ABUJA (Reuters) - More than 2,000 people have fled southern Cameroon and entered Nigeria over the past two weeks, fallout from renewed oppression of Angolophone Cameroonians in the predominantly French-speaking country, the United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is now preparing a  very conservative  contingency plan for as many as 40,000 people fleeing Cameroon, Antonio Jose Canhandula, the agency s representative to Nigeria, told Reuters in an interview in Abuja. A cycle of state repression fuelling separatism has raised concerns the majority French-speaking Cameroon may face a prolonged period of violence, after soldiers shot dead at least eight people in the country s two English-speaking regions on Oct 1.  Our fear is that the 40,000 might actually be an understatement in a situation where the conflict might continue,  said Canhandula. Cameroon s government  has sent security forces into southern Cameroon,  he said, adding that the country has now closed its borders with Nigeria. Demonstrations in Cameroon s English-speaking regions began nearly a year ago when Anglophone lawyers and teachers protested against having to work in French, saying it showed the wider marginalisation of the English-speaking minority. One of Cameroon s English-speaking regions in the country s west borders Nigeria s southeastern state of Cross Rivers. There, the UNHCR has been registering refugees, some of whom say they are fleeing violence, according to Canhandula. But Nigeria and Cameroon are already grappling with one of the world s worst humanitarian crises, in the Lake Chad region, with over 2 million people displaced after more than eight years of conflict with Islamist insurgency Boko Haram.  Can you imagine having another refugee situation in a country where we are hardly coping with IDPs (internally displaced persons)?  Canhandula said.  Every time you have a refugee situation you have it for several years... Cameroon really has to take the issues that create the feeling of exclusion very seriously,  he said. Cameroon s linguistic divide is a legacy of World War One, when the League of Nations divided the former German colony of Kamerun between allied French and British victors.

Summary: पिछले दो हफ्तों में 2,000 शरणार्थी कैमरून से नाइजीरिया भाग गए हैंः संयुक्त राष्ट्र एजेंसी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the House of Representatives on Wednesday dismissed U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed $10.25 per barrel tax on oil, saying the increase would translate into higher gasoline prices for consumers.    “The president’s tax proposal is dead on arrival at the House. It will not happen,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters. House Speaker Paul Ryan also rejected the idea. The tax, to be phased in over five years, was part of Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 released on Tuesday.

Summary: ओबामा का प्रस्तावित तेल कर 'आगमन पर मृत': अमेरिकी सदन रिपब्लिकन


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Buckeye Partners LP said it aims to resume normal operations its Bahamas crude oil and fuel terminal, also known as Borco, on Tuesday after Hurricane Irma rampaged through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record.  The terminal, located in Freeport, on Grand Bahama Island, has no reported injuries, incidents or damage and restart activities began on Monday afternoon, the company said.  While power is still out at the terminal, Buckeye expects terminal and marine operations to return to normal on Tuesday depending on weather conditions. The Borco terminal is Buckeye s largest and has the capacity to store about 26.2 million barrels of oil, fuel oil, gasoline and other products. It is also the largest fuel storage terminal in the western hemisphere, the Buckeye Global Marine Partners website said. Buckeye was forced to shut the terminal due to Irma on Sept. 7, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters last week. Irma has killed nearly 40 people in the Caribbean and at least six in Florida and Georgia and hammered energy infrastructure in those regions, even as recovery operations from storm Harvey were under way. It will likely dissipate from Tuesday evening, the National Hurricane Center said. Buckeye s terminals in Puerto Rico have returned to normal, a spokesman told Reuters in an email. The U.S.-based midstream company had closed the 4.6 million-barrel Yabucoa oil terminal in Puerto Rico last week. The company also said it aims to return some Florida terminals and pipelines to limited service on back-up power in 12-48 hours. All employees at Tampa and in the Miami area are all reported safe and accounted for, Buckeye said. Nustar Energy LP  said on Monday it had put damage assessments of its terminal on the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius on hold as it prepared for Hurricane Jose. Several tanks and other equipment at the 13.03 million-barrel crude and product storage terminal was damaged by Irma last week. The National Hurricane Center was monitoring Hurricane Jose, which was spinning in the Atlantic about 700 miles (1,130 km) west of Florida.

Summary: बकये ने मंगलवार को बहामास तेल टर्मिनल पर सामान्य संचालन का लक्ष्य रखा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is taking aim at budget chief Mick Mulvaney’s plan to fill the ranks of the U.S. consumer financial watchdog with political allies, according to letters seen by Reuters, the latest salvo in a broader battle over who should run the bureau. President Donald Trump last month appointed Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), though the decision is being legally challenged by the agency’s deputy director, Leandra English, who says she is the rightful interim head. Mulvaney told reporters earlier this month he planned to bring in several political appointees to help overhaul the agency, but Warren warned in a pair of letters sent Monday to Mulvaney and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees federal hiring, that doing so was inappropriate and potentially illegal. The CFPB is meant to be an independent agency staffed primarily by non-political employees. Hiring political appointees could violate civil service laws designed to protect such employees from undue political pressure and discrimination, Warren said. “Your naked effort to politicize the consumer agency runs counter to the agency’s mission to be an independent voice for consumers with the power to stand up to Wall Street banks,” Warren, who helped create the CFPB, wrote to Mulvaney. In a separate letter, Warren asked the OPM to review Mulvaney’s “unprecedented and unjustified” plans. In a third letter sent to Mulvaney and English, Warren asked for information about a review of ongoing enforcement actions at the CFPB. Reuters reported earlier this month that a potential multimillion-dollar settlement with Wells Fargo is among the enforcement actions under review amid the change in CFPB leadership. Spokespeople for Mulvaney and the OPM did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Mulvaney, who also serves directly under Trump as the head of his Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said in the long term he would like to see professional staff alongisde political appointees, mirroring an arrangement in place at the OMB.  “We will be staffing up with more permanent political people so the professional staff here have a better feel for where the administration wants to take the bureau,” Mulvaney said.  But Warren said such an arrangement, though understandable for bureaus like the OMB which sit directly beneath the White House, was not suitable for independent financial regulators. The leadership of the CFPB has been in question since the agency’s first director, Richard Cordray, resigned in November.

Summary: सीनेटर वारेन ने अमेरिकी उपभोक्ता एजेंसी के 'राजनीतिकरण के प्रयास' पर निशाना साधा


(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is due to travel to Alabama on Friday to whip up votes in a Senate race that has laid bare the rift between the Republican party’s leadership and its anti-establishment wing. In a move that surprised political analysts, Trump will appear alongside the party-approved incumbent rather than the controversial insurgent. The president’s decision to campaign for Senator Luther Strange ahead of Tuesday’s primary runoff election came despite Trump’s strained relationship with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of Strange’s strongest supporters.  In last month’s initial round of voting, Strange finished second to former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, whose “drain the swamp” credentials have been burnished by high-profile endorsements, including that of former White House strategist Steve Bannon. “I think that if you were to approach this without any prior knowledge ... Judge Moore would be the more logical ‘Trumpian’ candidate,” said Steven Taylor, a political science professor at Troy University in Alabama. The winner on Tuesday will be running in December against Democratic candidate Doug Jones in the Republican-dominated state. Neither Republican campaign responded to requests for comment. Moore, 70, is a religious conservative who twice lost his position as the state’s top judge. He was ousted in 2003 after he refused a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building. After winning back the seat in 2013, he directed state judges to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, was suspended and then resigned. Moore has vowed to support Trump’s agenda and has blamed McConnell for the Senate’s lack of major legislative victories. A Moore campaign video released last week showed a photo of McConnell beside the words “Washington insiders” as Moore’s wife warned he would not “bend his knee.” Strange, 64, was appointed to fill the Senate seat left vacant when Jeff Sessions became U.S. attorney general. Known as “Big Luther” due to his 6-foot-9-inch stature, he has been backed by nearly $9 million of advertising from a McConnell-allied political action committee. “I am supporting ‘Big’ Luther Strange because he was so loyal & helpful to me!” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. Strange served as state attorney general under former Governor Robert Bentley, who resigned in April. Moore has endured his share of controversy, including negative press this week after he mentioned “reds” and “yellows” in an apparent reference to American Indians and Asians.  In a recent advertisement, Strange questioned Moore’s commitment to Trump’s planned wall at the Mexican border. “Roy Moore: wrong on President Trump, wrong on the wall, wrong for Alabama,” the ad’s narrator says.     The two candidates are scheduled to square off at their only debate on Thursday. With turnout expected to be low for Tuesday’s runoff, Troy University’s Taylor said both campaigns have reason to believe they hold an edge. “Moore’s advantage is that he does appeal to the true-believing base,” Taylor said. “In terms of which of the campaigns is going to be more adept at the ground game, I would think Strange has an advantage.”

Summary: अलबामा में सीनेट की दौड़ ने रिपब्लिकन दरार को उजागर किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he understood President Donald Trump’s frustration with Republicans’ failure to agree on healthcare legislation to replace Obamacare. “It’s very understandable that the president is frustrated that we haven’t gotten to where we need to go,” Ryan told reporters when asked about Trump’s tweet saying the conservative House Freedom Caucus was blocking the party’s agenda and vowing to fight them if they did not get on board. Ryan said about 90 percent of Republicans supported the party’s healthcare bill and only about 10 percent opposed it.

Summary: हाउस स्पीकर रेयान ने स्वास्थ्य विधेयक पर ट्रम्प की हताशा को समझा


BEIRUT (Reuters) - A top aide to President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday the Syrian government would fight any force, including U.S.-backed forces also battling Islamic State militants, in its drive to recapture the whole of the country. Assad has previously vowed to recapture the whole of Syria. The government controls the main urban centres in the west of the country and has taken back much of the eastern desert from Islamic State in recent months.  Whether it s the Syrian Democratic Forces, or Daesh (Islamic State) or any illegitimate foreign force in the country ... we will fight and work against them so our land is freed completely from any aggressor,  Bouthaina Shaaban said in an interview with Hezbollah s Al Manar TV. Shaaban said the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had captured areas from Islamic State  without any fighting , apparently accusing them of collusion with the jihadists. The SDF  are trying to get areas (where there is) oil ... but they will not get what they want,  she said. Shaaban also said plans to  divide  Syria had failed, without elaborating. The Kurdish YPG militia, which dominates the SDF, has for years controlled large parts of northeastern Syria. Advances against Islamic State in its Raqqa stronghold and a new offensive in Deir al-Zor are bringing more territory under the control of the SDF.

Summary: असद के सहयोगी का कहना है कि सीरिया किसी भी बल से लड़ेगा, जिसमें U.S.-backed मिलिशिया भी शामिल है


(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a ruling that two North Carolina congressional districts be redrawn over racial gerrymandering in a 2011 redistricting, forcing congressional primaries to be rescheduled for June 7. A lower court panel of federal judges this month barred elections in the majority black districts, the 1st and the 12th, until new maps are approved, calling the current maps unconstitutional.  The Supreme Court gave no explanation for its decision in a one-sentence order issued late on Friday night. The ruling said race had been the main factor when the Republican-controlled legislature redrew the boundaries and state lawmakers were not justified in using that benchmark. Three voters filed suit in 2013 to invalidate the districts. Both are represented by Democrats, with G.K. Butterfield in the 1st, and Alma Adams in the 12th. The primaries for the state’s 13 U.S. House seats will be held on June 7 rather than March 15 after North Carolina lawmakers agreed to move the date on Thursday if the Supreme Court rejected the stay request. The state’s presidential and gubernatorial primaries will still be held on March 15.   Broadcaster WRAL reported that while state lawmakers hoped for a stay, legislators in the state’s House on Friday moved ahead and gave final approval to newly-drafted congressional maps ahead of the Court’s decision to reject the stay request. Politico reported that Justice Antonin Scalia had been expected to vote in favor of staying the ruling before his death last Saturday, though it was not immediately clear how his death affected the court’s decision.

Summary: सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने उत्तरी कैरोलिना पुनर्वितरण मामले में स्थगन अनुरोध को अस्वीकार कर दिया


BOSTON (Reuters) - Years before he captained the torpedo boat PT-109, ran for office or set the United States on a path to put a man on the moon, President John F. Kennedy was a troublesome teen whose hijinks nearly got him kicked out of his prestigious boarding school. The scion of a wealthy Boston family, Kennedy spent his mid-teens at Connecticut’s elite Choate Rosemary Hall, where he excelled at history and literature - but infuriated the school’s headmaster by organizing pranks as a member of an unofficial school club known as “The Muckers.” Those details of the early life of the 35th president, whose term was cut short by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas in 1963, emerge in a new exhibit at Boston’s John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, timed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth on May 29, 1917. Pages from a high school scrapbook, diligently filled out by the man who would go on to become the first Roman Catholic president, show he loved ancient history, music and football, as well as “beefing,” slang for complaining or arguing. Despite his later fame as an orator, he never got higher than the middling grade of C+ in public speaking, according to the school. “Got shot at today for calling an old farmer a bad name,” reads an entry written by a 17-year-old Kennedy on Oct. 19, 1934. “Almost got hit.” The scrapbook pages are among 40 Kennedy relics never before publicly exhibited, with notes extending to his years at Harvard University and the London School of Economics, before his World War Two service aboard torpedo boats and well before his first successful run for Congress in 1947. Kennedy went on the serve in the Senate before being elected president in 1960, at the start of one of the most tumultuous decades in U.S. history. “That’s why I so love this scrapbook, because it is so revealing about who he was at the time,” said Stacey Bredhoff, the museum’s curator. Kennedy and his prankster friends went head-to-head with Choate’s headmaster, George St. John, in his years at the school. The “Muckers” club took its name from a speech in which St. John excoriated pranksters, using the label applied to Irish immigrants whose only work was shoveling up horse manure. The group took the idea and ran with it, commissioning gold shovel pins and hatching a plot to pile horse manure in the school gymnasium. “George St. John got wind of it and even though the prank never was actualized, it was enough that they would even consider such a thing, so he threatened to expel them all,” but eventually relented, said Judy Donald, the school’s archivist. The details of the group’s successful pranks may be lost to time. But Donald said an oft-told tale that a young Kennedy blew up a school toilet with a powerful firecracker known as a cherry bomb is not true - while that incident did occur, it was the work of another student a decade later. “St. John was understandably angry,” Donald said. “But JFK was not responsible for that one.”

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस से पहले, कैनेडी एक हाई-स्कूल प्रैंकस्टर थे।


PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan drivers are facing growing queues to buy gasoline despite having the world s largest oil reserves, adding to the OPEC country s woes as its refineries sputter and its socialist economic system crumbles. Lines to buy fuel and shuttered service stations have been intermittent problems for much of this year, most notably outside the capital Caracas. But in recent days the problem has worsened, with lines popping up at service stations in Caracas, while drivers in the southern city of Puerto Ordaz were waiting an average of four hours to fill their tanks.  I had an urgent medical appointment but I had to suspend it because I didn t have gasoline and the lines are several blocks long,  said Nelly Gutierrez, 35, an accountant.  There s no medicine, water, internet, and no gasoline. How long is the government going to put us through this?  State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the reasons for the apparent dip in supply this week were unclear. But the country s refineries are functioning at record lows due to constant outages and insufficient supply of crude resulting from slumping output, union leaders and refinery workers say. PDVSA, suffering a dramatic cash flow shortage as a result of low oil prices, has struggled to pay for imports of fuel to fill the gap.  In most cases, it has resolved major supply disruptions within a few days, although one shortage in March lasted several weeks and affected exports to ally and trading partner Cuba. Fourteen tankers are waiting in ports in Venezuela and the Caribbean to unload a total 4.2 million barrels of fuel and blending components commissioned by PDVSA, but have not yet done so for lack of payment, according to Thomson Reuters data and shipping sources. Earlier in September, as many as 24 cargoes were held awaiting payment, but at least six of those have been diverted to other destinations as Atlantic storms have caused supplies to tighten elsewhere. Others have discharged in recent days, after receiving payments. PDVSA is now forced to prepay its fuel imports because payment delays have led suppliers to halt open credit to the company. U.S. sanctions imposed last month are also making it difficult for PDVSA to get letters of credit needed for some imports and exports. President Nicolas Maduro says the country is a victim of an  economic war  and accuses the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump of worsening the situation through sanctions.  I m really sad that my country is in this situation,  said driver Marvelia Dominguez, as she waited to fuel her car in Caracas.  Now we don t even have gasoline, which was always one of the easiest things for us to find.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के लोगों को पेट्रोल खरीदने के लिए बढ़ती कतारों का सामना करना पड़ रहा है


Karangasem, INDONESIA (Reuters) - Fears that a volcano could erupt imminently on the holiday island of Bali prompted several countries to issue travel warnings, while Indonesian authorities raced to evacuate tens of thousands of people living in the  danger zone . Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States and the U.K. issued advisories on Monday and at the weekend warning that increased volcanic activity at Mount Agung in eastern Bali could disrupt flights at one of the world s most popular tourist destinations.     Given the possible eruption of Mount Agung, Singaporeans should defer non-essential travel to the affected areas at this juncture,  the foreign ministry said in an online statement.      Bali s international airport was operating normally on Monday, as were tourist spots across the island. Indonesian authorities have imposed a 12-km (7.5 miles)exclusion zone around the crater. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said on Monday that around 62,000 people lived within the  danger zone  around the volcano and that they all needed to evacuate, though so far only 50,00 had moved to the temporary shelters provided in neighboring villages.  There are some who are staying behind because the volcano hasn t erupted yet or because of religious beliefs,  said BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.   Our staff are combing the area and urging everyone to evacuate,  he said, speaking at a news conference in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Nugroho said Mount Agung has entered a  critical phase , meaning magma has risen closer to the surface, as indicated by hundreds of shallow volcanic tremors that have rattled the area in recent days.    Evacuees are being housed in makeshift shelters like town halls and school gyms. Host communities were providing food and water, while the central and local governments were providing tents, blankets and other relief.    Officials have urged the public to remain calm amid false reports and videos circulating online of an eruption. Indonesia, which sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, has nearly 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country. Many Indonesians live near volcanoes because lava flows can make the surrounding soil and land fertile for farming.

Summary: बाली के गड़गड़ाते ज्वालामुखी ने ऑस्ट्रेलिया, सिंगापुर से यात्रा चेतावनी जारी की


DUBLIN (Reuters) - Brexit negotiators in Brussels, Dublin and London are working on a new text on the post-Brexit Irish land border with Northern Ireland that might be modified somewhat from a version that was almost agreed earlier this week, a member of the European Parliament from Ireland s governing party said on Thursday.  My understanding is all the parties are working on a new text,  Fine Gael s Brian Hayes told Irish broadcaster RTE.  It s not that the text is changed in substance from the original but that it might be modified somewhat, new language, but as we speak those negotiations are continuing and have intensified.

Summary: 'थोड़ा संशोधित' आयरिश सीमा पाठ विचाराधीन हैः सत्तारूढ़ दल एम. ई. पी.


BANGKOK (Reuters) - The systematic persecution of minority Muslims is on the rise across Myanmar and not confined to the northwestern state of Rakhine, where recent violence has sent nearly 90,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing, a Myanmar rights group said on Tuesday. The independent Burma Human Rights Network said that persecution was backed by the government, elements among the country s Buddhist monks, and ultra-nationalist civilian groups.  The transition to democracy has allowed popular prejudices to influence how the new government rules, and has amplified a dangerous narrative that casts Muslims as an alien presence in Buddhist-majority Burma,  the group said in a report. The report draws on more than 350 interviews in more than 46 towns and villages over an eight-month period since March 2016. Myanmar s government made no immediate response to the report. Authorities deny discrimination and say security forces in Rakhine are fighting a legitimate campaign against  terrorists . Besides Rohingya Muslims, the report also examines the wider picture of Muslims of different ethnicities across Myanmar following waves of communal violence in 2012 and 2013. The report says many Muslims of all ethnicities have been refused national identification cards, while access to Islamic places of worship has been blocked in some places. At least 21 villages around Myanmar have declared themselves  no-go zones  for Muslims, backed by the authorities, it said. In Rakhine state, the report highlighted growing segregation between Buddhists and Muslim communities and severe travel restriction for the Muslim Rohingyas, which limited their access to health care and education. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people. The treatment of Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who critics say have not done enough to protect the Muslim minority from persecution. The London-based Burma Human Rights Network has been advocating among the international community for human rights in Myanmar since 2012, it says on its website.

Summary: मानवाधिकार समूह का कहना है कि म्यांमार में सभी मुसलमानों का उत्पीड़न बढ़ रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Russian generals held a face-to-face meeting this week in an effort to avoid accidental clashes as both sides fight to retake what is left of Islamic State s territory in Syria, U.S. military officials said on Thursday.   They had a face-to-face discussion, laid down maps and graphics,  Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, told a Pentagon briefing. He added that it appeared to be the first meeting of its kind.  A U.S. military official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the participants included both U.S. and Russian generals.

Summary: अमेरिका, रूसी जनरलों ने सीरिया पर आमने-सामने बात की


ROME (Reuters) - The Italian Chamber of Deputies on Thursday gave its final approval to a contested electoral law that is likely to penalize the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in next year s election. The bill, which is supported by the ruling Democratic Party (PD) and mainstream center-right opposition parties, was approved in a secret ballot by 375 votes to 215, and will now move to the upper house Senate for further debate. The so-called  Rosatellum  law favors parties which group together ahead of the election. The 5-Star refuses to join any alliance and says the reform could cost it at least 50 seats in the next parliament, hobbling its chances of taking power.

Summary: इटली के निचले सदन ने नया चुनावी कानून पारित किया, सीनेट में गया


DUBLIN (Reuters) - British and European Union Brexit negotiators have reached agreement on a deal for all Irish issues, including the maintenance of regulatory alignment on the island to avoid a hard border, two Irish government sources told Reuters.  Agreement has been reached on an overall deal for the Irish issues,  one of the sources said.  The key phrase is a clear commitment to maintaining regulatory alignment in relation to the rules of the customs union and internal market which are required to support the Good Friday Agreement, the all-island economy and the border.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट सौदा सभी आयरिश मुद्दों पर सहमत-आयरिश सरकार के सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will hold a news conference on Thursday morning before departing from White Plains, New York, to campaign in North Carolina, a campaign spokesman said. No specific time for the conference was provided.     Clinton, criticized in the past for not being accessible to media, has already spoken to reporters twice on her campaign plane this week as the campaign heads into the final months before the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट क्लिंटन गुरुवार को करेंगे संवाददाता सम्मेलनः अभियान


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and the U.S. House of Representatives’ top tax law writer reopened the door on Wednesday to changes in the 401(k) retirement savings program, just days after Trump seemed to rule out such a step under a broad Republican tax overhaul project. Trump told reporters he wants to protect the popular tax-deferred savings program, but said it was possible it could be part of congressional negotiations over tax cuts. “Maybe we’ll use it as negotiating, but trust me ... there are certain kinds of deals you don’t want to negotiate with,” Trump said on the White House South Lawn as he prepared to depart on a trip to Dallas. On Capitol Hill, Representative Kevin Brady, the Republican chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means committee, said Trump and lawmakers were discussing how to handle 401(k) plans. The employer-administered plans have been used for four decades by millions of workers to save for retirement. “No decision’s yet been made on if there will be any changes,” Brady told reporters. “We’re simply considering ideas to help people save more and save early in life. “If we can reach consensus on that, including with the president, in a good way, we’ll move forward -  but if not, we will keep things as they are,” Brady said. “All the focus is on can we help people save more.” Currently, employees may contribute up to $18,000 a year to the tax-deferred accounts, with those 50 and older able to contribute up to $24,000. Savings are typically invested in mutual funds. Brady was expected to introduce tax overhaul legislation next week, as Trump has long promised. Republican leaders want Congress to approve the measure by the end of this year. It includes a sharp cut in the corporate tax rate. But many details are still being worked out, including how to offset revenue that would be lost to tax cuts. One way to do that might be to limit pre-tax 401(k) contributions, which would help the government realize more revenue in the near term but would result in a decline in revenue generation down the road.  Earlier this week, after The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that Republicans were considering capping annual contributions at $2,400, Trump wrote on Twitter: “There will be NO change to your 401(k)”. Tampering with 401(k) plans, which have largely replaced defined benefit pensions in the United States, would risk alienating tens of millions of workers, as well as the mutual fund operators which rely on the plans for much of their business. Many companies match a percentage of their employees’ 401(k) contributions. Changes to the tax-deferred savings program could also provide ammunition to Democrats, who have painted Trump’s plan, with its $6 trillion in tax cuts, as a gift to the rich and corporate America that would balloon the federal deficit.

Summary: ट्रम्प और यू. एस. हाउस टैक्स विधायक ने 401 (के) परिवर्तनों के लिए दरवाजे फिर से खोल दिए


WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland s lower house of parliament on Friday approved changes to the country s National Judiciary Council, a part of a broader overhaul of the courts system pushed by the ruling conservatives.  Under the new rules, which still need Senate and presidential approval, parliament will have the responsibility for choosing members of the council which in turn nominates all judges.

Summary: पोलैंड की संसद के निचले सदन ने न्यायपालिका परिषद में बदलाव का समर्थन किया


VILLAVICENCIO/BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Thousands of victims of Colombia s five-decade war will seek blessings, guidance and a path to forgiveness from Pope Francis on Friday, during his visit to a region that for years has been known as an epicenter of violence.  The Argentine pope has received a rapturous welcome in Colombia, a majority Roman Catholic nation, bringing with him a message of peace and unity as he seeks to strengthen faith and heal the scars of civil war. In the city of Villavicencio, Francis will hold a prayer meeting with 6,000 survivors of a brutal conflict that has left millions scarred by kidnappings, massacres, rape, land mines and displacement. He will also bless the Cross of Reconciliation, a plain white memorial to the victims, and hear personal testimonies of those who have suffered.  There has been too much hatred and vengeance. The solitude of always being at loggerheads has been familiar for decades, and its smell has lingered for a hundred years,  the leader of the world s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics said on Thursday.  We do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life,  added the pontiff, who delayed visiting Colombia until a peace deal between the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels was in effect. Colombians have suffered from war between right-wing paramilitaries, Marxist rebels, and government forces since 1964. More than 220,000 have been killed and millions more displaced as the war spilled into towns and rural communities. The 80-year-old Francis will also beatify two victims as martyrs.  He will take the first step to make saints of Pedro Maria Ramirez, a priest who was killed in 1948 during the period of political violence known as  La Violencia,  and Bishop Jesus Emilio Jaramillo, killed in 1989 by the National Liberation Army (ELN) for suspected collaboration with the military. The pontiff wants his message of reconciliation to resonate with the war victims and he urged his Church to help spread the message.  You are not bureaucrats, nor politicians, you are pastors,  he said, addressing bishops in Bogota.   In Villavicencio - the capital of central Meta province, a vast cattle ranching area which has been a hotbed of paramilitary and rebel violence - Francis will see a destroyed statue of Christ brought from western Choco province for his visit. The effigy was recovered from a church attacked by the FARC in 2002 in the rain forest village of Bojaya. About 80 people were killed as they sought refuge from rebel bombings inside the humble church. The plaster figure, without arms or legs, has become an enduring symbol of the bloody war.  Forgiveness is pivotal if Colombia is to forge lasting peace, break cycles of revenge and rebuild once-hostile communities.   But Colombians are deeply polarized as they prepare to receive 7,000 former fighters of the FARC into society and aim to repair divisions from the war. Many are furious that under last year s peace deal, FARC leaders accused of kidnapping, displacements and murder will avoid jail sentences and instead may receive seats in congress as members of a civilian political party. But at least during the pope s visit, people seem willing to forgive.  I ll be up at 3 a.m. to queue. It s so emotional, just to see him on television makes me tearful,  said Francis Alvarez, a 59-year-old housewife, who hopes to attend the Mass in Villavicencio.  It will consolidate peace in this region that s been so forgotten.

Summary: पोप फ्रांसिस कोलंबिया के युद्ध पीड़ितों को आशीर्वाद देंगे


MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The heads of Somalia s police and national security have been sacked after a bombing targeting a hotel in the country s capital claimed at least 29 lives, state radio reported on its website on Sunday.    Somalia s police commander General Abdihakin Dahir Saiid and director general of the National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA), Abdullahi Mohamed Ali, have now been sacked after a cabinet meeting,  state radio reported.

Summary: सोमालिया ने घातक बमबारी के बाद पुलिस, सुरक्षा प्रमुखों को बर्खास्त किया


WASHINGTON/MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair denied a Monday report that she is considering staff changes after the New Hampshire nominating contest on Tuesday. “There is zero truth to what you may be reading. It’s wrong. Hillary stands behind her team, period,” Chairman John Podesta tweeted. Podesta was responding to a Politico report that Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had planned to reassess staffing and strategy after the first four primaries but are becoming increasingly critical of their aides and demanded the evaluation sooner. The former secretary of state would be more inclined to add new staff rather than fire current employees, according to the Politico story, which cited six unnamed sources. Clinton, once the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination, has lost ground to challenger Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont who is expected to win the New Hampshire primary. Last week she narrowly beat Sanders in the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest for the Nov. 8 election. Asked by MSNBC about the Politico story, Clinton said: “I have no idea what they’re talking about or who they are talking to.” “We’re going to take stock, but it’s going to be the campaign that I’ve got,” Clinton said in the interview with MSNBC. “I’m very confident in the people that I have. I’m very committed to them. They’re committed to doing the best we can,” she said.  (Reporting by Megan Cassella and Amanda Becker; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Cynthia Osterman) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: क्लिंटन अभियान ने कार्यों में कर्मचारियों में बदलाव से इनकार किया


BAR ELIAS, Lebanon (Reuters) - A new girls  school for Syrian refugees in Lebanon s poor Bekaa region is aiming to give girls from conservative backgrounds  the chance at a formal education.  Gaining access to education in general is difficult for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, but for girls from socially conservative families who disapprove of mixed schools, it is even harder.       Zahra al-Ayed, 14, and her sister Batoul, 17, were from a village in Syria s northern Idlib province where women were expected to marry young.  But the experience of fleeing war and living in harsh poverty woke her parents to the life-changing importance of education, the girls  mother Mirdiyeh al-Ayed said.   My eldest daughter tells me that she will not marry until after she finishes her education. She even wants to travel abroad and learn,  she said.      Human Rights Watch organisation said in its latest report in April that more than half a million refugee children are out of school in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. In Lebanon, international donors paid for 200,000 public school spaces for Syrian children in 2015-2016, according to the HRW report, but only 149,000 children actually enrolled. Lebanese and international non-governmental organizations have been striving to fill the gap, and to eliminate the legal, financial and language barriers preventing refugee children from getting their education.     For the al-Ayed family, used to Syria s system of gender segregation after the age of 12, one big barrier to enrolling the girls was the lack of single-sex schools in Lebanon that accept refugees.  The new school that Zahra will attend is in Bar Elias in the Bekaa valley and was opened on Thursday by the Kayany Foundation, a Lebanese charity. It educates 160 Syrian girls aged from 14-18 who have missed school for several years.  Those who manage to pass the Lebanese system s eighth grade exams - usually taken at the age of 14 or 15 - can join the local Lebanese public school in Bar Elias, which Batoul al-Ayed has done.  The Kayany Foundation school teaches the official Lebanese curriculum, which includes science, mathematics, Arabic and English, in addition to vocational skills.  The school, built from colorful pre-fabricated classrooms, is its seventh in the Bekaa valley, where the majority of the Syrian refugee communities are located in Lebanon. It was meant to address the Syrian parents  concerns about sending their teenage daughters to schools for both girls and boys. All its teachers are women and it provides transportation for students between home and school.  Education is salvation for the refugee girls,  said Nora Jumblatt, head of the Kayany Foundation, at the opening ceremony.  Funding for the school was secured for this year from international charity Save the Children and the United Nations Women For Peace Association, according to Kayany officials.  I have a dream to become a pharmacist,  Rama, 19, who is preparing to apply for the eight grade exams at Kayany school said. In normal times, Rama would already have been applying for university at that age.  I still want to go back to Syria and fulfill my dream there, in Damascus University,  she added.

Summary: नया स्कूल लेबनान में सीरियाई लड़कियों के लिए शिक्षा 'मोक्ष' प्रदान करता है


ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebel fighters are launching a major military operation backed by Turkish forces into a northwestern area of Syria largely controlled by jihadists, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday. Rebels said they were preparing to start the operation soon in Idlib province and surrounding areas, which represent Syria s most populous rebel-held area, and residents reported Turkish authorities removing sections of a border wall. The incursion is being carried out after Iran and Russia, which back President Bashar al-Assad, and Turkey, which supports the rebels, agreed last month to reduce fighting between insurgents and the government in the northwest.  It seems aimed at curbing the Tahrir al-Sham alliance, Syria s strongest jihadist group apart from Islamic State, and at securing Turkey s frontier.       There s a serious operation in Syria s Idlib today and it will continue,  Erdogan said in a speech to his AK Party, adding that Turkey would not allow a  terror corridor  on its border with Syria.  For now the Free Syrian Army is carrying out the operation there,  Erdogan said.  Russia is supporting the operation from the air, and our armed forces from inside Turkey s borders,  he added. Late on Saturday, Turkey deployed tanks and military vehicles on the its Syrian border, building up military presence, a Reuters witness said. Mustafa Sejari, a senior official in the Liwa al-Mutasem Syrian insurgent group taking part in the operation, said Russia would not be backing the rebels in the campaign.  As for the Russians, they will not have a role in the areas of our control at all. The role of the Russians is limited to areas under regime control,  he said.         Ankara, Moscow and Tehran announced a deal last month to establish and patrol a  de-escalation  zone in the Idlib region, where Erdogan has said Turkey will deploy troops.  Turkey s foreign minister said late on Saturday that Turkey aimed to prevent clashes in Idlib.  Russian and Iranian observers will be in some regions here, and we will have our observers inside Idlib. Of course they will be in safe places so there will be no risks,  Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters. Tahrir al-Sham is spearheaded by the former Nusra Front, which was al Qaeda s Syrian branch until last year, when it changed its name and broke formal allegiance to the global movement founded by Osama bin Laden.  It has been a formidable military force since early in the war, when it transitioned from bomb attacks in cities to guerrilla conflict with the Syrian army, fighting alongside many other factions.  Since early this year, it has battled other rebel groups in Idlib and other parts of Syria, while the government has mostly focused on the war against Islamic State in the east.  In July Tahrir al-Sham seized land around the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey, bringing much of the frontier area inside Syrian under its control.  Tahrir al-Sham is well entrenched in the border area in Idlib and maintains a big military presence in nearby towns, a local rebel and a resident of a town near Bab al-Hawa said. In a statement posted on social media, the jihadist alliance accused the Turkey-backed factions of working with Russia and described them as traitors, but did not mention Turkey.  It said in the statement that Idlib would  not be a picnic  for them and added  the lions of jihad and martyrdom are waiting to pounce .  Pentagon said the United States was not currently participating in these operations , but backed Turkey s efforts to fight terrorism, reminding that the U.S. stance on Tahrir al-Sham, remains unchanged.  We support our NATO ally Turkey s efforts to secure its borders, fight terrorism, and prevent safe havens for terrorist organizations,  Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, said. Residents near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey in Syria sent Reuters photographs of what they said was a section of the frontier wall being removed by the Turkish authorities.     Tahrir al-Sham was also involved in fighting on the southern edge of the rebels  northwestern stronghold this week, battling the army north of Hama.  Air raids on insurgent-held towns in that area in recent days were intense, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported.  Turkey has been one of the biggest supporters of rebels fighting Assad during the six-and-a-half year war, but its focus has evolved from ousting him to securing its border.  A year ago it backed Syrian rebels east of Idlib in an incursion known as Euphrates Shield to drive Islamic State and Kurdish groups from its border, sending troops and armor into Syria. Syrian rebel officials from factions which have fought alongside Turkey in Euphrates Shield said they were preparing to enter the area with the backing of Turkish forces.   The Free Syrian Army, with support from Turkish troops, is in full readiness to enter the area but until this moment there is no movement,  said Sejari, the Liwa al-Mutasem official.  Another FSA rebel told Reuters he believed an incursion into northwest Syria was imminent.  We expect that the large-scale operation that has been prepared will be launched perhaps within the next 24 hours,  the rebel said.  The Hamza Brigade, also part of Euphrates Shield, posted a video online of what it said was a convoy of its forces heading for Idlib.  Idlib s population has ballooned to at least two million as thousands of civilians and combatants have left areas in other parts of the country seized by the Syrian army with the help of Russian jets and Iran-backed militias. The resident of the town near Bab al-Hawa border crossing said people were worried that fighting would take a big civilian toll because of the increased population there.   One bullet kills three,  the resident said.  Asked how far Turkey might go in deploying troops inside Syria, Erdogan declined to give details.  When you enter a boxing match, you don t count how many punches you throw,  he said.

Summary: तुर्की ने इदलिब में "गंभीर अभियान" के लिए सीरियाई विद्रोहियों का समर्थन किया


BANGKOK (Reuters) - Twenty ethnic Uighur Muslims from China broke out of a detention center near the Thai-Malaysia border, Thai officials said on Monday, after digging holes in the wall and using blankets as ladders. The 20 were part of the last remaining group of more than 200 Uighurs who were detained in 2014. Members of the group identified themselves as Turkish citizens and asked to be sent to Turkey but more than 100 were forcibly returned to China in July 2015, a move that sparked international condemnation, including from rights groups who feared they could face torture in China. Hundreds of people have died in recent years in China s troubled far western region of Xinjiang due to violence between majority Han Chinese and Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language. Over the years, hundreds, possibly thousands, of Uighurs have escaped unrest in Xinjiang by traveling clandestinely via Southeast Asia to Turkey.  Twenty-five Uighurs dug through their cell wall using broken tiles and then used blankets to climb out of the cell to make their dramatic escape from the detention center in Thailand s southern Songkhla province, immigration officials said. Five were caught but the rest fled, officials said.  Twenty are still at large,  Police Captain Prasit Timmakarn, sub-inspector of the detention center, told Reuters, adding:  Heavy rain helped to mask the loud escape noises.  Prasit said authorities have set up checkpoints along the border. In August 2015, a bomb planted at Bangkok s Erawan shrine killed 20 people, most of them foreign tourists. Thai police  arrested two Uighur men who are still on trial. Authorities said the attack was prompted by an earlier crackdown on human smuggling networks but many analysts and diplomats said it was likely an act of revenge for Thailand s deportation to China of the more than 100 Uighurs. The Chinese government has blamed much of the Xinjiang unrest on separatist Islamist militants, though rights groups and exiles say that anger over tightening Chinese controls on the religion and culture of Uighurs is more to blame. China routinely denies any repression in Xinjiang.

Summary: थाई कोठरी से बचने के लिए बीस चीनी उइगर कंबल का उपयोग करते हैं


LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said on Tuesday that the defense relationship with the Philippines was a “strong” and “longstanding” one, when asked about the Philippines’ president’s insult toward U.S. President Barack Obama. Carter, speaking to reporters as he was landing in London, also described the Philippines’ new defense minister, Delfin Lorenzana, as someone who was “very knowledgeable about all the things that we do together”. President Rodrigo Duterte called Obama a “son of a bitch” and said he would not be lectured over extrajudicial killings in the Philippines’ drug war. Duterte later voiced regret for his language. The two had been scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Laos but Obama canceled the meeting.

Summary: कार्टर ने कहा कि फिलीपींस के साथ रक्षा संबंध मजबूत हैं


WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland s new government led by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki won a vote of confidence in parliament just before midnight on Tuesday, voting records showed, opening the way for the Cabinet to start functioning. Morawiecki, 49, was named prime minister last week in a government reshuffle, replacing Beata Szydlo as the ruling Law and Justice party gears up for elections over the next three years. He said Warsaw s economic policy - based on generous public spending and a growing focus on building domestic capital - should not change, but his government would aim to improve Poland s external relations.

Summary: पोलैंड की नई सरकार ने संसद में विश्वास मत जीता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should significantly cut spending on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said on Monday, questioning a policy that has underpinned U.S. foreign relations for nearly 70 years.  Trump, whose worldviews have been rebuked by a section of the Republican establishment, made the comments as he unveiled a partial list of foreign policy advisers, who are relatively little known. “We are paying disproportionately (for NATO). It’s too much and frankly it’s a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea,” Trump said in an interview on CNN. “We have to reconsider. Keep NATO, but maybe we have to pay a lot less toward NATO itself.” NATO, now consisting of 28 members, was formed after World War Two as a Western military alliance against the Soviet bloc. The comments reinforced Trump’s relatively isolationist stance on foreign policy. The New York billionaire businessman has alarmed establishment Republican foreign policy thinkers with comments denigrating Muslims and Mexican immigrants, and with his vows to tear up international trade deals.  Announcing his foreign policy advisers in an interview with the Washington Post editorial board, he said the United States should not be “nation-building anymore,” adding that Washington could not afford to keep funding NATO at current levels. “We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore,” he said. Trump has said he is willing to work more closely with authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military intervention in Ukraine has increased tensions with NATO. Washington is the biggest contributor to NATO, and U.S. officials have long been critical of its European allies for not spending more.   NATO is planning its biggest buildup in Eastern Europe since the Cold War to deter Russia, helped by an increase in planned U.S. spending. “The happiest person hearing this would be Vladimir Putin,” said retired Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s former Supreme Allied Commander Europe. “We are all frustrated with low European defense spending, but pulling away from NATO would be an extraordinary geopolitical mistake.”     Trump’s advisory team includes terrorism expert Walid Phares, energy industry executive Carter Page, international energy lawyer George Papadopoulos, former Pentagon Inspector General Joe Schmitz and former Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg. He said he would soon name more people helping him shape his foreign policies as part of the team, led by U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama who endorsed Trump last month.  “Taken as a group, it’s a fairly obscure set of individuals,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a national security and defense policy specialist at the Brookings Institution, adding he did not recognize most of the names on Trump’s list.  Trump, one of three remaining Republican presidential candidates for the Nov. 8 election, has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks to say who advises him on foreign and security matters. One hundred and twenty Republican national security experts who served in past presidential administrations have signed a letter saying they cannot support Trump and will work to ensure he is not elected. Phares told Reuters he began advising Trump on Friday. He previously served as a national security adviser to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has roundly criticized Trump. Phares said in an email he had not met Trump in person since last year. The others on the list could not be immediately reached to confirm their roles with Trump’s campaign.     Schmitz was Pentagon inspector general under President George W. Bush and worked for Blackwater Worldwide, a now-defunct private U.S. security firm whose personnel were involved in a deadly shooting that killed Iraqi civilians in 2007. Kellogg has considerable military experience, having served as chief operating officer of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-run provisional government imposed on Iraq after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion under Bush. He has worked at CACI International, a Virginia-based intelligence and information technology consulting firm. Trump has vigorously criticized the invasion. Asked at a news conference about why he chose Kellogg despite his role in Iraq, Trump said: “I don’t have to agree with them but I have to hear different opinions.” According to the Post, Papadopoulos previously advised Trump’s former rival Ben Carson, who has now backed Trump. The London Center of International Law Practice’s Center website lists him as the head of its Center for International Energy and Natural Resources Law & Security. Page serves as a managing partner of Global Energy Capital, a private energy services company, the Post said. Sessions is not seen as an influential foreign policy or national security player in the U.S. Congress. He does not serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, although he is a member of the Armed Services Committee. Last week, Trump said in a television interview on MSNBC, which had been pressing him to name his foreign advisory team, that he relied on his own instinct. “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain,” he told MSNBC. “I know what I’m doing. ... My primary consultant is myself.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने नाटो के लिए अमेरिकी वित्तीय समर्थन पर सवाल उठाए


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Organizers barred journalists on Sunday from a publicly advertised event in Shanghai that offered Chinese investors the chance to get U.S. immigrant visas if they put money in a real estate project linked to the family of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The two-tower luxury apartment complex in New Jersey, One Journal Square, is being developed by KABR Group and the Kushner Companies, which until recently was headed by senior White House advisor Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka. The developers are seeking to raise $150 million, or 15.4 percent of funding for the project, from investors through the EB-5 visa program, according to marketing materials posted by the event’s organizer, immigration agency Qiaowai. The controversial EB-5 program allows wealthy foreigners to, in effect, buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects. “Sorry, this is a private event,” said a man stopping journalists from entering a function room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai. Guests at the event said Kushner’s sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, spoke for about 10 minutes, including about her family’s humble roots. According to the New York Times, Meyer attended a similar event in Beijing on Saturday and told the audience of about 100 people the project “means a lot to me and my entire family”. Jared Kushner, whose White House portfolio includes relations with China, sold his stake in Kushner Companies to a family trust early this year.  “Mr. Kushner has no involvement in the operation of Kushner Companies and divested his interests in the One Journal Square project by selling them to a family trust that he, his wife, and his children are not beneficiaries of, a mechanism suggested by the Office of Government Ethics,” his lawyer, Blake Roberts of WilmerHale law firm, said in a statement emailed to Reuters by the White House. “As previously stated, he will recuse from particular matters concerning the EB-5 visa program.” A Kushner Companies spokeswoman declined to comment in a New York Times article about the Beijing event published on Saturday. The Times story said Meyer did not respond when asked if she was concerned about possible conflicts of interest facing her brother. Journalists from the Times and Washington Post were removed from Saturday’s Beijing event, the newspapers reported. One potential investor, Sophie Xing, said a “very important” factor in her decision to attend Sunday’s event was the fact the project was a Kushner Companies investment and that Trump’s son-in-law’s sister would be in Shanghai. “Actually I really don’t know how close they are but I felt that this was a pretty good project,” she said. In a promotional text message seen by Reuters, Qiaowai made note of Meyer’s relationship to Trump and called her the event’s “heavyweight honored guest”. Qiaowai representatives at the event declined to answer questions from journalists, and calls to its listed phone number went unanswered. Qiaowai is also known as QWOS. Its promotional materials for the project, which it also calls Kushner1, advertise the prospect of putting money in under the federal EB-5 program. The program is popular among wealthy Chinese looking to shift assets abroad or move overseas, but it has come under fire in the United States. Some U.S. lawmakers have called for changing or abolishing  the EB-5 program, but the scheme was recently renewed by Congress until Sept. 30. Potential investor Xing said a Kushner representative who spoke on Sunday stressed that EB-5 rules could change after September to raise the minimum required investment. Another person who attended Sunday’s event, Liu Guoqi, was mindful of the potential rule change. Liu said he had been to previous pitches for EB-5 investments but had concerns about the risks. “The whole thing may change later this year so we feel that there isn’t much time left,” he said. In the United States, the EB-5 program has also sparked concerns about possible scams. Some immigrants have been burned by misrepresentations made about the program by promoters, both inside and outside the United States. Many have lost not only their money but their chance at winning U.S. citizenship. Trump has vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration. In addition to Beijing and Shanghai, the road show for One Journal Square was scheduled to visit the Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Wuhan, according to Qiaowai’s marketing materials online. It calls the Kushner family a “famous real estate clan”, and touts EB-5 immigration as “peace of mind”. Qiaowai’s Chinese-language marketing material describes the project as “supported by the government, created by a star developer”, and says the project is its 87th EB-5 program. (This story has been refiled to fix spelling of Qiaowai in paragraphs 17, 18.)

Summary: चीन में कुशनर कंपनियों के कार्यक्रम से पत्रकारों को रोका गया


(Reuters) - A Pennsylvania state Senator and a Democratic Party official were charged in a federal indictment for their involvement in a bribery and fraud scheme related to a 2011 election for a Democratic ward leader in Philadelphia, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. Lawrence “Larry” Farnese, 47, and Ellen Chapman, 62, both of Philadelphia, were charged with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and violations of the Travel Act, the Justice Department said in a statement. Farnese was a state senator at the time of the alleged illegal conduct.

Summary: पेनसिल्वेनिया राज्य के सीनेटर, डेमोक्रेटिक अधिकारी पर वोट-खरीद योजना में आरोप लगाया गया


GENEVA (Reuters) - Iraq is not capable of trying atrocities committed by Islamic State during the battle for Mosul so it must find other routes to justice such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), a U.N. human rights report said on Thursday.  At least 2,521 civilians were killed during the nine-month battle including 741 people who were executed, the report said.  Most died as a result of Islamic State (ISIL) attacks. It cited testimonies of mass abductions by Islamic State, as well as killings, the use of human shields, and deliberate targeting of civilians and their homes.  ISIL planted  a huge number  of improvised explosive devices and used drones to drop explosives in Mosul, a city of 1.5 million, as well as setting fire to sulphur fields and oil wells, it said.  Its forces desecrated religious sites and last June blew up the al-Nuri mosque from which its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had declared the caliphate spanning parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, it said.  Iraqi courts and tribunals do not have jurisdiction over international crimes (such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes) - and prosecutors, police investigators and judges lack capacity to ... (investigate), charge and try persons in relation to such crimes,  the report said, calling for it to amend domestic law. Iraqi law did not do enough to guarantee due process or fair trials, it said. Accepting the jurisdiction of the Hague-based ICC and finding other ways to ensure crimes were tried by a competent court  would reassure the international community that Iraq is serious  about getting justice, which was key to rebuilding trust and reconciliation, it said. Atleast 74 massgraveshave been discovered since June 2014 in areas previouslyheld by ISILin Iraq, the U.N. report said. These included in Sinjar, the northwestern city where the U.N. has said Islamic State committed genocide against the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi religious minority whom the Sunni militants view as infidels. Iraq and the international community have a duty to ensure those crimes are prosecuted, Syracuse University professor and former war crimes prosecutor David Crane said on Wednesday in a separate report into the genocide, issued by his law school s Syrian Accountability Project.   Bringing ISIS to justice for genocide against the Yazidi community, at the domestic or the international level, will depend on the strategic preservation of forensic evidence,  Crane s report said. The U.N. report also called on Iraqi authorities to investigate crimes allegedly committed by Iraqi-backed forces during the operation, including mass abductions and unlawful killings. It called for a separate investigation into air strikes by the international coalition. It said the U.N. had recorded 461 civilian deaths from air strikes during the most intensive phase of the battle for western Mosul, from Feb. 19.

Summary: इराक मोसुल में इस्लामिक स्टेट के अत्याचारों का मुकदमा चलाने के लिए तैयार नहीं हैः संयुक्त राष्ट्र


BOSTON (Reuters) - New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu on Monday publicly called on U.S. President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, to halt an effort to deport 69 Indonesian Christians who fled violence in that country two decades ago and are living illegally in the state. The group had been living near the state’s coast under the terms of a 2010 deal worked out with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allowed them to remain so long as they handed in their passports and turned up for regular check-ins with immigration officials. That changed starting in August when members of the group who arrived for scheduled meetings with ICE officials at the agency’s Manchester, New Hampshire, office were told to buy one-way plane tickets back to Indonesia, which they fled after 1998 riots that left about 1,000 people dead. “I am respectfully requesting that your administration reconsider its decision to deport these individuals, and I urge a resolution that will allow them to remain in the United States,” Sununu said in a letter to Trump dated Friday, which his office made public on Monday. Several members of the group, who are all ethnic Chinese, told Reuters they fear that they would face discrimination or violence if they returned to the world’s largest majority-Muslim country. “While I firmly believe that we must take steps to curb illegal immigration, it is also imperative that we make the process for legal immigration more streamlined and practical,” Sununu wrote. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Immigration advocates have filed lawsuits in Boston on behalf of 47 members of the group asking a federal court judge to intervene. Chief U.S. District Judge Patti Saris has ordered a stay to the deportations, but has indicated that she has little jurisdiction over immigration, which is handled by the Executive Office for Immigration review. She is currently weighing whether she can order a longer delay to give the affected people, many of whom have U.S.-born children, time to renew their efforts to gain legal status. Most of the group entered the United States legally on tourist visas following the riots, which erupted at the start of the Asian financial crisis. They overstayed their visas and failed to apply for asylum on time, but have been allowed to live openly under the accord with ICE, negotiated with the help of U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat.

Summary: न्यू हैम्पशायर के गवर्नर ने ट्रम्प से इंडोनेशियाई निर्वासन प्रयास को रोकने के लिए कहा


NEW YORK - Democrat Hillary Clinton plans to pour half of her presidential campaign’s budget into advertising in the first three months of this year as she seeks to fend off an increasingly tough challenge from chief rival Bernie Sanders, according to a summary of her spending plans reviewed by Reuters. The first-quarter advertising blitz would represent almost a doubling of the proportion of money that the campaign devoted to such spending, on average, during 2015.  The report, prepared by her team’s finance committee, aims to paint a picture of a fiscally prudent campaign operation that has been spending heavily on digital tools and organizing last year and is now ready to ramp up ad spending as the 2016 White House race moves into a critical new phase. “The significant early resources mobilized by our Finance Committee in 2015 helped us make smart early investments in key areas – and will enable us to continue with strategic allocations in Q1 of 2016,” the report reads. The first quarter is a crucial period in the presidential nominating contest. It kicks off with the Iowa caucus on Feb. 1, followed by the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9 and a series of other early votes through March, including “Super Tuesday” on March 1 when 11 states hold nominating contests.  Many of the contests during March, the report notes, “are in big states with expensive media markets.” In 2015, the campaign devoted nearly 10 percent of its spending to technology and digital tools, about a fifth of the budget on list-building and almost another quarter on state organizing, according to the year-end document. List-building refers to amassing names of potential voters who a campaign wants to woo. The Clinton campaign declined to comment on the spending report. The increased focus on advertising spending comes as the campaign expects to shrink the ratios of spending in other areas, especially those that appear related to infrastructure. State organizing, for example, is projected to go from 23 percent in 2015 to 18 percent in the first quarter of this year. List-building is expected to go from 21 percent in 2015 to 14 percent in the first three months of 2016. The report comes two weeks before the Iowa contest, with Clinton locked in a tightening race with Sanders, the fiery U.S. senator from Vermont who has been drawing big crowds in the early-voting states with his calls to crack down on Wall Street.  The emphasis on fiscal prudence is part of a broader effort by the Clinton campaign to reassure supporters that it has learned from her 2008 campaign, which was plagued by missteps, including a failure to match the organizational and digital prowess of Barack Obama, who ultimately won the Democratic nomination - and the general election.  Clinton’s campaign raised more than $112 million last year for the primary fight, according to a previously released statement from Jan. 1. That includes $37 million raised in the fourth quarter. The campaign had nearly $38 million in cash on hand headed into this year, according to the statement. The year-end report only notes budget categories as a percentage of total spending and does not include dollar amounts for categories or line items. Nor did the document include a dollar amount for the overall budget. Through the third quarter of last year, the campaign spent more than $12 million on direct marketing, online ads and media buys, according to campaign finance filings.  Federal Elections Commission filings for the fourth quarter for all presidential campaigns are due Jan. 31.  (Additional reporting by Emily Flitter and Grant Smith; Editing by Caren Bohan and Leslie Adler) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः प्राइमरी शुरू होते ही क्लिंटन विज्ञापन ब्लिट्ज की योजना बना रहे हैं-अभियान दस्तावेज़


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to impose new sanctions on Moscow, triggering an angry reaction from Russian officials, but analysts are playing down the impact. The sanctions, which have yet to be approved by the U.S. Senate and President Donald Trump, expand and tweak a list of existing sanctions, but cannot be viewed as a game changer, analysts said. Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide if and how Moscow will retaliate once the fresh sanctions become law. Below are highlights from the bill and analysts’ reactions:   The United States “should continue to uphold and seek unity with European and other key partners on sanctions implemented against the Russian Federation, which have been effective and instrumental in countering Russian aggression in Ukraine”. “The Secretary of the Treasury shall submit ... a report describing in detail the potential effects of expanding sanctions ... to include sovereign debt and the full range of derivative products.” The Secretary of the Treasury shall review sanctions from 2014 “to ensure that the directive prohibits the conduct by United States persons or persons within the United States of all transactions in, provision of financing for, and other dealings in new debt of longer than 14 days maturity or new equity of persons determined to be subject to the directive, their property, or their interests in property”. “The Secretary of the Treasury may determine that a person meets one or more of the criteria ... if that person is a state-owned entity operating in the railway, or metals and mining sector of the economy of the Russian Federation.” The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of State, shall submit a detailed report on Russia’s senior foreign political figures and oligarchs. The bill is designed “to continue to oppose the NordStream 2 pipeline given its detrimental impacts on the European Union’s energy security, gas market development in Central and Eastern Europe, and energy reforms in Ukraine”. Trump, in coordination with allies of the United States, may impose sanctions on an entity that makes an investment described in the Act or “sells, leases, or provides to the Russian Federation, for the construction of Russian energy export pipelines, goods, services, technology, information, or support ... any of which has a fair market value of $1,000,000 or more; or that, during a 12-month period, have an aggregate fair market value of $5,000,000 or more.” “With the Senate voting 92-2 and the House 419-3, it is highly unlikely that President Trump would veto the bill,” said Charles Robertson, Global Chief Economist at Renaissance Capital in London. “Long term this is really bad news. We know from Jackson-Vaneck that these kind of sanctions are hard to remove once in place. This will further stall foreign investment into Russia, negatively impacting growth and development, furthering long-term capital flight and brain drain. It will further the isolation from the West, and stagnation of the Russian economy,” said Tim Ash, a Senior Strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London. “Most importantly for Russia, the original Senate bill with regard to Nord Stream 2 was watered down as it now requires coordination with ‘allies’ when imposing such sanctions. Moreover, the bill only gives the option for the president to introduce such sanctions, but does not require that he does so. So, overall, I expect marginal negative effect,” Ivan Tchakarov, senior economist at Citi in Moscow. “In general we think that the impact on the Russian economy should be relatively limited. Compared to 2014 when the first set of sanctions was introduced the Russian economy is in much better state to weather the measures,” said Liza Ermolenko, emerging European economist at Barclays in London. “In the U.S. sanctions bill we have not seen any direct negative implications for the rouble so far. Some tightening of the trade financing terms would not have a material negative impact on the rouble, although it may lead to a shortage of the dollar liquidity in the market and it’s not clear how well companies and banks were prepared to this,” said Alexey Pogorelov, chief economist at Credit Suisse in London.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः प्रस्तावित नए अमेरिकी प्रतिबंध रूस को कैसे प्रभावित करेंगे


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s Foreign Ministry declined on Tuesday to confirm or deny reported plans by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to visit Moscow, expressing its surprise at the “regular leak” of information from Washington. Sources told Reuters on Monday Tillerson planned to skip his first meeting of the 28 NATO allies in April in order to stay home for a visit by China’s president and then go to Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to media requests for confirmation of Tillerson’s Moscow visit that the ministry was “not prepared to confirm or deny this information”. “But we are certainly surprised by the regular leak of sensitive information from Washington,” she said in a post on Facebook. “It’s time for U.S. political elites to figure out if ‘Russian hackers’ have once again got into State Department servers or if the threat to U.S. cyber security has an American origin after all,” Zakharova said.  Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said later he was unaware of plans by Tillerson to visit Moscow. Skipping the NATO meeting and visiting Moscow could risk feeding a perception that Trump’s administration may be prioritizing U.S. dealings with big powers over smaller nations that depend on Washington for security. Tillerson worked with Russia’s government for years in his former role as a top executive at Exxon Mobil Corp. He has questioned the wisdom of sanctions against Russia that he said could harm U.S. businesses.

Summary: रूस के विदेश मंत्रालय ने कहा, न तो टिलरसन की यात्रा की पुष्टि की और न ही इनकार किया


SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said North Korea s launch of an intermediate ballistic missile that flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido amounted to  violent conduct  to a neighbouring country, his office said on Wednesday. Moon agreed with Japanese Prime Minister Abe in a telephone call on Wednesday that pressure must be raised  to the maximum  on the North to leave Pyongyang with no choice but to come to dialogue, the presidential Blue House said in a statement.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया के चंद्रमा, जापान के आबे उत्तर कोरिया पर अधिकतम दबाव बनाने के लिए सहमत हुए


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s ruling coalition is on track for a big win in Sunday s general election - even though almost half the country s voters don t want him to keep his job, a media survey showed on Monday. Behind that paradox is a fizzling challenge by an upstart party led by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, a divided opposition and jitters about a volatile North Korea that incline wary voters toward a safe pair of hands, political analysts said. Abe s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is set to win between 281 to 303 seats in the 465-member lower house, while its junior coalition partner the Komeito is on track to take 30-33 seats, the Mainichi newspaper said, based on an Oct. 13-15 survey. That would put the ruling bloc on track to maintain the two-third s  super majority  it held before the chamber was dissolved for the snap election.  That means Abe s grip on his post is all but assured when parliament convenes to elect a premier after Sunday s poll. The Mainichi survey, however, showed 47 percent of voters would prefer not to see Abe stay in his post. Abe took office nearly five years ago promising to bolster defense and boost growth with his  Abenomics  strategy. Thirty-seven percent want him to remain.  Abe is not popular, but his party is trusted by enough voters to win big if only because the new parties are untested and have not generated excitement,  said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University Japan. An electoral system where 289 seats are from single-member districts where the candidate with a plurality of votes wins and others get no representation at all also means a split opposition benefits Abe s LDP. The rest of the chamber s seats are from proportional representation blocs. Koike s fledgling Party of Hope, which the former LDP lawmaker launched last month as a  reformist, conservative  alternative to the LDP, is likely to win between 42-54 seats. The Party of Hope absorbed a big chunk of the failed main opposition Democratic Party. But an early burst of voter enthusiasm seems to have dissipated after Koike declined to run for a lower house seat or say whom her party would back as a candidate for premier. The party s platform also shares much of Abe s hawkish security agenda, but differs by promising to freeze a planned sales tax hike and to exit nuclear power by 2030. A smaller Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), formed by liberal members from the Democratic Party, was set to win between 45-49 seats, the Mainichi said - raising the possibility that it might become the leading opposition group. The CDPJ  crept up from nowhere,  Kingston said.  It is clear there are a lot of people who feel left by the wayside by Abenomics.  The Mainichi forecasts were based on responses from 73,087 voters nationwide.

Summary: प्रधानमंत्री आबे के प्रति मतदाताओं की नाराजगी के बावजूद जापान में सत्तारूढ़ गुट बड़ी चुनावी जीत की ओर बढ़ रहा हैः सर्वेक्षण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security officials met with major U.S. airlines and a trade group on Thursday to discuss the impact of possibly expanding a ban on large electronic gadgets on planes to flights from some European airports, three sources briefed on the meeting said. The afternoon meeting included high level executives from Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N), United Airlines Inc (UAL.N), American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O) and trade group Airlines for America, the sources said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the confidential meeting. The airlines and group declined to comment. In March, the United States announced laptop restrictions on flights originating from 10 airports including in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey because of fears that a concealed bomb could be installed in electronic devices taken onto aircraft. Britain quickly followed suit with restrictions on a slightly different set of routes.  The Trump administration is likely to include some European countries in the in-cabin ban on gadgets larger than cellphones and is reviewing how to ensure lithium batteries stored in luggage do not explode in midair, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan declined to discuss the meeting. He said on Wednesday that no final decision had been made on expanding the restriction and there would be no announcement on Thursday. One issue that had been expected to come up at the meeting was how much advance notice airlines would get to impose additional restrictions, which some airline officials say would require hiring more staff. In 2016, 30 million people flew to the United States from Europe, according to U.S. Transportation Department data. A broader ban would have a significant impact U.S. and European carriers, which are concerned about the challenges of checking large numbers of devices. Some U.S. and European airlines have been planning for a wider ban, industry officials have told Reuters. Earlier Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly met with senators from relevant oversight committees in a secure Capitol Hill facility to deliver a classified briefing to discuss numerous security issues “including threats to aviation,” Lapan said. A congresional official said it appeared that Homeland Securitiy was likely to expand the ban soon, but did not say when or to what airports. Kelly said last month the ban was likely to expand, given the sophisticated threats in aviation and intelligence findings that would-be attackers were trying to hide explosives in electronic devices.

Summary: अमेरिकी एयरलाइंस ने लैपटॉप प्रतिबंध बढ़ाने पर होमलैंड सिक्योरिटी के साथ बैठक की


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is planning 22 new defense projects worth a total of $5 billion and spanning the development of air defense missile systems, ammunition and arms systems, the defense industry executive board said on Thursday. It also said the board had discussed the modernization and mass production of tanks, combat and general purpose helicopters, as well as the production of new and additional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drones.

Summary: तुर्की के रक्षा उद्योग का कहना है कि 5 अरब डॉलर की 22 परियोजनाओं की योजना बनाई जा रही है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is considering taking steps to broaden the Obamacare limits on claiming a religious or moral exemption from providing health insurance that covers birth control, Vox news reported on Wednesday. The Vox website posted a copy of a draft of a new rule that it said the administration was reviewing. The rule would undermine coverage for one of the 10 essential health benefits covered by President Barack Obama’s signature piece of domestic legislation, which Republicans have vowed to repeal and replace. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment and spokeswoman Alleigh Marre said it does not “comment on alleged drafts of documents.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, employers are required to provide health insurance that covers birth control, except for religious houses of worship, which are exempt. Some owners of private businesses also obtained exemptions after the Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that they could object to the rule on religious grounds. Republicans do not have enough seats in the U.S. Senate to fully repeal Obamacare and as a result, the Republican strategy for rolling back the law includes stopping implementation of new health regulations and creating new administrative rules that undermine parts of the existing law. Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and other healthcare groups criticized the proposed rule and said it would make it harder for millions of Americans to access the healthcare they need. The ACLU threatened to challenge the administration in court if the rule becomes finalized.  “Any rule that allows employers to deny contraceptive coverage to their employees is an attempt at allowing religion to be used as a license to discriminate,” the ACLU said in a statement.

Summary: ओबामाकेयर जन्म नियंत्रण जनादेश में छूट का विस्तार करेंगे ट्रम्पः रिपोर्ट


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican White House candidate Donald Trump stole the social media spotlight during Monday night’s U.S. presidential debate on at least one count - what Twitter users branded his #Trumpsniffle.  The wealthy businessman sniffed repeatedly as he faced off against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in their first debate, giving rise to the hashtag and a surge of interest on social media what might be causing his nose to run. Parody accounts, Donald’s Sinuses (@TrumpsSinuses) and Trump sniff (@TrumpSniff), gained a large following. Trump, 70, told Fox News on Tuesday morning he did not have a cold. “No, no sniffles, no,” he said. “No cold.” He complained he had a faulty microphone and joked that maybe it was picking up breathing. Several tweeters seized on the sniffling to hit back at Trump over his repeated digs at the health and stamina of Clinton, 68, who had pneumonia earlier this month.  Overall, Twitter said the debate, the first in a series ahead of the Nov. 8 election, was the most tweeted-about political event in the social media company’s history. Trump was the focus of 62 percent of the conversation on the social media platform, Twitter said. On Facebook, conversations about Trump made up 79 percent of debate chat, while Clinton’s share of the conversation was 21 percent. However, sentiment appeared to go Clinton’s way. Social media analytics firm Zoomph said tweets mentioning Clinton ended at a ratio of about 1.5 to 1, which meant that for every negative mention, there were 1.5 positive mentions, Zoomph said. Sentiment toward Trump fluctuated, but ended nearly flat at a ratio of one positive mention to every negative one. The most tweeted-about topics were the economy, foreign affairs, energy and the environment, terrorism and guns.

Summary: सोशल मीडिया पर शुरू हुई ट्रम्प की बहस


ANKARA (Reuters) - A U.S. consulate employee in Istanbul was arrested on charges of links to a cleric blamed for last year s failed coup, Turkish authorities said on Thursday, a move condemned by Washington as baseless and damaging to ties between the NATO allies. President Tayyip Erdogan s spokesman said the locally-recruited consulate worker had been in contact with Adil Oksuz, a theology professor dubbed the  imam of the air force  for his alleged close links to coup plotters high up in the military.  The arrested U.S. consulate worker was found to have had frequent communication with the FETO suspect Adil Oksuz,  Ibrahim Kalin told reporters, using Erdogan s acronym for the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen that Erdogan accuses of engineering the coup attempt. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara said it was deeply disturbed by the arrest of the locally employed staff member.  Baseless, anonymous allegations against our employees undermine and devalue (the) longstanding partnership  between the United States and Turkey, the embassy said in a statement. Turkey s Foreign Ministry said the arrested individual was not on the official list of registered personnel for the U.S. consulate and therefore had no diplomatic or consular immunity. U.S.-Turkish tensions have risen over U.S. military support for Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, considered by Ankara to be an extension of the banned PKK which has waged an insurgency for three decades in southeast Turkey. Turkey has also pressed, so far in vain, for the United States to extradite Gulen over the July 2016 putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed. Gulen denies any involvement.  Authorities say Oksuz, the theology professor, helped orchestrate the bombing of parliament by rogue air force pilots during the coup bid. He was detained near an Ankara air base hours after the coup was put down, only to be released by a judge two days later. He has been on the run since. The state-run Anadolu news agency identified the consulate employee as a male Turkish citizen and said he was arrested late Wednesday on charges of espionage and attempts to damage the constitutional order and Turkey s government. Since the coup attempt, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial over alleged links to Gulen, while 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors. Human rights groups and some of Turkey s Western allies have voiced concern about the crackdown, fearing Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent. The government says only such a purge could neutralize the threat represented by Gulen s network, which it says deeply infiltrated institutions such as the army, schools and courts. Friction with the United States has also arisen from the indictment last month by a U.S. court of Turkey s former economy minister Zafer Caglayan.  Caglayan and the ex-head of a state-owned Turkish bank were charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran s behalf. Turkey says Caglayan acted within international law and that charges against him amounted to a coup attempt through American courts.

Summary: अमेरिका ने इस्तांबुल वाणिज्य दूतावास के कर्मचारी की गिरफ्तारी की निंदा की


BERLIN (Reuters) - A top member of Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives on Thursday dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin s push to host a new Syrian peace process with the backing of Iran and Turkey, calling it  the height of cynicism.  The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey on Wednesday called on the Syrian government and moderate opposition to  participate constructively  in the planned congress, to be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Juergen Hardt, foreign policy speaker for Merkel s conservatives in parliament, said Russia had repeatedly blocked efforts by the U.N. Security Council to find a constructive solution to end the Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year.  It is the height of cynicism that, of all countries, Russia and Iran, which fuelled the civil war in Syria in their own interests, causing the deaths of thousands of people, now want to develop a political vision for Syria s future,  Hardt said. Hardt said Germany s conservatives hoped that the announcement of a ceasefire was serious, and would lead to a permanent halt in fighting in Syria and an end to mass death, flight and expulsion.  Russia, Iran and the dictatorial regime in Syria could have achieved this long ago if they had wanted to,  Hardt said, noting that a solution could not be achieved under conditions set by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Hardt said a lasting peace could only be achieved if all parties were involved, and that, in turn, was only possible under a peace process led by the United Nations. The German foreign ministry had no immediate comment on Putin s new initiative.

Summary: मर्केल के सहयोगी ने रूस के नए सीरियाई शांति प्रयास को "सनकीपन की पराकाष्ठा" बताया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, already in legal limbo after an October court decision, could find its powers scaled back by President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress, according to members of both political parties, lobbyists and lawyers.  That may mean the end of many of the agency’s rule-making actions that have enraged critics, including a proposal to stop companies from blocking customers from class action lawsuits and another one to limit payday lending. Creation of the CFPB was authorized in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law enacted in the aftermath of the 2007-09 financial crisis. The agency began operations in 2011. An agency to protect consumers’ finances was the idea of liberal Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Its creation is considered one of Democratic President Barack Obama’s top domestic policy achievements. A Trump administration is expected to be hostile to the agency as it is currently formulated. “The election spells very bad news for the CFPB,” said Alan Kaplinsky, head of the Consumer Financial Services Group at law firm Ballard Spahr.  Many Republicans opposed the agency’s creation. They now say they dislike its structure and believe it oversteps its authority in enforcement. “It’s a very fragile thing. It was birthed in controversy and is under constant attack,” said consumer attorney Deepak Gupta, who worked at the CFPB in its early days. “It may not survive the way we know it through this administration.” A single director leads both rule-making and enforcement, and can be dismissed only for cause. Furthermore, the agency is funded by the U.S. Federal Reserve system, which means it is not dependent on the typical congressional appropriations process. The Republican-led House of Representatives Financial Services Committee in September passed legislation without any Democratic votes that would change the name and structure of the agency and would create a five-member commission to govern it. Republicans also have pushed for the agency to receive funds from Congress to make it accountable to elected leaders. Both of those proposals would greatly weaken the power of Richard Cordray, the agency’s original and current director. Obama has blocked these Republican efforts with veto threats. Trump, though he has not directly addressed the CFPB, has said he wants to roll back parts of Dodd-Frank. Trump could, if he wanted to, fire Cordray on the first day of his presidency, especially following an October ruling by a three-judge federal appeals court panel that found the agency’s structure unconstitutional and that the president should be able to dismiss the director at will. That ruling was put on hold while the CFPB decides whether to petition the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for a review or appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The agency has until Nov. 25 to decide. Trump’s administration could withdraw any appeal, letting the decision stand. Cordray, appointed in 2013, is halfway through his five-year term. Few in the banking industry think the entire agency will be eliminated. Democrats who support the agency will have a large presence in the Senate. Warren, who was Obama’s first choice to head the agency, has promised that Democrats will fight efforts to defang it. Even some bankers want to see it stay. Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, said his group would fight to maintain the CFPB in some form because it consolidates consumer banking rules under one regulator.  Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Cordray could be replaced early in 2017, said Mark Calabria, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank. Trump’s transition team is already looking into Cordray replacements, he said. The law allows for the president to terminate a director over inefficiency, malfeasance or neglect of duty, which leaves room for Trump to find cause regardless of what the appeals court decides, Calabria added. Cordray has set precedent with enforcement cases that Calabria and other critics have called backdoor rule-making.  “Cordray has left the CFPB vulnerable to what his successor may want done because he didn’t hardwire rule-making,” Calabria said. If Cordray quits or is removed, statute calls for his deputy to step into the job temporarily. Acting Deputy Director David Silberman, also a strong consumer advocate, would likely continue to carry out the current agenda, said Quyen Truong, a partner at Washington law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Truong was the assistant director and deputy general counsel for the CFPB until earlier this year. The CFPB did not respond to requests for comment on Cordray’s possible departure or the fate of current rule-making actions.

Summary: अमेरिकी उपभोक्ता वित्तीय एजेंसी को ट्रम्प के तहत बदनाम किया जा सकता है