence depicted in these videos is horrific, but it is abhorrent that President Trump would choose to deliberately fan the flames of hatred and religious bigotry,” Democratic U.S. Senator Jack Reed said in a statement. Republican Senator John McCain, a frequent critic of Trump, said he was “surprised” that Trump had chosen to retweet those videos. “What do I think about it? Obviously, surprised. Surprised,” he told Reuters as he left a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah at the U.S. Senate. Britain First is a peripheral political party which wants to end all immigration and bring in a comprehensive ban on Islam, with anyone found to be promoting the religion’s ideology to be deported or imprisoned. The group, which rarely garners any media attention but attracts a few hundred protesters to its regular street demonstrations, states on its website it is a “loyalist movement.” Critics say it is simply racist. Last week, Fransen was charged by the police in Northern Ireland with using threatening, abusive or insulting words in a speech at a rally in Belfast in August. Along with the group’s leader, she was also charged in September with causing religiously aggravated harassment over the distribution of leaflets and posting online videos during a court trial involving a number of Muslim men accused and later convicted of rape. Politicians in Britain condemned Trump, with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, describing his tweets as “abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society.” In contrast, David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who has run for political office in Louisiana, praised Trump. “He’s condemned for showing us what the fake news media won’t,” Duke wrote on Twitter. “Thank God for Trump! That’s why we love him!”

Summary: मुस्लिम विरोधी वीडियो साझा करने के लिए ब्रिटेन और अमेरिका में ट्रम्प की आलोचना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday that former FBI Director James Comey should still appear before congressional committees that have invited him to testify in their investigations of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, despite the appointment of a special counsel. “While we heartily applaud the appointment of Mr. (former FBI Director Robert) Mueller as a special counsel, we in congress must continue to do our jobs as well,” Schumer said.

Summary: शूमरः कॉमी को अभी भी कांग्रेस की समितियों के सामने गवाही देनी चाहिए


LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - Former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear on Wednesday accused his successor Matt Bevin of threatening lawmakers and said such actions may be the target of a federal investigation. Beshear’s remarks, made at a press conference in the state capital of Frankfort, are the latest in a burgeoning political war between the two politicians. Beshear, a Democrat, accused Bevin, a Republican, of threatening cancellation of road projects in Democratic lawmakers’ districts unless they switched parties. “He demanded that Democratic legislators switch parties and threatened to cancel road projects in their districts if they didn’t comply,” Beshear said of Bevin, according to a transcript of his speech. “When they refused, he said he would destroy them.  “I understand that the FBI may be looking into that kind of conduct,” he added, according to the transcript. Beshear’s spokesman, Dan Hassert, confirmed the former governor’s comments. David Habich, a spokesman for the FBI’s Louisville office, said he could not disclose whether Bevin is being investigated. Bevin is currently in Europe on an economic development trip. Jessica Ditto, Bevin’s communications director, said in a statement that Beshear was trying to protect himself by throwing out baseless accusations. Last week, Bevin called for a probe into how Beshear’s administration awarded state contracts and solicited campaign contributions. Bevin’s accusations came shortly before a former Beshear official pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges. On Wednesday, Beshear said Bevin was the one using intimidation, accusing the governor of threatening the jobs of state employees if they did not accuse the previous administration of wrongdoing.  Kentucky’s House of Representatives has been in Democratic control since 1921, but the party only has a 53-47 edge. Two members did switch after Bevin won election in November.      The hostilities began before Bevin took office in December after the term-limited Beshear appointed his wife to an unpaid seat on the state horse park commission during his final days in office. Meanwhile, the former governor has launched a campaign against Bevin’s healthcare initiatives. In addition, Beshear’s son serves as the state’s attorney general and has sued Bevin over cuts he ordered in higher education funding. Beshear on Wednesday said he hopes his successor stops with the accusations and moves forward with leading the state. “But if he wants a food fight, you know which he’s had so far, then I’m going answer any unfounded allegations that he keeps throwing out there,” Beshear said.

Summary: केंटकी के पूर्व गवर्नर का कहना है कि उत्तराधिकारी एफ. बी. आई. जांच का निशाना हो सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator and former presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham said on Friday he could not in “good conscience” support Donald Trump for the presidency, but that he also would not back Democrat Hillary Clinton. “I absolutely will NOT support Hillary Clinton for President,” Graham said in a post on Twitter. “I also cannot in good conscience support Donald Trump because I do not believe he is a reliable Republican conservative.”

Summary: पूर्व रिपब्लिकन राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार ग्राहमः ट्रम्प या क्लिंटन का समर्थन नहीं करेंगे


VALLETTA (Reuters) - Three men accused of killing Maltese anti-corruption blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia were committed to trial on Thursday by a magistrate hearing preliminary evidence. Brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat were arrested in early December on the strength of phone intercepts and accused of having killed Caruana Galizia in a carbomb as she drove out of her home on Oct. 16. In the Maltese judicial system, police have to present initial evidence to a magistrate, who decides whether there are sufficient grounds to press charges. On the third day of the preliminary hearing, Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit ruled that the three should be sent to trial. The trio have denied wrongdoing. Police told the court that George Degiorgio was sitting on a boat outside Valletta harbor when he sent an SMS to trigger the deadly bomb, which had been planted overnight in Caruana Galizia s hire car. Mobile phone data showed that Alfred Degiorgio and Muscat had repeatedly visited Caruana Galizia s home village Bidnija in the days before the blast.  Police believe they watched from a nearby vantage point as Caruana Galizia set out in her car and told George Degiorgio via telephone to detonate the device. Her death shocked Malta, the smallest nation in the European Union, which has been engulfed by a wave of graft scandals, including accusations of money laundering and influence peddling in government   all of which have been denied. Caruana Galizia exposed many of these cases, but had never written about the three suspects, who had fallen foul of local police in the past. The slain blogger s family say the mastermind behind the killing must still be at large. Malta s attorney general must now draw up precise charges against the Degiorgios and Muscat, and no trial date has been set.

Summary: माल्टा ब्लॉगर की हत्या के संदिग्धों को मुकदमे के लिए भेजा गया


(Reuters) - A third of Republican voters who support Donald Trump could turn their backs on their party in November’s presidential election if he is denied the nomination in a contested convention, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The results are bad news for Trump’s rivals as well as party elites opposed to the real estate billionaire, suggesting that an alternative Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential race would have a tougher road against the Democrats. “If it’s a close election, this is devastating news” for the Republicans, said Donald Green, an expert on election turnout at Columbia University.  The Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted March 30 to April 8 asked Trump’s Republican supporters two questions: if Trump wins the most delegates in the primaries but loses the nomination, what would they do on Election Day, and how would it impact their relationship with the Republican Party? Sixty-six percent said they would vote for the candidate who eventually wins the nomination, while the remaining third were split between a number of alternatives such as not voting, supporting a third-party candidate, and switching parties and voting for the Democratic nominee.  Meanwhile, 58 percent said they would remain with the Republican Party. Another 16 percent said they would leave it, and 26 percent said they did not know what they would do with their registration. The online poll of 468 Republican Trump supporters has a credibility interval of 5.3 percentage points. (Click here for the poll results: tmsnrt.rs/25PRLZe ) Trump has topped the national polls throughout most of the race for the Republican nomination, and has won more delegates than any other Republican so far. A Reuters/Ipsos online poll from April 4-8 showed that 42 percent of Republicans support Trump, compared with 32 percent for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and 20 percent for Ohio Governor John Kasich. [L2N17B1J0] Cruz and Kasich have both said their paths to victory rely on winning at least enough votes to block an outright win for Trump and force a decision at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. But Trump, whose supporters have remained loyal even as he rankled women, Hispanics, Muslims, veterans and others with his fiery rhetoric on the campaign trail, predicted last month there would be riots outside the convention if he was blocked. “If they broker him out, I’ll be fed up with the Republicans,” said Chuck Thompson, 66, a Trump supporter from Concord, North Carolina, who took the poll.  Thompson, a lifelong Republican, said he admires Trump’s independence from big campaign donors and takes that as a sign that the front-runner will be able to think for himself if he were to become president.  If Trump loses the nomination, Thompson said he would quit the party. “The people want Donald Trump. If they (Republicans) can’t deal with that, I don’t need them,” he said. Green said the departure of even a small number of Republicans would make it tough for the party to prevent the Democrats from winning the White House, especially if the election is again decided by razor-thin margins in a handful of battleground states.  In 2012, President Barack Obama won Florida by less than 1 percentage point and Ohio and Virginia by less than 4 percentage points. “The Republicans don’t really have any margin of error,” Green said. Trump and Cruz both trail Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton among likely general election voters in a hypothetical general election matchup, but not by much, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos polls. Generally, a convention battle is a bad sign for the health of a political party, said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the book, “Primary Politics: How Presidential Candidates Have Shaped the Modern Nominating System.”  “When a party gets to a point when it has a contested convention, it almost always hurts them,” Kamarck said. “It’s a confirmation of some really deep fissures within the party that were unable to be dealt with during the primary season.” Trump supporter Elizabeth Oerther, 40, of Louisville, Kentucky, said she would switch parties and vote for the Democratic nominee if the Republicans denied Trump the nomination.  “If you don’t give it to him, I’m going to vote against them,” said Oerther, who took the poll. “They want to take away the choice of the people. That’s wrong.”

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रम्प को अवरुद्ध करने से चुनाव में रिपब्लिकन को नुकसान हो सकता है-रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस पोल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats on the U.S. Senate’s environment panel on Wednesday asked President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency to disclose his ties to the energy industry ahead of his confirmation hearing early next year. The six senators sent a letter to Scott Pruitt, who as Oklahoma Attorney General led several lawsuits against the Obama administration’s EPA to block its environmental rules. They asked him to list his connections to energy companies, to weigh whether these will influence his ability to run the agency.   “What that conduct says about your ability to lead EPA in a manner that is not beholden to special or secret interests is a subject that we expect will receive a full airing during your confirmation hearing,” the senators wrote in the letter. The senators raised concerns about a 2014 New York Times report, which found that Pruitt’s policy positions as Oklahoma’s top attorney reflected his close ties to Devon Energy Corp. For his part, Pruitt told The Oklahoman newspaper that Devon Energy was a constituent he represents and the company made people aware of regulatory overreach on fracking. The senators also noted Pruitt’s involvement with the Rule of Law Defense Fund, which they said supports initiatives by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, who have opposed the EPA’s climate change regulations. They asked Pruitt to submit details about his connections and contributions to the fund, his communications with the fund and a “list of all federal and state legislation or regulations the Fund has taken a position on.” “The confirmation process, starting with your responses to Committee questions before your hearing, is an opportunity for you to dispel the notion that the advocacy you have undertaken on environmental issues as Attorney General of Oklahoma has been directed by and for the benefit of the energy industry,” the senators wrote. The senators who sent the letter are Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse, former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, New Jersey’s Cory Booker, Massachusetts’ Ed Markey and Maryland’s Ben Cardin. Rule of Law Defense Fund spokesman Jordan Russell accused the Democratic senators of launching “politically motivated attacks” against his organization, which takes positions on issues from healthcare to federalism. He said donor confidentiality has been upheld by the Supreme Court. “It is unfortunate that certain Democrat Senators appear willing to trample First Amendment rights in order to score cheap political points,” he said.

Summary: सीनेटरों ने ट्रम्प ई. पी. ए. प्रमुख से ऊर्जा उद्योग संबंधों का खुलासा करने के लिए कहा


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday progress had been made on confidence-building measures related to a territorial dispute between Moscow and Tokyo. The measures focused on easing access for Japanese visitors to the disputed islands in the Pacific, known in Russia as the Kurile Islands and in Japan as the Northern Territories, and boosting economic cooperation in the islands. Lavrov was speaking after talks in Moscow with his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono.

Summary: रूस का कहना है कि विवादित द्वीपों पर सहयोग की दिशा में प्रगति हुई है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Thursday the panel could take up a bill as soon as this summer to impose new sanctions on Russia over its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Senator Bob Corker said the panel could move forward on sanctions after hearing from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Some members of the committee, particularly Democrats, had wanted to act more quickly on sanctions over Russian activities that U.S. intelligence agencies concluded were intended to help get Republican Donald Trump elected. Corker said he expects Tillerson to report to the committee within weeks about the Trump administration’s policy toward Russia and the situation in Syria. Corker said he would be willing to consider a sanctions bill soon after that if, as he expected, Tillerson does not demonstrate to the panel that there has been significant change by Russia in Syria, where Moscow has been supporting President Bashar al-Assad in that country’s six-year-old civil war. “I’ve committed to mark up Russia sanctions legislation in the event, the probable event, that the secretary of state cannot show us that there’s a change of trajectory,” Corker said at a committee business meeting. A mark up is a session in which a committee debates legislation and possible amendments. Later in the meeting, the panel overwhelmingly passed legislation to condemn Russian activities including its effort to influence other countries’ elections, aggression in Ukraine and support for Assad. That measure did not include sanctions. Corker and other senators had suggested it would be prudent to wait on sanctions at a delicate time in dealings with Moscow, especially over Syria. Democrats were not pleased at the delay, but said they were willing to wait to hear from the Trump administration. “I do look forward to Mr. Tillerson explaining to us the administration’s Russian policy and what he has seen its impact to be,” said Senator Ben Cardin, the committee’s senior Democrat. If the panel eventually approves sanctions legislation, it would require passage in the full Senate and the House of Representatives before it could go to Trump to sign into law. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Moscow tried to tilt the 2016 election in Trump’s favor, including by hacking into the emails of senior Democrats. Russia has denied the allegation. Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow, but Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional probes into the matter have dogged the early months of his presidency. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said it gives many committee members “great pause” that the Trump administration has not acted against Russia for its efforts to influence the election. The United States, under Democratic former President Barack Obama, imposed sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine and in December imposed fresh sanctions and ordered the expulsion of Russian suspected spies over the election meddling.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटर का कहना है कि पैनल इस गर्मी में रूस प्रतिबंध विधेयक पर विचार कर सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With his selection of deal-making attorney Walter “Jay” Clayton to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, President-elect Donald Trump is signaling that the agency will try to reduce regulations that critics see as burdensome or hindering corporate growth. Trump announced on Wednesday that he intends to nominate Clayton, a partner in the New York office of law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, to lead the agency that polices and regulates Wall Street. Clayton specializes in public and private mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising efforts, and notably worked on the initial public offering of Alibaba Group Holding Company (BABA.N). He also helps companies navigate regulatory and enforcement actions, including a number of cases that involved mortgage securities. At least two clients that Clayton has represented - Alibaba and Ally Financial - have both disclosed in recent years that they are being investigated by the SEC; it is not clear whether either review has been concluded. “Jay Clayton is a highly talented expert on many aspects of financial and regulatory law, and he will ensure our financial institutions can thrive and create jobs while playing by the rules at the same time,” Trump said in a statement.  Clayton did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement released by the Trump transition team, he pledged to ensure investors and companies have confidence to invest in America.  Many Republicans in recent years have criticized the SEC for focusing too much on enforcement, especially under outgoing chair Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor, and not enough on its other missions, including writing rules that promote capital formation. Legal experts said Clayton’s background is more in line with some past SEC chiefs, and points to less regulation and perhaps a shift away from White’s policy in which the agency fined firms for smaller violations in an effort to deter bigger ones. “As a day-to-day corporate transactional lawyer, he’ll know what these regulations are like,” said Walter Van Dorn, a partner at BakerHostetler and former SEC official. As is often the case with SEC chair nominees, Clayton has some close personal and professional ties to Wall Street. During the height of the 2008 financial crisis, Clayton worked on major deals involving big banks, including Barclays Capital’s (BARC.L) acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ assets, the sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan Chase (JPM.N), and the U.S. Treasury Department’s capital investment in Goldman Sachs (GS.N), according to his law firm’s website. He has helped draft comment letters to the SEC that advocated for less onerous restrictions for foreign public companies, and also participated in a 2011 article which advocated for less zealous enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Clayton’s background representing Goldman and other Wall Street firms is likely to come up during his Senate confirmation hearing. His wife, Gretchen Butler Clayton, is employed by Goldman Sachs as a private wealth advisor. Democrats including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren have previously been critical of any potential SEC nominee, including those from within their own political party, who have strong ties to Wall Street. “It’s hard to see how an attorney who’s spent his career helping Wall Street beat the rap will keep President-elect Trump’s promise to stop big banks and hedge funds from ‘getting away with murder,’”, said U.S. Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Sherrod Brown. Like White, also a former Wall Street lawyer, Clayton will likely need to recuse himself on some matters and divest certain stock holdings. Under federal ethics rules, he will be recused for one year from voting on any particular matter if a firm or individual is being represented by Sullivan & Cromwell.  Prior clients who have been represented by Sullivan & Cromwell in SEC cases have included UBS (UBSG.S) and Fifth Third Bank (FITB.O).  He will also be recused for a year from working on matters that involve clients he represented in the past year, and recused indefinitely if a deal he previously worked on comes up during SEC litigation. The length of time could be longer if Trump opts to continue President Barack Obama’s current policy, which extended the recusal period by an additional year. Trump still needs to fill two other SEC vacancies to round out the five-member panel. Without a full panel, possible recusals could in certain cases lead to a deadlocked vote on some enforcement matters. Perhaps the trickier conflicts to navigate will involve his wife’s employment at Goldman Sachs, said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who served as the chief ethics lawyer at the White House under President George W. Bush. “You cannot be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and have you or your spouse have any financial interest in Goldman Sachs,” he said. To manage the conflict, he said, she would need to divest any stock or stock options in the company and negotiate a flat salary.  It could not be immediately determined whether Gretchen Butler Clayton does own Goldman stock. She did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Breakingviews TV: An insider at the SEC     reut.rs/2hQq8ud SEC subpoenas Ally Financial over subprime auto lending (2014): here

Summary: ट्रम्प के एस. ई. सी. चयन क्लेटन ने पूंजी निर्माण की ओर इशारा किया, न कि प्रवर्तन की ओर


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The newly appointed second-in-command at the U.S. Justice Department faced a weighty task just two weeks after taking office - writing the rationale for firing FBI Director James Comey. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein argued the case for Comey’s sacking in a three-page memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday. President Donald Trump acted swiftly to dismiss the director later that day. Rosenstein cited Comey’s controversial public statements about the bureau’s investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. “It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do,” Rosenstein wrote of Comey’s public comments. Spokespeople for the Department of Justice and the FBI did not return calls seeking comment late Tuesday. Comey’s firing will likely be seen as further evidence of Washington’s hyper-partisan upheaval. Rosenstein has drawn fire from Democrats who allege political motives in the White House decision to dismiss Comey - and particularly, its timing. “Why did it happen today?” asked Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York. “We know the FBI has been looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians ... Were those investigations getting too close to home for the President?” The rationale for canning Comey, however, came from a 26-year Justice Department veteran who is widely viewed by his peers and many lawmakers as uncommonly nonpartisan. Named as Maryland’s top prosecutor by President George W. Bush, Rosenstein stayed in office through the Obama administration.  Rosenstein was the longest-serving U.S. attorney when he was nominated by Trump last January. When he was confirmed by the Senate, he enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support - a 94-to-6 vote - despite the deeply divided culture of today’s Washington. Bonnie Greenberg, a federal prosecutor in Maryland told Reuters in March that Rosenstein was admired as a rare career prosecutor who could insulate himself from political pressure. “He only does something if he thinks it’s right,” said Greenberg, who worked with Rosenstein for 11 years.  Many in the Justice Department saw Rosenstein’s appointment as a counter-balance to the extreme partisanship surrounding accusations of Russian interference in last year’s election. And he was immediately swept into that fray.  Before Rosenstein was confirmed for the position by the U.S. Senate, some Democratic lawmakers asked him to pledge he would appoint a special independent prosecutor to investigate allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.  He was easily confirmed despite rebuffing those demands. Some Republicans have been angered by Comey’s public statements about the FBI investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.  But Rosenstein’s criticism of Comey focused on actions seen to have damaged Democratic candidate Clinton. Rosenstein focused in particular on Comey’s news conference last July, when the director announced his conclusion that Clinton should not be prosecuted - while at the same time publicly bashing her use of a private email server for sensitive U.S. government business. That day, Rosenstein wrote, Comey usurped the authority of the U.S. Attorney General - who has authority over whether prosecutions should proceed, based on the quality of FBI investigations. Comey also violated longstanding practice by “gratuitously” releasing damaging information about Clinton - even as he acknowledged the evidence against her was insufficient to warrant continued investigation, Rosenstein wrote. “We do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation,” Rosenstein wrote, adding that Comey “laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial.”  U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the timing of Comey’s firing was suspect - coming so long after the election of Trump and Comey’s alleged mishandling of the case. He directly criticized Rosenstein.  “I am very disappointed with this deputy attorney general, who I was told had a good reputation,” he said. “But signing this letter saying that he recommends firing Comey because of Comey’s actions with Hillary Clinton nine months ago, or 10 months ago? That doesn’t pass any smell test.” Rosenstein, in his letter, cited broad, bipartisan agreement on Comey’s errors in judgment. Last summer, Comey defended his decision to speak publicly about the Clinton investigation, saying “the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest.” Last week, before a Senate committee, Comey defended his decision in October - two weeks before the presidential election - to publicly announce the bureau had discovered new emails that might be related to the closed investigation into Clinton. “To not speak about it would require an act of concealment in my view,” Comey said. Rosenstein wrote that he was perplexed at Comey’s continued defenses of his handling of the probe. “I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken,” Rosenstein wrote. “It is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives.”

Summary: फाइरिंग लाइनः एफ. बी. आई. के कोमी का निष्कासन नए न्यायाधीश की नियुक्ति का परीक्षण करता है


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A dozen Arab ambassadors have asked India to clarify its position on the U.S recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, diplomatic sources said, after New Delhi s muted response suggested a shift in support for the Palestinian cause. U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly reversed decades of U.S. policy this month when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel s capital, generating outrage from Palestinians. Trump also plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Countries around the world, including U.S. allies Britain and France, criticized Trump s decision, but India did not take sides. Instead, the Indian foreign ministry in a brief statement, said India s position was consistent and independent of any third party.  The bland statement made no reference to Jerusalem and prompted criticism at home that it was insufficient, vague and anti-Palestinian. Israel maintains that all of Jerusalem is its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state and say Trump s move has left them marginalized and jeopardized any hopes of a two-state solution.  Last week, envoys from Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait based in New Delhi met Indian junior foreign minister M.J. Akbar to brief the government about an Arab League meeting on Dec. 9 condemning the U.S. decision, a diplomatic and an Indian government source said. The envoys also sought a more forthright Indian response, the sources said.  But Akbar gave no assurance and the Indian source said the government had no plans for a further articulation on Jerusalem, which is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Akbar did not promise anything,  the diplomatic source briefed on the meeting said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities.  India was one of the earliest and vocal champions of the Palestinian cause during the days it was leading the Non-Aligned Movement while it quietly pursued ties with Israel. But under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, New Delhi has moved to a more open relationship with Israel, lifting the curtain on thriving military ties and also homeland security cooperation. Modi s Hindu nationalist ruling group views Israel and India as bound together in a common fight against Islamist militancy and long called for a public embrace of Israel.  Modi in July made a first trip to Israel by an Indian prime minister and did not go to Ramallah, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority and a customary stop for leaders trying to maintain a balance in political ties. P.R. Kumaraswamy, a leading Indian expert on ties with Israel at New Delhi s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said a  major shift  on India s policy had been evident since early this year when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited New Delhi.  With the Palestinian president standing by his side, Prime Minister Modi reiterated India s support for Palestinian statehood but carefully avoided any direct reference to East Jerusalem,  he said.  For decades, India s support for a Palestinian state was accompanied by an explicit reference to East Jerusalem being the Palestinian capital. But Delhi has moved to a more balanced position, refusing to take sides in an explosive dispute, he said. During the meeting last week, the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia and the Palestinian Authority spoke, the diplomatic source said. Besides the dozen envoys there were charges d affaires from several other countries in the region.    They were expecting more from India, perhaps to denounce Israel and the U.S.  said former Indian ambassador to Jordan and Anil Trigunayat.  But would it really make a difference, adding one more voice?

Summary: ट्रम्प के येरुशलम कदम पर भारत की मौन प्रतिक्रिया ने अरबों में बेचैनी पैदा कर दी है


BELFAST (Reuters) - Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said on Wednesday that its talks with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party aimed at re-establishing a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland had failed.   Sinn Fein is disappointed that after the last few weeks of negotiations that it has ended in failure,  Sinn Fein s leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O Neill, told journalists.  We did our best to be flexible.  She called on the British and Irish government s  to act urgently to deliver equality  in Northern Ireland following the failure of the assembly to deliver it, citing the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace deal.

Summary: सिन फेन का कहना है कि उत्तरी आयरलैंड में वार्ता विफल रही है


THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Friday said she would seek approval to open a formal investigation into allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan, in a case that could examine the role of U.S. forces abroad. Fatou Bensouda said in a statement that there is a  reasonable basis to believe  war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed and that all sides in the conflict would be examined. The prosecutor will focus on crimes allegedly committed since May 2003 on the territory of Afghanistan, and war crimes closely linked to the situation in Afghanistan allegedly committed since July 2002 on the territory of other states. The prosecutor on Friday did not mention any specific parties to be investigated. In a report last year, ICC prosecutors identified  potential cases  among three groups of alleged perpetrators: the Taliban and its affiliates, the Afghan authorities and members of the U.S. armed forces and Central Intelligence Agency. There were preliminary grounds to believe U.S. forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan and at CIA detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004, it said. The alleged atrocities took place in all 34 of Afghanistan s provinces, with a smaller number of crimes alleged in Poland, Lithuania and Romania, where suspected members of the Taliban or Al Qaeda were held for questioning. If authorized by the court s judges, prosecutors will investigate  in an independent, impartial and objective way, crimes within the court s jurisdiction allegedly committed by any party to the armed conflict.   The ultimate focus will be upon those most responsible for the most serious crimes,  she said in the statement. The ICC was established in 2002 as the world s permanent court for prosecuting the most serious war crimes, including genocide. It has the backing of the European Union and dozens of nations, but several of the world s most powerful countries - notably the United States, Russia and China - never joined. Former U.S. administrations first opposed the court s establishment, citing fears that American service members would be targeted by politically-motivated prosecutions, but later backed ad hoc investigations. A court of last resort, the ICC only steps in when a country s government is found to be unwilling or unable to do so. ICC jurisdiction is limited to crimes committed on the territory of member states, or in cases referred to it by the U.N. Security Council, as happened with Sudan over alleged genocide in Darfur in 2005. However, crimes committed on the soil of member states by soldiers of countries who are not members also fall under the court s jurisdiction under international law. If a state can show it has investigated and prosecuted the same crimes the ICC is looking into, it could avoid any case ending up in The Hague. In a 2016 report on the preliminary examination of alleged crimes in Afghanistan, the prosecutor noted that while the U.S. Dept. of Justice has looked into allegations of ill treatment of CIA detainees in 2009-2011, the scope of the probe was limited and two cases did not result in a prosecution.

Summary: युद्ध अपराध अदालत में अभियोजक अफगान संघर्ष की जांच की मांग करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. Senate Republican warned his party on Thursday against simultaneously overhauling Medicare and the Obamacare health insurance program, saying this would be “biting off more than you can chew.” The cautionary comments from Senator Lamar Alexander came after House Speaker Paul Ryan, long an advocate of privatize  Medicare, said Republican lawmakers would be discussing reforms of the health insurance program for the elderly with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Republicans won the White House as well as keeping their majorities in both houses of Congress in elections last month, and are now busy preparing an agenda for next year after the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3 and Trump takes office Jan. 20. “Well, of course it’s up to the speaker and Senator (Mitch) McConnell (the majority leader) what our agenda is, but my advice to them would be, save Medicare for another day,” Alexander, chairman of the Senate’s health, education, labor and pensions committee, told reporters in a Capitol hallway. Medicare serves more than 50 million Americans who are elderly or disabled. More than one-third of them are in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers like UnitedHealth Group Inc. The balance receive medical benefits directly from Medicare on a traditional fee-for-service basis. The government has been trying to cut spending on the program, which rises each year with the cost of medical services and drugs.  “We want to begin immediately to repeal Obamacare,” Alexander said. “Trying to deal with the solvency issues in Medicare at the same time falls into the category of biting off more than you can chew ... a little humility here would be in order, we can’t do everything at once and we shouldn’t try.” Ryan earlier Thursday said that Medicare was on a path to going bankrupt around 2028, and needed reform, a repeat of his long-standing stance. He wants to convert the fee-for-service program into a system of subsidies for seniors, to buy coverage from private insurers or a scaled-back Medicare. Democrats including Senator Chuck Schumer have seized on the fact that Trump’s nominee to head the Health and Human Services department - Representative Tom Price - supports major changes to Medicare, to warn Republicans against privatizing the program.  Alexander also said that while Republicans will move quickly to repeal Obamacare, the repeal probably would not take effect for two or three years, during which time lawmakers can work on a replacement plan.

Summary: सीनेटर ने मेडिकेयर और ओबामाकेयर में एक साथ बदलाव के खिलाफ चेतावनी दी


GENEVA (Reuters) - Muslim Rohingyas continue to flee Myanmar to Bangladesh and the United Nations is bracing for possible  further exodus , the U.N. humanitarian aid chief said on Friday. Mark Lowcock, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, reiterated the world body s appeal for access to the population in northern Rakhine state saying that the current situation was  unacceptable .  This flow out of Myanmar has not stopped yet, it s into the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya (who are) still in Myanmar, we want to be ready in case there is a further exodus,  he told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday.  Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim.  An estimated 2,000 Rohingya are escaping Rakhine daily for Bangladesh, where 515,000 have fled since violence erupted on Aug. 25, Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told a separate briefing.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने और अधिक रोहिंग्याओं के भागने की तैयारी की, रखाइन, म्यांमार तक पहुंच की मांग की


AL-BAB, Syria/BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Children returning to school in the northern Syrian city of al-Bab were handed a new textbook this term:  T rk e  reniyorum  -  I am learning Turkish . Turkish lessons, Turkish signposts, Turkish-trained police and most recently a Turkish post office all point to Turkey s deepening role in an area of northern Syria it captured from Islamic State (IS) with the help of Syrian rebels. Turkish administrators are even helping to run hospitals in the area.  Ankara has taken on a widening role in the 100-km (60-mile) stretch of territory seized in its eight-month long  Euphrates Shield  operation, laying the foundations for long-term ties with an area that is of crucial strategic importance to Turkey. Launched to drive IS away from the border, the operation also aimed to block further expansion by Syrian Kurdish groups that Ankara deems a threat to its national security. With the Euphrates Shield region calm for months, Ankara says it wants to help recovery and to encourage a return of Syrian refugees, millions of whom fled the six-year-long war into Turkey. But Turkish support is also consolidating the region s status as a Syrian opposition-held territory where Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups are building their own government even as the forces of President Bashar al-Assad win back swathes of the country elsewhere.  After Daesh (Islamic State) was expelled ... we returned and the cities were suffering from large-scale destruction and general ruin,  said Mohammad Karaz, director of education in al-Bab.  Some schools were wiped out entirely,  he said.  The restoration was done by our Turkish brothers who restored 10 schools, one of which we are sitting in today,  he said during an interview at the Major Bulent al-Bayrak elementary school, named after a Turkish officer killed while fighting Islamic State for control of al-Bab.  Arabs and Turks are siblings  reads a mural in the schoolyard. Turkish aid includes stationery, books and clothes. Karaz said the schools were teaching a Syrian curriculum modified to remove the state s Baathist ideology. The decision to add Turkish was taken unanimously by Syrian education officials in the area, he said. Turkish classes, taught by Syrians trained in Turkey, have started for pupils aged between six and nine. Explaining the decision, Karaz noted that two-thirds of al-Bab citizens had sought refuge in Turkey. Turkish authorities had given assurances that qualifications from schools in the area would  be recognized in Turkey and students can apply to Turkish universities , he said. A senior Turkish official said Ankara aimed to recreate  the conditions to bring life back to normal  in the area which is located northeast of the city of Aleppo and stretches to the western bank of the Euphrates River. Turkish support included health care, security, food and police training.   Turkey wants the Syrians living (in Turkey) to return to their country ... However, it will continue to host the Syrians here and provide humane living conditions for the Syrians in the regions under its control for as long as necessary,  the official told Reuters. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech last weekend, said:  We don t have a wish to occupy these lands but we want the rightful owners to go back there.  Damascus has, however, long accused Turkey, a major backer of the Syrian opposition to Assad, of colonial ambitions in northern Syria. The front page of the pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar on Thursday declared that Ankara was undertaking the  Turkification  of the area. Turkey s intervention was driven chiefly by concern over the growing sway of Syrian Kurdish groups seen by Ankara as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade long insurgency against the Turkish state. The Euphrates Shield operation shattered the Syrian Kurds  hopes of joining up two Kurdish-dominated regions of northern Syria, where the war has allowed Kurdish militia to carve out their own autonomous regions. The Syrian opposition s efforts to establish their own  interim government  in the Euphrates Shield area received a big boost this week when a Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group handed it control of a border crossing to Turkey. The interim government s aims include drawing investment to move  the people from a state of war to work and building the region , said Khaled Aaba, a senior official with the Jabha Shamiya FSA group that handed over Bab al-Salama crossing. Crediting Turkey for standing by  Syrians in their travails , he said Ankara was  actively participating in supporting administrative and service institutions in the area .  The existence of (the interim) government better organizes this relationship.  Turkey s support to the health sector has included repairing and expanding hospitals previously operated by the Syrian state. Turkish administrators are working alongside Syrians at the Hikmeh Hospital in al-Bab, said Ahmad Aabo, a Syrian medical official in the city. Turkey s main project is a 200-bed hospital that will replace one destroyed during the war with IS.  The companies taking control of the construction are Turkish, we don t have companies capable of doing such a project,  said Aabo, speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview from the city. He said work on the hospital, which began a month ago, should be completed by New Year, comparing the rapid pace of the Turkish project with the 25 years it had taken to build its predecessor.     Turkish support for Syrian security forces has included training police officers who began deploying in the region in January. Abdel Razzak al-Laz, the head of the  National Police and General Security Forces , said 7,000 have now been deployed.      Everyone wants the return of security and stability, wants to see a police patrol at night and during the day,  said Laz, a police director when he defected to the opposition in 2012.  The numbers are increasing, and there are continuous courses.

Summary: स्कूलों और अस्पतालों में तुर्की ने उत्तरी सीरिया की भूमिका निभाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration plans to consider almost all illegal immigrants subject to deportation, but will leave protections in place for immigrants known as “dreamers” who entered the United States illegally as children, according to official guidelines released on Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security guidance to immigration agents is part of a broader border security and immigration enforcement plan in executive orders that Republican Trump signed on Jan. 25.  Former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, issued an executive order in 2012 that protected 750,000 immigrants who had been brought into the United States illegally by their parents. Trump has said the issue is “very difficult” for him.  Trump campaigned on a pledge to get tougher on the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, playing on fears of violent crime while promising to build a wall on the border with Mexico and to stop potential terrorists from entering the country. Trump’s planned measures against illegal immigrants have drawn protests, such as an event last week that activists called “A Day Without Immigrants” to highlight the importance of  foreign-born people, who account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, or more than 40 million naturalized American citizens. A banner declaring “Refugees Welcome” was posted on the base of the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of American acceptance of immigrants, before park rangers removed it on Tuesday, WABC television reported. DHS officials, on a conference call with reporters, said that although any immigrant in the country illegally could be deported, the agency will prioritize those deemed a threat. These include recent entrants, those convicted of a crime and people charged but not convicted of a crime. Some details of the guidelines were detailed in a draft memo seen on Saturday.   Many of the instructions will not be implemented immediately because they depend on Congress, a public comment period or negotiations with other nations, the officials said. Mexican immigration officials immediately objected to part of the new rules. The guidance also calls for the hiring of 10,000 more U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents and 5,000 more U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. The DHS will need to publish a notice in the Federal Register subject to review in order to implement one part of the plan that calls on ICE agents to increase the number of immigrants who are not given a hearing before being deported.  The new rules would subject immigrants who cannot show they have been in the country for more than two years to “expedited removal.” Currently, only migrants apprehended near a U.S. border who cannot show they have been in the country more than 14 days are subject to rapid removal.  The memos also instruct ICE to detain migrants who are awaiting a court decision on whether they will be deported or granted relief, such as asylum. DHS officials said they are reviewing what jurisdictions may have laws in place that prevent the amount of time immigrants can be held. The agency also plans to send non-Mexican migrants crossing the southern U.S. border back into Mexico as they await a decision on their case. The DHS officials said this plan would be dependent on partnerships with the Mexican government and would not be implemented overnight.  The guidelines were released a day before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly were due in Mexico City for talks with President Enrique Pena Nieto and Mexican officials. An official from Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said the government would tell Kelly’s team to that it was “impossible” for Mexico to accept deportees or asylum applicants from foreign countries, and would ask them to explain their plan. The deportation of Mexicans would be one of the government’s major concerns at the meeting, said the official, who declined to be named. A spokeswoman from the Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Summary: अमेरिकी 'सपने देखने वाले' प्रवासियों को कार्रवाई से बचाएंगे ट्रम्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate is still on track to release on Thursday its version of a bill to overhaul the nation’s tax code, a congressional source told Reuters. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch has not announced a specific day for the bill’s release and said only that it would be toward the end of the week.   Axios reported on Wednesday that the bill would be delayed past Thursday, but the source told Reuters it was on track to be released that day. Friday is a U.S. holiday and the Senate will not be in session. The House of Representatives released its version of the tax  legislation backed by Republican President Donald Trump last week and is aiming to vote on its bill next week, a senior Republican said. Passing the tax overhaul has been a priority for Trump, who says it will stimulate economic growth and create jobs. But Republicans have yet to score a major legislative accomplishment since the president took office in January, even though the party controls also both chambers of Congress.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट अभी भी गुरुवार को कर विधेयक जारी करने की राह पर हैः सहायक


UNITED NATIONS/YANGON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Friday that the United States was demanding  the immediate release  of two Reuters reporters arrested in Myanmar  or information as to the circumstances around their disappearance.  The United States joined mounting demands for the reporters to be freed. The United Nations, United Kingdom, Sweden and Bangladesh, among others, have denounced the arrests. The journalists, Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, went missing on Tuesday after being invited to meet police officials over dinner on the northern outskirts of the city of Yangon. They had worked on stories about a military crackdown in Rakhine state, which has triggered the flight of more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh since late August. As of Friday, Reuters had not been formally contacted by officials about the detention of the reporters. The Ministry of Information has said that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo  illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media,  and released a photo of the pair in handcuffs. Reuters President and Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler has called for the immediate release of the journalists, saying in a statement on Wednesday that the global news organization was  outraged by this blatant attack on press freedom.   A court official in the northern district of Yangon where they were detained said that no paperwork had been filed relating to either journalist. The official said that usually cases are lodged 20-30 days after an arrest as suspects can be held in custody for up to 28 days without being charged. On Wednesday, Myanmar s Ministry of Information said the reporters and two policemen faced charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act, though officials have since disclosed that they have not been charged. The 1923 law carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. Last month, the United States called the Myanmar military operation against the Rohingya population  ethnic cleansing  and threatened targeted sanctions against those responsible for what it called  horrendous atrocities.   Tillerson said at the United Nations on Friday that the United States had identified one individual as a sanctions target and was examining others over the campaign in Myanmar against minority Rohingya Muslims. Myanmar s 2-year-old government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has faced heavy international criticism for its response to the Rohingya crisis, though it has no control over the generals with whom it shares power. Rights monitors have accused Myanmar s military of atrocities, including killings, mass rape and arson, against the stateless Rohingya during so-called clearance operations after Rohingya militants  Aug. 25 attacks on 30 police posts and an army base. Amnesty International has called for a comprehensive arms embargo against Myanmar as well as targeted financial sanctions against senior Myanmar military officials. In calling for release of the Reuters reporters on Friday, Tillerson said,  A free press is vital to Myanmar s transition and becoming a viable democracy, and we want Myanmar s democracy to succeed.   He said the U.S. embassy in Myanmar was  expressing our concerns over the detention of individuals, demanding their immediate release or information as to the circumstances around their disappearance.  The embassy said in a statement on its Facebook page on Friday,  We remain concerned about Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.   Their families and others have not been allowed to see them, and don t even know where they are being held.  Tillerson s comments came in the wake of a rising chorus of concern in the West over Myanmar s action. The leaders of the U.S. Senate Human Rights Caucus, Republican Thom Tillis and Democrat Chris Coons, said they were  gravely concerned  about the arrests. Earlier on Friday at the United Nations, British Minister for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field said,  We will make it clear in the strongest possible terms that we feel that they need to be released at the earliest possible opportunity.  The nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists also called for the reporters  unconditional release, saying,  These arrests come amid a widening crackdown which is having a grave impact on the ability of journalists to cover a story of vital global importance.    Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said the arrests were a  threat to a democratic and peaceful development of Myanmar and that region .  We do not accept that journalists are attacked or simply kidnapped or that they disappear,  Wallstrom told reporters on Friday at the United Nations. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the arrests were a signal that press freedom is shrinking in Myanmar and the international community must do all it can to get the reporters released. Britain has expressed  grave concerns  to the government of Myanmar over the arrest of the two journalists, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters in London on Thursday.  We are committed to freedom of speech and people s ability to report the facts and bring into the public domain what is happening in Rakhine state,  he said. Bangladesh, which is struggling to cope with the influx of  refugees into its southern tip, also condemned the arrests of reporters working for an agency that had shone a light for the world on the strife in Rakhine state.  We strongly denounce arrests of Reuters journalists and feel that those reporters be free immediately so that they can depict the truth to the world by their reporting,  said Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, information adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.     In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s spokesman Motosada Matano, said his government is closely watching the situation. He said Japan has been conducting a dialogue with the Myanmar government on human rights in Myanmar in general.

Summary: म्यांमार को रॉयटर्स के पत्रकारों की रिहाई की बढ़ती मांग का सामना करना पड़ रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans believe it should be up to President Barack Obama to nominate the next U.S. Supreme Court justice, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Thursday, with opinion divided along ideological party lines. The death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia last week sparked an intense debate between Republicans and Democrats over whether Obama, a Democrat, should nominate Scalia’s replacement before he leaves office, or whether the seat should be left open until a new president takes office in January. Concerned that any appointee Obama selects would tip the nine-justice court in liberals’ favor, Republicans in the U.S. Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have said the replacement should be chosen by the next president. The White House has said Obama intends to do as the U.S. Constitution requires and “move promptly” to nominate a successor. The nominee must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The poll showed that 54 percent of Americans believed Obama should make the nomination. The support overwhelmingly came from Democrats, with 81 percent of them saying they supported Obama nominating Scalia’s successor. Among Republicans, only 27 percent said they either strongly or somewhat supported Obama making the pick. Democrats and Republican also had different priorities when it comes to picking a Supreme Court nominee, according to the poll. A majority, or 67 percent, of Democrats said they wanted someone pragmatic and willing to compromise, with 53 percent of Republicans saying they wanted someone ideologically pure. Despite its polarizing effect, the Supreme Court issue does not appear to be a priority issue for voters surveyed. More Americans think the executive and legislative branches of government wield greater influence than the judiciary, the poll showed, and fewer than 10 percent thought nominating justices to the high court was a presidential duty most relevant to them. A third of those surveyed said they were not aware of Scalia’s death, which first made headlines on Saturday. The poll of 1,108 adults, including 460 Democrats and 426 Republicans, was conducted Tuesday to Thursday. It had a credibility interval of about 5 percentage points.

Summary: अधिकांश अमेरिकी चाहते हैं कि ओबामा स्कैलिया के प्रतिस्थापन को नामित करेः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस