UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - At the entrance to the United Nations building in New York a sign advertises an upcoming party to celebrate the end of the annual gathering of world leaders. Next to it a weathered box with crumpled papers urges people to donate for Syrian refugees. The contrast is striking a year after nations jousted verbally for a week in the same halls attempting to strike a ceasefire deal as Russia and Iran backed Syrian government troops in a brutal advance on the then rebel bastion of Aleppo. But tensions in the Korean Peninsula and a growing crisis over the fate of a nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers has relegated talk of resolving the six-year-old Syrian civil war to back rooms and bilateral chitchat as international diplomacy struggles to find a strategy to end the crisis. On the ground, violence between government forces and rebels has been drastically reduced after the creation of  de-escalation zones  in the west of the country negotiated between Russia, Turkey and Iran in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. A separate effort between Russia, Jordan and the United States has also helped in the south. Its backers say the zones have restored some security to Syrians and open the way for local reconciliation. Its detractors warn that they will fragment the country and lead to a more radicalised opposition.  You don t have the U.S. and the Europeans around the table and that is a huge defeat for all of us. This Astana process is just a military de-escalation process and it must be supplemented with a political process,  French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country supports rebels and urges the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, told reporters this week. But there appears little momentum for that. While all actors in the conflict agree on the common goal of defeating Islamic State and al-Qaeda-backed militants, an objective that is well on course, there is no consensus on how to breathe fresh life into the political process. That has been compounded by the arrival of the Trump administration whose priority in Syria is focused on destroying Islamist groups and curbing Iran s influence. Meanwhile, they have reduced support for some opposition groups.  The American withdrawal has left Russia dominating the entire process,  Riad Hijab, the head of the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told Reuters in New York.  The last major international attempt to resolve the crisis ended in failure when the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) was cast aside after Syrian government forces retook Aleppo in 2016. U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva that have pitted a government delegation against a divided opposition for several years with the ultimate aim of implementing an existing U.N. roadmap have been kept on life-support as sponsors of the warring parties fail to pressure them to engage in dialogue.  The question is, are these de-escalation areas going to be limited for six months or do they risk becoming a de facto partition of Syria?  U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura told a sparsely attended meeting on the crisis.  It s time for Geneva to ensure sustainability of de-escalation,  he said.  If we miss this we will be regretting it once again.  Those talks are tentatively scheduled to resume at the end October. There is growing pressure on the Riyadh-based opposition, which has suffered repeated reversals since the start of the year, to restructure by including groups that have closer ties to Russia, but also shaking up its top leadership. Western and Arab diplomats argue that it aims to merely strengthen Moscow s hand in any future negotiating process.  Now that the opposition no longer has the hope to win the war, things can be different, but if we put up a fragmented, demoralized and radicalised opposition in Geneva versus a regime that, while weak, believes it can win, then nothing will happen in Geneva,  a senior European diplomat said.    It s time for the sponsors to blow the final whistle.  But after a week at the United Nations, there was little sign of progress. A French effort to get the five permanent members of the Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - to talk to each other yielded no concrete results.  There s a lot of wariness and mistrust from Russia who think we have a hidden agenda and the United States ... who are obsessed with Iran,  said a senior French diplomat.  At no point have the powers ever been clear on what they want so we want to now have that conversation.  How Russia and Iran see the political evolution remains unclear given their interests and influence in Syria have never been greater. Iran s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose country may be feeling under pressure after this week s barrage of threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, on Thursday urged all the sponsors  to commit to ourselves that there will be no solution without a political solution.  Speaking at the high-level Syria meeting, Russia s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov pushed for a new round of Geneva talks. However, he condemned as  unacceptable  the West s attitude in refusing to help fund reconstruction of areas taken back by Syrian government-backed forces, a sign perhaps that Moscow is concerned about its long-term role in the country. The United States, Britain and France have all dismissed that idea, believing they can use the promise of reconstruction to push Assad and his allies to the negotiating table.  Absent a credible political horizon that can lead to a transition that s supported by a majority of the Syrian people, the reality is the international community will not be coming in with significant reconstruction assistance,  said Brett McGurk, U.S. special envoy for the coalition against Islamic State.

Summary: कुछ विचार, कम उम्मीद ने संयुक्त राष्ट्र में सीरिया संकट को पीछे छोड़ दिया।


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a senior Pakistani police officer, as well as his wife, son and grandson on Wednesday as the family was driving in Baluchistan province, officials said.  Two attackers opened fire on the vehicle carrying District Superintendent Muhammad Ilyas and his relatives to Quetta, the capital of the southwestern region, police said. His four-year-old granddaughter survived and was taken to hospital, they added. Authorities say there has been a surge in attacks on security officials in Baluchistan, with five suicide bombings and one armed attack targeting police in the past six months. No group immediately claimed responsibility for Wednesday s shooting - though Sunni militants and sectarian groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, as well as the Taliban, operate in the region that borders Afghanistan and Iran. Separatists have also fought a long insurgency there, demanding a greater share of the region s gas and mineral resources and an end to what they say is discrimination.  Baluchistan is at the center of the $57 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a planned transport and energy link from western China to Pakistan s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.

Summary: दक्षिण-पश्चिम पाकिस्तान में बंदूकधारियों ने पुलिस अधिकारी और परिवार की गोली मारकर हत्या कर दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will make remarks on health care later on Wednesday, the White House said, a day after he pressed Republican congressional leaders to complete their overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system. The Republican president will deliver the remarks at 12:55 p.m. (1655 GMT) during a visit to Ohio, where he is promoting an infrastructure initiative, the White House said in a statement.

Summary: ट्रम्प स्वास्थ्य सेवा पर दोपहर (1655 जी. एम. टी.) में टिप्पणी करेंगेः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday emphasized their plans to cooperate on shared goals, following weeks of tensions between the two Republicans. The White House and McConnell issued statements after media reports that McConnell’s relationship with the Republican president had disintegrated amid repeated attacks by Trump on the Senate leader for, among other things, failing to get a healthcare bill passed. Trump and McConnell “remain united on many shared priorities, including middle class tax relief, strengthening the military, constructing a southern border wall, and other important issues,” the White House said in a statement. It said the two would hold previously scheduled meetings following the August recess to discuss the issues with members of the congressional leadership and the Cabinet. “The President and I, and our teams, have been and continue to be in regular contact about our shared goals,” McConnell said in his statement. He cited support for infrastructure legislation and tax reform, as well as preventing a government default, passing defense bills and implementing an effective strategy against Islamic State. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we are committed to advancing our shared agenda together and anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly not part of the conversation,” McConnell said. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that McConnell and Trump were locked in a political “cold war,” especially after an Aug. 9 phone call it said devolved into a shouting match. On that day and the next, Trump assailed McConnell via Twitter, angered by a speech McConnell had given saying Trump had “excessive expectations” of Congress.  Trump has kept up the pressure on Congress this week, threatening on Tuesday to shut down the government if lawmakers do not fund the building of a wall along the border with Mexico. Trump also kept up an attack on another senator whom McConnell has defended, Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona, a longtime critic of the president over his trade and immigration policies.

Summary: ट्रम्प, मैककॉनेल कहते हैं कि वे साझा लक्ष्यों पर एकजुट रहते हैं


PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen vowed to extend his more than 30 years in power by at least another decade on Wednesday, weeks after the highest court dissolved the main opposition party ahead of a 2018 general election. The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved in November at the request of Hun Sen s government, signaling what one rights group called the  death knell  for democracy in the Southeast Asian country. Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge cadre who defected from the genocidal group and helped drive it from power in 1979, is credited with helping Cambodia achieve economic growth but has also been criticized for his crackdown on civil society groups and the media. China, Cambodia s biggest backer, has said it supports the government s attempts to maintain Cambodia s national security. At a speech given to thousands of garment workers on Wednesday at a pagoda on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Hun Sen said he would stay in power for another two terms and asked workers to vote for his Cambodian People s Party (CPP).  I will continue to be the elected Prime Minister for another two mandates which is not less than 10 years,  Hun Sen said.   I hope that you as well as your parents and grandparents, if they are alive, and your families continue to vote, to support CPP on July 29, 2018.  Garments are Cambodia s biggest export by far and garment workers are a politically powerful group. In 2016, garment exports were worth $6.3 billion and reached $4.9 billion in the first seven months of 2017. Hun Sen has been courting garment workers ahead of the vote. He has promised money for female workers who give birth, among other things.  You have to remember that if you want to keep jobs ... you should not give opportunity to anyone, including Cambodians and foreigners, to destroy peace,  Hun Sen said. Concerns about the impact of next year s election and competition from lower-cost Asian rivals will slow the growth of Cambodia s garment industry next year, the main manufacturers  group said earlier this month.

Summary: कंबोडिया के हुन सेन ने कम से कम अगले 10 वर्षों तक सत्ता में बने रहने का संकल्प लिया


SYDNEY (Reuters) - The parliament of Australia s second largest state passed legislation on Friday to allow terminally ill patients to seek medical help to end their lives, a bill that is expected to act as a catalyst for the rest of the country to adopt similar laws. Any resident of Victoria state over 18, with a terminal illness and with less than 12 months to live can request a lethal dose of medication, the bill permits. Anyone that is too ill to administer the dosage can ask for a doctor to help. Many countries have legalized euthanasia or physician-assisted deaths, including Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and some states in the United States.  But Australia s federal government has opposed legalizing euthanasia even though the remote Northern Territory became the first jurisdiction in the world to do so in 1995.  The federal government enacted its own legislation to override the Northern Territory law in 1997 under rules allowed by the constitution. State law can not be overridden.  The passage of the bill in Victoria is expected to herald assisted death legislation in other Australian states.    It is a landmark moment. Other states are likely to follow. We have seen this in other jurisdictions and I expect once politicians see how the system works, they will adopt similar models,  said Ben White, director of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at Queensland University of Technology. The issue has divided lawmakers and medicinal professionals. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews introduced the bill following his father s death from cancer in 2016. An opponent of the legalization, Michael Gannon, president of the Australian Medical Association, which represents medical practitioners, said state law should not change because of the death of Andrews  father. He later apologized for the comment. Members of the state assembly debated the emotive bill through the night in a 26-hour session that ended with approval by 47 votes to 37. The legislation needs the approval of Victoria s senate, though analysts expect it to pass into law. The legislation will not come into effect for 18 months to allow time to properly implement the assisted dying scheme.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया का दूसरा सबसे बड़ा राज्य इच्छामृत्यु की अनुमति देने की ओर बढ़ रहा है


HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson received compensation worth $27.4 million last year when he was chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, regulatory filings showed on Thursday. He and other senior executives got raises even though Exxon’s net income fell more than 50 percent in 2016 as the company, like many of its peers, tried to cut costs and weather a period of low oil prices. The value of Tillerson’s compensation package last year rose about 0.5 percent largely due to a 4 percent boost in his salary to $3.2 million and an 8 percent jump in the value of stock awards to $19.7 million, an Exxon filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. The value of perquisites Tillerson received from Exxon last year, including personal security and a life insurance policy, rose 7 percent to $575,850.  Tillerson, 65, was nominated by then President-elect Donald Trump to be secretary of state in December. Tillerson retired from Exxon at the end of the year. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in early February. His current post carries an annual salary of $207,800, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management tables. As part of an ethics agreement when Tillerson assumed his government post, Tillerson forfeited unvested Exxon stock worth $2.8 million and potential for a bonus of $3.9 million. He also waived his right to retiree health benefits.  Tillerson’s vested Exxon stock was put into a trust worth about $180 million at the time, the proceeds of which will be paid out over the next decade, much in the same way proceeds are paid out to all Exxon retirees. The trust is prohibited from investing in Exxon.  Tillerson will not be allowed to work anywhere in the oil and gas industry for the next decade. If he does, the entire trust’s value would be donated to a charity that neither he nor Exxon chooses, according to the regulatory filings. Darren Woods, Exxon’s CEO as of January, saw his compensation rise 64 percent last year, when he was Exxon’s president, to $16.8 million. Woods saw his base salary rise 36 percent to $1 million and the value of stock and stock option awards, his pension and company perquisites, including the cost of a home security system, rise as well.

Summary: अमेरिकी विदेश मंत्री टिलरसन ने पिछले साल एक्सॉनः कंपनी में 27.4 लाख डॉलर की कमाई की थी।


EXETER, N.H./MILFORD, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, emerging from the first presidential nominating contest in Iowa as the leading Republican mainstream contender, portrayed himself in New Hampshire on Tuesday as the party’s best hope to recapture the White House. But Rubio, 44, a U.S. senator from Florida, faces a strong field of establishment rivals in next week’s New Hampshire primary after his stronger-than-expected third-place finish in Iowa behind front-runners Ted Cruz, 45, and Donald Trump, 69. “If I am the nominee, we are going to beat Hillary Clinton and it won’t be by the flip of a coin,” Rubio told supporters in Exeter, New Hampshire, taking a jab at the close Democratic race in Iowa between Clinton and challenger Bernie Sanders, where some precincts were decided on a coin flip. Other more mainstream Republicans including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Ohio Governor John Kasich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, are expected to do better in New Hampshire than in Iowa and vie with Rubio to become the establishment favorite. Cruz and Trump also headed to New Hampshire as the presidential race shifted to the second nominating contest in the state-by-state battle to pick nominees for the Nov. 8 election to replace Democratic President Barack Obama. Trump told a news conference before a rally in Milford, New Hampshire, that he felt “a tinge” of disappointment at losing to Cruz in Iowa.. The billionaire businessman also picked up an endorsement from former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. Cruz told New Hampshire supporters he was like former Republican President Ronald Reagan, urging the state to help ensure his nomination by giving him a win in the Feb. 9 primary.  “Every day from now until Election Day here in New Hampshire, I’m going to continue asking for the men and women of New Hampshire to make that same fateful decision yet again so that we can reignite the promise of America,” Cruz said. Cruz, a conservative U.S. senator from Texas, beat Trump in Iowa’s Republican caucuses with the help of the state’s large bloc of evangelical Christians, but he might struggle to finish on top in New Hampshire, where Republican voters have a more secular and libertarian streak. Cruz apologized to rival Ben Carson over an email his campaign sent on Monday night implying Carson was dropping out of the race and his Iowa backers should switch to Cruz. “This was a mistake from our end, and for that I apologize to Dr. Carson,” Cruz wrote.  The campaign for Carson, who finished fourth in Iowa, said the retired neurosurgeon had accepted Cruz’s apology but that the incident was the sort of “dirty trick” politics that Carson was trying to fight. The Democratic presidential contenders, Clinton and Sanders, also headed to New Hampshire after their close duel in Iowa, where the former secretary of state narrowly edged out the insurgent U.S. senator from Vermont. Vermont borders New Hampshire, and that proximity may give Sanders an advantage in next Tuesday’s primary. Clinton’s razor-thin margin was the smallest in Iowa Democratic caucus history. Concerns about the income gap and economic insecurity have helped Sanders, 74, a self-described democratic socialist who came from far behind in polls to throw a scare into the front-runner in Iowa. Clinton, 68, acknowledged she had to try harder to win younger Democrats, who backed Sanders in Iowa in large numbers. “I’m going to have some work to do to reach out to young voters, maybe first-time voters, who have to make a tough decision,” she told CNN. The two Democrats also renewed a days-old battle over when and where to have more face-to-face debates, and were still talking about potentially meeting in a televised debate on Thursday night in New Hampshire. On the Republican side, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who dropped out of the race in December, said a recent hardening of Rubio’s position on immigration and the strength of his anti-abortion stance might cost him.      “Running to the right to win Iowa is going to be a hard sell here in New Hampshire,” Graham, a supporter of Bush, told Reuters in Rindge, New Hampshire. The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio said he was the candidate to unite the Republicans in the November election, when the party hopes to regain the White House after Obama’s two four-year terms. “People realized on the Republican side that we cannot afford - this country cannot afford - to lose this election, and that I give the party the best chance not just to unify our party but to grow it,” Rubio told ABC’s “Good Morning America” from Manchester, New Hampshire.   The fluent Spanish speaker hopes to win back some of the Latino vote the party lost in recent years as it toughened its stance on immigration. A foreign policy hawk, Rubio advocates a tough approach to Iran, the Islamic State militant group and other U.S. foes. Iowans who supported Rubio at the caucuses said they responded to his relatively positive message and viewed him as the candidate most likely to beat Clinton should she be the Democratic nominee.    Worries about issues such as immigration and terrorism have fueled the campaigns of Trump and Cruz. Christie on Tuesday accused Cruz and Rubio of lacking executive experience for the job of president. “What do they do exactly in the United States Senate? They talk and they talk. They are not responsible for doing anything,” Christie said at his campaign’s New Hampshire headquarters in Bedford.  Opinion polls of Republicans show Trump leading nationally and in New Hampshire. But the state has a long tradition of bucking trends in presidential primaries. Trump, the outspoken real estate magnate who dominated the Republican race for months, broke an unusual silence of more than 12 hours on Twitter after his defeat in Iowa. “Because I was told I could not do well in Iowa, I spent very little there - a fraction of Cruz & Rubio. Came in a strong second. Great honor,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday where he has regularly posted scathing criticism of his opponents.  (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Mohammed Zargham and Megan Cassella in Washington, Ginger Gibson and John Whitesides in Iowa; Writing by Alistair Bell and John Whitesides; Editing by Frances Kerry, Howard Goller and Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: मार्को रुबियो मुख्यधारा के अमेरिकी रिपब्लिकन के लिए शुरुआती उम्मीद बन जाते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican and Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday expressed optimism over prospects for a bill helping Puerto Rico out of its debt crisis, but they indicated that a legislative fix could still be weeks away at least. Democratic and Republican lawmakers are working in “good faith” to finalize legislation addressing Puerto Rico’s debt crisis by May 1, Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader said. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said, “I think we are going to get there.” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference that Democrats still have some concerns about the bill and are working with Republicans to address them. Republicans who control Congress outlined a plan this week to help Puerto Rico write off billions of dollars in debt if an agreement with creditors is out of reach. That plan would create a forum for investors to negotiate with Puerto Rico officials while the island’s government tries to curb deficit spending that has created $70 billion in debt.  Ryan told reporters at a separate press conference on Thursday that there were not enough Democratic votes in the House Natural Resources Committee to help get the measure approved. But House Republican aides acknowledge that they also have work to do on their side of the aisle, especially in convincing some of their more conservative members that a Puerto Rico aid bill is needed. Underscoring that, Ryan is calling together his 246 Republican members for a closed meeting on Friday to review the legislation that is taking shape and to urge support. One aide characterized the message Friday as being aimed at helping Republicans understand that if they do not support a Puerto Rico bill now, much more costly bailout measures likely would be necessary down the road. Ryan said his priority on Puerto Rico is twofold: “To protect the American taxpayer and to help bring order to the chaos that will befall Puerto Rico if the status quo continues going in the direction its going.” Pelosi said Democrats’ main concern with the Republicans’ first draft of the legislation was the part of the bill on restructuring. Negotiators were moving forward on the makeup of a proposed oversight board, Pelosi said, but a “new wrinkle” has emerged over the role of creditors in the U.S. commonwealth’s debt restructuring decisions. Ryan said an oversight board would be the best possible way to prevent taxpayers from bailing out Puerto Rico.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसदों ने प्यूर्टो रिको ऋण संकट विधेयक के लिए 1 मई का लक्ष्य रखा


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) said it supported a “best-interest” standard for wealth management clients and was reviewing a new rule detailed by the U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday. Wells, which operates one of the largest U.S. wealth management businesses, said it had a “robust plan in place” to review the new rule and make necessary changes. The rule aims to ensure brokers put clients’ best interest ahead of their own profits when handling their retirement savings. The Labor Department proposed a tougher rule years ago, but ultimately softened it to address industry concerns. (This story has been refiled to say Wells Fargo supports best-interest standard, rather than broader rule.)

Summary: वेल्स फार्गो 'सर्वोत्तम-ब्याज' मानक का समर्थन करता है, नए नियम की समीक्षा कर रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday he would present options on Afghanistan to President Donald Trump “very soon,” adding the strategy would take a regional approach rather than looking at the war-torn country in isolation. The situation in Afghanistan, which U.S. military officials acknowledge is in a stalemate almost 16 years since the war started, has deteriorated in recent months. A truck-bomb explosion in Kabul last month killed more than 150 people, making it the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. In some cases, Afghan security forces have been forced to abandon more scattered and rural bases, and the government can claim to control or influence only 57 percent of the country, according to U.S. military estimates earlier this year. “We are taking a regional approach to this,” Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee.  “We will take that forward to the president for a decision very soon.” Mattis said a request by General John Nicholson, the head of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, for additional troops would mostly be made up of troops who would train, advise and assist Afghan forces, potentially putting them with Afghan forces at the brigade level.  “It’s a fundamental change to how we bring our, what I would call our real superiority, in terms of air support,” Mattis said.  At the same hearing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford said he had gone to Mattis and Trump with “some options that might be considered” in order to help improve the security situation in Afghanistan. Reuters reported in late April that Trump’s administration was carrying out a review of Afghanistan and conversations were revolving around sending between 3,000 and 5,000 U.S. and coalition troops there. Deliberations include giving more authorities to forces on the ground and taking more aggressive action against Taliban fighters.  Some U.S. officials questioned the benefit of sending more troops to Afghanistan because any politically palatable number would not be enough to turn the tide, much less create stability and security. To date, more than 2,300 Americans have been killed and over 17,000 wounded.  On Saturday, three U.S. soldiers were killed when an Afghan soldier opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान पर विकल्प जल्द ही ट्रंप के सामने पेश किए जाएंगेः मैटिस


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican government has noted serious shortcomings in its fight against corruption in a classified report seen by Reuters, which was prepared ahead of an international evaluation of the country s efforts to combat money laundering. The undated government report estimated that the drug trade, tax fraud and other crimes were worth at least 1.13 trillion pesos ($58.5 billion) a year in Mexico, with all of that money susceptible to money laundering. In October last year the government published a much shorter official version of the findings, which broadly described the risks of money laundering without going into detail. The sum of illicit funds identified in the classified report was equivalent to 6.6 percent of the Mexican economy in 2014, when the data was compiled. It did not include an estimate of the value of corruption and several other crimes. The 321-page report was prepared ahead of an evaluation of the country s performance in preventing money laundering by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global group of government agencies dedicated to tackling money laundering.  The view is that the risk represented by illicit funds susceptible to money laundering in Mexico generated within the jurisdiction is HIGH,  the report said, capitalizing the word. The government said on Thursday the FATF evaluation, which is not yet public, showed Mexico had made  significant  progress in combating money laundering since the last evaluation in 2008. The FATF did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The Mexican government report is the first of its kind, according to people familiar with it, and was assembled from official data and independent research. Part of a broader investigation into illicit wealth in Mexico, the government concluded that Mexico needed  more efficient mechanisms  to prevent graft, including new laws that would complement the national anti-corruption architecture. Reuters contacted the ministries of finance, economy and the interior, as well as the navy, the attorney general s office and the central bank, all of which were identified as contributors to the report. All either declined to comment or did not reply. The report urged the government to standardize laws at state level to iron out differences in how authorities deal with corruption, as well as improve collaboration between agencies tasked with implementing policy and collecting data. Public policies should be overhauled to  better understand the phenomenon of corruption in Mexico,  the report said. Graft scandals have for decades dogged the political elite in Mexico, which ranked 128th out of 137 nations for ethics and corruption in the World Economic Forum s 2017-2018 Global Competitiveness Index. President Enrique Pena Nieto has been criticized for referring to corruption as a  cultural  problem in Mexico. Civil society groups and opposition lawmakers said this downplayed the severity of the problem and the government s role in fixing it. In 2016, Mexicanos Contra la Corrupcion y la Impunidad, a civil group, calculated corruption was worth between 2 percent and 10 percent of Mexico s gross domestic product, based on data from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and others. Tax evasion and associated crimes accounted for the biggest source of illicit wealth identified by the study at 484 billion pesos ($25.3 billion), followed by trade in cocaine and marijuana at 404 billion pesos. The report did not address income from heroin and methamphetamine, which make up a large chunk of the drug trade.   Nor did it include white collar crimes such as embezzlement of public funds and insider trading, trafficking in people and arms, fuel theft and sexual exploitation. While incomplete, the findings stand in contrast to the amount of illicit funds the government has said it removed from circulation in recent years. According to government data, the organized crime unit of the attorney general s office secured $11.4 million and 543.2 million pesos in its anti-money laundering efforts between September 2016 and June 2017. ($1 = 19.1472 Mexican pesos)

Summary: मेक्सिको की रिपोर्ट ने भ्रष्टाचार के खिलाफ लड़ाई में कमियों को चिह्नित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday blocked new exploration for oil and gas in Arctic waters, in a win for environmental groups that had fought development of the ecologically fragile region. The Department of the Interior released a 2017 to 2022 leasing plan that blocked drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off northern Alaska. It also limited petroleum development in the Cook Inlet off south-central Alaska.  Environmental activists have battled drilling in Alaska to protect whales, walruses and seals, and as part of a broader movement to keep remaining fossil fuels in the ground. The Interior Department said the plan was “balanced,” and left 70 percent of economically recoverable oil and gas resources open to drilling, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico. The plan focuses on the best areas “with the highest resource potential, lowest conflict and established infrastructure - and removes regions that are simply not right to lease,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.  President Barack Obama, who last year became the first sitting president to cross the Arctic Circle, has made fighting climate change and protecting the Arctic priorities in his administration. But President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican who takes office on Jan. 20, 2017, has vowed to open resources to petroleum development and could take steps to reverse the decision. Oil interests have pressured the administration to explore for energy in the Arctic. Jack Girard, the head of the American Petroleum Institute industry group, said the decision “puts the U.S. at a serious competitive disadvantage.” Russia and Norway have also explored the Arctic, though Exxon Mobil wound down drilling in the Russian north in 2014 due to U.S. sanctions over Moscow’s aggression in eastern Ukraine. Fierce winds and frigid waters make the Arctic treacherous for drilling equipment. After spending billions of dollars to explore the Alaskan Arctic, Royal Dutch Shell retreated in 2015 after suffering a gash in one of its ships and environmentalists had uncovered details of an old law that forced the company to cut exploration there by half.  The U.S. Coast Guard complained when Shell was drilling off Alaska that it had been forced to divert resources, including a vessel that fought cocaine trafficking, to keep operations in the region safe. (reut.rs/2g4yHSW) Environmentalists applauded the new lease plan, which built on a similar decision in March when the government removed much of the Atlantic ocean from oil and gas leasing for five years. “This is excellent news for our oceans, from the Arctic to the Atlantic,” said Jacqueline Savitz, deputy vice president for U.S. campaigns of Oceana, an international advocacy group.

Summary: ओबामा प्रशासन ने आर्कटिक जल क्षेत्र में नए तेल उत्खनन पर रोक लगा दी है।


(Reuters) - Mississippi’s Republican governor said on Thursday he planned to join a lawsuit by officials from 11 states to overturn an Obama administration directive that tells schools to let transgender students use bathrooms matching their gender identity. The lawsuit led by Texas, the most significant legal challenge to this month’s directive, said the federal government and Obama administration officials overreached their authority by taking actions that should be left to Congress or individual states. “Our office has talked to the Texas attorney general’s office and I intend, as soon as possible, to join the lawsuit against this latest example of federal overreach,” Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said in a statement. As with some of the other states, Mississippi’s governor and attorney general disagree on the suit, which challenges the administration’s interpretation that federal civil rights laws against sex discrimination should apply to transgender people. Mississippi’s attorney general, Democrat Jim Hood, declined to participate in the lawsuit, according to Clay Chandler, a spokesman for the governor. Chandler said Bryant will work with an attorney in the governor’s office in joining the lawsuit. Hood’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amid a national debate on transgender rights, President Barack Obama’s administration on May 13 told U.S. public schools that transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, upsetting Republicans and paving the way for fights over federal funding and legal authority. Texas was joined by Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin, plus Arizona’s Department of Education and Maine’s governor. The lawsuit said the administration “conspired to turn workplace and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment, flouting the democratic process, and running roughshod over commonsense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights.” Transgender rights advocates criticized the suit as a malicious attack, saying there have never been public safety incidents or invasions of privacy related to protections for transgender people. “While the department will review the complaint, the federal government has strong legal foundations to uphold the civil rights of transgender Americans,” the Justice Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

Summary: ओबामा की ट्रांसजेंडर नीति के खिलाफ मुकदमा दायर करेंगे मिसिसिपी के गवर्नर


ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is prepared to run for the presidency in 2019, his spokesman told Reuters on Friday. The former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari quit the ruling party earlier on Friday, saying it had  failed.

Summary: नाइजीरिया के पूर्व उपराष्ट्रपति 2019 में राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए चुनाव लड़ने के लिए तैयार


(Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham testified on Thursday as a character witness on behalf of Democratic colleague Bob Menendez, who is on trial on federal corruption charges in Newark, New Jersey. Graham testified for only six minutes, telling jurors he knows the New Jersey senator to be a “very honest, trustworthy man,” according to Twitter posts from a reporter from the Star-Ledger newspaper who was in the courtroom. Democrat Cory Booker, who is New Jersey’s junior senator, also is expected to testify as a character witness. Booker, the former mayor of Newark, has previously attended the trial in support of Menendez. A statement from Graham’s office said his testimony would be about his service with Menendez and not about the charges against him. Graham, who represents South Carolina, traveled at his own expense, the statement said. As Menendez entered the courthouse on Thursday, he told reporters he was “honored” that Graham and Booker would testify. Menendez, 63, is accused of taking bribes from a wealthy benefactor, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, in exchange for using his office to help Melgen. Menendez and Melgen have denied wrongdoing, saying their relationship was simply a close friendship. Prosecutors say Menendez intervened on Melgen’s behalf with Medicare officials after the agency concluded the doctor had overbilled it by millions of dollars. Melgen was convicted separately earlier this year of a massive Medicare fraud. Menendez also is accused of pressuring federal officials to secure visas for Melgen’s girlfriends and resolving a port dispute involving one of Melgen’s businesses. In exchange for Menendez’s aid, Melgen gave the senator private flights, luxury vacations and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign money, prosecutors said. The case has been closely watched in Washington, where Republicans hold a 52-48 edge in the Senate. If Menendez is convicted and either resigns or is expelled before Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s term expires in January, then Christie would name his replacement.

Summary: शीर्ष रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर ने रिश्वत के मुकदमे में मेनेंडेज के लिए गवाही दी


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has ordered 27 international aid groups to shut down for working in unauthorized areas, spurring human rights campaigners to denounce swelling constraints on free speech and humanitarian work.  The Ministry of Interior gave the 27 NGOs 90 days to conclude operations, according to a list seen by Reuters. Among those being expelled are Action Aid, World Vision, Plan International, Trocaire, Pathfinder International, Danish Refugee Council, George Soros  Open Society Foundations, Oxfam Novib, and Marie Stopes.   Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan s Minister of State for Interior Affairs, told Reuters the reason for shutting down the NGOs was because they were doing work in Pakistan  which is beyond their mandate and for which they have no legal justification .  He declined to give specific examples, but said the targeted NGOs spend  all their money  on administration, are not doing the work they said they were doing, and are working in areas where they were not authorized. The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), which represents 63 international aid groups, said the ministry had issued 11 of its members  letters of rejection . All of them said they will appeal. No reason for the rejections have been provided, the forum said. Plan International, which has worked in Pakistan since 1997, said it is supporting over 1.6 million children across Pakistan. Plan said it was given no reason for the ministry s decision and would appeal it.  The organization is hopeful that the appeals process will make it possible for its work with vulnerable and marginalized children, especially girls, to continue in Pakistan,  it said in a statement.  All the other NGOs on the list who responded to queries from Reuters also said they had been given no reason for being forced to shut down.  They must be having reasons for every (NGO) and those reasons should have been shared with the organizations,  said a representative from one NGO who declined to be identified. Chaudhry said the number of NGOs in the country ballooned after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Many organizations arrived to provide humanitarian assistance after Islamabad allied itself with the United States in what was then known as the global war on terror.  But there were also a number of NGOs that are used, knowingly or unknowingly for activities that conflict with Pakistan s national interests,  Chaudhry said, adding that registration procedures are commonplace in other countries. Pakistan has hardened its stance towards domestic and international NGOs in recent years, requiring them to undertake a painstaking registration process and clear multiple bureaucratic hurdles to continue working in the country. The Save the Children aid group fell afoul of the government in 2011, when it was linked to a Pakistani doctor recruited by the CIA to help in the hunt that led to the killing of al Qaeda militant leader Osama bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad. In January, the interior ministry ordered a dozen domestic groups working on women s issues and human rights to halt operations, a move later overturned in courts. Pakistan is hardly alone in cracking down on foreign charities.  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi s government has since 2014 tightened surveillance of non-profit groups, saying they were acting against India s national interests. Thousands of foreign-funded charities  licenses have been canceled for misreporting donations. In China, a law that went into effect on Jan. 1 this year grants broad powers to police to question NGO workers, monitor their finances, regulate their work and shut down offices. The clampdown on NGOs has come after a number of activists disappeared this year, some of whom have not been heard from. Reuters estimates at least 14 people have been picked up and interrogated from major urban centers including journalists, political workers, and social media activists. Three members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) have also disappeared in the past year, chairperson Mehdi Hasan told Reuters.  Human rights campaigners say the crackdown on NGOs and  disappearances of civil society activists are part of a wider campaign to quell free speech.   They both signify the shrinking space for free expression and activism in Pakistan and the diminishing tolerance the Pakistan state has,  Saroop Ijaz, a representative for the Pakistan chapter of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.  Yusuf, who formerly served as HRCP chairperson, said Pakistan feels it has impunity in dealing with rights groups and activists.    Its the repositioning of Pakistan as a security state and perceiving all forms of dissent as a security challenge,  Yusuf said.   It s creating a lot of fear in society.

Summary: पाकिस्तान ने 27 गैर सरकारी संगठनों को बंद किया, जिसे कार्यकर्ता व्यापक कार्रवाई के रूप में देखते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers are looking to use a defense policy bill to increase restrictions on military aid for Pakistan, expressing frustration with what they see as Islamabad’s failure to crack down on Afghanistan’s militant Haqqani network. The $602 billion National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed by the House of Representatives late on Wednesday would block $450 million in aid to Islamabad unless it does more to fight the network, which lawmakers see as a major threat to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.  The bill requires the Pentagon to certify that Pakistan is conducting military operations to disrupt the Haqqani network, not letting the network use North Waziristan as a safe haven and actively coordinating with Afghanistan’s government to fight the network along their border. As they finalized the 2017 version of the annual bill, House members added three amendments related to Pakistan. All passed by unanimous voice vote. One added a fourth requirement to the release of the aid, that the administration certify Pakistan has shown progress in arresting and prosecuting Haqqani network senior leaders and mid-level operatives. Another required that the Secretary of Defense certify  Pakistan is not using its military or any funds or equipment provided by the United States to persecute minority groups. And a third added a “sense of Congress” that Shakil Afridi is an international hero and calls for his immediate release from prison. Afridi is a Pakistani doctor believed to have helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden. Pakistan sentenced Afridi in 2012 to 33 years in jail on charges of belonging to a militant group, which he denies. That sentence was overturned and Afridi is now awaiting trial on another charge. Pakistan says its courts will decide Afridi’s fate, and has angrily criticized U.S. politicians, including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, over calls to release him. The House version of the NDAA is not the final version of the legislation. It must be combined with a Senate bill before being sent to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign, or veto. However, there is also strong criticism of Pakistan in the Senate. This month, Senator Bob Corker used his authority as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to bar the use of any U.S. funds for Pakistan to buy American F-16 fighter jets.

Summary: सदन ने पाकिस्तान की सहायता पर प्रतिबंधों को कड़ा करने की मांग की


CLEVELAND/HERSHEY, Pa. (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump battled over the strength of the economy in the final stretch of their race for the White House on Friday, with Clinton praising the latest U.S. jobs report and Trump dismissing it as a fraudulent disaster. With four days left in an often bitter contest that has tightened in the last week, each candidate attacked the other as unfit to be president in a late push for votes in battleground states that could decide the outcome in Tuesday’s election. Clinton leads Trump by 5 percentage points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Friday, maintaining her advantage in the national survey even as the race tightens in several crucial swing states. In the Oct. 30-Nov. 3 opinion poll, 44 percent of likely voters supported Clinton while 39 percent supported Trump.  Clinton wrapped up her day of campaigning with a nighttime concert in Cleveland headlined by rapper Jay Z. He was joined by rappers Big Sean, Chance the Rapper, and J. Cole, and by his wife, popular singer Beyonce, as a surprise guest. “We have unfinished work to do, more barriers to break, and with your help, a glass ceiling to crack once and for all,” Clinton said at the concert.   At his final rally of the day in Pennsylvania, Trump mocked  Clinton for her celebrity supporters. “I am here all by myself. Just me, no guitar, no piano, no nothing,” he said. Earlier in the day at a rally in Pittsburgh, Clinton cited the government’s latest jobs report as evidence of the economy’s strength. The report showed higher wages for workers as well as the creation of 161,000 jobs in October and a dip in the unemployment rate to 4.9 percent from 5 percent. “I believe our economy is poised to really take off and thrive,” Clinton told the gathering, after being introduced by billionaire investor Mark Cuban. “When the middle class thrives, America thrives.” Trump disputed Clinton’s rosy view, telling a crowd in New Hampshire that the jobs report was “an absolute disaster” and was skewed by the large number of people who have stopped looking for jobs and are no longer in the labor market. “Nobody believes the numbers anyway. The numbers they put out are phony,” he said, referring to the figures released by the U.S. Labor Department. The economy and the candidates’ competing visions for the future could be critical in swaying voters in ailing Rust Belt states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Both candidates made stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania on Friday, with Trump adding a stop in New Hampshire and Clinton adding one in Michigan. Each of those states is key in the state-by-state quest for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. The race has tightened significantly in the past week, as several swing states that are considered must-wins for Trump shifted from favoring Clinton to toss-ups, according to the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project. The two candidates are now tied in Florida and North Carolina, and Clinton’s lead in Michigan has narrowed so much that the state is too close to call. Ohio remains a dead heat, and Clinton has a slight lead in Pennsylvania. Clinton is still the favorite to win Tuesday’s election, with a clearer path to winning of the Electoral College. But Trump now has a plausible route to victory, especially if there is a sharp fall in turnout among African-Americans from the levels of the 2012 election. Trump, a New York businessman and former reality TV star, has made a pitch for blue-collar workers who have been angered by free-trade deals and feel abandoned by Washington. But his protectionist rhetoric - he has promised to review trade agreements - appears to be having mixed success in the Rust Belt. Reuters/Ipsos polling from mid-October found a majority in both Ohio and Pennsylvania believe that international trade benefits Americans by keeping the cost of goods low, although they also think it hurts “average Americans” by depressing wages and causing job losses at home. Clinton appears to be leading among labor union households in both states, the poll found. She has a double-digit lead with women in both, while Trump has a more modest lead with men. Among whites, Trump has a 7-point lead over Clinton in Ohio and a 3-point lead over Clinton in Pennsylvania. In the final stretch, the two candidates continued to paint a dire scenario of life in the United States if their opponent captures the White House. Trump said the FBI’s fresh examination of emails that may be related to Clinton’s use of a private email server for government work while she was secretary of state could lead to “a constitutional crisis.” “Aren’t we tired of all this stuff?” he asked. “America deserves a government that can go to work on Day One.” GET-OUT-THE-VOTE PUSH Clinton suggested the volatile Trump, who has feuded with and insulted a wide array of people and groups including Muslims, Mexican immigrants and women, was too unpredictable to trust. “Think about what it would mean to entrust the nuclear codes to someone with very thin skin who lashes out at anyone who insults him,” she said. Clinton has deployed high-profile supporters to campaign for her in the final days of the long race.   President Barack Obama praised her work as his first-term top diplomat during an appearance in North Carolina. “She was outstanding in her job. She was loyal to me,” he said. Obama is trying to energize African-Americans, with whom he is very popular, and young people to turn out for Clinton the way they did for him in 2008 and 2012. Hispanic groups in swing states cranked up their get-out-the-vote efforts for the final stretch of the race on Friday, hoping to push the contest Clinton’s way.

Summary: चुनाव प्रचार के अंतिम चरण में अर्थव्यवस्था को लेकर क्लिंटन और ट्रम्प के बीच टकराव


BEIJING (Reuters) - China expressed  strong dissatisfaction  with India on Thursday over the recent crash of an Indian drone in Chinese territory, an incident that could cause more friction along their disputed border. Indian and Chinese troops confronted each other between June and August this year - at one stage even resorting to scuffling and throwing stones - on a remote plateau near the borders of India, its ally Bhutan, and China, in the most serious and prolonged standoff in decades. The nuclear-armed Asian giants have tried to develop their ties in recent years but there is still deep distrust over their disputed border, which triggered war in 1962. China s defence ministry said in a statement the Indian drone had crashed in  recent days  but it did not give a location.  This action by India violated China s territorial sovereignty. We express strong dissatisfaction and opposition,  Zhang Shuili, a military official in China s western battle zone command, was quoted as saying in a ministry statement.  China s border defence forces took a professional and responsible attitude in conducting an inspection of the device,  Zhang said, adding that the military would  resolutely defend  China s sovereignty and security. The Indian army said an unmanned aerial vehicle was on a training mission over Indian territory when it developed technical problems and crossed a so-called line of actual control separating the countries  militaries. Indian border guards alerted their Chinese counterparts about the drone soon afterwards, an Indian army spokesman said. China had provided the Indian army with details about where the drone came down and Indian authorities were investigating, Colonel Aman Anand said in a statement.  The matter is being dealt with in accordance with the established protocols,  Anand said. China also lodged diplomatic  representations  with India, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing.  China asks India to immediately stop its activities of using unmanned aircraft near the border, and to work alongside China to maintain the border area s peace and tranquillity,  he said. After the weeks of confrontation on the wind-swept Doklam plateau this year, the two sides agreed to an  expeditious disengagement  of troops about a week before Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in an effort to mend ties at a summit in China in September. But the mountainous border remains sensitive for both sides. In November, China criticised a visit by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind to the remote state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims, saying China opposed any activities by Indian leaders in disputed areas.

Summary: चीन ने सीमा पर दुर्घटनाग्रस्त ड्रोन को लेकर भारत की आलोचना की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Confronted by Russia in Syria, Ukraine and cyberspace, the next U.S. president will be the fourth to face Vladimir Putin and the challenge of deterring a Kremlin often more willing than the White House to take risk and project power. Over the last four years, the Russian president has annexed Crimea and destabilized eastern Ukraine, stymied U.S. hopes to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and mounted cyber attacks that U.S. officials blame on hackers commanded or orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies. In his latest gambit, Putin this week suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium. While the United States has imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine, these have yet to force it to calm tensions in eastern Ukraine, let alone surrender Crimea. Some current and former U.S. officials argue the White House has failed to understand Putin’s bitterness about the decade after the Soviet Union collapsed, at a time the Russian leader feels the West took advantage of Russia when it was down. Further, they say the United States has little influence over the course of democracy in Russia, or on its willingness to use force in Syria, Ukraine or elsewhere to achieve its ends. The result, critics say, could be that Syria festers, Ukraine stays off balance and unable to draw closer to Europe, and that even areas such as arms control and nonproliferation, pillars of cooperation during the Cold War, could deteriorate. “For Putin and most of the Russian leadership, it’s a zero-sum world,” said Andrew Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank. Weiss argued the Russian leader was unlikely to change his stripes before Russia’s 2018 presidential election “in an atmosphere where Putin’s own domestic political fortunes depend on having this external enemy, namely the United States”.  A U.S. official suggested Putin, who has yet to tip his hand but is expected to run again, is willing to use force to get his way while the White House, scarred by the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is not. “The administration never understood how bruised Putin and many, many Russians feel about the 1990s, or how determined they are to regain what they consider Russia’s rightful place in the world, much less what Putin is willing to do to get there,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.  “He will keep pushing until he meets serious resistance, and so far he hasn’t,” the official added. In the eyes of many current and former U.S. officials, Syria is a case in point. The United States this week announced it was suspending  talks with Russia on a ceasefire, all but saying the Russian and Syrian assault on Aleppo had made a mockery of the peace effort. “Where they make a desert, they call it peace,” Secretary of State John Kerry said, quoting the Roman historian Tacitus. Analysts believe Aleppo is likely to fall but the war, now in its sixth year, will grind on with Assad surviving atop a shrunken, broken and fragmented country enduring the world’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two. U.S. officials say the White House has yet to decide what to do next on Syria but few expect Obama to shift strategy in his waning months in office. It is not considering imposing further sanctions on Russia for now, two U.S. officials said. On Monday, Putin suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium, signaling he is willing to use nuclear disarmament as a new bargaining chip in disputes with the United States. “If the relationship worsens, either side could be looking to exert leverage or score points in the nuclear arms control realm,” said Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association. Another area where the United States is weighing its options is the stealthy war in cyberspace that is already under way with Russia and could escalate as relations worsen. U.S. officials anonymously say Russian intelligence services have interfered in the U.S. election process by launching cyber intrusions into the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and other U.S. political organizations and state election offices. The Kremlin denies the allegations. The White House has refrained from publicly accusing Russia. If hard evidence of Russia’s involvement emerges, Washington has a dilemma in fashioning a response because, by going public, it could tip Moscow to its own intrusions, prompting retaliation. Two U.S. officials suggested critics are taking too short term a view, arguing it can take years to achieve an objective, such as the liberation of the Baltic states from Soviet rule. Cold War-like policies, such as using economic sanctions to weaken Russia’s economy or deploying NATO troops to the Baltics and Poland in January to deter Russia, may work over time. “There’s no quick fix with the Russians,” said one official.

Summary: अगले अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति, पुतिन के चौथे, रूस के डूबते संबंधों को विरासत में प्राप्त करते हैं


DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Talks among ministers from Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries on reviving their trade deal on Thursday were  very productive  but more discussion is needed, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said. Ministers from the 11 countries are meeting in the resort of Danang in Vietnam on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to discuss how to proceed with the deal after the United States withdrew.  It was a very productive meeting, but we are still discussing. We will comment later on today,  the minister told reporters.  Everybody wants to have a result.  Ministers did not say when further discussions would be held, but an official said they were likely to continue on Thursday evening.

Summary: टी. पी. पी. व्यापार वार्ता पर और चर्चा की जरूरतः मेक्सिको


(Reuters) - A daughter of an Illinois state representative has been charged with participating in an attack on one of her mother’s  political rivals that included using a staple gun on the victim’s forehead, police and the victim said on Friday. Jessica Soto and Bradley Fichter, both 26 and of Chicago, have been charged with three counts of aggravated battery in a March 6 attack on Robert Zwolinski, who was defeated in a primary this month by Soto’s mother, state Representative Cynthia Soto, Chicago police said.  Lawyers for the two were not immediately available for comment. The attack took place outside of Zwolinski’s campaign office. Frank Avila, a lawyer for the couple, told local media that  Zwolinski started the fight and possibly put a stable in his own head for attention. Avila identified Soto as the daughter of Representative Soto and denied the daughter was part of the attack.  Police said Zwolinski was hit with a metal object and glass bottle. Zwolinski said the metal object was the staple gun and he had his forehead repeatedly stapled by the pair. The night of the fight, Zwolinski posted photos on social media of a staple sticking out of his forehead, a bloodied face, and a swollen nose. “The girl was yelling, while I was on the ground fighting the man off of me, ‘This is Soto’s territory! This isn’t your territory,’” Zwolinski said.  Representative Soto could not immediately be reached.

Summary: इलिनोइस के सांसद की बेटी पर राजनीतिक हमले का आरोप


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Embattled Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore led his Democratic opponent by six percentage points in a CBS News poll released on Sunday, with most Alabama Republicans saying the allegations of sexual misconduct against him are false. Moore was leading Democrat Doug Jones 49 to 43 percent among voters likely to cast ballots in the Dec. 12 special election, CBS said. The contest was even among registered voters, it said. Republican lawmakers in Washington, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, have distanced themselves from Moore and called for him to step down from the race after he was accused by several women of sexual assault and misconduct when they were teenagers and he was in his early 30s. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the allegations. But McConnell said on Sunday that if Moore is elected, the Senate will swear him in and then the Senate ethics committee would decide whether to investigate the allegations. “We’ll swear in whoever’s elected and see where we are at that point,” McConnell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We can’t stop him from being seated,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who was also interviewed on CBS. “If there was an (ethics) investigation and all six members of the committee said they believe he was a child molester, that would be a problem.” According to the CBS poll, 71 percent of Alabama Republicans say the allegations against Moore are false, and believe that Democrats and the media are behind the accusations. Another poll a day earlier had Jones barely ahead. The Washington Post-Schar School poll said Jones’ support among likely voters stood at 50 percent, versus Moore’s 47 percent. President Donald Trump originally backed Moore’s opponent in the Republican primary, Senator Luther Strange. But Trump has since defended Moore, noting Moore has denied allegations of sexual misconduct. The president says he does not want Moore’s Democratic opponent to win. Trump is slated to travel to a rally in Pensacola, Florida on Friday — a city just across the state line from Alabama — just days ahead of the Alabama election. The timing and location gives Trump an opportunity to express support for Moore. Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate and are eager to maintain their advantage to advance Trump’s legislative agenda on taxes, healthcare and other priorities.

Summary: सीबीएस पोल में अलबामा रिपब्लिकन सीनेट के उम्मीदवार आगे


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday that sweeping financial reforms put in place under President Barack Obama were harming the economy and he would dismantle nearly all of them. Trump told Reuters in an interview that he would release a plan in about two weeks for overhauling the 2010 financial regulatory law known as Dodd-Frank. “Dodd-Frank has made it impossible for bankers to function,” the presumptive Republican nominee said. “It makes it very hard for bankers to loan money for people to create jobs, for people with businesses to create jobs. And that has to stop.” Pressed on the extent of the changes he wanted to make, Trump said, “it will be close to dismantling of Dodd-Frank.” Reacting on Twitter to Trump’s comment, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton called it a “reckless idea” that would “leave middle-class families out to dry.” Dodd-Frank, passed in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, forced U.S. banks to reduce their reliance on debt for funding and to craft “living wills,” or blueprints for winding them down in a crisis. The law created a new agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to oversee consumer financial products such as mortgages and gave regulators new powers over large non-bank financial companies. Republicans in Congress have pushed to ease the requirements on small- and medium-sized banks and to make it more difficult for regulators to introduce new rules. They have also argued for getting rid of the consumer financial protection agency. Banks and other financial firms have spent six years and millions of dollars adjusting their operations to comply with the law. Bank lobbyists have generally pushed for changes to make complying easier, rather than a wholesale rewrite. “Every law can be improved, and Dodd-Frank is no exception. Sometimes there are drafting errors. Sometimes a good idea in theory turns out to be unworkable after a closer look in the light of day,” said John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association. Alison Hawkins, a spokesman for the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington-based financial industry trade group, said the group wanted to know more about Trump’s plan, and added “some fixes to Dodd-Frank will benefit consumers and the economy.” On Capitol Hill, Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, plans to release his own financial regulation plan in the coming weeks, according to his spokeswoman, Sarah Rozier. “Mr. Trump is right, Dodd-Frank isn’t working,” Rozier said. She added that Hensarling, who has endorsed Trump, has not discussed his plan with any of the presidential candidates. But Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets, a group that favors tighter regulation of Wall Street, said Trump’s plan would be “a slap in the face to the American people who have suffered so much from the 2008 crash.” Trump declined to offer specifics on his plan, but said it would address whether institutions should separate commercial banking activities from investment banking. He said even under the new plan, the banking system would not be perfect.  “Will there be bad loans made? Yes. But there are bad loans made now with Dodd-Frank,” Trump said. Trump was reluctant to discuss specifics on his ideas for the economy before his upcoming speech, but he praised Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen, saying he approved of her decision to keep interest rates low. Trump has said in the past he would replace Yellen once her term as Fed chair ended. “I’m not a person that thinks Janet Yellen is doing a bad job,” he told Reuters. “I would rather have a Republican in the position but I am not the enemy of Janet Yellen.”

Summary: ओबामा के वॉल स्ट्रीट सुधार कानून को खत्म करने की योजना बना रहे हैं ट्रम्प


DOUALA (Reuters) - A prize-winning New York-based Cameroonian novelist will be freed from jail and expelled from his native country after being held for nearly three weeks on charges of insulting and threatening the president, his lawyer said on Wednesday. Patrice Nganang was arrested on Dec. 7 as he prepared to board a flight to Kenya, and accused of insulting President Paul Biya. The government later said he had threatened Biya in posts on Facebook. A literature professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Nganang was born in Cameroon and holds dual Cameroonian and U.S. nationality.  Nganang s lawyer, Emmanuel Simh, told Reuters that a judge had dismissed the government s charges and ordered his client released. Simh later said the authorities had retained Nganang s Cameroonian passport and that he would be placed on an afternoon flight to the United States.   According to (the government), he is an American who does not have a right to this passport,  Simh said. Nganang s supporters say the accusations against him were politically motivated and related to a Dec. 5 piece he wrote for Paris-based magazine Jeune Afrique, in which he criticized a government crackdown on Cameroon s English-speaking minority.  Since last year, the government, which is dominated by members of the French-speaking majority, has repressed protests by English speakers who say they are socially and economically marginalized. Dozens of civilians have been killed in unrest that has fueled support for separatists seeking an independent state. Some separatists have launched armed attacks on state forces, creating the most serious challenge to Biya s 35-year rule. Thousands of English speakers have fled across the border into neighboring Nigeria. Cameroonian law forbids adults from holding dual nationality, although the prohibition is unevenly enforced. Cameroon s government spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment. English speakers make up around a fifth of the population of Cameroon, which was formed when parts of a formerly British-ruled territory joined the larger, newly independent French-speaking Republic of Cameroon in 1961. The past year s violence is the latest example of how Biya s rule has grown increasingly intolerant of dissent, with opposition activists, journalists and intellectuals routinely arrested and sometimes prosecuted. A Cameroonian reporter for Radio France Internationale was released from prison last week after more than two years behind bars for contact with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, in a case that drew international condemnation.

Summary: सरकार की आलोचना करने वाले कैमरून के लेखक को जेल से निकाला जाएगा-वकील


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump plans to nominate Callista Gingrich as ambassador to the Vatican, the White House said in a statement on Friday. She is the wife of former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and produces documentary films on public policy and history. The announcement came as Trump embarked on Friday on his maiden foreign trip as president, which will include a visit to the Vatican.

Summary: ट्रंप ने कैलिस्टा गिंगरिच को वैटिकन में राजदूत के रूप में नामित किया


CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Democrat Richard Cordray delivered a campaign-style stump speech at a sprawling Labor Day celebration on Monday, but the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief stopped short of saying whether he intends to run for governor of Ohio. If Cordray were to step down to run for political office it would allow President Donald Trump to appoint a successor as head of the consumer watchdog agency, which has stoked the ire of Wall Street with steep penalties for misconduct and tougher rules on lending. “We need to join together to help each other rekindle the hope, the enthusiasm, and the willingness to find and make our own opportunities,” Cordray said to hundreds of union members, a key Democratic constituency, at an AFL-CIO picnic in Cincinnati. Cordray is the first director of the CFPB, a consumer watchdog agency created under former President Barack Obama in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis. An Ohio native, he has been widely expected to jump into the race for governor and clearly appeared to be testing the political waters with his speech on Monday. Though many had speculated he would use the occasion to   announce his candidacy, activists and political leaders said any formal announcement about Cordray’s plans to enter the 2018 contest would wait until the CFPB finalizes a long-awaited rule restricting the activity of payday lenders. Current Ohio Governor John Kasich, among more than a dozen Republican candidates to be defeated by Trump in last year’s presidential primary campaign, is barred by term limits from running again in the pivotal election battleground state. As CFPB director, Cordray has rained down steep penalties on banks, auto dealers, student lenders and credit card companies for alleged predatory lending practices. His reputation as being tough on banks and sticking up for consumers has many Democrats saying he is their best hope for taking the governors mansion, and chipping away at Republicans’ dominance in state government.  Due to a law forbidding public officials from using their office to advance political campaigns, Cordray would have to resign to run for governor. His term does not expire until next summer, when Democrats will already have selected their gubernatorial nominee in primary elections. Members of both parties have said Trump would seize on a vacancy at the top of the CFPB to make good on campaign promises to slash regulations and weaken or perhaps even dismantle the agency. Republicans have long fought to take the agency apart, saying it oversteps its authority and that the single director, who both writes and enforces rules, has too much power. The agency itself has repeatedly declined to comment on Cordray resignation rumors. CFPB critics say Trump could use a 1998 law to slide in a current administration appointee, already confirmed by Congress, as temporary director if Cordray resigns. A legal ruling that Trump can fire Cordray is currently under appeal. “He’s done a great job and I don’t think he should leave for  any reason,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of the liberal group Allied Progress.

Summary: अमेरिकी उपभोक्ता निगरानी प्रमुख कॉर्ड्रे ने ओहियो के चुनावी जल का परीक्षण किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is more popular with likely voters than he is with the general public, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that underscores why Republican lawmakers have largely stuck with the polarizing president despite his plunging approval ratings. The poll, released on Wednesday, shows he polls better among people who voted in the 2016 presidential election than with the overall U.S. adult population – a group that includes both voters and non-voters. Only about 60 percent of the voting-age public took part in last year’s election. In October, for example, 44 percent of 2016 voters said they approved of Trump’s performance in office, compared with 37 percent of the general population. Among Republicans, 82 percent of voters approved of Trump in October, compared with 75 percent of all Republicans. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2zoIC1A) Some 85 percent of those who voted for Trump in 2016 said they would do so again, the poll found. The findings suggest that Republican candidates in the 2018 congressional elections who shun the president risk alienating his followers, Republican strategists and political scientists said. At the same time, those who embrace him in the early primary races that choose party candidates risk losing moderate voters in the general election. “It’s very difficult for any Republican candidate to distance themselves from Trump,” said Michael McDonald, an expert on voter turnout at the University of Florida.  That dilemma played out in Virginia on Tuesday, when Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate in the governor’s race, was soundly beaten by his Democratic opponent. Gillespie had adopted some of Trump’s hardline positions but had avoided campaigning with the unpopular president.  Gillespie’s strategy had been closely watched within the party to see if it could provide a template for other Republican candidates in 2018, when control of the House of Representatives and the Senate will be up for grabs. Gillespie’s loss sparked debate among Republicans on the way forward on Wednesday. Trump suggested in a tweet that the outcome could have been different had Gillespie fully embraced him, but critics pointed out that exit polls showed that a third of Virginian voters had turned out to signal displeasure with Trump, double the number who cast ballots to express support for the president.  Tuesday’s results clearly signal that opposition to Trump has grown, even though he remains popular among 2016 Republican voters, said Elaine Kamarck, an expert in presidential politics at the Brookings Institution.  For Republicans, “the hurdle won’t be with getting out the base,” Kamarck said. “It will be in getting anyone else to vote for you” in elections where Republican voters are outnumbered. Reuters/Ipsos was able to compare the opinions of voters with the general public by creating two separate surveys: a poll of voters and a poll of the public.  For the voter poll, Reuters/Ipsos reconnected with people who took its exit poll on Nov. 8, 2016, the day of the U.S. presidential election. Those voters were sent additional questionnaires in May, July and October that asked if they approved or disapproved of the president.  Their responses were then compared with the results of a separate survey – the Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll – that surveys all adults in the United States. In May and July, the results of both polls were nearly identical, with about 40 percent of voters and the general adult population expressing approval for the president. The two polls diverged in October, however, with voters expressing stronger levels of approval than the general public.  Jan Leighley, an expert on political behavior at American University, said it makes sense that Trump is more popular among people who voted in the 2016 election. They were more likely to be white and less likely to identify with Democrats than the general public, she said.  The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English throughout the country. Some 1,206 of those 2016 voters took the  survey between May 10-12, followed by 1,296 who took the July 11-12 survey and 1,195 who took the survey between Oct. 18-19.  Individual responses were weighted so they would reflect the latest population estimates, as well as the support their presidential pick received in the election. Each of the voter polls had a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points for the entire group and 5 percentage points for Republican voters.

Summary: ट्रम्प की कम अनुमोदन रेटिंग संभावित मतदाताओं के बीच उनके समर्थन को दर्शाती हैः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस पोल


(Reuters) - A Michigan state appeals court on Tuesday ordered a halt to the recount of that state’s presidential election vote sought by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, while a federal appeals court ordered the process to proceed. The conflicting rulings had both sides claiming victory but left unclear on Tuesday evening where Stein’s bid to recount the vote in Michigan stood.  The Green Party candidate, who received only about 1 percent of the presidential vote on Nov. 8, sued in federal court in Pennsylvania on Monday to try to force a statewide recount of U.S. presidential votes there. Stein also pushed for a recount that is under way in Wisconsin, which with Michigan and Pennsylvania, was key to Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. “Today, Trump and his GOP allies in Michigan tried everything in the book to stop the recount, and they failed. This recount is continuing in spite of their efforts to suppress the vote,” said Matthew Brinckerhoff, a lawyer for the Stein campaign. Brinckerhoff was referring to a ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the recount should continue in Michigan.  The 6th Circuit’s decision came within hours of an order by the state Michigan Court of Appeals that the recount be halted, on the grounds that Stein was “not an aggrieved candidate” with standing to demand one. “I’m grateful, and I know Michigan taxpayers agree, that the Michigan Court of Appeals has adhered to the rule of law, and clarity in our Michigan statute in agreeing that Jill Stein is not an aggrieved candidate and the recall must stop,” the state’s Republican attorney general, Bill Schuette, said in a written statement. Stein’s moves are unlikely to change the outcome of the election but she has maintained they are necessary to ensure the integrity of voting systems. Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin defied their recent history of supporting Democratic presidential candidates and handed Trump narrow wins that ultimately gave him victory over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s campaign has said it would take part in the recounts.

Summary: अमेरिका, राज्य की अदालतों ने मिशिगन में मतों की फिर से गिनती पर परस्पर विरोधी निर्णय जारी किए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House plans to ask the U.S. Congress for a third round of disaster aid in mid-November as the costs continue to pour in for helping rebuild after hurricanes, but Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has told lawmakers he wants to see spending cuts elsewhere. Mulvaney said the federal government is assessing how much it will cost to help Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands rebuild after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria caused massive damages in August and September. Mulvaney expects the damages to add up to “several tens of billions of dollars,” he said in a letter to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell dated Tuesday. “As we move toward the longer-term issue of rebuilding the impacted areas of our nation, we believe that it is appropriate that the Congress consider reducing spending elsewhere in order to offset what will, again, be a significant amount of unbudgeted spending,” Mulvaney said in the letter. President Donald Trump is slated to receive a briefing on hurricane recovery efforts later on Wednesday in Dallas, where he is attending fundraising events. The Office of Management and Budget has drawn up a preliminary list of more than $5.5 billion in unspent funds that could be cut, Mulvaney said in a separate letter to lawmakers on Senate and House appropriations committees. The list includes $4.3 billion from an Energy Department loan program for advanced technology vehicle manufacturing and almost $730 million in funds no longer needed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for projects related to Hurricane Sandy recovery, Mulvaney said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस चाहता है कि कांग्रेस आपदा सहायता को बढ़ावा दे, कहीं और खर्च में कटौती करे


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday noted promising progress in Brexit talks and said he would propose to 27 EU leaders to open internal preparations for the second phase of negotiations about ties between London and the bloc after Britain leaves in March, 2019.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के टस्क ने ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता के अगले चरण की आंतरिक तैयारी शुरू करने का प्रस्ताव रखा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States might ban laptops from aircraft cabins on all flights into and out of the country as part of a ramped-up effort to protect against potential security threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Sunday.   In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Kelly said the United States planned to “raise the bar” on airline security, including tightening screening of carry-on items.  “That’s the thing that they are obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it’s a U.S. carrier, particularly if it’s full of U.S. people.” In March, the government imposed restrictions on large electronic devices in aircraft cabins on flights from 10 airports, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey. Kelly said the move would be part of a broader airline security effort to combat what he called “a real sophisticated threat.” He said no decision had been made as to the timing of any ban. “We are still following the intelligence,” he said, “and are in the process of defining this, but we’re going to raise the bar generally speaking for aviation much higher than it is now.” Airlines are concerned that a broad ban on laptops may erode customer demand. But none wants an incident aboard one of its airplanes. “Whatever comes out, we’ll have to comply with,” Oscar Munoz, chief executive officer of United Airlines (UAL.N), told  the company’s annual meeting last week. Airlines were blindsided in January when President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning entry for 90 days to citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, sending airlines scrambling to determine who could board and who could not. The order was later blocked in the courts.  In the case of laptops, the administration is keeping the industry in the loop. Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) said in a statement it “continues to be in close contact with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” while Munoz applauded the administration for giving the company a “heads up.”  “We’ve had constant updates on the subject,” he said. “We know more than most. And again, if there’s a credible threat out there, we need to make sure we take the appropriate measures.”  MORE SCRUTINY OF CARRY-ONS Among the enhanced security measures will likely be tighter screening of carry-on items to allow Transport Security Administration agents to discern problematic items in tightly stuffed bags. Kelly said that in order to avoid paying fees for checking bags, people were stuffing them to the point where it was difficult to see through the clutter.  “The more stuff is in there, the less the TSA professionals that are looking at what’s in those bags through the monitors can tell what’s in them.” The TSA has begun testing certain new procedures at a limited number of airports, requiring people to remove additional items from carry-on bags for separate screenings. Asked whether the government would expand such measures nationwide, Kelly said: “We might, and likely will.”

Summary: अमेरिका देश में आने और जाने वाली सभी उड़ानों में लैपटॉप पर प्रतिबंध लगा सकता है


(Reuters) - A lobbyist who was once a Soviet counter-intelligence officer participated last year in a meeting with senior aides to U.S. President Donald Trump, including his eldest son, and a Russian lawyer, NBC News reported on Friday, adding to allegations of possible connections between Moscow and the November election. NBC News, which did not identify the Russian-American lobbyist, said some U.S. officials suspected him of still having ties to Russian intelligence, something he denied to the network.  The Associated Press said the lobbyist, whom it identified as Rinat Akhmetshin, confirmed that he had attended the June 2016 meeting in New York’s Trump Tower. A source familiar with the participants of the meeting confirmed to Reuters that Akhmetshin was in the room. The meeting appears to be the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump’s election campaign and Russia, a subject that has prompted investigations by congressional committees and a federal special counsel. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former campaign adviser Paul Manafort were also at the meeting, which the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., agreed to attend because he believed he could get damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. did not mention Akhmetshin’s presence when he released a series of emails about the meeting earlier this week. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said the report about Akhmetshin “if accurate, adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting.” Akhmetshin was not available for comment on Friday. There was no answer at the door of his house in Washington. The White House had no immediate comment about the NBC News report of a Russian-American lobbyist at the meeting. Kushner’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloni said Manafort had no comment on the meeting. A former Trump campaign adviser, Michael Caputo, told reporters after he testified to the House Intelligence Committee in closed session on Friday that he had no contact with Russians and never heard of anyone in the campaign “talking with Russians.”     Accusations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow meddled in the election and colluded with the Trump campaign have dominated the Republican president’s first months in office. Russia denies the allegations, and Trump says there was no collusion. The agencies said earlier this year that Russia sought to help Trump win the election by hacking private emails from Democratic Party officials and disseminating false information online. To help the White House deal with Russia-related investigations, Trump is hiring veteran Washington lawyer Ty Cobb, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Cobb’s role is separate from Trump’s outside legal team, led by New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz.  Akhmetshin has been accused in federal and state courts in the United States of engaging in hacking conspiracies, although the allegations were later withdrawn, according to court records.  In 2015, lawyers for the Russian mining company International Mineral Resources claimed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia that Akhmetshin helped organize the hack, theft and dissemination of private documents. That case was dropped. The same company filed a lawsuit against Akhmetshin in the New York Supreme Court but withdrew it last year.  U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley described Akhmetshin in a letter to the Justice Department in March as “a former member of the Russian military intelligence services (GRU)” who was working to overturn the 2012 “Magnitsky Act” of Congress, which blacklists Russians for human rights abuses. The Kremlin has often complained about the act.     Congressional records show that Akhmetshin lobbied Congress last year for the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group that says it is working to lift laws that prevent U.S. residents from adopting Russian children. Those laws were put in place by Moscow in response to the Magnitsky Act. Trump told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not know about his son’s meeting last year until recently. But in a conversation with reporters later that day, Trump said: “In fact, maybe (the meeting) was mentioned at some point,” adding that he was not told it was about Clinton.    Trump Jr.’s lawyer, Alan Futerfas, said he had talked with a person who came to the meeting between Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Trump aides.       “He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question,” Futerfas told NBC News. It was not immediately clear if the person he referred to was Akhmetshin. The lawyer said Trump Jr. knew nothing about the man’s background at the time of the meeting. The Russian lawyer in the meeting, Veselnitskaya, has said she was not working for Russian authorities, but she told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Friday that she was meeting with Russian authorities regularly. She said she shared information about a U.S.-born fund manager who lobbied for passage of the Magnitsky Act with the Russian prosecutor general’s office, including with Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, a top official appointed by the Kremlin, the Journal said.

Summary: रूसी-अमेरिकी लॉबिस्ट ने रूसी वकील ट्रम्प जूनियर से मुलाकात कीः एनबीसी न्यूज


TAPA, Estonia (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May urged the European Union on Friday to respond in kind to proposals she set out in Italy last week that sought to unlock Brexit talks, saying forming a new partnership was in the bloc s interest as well.  Speaking to Reuters in Estonia after meeting British troops, May said she believed the speech in Florence a week ago had given new momentum to the troubled divorce negotiations and had seen signs to suggest it had broken the deadlock. But she did not say whether she thought it was enough to     move the talks on to a discussion of the future relationship by an October summit after EU negotiators said again this week that not enough progress had been made.  A week ago I gave a speech in Florence which set out how we have made good progress so far, I thought we could make further progress and moving on to looking at the future deep and special relationship and partnership that we want to build with the European Union when the UK has left the EU,  she said.  I made that speech to give momentum to the talks and I think we have seen that being shown in the talks that have taken place this week and further progress has been made.  Following the latest round of talks this week, the EU s top negotiator said May s speech had created a  new dynamic , but more progress was needed to move to the next phase of discussions. May, weakened by a June election when she lost her Conservative Party s majority, hopes to use the informal summit in Estonia to talk to EU leaders about Brexit, and to underline Britain s role in European security to try to win goodwill. Standing beside French President Emmanuel Macron and Estonia s Juri Ratas, she chatted to some of the 800 troops Britain has deployed at a military base in Tapa, northern Estonia, as part of NATO s moves to defend against a newly assertive Russia on the EU s border.  By focusing on defense in Tallinn, May will want to show that Britain has something to offer its European neighbors and will say she is ready to share British expertise - including through the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) - to help EU nations build up their own cyber-security capability. That, she hopes, could bolster her argument for pushing the Brexit talks forward.   I set out what I thought was the future deep and special partnership we can build with the EU and I look for the speech that I set out for that being reciprocated in proposals that the EU will come forward with,  she said.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की मे ने यूरोपीय संघ से ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता पर नए लहजे में प्रतिक्रिया देने का आग्रह किया


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May s office confirmed that Penny Mordaunt has been appointed Britain s new minister for international development, replacing Priti Patel who resigned on Wednesday over undisclosed meetings with Israeli officials that breached protocol.

Summary: पेनी मॉर्डॉन्ट ब्रिटेन के नए सहायता मंत्री नियुक्तः पीएम मे का कार्यालय


DETROIT (Reuters) - The Obama administration will announce efforts to boost self-driving cars on Thursday, according to government officials. Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told reporters that Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will be in Detroit to talk about administration efforts to speed the introduction of self-driving vehicles.  There is not yet a clear legal framework governing the presence of driverless cars on U.S. roads.  Automakers and technology companies such as Alphabet Inc’s Google have called on regulators to clarify guidelines for introduction of autonomous driving technology, in part out of concern that a mishap involving a self-driving car could result in costly litigation. A Google spokesman said the company will take part in Thursday’s announcement by Foxx. Detroit automakers are also likely to participate.  In December, Rosekind said he opposed a “patchwork” of state regulations on driverless cars and promised a “nimble, flexible” approach to writing new rules for self-driving vehicles. Officials had said President Barack Obama might discuss advanced transportation efforts in his final State of the Union Address on Tuesday, but he did not.

Summary: ओबामा प्रशासन स्व-चालित कारों को बढ़ावा देने के प्रयासों की घोषणा करेगा