BEIJING (Reuters) - With warm words from Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ended his first trip to Asia since taking office with an agreement to work together with China on North Korea and putting aside trickier issues. China has been irritated at being repeatedly told by Washington to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and the U.S. decision to base an advanced missile defense system in South Korea. Beijing is also deeply suspicious of U.S. intentions toward self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own, with the Trump administration crafting a big new arms package for the island that is bound to anger China. But meeting in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, those issues were brushed aside by Xi and Tillerson, at least in front of reporters, with Xi saying Tillerson had made a lot of efforts to achieve a smooth transition in a new era of relations.  “You said that China-U.S. relations can only be friendly. I express my appreciation for this,” Xi said.  Xi said he had communicated with President Donald Trump several times through telephone conversations and messages.  “We both believe that China-U.S. cooperation henceforth is the direction we are both striving for. We are both expecting a new era for constructive development,” Xi said. “The joint interests of China and the United States far outweigh the differences, and cooperation is the only correct choice for us both,” Xi added, in comments carried by China’s Foreign Ministry. China and the United States must strengthen coordination of hot regional issues, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, and protect the broad stability of ties, Xi said. Tillerson replied that Trump looks forward to enhancing understanding with China and the opportunity for a visit in the future. Tillerson said Trump places a “very high value on the communications that have already occurred” between Xi and Trump. “And he looks forward to enhancing that understanding in the opportunity for a visit in the future,” Tillerson said. “We know that through further dialogue we will achieve a greater understanding that will lead to a strengthened, strengthening of the ties between China and the United States and set the tone for our future relationship of cooperation.” Trump has so far been an unpredictable partner for China,  attacking Beijing on issues ranging from trade to the South China Sea and in December by talking to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. Before Tillerson arrived in Beijing on Saturday, Trump said North Korea was “behaving very badly” and accused China of doing little to resolve the crisis over the North’s weapons programs. Speaking in Seoul on Friday, Tillerson issued the Trump administration’s starkest warning yet to North Korea, saying in Seoul that a military response would be “on the table” if Pyongyang took action to threaten South Korean and U.S. forces. Still, China and the United States appeared to have made some progress or put aside differences on difficult issues, at least in advance of a planned summit between Xi and Trump. Both Tillerson and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi struck a more conciliatory tone in their meeting, with Tillerson saying the United States and China would work together to get nuclear-armed North Korea take “a different course”. Underscoring the tensions, North Korea conducted a test of a new high-thrust engine at its Tongchang-ri rocket launch station and leader Kim Jong Un said the successful test was “a new birth” of its rocket industry, Pyongyang’s official media said on Sunday. North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests and a series of missile launches, in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and is believed by experts and government officials to be working to develop nuclear-warhead missiles that could reach the United States. Washington wants China, the North’s neighbor and main trading partner, to use its influence to rein in the weapons programs. China says it is committed to enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea, but all sides have a responsibility to lessen tensions and get back to the negotiating table. Chinese official also repeatedly say they do not have the influence over North Korea that Washington and others believe, and express fears poverty-struck North Korea could collapse if it were cut off completely, pushing destabilizing waves of refugees into northeastern China.

Summary: टिलरसन ने राष्ट्रपति शी के गर्मजोशी भरे शब्दों के साथ चीन यात्रा समाप्त की


BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, a former labor leader, said on Monday that federal agents had not contacted him in connection with what local media has described as a wide-ranging investigation into whether the city’s building unions used strong-arm tactics. The Boston Globe reported over the weekend, citing unnamed sources, that Walsh had been implicated in a federal investigation into whether city union officials threatened developers who hired nonunion workers on projects in and around the city. “I haven’t been contacted myself,” Walsh told reporters on Monday.  A Democrat, Walsh is a former construction worker who led the city’s Building and Construction Trades Council, a union grouping, for two years before his 2013 mayoral election victory. Walsh, who served as a state representative from 1997 through 2013, went on to say that even if there were an investigation into his former union, he was not concerned. “If there is an investigation, I’m assuming at some point there’ll be indictments coming down. If that’s the case, I will not be getting one of those,” Walsh said. “Because I did nothing wrong.” A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston could not be reached for immediate comment.

Summary: बोस्टन के महापौर ने कहा कि श्रमिक संघों की संघीय जांच का विषय नहीं है


OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government proposed on Tuesday mandatory health warnings and child-proof packaging as well as a licensing regime for all cannabis products in legislation ahead of the July 2018 legalization of recreational marijuana. The proposals, which will be open for public consultation for 60 days, include restrictions on packaging to ensure the products are not enticing to children as well as legal standards for quality control and potency, Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor told reporters. The government is on track to legalize recreational marijuana by July 2018, making it the first Group of Seven country to do so. Petitpas Taylor said the government wants to set strict guidelines for the safety of cannabis products, but ensure micro-producers and big companies alike will have access to the market as long as they are licensed.  We want to make sure the market will be open to everyone. Some people will be small businesses and they can certainly apply for a license in order to have a micro-industry, if you will,  she told reporters, adding there is no limit to the number of licenses that will be available. The proposed regulations address the licensing, tracking, packaging and labeling of recreational and medical marijuana practices, and include a permitting regime for the cultivation, processing, sale, testing and import and export of cannabis. The federal government earlier this month proposed splitting with the provinces income from excise taxes on recreational marijuana, drawing criticism from Ontario, which is concerned it will face higher costs associated with the new law.  The federal government said it wants an excise tax on all cannabis products, including medical marijuana, of C$1 per gram (0.04 ounce), or 10 percent of the retail price, whichever is higher. Some provinces have asked the government to delay legalization, saying they need more time to set up a sales system and train police officers who will be enforcing the new rules. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the issue part of his 2015 successful election campaign and the Liberal government says regulating marijuana will keep it out of the hands of underage users and reduce drug-related crime. Shares of licensed producers, such as Canopy Growth, have soared in anticipation of legalization but the stocks are expected to face a bumpy ride in 2018.

Summary: कनाडा ने कानूनी पॉट बिक्री के लिए स्वास्थ्य चेतावनी, चाइल्ड-प्रूफ पैक का प्रस्ताव रखा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has confidence in Attorney General Jeff Sessions despite saying in a New York Times interview on Wednesday that he was disappointed in him for recusing himself from an FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016  election, a White House spokeswoman said on Thursday. “As the president said yesterday, he was disappointed in  the Attorney General Sessions’ decision to recuse himself, but clearly he has confidence in him or he would not be the attorney general,” spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a press briefing.

Summary: अलग होने के बावजूद ट्रंप को सत्रों पर भरोसा हैः व्हाइट हाउस


BERLIN (Reuters) - European sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis should be phased out gradually if an internationally agreed ceasefire deal was implemented, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday. The conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it erupted in 2014.  Germany and France have tried to convince both sides to implement a peace deal agreed in Minsk in 2015 but with little success.  The official agreement is: Only if there is 100 percent peace, then we ll lift 100 percent of the sanctions,  Gabriel said during a panel discussion organized by German business daily Handelsblatt in Berlin.  Gabriel said, from his point of view, this was a  totally unrealistic  position.  We introduced the sanctions gradually and we ll lift them gradually - this is actually a commonly known fact,  Gabriel said.  He said that if there was a lasting ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, then the United States probably would also be willing to take similar steps. Gabriel is a senior member of Germany s Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel s ruling coalition and historic advocates of dialogue with Russia. Germany is heading toward a Sept. 24 federal election. Merkel has insisted that European sanctions against Russia could only be lifted if the Minsk peace deal was fully implemented - not only the ceasefire agreement which is one part of the broader Minsk peace plan. Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron last month called for Russia and Ukraine to increase their efforts to implement the fragile ceasefire.  Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, which Russia denies.

Summary: यूक्रेन में युद्धविराम होने पर रूस के प्रतिबंधों को चरणबद्ध तरीके से हटाया जाना चाहिएः जर्मनी के गैब्रिएल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on Republican senators, an approach he may regret if he is someday impeached and the Senate has to weigh charges against him stemming from an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. More than half of the 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would be central to any proceeding to remove Trump from office, have tangled with the Republican president, including on Thursday when he fired off early-morning tweets. In one Twitter series, Trump called Senator Lindsey Graham “publicity seeking” and said he “just can’t forget his election trouncing” in the 2016 presidential race. Trump also assailed Senator Jeff Flake, another Republican critic, as “a non-factor in the Senate,” adding, “He’s toxic.” Flake and Graham are members of the Judiciary Committee, whose Chairman Chuck Grassley has urged Trump to tone it down. “He should be 100 percent sticking to ideas and forget about personalities,” Grassley said on Friday when pressed on whether Trump might find himself without the friends in Congress he would need to defend himself in an impeachment proceeding. For his part, Grassley said his views would not be colored by past presidential sniping. “Let’s say the House of Representatives impeached the president of the United States. Then I’m a juror,” Grassley said. “The Senate is the jury that decides whether he should be impeached. The jury is supposed to be impartial.” There is little serious talk being heard in Congress about removing Trump from office. Two House Democrats have introduced an article of impeachment alleging obstruction of justice by the president in connection with an ongoing investigation of possible ties between his 2016 campaign and Moscow. But Republicans control the House, as well as the Senate, and the article of impeachment has gained little traction.  Under the U.S. Constitution, the House of Representatives can vote to approve an impeachment measure. If that happens, it goes to the Senate, which acts as a jury and weighs the charges in the House measure. A two-thirds Senate vote is needed for conviction. Approval leads to removal from office. Two presidents have been impeached by the House: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was convicted by the Senate. President Richard Nixon, facing almost certain impeachment over the Watergate scandal, resigned in 1974. In the Clinton impeachment fight, the committee was a resource for the full Senate and could play a similar role in any future trial. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Having friends would help any president facing impeachment, said Charles Brain, a White House liaison to Congress during Clinton’s impeachment. Without such friendships, Brain said, lawmakers “can just be quiet,” refusing to share information with the White House and letting attacks on the president gain momentum. Besides Flake and Graham, Trump has had run-ins over various issues before and after his election with Republican Senator Ted Cruz, and other Judiciary Committee members, including Grassley, John Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, Thom Tillis and Ben Sasse. The president has also at times attacked Republican senators not on the committee, including Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election. Grassley’s committee also is looking into the matter, as are other congressional panels. The Kremlin denies any election interference. Trump has dismissed the Mueller probe as a “witch hunt” and denies any collusion. In the end, Mueller could end up clearing Trump and his aides of any wrongdoing.  If not, at least two questions will loom large in a possible impeachment inquiry, said senior fellow Elaine Kamarck of the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution think tank.  One would be about the severity of any possible charges. Another, she said, would be “do you have friends, do you have people who believe in you and want to save your presidency?”

Summary: महाभियोग आने पर ट्रम्प के हमले उन्हें मित्रहीन बना सकते हैं


DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh is in negotiations with Myanmar aimed at a deal to repatriate displaced Rohingya and Dhaka s foreign minister will address the matter at talks in Myanmar this week, the Bangladeshi foreign ministry said on Sunday. More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a military clearance operation in Buddhist majority Myanmar s Rakhine State. The Rohingyas  suffering has caused an international outcry.  Bangladesh and Myanmar are in the process of negotiation for a bilateral agreement for repatriation of displaced people and expect to form a Joint Working Group to facilitate the repatriation,  said a ministry statement, quoting remarks by Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali at a meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Dhaka on Sunday. A senior aide to Ali said he would leave for Myanmar late on Sunday to attend an Asia-Europe (ASEM) meeting on Monday and Tuesday and would stay on another couple of days for bilateral talks on the Rohingya. The official said Ali hoped for an agreement on allowing Rohingya to return to Myanmar.  Both countries have almost reached an understanding on this issue and there are a few points (still) to be agreed ... We hope to reach an agreement.  There was no immediate comment from Myanmar. On Nov. 1,  Myanmar insisted it was ready to set up a repatriation process but voiced fears Bangladesh was delaying an accord to first get international aid money. A senior Bangladesh home ministry official described the accusation as outrageous. Stung by international criticism and accusations of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, Myanmar s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has said Rohingyas who can prove they were resident in Myanmar would be accepted back. Last week a United Nations General Assembly committee called on Myanmar to end military operations that have  led to the systematic violation and abuse of human rights  of Rohingya. The move revived a U.N. resolution that was dropped last year due to Myanmar s progress on human rights. However, in the past three months there has been a Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh after the Myanmar military began an operation against Rohingya militants who attacked 30 security posts and an army base in Rakhine on Aug. 25. Myanmar s army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rapes and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the military operation. Top U.N. officials have denounced the violence as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. The Myanmar government has denied these allegations. Rohingyas have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, where many Buddhists see them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. A U.S. congressional delegation, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of Germany, Sweden and Japan visited Rohingya camps in Cox s Bazar at the weekend to raise awareness of their plight.  We support Bangladesh s efforts toward a lasting solution, including the repatriation of displaced persons,  Japan s Taro Kona told Ali at their meeting, where Tokyo pledged $18.6 million in aid to ease the Rohingya crisis. Mogherini told reporters:  More than putting pressure, our approach has always been and will continue to be to offer a negotiating space, encourage the taking care of a situation that is not going to disappear.

Summary: बांग्लादेश ने कहा कि वह रोहिंग्या प्रत्यावर्तन समझौते पर म्यांमार के साथ बातचीत कर रहा है


BEIJING (Reuters) - Threatening action or rhetoric cannot help resolve the situation on the Korean peninsula, China s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hinted about the existence of military options on North Korea. The North has repeatedly defied the United Nations to conduct nuclear and missile tests, the latest being a mid-range missile fired over Japan on Friday, soon after the reclusive nation s sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3. Asked whether there were any military options the United States could take with North Korea that would not put Seoul at grave risk, Mattis said there were, but declined to give details.  Developments in the peninsula nuclear issue up to this point prove that, no matter whether it is military threats in words or in action, they cannot promote and advance a resolution,  the foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said.  To the contrary, it just adds to tensions and makes achieving the goal of denuclearization on the peninsula appear more complicated and difficult to resolve,  he added, responding to a question about Mattis  comments at a regular briefing. Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea, which is also believed to have a sizable chemical and biological arsenal beyond nuclear and conventional weapons. Any conflict on the Korean peninsula could lead to bloodshed unseen since the 1950-53 Korean War, which took the lives of more than 50,000 Americans and millions of Koreans and ended in an armed truce, not a peace treaty. Military options available to the United States range from non-lethal actions such as a naval blockade to enforce sanctions to waging cyber attacks and positioning new U.S. weaponry in South Korea, where the United States has 28,500 troops. South Korea and the United States, and separately Russia together with China, started military drills on Monday, in a show of force against North Korea. The Korean peninsula issue must be resolved peacefully, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi stressed during a meeting with his Russian counterpart at the United Nations. Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by telephone about keeping pressure on North Korea using economic sanctions imposed through the United Nations, the White House has said. (This story has been refiled to reformat paragraph 10)

Summary: कोरियाई प्रायद्वीप की स्थिति को हल करने में खतरे मदद नहीं कर सकतेः चीन


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey and Iraq have agreed to open a second border gate and its construction will begin once the necessary security measures are taken, Turkey s customs minister said on Thursday.  I had the impression that the Iraqi government agrees that there should be a second border gate , Bulent Tufenkci told Anadolu news agency. He said the planned gate would be near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, in a region where Islamic State and Kurdish PKK militants still pose a security threat.  Once steps are taken to secure the path, there is no other obstacle for us,  he said.

Summary: तुर्की, इराक दूसरा सीमा द्वार खोलने पर सहमतः तुर्की सीमा शुल्क मंत्री


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Friday agreed not to talk publicly for now about payment of the wall the American wants to build on the United States’ southern border and that he says Mexico should finance. In a statement, Mexico’s government said that during a phone call on Friday, the two had held “constructive and productive” talks and broached issues including the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico and the flow of illegal arms and drugs across the border. “Regarding payment of the border wall, both presidents recognized their clear and very public differences of opinion on this sensitive subject, and agreed to resolve their differences as part of a comprehensive discussion on all aspects of the bilateral relationship,” the statement said.  “The presidents also agreed for now to not talk publicly about this controversial issue.”

Summary: मेक्सिको, अमेरिका दीवार भुगतान के बारे में सार्वजनिक रूप से बात नहीं करने के लिए सहमत हैं


GENEVA (Reuters) - A spokeswoman for International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said on Friday the organization was overjoyed at that it had won the Nobel Peace Prize.  As you can imagine we are elated, this is great news,  Daniela Varano told Reuters.  It s great recognition for the work that the campaigners did throughout the years and especially the Hibakusha,  she said, referring to survivors of atom bombs in Japan.   Their testimony was critical, was crucial and for such an amazing success.

Summary: नोबेल शांति पुरस्कार से उत्साहित आईसीएएन ने परमाणु बम से बचे लोगों को श्रद्धांजलि दी


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago will be able to spread out state-mandated higher payments to its police and fire pensions after the Illinois Legislature on Monday overrode the governor’s veto of a bill that became entangled in a political impasse. The Senate voted 39-19 and the House voted 72-43 to undo Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto on Friday that the city claimed would lead to a $300 million property tax hike. The bill gives Chicago short-term budget relief but will add to the city’s big pension funding gap.  The override bolsters Democrats, who control the legislature, as they battle with Rauner over state assistance for Chicago and its public school system, which is seeking state money for its teachers’ pensions. The political impasse had left Illinois without a complete budget 11 months into fiscal 2016. Rauner called the bill “terrible policy,” while Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel accused him of using the city as a political pawn. Rauner’s spokeswoman Catherine Kelly released a statement reiterating the governor’s contention that the measure would end up costing Chicago taxpayers $18.6 billion over time. The measure alters a 2010 state law that boosted Chicago’s payments to its public safety workers’ pensions in order to reach a 90 percent funded level by 2040. Under that law, Chicago’s contribution will jump to nearly $834 million this year from $290.4 million in 2015, according to city figures. The new law reduces the payment to $619 million and allows for smaller increases through 2020 than under the 2010 law. It also gives the police and fire funds until 2055 to become 90 percent funded. The police system is 26 percent funded and the fire system 23 percent funded. Chicago’s fiscal 2016 budget assumed the bill’s enactment by lowering the city’s contribution to police and fire pensions by about $220 million. The city council also approved a $543 million phased-in property tax to exclusively cover higher contributions to the two retirement systems. House Speaker Michael Madigan was clearly delighted as he addressed reporters after budget talks with Rauner. “I think it was interesting the governor had nothing to say about the override. I was raised not to cause embarrassment for people so I didn’t raise it,” Madigan said. The city must still deal with underfunding problems for its municipal and laborers’ retirement systems after the Illinois Supreme Court in March tossed out a 2014 law that cut benefits and increased contributions to keep the pension funds from insolvency.

Summary: राज्य के सांसदों ने शिकागो पेंशन भुगतान को आसान बनाने के लिए बिल वीटो को ओवरराइड किया


EASTERN GHOUTA (Reuters) - A tightening siege has pushed people to the verge of famine in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, residents and aid workers say, bringing desperation to the only major rebel enclave near the Syrian capital. Cases of malnutrition among children have almost doubled in the last two months at one clinic in the suburbs, which have been under siege by Syrian government forces since 2013 but come under new pressure this year as tunnels used to smuggle in food have been cut off.   The child that we consider normal in Ghouta is the child whose weight is on the lowest end of the normal weight scale. We don t have fully healthy children. The main reason is the lack of food and nutrition,  said Dr Amani Ballour, a paediatrician.  There are children who we previously classified as at risk of malnutrition, who are now classified as medium-level acute malnutrition or extreme-level acute malnutrition cases.     At two and a half years old, Hala al-Nufi weighs less than five kilos (12 pounds). She suffers from a metabolic disorder, but a lack of adequate food has made the case extreme. Hala, her eyes hollow and her translucent skin stretching over her tiny bones, had gotten sicker in recent months, her parents said. They worry she will not survive the siege. Um Said, a mother of six, says she is too hungry to breast feed her six-month-old twins, Marwa and Safa.  I put the child to the breast, but there is no milk. I am not eating. I slept without supper last night,  she said.  Sometimes I hit myself against the wall,  she said.  For God s, sake open the road. In the name of the prophet, I kiss your hands and feet, open the road for us. We are going to die of hunger. We are eating from the trash bins.  At least 1,200 children in eastern Ghouta suffer from malnutrition, on the rise with 1,500 others at risk, a spokeswoman for the U.N. children s agency UNICEF said.  We could be at the doors of starvation, of a medical catastrophe,  said health worker Mahmoud al-Sheikh. He said children were not yet dying of hunger but could be soon.  God help the people in the coming time.  The army s advances in recent months have shrunk the rebel-held pocket in the densely populated area of satellite towns and farms east of the capital. Food, fuel and medicine once traveled across frontlines into the suburbs through a network of underground tunnels. But early this year, an army offensive nearby cut smuggling routes that provided a lifeline for around 300,000 people in the enclave. Supplies have barely entered in months. Shortages have sent prices soaring even higher. Residents and local aid workers say they fear the worst if nothing changes when the cold arrives and stocks run out. A kilogram of sugar now costs more than 5,000 Syrian pounds ($10.81 dollars), roughly 14 times the state-regulated price in nearby Damascus. Two malnourished babies died this week after the siege aggravated their illnesses, a local official said. Photos of one of them   a skeletal baby girl   brought widespread attention to a crisis that has been growing there for months. Linda Tom, a spokeswoman for the U.N. humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) in Syria, said the one-month-old girl, Sahar, had congenital abnormalities. Hunger worsened her condition, and the baby died of pneumonia.  Through a series of offensives and evacuation deals, the Damascus government has defeated opposition pockets around the capital. Eastern Ghouta has held out, but residents say there is now talk for the first time of agreeing to evacuate.  People are under pressure, they will erupt. There is no baby milk at all. Mothers and fathers are watching their children go hungry. They want a solution in any way, at any price,  said Adnan, 30, who runs a local aid group. Families relied on crops they harvested in the summer, and meagre food distributions from warehouses run by the opposition government based in Turkey, he said. Adnan s group had preserved and dried vegetables that it will distribute to 1,500 families next week, but besides that, its food aid has halted.  Even if I get funding, there are no goods to buy,  he said.  The eastern Ghouta has shut down. There is a state of paralysis.  The Wafideen crossing at the outskirts, where checkpoints allowed some goods to enter, has also been heavily restricted or shut, the U.N. and residents said. Only two aid convoys have reached the Ghouta since July, each with food and medicine for about 20 percent or less of the population.  In July, Moscow and rebels in the Ghouta signed a ceasefire that had sparked hopes of opening crossings and aid flowing into the suburbs. But residents say none of that has materialized. The  de-escalation  deal reduced the barrage of air strikes and artillery, but the siege only got harsher, they said. Fierce ground battles also rage on in some frontline districts. When people in the Ghouta learned of the deal and thought it would bring relief, many began using up their food reserves at home, said Khalil Aybour, head of the local council in the town of Douma.  After they saw it was all rumors,  he said,  the misery grew immensely.

Summary: 'भुखमरी के दरवाजे पर' घेराबंदी ने दमिश्क के उपनगरों का गला घोंटा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump has not extended an offer to retired neurosurgeon and former presidential rival Ben Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a Carson spokesman said on Wednesday, disputing a report by the Wall Street Journal. “Trump did not make an offer,” Carson spokesman Armstrong Williams told Reuters. “He asked him to consider HUD. Nothing has been offered and no decision has been made.” The Wall Street Journal earlier had cited Williams as saying Carson had been offered the post and had accepted. The Journal later corrected its story to say Carson was being considered for the HUD job. “@realDonaldTrump is considering @RealBenCarson for a cabinet post. Dr. Carson is prayerfully & seriously considering,” Armstrong said on Twitter. On Tuesday, Armstrong had told Reuters that Trump had asked Carson to consider taking the post and that Carson was considering it. As recently as last week, Carson, 65, had told The Washington Post he was not interested in a Cabinet job, saying, “Having me as a federal bureaucrat would be like a fish out of water.” But he and Trump met on Tuesday at Trump Tower in New York, and earlier on Wednesday Carson posted on Facebook that after the talks he felt “that I can make a significant contribution particularly to making our inner cities great for everyone.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कार्सन यू. एस. आवास पद की पेशकश नहीं की हैः प्रवक्ता


NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday prescribed a quick fix to undo Obamacare through executive order after Republicans in the U.S. Congress failed to repeal and replace the healthcare law as promised, but industry experts said there are many steps involved that will slow it down. Trump’s plan rests on one main pillar, the creation of associations in which multiple employers can band together to buy health plans under the same law that large employers do. That law rests outside of many of the mandates of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare. Here are some questions and answers about these plans. Potentially, small business employees and maybe even more people would be able to buy such plans. The executive order envisions that associations will form to offer these new health plans for small businesses that want to join together. It is not clear from the order whether freelance workers or other individuals interested in buying health insurance outside of Obamacare would be able to access these association plans through other routes. That may be decided in the federal rule-making process, which takes months. There currently are some associations that have united to buy health insurance, but the order imagines the creation of many new associations around the country. By allowing small businesses to join forces to create a larger pool of employees when buying insurance, these associations can decrease the risk of having a higher proportion of members with costly illnesses that can drive up coverage costs for small employers. It is not clear who would create these groups, but there are some employer trade groups, like the National Restaurant Association, that have advocated this year to allow restaurants to band together to buy healthcare.  Groups first need to create an association, register it with the U.S. Labor Department, design the benefit plans, sign up medical providers or hire a third-party company that establishes networks of doctors, and then advertise and sell those plans to employees, insurance experts said. Signing up providers such as doctors and hospitals could be challenging, especially across state lines, said Dave Dillon, a fellow and actuary at the Society of Actuaries. Doctors and hospitals charge higher prices when they are uncertain about how many patients they might have, even when they are dealing with known entities like the large health insurers.  In addition, Americans next month are due to start buying their plans for next year during open enrollment, whether that is through an employer or on their own. That means 2018 would be off the table for the executive order’s provisions. “To get ready for 2019, you would have to be fairly up and running by the spring or early summer, and you would have to have things in place for the employers who would want to sell coverage for a 1/1 date,” Dillon said, referring to Jan. 1, 2019. By the time April rolls around, health insurers like Aetna Inc and UnitedHealth Group Inc and benefit design brokers like Aon PLC and Mercer, part of Marsh & McLennan Cos., are shopping around plans for 2019 with the goal to sign contracts by the summer. That gives them time to create the advertisements and documents that go to employees in time for sign-up. The 2019 plans would go on sale in November 2018. Legal challenges from Democratic state attorneys general who have fought some of Trump’s initiatives could further delay associations from forming, or employers from deciding to move employees from current small group plans or to offer a plan to employees currently being served by the individual market.

Summary: ओबामाकेयर को पूर्ववत करने के लिए ट्रम्प का त्वरित समाधान


THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Dutch police have declared the courtroom where a Bosnian Croat war crimes defendant said he drank poison on Wednesday during his appeals verdict a crime scene, the presiding judge said. Slobodan Praljak, 72, was receiving medical treatment while judge Carmel Agius continued to read the judgment in the final case the United Nations Yugoslav tribunal will hear before it closes next month.

Summary: अदालत का कमरा जहां युद्ध अपराध के प्रतिवादी ने 'जहर' पिया था, अब अपराध स्थलः न्यायाधीश


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, a leading House conservative, said on Sunday that fellow conservatives are not discussing replacing Speaker Paul Ryan despite unhappiness with the way Republican leaders handled last week’s debt ceiling increase that included no fiscal reforms. Many Republicans are unhappy with the deal President Donald Trump reached last week with Democratic leaders to raise the government’s debt ceiling and allow it to continue financing federal spending programs until Dec. 8. In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Jordan, a Republican, appeared to cast blame for the debt ceiling hike on party leaders including Ryan, saying they had not provided any “good options” to Trump before he struck a deal with Democrats. “In this situation, he (Trump) wasn’t presented with good options,” said Jordan, co-founder and former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, the most conservative group in the House. “No one is talking about changing the leadership,” Jordan told Fox. He said a Washington Post story last week that reported that conservatives had met with Ryan to express their dismay about the debt ceiling increase was “hardly news,” because the lawmakers meet with Ryan every week. Rebellious conservatives pushed out Republican John Boehner, Ryan’s predecessor, as speaker in 2015. The new plan also authorized spending $15.25 billion in emergency disaster relief for the victims of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Ninety House Republicans, including many members of the Freedom Caucus, voted against the measure, which Trump has now signed into law. Conservatives have long called for coupling spending reforms with any measures that raise the U.S. debt ceiling. But the deal did the opposite, raising the ceiling and paying for hurricane relief without spending cuts elsewhere. Republican leaders had urged an 18-month extension of the debt ceiling, but Trump accepted the three-month extension  proposed by Democrats. Jordan said he believed Trump has the same vision and focus as the Freedom Caucus, which was to represent people who felt they had been forgotten by officials in Washington. If conservative options are presented to the president, “I’m confident when that happens, he will pick those options that are conservative,” Jordan said.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन के अध्यक्ष रेयान को हटाने की कोई बात नहीं, प्रमुख रूढ़िवादी कहते हैं


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel supports the establishment of a Kurdish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, as Kurds in Iraq gear up for a referendum on independence that lawmakers in Baghdad oppose. Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, viewing the minority ethnic group   whose indigenous population is split between Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran   as a buffer against shared Arab adversaries. On Tuesday, Iraq s Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said he would press ahead with the Sept. 25 referendum despite a vote by Iraq s parliament rejecting it.  (Israel) supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state,  Netanyahu said, in remarks sent to foreign correspondents by his office. 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. Netanyahu said Israel does however consider the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a terrorist group, taking the same position as Turkey, the United States and the European Union. An Israeli general told a conference in Washington last week that he personally did not regard the PKK, whose militants have been fighting Turkey for more than three decades, as a terrorist group. Netanyahu, who is due to address the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 19, voiced support for  the Kurds  aspirations for independence  in a speech in 2014, saying they deserve  political independence . His latest remarks appeared to be a more direct endorsement of the creation of a Kurdish state. But they will cut little ice in Baghdad, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel and has strong ties with Israel s arch-foe Iran. Iraq s neighbors   Turkey, Iran and Syria   oppose the referendum, fearing it could fan separatism among their own ethnic Kurdish populations. 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.

Summary: इजरायल ने स्वतंत्र कुर्द राज्य का समर्थन किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson s announcement that he was  probing  opportunities for dialogue with North Korea about its nuclear weapons program and called for Washington to take a similar step with Iran. German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel also warned in a statement that going back on a nuclear deal with Iran signed by former U.S. President Barack Obama would risk undermining Washington s credibility in negotiating with North Korea. In 2015, Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for the loosening of economic sanctions that had crippled its economy. But U.S. President Donald Trump has called the deal  an embarrassment  and Washington said last month it was weighing whether to pull out of it. Germany, one of the few Western countries with a permanent embassy in Pyongyang, has advocated peaceful approaches to de-escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula and criticized some of Trump s more bellicose rhetoric regarding the potential nuclear flashpoint.  This is exactly the right direction. North Korea would be well advised to take this offer of talks seriously.  Gabriel said on Sunday of Tillerson s announcement. He added:  I would like to see a similar offer for Iran. If the U.S. canceled its nuclear deal with Iran, that would undermine the credibility of its offer to North Korea.

Summary: जर्मनी ने अमेरिका से कहा, ईरान के प्रस्ताव के साथ उत्तर कोरिया के प्रस्ताव का मिलान करें


BEIJING (Reuters) - The ruling Communist Party s flagship newspaper on Thursday provided more evidence that President Xi Jinping should be regarded as China s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong after this week s party congress. Xi s official portrait dominated the People s Daily s front page report on the unveiling of the party s new top leadership. Below that was a smaller group photograph of the new top leadership - the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee including Xi. It is a stark departure from recent precedent, with Mao Zedong the last leader to be granted such status on the front page after the party conclave - which is held once every five years. The People s Daily did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Since Deng Xiaoping introduced collective leadership three decades ago to ward off the rise of another Mao-like cult of personality, the official portraits of all newly-selected Politburo Standing Committee members have been presented together on the front page in a grid.  The portrait of the party s top leader, the general secretary, is usually only slightly more prominent; reflecting his position as the first among equals.  Xi is the party s general secretary, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and president of the country. In Thursday s People s Daily, the portraits and biographical information of the six other standing committee members - Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng - were relegated to the inside pages.  That s definitely the first time since Mao,  said Ryan Manuel, a China expert at the University of Hong Kong, referring to Xi s oversized portrait on the front of the paper. The People s Daily is closely parsed by party cadres and others, and sets the tone for media coverage in state-run newspapers at the provincial level. Manuel said the paper closely followed regimented rules and norms and would have done so especially meticulously for its  most important front page in five years .  It s a strict system,  he said.  The rules of placement and the rules of what type of photos you put on there are incredibly tightly argued and defined.  Xi s status as China s most powerful leader since Mao was underlined on Wednesday when the party, in another break with precedent, revealed a new leadership line-up without naming an obvious successor to him. There has been persistent speculation Xi could seek to stay on in some capacity beyond the end of the customary second five-year term in power, which ends in 2022. During the congress, Xi became the first leader since Mao to have a political ideology bearing his name enshrined in the party s constitution while in office.

Summary: चीन के प्रमुख समाचार पत्र के पहले पन्ने पर शी को माओ जैसी प्रमुखता मिलती है


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May is deeply concerned by media reports about the alleged misconduct of staff in parliament and believes any unwanted sexual behavior is  completely unacceptable , her spokesman said on Monday.  She is deeply concerned at the recent media reports regarding the alleged mistreatment of staff by some members of parliament,  her spokesman told reporters.  She has been clear that any unwanted sexual behavior is completely unacceptable in any walk of life and she strongly believes it s important that those working in parliament are treated properly and fairly.

Summary: संसद में यौन उत्पीड़न की खबरों पर ब्रिटेन की मे 'बहुत चिंतित' हैं


KIEV/CHISINAU (Reuters) - The powerful head of Moldova s ruling party Vlad Plahotniuc on Thursday accused Russian authorities of harassing him and other officials with dozens of bogus legal cases, ratcheting up a long-running diplomatic row between the two countries. Plahotniuc was charged in absentia by Russian investigators this week of orchestrating the attempted murder of a banker in London in 2012, according to Russian media outlets.  Without referring to any particular case, Plahotniuc told Reuters that Russian officials had sought to frame him to put him on international law enforcement watch lists. Plahotniuc expects further retaliation after the Moldovan parliament on Thursday passed a law to prevent the dissemination of foreign  fake news,  on Russian-language and other channels. Russian security services are  falsely accusing us of ethnic, political and ideological hatred, murder, theft, virtually anything they could think of,  he said by email through a representative.   They have seen their attempts failing so far, thus, they already went on with tougher and more explicit abuses.  The Russian foreign ministry and general prosecutor s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, at a briefing in November accused the Moldovan government and lawmakers of  some openly anti-Russian actions  and hampering attempts by Moldova s president to foster closer ties.  Nevertheless, Russia is open to long-term development of friendly, partner relations with a neutral Moldova, relations based on long-standing historical ties between our peoples,  she said.   Ex-Soviet Moldova is politically divided between a pro-Western government, which favors closer integration with the European Union, and Russian-backed President Igor Dodon.  Moldova and Russia have been embroiled in a series of spats this year.  The Chisinau government in March accused Russia s security apparatus of seeking to derail a Moldovan probe into a Russian-led money laundering operation by harassing Moldovan officials as they traveled to or through Russia. Plahotniuc said that behavior continued in recent months because of ongoing investigations into the case known locally as the  Russian Laundromat .   Russia s behavior  toward my colleagues and me is an explicit act of blackmail and political harassment.. abusive and illegal behavior, which will not change our commitment to the democratic and European development of Moldova,  he said.  The Moldovan parliament adopted a bill on Thursday aimed at combating foreign propaganda, banning television channels from airing news and analytical programs from countries that have not signed up a European broadcasting agreement, such as Russia.  Nobody is banning any channels from any particular country. This is not a question of banning channels from broadcasting, but about banning specific programs whose purpose is manipulation, propaganda and disinformation,  the author of the bill, MP Serdjiu Sirbu, told parliament. Dodon said he would refuse to sign the bill into law.   Under no circumstances will I sign a bill limiting the broadcasting of Russian TV channels in the republic. This document contradicts all the European norms of freedom of speech, as well as the constitution of Moldova,  he said.

Summary: मोलदोवा की सत्तारूढ़ पार्टी के प्रमुख का कहना है कि रूस ने उन्हें फर्जी मामलों में फंसाया है


MANILA (Reuters) - Police have been forced to stop conducting drug surveys and testing in the Philippine capital s biggest and most populous area after a lawyers  group representing residents filed a petition before a court, a police chief said on Tuesday. Thousands of residents had been surveyed and a few hundred had been tested in a door-to-door anti-narcotics campaign in two communities in Manila s Quezon City from May this year, part of President Rodrigo Duterte s bloody war on drugs. Human rights groups and Duterte s political opponents have said tests conducted by police amounted to harassment that could endanger the lives of those who tested positive. Activists say large numbers of users have been killed during the anti-drug campaign, often by mysterious gunmen. Community officials were still allowed to go around the city s 142 neighborhoods asking people to complete surveys about drug use and take voluntary urine tests, said Guillermo Eleazar, Quezon City police chief.  The police will no longer have an active role in the anti-drug activities,  Eleazar told Reuters, a day after he attended a court hearing on a petition to stop the police tests.  Our uniformed personnel will now be limited to providing security and visibility upon the requests of our barangay (community) officials. They will no longer take part in asking questions and taking urine samples,  he said. The decision comes as Philippine police are under intense media scrutiny over their conduct in an anti-narcotics campaign that has killed thousands of Filipinos over the past 15 months and alarmed human rights monitors. Activists and some opposition politicians have accused Duterte of having a kill policy that aims to eliminate suspected drug dealers rather than take them into custody. Duterte and the police reject such accusations and say that those killed had resisted arrest violently.  Eleazar said the drug tests police had conducted were voluntary and not coercive. He said the court did not issue a restraining order because he assured the judge it was up to each community to decide its own programmes and police would play only a supporting role. Eleazar accepted some police officers were  over-zealous  in the conduct of house-to-house surveys and tests, but said petitioners were wrong to blame police, who were only trying to help.  The petitioners are barking up at the wrong tree,  he said.  They should ask the court to stop the barangays from doing these anti-drug surveys and tests.  The National Union of People s Lawyers (NUPL) said they expected police to shift blame.  No doubt this about-face by the police was due to public protests and the legal suit,  the NUPL said in a statement.

Summary: निवासियों द्वारा अदालत में याचिका दायर करने के बाद फिलीपींस पुलिस ने नशीली दवाओं के परीक्षण को रोक दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration has dropped plans for an executive order that will require all U.S. food aid to be transported on American ships after members of Congress protested, congressional and aid sources said on Friday. Reuters reported on Thursday that Trump was considering issuing an order that would have increased to 100 percent the current requirement that 50 percent of such aid be transported on U.S.-flagged vessels. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stopped short of confirming information about the order but said he had discussed the issue with Trump and that he understands that the shift would have increased the cost of food aid and caused more people to starve. “I had a good conversation today with President Trump,” Corker said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “As a businessman, he understands that expanding the cargo preference would substantially drive up the cost of food aid and cause more people to starve around the world,” Corker said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Although unlikely to have any significant effect on the $4 trillion global cargo shipping industry, the initiative originally touted as part of Trump’s “America First” platform might have slowed food aid getting to millions of people and do little to create jobs, critics said. Aid groups, and members of Congress from both parties have been working for years to lower, or eliminate, the 50 percent shipping requirement. The United States, the world’s largest provider of humanitarian assistance, spent about $2.8 billion on foreign food aid in 2016. About half of that is estimated to go to shipping and storage. The conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute said in a November report that shipping food aid on U.S.-flagged vessels costs 46 percent more than aid shipped at internationally competitive rates and can take as much as 14 weeks longer. Jeremy Konyndyk, a former director of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, welcomed the administration’s decision to drop the order.  Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development, said that with four potential famines in the world “it would have been the worst possible moment to be shifting money out of hungry mouths and into subsidies for big shipping conglomerates.” Corker has been pushing for years to reform the U.S. food aid program, including by eliminating the cargo preference. He said in his statement he looked forward to working with Congress and the administration to achieve “long overdue reforms.” After hearing about the possible executive order, several members of Congress called the White House to express their concern, congressional aides said.  The administration’s budget proposal has suggested slashing foreign aid in general while increasing defense spending. That plan was also met with stiff opposition in Congress, as lawmakers argued that “soft power” options such as food and medical aid and disaster recovery assistance can be effective tools in foreign policy that should not be discounted. Supporters say Trump’s initiative would not only create new U.S. jobs in the shipping industry but that U.S.-controlled food shipments are important for national security because the U.S. fleet could be transferred to the military in case of a conflict.  Food aid is a very small percentage of the worldwide sea cargo flow, critics argue, while the security issue is moot as most cargo ships are too slow for use by the 21st century military. They said the costs would also be far higher by eliminating competition for shipping contracts with lower-cost international carriers, requiring more U.S. taxpayer dollars to feed fewer people.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रम्प ने खाद्य सहायता शिपिंग नियमों को सख्त करने के आदेश की योजना को हटा दिया-सूत्र


ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethnic clashes killed 11 people this week in Ethiopia s Oromiya region, a regional government official said on Sunday, the latest unrest in a province that was wracked by violence in 2015 and 2016. Nearly 700 people died last year during one period of the violence in Ethiopia s largest region and other areas, according to a parliament-mandated investigation. The unrest forced the government to impose a nine-month state of emergency that was finally lifted in August. Sporadic protests have taken place since then. Violence broke out this week in two districts in the province s west after protests led to clashes between ethnic Oromos and Amharas, the spokesman for the region s administration said on Sunday.  Eight Oromos and three Amharas died,  spokesman Addisu Arega Kitessa said in a statement.  The previous unrest was provoked by a development scheme for the capital, Addis Ababa, that dissidents said amounted to land grabs. Broader anti-government demonstrations followed, over politics and human rights abuses.  The violence included attacks on businesses, many of them foreign-owned, including farms growing flowers for export.  Separately, clashes along the border between the country s Oromiya and Somali regions last month also displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The area has been plagued by sporadic violence for decades. A referendum held in 2004 to determine the status of disputed settlements failed to ease tensions. Those clashes have  fueled fears about security in Ethiopia, the region s biggest economy and a staunch Western ally.

Summary: इथियोपिया के ओरोमिया क्षेत्र में झड़पों में 11 लोगों की मौत, अधिकारी ने बताया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will meet with the mayor of Flint, Michigan, on Tuesday to discuss the city’s problems in dealing with lead-contaminated water, the White House said. Obama, who on Saturday ordered federal aid for state and local response efforts in Genesee County, which includes Flint, will meet with Mayor Karen Weaver, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “The situation is anything but being ignored by the White House,” Earnest told a news briefing at the White House.

Summary: दूषित पानी पर चर्चा के लिए ओबामा मिशिगन के मेयर से मिलेंगेः व्हाइट हाउस


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Former Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora said on Tuesday that the head of his political party, Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as prime minister on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, will return to Lebanon.  Hariri s return to Lebanon is  a priority  said Siniora, adding that he had spoken by phone to Hariri on Monday.

Summary: लेबनान के पूर्व प्रधानमंत्री का कहना है कि हरीरी लेबनान लौटेंगे


(Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar held a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump in which he discussed migration and Britain’s exit from the European Union, the Irish government said in a statement on Tuesday. “Particular topics discussed included migration, Brexit and the movement of goods and citizens across the border, climate change, free trade, Irish inward investment in the United States, and the undocumented Irish,” the statement said, as well as the Northern Irish peace process. The border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, will become the only land frontier between the UK and the EU after Britain exits the bloc in March 2019.

Summary: ट्रंप और आयरलैंड के प्रधानमंत्री ने फोन पर प्रवास और ब्रेक्सिट पर की बात


BERLIN (Reuters) - A leading candidate to be Germany s next finance minister signalled his willingness on Thursday to seek a compromise with Emmanuel Macron over the French President s plans for deeper euro zone integration. Christian Lindner, who leads the Free Democrats (FDP) party negotiating to be part of Chancellor Angela Merkel s next coalition government, said European policy was one of the most important topics in the talks. Lindner said Macron   who last month called for a joint euro zone budget and joint finance minister among other reforms   had described political progress as a question of finding a balance between carrots and sticks.  Let s take him literally (on this) on the European question,  Lindner said at a book launch.   That means if he wants to get something, he ll have to accept other things - for example an insolvency mechanism for states or for example the binding participation of private investors in any debt restructuring if it should be necessary,  he said.  This would be the bitter thing he would have to swallow to get something sweet - namely additional funds for investments,  Lindner said. Veteran outgoing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, wary of anything that might leave German taxpayers shouldering common euro zone debts, has been generally lukewarm about Macron s reform plans. Lindner may succeed him under the three-way coalition that Merkel is trying to form after her conservatives lost support in a federal election last month. It has been widely speculated that the FDP would demand the top finance post as a price for joining in, though Lindner on Thursday stopped short of claiming the ministry for his party. Earlier this week, he had insisted that Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) should relinquish it. Lindner has repeatedly criticised Schaeuble, a fiscal hawk, as being too soft on Greece and putting loyalty to Merkel ahead of his own political convictions. Asked which characteristics the next German finance minister should have, Lindner said:  Being consistent.

Summary: जर्मनी के एफ. डी. पी. के प्रमुख ने मैक्रों को 'कड़वा' यूरो क्षेत्र सौदा करने की पेशकश की


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn said on CNBC on Tuesday that Donald Trump is “right on about the economy” and said “the Archie Bunker of the world” will vote for the Republican presidential candidate. Archie Bunker, a fictional conservative blue-collar worker from the New York City borough of Queens, was the main character in the 1970s television comedy “All in the Family.” Icahn praised Trump’s economic plan a day after the New York real estate developer unveiled it in a speech in Detroit. Trump proposed sweeping tax breaks, cuts to federal regulations and a revival of the stalled Keystone XL project. Bunker has been described as the show’s “lovable bigot,” but Icahn said there was no bad intention in comparing middle-class voters to the character. “Any middle-class worker, you know, ‘the Archie Bunker of the world’ - that was a great show, I used to watch it - those guys are going to vote for him because those are smart guys,” Icahn said.  “They know they are getting screwed, and that is what I think will happen,” Icahn said in an apparent reference to the decline in U.S. manufacturing, a theme of Trump’s. “Archie Bunker is a middle-class guy, somewhat educated even, that doesn’t know where his next check is coming to send his son or daughter to school, doesn’t know if he’s going to keep his job. ... Why the hell should he vote for a system that is not giving him a good-paying job?” Icahn said. Icahn echoed his remarks on CNBC on Twitter, saying, “Trump is right on about our economy. A capitalistic system cannot exist if government is at war with business. CEOs rightly so are afraid to invest in new equipment, etc. to make our manufacturing competitive.  “It is no surprise that today it was announced growth in productivity was down for the 3rd straight quarter and is at an all-time low. Our workers cannot be productive with ‘worn out tools’.”    The Labor Department reported that U.S. nonfarm productivity unexpectedly fell in the second quarter, pointing to sustained weakness in the economy. Trump’s speech came after a week of falls in opinion polls and clashes with the family of a fallen U.S. Muslim soldier and fellow Republican leaders. Icahn said he did not defend Trump’s remarks about the family of soldier Humayun Khan, calling them a “mistake. People make mistakes.” Asked by CNBC why Icahn was not named to Trump’s group of economic advisers, Icahn said he wanted to focus on a new Super PAC. Last week, Icahn’s general counsel, Jesse Lynn, told Reuters that Icahn turned down an invitation to join the group because the investor is considering funding a Super PAC focused on regulatory reform. It would be Icahn’s second Super PAC.

Summary: इकान ने ट्रम्प की आर्थिक योजना की प्रशंसा की, कहा कि उम्मीदवार को ब्लू-कॉलर वोट मिलेगा


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday it hopes relevant parties can exercise restraint over North Korea, after the South Korean military said that U.S. B-1B bomber flew over the Korean peninsula during a large-scale joint aerial drill. Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comments at a regular briefing.

Summary: कोरियाई प्रायद्वीप के ऊपर से अमेरिकी बी-1बी बमवर्षक विमान के उड़ान भरने के बाद चीन ने संयम बरतने का आह्वान किया


CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The Conservative leader in Canada s oil-rich Alberta, Jason Kenney, ran in a special election on Thursday to obtain a seat in the legislature that could lay the groundwork for his efforts to challenge the ruling party in the 2019 provincial polls. Kenney, 49, is running in an electoral district in Canada s oil capital of Calgary, which was vacated by its previous representative so the new party leader could quickly enter the legislature, as is customary. He is expected to win in the district, which has traditionally voted Conservative.  A victory would allow Kenney, a former federal politician, to question the ruling party in the legislature and position him to become premier if his faction wins in the 2019 election. Kenney was the architect of a merger this year of splintered right-leaning factions that created the United Conservative Party (UCP), which will challenge the incumbent, left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP). The NDP capitalized on divisions among conservatives, taking power in 2015. Alberta, where the Conservatives held power for 40 years before the NDP unexpectedly took over, is home to Canada s vast oil sands and is the largest exporter of crude oil to the United States. The province has been struggling with a three-year slump in global oil prices and a C$10.3 billion ($8.24 billion) budget deficit. Kenney, who was elected UCP leader in October, has been eager to develop policies aimed at cutting costs for the oil and gas sector, and is likely to be welcomed by the energy industry.

Summary: कनाडा के अल्बर्टा में रूढ़िवादी नेता विधायिका में प्रवेश करना चाहते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers proposed targeted sanctions and travel restrictions on Myanmar military officials on Thursday over the treatment of the country s Rohingya Muslim minority, one of the strongest efforts yet for Washington to intervene in the humanitarian crisis. Introduced the day before Republican Donald Trump leaves on his first trip to Asia as president, the legislation would reimpose some sanctions lifted last year as Myanmar returned to democracy. It also would bar the United States from supplying most assistance to the country s military until perpetrators of atrocities against the Rohingya are held accountable. The measure does not target Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, head of Myanmar s civilian-led government and a Nobel peace laureate who still enjoys strong support among some U.S. officials. But congressional aides said it is intended to underscore a strong desire among many members of Congress for her to do more to help the Rohingya. The legislation is sponsored by lawmakers including the Republican Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain, and Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  This bill will allow Congress to strengthen the president s hand by making it clear to Burmese officials that there will be consequences for their crimes against humanity,  Cardin said in a statement. Among other things, it re-imposes a ban on jade and rubies from Myanmar and requires a report on which individuals should be subjected to sanctions, and instructs the U.S. Treasury Department not to support international financial assistance programs that partner with enterprises owned by the Myanmar military. A companion bill is also being introduced in the House of Representatives. That measure is also bipartisan, led by Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Republican Representative Steve Chabot, another foreign affairs panel member. Members of Congress have been clamoring for a strong response to the plight of the Rohingya, and the Trump administration has been weighing labeling their treatment  ethnic cleansing.   The State Department announced on Thursday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would accompany Trump on his trip to Asia, and also stop in Myanmar. More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine state in Buddhist-majority Myanmar since security forces responded to Rohingya militants  attacks in August with a crackdown that has included reports of burnt villages and widespread killings. The United Nations has denounced it as a classic example of ethnic cleansing.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसदों ने नए प्रतिबंधों के साथ म्यांमार की सेना को निशाना बनाया


(Reuters) - The death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria has more than doubled to 34, a spokesman for Governor Ricardo Rosello said on Tuesday. The worst hurricane to hit the U.S. territory in more than 90 years directly killed 19 people, said Pedro Cerame, the governor s director of communications in Washington. Just hours earlier when President Donald Trump visited the island to survey the damage the official death toll remained as it has for days at 16 dead.

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको में तूफान मारिया से मरने वालों की संख्या दोगुनी से बढ़कर 34 हुई


ANKARA/SOCHI (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan took swipes at U.S. and Russian interventions in Syria on Monday and said if countries truly believed a military solution was impossible, they should withdraw their troops. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump said in a joint statement on Saturday they would continue to fight against Islamic State in Syria, while agreeing that there was no military solution to the country s wider, six-year-old conflict.  I am having trouble understanding these comments,  Erdogan told reporters before flying to Russia for talks with Putin.  If a military solution is out of the question, then those who say this should pull their troops out.   Then a political method should be sought in Syria, ways to head into elections should be examined... We will discuss these with Putin,  he said. After more than four hours of talks with Putin in the southern Russian resort of Sochi, Erdogan said the two leaders had agreed to focus on a political solution to the conflict.  We agreed that the grounds to focus on a political solution (in Syria) have been formed,  he said. Putin said Russia would continue to work on Syria with Turkey and their efforts were yielding results:  The level of violence has definitely been reduced, favorable conditions are being created for the progression of a inter-Syrian dialogue.  Neither leader went into more specific detail. Asked if the two discussed Erdogan s earlier comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the talks were about more complex issues which could not be made public, according to RIA news agency. Turkey has been annoyed by both Russian and U.S. missions in Syria. Before his trip to Russia, Erdogan said both Moscow, which backs President Bashar al-Assad, and Washington, which armed Syrian YPG Kurdish forces Ankara sees as allied to separatists fighting in southeastern Turkey, had set up bases.  The United States said it would completely leave Iraq, but it didn t. The world is not stupid, some realities are being told differently and practiced differently,  he said. He said the United States had 13 bases in Syria and Russia had five. The YPG has said Washington has established seven military bases in areas of northern Syria. The U.S.-led coalition says it does not discuss the location of its forces. Russia has been a strong supporter of Assad, whose removal Erdogan has demanded, and Moscow s military intervention two years ago helped turn the conflict in the Syrian president s favor.  Turkish troops have also fought in Syria to halt the advance of Kurdish YPG forces along its frontier.  We attach great importance to the joint steps Turkey and Russia will take on (the) defense industry,  Erdogan said. His remarks follow Turkey s recently completed purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, a defense deal that Turkey s Western allies see as a snub to the NATO alliance. The weapon cannot be integrated into NATO defenses. Ankara says it is making agreements with the Franco-Italian EUROSAM consortium to develop, produce and use its own sources for air defense system.

Summary: एर्दोगन ने सीरिया में रूस, अमेरिकी मिशनों पर कटाक्ष किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is no surprise that Democrats in the U.S. Congress will oppose Donald Trump but the most important resistance to fulfilling the president-elect’s agenda is beginning to emerge from Republicans on Capitol Hill. A small number of influential Republicans in the Senate are threatening to block appointments to Trump’s administration, derail his thaw with Russia and prevent the planned wall on the border with Mexico. The party held onto control of the Senate at the Nov. 8 election but by only a thin margin, putting powerful swing votes in just a few hands. That empowers Republican Senate mavericks such as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas. Both were bitter rivals to Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.  Paul, a libertarian lone wolf, says he will block Senate confirmations if Trump nominates either former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to be secretary of state. South Carolina’s Lindsay Graham has started publicly outlining places he might be willing to oppose Trump. He is against the Mexican border wall and is delivering warnings against Trump’s intention to revoke legal status for undocumented immigrants brought here as children - although that would not require congressional approval.  Graham, a traditional Republican foreign policy hawk, strongly disagrees with Trump’s attempt to improve ties with Russia. “I am going to be kind of a hard ass” on Russia, Graham told reporters recently. “We can’t sit on the sidelines” and let cyber attacks blamed on Russia “go unanswered.”             The early stirrings of opposition from Senate Republicans are a sign that the New York businessman, who has never held public office, might run into harsh political realities soon after taking office on Jan. 20.         Other Senators who might defy Trump are Arizona’s John McCain and Jeff Flake, Nebraska’s Ben Sasse, Florida’s Marco Rubio, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, said senior Senate aides and lawmakers.     These lawmakers have ruffled feathers in the past and some have a good political reason not to fear Trump: Paul, McCain, Murkowski and Rubio do not have to run for reelection until 2022. Graham, Collins and Sasse will have to face the voters in 2020; Cruz and Flake have an earlier election, in 2018. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose job is to keep the Republicans in line, knows the challenges ahead. A senior Republican aide said McConnell is “loathe” to spend time trying to move bills that lack the needed Senate votes.  McConnell is aware he will not have the support of some of his own lawmakers on bills that could pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, such as appropriating money to build the Mexican wall and further abortion restrictions, the aide said. But Trump has a history of taming what appear to be well-entrenched Republican opponents. He won the party nomination against all the odds and some of his staunchest opponents like Rubio and Cruz ended up endorsing him.         And swing votes in the Senate cut two ways. The Democrats have their own potential renegades such as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who has already declared his support for Trump’s nomination of Republican Senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Such swings by Democrats toward Republicans may be likelier ahead of the 2018 elections, when Democrats must defend more vulnerable Senate seats than Republicans. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer must deal with this. Trump said over the weekend he and Schumer “always had a good relationship.” Republicans are likely to control only 52 seats in the 100-seat Senate, meaning three defections within the party are enough to block cabinet appointments which only require 50 votes. Vice President-elect Mike Pence would break 50-50 ties. The task for McConnell gets more difficult when it comes to passing legislation, which requires 60 votes, known as cloture, to allow a bill to move forward. If Trump plans to sign a bill while in office, perhaps one that will change immigration law or restrict abortions, McConnell will have to keep all Republicans in line and win over an additional eight Democrats. Trump could deliver on campaign promises that do not require legislative approval like blocking the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal or ending the Iran nuclear pact. The repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, enjoys robust Republican support and would be done through a legislative maneuver that does not require any Democratic support.  Collins and Murkowski have a history of crossing the aisle to join Democrats and could shy from abortion restrictions. Cruz has never feared disrupting Senate business to prove a point or seek concessions in legislation.  Sasse did not waver from his staunch criticism of Trump through the campaign. Flake has said he is “eating crow” after Trump’s win, but he could defect on immigration and border security, issues he has previously joined with Democrats on. Paul was asked last week on MSNBC if he would put a hold on Giuliani or Bolton. In the Senate, a hold allows a single senator to delay a confirmation. He left open the possibility of such a move, saying, “I feel pretty strongly about it.”  He said: “We have a 52-48 majority, all it would take is two or three Republicans to say they can’t go along with Giuliani and can’t go along with Bolton.”

Summary: ट्रम्प का विरोध करने के लिए तैयार, कुछ सीनेट रिपब्लिकन लाभ उठाते हैं


SEOUL (Reuters) - A Seoul court on Friday found Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin guilty of breach of trust and embezzlement and sentenced him to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years, leaving him free to try and revive the conglomerate after steep losses in China. The Seoul Central District Court cleared the executive of some counts of breach of trust and one embezzlement charge.  I apologize to the public,  Shin said as he left court, without commenting further. Prosecutors had sought a ten-year jail term for Shin on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust after a probe since 2016 into the retail-to-chemicals group.       The ruling will come as a relief to Lotte at the end of a tough year during which it became the highest-profile corporate victim of a Beijing-Seoul spat over South Korea s installation of a U.S. missile defense system.  South Korea s fifth-largest conglomerate said,  We respect the court s decision. Lotte Group executives and employees will further unite to contribute to economic progress and do our best to meet our social responsibility.   The prosecution did not have an immediate comment. Legal experts said the prosecution was likely to appeal. Shin is the subject of another ongoing trial related to a bribery scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye. Prosecutors are seeking a four-year jail term and a fine of 7 billion won ($6.49 million). In the meantime, Friday s ruling means Lotte, with 110.8 trillion won worth of assets, avoids a leadership vacuum for the time being as it navigates mounting China losses and an uncertain recovery. Shunned in China, its key market, after it was pressed by Seoul to provide land for the THAAD missile defense system, Lotte s third-quarter China hypermarket sales were nearly wiped out to about $278,000 from around $264 million a year earlier.  Nearly all Lotte Mart stores in China have been shut for much of the year with local authorities citing fire safety issues, and the group has now put the business up for sale.  But the sale is likely to be delayed past the end-2017 deadline Lotte had sought, Lotte Corp official Choi Min-ho said, without giving a reason.  Lotte s businesses in South Korea, including its major duty-free operations, that had counted on big-spending Chinese tourists, remain under pressure amid curbs on Chinese tour groups traveling to the country. South Korea s credit rating agencies have downgraded or cut their outlook for corporate bonds of the group s flagship retailer Lotte Shopping and Hotel Lotte [HTLOT.UL], citing hurdles in improving their financial stability. Lotte, which shelved plans for an estimated $4.5 billion IPO of Hotel Lotte amid the investigation, is now battening down the hatches as a difficult year draws to an end. Lotte Shopping has frozen wages for its department store business this year for the first time since 2009, three Lotte officials said this week, declining to be identified as the matter was sensitive.  While Lotte confirmed wages had been frozen, the retail-to-chemical conglomerate declined further comment.  However, one of the officials from the department store business said:  Wages have been frozen due to various factors, but the THAAD issue was one of them.

Summary: लोट्टे प्रमुख को निलंबित जेल की सजा मिली; दृढ़ रहने के लिए स्वतंत्र


KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian investigators fear corruption probes could get buried because the national anti-corruption bureau will soon be flooded by thousands of old cases and recently passed legislation could further hobble their work. Their comments spotlight Kiev s patchy record on fighting corruption, which has delayed billions in aid from international donors who have supported Ukraine since the 2014 Maidan protests brought pro-Western forces to power. They come after the NABU anti-corruption bureau launched an investigation this week into an allied crime-fighting agency over extortion allegations.  From Monday, 3,500 cases that were registered before December 2015 will be transferred from the prosecutor s office to NABU, which include for example investigations that may pertain to former Donald Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort. NABU began life in late 2015 and was given an exemption on investigating cases that opened before its creation, which expires on Monday. NABU wants the exemption extended, saying its 200-strong team of detectives cannot cope with the extra work.  In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, NABU spokeswoman Svitlana Olifira said there was a risk that  all current investigations by (NABU) detectives may be blocked . Serhii Horbatiuk, head of special investigations at the general prosecutor s office, said the old cases would be sent to NABU to ensure no-one looks at them. His investigations include two cases related to Manafort s work in Ukraine.   They will simply lie around and not be looked at,  he said in an interview at his office.  My opinion is that this is done deliberately to ensure that crimes linked to former senior officials are either simply not investigated, or obstacles are created that prevent it (the investigation).   The restructuring (of law enforcement) is being used to ensure investigations don t take place,  he added. Neither NABU nor Horbatiuk accused anyone by name of trying to block investigations.  NABU appealed to President Petro Poroshenko to veto legislation passed in October which it believes will also harm investigations.  The law, according to NABU, will put too strict limits on the time allowed for an investigation before it can be dismissed, while also making it more cumbersome for police to obtain permission from courts to open probes.  We urge the president to examine this bill thoroughly and to refrain from signing the current version,  Olifira said, saying the bill could  bring about the collapse of Ukraine s whole law enforcement system.  The president s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Summary: यूक्रेन के जांचकर्ताओं को डर है कि भ्रष्टाचार के मामले दफन हो सकते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump raised the firing of the FBI director in a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister to explain why he had been unable to find areas of cooperation with Moscow, two top administration officials said on Sunday. “The gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if he is hamstrung in his ability to work with Russia to find areas of cooperation because this has been obviously so much in the news,” National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” program. On the “Fox News Sunday” show Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump was also trying to convey to the Russians that he was “not going to be distracted by all these issues at home that affect us domestically.” Tillerson and McMaster were present at the May 10 meeting where Trump discussed his firing of James Comey, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister and Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States.  The New York Times, citing officials familiar with an internal White House summary of the meeting, reported that Trump referred to Comey as a “nut job” and said his removal would relieve “great pressure” coming from the agency’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Lavrov denied that the subject of Comey came up during the meeting, according to Interfax news agency. Russian President Vladimir Putin had offered to provide the U.S. Congress with transcripts of the same meeting to counter reports that Trump also disclosed classified information to Lavrov about a planned Islamic State operation. However, neither McMaster nor Tillerson on Sunday disputed that the subject of Comey’s dismissal came up in the meeting with Russian officials. Both said that Trump’s remarks had been misinterpreted. A steady drip of revelations about the meeting and the broader issue of Trump administration’s ties to Russia have complicated the president’s policy agenda and threatened to overshadow his first foreign trip. Trump arrived on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the first leg of a nine-day trip and is due to go to Israel on Monday. The trip also includes stops at the Vatican, a NATO meeting in Brussels and the Group of Seven summit in Sicily.  Last week, former FBI director Robert Mueller was named special counsel to investigate alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow. Russia has denied any meddling and Trump has said there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia. Two sources told Reuters on Friday the administration was exploring whether it could use an obscure ethics rule to undermine Mueller’s investigation. In response, Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, said on Saturday she would introduce legislation aimed at protecting Mueller’s probe. U.S. lawmakers from both parties have expressed varying degrees of concern about ties between the Trump administration and Russia and the president’s handling of the matter. Republican U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona told “Fox News Sunday” he was left “speechless” by reports of Trump’s remarks about Comey in the May 10 meeting. “I don’t know how to read it except that, I’m almost speechless because I don’t know why someone would say something like that,” McCain said, adding that the president should never have met with the Russian officials. Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanolpoulos” show he was trying to obtain notes from the meeting and expected to speak to the former FBI director on Monday.  On the same program, Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House panel, called on Chaffetz to subpoena the White House for documents related to the committee’s probe into Comey’s firing.  Comey is set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also examining Russia’s role in the election and possible ties to Trump’s campaign, in two weeks. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican on the panel, told CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday he would ask the former FBI director whether he ever felt pressured to not do his job. “If any president tries to impede an investigation – any president, no matter who it is – by interfering with the FBI, yes, that would be problematic. That would be not just problematic, it would be obviously a potential obstruction of justice that people have to make a decision on,” Rubio said. Rubio emphasized that he will reserve judgment until he has seen all the evidence and heard from sources, including Comey.

Summary: रूसियों के लिए ट्रम्प की एफ. बी. आई. टिप्पणियों का उद्देश्य सहयोग थाः सहायक


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia’s center-left opposition Labor Party leader Bill Shorten on Tuesday endorsed U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton over her chief Republican rival, Donald Trump, who he said would be “very difficult” to work with. Shorten, who is campaigning against Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ahead of national elections on July 2, pledged to continue Australia’s close relationship with the United States regardless of the outcome of the U.S. election. But he made no secret of which candidate he preferred. “In terms of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, I have to say that if I was in America, I would be voting for Hillary Clinton,” Shorten told reporters. “Whoever America elects we’ll deal with but there’s no doubt in my mind that Trump would be very difficult, I think, to deal with.” Trump’s often controversial comments on everything from Muslims and women to the future of NATO and relations with Russia have drawn criticism from Berlin, Paris and other European capitals. British Prime Minister David Cameron this week stood by his description of Trump’s plan to ban Muslims from entering the United States as “divisive, stupid and wrong” after Trump said that he was unlikely to have a good relationship with Cameron.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलियाई विपक्षी नेता ने क्लिंटन का समर्थन किया, ट्रम्प की आलोचना की


MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian police said on Sunday they had arrested a man accused of working on the black market to sell missile components and coal on behalf of North Korea, the first charges ever brought in Australia over the sale of weapons of mass destruction. The man had been charged with two counts under an act preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, police said, and with another four under legislation enforcing United Nations and Australian sanctions against North Korea. The Sydney man was identified by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and other media as 59-year-old Chan Han Choi, who they said had been living in Australia for more than 30 years and was of Korean descent. He was arrested in the Sydney suburb of Eastwood on Saturday and was due to face court later on Sunday, police said. He came to the attention of authorities earlier this year, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said.  This man was a loyal agent of North Korea, who believed he was acting to serve some higher patriotic purpose,  AFP Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters.  This case is like nothing we have ever seen on Australian soil,  he said. Police will allege the man tried to broker the sale of missile components, including software for the guidance systems of ballistic missiles, as well as trying to sell coal to third parties in Indonesia and Vietnam. Gaughan said the trade could have been worth  tens of millions of dollars  if successful. Cash-strapped North Korea has come under a new round of stricter United Nations sanctions this year after pressing ahead with its missile and nuclear programmes in defiance of international pressure. Tensions have risen dramatically on the Korean peninsula because of the North s ballistic missile launches and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, as well as joint military drills between South Korea and the United States that the North describes as preparation for war. Pyongyang claimed that its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch in November had the range to reach all of the United States.  U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged North Korea on Friday to carry out a  sustained cessation  of its weapons testing to allow talks about its missile and nuclear programmes. However, the North has shown little interest in talks until it has the ability to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, which many experts say it has yet to prove. Gaughan said the man had been in touch with high-ranking North Korean officials but no missile components ever made it to Australia. He also said there was no indication officials in Indonesia or Vietnam had been involved in the attempted coal sales.  This is black market 101,  Gaughan said.  We are alleging that all the activity occurred offshore, and was purely another attempt for this man to trade goods and services as a way to raise revenue for the government of North Korea,  he said. The man faces up to 18 years in jail if convicted. He did not apply for bail and will next face court on Wednesday.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया ने उत्तर कोरिया को मिसाइल के पुर्जे बेचने की कोशिश करने के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday the House will take up supplemental disaster funding to help areas hit by hurricanes and wildfires on Thursday. “We think it’s critical that we pass this legislation this week to give the people in California the support that they need to fight these fires, to help the victims, and also to help the communities still recovering and dealing with humanitarian problems with the hurricanes,” Ryan said at a news briefing on Wednesday, citing Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

Summary: हाउस रिपब्लिकन गुरुवार को आपदा वित्त पोषण करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Thursday seeking to stop at least a portion of President Donald Trump’s sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. Republican Rand Paul and Democrats Chris Murphy and Al Franken introduced a resolution of disapproval in the Senate to force a vote on whether to block part of the sale. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee received formal notice of the pending sale on May 19. The Arms Export Control Act of 1976 allows a senator to force a vote on an arms sale, once Congress is formally notified of plans to go ahead. The same three senators introduced a similar resolution last year seeking to block the sale of $1.15 billion of tanks and other equipment to Saudi Arabia. That measure was defeated overwhelmingly. Saudi Arabia was the first stop on Trump’s first international trip this week, and he marked the visit by announcing the arms deal in Riyadh on May 20. Saudi Arabia agreed to by $110 billion of U.S. arms, with options running as high as $350 billion over 10 years. The lawmakers aim to block about $500 million of the sale, the portion including precision-guided munitions and other offensive weapons. “Given Saudi Arabia’s past support of terror, poor human rights record, and questionable tactics in its war in Yemen, Congress must carefully consider and thoroughly debate if selling them billions of dollars of arms is in our best national security interest at this time,” Paul said in a statement. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives also took action on the planned sale on Thursday. Republican Representative Ted Yoho and Democrat Ted Lieu wrote to the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee asking for a hearing to review the sale of precision-guided munitions to Riyadh. Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration suspended the planned sale of precision-guided munitions in December because of concerns over the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen and civilian casualties. But Trump has said he wants to encourage international weapons sales as a way to create jobs in the United States.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसद बड़े पैमाने पर ट्रम्प सऊदी हथियार सौदे का मुकाबला करेंगे


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Oracle Corp Chief Executive Safra Catz will join the executive committee of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, and she will remain at the company in the process, Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said on Thursday. Catz was one of several technology industry executives who met with Trump this week, and she went into the meeting saying that her industry would be better off if Trump reformed the tax code, negotiated better trade deals and reduced regulation.

Summary: ओरेकल के सी. ई. ओ. कैट्ज़ ट्रम्प की संक्रमण दल में शामिल होंगे, ओरेकल में बने रहेंगे