MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s parliament warned on Friday some U.S. and other foreign media could be declared  foreign agents  and obliged to regularly declare full details of their funding, finances and staffing. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, said parliament could back legislation as early as next week in response to what lawmakers view as U.S. pressure on Russian media.  Possible restrictions will be the same as those taken by the United States,  Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.  He said some U.S. media in Russia were trying to turn U.S. public opinion against Moscow.   We understand that it s essential to protect the interests of our citizens and the country and we will do this in the same way as the country which lays claim to be the gold standard and mentor and which is constantly talking about freedom.  Russian lawmakers said the move was retaliation for a demand by the U.S. Department of Justice that Kremlin-backed TV station RT register in the United States as a  foreign agent , something Moscow has said it regards as an unfriendly act. The U.S. action against RT was taken after U.S. intelligence agencies accused Russia of trying to interfere in last year s U.S. presidential election to help President Donald Trump win the White House, something Moscow has denied.     Russia faces a presidential election next March. Vladimir Putin is widely expected to stand again and to win. He remains broadly popular though critics accuse him of suppressing dissent, not least by tight control of domestic media. Lawmakers will conduct a first reading of the new restrictions on Nov. 15 and try to complete approval in two further readings by the end of next week.  U.S. and any other foreign media that fall under the new restrictions could have to regularly disclose to Russian authorities full details of their funding, finances and staffing and might be obliged to say on their social media profiles and internet sites visible in Russia that they are  foreign agents . The Duma earlier this year launched an investigation into  whether CNN, Voice of America, Radio Liberty and  other American media  were complying with Russian law. U.S. government-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said last month Moscow had threatened to brand their Russian language service projects  foreign agents  in retaliation for U.S. pressure on RT. On Friday, Joanna Levison, RFE s director of media and public affairs, declined to speculate about how the latest move might affect the broadcaster, but said RFE had  every intention  of continuing its journalistic work in Russia.  ... While RT is able to work and distribute its content freely in the U.S., RFE/RL has lost all of its broadcast affiliates in Russia due to administrative pressure, it has no access to cable TV, and its reporters are beaten and harassed,  Levison said in an emailed comment. Russia said last month it had dropped accusations against CNN International of violating Russian media law and that the U.S. channel could continue broadcasting in Russia. San Francisco-based social network Twitter has also angered Russian authorities when it accused RT and the Sputnik news outlet of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election and banned them from buying ads on its network.

Summary: रूस अमेरिकी मीडिया को 'विदेशी एजेंट' के रूप में वर्गीकृत करने के लिए कानून में संशोधन करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional committee on Monday asked for input from Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), Facebook Inc (FB.O), Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and other major companies on a proposed rewrite of rules governing consumer internet access, according to an email reviewed by Reuters. Last week, the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee’s chairman asked the chief executives of those three companies, as well as AT&T Inc (T.N), Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) and Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) to testify at a Sept. 7 hearing on the future of net neutrality rules. None of the companies have agreed yet to testify. On Monday, a lawyer for the committee, Robin Colwell, asked the companies to weigh in on what net neutrality legislation could look like.  “So all we are looking for at this stage is a list of asks. From your perspective, what needs to stay, what needs to be added, and what needs to go?” she wrote in an email. Representative Greg Walden, the Republican who chairs the committee, said last week that “the time has come to get everyone to the table and get this figured out.” Walden, Colwell added “continues to be interested in moving forward on a bipartisan legislative solution to the longstanding issue of net neutrality. Since we all basically agree on the fundamental principles and the need to provide certainty for all participants in the internet economy, he believes we are close to reaching an agreement.” The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is considering tossing out 2015 Obama administration net neutrality rules that reclassified internet service as a public utility. The rules bar providers from blocking, slowing or offering paid prioritization of websites. Many internet providers want Congress to step in and write permanent rules. A group representing major technology companies earlier this month urged the FCC to abandon plans to rescind the rules barring internet service providers from hindering consumer access to Web content or offering paid “fast lanes.” Major internet services have urged the FCC to reverse the rules, even as they vowed not to hinder internet access. In May, the FCC voted 2-1 to advance Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to withdraw the Obama administration’s order reclassifying internet service providers as utilities. More than 14 million public comments have been filed. The Internet Association, a group representing companies including Facebook, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), said last week it was “open to alternative legal bases for the rules, either via legislative action codifying the existing net neutrality rules or via sound legal theories.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन अमेरिकी नेट तटस्थता कानून पर तकनीकी इनपुट चाहते हैं


(Reuters) - A stock-trading algorithm built for Reuters highlights the correlations among gun purchases, mass shootings and the politics of gun regulation. With the benefit of hindsight, the Boston-based hedge fund Quantopian examined how a theoretical investor would have fared by investing equal amounts in Smith & Wesson Holding Corp SWHC.O and Sturm Ruger & Co (RGR.N) after 20 events that impacted the companies’ sales or stock prices. The events, chosen by Reuters, included 12 mass shootings, starting with the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting; six events involving President Barack Obama, including two elections and various calls for gun regulation; and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions favorable to gun companies.     Hedge funds and other sophisticated investors use computer-driven algorithms to place trades based on a defined set of instructions.  In the theoretical exercise for Reuters, the Quantopian algorithm showed that buying the two gun stocks the first trading day after the events and selling them 90 days later would have produced a return of 365 percent over a nine-year period – compared to 66 percent for the S&P 500 Index. A buy-and-hold bet on Smith & Wesson stock starting in January 2007 would have produced a return of 137 percent. For a graphic showing how the algorithm performed, see tmsnrt.rs/1OSHshu

Summary: व्यापार एल्गोरिदम से पता चलता है कि कैसे सामूहिक गोलीबारी, राजनीति बंदूक के शेयरों को बढ़ावा देती है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two Russian servicemen have been killed in Deir al-Zor province after Islamic State militants shelled a convoy they were escorting, the Russian Defence Ministry was cited as saying on Monday by the Interfax news agency. The convoy was transporting Russian ceasefire monitoring military staff when it came under mortar attack, the ministry was quoted as saying.  One soldier was killed on the spot and the other died in hospital after sustaining serious injuries. Both were awarded posthumous military awards, the ministry said.       Russia said earlier on Monday that its air force was helping the Syrian army push ahead with an offensive on the Euphrates city of Deir al-Zor, where Islamic State has besieged 93,000 civilians and an army garrison for years.

Summary: सीरिया के देइर अल-ज़ोर प्रांत में गोलाबारी में दो रूसी सैनिकों की मौत


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Digital privacy advocates who hope to force the repeal of a law giving Dutch intelligence agencies new surveillance powers said on Monday they have gathered enough signatures to demand a referendum. A range of activists, politicians and media groups oppose the law, which passed by a healthy margin in July and gives agencies the power to gather data covertly from large groups of people at once. The petition for a referendum must now be submitted to the  Voting Commission to vet whether it has met the 300,000 signature threshold.  If it has, the government is obliged to hold a non-binding referendum on whether the law should be upheld, likely together with municipal elections on March 21.  You cross the line when large groups of innocent civilians can be dragged into the sights of secret services with a trawling net,  said David Korteweg, a lawyer for online rights group Bits of Freedom, in a statement. The government argues that the expanded powers are needed for spy agencies to counter threats to national security and their use can be tested by an oversight panel. The referendum law is itself controversial and may be repealed.  After it was passed in 2015 its first use was to block the Dutch government from ratifying an economic treaty it and other European Union countries had negotiated with Ukraine. A large  no  vote on the referendum embarrassed The Hague and forced Prime Minister Mark Rutte to seek minor amendments to the treaty. It later emerged that the signatures to hold the Ukraine referendum were gathered via the internet and never vetted.

Summary: डच 'टैपिंग' कानून पर जनमत संग्रह की संभावना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Wilbur Ross, a billionaire known for his investments in distressed industries, to head the Commerce Department, a Republican source familiar with the decision told Reuters on Tuesday. An announcement on Ross to lead the department, which pursues anti-dumping cases against cheap foreign imports, could come as early as Wednesday, NBC News said. Ross declined to comment to Reuters on Tuesday. Ross, 78, a staunch supporter of Trump and an economic adviser, has helped shape the Trump campaign’s views on trade policy, blaming the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization for causing massive U.S. factory job losses.   “I think there’s a big difference between the impact of trade agreements on corporate America and the impact on Mr. and Mrs. America,” Ross told CNBC in an interview earlier this year. “Corporate America has adjusted to them by investing lots of capital offshore.”     Ross, whose net worth was pegged by Forbes at about $2.9 billion, heads the private equity firm, W.L. Ross & Co in New York. Ross’ connections to Trump date back to 1990, when as a turnaround expert for Rothschild and Co he worked on behalf of bondholders to help engineer a restructuring of hundreds of millions of dollars in debt owed on Trump’s Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 2002, by then in charge of his own private equity firm, Ross formed International Steel Group to consolidate several bankrupt steelmakers, including Bethlehem Steel, Acme Steel and LTV Steel. He sold the company in a $4.5 billion deal two years later to Mittal Steel. Ross retains a stake in what is now part of the world’s largest steel company, Arcelor Mittal, and sits on its board of directors. His various business interests, which also include automotive components and textiles, could make avoiding conflicts of interest a complicated prospect as the head of an agency with broad influence over trade cases and U.S. industrial policies.  Arcelor Mittal has benefited from several recent anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties imposed by the Commerce Department against a wide range of steel products from China, South Korea, Japan, Britain, Turkey and other countries. Those have helped lift domestic steel prices, boosting the company’s bottom line. Ross may also face questions from lawmakers over the January 2006 Sago coal mine disaster in West Virginia that killed 12 miners in an explosion and collapse. Owned by a subsidiary of one of his companies, International Coal Group, the mine had been cited for more than 200 safety violations  International Coal was sold for $3.4 billion in 2011 to No. 2 U.S. coal miner Arch Coal, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January amid plummeting coal prices.  He could be questioned as well over a $2.3 million fine his firm agreed to pay in August to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle accusations it did not properly disclose some fees that it charged investors.

Summary: ट्रम्प को निवेशक विल्बर रॉस को अमेरिकी वाणिज्य सचिव के रूप में चुनने की उम्मीद है


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The election of Republican businessman Donald Trump as president of the United States has some Californians dreaming - of their own country. One in every three California residents supports the most populous U.S. state’s peaceful withdrawal from the union, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, many of them Democrats strongly opposed to Trump’s ascension to the country’s highest office.  The 32 percent support rate is sharply higher than the last time the poll asked Californians about secession, in 2014, when one-in-five or 20 percent favored it around the time Scotland held its independence referendum and voted to remain in the United Kingdom.  California also far surpasses the national average favoring secession, which stood at 22 percent, down from 24 percent in 2014.  The poll surveyed 500 Californians among more than 14,000 adults nationwide from Dec. 6 to Jan. 19 and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of one percentage point nationally and five percentage points in California. The idea of secession is largely a settled matter in the United States, though the impulse to break away carries on in some corners of the country, most notably in Texas. While interest has remained about the same nationwide, it has found more favor in California and the concept has even earned a catchy name - “Calexit.” “I don’t think it’s likely to happen, but if things get really bad it could be an option,” said Stephen Miller, 70, a retired transportation planner who lives in Sacramento and told pollsters he “tended to support” secession. During the campaign, Trump alienated many in the Democratic-leaning state with his promises to crack down on illegal immigration, threats of creating a Muslim registry, remarks women found offensive and vows to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. “There’s such hostility towards Trump that many citizens believe it would be smarter to leave than fight,” said Democratic political consultant Steve Maviglio, who last year ran the campaign against a proposed ballot initiative to break California into six states. ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTS With 39 million residents and the sixth-largest economy in the world, California is already a nation-state, Maviglio said. In November’s election, the state broke nearly two-to-one in favor of Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. In practice, secession is highly unlikely, facing political, legal and possibly even military obstacles, considering that the United States fought the Civil War over the secession of the South, Maviglio and others said.    Trump’s election gave a huge boost to the quixotic campaign to remove California from the United States called Yes California, run by a former conservative turned progressive who now lives in Russia. Dubbed “Calexit” by pundits comparing the effort to “Brexit” - Britain’s vote to withdraw from the European Union - Yes California’s email list jumped from fewer than 2,500 before the election to 115,069 currently, the group’s president, Louis Marinelli, said in a telephone interview. Marinelli, who moved to Yekaterinburg, about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) east of Moscow, in September and has lived in Russia on and off for several years, said he became disenchanted with the United States after difficulties arose with the immigration process for his Russian-born wife. On Friday, activists from the group waved signs saying “California out of the United States” and “U.S. out of California” at anti-Trump protests in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Marinelli said. They have requested approval from the state to begin collecting signatures for a pro-secession ballot initiative. In Lodi, California, Democratic party activist Bruce Rubly, who told Reuters/Ipsos pollsters that he “strongly supported” California secession, said he thinks it could happen if Trump and the Republicans who dominate the U.S. Congress impose conservative policies on such issues as the environment, immigration and marijuana legalization. “There’s a whole series of things that are going to get Californians riled up,” said Rubly, 68. “And if he pushes those buttons in the wrong way, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के और भी लोग ट्रम्प के बिना देश का सपना देख रहे हैंः सर्वेक्षण


BEIRUT (Reuters) - When Iran declared victory over Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, it hailed the  strong and pivotal  role played by Lebanon s Hezbollah movement. The praise, contained in a top general s letter to Iran s Supreme Leader in November, confirmed Hezbollan s pre-eminence among Shi ite Muslim regional groups backed by Tehran that are helping the Islamic Republic exert influence in the Middle East. Hezbollah has emerged as a big winner in the turmoil that has swept the Arab world since the uprisings of 2011 that toppled governments in several countries. It has fought in Syria and Iraq, trained other groups in those countries and inspired other forces such as Iran-allied Houthis waging a war in Yemen. But its growing strength has contributed to a sharp rise in regional tension, alarming Israel, the United States - which designates it as a terrorist organization - and Sunni Muslim monarchy Saudi Arabia, Iran s regional rival, which accuses Hezbollah of having a military role on its doorstep in Yemen.   Israel fears Iran and Hezbollah will keep permanent garrisons in Syria and has called for action against  Iranian aggression . With Hezbollah stronger than ever, war with Israel is seen by many in the region as inevitable, sooner or later.   Hezbollah has gained from the experience of working with armies and managing numerous weapons systems simultaneously - air power, armored vehicles, intelligence, and drones: all specialties of conventional armies,  said a commander in a regional alliance fighting in Syria.  Hezbollah is now a dynamic army, bringing together guerrilla and conventional warfare.  Hezbollah s elevated status among Iran s regional allies was  clear at the funeral this month of Hassan Soleimani, father of Major General Qassem Soleimani who wrote the letter praising Hezbollah s role fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.   Hezbollah s delegation, led by Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, a top figure in its clerical leadership, took responsibility for organizing talks on the sidelines of the funeral between the various Iranian allies present, an official who attended said.  All the resistance factions were at the condolences. Hezbollah coordinated and directed meetings and discussions,  the official said.  Hezbollah was set up by the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to fight Israeli forces that invaded Lebanon in 1982 and to export Iran s Shi ite Islamist revolution. It has come a long way from the Bekaa Valley camps where its fighters first trained. Its fighters spearheaded the November attack on Albu Kamal, a town near Syria s border with Iraq, which ended IS resistance in its last urban stronghold in the country. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said the battle for Albu Kamal was led by Qassem Soleimani, commander of the branch of the IRGC responsible for operations outside.  An Iran-backed Iraqi Shi ite militia, the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), crossed into Syria to help during the battle. Hezbollah helped to set up the Iraqi PMF at the peak of Islamic State s expansion in 2014. The attack was of huge symbolic and strategic significance for Iran and its regional allies, recreating a land route linking Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut - often termed the  Shi ite crescent  by Iran s regional enemies. The United States says Iran is  applying what you might call a Hezbollah model to the Middle East - in which they want governments to be weak, they want governments to be dependent on Iran for support,  White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said in late October.     So, what is most important, not just for the United States but for all nations, is to confront the scourge of Hezbollah and to confront the scourge of the Iranians and the IRGC who sustain Hezbollah s operations,  he told Alhurra, a U.S.-funded Arabic-language news network. Syria is where Hezbollah has made its biggest impact outside Lebanon though its role was kept secret when its fighters first deployed there Syria in mid-2012. The initial aim was to defend the shrine of Sayeda Zeinab, a  Shi ite pilgrimage site near Damascus. But as President Bashar al-Assad lost ground, Hezbollah sent more fighters to aid Syrian security forces ill suited to the conflict they faced. Hezbollah s role was crucial in defeating many of the rebels who fought Assad with backing from his regional foes, helping him win back the cities of Aleppo and Homs, and other territory. Its publicly declared role in support of Assad has been accompanied by an effort to establish new Syrian militias that have fought alongside it, said the commander in the regional alliance fighting in Syria. Hezbollah has lost more than 1,500 fighters in Syria, including top commanders. But it has gained military experience, supplementing its know-how in guerrilla tactics with knowledge of conventional warfare thanks to coordination with the Syrian and Russian armies and the IRGC, the commander said. With Iranian support, Hezbollah has raised and trained new Syrian militias including the National Defence Forces, which number in the tens of thousands, and a Shi ite militia known as the Rida force, recruited from Shi ite villages, the commander said. Hezbollah has also taken the lead in the information war with a military news service that often reports on battles before Syrian state media. The United States and Saudi Arabia are worried Hezbollah and Iran are seeking to replicate their strategy in Yemen, by supporting the Houthis against a Riyadh-led military coalition.  Hezbollah denies fighting in Yemen, sending weapons to the Houthis, or firing rockets at Saudi Arabia from Yemeni territory. But it does not hide its political support for the Houthi cause. Saudi concern over Yemen is at the heart of a political crisis that rocked Lebanon in November. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri s sudden resignation was widely seen as a Saudi-orchestrated move to create trouble for Hezbollah at home. Shared concerns over Hezbollah may have been a motivating factor behind recently declared contacts between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Hezbollah is meanwhile expanding its conventional arsenal in Lebanon, where it is part of the government, including buying advanced rocket and missile technology, in  a broadening of the threat to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula , Nick Rasmussen, the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said in October. Despite newly imposed U.S. sanctions, Hezbollah sounds confident. With IS now defeated in Iraq, Nasrallah has indicated Hezbollah could withdraw its men from that front, saying they would  return to join any other theater where they are needed . He says his group will continue to operate wherever it sees fit, repeatedly declaring:  We will be where we need to be.

Summary: हिज़्बुल्लाह मध्य पूर्व की उथल-पुथल से एक विजेता के रूप में उभरा, खतरनाक दुश्मन


(Reuters) - Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on Wednesday criticized the state legislature for overriding his veto of a bill that hikes income tax rates to plug budget holes, saying it will hurt the state’s efforts to spur economic growth. “I think we’ve taken a big step backwards,” the Republican governor told reporters. Brownback quickly vetoed the bill passed by the legislature on Monday, saying the $1.2 billion it would raise over the next two fiscal years marked the biggest tax increase in Kansas history. Both chambers of the Republican-controlled legislature overrode Brownback’s veto late on Tuesday. The measure essentially rolls back income tax rate cuts the state enacted in 2012 that led to budget shortfalls. The higher rates are expected to raise $591 million in fiscal 2018, which begins July 1, and $633 million in fiscal 2019, according to a legislative analysis of the bill. Kansas’ structural budget pressures led S&P Global Ratings to revise the outlook on the state’s AA-minus credit rating to negative from stable earlier this year. David Hitchcock, a S&P analyst, said on Wednesday the credit rating agency would take a look at the tax hike in the context of Kansas’ final budget and its response to a court ruling on school funding. Lawmakers this week also passed a plan to comply with a March 2 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that found the school funding system falls short of a constitutional requirement for adequacy. The ruling set a June 30 deadline for the enactment of a constitutional funding method.

Summary: कान्सास के गवर्नर ने कर बढ़ाने के लिए विधायिका की कार्रवाई की निंदा की


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has called very publicly for Malta to bring to justice the killers of a journalist who accused the Mediterranean island s leaders of profiting from global corruption. But it has for years been much less vocal   and had little success   in ensuring Malta act to prevent money laundering, according to sources familiar with the work of the Maltese authorities and a Reuters review of EU and Maltese data. The data show the smallest EU state has been slow to apply international guidelines on naming firms that do not take action against dubious practices, and the number of convictions and sanctions for money laundering has been low. Malta has also consistently registered fewer reports of  suspect transactions  from banks, casinos and other financial operators than any other EU state, according to the data, despite having a  disproportionately large financial sector.  The European Parliament urged the European Commission, the EU s executive, on Wednesday to investigate Malta s adherence to the rule of law and voiced  serious concerns  about police independence and international money-laundering on the island. [L8N1NL4LI] But criticism of Malta on money laundering   in low-key reports by international supervisory bodies and by anti-corruption campaigner Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed by a car bomb on Oct. 16   appears so far to have had little impact.  Malta has sold its sovereignty to dirty money. The European Commission should take a more active role in investigating the condition of rule of law in Malta,  Sven Giegold, a member of  European Parliament from Germany s Greens party who campaigns against financial crime, told Reuters.  He said an international investigator was needed to counter a  culture of impunity and fiddling between political and economic elites  in Malta. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Reuters last month Malta s  financial services sector was  as transparent, solid and compliant as any other European jurisdiction . European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told lawmakers on Tuesday the EU executive had  no general concerns  about Malta s compliance with anti-money laundering laws though   improvements could be made on various levels.  Despite having a population of only 420,000, Malta, a former British naval stronghold south of Sicily, has a financial sector that dwarfs many EU countries. It is also the European leader in online gaming.  In 2016, assets of banks and financial institutions in Malta were more than 20 times its gross domestic product, about five times the equivalent figure for Germany and nearly four times the euro zone average, European Central Bank figures show. Yet in a report on the EU s anti-money laundering efforts that was released without fanfare in September, Europol said Malta reported fewer suspect transactions than other EU states between 2008, when it adopted the euro, and 2014. Europol also raised concerns that Malta and Cyprus may be failing to report as many cases as they should.  The supervisory authorities  receive very few reports given the size of their banking sectors and the significance of these jurisdictions in offshore financial services,  Europol said. Malta s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), the country s anti-money laundering agency, received 202 reports of suspect transactions in 2014, the last year for which Europol data are available. Lithuania recorded the next fewest   over 50 percent more than Malta in a financial sector one sixth the size. By contrast, the Netherlands, a much bigger economy, reported 277,532 dubious movements in 2014, the highest number in the euro zone. FIAU s deputy director, Alfred Zammit, told Reuters it was impossible to conduct a  meaningful comparison  among EU countries based on available statistics because of different structures and reporting regimes in member states.  It is indeed arguable that given the size of the financial sector in Malta, one would expect to see more suspicious transaction reports submitted to the FIAU,  Zammit said. But he said Malta was tackling the problem by increasing awareness of the obligation to report by organizing training sessions. The annual number of reports in Malta more than doubled  from 2014 to 2017 although the proportion of those that were passed to the police fell to 11 percent last year from 24 percent in 2013, FIAU data show.  The Maltese police and the FIAU did not respond to questions from Reuters on how many of these cases were investigated or led to successful prosecutions. Malta s court handed down four money laundering criminal convictions last year but disclosed none in the financial sector.  The results of a European Parliament inquiry released this month said the number of convictions was  extremely low  and the institutions implementing and enforcing rules on money laundering were  highly politicized . Banks not complying with money-laundering rules have received small fines which in few cases were made public, contrary to guidelines recommending exposure to deter wrongdoing.  Zammit said the public disclosure of a higher number of sanctioned institutions would have been  disproportionate when compared to the nature of the breach .  Moneyval, the anti-money laundering watchdog of the Council of Europe, Europe s leading human rights organization, has also raised concerns. It said in a 2012 report that Malta s reporting of suspicious transactions was low for the size of its market. In a subsequent report in 2015, Moneyval found the country  largely compliant . A Moneyval spokesman told Reuters the latest report was however not based on a full assessment of the Maltese legal framework. The European Parliament urged Maltese authorities on Wednesday to look into allegations of money laundering against Pilatus Bank, which has its headquarters on the island.  Maltese police and Pilatus Bank did not reply to questions from Reuters about allegations against the bank.  For graphic click tmsnrt.rs/2AKVblJ

Summary: माल्टा में हत्या और धनशोधन-यूरोपीय संघ के लिए एक चुनौती


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Rand Paul, a conservative maverick who helped kill the latest Republican effort to overturn Obamacare, took issue with President Donald Trump’s tax plan on Monday, asking in a tweet if it was really Republican. “This is a GOP tax plan? Possibly 30 percent of middle class gets a tax hike? I hope the final details are better than this,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement on Twitter. He cited the results of a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank. Paul’s message could signal difficulties for tax reform in the Senate, where Republicans hold only a 52-48 majority over Democrats and have failed this year to overturn the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. Last week, Republican Senator Bob Corker told reporters he would not vote for tax legislation if it raises the deficit. Trump and top Republicans in Congress say the tax plan they released last week will deliver a big tax cut to middle-class families and to businesses, and simplify the law by doing away with myriad deductions, loopholes and tax breaks.  But the Tax Policy Center found that many upper middle-income professionals and business people would see their tax bills go up from the loss of deductions.  Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have also acknowledged that some people could see a tax hike. Republican Kevin Brady, chairman of the tax-writing House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, pushed back on the center’s analysis and said Paul was basing his opinion on a report the U.S. representative dismissed as incomplete.        “Look, I love Rand Paul. He and I play baseball together as well, and he’s a friend,” Brady said on Monday. “(But) this is not the group you go to ... they have none of the key details that would allow an objective, complete analysis.” Brady, a member of the “Big Six” tax negotiators from Congress and the Trump administration who produced the framework, declined to say whether every American would see a tax cut from the plan. But he added: “I will guarantee we are going to work hard to lower taxes on every American, increase their paychecks and dramatically simplify the code for them.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर ने ट्रम्प की कर योजना की आलोचना की


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A man faced war crimes charges at a Dutch court on Monday accused of the incarceration, torture and murder of opponents of former Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in the 1970s.  As Mengistu s representative in the Ethiopian province of Gojjam, Eshetu Alemu is accused of ordering the killing of 75 young prisoners in 1978 and of being responsible for the incarceration and inhumane treatment of more than 200 people. The 63-year-old was born in Ethiopia and came to the Netherlands as an asylum seeker in 1990. He pleaded not guilty on Monday, stating that the prosecutors are accusing the wrong man. An Ethiopian court sentenced the defendant to death, in absentia, in 2007 for his role in what was called the  red terror , which the communist military junta of Mengistu conducted after the ousting of the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, in 1974, the national prosecutor s office said in a statement. The Ethiopian sentence, however, cannot be carried out in the Netherlands because it does not accept the death penalty, making a new trial the best option to hold him to account, prosecutors said.  The trial, which is based on an investigation by the International Crimes Team of the Dutch national police, is being heard at a Dutch domestic court in The Hague, rather than one of the international tribunals that sit in the city.      The court will this week question the defendant, who has been held in custody in the Netherlands since 2015, and will hear statements from victims - Ethiopians living abroad. It is not yet known when the court will reach a verdict. Mengistu was found guilty in absentia of genocide in the same trial in Ethiopia in 2007 after he and top members of his military government were accused of killing thousands during his 17-year rule.  Mengistu was ousted in 1991 and fled to Zimbabwe, where he still lives.

Summary: डच ने 1970 के दशक के इथियोपियाई युद्ध अपराधों पर मुकदमा शुरू किया


KABUL (Reuters) - As many as 13 people, including both Afghan army soldiers and civilians, were killed and 18 wounded by a car bomb in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, officials said. Omar Zwak, the Helmand governor s spokesman who gave the casualty figures, said the attack occurred in a market in Nawa, a district in the center of the province, which has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks as government forces have battled for control with Taliban insurgents. Afghan forces said they had retaken Nawa district in July but there has been continued fighting in the area since. There was no claim of responsibility and no immediate comment from the Taliban, which has carried out regular suicide attacks in Helmand, where it controls much of the area outside the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. The hospital in Lashkar Gah run by the Italian aid group Emergency said it had received 3 dead and 19 wounded while Bost Hospital, another facility, said it had received 10 wounded. It was unclear whether any of the wounded had died after being taken to the hospitals. The attack comes just days after a suicide bomber in Lashkar Gah killed at least seven people and wounded 40 as the Taliban continued its push to restore strict Islamic rule to Afghanistan and drive out foreign forces backing the government in Kabul. U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents who have gained ground steadily in Afghanistan since a NATO-led coalition ended its main combat mission in 2014.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान में कार बम विस्फोट में दर्जनों लोगों की मौत, कई घायल


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is considering nominating Oklahoma oil and gas mogul Harold Hamm as energy secretary if elected to the White House on Nov. 8, according to four sources close to Trump’s campaign. The chief executive of Continental Resources (CLR.N) would be the first U.S. energy secretary drawn directly from the oil and gas industry since the cabinet position was created in 1977, a move that would jolt environmental advocates but bolster Trump’s pro-drilling energy platform.  Dan Eberhart, an oil investor and Republican financier, said he had been told by officials in Trump’s campaign that Hamm, who has been an informal advisor to Trump on energy policy since at least May, was “the leading contender” for the position.  Eberhart said he had discussed the possible appointment with  top donors at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week, where Trump was formally nominated as the party’s candidate in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Three other sources close to the Trump campaign confirmed Trump was considering Hamm for the post. One of the sources said he first heard that Hamm was a contender from Trump officials on Sunday. None of the sources was aware of who else Trump may be considering for the job. Representatives for Trump and Hamm did not respond to a request for comment.  Addressing the convention on Wednesday night, Hamm called for expanded drilling and said too much environmental regulation    threatened to limit U.S. oil production and increase the country’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil producers. “Every time we can’t drill a well in America, terrorism is being funded,” Hamm told the cheering crowd. “Every onerous regulation puts American lives at risk.”     Hamm, 70, became one of America’s wealthiest men during the U.S. oil and gas drilling boom over the past decade, tapping into new hydraulic fracturing drilling technology to access vast deposits in North Dakota’s shale fields. Past heads of the U.S. Department of Energy, which is charged with advancing U.S. energy security and technology and dealing with nuclear waste disposal, have typically boasted a political or academic background. This is not the first time Hamm has been in contention for the job. The Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2012, Mitt Romney, vetted Hamm to be energy secretary but ultimately decided against him because the two men have differing positions on renewable energy sources like wind.  He made headlines in 2015 after settling a protracted divorce case and agreeing to pay his ex-wife $975 million - reported to be the biggest divorce settlement in history. His fortune is now estimated at nearly $12 billion.   “FRACKER-IN-CHIEF” Trump, who has yet to make any announcements about his prospective cabinet, has already surrounded himself with strong advocates of traditional energy sources like oil, gas, and coal and has promised to gut environmental regulations to boost drilling and mining if elected. He tapped U.S. Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a climate skeptic and drilling advocate, to help draw up his campaign energy platform, and picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence, also a climate skeptic, as his running mate.  Both moves cheered the energy industry but alarmed environmental activists who say a Trump presidency would set back years of progress on issues like pollution and climate change.  “Given that Hamm’s as close as we’ve got to a fracker-in-chief in this country, it would be an apropos pick for a president who thinks global warming is a hoax manufactured by the Chinese,” said leading environmental activist Bill McKibben.  Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has promised to bolster regulation and increase use of renewable fuels to combat climate change if elected.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रम्प ऊर्जा सचिव के रूप में फ्रैकिंग मुगल हैरोल्ड हैम पर विचार कर रहे हैं-सूत्र


OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - Protests against Donald Trump broke out in California’s Bay Area late on Tuesday after the Republican candidate won the U.S. presidential election, a Reuters witness and local media reported. Demonstrators set fire to a likeness of Trump, smashed store front windows and set garbage and tires on fire in downtown Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco. A few miles away, University of California, Berkeley students protested on campus.  A demonstration also unfolded at the University of California, Davis where students blocked streets as they marched and chanted anti-Trump slogans and “You are not America, we are America,” according to Twitter posts.         One protester in Oakland was struck by a vehicle after blocking a highway, local media reported.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया में ट्रम्प विरोधी प्रदर्शनकारियों ने आग लगा दी, खिड़कियां तोड़ दीं


MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) - A summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto next week is still on “for now”, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday, despite pressure at home to scrap it over objections to a border wall. Earlier in the day Trump signed new executive orders, including one authorizing a wall on the U.S. southern border, just as a Mexican delegation led by Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray arrived at the White House for talks.  The timing caused outrage in Mexico, with prominent politicians and many on social media seeing at as a deliberate snub to the government’s efforts to engage with Trump, who has for months used Mexico as a political punching bag. “The meeting between the two presidents in Washington next Tuesday is still confirmed,” Videgaray said. “The meeting, for now, is going forward,” he said.  President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a recorded message that he “disapproves” of Trump’s order on the border wall and in response ordered Mexico’s fifty U.S. consuls to extend legal help to citizens living in the United States. “Wherever there is a Mexican migrant who needs our help, we should be there,” he said. One source with knowledge of the government’s thinking said the measure was intended to clog U.S. immigration courts with legal objections to deportations. The courts already face a backlog of half a million cases. Videgaray said some “positive elements” resulted from the talks, including a blunt acknowledgment by Trump of the U.S. role in supplying illegal arms to Mexico. He also referred to Trump’s public comments that he wanted to see a strong Mexican economy. Videgaray said it had been “a day of contrasts,” adding that his delegation’s talks with senior White House aides lasted eight hours. Speaking as Trump gave orders to start work on the wall along the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border with Mexico, two-time presidential runner-up and leftist opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the announcement was an insult to his country and called for international legal action. “I respectfully suggest that the government of Mexico presents a lawsuit at the United Nations against the U.S. government for violation of human rights and racial discrimination,” Lopez Obrador told a crowd of supporters north of Mexico City. A former mayor of the capital, Lopez Obrador has led several early opinion polls ahead of the July 2018 election, and last week he announced plans for a tour of major U.S. cities in February to drum up support among Mexican-Americans. Trump’s broadsides against Mexico have put Pena Nieto under rising domestic pressure. His approval ratings are at the lowest level of any Mexican president in years. The American’s threats to tear up a joint trade deal and impose hefty border taxes on Mexican goods have also battered the peso. But his comments on Wednesday that he wanted to see a strong Mexican economy lifted the currency to a three-week high.

Summary: मेक्सिको के पेना नीटो के साथ ट्रम्प शिखर सम्मेलन अभी भी जारी है, 'अभी के लिए'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration aims to be forthright with Congressional investigations into Russian involvement with the 2016 U.S. election, a White House spokesman said on Thursday. Spokesman Sean Spicer also declined comment on a New York Times report that said two White House officials helped provide intelligence reports to House of Representatives intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican who was on President Donald Trump’s transition team.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का लक्ष्य रूस पर कांग्रेस की जांच में स्पष्ट होना हैः प्रवक्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump announced on Monday he has signed an executive order creating a new technology council to “transfer and modernize” the U.S. government’s information technology systems. A White House official confirmed Monday that about 20 technology chief executives will attend meetings at the White House in early June to talk about improving government information technology. “Americans deserve better digital services from their Government. To effectuate this policy, the federal government must transform and modernize its information technology and how it uses and delivers digital services,” Trump’s executive order dated April 28 said. Trump has held a number of meetings with top tech chief executives since becoming president, including Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc, IBM Corp, Microsoft Inc, and Tesla Inc. In March, Trump signed a separate order to overhaul the federal government. Trump tapped Jared Kushner in March to lead a White House Office of American Innovation to leverage business ideas and potentially privatize some government functions as the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations. Officially called the American Technology Council, Chris Liddell will be its director. He is the White House director of strategic initiatives, and former Microsoft and General Motors co chief financial officer. A 2016 U.S. Government Accountability Office report publicly estimated the U.S. government spends more than $80 billion in IT annually, but said spending has fallen by $7.3 billion since 2010. In 2015, there were at least 7,000 separate IT investments by the U.S. government, the report said. The $80 billion figure does not include Defense Department classified IT systems; and 58 independent executive branch agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the report said.  The GAO report said U.S. government IT investments “are becoming increasingly obsolete: many use outdated software languages and hardware parts that are unsupported.” The report found some agencies are using systems that have components that are at least 50 years old. “The Department of Defense uses 8-inch floppy disks in a legacy system that coordinates the operational functions of the nation’s nuclear forces,” the report said. The report said the Defense Department plans to update the system by the end of September. The Treasury Department’s business master file of tax data pertaining to individual business income taxpayers dates back to the 1950s and using an antiquated computer language “and operates on an IBM mainframe.” The council is chaired by Trump and includes the defense secretary, homeland security secretary, budget director and director of national intelligence.

Summary: अमेरिकी सरकार की सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी के आधुनिकीकरण के लिए ट्रम्प ने कार्यकारी आदेश पर हस्ताक्षर किए


RIYADH/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world s biggest oil exporters, are expected to discuss cooperation on oil production and differences over Syria and Iran on Thursday during the first visit to Moscow by a reigning Saudi Monarch. A slew of investment deals, including on a liquefied natural gas project and petrochemical plants, could also be signed during King Salman s trip and plans for a $1-billion fund to invest in energy projects are likely to be finalised. The visit, including talks in the Kremlin with President Vladimir Putin, reflects a rapid deepening of ties between Russia and Saudi Arabia, driven by a mutual need to stem a drop in global oil prices. The two countries helped secure a deal between OPEC and other producers to cut output until the end of March 2018, but back competing sides in Syria s civil war. Riyadh supports rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad s forces while Russian troops and Iranian militias have sided with Assad. This leaves Moscow aligned with Saudi Arabia s arch-rival Iran, whose influence Riyadh fears is growing in the region.  The Saudis want help on Iran, and Russia wants trade and investment,  said Mark N. Katz, an expert on Russia-Middle East relations at George Mason University.  In the Saudi mind, they re definitely linked and the Russians are going to try to separate these.   Billboards have been erected on the road from the airport to central Moscow welcoming King Salman in Arabic and Russian. His son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, visited in May just before his elevation to crown prince, and in 2015 the countries  sovereign wealth funds agreed to $10 billion in investments. A business forum will include speeches by top ministers and the heads of state-owned energy giants Saudi Aramco and Gazprom as well as a presentation of Saudi s Vision 2030 reform program, which aims to end the kingdom s dependence on oil. Moscow sees the trip as a payoff for its two-year-old intervention in Syria and recognition of its growing Middle East clout.   Even 12 months ago, Riyadh was highly critical of Russia s involvement in Syria and the relationship looked as frozen as ever,  said Chris Weafer, senior partner at economic and political consultancy Macro-Advisory Ltd.  Today that has changed 180 degrees. Both countries now see political and economic advantages from a closer, albeit pragmatic, relationship. This visit is intended to make sure it stays on track.   Discussion of Syria is likely to focus on what the country will look like once Islamic State is defeated, Assad s future, what peace talks between Saudi-backed opposition activists and Damascus can achieve and the creation of new de-escalation zones. The king may also seek assurances that Iran will not have a permanent role in Syria. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow hoped the king s trip would breathe life into a relationship with huge potential and was interested in maintaining dialogue with Riyadh  about the Middle East and Syria in particular.  Any discussion of the oil market and the efficacy of moves to prop up prices by cutting supply will be closely watched. The oil price fall in the last three years has overstretched both producers  budgets, making an extension of joint cuts beyond March 2018 more likely.  Moscow said last month it had discussed with Riyadh extending the deal but no specific decisions had been made ahead of a Nov. 30 producers  meeting in Vienna. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview broadcast on Monday that the planned $1-billion fund to invest in energy projects was part of efforts to strengthen cooperation in oil, gas, electricity, renewable energy and other projects. Russian firms are also discussing deals with Saudi Aramco, such as providing drilling services in Saudi Arabia, and Russian oil giant Rosneft s interest in crude trading, he added. Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said on Tuesday investors were interested in a nuclear energy plant Saudi Arabia wants to build and Saudis would be offered investment opportunities including in shipping company Sovcomflot. A Russian energy source said a memorandum of understanding  (MoU) was expected to be signed between Novatek and Saudi Arabia on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, known as Arctic LNG-2, that aims to start up in the 2020s.  He said details were still being discussed. Russia would like Saudi Arabia to become a shareholder in the project but the source said there were also other roles the kingdom could take. Saudi Aramco and Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) is expected to sign an MoU with Russia s biggest petrochemical firm Sibur to examine opportunities for building petrochemical plants in the two countries.

Summary: सऊदी राजा तेल, निवेश और सीरिया के एजेंडे के साथ रूस के लिए रवाना


VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria s anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) expelled one of its officials in Tyrol province over reports that he had displayed Nazi paraphernalia in the back of his pharmacy, a party spokesman said on Wednesday. The FPO, which is fighting with the Social Democrats for the second place in parliamentary elections on Oct. 15, has on previous occasions expelled provincial officials for owning Nazi-related objects, which is illegal in Austria. In Germany s election on Sunday, the FPO s sister party AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote, becoming the third-largest group in parliament and the first from the far right to win seats in the Bundestag since the 1950s. Austria s FPO is poised to become kingmaker as a junior coalition party, with conservative front-runner Sebastian Kurz expected to gain around a third of the vote with his tough rhetoric on fighting immigration and Islamic  parallel societies . Martin Hochstoeger stepped back from his post as a member of the FPO Tyrol party executive after pictures were spread in Austrian media of a marble slate engraved with a quote by Adolf Hitler, a swastika and a tally of a local vote in 1938 favoring Austria s annexation by Nazi Germany.  Based on current media reports ... I had to expel Dr Martin Hochstoeger last night after internal deliberations,  said the head of the FPO in Tyrol, Markus Abwerzger, citing potential danger for the party s ethos.     A spokesman for prosecutors in Tyrol s main city, Innsbruck, said they were looking into the case. Public broadcaster ORF said on its website Hochstoeger had declined to comment. Austria long presented itself as the first victim of the Nazis, a narrative initially supported by the Allies, even though large parts of Austrian society celebrated the 1938 annexation and many took on roles in the Nazi war effort and the Holocaust.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रिया की फ्रीडम पार्टी ने नाज़ी आरोपों पर अधिकारी को निष्कासित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday ended a fraught month-long search for an FBI chief after firing James Comey by selecting Christopher Wray, who has prosecuted and defended white-collar crime cases and represented New Jersey’s governor in a political scandal. Wray, who must be confirmed to the post by the Senate, and Comey served together in the Justice Department under former President George Bush, and both worked on the government’s case in the Enron Corp fraud scandal in the early to mid-2000s. Trump’s announcement that he will nominate Wray as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation came a day before Comey’s eagerly anticipated public testimony before a Senate committee. In written testimony released by the panel on Wednesday, Comey said Trump told him on Jan. 27 that “I expect loyalty,” and in a Feb. 14 meeting asked him to back off from a probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s ties with Russia. The Republican president’s search for a replacement for Comey after firing him May 9 was difficult. Leading candidates including former Senator Joe Lieberman took their names out of consideration, and Trump interviewed a series of contenders. In a statement, Trump called Wray “an impeccably qualified individual” who will serve “as a fierce guardian of the law and model of integrity.” The White House has given shifting explanations on why Trump fired Comey during an FBI investigation into whether Trump campaign associates colluded with the Russians to help him with the 2016 presidential election. Trump has said he was thinking of “this Russia thing” in dismissing Comey. Wray served from 2003 to 2005 at the Justice Department under Republican former President George W. Bush as an assistant attorney general in charge of its criminal division and oversaw the department’s Enron task force. Wray and Comey helped bring the case against Kenneth Lay, the former Enron chairman convicted in 2006. Also involved in the Enron matter was Robert Mueller, then FBI director and now special counsel named after Comey was fired to investigate the Russia affair, as well as Andrew Weissman, who is now working for Mueller. The web of Enron connections underscores the reliance in Washington, even under a president who vowed to “drain the swamp,” on an elite corps of corporate lawyers whose varied careers often intersect and who sometimes present conflict-of-interest issues. For instance, after he left the Justice Department and joined top international law firm King & Spalding, Wray represented Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the so-called Bridgegate scandal over massive traffic jams created as political punishment for a local mayor. That case and others taken on by Wray while in private practice could pose problems, said American Civil Liberties Union National Political Director Faiz Shakir in a statement. “Christopher Wray’s firm’s legal work for the Trump family, his history of partisan activity, as well as his history of defending Trump’s transition director during a criminal scandal makes us question his ability to lead the FBI,” Shakir said. Wray represented Christie in a scandal that resulted in two of the governor’s aides being convicted. Christie, who was a close adviser to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign and whose name was floated as a possible Comey replacement, was never charged. Christie on Wednesday called Wray “an outstanding choice, a non-political choice” to head the FBI. Wray works as a King & Spalding litigation partner and represents companies and individuals in a white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters. King & Spalding has represented Russian companies including state gas monopoly Gazprom, according to its website. According to the website, the firm’s energy practice also has represented businesses taking part in deals involving Russian entities including state-owned oil major Rosneft. The firm has previous ties to Trump. Bobby Burchfield, a partner in its Washington office, serves as ethics adviser for the trust set up in January to isolate Trump from the day-to-day operations of the Trump business organization. The agreement has been criticized by some ethics experts as inadequate. Apart from possible conflicts, another question about Wray is whether the longtime white-collar lawyer is equipped to take over an agency that is increasingly focused on detecting and combating terrorism, espionage and cybercrime. “There are questions about whether he is experienced enough in intelligence, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, computer crimes, and issues like that,” said one senior U.S. law enforcement official who asked not to be identified. “The biggest test the bureau is likely to face is not another Enron,” the official said. Trump announced his selection of Wray in a surprise, early-morning Twitter message. Some Democratic lawmakers said the president’s timing seemed intended to distract from Comey’s scheduled testimony. “It is imperative that the next FBI director be of unimpeachable integrity and independence,” Nancy Pelosi, the top House of Representatives Democrat, said. “In light of the president’s constant efforts to block the truth, the nomination of Christopher Wray should be subject to the utmost scrutiny.” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wray’s “impressive credentials make him more than ready” to lead the FBI. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said he did not know Wray but that his resume suggests he is “the perfect kind of person” for the job.

Summary: ट्रंप ने एफ. बी. आई. में कोमी की जगह सफेदपोश अपराध वकील को चुना


MIAMI (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Friday that if elected he would seek to reverse President Barack Obama’s moves to open relations with Cuba unless the leaders there allowed religious freedoms and freed political prisoners.  “The next president can reverse them, and that I will do unless the Castro regime meets our demands,” Trump said at a rally in Miami, which has a large Cuban population.

Summary: जब तक धार्मिक स्वतंत्रता की अनुमति नहीं दी जाती, तब तक ट्रम्प ओबामा के क्यूबा के कदमों को रद्द कर देंगे।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said on Friday the state would hold a special election on Nov. 6, 2018, to replace Representative John Conyers, the Democrat who resigned this week amid accusations of sexual misconduct. “Having ample time for candidates to make a decision about running for office and file their paperwork gives people more options,” Snyder said in a statement.

Summary: कोनयर्स की जगह लेने के लिए नवंबर 2018 में होगा विशेष चुनावः राज्यपाल


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military said it was reinforcing troops deployed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday as Palestinians protested against the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Several new army battalions would be deployed and other forces put on standby, a military statement said, calling the measures  part of the IDF s (Israel Defence Forces) readiness for possible developments .

Summary: जेरूसलम पर अमेरिकी कदम के बाद इजरायली सैनिकों ने वेस्ट बैंक को मजबूत किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick, said on Wednesday she is not interested in the post but will support the party’s eventual nominee. “While I am flattered to be mentioned and proud of what that says about the great things going on in South Carolina, my plate is full and I am not interested in serving as vice president,” Haley, a popular Indian-American governor, said in a statement.

Summary: दक्षिण कैरोलिना की गवर्नर हेली ने कहा कि उन्हें उपराष्ट्रपति बनने में कोई दिलचस्पी नहीं है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he thought Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was “excellent” but declined to say who was his pick to lead the U.S. central bank ahead of a planned announcement on Thursday afternoon. “I think Janet Yellen is excellent,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with cabinet officials. Asked if Yellen was his choice to keep leading the Fed, Trump said: “I didn’t say that. I think she’s excellent.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कहा कि वर्तमान फेड अध्यक्ष येलेन 'उत्कृष्ट' हैं


(Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was leading an investigation into possible Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, will not impact relations between the two nations. “There will be no effect,” Putin told CBS News in a brief interview in the Russian city of Sochi. “Your question looks very funny for me. Don’t be angry with me. We have nothing to do with that.”

Summary: पुतिन का कहना है कि कोमी की बर्खास्तगी से संबंधों पर कोई असर नहीं पड़ेगाः सीबीएस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s top internal watchdog told Reuters on Tuesday he will retire, after he complained about a delay in the release of a report critical of the department’s handling of President Donald Trump’s travel ban. Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth, nominated by former Democratic President Barack Obama in late 2013, said in an interview on Tuesday that his last day will be Thursday. He announced his plans to his staff early last week. Roth said his decision to step down was unrelated to concerns he raised in a seven-page, Nov. 20 letter to members of Congress that revealed for the first time the findings from his office’s inquiry into how U.S. Customs and Border Protection implemented Trump’s initial travel ban in January. In the letter, Roth said he was “troubled” that senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leaders had taken more than six weeks to decide which parts of the report should be made public, and had given it to the Justice Department to decide whether to redact some sections on internal deliberations. The 87-page report has yet to be released. In a statement, a DHS spokesman said its employees “conducted themselves professionally, and in a legal manner” in implementing the travel ban. Roth said that after he leaves, the inspector general office’s deputy, John V. Kelly, will take over temporarily until the president nominates a permanent replacement.  “It was a good run,” Roth said, noting that he has worked in the government since the Reagan era. “It is now time to do other things. This has been coming for awhile.” Trump’s travel ban of January 2017, restricting U.S. entry by people from certain Muslim majority countries, has been the target of multiple legal challenges. Its initial implementation led to chaos at airports across the United States. The January ban was blocked by federal courts. Trump later issued two revised versions in March and September. The U.S. Supreme Court is now weighing whether to let the latest version go into full effect after it was partially blocked by lower courts. In his letter to Congress, Roth said his office did not substantiate any claims of misconduct by customs agents, but that there was little warning before the ban took effect and the department violated court orders in two different instances. Roth told Reuters he had not heard any updates since he wrote to Congress. “I still remain very concerned,” he said, adding other inspectors general have told him they too were “surprised” by DHS’ handling of the matter. Presidentially appointed inspectors general serve at the pleasure of the president, although they typically do not step down with a change in administration. Roth has worked in government since 1987, including as a prosecutor in the Justice Department and more recently as head of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.

Summary: अमेरिकी यात्रा प्रतिबंध रिपोर्ट पर तनाव के बाद वॉचडॉग डीएचएस से रवाना होगा


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s foreign minister Luis Videgaray will travel to Washington on Tuesday to meet with senior U.S. officials and to attend a meeting at the Organisation of American States (OAS), his ministry said in a statement. The meetings with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly are aimed at furthering the bilateral and regional agenda between Mexico and the United States, the Mexican foreign ministry said.  In recent weeks, Mexico has taken an assertive role in the OAS in relation to the political and economic crisis in Venezuela.

Summary: मेक्सिको के विदेश मंत्री वाशिंगटन में टिलरसन और केली से मिलेंगे


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on May 9 renewed attention to allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election campaign to benefit Trump. The following describes what is publicly known and not known about U.S. investigations into meddling and possible collusion between Russia and members of the Trump campaign: How did the investigations begin? Former President Barack Obama ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to assess whether Russia tried to intervene in the  election after a cyber attack on the Democratic National Committee in July 2016 and the publication of thousands of hacked personal emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in the month before the Nov. 8 election. Obama told intelligence officials to deliver a report on possible foreign interference before he left the White House in January 2017. What did the intelligence agencies find?  The Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency concluded in a report declassified in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign not just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system but to affect the outcome. The agencies said Putin and the Russian government had a “clear preference” for Trump to win the White House. Putin’s  associates hacked information, paid social media “trolls” and backed efforts by Russian government agencies and state-funded media to sway public opinion, the agencies said.  The report stopped short of assessing whether Russia succeeded in swaying the election result. Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly denied interfering in the U.S. election. What has Trump said about Russia’s role in the election? Trump has not taken a clear public position.  “I will tell you this, Russia: if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a July 2016 news conference, in reference to an FBI probe into Clinton’s use of a private email system when she was secretary of state and emails that had possibly been deleted. Trump subsequently dismissed reports, including from U.S. intelligence officials, that Russia had attempted to intervene in the election on his behalf.    The first time Trump said he accepted the findings of the intelligence agencies was at a Jan. 11 news conference ahead of his inauguration. “As far as hacking, I think it was Russia,” Trump said, although he added: “It could have been others also.” Earlier this month, Trump said China may have hacked the emails of Democratic officials to meddle with the election, offering no evidence and countering the view of intelligence officials. How many U.S. probes are there into Russia’s election meddling?  The Justice Department announced on May 17 that it has appointed Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, as special counsel to lead an independent Russia probe. Mueller would, if the evidence merits, work in tandem with the FBI, which is investigating, to handle any related criminal prosecutions.   Committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate are also investigating and those probes will continue. Comey has been invited to testify about the agency’s Russia investigation and his dismissal.  Has there been any fallout for Trump associates over contacts  with Russia before, during or after the election campaign? Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, was fired  in February. The White House said he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the contacts he had with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, before Trump took office. On May 9, federal prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas seeking business records from people who worked with Flynn when he was a private citizen. On May 10, the Senate Intelligence Committee issued the  first subpoena in its Russia investigation, demanding documents from Flynn after he declined to voluntarily comply with an earlier request. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from involvement in Russia-related probes at the Justice Department because he had not told Congress of his own contacts with Kislyak in 2016. Rod Rosenstein, the deputy U.S. attorney general, is handling matters related to Russia; he appointed Mueller as special counsel. Will the FBI probe continue after Comey’s dismissal? Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was investigating Moscow’s role in the election, including possible collusion with Trump’s campaign. It was the first time he publicly acknowledged the agency was investigating the matter. Comey’s departure does not necessarily mean the FBI’s Russia investigation will be disrupted or ended as the career FBI officials Comey put in charge of it will likely continue working on the matter even as the search for a new director begins. FBI acting Director Andrew McCabe, who will lead the agency until a new director is named, promised the Senate Intelligence Committee that Comey’s firing will not affect the investigation and that he will notify the committee of any attempt to delay or derail it. Why was Comey fired? Attorney General Sessions sent Trump a May 9 letter attaching a memo from Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, on “Restoring Confidence in the FBI” that recommended Comey’s dismissal. Rosenstein’s memo said Comey erred in July 2016 by announcing the FBI had been examining Clinton’s use of a private email server and that the case should be closed without prosecution. Rosenstein’s view was that Comey’s decision to make a public statement on the matter broke with longstanding FBI precedent and should have been handled by the then-U.S. attorney general, Loretta Lynch. Trump called Comey a “showboat” and “grandstander” in an interview with NBC News on May 11, saying that he would have fired Comey regardless of Rosenstein’s recommendation.  Did Comey’s firing have anything to do with the Russia probe? The White House says Comey was dismissed because of his handling of the Clinton email investigation.  The New York Times was the first to report, on May 16, that a memo Comey wrote after a February meeting with Trump stated that the president had asked him to end the FBI’s investigation of Flynn. Trump aides have told Reuters that top Justice Department officials wanted a heads-up from Comey about what he would say during a May 3 congressional hearing about the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s private email system.  The hearing was just days after Clinton said at a New York event that announcements by Comey in the week before the November election that he had re-opened, and then re-closed, the email probe had swung the election for Trump. Comey told the congressional panel the idea that he may have affected the election result made him “mildly nauseous.” Is Trump being investigated by the FBI?  In the short letter Trump sent to Comey dismissing him from the FBI, he thanked Comey for informing him on three separate occasions that he was not under investigation. Comey has never stated publicly whether or not the FBI was investigating Trump and it would be unorthodox for him to say such a thing to the president. The White House has offered no proof to back Trump’s claim. News of Comey’s memo, along with a Washington Post report on May 15 that Trump had revealed classified info during a May 10 meeting at the White House with Russian officials, intensified calls from Democrats and some Republicans for an independent probe of Trump’s ties to Russia. Trump has made clear on multiple occasions he believes the Russia investigations have run their course and should be closed. “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?” he wrote on Twitter on May 8.

Summary: 2016 के चुनाव में रूसी हस्तक्षेप की अमेरिकी जांच के बारे में हम क्या जानते हैं


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s Shi ite Hezbollah group on Sunday accused Saudi Arabia of forcing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to quit, and called for calm in an effort to contain the political crisis unleashed by his resignation. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, said there should be no political escalation in response to Hariri s declaration on Saturday, which was made from Saudi Arabia and came as surprise even to his aides. Hariri, in a televised speech, said there was a plot to kill him, and accused Hezbollah and its Iranian backers of sowing strife in the Arab world.    Nasrallah said  legitimate questions  were being asked over whether Hariri had been detained in Saudi Arabia, where news emerged on Sunday that royals, ministers and investors had been arrested in an anti-corruption purge. Aides to Hariri, whose family made their fortune in the Saudi construction industry, strongly denied he had been detained or had been forced to resign. Speaking in a televised address, Nasrallah said:  The resignation was a Saudi decision dictated to Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and was forced on him.  Nasrallah said Lebanon s political leaders expected Hariri to return to Lebanon on Thursday  if he is allowed  to travel.  Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, a political ally of Hariri, is locked in a bitter tussle for power across the Middle East with Shi ite Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah. Lebanese President Michel Aoun will not accept Hariri s resignation until he returns to Lebanon to explain his reasons, palace sources said on Sunday, delaying for now the politically difficult consultations over his successor.  Nasrallah said he would not comment on accusations leveled against Hezbollah by Hariri, describing his resignation announcement as a Saudi statement. Hariri s resignation toppled a coalition government that included Hezbollah, thrusting Lebanon back into the frontline of the Saudi-Iranian regional rivalry and risking an open-ended political crisis.  The government was formed late last year in a political deal that ended years of deadlock, and last month it produced Lebanon s first budget since 2005. Nasrallah said he had thought things were going well and had not wanted Hariri to quit.  Hariri allies in Lebanon have denied suggestions he had been detained and a photograph was published on his Twitter account showing him with Saudi Arabia s newly appointed ambassador to Lebanon, Walid al-Yaaqoub. News of high-level arrests in Saudi Arabia fueled social media speculation in Lebanon that Hariri, a Saudi national, was a target. Nasrallah said  there was legitimate concern , asking if Hariri had anything to do  with this internal struggle between the princes .    Saudi Oger, the construction firm owned by the Hariri family, has faced a multibillion-dollar debt restructuring. The company was hit by a decline in oil prices led to sharp state spending cuts in the kingdom.     Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat cited unnamed sources close to Hariri as speculating that he would probably remain outside Lebanon because of the security threat against him. Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh sought to calm fears the political turmoil would hit Lebanon s already fragile economy, issuing a statement to reaffirm the stability of its currency, which is pegged against the U.S. dollar.    In Lebanon s sectarian system the president must be a Maronite Catholic, the prime minister a Sunni and the speaker of parliament a Shi ite. Hariri is Lebanon s most influential Sunni politician. His father, Rafik al-Hariri, was prime minister after Lebanon s 1975-1990 civil war and was assassinated in a car bombing in 2005.  A U.N.-backed tribunal has indicted five Hezbollah members for the killing but the group denies any involvement.  Saudi media have published reports of a plot to assassinate Hariri in recent days, but all of Lebanon s main security branches have said they have no information about such a plot. A Saudi minister said on Saturday that Hariri s personal security detail had  confirmed information  about the plot. Thamer al-Sabhan said in an interview with a Lebanese TV station on Saturday that there were  threats against the prime minister and the kingdom is keen for his security . U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was concerned by Hariri s resignation and hoped all sides in the country would back its state institutions, his spokesman on Lebanon Stephane Dujarric said in an emailed statement.

Summary: हिज़्बुल्लाह का कहना है कि सऊदी अरब ने लेबनान के प्रधानमंत्री को पद छोड़ने के लिए मजबूर किया


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday Islamic State had been defeated from a military perspective but he would only declare final victory after IS militants were routed in the desert. Iraqi forces on Friday captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under Islamic State control, signaling the collapse of the group s  caliphate  proclaimed after it overran much of Iraq s north and west in 2014. Securing desert and border areas is what remains in the campaign against Islamic State, military commanders say.  From a military perspective, we have ended the presence of Daesh in Iraq,  Abadi said while addressing a weekly news conference, referring to Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.  God willing we will announce very soon after the end of the purification operations victory over Daesh in Iraq.  Abadi s comments came as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State while a senior Iranian military commander thanked the  thousands of martyrs  killed in operations organized by Iran to defeat the militant group in Syria and Iraq. Political disagreements will pave the way for the Sunni militant group to carry out attacks, however, Abadi said. He was referring to the central Baghdad government s dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government over the latter s declaration of independence following a Sept. 25 referendum.  Any disagreement between political factions will encourage Daesh to carry out terrorist attacks,  he said.  I call on our Kurdish brothers to avoid fighting.  Hours before Abadi spoke, at least 23 people were killed and 60 wounded when a suicide bomber set off a truck bomb near a crowded marketplace in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, south of the oil city of Kirkuk. Abadi praised a federal court verdict that ruled the Kurdish referendum unconstitutional and called on Kurds not to resort to violence. Iraq s Supreme Federal Court ruled on Monday that the referendum was unconstitutional and the results void, bolstering Baghdad s hand in a stand-off with the Kurdish region watched closely by neighbouring Turkey and Iran.  I hail the federal court s decision to void the Kurdish region s referendum,  he said. Kurds voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq in the referendum, defying Baghdad and alarming neighboring Turkey and Iran who have their own Kurdish minorities. The Iraqi government responded to the referendum by seizing Kurdish-held Kirkuk and other territory disputed between the Kurds and the central government. It also banned direct flights to Kurdistan and demanded control over border crossings.

Summary: रेगिस्तानी अभियान के बाद इस्लामिक स्टेट पर अंतिम जीत की घोषणा करेगा इराक


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has taken action against all Islamist militants including the Haqqani network, the army spokesman said on Monday hours ahead of a U.S. announcement on Afghan policy that could herald a tougher stance towards Islamabad. “There are no terrorist hideouts in Pakistan. We have operated against all terrorists, including (the) Haqqani network,” spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told a media briefing in Islamabad. He said evidence to that effect was shared with General Joseph Votel, chief of the U.S. Central Command, who visited Pakistan over the weekend. U.S. officials say Afghan’s Islamist Taliban insurgents and the allied Haqqani network, deemed the most lethal Afghan militant group, are supported by elements of Pakistan’s military and top intelligence agency, a charge Islamabad denies. U.S. President Donald Trump was expected in an address to the nation due at 0100 GMT to address the future of relations with Islamabad, part of a review of policy on the protracted war in neighboring Afghanistan. With Taliban insurgent forces no nearer to defeat after more than 15 years of conflict, Trump was likely to announce a modest increase in U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan, a senior administration official said. “As regard to U.S. policy, and even if it comes with certain  coercive, you know, announcements, Pakistan shall do whatever is best in the national interest,” Ghafoor said. Votel met Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and on Saturday toured the Waziristan area that was long the base of local and foreign militants along the Afghan border, where Pakistan’s military waged a campaign to drive them out. Washington and Islamabad have at times had a rocky relationship, including over the secret U.S. raid inside Pakistan in 2011 that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Relations have been under scrutiny in Trump’s lengthy review of a new strategy and troop levels in the fight against the Taliban and other Islamist militants in Afghanistan.

Summary: पाकिस्तानी सेना का कहना है कि उसने हक्कानी नेटवर्क सहित आतंकवादियों के खिलाफ कार्रवाई की है


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was possible that the European Court of Justice could continue to arbitrate trade disputes during a transition period after Britain has formally left the bloc in March 2019.  We want to have a smooth and orderly process of withdrawal ... that s why we want that implementation period and we have to negotiate what will operate during that implementation period, and yes that may mean we will start off with the ECJ,  May told parliament. The jurisdiction of the European court is a inflammatory issue for some Brexit campaigners within May s Conservative Party. Citing sovereignty as a benefit of Brexit, they argue that leaving the EU should offer supremacy to British courts. Britain also said it will seek to negotiate trade deals with countries outside the EU during a transition period, but it would not bring any such deals into effect if they clashed with the transition terms. In a document setting out its post-Brexit trade plans, the government said it would seek to  transition all existing EU trade agreements and other EU preferential arrangements  to provide continuity for exporters and investors.

Summary: यूरोपीय अदालतें संक्रमण अवधि के दौरान व्यापार विवादों का फैसला कर सकती हैंः प्रधानमंत्री मे


KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a Shi ite Muslim mosque in Kabul as other attackers stormed the building, killing at least 30 people including worshippers gathering for Friday prayers, officials said. Islamic State, which has launched several attacks against minority Shi ite targets in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility, the jihadist group s news agency said. The assault sparked chaos as worshippers fled and others frantically searched for missing family members.  The attackers are slaughtering people like sheep but there s no one to go and rescue them,  said Murtaza, a young boy whose parents were trapped inside as the attack unfolded.   A lot of people are on the ground and no one is trying to rescue them.  By Friday evening police said they had secured the mosque in the Khair Khana area of the capital, and all three attackers were dead. Witnesses said they had thrown grenades, and police officials said a suicide bomber detonated himself at the gate. A second suicide bomber detonated among a group of women in the mosque, an official said. Security sources put the overall toll at 30 people killed and  dozens  wounded. At least 10 civilians were killed, including women and children, while another 30 were wounded, Ministry of Interior spokesman Najib Danish said earlier in the day. At least three policemen were also killed and eight wounded, he said. Police said they rescued more than 100 worshippers. At least 15 of the wounded were taken to city hospitals, said Ismail Kawosi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health. One witness, Sayed Pacha, said four attackers had entered the mosque.   At first a suicide bomber opened fire and martyred two security guards at the entrance of the mosque and then they entered inside,  he told Reuters.  Human rights activists condemned the attack, the latest in a  campaign of sectarian violence.  Insurgents who carry out atrocities against a specific ethnic or religious community are committing war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity,  Patricia Gossman, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Summary: काबुल की शिया मस्जिद में आत्मघाती हमले में कम से कम 30 लोगों की मौत


MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called on Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont on Thursday to abandon plans to unilaterally declare the region s independence from Spain  to avoid greater evils . In an interview with Spanish news agency EFE, Rajoy said the solution to the Catalan crisis was a prompt return to legality and  a statement as soon as possible that there will not be a unilateral declaration of independence, because that will also avoid greater evils,  Rajoy said, without elaborating.

Summary: स्पेन के प्रधानमंत्री ने कैटलन नेता से 'बड़ी बुराइयों' से बचने के लिए स्वतंत्रता योजनाओं को छोड़ने का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The president of Microsoft Corp expressed deep disappointment on Tuesday with President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind a program for immigrants brought into the United States illegally as children and urged Congress to protect these so-called Dreamers before embarking on tax reform legislation.  “We say this even though Microsoft, like many other companies, cares greatly about modernizing the tax system and making it fairer and more competitive. But we need to put the humanitarian needs of these 800,000 people on the legislative calendar before a tax bill,” President Brad Smith said in a statement.  “As an employer, we appreciate that Dreamers add to the competitiveness and economic success of our company and the entire nation’s business community. In short, urgent DACA legislation is both an economic imperative and a humanitarian necessity.”

Summary: माइक्रोसॉफ्ट अध्यक्ष ने कांग्रेस से कर सुधार से पहले ड्रीमर्स को रखने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON () - The top Democrat on the Senate environment committee on Monday asked the Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog to audit a recent trip to Morocco by the agency’s head to determine if it was in line with the EPA’s mission. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, in a trip to Morocco last week, promoted U.S. liquefied natural gas. Senator Tom Carper asked EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins to expand its current audit of Pruitt’s travel to include the trip to Morocco as part of a U.S. trade mission. “I request that you review the purpose of Administrator Pruitt’s travels to determine whether his activities during each trip are in line with EPA’s mission ‘to protect human health and the environment,’” Carper wrote in the letter to Elkins. Traditionally, the EPA, which regulates clean air and water, does not promote the U.S. energy industry.  Last week, the EPA announced that Pruitt attended bilateral meetings in Morocco where he “outlined U.S. environmental priorities for updating the Environmental Work Plan under the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement and the potential benefit of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports on Morocco’s economy.” Liquefied natural gas is produced by cooling natural gas until it is condensed into a liquid, allowing it to be shipped via tanker instead of moved by pipeline. It is reconverted into gas at the other end.  When asked why the head of the EPA was involved in touting LNG, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said Pruitt discussed the role of U.S. technology and innovation abroad, “including but not limited to LNG.” It “only serves to emphasize the importance this administration has placed on promoting U.S. businesses,” Wilcox said.  Carper said the Morocco travel has cost taxpayers $40,000 and that gas exports do not fall within the agency’s jurisdiction. The Inspector General’s office is already reviewing all travel by Pruitt conducted until Sept. 30 after Democratic lawmakers asked for a review of Pruitt’s frequent travels to Oklahoma, his home state.

Summary: डेमोक्रेटिक अमेरिकी सीनेटर ने ई. पी. ए. प्रमुख की मोरक्को यात्रा का लेखा-परीक्षण करने की मांग की


LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenian President Borut Pahor will face a second-round election on Nov. 12 after he fell short of a majority in Sunday s first round, as he tries to win a second five-year mandate. With 99 percent of the vote counted, according to the State Election Commission, Pahor had 47.1 percent of the vote. In next month s runoff, he will face Marjan Sarec, the mayor of the city of Kamnik, who took 25 percent. Turnout reached 43.5 percent. The result contradicted exit polls by TV Slovenia that showed Pahor winning in the first round.  In the second round anything is possible, although Pahor is a big favorite,  Peter Jancic, the editor of political website Spletni Casopis told Reuters. Although the office is mostly ceremonial, the president leads the army and also nominates several top officials, including the central bank governor. Most of his nominations have to be confirmed by parliament. The vote amounted to a warning for Prime Minister Miro Cerar and his Party of Modern Centre (SMC) before the general election due next June or July. Its candidate, Education Minister Maja Makovec Brencic, took only 1.7 percent of the vote and came seventh out of nine candidates.  SMC will surely have a lot to show at parliamentary election,  Cerar told TV Slovenia.  We have a lot of ideas for the future.  Pahor, 53, who ran as an independent candidate, is a former long-time leader of the center-left Social Democrats. He told reporters he will focus on  connecting people, cooperation, political stability and security  if he wins in the second round. He was Slovenia s prime minister from 2008 to 2012, the years that led to the worst financial crisis in Slovenia s history. In 2013, the country only narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks.  A former fashion model, he is also known as the  king of the Instagram , for posting photos on Instagram showing him in his official duties but also in various sports activities. Sarec, 39, is not affiliated with parliamentary parties but is running as a candidate of his own non-parliamentary, center-left party, Lista Marjana Sarca. He is a former actor.  I am happy about this result, which shows that us mayors do a lot for people at the local level and are working hard,  he said.

Summary: स्लोवेनियाई राष्ट्रपति पाहोर बहुमत हासिल करने में विफल रहे, रनऑफ का सामना करना पड़ा


NEW YORK (Reuters) - With national security again a major U.S. election issue after bombings in New York and New Jersey, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sought to burnish their foreign-policy credentials on Monday by meeting world leaders at the United Nations. For Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, it was a return to a role she knows well after she served as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state for four years. Trump, the Republican nominee, is a newcomer to the global stage who is hurriedly trying to play catch-up.  In rapid succession, Clinton met briefly with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Trump also met Sisi minutes after the Egyptian leader spoke with Clinton in the same Manhattan hotel. The meetings came on a day that started with Clinton suggesting Trump’s harsh rhetoric toward Muslims aids the Islamic State militant group’s recruiting efforts. Trump pushed back, arguing the United States was less safe as a result of Obama and Clinton’s policies. Security questions arose in each of Monday’s bilateral sessions, which took place as world leaders gathered for the U.N. General Assembly, with Clinton and Abe discussing concerns over North Korea and maritime issues involving China.  Clinton and Trump both spoke with Sisi about working more closely with Egypt to combat the Islamic State threat.  Trump’s campaign released a statement saying that Trump “highlighted how Egypt and the U.S. share a common enemy and the importance of working together in defeating radical Islamic terrorism.”  With Clinton, Sisi also discussed his goal of moving Egypt toward “a new civil society, a new modern country that upholds the rule of law and respects human rights and liberties.”  Clinton and Poroshenko addressed Russian incursions into Ukrainian territory. Clinton started the session by saying Ukraine faces “very real problems and threats from Russian aggression” and that she was “anxious to know how we can be supportive.”  The session also resonated because of Trump’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month. Trump called Putin a stronger leader than Obama, rattling both Democrats and Republicans in Washington.  The evening was not without drama, starting with Clinton’s motorcade zooming through packed New York streets at rush hour and then quickly rushing from hotel to hotel. Trump also tried to bolster his foreign policy credentials last month when he went to Mexico to meet President Enrique Pena Nieto, but both sides ended up disagreeing about whether who would pay to build a border wall had been discussed.  Clinton called that episode an “embarrassing international incident.”

Summary: क्लिंटन, ट्रम्प न्यूयॉर्क में विश्व नेताओं का ध्यान आकर्षित करने के लिए लड़ रहे हैं