WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Bernie Sanders, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said on Thursday he will help rebuild party support outside of Washington and craft a new economic message for all Americans. Sanders, who will become outreach chair on the Senate Democrats leadership team, will try to engage Americans who feel disconnected from the political process. Sanders is an Independent from Vermont but tends to vote with Democrats.    “The real action to transform America won’t take place on Capitol Hill, it will be in the grassroots America among millions struggling economically and young people,” Sanders said at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. Democrat Charles Schumer of New York, elected the Senate’s new minority leader on Wednesday, said Sanders will join his 10-member leadership team. He wants to harness Sanders’ popularity with young and working class voters during the hard-fought primary battle with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Democrats are regrouping after the upset victory of Republican Donald Trump and after Republicans gained control of the Senate and House and made big gains in control of state legislatures. Sanders, who will also become the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said he will make sure the panel represents the needs of working families, not billionaires. One problem for the Democrats is while they make the point that the economy is better off today than it was eight years ago, it has not improved for the middle class for decades, he said. “What the Democrats I think too often have ignored is that for the last forty years ... the middle class of this country has been shrinking,” Sanders told the breakfast, saying that real wages have gone down while income inequality has risen.     Sanders said he supports fresh leadership for the Democratic National Committee, the party’s organization and has endorsed Congressman Keith Ellison, of Minnesota, as the new leader of the party. Ellison, who is a progressive and a Muslim, reflects the diversity of the party, Sanders and other Democrats say.  Sanders also said that Hillary Clinton should play a key role. After her defeat last week, Sanders said he did not talk to her directly, only on a conference call. “She ended up getting more votes that Mr. Trump and it goes without saying that she has a very important role to play about the future of the Democratic party,” he said.

Summary: सैंडर्स वाशिंगटन के बाहर नए डेमोक्रेटिक पद पर आधार बनाएंगी


SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Puerto Rico on Friday said it will default on $779 million worth of constitutionally backed debt, its most senior bonds, making good on threats that the island would choose paying essential services for its citizens over obligations to creditors. Debt payments totaling just over $2 billion were due on Friday. Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla told reporters on Friday that overall the U.S. commonwealth territory will not pay $911 million worth of its obligations. The U.S. territory’s finances will soon come under a U.S. federal oversight board after U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law on Thursday a bill giving the island access to a debt restructuring process, and implementing a halt on litigation arising from any defaults on its $70 billion debt load. “Today, Puerto Rico is protected against creditors’ actions,” Garcia Padilla said. The General Obligation (GO) debt, or debt that carries a GO guarantee, is a category of debt that has not been defaulted upon by any U.S. state in decades. Puerto Rico is not covered by Chapter 9 U.S. bankruptcy code which applies to municipalities. Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank (GDB) said on Friday the island would have just $95 million in cash at the end of the year even after the defaults announced on Friday. Puerto Rico’s benchmark 2035 GO bond rose 0.25 points in price to trade at 67.50 points, pushing the yield down to 12.519 percent. On Thursday Garcia Padilla authorized Puerto Rico, under a locally written debt moratorium law, to suspend some of the $2 billion in debt payments due on Friday. The developments on Friday represent the nadir of a decade-long effort by Puerto Rico to avoid economic collapse. The island is hamstrung by emigration and a 45 percent poverty rate.     “Even if the Commonwealth were to devote every last penny in the (accounts) to debt service on July 1, it would still owe holders of the public debt hundreds of millions of dollars,” the GDB said in a statement on Friday. Some of the debt expected to be defaulted upon such as PBA (Public Building Authority) ex-series L bonds will be mostly covered by reserve funds held by the trustee bank. Nearly all of the payments due on the Puerto Rico Infrastructure Financing Authority (PRIFA) Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs) will be covered by reserve funds as well.     If some of the debt is covered by insurance policies, some creditors could receive a portion of their payments.     The GDB, Puerto Rico’s primary fiscal agent, said the island has only $200 million in its operating account, and another $150 million in revenue that was redirected in recent months away from other debt payments.      Even if the island continues emergency measures like suspending vendor payments and withholding contributions to a pension fund that is already insolvent, the operating account will still run out of cash in 30 to 60 days, the GDB said. “We knew this day would come, that they would default, and it is here. It was a good thing they passed PROMESA, even at the eleventh hour,” Ted Hampton, senior credit officer at Moody’s Investors Service, said, referring to the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). Late on Thursday the island’s legislature approved an $8.9 billion fiscal 2017 budget, which now awaits Garcia Padilla’s signature. In the wee hours of Friday, Puerto Rico released long-awaited audited financial statements for fiscal year 2014, more than a year late.     The statements, audited by KPMG, showed, among other things, that Puerto Rico’s largest public pension has exhausted its assets and is now insolvent. Puerto Rico’s pensions have among the largest funding gaps in U.S. history. “When I entered office, Puerto Rico was property of Wall Street,” Garcia Padilla said, adding: “Today, everybody concludes that we have been telling the truth about Puerto Rico’s fiscal condition.”

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको का कहना है कि वह 77.9 करोड़ डॉलर के वरिष्ठ ऋण पर चूक करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Steve Bannon, a former top White House strategist and a former chief campaign aide to Donald Trump, has been asked to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence panel next month, Bloomberg News reported. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, was also asked to testify in early January, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing an official familiar with the committee’s schedule.  Representatives for the committee did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment. The panel is probing alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 U.S. election.

Summary: हाउस पैनल ने ट्रम्प के पूर्व शीर्ष सहयोगी बैनन से गवाही देने को कहाः ब्लूमबर्ग


SEOUL (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will wrap up his visit to Seoul on Wednesday with a major speech on North Korea and then shift focus to China, where he is expected to press a reluctant President Xi Jinping to tighten the screws further on Pyongyang,  U.S. officials say. Trump s address to South Korea s National Assembly will come a day after he seemed to take a more balanced approach: threatening to use America s full military might against North Korea if needed, but also offering it a diplomatic opening to  make a deal  to end the nuclear standoff. While Trump presented no specific solution to his toughest global security challenge, his more conciliatory rhetoric toward North Korea could help lower tensions between Washington and Pyongyang that have put much of the east Asian region on edge over the prospects for military conflict. It contrasted markedly with Trump s earlier threats to  totally destroy  North Korea if it threatened the United States, and the personal insults he exchanged with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It remains to be seen, however, whether the unpredictable Trump, in his final day on North Korea s doorstep, will build  on this approach or return to the bellicose language that has characterized his handling of the North Korean issue. Trump s official  talking points  for his Asia tour show that he intends to use the speech in part to contrast South Korea s  amazing rise  with North Korea s  sad, backward  state  and to urge resolve against Pyongyang, according to a confidential document reviewed by Reuters. He is also expected to condemn Pyongyang for its poor human rights record. Trump will then fly to Beijing where, according to senior administration officials, he will try to convince Xi to squeeze North Korea further with steps such as limits on oil exports, coal imports and financial transactions. Previewing his Beijing visit, Trump told a news conference in Seoul on Tuesday that China and North Korea s other giant neighbor, Russia, were among countries whose cooperation will be  crucial in getting North Korea to rein in its nuclear and missile programs.  President Xi   has been very helpful. We ll find out how helpful soon,  Trump said. But it is far from clear if Xi, who has just consolidated his power at a Communist Party congress, will agree to do more. China says its leverage over Pyongyang is exaggerated by the West, and points to its support in the U.N. Security Council for recent sanctions on North Korea as evidence that it is doing all it can to curtail the isolated nation s nuclear and missile tests.  On this issue, China s position and stance is already very clear and staunch,  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday.  Everyone can see clearly that we don t need anybody to tell us what we should be doing.  But with Trump appearing to crack open the  door to diplomacy with North Korea   something that China has long urged   he may have a better chance of securing further promises to intensify economic pressure on North Korea, which relies on Beijing for more than 90 percent of its trade. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, however, has seemed willing to risk snubbing China when he deems it useful as he pursues development of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. At the same time, Xi may be mindful that Trump has held off on trade actions against China that he loudly threatened during the 2016 presidential campaign to give Beijing more time to make progress on North Korea. For his part, Xi will also be looking to maintain the good personal chemistry the two leaders developed when Trump hosted him at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in April. The  bromance  is set to continue when Xi returns the favor by laying on a lavish welcome for Trump s visit starting on Wednesday. Trump is expected to go to the Forbidden City, possibly guided by Xi, and participate in an inspection of Chinese troops, though China has released few other details.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया को बड़ा भाषण देंगे ट्रंप, फिर चीन पर और अधिक करने के लिए दबाव डालेंगे


KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Sunday, killing one civilian and wounding four others but without causing casualties among international forces, officials said. Qudratullah Khushbakht, a spokesman for the Kandahar governor, said the attack happened on the airport road, killing a woman and wounding four other people. However a spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said there had been no injuries among troops in the convoy.  We can confirm a suicide bomber attempted an attack on a patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan, earlier today. However, there were no fatalities or injuries sustained by coalition forces,  the spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान में नाटो के काफिले पर कार बम हमलावर का हमला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday voted to advance the White House’s nomination of Randal Quarles to the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, a further boost for President Donald Trump’s plan to loosen Wall Street regulations. Quarles, a prominent investor and former Treasury official, was confirmed by the Senate Banking Committee as vice chairman for supervision at the Fed, a post that will be in the spotlight as the Trump administration looks to unpick the regulations brought in to rein in banks after the 2008 financial crisis.   The committee also voted to advance the nomination of Joseph Otting as comptroller of the currency, a position which regulates national banks. Both nominations now head to the full Senate, where they are expected to ultimately be confirmed. Republicans on the panel unanimously backed the picks, and Quarles received support from five of the 11 Democrats. Otting received support from all the Republicans and just one Democrat, Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. During a hearing before the committee in July, Quarles said he would ensure more transparency around the Fed’s so-called stress tests for big banks and would work to simplify the Volcker rule, which bans banks from making speculative bets with their own money. Wall Street critics say that rule is vague and unworkable. The Senate panel votes came a day after Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer, a veteran central banker who had spoken out against weakening Wall Street regulations, announced he would step down in October due to personal reasons. Analysts said the appointment of Quarles and the departure of Fischer could accelerate Trump’s deregulation agenda, potentially saving banks such as Goldman Sachs(GS.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) billions in future revenue. Quarles will also vote on monetary policy as a member of the Fed’s board of governors. “President Trump has the opportunity to radically remake the Federal Reserve Board in the coming months,” said analysts at Compass Point Research & Trading.   “Our view remains that the prudential bank regulators will orchestrate a broad deregulatory agenda for the nation’s banks, with a particular focus on streamlining the stress testing process, softening the capital and liquidity framework, and securing regulatory relief for the nation’s regional/community banks.” Otting is seen as a more controversial pick than Quarles due to his role as former chief executive of OneWest Bank, which foreclosed on 36,000 homes after striking a lucrative deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also was a top executive at OneWest.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने फेड बोर्ड में क्वार्ल्स के नामांकन को आगे बढ़ाया


(Reuters) - Two Republicans on the Federal Communications Commission told a congressional panel Tuesday the partisan divide at the nation’s telecommunications regulatory body is growing.  FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, a Republican, said at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing that the number of votes splitting along party lines at the five-member FCC is  growing under FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler - and is twice as high as under four prior chairmen. “Proposals from Republican commissioners have been roundly rejected as crossing a ‘red line,’ even when an identical proposal from a Democratic commissioner is accepted later on,” Pai told a U.S. House panel. “Collaboration has fallen by the wayside.” Wheeler has a busy agenda in the final year of the Obama administration and has drawn the ire of some industry groups and Republicans in Congress. He has proposed allowing consumers access to pay TV without renting an expensive set-top cable box. He also has proposed privacy rules that would require Internet service providers to get consent for using consumer data and has unveiled a plan to expand a subsidy for low-income Americans that covers mobile phones to include broadband Internet access. Kim Hart, a spokeswoman for Wheeler, said the chairman “has tackled complex issues resulting in more competition, strong protections and improved access to networks for consumers. During the first two years of the Chairman’s tenure, 88 percent of votes have been unanimous.” FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, another Republican, criticized Wheeler for “constantly pushing the envelope into questionable directions, at the expense of collegiality, staff morale and soundness of decisions.” Republican commissioners have ramped up the rhetoric in recent months. After a federal appeals court put on hold two separate FCC decisions, Pai said the FCC “needs to follow the law and return to the tradition of bipartisan, collaborative decision-making.” Many Democrats back Wheeler’s aggressive agenda. Representative Anna Eshoo, of California, praised Wheeler for his aggressive agenda that “puts the consumer first and strengthens competition.” Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican who chairs the panel that held the hearing, lamented the “sharp divisions” on the FCC, saying the commission should not give “short shrift to collaboration in favor of expediency.” At a Senate hearing this month, Wheeler declined to confirm he will step down at the end of the Obama administration, as is customary for the chair of the commission. The Senate has so far declined to reconfirm a Democratic commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, who was renominated in 2015.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने एफ. सी. सी. में पक्षपातपूर्ण विभाजन की आलोचना की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an offer to meet U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House later this month and canceled his trip to Washington, the White House said on Monday. Netanyahu’s decision to nix his U.S. visit marked the latest episode in a fraught relationship with Obama that has yet to recover from their deep differences over last year’s U.S.-led international nuclear deal with Iran, Israel’s arch foe. The White House said the Israeli government had requested a Netanyahu meeting with Obama on either March 18 or 19 and that two weeks ago he was offered a March 18 encounter. “We were looking forward to hosting the bilateral meeting, and we were surprised to first learn via media reports that the prime minister, rather than accept our invitation, opted to cancel his visit,” White House spokesman Ned Price said in an emailed statement. “Reports that we were not able to accommodate the prime minister’s schedule are false,” he said. The White House has announced Obama’s plans to be in Havana on March 21 and 22 for a historic visit aimed at moving closer toward normalized relations with Washington’s former Cold War adversary. There was no immediate word from Netanyahu’s office about the cancellation, which also comes as the two close allies are struggling to negotiate a new 10-year, multibillion-dollar defense aid agreement for Israel. Israel’s Channel 10 TV, citing unnamed Israeli sources, said Netanyahu’s decision to scrap the trip appeared to be motivated by reluctance to be perceived as interfering in the U.S. presidential election campaign, should any candidates seek to meet him in Washington.  Netanyahu also saw little to show for such a trip, given that the new defense Memorandum of Understanding is “far from being agreed yet,” Channel 10 said. Several Israeli media quoted Israeli officials as saying that no appropriate time could be found for the meeting before Obama’s departure for Cuba. Netanyahu had been expected to visit Washington this month not only to see Obama but to address the annual conference of the leading U.S. pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. In the past he has sometimes spoken to the group via satellite. The prime minister made a speech to the U.S. Congress last March criticizing the then-emerging Iran nuclear deal and was denied a meeting with Obama during that visit in what was widely regarded as a diplomatic snub. But the two leaders met at the White House in November and sought to mend ties. In recent months, differences over defense aid have underscored continuing tensions over the Iran deal. Netanyahu and his aides suggested in February if Israel were unable to reach an accord with Obama, it could wait for the next  president to secure better terms. Current U.S. defense aid to Israel, worth about $3 billion annually, expires in 2018. The two sides are seeking an extension before Obama leaves office in January 2017. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, on a five-day trip to the Middle East, is due to visit Israel later this week and hold talks with Netanyahu.

Summary: इजरायल के नेतन्याहू ने ओबामा से मिलने की पेशकश ठुकराईः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a last-ditch effort, five U.S. Senate Democrats are urging President Donald Trump to veto a resolution that would repeal a Labor Department rule designed to help cities launch retirement savings plans for low-income private-sector workers by exempting such programs from strict federal pension protection laws. In an April 5 letter that Reuters saw on Thursday, the lawmakers told Trump, a Republican, that killing the rule could harm more than 2 million Americans who would otherwise benefit from city-run retirement plans. “We ask you to work with us to increase access to retirement savings programs and promote greater retirement security,” they wrote. The senators signing the letter are Patty Murray of Washington and Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrats on committees overseeing pensions and tax matters; Maria Cantwell of Washington; Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; and Robert Casey of Pennsylvania. The resolution on city-run retirement plans is one of 13 measures that Congress has passed to repeal rules enacted under previous president Barack Obama, a Democrat. An obscure law called the Congressional Review Act gives Congress a tool to repeal regulations that it finds objectionable. All that is required is a simple majority vote in both chambers and the president’s signature. The law is limited, however, in how it can be used. Only rules that were finalized within 60 legislative days are eligible for repeal. Trump has signed 11 of the 13 resolutions so far.  The White House Office of Management and Budget has advised Trump to sign the city-run retirement plan measure, and a White House official said on Wednesday that the president would sign more resolutions this month.  The Labor Department adopted two rules at the end of Obama’s tenure that exempted both city and state-run retirement plans from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, a law designed to protect workers’ savings. The plans are geared toward private-sector workers whose employers do not offer 401(k) or other retirement benefits, and would let them enroll automatically in plans like those being introduced in places like California. Cities and states say they need the exemption for the plans to work effectively, but trade groups like the Chamber of Commerce and Investment Company Institute want it repealed amid concerns that workers would not have adequate pension protections. The resolution to repeal the city-run retirement plan rule narrowly passed the Senate in a 50-49 vote.  The Senate is expected to take up a separate resolution to repeal the rule on state-run retirement plans after the Easter recess.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट्स ने ट्रम्प से शहर सेवानिवृत्ति योजना नियम को निरस्त करने के उपाय को वीटो करने के लिए कहा


COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Leaders of three of the eight parties elected in Iceland in an October 28 parliamentary election began formal coalition negotiations on Tuesday, state broadcaster RUV reported. The Independence Party, the Left-Green Movement and the center-right Progressive Party, are seeking to form a government after talks between four leftist parties broke down last week. It should be clear by the end of the week whether talks have made progress. President Gudni Johannesson has not yet given any party leaders a formal mandate to try to form a government.

Summary: आइसलैंड के बाएं और दाएं दलों ने औपचारिक गठबंधन वार्ता शुरू की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American intelligence agencies are concerned about reports that foreign governments may be attempting to undermine the Nov. 8  U.S. elections through cyber attacks, Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, said on Tuesday. “We continue to be actively concerned,” Rogers told a Senate hearing, responding to a question from Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Marcel Lettre, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, testified that the government is taking any such activities “quite seriously” and said an “aggressive investigation” is under way. McCain noted that one of the two states in which media reports said there was evidence of attempted Russian hacking was his home state, Arizona. Some analysts have said Arizona, which recently has been reliably Republican in presidential elections, could be tilting more toward the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, this year. McCain, a Republican, himself is in a tougher than usual re-election fight. Rogers said he could not provide specifics about spy agencies’ current assessment of the alleged hacking in a public setting. But he added, “I will say this, that it continues to be an issue of great focus ... for the foreign intelligence community, attempting to generate insights into what foreign nations are doing in this area.” Under further questioning, Rogers declined to characterize the activity as by a foreign nation-state. Lettre said the government would adopt a policy for dealing with any such activity once it had the results of the investigation. “The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security has an aggressive investigation underway,” Lettre said. U.S. security officials have said that, starting last year, hackers infiltrated computers of the Democratic National Committee, Clinton’s presidential campaign and her party’s congressional fundraising committee. U.S. officials said they have concluded that Russia or its proxies were responsible, leading to calls by some Democrats and cyber security officials for the Obama administration to blame Russia publicly. Kremlin officials have dismissed the allegations as absurd, but there is anxiety in Washington over the possibility that a foreign power might be using hacked information to meddle in the November elections.

Summary: जासूसी एजेंसियां संभावित अमेरिकी चुनाव हैक के बारे में चिंतित हैंः एनएसए प्रमुख


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Hondurans vote on Sunday in a presidential election that many expect to result in a second term for the current U.S.-friendly leader, eight years after he supported a coup against a former president who also floated the idea of re-election. Polls suggest Juan Orlando Hernandez, of the center-right National Party, will clinch a divisive second term and see off television host Salvador Nasralla, who helms a broad left-right coalition called the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship. Below are the candidates  main proposals: Juan Orlando Hernandez - A former head of Congress who studied at the State University of New York and Honduras  military academy, the 49-year-old Hernandez enjoys good rapport with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and is seen as a reliable U.S. ally in Central America. - Hernandez has managed to lower the murder rate and raise growth, while expanding his influence into the furthest reaches of the Honduran government.  - Critics say that Hernandez, who was born in a humble, rural family of 17 siblings, has stifled dissent and is seeking to consolidate power. U.S. government officials say they want him to quickly revitalize stalled legislation to place a cap on presidential limits and assuage fears he will not cede power.  - With his slogan that  Change has begun, and should continue,  Hernandez says he will keep up his militarized fight against the gangs that have turned the Central American nation into one of the world s most violent. - Hernandez says a so-called Honduras 20/20 plan will help lure investment in textiles, call centers and car manufacturing and lift growth. Hernandez wants to push ahead with special economic zones, a project that has so far yielded few concrete results. He says his policies will create 600,000 new jobs in the next four years. Salvador Nasralla - A colorful 64-year-old sports and talent TV show host descended from Lebanese immigrants, Nasralla promises to put an end to years of violence, poverty and graft. - Nasralla s Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship coalition includes the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), which is controlled by ousted former President Manuel Zelaya, who many believe is the true force behind the coalition. - A non-traditional political figure who has benefited from his entertainment background to build support among those disenchanted by business-as-usual Honduran politics, Nasralla trailed Hernandez by 15 points in the last permitted poll before the election, which took place in September. - Nasralla says he will ask the United Nations to install an anti-graft body, similar to one operating in Guatemala, to probe and bring charges in corruption cases. Nasralla would maintain the Military Police, created by Hernandez, but wants to found a community police force to work in violent slums. He would also continue the purge of the national police, while hiring up to 25,000 new officers. - Plans for the economy are vague, but the coalition has proposed lowering sales tax and slashing a Hernandez-imposed corporate levy that has enraged the private sector. The Alliance has proposed a referendum on how the current Constitution should be rewritten, either by Congress or by a new national assembly. It also wants a referendum on stripping the powers of the Supreme Court, which it accuses of being pliant to Hernandez.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः होंडुरास के राष्ट्रपति चुनाव में मुख्य दलों के प्रस्ताव


CHICAGO (Reuters) - For the second time in two weeks, the Illinois Senate moved to loosen the financial death grip on the state’s higher education system, which has been starved of operating revenue by a record-setting, 11-month state budget stalemate. The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved and sent to the House of Representatives a $454 million spending package for eight public universities, community colleges and low-income students dependent on Monetary Award Program grants. The bipartisan move, which could stave off mass layoffs at several state universities, builds on a $600 million, higher-education appropriation that Republican Governor Bruce Rauner signed on April 25. Thursday’s action also represents another encouraging break in the state’s acrimonious budget fight between the governor and Democrats, who control the state legislature, as they face a scheduled legislative adjournment at the end of May. “We have since found more dollars which we can appropriate to our universities to make them more competitive, to make them more viable and to give them a bridge going forth into the 2017 budget,” said state Senator Donne Trotter, a Chicago Democrat and a sponsor of Thursday’s legislation. The latest appropriation was supported financially by companion legislation that passed the Senate on Thursday authorizing Rauner’s administration not to repay $454 million borrowed from state special-purpose funds during the 2015 fiscal year. Without legislative action, that amount would have had to be repaid June 30 from the state’s main operational fund. The approach drew isolated claims of budgetary sleight of hand during floor debate. “This is ridiculous, swapping money from one pocket to another, saying you have it when you don’t,” said state Senator Kyle McCarter, a Republican from Lebanon, Illinois, a rural enclave nearly 300 miles southwest of Chicago. The Senate-passed legislation cannot be acted on by the House until Tuesday at the earliest when that legislative chamber is scheduled to reconvene. The respite for the state’s higher-education system comes after its community colleges received rating downgrades and  negative outlooks by Moody’s Investors Service in recent weeks, and Chicago State University had faced the threat of possible closure.

Summary: इलिनोइस सीनेट ने 45.4 करोड़ डॉलर के उच्च शिक्षा पैकेज के लिए मतदान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Times said on Thursday that it stands by its story about two women who say Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made inappropriate advances, and rebutted claims by a lawyer for Trump that the story is libelous. “Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself,” David McCraw, vice president and assistant general counsel for the newspaper, said in a letter to Trump’s lawyer. If Trump disagrees that the story was libelous, “we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight,” McCraw said in the letter.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स ने मानहानि के दावे का खंडन किया, ट्रम्प की कहानी के साथ खड़ा है


ATHENS (Reuters) - Shots fired at riot police guarding the headquarters of Greece s Socialist PASOK party on Monday came from the same gun that one particular guerrilla group has used in attacks, police said. There were no injuries during the shooting, which occurred at a busy intersection in Athens at around 1745 GMT, when some 30 people were inside the party s offices. No one has claimed responsibility. Police found four shells at the spot and said tests showed they had been fired from a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle. One bullet passed through a shop window and a second pierced a metal electricity pole. The same rifle had been used in at least two attacks claimed by left-wing guerrilla group Revolutionary Self-Defense, including one on the PASOK offices in 2014, police said. The group, which emerged during Greece s economic crisis, claimed an attack with a hand grenade on the French embassy in Athens last year.  The tests point at a certain direction and the government needs to act,  PASOK spokesman Pavlos Christides said. Small-scale attacks on businesses, police, politicians and embassies are relatively frequent in Greece. The country has a long history of political violence and is struggling to emerge from a huge debt crisis that has sent unemployment soaring and cut incomes. PASOK, a once dominant party that signed up to the country s first international bailout in exchange for austerity, holds a leadership contest on Sunday. It has seen its popularity wane since 2009 when it last won a national election with 43 percent.  Its headquarters are in the Athens neighborhood of Exarchia, the scene of regular confrontations between police and anti-establishment protesters.  (This version of the story was corrected to make clear that same rifle was used in past attacks)

Summary: पिछले गुरिल्ला हमलों में इस्तेमाल की गई यूनानी PASOK गोलीबारी की बंदूक-पुलिस


BELFAST (Reuters) - The head of the Democratic Unionist Party said on Monday Northern Ireland would leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom, rebuffing a suggestion from the bloc that the region remain subject to some of its rules.  Brussels has said it will not move to the second phase of Brexit talks with Britain until London provides additional detail of how it will guarantee that there be no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.  Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday asked the British government to detail what specific EU rules it would retain in Northern Ireland to ensure regulatory equivalence between the region and the Irish Republic and thus avoid the need for a hard border. But the head of the DUP, whose votes the government of British Prime Minister Theresa May is dependent on to pass legislation, repeated her rejection of the suggestion on Monday, saying she would not create barriers to business with the rest of the United Kingdom to allow smooth trade with Ireland.   Northern Ireland will exit the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom,  Arlene Foster said in a statement ahead of a meeting with May on Tuesday morning.   We will not countenance a border in the Irish Sea. I welcome the Prime Minister s commitment on this.   The EU has said the UK needs to come forward with concrete proposals on the Irish border and on what past financial commitments it will honor by early December if EU leaders are to declare at their Dec. 14-15 summit that enough has been achieved to start talks on a transition period and a trade deal. Britain is scheduled to leave the bloc in March 2019. Foster said the EU s stance on Northern Ireland amounted to blackmail.  Those in Dublin and Brussels, recklessly trying to use Northern Ireland for their own objectives, should cease,  she said in the statement.  The Prime Minister should warn Brussels that Northern Ireland must not be used as blackmail.

Summary: डीयूपी का कहना है कि उत्तरी आयरलैंड ब्रिटेन के बाकी हिस्सों की तरह ही यूरोपीय संघ को छोड़ देगा


IOWA CITY, Iowa/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The 2016 election is shaping up to be the year of angry voters, the disgruntled Americans shaking up the establishment by fueling the presidential campaigns of two very different candidates - billionaire businessman Donald Trump and self-declared socialist Bernie Sanders.  Some 73 percent of voters likely to head to the polls in November’s election say they think the United States is on the wrong track, and these disaffected people make up a majority of the support bases for both Republican candidate Trump and Democratic hopeful Sanders - 87 percent and 54 percent, respectively, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Both candidates were seen as long shots against brand name rivals like Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton a few months ago, but have seen their popularity surge as the election race starts in earnest with the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1. They are likely to do well in Iowa, but even if they lose, the fervor they’ve whipped up has upended the race and maybe even American politics. So who are the angry Americans? They deviate from the population in key ways: they are whiter, poorer and less educated. They are less likely to support a candidate who has been involved in politics. And regardless of party, they have deep distrust for Clinton after her more than two decades in the public eye. Where the camps differ is in identifying the root of America’s ills, with supporters of Sanders pointing to income inequality and health care as the top problems, and those backing Trump putting the blame on immigrants and foreign terrorists, according to the poll. Pundits have been quick to define the economy as the source of the voter anger feeding the Trump and Sanders campaigns. In a post-recession world, the middle class still struggles with stagnant wages and a weak job market. But a close look at the polls, and interviews with prospective voters, show concerns go well beyond economic indicators. Here in Iowa, the December jobs report issued Tuesday found just 3.4 percent unemployment – far below the national average and still on the decline. “Now Hiring” signs are ubiquitous across the state. Asked to select the top issue for the next president in the first 100 days of the new administration, 24 percent of voters nationwide who said the country was on the wrong track picked immigration - making it the most popular choice by that group.  Only 10 percent of those who think the nation is on the right track selected immigration, making it the fifth most popular choice for that group, according to the poll.  “Wrong track” voters were also more likely to say terrorism and the economy were concerns. Trump has built his campaign on an immigration platform that includes building a wall and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. And his insistence that he could negotiate better trade deals provides a strong appeal to those concerned about disappearing jobs in a global economy. On Tuesday night in Iowa City, Trump’s rally drew both supporters and opponents. Eight times the event was interrupted by protesters, who were forced out of the packed gymnasium and heckled by the raucous crowd.  Jim Schmidt, 48, of Johnson County, Iowa, was among the angry. His 11-year-old son wore a button proclaiming “Bomb the shit out of ISIS. The child watched as protesters were ejected from the event, cheering and waving his hand in support. “I’m angry but I love it and enjoy it,” Schmidt said afterward. He’s backing Trump for his business experience and ability to bring about change.  Where Trump’s angry voters have been on display at rallies, the intensity around Sanders has manifested itself online - dominating message boards and comment sections. A liberal radio host in Oregon, Carl Wolfson, announced last month he was ending his show in part because of the vitriol coming from Sanders supporters. His Facebook post on the topic was then inundated with angry responses. Sanders is resonating among angry voters by focusing on income inequality, and promising to deliver universal health care and free college education. Meghan Metier, 22, of Iowa City said the Affordable Care Act - President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform - has allowed some of her friends to access Medicaid. But to keep it, she added, they have to be certain their income doesn’t exceed the poverty level, so they stay barely employed. For her the system is broken and Sanders is the only candidate who appears ready to fix it. “He’s a more reliable progressive,” she said, comparing him to Clinton.  (Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Mary Milliken) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: अमेरिका के नाराज मतदाताओं ने ट्रम्प और सैंडर्स को विभाजित कियाः सर्वेक्षण


QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan killed four members of a Shi ite Muslim Hazara family, including a 12-year-old boy, on Sunday, in the latest sectarian attack on the minority community, a senior police official said.  Two men on a motorcycle opened fire on a family of eight while they at a filling station some 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan s Baluchistan province. Aside from those killed, two others were wounded. Two  female members of the family were unscathed, having remained in their vehicle.  This was a sectarian attack,  senior police officer Tanveer Shah told Reuters, adding that no group has claimed responsibility for the shooting. Hazaras are frequently targeted by Taliban and Islamic State militants, and other Sunni Muslim militant groups in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Many Hazaras fled to Pakistan during decades of conflict in neighboring Afghanistan, and nearly half a million now live in and around Quetta. In 2013, three separate bombings killed over 200 people in Hazara neighborhoods, raising international awareness of the plight of the community. More than 20 Hazaras have been killed in similar shootings in Baluchistan in the past two years, police say.  The ongoing violence in the province has fueled concern about security for projects in the $57-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a transport and energy link planned to run from western China to Pakistan s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.

Summary: पाकिस्तान में बंदूकधारियों के हमले में चार की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left in place a lower court’s ruling that barred private citizens from suing Ohio for allegedly impeding their ability to vote by requiring ballot forms to be filled out perfectly. The justices declined to review the ruling that dismissed claims by Ohio’s Democratic Party and homeless rights groups that the state’s “perfect form” law, which invalidates ballots for even minor errors, deprived thousands of people of their right to vote, violating the federal Voting Rights Act. Such suits must be filed by the federal government, not private citizens, that court held.  The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless in Cleveland, the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless and the state Democratic Party challenged a pair of 2014 laws. Those laws required county election boards to reject absentee and provisional ballots unless voters had properly and completely filled out the forms that come with the ballots, including with their name, address, birth date and signature.  Ballots were rejected even if the voter’s identity could be determined despite the errors, the plaintiffs told the justices in legal papers. Some were thrown out for omitting zip codes, using cursive writing instead of print, or writing in the current date instead of a birth date, they said, disenfranchising thousands of voters in recent elections, especially minorities.  The plaintiffs claimed the laws were unconstitutional, violating voters’ rights to due process and equal protection under the law. They also alleged the laws violated a provision of the Voting Rights Act that outlaws voter disqualification for errors that are “not material” to determining voter eligibility. Last September the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the laws to be mostly legal, striking down only the requirement that absentee voters accurately provide their full address and birth date. The court also said the Voting Rights Act provision at issue could only be enforced by the U.S. attorney general, and lawsuits by private parties were barred.

Summary: अमेरिकी शीर्ष अदालत ओहायो 'परिपूर्ण' मतपत्र कानून की समीक्षा नहीं करेगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday it was committed to making sure Congress raises the nation’s debt limit even as the president described the looming legislative process as a “mess.” “It’s our job to inform Congress of the debt ceiling and it’s their job to raise it,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. “We need to make sure we pay our debts. We’re still committed to making sure that gets raised.” (This story corrects quote in paragraph 2 to “to raise it” from “they raise it”)

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि वह ऋण सीमा बढ़ाने के लिए प्रतिबद्ध है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will seek on Saturday to soothe allies unnerved by his boss’ unorthodox statements on Russia and NATO as he stresses America’s commitment to Europe during the first major foreign address for the Trump administration. Pence will tell the annual Munich Security Conference that Europe is an “indispensable partner” for the United States, a message he will repeat privately in meetings with a dozen leaders over the weekend and on Monday, a senior White House foreign policy adviser told reporters. “We are the most secure and most prosperous when both the U.S. and Europe are strong and united,” the adviser said, previewing Pence’s trip. President Donald Trump alarmed allies during his campaign for office by breaking with traditional Republican views on the transatlantic relationship. Trump has expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he said he would like to work to fight Islamic State militants, and has questioned the value of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In Munich, Pence will hold a series of meetings with leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and leaders from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Pence will emphasize that Russia and Ukraine need to fully implement the Minsk ceasefire agreement, and will stand firm on economic sanctions on Russia related to its aggression in Ukraine, the adviser told reporters. He plans to discuss counterterrorism in a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, and the fight against Islamic State in meetings with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the adviser said. On Monday, Pence will hold several discussions with European officials in Brussels, including with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. His trip comes amid turbulence at the White House. Trump fired his national security adviser on Monday for misleading Pence over his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Trump was turned down by a replacement candidate on Thursday. While Pence’s sentiments may be welcomed, it may take more than soothing words to provide comfort, given the depth of anxiety in Europe about Trump’s foreign policy, said Derek Chollet, a top defense policy adviser to former President Barack Obama. “He will be trying to be reassuring, try to soften the edges of some of the president’s recent comments about Europe, put into context or explain - but I have to think that it’s not going to solve the problem,” said Chollet, now with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Summary: पेंस आश्वासन दौरे पर यूरोप के लिए रवाना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. investigators examining money laundering accusations against President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort hope to push him to cooperate with their probe into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, two sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said.     Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team is examining Manafort’s financial and real estate records in New York as well as his involvement in Ukrainian politics, the officials said.      Between 2006 and 2013, Manafort bought three New York properties, including one in Trump Tower in Manhattan. He paid for them in full and later took out mortgages against them. A former senior U.S. law enforcement official said that tactic is often used as a means to hide the origin of funds gained illegally. Reuters has no independent evidence that Manafort did this.       The sources also did not say whether Mueller has uncovered any evidence to charge Manafort with money laundering, but they said doing so is seen by investigators as critical in getting his full cooperation in their investigation.     “If Mueller’s team can threaten criminal charges against Manafort, they could use that as leverage to convince him to cooperate,” said one of the sources.     Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, said, “Paul Manafort is not a cooperating witness. Once again there is no truth to the disinformation put forth by anonymous sources and leakers.”      Manafort is seen as a key figure in the investigation because of his senior role in the campaign and his participation in a June 2016 meeting that included the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., close adviser Jared Kushner and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.  The meeting was called after the lawyer offered damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.      Mueller’s team asked the White House on Friday to preserve all of its communications about that meeting. Mueller is examining contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates during and after the Nov. 8 presidential election as part of a broader investigation into whether Russia tried to sway the election in favor of Trump.     Manafort became Trump’s campaign manager in June 2016 but was forced to resign two months later amid reports of his business relationship with the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovich.     Manafort previously worked as a consultant to a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine and helped support Yanukovich. According to a financial audit reported by the New York Times, he also once owed $17 million to Russian shell companies.     Former Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was investigating Manafort’s real estate dealings before he was fired by Trump in March, and Mueller has now assumed control of that investigation, one of the sources said.      Bharara was not available for comment on his investigation on Friday.

Summary: अमेरिकी जांचकर्ता रूस की जांच में मैनफोर्ट को मोड़ना चाहते हैंः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in the Senate were not being truthful about what their tax plan does and how it would affect Americans, referring to a charge by Republican Senator Bob Corker that Trump routinely told untruths. “Unfortunately what the president says about tax reform has been correctly characterized by Senator Corker as ‘untruths.’ And Corker was being kind,” Schumer told reporters. “What the president says and what the Republican plan does are polar opposites.”

Summary: शूमर ने कर योजना पर ट्रम्प, रिपब्लिकन द्वारा 'असत्य' का हवाला दिया


MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (Reuters) - The search for a missing Argentine submarine and its 44-member crew was helped by calmer seas on Tuesday, but there were no new clues about its location and worries multiplied because the vessel may be running low on oxygen, a navy spokesman said. The ARA San Juan was en route from Ushuaia, the world s southernmost city, to its base in Mar del Plata and was about 300 miles (480 km) off the coast when it gave its last location on Wednesday, soon after reporting an electrical malfunction.  If the German-built submarine had sunk or was otherwise unable to rise to the surface since it sent its last signal, it would be winding down its seven-day oxygen supply.  Oxygen is a permanent worry. Every day that passes is more critical,  naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi said at an evening news conference in Mar del Plata.  More than a dozen boats and planes from Argentina, the United States, Britain, Chile and Brazil have joined the search. Authorities had been mainly scanning from the sky as storms halted the maritime hunt last weekend.  The weather improved on Tuesday, helping search efforts by sea. Wind speed slowed and waves that rose as high as 8 meters (26 feet) at the weekend diminished.   The search by patrol ships has become more effective thanks more than anything to less pounding by the waves, which have fallen to three or four meters,  navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters in Buenos Aires.  We have to make the most of today and tomorrow because on Thursday the weather is expected to get more complicated,  he said. Also on Tuesday, authorities investigated white flares spotted in the South Atlantic overnight. Searchers found an empty floating raft, and noticed the flares from a distance. But the raft s brand suggested it did not belong to the ARA San Juan, which was equipped with only red flares for emergencies and green flares for other situations, the navy said. Searchers have suffered other disappointments. Analysis of satellite signals and sounds detected by underwater probes, initially thought to be messages from the crew, has found they did not come from the vessel.  The sounds could be biological. We have discarded the possibility that it was a clanging of morse code against the hull of the submarine,  Balbi said.  Relatives of crew members have been gathered at a naval base in Mar del Plata, where the search is being coordinated. The ARA San Juan was launched in 1983, the newest of three submarines in the navy s fleet, and underwent maintenance in 2008 in Argentina. Its four diesel engines and its electric propeller engines were replaced, according to specialist publication Jane s Sentinel.

Summary: मौसम में सुधार लेकिन अर्जेंटीना की पनडुब्बी की खोज के लिए घड़ी टिक टिक करती है


LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit could be reversed if economic pain prompts a change in public opinion that brings a new generation of political leaders to power in Britain, former Conservative minister Michael Heseltine said. Heseltine, who helped topple Margaret Thatcher in 1990 but ultimately failed to win the top job, said that Britain could face another election in just two years and that Prime Minister Theresa May would not lead the party into that election. A supporter of EU membership, Heseltine said he saw a scenario in which Britain would not leave the European Union as scheduled in late March 2019.   There is now a possibility that Brexit will not happen, but it will need a change in public opinion,  Heseltine, 84, told Reuters in an interview.  There may be indications but there is no really substantive evidence of public opinion moving but I think that it will happen. My guess is that public opinion will move,  he said. Heseltine said the shift in Brexit policy by the opposition Labour Party - including staying in the European single market and customs union for a transitional period - indicated Labour had sensed the wind of a change in public opinion. May, who quietly opposed Brexit ahead of the referendum, has formally notified the bloc of Britain s intention to leave and divorce talks are under way. Some European leaders have suggested Britain could change its mind, while former Conservative prime minister John Major has said there is a credible case for giving Britons a second vote on the Brexit deal. His successor, Labour s Tony Blair, has said repeatedly that Brexit can and should be stopped. In the June 2016 referendum voters in the United Kingdom backed leaving the EU by a margin of 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent. The world s fifth-biggest economy initially withstood the shock of the Brexit vote, but growth began to slow sharply this year as inflation rose on the falling value of the pound and hit households. May, who has insisted that Britain will leave the European Union, said last month that she wanted to fight the next parliamentary election, not due until 2022. Heseltine, though, said that seemed unlikely given her botched gamble on a snap election in June which lost her party its majority in the lower house of parliament.  I don t think she will fight the next election, but there is no agreement on her successor. All the people indicated as possibles are singing the same song, and in my view the song is unattractive and will become less attractive,  he said.  Ousted  is a specific word, but there are many ways in which the Tory party operates - what it will quite look like I am not going to say. But I think there will be a change to a new leader before the next election.   They have two years before the next election.  Heseltine said he was waiting for a politician to emerge with the courage to challenge the Brexit consensus of British politics and explain to voters the full import of the divorce.  Within a relatively short period of time, the Brexit negotiations will sour even more than they already have, and the Tories will be left holding the baby. Everybody else will have moved away from Brexit,  Heseltine said. Brexit, he said, was a  monumental mistake  that would make Britain a spectator of 21st century history, bleed its wealth and relegate it from the league of leading global powers.  The idea that we are not European is just to spit in the wind: Anyone who has read Shakespeare knows just how European we are,  said Heseltine, who the Sunday Times says has a fortune of 300 million pounds ($390 million). He said Brexit was far more significant than the 1956 Suez crisis, when British forces were forced by the United States to withdraw troops from Egypt in a blunt illustration of Britain s lost imperial power. Heseltine said the EU was unlikely to give Britain the beneficial divorce deal it wanted because to do so would risk unraveling the EU itself.  It is difficult to see how the Brexit negotiations can be anything other than discordant. The issues are huge and they come down to a very simple question: Can the Europeans agree to someone leaving the club on  the cake and eat it  basis?    I don t think they can. And they have made it clear they don t intend to. If they were to change their mind so that we have our cake and eat it, well of course I will be wrong. But I don t think they are going to do that.

Summary: ब्रिटेन अभी भी ब्रेक्सिट को उलट सकता हैः पूर्व मंत्री हेसेल्टाइन


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio state legislators on Wednesday passed a bill blocking state and federal funds for groups that perform or promote abortions, effectively cutting $1.3 million annually used by Planned Parenthood clinics for HIV testing, pre-natal care and other programs. Governor John Kasich, a Republican presidential candidate, is expected to sign the bill, which the state Senate had already passed. House Bill 294, which passed 59 to 32, blocks women’s health providers that also provide abortions, or groups that refer patients to those providers, from receiving funds from a variety of state and federal grants.  Planned Parenthood said the bill would hinder lower-income women’s access to testing for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV tests and well-baby programs. According to its website, Planned Parenthood has 20 clinics in Ohio. Two provide abortions and all provide abortion referral. With most Republicans keen to deny funds to Planned Parenthood, Kasich will have the opportunity to sign the bill ahead of the party’s presidential primary on Feb. 20 in South Carolina. Joe Andrews, spokesman for Kasich, said the bill furthers Ohio’s policies. “The Ohio Department of Health had already stopped awarding state dollars to Planned Parenthood and they were kicked to the back of the line for the federal government’s family planning grants that the department administers. This bill further reinforces Ohio’s policies,” Andrews said Wednesday. Opponents of the bill accused state Republicans of grandstanding, noting that the timing of its passage was convenient for Kasich as he campaigns in a crowded field for nomination to represent his party in the November election.  “There’s no legitimate justification for defunding Planned Parenthood. Every excuse by legislators has been debunked,” Kellie Copeland executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, an abortion rights advocacy group, said on Wednesday. “Clearly the motivation behind the content and timing of this legislation is to bolster John Kasich’s campaign to anti-choice voters in South Carolina,” Copeland added. Proponents of the bill said the funding transfer will help combat infant mortality because it re-directs $250,000 for new parent education. Under Ohio law no state funds are used to provide abortions but state funds are used by Planned Parenthood to provide other healthcare. Rep. Kathleen Clyde, a Democrat, said the bill would be counterproductive. “It will likely increase the number of abortions in Ohio by cutting access to birth control and access to sex education in Ohio,” she said.

Summary: ओहायो हाउस ने नियोजित पितृत्व के लिए धन से इनकार करने के लिए विधेयक पारित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government, acknowledging its limited success in combating Islamic extremist messaging, is recruiting tech companies, community organizations and educational groups to take the lead in disrupting online radicalization. The change in strategy, which took a step forward on Wednesday when the Justice Department convened a meeting with social media firms including Facebook Inc, Twitter and Alphabet Inc’s Google , comes despite what critics say is scant evidence on the effectiveness of such efforts. The meeting was “a recognition that the government is ill-positioned and ill-equipped to counter ISIS online,” Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, said after attending the event, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. The federal government is not best placed to counter extremist online recruitment efforts with messaging of its own, said George Selim, director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office that coordinates the government’s “countering violent extremism” (CVE) activities.  The goal now, he said, is to help “communities and young people to amplify their own messages.” Those messages stem from so-called “counter-narrative” programs underway at schools and community groups that have varying degrees of government support, according to government officials and private sector experts.   Past campaigns by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to thwart extremist propaganda globally were widely regarded as too reliant on fear-based rhetoric and graphic imagery to be effective.  But whether the new joint effort with the private sector will fare better remains unclear, say experts in countering extremism.  The Obama administration has had an uneasy relationship with Silicon Valley in recent years. Twitter and other tech firms have been reticent to appear too cozy with authorities on how they manage their content, though most have cautiously drifted toward being more compliant over the past year.   Facebook last year partnered with British research group Demos to examine the impact of “counter-messaging” against hate speech in four European countries. The study, released in October, concluded it was “extremely difficult to calculate with any degree of precision” whether such efforts have a real impact on long-term attitudes or offline behavior. “You don’t necessarily know if something is going to change the way someone thinks offline, but we can measure whether somebody shares that content or interacts with it,” Monica Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, told Reuters. One of the new programs, funded partly by Facebook and multiple government agencies, underwrites “peer-to-peer” (P2P) college courses that teach students to create their own anti-militant messaging.  Facebook declined to say how much it was investing in the program, though Selim described Facebook’s overall investment in CVE initiatives as “very significant.” Fatemah Yousef, a student at Kuwait Gulf University for Science and Technology student, flew to Washington this month to join a Facebook event showcasing counter-messaging projects created by students. Yousef, 23, exhibited a blog that encourages Kuwaiti students to denounce violent extremism on social media. Another P2P finalist, a group from the University of Arkansas, produced a video showing graphic Islamic State executions set to heavy metal band Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” Half way through, the video switched to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” as captions urged viewers to “raise a flag” against extremism. After viewing the video, a judge in the contest told the students that “probably about 90 to 95 percent” of the images in the video had been used in violent extremist recruitment videos. “We’ve had this problem in other places where people try to instill fear in target audiences by showing all this mayhem, but it actually does the reverse with some,” said the judge, Quintan Wiktorowicz, a former White House director for community partnerships. Another effort is underway at WORDE, a Muslim educational organization in Maryland, which last week launched a campaign that aims to refute Islamic State messages through catchy videos and live broadcasts of discussions about mainstream Islam.  WORDE plans to use software or survey questions to gauge the impact of its new counter-messaging campaign, said Hedieh Mirahmadi, the group’s president. “Everybody creates stuff but doesn’t really care about whether it’s connected to the science of evaluations,” Mirahmadi told Reuters.  Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told Reuters that he is working on two bills — one of which has already passed committee in the Senate — that would give DHS the authority to fund more college classes and research on how to best counter Islamic State’s slick propaganda campaigns. “Government messages do not prove to have that type of virality,” Booker said. The P2P program is the only private sector counter-messaging initiative that acknowledges receiving training from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but a senior FBI official said the agency provides information to other non-governmental groups whose CVE-related work may include counter-messaging. Some efforts avoid federal funding altogether.  Mohamed Magid, a Virginia imam who has counseled several youth targeted by Islamic State recruiters, leads an Islamic foundation soliciting donations to create a 24/7 online operation that would answer each Islamic State video with peaceful messages.  “If we say this is a government thing, it might not have legitimacy,” Magid said. “We’re challenging the Muslim community to say, on this, yourself, respond to the challenge.”

Summary: अमेरिका ऑनलाइन चरमपंथ से लड़ने के लिए फेसबुक, निजी समूहों पर विचार कर रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A  soft Brexit  incorporating trade deals would be the best way to minimize damage to Britain and the European Union, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday.  Schaeuble, in Washington for a meetings of the International Monetary Fund, also praised the pro-European stance of French President Emmanuel Macron and said multilateralism was a prerequisite for world peace. He said he hoped British finance minister Philip Hammond and other backers of a so-called  soft Brexit  prevailed in negotiations over the terms of Britain s exit from the EU. The talks have stalled on issues like the bill Britain must pay to leave and the future of Northern Ireland s land border with the EU.  Hammond, considered one of the most pro-EU members of Prime Minister Theresa May s cabinet, on Wednesday warned that the lack of direction to talks was hurting business investment and consumer confidence. A  soft Brexit  - in which Britain remains in or close to the EU s single market and keeps many of the trade and business benefits it had as member - would be preferable, Schaeuble said.  That is the best way to keep the damage as minimal as possible,  he said during a event on the sidelines of the IMF meeting. Schaeuble said he was optimistic that Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservatives would be able to forge a new coalition government before Christmas, that the new team would stick to a stable economic and pro-European course. Merkel is trying to put together a three-way coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats and the environmentalists Greens. The parties must still resolve differences over immigration, taxes and energy. Schaeuble is due to become president of the lower house of the German parliament and step down as finance minister, freeing the post for someone from another party. The job is likely to go to a member of the FDP, but a key ally of Merkel on Thursday said he would like to keep the spot for the conservatives to preserve Schaeuble s insistence on a balanced budget.

Summary: जर्मनी के शेयबल कहते हैं कि नरम ब्रेक्सिट नुकसान को कम करने का सबसे अच्छा तरीका है


SYDNEY (Reuters) - A hacker stole non-classified information about Australia s Joint Strike Fighter program and other military hardware last year after breaching the network of a defense contractor, the defense industry minister said on Thursday. About 30 gigabytes of data was stolen in the cyber attack, including details of the Joint Strike Fighter warplane and P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane, according to a presentation on the hack by a government official.      Fortunately the data that has been taken is commercial data, not military data ... it s not classified information,  Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio.  I don t know who did it.  In a presentation to a conference in Sydney, an official from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) intelligence agency said technical information on smart bombs, the Joint Strike Fighter, the Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and several naval vessels was stolen.  The compromise was extensive and extreme,  said the official, Mitchell Clarke, in an audio recording made by a ZDNet journalist and broadcast by the ABC. Clarke said the attacker accessed the small contractor s systems for five months in 2016, and the  methodical, slow and deliberate,  choice of target suggested a nation-state actor could be behind the raid. Australia has agreed to buy 72 Lockheed Martin Corp Joint Strike Fighter planes. A spokesman for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), a government agency, said the government would not release further details about the cyber attack.   The ACSC said in a report on Monday that it responded to 734 cyber attacks on  systems of national interest  for the year ended June 30, and the defense industry was a major target. The attack on the defense contractor was carried out by a  malicious cyber adversary , it said.    In 2016 the agency said it responded to 1,095 cyber attacks over an 18-month period, including an intrusion from a foreign intelligence service on the weather bureau.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया के साइबर हमले में ज्वाइंट स्ट्राइक फाइटर की योजनाएँ चोरी हो गईं


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian air strikes killed 21 people in a village on the eastern side of the Euphrates River in east Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday. The strikes in Deir al-Zor province were to support the Kurdish-led U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting Islamic State, which had attempted to launch an attack on the town earlier this week, the war monitor said. Russia has been carrying out air strikes in the province mainly in support of the Syrian army which, alongside allied Shi ite militias, has been waging its own assault against Islamic State on the western side of the Euphrates. The separate assaults have advanced along opposite sides of the river, which bisects oil-rich Deir al-Zor, mostly staying out of each other s way. The U.S.-led coalition and the Russian military have held deconfliction meetings to prevent clashes between them, though the two offensives have sometimes come into conflict. The Observatory also reported on Wednesday that the Syrian army and its allied forces had  finished the presence of Islamic State  on the western bank of the river. On Sunday, the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the SDF, announced it had fully captured Deir al-Zor s eastern countryside from Islamic State with the help of both the U.S.-led coalition and Russia.

Summary: पूर्वी सीरिया में रूसी हवाई हमलों में 21 लोगों की मौत


GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Palestinian factions, including rival groups Hamas and Fatah, have agreed to hold a general election by the end of 2018, a joint statement by several groups said on Wednesday following talks in Cairo. Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal in October in Cairo-backed talks after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza, including the key Rafah border crossing, a decade after seizing the enclave in a civil war. The Palestinian groups in Cairo said they would defer the choice of a final date for the general election to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Western-backed mainstream Fatah party lost control of Gaza to Hamas, considered a terrorist group by many in the West and by Israel, in fighting in 2007. But last month Hamas agreed to cede powers in Gaza to Abbas  Fatah-backed government in a deal mediated by Egypt. Salah Al-Bardaweel, a Hamas official involved in the talks, called Wednesday s agreement  vague  and expressed concern that it was unable to progress on key issues such as lifting sanctions imposed by Abbas and secure full opening of the crossing between Gaza and Egypt.  The talks also failed to address security responsibilities in Gaza, which have so far remained in the hands of Hamas-backed security services. Abbas has said previously that upon assuming control of Gaza he would move to lift sanctions imposed on the impoverished enclave that have included power cuts and salary reductions of 30 percent to some 60,000 Gazans employed by his Palestinian Authority.  We worked hard to reach practical results ... such as opening crossings and lifting the sanctions and advancing the issue of reconciliation but unfortunately it did not happen,  said Bardaweel. Azzam Al-Ahmed, head of Fatah s delegation to the Cairo talks, said his group insisted Hamas completes full handover of Gaza control to the government by Dec 1. He added that another meeting with Hamas will be held later in December to evaluate further reconciliation steps.  Palestinian officials said Egypt is expected to send a security delegation to Gaza in the coming days to oversee the implementation of the agreement.

Summary: फिलिस्तीनी गुट 2018 के अंत तक आम चुनाव कराने पर सहमत हुए


BEIJING (Reuters) - China is considering a law punishing those who slander heroes and martyrs or cause physical damage to their memorials, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday, the latest piece of legislation to protect the country s symbols of state. Xi Jinping has ushered in new legislation aimed at securing China from threats both within and outside its borders since taking over as president in 2013, as well as presiding over a sweeping crackdown on dissent and free speech. China s largely rubber stamp parliament amended its criminal law last month to extend punishments for publicly desecrating the national flag and emblem to include disrespecting the national anthem. Punishments include jail terms of up to three years. The latest proposed legislation is aimed at protecting the reputation of martyrs - those who have given their lives for China or the Communist Party - and who are already publicly lauded in the country. Memorials to those who fought against the Japanese during World War Two, or in the Chinese civil war against the Nationalists, and others are scattered across the country. School children learn about the feats of the most famous. Xinhua said the new law would offer unspecified punishments to those who insult or slander heroes and martyrs or damage their memorials. The law would also give a responsibility to the media and internet users to report any insults to the honor of martyrs, it said. It is unclear when the proposal could be put into law, but Chinese laws normally go through at least two rounds of drafting before they are passed, meaning it could be some months away. Party history is a sensitive subject in China because so much of the party s legitimacy rests on its position as claiming great historical achievements, such as leading China to victory over Japan during World War Two. Disputes about party history already occasionally make it to Chinese courts. A court ordered a former magazine editor to publicly apologize last year for two articles written in 2013 questioning the details of a well-known story about Communist soldiers fighting the Japanese in World War Two. In the story, the five soldiers jumped off a cliff so the Japanese could not take them alive, although two of them survived. The editor had expressed doubt about how many Japanese the Chinese soldiers killed, how the two survived and the location of the cliff.

Summary: चीन नायकों और शहीदों की निंदा करने वालों को दंडित करने पर विचार कर रहा है


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - The state of Ohio filed a federal court appeal on Thursday seeking to restore a Republican-backed limit on early voting and accelerated voter-registration measures that were seen by civil rights groups as boosting minority turnout. U.S. District Judge Michael Watson in Columbus ruled on Tuesday that Ohio violated voters’ rights by reducing the period that ballots could be cast before an election to four weeks   from five weeks. Watson’s decision also struck down Ohio’s elimination of a seven-day window during which residents could both register to vote and cast their ballots all in the same week - a period known as “Golden Week.” Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature abolished “Golden Week” and shortened early voting by seven days in 2014, drawing a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Watson sided with the ACLU and NAACP in finding that both changes, which critics said directly limited opportunities for minority participation in elections, violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and were unconstitutional. On Thursday, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, petitioned the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Watson’s decision, which he said scrapped a court-approved settlement the state previously reached with the ACLU and NAACP on early voting. The settlement allowed voters to cast ballots on multiple Sundays leading up to a presidential election and provided for additional evening voting hours, according to ACLU documents. Husted said Golden Week had become an administrative problem for state elections officials and increased the potential for voter fraud, arguing its elimination had broad bipartisan support. The Ohio Democratic Party countered with a statement accusing Republican state officials of “defending a law that clear data showed imposed a stark discriminatory impact on Ohio’s African-American voters.” The appeal came a day after the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation that would require any resident or organization to post a cash bond with a local court in order to keep polling stations open later than scheduled on election day. Judges in Ohio have on occasion ordered some polls to extend their hours because of voting equipment problems, major traffic issues and severe weather, including during the 2016 primaries. Opponents of the bill have said it violates the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which expressly prohibits the imposition of a “poll tax.”

Summary: ओहियो ने जल्द मतदान के पक्ष में अमेरिकी अदालत के फैसले की अपील की


NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - A Myanmar court on Friday jailed for two months two journalists on assignment for Turkey s state broadcaster, along with their interpreter and driver, for violating an aircraft law by filming with a drone. Cameraman Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and reporter Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia, were detained on Oct. 27 along with their Myanmar interpreter, Aung Naing Soe, and driver, Hla Tin. The four had been working on a documentary for TRT World, the English-language subsidiary of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, when they were detained for attempting to fly a drone near parliament in the capital, Naypyitaw. None of the four is a Turkish national, but the case has further strained diplomatic ties after President Tayyip Erdogan accused Myanmar s military of carrying out  genocide  of Rohingya Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country. Police initially investigated whether they had violated an import-export rule that carries a penalty of up to three years in jail, but the judge opted to introduce a fresh charge of contravening the 1934 Burma Aircraft Act, which carries a maximum sentence of three months.  Both the cameraman and reporter pleaded guilty to the lesser charge, and the judge sentenced all four to two months, according to a Reuters reporter at the hearing. A fresh hearing will be held on Nov. 16 to decide if charges of violating the import-export rules are to be made.  The detainees admitted that they committed the crime, hoping they would only be fined, so it shocked us when the judge sentenced them to two months,  said defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw. The lawyer said he would appeal for the sentence to be reduced to a fine. Before Friday s proceedings began, Mok told reporters in the court they were sorry for any disrespect of Myanmar s laws, but complained that the legal process had lacked transparency.  We have no idea what is going on, and we are not allowed to speak to our family,  she said.  And the rules and procedures are not explained to us. We were asked to sign statements that are completely in Burmese that we cannot understand.  As he was brought to court, interpreter Aung Naing Soe told reporters the four had not been mistreated while in custody, though police had asked about who they had spoken to and trips he made to several of restive Myanmar regions, including Rakhine. David Baulk, of the rights group Fortify Rights, called the judge s decision to accept the charges, deny bail and sentence the four defendants as  ridiculous as it is dangerous .  Once again Myanmar s judicial system has failed to stand up to state security forces and their blatant abuses of power,  Baulk, a specialist on Myanmar human rights for the group, told Reuters by email. Myanmar says the military counter-insurgency launched in August was provoked by Rohingya militant attacks on security posts in Rakhine State, and has denied both Erdogan s accusation and a top UN official s description of the operation as a  classic case of ethnic cleansing .    More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh since the military operation began.

Summary: म्यांमार ने तुर्की प्रसारक के साथ विदेशी पत्रकारों को दो महीने के लिए जेल भेजा


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey summoned the U.S ambassador on Monday to protest the treatment of Turkish security officials in the United States during a visit by President Tayyip Erdogan last week, the foreign ministry said. A brawl erupted between protesters and Turkish security personnel outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence during Erdogan’s visit to Washington to meet U.S. President Donald Trump. Turkey blamed the violence on demonstrators linked to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party while Washington’s police chief described the incident as a “brutal attack” on peaceful protesters. The U.S. State Department said in a statement the conduct of Turkish security personnel during the incident was “deeply disturbing.” It confirmed the U.S. ambassador in Ankara had been summoned by the Turkish government to discuss the “violent incidents.”  The Turkish foreign ministry said it summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest “aggressive and unprofessional actions” by U.S. security personnel to the security team of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “It has been formally requested that the U.S. authorities conduct a full investigation of this diplomatic incident and provide the necessary explanation,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. It said that lapses of security experienced during Erdogan’s stay in Washington were caused “by the inability of U.S. authorities to take sufficient precautions at every stage of the official program,” adding that incidents would not overshadow what was otherwise a “very successful” visit. Police have said 11 people were injured, including a Washington police officer, and two people were arrested for assault. At least one of those arrested was a protester. Washington said last week it was voicing its strongest possible concern to Turkey over the brawl. U.S. Senator John McCain, one of the leading foreign policy voices in Congress, on Thursday called for the expulsion of Turkey’s U.S. ambassador.

Summary: तुर्की ने वाशिंगटन सड़क विवाद पर अमेरिकी राजदूत को तलब किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted 55 to 41 on Thursday to advance the nomination of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to serve a new five-year term heading the U.S. telecommunications regulator. The Senate is expected to vote Monday on final approval. On Thursday, Democrats criticized Pai for moving to dismantle Obama-era internet access rules and taking other steps to deregulate telecommunications rules. Pai won backing from Republicans for what they said was new openness and accountability to the agency and efforts to improve rural communications.

Summary: अमेरिका ने एफ. सी. सी. अध्यक्ष पद के नामांकन को आगे बढ़ाने के लिए मतदान किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The head of the Syrian opposition s High Negotiations Committee (HNC) resigned on Monday, nearly two years after he was picked to chair the Saudi-backed umbrella group that brings together the armed and political opposition to President Bashar al-Assad. Riyad Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister under Assad, did not explain his reasons for stepping down in a statement posted on social media. The HNC has been the main representative of the Syrian opposition since its formation at a meeting in Saudi Arabia in December, 2015, and has taken part in U.N.-led diplomacy aimed at ending the conflict that erupted in 2011. The war has been going Assad s way since Russia sent its air force to support him militarily in 2015. The Damascus government has been steadily regaining control of territory, thanks also to the support of Iran-backed forces such as Lebanon s Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia is due to host an  expanded  conference for the Syrian opposition this month, aiming to unify its position ahead of more U.N.-backed peace talks, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported last week. Previous rounds of Geneva peace talks have failed to make headway towards a resolution of the war.

Summary: सीरियाई विपक्ष के एचएनसी प्रमुख ने दिया इस्तीफाः बयान


GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea called on Friday for a halt to what it called  brutal sanctions , saying the measures - imposed after its latest nuclear test - constituted genocide.  Today the U.S.-led racket of brutal sanctions and pressure against the DPRK constitutes contemporary human rights violation and genocide,  the North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva said in a statement. The sanctions regime  threatens and impedes the enjoyment by the people of DPRK of their human rights in all sectors , it said. The call for an immediate end to the sanctions comes as U.S. President Donald Trump sets off on a trip to Asia - including China, South Korea and Japan - looking for help to pressure North Korea to stand down from the nuclear crisis.  The global community has been ramping up the pressure on the isolated country after it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test so far, on Sept. 3.  Last month the United States unilaterally imposed sanctions on seven North Korean individuals and three entities over what it called serious human rights abuses, including forced labor. In September the U.N. Security Council strengthened its sanctions, including export bans as well as asset freezes and travel bans on various officials, North Korea s response follows a U.N. expert last month saying international sanctions may be hurting key economic sectors and hampering the human rights of Pyongyang s citizens. The sanctions meant that  some unprincipled countries have blocked the delivery of medical equipment and medicines , the North Korean mission said on Friday, with the supplies destined for children and mothers in the country.  All types of anti-human rights and inhumane sanctions against the DPRK should be terminated immediately and thoroughly,  it said.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया ने 'क्रूर' प्रतिबंधों को रोकने का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The main investigative panel of the U.S. House of Representatives has asked the White House and the FBI for documents regarding former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s foreign contacts with Russia, Turkey and others, its Republican chairman and Democratic counterpart said on Wednesday. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings said in a statement that the panel also requested related documents from the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The committee is considering whether Flynn, who resigned less than a month after President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, fully disclosed his payments from foreign sources.  Flynn’s departure followed a report that the Justice Department had earlier warned the White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail for contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office.      Another report later showed Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, had been working as a representative for Turkey during last year’s presidential campaign even as he was advising Trump. Separately on Wednesday, U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican, said  intelligence agencies had swept up incidental communications by Trump’s political campaign after the Nov. 8 election, raising concerns about spying on the newly elected president. Chaffetz and Cummings said their request included documents on security clearance applications as well as on foreign contacts and payments, including payments Flynn received from RT, the Kremlin-backed media outlet. The committee called for the White House and the other agencies to provide all the documents related to Flynn dating back to his retirement in 2014 to the present, and to deliver them to the panel by April 3.

Summary: हाउस ओवरसाइट पैनल ने ट्रम्प के पूर्व सहयोगी फ्लिन के रिकॉर्ड मांगे


BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump lauded his Beijing meetings on trade and North Korea as “very productive”, ending a visit which Chinese media declared set a “new blueprint” for handling ties, even as the White House looks set for tougher action on China. Trump pressed China to do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and said bilateral trade had been unfair to the United States, but also praised Xi’s pledge that China would be more open to foreign firms.  Hours after Trump left Beijing on Friday, China said it would drop foreign ownership limits on local banks and asset management companies while loosening stake restrictions in securities firms and insurers - moves that have been long awaited by foreign financial firms. Beijing faces intensifying pressure from Western governments and business lobbies to remove investment barriers and other rules that hobble overseas firms from operating in the country, as well as intellectual property theft. Washington has refrained from pushing harder on trade because it needs China’s cooperation on North Korea, although Xi, at least in public, went no further than reiterating China’s determination to achieve denuclearization through talks. Trump and Xi, who call themselves friends, also oversaw the signing of about $250 billion in commercial deals, a show that some in the U.S. business community and others say detracts from addressing structural impediments that puts them at a disadvantage to Chinese rivals. China may be mistaken in thinking it had done enough to address U.S. concerns, and Trump could find people disappointed at home he didn’t make more progress on items like market access and North Korea, Paul Haenle, Director of the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said. “My concern is you may see a shift towards a much harder line coming from the U.S. administration. That will be a huge surprise to China and President Xi, especially given that Xi likely feels he has done a lot for Trump on this visit.” Trump reiterated in a tweet just before leaving Beijing for the APEC summit of Asia Pacific leaders in Vietnam that he didn’t blame China for the trade gap between the two countries, adding that he had “very productive” meetings on trade and North Korea with Xi. “I don’t blame China, I blame the incompetence of past Admins for allowing China to take advantage of the U.S. on trade leading up to a point where the U.S. is losing $100’s of billions. How can you blame China for taking advantage of people that had no clue? I would’ve done same!” A U.S. industry source said the implication of Trump blaming his predecessors for the trade deficit is that Trump won’t make the same mistake - a warning to Xi, not a capitulation.  The Trump administration did not bring hard trade policy items to the discussion with Xi because U.S. officials don’t want to “argue over crumbs”, the source added. “Barring some dramatic action on North Korea by Xi, there is going to be a hard turn in U.S. trade policy,” the source said. A second source, who is close to the business delegation that traveled to Beijing this week, added that the Trump administration appeared poised to take a much harder line in the weeks ahead. There were no obvious gaffes during the two-night stopover, and Trump and Xi seemed to enjoy being in each other’s company. At a banquet on Thursday night in the Great Hall of the People, Trump and Xi dined on coconut chicken soup, spicy chicken, stewed beef with tomatoes and grouper fillets. Chinese state media said the tone and outcome of Trump’s visit had been largely positive, saying Trump and Xi were setting a new blueprint for handling relations and managing their differences.   “China has tried its utmost, even at the sacrifice of Sino-North Korean relations,” influential tabloid the Global Times wrote in its editorial.  “Trump has gradually learned that Beijing is indeed making selfless contributions to promoting the denuclearization of the peninsula. He can’t demand more.”

Summary: ट्रंप ने चीन के साथ 'सार्थक' वार्ता की सराहना की, लेकिन आगे कड़ी कार्रवाई देखी जा रही है


JAKARTA (Reuters) - The Indonesian unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc has temporarily shut the main supply route to its Papua mine after a shooting incident, a spokesman said, amid escalating tensions between security forces and an armed rebel group in the area.  No one had been reported hurt after shots were fired at a vehicle, but the main supply route to the world s second-biggest copper mine had been temporarily closed while the security situation was assessed, Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said in text message. Authorities in Indonesia s eastern province of Papua are delivering food and aid to villages near the mine where security forces say the rebel group has blocked residents  movement, as security personnel surround the area, a police official said. Police say a group linked to the Free Papua Movement (OPM) is preventing about 1,000 people from leaving five villages near the Grasberg mine operated by the U.S. company.   We continue to try a persuasive approach and dialogue,  said Viktor Mackbon, police chief of the Mimika area, where the villages are located. Talks with the group would be conducted through public and religious figures in the region, he added. Officials on Saturday said about 200 police and military personnel had been deployed in preparation to secure the area by force, if necessary. Police sad they will distribute on Monday a notice in the area for the  armed criminal group  to give themselves up and surrender weapons. Reuters could not immediately reach members of the rebel group, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), to seek comment. On Friday, the group denied occupying villages near the mine, but said it was  at war  with the police, military, and Freeport.   A resident from one of the villages, Banti, said security forces had blocked access to the village. Residents he had spoken were not being held hostage by separatists but  are only worried about what might happen if the police and military come into their area , he said. A state of emergency has been declared in the area and  security stepped up after a string of shootings since Aug. 17 that killed one police officer and wounded six.      Papua has had a long-running, and sometimes violent, separatist movement since it was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.     The incident is the first escalation of violence under President Joko Widodo, who has sought to ease tension in the region by stepping up investment, freeing political prisoners and tackling human rights concerns.      The Grasberg mine has been dogged by security concerns for decades. From 2009-2015 shootings within the mine project area killed 20 people and wounded 59.

Summary: फ्रीपोर्ट इंडोनेशिया ने गोलीबारी के बाद खदान के लिए मुख्य आपूर्ति मार्ग बंद कर दिया