BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - “The French never vote like the Americans,” a politician told a rally for presidential favorite Alain Juppe on Wednesday as France wondered if it would be the next country to prove the opinion polls wrong. Juppe, mayor of the southwest city of Bordeaux and a former prime minister, has topped the polls for months. Surveys predict he will win both a primary later in November to be the center-right’s candidate and the presidential election in six months. But after pollsters failed to predict U.S. voters would make Donald Trump their country’s 45th president, like their British colleagues who got the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU wrong, France has started bracing for a possible surprise next year. “Juppe is ahead in polls and he will also win. The French are not like the Americans, we’re not crazy,” Juppe supporter Mbacoye Balde, 35, told Reuters at the Bordeaux rally. Nearby, another Juppe supporter carried a banner reading “Ne vous Trumpez pas” a French play on words with Trump’s name  that meant “Don’t make a mistake.”  “We’ve always been cautious about polls, we’ve always said one should not get carried away and it was not in the bag,” Virginie Calmels, Juppe’s deputy in Bordeaux and one of his campaign spokespersons, said of his strong ratings.     But she added: “It’s not quite the same in France and in the United States.” Unlike in the United States for the Trump vote, pollsters in France have recently tended to overestimate support for the anti-immigration National Front (FN), she said. The far-right party won no region in last year’s local elections, despite forecasts it would get at least one.  But its leader Marine Le Pen is another strong candidate in the presidential election and is expected to be one of the two contestants to make it into the runoff round - possibly against Juppe himself. Juppe told the rally that, if elected, he would “obviously be available for dialogue with President Trump” but spent much of his speech warning against populism, saying inclusiveness and hope were the answer.   Juppe is campaigning on a moderate platform more to the center than the law-and-order strategy of main rival Nicolas Sarkozy, who was France’s president in 2007-2012 and has courted controversy with his hard line on immigration and Islam. Without mentioning Sarkozy by name, Juppe said: “Beware the false answers and bad solutions ... I say ‘no’ to divisiveness, ‘no’ to demagoguery that pit the French against one another.”  “I want the optimistic France to lift up the sad France,” he said, just days ahead of the two-round primary on November 20 and 27 where he will compete against Sarkozy and five other candidates for the center-right’s nomination.

Summary: 'फ्रांस अमेरिका नहीं है', राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार जुपे के खेमे ने कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday that he is optimistic the Senate and House of Representatives will reach a conference agreement on tax legislation that can be signed into law by President Donald Trump. “We’ll be able to get to an agreement in the conference. I’m very optimistic about it,” the Kentucky Republican told ABC’s “This Week” program.

Summary: सीनेट और सदन के बीच कर विधेयक समझौते को लेकर मैककॉनेल आशावादी


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The battle for the city of Raqqa, which Islamic State had used as its headquarters in Syria, is drawing to an end. Islamic State militants have lost swathes of land to various offensives across Syria and Iraq, forced into a diminishing foothold along the Euphrates river valley. Their defeat in Raqqa would be a milestone in the fight to roll back the theocratic  caliphate  Islamic State declared in 2014 in both countries. Following are some facts about Raqqa: Raqqa sits on the Euphrates river around 90 km (56 miles) from the Turkish border in north central Syria.  Hardline Sunni militant group Islamic State overran Raqqa in January 2014, seizing control from rebel factions opposed to the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The United States has said Islamic State planned and sent teams from Raqqa to carry out attacks on cities including Paris, Brussels and Istanbul.  THE ANTI-IS OFFENSIVE The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of mostly Kurdish and Arab militias, began to advance towards Raqqa city in November 2016. After encircling the city, they launched the offensive to take it, facing tough resistance.  The United States-led coalition supports the SDF with air strikes and special forces on the ground.  The battle for Raqqa has taken a severe toll on civilians. The United Nations said in March the city contained around 200,000 people, just under its pre-war population.  Since late last year, fighting around and in Raqqa has displaced tens of thousands of people. Many have fled the city to camps in surrounding territory now under the control of the SDF and its strongest component, the Kurdish YPG militia.  Civilians trapped inside the Islamic State enclave in the city have endured miserable conditions for months, lacking water, power, food and healthcare. Parts of Raqqa that the SDF captured have mostly been cleared of residents.     Air strikes, fighting and Islamic State snipers and mines have killed many hundreds of people.   The coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in its bombing runs in Syria and Iraq. But the U.N. human rights office and rights group Amnesty International have raised concerns about reports of high civilian deaths.  Islamic State has imposed its very strict interpretation of Islamic law on Raqqa s residents. The fighters have carried out public executions, lashings and violent punishments for infringements of their rule. The Raqqa campaign has stirred tension between the United States and NATO-ally Turkey. Potential Kurdish influence in the future of the mainly Arab city is sensitive both for some activists from Raqqa and for Turkey.   The YPG has become the main U.S. partner in the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria. Ankara views it as a Syrian extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency within Turkey, and fears growing Kurdish power along its border. The SDF s political allies have set up a Raqqa Civil Council of people from the city, which the SDF says it will hand control to once its fighters have defeated Islamic State. This echoes the pattern in other towns and cities that the SDF captured. The U.S.-led coalition has helped train a new police force for the city.  Islamic State has made enemies of all sides in the more than six-year Syrian conflict, with separate offensives now trying to clear it from its last foothold in the towns along the Euphrates river in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border. Besides the U.S.-backed SDF, the Syrian army, with Russian jets and Iran-backed militias, is also waging its own campaign against Islamic State in eastern Syria.     A modern-day provincial transport hub and market town, Raqqa was built by the Abbasid Islamic Caliphate in the eighth century, serving as its capital at one point. It has been inhabited since antiquity and contains important archaeological and architectural sites. The United Nations has said they have been extensively looted during the war and religious buildings have been damaged. Islamic State militants released a video of them bombing a large part of the Uwais al-Qarani shrine complex in March 2014.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः रक्का-इस्लामिक स्टेट के सीरियाई मुख्यालय के लिए लड़ाई समाप्त होने वाली है


SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Approval for Brazilian President Michel Temer s government has plummeted, according to a poll published on Tuesday, as the scandal-plagued leader faces new corruption charges and struggles to push his economic reform agenda through Congress.  Polling firm MDA said that 3.4 percent of those surveyed thought the Temer government was doing a  great or good  job - down from 10.3 percent in MDA s last such poll in February. Temer took over a year ago from impeached leftist Dilma Rousseff and has said he does not care about popularity and only wants to push through an austerity package before his term ends in Jan. 2019. Yet his ability to do so has been hamstrung by charges of taking bribes, racketeering and obstruction of justice. The charges against Temer are based on the plea-bargain testimony of the owners of the world s largest meatpacker, JBS SA. They accuse Temer of taking bribes in return for political favors and of conspiring to buy the silence of a witness who could implicate the leader.  Temer has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The MDA poll was commissioned by the national transport lobby CNT and surveyed 2,002 people across Brazil from Sept. 13-16. The poll has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.

Summary: ब्राजील के टेमर के लिए अनुमोदन रेटिंग में गिरावटः सर्वेक्षण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mylan NV’s move on Thursday to expand discount programs for its EpiPen allergy treatment was welcome but not sufficient, a spokesman for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a statement. “Discounts for selected customers without lowering the overall price of EpiPens are insufficient, because the excessive price will likely be passed on through higher insurance premiums,” Clinton campaign spokesman Tyrone Gayle said. “Since there is no apparent justification for the price increase, Mylan should immediately lower the overall price of EpiPens.”

Summary: माइलान की एपिपेन छूट 'अपर्याप्त' हैः क्लिंटन प्रवक्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill passed by U.S. House Republicans would cause 23 million people to lose healthcare coverage by 2026 while de-stabilizing health insurance markets in some states and making it hard for sick people to buy insurance, a budget watchdog agency said on Wednesday. The Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan group of experts who analyze U.S. legislation, said the bill would reduce federal deficits by $119 billion between 2017 and 2026. The report could give added ammunition to Democrats who have accused President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans of putting sick and low-income people at risk with their effort to roll back former President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 healthcare law, formally known as the Affordable Care Act but often called Obamacare. The report also complicates the job of Senate Republicans - some of whom already have doubts about the House bill - as they craft their own healthcare legislation. Republicans have sought to unravel Obamacare since its passage and Trump promised on the campaign trail to repeal it, saying it is too costly and an overreach by government in the healthcare market. As Trump and Republican leaders sought to bring wavering lawmakers on board with the House bill, they added a controversial last-minute amendment that would give states leeway to drop an Obamacare requirement that forces insurers to charge sick and healthy people the same insurance rates. Another change would allow states to decide whether to require insurers to cover health benefits such as maternity care and prescription drugs that are mandatory under current law. But the CBO report said the amendment would make it difficult or impossible for people in poor health to purchase comprehensive coverage in some states. “People who are less healthy (including those with preexisting or newly acquired medical conditions) would ultimately be unable to purchase comprehensive non-group health insurance at premiums comparable to those under current law, if they could purchase it at all,” the CBO report said. The CBO said markets for people to buy individual insurance plans could then become “unstable” in states that choose to waive the Obamacare requirements for coverage of pre-existing medical conditions and essential health benefits. Even before the report, many Republican senators were wary of the House version of the healthcare bill, saying it unraveled Obamacare too much and too quickly. About 20 million people gained insurance under Obamacare. The House bill would eliminate most Obamacare taxes that help subsidize private health coverage for individuals, roll back the government’s Medicaid health plan for the poor and disabled and replace the law’s income-based tax credits for buying medical coverage with credits based on age. A group of 13 Republican senators led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to draft its own version of the healthcare bill in the coming months. McConnell, however, told Reuters on Wednesday he does not yet know how Republicans will get the necessary votes. “This is a very challenging undertaking,” McConnell said.    After the release of the CBO report, several Republican senators said they could not support the House bill. “While I am in favor of repealing Obamacare, I am opposed to the American Health Care Act in its current form,” Republican Senator Dean Heller said in a statement. Republican Senator Susan Collins said too many people would lose insurance and that older and low-income Americans would be hurt. House Republicans, who argue their healthcare bill would allow insurance markets to function more efficiently, focused on the projected budget savings from it and a finding in the CBO report that said insurance premiums for some people would decline. Groups representing hospitals, insurers and doctors who opposed the House bill said the CBO report showed the Senate should start fresh with an eye to maintaining coverage and benefits. Democrats also blasted the bill and said the CBO report proved it would be catastrophic for millions of people who would lose health insurance. “The report makes clear Trumpcare would be a cancer on the American healthcare system,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference. The new CBO score predicts the AHCA would cover 1 million more Americans than Republicans’ previous version of the bill, which the agency estimated would have left 24 million more people uninsured than Obamacare in 2026. To allay concerns about coverage of people with pre-existing illnesses, House Republicans allocated an additional $8 billion over five years in their bill to help sick people pay for insurance premiums but the CBO said the money would not be enough to help them afford coverage. The CBO said premiums would fall for younger people and rise for older people in states that did not waive Obamacare requirements for an overall decline of about 4 percent. In states that made moderate changes to their markets, representing about one-third of the U.S. population, premiums would fall 20 percent on average. Reaction on Wall Street was muted, with shares of hospitals affected by the cuts to Medicaid, like Community Health Systems, and health insurers specializing in Medicaid, such as Molina Healthcare (MOH.N) and Centene Corp (CNC.N) unchanged in light after-hours trading. The Republicans’ first attempt at undoing Obamacare this year resulted in a setback for the Trump agenda in March. Conservative and moderate Republican factions in the House were opposed to the initial legislation and the leadership decided not to put it up for a vote.

Summary: अमेरिकी रिपब्लिकन बिल के तहत, 23 मिलियन स्वास्थ्य कवरेज खो देंगेः वॉचडॉग


(Reuters) - North Carolina on Thursday repealed a law restricting bathroom use for transgender people, hoping to bring back businesses and sports leagues that boycotted the Southern state because they saw the year-old measure as discriminatory. However, the new law replacing the old one bans cities in the state from passing their own anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people until 2020, drawing scorn from civil rights advocates and casting doubt on whether boycotting businesses will return to the state. Democratic Governor Roy Cooper signed the replacement bill into law after the Republican-controlled state Senate and House of Representatives approved it in separate votes in the capital, Raleigh. The new measure rescinds House Bill 2, the so-called bathroom bill also popularly known as HB 2, which required transgender people to use the bathrooms, changing rooms and showers in state-run buildings that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity.  HB 2’s enactment a year ago prompted boycotts that cost the state economy hundreds of millions of dollars. Deutsche Bank AG and PayPal Holdings Inc reversed expansion plans in the state. Entertainers such as Bruce Springsteen and Itzhak Perlman canceled concerts.  In basketball-crazed North Carolina, the withdrawal of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament games and the National Basketball Association All-Star game, which had been awarded to Charlotte, reverberated throughout the state. Under the new law, transgender people are once again free to use the bathroom of their choice, but they lack any recourse should a person, business or state entity eject or harass them. The new law also denies LGBT people state legal protections in other areas such as employment and housing. Outraged LGBT advocates, who had wanted an unconditional repeal of HB 2, were already pressuring business and sports organizations not to return. “This (is) the end of HB 2 in name only. The bill that was passed today is a disgrace, not a ‘fix,’ a ‘reset,’ or a ‘compromise,’ and certainly not a repeal,” Mara Keisling, director of the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement. “Putting any kind of moratorium on civil rights, whether six months or three years long, is dangerous and wrong,” she said. Deutsche Bank, which in response to HB 2 froze plans to create 250 jobs at its location in Cary, North Carolina, declined to comment on Thursday. Elected political rivals on both sides of the issue claimed at least partial victories in reaching the compromise that produced the new law. Both Cooper and the Republican House speaker said they expected the NCAA to once again schedule championship events. NCAA President Mark Emmert said at a news conference posted online by the Raleigh News and Observer newspaper that the board of directors would decide whether the change is sufficient to spur a return. The deal to replace HB 2 came together on Wednesday night, just ahead of an NCAA deadline to amend the law. The governor told reporters the law was imperfect but said Thursday’s action would help begin repairing North Carolina’s damaged reputation. “I wish this were a complete, total repeal, and whenever I get the chance to do that I will do that. ... I’m going to fight every single day for LGBT protections,” Cooper said. HB 2 was passed in response to an ordinance in Charlotte, the state’s largest city, that permitted transgender people to use the bathrooms matching their gender identity. The Charlotte ordinance alarmed social conservatives who, without evidence, feared it would endanger women and girls in intimate spaces. House Speaker Tim Moore said the new state law protected bathroom safety, but some social conservatives were unsatisfied.   “The truth remains, no basketball game, corporation, or entertainment event is worth even one little girl losing her privacy and dignity to a boy in the locker room, or being harmed or frightened in a bathroom,” said Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the NC Values Coalition in Raleigh and an outspoken supporter of HB 2. Cooper, the former state attorney general, has opposed HB 2 from the outset. He unseated former Republican Governor Pat McCrory last year in large part because of the law’s political and economic fallout, political analysts say.

Summary: बहिष्कार को समाप्त करने की मांग करते हुए, उत्तरी कैरोलिना ने ट्रांसजेंडर बाथरूम कानून को रद्द कर दिया


SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian authorities have detained a gang suspected of smuggling migrants from Iraq, Iran and Syria to Western Europe from Turkey, prosecutors said on Monday. The gang of three Kurds and four Bulgarians was charged with smuggling offences after they transported migrants from Turkey into Serbia and Romania, both countries that border Bulgaria. One member of the group was still not detained, prosecutors said. South Eastern Europe was a key point of transit for more than 1 million migrants from the Middle East and Africa who came to Europe in 2015. Many came to escape conflict in Syria. Very few of them, however, stayed in Bulgaria, the European Union s poorest state. Instead, most prefer to journey onwards to wealthier western EU countries like Germany and Sweden. The influx provoked a political crisis for the European Union. Flows of migrants have diminished since then, though the bloc is yet to agree on a migration policy.  The evidence gathered indicates that the final destination of the migrants were Western Europe s countries,  a spokesman for the prosecutors office told Reuters, adding that some migrants came from countries other than Iraq, Iran and Syria. The migrants paid 2,000 euros ($2,360.60) each for their transportation from Turkey to the Bulgarian capital Sofia.  Bulgaria built a fence on its border with Turkey and has bolstered its border controls to prevent illegal migration. Last month Bulgarian authorities smashed another gang suspected of smuggling migrants into Western Europe. ($1 = 0.8472 euros)

Summary: बुल्गारिया ने पश्चिमी यूरोप में प्रवासियों की तस्करी करने के संदेह में गिरोह को गिरफ्तार किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday asked chief executives from companies representing the two sides of the net neutrality debate, including Alphabet, Facebook, AT&T and Verizon, to testify at a Sept. 7 hearing. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is considering tossing out 2015 Obama administration net neutrality rules that reclassified internet service like a public utility. The current rules bar providers from blocking or slowing websites, or allowing websites to pay for “fast lanes” over competitors.  Internet providers and major tech companies have been sharply divided over the rules. Many internet providers want Congress to step in and write permanent rules, while websites say the Obama era rules are critical to preserving the open internet. The outcome of the debate could have a major impact on the future of the internet economy and potentially profits of the companies involved. Other chief executives asked to testify include the heads of Comcast Corp, Netflix Inc and Charter Communications Inc. Several companies said they were reviewing the letter but none immediately said if they will testify. Comcast said it welcomed the hearing and “believes the best way to stop the regulatory ping-pong on this important issue is for Congress to enact bipartisan legislation.” “A strong consensus is forming across party lines and across industries that it’s time for Congress to call a halt on the back-and-forth and set clear net neutrality ground rules for the internet,” said Representative Greg Walden, a Republican, who chairs the committee. “The time has come to get everyone to the table and get this figured out.” Democrats on the committee want Republicans to invite small businesses and consumers, not just the CEOs from some of the “largest corporations in the world with a combined market capitalization of nearly $2.5 trillion,” said a statement from Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle, both Democrats. Democrats have so far refused to work with Republicans on internet legislation. A group representing major technology firms last week urged the FCC to abandon plans to rescind the rules barring internet service providers from hindering consumer access to web content or offering paid “fast lanes.” Major internet service have urged the FCC, however, to reverse the rules, even as they vowed not to hinder internet access. In May, the FCC voted 2-1 to advance Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to withdraw the former Obama administration’s order reclassifying internet service providers as if they were utilities. The FCC is considering whether it has the authority to limit internet providers’ ability to block, throttle or offer “paid prioritization,” and, if so, whether it should keep any regulations in place. More than 12 million public comments have been filed on the proposal. The Internet Association, a group representing Facebook, Google, Microsoft Corp and Twitter Inc, said last week it was “open to alternative legal bases for the rules, either via legislative action codifying the existing net neutrality rules or via sound legal theories offered by the commission.”

Summary: हाउस पैनल चाहता है कि गूगल, फेसबुक, एटीएंडटी के सीईओ इंटरनेट नियमों पर गवाही दें


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It would not be a bad idea for the European Central Bank and other central banks to follow the U.S. Federal Reserve’s example and change course away from an ultra-accommodative monetary policy, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. Speaking on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, Schaeuble said the ultra-loose monetary policies in place in many areas of the world were not helpful. “It is encouraging undue risk-taking, political complacency, capital misallocation and asset price bubbles,” he added. “The Fed has initiated the exit from loose monetary policy. It wouldn’t be a bad idea, if the European Central bank and others were to start following this example,” he said. Three ECB policymakers said on Wednesday - days before a tense French presidential election and the ECB’s own policy meeting - that prospects for the euro zone economy had improved but the time to withdraw support has not yet come. Investors are on tenterhooks before Sunday’s first round vote in France, where two of the four leading candidates are threatening to leave the European Union and the euro currency. Any turmoil in the bond market after the French vote would push up borrowing costs for countries and companies - undoing some of the stimulus the ECB is providing - and even raise questions about the euro’s survival. While stressing that the ECB, and not the German government, sets monetary policy for the euro zone, Schaeuble added: “It is true that the euro being undervalued, from a German perspective, benefits our exporters.” German officials have said Schaeuble and his delegation will stress the importance of globalization and free trade for growth at the talks in Washington this week, as well as the need for reforms to increase resilience against future shocks.

Summary: जर्मनी के शेयबल ने ई. सी. बी. पर ढीली मौद्रिक नीति को हटाने के लिए दबाव डाला


CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic state has claimed responsibility for two rockets fired on Sunday from Egypt s Sinai peninsula into Israel, an official statement by the group said on Monday.  The fighters confronted Israeli jets that flew above the state and targeted the Eshkol compound with two Grad rockets,  the statement said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage and the group did not provide evidence for its claim.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट ने सिनाई से इजरायल में दागे गए दो रॉकेटों का दावा किया


LONDON (Reuters) - Low on cash but high on hope, Iran s technology entrepreneurs are learning to live with revived hostility in the United States and growing suspicion - or worse - from hardliners at home. Their startups and e-commerce apps are flourishing, driven by government infrastructure support and young Iranians educated both in the country and abroad. Some are even drawing foreign investment in a way that Iran s dominant oil industry has yet to achieve since most international sanctions were lifted early last year under a nuclear deal with world powers. Life remains tough despite the easing of Iran s international isolation. The atmosphere in Washington has soured again, with President Donald Trump signing legislation tightening domestic U.S. sanctions on Iran and threatening to pull out of the nuclear accord. On top of this, Google and Apple have withdrawn some services temporarily or indefinitely for Iranian users in recent months for reasons including the U.S. sanctions. Still, the absence of U.S. giants such as Amazon and Uber has allowed their Iranian equivalents Digikala and Snapp to grow rapidly. Many other local internet firms are following suit.  Ramin Rabii, chief executive of Turquoise Partners, which facilitates foreign investment in Iran, said Trump s rhetoric could paradoxically help the tech sector.  If he keeps talking about sanctions, that would increase the risk of investment in Iran, but at the same time it will keep a lot of competition out,  he told Reuters in a telephone interview from Tehran.  Major global players are not here.  No figures are available on foreign investment in Iranian tech firms. Rabii, however, estimated it at hundreds of millions of dollars since the nuclear deal came into force. By contrast, an expected rush into Iran s huge energy reserves has yet to materialize. French group Total is investing in a gas project but Tehran has yet to seal any major oil deals with international partners. Foreign investment in Iranian tech remains modest compared with regional mega-deals such as Amazon s purchase in March of Dubai-based retailer souq.com. Amazon did not reveal the price but beat off a rival offer worth $800 million. Still, Rabii sees a bright future.  Many foreign investors ask me what is the best performing sector in Iran for the next decade. I always name e-commerce and the tech sector,  he said. After the relative isolation of the international sanctions era, the tech sector has attracted many young Iranians back from the United States, Canada and Europe. They hope to marry their experience of the startup scene with locally-educated talent. Reza Arbabian left Canada, where he went as a teenager, to join his family textile business in Iran. But in 2012 he launched Sheypoor, the Iranian answer to Craigslist, a U.S. classified advertisements website.  Sheypoor now employs 200 and recently marked its fifth anniversary. Cash, however, remains tight.  Many foreign companies are still hesitant and Iranian investors don t understand the value in e-commerce. They cannot accept that they need to wait for five years for a startup to make profits,  said Arbabian.  Some outside Iran, especially in Europe where the sanctions net is not quite so tight, are nevertheless willing to take the plunge. Swedish-based Pomegranate Investment, for instance, has taken a 43 percent stake in Sheypoor. On a larger scale, Sarava, Digikala s main shareholder, is 45 percent-owned by foreign investors. These include Pomegranate, which raised its stake to 15 percent with a 41 million euro ($48 million) investment in 2016. Following the Amazon model, Digikala has grown into Iran s biggest internet company with a market share of 85-90 percent, according to Pomegranate. Staff numbers have leapt in the past two years from 800 to more than 2,000.  Iran came late to mass internet access but has invested heavily under President Hassan Rouhani, hoping to attract foreign cash and create more jobs. According to the Measuring Information Society of Iran, a government-linked portal, more than 62 percent of households were connected to the internet by March 2017. This was up from only 21 percent in 2013, the year Rouhani took office. Smartphone ownership has also rocketed. Iran, a country of 80 million people, had only two million smartphone users three years ago but the number hit 40 million in 2016. Such developments encouraged Kamran Adle, an Iranian born and raised in London, to move to Tehran last year.   Iranian infrastructure has dramatically improved in recent of years. 3G and 4G is much more commonplace than it was a couple of years ago,  said Adle, whose firm Ctrl+Tech invests in early stage startups and helps them to develop apps. Some Iranian apps are copies of foreign equivalents, made out of the reach of international lawyers. But the years of isolation also forced domestic talent to be more innovative, and Adle says there is no shortage of app developers. One such is Farshad Khodamoradi, who has designed the app for a job-hunting startup being launched this month. Unlike traditional sites,  3sootjobs  will use an algorithm-driven matching system to connect candidates with the right employers. Khodamoradi complains about difficulties in accessing foreign tech services, many of which are U.S.-based.  The main problem is that the global services Iranian startups are using can be cut off overnight,  he told Reuters from Tehran. He cited Google s Firebase, a platform used to generate push notifications - such as messages to passengers that a taxi has arrived to pick them up - without their having to open the app. This was unavailable in Iran on a number of occasions in June and July, disrupting startups including taxi hailing apps, he said. Google did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Although technology firms can gain exemptions from the sanctions, U.S. corporations appear unwilling to risk involvement in Iran. In August, Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi threatened to take legal action over Apple s removal of Iranian apps from its app stores. Apple did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. All this seems in contrast to U.S. promises after the nuclear deal. In March 2016, in a message to the Iranian people, then President Barack Obama said ending international sanctions  would mean more access to cutting-edge technologies, including information technologies that can help Iranian startups . Since that message, anti-U.S. Iranian hardliners have followed the growth of startups suspiciously, branding them as vehicles of enemy infiltration. Two foreign-based tech investors have also ended up in prison. Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese information technology expert with  permanent U.S. residency, was jailed in 2016 for 10 years for collaborating against the state. He had attended a conference in Tehran the previous year at the invitation of one of Iran s vice presidents, only to be arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as he was going to the airport to leave the country. Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi also got 10 years in 2016 on charges of cooperating with the United States. While under arrest, Namazi appeared in an Iranian documentary seen by Reuters in which he said his mistake had been to accept money for his startup from an organization linked to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Revolutionary Guards, a military force that runs an industrial empire, largely control telecommunications in Iran. However, tech entrepreneurs say the environment is generally supportive.  We haven t come across any of those governmental push-backs,  Adle said. In the longer term, the sanctions would make using the souq.com model to cash in on Iranian investments much harder. But Eddie Kerman, of London-based Indigo Holdings which links retail investors to Iranian tech firms, is optimistic.         American companies like Amazon might not be able to enter the Iranian market, but there is a significant possibility that European or Asian companies buy the larger Iranian players,  he said.

Summary: प्रतिस्पर्धा को बाहर रखनाः प्रतिबंधों के बावजूद ईरान के स्टार्टअप फलते-फूलते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Susan Collins, who helped torpedo President Donald Trump’s effort to repeal Obamacare, said on Sunday she was leaning towards a ‘yes’ vote on the Senate budget resolution to advance tax reform. “I am likely a yes on that budget. I very much want to see tax reform,” Collins said on ABC’s “This Week” news program. The Senate is expected to vote on the fiscal 2018 measure this week. The resolution contains a legislative tool that could facilitate adoption of a tax reform bill later this year.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर कॉलिन्स कर सुधार को आगे बढ़ाने के लिए 'हां' में मतदान कर सकते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Pyongyang is a problem that “will be taken care of,” as speculation rose that North Korea might be on the verge of a sixth nuclear test. Trump, responding to a question about what his message is for North Korea, said, “North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of.” He said he believed Chinese President Xi Jinping would “work very hard” to help resolve the challenge. The president said he had spent a lot of time with Xi last week in Florida.  “I have really gotten to like and respect President Xi. ... He’s a very special man. I think he’s going to try very hard.”

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया की समस्या का समाधान किया जाएगाः ट्रंप


BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany s pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), a possible partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel s new government, has called for Russia to be invited to the next summit of the Group of Seven industrialized countries. The proposal met immediate resistance from Merkel s conservatives and the environmentalist Greens, throwing a possible wrench into already tricky negotiations about a three-way ruling coalition. FDP leader Christian Lindner told the Austrian newspaper Die Pressed that readmitting Russia to the Group of Eight could help ease tensions with Moscow. Russia was suspended from the group in 2014 after it annexed Ukraine s Crimea peninsula following an uprising in Kiev that toppled its pro-Moscow president.  We cannot make all things dependent on the situation in Crimea,  Lindner said, although he said Russia s violation of international law could not be accepted.  But this is the most severe conflict and that s the last place we ll see progress,  Lindner said.  That s why I m in favor of intensifying dialogue - and that Putin is asked to join the table of the G7 and that one talks with him and not about him.  Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for the conservatives, called Lindner s suggestion  unhelpful .  Putin would tout readmission to the exclusive G8 discussion format as confirmation of his policies at home, and that would be counterproductive,  Hardt said. Omnid Nouripour, a Greens lawmaker and foreign policy expert, urged the FDP chief to refrain from any further suggestions until the potential coalition partners had worked out their Russia policy. The three blocs are due to start exploratory talks about a coalition next week, but experts have warned it could take months to bridge their differences on migration, climate and taxes. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a member of Merkel s conservatives, told an event in Washington that he expected the talks to be completed by Christmas. Fifty-seven percent of voters support the idea of the three-way coalition, according to a new poll for broadcaster ARD. Lindner had already raised eyebrows in August when he suggested that Germany might have to accept Russia s 2014 annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine as a  permanent provisional arrangement . Merkel and Greens politicians have previously rejected calls to gradually lift sanctions against Russia imposed over its role in the Ukraine crisis. The center-right chancellor has also objected to the idea of inviting Putin to G7 meetings. Turning to euro zone policies, Lindner repeated his criticism of French President Emmanuel Macron s proposals to create a joint euro zone budget.  A red line for us in any coalition talks is the mutualization of debt in Europe, the creation of new pots of money,  Lindner said.

Summary: पुतिन को जी7 में आमंत्रित करने के लिए एफ. डी. पी. का दबाव संभावित जर्मन गठबंधन के भीतर कलह पैदा करता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, India and Switzerland in a week-long trip starting on Friday, the State Department said in a statement released on Thursday. In the Middle East, Tillerson will discuss the conflict with Yemen, Iran, and the ongoing dispute with Qatar, among other issues, the department said. In Geneva, he will meet several international organizations to discuss refugees, it added. His trip, scheduled for Oct. 20-27, also marks Tillerson s first visit to South Asia as secretary, according to the department.

Summary: टिलरसन सऊदी अरब, कतर, पाकिस्तान, भारत, स्विट्जरलैंड की यात्रा करेंगे


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that “anti-Cuban” actions recently announced by Washington were regrettable and that Moscow confirmed its solidarity with Havana. The ministry also said that the new approach toward Cuba by the U.S. administration resembles a “Cold war rhetoric”. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered tighter restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and a clampdown on U.S. business dealings with the Caribbean island’s military, saying he was cancelling former President Barack Obama’s “terrible and misguided deal” liberalizing ties with Havana.

Summary: रूस ने 'क्यूबा विरोधी' दृष्टिकोण के लिए अमेरिका की आलोचना की, कहा कि वह क्यूबा का पक्ष लेता है


RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton’s pick of Tim Kaine as her vice presidential running mate could hamper her efforts to reach out to African-American voters because of Kaine’s past embrace of crime-fighting strategies that have driven up the U.S. prison population and are unpopular in the black community. The now-defunct Project Exile that Kaine backed was so unusual it was championed by Republicans and Democrats alike and by both the top U.S. gun lobby group and gun-control advocates. But the federal program launched in 1997 in Richmond, Virginia, was also criticized at the time as a racially biased initiative that condemned young black men to lengthy prison terms. Clinton has come under fire herself from black activists for her past support for tough-on-crime policies of the 1990s now blamed for a surge in U.S. prison population and heightened tensions between law enforcement and black communities. One of her fundraisers got disrupted earlier this year by activists who asked her to “apologize for mass incarceration.”  Clinton named Kaine as her running mate late on Friday, making what is considered a safe choice for her battle against Republican presidential rival Donald Trump. As Richmond mayor from 1998 to 2001, Kaine, 58, was a vocal supporter of Project Exile, crediting it with reducing the city’s murder rate. Its goal was to literally live up to its name by making illegal gun possession a federal, not a state, crime, which allowed prosecutors to send convicted felons, most of them black, to a distant federal penitentiary for at least five years. Sam Sinyangwe, co-founder of Campaign Zero, a group focused on curtailing police violence, said Kaine’s choice could exacerbate Clinton’s problems rallying support of African-Americans, particularly younger people. “To select somebody like (Kaine) is not a sign of good leadership potential in a president,” Sinyangwe said. Nicole Lee, a civil-rights lawyer and activist in Washington, D.C. who is African-American, also expressed concern. “Project Exile broke black families,” she said. “This is not a benign thing to be for. These measures were not used against white kids in the suburbs with guns, they were used against black kids in the cities.” To defeat Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election, Clinton needs high turnout among blacks and other minority voters to offset Trump’s popularity among white voters. During the 1990s, she supported tough-on-crime initiatives backed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, but now vows to “end the era of mass incarceration.” Her campaign is trying to walk a political tightrope after the killings of two black men by police and the shooting deaths of police officers in Texas and Louisiana. She has offered support for the Black Lives Matter movement, while also strongly condemning the killings of police officers. Officials who were in Richmond during Kaine’s mayoral tenure believe the community, ravaged by the crack-cocaine epidemic and an escalating murder rate, had to take dramatic steps. Amy Dudley, a spokeswoman in Kaine’s Senate office, said the senator stood by the program, believing that it reduced gun violence. Jerry Oliver, the police chief at the time and an African-American, said the program focused on black communities out of necessity. “We had to be where the problems were,” he said.  The National Rifle Association, the nation’s biggest gun lobby, was an early proponent of Project Exile as was the gun-control advocacy group Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.  As Richmond’s first white mayor in more than a decade, Kaine was widely credited for helping to bridge racial divisions in the city, but Project Exile drew fire from defense lawyers and community advocates who argued that the program unfairly targeted African-Americans. Kevin Ring, vice president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a Washington advocacy group lobbying against federal sentencing minimums, said that Kaine, like Clinton, will have to demonstrate to black voters that he has “evolved” on the issue.  “There are some that will be bothered. There will be questions,” Ring said. Kaine supports legislation that would roll back some mandatory minimum federal sentences and give judges more discretion, although his office says he still supports firm sentences for illegal gun possession. Kaine’s backing of Project Exile also makes him odd bedfellows with Trump, who has made law and order a central theme of his candidacy. Trump has called for the program’s revival and his campaign website said it was “tremendous.”

Summary: केन का अपराध-भंडाफोड़ करने वाला अतीत अश्वेतों तक क्लिंटन की पहुंच को नुकसान पहुँचा सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Thursday moved closer to approving President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency even as nearly 800 former officials urged the chamber to reject the nominee, who sued the agency more than a dozen times as attorney general of oil-producing Oklahoma.  The 773 former officials signed a letter sent to the Senate  that said Pruitt’s record and public statements suggest he does not agree with the underlying principles of U.S. environmental laws. Pruitt has also cast doubts on the science of climate change. “Mr. Pruitt has shown no interest in enforcing those laws, a critically important function for EPA,” the letter said.  A spokesman for Pruitt did not immediate respond to a request for comment. The Senate advanced Pruitt’s nomination on Thursday, clearing the way for a final vote, expected on Friday.   Republican Senator Susan Collins came out against Pruitt on Wednesday, saying she had doubts about whether he would fully support the EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. But Pruitt only needs a simple majority for approval, so unless Collins is joined by more Republicans, who control the Senate 52 to 48, his nomination is likely to succeed. Making Pruitt’s chances even likelier, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, said she would cast her for vote for him, even though she had “concerns” about his commitment to renewable power and to cut emissions blamed for climate change.    Joseph Santarella, an EPA enforcement lawyer under former Republican and Democratic administrations, who signed the letter protesting Pruitt, said his lawsuits against the agency demonstrated he had “a fundamental lack of understanding and respect for the vital role that EPA plays in ensuring clean air and water for every American.”  Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from coal-producing Wyoming and head of the Senate energy committee, said Pruitt had “led the charge to rein in big government and Washington overreach.” The public could soon learn more about Pruitt’s communications with energy companies while he was suing the EPA. Oklahoma County District Court Judge Aletia Timmons ruled that Pruitt will have to turn over 3,000 emails between his office and energy companies to her by Tuesday. Timmons will review the emails before deciding which of them to release. A watchdog group, the Center for Media and Democracy, has sought the release of the documents since January 2015.

Summary: विरोध के बावजूद सीनेट से बाहर हो सकते हैं ट्रम्प के ई. पी. ए. चुनाव


LONDON (Reuters) - Iran s continued detention of jailed Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is unacceptable, British trade minister Liam Fox said on Tuesday, adding that she should be released as soon as possible. Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year jail sentence after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran s clerical establishment, and was brought into court on Saturday accused by a judge of  spreading propaganda against the regime,  the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity organization for which she works, said.  This is a very very aggressive, unacceptable way to treat a UK citizen,  Fox said on BBC radio.  This detention is completely unacceptable to the British government, it is completely, in our view, illegal, and she should be released as soon as possible.  Fox had earlier defended foreign secretary Boris Johnson after Johnson last week said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been training journalists in Iran, which the Foundation said was incorrect. The charges against Zaghari-Ratcliffe are denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that operates independently of Reuters News.

Summary: ब्रिटेन ने कहा कि जेल में बंद सहायता कर्मी के साथ ईरान का व्यवहार अस्वीकार्य है


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he might abandon NATO’s guarantee of mutual defense and would renegotiate or scrap the NAFTA trade deal if he is elected, drawing fire from some senior Republicans and his Democratic rival. In response to a question about potential Russian aggression against the Baltic states, Trump told the New York Times that  Washington would help defend other NATO members only if they had “fulfilled their obligations to us.”  All three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are former Soviet republics and now NATO members. Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort did not dispute the quotes, saying they were consistent with the candidate’s desire to modernize the United States’ international treaties.  But national security officials and some Republicans said abandoning NATO’s mutual defense guarantee, enshrined in  Article 5 of the treaty, would abandon 66 years of U.S. foreign policy and threaten the world’s most powerful military alliance. Also weighing in was the campaign for Democrat Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and Trump’s likely opponent in the Nov. 8 election. “Trump has apparently decided that America lacks the moral authority to advance our interests and values around the world,” Clinton’s senior foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement.      Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN he disagreed “totally” with Trump’s comments on NATO. “It’s the most important military alliance in world history. It remains relevant today. Many Americans don’t know that the operation in Afghanistan is a NATO operation,” McConnell said, adding: “I want to reassure our NATO allies that we will come to the defense of any member that is threatened.” U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a former presidential rival of Trump, said Trump’s remarks made the world more dangerous and the United States less safe. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday he would not interfere in the U.S. election campaign but that allied solidarity was a key value for the group. “This is good for European security and good for U.S. security,” the NATO head said in a statement. “The United States has always stood by its European allies.” Trump previously said he would force allies to shoulder more of the defense costs that the United States has borne for decades, cancel long-standing treaties he considers unfavorable, and redefine what it means to be a partner of the United States.Stoltenberg said defense spending among European allies and Canada rose last year for the first time in many years. In 2016, he said, he expected a further 3 percent increase, or $8 billion. TRADE DISPUTESTrump has railed against the NAFTA trade deal with Canada and Mexico as a U.S. job killer and was quoted as saying in the New York Times interview that he would be prepared to scrap it if he could not negotiate much better terms for the United States. The North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994 during the administration of President Bill Clinton, the husband of Hillary Clinton. Unlike the NATO treaty, U.S. laws appear to give presidents  significant authority to renegotiate foreign trade deals without consulting Congress, trade experts said.     “Trump as president would have an enormous amount of discretion,” said Barry Bosworth, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former White House staffer.     If elected, Trump could unilaterally terminate NAFTA or any other free trade deal, although a court would likely have to decide if the president had that authority, said Gary Hufbauer, a former deputy assistant secretary for trade at the Treasury Department.    NAFTA was enacted by a law passed by Congress, but Article 2205 of the agreement allows any party to withdraw from the deal with six months’ notice, and Hufbauer said U.S. courts would likely allow Trump to make that decision.     “The president has a lot more power than is generally recognized,” said Hufbauer, currently at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने चेतावनी दी कि वह नाटो गारंटी को समाप्त कर सकते हैं, नाफ्टा को समाप्त कर सकते हैं


PARIS (Reuters) - France s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was taking accusations by the United States that Iran had violated two U.N. Security Council resolutions seriously and urged Iran to comply with all its international commitments.  The United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Iran on Tuesday of supplying Yemen s Houthi rebels with a missile that was fired into Saudi Arabia in July and called for the U.N. to hold Tehran accountable for violating two U.N. Security Council resolutions.  We take these American indications seriously and attach utmost importance to Iran s compliance with all of its international obligations, including the weapons  transfer bans provided for in UN Security Council Resolutions 2216 and 2231,  deputy foreign ministry spokesman Alexandre Georgini told reporters in a daily briefing. He did not respond when asked whether Paris supported potential measures at the Security Council. France s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said that he expected a  challenging  meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Tehran when he travels there later this month. He is due to discuss Iran s ballistic missile program, which Paris says goes against U.N. Security Council resolutions, and its regional activities.   We have deep disagreements with Iran (on the ballistic issue) ... and the way in which Iran is discreetly or through proxies trying to create a direct channel to the Mediterranean,   he said after a Security Council meeting at the United Nations on Oct. 31.

Summary: फ्रांस का कहना है कि ईरान ने संयुक्त राष्ट्र के प्रस्तावों का गंभीरता से उल्लंघन किया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress is working on national self-driving vehicle legislation that could replace state-by state rules and make it easier for automakers to test and deploy the technology, senior U.S. House and Senate lawmakers told Reuters on Tuesday. The chairman of the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee said he planned to unveil a package of legislation to overhaul federal rules governing self-driving vehicles. “We’re getting very close. I think it’s a good package. We’ve put a lot of work into it,” Representative Greg Walden of Oregon said in an interview, adding that there was “good bipartisan agreeement” and he hoped to unveil and take up the package in the next month or two. Senator John Thune, a Republican who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, is also working on a legislative self-driving proposal with Senator Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat. “We’re not there yet but we are getting closer,” Thune said.  Thune and Walden spoke to Reuters on Tuesday after getting a ride in a self-driving Audi, a unit of Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE). Companies such as Alphabet Inc and Ford Motor Co are aggressively pursuing automated technologies and want unified federal regulations to replace outdated rules and make it simpler to develop and eventually sell the technology across the country. This spring, Republican staff drafted a summary of 16 potential legislative proposals on federal reforms and regulations that they circulated to automakers and which was seen by Reuters.  Among proposals under consideration is one to allow the U.S. Transportation Department to exempt up to 100,000 autonomous vehicles from current safety standards, which were written on the assumption responsibility for a car’s operation rested with the human driver. The existing motor vehicle safety standards bar the sale of vehicles without steering wheels and gas pedals, for example. Alphabet Inc’s Waymo unit has called for those rules  be changed. Another proposal would prohibit a state from restricting testing by a manufacturer of up to 250 vehicles and comes as automakers have sparred with California over revisions to its self-driving car testing rules.  Thune said he planned to hold a hearing on June 14 about self-driving car issues but did not put a specific timetable on introducing legislation. He said he wanted to avoid a “patchwork” of regulations from 50 different states on self-driving cars and look at cybersecurity and other issues. “The key thing is to make sure we stay in the lead on the innovation that there aren’t unnecessary roadblocks in the way, balancing that with safety,” Walden said. On Monday, the U.S. Transportation Department said it would unveil revised self-driving guidelines within the next few months, responding to automakers’ calls for regulations to sanction costly efforts to put autonomous vehicles on the road. The voluntary guidelines would provide direction to states on self-driving cars as Congress works to set more permanent rules to oversee autonomous vehicles. But legislation might not be approved this year and states and automakers are eager for guidance from regulators in the interim. Vehicle crashes annually kill more than 35,000 people on U.S. roads and injure 2.4 million. Walden said the goal was to get self-driving cars on the roads in big numbers so in a generation people would say: “‘What a bunch of barbarians - they drove themselves? Are you kidding me? And look at how many died every year and they thought that was acceptable?’”

Summary: अमेरिकी कांग्रेस ने रोलआउट में तेजी लाने के लिए स्व-ड्राइविंग कार कानून बनाने की योजना बनाई


WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - North Carolina’s gubernatorial race was undecided 10 days after the Nov. 8 vote and new allegations by the Republican incumbent’s campaign about felons and dead people casting ballots could leave the outcome in limbo for weeks. Republican Governor Pat McCrory, trailing Democratic challenger Roy Cooper by about 6,300 votes according to the state elections website Friday afternoon, has not conceded. Under state law, Friday was the deadline for counties to certify their results. But challenges over the validity of hundreds of votes and reviews of provisional ballots were expected to delay the reports from many, if not all, of the state’s 100 counties, elections officials said. The uncertainty has been punctuated this week by a war of words, with McCrory’s campaign accusing Cooper of being lax on voter fraud and Cooper’s campaign calling the incumbent dishonest and desperate. “It is unfortunate to see that rather than accepting the results, Pat McCrory is going to go down by besmirching Republican election officials (and) by impugning voters,” Marc Elias, a lawyer for the Cooper campaign, said in a call with reporters on Friday. McCrory’s campaign, however, argues it is following the legal process to ensure all legitimate votes are counted. Protests being filed by registered voters in some 50 counties argue that up to 200 ballots should be thrown out because they were cast under the names of dead people or by felons or individuals who voted more than once, according to the campaign. McCrory representatives also said thousands of votes in 12 counties may have been part of an absentee ballot fraud scheme. Several counties rejected election protests on Friday, including Durham County, where Republicans had called into question the tabulation of about 90,000 ballots on election night, local media reported. All of the state’s county elections boards are controlled by Republicans. Elias said there are not enough votes at issue to keep Cooper from winning. McCrory campaign spokesman Ricky Diaz called that claim presumptuous with counting incomplete. “There’s additional cases of voter fraud being discovered each day,” he said in a phone interview. If McCrory trails by 10,000 or fewer votes once counties submit their final tallies, he could demand a recount. A Cooper victory would be the only governorship addition  for Democrats. Republicans, who flipped seats in New Hampshire, Missouri and Vermont, will hold at least 33 governor offices next year, the most for the party since 1922.

Summary: मृतकों द्वारा मतों के दावे, उत्तरी कैरोलिना के गवर्नर की दौड़ में गुंडों का दबदबा


BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama called German Chancellor Angela Merkel an “outstanding” ally on Thursday and said she might get his support if he were a German citizen and she decided to run for a fourth term as leader of Europe’s largest economy. Merkel, whom many expect to stand again, declined to show her hand, despite Obama’s words of support. She said she would announce her decision at the appropriate moment, but “that is not today”.  “Chancellor Merkel has been an outstanding partner,” Obama told reporters in Berlin when asked if he wanted her to run again, praising her integrity and their shared core values.  Merkel told a joint news conference that it was difficult to say goodbye to Obama after their close partnership over the past eight years. “The parting is hard for me,” she said, before adding that the U.S. constitution limited a president’s time in office to a maximum of eight years and that she had to accept this. Obama smiled at journalists and winked. He said Merkel faced “big burdens” if she chose to run again. “I wish I could be there to lighten her load somewhat, but she is tough.” Merkel, in power since 2005, is expected to announce on Sunday whether she will run for chancellor again in next year’s federal election, the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland media group reported on Wednesday. Close Merkel aides have said she is moving toward another run, and one lawmaker in her conservative party this week told CNN that she would definitely put herself forward. A poll conducted for German broadcaster ARD, released on Thursday, showed Merkel’s conservatives would get 32 percent of the vote if the elections were held on Sunday, down one percentage point from a poll taken on Nov. 3. The center-left Social Democrats, junior partner in her  “grand coalition,” would get 23 percent, up one percentage point from the last poll, while the pro-environment Greens would get 13 percent, also up one point, the poll conducted by Infratest dimap showed. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party dropped one percentage point to 12 percent.

Summary: ओबामा के शानदार शब्दों के बावजूद चौथे कार्यकाल पर मर्केल चुप


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer will serve as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s press secretary in the White House when he takes office next month, Trump announced on Thursday. To round out his communications team, the president-elect  appointed loyalists from his upstart presidential campaign. Hope Hicks, Trump’s sole spokeswoman when he began what was considered a longshot candidacy in June 2015, will be director of strategic communications. Jason Miller was appointed director of communications and Dan Scavino was named director of social media. Spicer, 45, served as RNC spokesman during Trump’s presidential campaign, alongside party chairman Reince Priebus, who stood by Trump amid furious opposition from establishment Republicans and was rewarded with the chief of staff position. Acerbic and professional, Spicer, a Navy Reserve commander, has been openly critical of media coverage of Republican candidates and the president-elect, but insists the future U.S. leader has a high regard for press freedom. “We understand and respect the role that the press plays in a democracy. It is healthy, it’s important. But it’s a two-way street,” Spicer told Politico recently, before bashing the news outlet for what he said was exclusively negative coverage. Spicer, who has been a spokesman for the Trump transition team, has a long background in public affairs. He led a turnaround in the RNC’s public affairs operation after taking over as communications director in 2011. He beefed up social media operations, built an in-house TV production team and created a rapid response effort to reply to attacks. Spicer worked in President George W. Bush’s administration as the assistant U.S. Trade Representative for media and public affairs. Before that, he was communications director for the Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives. Spicer has tried to reassure news organizations that Trump will not try to ban them from covering him, as the president-elect sometimes sought to do during the election campaign. But Spicer and other Trump aides have indicated the new president would shake up the status quo in White House dealings with the media, including re-examining the need for daily televised news briefings and the practice of assigned seating in the briefing room. “I think we have to look at everything,” Spicer told Fox News when asked about the briefings. “And so I don’t know that it needs to be daily. I don’t know that they all need to be on camera.”

Summary: ट्रंप ने व्हाइट हाउस के प्रवक्ता के लिए आरएनसी के स्पाइसर को चुना


ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador on Tuesday to condemn what it called an  irresponsible  claim by the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. that Tehran supplied a missile fired at Saudi Arabia from Yemen on Nov. 4, Iran s Tasnim news agency reported. The Swiss embassy represents U.S. interests in Tehran, where Washington has had no mission since 1980, when Iranian students took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.  Iran s strong protest at (Nikki) Haley s baseless and provocative claim was conveyed to the Swiss ambassador,  Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tasnim.

Summary: अमेरिका के 'गैरजिम्मेदाराना' मिसाइल दावे पर ईरान ने स्विस राजदूत को तलब कियाः तसनीम


PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.S. Republican leaders on Wednesday laid out plans for repealing Obamacare by spring, followed by funding the building of a border wall and reforming the tax code by late summer, as lawmakers launched an effort to unify behind a legislative strategy. But Republicans gathered in Philadelphia for a three-day retreat showed little fervor for President Donald Trump’s calls to investigate what he believes was large-scale voter fraud in the Nov. 8 election. On Wednesday night, several hundred protesters crammed into the street near the hotel where Trump is scheduled to speak to congressional Republicans on Thursday to demonstrate against his agenda. “Philly hates Trump!” and “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here,” were among the demonstrators’ chants. Police said they were expecting a larger turnout of protesters on Thursday when both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence address the Republican gathering. Trump said on Wednesday he would seek a voter fraud probe, although there is overwhelming consensus among state officials, election experts and politicians that such fraud is rare in the United States. At the closed-door retreat, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan laid out a plan of legislative action including repeal of the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law known as Obamacare, by March or April, followed by appropriations for a border wall with Mexico and overhauling the tax code by August, one Republican source said. Republicans have majorities in both the House and Senate.  A senior House Republican, Representative Diane Black, said key House committees would take votes within the next two weeks on draft legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Then we expect that probably toward the latter part of February, or the first part of March, that we should be ready to go with the final reconciliation bill” to repeal Obamacare, she told reporters. Representative Chris Collins, a New York Republican who was an early Trump backer, said on MSNBC that lawmakers were told at the retreat that they would write legislation “in the next two months” to help pay for the border wall that Trump signed directives to build. On the issue of tax reform, Ryan, speaking to MSNBC, said: “Our goal is to get this done by the end of summer, which is for Congress quite fast.”  While there is Republican enthusiasm about the idea of swift action against Obamacare and on taxes, the challenge for Trump and congressional Republicans will be getting lawmakers to coalesce around specific plans. Trump won in November because he secured the most votes in the state-by-state Electoral College system, but he lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million ballots. Irked by that large figure, he has blamed voter fraud, without citing evidence, and called for an investigation. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, chair of the Senate Republican Conference, saw little need for a probe. “I’ve not seen any evidence to that effect, but if they want to take that issue up, that’s a decision obviously that he can make,” Thune told reporters. “All I can say is what I’ve said before, and that is that we’ve moved on, the election’s over with, we had a decisive winner in our constitutional system, and we’re ready to go to work,” he said. U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, chair of the Republican conference in the House of Representatives, took a wait-and-see attitude toward Trump’s demand for a probe. “It’s very important that people have confidence in the elections and the outcome of those elections. And I’ll wait until I see more of what he’s proposing before I comment on what his action is going to be,” she said. British Prime Minister Theresa May will also join lawmakers in Philadelphia on Thursday and is expected to discuss plans for a possible U.S.-U.K. trade deal.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने ओबामाकेयर को निरस्त करने की योजना बनाई


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, on Tuesday announced a three-month amnesty window for the return of public funds illegally stashed abroad by individuals and companies. Upon the expiry of the amnesty at end of February next year, the government will arrest and prosecute those who have failed to comply, Mnangagwa said in a statement. Mnangagwa was sworn-in as president on Friday and promised to tackle corruption, which had become endemic under former president Robert Mugabe s 37-year rule.  Those affected are thus encouraged to take advantage of the three-month moratorium to return the illegally externalized funds and assets in order to avoid the pain and ignominy of being visited by the long arm of the law,  Mnangagwa said. Zimbabwe s new president is under pressure to deliver, especially on the economy, which is in the grip of severe foreign currency shortages that have seen banks failing to give cash to customers. Mnangagwa told heads of government ministries on Tuesday that he was putting together a  leaner  government, which would see the merging of some departments to enhance efficiency. Critics say Zimbabwe has a bloated civil service, which chews more than 90 percent of the national budget. Mnangagwa, however, said only workers of retirement age would be laid off. He promised to rebuild the economy and improve the livelihoods of Zimbabweans.  My government will have no tolerance for bureaucratic slothfulness, which is quick to brandish procedures as an excuse for stalling service delivery to citizens, investors and other stakeholders,  Mnangagwa said in a statement read to the government officials. After recovering under a unity government between the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition between 2009 and 2012, the southern African nation s economy has unraveled with the unemployment rate above 90 percent. Mnangagwa is expected to announce a cabinet this week, with all eyes on whether he breaks with the past and names a broad-based government or selects old guard figures from Mugabe s era. An official at parliament said Mnangagwa had asked for curriculum vitaes of ZANU-PF legislators on Tuesday as he moves to put the new cabinet in place. Meanwhile, deputy parliament speaker Mabel Chinomona told the house that she had been informed by ZANU-PF that the party had recalled five legislators from parliament, indicating the five had been dismissed as ZANU-PF lawmakers. The members, all linked to the G40 group that supported Mugabe s wife Grace, include former ministers Savior Kasukuwere, Jonathan Moyo and Ignatius Chombo, who is facing corruption charges in court.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मनांगाग्वा ने चोरी किए गए धन की वापसी के लिए माफी खिड़की खोली


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, in a first exercise of his power to commute criminal sentences, cut short the 27-year prison term of a kosher meatpacking executive who was convicted eight years ago of bank fraud, the White House said on Wednesday. The commutation granted to Sholom Rubashkin, 57, marked only the second time that Trump has invoked his clemency authority as president, following the blanket pardon he granted earlier this year to Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona. Unlike the case of Arpaio, whom a judge had found guilty of contempt in a case involving racial profiling, Trump’s latest action leaves Rubashkin’s conviction intact, as well as terms of his supervised release from federal prison and his obligation to make restitution. Rubashkin was convicted in 2009 of 86 counts of financial fraud that came to light after a government raid on a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, where hundreds of undocumented immigrant workers were arrested. Rubashkin, a father of 10, was the chief executive overseeing the slaughterhouse and headquarters for a family business that was then the largest kosher meat-processing company in the United States.  The U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 refused to hear an appeal contesting Rubashkin’s sentence, which his lawyers argued was excessive for a first-time, non-violent offender. His lawyers also contended, to no avail, that he was entitled to a new trial based on evidence of alleged judicial misconduct. The case sparked an outcry from members of the legal and Orthodox Jewish communities who rallied to Rubashkin’s defense. The White House statement cited letters of support for review of Rubashkin’s case from more than 30 members of Congress of both parties, including House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and veteran Republican Senator Orrin Hatch.  Trump also pointed to bipartisan expressions of support for review of the case from over 100 former high-ranking U.S. Justice Department officials, prosecutors, judges and legal scholars. The White House further noted criticism of Rubashkin’s sentencing as unusually harsh in comparison to penalties imposed on others for similar white-collar crimes. Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was originally sentenced to 24 years in prison, but a federal judge later shortened his term of 14 years. The former CEO of Tyco International Ltd, L. Dennis Kozlowski, was sentenced to 8-1/3 to 25 years in prison and was paroled after serving eight.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कोषेर मीटपैकर की धोखाधड़ी की सजा को कम किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senior Republican senators urged President-elect Donald Trump to punish Russia in response to U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that President Vladimir Putin personally directed efforts aimed at influencing the outcome of the November election.  In a joint appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain said evidence was conclusive that Putin sought to influence the election - a point that Trump has refuted repeatedly by arguing it might be impossible to tell who was responsible.  “In a couple weeks, Donald Trump will be the defender of the free world and democracy,” Graham said. “You should let everybody know in America, Republicans and Democrats, that you’re going to make Russia pay a price for trying to interfere.” Both senators said they remain unsure if they will support Trump’s pick for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, who has been criticized for his close ties to Putin. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday to consider Tillerson’s nomination.  Three U.S. intelligence agencies released a joint report on Friday that concluded that Putin directed efforts to help Trump’s electoral chances by discrediting his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.   Hackers penetrated the Democratic National Committee’s email server and separately stole emails from John Podesta, who chaired Clinton’s campaign. The emails were then posted online and used to embarrass Clinton, including by Trump who frequently used the content as political ammunition.  Russia was trying to undermine public faith in the democratic process, damage Clinton, making it harder for her to win and harm her presidency if she did, the unclassified report said. McCain said he supports continued investigations into the hacks.  “We need to come to grips with it and get to the bottom of it and overall come up with a strategy in this new form of warfare that can basically harm our economy, harm our elections, harm our national security,” he said.  Trump, whose views on Russia are out of step with his party, has repeatedly dismissed claims that the Russians were trying to help him, arguing that the charges against Russia are the product of his political opponents trying to undermine his victory.  On Friday, after receiving his intelligence briefing, Trump did not squarely address whether he was told of the agencies’ belief Russia carried out the hacking. Instead, he said: “Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations” including the DNC.  On Saturday, Trump wrote on Twitter that having a better relationship with Russia is a “good thing.” “Only ‘stupid’ people or fools, would think that is bad!” he tweeted. “We have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सीनेटरों ने ट्रम्प से रूस की हैकिंग पर निष्कर्षों को स्वीकार करने का आग्रह किया


LONDON (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have accused Reuters and the BBC of inaccurate coverage of clashes in the western desert between security forces and armed militants in which police officers and conscripts were killed on Friday.  In a statement, Egypt s State Information Service (SIS) said Reuters had made  grave professional mistakes  by relying on unidentified security sources and not  resorting to official security authorities to get correct information .  The Ministry of Interior in an initial statement on Friday did not give any casualty figure for Friday s clashes. On Saturday, a ministry statement said 16 police and conscripts were killed and another 13 wounded in a remote western desert area after they came under heavy fire from the armed group.   However, three security sources told Reuters as many as 52 police had been killed in gun battles, which security sources said involved militants firing rockets at a police convoy.    We take seriously our obligation to report the news fairly and accurately, and were careful here to report both the Interior Ministry s account of the situation as well as information we received independently from other sources,  a Reuters spokesperson said.     The SIS also criticized the use of the word militant in the English version of the story that Reuters published.    Reuters English exchanged the term  terrorists , which is only accurate and realistic description of those elements, with the term  militants , a matter that may give a positive connotation to the reader,  the statement said. The BBC issued its own report on the Egyptian statement. here

Summary: मिस्र के अधिकारियों ने पश्चिमी रेगिस्तानी हमले में हताहतों पर रॉयटर्स को चुनौती दी


TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Japan would shoot North Korean missiles “out of the sky” if it bought the U.S. weaponry needed for doing so, suggesting Tokyo take a stance it has avoided until now. North Korea is pursuing nuclear weapons and missile programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. It has fired two missiles over Japan. Trump, speaking after a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, repeated his mantra the “era of strategic patience” with North Korea was over, and said the two countries were working to counter the “dangerous aggressions”. Trump also pressed Japan to lower its trade deficit with the United States and buy more U.S. military hardware. “He (Abe) will shoot them out of the sky when he completes the purchase of lots of additional military equipment from the United States,” Trump said, referring to the North Korean missiles. “The prime minister is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment, as he should. And we make the best military equipment by far.” Abe, for his part, said Tokyo would shoot down missiles “if necessary”. Trump was replying to a question that was posed to Abe - namely how he would respond to a quote from Trump from a recent interview in which he said Japan was a “samurai” nation and should have shot down the North Korean missiles. Japan’s policy is that it would only shoot down a missile if it were falling on Japanese territory or if it were judged to pose an “existential threat” to Japan because it was aimed at a U.S. target. The U.S. president is on the second day of a 12-day Asian trip that is focusing on North Korea’s nuclear missile programs and trade. “Most importantly, we’re working to counter the dangerous aggressions of the regime in North Korea,” Trump said, calling  Pyongyang’s nuclear tests and recent launches of ballistic missiles over Japan “a threat to the civilized world and to international peace and stability”. “Some people said that my rhetoric is very strong. But look what’s happened with very weak rhetoric over the last 25 years. Look where we are right now,” he added. North Korea’s recent actions have raised the stakes in the most critical international challenge of Trump’s presidency. The U.S. leader, who will visit South Korea on the trip, has rattled some allies with his vow to “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatens the United States and with his dismissal of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “rocket man” on a suicide mission. Abe, with whom Trump has bonded through multiple summits and phone calls, repeated at the same news conference that Japan backed Trump’s stance that “all options” are on the table,  saying it was time to exert maximum pressure on North Korea and the two countries were “100 percent” together on the issue. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying, in  response to Abe’s comments, said that the North Korean “situation” was “already extremely complex, sensitive and weak”. “We hope that under the present circumstances, all sides’ words and actions can help reduce tensions and reestablish mutual trust and getting the North Korean nuclear issue back on the correct track of dialogue and negotiations,” she said. Trump said he was committed to achieving “free, fair, and reciprocal” trade and wants to work with Japan on this issue. “America is also committed to improving our economic relationship with Japan,” Trump said. “As president, I’m committed to achieving fair, free, and reciprocal trading relationship. We seek equal and reliable access for American exports to Japan’s markets in order to eliminate our chronic trade imbalances and deficits with Japan.” Earlier, speaking to Japanese and U.S. business executives, Trump praised Japan for buying U.S. military hardware. But he added that “many millions of cars are sold by Japan into the United States, whereas virtually no cars go from the United States into Japan”. Japan had a $69 billion trade surplus with the United States last year, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The United States was Japan’s second biggest trade partner after China, while Japan was the United States’ fourth largest goods export market in 2016. Japanese officials have countered U.S. trade complaints by noting Tokyo accounts for a much smaller slice of the U.S. deficit than in the past, while China’s imbalance is bigger. In a second round of economic talks in Washington last month, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso, who doubles as deputy premier, failed to bridge differences on trade issues. The two sides are at odds over how to frame future trade talks, with Tokyo pushing back against U.S. calls to discuss a bilateral free trade agreement. Trump also said earlier that an Indo-Pacific trade framework would produce more in trade that the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact pushed by his predecessor but which he announced Washington would abandon soon after he took office. The 11 remaining nations in the TPP, to which Japan’s Abe is firmly committed, are edging closer to sealing a comprehensive free trade pact without the United States. Trump met Emperor Akihito, exchanging a handshake and nodding, before his lunch and talks with Abe. He also met relatives of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents decades ago to help train spies, calling the kidnappings a “tremendous disgrace” and pledging to work with Abe to bring the victims “back to Japan where they want to be”. “I think it would be a tremendous signal if Kim Jong Un would send them back,” Trump said. “If he would send them back, that would be the start of something, something very special.”   Abe has made resolving the emotive abductions issue a keystone of his career. The families hope their talks with Trump - the third U.S. president they have met - will somehow contribute to a breakthrough, although experts say progress is unlikely. Abe also expressed his condolences for the victims of a gunman who massacred at least 26 worshippers at a church in Texas. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump had no plans to change the schedule for his 12-day Asian trip, which will also take him to Seoul, Beijing and Danang, Vietnam. Trump's visit to Asia: tmsnrt.rs/2znSb0v

Summary: ट्रंप का कहना है कि अगर जापान अमेरिकी हथियार खरीदता है तो वह उत्तर कोरियाई मिसाइलों को आसमान से उड़ा देगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders easily won nominating contests in Alaska, Washington and Hawaii on Saturday, chipping away at front-runner Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead in the race to pick the party’s candidate for the White House. Sanders still faces a steep climb to overtake Clinton but the big victories in the West generated more momentum for his upstart campaign and could stave off calls from Democratic leaders that he should wrap up his bid in the name of party unity. Sanders appeared headed to victory margins of more than 50 percentage points in both Alaska and Washington, and led by about 40 points in Hawaii with some 90 percent of the results tallied there. “We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton’s lead and ... we have a path to victory,” Sanders told cheering, chanting supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. “It is hard for anybody to deny that our campaign has the momentum.” Clinton, the former secretary of state, has increasingly turned her attention toward a potential Nov. 8 general election showdown against Republican front-runner Donald Trump, claiming she is on the path to wrapping up the nomination. Heading into Saturday, she led Sanders by about 300 pledged delegates in the race for the 2,382 delegates needed to be nominated at the party’s July convention in Philadelphia. Adding in the support of superdelegates - party leaders who are free to back any candidate - she has 1,690 delegates to 946 for Sanders. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, needs to win up to two-thirds of the remaining delegates to catch Clinton, who will keep piling up delegates even when she loses under a Democratic Party system that awards them proportionally in all states. “These wins will help him raise more funds for the next few weeks but I don’t think it changes the overall equation,” said Democratic strategist Jim Manley, a Clinton supporter. “Hillary Clinton has too big a lead.” But Sanders has repeatedly said he is staying in the race until the convention, pointing to big crowds at his rallies and high turnout among young and first-time voters as proof of his viability. After raising $140 million, he has the money to fight on as long as he wants. He has energized the party’s liberal base and young voters with his calls to rein in Wall Street and fight income inequality, a message that resonated in liberal Washington and other Western states. Sanders won in Utah and Idaho this week. “Don’t let anybody tell you we can’t win the nomination or the general election,” Sanders told supporters in Wisconsin, which holds the next contest on April 5. “We are going to do both.” All three contests on Saturday were caucuses, a format that has favored Sanders because it requires more commitment from voters. They also were in states with fewer of the black and Hispanic voters who have helped fuel Clinton’s lead. “He was just more aligned with my values. I am young and I never knew there could be someone like him in politics,” said Samantha Burton of Seattle, who said Sanders was the first candidate who had inspired her to make a donation. Jocelyn Alt, a birthing assistant at a Seattle hospital, said she backed Clinton because she believed the times called for someone who could get things done. “She knows how to make things happen,” she said. “I think Hillary is more likely to win against a Republican.” After Wisconsin, the Democratic race moves to contests in New York on April 19 and a bloc of five states in the Northeast, led by Pennsylvania, on April 26. There were no contests on Saturday in the Republican race featuring Trump and rivals U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich. On Saturday, the New York Times published a lengthy foreign policy-focused interview with Trump. The New York billionaire told the newspaper he might stop oil purchases from Saudi Arabia unless they provide troops to fight the Islamic State. Trump also told the Times he was willing to rethink traditional U.S. alliances should he become president.

Summary: अमेरिकी डेमोक्रेट बर्नी सैंडर्स ने अलास्का, वाशिंगटन, हवाई कॉकस जीते


(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line on trade with China, to head a newly formed White House National Trade Council, the transition team said on Wednesday. Navarro is an academic and one-time investment adviser who has authored a number of popular books and made a film describing China’s threat to the U.S. economy as well as Beijing’s desire to become the dominant economic and military power in Asia. Trump’s team praised Navarro in a statement as a “visionary” economist who would “develop trade policies that shrink our trade deficit, expand our growth, and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores.” Trump, a Republican, made trade a centerpiece of his presidential campaign and railed against what he said were bad deals the United States had made with other countries. He has threatened to hit Mexico and China with high tariffs once he takes office on Jan. 20. Navarro, 67, is a professor at University of California, Irvine, and advised Trump during the campaign. His books include “Death by China: How America Lost its Manufacturing Base,” which was made into a documentary film. As well as describing what he sees as America’s losing economic war with China, Navarro has highlighted concerns over environmental issues related to Chinese imports and the theft of U.S. intellectual property. China is paying close attention to Trump’s transition team and the possible direction of policy, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said after being asked about Navarro’s appointment. “Cooperation is the only correct choice. We hope the U.S. works hard with China to maintain the healthy, stable development of ties, including business and trade ties,” the spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, told a daily press briefing. While Trump in the statement praised the “clarity” of Navarro’s arguments and the “thoroughness of his research,” few other economists have endorsed Navarro’s ideas.  Marcus Noland, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, likened a tax and trade paper authored by Navarro and Wilbur Ross, who has been named as Trump’s commerce secretary, to “the type of magical thinking best reserved for fictional realities” for what he said was its flawed economic analysis. Navarro has also suggested a stepped-up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. He argued that Washington should stop referring to the “one China” policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei, saying: “There is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda.” China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.  China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said in an interview carried on Thursday in the Communist Party of China’s official newspaper that China-U.S. relations face new uncertainties but with mutual respect for core interests they will remain stable. “Only if China and the United States respect each other and give consideration to other’s core interests and key concerns can there be long-term, stable cooperation, and effect win-win mutual benefit,” Wang said. After his Nov. 8 election win, Trump stoked China’s ire when he took a telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in a break with decades of precedent that cast doubt on his incoming administration’s commitment to Beijing’s “one China” policy. In an opinion piece in Foreign Policy magazine in November, Navarro and another Trump adviser, Alexander Gray, reiterated the president-elect’s opposition to major trade deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). “Trump will never again sacrifice the U.S. economy on the altar of foreign policy by entering into bad trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, allowing China into the World Trade Organization, and passing the proposed TPP,” Navarro and Gray wrote.  “These deals only weaken our manufacturing base and ability to defend ourselves and our allies.” Trump has vowed to pull the United States out of the TPP, a free-trade pact aimed at linking a dozen Pacific Rim nations that President Barack Obama signed in February. It has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate.  The president-elect has also vowed to renegotiate the NAFTA pact with Canada and Mexico, saying it had cost American jobs.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने व्यापार सलाहकार की भूमिका के लिए 'डेथ बाय चाइना' के लेखक को चुना


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Colony NorthStar Inc has ended a consulting agreement with Rick Gates, a former campaign aide to U.S. President Donald Trump, a spokesman for the real estate and financial firm said on Monday. Gates, who had been working as a consultant for Colony for six months, according to the spokesman, was indicted on Monday on charges of conspiracy to launder money and failing to report foreign bank accounts to the U.S. government.  The charges were part of a probe by Robert Mueller, a special counsel appointed to investigate whether Russia tried  to tilt the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor, and whether members of the Trump campaign colluded in any such effort.  Gates pleaded not guilty to all charges on Monday. David Bos, the lawyer who represented Gates in an appearance in federal court, declined to comment. Gates could not be reached for comment. A longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was also indicted on Monday, Gates continued to work on Trump’s campaign after Manafort left in August 2016. Gates also worked with Colony NorthStar founder and executive chairman Thomas Barrack Jr. on Trump’s presidential inaugural committee, according to three sources who asked not to be identified. Barrack chaired the committee.

Summary: कॉलोनी नॉर्थस्टार ने ट्रम्प के पूर्व सहयोगी गेट्स के साथ परामर्श समझौता समाप्त किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will propose tailoring the controversial “Cadillac tax” on expensive private health insurance plans to reflect regional differences when he releases his 2017 budget plan next week, a senior White House adviser said in an article released on Wednesday. Obama's proposal would reduce the bite of the unpopular tax by raising the threshold where it takes effect in areas where healthcare is particularly expensive, according to the article in the New England Journal of Medicine co-written by Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. (bit.ly/1QdGlDG) The tax on high-cost employer-based healthcare plans, passed as part of the president’s 2010 Affordable Care Act and set to take effect in 2018, has generated growing opposition in part because labor unions say it could encourage employers to cut back on health insurance plans for workers. The tax was expected to raise some $87 billion a year to help pay for the reform generally known as Obamacare.   White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Summary: ओबामा का बजट स्वास्थ्य बीमा 'कैडिलैक टैक्स' को समायोजित करेगाः सलाहकार