WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will delay the release of long-awaited tax legislation by one day until Thursday, the head of the chamber’s tax-writing panel said late on Tuesday. “In consultation with President Trump and our leadership team, we have decided to release the bill text on Thursday,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in a statement. “We are pleased with the progress we are making and we remain on schedule to take action and approve a bill at our Committee beginning next week,” the Republican lawmaker added. In a tweet on Tuesday night before Brady’s statement, President Donald Trump said: “The Republican House members are working hard (and late) toward the Massive Tax Cuts that they know you deserve. These will be biggest ever!” Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, are looking to tax reform for their first legislative victory since Trump took office in January. Democrats say the Trump tax plan is a giveaway to corporations and the rich. Two sources with knowledge of the discussions said earlier on Tuesday that the bill, which had been expected on Wednesday, would emerge a day later to give lawmakers additional time to address differences over the tax treatment of retirement savings accounts and a deduction for state and local tax payments. Trump and other top Republicans have proposed a plan that would cut taxes for corporations, small businesses and individuals by up to $6 trillion over a decade and pay for the reductions in part by eliminating trillions of dollars in deductions and other tax breaks that are often fiercely defended. The U.S. tax code has not undergone a major overhaul since 1986, when Republican Ronald Reagan was president.  Earlier on Tuesday, House Republicans appeared to be nearing a deal on state and local taxes that would preserve a federal deduction for property taxes but not income taxes, potentially removing a major obstacle. Republican Representative Tom Reed of New York said the “sweet spot” compromise was gaining support among high-tax state lawmakers who have signaled their opposition to a proposal to repeal the state and local tax, or SALT, deduction. Another New York Republican saw things differently. “I’m still inclined to be opposed to it. The income tax is a major factor,” said Representative Peter King. “This is going to affect our country for the next 20 years, for good or bad. I think the last time we did tax reform, there was like two years of debate. We’re going to have 10 days,” he said. The SALT compromise would reduce, but not eliminate, a disproportional tax impact on upper middle-class families in high-income tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California. Those states send enough Republicans to Congress to derail a tax bill. The House bill is expected to cut the top corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent and phase out the estate tax paid by the wealthiest taxpayers over two or three years. It may also set a repatriation rate for U.S. businesses with profits overseas, according to a source familiar with a Tuesday meeting between House Speaker Paul Ryan and conservative groups. It is also likely to set a 15 percent minimum tax on active foreign income of U.S. corporations, according to lobbyists with knowledge of negotiations. As the Trump administration escalated its pro-tax plan campaign, Vice President Mike Pence met with Republicans on Tuesday, while Trump hosted industry leaders and then Ryan, at the White House. Trump said at the White House he wanted Congress to pass tax reform bills by the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 23. A proposal to limit how much money Americans can direct to their 401(k) retirement accounts and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) on a pre-tax basis is meeting resistance, including from fund managers who handle 54 million such accounts. Republicans initially proposed capping tax-free 401(k) contributions at $2,400, down from $18,000 in 2017, but the figure is in flux. “We are either going to strengthen the 401(k)’s and IRA’s so people can save more, or we will leave them as is,” Brady told reporters. Senator Heidi Heitkamp, one of a few Democrats being courted by Republicans, said she could not support lowering the cap on tax-free retirement contributions. “I will not vote for that,” she told reporters.

Summary: हाउस टैक्स बिल जारी करने में गुरुवार तक की देरी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that the Senate would have a final vote on April 7 on President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, even as more Democrats opposed his confirmation The Gorsuch nomination, McConnell told reporters, will hit the Senate floor next week after the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday approves him. McConnell added that Gorsuch will be “confirmed on Friday” of next week. Senate Republicans continued to put the pressure on Democrats to lend enough support to Colorado appeals court judge Gorsuch to avoid a showdown that in turn could trigger McConnell to seek a change in Senate rules that would clear away a Democratic blockade against the nomination. So far, about 26 of the 48 Democratic senators have publicly announced opposition to Gorsuch. Most of that group backs a growing effort to block a confirmation vote through the use of a procedural hurdle called a filibuster. Sixty votes in the 100-seat Senate would be needed to stop a filibuster and allow a confirmation vote on Gorsuch. The confirmation would require a simple majority in favor. Republicans control the Senate 52-48. Some Senate Republican aides suggested that if Democrats block a confirmation vote, McConnell might move quickly to change the rules. It was unclear, however, if he had enough votes to do so Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that Gorsuch will face an uphill climb to get the 60 votes he would need to avoid a showdown over Senate rules. “The bottom line is very simple, and that is that Gorsuch did not acquit himself well at the hearings and did not impress our caucus,” Schumer said, accusing Gorsuch of siding with  powerful interests and expressing concerns about his independence from the president. “It’s going to be a real uphill climb for him to get those 60 votes,” Schumer told reporters. Trump is seeking to avoid another setback in Congress after major healthcare legislation he supported was pulled from the House of Representatives floor amid opposition within his own party on Friday.  The confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat court’s conservative majority, a major campaign promise for Trump. The Senate Judiciary Committee oversaw a four-day confirmation hearing for Gorsuch last week.

Summary: सुप्रीम कोर्ट के उम्मीदवार को 7 अप्रैल को पुष्टि मत का सामना करना पड़ेगाः सीनेट नेता


ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday Turkey was implementing a deal agreed with Russia and Iran to reduce violence in Syria s northern province of Idlib, in cooperation with Free Syrian Army rebel fighters.  Now we are applying the Astana decisions in Idlib,  Erdogan said, referring to an agreement announced last month in the Kazakhstan capital. He said if Turkey had not acted  bombs would fall on our cities .  Our efforts in Idlib are going on, in cooperation with the Free Syria Army, without problems at the moment,  he told members of his ruling AK Party at a meeting in the western Turkish province of Afyon.

Summary: तुर्की इदलिब समझौते को लागू करने के लिए सीरिया के विद्रोहियों के साथ काम कर रहा हैः एर्दोगन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday that he saw no point in bringing up the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal for a vote in any “lame duck” session of Congress later this year after November elections, because “we don’t have the votes.” “As long as we don’t have the votes, I see no point in bringing up an agreement only to defeat it,” Ryan, a Republican, said in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.  Despite both U.S. presidential candidates bashing the 12-country Pacific trade deal on the campaign trail, Obama administration officials have pledged to make a major push in coming months to persuade the Republican-majority Congress to pass TPP.  Backed by dozens of business and industry groups, officials  from the U.S. Commerce Department, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and the White House say they are continuing to talk with individual lawmakers about the merits of the deal, including its consequences for U.S. leadership in Asia.  But Ryan said the Obama administration had negotiated a deal that “cost them dozens of votes in Congress,” and said the Democratic president needed to renegotiate some components. The speaker said some agricultural and labor provisions needed fixing, and he also believed the deal would reduce intellectual property rights for biologic drugs and pharmaceuticals. For U.S. drugmakers the deal could reduce the patent protection period to eight years from the current 12. Senator Orrin Hatch, the influential Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has also raised this as a major problem with the deal. “They have to fix this agreement and renegotiate some pieces of it if they have any hope or chance of passing it,” Ryan said in the radio interview, but added that he was doubtful this could happen. “I don’t see how they’ll ever get the votes for it.”

Summary: हाउस स्पीकर रयानः टी. पी. पी. सौदे पर लंगड़े डक वोट का कोई मतलब नहीं है


KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan regrets that the United States has placed it on a list of states not doing enough to combat human trafficking, the foreign ministry said on Thursday, a week before Washington was due to announce a decision on lifting sanctions against the country. It said Washington had not appreciated the big steps Khartoum had made to alleviate the plight of victims of human trafficking.  The United States has said it is deciding whether to lift a raft of penalties imposed first over Khartoum s perceived support of global terrorism and later its violent suppression of rebels in Darfur. The deadline for that decision is Oct. 12 and Sudan expects the economic sanctions will be lifted. But the White House said last Saturday that it had ordered  a group of countries, including Iran, Venezuela and Sudan, to be added to a U.S. list of countries accused of failing to crack down on human trafficking.  The Foreign Ministry expresses its regret over the United States administration s Sept. 30 decision to put Sudan on a list of states accused of not doing enough to limit human trafficking instead of highlighting the massive efforts being made,  it said in a statement. Sudan had built shelters for victims and provided support, as well as made strides toward policing its borders, the ministry said. It called on the United States to provide it with support in order to help it further improve its efforts.

Summary: सूडान को प्रतिबंधों के फैसले से पहले अमेरिका द्वारा इसे तस्करी की सूची में डालने पर खेद है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The No. 2 U.S. House of Representatives Republican, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, said on Friday he was committed to working with President Donald Trump to fix the Iran nuclear agreement but did not advocate ending the deal. McCarthy is one of the congressional leaders allowed under a 2015 law to introduce legislation that, if passed, would have immediately reimposed U.S. sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program lifted under the international nuclear accord. His comment was an indication that the Republican-controlled Congress does not intend to pursue that course.

Summary: अमेरिकी हाउस रिपब्लिकन मैकार्थी ईरान परमाणु समझौते को ठीक करना चाहते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican-led Senate panel backed away from a plan to restrict media cameras in parts of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday after Democrats and some Republicans criticized the move as an attempt to curtail press access. Senate staff who manage press access told television network reporters earlier Tuesday that they could no longer film interviews with senators in the hallways of the Capitol without first receiving permission, citing a directive from the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration.  Such interviews, an everyday occurrence in designated areas throughout the Capitol, provide a running insight into legislators’ thoughts on bills and hearings. The staff said the restrictions were because the number of reporters has swelled due to negotiations on healthcare legislation and high-profile hearings. The directive came from the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees operations on the Senate side of the Capitol, they said. The panel is controlled by Republicans, since they hold the majority in the Senate. Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said in a statement the panel was simply enforcing rules already on the books, adding it “has been working with the various galleries to ensure compliance with existing rules in an effort to help provide a safe environment.”  The senior Democrat on the panel, Amy Klobuchar, said she was not consulted in advance and objected. In a statement, Klobuchar said she called on Republicans “to allow reporters to do their jobs.” She added that she had talked to Shelby, who had told her he would not move to change press access without consulting her. “We must hold him to it. This is no time for limiting press access in the U.S. Senate — with Russia hearings, Attorney General (Jeff) Sessions testifying, and what appears to be the secretive drafting of a healthcare bill. We have to preserve freedom of the press,” she said. Shelby’s office did not respond to a request to discuss the dispute over media access except to provide his prepared statement. A Senate aide, who asked not to be identified, said that  Rules Committee members were “looking to make changes and have backed off for now.” “We’re certainly not trying to deny anybody an opportunity to have questions asked,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said during a press conference, referring reporters back to the Rules Committee for detailed guidance. The Capitol hallways have been crowded with both reporters and summer tourists in recent weeks as Senate Republicans work on an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system. Current and former government officials have also drawn crowds at hearings related to probes into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन अमेरिकी कैपिटल में कुछ प्रेस कैमरे की पहुंच पर अंकुश लगाने की योजना से पीछे हट गए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration and U.S. Senate Republican leaders scrambled on Tuesday to garner enough support to get a Puerto Rico debt relief bill through a critical procedural vote set for Wednesday which several lawmakers predicted would be close. After months of waiting for Congress to act as Puerto Rico’s economic crisis progressively worsened, the Caribbean island appeared to be on the verge of securing a relief plan from Washington aimed at helping it address a hobbling $70 billion debt. The leaders of both political parties in the Senate are on board, but the outcome appeared uncertain. The Obama administration sent Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to try to persuade recalcitrant Democrats, while Republicans heard arguments for the legislation from fellow senators at a closed-door luncheon. “We will win the vote tomorrow,” said Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, as he left the meeting with Lew. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, told reporters he was “very much on board,” and was urging Republicans to back the measure establishing a federal oversight board to be in charge of restructuring the U.S. territory’s debt. “I’m hopeful and optimistic that the (Obama) administration will be able to get Democrats on board, and we believe strongly that it’s an approach that appeals to most Republicans,” McConnell said. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he would support the bill. The Senate Democratic whip, Dick Durbin of Illinois, a recent convert to the proposal, said he was trying to get a majority of Democrats to back it.  House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi added that while there is much to the legislation she objected to, she implored her Senate colleagues to adopt the bill. “Failure to pass this bill would be a tremendous win for the unscrupulous hedge funds that have held this bill up for six months demanding to be first in line over the needs of the people of Puerto Rico,” she said. “Unless Congress acts, our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico will be plunged into deep economic turmoil in just three days’ time.” Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million residents are U.S. citizens. The U.S. territory is reeling from a 45 percent poverty rate, a steady flow of outward migration to the U.S. mainland that further shrinks its tax base and the shuttering of essential services. But Durbin predicted “it will be close” Wednesday morning, when the Puerto Rico debt relief bill will need a supermajority of 60 senators’ votes to stay alive in the Senate.  And despite McConnell’s expression of optimism, other Republicans said the leadership appeared worried behind the scenes. “I think leadership is concerned because they’re really whipping it,” said Senator Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican. “When they whipped me last night, I said ‘no’. So they’re coming back and asking if I’ll reconsider.” The White House joined the fray, with spokesman Josh Earnest saying that without action by Congress to help Puerto Rico deal with its debt, the need for a bailout of the U.S. territory will become more likely. The measure is identical to the plan passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month, as Congress tries to send it to President Barack Obama to sign into law by July 1. That is when Puerto Rico faces a potential default on a chunk of its debt if it cannot make $1.9 billion in payments.  If the Wednesday morning procedural vote is successful, it would clear the measure for passage this week.  But Republican skeptics of the bill are worried it could constitute a bailout - something its supporters deny - while Democrats have expressed concern about the composition of the oversight board and labor provisions that they say could lower minimum wages for young workers in Puerto Rico. The top Democrat on the Senate Finance committee, Oregon’s Ron Wyden, announced Tuesday he would back the legislation. But Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown appeared to be wavering even after meeting with Lew, Wyden and other Democrats in a Senate office building.  Brown said he would be more likely to vote “yes” in Wednesday’s procedural vote if Senate leaders promise him a vote on an unrelated issue - legislation to ensure that the federal government and coal mine operators honor payment of promised pensions and health benefits to retired miners. Lew said he thought there was  “broad understanding” of the urgency. “I just do not believe that we can let three and a half million Americans descend into chaos,” he said.

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको ऋण विधेयक को अमेरिकी सीनेट में समर्थन मिला; करीबी मतदान देखा गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the derailment of a train, which sent train cars crashing onto a major highway and killed passengers, in Washington state showed the necessity of an infrastructure plan. “The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly,” Trump said. “Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!”

Summary: ट्रेन पटरी से उतरने के बाद ट्रम्प ने अमेरिकी बुनियादी ढांचे की योजना का आह्वान किया


DHAKA (Reuters) - Pope Francis landed in Bangladesh on Thursday after a diplomatically sensitive trip to neighboring Myanmar, where he made no direct reference to the plight of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh in their hundreds of thousands. Bangladesh is hoping the Thursday-Saturday visit, during which the pope will meet a group of Rohingya in Dhaka, will help pressure the international community to find a lasting solution to the problem of the periodic influx of Rohingya from Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Summary: पोप बांग्लादेश पहुँचे, शुक्रवार को रोहिंग्या समूह से मिलेंगे


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, speaking hours before U.S. President Donald Trump s announcement on Jerusalem, called on Wednesday for the city s  status quo  to be respected, saying new tension in the Middle East would further inflame world conflicts. Trump is due on Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital and set in motion the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to the ancient city, senior U.S. officials said, a decision that upends decades of U.S. policy and risks fuelling further violence in the Middle East. In an appeal at the end of his weekly general audience, Francis called for all to honor United Nations resolutions on the city, which is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.  I make a heartfelt appeal so that all commit themselves to respecting the status quo of the city, in conformity with the pertinent resolutions of the United Nations,  he said. The Vatican backs a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with both sides agreeing on the status of Jerusalem as part of the peace process.  Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, whereas Israel has declared the whole city to be its  united and eternal  capital. The pope told thousands of people at his general audience:  I cannot keep quiet about my deep worry about the situation that has been created in the last few days.  He said he hoped  wisdom and prudence prevail, in order to avoid adding new elements of tension to a global panorama that is already convulsed and marked by so many and cruel conflicts.  In 2012, the Vatican called for  an internationally guaranteed special statute  for Jerusalem, aimed at  safeguarding the freedom of religion and of conscience, the identity and sacred character of Jerusalem as a Holy City, (and) respect for, and freedom of, access to its holy places.  Before making his public comments, Francis met privately with a group of Palestinians involved in inter-religious dialogue with the Vatican.  The Holy Land is for us Christians the land par excellence of dialogue between God and mankind,  he said. He spoke of dialogue between religions  and also in civil society .  The primary condition of that dialogue is reciprocal respect and a commitment to strengthening that respect, for the sake of recognizing the rights of all people, wherever they happen to be,  he said to the group. The pope spoke by telephone to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about the crisis on Tuesday. The Vatican and Israel established full diplomatic relations in 1994. Francis, former Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II all visited Israel and Palestinian territories. When Francis visited the Holy Land in 2014, he flew directly by helicopter from Jordan to what the Vatican program called  the  State of Palestine  and visited Israel last. This irked Israel because his predecessor had always gone first to Israel and entered the territories from Israel. The Vatican signed its first treaty with the  State of Palestine  the following year.

Summary: ट्रम्प के कदम के जवाब में पोप ने कहा, येरुशलम की 'यथास्थिति' का सम्मान करें


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is weighing an “infrastructure bank” to make investments in the nation’s infrastructure, Trump adviser Steven Mnuchin told reporters on Wednesday. Mnuchin, a Wall Street veteran under consideration for Trump’s Treasury secretary, said the team was focused on  “taxes... regulatory changes, looking at the creation of an infrastructure bank to fund infrastructure investments.”  “I’d say the economic priorities are clearly taxes, regulatory, trade, infrastructure,” he added.

Summary: ट्रम्प की टीम परियोजनाओं के वित्तपोषण के लिए 'इन्फ्रास्ट्रक्चर बैंक' का वजन करती हैः ट्रम्प सलाहकार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he will meet with his rival Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to press her to embrace his progressive agenda, saying he wants to know what she will stand for if she becomes president. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday, Sanders did not concede he had lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Clinton, who is leading in Democratic primaries and is the party’s presumed nominee.  Sanders said he and Clinton would discuss “if she wins, what kind of administration she will have.” “What I need to see (is) a commitment that there will be progressive taxation,” he said, saying corporations and billionaires should pay higher tax rates. He repeated his stance that he would do “everything I can” to ensure Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, will not become president. Sanders said he wanted to see Clinton embrace his view that healthcare should be a universal right in America and public universities should offer education for free. “Will she go as far as I would like her to go?  No, she won’t,” he said. “But I think millions of people want to understand and see is what kind of commitment she has to addressing the real crises in the country.”

Summary: सैंडर्स का कहना है कि वह मंगलवार को हिलेरी क्लिंटन से मिलेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer’s super PAC launched a $25 million youth voter drive on Monday in seven political battleground states to help elect candidates that champion climate change policies in November’s general election.  Steyer’s NextGen Climate super PAC, a political group that raises funds to boost candidates with strong environmental platforms, said the campaign aims to boost turnout of millennials, who have become one of the largest potential voter groups. In the lead-up to the November general election, NextGen will deploy hundreds of organizers across over 200 colleges to register young voters and facilitate on-campus voting. “We are determined that they will be a difference maker,” Steyer told reporters on a conference call. The group is targeting seven battleground states where Steyer said millennial voters could “make up the difference in a tight race.” Those states are Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Nevada, Illinois and Colorado. Steyer has been the second largest individual political donor in 2016, having spent $13 million so far this year, according to OpenSecrets.org. NextGen said the number of registered millennials has nearly tripled since 2008 from 17.2 million to 50.3 million, making the demographic a key political force in 2016.  Climate change and clean energy is an area where there is widespread millennial interest.  NextGen cited a June 2015 poll that found that 73 percent of young voters want the United States to get 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. The group has not yet announced which candidates it will endorse in the presidential or congressional races but said it has challenged all candidates to say how they would achieve a goal of hitting a 50 percent clean energy target by 2030. He said the air and water impacts of fracking, a controversial drilling technique that has been responsible for a boom in U.S. oil and natural gas production over the past decade, shows the U.S. needs to make a faster transition away from fossil fuels. Steyer said NextGen will spend around $25 million on the months-long campaign and will launch several other initiatives later in the election cycle.  Steyer’s PAC in 2014 aimed to make climate change into a wedge issue in the 2014 midterm elections, spending over $70 million with mixed results.  But with millennial voters turning out in record numbers in the 2016 primaries, Steyer sees a formula for success. “We need to make sure to carry on that momentum until November,” he said.

Summary: अरबपति हरित दाता ने अमेरिकी सहस्राब्दी मतदाता अभियान शुरू किया


HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland will leave the European Union and position itself as the Switzerland of the north to protect its independence if Laura Huhtasaari, the presidential candidate of the eurosceptic Finns Party has her way. She also told Reuters in an interview she wants to tighten immigration rules. Huhtasaari   dubbed  Finland s Marine Le Pen  after France s National Front leader   is a long-shot. But she believes she has a real chance in the January election as her party has taken a fresh start following its removal from the coalition government in June.  The rise in Europe of parties that are critical towards the EU and immigration is due to bad, unjust politics,  she said.     The role for Finland in the euro zone is the role of a loser and payer...  I do not want Finland to become a province of EU, Finns must stand up for Finland s interests.  The Finns Party, formerly called  True Finns , rose from obscurity during the euro zone debt crisis with an anti-EU platform, complicating the bloc s bailout talks with troubled states. It expanded into the second-biggest parliamentary party in 2015 and joined the government, but then saw its support drop due to compromises in the three-party coalition. This June, the party picked a new hard-line leadership and got kicked out of the government, while more than half of its lawmakers left the party and formed a new group to keep their government seats. Huhtasaari, 38, who was picked as deputy party leader in June, said voters were still confused after the split-up but that the party would eventually bounce back.  The game is really brutal. The biggest parties want us to disappear from the political map. No-one is in politics looking for friends.  The Finns party ranks fifth in polls with a support of 9 percent, down from 17.7 percent in 2015 parliamentary election, while the new  Blue Reform  group, which has five ministers, is backed by only 1-2 percent. Incumbent President Sauli Niinisto, who originally represented the centre-right NCP party, is widely expected to be elected for a second six-year term by a wide margin. A poll by Alma Media last week showed 64 percent of voters supporting Niinisto while 12 percent backed lawmaker Pekka Haavisto from the Greens. Huhtasaari, a first term lawmaker, was backed by 3 percent of those polled.  Things happen slowly when you re fighting against the hegemony... I still have time before the elections,  she said. Huhtasaari, who supports U.S. President Donald Trump and Britain s former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, said the European eurosceptic movement was gradually strengthening despite a series of blows to anti-establishment parties. France s National Front and Italy s 5-Star Movement failed in attempts to win legislative and civic elections while UKIP won no seats in the British parliament, albeit that its goal of Brexit won a referendum.  Any change takes time, a step forward and step back... But the movement strengthens all the time,  she said, noting Austria s Freedom Party s strong performance in October elections. Markku Jokisipila, the director at the Center for Parliamentary Studies of the University of Turku, said Huhtasaari was unlikely to succeed in the Jan 28 election. Around 70 percent of Finns support EU membership and the centre-right government is committed to the euro.  There s no way around it, she is very inexperienced politically for this election,  Jokisipila said. He added that the Finns party had become more united after the June split-up, but that it was now too focused on its anti-immigration and anti-EU platforms to be able to increase support.  They will not disappear from the Finnish politics. The challenge is to broaden their profile... but they have also proved that they do have surprise potential.

Summary: राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार चाहते हैं कि फिनलैंड यूरोपीय संघ से बाहर हो, कहते हैं कि राष्ट्रवादी वापसी करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that more sanctions on North Korea are unlikely to change the country s behavior but would cut off funding for its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.  Do we think more sanctions are going to work on North Korea? Not necessarily,  Haley told the American Enterprise Institute.  But what does it do? It cuts off the revenue that allows them to build ballistic missiles.  Haley said on Monday she wants the United Nations Security Council to vote on Sept. 11 to impose  the strongest possible  sanctions on North Korea over its sixth and largest nuclear test.

Summary: हेली का कहना है कि उत्तर कोरिया के नए प्रतिबंधों से व्यवहार में बदलाव की संभावना नहीं है


BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States must stick to international agreements under the presidency of Donald Trump, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday, adding he did not expect a major trade war despite Trump’s attack on German car makers.  Trump, taking office on Friday, has vowed to make sweeping changes to U.S. trade policy and economists see his protectionism as the biggest risk to U.S. growth. “The United States also signed international agreements,” Schaeuble told magazine Der Spiegel. “I don’t think a big trade war will break out tomorrow, but we will naturally insist that agreements are upheld.” Schaeuble told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: “I am quite optimistic that even the U.S. and the rest of the world as a whole will not (abandon) the defence of free trade.” He said the German economy would feel the effects of any protectionist backlash emanating from Washington, but Germany would be somewhat insulated since its growth was currently driven by domestic demand. Nearly 61 percent of Germans fear relations between Germany and the United States will suffer under Trump, according to a poll conducted by the Civey institute for the Tagesspiegel newspaper. Only 5 percent expect a positive change. Trump criticised German auto makers this week for failing to produce more cars in the United States and said he would impose a tax of 35 percent on vehicle imports. U.S. companies employ more than 600,000 people in Germany, the United States’ biggest European trading partner, and German firms employ roughly the same number in the United States. Schaeuble said he wished Trump luck if he wanted to tell Americans which cars to buy. “That’s not my vision of America and I don’t think it’s his either,” he said. He also recommended not taking Trump’s practice of tweeting plans for policy changes too seriously: “One shouldn’t confuse Trump’s form of communication with statements of government policy.” Marcel Fratzscher, head of the DIW economic institute, said protectionism would not bring jobs back to the United States. “It’s an alarming day for the European economy because the presidency of Donald Trump has caused uncertainty,” Fratzscher told Reuters TV. He urged European officials to remain calm and avoid escalating the situation with threats and counter-threats.  President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany Bernhard Mattes said: “Protectionist measures like tariffs and/or the cancellation of international trade agreements have no place in a globalised world.”

Summary: जर्मनी का कहना है कि ट्रम्प के नेतृत्व में अमेरिका को व्यापार समझौतों का पालन करना चाहिए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz USA and Daimler Vans units and Ferrari NV are among a small group of automakers selling some new vehicles with faulty Takata airbags that will be subject to recalls by the end of 2018, a U.S. Senate report said on Wednesday. The vehicles are legal to sell since the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has said they will not become potentially unsafe until exposed to high humidity for an extended period. Safety advocates and some in Congress have criticized the sale of vehicles that will be recalled. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said the vehicles include the 2016 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and 2016-2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe/Convertible and numerous 2016 and 2017 Ferrari models including the FF, California T, 488 GTB/488 Spider, F12/F12tdf and GTC4 Lusso. Nelson said the report underscores “the failure of certain automakers and regulators to level with people about the true extent of the problem and to have the cars fixed before they’re sold.” Mercedes Benz USA spokeswoman Donna Boland said the company has told regulators that its “dealers will be informing prospective buyers of the pending recall on these models at the time of purchase in the very near future.” Ferrari spokeswoman Krista Florin said the Italian automaker also plans to notify customers of the future recalls.Seven out of 17 automakers Nelson contacted have admitted to equipping some new vehicles with defective Takata airbags, including Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE). All agreed to notify buyers of the planned recalls. Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O) is the only automaker that has not provided a written response, Nelson said. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday from Reuters. NHTSA said in May Tesla would be required to recall vehicles for Takata inflators. Takata inflators can explode with excessive force and spray metal shrapnel. They are suspected in at least 13 deaths worldwide and more than 100 injuries. In May, Takata agreed to declare as defective, by 2018, another 35 million to 40 million U.S. inflators that lack drying agents in frontal airbags after 14 automakers previously recalled more than 24 million U.S. vehicles. Worldwide nearly 100 million inflators have been declared defective. NHTSA said there have been no ruptures in vehicles built since 2008. According to NHTSA, the vehicles do not become vulnerable to exploding airbags without long-term exposure to high humidity. In the short-term, the agency says, they are safe to drive and much safer than older models.

Summary: डेमलर एजी, फेरारी दोषपूर्ण एयरबैग वाले कुछ नए वाहन बेच रहे हैंः अमेरिकी सीनेट की रिपोर्ट


(Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey testified before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8 about Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of Comey on May 9 renewed attention to allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election to benefit Trump. It also raised questions about the motivations behind Comey’s dismissal. 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. How many U.S. investigations are there into Russian election meddling? 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. The Justice Department announced on May 17 that it had 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 to handle any related criminal prosecutions. In addition, there are multiple committees in the Senate and House of Representatives investigating various aspects of Russian election meddling. What has Trump said about Russia’s role in the election? He has not taken a clear public position. At a July 2016 news conference, Trump addressed 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 by saying: “I will tell you this, Russia: if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” He 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.” Trump said in May that China may have hacked the emails of Democratic officials to meddle with the election, offering no evidence and countering the view of intelligence officials. 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. On May 30, Trump tweeted: “Russian officials must be laughing at the U.S. & how a lame excuse for why the Dems lost the election has taken over the Fake News.” Did the FBI probe continue after Comey’s dismissal? There is no evidence that the FBI ended or paused its investigation after Comey’s departure. Andrew McCabe, who is leading the agency as acting director, promised the Senate Intelligence Committee that Comey’s firing would not affect the investigation and that he will notify the committee of any attempt to delay or derail it.  Trump on June 6 chose former U.S. Justice Department official Christopher Wray, who represented New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the so-called Bridgegate scandal, to be the next FBI director. Wray will need Senate confirmation. Why was Comey fired? The White House cited a May 9 letter to Trump from Attorney General Jeff Sessions that attached a memo from Rod 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 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. Was Comey’s firing related to the FBI’s Russia probe? Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee he believes his dismissal was directly related to the FBI’s Russia probe. “I know I was fired because of something about the way I was conducting the Russia investigation, was in some way putting pressure on him, in some way irritating him, and he decided to fire me because of that,” Comey said in his June 8 testimony. Trump asked Comey to end the agency’s investigation of Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, and also to make some sort of public statement that he was not personally under investigation in order to clear “the cloud” hanging over his presidency, according Comey’s testimony. Comey said he found it concerning that Trump would ask him to drop the agency’s probe of Flynn and declined to state publicly that Trump himself was not under investigation, in part because it would create a “duty to correct” if that changed. “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty,” Trump told Comey at a Jan. 27 dinner, according to Comey. Less than a week before he was fired, Comey told a congressional panel that it made him “mildly nauseous” that he may have affected the outcome of the election by publicly re-opening and then re-closing the Clinton email probe days before the election. In an unorthodox move, Great America Alliance, an offshoot of a pro-Trump super PAC devoted to promoting the White House agenda, developed a television ad called “Showboat” to air as Comey testified. The ad claims Comey was “consumed with election meddling” at the expense of fighting terrorism. Has there been any fallout for Trump associates over contacts with Russia before, during or after the election campaign? Flynn 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. He provided the first batch on June 6. 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. Rosenstein is handling matters related to Russia and it is he who appointed Mueller as special counsel. Is Trump himself under investigation?  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 confirmed that Trump was not personally under investigation at any point before his dismissal from the FBI. Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, said Comey’s Senate testimony proved the president was not under investigation. Kasowitz denied Trump ever told Comey he needed and expected his loyalty.

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


MILAN (Reuters) - Italy s ruling Democratic Party (PD) has lost further ground over its rivals after political infighting and fallout from a banking scandal, an opinion poll showed on Sunday. The poll comes just weeks before parliament is expected to be dissolved before elections early next year. The PD share of the vote fell 1 percent, from eight days ago, to 23.4 percent, its lowest level in five years, according to the Ipsos poll in the newspaper Corriere della Sera. Support for the PD, headed by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, has fallen steadily in recent months, with the group damaged by deep schisms and personality clashes. The party has also come under fire over allegations cabinet undersecretary Maria Elena Boschi took steps to try to save Banca Etruria, a local bank based in her home town of Arezzo. Boschi has repeatedly denied exerting any political pressure in deciding the future of Banca Etruria. The Ipsos poll said growing support from smaller allies had raised the center-left bloc s share of the vote to 26.2 percent, as of Dec. 14, from 24.8 percent. That was well short of the 36 percent polled by the center-right bloc led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. It was also behind the 28.2 percent share of the 5-Star anti-establishment party. The 5-Star Movement is predicted to emerge as the largest single party in the next parliament, but it has repeatedly ruled out joining any coalition. Italy has just introduced a new electoral system that is expected to handicap 5-Star, favoring instead mainstream political blocs. Italy s parliament is likely to be dissolved between Christmas and the New Year, opening the way for national elections in early March that look unlikely to produce a clear winner.

Summary: इटली की सत्तारूढ़ पी. डी. पार्टी चुनावों में और फिसल गई, समाचार पत्रों की रिपोर्ट


VIENNA (Reuters) - The number 2 figure in Austria s ruling Social Democratic Party has said he is resigning over a smear campaign against the main conservative party s leader, adding to a sense of disarray on the centre-left of politics weeks before a parliamentary election. The Social Democrats had denied having any connection with two websites making unsubstantiated allegations against 31-year-old Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who took over the conservative People s Party (OVP) in May. Since Kurz took up his post, his party has topped the opinion polls. But Austrian newspaper Die Presse and weekly magazine Profil reported on Saturday that a former adviser to the Social Democrats who was dismissed this summer was originally behind the sites and that they had been kept in operation. At a hastily convened news conference on Saturday, Georg Niedermuehlbichler, the Social Democrats  chairman and campaign manager, said that until recently he had been unaware of any connection with the websites. Although the party never paid for or commissioned the websites, he said, he had discovered that one member of his staff had been aware of work on them.  It is my duty as election campaign manager to ensure that such things do not happen. They happened. I will therefore assume the consequences as campaign manager and as party chairman,  he said. Niedermuehlbichler s resignation adds to the troubles of a party that is now competing with the far-right Freedom Party for second place in the polls, well behind Kurz s OVP, ahead of a parliamentary election on Oct. 15. The Social Democrats remain deeply divided over whether to consider forming coalitions with the Freedom Party, having recently lifted a self-imposed ban on working with them. The Social Democrats are also at loggerheads with the OVP, in a country where parties rarely have enough votes to govern alone. The Freedom Party said Niedermuehlbichler s resignation was not enough and that the party leader, Christian Kern, should also step down.  Niedermuehlbichler appeared to blame Tal Silberstein, an Israeli political adviser who worked for the party until recently, for the websites. Profil and Die Presse also reported that he was originally behind them. The Social Democrats dismissed Silberstein in August after he was detained and questioned in Israel along with billionaire businessman Benny Steinmetz in a fraud investigation.  The events after that showed that this decision was right in every aspect, if too late. Evidently there were then activities that I could not imagine happening to that extent,  Niedermuehlbichler said.  It was certainly a big mistake to hire Tal Silberstein,  he added. Shortly before Niedermuehlbichler s announcement, tabloid daily Oesterreich published an interview with Silberstein in which it said he had declined to comment on the allegations about a smear campaign but said the party was right to sack him. On Saturday, Israel was observing Yom Kippur, when the country effectively shuts down for a day.

Summary: शीर्ष ऑस्ट्रियाई सोशल डेमोक्रेट ने चुनाव अभियान को बदनाम करने के लिए पद छोड़ा


MADRID (Reuters) - A policeman was stabbed to death on Tuesday in Valencia, eastern Spain, a spokesman for the force said, after entering a building during an investigation into the finding of human remains in a suitcase.  The attacker was shot dead. Police do not believe the attack was connected to Islamist militants, the spokesman said.

Summary: वेलेंसिया में पुलिसकर्मी की चाकू मारकर हत्या


LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Britain s rejection of a transgender woman s claim for a women s state pension because she was still married to her spouse from before her transition is discriminatory, an EU court adviser said on Tuesday.  Advocate General Michal Bobek of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) stated in a non-binding opinion that marriage status does not play a role in accessing state retirement pensions for people who are not transgender.  This amounts to direct discrimination on the basis of sex, which is not open to objective justification,  a news release of the opinion stated.  The opinion was issued for a case where a transgender woman - who was registered as a boy at birth but has lived as a woman since 1991 and had gender reassignment surgery in 1995 - in the UK applied for a state retirement pension when she turned 60 in 2008. According to UK law, a woman born before Apr. 6, 1950 must be 60 to access the state retirement pension, whereas for a man born before Dec. 6 1953 the age is 65. Her application was denied because she didn t apply for a full gender recognition certificate due to the fact that she remained married to a woman and her marriage would have been annulled at the time as same-sex marriage was not legal in Britain. The UK Supreme Court asked the ECJ if the requirement to be unmarried to recognize a change in gender, and thus determine the qualifying age for a state pension, was allowed under EU law.   The Advocate General concludes that there is unequal treatment since marital status does not play any role for cisgender persons in order to access a state retirement pension, whereas married transgender persons are subject to the requirement to annul their marriage,  the court s press release said. The court tends to follow the advice given by the advocate general in most cases, but it is not bound to do so. The advocate general stressed that this was not a case about same-sex marriage. Member states are not compelled to recognize same-sex marriage, and they can still determine the conditions under which a change of gender will be legally recognized.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ की अदालत के सलाहकार का कहना है कि ब्रिटेन ने ट्रांसजेंडर महिला की पेंशन से इनकार करना गलत था


NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday gave her first address to the nation since attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on Aug. 25 sparked a military response that has forced more than 410,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh. Suu Kyi condemned human rights violations and said anyone responsible would face the law but she did not address U.N. accusations that the military campaign in Rakhine state was  textbook  ethnic cleansing. Here are some reactions to her speech from diplomats, aid agency officials, human rights groups and others: JAMES GOMEZ, Amnesty International regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.  Aung San Suu Kyi today demonstrated that she and her government are still burying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine State.   PHIL ROBERTSON, Human Rights Watch deputy director, Asia Division.  In response to Suu Kyi s statement that army clearance operations have ceased since Sept. 5 -  If that is true, then who is burning all the villages we ve seen in the past two weeks?  TIN MAUNG SWE, secretary of the Rakhine State government He praised Suu Kyi for her  transparency  but was not optimistic about her pledge to promote harmony between Muslims and the largely Buddhist ethnic Rakhine communities in the state.  The situation is ready to explode. It just needs a single spark.  SEIN WIN, Myanmar defense minister  We will protect the ones who are in line with the law ... There are still many Muslim villages. We are taking good care of them,  he said, as he arrived for Suu Kyi s speech. PAUL EDWARDS, UNICEF deputy representative in Myanmar  We have to take at face value what she said about there being no further military operation since Sept 5. But of course none of us really know what s happening there if we re not there.  MARZUKI DARUSMAN, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar  Two main issues emerge ... the categorical readiness of the government of Myanmar to receive back returnees at any time on the basis of a procedure that will have to be discussed at some point. And secondly, the readiness of the government to undertake to be globally scrutinized by the international community. These two points bode well.  HONG LIANG, Chinese ambassador to Myanmar  China s position is very clear. We support the Myanmar government s effort to restore the peace and stability in Rakhine.   NIKOLAY A. LISTOPADOV, Russian ambassador to Myanmar  There are not reliable proofs, evidence to make such a condemnation, genocide and ethnic cleansing, no evidence.  ANDREW KIRKWOOD, United Nations Office for Project Services director and representative in Myanmar He welcomed Suu Kyi s announcement that diplomats could  travel to Rakhine state to see the situation for themselves.  I think that that is a positive statement and we wait to see what follow-up there is.  NI LAR THEIN, Yangon resident attending an open-air broadcast of Suu Kyi s speech, which was in English.  Mother Suu gave a speech today so that the whole world can know what s actually happening in our country. We come here to show our support for her, no matter if we understand the speech or not.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः राखीन राज्य में हिंसा पर म्यांमार की सू की के भाषण पर प्रतिक्रियाएँ


(Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are flooding Nevada with volunteers ahead of this week’s key nominating contest but they face a problem - the addresses, phone numbers and other personal data they need to reach many voters are out of date. Nevada, which is more than a quarter Latino, was one of the states worst affected by the 2008 financial meltdown, with hundreds of thousands of families unable to pay their mortgages and forced to move in a crisis that by some estimates hit minorities twice as hard as whites.  With the foreclosed homes often switching hands multiple times - from homeowner to bank to investor and back to another homeowner in just a few years - keeping up with voters who at some point lived in those homes is difficult.  (For a graphic, click here: tmsnrt.rs/20OgmO4 ) The Nevada Democratic caucus on Feb. 20 has emerged as an unusually important test of Sanders’ and Clinton’s political strength. Clinton is under pressure to keep her wide lead among Latinos, while Sanders must erode it to show he has a path to the nomination that does not rely mainly on the young white voters who make up the core of his support base. “This ongoing (foreclosure) crisis makes reaching potential voters more difficult,” Sanders’ campaign said in a statement emailed to Reuters. The Clinton campaign said the voter lists supplied by the Democratic Party needed “significantly” more work to update, forcing them to spend valuable canvassing time building up their own private data. Las Vegas, Nevada’s biggest city, has seen some of the country’s highest foreclosure rates since 2008, hitting No. 1 among more than 200 U.S. metro areas from 2009 to 2011, according to RealtyTrac, a provider of real estate data and analytics. Even now, the city and its surrounding area rank No. 17. Data that might have been corrected in the 2012 general election has, in many cases, already fallen out of date again because the Nevada housing market has continued to see wave after wave of foreclosures, the campaigns said. The Democratic party’s voter file is based primarily on voter registration records across the country. But the time between when a person moves and when their voter registration file gets updated can vary because different states and counties have different rules about how to handle those changes, which are not automatic. “Not just our modeling and turnout operation but our recruitment operation is based on having very clean data,” said Jorge Neri, Clinton’s Nevada organizing director. Underscoring the problem, about a fifth of the 1 million voters registered in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, are tagged as inactive, according to Joseph Gloria, the county’s registrar of voters - meaning their mail has been returned to the county elections office as undeliverable.  Latinos make up almost 32 percent of Las Vegas.      Personal information on voters forms the lifeblood of modern election campaigns. It can be used for just about every aspect of a ground operation - from building the so-called turf packets that volunteers scoop up to go knock on doors, to guiding the thousands of phone calls made by volunteers.  Campaign strategy is often based on the voter file, which can tell a campaign everything from where they need to turn up more supporters to what areas they can consider strongholds – or weak points. Clinton staffers first arrived in Nevada last April, campaign officials said, targeting the state early because it has the third nominating contest in the presidential race for the Democrats.  But because so much of the file was out of date, the Clinton campaign had to work harder just to find voters and make sure their information was correct. Door knocking, for example, was often much more time consuming: People listed at certain addresses might have moved, requiring volunteers to engage with new residents from scratch and, perhaps, find out where the previous occupants had gone. That brand-new information, in turn, created more work as volunteers were forced to spend time inputting the new information into the campaign’s own database.  The problem complicated normal operations, Neri said. “Had we had cleaner lists, had we had not such a transient population, we would be focused more on the volunteer recruitment,” he said.  The Sanders campaign is also knocking on doors and phone banking, said Joan Kato, the state director. But, she added, the campaign was using community outreach efforts too, such as house parties and speaking to student groups, to gather data from attendees. Kato did not say how much extra work the voter file problem had created for the campaign. Latinos make up about 27 percent of Nevada’s population and they lean heavily Democrat, meaning they are a prize voter bloc for Clinton and Sanders.  There hasn’t been enough polling in Nevada recently to show who is ahead among Latinos. But nationally Clinton has the advantage: Among Latinos who describe themselves as Democrats, 54 percent support Clinton and 37 percent back Sanders, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling from Oct. 1 to Feb. 12. Latino Decisions, a polling and research firm, said Latinos are expected to form up to 20 percent of the voters in Nevada this year up from 8.4 percent in 2012, as tallied by Pew Research Center. The importance of a good voter file can’t be underestimated, according to Ethan Roeder, who was President Barack Obama’s data director in the 2008 and 2012 elections. “You can run a campaign without a voter file. You just can’t run a successful campaign,” he said.          (Additional reporting by Chris Kahn, editing by Richard Valdmanis and Ross Colvin) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: नेवादा के मतदाताओं तक पहुंचने के क्लिंटन, सैंडर्स के प्रयासों में फोरक्लोजर संकट ने बाधा डाली


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday announced he will vote for Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in Utah’s Tuesday nominating contest, citing a desire to halt the momentum of party front-runner Donald Trump.  “Today, there is a contest between Trumpism and Republicanism. Through the calculated statements of its leader, Trumpism has become associated with racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, vulgarity and, most recently, threats and violence. I am repulsed by each and every one of these”, Romney, the 2012 Republican Party nominee, wrote on Facebook. “The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention,” he said. “At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible.”

Summary: रोमनी का कहना है कि वह यूटा राष्ट्रपति कॉकस में क्रूज़ को वोट देंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street attorney Jay Clayton will recuse himself from matters involving Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank AG and other clients he has recently represented if confirmed to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the terms of an ethics agreement disclosed on Wednesday. Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank AG, UBS Securities, Royal Bank of Canada, Ally Financial and Pershing Square were among the financial firms listed as Clayton’s clients at Sullivan & Cromwell, according to a form filed with the Office of Government Ethics. Under the agreement, Clayton will not participate in SEC matters involving the firm for one year. He will also recuse himself from matters involving his former clients for one year after he last provided them legal services. The SEC currently has only two members - Republican Michael Piwowar and Democrat Kara Stein - and they often disagree about policy matters. Should Clayton be confirmed and then recuse himself, the agency will be left deadlocked until other commissioners are nominated and confirmed. At full force, the SEC has five voting members, including the chair. Clayton also promised to divest, within 90 days of confirmation, some 176 assets collectively worth millions of dollars. He did not reply to a request for comment.  Clayton and his wife, Gretchen Butler Clayton, reported assets between $52.3 million and $130.4 million. Because nominees for Executive Branch positions report their assets in broad ranges, it is impossible to calculate a nominee’s exact net worth. He has assets related to his employment at Sullivan & Cromwell worth between $2.5 million and $8.4 million, the OGE form shows. His wife works at Goldman Sachs & Co, and has assets related to her role at the investment bank worth between $1.1 million and $2.8 million. She has said she will resign her job if he is confirmed. The form also does not detail the specific assets from which Clayton will divest to comply with federal ethics laws. But in his March 3 letter to an ethics officer, Clayton did indicate that he will seek to take advantage of a tax benefit that allows government officials to defer paying capital gains taxes on assets they sell to satisfy ethics requirements, potentially saving him millions of dollars. As a Wall Street attorney, Clayton has worked on notable deals including the initial public offering of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the subject of federal investigations related to drug pricing, was listed as one of his clients. Clayton also reported having two corporate clients he could not name due to pending investigations that are not yet public. The SEC is an independent federal agency tasked with enforcing securities laws and regulating the country’s stock and options exchanges. Agency nominees are reviewed by the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is set to hold Clayton’s initial confirmation hearing on March 23.

Summary: एस. ई. सी. के उम्मीदवार क्लेटन ने अपनी वॉल स्ट्रीट लॉ फर्म से अलग होने की शपथ ली


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s U.S. military buildup plan would cost hundreds of billions of dollars - but with no apparent strategy, defense experts from across the political spectrum said on Thursday. “I haven’t seen any kind of strategy,” said William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. “He (Trump) says nobody is going to challenge us because we will be so strong. But that’s not a strategy. It’s just a kind of wish-fulfillment.” U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, a top Trump backer who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the proposal was based on recommendations from groups such as the National Defense Panel and served as a statement of Trump’s commitment to build the military. “I believe this lays out a framework for rebuilding the military, and it represents a commitment by Donald Trump to make this a priority,” Sessions said in an interview. “If you don’t have presidential leadership really defending the need for a robust national defense, you’re not going to maintain the defense budget.” Trump’s proposal, unveiled in a speech on Wednesday, did not spell out how he would accommodate the additional manpower and hardware as the United States shutters military bases, or where and for what purposes the larger forces would be employed. There were no cost estimates and Trump proposed revenue-raising steps that budget experts called insufficient. “He just called for higher defense spending without giving us a number and without telling us how he is going to pay for it,” said Lawrence Korb, a former Reagan administration Pentagon official and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a think tank aligned with the Obama administration. Trump’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 8 election, Hillary Clinton, advocates tough defense and foreign policies, but has yet to take a stand on the size of the Pentagon budget. Stephen Miller, a Trump policy adviser, said Trump’s proposal came in contrast to Clinton, who he said has “no military plan.” Trump pledged to expand the Army to 540,000 active-duty troops from its current 480,000, increase the Marine Corps from 23 to 36 battalions – or as many as 10,000 more Marines – boost the Navy from 276 to 350 ships and submarines, and raise Air Force tactical aircraft from 1,100 to 1,200. Trump said those numbers were based on assessments by the conservative Heritage Foundation and other groups. Heritage said in a report that it looked at the capacity needed to handle two major wars to determine its force-size recommendations. Trump said he would bolster the development of missile defenses and cyber capabilities. He made no mention of U.S. nuclear forces already in the midst of a modernization effort that will cost an estimated $1 trillion over 30 years. To pay for the buildup, Trump said he would ask Congress to lift a Pentagon budget cap and “fully offset” the increased costs by collecting unpaid taxes, cutting appropriations for federal programs operating without congressional reauthorization, cracking down on social welfare fraud and other fraud, and collecting additional taxes and fees from increased energy production. ‘SOFT-PEDALING’ THE COST Writing in The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, Tom Donnelly, a defense scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think tank who opposes Trump’s election, praised Trump for embracing a buildup that many mainstream Republicans advocate. “However, Trump undercut the power of his proposals by soft-pedaling the cost of such a buildup,” he wrote. Independent cost estimates for Trump’s plan range from $150 billion in additional spending over 10 years, according to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, to as much as $900 billion over the same period, as assessed by Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. Harrison said that increase could be achieved only by raising the federal budget deficit, raising taxes, or cutting other spending, such as benefits programs for seniors and the poor. “None of those things are politically popular,” he said. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that lifting the cap would cost $450 billion over 10 years. The revenue-generating steps proposed by Trump would leave $150 billion of that amount uncovered, it said. Another flaw in Trump’s plan is the assumption that Republican members of the House of Representatives who belong to the deficit-fighting tea party movement would agree to end the budget cap. In April, Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley told a Senate committee that adding more soldiers without a sufficient budget would be disastrous for the country and the Army. Bases would close and programs that support troops and their families would have to be curtailed to make up the shortfall, he said. The Navy already has launched a shipbuilding program to raise the number of vessels to more than 300 by 2021. Trump’s plan fails to account for the country’s limited shipbuilding capacity and the cost of manning, maintaining and basing the additional warships he proposes to build. “The whole thing is unrealistic,” said Dov Zakheim, the Pentagon’s top financial official under former President George W. Bush. Zakheim, who opposes a Trump presidency, estimates that Trump’s plan would boost defense spending by roughly $300 billion over five years. “It’s a soundbite,” he said.

Summary: ट्रम्प सेना पर अरबों अधिक खर्च करेंगे, लेकिन किस लिए? विशेषज्ञ पूछते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama was set on Wednesday to make his first visit to a U.S. mosque, a trip the White House said was aimed at countering rhetoric from Republicans on the presidential campaign trail exploiting some Americans’ fears about Muslims. In the trip to the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Obama wants to highlight the American right to freedom of religion for all, including Muslims, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “We’ve seen an alarming willingness on the part of some Republicans to try to marginalise law-abiding, patriotic Muslim Americans. And it is offensive,” Earnest told reporters. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States after a California couple who killed 14 people last December were described by authorities as radicalised Muslims inspired by Islamic State militants. Republicans vying to be the party’s candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election also argued against Obama’s plan to accept 10,000 refugees fleeing Syria’s war, saying it raised national security risks. Republican candidate Ben Carson has said Muslims were unfit for the presidency of the United States. “It has been a transparent strategy on the part of Republicans to play on people’s anxieties, to target religious minorities to advance their political ambition,” Earnest said. Obama has called the comments a betrayal of American values, and said discrimination against Muslims “plays into the hands” of extremist groups like Islamic State. Muslim civil rights leaders have expressed alarm about anti-Muslim backlash, pointing to recent incidents where vandals have thrown bacon and even a pig’s severed heads at mosques. Obama, who has visited mosques outside the United States on trips abroad, will first meet privately with a small group of Muslim community leaders before delivering remarks at the mosque at 12:05 p.m. ET. He is set to speak to the nation’s Christian leaders at the annual National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, and last week warned against the rise of religious intolerance during a ceremony at the Israeli Embassy.

Summary: मुसलमानों के बारे में रिपब्लिकन की बयानबाजी का जवाब देने के लिए ओबामा अमेरिकी मस्जिद का दौरा करेंगे


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The first congress of Syrian peoples will be held in Russia s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 18, the RIA news agency cited a source close to the Astana peace talks on Syria as saying on Tuesday. The participants of the congress plan to discuss Syria s future constitution, the source told RIA.

Summary: रूस का सोची 18 नवंबर को सीरियाई लोगों की कांग्रेस की मेजबानी करेगाः आर. आई. ए. ने स्रोत का हवाला दिया


BERLIN (Reuters) - She is controlled and cautious, a physicist from East Germany who takes her time making decisions and has never relished the attention that comes from being Europe’s most powerful leader. He is a wealthy real estate magnate from New York who shoots from the hip and enjoys the spotlight. It is hard to imagine two leaders more different, in style or substance, than Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Donald Trump, the new president of the United States. For months, they have been engaged in an uneasy long-distance skirmish over policy and values. On Tuesday, they meet for the first time - a high-stakes encounter that will be watched by governments around the world for clues about the future of the transatlantic alliance, a partnership that has helped shape the global order since World War Two but which Trump is threatening to upend. “Do I think they are going to become good friends? Probably not. They are very different personalities,” said Charles Kupchan, who advised Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama on European policy as a member of the National Security Council. “But I do think they have a strong interest, both politically and strategically, in learning how to work together. It is arguably the most important meeting with a foreign leader of Trump’s presidency.” German officials say the detail-oriented Merkel, 62, has been preparing assiduously for her trip to Washington. She has watched Trump’s speeches and poured over his interviews, including a lengthy Q&A with Playboy magazine from 1990 in which he floats many of the controversial ideas he is now trying to implement as president, they say. Members of her entourage have also analyzed Trump’s encounters with other leaders - including Britain’s Theresa May, Japan’s Shinzo Abe and Canada’s Justin Trudeau - and have had exchanges with some of their counterparts on how to handle the unpredictable former reality-TV star, the officials added.  “We have to be prepared for the fact that he does not like to listen for long, that he prefers clear positions and does not want to delve into details,” said one senior German official.  On both economic and foreign policy, the divide between the two leaders appears vast. Trump, 70, has called Merkel’s decision to allow hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany a “catastrophic mistake.” He has threatened to impose tariffs on German carmakers that import into the U.S. market. And he has criticized Berlin for not spending more on defense, a longstanding U.S. complaint that Merkel has promised to address. Another source of tension is Germany’s 50 billion euro trade surplus with the United States. Trump adviser Peter Navarro has accused Germany of gaining unfair trade advantages through a weak euro. Merkel and her ministers have pointed out that the European Central Bank - and not Berlin - controls the fate of Europe’s single currency. Russia will also be on the agenda. White House officials have said Trump will seek advice from Merkel on how to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  For her part, Merkel has been critical of Trump’s travel ban targeting the citizens of several mainly Muslim countries. In a phone call in January, she explained to Trump that the Geneva Convention obliges signatories, including the United States, to take in war refugees on humanitarian grounds. Merkel is also concerned that Trump, who has repeatedly praised Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, might continue to undermine the bloc with his rhetoric at a time of deep crisis triggered by the rise of anti-EU populist parties. “Europe is in a very fragile, precarious state and Germany is trying to ensure that the European integration project holds together. I suspect the chancellor will want to make this clear to the president,” said Anthony Gardner, who served as U.S. ambassador to the European Union until January. “This is an opportunity to sketch out areas of common interest, to define a positive agenda,” he added. “But one meeting won’t change the atmosphere on its own.”  Trump is the third U.S. president that Merkel, Europe’s longest-serving leader, has worked with. She established a good rapport with George W. Bush, who was keen to repair ties with Germany after his clash with Merkel’s predecessor Gerhard Schroeder over the Iraq war. And although relations with Obama got off to an awkward start when Merkel rebuffed his request to speak at the Brandenburg Gate during the 2008 presidential campaign, the two grew close over time, cooperating on sanctions against Russia and launching negotiations on a transatlantic free-trade deal. “The parting is hard for me,” Merkel acknowledged when Obama visited Berlin in November, a week after Trump’s victory. The German leader will be walking a fine line in Washington. With an election looming at home in September, she must avoid offering her political opponents ammunition by cozying up to Trump. Neither can she afford an open confrontation that might damage German interests. One of the biggest concerns in the chancellor’s camp before the visit is the potential for surprises. Japan’s Abe had an awkward 19-second handshake with Trump, while May was criticized in some sections of the British media for holding hands with Trump during a stroll at the White House, apparently after he reached out to steady himself. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Trump last month, he and his team spent the day before running through endless scenarios, lines of questioning and role-plays to ensure they were prepared for any scenario. But in the end, they were still taken aback when Trump spoke off the cuff at their news conference on the sensitive issues of settlements and a future Palestinian state. Merkel has admitted to being so uncomfortable with surprises as a child that she drew up her Christmas wish-list months in advance to avoid being caught off-guard by an unexpected gift. With Trump, she might have to expect the unexpected.

Summary: मर्केल ने शैली और सार के टकराव में ट्रम्प से मुलाकात की


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine law enforcement agents have arrested a woman who tried to spread radical ideas and recruit hundreds of foreigners to reinforce pro-Islamic State rebels occupying a southern city, the justice minister said on Wednesday. Karen Aizha Hamidon, the widow of a former leader of a small extremist group in Mindanao, was arrested by special agents at her home in a Manila suburb a week ago and has been charged with inciting to rebellion, Vitaliano Aguirre told a news conference. Hamidon is accused of using social media and messaging apps to call on foreigners to join the siege by an alliance of  Islamic State loyalists in Marawi City, a battle that has lasted nearly five months. The military says the conflict, the biggest security crisis in years in the Philippines, is now in its final stages and has killed more than 1,000 people, mostly rebels.  This is a welcome development in the fight against terrorism,  Aguirre said. Agents found she had made 296 posts in chatrooms on Telegram and WhatsApp  calling on Muslims in the Philippines, India and Singapore to come to Marawi to establish a province of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria , he said. There were also about 250 names, mostly foreigners, in her phonebook who were suspected of being Islamic State sympathizers.  Dressed in a black burqa, Hamidon was paraded before the media but was not allowed to speak. Her laptop, mobile phones and electronic gadgets were being looked at by experts for forensic investigation. Hamidon, a Muslim convert, was married to Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, alias Tokboy, the former leader of radical group Ansar Al-Khilafa. He was killed in a gunfight with police in January. Aguirre said she was also linked to Singaporean and Australian extremists, both of whom are in detention in their countries. But counter-terrorism expert Sidney Jones cast doubts about whether Hamidon had been effective. Jones said her presence in chatrooms of Islamic State supporters was not welcomed, her credibility had been questioned and some participants blamed her for the arrests of radicals.  Everyone hates her and thinks she s a spy,  Jones said.

Summary: फिलीपींस ने लड़ाकों की भर्ती करने की कोशिश करने पर उग्रवादी विधवा को गिरफ्तार किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump has taken a more than 20-point lead over U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in the Republican race for the presidential nomination, bolstering his position ahead of the party’s primary in South Carolina on Saturday, according to a national Reuters/Ipsos poll. Among Republicans, Trump, a billionaire businessman, drew 40 percent support in the poll conducted from Saturday to Wednesday, compared with 17 percent for Cruz, 11 percent for U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, 10 percent for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and 8 percent for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. The results contrasted with those of a national poll conducted this week by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal that showed Trump dropping into a national dead heat with Cruz in the race for the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama. On the Democratic side, the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton maintaining about a 10-point national lead over U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont since last week’s New Hampshire primary won by Sanders. The Republican results marked a nominal gain for Trump since his win in the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary, when he led Cruz by 18.4 points in the national rolling survey, although the increase remained within the poll’s credibility interval. Since he announced his candidacy last summer, Trump has leveraged his celebrity and deep pockets to wage an unfiltered campaign that has upended the Republican primary. He has led the Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll since nearly the start of his campaign, topping Bush in late July. The Reuters/Ipsos poll also showed that either Clinton or Sanders would win a hypothetical general election contest with Trump. Clinton would likely win with 44 percent support,  compared with 37 percent for Trump. Sanders would likely win by 44 percent to 35 percent. The poll included responses from 476 registered Republicans and 543 registered Democrats. It had a credibility interval of about 5 percent.  (Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: ट्रम्प राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर रिपब्लिकन क्षेत्र में 20 से अधिक अंकों से आगेः सर्वेक्षण


NEW YORK (Reuters) - France on Monday gave a staunch defense of the Iran nuclear deal, suggesting there could be talks to strengthen the pact for the post-2025 period but that allowing it to collapse could lead Iran s neighbors to seek atomic weapons.  It is essential to maintain it to avoid proliferation. In this period when we see the risks with North Korea, we must maintain this line,  French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters.  France will try to convince (U.S.) President (Donald) Trump of the pertinence of this choice (keeping the accord) even if work can be done to complement the accord (after 2025),  he said.  Speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders in New York, Le Drian said a collapse of the deal could lead to a regional arms race. Key U.S. allies are worried by the possibility of Trump effectively pulling out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Le Drian also made clear France s opposition to an Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum, saying Iraq s constitution had important provisions on the autonomy of the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq and  all other initiatives are inappropriate.  He also said the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council   Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States   on Thursday would discuss the possibility of a contact group on Syria, now in its seventh year of civil war.

Summary: फ्रांस ने 2025 के बाद ईरान परमाणु समझौते को मजबूत करने के लिए दरवाजे खोले


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj said on Thursday that he was hopeful that a U.N.-imposed arms embargo would be partially lifted against some branches of the country s military. The Libyan government is allowed to import weapons and related materiel with the approval of a U.N. Security Council committee overseeing the embargo imposed in 2011.  ...We hope that this embargo will be partially ended at least against some of the military branches such as the presidential guard and the coast guard,  Sarraj, the head of the Government of National Accord (GNA), said before meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at the Pentagon. He was speaking through a translator. President Donald Trump will host Sarraj at the White House on Friday for talks on counterterrorism cooperation and ways to expand bilateral engagement. The North African country has been in turmoil since Muammar Gaddafi s downfall gave space to Islamist militants and smuggling networks that have sent hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe. Political and military fractures have left the country mired in conflict. Rival parliaments and governments have vied for power. Libya s eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar is aligned with a government and parliament in eastern Libya. He has rejected a U.N.-backed Government of National Accord based in the capital, Tripoli, as he has gradually strengthened his position on the ground.

Summary: लीबिया के प्रधानमंत्री सरराज को हथियार प्रतिबंध में ढील की उम्मीद


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. Senate Finance Committee unanimously on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s pick for the Treasury Department’s top tax policy job, sending the nomination on to consideration by the full Senate. David Kautter, a former Senate legislative aide and long-time tax policy expert, would play a key role in the Republican push to overhaul the U.S. tax code this year, if confirmed by the 100-seat chamber as assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy.  “I’m hoping that he can be confirmed by the full Senate in short order,” said Senator Orrin Hatch, the finance committee’s Republican chairman.   No floor vote has been scheduled.   Kautter was most recently a tax partner at the firm RSM, which provides tax and audit services. He was also director of American University’s Kogod Tax Center and had a long career at the auditing and consulting firm Ernst & Young LLP. Republicans are trying to pursue tax reform along partisan lines though a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation, which would allow them to pass tax legislation by a simple majority in the Senate. Republicans control the chamber by only a 52-48 margin and would need 60 votes for tax reform without reconciliation. Democrats reject the Republican approach to tax reform, which they say would benefit corporations and the wealthy but do little for middle-class families.     Senator Ron Wyden, the finance panel’s top Democrat, said he decided to support Kautter because he believed the nominee would work to make tax reform a bipartisan effort between Republicans and Democrats. “Bringing both sides together on the tax reform question is the key to a major set of economic reforms that will help us create more good-paying jobs and grow wages for working-class families,” Wyden said. “It is my hope that Mr. Kautter can help bring Republicans and Democrats together.” Democrats initially criticized Kautter for not doing more as national tax director at Ernst & Young to prevent a tax avoidance scandal involving tax shelters for wealthy clients that led to criminal charges more than a decade ago.  Kautter told lawmakers in a hearing this week that he regretted not doing more.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट पैनल ने शीर्ष ट्रेजरी कर नौकरी के लिए ट्रम्प के चयन को मंजूरी दी


BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called on Tuesday for advancing free trade agreement talks between China, Japan and South Korea, state news agency Xinhua reported. It provided no details but China has been seeking to get relations with Japan and South Korea back on track after disputes over how to rein in North Korea s nuclear and missile programmes, and, in Japan s case, over the two countries  sensitive wartime history.  China stands ready to work with relevant parties to speed up negotiations of the China-Japan-South Korea FTA,  Li told a regional summit in Manila, Xinhua said. The three countries began free trade agreement talks in November 2012, with the latest round of talks being held in Tokyo in April, the report added.

Summary: चीन ने दक्षिण कोरिया, जापान के साथ मुक्त व्यापार वार्ता को आगे बढ़ाने का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. State Department investigators last year issued a subpoena to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation seeking documents about projects run by the charity that may have required U.S. government approval when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. A U.S. official said the matter was being investigated by the Inspector General, the State Department’s internal watchdog. Citing unnamed sources for the report, the Post said the subpoena issued in the fall also asked for records related to senior Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who for six months in 2012 simultaneously worked for several employers including the State Department, the foundation, and Clinton’s personal office. The report follows a Reuters investigation last year that found the Clinton Foundation’s flagship health project did not submit new or increased payments from at least seven foreign governments to the State Department for review, in breach of the ethics agreement Clinton signed with the incoming Obama administration in order to become secretary of state. Clinton, who is running for the Democratic nomination in the Nov. 8 presidential election, has been criticized for using a private email account hosted on a private computer while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, a matter the FBI is investigating. Spokesmen for Clinton’s campaign and the Clinton Foundation and a lawyer for Abedin did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. A spokesman for the Inspector General also declined to comment. The Post quoted an unnamed foundation representative as saying the initial document request had been narrowed by investigators and that the foundation was not the focus of the probe. It said there was no indication that the investigators were looking at Clinton. “The full scope and status of the inquiry, conducted by the State Department’s inspector general, were not clear from the material correspondence reviewed by the Washington Post,” the paper said. Sources familiar with investigations into the controversy surrounding Clinton’s private email server said they had no reason to believe any government agency was conducting any kind of inquiry into possible criminal violations related to the former secretary of state.

Summary: राज्य विभाग ने क्लिंटन फाउंडेशन से दस्तावेज तलब किएः रिपोर्ट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told journalists on Tuesday they opposed a referendum in Spain s Catalonia region scheduled for this weekend, which the Spanish government has tried to thwart.  I m just for a united Spain,  said Trump, who cast doubt on polling data predicting a  yes  vote for independence will win.  I really think the people of Catalonia would stay with Spain. I think it would be foolish not to.

Summary: ट्रम्प, स्पेन के प्रधानमंत्री राजोय ने कहा कि वे कैटेलोनिया की स्वतंत्रता के प्रयास का विरोध करते हैं


LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski s political troubles will likely continue despite his surprise victory over a bid in Congress to oust him this week, a key opposition leader said on Saturday, citing ongoing graft probes and opposing demands from allies. Jose Chlimper, secretary general of the right-wing Popular Force, said his party could eventually emerge stronger from this week s political crisis, despite failing to garner enough votes in the 130-member Congress to remove Kuczynski from office.  For us having 71 lawmakers was an asset but also a liability. Because whatever Congress did was our fault,  Chlimper told Reuters in a rare interview. The party, which grew out of the populist movement of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori, sought to remove Kuczynski from office this week over business links he once denied having to a company at the center of a massive graft scandal. Ten Popular Force lawmakers broke ranks to keep a   presidential vacancy  motion from succeeding. Chlimper called the defections a painful  betrayal  but said the rest of Popular Force lawmakers have reaffirmed their commitment to staying in the party and voting as a bloc. Kuczynski, on the other hand, could see the cross-party alliance that defended him this week evaporate going forward, said Chlimper.  I don t see how he can come out stronger,  he said. Chlimper said Kuczynski lured the rebel Popular Force lawmakers with a promise to free their movement s political leader, Fujimori, from prison - an accusation denied by Kuczynski s government. The dissident faction was led by Fujimori s youngest son, Kenji, who has challenged his sister Keiko s leadership of their father s following and who could receive a boost if the once-popular patriarch is released from prison. Kuczynski would lose the support of Fujimori s left-leaning foes if he makes good on the deal to secure the elder Fujimori s release, said Chlimper.  In coming days, the left may have achieved what Fujimori s supporters have been unable to: a pardon for Fujimori,  Chlimper said. At the same time, ongoing probes in Congress and in the attorney general s and comptroller s offices threaten to implicate Kuczynski in new allegations of wrongdoing, he added.  His allies are going to have to explain themselves for the documents that will keep coming out,  said Chlimper.  This isn t a picture. It s a video. And we re going to keep seeing the scenery change in coming weeks and months,  Chlimper said.

Summary: पेरू के विपक्षी नेता को राष्ट्रपति की जीत पर संदेह है