HOUSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top executive at the company behind the embattled Dakota Access Pipeline has donated more than $100,000 to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump since June, according to campaign finance disclosure records. The donations by Kelcy Warren, chairman and chief executive officer at pipeline operator Energy Transfer Partners, support the candidate seen by many as more likely to promote the U.S. oil and gas industry than his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Warren donated $300 to the Trump campaign during the primaries, and $2,700 to Trump during the general election phase of the campaign, for the maximum contribution allowed by a single individual during an election.  He also gave $100,000 to the Trump Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that includes the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, the Republican Party of Arkansas and the Connecticut Republican Party.  The donations, first reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, were made before the U.S. government halted construction on a segment of Energy Transfer Partners’ 1,100-mile (1,770-km) Dakota Access Pipeline in early September following protests by Native American and environmental groups.  The project, which would move oil from the highly productive Bakken shale formation to the Midwest and Gulf Coast, sparked violent clashes between security officers near the construction site and Native American tribe members and other protesters. Opponents have said the project will damage burial sites considered sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and pollute the area’s drinking water.  Warren has also given $66,800 to the Republication National Committee since Trump secured the nomination for the Nov. 8 election, The Guardian reported. Trump has not yet taken a position on the Dakota Access Pipeline, but supports the development of oil and gas and related infrastructure, including pipelines. Asked about Trump’s position on the Dakota Access Pipeline in a policy debate this week, U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, one of the candidate’s main energy advisers, declined to answer, saying he did not want to get ahead of Trump. He added, “I’m not sure he (Trump) is aware of it.”  If elected, Trump in his first 100 days will ask TransCanada to renew its permit application for the Keystone XL Pipeline, according to his campaign website. U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the proposed pipeline from Canada last November. Trump has holdings in Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66, a joint owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline, through mutual funds, according to financial disclosure records. U.S. oil and gas industry workers have contributed slightly more to Clinton, with employees giving $114,141 to the Democratic candidate and $99,302 to Trump since July, according to a Reuters review of federal campaign finance disclosures.

Summary: डकोटा एक्सेस के शीर्ष कार्यकारी ने ट्रम्प को 100,000 डॉलर से अधिक का दान दिया है।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak are discussing large trade pacts and a deal involving Boeing jets and praised the Malaysian leader s efforts in the fight against terrorism. Appearing with Trump at the White House, Najib said he would like to invest in Trump s infrastructure program and Malaysia remains committed to fighting Islamic State, al Qaeda and other extremist groups.

Summary: ट्रम्प और मलेशियाई प्रधानमंत्री ने व्यापार सौदों, बोइंग विमानों पर चर्चा की


ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. representatives Ron DeSantis and Jeff Duncan had ducked out of baseball practice early on Wednesday when a middle-aged man in the parking lot asked them if the players in red shirts on the field were Republicans or Democrats. “Republican,” Duncan said before departing. Minutes later, the man, rifle and handgun in tow, opened fire on the congressmen’s teammates - Republican lawmakers gathered on a muggy morning near Washington to prepare for a charity ballgame.  “A killing field,” U.S. Senator Rand Paul said in a televised interview, describing the scene in Arlington, Virginia. “We were sitting ducks,” said Representative Roger Williams. Williams, the team coach, told reporters he was hitting ground balls when he heard what sounded like a car engine backfiring. “He’s got a gun! Run for cover,” Williams heard next. He dove into the dugout behind first base. Zack Barth, a staffer shot in the leg, ran in from the outfield and landed in Williams’ arms. Barth texted for help as more bullets flew. U.S. Senator Jeff Flake used his belt as a makeshift tourniquet to stop the staffer’s bleeding, Williams said. Taking cover behind home plate, U.S. Representative Mo Brooks saw a rifle pointing from a chain link fence behind the third base dugout.  A scream rang out from second base, Brooks said. Steve Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, had been shot in the hip and fell to the ground. He left a trail of blood as he dragged himself to the outfield, seeking distance from the gunman who said nothing as he fired. On her front porch just across the street from the field in a trendy, family-friendly neighborhood, Reba Winstead heard a dozen shots. “A bullet just came down my street,” she told an emergency dispatcher. Police audio obtained by media recorded a flood of frantic calls: “Shots being fired ... We need medics ... Victim down in the baseball field.” Alexandria police arrived at 7:12 a.m., about three minutes after the first emergency phone call reporting an active shooter. Members of the Capitol Police, serving as security detail to Scalise, were firing at the gunman.  By 7:14 a.m., the gunman, 66-year-old James Hodgkinson from the St. Louis suburb of Belleville, Illinois, was down. Later he died.

Summary: गोलियों ने अमेरिकी सांसदों के बेसबॉल अभ्यास को 'हत्या के मैदान' में बदल दिया


UMM AL HAWAYA, Qatar (Reuters) - Deep in the Qatari desert, a herd of cows stands in a vast shed, cooled by fans and jets of mist - each animal a key player in a plan to defy a trade boycott and make the kingdom self-sufficient in milk by next year. The black and white Holstein cattle are among the first members of a 14,000-strong herd that farming company Baladna is expecting to build up in coming months, its chief executive John Dore told Reuters in an interview.  We will make Qatar self-sufficient by June - that is the target,  Dore said. He conceded that raising and milking cows in temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) in summer posed special challenges. But technology and the deep pockets of Baladna s Qatari owners were compensating for the harsh environment, said Dore, an Irishman who previously worked for Saudi Arabian dairy giant Almarai. Hundreds of cows were already hooked up to the automatic milking machines at Baladna s farm in Umm al Hawaya, about 50 km (30 miles) north of Doha, and producing milk good enough to export, he said. More than 6,000 more cows from the United States are due to arrive by February. Qatar s drive to build a dairy industry in the desert illustrates how the tiny but wealthy country, the world s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is using money and technology to cope with its isolation. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut trade and transport ties with Qatar in June, accusing it of backing terrorism, a charge which Doha denies.  The boycott disrupted Qatar s shipping routes through the Gulf. It also shut Qatar s land border with Saudi Arabia, across which many perishable goods were imported, including almost 400 tonnes of fresh milk and yoghurt a day. The boycott has forced Qatar to fly in dairy products from Turkey and Iran. But Dore said the country was determined to create its own dairy sector, largely relying on Baladna, a private company which is receiving logistical and other support from the government. The firm, which raises sheep, was considering moving into milk production before the boycott, but knew it would find it hard to compete on price with imports from Almarai, he said.  The boycott removed that competition and in the initial weeks of the diplomatic crisis, the company flew in the first 3,400 cows on state-owned airline Qatar Airways.  We were milking cows here on the 11th of July, which is barely a month after the blockade, and that by any method or means is some achievement,  Dore said. Baladna is planning two more sea shipments from the United States - each holding 3,300 animals - by February. Another consignment of 3,000 cows has been planned, but not yet ordered. By June, it says it is expecting to raise production of fresh milk and yoghurt to 500 tonnes a day, enough to meet domestic demand with 100 tonnes left over for export. Baladna has not disclosed financial details of its project, and it is not yet clear whether Qatar can produce large volumes of milk economically, let alone export some at competitive prices. But for now at least, the country s drive to reduce its dependence on imports with domestic production appears to be stimulating the economy. The manufacturing sector grew 3.2 percent from a year earlier in September, official data released last week showed. Food manufacturing jumped 23.5 percent.

Summary: कतर ने अरब बहिष्कार की अवहेलना करते हुए रेगिस्तान में डेयरी उद्योग बनाया


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Germany agreed on Sunday they remained committed to the nuclear deal with Iran after a U.S. decision to decertify the agreement, a spokeswoman said after a call between Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  They agreed the UK and Germany both remained firmly committed to the deal,  the spokeswoman said in a statement.  They also agreed the international community needed to continue to come together to push back against Iran s destabilizing regional activity, and to explore ways of addressing concerns about Iran s ballistic missile program.

Summary: ब्रिटेन, जर्मनी ईरान परमाणु समझौते के लिए प्रतिबद्धः मे का कार्यालय


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel probing alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election abruptly canceled an interview with President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen on Tuesday after he issued a statement about his testimony in violation of committee policy. “The committee expects witnesses in this investigation to work in good faith with the Senate,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chairman Mark Warner said in a statement after canceling the closed-door session. Cohen was later asked to appear at an open hearing on Oct. 25. Burr, a Republican, and Warner, a Democrat, said it was against the committee’s policy for witnesses to make public comments before being interviewed. The intelligence panel, other congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating whether Russia intervened to tilt the 2016 election in Trump’s favor and whether Trump or top aides colluded with Moscow. The Russian government denies any attempt to influence the election, and the Republican president has repeatedly denied any collusion, calling the investigations a “witch hunt.” The allegations have shadowed the first months of Trump’s presidency.  Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Trump was using money donated to his re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee to pay for his lawyers in the probe.  While previous presidential campaigns have used those funds to pay routine legal fees, Trump would be the first U.S. president in the modern campaign finance era to use them to cover the costs of responding to a criminal probe, election law experts said. In his statement, Cohen denied that he or Trump colluded with Russia to interfere in the election, and said such charges were made to discredit Trump’s presidency. “I emphatically state that I had nothing to do with any Russian involvement in our electoral process,” Cohen’s statement said. “Given my own proximity to the president of the United States as a candidate, let me also say that I never saw anything - not a hint of anything - that demonstrated his involvement in Russian interference in our election or any form of Russia collusion,” Cohen said. Cohen and his attorney, Stephen Ryan, had traveled to Capitol Hill for the closed-door interview with committee investigators, but were told the meeting had been postponed. “We didn’t want to send a message except for what we do is behind closed doors,” Burr later told reporters at the Capitol. The committee had changed its policy since Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, issued an 11-page statement before meeting with intelligence committee staff in July, he said. Asked if the committee would subpoena Cohen, Burr said he did not think it would need to. Cohen’s name surfaced in a dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele that reported Cohen played an important role in liaison with the Russian government and secretly met with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016. The Steele dossier, Cohen said in his statement, was “riddled with falsehoods and intentionally salacious allegations.” “I have never in my life been to Prague or to anywhere in the Czech Republic,” he said. Current and former U.S. intelligence officials have said that while they cannot verify all the details in the Steele dossier, neither have they debunked it entirely.    Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Russia, said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday: “There is no question, underline no question, that the Russian government interfered in the U.S. election last year.”  He pledged to bring up the issue with the government there. Huntsman previously served as U.S. ambassador to China under Democratic President Barack Obama.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने ट्रम्प के वकील के साथ साक्षात्कार रद्द किया, उन्हें सुनवाई शुरू करने के लिए कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday that he was pleased with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Texas abortion law. “As the brief filed by the Solicitor General makes clear and as the court affirmed today, these restrictions harm women’s health and place an unconstitutional obstacle in the path of a woman’s reproductive freedom,” Obama said in a statement.

Summary: ओबामा ने टेक्सास गर्भपात कानून पर सुप्रीम कोर्ट के फैसले की सराहना की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has privately acknowledged he may need to recuse himself from matters relating to the Russia probe, given that he could become a potential witness in the investigation, ABC News reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.     ABC said Rosenstein told Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand she would have authority over the probe if he were to step aside. Rosenstein appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, and has told lawmakers he would only fire him with good cause.

Summary: रोसेनस्टीन को रूस की जांच से खुद को अलग करने की आवश्यकता हो सकती हैः एबीसी न्यूज


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese President Michel Aoun tweeted on Thursday that he hoped the country s political crisis was over following Saad al-Hariri s acceptance of a French invitation to visit Paris. Earlier a source close to Hariri said the prime minister, who resigned this month while in Saudi Arabia but has yet to return to Beirut, was expected to leave Riyadh for France within the next 48 hours. Aoun said Lebanon remained committed to its policy of  staying out of regional conflicts, especially those between Arab states, presidential sources said on Thursday.

Summary: लेबनान के राष्ट्रपति ने कहा कि प्रधानमंत्री हरीरी की फ्रांस यात्रा से संकट समाप्त हो गया है


(Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will ask China and Russia for their support for new sanctions against North Korea, Kyodo News said on Thursday, citing a Japanese official. Abe and Moon, in talks on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, agreed to step up pressure on North Korea, Kyodo said, as the reclusive state pushes ahead with its nuclear and missile programs.

Summary: आबे, मून उत्तर कोरिया के प्रतिबंधों के लिए चीनी, रूसी समर्थन मांगेंगेः क्योडो


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign met Russian government officials last year, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing testimony he gave this week to a U.S. congressional committee. In numerous media interviews in recent months, the adviser, Carter Page, has either denied meeting Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip to Moscow or said he met  “mostly scholars,” the newspaper said. Page sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing his insights after conversations with Russian government officials and others, the Times reported, citing a person familiar with the message. The newspaper said the email was read aloud during the closed-door testimony on Thursday to the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which is investigating efforts by Russia to tip the November 2016 election in Trump’s favor and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Russia says it did not interfere in the election and Trump has denied any collusion. Page played down the significance of the meetings in an interview with the Times on Friday. “I had a very brief hello to a couple of people. That was it,” he said. Page said one of the people he met was a “senior person,” but would not confirm the person’s identity. Special counsel Robert Mueller, who has impaneled a grand jury in his probe of the collusion allegations, charged Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and another aide, Rick Gates, with money laundering on Monday. It was announced the same day that another Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty early in October to lying to the FBI. Page was questioned by the FBI earlier this year and has also appeared before the grand jury as part of the special counsel’s probe, the Times said.

Summary: ट्रम्प अभियान के सहयोगी ने 2016 में रूसी अधिकारियों से मुलाकात कीः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : - Our country has been unsuccessfully dealing with North Korea for 25 years, giving billions of dollars & getting nothing. Policy didn’t work! [0650 EDT] - The trip by @VP Pence was long planned. He is receiving great praise for leaving game after the players showed such disrespect for country! [0705 EDT] - A big salute to Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who will BENCH players who disrespect our Flag.”Stand for Anthem or sit for game!” [2151 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (9 अक्टूबर)-उत्तर कोरिया, उपराष्ट्रपति पेंस, जेरी जोन्स


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina s Congress passed a reform to the pension system on Tuesday, after days of demonstrations by the bill s opponents and violent clashes between protesters and police. The measure is central to President Mauricio Macri s plan to slash the fiscal deficit and attract investment. It paves the way for further market-friendly legislation that his Cambiemos, or  Let s Change  coalition hopes to pass in extraordinary congressional sessions before the end of the year. The law changes the formula used to calculate benefits by linking them to consumer prices instead of tax income and wage hikes. The government says that will make benefits more predictable and sustainable, and they will still increase by more than inflation next year.   This formula guarantees that over the next few years, retirees will never lose against a jump in inflation,  said Macri, who took office in December 2015 after more than a decade of populist rule. Macri tweaked his proposal, pledging a one-time bonus payment to the neediest retirees, after clashes last Thursday derailed congressional debate. Still, the measure generated fierce criticism from opposition lawmakers and labor unions, who say it will hurt retirees. The debate prompted demonstrations on Monday. Thousands took to the streets of the capital Buenos Aires and around the country, banging pots and pans and blaring car horns. Stone-throwing protesters confronted police, who responded with water canon, rubber bullets and tear gas. Dozens were injured.  All these changes generate discomfort, but they are necessary,  Macri said after the measure passed the lower chamber of deputies 127-117, with two abstentions, following an all-night debate session. The Senate approved the proposal last month. The government will now press congressional votes on a tax code overhaul and a deal with provinces to limit spending, Macri told reporters. Economists, noting that inflation expectations are lower, said linking benefits to consumer prices would lower spending by around 0.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) next year.  But savings from the pension reform will finance transfers from the national treasury to provinces as part of the fiscal pact, said economist Ariel Barraud of the Argentina Fiscal Analysis Institute in Cordoba, Argentina.  Almost all of the savings obtained from the pension formula change will go to compensate the fiscal deal,  Barraud told Reuters by phone.   Argentina s government is aiming to cut the deficit to 3.2 percent of GDP from 4.2 percent currently.  Cambiemos lacks a majority in Congress despite a strong performance in October s legislative midterm. Dozens of votes from opposition lawmakers were needed to pass the pension measure. Other leaders in South America have had a harder time implementing similar business-friendly agendas.  In Peru, measures meant to boost growth have stalled as President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has fought efforts to remove him over his ties to scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht. Brazil s efforts at its own pension reform were recently pushed back until next year. Despite passage of the pension measure, Macri s agenda still faces substantial popular skepticism.   They are encroaching upon the rights of society s most vulnerable,  opposition lawmaker Facundo Moyano said during the congressional debate.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना कांग्रेस ने विरोध और झड़पों के बाद पेंशन सुधार पारित किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Extending U.S. sanctions on Iran for 10 years would breach the Iranian nuclear agreement, Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said on Wednesday, warning that Tehran would retaliate if the sanctions are approved.  The U.S. House of Representatives re-authorized last week the Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, for 10 years. The law was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in Iran’s energy industry and deter Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. The Iran measure will expire at the end of 2016 if it is not renewed. The House bill must still be passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama to become law. Iran and world powers concluded the nuclear agreement, also known as JCPOA, last year. It imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for easing sanctions that have badly hurt its economy.  “The current U.S. government has breached the nuclear deal in many occasions,” Khamenei said, addressing a gathering of members of the Revolutionary Guards, according to his website.  “The latest is extension of sanctions for 10 years, that if it happens, would surely be against JCPOA, and the Islamic Republic would definitely react to it.”  The U.S. lawmakers passed the bill one week after Republican Donald Trump was elected U.S. president. Republicans in Congress unanimously opposed the agreement, along with about two dozen Democrats, and Trump has also criticized it. Lawmakers from both parties said they hoped bipartisan support for a tough line against Iran would continue under the new president. President-elect Trump once said during his campaign that he would “rip up” the agreement, drawing a harsh reaction from Khamenei, who said if that happens, Iran would “set fire” to the deal. The House of Representatives also passed a bill last week that would block the sale of commercial aircraft by Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) to Iran.  The White House believes that the legislation would be a violation of the nuclear pact and has said Obama would veto the measure even if it did pass the Senate.

Summary: ईरान ने अमेरिका को परमाणु समझौते का उल्लंघन करने पर जवाबी कार्रवाई की चेतावनी दी


MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 election campaign said the U.S. president’s son told her his father, if elected, could return to the issue of a U.S. law which imposes sanctions on Russian officials related to the death of a Russian lawyer, Bloomberg reported. New York attorney Alan Futerfas, who represents Donald Trump Jr., did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, did not answer calls seeking comment.  The June 2016 meeting in New York between Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Jr, along with other senior Trump campaign officials, has become part of an investigation into allegations Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election. Trump has denied his campaign colluded with Moscow. Bloomberg quoted Veselnitskaya as saying in an interview in Moscow that she was lobbying against the so-called Magnitsky law, adopted by Washington in response to the 2009 death of Sergei Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing lawyer and auditor.  Supporters of Magnitsky say the Russian state murdered him by denying him adequate medical care while he was in prison on tax evasion charges. The Kremlin denies the allegation.  In the interview with Bloomberg, Veselnitskaya quoted Donald Trump Jr as saying during their meeting, in reference to the Magnitsky law: “Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it.” According to Bloomberg, Veselnitskaya also recalled the future president’s son as saying: “I understand our side may have messed up, but it’ll take a long time to get to the bottom of it.” Veselnitskaya said that at their meeting she offered to pass on information pertaining to alleged tax evasion by wealthy Democratic Party donors. She said Trump Jr. Had asked for documents proving the tax evasion, that she did not have any such documents and described the 20 minute meeting as a failure.

Summary: रूसी वकील का कहना है कि ट्रम्प के बेटे ने प्रतिबंध कानून के मुद्दे पर लौटने की पेशकश कीः ब्लूमबर्ग


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s ruling ZANU-PF party called on Friday for President Robert Mugabe to resign, the main state newspaper The Herald reported, the latest sign that the aging leader s authority has collapsed after an army takeover. The newspaper said that ZANU-PF branches in all 10 provinces had met on Friday and had also called for Mugabe s wife Grace to resign from the party.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे की सत्तारूढ़ जेडएएनयू-पीएफ पार्टी ने मुगाबे के इस्तीफे की मांग की


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Relatives waiting on Wednesday outside an office block that collapsed last week in Mexico City s earthquake have resigned themselves to the likelihood that their loved ones did not survive, as a stench of death seeped from the rubble.  Soldiers, firefighters and volunteers have worked day and night since the Sept. 19 quake to find those trapped. In the past few days the search has narrowed to a handful of buildings. The focus is on the office block in the chic Roma district, where over 30 people are still missing. Authorities say 337 people have been confirmed dead so far in the 7.1 magnitude quake, Mexico s most deadly in a generation.  Sadly, we have to be realistic, what we want are our relatives  bodies at the very least,  said Martin Estrada, 51, whose son is believed to buried under the building. Like others waiting for news of their relatives, Estrada was critical of a lack of information from authorities. He said the rescue had been too slow to save his son.  One rescue worker at the site said a putrid smell pervading the air was evidence bodies were still in the building. The earthquake, and one a few days earlier that killed around 100 people, have become political issues for the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto, stretched to capacity by the disasters and coming under increasing criticism.  We blame the government for their deaths,  Estrada said.  The earthquakes caused $2 billion in damage to schools, housing and heritage sites including churches, ministers said on Wednesday. Private estimates range from $2 billion to $8 billion.     Pena Nieto said funds set aside for disaster recovery  were not infinite  and warned financing would have to be reassigned in the 2018 budget, which is currently under discussion in Congress. At least 190,000 buildings have been seriously damaged across Mexico by the quakes and storms in recent weeks, Pena Nieto said on Tuesday. A senior official said there was a collapse risk at 1,500 buildings in the capital. Earlier in the day, smoke, ash and red-hot rocks belched from the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City, heightening anxiety for many locals, although officials said there was no imminent threat. Popocatepetl, whose name means  Smoking Mountain  in the native Nahuatl language, showered a village at its base with ash, shook with the force of a 1.8 magnitude earthquake and spewed flaming rocks to distances of up to 1 km (0.62 mile), the National Disaster Prevention Center (Cenapred) said.  The earthquake had its epicenter just a few miles from the volcano and  probably pushed  the volcanic activity, Carlos Valdez, director of Cenapred, told Reuters. However, eruptions at the volcano have become relatively common since it reactivated 23 years ago.  On a clear day, Popocatepetl looms on the horizon of Mexico City 44 miles (71 km) away, and volcanic ash occasionally blows into the city.      Winds blew the ash on Wednesday towards Ecatzingo, a village under the volcano that suffered damage to its church and dozens of houses in last week s quake.

Summary: उम्मीद फीकी पड़ रही है, मेक्सिको भूकंप के बाद रिश्तेदारों के लिए एक गंभीर प्रतीक्षा


DUBAI (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian businessman whose family s commercial empire is involved in a multi-billion dollar debt dispute has been released from detention in the kingdom s Eastern Province, according to sources familiar with the matter. Abdulaziz al-Sanea s release comes as the government steps up efforts to find a company to run a struggling 750-bed hospital owned by his family, a search that has turned the spotlight on the kingdom s effort to bring overseas investors into the healthcare sector. Al-Sanea was freed late last week after being detained in October for unpaid debts, related at least in part to the hospital, according to the sources. An arrest warrant, issued in October for his brother Mishal for the same reason, was also lifted, according to the same sources. At the same time, the authorities approved a plan intended to restart operations at Saad Specialist Hospital in the city of Khobar in Eastern Province, which has been closed in recent weeks after being unable to pay staff and contractors, according to the sources. A special committee, formed by the government to find solutions for the hospital s future, concluded that the facility should be operated under the guidance of the Ministry of Health for seven years, the sources said. The revenue would be deposited into the account of the court handling the liquidation of Saad Group, the family s company that owns the hospital, the sources added.   The Ministry of Justice did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. London-listed NMC Healthcare is among companies in talks with the government to take over the running of the hospital, one of the top cancer treatment facilities in the Gulf, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Maan al-Sanea, the owner of Saad Group and the father of Abdulaziz and Mishal, is still in a civil detention center in Khobar, according to the sources. He was also detained by authorities in October for unpaid debts. Saad Group, which at its height employed about 12,000 staff and has interests in sectors spanning banking to healthcare, ran into difficulties in 2009 because of heavy debts, unleashing a series of long-running legal battles and a Saudi court-enforced liquidation of the company. Reemas Group, a financial consultancy hired by Saad Group, last month outlined a proposed settlement covering $4 billion in debt under a plan to repay part of the money owed to creditors. The legal action against the family is believed to be separate from a crackdown on corruption by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which dozens of Saudi princes and businessmen are being held. The kingdom has released 23 of the 200-or-so powerful individuals detained since November on corruption charges after they reached deals with the government, Okaz newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Summary: ऋण विवाद में सऊदी व्यवसायी हिरासत से रिहाः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bowing to pressure from fellow Republicans, Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would no longer talk about a Mexican-American judge after U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced the presidential candidate’s criticism of the jurist as textbook racism. But Trump refused entreaties from party leaders to disavow his charge that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was showing bias because of his Mexican heritage and should recuse himself from a lawsuit alleging fraud at Trump’s defunct Trump University real estate training school. Trump said in a statement that his previous remarks about Curiel had been misconstrued. “I do not feel that one’s heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial,” the presumptive Republican nominee said. Trump added that he did not plan to comment further on the matter. Trump had been suggesting that Curiel’s heritage was influencing the judge’s opinion about the case because of Trump’s campaign rhetoric about illegal immigration. Trump has pledged to seal the U.S.-Mexico border with a wall, and has said Mexico is sending rapists and drug dealers to the United States. Ryan, the country’s top elected Republican, blasted Trump’s comments, which have threatened to disrupt Republicans’ already rocky efforts to unite behind the candidate. “I regret those comments that he made. Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed,” Ryan told reporters. The controversy over Trump’s attacks on the judge has set back his efforts to try to unify the Republican party behind him ahead of the Nov. 8 general election when he will face off against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Speaking to supporters at the golf club he owns in the hilly suburbs of New York later on Tuesday, Trump laid out his vision for the meaning of his campaign slogan “America First,” talking about its implications for trade, energy, financial regulation and tax policies. Breaking with his usual practice of speaking off the cuff, Trump read from a teleprompter and left without taking questions from reporters. Ryan, who endorsed Trump last week after initial misgivings, said he still supported his candidacy, saying Trump would be preferable to Clinton. Behind the scenes, Trump has been pressured from friends and family to back down, fearful of the damage that may be done to his prospects in the general election, a source close to the Trump campaign said. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a potential Trump vice presidential running mate, was spotted at Trump Tower in New York before Trump’s statement was issued. Christie earlier in the day defended Trump as “not a racist.” “Some of his friends and family have talked to him and asked him to drop it and so far he won’t do it,” the source said, speaking before Trump’s statement was issued. “Everybody is mystified about why he would keep doing it.” Ryan’s emphatic rejection of Trump’s comments showed anxiety among party leaders about their ability to hang on to control of the U.S. Congress in November if voters trounce Trump and also punish candidates for other offices on the Republican ticket. Ryan’s counterpart in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said Trump should stop attacking minority groups. “My advice to our nominee is to start talking about the issues that the American people care about, and to start doing it now,” the Senate Republican leader told reporters. “In addition to that, it’s time to quit attacking various people that you competed with or various minority groups in the country and get on message.” Senator Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican who said back in March he would support whoever turned out to be the Republican nominee, said on Tuesday he could not support Trump because he did not have the “temperament necessary” for the White House. Kirk condemned Trump’s comments on Curiel as “dead wrong” and “un-American.” Kirk is seeking re-election in November. During the Republican primary campaigns, in which Trump vanquished 16 opponents with a stream of insults to rivals and inflammatory comments about Muslims, immigrants and women, establishment Republicans squirmed over the prospect of the former reality television host becoming their standard-bearer. But many, seeing no alternative, have reconciled themselves to a Trump run for the White House. Trump’s continuing practice of making explosive remarks about racial, religious and gender issues is making Republicans, including those who have embraced him, uncomfortable. With greater scrutiny of Trump now that he is set to formally win the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s July convention in Cleveland, there are concerns about the party’s ability to maintain control of the House of Representatives and Senate. “Trump’s continuing missteps, punctuated by his outrageous and indefensible comments about Judge Curiel, make that goal much more difficult to achieve,” said Lanhee Chen, a senior adviser to former presidential candidate Marco Rubio and a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन की आलोचनाओं के बीच ट्रंप ने कहा कि वह न्यायाधीश के बारे में बात करना बंद कर देंगे


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela said on Tuesday it would start a criminal investigation into powerful former oil czar Rafael Ramirez, in an escalation of a purge of alleged corruption that has resulted in the arrest of dozens of oil executives.  President Nicolas Maduro and Ramirez have long been rivals in the OPEC nation s ruling Socialist Party.  Insiders say tensions between the two politicians have spiked in recent weeks after Ramirez wrote articles criticizing the leftist leader s management of Venezuela s tanking economy and crumbling oil industry, home to the world s largest crude reserves.  Maduro, who is seeking to consolidate power ahead of next year s presidential election, last month stripped Ramirez of his most recent job as Venezuela s representative at the United Nations in New York. Ramirez, a former oil minister and head of state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], then left the United States for an undisclosed location last week.  On Tuesday, state prosecutor Tarek Saab accused Ramirez of being involved in the  brokering  of oil sales together with his cousin Diego Salazar, who was arrested this month in Caracas.  In one of the documents that was found, the citizen Diego Salazar, who is Rafael Ramirez  cousin, directly signals him, incriminates him directly as his direct partner,  Saab told journalists. He did not provide evidence.  It was unclear what Ramirez, who did not respond to a request for comment, would do next. He has denied involvement in corruption, and recently told Reuters that the government would make one of its  worst political moves  if investigators target him.     Opposition critics say the recent spate of arrests is arbitrary and motivated by internal divisions in the government. They insist that Maduro has turned a blind eye to corruption when it was politically expedient to do so.  Last year, the opposition-led Congress said $11 billion went missing at PDVSA between 2004 and 2014, when Ramirez was in charge of the company. Prosecutor Saab has refuted accusations that investigations are politically motivated. He pointed to the arrests of some 67 oil managers, including two former executives who had both served as oil minister and PDVSA president, as proof of the seriousness of the probe.       Last month, Maduro appointed a National Guard major general with no known significant experience of the oil industry to lead PDVSA, sparking fears by industry analysts that mismanagement would increase.

Summary: वेनेजुएला पूर्व तेल सम्राट रामिरेज़ की आपराधिक जाँच शुरू करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court on Monday upheld nondisclosure rules that allow the FBI to secretly issue surveillance orders for customer data to communications firms, a ruling that dealt a blow to privacy advocates. A unanimous three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with a lower court decision in finding that rules permitting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to send national security letters under gag orders are appropriate and do not violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections. Content distribution firm Cloudflare and phone network operator CREDO Mobile had sued the government in order to notify customers of five national security letters, or NSLs, received between 2011 and 2013. The FBI’s use of NSLs has drawn increased scrutiny as new transparency laws have let companies publish some of the letters, which has shown the agency may have run afoul of rules restricting their use. Andrew Crocker, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented the companies in the consolidated case, said no immediate decision whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court had been made. He called the ruling disappointing. The Justice Department declined comment. Several major technology firms, including Microsoft and Twitter, have mounted a variety of legal challenges in recent years to U.S. government restrictions limiting what they can disclose, both to affected users and to the public, about the surveillance requests they receive.  National security letters are a type of government subpoena for communications data sent to service providers. They are usually issued with a gag order, meaning the target is often unaware that records are being accessed, and they do not require a warrant. Tens of thousands of NSLs are issued annually, and some gag orders last indefinitely. Writing for the panel, Judge Sandra Ikuta said the gag orders meet a compelling U.S. government interest, are sufficiently narrow and allow for appropriate judicial review. Ikuta, appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush, said recent changes to the law passed by Congress in 2015 bolstered oversight of NSL use. In June of last year the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected a Republican-backed proposal to expand the kinds of telephone and internet records the FBI could request under an NSL to include senders and recipients of emails, some information about websites a person visits and social media log-in data. The legislation failed, but lawmakers have said they intend to pursue the expansion again.

Summary: अमेरिकी अपील अदालत ने एफ. बी. आई. डेटा निगरानी पर प्रतिबंध लगाने के आदेश को बरकरार रखा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google has discovered Russian operatives spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads on its YouTube, Gmail and Google Search products in an effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a person briefed on the company s probe told Reuters on Monday. The ads do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-affiliated entity that bought ads on Facebook Inc (FB.O), but may indicate a broader Russian online disinformation effort, according to the source, who was not authorized to discuss details of the confidential investigation by Alphabet Inc s (GOOGL.O) Google.  Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said separately on Monday that it was looking at whether Russians bought U.S. election ads on its Bing search engine or other Microsoft-owned products and platforms. A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment further.  The revelation about Google is likely to fuel further scrutiny of the role that Silicon Valley technology giants may have unwittingly played during last year s election. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow s goal was to help elect Donald Trump. Google has uncovered less than $100,000 in ad spending  potentially linked to Russian actors, the source said. Both Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and Facebook recently detected and disclosed that suspected Russian operatives, working for a content farm known as the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, Russia, used their platforms to purchase ads and post content that was politically divisive in a bid to influence Americans before and after the November 2016 presidential election.  The Internet Research Agency employ hundreds of so-called  trolls  who post pro-Kremlin content, much of it fake or discredited, under the guise of phony social media accounts that posed as American or European residents, according to lawmakers and researchers.  Facebook announced last month it had unearthed $100,000 in spending by the Internet Research Agency and, under pressure from lawmakers, has pledged to be more transparent about how its ads are purchased and targeted.  Google s review had been more robust than ones undertaken so far by Facebook or Twitter, the source said.  Russia s ad purchases on Google were first reported by the Washington Post. Google did not deny the story, and in a statement pointed to its existing ad policies that limit political ad targeting and prohibit targeting based on race or religion.  We are taking a deeper look to investigate attempts to abuse our systems, working with researchers and other companies, and will provide assistance to ongoing inquiries,  a Google spokeswoman said on Monday. Google, which runs the world s largest online advertising business, had largely evaded public or congressional scrutiny until now. On Sunday, the Daily Beast news website reported that the Kremlin recruited at least two black video bloggers to post clips on YouTube during the campaign. They posed as Black Lives Matter sympathizers who were sharply critical of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Though the videos were only viewed hundreds of times, they demonstrated for the first time that Russia allegedly deployed real people, not just fake online accounts or bots, to further spread propaganda. Congressional committees have launched multiple investigations into Russian interference, but concern about Silicon Valley s role has surged over the past month against the backdrop of a cascade of revelations about how Russia appears to have leveraged their platforms to spread propaganda. A study published on Monday by researchers with the Oxford Internet Institute, which is affiliated with the British university, found that current U.S. military personnel and veterans were targeted by disinformation campaigns on Twitter and Facebook over the past year by a nexus of pro-Kremlin, Russian-oriented sites, along with conspiracy theorists and European right-wing ideologues. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have said Russia intended to sow discord in the United States, spread propaganda and sway the election. Some Democrats plan to introduce legislation to require internet companies to disclose more information about political ad purchases on their platforms.   If Vladimir Putin is using Facebook or Google or Twitter to, in effect, destroy our democracy, the American people should know about it,  Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said Monday on MSNBC.  Google officials have been invited to testify publicly about Russian attempts to use their platforms to influence the election before both the House and Senate intelligence committees on Nov. 1 alongside Facebook and Twitter. While Facebook and Twitter have confirmed plans to attend, Google has not.

Summary: गूगल ने यूट्यूब, जीमेल पर रूस समर्थित विज्ञापनों का खुलासा कियाः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California and other states would be barred from setting their own rules governing design and testing of self-driving cars, while federal regulators would be blocked from demanding pre-market approval for autonomous vehicle technology, according to a U.S. House Republican proposal reviewed by Reuters on Thursday. The draft legislation, while far from becoming law, still represents a victory for General Motors Co, Alphabet Inc, Tesla Inc and other automakers and technology companies seeking to persuade Congress and the Trump administration to pre-empt rules under consideration in California, New York and other states that could limit deployment of self-driving vehicles. The industry also opposed an Obama administration proposal last year that raised the possibility of giving regulators the power to review and approve self-driving car technology before it was put into service, similar to the vetting by Federal Aviation Administration of new technology for aircraft. The 45-page draft package of 14 bills would designate the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as the lead agency for regulating self-driving cars, pre-empting state rules.  States could still set insurance and registration rules but could not use them as a way to regulate self-driving technologies. California has proposed changes to its self-driving car rules, but automakers said in April it has not gone far enough. One of the bills in the proposal would allow the U.S. Transportation Department to exempt up to 100,000 vehicles per year from U.S. federal motor vehicle safety rules, which currently prevent the sale of self-driving vehicles without steering wheels, pedals and other human controls. Another would declare crash data, other testing and validation reports from automated cars turned over to U.S. regulators to be “confidential business information.” U.S. Representative Bob Latta, who chairs a key panel overseeing automobile regulation, called the draft legislation “an important step in establishing a framework to allow innovators to safely develop and test autonomous vehicles.” He said Republicans want “to continue working with all parties in a bipartisan manner as we refine language and move toward a consensus package.” On Tuesday, a bipartisan trio of U.S. senators said they planned to introduce legislation to remove regulatory roadblocks to the introduction of self-driving cars. Mitch Bainwol, head of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an auto trade group, told Congress on Wednesday it should work to eliminate state or local laws that could “unduly burden or restrict the use of self-driving vehicles in the future.”

Summary: अमेरिकी राज्य रिपब्लिकन योजना के तहत स्व-ड्राइविंग कार नियम निर्धारित नहीं कर सके


SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian authorities have smashed a gang suspected of smuggling migrants into Western Europe, prosecutors said in a statement on Wednesday. Eight people, including two Pakistanis, were charged with smuggling offences after they transported migrants, mainly Pakistanis, Afghans and Iraqis, from Turkey into Romania and then to Hungary and Austria, the statement said. Six members of the gang were detained following a coordinated operation in Sofia and the Danube towns of Vidin and Lom on Tuesday. The migrants had paid between 4,000 euros ($4,700) and 6,000 euros each, the prosecutors said. Bulgaria has built a fence on its border with Turkey and has bolstered its border controls to prevent inflows of illegal migrants.

Summary: बुल्गारिया में प्रवासी-तस्करी गिरोह पकड़ा गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday the issue of whether President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign colluded with Russia remains an open question as the panel intensifies its probe into the matter. Republican Chairman Richard Burr and Democratic Vice Chairman Mark Warner also warned about the risk to future U.S. elections posed by Russia, including what is expected to be a closely contested election next month for governor of Warner’s home state, Virginia. Burr told reporters the committee plans to conduct 25 more interviews with witnesses this month, but described his goal of finishing this year the main congressional investigation into Russian meddling as only “aspirational” at this point. “The issue of collusion is still open,” Burr said, standing alongside Warner at a press conference to provide an update on the investigation. “We have not come to any determination on collusion,” he said. Burr said he wanted very much to conclude the investigation before the height of campaigning for November 2018 U.S. mid-term elections, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and one third of the 100-seat Senate will be up for grabs. Warner said the United States needed a “whole-of-government” approach to combating interference with U.S. elections. “The Russian active measures efforts did not end on Election Day, 2016,” he said.  Trump, who has called allegations of campaign collusion with Moscow a hoax, has faced questions about the matter since he took office in January. A special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, Robert Mueller, is conducting a separate probe that could lead to criminal charges. Russia denies meddling. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton through a campaign of hacking and releasing embarrassing emails, and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her campaign. Burr said the committee agreed with the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia had interfered. “The committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion,” Burr said. “Now, I’m not even going to discuss initial findings because we haven’t any. We’ve got a tremendous amount of documents still to go through.” He said the panel has conducted more than 100 interviews lasting more than 250 hours in its nine-month-old probe, and “we currently have booked for the balance of this month 25 additional interviews.” Those who have already come before committee members or investigators include the president’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and social media executives such as officials from Twitter Inc (TWTR.N).  On Wednesday, a representative for Kushner and Ivanka Trump denied a report in USA Today that the couple had re-routed personal emails through their family’s business. Among witnesses who will appear at future public committee hearings are Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and executives from Facebook Inc (FB.O), Twitter and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google. Warner and Burr urged American election officials and political campaigns to take the threat of Russian interference seriously. “You can’t walk away from this and believe that Russia’s not currently active in trying to create chaos in our election process. And I assume that the same tactics that you saw in Montenegro, in France, in Belgium and in the United States will continue to be tested within our structure of the election process,” Burr said. Burr said the committee has “hit a wall” in its investigation of a former British spy’s explosive dossier on purported Russian support for Trump’s 2016 campaign. Former MI6 officer Christopher Steele compiled the dossier, which Trump was told by former FBI director James Comey contained salacious material about the businessman-turned-president. Trump and his associates have called the dossier’s contents false. “We have, on several occasions, made attempts to contact Mr. Steele, to meet with Mr. Steele,” Burr said. “Those offers have gone unaccepted. The committee cannot really decide the credibility of the dossier without understanding things like who paid for it, who are your sources and sub-sources,” Burr added. (This corrected version of the story removes quote with incorrect attribution in sixth paragraph, replacing with another quote).

Summary: रूस-ट्रम्प अभियान की मिलीभगत एक 'खुला' मुद्दा हैः अमेरिकी सीनेट पैनल प्रमुख


BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese distributors of overseas publications must verify that the content is legal in China, Beijing said late on Sunday, after a major western publisher blocked access to some content in the country citing local regulations. Springer Nature, which publishes science magazines Nature and Scientific American, said last week that it had pulled access to less than 1 percent of its articles in China, which it said was regrettable but necessary to avoid all content being blocked.  All publications imported into the Chinese market must accord with Chinese laws and regulations. The publications  import management company is responsible for carrying out content checks on publications,  the State Council Information Office, the Chinese government s information and propaganda arm, said in a faxed response to a request for comment sent by Reuters last Wednesday. The Chinese government made a similar statement after Britain s Cambridge University Press (CUP) in August removed and then reposted about 300 papers and book reviews published by the China Quarterly journal from its Chinese website. Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has heightened censorship, tightened controls on the internet, and strengthened Communist Party authority over academia and other institutions. CUP s decision was originally taken at the request of the Chinese government, the publisher said at the time. CUP later reversed its decision after an outcry from academics who said the decision impinged upon academic freedom. Springer Nature in a statement last week denied that its decision to limit some content was a form of editorial censorship, saying that the move was local to China and was taken to comply with specific regulations as enforced by distributors. The publisher said that not complying would mean it ran the risk of being banned from distributing all content in China, which it said was not in the interests of its authors and customers or the wider scientific or academic communities. At least 1,000 Springer Nature articles had been blocked in China, containing sensitive key words like Taiwan, Tibet and Cultural Revolution, the Financial Times reported. One of Springer Nature s China distributors, the state-run China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corp, did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters on Monday. It was unclear if the decision by Springer Nature to block content followed a request by just one of its China distributors or a number of different distributors. It was also unclear whether the distributor request was made at the behest of the Chinese government.

Summary: स्प्रिंगर नेचर द्वारा कुछ लेखों को हटाने के बाद चीन ने विदेशी सामग्री पर चेतावनी दी


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi this week to discuss their concerns about an independence referendum in Iraq s Kurdish region. Turkey, the United States and other Western powers have advised authorities in the semi-autonomous region to cancel the vote, worrying that tensions it would generate might act as an unwelcome distraction from the war on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. With the largest Kurdish population in the region, Turkey also fears that a  Yes  vote would fuel separatism in its southeast, where militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have waged an insurgency for three decades. Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said on Friday the referendum would go ahead as planned on Sept. 25. Speaking to reporters on Sunday before departing for New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad had the same view regarding the referendum.  We will have a meeting with Mr Abadi in the United States, and from what we can see our goal is the same. Our goal is not dividing Iraq,  said Erdogan, who earlier said that Barzani s decision to not postpone the vote was  very wrong . Late on Saturday Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the referendum was an issue of national security and Turkey would take any necessary steps in response. In Istanbul, close to a thousand people gathered to protest the inclusion of Kirkuk in the referendum, at an event organized by the nationalist opposition MHP party. Kirkuk, an oil-rich province claimed by authorities in both Baghdad and the Kurdish region, was included after its governor, Najmaddin Kareem, voted in favor of taking part. Iraq s parliament voted on Thursday to remove the governor from office following a request from Abadi, according to several lawmakers present, a move Barzani condemned. Last month, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli said the referendum should be viewed by Ankara as a reason for war  if necessary , but the prime minister dismissed the comments. Bahceli s ideas reflect those of a segment of Turkish society fiercely opposed to the idea of an independent Kurdistan and supportive of Iraq s Turkmen ethnic minority, which has historical and cultural ties to Turkey. With Barzani pressing on with the referendum, Erdogan said the Turkish government had brought forward planned national security council and cabinet meetings to Sept. 22 and that Turkey would announce its position on the referendum afterwards. Turkey has, however, built good relations with Barzani s administration, founded on strong economic links and shared suspicions of other Kurdish groups and Iraq s central government. The Kurdish Regional Government, led by Barzani s KDP party, exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil every day to world markets via Turkey. Iraqi President Fuad Masum on Sunday called on the country s leading politicians to start urgent dialogue to defuse tensions linked to the referendum plans. Masum, a Kurd, holds a largely ceremonial position under the Iraqi federal power-sharing regime, which concentrates executive powers in the hands of the prime minister, a Shi ite.

Summary: तुर्की के एर्दोगन, इराक के अबादी इराकी कुर्द जनमत संग्रह पर चर्चा करेंगे


LONDON (Reuters) - Investors who lend billions of euros to Spain every year are  struggling to sketch out the repercussions for the country s finances of a possible independence proclamation by the wealthy region of Catalonia.  Regional leader Carles Puigdemont prepared to address on Tuesday a parliamentary session that may unilaterally declare independence from Spain following a banned referendum on Oct. 1. Such a move would drive a wedge between the Spanish government and a region that makes up a fifth of the country s economic output and more than a quarter of its exports. As one fund manager told Reuters, working out how all this will pan out for the euro zone s fourth largest economy is  so complicated it makes Brexit look like a walk in the park,  but here are some of the best guesses so far: This is the scenario - considered unlikely by many analysts   that could prove most damaging to Spain s overall financial position, its economy and government borrowing costs.  Secession would be also expected to harm Catalonia s economy, while uncertainty is likely to push up bond yields in both a newly-independent state as well as for Spain.  According to ABN AMRO, Catalan independence could raise Spain s government-debt ratio to as high as 115 percent of GDP from current levels around 99 percent - leapfrogging Cyprus and Belgium to have the fourth largest debt load in the euro area. However, Catalonia has said it would take responsibility for its share of central government debt, reducing the burden on Spain. But the real problem would be how Spain would balance its books without Catalonia s contribution. At roughly 4.5 percent of GDP in 2016, Spain already has the highest budget deficit in the euro zone. Fathom Consulting said if Catalonia leaves, the economic shock could see the budget deficit run to nearly 7 percent in a couple of years - back to levels seen in the wake of the euro zone debt crisis. ABN AMRO forecasts a deficit of 5.5-6 percent.    Many analysts expect the likely outcome of Spain s worst political crisis in decades will be greater devolution of powers to Catalonia like those enjoyed by the Basque country.  But generous fiscal autonomy from Madrid could come at considerable cost to the public purse. According to a 2014 study by research house CSIC, the Spanish state could lose about 16 billion euros. That would equal about 13 percent of next year s budget.   It would be painful economically,  said Tim Davis, chief investment strategist at Fathom Consulting.  The budget deficit in Spain would increase and then you would need to see some kind of additional austerity to plug that gap or you would start to see bond yields rise.     It does not seem there is any outcome that leaves Spain s economy unscathed.  Rating agencies have already said the tensions alone could have negative consequences for Spain s credit rank, deterring investment and weakening the ability of Spain s minority Popular Party government to implement national policy. The crisis already looks to have claimed its first victim: a delay in passing the 2018 budget. Tensions will only increase if Catalonia defies Madrid and declares independence over the coming days. One of the tools at Spain s disposal is to trigger Article 155 of the constitution, which would allows it to take control of devolved powers.   (This story has been refiled to remove erroneous word in paragraph 3.)

Summary: स्पेन के लेनदारों ने कैटलन की स्वतंत्रता की बोली की लागत बढ़ाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department inspector general’s report shows Hillary Clinton’s email practices reflected those of other secretaries of state and that her use of personal email was known to government officials at the time, a Clinton spokesman said on Wednesday. “The report shows that problems with the State Department’s electronic recordkeeping systems were longstanding and that there was no precedent of someone in her position having a State Department email account until after the arrival of her successor,” spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement.  He also said the report, which was distributed to lawmakers, showed no successful breach of the private server she used.

Summary: क्लिंटन प्रवक्ताः आई. जी. रिपोर्ट से पता चलता है कि ईमेल पर क्लिंटन ने कोई गलती नहीं की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her election victory in a telephone conversation on Thursday in which they also discussed the Iran nuclear deal, the White House said.  The leaders discussed how to counter Iran s malign activities in the Middle East, and addressed the nuclear deal and Iran s missile program, and its non-compliance with relevant United Nations resolutions,  the White House said in a statement.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने चुनाव में जीत पर मर्केल को बधाई दी, ईरान पर चर्चा कीः व्हाइट हाउस


AMES, Iowa (Reuters) - Sarah Palin, the politician-turned-reality TV star offered a passionate endorsement on Tuesday to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, the reality TV star-turned-politician, declaring that “the status quo has got to go.” Palin, a former Alaska governor who was Republican Senator John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election won by Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, appeared with Trump at a rally in Ames, Iowa, two weeks before the state’s Feb. 1 caucus, the country’s first nominating process ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Trump is in a close race in Iowa with fellow conservative Republican Ted Cruz.  Palin’s folksy, plain-speaking style has won her a loyal following among some conservatives, but she remains a polarizing figure, even among Republicans.  It is unclear whether she can attract additional support to Trump, whose own blunt rhetoric has helped lift him to the top of the crowded Republican field. “He is from the private sector, not a politician,” Palin said in an animated speech after joining the business mogul and former host of TV’s “The Apprentice” onstage. “Can I get a hallelujah?”  She described Trump as an anti-establishment candidate who would “kick ISIS’ ass,” referring to the Islamic State militant group. Just hours after Palin backed Trump, police in Alaska said they had arrested her eldest son, Track Palin, on suspicion of assaulting a woman and carrying a gun while intoxicated. Palin said there was nothing wrong with Trump being a multibillionaire and that it did not make him an elitist, citing all the time he had spent with construction workers as a real-estate developer. As Trump stood alongside, Palin said: “The status quo has got to go,” adding that the political establishment had been “wearing political correctness kind of like a suicide vest.” In a statement before the event, Trump said he was “greatly honored” by the endorsement. “She is a friend, and a high-quality person whom I have great respect for.”     Trump has led national opinion polls among Republicans for months but is in a tight contest with Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, for the support of Iowa Republicans, who lean conservative and whose evangelical Christians comprise a major voting bloc.  Palin, who often discusses her Christian faith, is popular among that group and endorsed Cruz when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012. Cruz responded to her switch of allegiance with magnanimity.  “Regardless of what she does in 2016,” he tweeted, “I will always be a big fan.” She devoted a large portion of her speech to deflecting criticism from Cruz and others that Trump, who did not oppose legal abortion at least for a time, was not a true conservative. Despite the Democratic victory, Palin’s 2008 vice presidential run made her a national celebrity.   Suggesting there were no fiercer fighters for conservative values than a small-town “hockey mom,” the former beauty-pageant winner professed a love of hunting with guns and thought it more important that the United States increase drilling for oil than fret about climate change.  Since resigning her governorship in 2009, Palin has worked as a conservative political commentator and as the producer and star of lightly staged television shows about her large family enjoying Alaska’s rugged landscapes. But even some former admirers have wondered if her moment had passed, particularly after a speech a year ago before conservative Iowa voters that at times was hard to transcribe and even harder to follow. Joe Brettell, a Republican strategist in Texas, said he thought Palin would not help Trump much “beyond a jolt in the news cycle.” The crowd in Ames listened to Palin warmly but was divided afterward as to how valuable she would be. June Heidn, 62, said Palin was “inspiring” and might help Trump appeal to female voters. Mike Caruso, 40, said it did not help him as he weighs giving Trump his vote. “I think he’s pretty solid without her,” he said.  (Writing by Jonathan Allen; Additional reporting by Eric Beech, Amy Tennery and Melissa Fares; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Peter Cooney and Simon Cameron-Moore) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: अमेरिका के पूर्व उपराष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार पॉलिन ने 'हल्लेलुजा' के साथ ट्रम्प का समर्थन किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and said he looked forward to playing host to a visit by Modi to Washington later this year. The White House said Trump spoke with Modi to congratulate him on the outcome of recent state-level elections. Trump expressed support for Modi’s economic reform agenda. “President Trump also said he looks forward to hosting Prime Minister Modi in Washington later this year,” the White House said in a statement. No date for the visit was mentioned.

Summary: भारतीय प्रधानमंत्री मोदी इस साल वाशिंगटन की यात्रा करेंगेः व्हाइट हाउस


MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Britain will limit sales of sulphuric acid and outlaw the sale of such corrosive substances to children after a spate of assaults and its possible use to make bombs, interior minister Amber Rudd said on Tuesday. Much to public alarm, the number of incidents where assailants have used acid has risen sharply, with police figures suggesting there had been more than 400 corrosive substance attacks in the six months to April this year. Many victims were left with serious, life-changing injuries as a result. The proposed new laws will make it illegal to sell the most harmful corrosive substances to under-18s while the carrying of acid in public without good reason will be banned.  Acid attacks are absolutely revolting,  Home Secretary Rudd told party activists at the Conservative Party Conference in the northern English city of Manchester.  You have all seen the pictures of victims that never fully recover; endless surgeries, lives ruined.   Rudd said she also intended to  drastically  limit the public sale of sulphuric acid because of its use in making the highly volatile triacetone triperoxide (TATP), known as  mother of Satan , which is often used as a detonator in home-made explosives. Police say TATP was used in an attempted bombing on a packed London underground train last month which injured 30 people. The bomb engulfed a carriage in flames but failed to explode fully. At the moment, businesses that sell sulphuric acid have to tell the police of any theft or loss, but the new law would mean anyone wanting to buy it above a certain concentration would have to have a Home Office license. Rudd also announced plans to further restrict the online sale of knives to under-18s following a significant increase in the number of stabbings.

Summary: हमलों में भारी वृद्धि के बाद ब्रिटेन तेजाब की बिक्री को सीमित करेगा


(Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday the Trump administration did not write a document ordering a review that could bring back CIA the “black site” prison program. “My understanding is this was written by somebody who worked on the transition before who’s not in the Trump administration. This is not a product of the administration,” Ryan said in an interview with MSNBC.   The black sites were used to detain suspects captured in President George W. Bush’s “war on terrorism” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and were formally closed by President Barack Obama.

Summary: स्पीकर रयान का कहना है कि 'ब्लैक साइट्स' दस्तावेज़ ट्रम्प का नहीं है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Wednesday that human rights were respected during Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election and there were few cases of intimidation, despite recent changes to election rules in several states that created unnecessary burdens for voters.  “Some legal and administrative decisions appear to have had a partisan flavor,” Ambassador Audrey Glover, head of the OSCE election observation mission to the United States, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “These recent changes ... led to a lack of clarity regarding the rules.” Tuesday’s astonishing contest, in which Republican candidate Donald Trump beat his long-favored opponent, Hillary Clinton, to become the 45th president of the United States, was the first election to occur in the United States in more than 50 years without the full protections of the landmark Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a provision of the law that had allowed federal oversight of states with a history of racial discrimination, prompting the U.S. federal government to reduce its own election monitoring program.  The OSCE deployed nearly 300 observers to polling stations in 33 states, although they were not allowed to freely observe early voting and Election Day in 19 of those states, according to the international rights group. At almost half of the polling sites observed by the OSCE delegation, some citizens who wanted to vote were not found on the voter list, causing “systemic concern regarding the effectiveness of voter registration methods,” according to the group. Despite concerns that voters would be intimidated at the polls, the OSCE said, its observers did not see any serious incidents. However, U.S. civil rights groups logged unusual levels of voter intimidation complaints, receiving about 35,000 calls through a national voter complaint hotline as of Tuesday evening.    Revised voting laws and lengthy court battles in many states also left voters uncertain about when and where they could cast their ballot and whether they would need to present photo identification.

Summary: मतदान में बाधाओं के बावजूद अमेरिकी चुनाव निष्पक्ष थाः ओएससीई अधिकार समूह


BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday and discussed the threat posed by North Korea, the White House said. “Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. President Trump reiterated his determination to seek more balanced trade relations with America’s trading partners,” the White House said of Trump’s call with Xi. Trump has become increasingly frustrated with China’s inability to rein in North Korea. Trump and Abe, in their call, reiterated their commitment to increase pressure on North Korea. “They reaffirmed that the United States-Japan Alliance stands ready to defend and respond to any threat or action taken by North Korea,” the White House said in a statement.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने चीन, जापान के नेताओं के साथ फोन पर उत्तर कोरिया के खतरे पर चर्चा की


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former New York deputy secretary of state was arraigned on Friday after being indicted this week on charges that he lied about paying restitution after being convicted in 2007 of defrauding the state, the U.S. Justice Department said. Joseph Strevell, 54, of Castleton, New York, served as deputy secretary of state of New York from 1997 to 1999. He faces five counts of perjury and one count of defaulting on a restitution obligation. The Justice Department has accused him of lying under oath about making monthly payments, as well as his contributions toward the purchase of a 138-acre horse farm in 2013 and his daughter’s wedding in 2014. Prosecutors said Strevell falsely testified that his mother and aunt paid most of a $75,440 down payment on a lease for the farm and that he paid a couple thousand dollars for the wedding, when in fact he contributed more than $30,000. Strevell was convicted in federal court of defrauding the state after he left the state department, which traditionally oversees official records, to serve as head of the state-funded Institute of Entrepreneurship. In 2009, he was ordered to pay $111,500 in restitution, and given guidelines to pay a minimum of $100 per month or 10 percent of his gross monthly earnings, whichever was greater. After his arraignment, Strevell was released from custody in Albany, New York pending a trial in U.S. District Court. “Restitution is a mandatory obligation that no convicted felon should be able to walk away from,” Richard Hartunian, U.S. attorney for the northern district of New York, said in a statement. Strevell’s attorney, Paul Evangelista, declined to comment on the case.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क के पूर्व उप विदेश मंत्री पर झूठी गवाही देने का आरोप


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Friday that Republican members of the U.S. Congress had indicated their continuing support for Colombia’s effort to achieve peace with leftist rebels and recover from years of civil war. His comments, at the State Department, came a day after President Barack Obama said he planned to ask Congress for more than $450 million in aid to help Colombia implement a peace accord to end Latin America’s longest war. Asked whether Republicans had backed the administration plan, Santos told reporters at the State Department he “did not hear one single voice” doubting the success of the current U.S. aid effort, Plan Colombia, and he had received “expressions of continuing support.” He said he did not receive any formal commitments but hoped Congress would support the new proposal.

Summary: कोलंबियाई नेता का कहना है कि उन्हें रिपब्लिकन अमेरिकी सांसदों से समर्थन का आश्वासन मिला है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday his party would look at “every single option” to halt a last-ditch effort by Republicans to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. “We’re going to explore every single option,” Schumer told a news conference to underscore Democratic opposition to a bill introduced by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy that proposes replacing the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Republicans face a two-week countdown before Senate procedural rules make it much harder for them to advance their latest bill.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट ओबामाकेयर निरसन विधेयक को रोकने के लिए हर विकल्प का अध्ययन करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will meet with his National Security Council on Tuesday morning to discuss U.S. efforts to fight Islamic State militants, the White House said. “The session is the latest in a series of NSC meetings in recent months convened at the White House and at key departments and agencies, including the CIA, the Department of State and the Department of Defense, on our campaign against the terrorist group,” it said in a statement.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट के बारे में राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकारों से मिलेंगे ओबामा


MADRID (Reuters) - Catalonia will stop sending weekly financial accounts to Madrid, defying a demand by Spain s central government that the region prove it is not using public money to promote an independence drive. The decision follows a series of moves to block a Catalan referendum on self-rule, planned for Oct. 1, which Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy s government has declared illegal. In a letter dated Sept. 13, Catalan Deputy Governor Oriol Junqueras told Spanish Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro the region would no longer comply with the obligation to submit its accounts every week. He said the arrangement implied  political control that is not related to the objectives of budget stability or to the purposes of state legislation in this matter . Madrid ordered Catalonia to start providing the weekly data in July. The government warned the region would lose access to some public funds if it was found to be using state money to organize the vote. All of Spain s regions pay taxes to the central government, and are then given a quota to spend on health, education and infrastructure. Catalonia, which has one of the strongest regional economies, says the system is unfair. After the referendum was announced, Madrid warned Catalonia it risked losing access to a separate funding program, set up in 2012 when economic crisis hammered regional budgets, if it failed to provide weekly accounts.  Junqueras said in his letter that his administration was committed to financial stability and would still collaborate with Montoro s ministry, and continue to account for their spending every month.  The will of the (Catalan) government is to continue to focus on dialogue and the exercise of democracy as a way to resolve the debate on political relations between Catalonia and Spain,  the letter said.         Catalonia accounts for around 20 percent of Spain s gross domestic product and has received some 70 billion euros ($83 billion) in funding from Madrid since 2012.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया ने जनमत संग्रह से पहले मैड्रिड को साप्ताहिक खाते भेजने से इनकार कर दिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Florida’s rapidly growing Puerto Rican population heavily favors Democrat Hillary Clinton over Republican Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race, according to a poll released on Wednesday by groups with links to the Democrats.  Seventy-four percent of Puerto Ricans now registered to vote in Florida said they would likely pick Clinton in the Nov. 8 election, versus 17 percent for Trump, according to the poll from the Center for American Progress Action Fund and Latino Decisions. Puerto Ricans, who traditionally lean toward voting Democratic in Florida, are a big enough group to swing the closely-fought state. Florida, the third-largest state in the country in terms of electoral college votes needed to win the White House, has seen an influx of people from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, as the Caribbean island’s economy has floundered in recent years.  More than one million Puerto Ricans now live in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center, making up about 5 percent of the total population. The Center for American Progress Action Fund is a progressive non-partisan organization that has been critical of Trump in the past. Latino Decisions has consulted for the Clinton campaign.        Florida is currently too close to call between Clinton and Trump, according to the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project, and both candidates have been focusing their campaigns there heading into the election. Trump angered many Hispanics when he launched his campaign last year by calling some Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers, and his hardline immigration policies have done little to attract Latino voters. The poll did not gauge the level of eligible Puerto Rican voters who have registered in Florida, an important measure given historically low Latino turnout. Latino voter registration lagged white and African-American voters in the 2014 congressional elections by 12 to 15 percentage points nationally, according to the U.S. Census. But it said Puerto Rican voters now registered in Florida appeared motivated. Some 84 percent said they would definitely vote, with another 14 percent saying they would probably do so. Only 2 percent said they definitely would not. The poll included 504 registered Puerto Rican voters in Florida with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. It was conducted from Sept. 17 to Sept. 26.

Summary: फ्लोरिडा के प्यूर्टो रिकान लोगों ने क्लिंटन का पुरजोर समर्थन कियाः सर्वेक्षण


ASUNCION (Reuters) - The United States, historically a major backer of multilateral lending institutions, will not renew its contribution to a Inter-American Development Bank fund that supports pilot development projects, the head of the Washington-based organization said on Sunday.  In a news conference at the IDB’s annual board of governors meeting in Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion, President Luis Alberto Moreno linked the U.S. decision to a policy shift since Republican President Donald Trump took office in January.  “On this occasion, the United States, for various domestic reasons, did not want to participate,” Moreno said. He added that the U.S. delegation had indicated at an October 2016 meeting that it was willing to contribute, “but that it all depended on the result of the election.” “Once President Trump’s government began, they informed us -at the beginning of February - that the United States would not be making any contribution.”  The IDB provides loans to governments and businesses to finance projects ranging from large-scale infrastructure to small businesses. Founded in 1959, it says it is the leading source of development financing for Latin America, lending $11.3 billion and $13.8 billion in 2015 and 2014, respectively.  The Multilateral Investment Fund, or MIF, created in 1993, was instrumental in the development of microfinance and provides technical assistance to small projects aimed at providing economic opportunity to the poor. It was a brainchild of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, and the United States has historically been its largest donor, the IDB said in a statement.  IDB member countries pledge to renew the fund’s coffers every several years. At the October meeting, the IDB governors agreed to provide an additional $300 million to keep the fund running from 2019 to 2023.  This marked the first time since the MIF’s founding that the United States did not contribute to its fund replenishment, an IDB spokesman confirmed. It comes as Trump has proposed slashing the U.S. foreign aid and diplomacy budget by 28 percent. In the U.S. absence, Latin American and Caribbean countries contributed 55 percent of the total $317 million added to the MIF this year, while Japan pledged $85 million, the IDB said. During the last replenishment in 2007, contributions from Latin America and the Caribbean totaled 8 percent of the $501 million added to the fund. The United States contributed $150 million.  A representative of the U.S. delegation said delegates were under instruction not to comment.  U.S. talking points for “MIF Replenishment Discussions” seen by Reuters and dated on Sunday, said the world’s largest economy applauded the increased contributions by Latin American countries.  “While the United States will not be pledging additional funding, we remain committed to the MIF and will continue to play an active role on the Donors Committee,” the talking points read.

Summary: अमेरिका ने नीतिगत बदलाव के संकेत में लाटम विकास कोष से पीछे हटने का फैसला किया


ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s preparations for hosting this year’s Group of Seven major powers meetings have been hampered by the slow transition at the U.S. State Department, which has created decision-making bottlenecks, European diplomatic sources said. The G7 draws together the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada, with countries taking it in turn to draw up agendas that they see as of pressing concern. Italy holds the 2017 presidency and its objectives laid out this week appeared to put Rome on a collision course with U.S. President Donald Trump by promoting highly sensitive topics such as climate change, free trade and immigration initiatives. The G7 foreign ministers meet in Tuscany on April 10-11, preparing for a leaders’ summit in Sicily at the end of May. However, officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said efforts to reach an agreement on statements and strategy ahead of time - a normal part of pre-meeting G7 diplomacy - were going slowly. The immediate concerns lay with the State Department, where new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has left vacant numerous positions seen as vital to drafting summit accords. “It’s very difficult to talk to someone who can give a straight answer because the ones who are there are ‘acting’ head of something and they’re not even very senior,” said a senior Italian government official involved in G7 diplomacy.      The White House has yet to nominate candidates for either of the two deputy secretary of state slots, beneath Tillerson. Further down the chain, all six of the department’s regional bureaus are led by acting assistant secretaries of state, while Trump has yet to appoint ambassadors to Italy or the Vatican. “This has made it extremely difficult for us to prepare for the meeting,” the government official added.  A State Department official acknowledged that some positions had yet to be filled, but said that it was preparing for a “successful” series of G7 meetings. “We continue to have a deep bench of experienced and capable staff members serving in key positions and working closely with their G7 counterparts, including our Italian hosts,” the official said. A diplomat in another European capital also involved in G7 preparations said the department heads beneath the secretary of state were vital for getting approval for agendas, scheduling and the often delicate wording of policy statements. “We no longer know who to talk to. It is slowing everything down,” he said, adding that any ambitious projects would struggle to take off given the confusion. A senior diplomat in a third EU capital said: “Since President Trump took office, it has become very difficult to deal with the State Department on planning and we are still learning to work with that.”  The senior Italian diplomat leading behind-the-scenes G7 discussions, Raffaele Trombetta, said this week that Africa would play a prominent role in Italy’s summit agenda, with seven African leaders invited to join the talks in Sicily.  However, in a sign that Rome was lowering expectations for this year’s event, the Italian government was unlikely to launch any major funding initiative at a time when Trump is looking to slash back on U.S. foreign aid. “Usually the G7 sets aside money for a particular cause, but this time it doesn’t look like there’s the will to do it. It’s not just the Americans. The Japanese don’t want one either,” said the Italian government source. Trombetta said “trust” was the presidency slogan - trust between governments and their citizens, and between countries.  “There is also a need of renewed trust between the leaders who will be attending the summit,” he said, noting that the prime ministers of Britain and Italy and the presidents of France and the United States would be attending their first G7. EU leaders worry Trump might undermine 70 years of strong trans-Atlantic ties and have been alarmed by his criticism of NATO, his support for trade protectionism, his rejection of climate change policies, and his anti-migrant rhetoric. Flying into these headwinds, Trombetta said Italy wanted the G7 to reaffirm the importance of the 2015 Paris agreement, which obliges nations to curb global warming and which senior White House advisers have called on Trump to renounce. Rome was also eager for a commitment “to fighting all forms of protectionism”, said Trombetta. However, he acknowledged that this might be hard to achieve, with the United States this month already breaking with a tradition of endorsing open trade at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Germany. “It is a highly political issue. I expect it will go up to the leaders. It will be dealt with by them at the Taormina summit ... It will be one of the main points of tension of our presidency,” he said. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni is flying to the United States next month, in part to seek an understanding with Trump on the G7 agenda ahead of the Sicily summit. But if Trump pushes back, he is unlikely to face strong resistance from Italy, which has made good relations with the United States the cornerstone of its foreign policy.  “We can argue with France, Germany and Britain, but never with America,” said another senior government official, who was not authorized to talk to the media. “We will do with Trump what we always do (with the Americans); find a way to get along with him.”

Summary: अमेरिकी राजनयिक देरी, ट्रम्प के एजेंडे ने इटली के जी 7 एजेंडे को बाधित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton has reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, the Associated Press said on Monday, putting her on course to become the first woman to head a major U.S. party ticket. Clinton, a former secretary of state, reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic nominee  with a decisive weekend victory in Puerto Rico and a burst of last-minute support from superdelegates, the AP reported. Clinton has 1,812 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. She also has the support of 571 superdelegates, according to an Associated Press count. The Democratic Party holds its convention in Philadelphia in July to formally choose its nominee for the Nov. 8 election against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने डेमोक्रेटिक नामांकन हासिल कियाः एपी प्रतिनिधियों की गिनती