MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday he would deal with U.S. President Donald Trump  in the most righteous way  when they meet next month to discuss regional security and Manila s war on drugs. Trump will travel to Asia on Nov. 3-14 amid rising tensions over North Korea s nuclear and missile programs. He will be in Manila on the last leg of his trip, which includes visits to Japan, South Korea, China, and Vietnam, to attend the ASEAN leaders  summit. Trump will meet with Duterte but will skip the larger meeting in Manila with heads of states and governments from China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand.  It would be terrorism, cooperation between the two countries, the fight against drugs. I expect to be dealing with him around these topics,  Duterte said in a media briefing before leaving for Japan to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  I would deal with President Trump in the most righteous way, welcome him as an important leader,  he said.  I would have to also listen to him, what he has to say.   Duterte is known for his often profanity-laden tirades against the United States, chiding Washington for treating the Philippines  like a dog,  despite the two nations  longstanding relationship. The Philippines  leader announced his  separation  from the United States during a visit to Beijing a year ago, declaring he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks. Duterte was infuriated by expressions of concern by members of former President Barack Obama s administration about extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. But Trump, in a phone call to Duterte in May, praised the Philippine leader for doing an  unbelievable job on the drug problem  despite human rights groups  condemnation of Duterte s drug crackdown, in which thousands of people have been killed. Human rights, rule of law and due process are among  important developments  the two leaders would likely discuss during their bilateral talks, Sung Kim, U.S. ambassador to Manila, told foreign correspondents last week. Duterte is accused by international human rights groups of supporting a campaign of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines, which his government denies. He defended his 16-month-old campaign last week, telling Southeast Asian lawyers at a gathering in Manila that he had been  demonized  and denying allegations of state-sponsored killings of drug dealers and users. Duterte, speaking in Davao City on Sunday night, said the situation in the Korean Peninsula would be the main agenda item in his talks with Trump.  We are worried. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong,  he said.  A nuclear war is totally unacceptable to everybody.  Duterte said it would be good if the United States, Japan and South Korea would sit down and talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and  tell him that nobody s threatening him, that there would be no war, and that if you can just tone down or stand down, stop the threats, and that would be the same for America.  Duterte previously described Kim as a  fool  and  son of a bitch  for  playing with dangerous toys.  Duterte said the North Korea threats would also be discussed during his meeting with Abe, along with Tokyo s assistance to rebuild the conflict-torn Marawi City in southern Philippines and for Manila s infrastructure projects.

Summary: फिलीपींस के दुतेर्ते ने कहा कि वह ट्रम्प से 'सबसे उचित तरीके' से निपटेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday he does not regret using a government plane to travel to Kentucky in August with his wife to view the solar eclipse and speak to business leaders, calling it “completely justifiable.” Mnuchin’s use of the plane at taxpayers’ expense prompted an outcry from Democratic lawmakers and interest groups and spurred a government watchdog to begin examining whether it violated travel or ethics policies.  “It was approved by the White House and there were reasons why we needed to use that plane that are completely justifiable,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. Cabinet members rarely use government planes or chartered aircraft for domestic travel, but the practice has received significant attention in the wake of Mnuchin’s trip. On Friday, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned after an outcry over his use of private charter planes for government business at a cost of nearly $52,000.  Mnuchin told NBC that he would only use a private plane for government purposes “if either there was a national security issue or we couldn’t get somewhere.” The Treasury Department has described Mnuchin’s trip in August as official government travel. Mnuchin spoke to business leaders in Louisville and visited Fort Knox, the site of significant U.S. gold reserves. Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, also viewed the Aug. 21 solar eclipse in Kentucky with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others.  Public uproar over the trip began to mount after Linton posted a photo of herself deboarding the plane on social media and listed the expensive designer brands she was wearing in the caption.

Summary: मनुचिन ने कहा कि सरकारी विमान के उपयोग पर कोई पछतावा नहीं है


LOME (Reuters) - Togo s opposition chief called on Wednesday for the immediate resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe, the current head of a half century-old political dynasty, rejecting a government move to introduce term limits as protests gained momentum.  Tens of thousands of protesters clad in red, orange and pink - the colors of Togo s opposition parties - marched through the streets of the capital Lome as security forces looked on, a Reuters witness said. Some carried banners bearing slogans including  Free Togo  and  Faure resign . Gnassingbe has ruled the West African nation since his father died in 2005 after 38 years in power. The late President Gnassingbe Eyadema passed a law in 1992 limiting the president to two terms in power, only to scrap it a decade later. Togo s cabinet on Tuesday adopted a draft bill to bring back the term limits, the government announced in a statement. But the decision did little to satisfy an increasingly rejuvenated opposition. Speaking before a crowd of thousands of protesters in central Lome, Jean-Pierre Fabre, the head of the main ANC opposition party, said:  We will march again tomorrow. Faure should talk to us about the conditions for his departure. The (draft) law on mandates comes too late.  Residents said similar protests were underway in Sokode, 340 km (210 miles) north of the coastal capital, as well as several other towns.  A number of long-serving African rulers, notably in Rwanda, Burundi and Burkina Faso, have moved to drop term limits in recent years in order to remain in power. In some cases this has sparked strong opposition that has led to violent unrest. However, unlike marches last month during which at least two protesters were killed by security forces, there was no sign of violence by early afternoon on Wednesday. Togo, which aspires to become an African Dubai and hosts the headquarters of pan-African lender Ecobank  and other major firms, has a history of repression. Around 500 people were killed during protests against the current leader s 2005 poll victory. But the move to reintroduce a two-term limit could represent an important volte-face by the president, whose government in 2015 voted against the introduction of regional term limits across the ECOWAS 15-nation zone which he currently chairs.  (I) deplore the serious incidents in Sokode and Lome during the protests of 19 August and call upon the people to exercise calm, serenity and moderation,  Gnassingbe said in a statement released on Wednesday. He also pledged to improve living conditions in the country of nearly 8 million people. It was not immediately known when the bill approved by the cabinet will be presented to parliament. Nor was it clear how the proposed change to article 59 of the constitution would affect Gnassingbe, who is now serving a third mandate which ends in 2020. Government critics accused authorities of cutting mobile internet access on Wednesday in a move they said mirrored cuts imposed by other African incumbents, such as Gabon s Ali Bongo, to control criticism at sensitive times. However, the main internet gateway remained operational according to Dyn which monitors global internet traffic. A government official could not immediately be reached for comment.

Summary: टोगो में विरोध प्रदर्शनों के बीच विपक्ष ने राष्ट्रपति से इस्तीफे की मांग की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will propose beefing up military spending and slashing domestic programs and foreign aid in his fiscal year 2018 budget to be released on Thursday.  Here are the highlights: The budget calls for an increase of $52 billion for the Defense Department above the 2017 base budget of about $522 billion, enacted under the Obama administration. There is an additional $2 billion increase in defense spending in other departments, including Energy and State. That is still less than some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have called for, including the heads of the committees in the Senate and House of Representatives that oversee the U.S. military. But at a time of broad cuts elsewhere in the budget, the Pentagon is unlikely to complain.  The plan earmarks the new funds to accelerate the fight against Islamic State militants, reverse Army troop reductions, build more ships for the Navy and ramp up the Air Force – including by purchasing additional F-35 fighter jets, built by Lockheed Martin (LMT.N). The Department of Homeland Security would get a 6.8 percent increase, with more money for extra staff needed to catch, detain and deport illegal immigrants. Trump wants Congress to shell out $1.5 billion for his promised border wall with Mexico in the current fiscal year - enough for pilot projects to determine the best way to build it - and a further $2.6 billion in fiscal 2018. The combined budget for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, would fall by 28 percent, with funding cuts for the United Nations, climate change and cultural exchange programs. The plan preserves $3.1 billion in security aid to Israel. The budget also requests $12 billion in so-called Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO, funding for extraordinary costs, chiefly in war zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. No comparison was provided for the current year’s OCO spending. Current commitments on HIV/AIDS treatment under PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, will be maintained. PEPFAR is the world’s largest provider of AIDS-fighting medicine and enjoys bipartisan support. The Environmental Protection Agency’s budget would be cut by 31 percent, eliminating its climate change programs and trimming back core initiatives aimed at protecting air and water quality. The proposal would eliminate 3,200 EPA employees, or 19 percent of the current workforce, and effectively erase former Democratic President Barack Obama’s initiatives to combat climate change by cutting funding for the agency’s signature Clean Power Plan aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Healthcare companies such as drug makers and device makers will pay more than twice as much in 2018 to have their medical products reviewed for approval by the Food and Drug Administration under the proposed budget. The proposal budgets over $2 billion in fees to be collected from industry, twice as much in 2017. Oversight of air traffic control would move from the federal government to an independent group under the proposals, which include a 13 percent cut for the Department of Transportation’s discretionary budget. The plan also calls for cutting the U.S. space agency NASA budget by 0.8 percent to $19.1 billion.  The budget for the Department of Energy would include $120 million to restart licensing for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada, a project that has been stalled for years because of lawsuits and local opposition. The Agriculture Department’s discretionary spending would be cut to $17.9 billion, a 21 percent drop from the temporary 2017 funding levels approved by Congress late last year. [L2N1GS2K1]

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रंप के बजट से सेना को बढ़ावा, घरेलू कार्यक्रमों में कटौती


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has stopped fundraising in New York state, the state attorney general’s office said on Monday, weeks after the office warned that a failure to do so would constitute a “continuing fraud.”     The Donald J. Trump Foundation also received an extension to file financial paperwork with the state, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office said in a phone interview. The Trump campaign said in a statement: “The Trump Foundation is cooperating with the Office of the NY AG in its investigation of the Foundation and, given the scope of the NY AG’s requests, is working with the NY AG to respond in a reasonable and timely manner.”  New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman warned the group last month that it was in violation of a state law requiring charitable organizations that solicit outside donations to register with the office’s Charities Bureau. The organization has been under increased scrutiny following reports in the Washington Post suggesting possible improprieties within the small-scale nonprofit organization. Trump’s campaign has suggested that the probe launched by Schneiderman, a Democrat, was politically motivated. Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in the Nov. 8 election, also has ties to a charitable organization, the Clinton Foundation. Trump has called it a “pay-to-play” operation in which the former secretary of state and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, rewarded big donors to the foundation with political access. There has been no evidence that foreign donors to the foundation obtained favors from the State Department while Clinton headed the agency. While some donors were able to obtain meetings with her or senior State Department officials, Clinton has said the fact that they had donated to the foundation did not play a role in her decision to meet with them.

Summary: ट्रम्प फाउंडेशन ने न्यूयॉर्क राज्य में धन उगाहने पर रोक लगाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday that his administration’s guidance on transgender issues is needed to help schools grapple with the sensitive topic and ensure that all children are treated fairly. Obama, in an interview with BuzzFeed news website broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube, said schools had been asking the Department of Education how they should handle questions they were facing with transgender youths. “We think it was important for schools who want to go ahead and, in a very practical way, try to deal with the school year - What are they going to be doing next year? How should we approach this? - that we give them our best judgment about how to approach it,” Obama said. The Obama administration told U.S. public schools on Friday that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, upsetting Republicans and raising the likelihood of fights over federal funding and legal authority. The Education and Justice Departments told school districts nationwide that while the guidance carries no legal weight, they must not discriminate against students, including based on their gender identity. Obama, who has two teenaged daughters, elaborated on the decision. “We’re talking about kids. And anybody who’s been in school, been in high school, who’s been a parent, I think, should realize that kids who are sometimes in the minority, kids who have a different sexual orientation or are transgender are subject to a lot of bullying, potentially,” Obama said. “They are vulnerable. And I think that it’s part of our obligation as a society to make sure that everybody is treated fairly and our kids are all loved and that they’re protected and that their dignity is affirmed,” he said.

Summary: ओबामा ने कहा कि ट्रांसजेंडर नियम स्कूलों के लिए महत्वपूर्ण सहायता हैः बजफीड


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the influential Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Monday he had not yet decided whether he would run for re-election to a third Senate term in 2018. “While we are in a strong position, I am still contemplating the future and will make a decision at the appropriate time,” Corker, 65, said in a statement. “I think everyone in the Volunteer State knows, as they did in 2012, that running for re-election has never been an automatic for me,” he said. However, Corker will be ready to run if he decides to go ahead. A source with direct knowledge said he has $7.5 million in cash on hand for the race. A former mayor of Chattanooga and successful businessman, Corker is expected to win easily if he does run in the solidly Republican state. Aides to the senator had said for some time that he had not yet decided whether to run. He had ruled out talk that he might run for governor of Tennessee earlier this year, and the issue arose again last month when President Donald Trump said on Twitter that Corker was “constantly asking” him whether or not he should seek re-election. Trump had considered Corker as a potential vice presidential running mate or secretary of state, and he has worked closely with the administration. But he has broken with the Republican president on some issues. Trump issued his tweet after Corker responded to Trump’s comments about a neo-Nazi white supremacist rally by saying Trump had not yet demonstrated the stability or some competence to be successful. The president was broadly criticized for his reaction to the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, including his observation that there were good people on both sides.  Corker issued his statement after CNN reported on Monday on an interview with him last week in which he discussed possibly ending his Senate career. A fiscal conservative, Corker is seen as a pragmatist willing to work with Democrats on a range of issues including foreign affairs but also domestic policy matters such as immigration.

Summary: प्रभावशाली अमेरिकी सीनेटर ने सेवानिवृत्ति पर विचार किया


BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) - Catalonia s ousted leader Carles Puigdemont agreed on Tuesday to a snap election called by Spain s central government when it took control of the region to stop it breaking away, but he said  the fight for independence would go on. Spain s High Court issued a summons for Puigdemont and 13 members of his sacked administration to testify in Madrid on Thursday and Friday as the court starts processing charges of rebellion, sedition and breach of trust against them. Under Spain s legal system, a judge will then decide whether Puigdemont should go to jail pending a comprehensive investigation and potential trial. Puigdemont travelled to Brussels after the Catalan regional parliament issued a unilateral declaration of independence on Friday, and it was not immediately clear if he would heed the summons to appear before the Madrid court.  Belgium s crisis centre said it was evaluating whether Puigdemont needed to be protected by Belgian authorities while he was staying in the country, Belga news agency reported. He had said earlier on Tuesday he would return to Spain only when given unspecified  guarantees  by the Spanish government.  Puigdemont s announcement that he would accept the regional election on Dec. 21 signalled the Madrid government had for now at least gained the upper hand in the protracted struggle over Catalonia, a wealthy northeastern region that already had enjoyed considerable autonomy. Resistance to the central government s imposition of direct control on Catalonia failed to materialise at the start of the week and the secessionist leadership is in disarray. But a poll released on Tuesday showed that support for the creation of an independent state of Catalonia rose to an almost three-year high in October. Spain s Constitutional Court on Tuesday blocked the independence declaration - a largely symbolic move that gained no traction and led to the assembly s dismissal by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy less than an hour after it was made.  I ask the Catalan people to prepare for a long road. Democracy will be the foundation of our victory,  Puigdemont  told a news conference in Brussels, where he showed up after dropping out of sight over the weekend. He also said he was not seeking asylum in Belgium. Rajoy, who has taken an uncompromising stance throughout the crisis, is gambling on anti-independence parties taking power in the regional parliament and putting the brakes on the independence drive. Puigdemont will hope a strong showing for the independence camp will reboot the secessionists after a tumultuous few weeks. The Spanish government said at the weekend Puigdemont was welcome to stand in the election. The judicial process was a separate matter, it said. The Supreme Court also began processing rebellion and sedition charges against Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell and other senior leaders on Tuesday.  The political crisis, Spain s gravest since the return of democracy in the late 1970s, was triggered by an independence referendum held in Catalonia on Oct. 1. Though it was declared illegal by Spanish courts and less than half Catalonia s eligible voters took part, the pro-secessionist regional government said the vote gave it a mandate for independence. The United States, Britain, Germany and France have all backed Rajoy and rejected an independent Catalan state, although some have called for dialogue between the opposing sides. Puigdemont, Vice President Oriol Junqueras and other Catalan leaders had said previously they would not accept their dismissal. But their respective parties, PdeCat and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, said on Monday they would take part in the election, a tacit acceptance of direct rule from Madrid. The struggle has divided Catalonia itself and caused deep resentment across the rest of Spain, although separatist sentiment persists in the Basque Country and some other areas. Two recent opinion polls showed support for independence may have started to wane.  But an official regional survey published on Tuesday showed some 48.7 percent of Catalans believe the region should be independent, up from 41.1 pct in June and the highest since December 2014.  Based on 1,338 interviews, the Centre d Estudis d Opinio poll was the first survey released since the independence declaration though the bulk of it was taken before then, between Oct. 16 and Oct. 29. Despite his dash to the European Union s power centre, Puigdemont s hopes of engaging the bloc in his cause seem forlorn. Member states have asserted their support for Spanish unity and EU institutions in Brussels say they will deal only with Madrid and that the dispute remains an internal matter.  Our position remains unchanged,  EU Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said in Brussels on Tuesday. But some analysts believe the dispute is not going to fade away anytime soon.  Spain is heading for a period of disruption, and like the UK and Brexit, having its policy agenda dominated by one political issue while other key challenges fade into the background,  said Raj Badiani, an economist at IHS Markit in London.  A more tangible impact from the crisis could evolve from early 2018, with the uncertainty set to build as Catalans push harder for a legally binding referendum.    Influential Catalan business lobbies have backed direct rule and called on firms to stay in the region. The crisis has prompted more than 1,000 businesses to switch their legal headquarters from Catalonia, which contributes about a fifth of Spain s economy, the fourth-largest in the euro zone. Spain s IBEX fell slightly as Puigdemont began speaking in Brussels but then rose again. For some in Barcelona, the overwhelming emotion appears to be exasperation.  It s a farcical and completely ridiculous situation,  said Ernesto Hernandez Busto, 42, an editor.  This extreme nationalism, this separatism, has taken Catalonia to the most absurd situation and the worst inconvenience we have had in the last 40 years.

Summary: कैटलन के अपदस्थ नेता चुनाव के लिए सहमत, मैड्रिड की अदालत में तलब


CAIRO (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish leaders must be prepared to face the consequences if they unilaterally declare independence and find implementation more difficult than they expected, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said on Wednesday. Jaafari was in Cairo for an Arab League summit where the closing statement included a resolution calling a Kurdish independence referendum this month unconstitutional, mirroring the stance of Iraq s central government and national parliament. Jaafari told Reuters in an interview Kurdish leaders should think carefully before going ahead with any independence move.  Those who make such a declaration should bear the responsibility for it. It is easy to declare whatever you want but it is not that easy to actualize it,  he said in his Cairo hotel room.  We are depending on dialogue and also Arab, and non-Arab advocacy. As we saw yesterday, the Arab diplomatic mobilization was attained by Arab foreign ministers,  he said. The Kurdish area of northern Iraq has enjoyed broad autonomy since the first Gulf War in 1991. Since the 2003 U.S-led invasion and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, it has been largely stable while the rest of Iraq has suffered insurgency. Kurds are set to hold the referendum on Sept. 25 but Baghdad opposes it, with lawmakers voting to reject it. Iraq s neighbors   Turkey, Iran and Syria    also oppose the referendum, fearing it could fan separatism among their own ethnic Kurdish populations. Western powers are concerned a plebiscite in Iraq s semi-autonomous Kurdish region - including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk - could divert attention from the war against Islamic State militants. Kurds have sought an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East after the collapse of the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire. Iraq is in the final throws of a U.S.-backed campaign to oust the Sunni militant groups which seized vast swathes of the country back in 2014. Iraqi forces took back its second largest city, Mosul in July, and Tal Afar last month. Jaafari said the international community must offer financial and other support to Iraq for the rebuilding of Mosul and other cities retaken from Islamic State.  It is well known that nations who have emerged from war and destruction suffer great losses especially if the opposing party is implementing a scorched earth policy. (They) never surrendered land except after destroying it,  he said.  Homes, institutions, hospitals mosques, markets and worship places, all were destroyed. The money needed is not little, a great sum is required.

Summary: इराकी विदेश मंत्री ने कहा, कुर्दों के लिए स्वतंत्रता को लागू करना मुश्किल होगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who has self-funded his primary campaign, would turn to donors in the general election if he wins the party’s nomination, CNN reported on Thursday. Citing a unnamed source familiar with the plan, CNN said Trump and his staff have told some individuals, including potential donors, that he would begin to raise funds as soon as he secures the nomination.  (Reporting by Timothy Ahmann) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन नामांकन जीतने पर चुनाव प्रचार के लिए धन जुटाएंगे ट्रंपः सीएनएन


DUBAI (Reuters) - King Salman has appointed or promoted 56 judges, Saudi Arabia s state news agency SPA reported on Thursday, a step coinciding with an anti-corruption crackdown in the kingdom.  The king issued a royal order that promoted 26 judges and appointed 30 others at different levels of the judiciary, SPA said.  Saudi authorities have arrested dozens of royal family members, officials and businessmen in the anti-graft purge that began on Saturday. They face allegations of money laundering, bribery, extortion and exploiting public office for personal gain. It was unclear if the judges will have any role in the widening crackdown. Regulators in the United Arab Emirates have asked banks for information about citizens detained in the investigation, a possible prelude to freezing their accounts. Saudi Arabia has announced it will confiscate assets improperly acquired, and while Riyadh has set no timetable for any such confiscations, banking sources say more than 1,700 domestic bank accounts have already been frozen at the request of the central bank. Huge amounts of money may be at stake. Corruption has over the years siphoned off $800 billion from Saudi state revenues and bankers believe much of it is held abroad, in countries including Switzerland and Britain.

Summary: भ्रष्टाचार रोधी अभियान के बीच सऊदी राजा ने 30 न्यायाधीशों की नियुक्ति की, 26 को पदोन्नत किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman s recent political purge raises concerns and remains unclear but does not appear to amount to mass arrests, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters on Friday.  Separately, Tillerson said there was no indication that Lebanon s former prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, was being held in Saudi Arabia against his will but that the United States was monitoring the situation, according to a press pool report of his remarks. Tillerson, who is traveling with President Donald Trump on an Asia trip, made the comments following talks with his Saudi counterpart this week. Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia s future king, has tightened his grip on power through an anti-corruption purge by arresting royals, ministers and investors including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal who is one of the kingdom s most prominent businessmen. He was among 11 princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers who were detained. Asked about the Saudi purge, Tillerson said he had spoken with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir about the situation on Wednesday and that the recent crackdown did not yet amount to formal arrests.  Based on that conversation, it s well intended. How disruptive it s going to be remains to be seen,  Tillerson said, adding that the situation was  still a bit unclear.   It s my understanding that they re characterizing these as not really arrests at this point but they re presenting people with evidence of what they think the wrongdoing is to see if there s a willingness to want to make things right.    It raises a few concerns until we see more clearly how these particular individuals are dealt with,  Tillerson added. His view contrasted with that of Trump, who has praised the Saudi purge and expressed confidence in the king and crown prince.  Tillerson also said that Jubeir had assured him that Hariri s decision to resign was taken  on his own.  The United States was watching the situation  very carefully,  supporting  the legitimate government of Lebanon  and  asking other outside parties to stay out of it,  he added.  If he s going to step down, as I understand it, he needs to go back to Lebanon to make that official. I m hopeful that if that is still his intent to leave that he ll do that so that the government of Lebanon can function properly,  Tillerson said. (This version of the story was refiled to fix name of Saudi royal in second reference in 4th paragraph)

Summary: अमेरिका के टिलरसन ने सऊदी अरब की सफाई पर चिंता जताई, हरीरी की स्थिति पर नजर रखी


(Reuters) - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution late on Tuesday calling on President Donald Trump to condemn hate groups after Trump was criticized for his response to the violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a month ago. The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously adopted the resolution, U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, said in a statement. The Senate approved the measure on Monday. “Tonight, the House of Representatives spoke in one unified voice to unequivocally condemn the shameful and hate-filled acts of violence carried out by the KKK (Ku Klux Klan), white nationalists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville,” Connolly said. The joint resolution, passed with the support of both Republicans and Democrats, will go to Trump for his signature.  Representatives for the White House did not respond immediately to an email seeking comment. The Congressional resolution calls on Trump to condemn hate groups and what it describes as the growing prevalence of extremists who support anti-Semitism, xenophobia and white supremacy. It also urges Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate acts of violence and intimidation by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups. Trump alienated fellow Republicans, corporate leaders and U.S. allies and rattled markets last month with comments about the violence in Charlottesville, where white nationalists and neo-Nazis clashed with anti-racism activists on Aug. 12. One woman, Heather Heyer, was killed and several people were wounded when a suspected white nationalist crashed his car into anti-racist demonstrators. The Congressional resolution calls Heyer’s death a “domestic terrorist attack.” James Alex Fields, a 20-year-old Ohio man who authorities say drove into Heyer and other protesters, has been charged with second-degree murder and other criminal counts.  On Aug. 12, Trump denounced hatred and violence “on many sides,” a comment that drew sharp criticism from across the political spectrum for not condemning white nationalists.  White nationalists had gathered in Charlottesville to protest against the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, who led the pro-slavery Confederacy’s army during the U.S. Civil War. Trump defended Confederate monuments last month. At a rally in Phoenix on Aug. 22, Trump accused television networks of ignoring his calls for unity in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville. “I didn’t say I love you because you’re black, or I love you because you’re white,” Trump said at the rally. “I love all the people of our country.” The resolution also acknowledged the deaths of two Virginia State Police officers whose helicopter crashed as they patrolled the Charlottesville protest.

Summary: कांग्रेस ने नफरत फैलाने वाले समूहों की निंदा करने के लिए ट्रम्प से आह्वान करने के लिए मतदान किया


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s political parties should be required to disclose the source of their funding, a court ruled on Wednesday, potentially exposing the patronage networks that have influenced power in the two decades since apartheid. The ruling by the Western Cape High Court, which orders parliament to amend access-to-information laws, comes against opposition from some parties who fear disclosure could jeopardize funding. Judge Yasmin Meer said in court papers that disclosure of the private funding of political parties and independent candidates was required for the effective exercise of the right to vote in elections and to make political choices. She instructed parliament to amend the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) accordingly. The application challenging the constitutionality of PAIA, which exempted party funding, was brought by non-profit organization My Vote Counts (MVC), which welcomed the judgment.  This means that there must be a legislative mechanism that allows access to this information,  MVC said in a statement.  However there are concerns this could impact on funding and potentially expose parties to embarrassment, an analyst said.   There s a potential of significant embarrassment. I think you going to find some people who appear to be strongly aligned to one party are actually giving money to another,  said political analyst at NKC Research Gary van Staden. Main opposition party the Democratic Alliance, which was among the responding political parties, said some of its donors would not like to be made public for fear of discrimination.  The ruling African National Congress party, which was also among the respondents, was not immediately available for comment.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका की अदालत ने राजनीतिक दलों से कहा, अपने दानदाताओं का खुलासा करें


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department and officials from three Latin American countries announced criminal charges against more than 3,800 members of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs on Friday, including 70 people in six U.S. states.  MS-13 coordinates across our borders to kill, rape and traffic drugs and underage girls; we ve got to coordinate across our borders to stop them,  U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, joined by his counterparts from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्याय विभाग, लैटिन अमेरिकी देशों ने गिरोह के 3,800 सदस्यों पर आरोप लगाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite a major setback in the U.S. Senate, President Trump said on Wednesday that the Republican healthcare bill was moving along well and predicted a “surprise” was yet to come. In a big hit to a seven-year quest to undo Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday abandoned plans to get the bill passed this week. Trump, who met with Republican senators on Tuesday, made his optimistic comments to reporters at the White House on Wednesday while meeting with players from the World Series-winning Chicago Cubs. “We’re going to have a great, great surprise,” he said. Trump later said he did not think U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer was serious when asking for a meeting for all 100 U.S. senators to negotiate healthcare changes. “I don’t think he’s serious. He hasn’t been serious. Obamacare is such a disaster. And he wants to try and save something that’s hurting a lot of people,” Trump said. Trump promised as a presidential candidate to do away with Obama’s Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Republicans would like to make progress on that issue to clear the way for other priorities such as tax reform.

Summary: स्वास्थ्य संबंधी बाधाओं के बावजूद, बिल पर बड़ा आश्चर्य हो सकता हैः ट्रम्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The No. 2 U.S. Senate Republican John Cornyn said on Friday he was confident Republicans have the 50 votes necessary to pass a tax overhaul bill in the chamber. “We are confident of the 50 and would like to build on that,” Cornyn said.

Summary: सीनेट रिपब्लिकन के पास कर विधेयक पारित करने के लिए 50 वोट हैंः कॉर्निन


BERLIN (Reuters) - Several people were injured in a train crash on Tuesday near the German city of Duesseldorf, fire department and police spokesmen said. Rail operator Deutsche Bahn said a passenger train of the regional provider National Express drove into a freight train from DB Cargo about 1830 GMT in the town of Meerbusch. The Meerbusch fire department said up to 150 passengers were on the train and that 5 people suffered injuries. A police spokesman earlier had told German broadcaster ARD that about 50 people had been injured in the train crash. A German government spokesman said Chancellor Angela Merkel had been briefed on the situation.

Summary: ड्यूसेलडॉर्फ के पास जर्मन ट्रेनों की टक्कर, कई लोग घायल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National security adviser Michael Flynn became the first high-profile member of President Donald Trump’s administration to resign, leaving the job late on Monday amid controversy over discussions he had with a Russian diplomat before Trump took office about U.S. sanctions on Russia. Following is the text of his resignation letter, which was released by the White House. In the course of my duties as the incoming National Security Advisor, I held numerous phone calls with foreign counterparts, ministers, and ambassadors. These calls were to facilitate a smooth transition and begin to build the necessary relationships between the President, his advisors and foreign leaders. Such calls are standard practice in any transition of this magnitude. Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology. Throughout my over thirty three years of honorable military service, and my tenure as the National Security Advisor, I have always performed my duties with the utmost of integrity and honesty to those I have served, to include the President of the United States. I am tendering my resignation, honored to have served our nation and the American people in such a distinguished way. I am also extremely honored to have served President Trump, who in just three weeks, has reoriented American foreign policy in fundamental ways to restore America’s leadership position in the world. As I step away once again from serving my nation in this current capacity, I wish to thank President Trump for his personal loyalty, the friendship of those who I worked with throughout the hard fought campaign, the challenging period of transition, and during the early days of his presidency. I know with the strong leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and the superb team they are assembling, this team will go down in history as one of the greatest presidencies in U.S. history, and I firmly believe the American people will be well served as they all work together to help Make America Great Again. Michael T. Flynn, LTG (Ret) Assistant to the President / National Security Advisor

Summary: माइकल फ्लिन ने राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार के पद से दिया इस्तीफा


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s Electoral Commission has opened an investigation to establish whether Vote Leave Limited, the organization behind the official campaign to leave the European Union, breached campaign finance rules during the 2016 referendum campaign. The commission said on Monday its decision to open an investigation followed a review of previous assessments conducted in February in March, which had resulted in no further action being taken.  Since that time, new information has come to light which, when considered alongside the information obtained previously, has given the Commission reasonable grounds to suspect an offense may have been committed,  it said in a statement.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के ब्रेक्सिट अभियान ने अभियान वित्त नियमों के संभावित उल्लंघन की जांच की


(Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge in Virginia ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump’s travel ban was justified, increasing the likelihood the measure will go before the Supreme Court as the decision took an opposing view to courts in Maryland and Hawaii that have halted the order. U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga rejected arguments by Muslim plaintiffs who claimed Trump’s March 6 executive order temporarily banning the entry of all refugees and travelers from six Muslim-majority countries was discriminatory.  The decision went against two previous court rulings that put an emergency halt to the order before it was set to take effect on March 16. The order remains halted. Trump has said he plans to appeal those unfavorable rulings to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed, and differing opinions by lower courts give more grounds for the highest court to take up the case.    Trenga, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, said the complaint backed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, found that more than 20 individuals who brought the suit had been able to show they were harmed by the travel ban since they might be unable to reunite with their relatives. But he also ruled that Trump’s revised order, which replaced  a more sweeping version signed on Jan. 27 and rejected by courts, fell within the president’s authority to make decisions about immigration.  He said that since the order did not mention religion, the court could not look behind it at Trump’s statements about a “Muslim ban” to determine what was in the “drafter’s heart of hearts.”  Trump has said the ban is necessary to protect the country from terrorist attacks, but his first order was halted by a federal judge in Seattle and a U.S. appeals court in San Francisco due to concerns it violated the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against religious bias.    “We’re confident that the president’s fully lawful and necessary action will ultimately be allowed to move forward through the rest of the court systems,” said White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer at a briefing. CAIR said it would appeal the decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Lena Masri, CAIR’s national litigation director, said the 4th Circuit and the Supreme Court “are the judicial bodies that will ultimately decide whether the Constitution protects the rights of Muslim Americans.” A ruling by U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii - an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama - put a stop to the two central sections of the revised ban that blocked travelers from six countries and refugees, while leaving other parts of the order in place.  U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland, also an Obama appointee, only put a halt to the section on travelers. The Virginia lawsuit sought to strike down the revised ban in its entirety.  Watson scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to decide whether his temporary order blocking the travel and refugee restrictions should be converted into a more formal preliminary injunction. The Justice Department has said it would oppose that bid.  The government has appealed Chuang’s decision in Maryland, also to the 4th circuit, and a hearing in that case is scheduled for May 8.  Other lawsuits against the ban continue to move forward around the country. Also on Friday, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups filed a new complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. on behalf of Muslim community organizations.

Summary: वर्जीनिया की अदालत ने यात्रा प्रतिबंध विवाद में ट्रम्प के लिए फैसला सुनाया, आदेश अभी भी रुका हुआ है


TALLINN (Reuters) - Only  miracles  can move Brexit talks far enough to fulfill Britain s hopes of launching discussions next month on its future ties with the European Union, the head of the European Commission said on Friday. Prime Minister Theresa May had been hoping to use an informal EU meeting in the Estonian capital Tallinn to harness what she describes as renewed goodwill over Brexit to push the talks beyond the terms of the divorce, now just 18 months away.  Britain had aimed to make a breakthrough at a summit in Brussels on Oct. 19-20. Two years have been set aside for the Brexit talks and Britain risks crashing out of the 28-state bloc on March 29, 2019, without a deal on future trade terms. But Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EU executive and long a bogeyman for some in Britain s eurosceptic press, said the first stage of talks on the rights of expatriates, the UK border with EU member Ireland and the financial settlement when Britain leaves had not gone far enough.  By the end of October, we will not have sufficient progress,  Juncker told reporters in Tallinn, a day after his chief negotiator ended the last round of Brexit talks.  At the end of this week, I am saying that there will be no sufficient progress from now until October unless miracles will happen.  His words were echoed by other leaders. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said both sides would need  a small miracle  to make the required progress before the summit. Irish leader Leo Varadkar said it was  still very evident that there s more work to be done . Their views will be a blow for May, who wants to move quickly on to discussion of the future trade relationship and a transitional arrangement - part of the deal Britain says is needed before any kind of financial settlement can be agreed. In Tallinn, May sidestepped questions over whether she was confident of the October deadline. After three months of talks, which have become bogged down in a spat over the divorce bill, the British prime minister tried to reset the tone with a speech a week ago in Florence. She had hoped to speak directly to EU leaders and reassure them that Britain was not picking unnecessary fights, going so far as to make concessions on the future role of the European Court of Justice and on the Brexit bill.  I made that speech to give momentum to the talks and I think we have seen that being shown in the talks that have taken place this week, and further progress has been made,  May said early on Friday. Pressing her case, she met German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the Tallinn summit and repeated her pledge for Britain to be  the strongest friend and partner to the EU  after Brexit, her spokeswoman said. Merkel said there had been progress, but that there was also a lot of work to do before October.  Altogether it was a very constructive talk,  Merkel told a news conference at the end of the summit.  I think that the Florence speech helped to bring a new dynamic into the negotiation process.  May also held talks with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, who is concerned about the 800,000 Poles living in Britain. Both agreed on  the importance of reaching an early settlement on citizens  rights , May s spokeswoman said.  But a Spanish government official was blunt.  We don t negotiate with speeches, we negotiate with documents on the table,  he said, describing the two sides as  nowhere near  agreement on the Northern Ireland border and the divorce bill. On citizens  rights, considered by London one of the easier issues to settle, the official said Britain and the EU were getting close, but progress was  not sufficient yet . In a morning visit to Estonia s Tapa military base, where 800 British troops are deployed as part of NATO s efforts to defend against a newly assertive Russia, May said Britain was  unconditionally committed  to protecting Europe after Brexit. By focusing on defense, May wants to show that Britain has something to offer its European neighbors. She will say she is ready to share British expertise   including through the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)   to help EU nations build up their own cybersecurity capability. That, she hopes, could bolster her argument on the Brexit talks, and coax the EU into making concessions.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने ब्रिटेन से कहा, केवल 'चमत्कार' ही अक्टूबर तक ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता को आगे बढ़ा सकते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opened the latest outpost in his real estate empire on Monday, a luxury hotel in a historic building five blocks from the White House that underwent a two-year, $200 million renovation. While staff members at the 263-room Trump International Hotel planned little hoopla for what they described as a “soft opening,” about 40 protesters opposed to the New York real estate developer’s presidential run gathered outside. The opening came eight weeks before the Nov. 8 election. “It kind of fits his personality that he finds a way to be on Pennsylvania Avenue, one way or another,” said protester Judy Byron, 70, a Washington artist. The hotel, which includes a $20,000-a-night suite, is less than a mile (km) down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The hotel is housed in Washington’s third-tallest building, the 1899 Old Post Office, built in the Romanesque Revival architectural style. Trump said on Twitter he had stopped by the property “to thank all of the tremendous men & women for their hard work!” The protesters criticized some of Trump’s positions, including a promise to build a wall along the Mexican border to block illegal immigrants. Protest organizer Andrew Castro of Baltimore said: “We’re out here building a wall against racism.” Dozens of people filtered in and out on Monday afternoon, some to gawk and others pausing for a drink at the hotel’s bar. On his way in, Ric Hedlund, who works in port development, said he had been impressed by the renovations of a building that he said was previously “a dump.” “I’m going in to drink Trump wine,” said Hedlund, who added he also supported Trump as a candidate. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who helped negotiate the 60-year lease with the U.S. government and oversaw the building’s revamp and design, said the project had come in a year ahead of schedule and under budget. “We have really positioned this hotel to not only be the finest hotel in D.C. but in the country,” she said in a telephone interview. A grand-opening ceremony is planned for next month. Trump attended the 2014 groundbreaking for the renovations alongside local Democratic officials before launching his presidential campaign last year. While Trump’s name is hard to escape in his native New York, where it adorns structures including the Trump Tower as well as a Bronx golf course, the hotel marks his most visible presence in Washington. His comments describing some Mexican immigrants as criminals prompted celebrity chefs Jose Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian to pull out of the project. Trump has sued them.

Summary: ट्रम्प लग्जरी होटल व्हाइट हाउस से कुछ ही दूरी पर खुलता है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - A senior Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday the resignation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, suggested Trump had been backed into a corner or that his administration had been “infected” by anti-Russian feeling. Flynn resigned late on Monday after revelations he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. “Either Trump has not gained the requisite independence and he is consequently being not unsuccessfully backed into a corner, or Russophobia has already infected the new administration also from top to bottom,” MP Konstantin Kosachev was cited as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency. Kosachev is head of the upper house of parliament’s international affairs committee.

Summary: रूसी सांसद का कहना है कि फ्लिन का इस्तीफा व्हाइट हाउस के रूस विरोधी होने का संकेत दे सकता है


DUBAI (Reuters) - A commando raid approved by new U.S. President Donald Trump this week may have given al Qaeda in Yemen a propaganda boost in killing civilians, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report on Thursday. Local medics said 30 people including 10 women and children were killed in the helicopter-born Navy SEAL attack on a cluster of houses in Yemen’s southern al-Bayda province. Al Qaeda said in a statement that a senior leader and an unspecified number of other militants were killed. One U.S. soldier died in the assault, and a Pentagon spokesman alleged some of the women were firing at the U.S. force. “The raid ... is a good example of what not to do,” ICG’s senior Arabian Pensinsula analyst April Alley wrote. “The use of U.S. troops and the high number of civilian casualties ... are deeply inflammatory and breed anti-American resentment across the Yemeni political spectrum that works to the advantage of AQAP,” she added. Nearly two years of civil war in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country has allowed local branches of al Qaeda and Islamic State to expand and carry out new attacks within Yemen. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is one of the global militant group’s most active branches. It unsuccessfully plotted to blow up U.S.-bound airliners and claimed responsibility for a 2015 shooting at the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Former President Barack Obama repeatedly killed top leaders in the organization with unmanned drone attacks but, ICG said, that strategy may not ultimately defeat it. “It is too early to determine what, if any, broader strategy the Trump administration has in Yemen ... (But drone strikes) have failed to stop its rapid growth – in large part because the opportunities provided by the war outstrip its losses.”

Summary: घातक अमेरिकी छापा यमन के अल कायदा को मजबूत कर सकता है-संकट समूह


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria s army and its allies will keep fighting in Syria after the battle ends in Deir al-Zor province, where Islamic State has its last significant stronghold, President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday. He also indicated that he might take the war to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls more than a quarter of Syria, by saying the war targeted those who seek to  divide and weaken states .  His comments came after a meeting with Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy adviser to Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.   The victories against terrorist organizations, starting in Aleppo and not ending in Deir al-Zor, formed a critical strike that foiled partition projects and terrorist goals,  Assad s office quoted him as saying. Assad regards all the groups fighting against the Syrian state as terrorist groups. The Syrian army, with Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, is waging an offensive against Islamic State in the eastern Deir al-Zor province, mostly on the west banks of the Euphrates River. The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, is also battling IS militants in Deir al-Zor. Backed by U.S.-led air strikes and special forces, the SDF has focused on territory east of the river, which bisects the oil-rich province. Velayati on Friday said Syrian army forces would soon advance to take Raqqa city from the SDF and accused the United States of seeking to divide Syria by stationing its forces east of the Euphrates.  We will witness in the near future the advance of government and popular forces in Syria and east of the Euphrates, and the liberation of Raqqa city,  he said in televised comments on a visit to Beirut. Turkey also supports rebel groups in a pocket in northern Syria, wedged between Kurdish-controlled areas. Last month, its army began setting up observation points in Idlib province in northwest Syria under a deal with Russia and Iran. Assad said in his meeting with Velayati that the battle would last  until the recovery of security and stability to all Syrian lands , his office said.

Summary: असद कहते हैं कि सीरियाई युद्ध देइर अल-ज़ोर में समाप्त नहीं होता है


(Reuters) - Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates LP, said he is increasingly concerned about the Trump administration’s “populist” policies that could hurt the world economy. The detrimental effects of these policies could be more powerful than the beneficial effects of Trump’s pro-business policies, Dalio and co-Chief Investment Officer Bob Prince said on Tuesday. “We are now in a period of time when how this balance tilts will be more important to the economy, markets, and our well-beings than normally dominant drivers such as central bank policies,” Dalio and Prince said in a note. “While there is a lot of potential to improve fiscal policies and make beneficial structural reforms, there is also a significant risk that his populist policies could hurt the world economy (and worse).” In November, Dalio said Trump’s policies would have a “broadly positive” effect on the U.S. economy and that bond prices likely made a “30-year top.” Trump on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries. Bridgewater oversees about $150 billion in client assets.

Summary: ब्रिजवाटर के डालियो का कहना है कि ट्रम्प की लोकलुभावन नीतियां विश्व अर्थव्यवस्था को नुकसान पहुंचा सकती हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several U.S. states and immigrant advocacy groups vowed on Tuesday to fight President Donald Trump’s decision to end a program that protects people brought illegally to the United States as children from deportation. But legal experts said the challenges will face an uphill battle. Democratic state attorneys general in California, New York, Washington and Massachusetts said they will sue to defend the Obama-era policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and the immigrants known as Dreamers. “We are going to court to defend DACA and to fight for these Dreamers,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy. The states have not said what their legal claims will be.     The Trump administration on Tuesday announced it would phase out the program but urged Congress to enact immigration reform if it wants to protect DACA recipients. [nL2N1LM0HT] Whatever lawsuit the Democratic states file, winning will not be easy, said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University College of Law. “DACA did not create any legally enforceable rights, and certainly did not create any right to indefinite presence in the country,” he said. One immigrant group, the National Immigration Law Center, has already filed court papers seeking to block the Trump administration’s action by amending an existing lawsuit pending in New York. The case was filed last year on behalf of DACA recipient Martin Batalla Vidal, an immigrant from Mexico who came to the United States when he was 7. It originally contested a ruling enjoining a program of former President Barack Obama that offered protection to undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children.  In the new filing, Vidal’s lawyers outlined a two-prong challenge to Trump’s DACA action. One claim was that the move violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act, a law requiring government agencies to follow set processes when making major policy changes. Batalla Vidal’s lawyers said Trump’s announcement was an “abrupt policy shift” affecting nearly 800,000 program participants who had assumed the protections would remain in place.  Trump promised during his presidential campaign to dismantle DACA but since taking office in January has taken a softer tone. The lawyers noted that he told DACA recipients he would “take care” of them. The filing also asserts that the new policy is discriminatory and was “substantially motivated by the animus of the president and his administration toward Latinos and Mexicans.”  Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School, said any litigation against Trump’s action will face multiple obstacles. Among them is the fact that courts are “generally more deferential to immigration actions by the executive branch than in other areas, because immigration touches on sovereignty and national security,” he added.

Summary: अमेरिकी राज्य, अप्रवासी समूह ट्रम्प के ड्रीमर निर्णय का विरोध करेंगे


PARIS (Reuters) - The brother of a Franco-Algerian gunman who killed four Jews and three soldiers was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Thursday over a killing spree that heralded an era of Islamist-inspired attacks in which hundreds have since died in France. A court in Paris ruled Abdelkader Merah guilty of terrorist offences. He was found to have helped in the preparation of the attacks although he did not participate himself when his younger brother Mohamed Merah shot three Jewish children and one of their parents, and then three soldiers, in Toulouse in 2012. More than 240 people have been killed in France since then, primarily since early 2015. The biggest was a string of Islamist attacks in which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 in Paris. Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Abdelkader Merah to life behind bars, arguing that he was a religious radical who had mentored his younger brother and helped materially, notably in the theft of the scooter used in the killings at the Jewish Ozer Hatorah school in Toulouse, southwestern France. The judge sentenced the defendant to 20 years. A second man, Fettah Malki, was sentenced to 14 years for his role in providing the gun, ammunition and a bullet-proof vest to the attacker.  Mohamed Merah, 24 at the time, was shot dead when he jumped, guns blazing, from the window of an apartment where he was holed up a few days after his killing spree in March 2012. The Merah killings were the first major incident of the kind  since Paris subway bombs attacks in the mid-1990s by Islamist militants linked to the GIA group in Algeria, a former French colony.  Abdelkader Merah denied being involved during a four-week trial where his lawyer demanded acquittal and accused public prosecutors of going after him because they could no longer pursue his brother. For the prosecution, French attorney general Na ma Rudloff said when pleading for a life-sentence that there was no doubt the older brother was guilty and devoted much of his time to mentoring his sibling.  Abdelkader Merah made Mohamed Merah,  she said. At the time of the killings, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the younger Merah, who had both French and Algerian citizenship, had claimed affiliation with the al Qaeda militant group and said he wanted to avenge Palestinian children. He had been under surveillance by the intelligence service for several years after being identified in Afghanistan. At home in Toulouse he was better known by for his love of soccer, night clubs and motorbikes than any conspicuous religious devotion.

Summary: 2012 के फ्रांस हमले में यहूदियों, सैनिकों की हत्या करने वाले व्यक्ति के भाई को 20 साल की जेल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to recommend President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, retired Marine General James Mattis. The committee voted 26-1 to back Mattis’ nomination when it is received by the full Senate from Trump after he is sworn in as president. As a result, Mattis’ nomination will be sent directly to the Senate for a vote without referral to the committee. The identity of the senator who voted against Mattis was not immediately available. Congress cleared the way for Mattis’ quick confirmation last week by backing a waiver that would allow him to lead the Pentagon despite retiring from active duty as a Marine general only in 2013. The 66-year-old Mattis, who is highly respected by many fellow Marines, retired 3-1/2 years ago after more than four decades of military service. The 1947 National Security Act requires a seven-year gap between active duty military service and the Cabinet position. Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress and Democrats have both heaped praise on Mattis since his nomination was announced.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने ट्रम्प के पेंटागन चयन को भारी बहुमत से मंजूरी दी


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged world powers on Friday to get behind a joint Russian-Chinese roadmap for settling the crisis over North Korea s weapons program. Speaking at a conference on non-proliferation in Moscow, Lavrov said that the break-up of a deal on Iran s nuclear program would send an alarming message about international security mechanisms, and could impact the situation on the Korean peninsula.

Summary: मास्को ने उत्तर कोरिया पर रूस-चीन रोडमैप के लिए समर्थन मांगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders brought his firebrand rhetoric back to the floor of the Senate on Tuesday to condemn a White House-backed bill on Puerto Rico’s financial crisis as “colonialism at its worst.” Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who turned an unlikely presidential bid into a political movement to combat inequality, warned that legislation due for a crucial Senate vote on Wednesday would subject Puerto Rico to Republican trickle-down economics and favor “vulture capitalists” at the expense of the island’s increasingly impoverished population. An aide said it was the first time Sanders has spoken in the Senate since December. “Does that sound like the kind of morality that should be passed here in the United States Senate?” Sanders fumed during an eight-minute appearance to support an hours-long speech by Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who opposes the bill. The Vermont senator used his appearance to rail against details of the legislation, which would put much of Puerto Rico’s management in the hands of a seven-member oversight board and require the island to pay $370 million over five years for the board’s administration costs even as it cuts funding for education, healthcare and pensions. In an exchange with Menendez, Sanders said, “How in God’s name do you run up an administrative cost of $370 million,” adding, “I know this sounds so absurd that people may think I’m misleading them.” “Would my friend from New Jersey agree that this is colonialism at its worst?” asked Sanders, who announced last week that he would vote for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in her November election contest against Republican Donald Trump. “Oh absolutely,” replied Menendez. The Puerto Rico bill, which has already been passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, faces opposition from both sides of the aisle in the Senate. Nevertheless, the Obama administration and Republican leaders are trying to get the bill passed before a July 1 deadline, when the island is scheduled to make a $1.9 billion payment on its $70 billion debt.

Summary: सैंडर्स अमेरिकी सीनेट में वापस आए, प्यूर्टो रिको में 'उपनिवेशवाद' पर हमला किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Environmentally conscious investors are using their pocketbooks to protest President Donald Trump’s plans to slash environmental regulations, fueling a rally in funds that only invest in companies that meet progressive criteria for sustainability. From the start of November to the end of January, investors poured $1.8 billion into actively managed equities funds in the “socially responsible” category, according to Lipper data. In the same period, there was a net outflow of $133 billion from funds that do not have environmental or social mandates. Trump was elected president on Nov. 8. Investors worried that Trump’s policies may imperil causes they believe in are hoping an influx of flows will help keep companies alive. “If clients see the federal government withdrawing from a space they think is important, they may actually be more active in wanting to enforce their views through the dollars allocated,” said Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Standish Mellon Asset Management. The inflows are a boon for fund managers but also a challenge, requiring them to find companies whose share prices have a chance to climb despite less favorable federal policies. For instance, shares of solar energy companies took a beating after the election, sliding 11 percent by year end on concerns the future of U.S. tax credits under a Trump administration, though they have recovered somewhat since then. Still, cautious fund managers from Fidelity, New Alternatives, Calvert Investments and others are scrutinizing water technology and wind power shares, which should benefit from new federal infrastructure spending and a push by states such as California toward more renewable power generation. Managers say water technology stocks should see an uptick from Trump’s campaign promise to spend $1 trillion on repairing and improving the country’s infrastructure. Wind stocks are attractive as that energy source is proving more cost-effective in growing areas of the country like California, which plans to get half its energy from renewable sources by 2030.  “If you look at where the policy is changing the fastest, it’s at the state level, and we see places like California continuing on that trend regardless of what is happening on the federal level,” said Kevin Walenta, who manages the Fidelity Select Environment and Alternative Energy portfolio. He has been adding to his positions in Spanish wind energy company Iberdrola SA and US-based water and plumbing company Comfort Systems USA Inc. Trump has not yet called for ending tax credits for solar and other renewable energy, though he has expressed doubt about the role of solar energy, bemoaned the loss of coal-mining jobs and blamed wind turbines for ruining picturesque landscapes. Ahead of the election, power companies had already started to pivot away from solar and invest more in wind, with companies including Southern Co, NextEra Energy Inc and Xcel Energy Inc announcing plans to expand wind-generating capabilities at a time when technology has helped lower its cost. [L1N1FZ1GR].  Wind power costs average between $32 and $62 per megawatt hour before subsidies, compared with an average between $49 and $61 per megawatt hour for utility-scale solar arrays without subsidies, according to a December 2016 report from Lazard. Coal power, which Trump has pledged to revive, costs between $60 and $143 per megawatt hour, the report notes. With that cost structure, along with the potential increase in jobs from building and maintaining wind turbines, even solidly Republican states should continue to invest in renewables, said Murray Rosenblith, co-portfolio manager of the New Alternatives Fund. Rosenblith has been adding to his positions in wind companies Vestas Wind Systems and Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA, both of whose shares are up 10 percent or more since the start of the year. “These are growing industries in states that are bringing back jobs,” he said. “Even if Trump wants to pull tax credits back as a political gesture he’s not going to find a lot of support in the party at large.”

Summary: ट्रम्प युग की शुरुआत के साथ 'ग्रीन' फंड नई नकदी, चुनौतियों से भरे हुए हैं


(Reuters) - David Betras could see trouble coming. The Democratic Party chairman in Youngstown, Ohio, wrote to Hillary Clinton’s advisers in May warning she needed to put a jobs-focused message at the heart of her White House campaign or else watch blue-collar voters in states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania slip away to Republican Donald Trump. Clinton never responded to Betras, and in the final weeks of her campaign she spent much of her time portraying Trump as unfit, rather than highlighting her economic plans. On Nov. 8, Election Day, Betras’ warning proved prescient - she lost Ohio and Pennsylvania and, on Wednesday, Michigan, too, based on the latest unofficial ballot counts. The surprising upset by Trump, a wealthy businessman who made his promises to renegotiate trade deals and restore jobs a centerpiece of his agenda, was fueled in part by support from white working-class voters in those vital Rust Belt states and elsewhere. After the disastrous election losses at the state and national level, Betras and other Rust Belt Democrats who have found success in blue-collar districts have some advice for their anxious party: the key to recapturing those voters is not a broad change in policy, but a new commitment to listen and act on their economic concerns, and to show Democrats care. “You can have all the great ideas on Earth, but if they don’t think you are on their side they aren’t going to listen to you,” said U.S. Representative Dan Kildee, of Flint, Michigan, one of a small cadre of Democrats in Congress who have learned how to win in working-class districts by emphasizing economic solutions. Democratic U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright, whose district around Scranton, Pennsylvania, was one of the presidential campaign’s prime battlegrounds, also won re-election to a third term with about 54 percent of the vote. About 40,000 Trump voters crossed over to back him, he said in an interview. “Why would they pick me and not also Hillary Clinton? It comes down to credibility,” he said. “I know the pain out there. When I talk to voters, jobs is always my No. 1 message, and I tell them exactly what I’m doing to get more jobs back to the district.” Recalling the 1992 presidential campaign theme of Clinton’s husband, Bill Clinton, Cartwright added: “It’s the economy, stupid. These folks are working harder and harder to try and stay in the same place.” The party’s efforts to regain lost ground with blue-collar voters could be a factor in next week’s election for Democratic leader in the House of Representatives. Tim Ryan, whose northeast Ohio district encompasses blue-collar Youngstown, is challenging veteran leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. Ryan has emphasized his ability to talk to working class voters and said in announcing his leadership run that people “need to know we understand that they elected us to fight for economic opportunity for all.” Kildee, who was re-elected to a third term with 61 percent of the vote, said Democrats seeking lessons in the election rubble should not overreact and begin moderating their positions on social issues or shifting their stances to target elements of the party’s base of support. From decimated industrial towns to inner cities or the rural plains, voters share a similar anxiety about an economic system that seems to have left them behind, he said.   “Everybody is talking about the same thing, and it’s economic uncertainty - it’s the fear of not having a job, or their kids not getting a job, or not having a retirement,” Kildee said. “If we aren’t talking about jobs and the economy first, no one is listening when you talk about other issues.” ‘GOLD-PLATED TOILETS’ By tapping into those economic worries, Trump captured about two-thirds of whites with no college degree, exit polls showed. That helped him gain the razor-thin margin of victory he needed in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan - all picked up by President Barack Obama in 2012 - to win the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. In contrast to Trump, whose rallies were a call to arms against an economic system rigged against everyday Americans, Clinton mentioned but rarely highlighted the many aspects of her economic agenda during the final weeks of the campaign. “We were so off message that a billionaire with gold-plated toilets was the guy who was breaking through and talking to blue-collar families,” said Betras, party chairman in Ohio’s heavily Democratic Mahoning County, where Trump captured 47 percent of the vote, 12 percentage points better than Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. Betras said many blue-collar workers increasingly felt forgotten by the national party, which at times seemed more focused on social and cultural issues than on bread-and-butter economic concerns. The Democratic National Committee did not respond to questions about the party’s efforts to win working-class voters. Betras had urged Clinton in his memo to spend more time talking about ways to entice companies to repatriate manufacturing jobs, or her plans to create jobs through boosting infrastructure programs - both key elements of Trump’s stump speech. Both candidates made frequent visits to Pennsylvania and Ohio. But after the party conventions in July Clinton only traveled to Michigan four times, twice in the last week of the campaign, and never visited Wisconsin. Trump hit both a half-dozen times. David Murray, a registered independent who lives just outside Flint, Michigan, said he voted to re-elect Kildee and backed Obama in 2008 and 2012, but cast his presidential ballot for Trump this time. “I didn’t feel like Clinton really cared about us,” said Murray, a personal service industry worker. “We are still hurting here. I feel as if we haven’t recovered from the economic free fall. Clinton seemed like just another four years of what Obama has done for my area, which is four years of nothing.” Obama appeared to echo the concerns of Betras and the two lawmakers in recent comments on the Democratic post-election hand-wringing.  “The key for us — when I say ‘us,’ I mean Americans, but I think particularly for progressives — is to say your concerns are real, your anxieties are real, here’s how we fix them,” Obama said. Trump consistently outperformed Romney’s 2012 totals in areas with heavy concentrations of working-class whites. In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, partially in Cartwright’s district, Trump won 58 percent of the vote compared to Romney’s 47 percent. In neighboring Lackawana County, Trump won 47 percent of the vote compared to Romney’s 36 percent. Sharon Taboada, a juvenile probation officer in Houghton Lake, Michigan, with two sons in college, said she voted for Trump in part because of his economic message. “Clinton talked very little about our economy and I feel she was way out of touch with the working force,” she said.

Summary: ब्लू-कॉलर डेमोक्रेट्स ने पार्टी से कहाः यह अभी भी अर्थव्यवस्था है, मूर्खतापूर्ण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday vowed to press ahead with their investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election as aggressively as possible despite turmoil over the firing of the FBI director. The panel’s Republican Chairman Richard Burr and ranking Democrat Mark Warner made the comments to reporters following a meeting with U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in the wake of President Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey this week.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्याय विभाग के नंबर 2 के साथ बैठक के बाद सीनेटरों ने आक्रामक रूस जांच की प्रतिज्ञा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has given Fusion GPS, the research firm that hired a former British spy to investigate Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign, until Thursday to reach an agreement with Congress over a subpoena for the firm’s bank records. Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late on Tuesday temporarily extended the deadline for complying with the subpoena, according to court records seen on Wednesday. Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee earlier this month subpoenaed an unidentified bank for the last two years of records of the accounts of Fusion GPS. Congressional investigators and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are pursuing allegations in the dossier assembled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele of connections between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. It has been widely reported that supporters of Republican Jeb Bush, one of Trump’s opponents for the party’s presidential nomination, initially paid for research that was later picked up by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. A letter sent on Tuesday to Fusion’s lawyers by Perkins Coie, a law firm which represented both the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s campaign, confirmed that Perkins Coie had hired Fusion GPS in April 2016 to conduct election related research. A source familiar with the matter said Fusion GPS did not hire Steele until late May 2016. President Trump, who disputes he and his associates colluded with Moscow officials and has called the investigations a “witch hunt,” raised the issue again on Wednesday. “The whole Russia thing is what it’s turned out to be. This was the Democrats coming up with an excuse for losing an election,” Trump told reporters as he was leaving for Dallas. Fusion last week sued the bank and asked the court to issue an injunction ordering the bank not to comply with the subpoena. Lawyers for Fusion argued that the subpoena, signed by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, was “exceedingly broad.” The lawyers also argued that Nunes issuing the subpoena was “not a legitimate legislative activity” because Nunes had “served on President Donald Trump’s campaign” and had “recused himself” from the panel’s probe into allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 campaign to help Trump. Russia has repeatedly denied the allegations. In a court filing on behalf of the committee, lawyers for the House of Representatives asked the judge to reject Fusion’s request to block the subpoena. A footnote said the top two Democrats in the House did not endorse the request. On Wednesday, Trump also echoed unsubstantiated allegations revived on Tuesday by Republicans that when Clinton was secretary of state she approved a sale of U.S. uranium to Russia in exchange for contributions to her husband’s charity. “I think the uranium sales to Russia and the way it was done, so underhanded, with tremendous amounts of money being passed, I actually think that’s Watergate modern age,” Trump said.

Summary: न्यायाधीश ने ट्रंप-रूस जांच में अनुसंधान फर्म को सम्मन का जवाब देने के लिए और समय दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Senate Republicans next week to discuss their party’s efforts to pass tax reform legislation, the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee said on Friday. U.S. Senator John Barrasso said in a statement that Trump will meet with Republican senators at their weekly luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.

Summary: ट्रम्प अगले सप्ताह सीनेट रिपब्लिकन के साथ कर योजना पर चर्चा करेंगेः सीनेटर


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top White House officials met on Thursday with Democratic and Republican presidential campaign representatives to discuss preparations for transferring power to whomever wins the Nov. 8 election, a White House spokeswoman said. The meeting was led by Denis McDonough, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, and included Ken Salazar, the former Interior Secretary who is leading the transition team for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is the transition chair for Republican candidate Donald Trump, the White House said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने क्लिंटन, ट्रम्प दलों के साथ परिवर्तन पर चर्चा करने के लिए मुलाकात की


LUSAKA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government forces have been killing civilians in an insurgency-hit region, prompting the latest influx of refugees into northern Zambia, a senior U.N. official said, citing accounts of asylum seekers. Zambia fears a looming humanitarian crisis after more than 6,000 refugees fleeing turmoil in the DRC entered its territory in one month. [L5N1M32S5] Pierrine Aylara, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chief representative in Zambia, told Reuters that the latest asylum seekers had said they were fleeing Congolese government forces.  It is the government of the DRC that is said to be persecuting its own people by killing, maiming and torching houses, as well as committing rape and looting food stored in granaries,  Aylara said. Thousands of people have been killed and more than one million forced to flee their homes in the DRC s eastern Kasai region since the start of an insurrection nearly a year ago by the Kamuina Nsapu militia. Kamuina Nsapu is demanding the withdrawal of military forces from Kasai. But U.N. monitors noted in a report that the conflict has shifted away from an insurrection of a specific community towards a wider upheaval far beyond its initial confines. A rebel group known as Elema was fighting the government mainly with machetes, bows and arrows in Congo s Haut Katanga and Tanganyika provinces, Aylara said.  The group is not targeting civilians and aims to protect them, but is rather targeting government soldiers, the police as well as government establishments,  she said. The insurgency poses the worst threat yet to the rule of DRC President Joseph Kabila. His refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December prompted a wave of killings and lawlessness across the vast central African nation.  In turn, government soldiers have become increasingly brutal to the civilian population as they are unable to tell who does and does not belong to this (rebel) group,  Aylara said. DRC government forces were fighting alongside a tribe known as the Abatembo and targeting the Luba and Tabwa tribes who were believed to be sympathetic to the Elema rebels, she said. Southern African leaders plan to appoint a retired African president to oversee a process aimed at bringing about free and all-inclusive elections in the DRC to help heal the tensions that have caused internal strife and the refugee crisis.

Summary: जाम्बिया पहुँचने वाले शरणार्थियों ने डी. आर. सी. सैनिकों पर नागरिकों की हत्या का आरोप लगायाः यू. एन.


ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House on Friday said it was not given any prior notice on the FBI’s announcement that it was investigating additional emails relating to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system. “We did not have advance warning,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama to a campaign event for Clinton in Orlando, Florida. Schultz said news of the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe has not affected Obama’s support for Clinton. “I don’t think anything has surfaced to changed the president’s opinion and views of Secretary Clinton,” he said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि उसके पास क्लिंटन की एफ. बी. आई. जांच की कोई 'अग्रिम चेतावनी' नहीं थी


(Reuters) - Republicans will continue to dominate state legislatures in the wake of Tuesday’s election, which kept their party in control of Congress and put Donald Trump in the White House, legislative analysts said on Wednesday. After an election in which more than 80 percent of 7,383 state legislative seats nationwide were up for grabs, Republicans and Democrats were likely to control the same number of chambers they had previously, according to the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which is still compiling voting results. Republicans, who have dominated control of legislatures since the 2010 mid-term election, held the majority in 67 of the country’s 98 partisan legislative chambers, while Democrats had 31 going into the election. Nebraska’s single chamber is nonpartisan. “Neither party can sort of boast of having a big night down on the state level,” NCSL elections analyst Tim Storey said. “Republicans will remain in a dominant position in terms of policy making.” In Kentucky, Republicans took over the House of Representatives for the first time since 1921, while defeating longtime Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo, according to the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee. That result leaves Republicans in control of all 30 legislative chambers in the U.S. South for the first time in history, Storey said. Republicans also wrested control of the Iowa Senate and the Minnesota Senate from Democrats, according to NCSL. Democrats hit their target in the New Mexico House of Representatives, gaining a majority of seats, and took over both chambers of the Nevada Legislature. In Hawaii, the only Republican in the Senate was ousted, making the Democratic-controlled chamber the first all one-party state legislative chamber since 1980. One chamber, the Connecticut Senate, came out of the election tied. Democrats retained control of the Illinois Legislature but lost their veto-proof majority in the House after Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and his top donors invested tens of millions of dollars in a bid to weaken long-serving Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. The control of the New York Senate was still undetermined, NCSL said. Missouri’s legislature and governor’s office will be totally under Republican control after Eric Greitens won the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Governor Jay Nixon. Vermont will be split with the election of Republican Phil Scott as governor. Republicans extended their majority of U.S. governorships in Tuesday’s vote.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने अमेरिकी चुनाव में राज्य विधायी बढ़त हासिल की


LONDON (Reuters) - The United States’ first tax overhaul in decades may not pass Congress until well into 2017, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday, in a sign the timetable for the legislation has been pushed back. Revamping the U.S. tax code has become a new legislative test for President Donald Trump after a Republican push to repeal former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law failed last month in a humiliating defeat for the party. Some Republicans in Congress had hoped to pass the tax overhaul before August, but party divisions over the legislation and difficulties in replacing Obamacare have slowed the process. “This will be done in 2017, that is our time line, we would like to get it done as soon as possible,” Ryan told reporters during a visit to London that was part of a multi-nation trip aimed at strengthening U.S. economic and security ties with NATO allies. Ryan added: “As soon as possible for us is by the end of summer but we’re going to take our time to get it right. We can clearly get this done by the end of summer but if it needs to go a little longer, we’ll do that.” Trump made tax reform a core campaign promise, saying he would simplify the tax code and cut tax rates in ways that could significantly increase government debt.  To tackle the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code since the Reagan era, House Republicans need to avoid the political fault lines that sank their healthcare bill, partly by having conservatives on board. Ryan has been pushing a plan that includes a border adjustment tax, or BAT, that would levy a 20 percent tax on imported goods. The provision has been attacked by some conservatives and Democrats who argue it would hurt consumers and some U.S. companies reliant on foreign goods. The Senate has been awaiting action by the House before considering tax legislation. Given the Republican divisions, the White House has said it would submit its own tax proposal to Congress but it was unclear when that might arrive. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this week that tax reform may not get done before an August deadline.  The Trump administration might also include a $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan in whatever tax bill it submits to Congress.

Summary: हाउस स्पीकर रेयान ने कर सुधार पर लंबी लड़ाई देखी


DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish government would insist on a role in the running of Northern Ireland if power-sharing devolved government is not restored in the British province, but it hopes that will not happen, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Wednesday.  The British government moved on Wednesday to directly set Northern Ireland s budget after the province s main political parties failed to reach agreement on restoring a power-sharing government that collapsed in January.   We will have to fall back on the full detail of the (1998) Good Friday agreement, in terms of the structures that are required in the absence of devolved government,  Coveney told Irish state broadcaster RTE.   The prospect of direct rule in Northern Ireland and the Irish government s insistence on having a role in that   an appropriate role consistent with the Good Friday Agreement   is not where we want to be,  he said.

Summary: आयरलैंड का कहना है कि अगर सत्ता-साझाकरण बहाल नहीं किया गया तो वह उत्तरी आयरलैंड की भूमिका पर जोर देगा


LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Self-designed homes based on traditional Iraqi architecture could be the solution to the drastic housing crisis facing Mosul, where hundreds of thousands are expected to return following the end of three years of Islamic State occupation. An award-winning design would see returning residents create their own neighborhoods in modules that can grow and evolve to suit their needs.   The shape of the housing is completely up to the inhabitants,  said Ania Otlik, the winner of inaugural Rifat Chadirji Prize, which challenged architects to find a practical and sustainable solution to the Iraqi city s housing needs.  Having one measure that fits all is almost impossible, especially when it comes to such a diverse society ... which varies in religion, culture, background (and) family size.  Nearly 1 million civilians fled in the three years since Islamic State militants took the city, which Iraq declared liberated in July, according to the United Nations. Iraqi government officials have estimated it will take at least five years and billions of dollars to rebuild Mosul. Otlik, a graduate of Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in Poland, researched traditional Iraqi architectural designs, poring over sketches and schemes to create her housing plan. Each dwelling is constructed around a central patio, providing outside space around which rooms and spaces can be arranged.  The plan of the house can be a little more open when the family decides it this way, or maybe another family is strictly Islamic so they will build it in their own traditional way,  she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Building materials that are easy to source in the battle-scarred city - such as rubble and mud - could be used for construction until more permanent replacements become available, she said. Otlik drew inspiration from her native Poland, whose capital Warsaw was entirely rebuilt after it was razed by Nazi troops during the Second World War. Other finalist designs featured garden bridges over the Tigris river to provide housing and urban farms, and homes connected via a metro repurposed from a system of subterranean tunnels constructed by Islamic State to aid its fighters.  It was not a problem finding a winner,  said Ahmed Al-Mallak, founding director of the independent Tamayouz Excellence Award, which oversaw the competition. Mallak hopes the winning designs will influence Iraq s construction and housing minister Anne Nafi Aussi and a number of planning officials who are scheduled to attend the formal prize-giving ceremony in Jordan s capital Amman in December.

Summary: स्व-परिकल्पित घर मुक्त किए गए मोसुल के लिए स्थायी भविष्य प्रदान कर सकते हैं