GENEVA (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad and his family have no role in the future of Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday ahead of peace talks aiming at a political transition scheduled to resume next month. Tillerson said that the Trump administration backed the Geneva peace talks as the only way to end the more than six-year-old war and move to a political transition and elections. He was speaking after holding talks with U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who announced that stalled peace talks between the Syrian government and still-to-be-united opposition would resume in Geneva on Nov. 28.  The United States wants a whole and unified Syria with no role for Bashar al-Assad in the government,  Tillerson told reporters in the Swiss city at the end of a week-long trip that took him to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan and India.  It is our view and I have said this many times as well that we do not believe that there is a future for the Assad regime and Assad family. The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end. The only issue is how that should that be brought about.  When the Trump administration came into office it took the view that it was  not a prerequisite that Assad goes  before the transitional process started, he added. Supported by Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, Assad appears militarily unassailable and last month Assad ally Hezbollah declared victory in the Syrian war.    Those forces have pushed Islamic State back from large swathes of eastern Syria in recent months and over the past year have taken numerous pockets of rebel-held territory around Aleppo, Homs and Damascus.  My reading is that Assad is here to stay for as long as the Russians and the Iranians have no alternative to him,  a Western diplomat told Reuters.  The date of his departure will depend on the Russians more than anyone else. Once - or if - they find someone better, he may go.  Ceasefire deals brokered by Russia, Turkey, Iran and the United States in remaining rebel-held areas of western Syria have freed up manpower for Assad s allies. Tillerson called his discussions with de Mistura  fruitful  and said the United States will  continue our efforts to de-escalate the violence in Syria . He said the only reason Assad s forces had succeeded in turning the tide in the war against Islamic State and other militants was  air support they have received from Russia . Tillerson said Iran, Assad s other main ally, should not be seen as having made the difference in the defeat of Islamic State in Syria.  I do not see Syria as a triumph for Iran. I see Iran as a hanger-on. I don t think that Iran should be given credit for the defeat of ISIS (Islamic State) In Syria. Rather I think they have taken advantage of the situation.

Summary: सीरिया के भविष्य में असद की कोई भूमिका नहीं हैः टिलरसन


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia aims to start issuing tourist visas to foreigners next year, a senior Saudi official told CNN, as the government seeks to open up the conservative kingdom and find new sources of revenue to diversify its economy.   At present, foreigners traveling to Saudi Arabia are largely restricted to resident workers and their dependents, business travelers, and Muslim pilgrims who are given special visas to travel to holy sites.    The targets are people who want to come and literally experience this country, and really the grandness of this country,  Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Natural Heritage, said in an interview broadcast late on Wednesday.   Asked about plans for the visas, he replied:  Hopefully in 2018,  adding that the government would use online technology to make applying for visas easy. Saudi Arabia s 32-year-old heir to the throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is seeking to develop new industries to wean his country off its dependency on oil exports. He has also taken some steps to loosen its ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police and announcing plans to allowing women to drive next year. Plans to admit significant numbers of tourists from abroad have been discussed for years, only to be blocked by conservative opinion and bureaucracy; the commission announced such a plan as long ago as 2006, but it did not go ahead. This time, the government appears determined to push through the change, partly because of financial pressures. It hopes to earn billions of dollars to cover a state budget deficit caused by low oil prices.  Economic reforms aim to lift total tourism spending in the country - by local citizens as well as foreigners - to $46.6 billion in 2020 from $27.9 billion in 2015. Prince Sultan said his commission was focusing mainly on increasing numbers of local tourists. The commission has estimated Saudis spend more than $20 billion annually on tourism abroad, and persuading more of them to holiday inside the country would reduce that drain on the economy. But Prince Sultan told CNN that his commission was also working to prepare tourist spots for foreigners. The government announced plans in August to develop resorts on about 50 islands off the Red Sea coast, with the first phase of the project to be completed in 2022. The kingdom also intends to offer visits to historic sites such as Mada in Saleh, a 2,000-year-old Nabatean city carved into the rocks of the northern desert. Heir to the throne Prince Mohammed would be the first ruler from a new generation since 1953, after six kings who were all sons of state founder Abdulaziz ibn Saud. He has announced wide plans for social and political reforms to the kingdom, which is ruled as an absolute monarchy with a powerful clergy that adheres to Wahhabism, an ultra-austere version of Sunni Islam.

Summary: सऊदी अरब का लक्ष्य अगले साल पर्यटक वीजा जारी करना हैः अधिकारी


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will cut back contacts with Myanmar s top generals in a first step to increase sanctions over an army  offensive that has driven more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims out of the country, according to a draft document seen by Reuters. Thousands of the Rohingya fled for Myanmar to Bangladesh on Monday in a new surge of refugees driven by fears of starvation and violence which the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing. The United States and the European Union have been considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar military leaders, though the European bloc sees its options as relatively limited, with no hard-hitting, direct leverage on the ground.  EU foreign ministers will discuss the situation in Myanmar on Oct.16, and their draft joint statement said the bloc  will suspend invitations to the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar/Burma armed forces and other senior military officers . The text, which will be discussed further by envoys from the 28 EU states on Tuesday and may be modified, said the EU may consider further measures depending on developments in Myanmar but would  respond accordingly to positive developments . The document confirmed support for an existing EU embargo on arms and equipment  that can be used for internal repression .  It called on Myanmar to discuss repatriating refugees from neighboring Bangladesh and praised the latter for its role in the crisis, which started when attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts brought a ferocious military response. Refugees and rights groups say the army and Buddhist vigilantes use killing and arson to drive the Rohingya out of Myanmar. Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing. The EU draft characterized the situation in the most-affected Rakhine State as  extremely serious  and said Kachin and Shan provinces were also  of great concern.   It called on all sides to cease violence, told the military to  end its operations  and protect all civilians equally, as well as calling on Myanmar to allow humanitarian access to the affected regions. The West has invested politically in Myanmar leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has faced scathing international criticism for not doing more to stop the violence. While the EU feels disillusioned, it also acknowledges Aung San Suu Kyi has little influence over Myanmar s security forces. The move to punish the army head is largely symbolic as the West is also wary of hurting the wider economy or destabilizing already-tense ties between Suu Kyi and the army. Its leverage on the ground fades compared to that of Myanmar s immediate neighbors, including China.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः यूरोपीय संघ नए प्रतिबंधों में म्यांमार के जनरलों से दूर रह सकता है-मसौदा


AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Republican speaker of the Texas House of Representatives said on Friday a bill to limit bathroom access for transgender people would face a tough time in the chamber, where there are worries of an economic hit to the state if it became law. Speaker Joe Straus, who sets the Republican-dominated House’s legislative agenda, stopped short of saying the measure was doomed. He made his remarks at a University of Texas forum in Austin.  “I don’t feel a great deal of fervor to promote that bill in the House,” Straus said.  Analysts expect Straus to send Senate Bill 6 (SB 6) to a committee led by one of his political supporters, who will keep it tucked away. The measure would then die when the current session ends in late May. “Straus is signaling very clearly that SB 6 is dead,” said Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University in Houston.  Straus reiterated his opposition to the legislation, which was approved by the Republican-controlled state Senate this month on a mostly party-line vote. The bill would require people to use restrooms in public schools and government-run buildings that correspond with the gender on their birth certificate rather than the gender with which they identify. The speaker called it “manufactured and unnecessary.” The bill is one of several similar measures before various state legislatures this year on the issue.  A similar law enacted a year ago in North Carolina prompted  the relocation of sporting events and economic boycotts that were estimated to have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. The Texas Association of Business, the state’s largest employers’ group, has said such a law there would cost the state billions of dollars in lost revenue a year. The bill’s main backer, Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, has said it would keep sexual predators out of bathrooms and changing rooms, and he has labeled as fiction reports that there would be economic effects on the state. Straus’ San Antonio district is planning to host the NCAA men’s Final Four basketball championship next year. Economists forecast the region could lose more than $200 million in revenue if the legislation was passed and in response the NCAA were to relocate the championship.

Summary: टेक्सास के शक्तिशाली रिपब्लिकन 'बाथरूम बिल' के लिए कठिन रास्ता देखते हैं


(Reuters) - The New York Times Co will increase spending on coverage of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration while cutting its overall budget this year, according to a blog post by its editors on Tuesday. The budget cuts, which will be laid out in coming weeks and months, will focus on editing and production systems, rather than on resources for journalism, according to the post by Dean Baquet, executive editor, and Joe Kahn, managing editor. “To that end, you should know the company is investing more than ever in accountability journalism,” the blog post said. The company is going to allocate an additional $5 million to produce more coverage of the incoming Trump administration, according to the blog post. The New York Times is increasing its spending of coverage of Trump as he has often attacked the New York Times and other media outlets, accusing them of reporting on false information. Last week at his first formal press conference since he won the Nov. 8 election, Trump refused to take a CNN reporter’s questions, calling the outlet “fake news,” after it reported on the existence of unverified intelligence documents concerning Trump. At the same press conference, Trump referred to Buzzfeed, which published the dossier of documents online, as a “failing pile of garbage.”

Summary: बजट में कटौती के बीच न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स ट्रम्प कवरेज पर खर्च बढ़ाएगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticisms of National Football League players kneeling in protest during the national anthem have not distracted him from other concerns, he told journalists on Tuesday. “I wasn’t preoccupied with the NFL. I was ashamed of what was taking place because to me, that was a very important moment,” Trump said, adding later, “I have plenty of time on my hands. All I do is work.”

Summary: एन. एफ. एल. विरोध प्रदर्शनों से विचलित नहीं हुएः ट्रम्प


COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark will no longer automatically accept a quota of refugees under a U.N. resettlement program after passing a law on Wednesday that enables the government to determine how many can enter each year. Since 1989, Denmark has agreed to take 500 refugees a year selected by the United Nations under a program to ease the burden on countries that neighbor war zones.  But after the European migration crisis in 2015 brought almost 20,000 claims for asylum, Denmark has refused to take any U.N. quota refugees. Under the new law, the immigration minister will decide how many refugees will be allowed under the U.N. program, with 500 now the maximum except in an  exceptional situation .    It s hard to predict how many refugees and migrants will show up at the border to seek asylum, and we know it may be hard to integrate those who arrive here,  Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Stojberg said last month when her ministry proposed the law. The opposition Social-Liberal Party said opting out of the U.N. program would increase pressure on countries already accommodating large numbers of refugees, and the move could encourage other countries to follow suit. Last year, more than 6,000 people claimed asylum in Denmark. Between January and November this year just over 3,000 people did.   (Corrects throughout to show new law only applies to U.N. resettlement quota, not other refugee applications.)

Summary: डेनमार्क अब स्वचालित रूप से संयुक्त राष्ट्र शरणार्थी पुनर्वास कोटा स्वीकार नहीं करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide whether to block a lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft and others by non-U.S. citizens, mainly Muslims, swept up after the Sept. 11 attacks who said they were abused in detention. The senior officials under former President George W. Bush, also including former FBI Director Robert Mueller and Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar, have asked the justices to reverse a 2015 lower court ruling allowing the long-running suit to proceed. The civil rights lawsuit seeks to hold the former officials responsible for racial and religious profiling and abuse in detention that the plaintiffs said they endured after being detained following the 2001 attacks by al Qaeda Islamic militants on the United States. The brief order said two justices, liberals Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, will not participate, meaning only six justices will hear the case. The court remains one justice short following Antonin Scalia’s February death. The suit was filed by a group of Muslim, Arab and South Asian non-U.S. citizens who, their lawyers said, were held as terrorism suspects based on their race, religion, ethnicity and immigration status and abused in detention before being deported. They were charged only with civil immigration violations. But the plaintiffs said they were subjected at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center to 23-hours-a-day solitary confinement, strip searches, sleep deprivation, beatings and other abuses and denied the ability to practice their religion. They said their rights under the U.S. Constitution to due process and equal protection under the law were violated. The plaintiffs include Benamar Benatta, an Algerian Muslim who was seeking refugee status in Canada, and Ahmed Khalifa, an Egyptian Muslim who said he was on vacation. During the U.S. Justice Department’s massive investigation after the 2001 attacks, certain immigrants in the country illegally were detained until being cleared of Sept. 11 involvement. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ashcroft, Mueller and Ziglar could be sued, based on a 1971 Supreme Court ruling. In 2013, a judge had dismissed the claims against them but allowed some against detention facility wardens. Ashcroft and Mueller are represented by the Justice Department, which asked the justices to hear the appeal. Government lawyers say there is no proof Ashcroft or Mueller personally condoned any potential unconstitutional actions. The court will hear arguments and rule by the end of June. In a similar previous case, the Supreme Court in 2009 backed Ashcroft, saying a lawsuit by detainees failed to contain specific details on Ashcroft’s involvement.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीश बुश अधिकारियों के खिलाफ बंदी मुकदमे पर विचार करेंगे


MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Britain wants to negotiate a Brexit agreement with the European Union, but is ready to walk away with no deal, Brexit minister David Davis said on Tuesday, warning that any error in the talks could cost them billions of pounds. At the annual conference of the Conservative Party, Davis told members the government did not want to fail in the talks to unravel more than 40 years of union, but officials were  contingency planning  to make sure all scenarios were covered. British Prime Minister Theresa May has tried to unblock the talks with EU leaders, after they stalled over disagreements on the final divorce bill, by making concessions on the role of the European court and the financial settlement. But earlier on Tuesday, the European Parliament passed a non-binding motion calling on EU leaders to conclude at a summit on Oct. 19-20 that Brexit talks had not made sufficient progress to justify opening trade negotiations with Britain.  On the negotiating front, we are aiming for a good deal. And that is what we expect to achieve. However, if the outcome of the negotiation falls short of the deal that Britain needs we will be ready for the alternative,  Davis said.  That is what a responsible government does. Anything else would be a dereliction of duty.  Davis, who said Britain was nearing agreement with the EU on citizens rights - one of three issues to be settled in the first round of negotiations, criticized the main opposition Labour Party for having an unclear position on Brexit   This is the most complex negotiation you could imagine, where one oversight, one error could cost the taxpayer billions of pounds,  he said.

Summary: ब्रिटेन ब्रेक्सिट पर बिना किसी समझौते के बाहर निकलने के लिए तैयार हैः डेविस


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s defense ministry has sent an oceanographic research ship to the South Atlantic to help with the search for an Argentine submarine which went missing more than a week ago, TASS news agency reported on Thursday. The vessel, called Yantar (Amber), is equipped with two self-propelled deep submergence vehicles allowing it to examine underwater areas up to 6,000 meters (3.75 miles) deep, TASS quoted the Russian military as saying. Dozens of planes and boats are searching for the San Juan submarine. The search entered a  critical phase  on Wednesday as the 44 crew on board could be running low on oxygen, an Argentine navy spokesman said. If the German-built submarine, in service for more than three decades, had sunk or was otherwise unable to rise to the surface since it gave its last location on Nov. 15, it would be using up the last of its seven-day oxygen supply.

Summary: रूस ने लापता अर्जेंटीना पनडुब्बी की खोज में मदद के लिए शोध जहाज भेजा


LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May called on Friday for a roughly two-year transition for Britain after it leaves the European Union while also offering some concessions on a divorce deal. Below are reactions to May s speech in Florence, which she hopes will inject new momentum into the Brexit negotiations.  The speech shows a willingness to move forward, as time is of the essence. Prime Minister May s statements are a step forward but they must now be translated into a precise negotiating position of the UK government.  Barnier also noted May did not address the issue of the future of Northern Ireland s relations with Ireland.  Fifteen months after the EU referendum the government is still no clearer about what our long term relationship with the EU will look like. The only advance seems to be that the prime minister has listened to Labour and faced up to the reality that Britain needs a transition on the same basic terms to provide stability for businesses and workers.  MANFRED WEBER, HEAD OF CENTRE-RIGHT GROUP IN EU PARLIAMENT  In substance Prime Minister May is bringing no more clarity to London s positions. I am even more concerned now.   Theresa May s Brexit vision is that we leave the EU in name only. All areas of integration we have currently will be rebadged.   While the UK has taken a limited step toward a more pragmatic stance on the initial legal exit from the EU that emerged over the summer, its position appears to remain deeply conflicted.  As many had anticipated, the speech falls short of addressing the legacy financial issues which the EU has highlighted as key to moving on to a second stage of the talks.  Our best guess is that the degree of antagonism between the two sides will rise in the near term.  MILES CELIC, CEO, THECITYUK, FINANCIAL SERVICES LOBBY GROUP  In calling for a time-limited transitional period under the existing rules and structures, she has echoed our industry s priorities and the calls of businesses on both sides of the Channel.  Similarly, since the start of the Brexit negotiations, we have been clear on the benefits of mutual regulatory recognition. It s very positive to see that the British government supports this principle   one which is in the best interests of all parties.   For the first time, today s intervention by the prime minister provides a potential route forward out of the current uncertainty caused by the stalled negotiations.   The intention to negotiate an implementation phase based on our current arrangements with the EU-27 is a welcome step in helping businesses manage the ongoing uncertainty.       While further clarity around the government s wider position is welcome, the commitment to a two-year transition makes it even more important that rapid progress is made in the negotiations.  CATHERINE MCGUINNESS, POLICY CHAIRMAN, CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION  Firms in the financial and professional services sector plan two to or more years in advance. With only 18 months left until the UK leave the bloc, urgent agreement on a transitional arrangement is crucial.  Otherwise, firms may well be forced to implement contingency plans unnecessarily.  TIM GRAF, EMEA HEAD OF MACRO STRATEGY, STATE STREET GLOBAL MARKETS  For the near-term, negotiations may likely be hampered by the lack of detail offered on the main items for discussion, namely the Irish border question, the ultimate financial settlement with the EU and the rights of EU citizens.  STEPHEN MARTIN, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS  There was welcome honesty in today s speech that not following one of the existing models will have some implications for market access for UK firms.  A lot more honesty will be needed as the Brexit negotiations continue, as any decision on immigration or regulation, for example, will have knock-on effects and businesses and the public are entitled to know what the trade-offs are.  ADAM MARSHALL, DIRECTOR GENERAL, BRITISH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE  The absolute priorities for business are to get trade talks moving, and to ensure a comprehensive transition period is in place that gives the certainty that companies need to take immediate investment and hiring decisions. It is our hope that the prime minister s offer will jump-start the process.  HELEN DICKINSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BRITISH RETAIL CONSORTIUM  The prime minister is right to offer a real guarantee to both EU workers and UK nationals in the EU-27 between 2019-2021, subject to a registration requirement.  However, they still need practical details about the process for registration and securing their status, so the UK government should negotiate with the EU Commission so that preferential reciprocal labor market access across industries like retail can be put in place for the post-implementation period.   We are astonished to hear Theresa May claim she will guarantee the current rights of EU citizens living in the UK. Current government proposals remove a number of rights from EU citizens, including the right to be joined in the UK by a spouse, child or elderly parent.

Summary: तत्काल दृश्यः ब्रिटेन के मई ने ब्रेक्सिट के बाद दो साल के संक्रमण का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. advisory commission warned on Wednesday that China’s growing military might may make it more likely to use force to pursue its interests and called for a government probe into how far outsourcing to China has weakened the U.S. defense industry. The annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission pointed to a growing threat to U.S. national security from Chinese spying, including infiltration of U.S. organizations, and called on Congress to bar Chinese state enterprises from acquiring control of U.S. firms. The release of the report to Congress comes a week after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election. Trump, an outspoken Republican who has vowed to take a tougher line in trade and security dealings with China than President Barack Obama, will take office on Jan. 20. The panel is a bipartisan body set up in 2000 to monitor the national security implications of the U.S. trade and economic relationship with China and to make recommendations to Congress for legislative and administrative action. Its report also called on Congress to back more frequent U.S. Navy freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes where China’s building of artificial islands with military facilities has raised concerns about future freedom of movement. Beijing and its neighbors have conflicting territorial claims there. The commission said ongoing reforms of the People’s Liberation Army would strengthen Beijing’s hand and noted that China was close to completing its first domestically produced aircraft carrier. “China’s pursuit of expeditionary capabilities, coupled with the aggressive trends that have been displayed in both the East and South China Seas, are compounding existing concerns about China’s rise among U.S. allies and partners in the greater Asia,” the report said. “Given its enhanced strategic lift capability, strengthened employment of special operations forces, increasing capabilities of surface vessels and aircraft, and more frequent and sophisticated experience operating abroad, China may also be more inclined to use force to protect its interests,” it said. The panel said that U.S. responses to the threat from Chinese intelligence gathering had suffered from a lack of a coordinated effort by U.S. intelligence agencies. It said Congress should also direct the U.S. Government Accountability Office to prepare a report “examining the extent to which large-scale outsourcing of manufacturing activities to China is leading to the hollowing out of the U.S. defense industrial base.” “This report should also detail the national security implications of a diminished domestic industrial base (including assessing any impact on U.S. military readiness), compromised U.S. military supply chains, and reduced capability to manufacture state-of-the-art military systems and equipment,” it said. The commission’s report also recommended that Congress call on the U.S. State Department to produce educational materials to alert U.S. citizens overseas and students going to China to the dangers of recruitment efforts by Chinese agents.

Summary: अमेरिकी पैनल ने इस बात की जांच करने का आग्रह किया कि क्या चीन अमेरिकी सेना को कमजोर कर रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to strengthen their defense posture amid rising tensions with North Korea, the White House said on Friday. Trump and Moon, who met on Thursday, committed to strengthen their  combined defense posture, including through South Korea s acquisition and development of highly advanced military assets  and  agreed to the enhanced deployment of U.S. strategic assets in and around South Korea on a rotational basis,  the White House said in a statement.

Summary: ट्रम्प, दक्षिण कोरिया के चंद्रमा रक्षा बढ़ाने के लिए सहमत हैंः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration’s budget proposal would convert some of the United States’ foreign military grants to loans, part of a larger effort to slash spending on diplomacy, aid and programs abroad by more than 29 percent, the White House said on Monday. The cuts to programs under the State Department are in part meant to fund an increase in military spending. The White House budget documents showed total defense spending for the 2018 fiscal year at $603 billion, about 3 percent higher than President Barack Obama’s proposed 2018 fiscal year defense budget. The $603 billion includes funding for nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Energy and other national defense programs as well as the Department of Defense.  The Pentagon’s specific defense request is for $574.5 billion, an increase of 4.6 percent compared to fiscal year 2017. Under President Donald Trump’s proposal, the United States would spend 29.1 percent less on the State Department and “other international programs” in the 2018 fiscal year compared to 2017, a decrease of $11.5 billion. That decrease includes a re-shaping of the way some countries receive military aid from the United States. Foreign military financing gives countries loans or grants to buy U.S. military equipment. The State Department decides which countries are given the financing while the Pentagon executes the decisions. Under the Trump proposal, many current grants would instead be converted to loans. “We do change a couple of the foreign military programs from direct grants to loans,” said Mick Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, in a briefing with reporters on Monday. “Our argument was instead of ... giving somebody $100 million, we could give them a smaller number worth of loan guarantees and they could actually buy more stuff.” Military aid to Israel and Egypt, two close U.S. allies in the Middle East and the biggest recipients of U.S. military assistance, will remain unchanged, Mulvaney said. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the proposal, said the foreign military grants could affect Pakistan, Tunisia, Lebanon, Ukraine, Colombia, the Philippines and Vietnam. U.S. military assistance to partners and allies reached $13.5 billion in 2015, or 28 percent of all U.S. foreign aid spending that year, according to the Congressional Research Service. Most grants through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program go to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Iraq. Congress ultimately controls the government purse strings and may reject some or many of the Trump administration’s proposals. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have criticized the size of the cuts to the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. Mulvaney said that aid to Pakistan would be reduced, though he did not give concrete details. “(The) State (Department) still has some flexibility to come up with a final plan on that, but I do know that writ large we have proposed to move several countries from a direct grant program to a loan guarantee program,” he said. Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the switch from grants to loans for military aid may mean that countries will not be able to afford U.S. military equipment, forcing them to go elsewhere for supplies. “Countries can buy from China or Russia. They have other places to shop, and one of the ways that we build capacity with our partners is through these grants,” Harrison said. “It’s in our interest to have interoperability with our allies, and these military grants are a part of that.” Thomas Spoehr, who directs the Center for National Defense at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the conversion from grants to loans will be a challenge especially for smaller military aid recipient countries like Macedonia and Tunisia.     But “it’s a proposal whose time has come,” Spoehr said, given U.S. budget deficits and high military spending overall.     “This is probably a prudent place to make some cuts given all the other investments we make in national defense,” Spoehr said.

Summary: ट्रम्प के बजट में कुछ सैन्य अनुदानों को ऋण में बदलने का प्रस्ताव है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Virginia Senator Jim Webb, who dropped his bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination last October, told a Texas foreign affairs group on Thursday that he had studied an independent bid for the White House and decided against it. “We looked at the possibility of an independent candidacy. Theoretically it could be done, but it is enormously costly and time sensitive, and I don’t see the fundraising trajectory where we could make a realistic run,” Webb told the World Affairs Council of Dallas, according to a statement from his spokesman. In his speech to the council, Webb called for a vigorous foreign policy debate in the presidential campaign and said neither political party appeared to be addressing the needs of most voters. “We have not had a clear statement of national security policy since the end of the Cold War,” he said. “And I see no one running for president today who has a firm understanding of the elements necessary to build a national strategy.” Webb is a decorated war veteran who served in the Vietnam War and was Navy secretary during the administration of Republican President Ronald Reagan. He is the author of 10 books and an Emmy award-making journalist and filmmaker.    Webb ended his bid for the Democratic nomination in October after only four months, acknowledging his more conservative political views were out of sync with many of the party’s leaders and primary voters. He indicated at the time that he planned to review his options and talk to people and groups who have urged him to run for president as an independent candidate. “I’ve worked with both parties, including as an official in the Reagan administration and as a Democrat in the Senate. Both parties, in my view, have moved away from the major concerns of the average American,” he told the World Affairs Council of Dallas. For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, “Tales from the Trail” (here).  (Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Grant McCool and Bernard Orr) 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: पूर्व सीनेटर वेब ने स्वतंत्र राष्ट्रपति पद की दावेदारी को खारिज किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans will be able to push through tax reform by the end of this year even as they continue to debate whether or not a final plan will include a border adjustment tax, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said an interview with Axios news outlet on Wednesday. Asked if he could envision a scenario where tax reform passes the House of Representative without including a border adjustment tax, Ryan said yes but added that internal negotiations are still ongoing.

Summary: पॉल रेयान का कहना है कि कर सुधार 2017 में पारित हो जाएगाः एक्सियोस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Monday blocked Democratic legislation expanding federal background checks to all gun sales, including those done at gun shows and on the internet. The Senate fell 16 votes short of the 60 needed for advancing the measure, which would have closed a background check loophole. The Senate is now set to vote on two other gun control measures.

Summary: सीनेट ने बंदूक की पृष्ठभूमि की जांच का विस्तार करने की लोकतांत्रिक योजना को अवरुद्ध कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would be willing to step in and mediate the worst dispute in decades among the U.S.-allied Arab states and Qatar, and said he thinks a deal could come quickly.  If I can help mediate between Qatar and, in particular, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, I would be willing to do so, and I think you would have a deal worked out very quickly,  Trump said at a joint news conference with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar on June 5, suspending air and shipping routes with the world s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, which is home to the region s biggest U.S. military base. The nations say Doha supports regional foe Iran and Islamists, charges Qatar s leaders deny. Kuwait has been trying to mediate the dispute.  What is important is that we have stopped any military action,  Sheikh Sabah said. While both sides in the dispute have ruled out the use of armed force, some ordinary Qataris have said they worry about the possibility of military action, given the ferocity of the criticism their country has received from media in the four Arab states. Sheikh Sabah said he had received a letter from Qatar that expressed willingness to discuss a list of 13 demands from its neighbors.  We know that not all of these 13 demands are acceptable,  Sheikh Sabah said, referring specifically to issues that affected Qatari sovereignty.  A great part of them will be resolved,  he said. For its part, Doha said Trump had called Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to discuss mediation efforts. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told Al Jazeera TV that any mediation had to come  without conditions , reiterating that Doha would not negotiate while transport links with neighbors remained cut. The Arab powers responded with a joint statement accusing Qatar of putting preconditions on negotiations which it said showed a lack of seriousness in resolving the dispute. The four countries reiterated an accusation that Qatar continued to finance terrorism and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Qatari officials have repeatedly said the demands are so draconian that they suspect the four countries never seriously intended to negotiate them, and were instead seeing to hobble Doha s sovereignty. At the same time, they have said Qatar is interested in negotiating a fair and just solution to  any legitimate issues  of concern to fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member states. The joint statement praised what the countries called Trump s firm assertion that the only way to resolve the crisis was by stopping the support and financing of terrorism  and his unwillingness to resolve the crisis unless this is achieved . They expressed regret about the Kuwaiti emir s comment about stopping military intervention.  The military option was not and will not be (used) in any circumstance,  the statement said.

Summary: ट्रंप ने कतर संकट पर मध्यस्थता की पेशकश की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A report to the U.S. Congress released on Wednesday accused Chinese state media entities of involvement in spying and propaganda and said their staff in the United States should be required to register as foreign agents. The annual report of the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission said that while China had tightened restrictions on domestic and foreign media, Chinese state media had rapidly expanded overseas. The commission, created by Congress in 2000 to monitor national security implications of U.S.-China trade relations, said China’s state media expansion was part of a broader effort to exert greater control over how China is depicted globally, as well as to gather information. The report highlighted the rapid growth of the Xinhua news agency and noted that it had offices at the United Nations in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and San Francisco. “Xinhua serves some of the functions of an intelligence agency by gathering information and producing classified reports for the Chinese leadership on both domestic and international events,” the report said. It quoted testimony to the commission by the U.S. Government-funded rights organization, Freedom House, as saying it was a “loophole” that individuals working for Xinhua and China’s People’s Daily newspaper were not covered by the Foreign Agents Registration Act. FARA, first passed in 1938 in the lead up to World War Two  to combat German propaganda efforts, requires foreign governments, political parties and lobbyists they hire in the United States to register with the Department of Justice.  The China Daily, an English-language newspaper owned by China’s government and ruling Communist Party, is already registered under FARA but only its top executives are required to individually disclose working for the publication. A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is working to overhaul FARA after Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, and a business associate were indicted for failing to register under the law.  The reform, backed by powerful Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, could provide an opportunity for Congress to act on the commission recommendations.  On Monday, the Kremlin-backed television station RT America registered under FARA after U.S. intelligence agencies in a report in January called it a “state-run propaganda machine” that contributed to the Kremlin’s campaign to interfere with last year’s U.S. presidential election. Under the act, RT will be required to disclose financial information. Moscow has said it views the action against RT as an unfriendly act.

Summary: अमेरिकी कांग्रेस ने चीनी पत्रकारों से एजेंट के रूप में पंजीकरण कराने का आग्रह किया


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s ruling Communist Party on Wednesday opens its 19th Congress, at which President Xi Jinping will map out his ambitions for the country for the next five years and beyond, likely to be high on aspiration and short on concrete details. Here are some key factors to watch out for: - Will Xi resurrect the position of party chairman? Xi is currently the party s general secretary, but not its chairman, a title Mao Zedong and his two successors, Hua Guofeng and Hu Yaobang, both held. Becoming party chairman would put Xi at the same level as Mao and could allow him to effectively end three decades of collective leadership, giving him unparalleled power. - What will happen to chief corruption-buster Wang Qishan? Speculation has swirled that Wang, 69, could be asked to stay on past an unofficial retirement age limit, either in his current role, or possibly in a new position with an economic portfolio. - Who will be on the new Standing Committee, the apex of power in China? Currently made up of seven men, most of whom are expected to retire and be replaced by new faces. Possible names include Li Shulei, Wang s deputy at the anti-corruption watchdog; the Chongqing party chief Chen Miner, who is close to Xi; and the provincial party boss of Guangdong, Hu Chunhua. If Xi becomes party chairman the significance of the Standing Committee would become diminished, as power would be concentrated in Xi s hands rather than in the Standing Committee. - A series of new personnel appointments, like the foreign minister and central bank chief, will be decided, though some may not be formalized and announced until the annual meeting of parliament in March.  - Changing the party s constitution. Some sort of reference to Xi and his theories will be included in the revised constitution - a further sign of his tightening grip on power. - Bolstering the anti-corruption and security systems. A new National Supervision Commission, which would combine the roles of several party and government bodies that currently combat graft, will likely be set up.  - The National Security Commission, already headed by Xi, could also get new powers, potentially making it more important than the Central Military Commission, which runs the People s Liberation Army. That would give the National Security Commission more power to tackle domestic and foreign threats. The exact role of a more powerful Commission is still unclear, including if it will have overall command of both the military and the domestic security forces. - Whether Xi will anoint a successor. Xi s rise to the top was confirmed at the 2007 Congress, when he first joined the Standing Committee and then became vice president the following year. Any successor would have to join the Standing Committee at this Congress and be young enough to serve at least three five-year terms. If there is no obvious successor, it will increase speculation that Xi could stay on in power after 2022, when the next Congress occurs, and when Xi should, according to precedent and age limits, step down after two terms in office. - Whether Xi reaffirms 2013 reform pledges to let market forces play a  decisive  role in the economy, a catchphrase rarely mentioned now. Signals on new reform initiatives will be important, especially concerning state-owned enterprises, the fiscal system, property taxes and land rights. Also important is if there are any fresh measures to tackle industrial overcapacity and debt issues. Any fresh measures to tackle overcapacity and debt issues. - Any hints on policy priorities for the next five years, both monetary and fiscal, though analysts don t expect the Congress to unveil any major policy changes. Economic and policy agendas for 2018 will be set at the annual economic work conference later this year.  - New expressions on the economy and reforms, following Xi s use of the terms  new normal  to describe the more moderate pace of economic growth, and  supply-side structural reform . - How the punishing war on pollution is affecting China s business and government leaders as they prepare for a tough winter campaign aimed at meeting politically sensitive smog reduction targets. Fighting pollution is now a key criterion on which the performance of officials will be judged.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः चीन की कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी कांग्रेस में क्या देखना है


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico central bank governor Agustin Carstens said on Friday he is “implicitly” factoring in the possibility of Republican hopeful Donald Trump becoming U.S. president in the bank’s economic risk models. In an interview with El Financiero/Bloomberg Carstens was asked whether the chances of Trump, a persistent critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement, becoming the next president of the United States was in the central bank’s risk models. “Well, explicitly, no,” Carstens said. “But implicitly all of us have it in our heads, this possibility.” Carstens was also asked about Mexican monetary policy in the coming months after the bank launched a surprise rate hike on Feb. 17 to shore up the peso currency, which had been falling sharply against the dollar since the end of 2014. He reiterated that the February move was not the start of a monetary policy tightening cycle, but that the bank would be following moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve closely. “Our monetary policy will above all be led by ... the exchange rate, the monetary policy relative to the United States and the inflationary pressures that could occur due to the economic cycle in Mexico,” the central bank governor said. Trump, front-runner to win the Republican presidential nomination for the Nov. 8 election, sparked outrage in Mexico with campaign vows to slap tariffs on Mexican exports and to build a southern border wall and make Mexico pay for it. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said this month his country would not pay for Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and likened his “strident tone” to the ascent of dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.  (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter and Dave Graham; Editing by Richard Chang and Sam Holmes) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: मेक्सिको के कार्स्टेंस का कहना है कि 'स्पष्ट रूप से' ट्रम्प की जीत के जोखिम पर विचार कर रहे हैं


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tears flowed at Our Lady of Carmen and Saint Joseph Parrish on Thursday night as the families of two dead children killed when a powerful earthquake toppled their school a few blocks away interred their ashes  The crushed victims, 7-year-old Eduardo Diaz and 8-year-old Francisco Quintero, were two of the 286 people reported killed by the quake, Mexico s deadliest in 32 years. All told, 17 of the dead came from the parish which worshipped at Our Lady of Carmen, a Roman Catholic church near the Enrique Rebsamen School. Nineteen children and six adults died in the collapsed school, one of the earthquake s most emblematic tragedies. Family and friends leaned on each other during and after the Mass. Outside, Mexicans by the thousands, if not millions, have found another way to combat the sadness, coming to the aid of total strangers by offering their time to earthquake recovery.  Volunteers have overwhelmed the more than 50 collapsed building sites in Mexico City, many bearing food and water, others offering a pair hands and a will to go to work. The good deeds have helped lift the spirits of grieving families, said Father Genaro Chavez, the priest at Our Lady of Carmen.  First with their faith. And secondly, through the tremendous solidarity that people are showing. All of Mexico is gathering here, focusing on this place right now,  Chavez said from the back steps of his church, which were filled with palates of bottled water and foodstuffs. A few blocks away at the school, hundreds of rescuers labored against all odds to find survivors more than 48 hours after the quake. Many were police and army personnel, but others were average citizens who showed up in hard hats. Human chains were taking rubble out of the disaster site. Teams of men were hauling heavy beams and laminates of steel in to prop up the weakened structure. The volunteers included doctors and psychologists, trash-sweepers and sandwich-carriers. One man handed out chocolates to anyone in his path. All expressed a desire to help Mexico in its hour of need.  At a makeshift medical station on the grass median of a closed street, doctors and physical therapists tended to rescue workers who were injured on the job, patching them up and sending them back to work. Physical therapist Jose Juan Galvan applied ultrasound treatment to the back of a doctor who was injured moving a patient the day before. Next to them a doctor in a white coat taped of the knee of man in a hard hat.  We re treating them to send them back into action,  Galvan said. Psychologists Fabiola Jimenez and Paulina Bustos came to aid any parents, teachers or rescue workers dealing with emotional trauma. They counseled three fathers who showed up on Thursday, one whom lost a daughter and the other of whom had a son rescued. Bustos said it was normal for parents to return to the scene, hoping to find any of their children s belongings or recreate their final moments before tragedy.  They re confused, they re in shock, they re in mourning,  Bustos said.  It s part of the process.  Less lionized were the trash sweepers who also donated their time. A group of six sat on a curb eating sandwiches, taking a break after hauling away barrels of litter.  There s a lot of trash,  said Ana Ramirez, who said her group convinced her boss to allow the cleaning staff to report to the rescue site instead their regular job.  Mexico needs us here.

Summary: भूकंप से बचे लोगों की उम्मीद फीकी पड़ने पर मैक्सिकन लोगों ने विश्वास और दान के साथ प्रतिक्रिया दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions against two senior South Sudanese officials and the country s former army chief in a warning to the government of President Salva Kiir over increasing attacks on civilians in the country s four-year civil war. The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement on its website said it had blacklisted Malek Reuben Riak Rengu, deputy chief of defense for logistics in South Sudan s army; Paul Malong, former army chief sacked by Kiir in May; and Minister of Information Michael Makuei Lueth for their roles in destabilizing South Sudan. The measures freeze any assets in the United States or tied to the U.S. financial system belonging to the three men. Mawien Makol, spokesman at South Sudan s foreign affairs ministry, called Washington s announcement unfortunate.   Such sanctions can undermine the efforts rather than help the efforts,  Makol said, referring to a 2015 peace deal.  Nathaniel Oyet, a senior official in the opposition SPLA-IO group, welcomed the move although added:  It has come a bit late. We wanted it yesterday.   This now gives us the confidence that the Donald Trump administration will fix the crisis in South Sudan,  said Oyet. The U.S. crackdown comes days after Trump s new aid administrator, Mark Green, visited South Sudan to deliver a blunt message to Kiir that Washington was reviewing its policy toward his government. He called on Kiir to end the violence and implement a  real  ceasefire. The meeting signaled that the Trump administration was reconsidering its backing for Kiir, who came to power with the support of Washington when oil-rich South Sudan won independence from neighboring Sudan in 2011 following decades of conflict. But the world s youngest country dissolved into civil war in 2013 after Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer. Nearly one-third of the country s population - or 4  million people - have fled their homes, creating the continent s largest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In its statement, the U.S. Treasury said Malek Reuben was central to weapons procurement during the first few years of the conflict and helped plan an offensive in Unity State in April 2015, which targeted civilians and led to  numerous rights abuses.  It also accused him of issuing military contracts at inflated prices  in order to receive extensive kickbacks.   The U.S. Treasury blacklisted All Energy Investments, A+ Engineering, Electronics & Media Printing and Mak International Services which it said was owned or controlled by Malek Reuben.  Malong was sacked by Kiir in May as army chief and put under house arrest in the capital Juba, the country s defense minister told Reuters last week. The U.S. Treasury said he was being sanctioned for obstructing peace talks, international peacekeeping efforts and humanitarian missions in South Sudan. The Treasury statement said Malong was reportedly responsible for efforts to kill Machar in 2016 and  did not discourage  the killing of civilians around the town of Wau last year. It said Malong was found with  currency worth millions of U.S. dollars in his possession  belonging to the military s treasury as he tried to flee Juba in early May. Reached by phone in Nairobi, Malong s wife, Ayak Lucy, told Reuters her husband did not have financial assets in the United States. She was unaware of the sanctions announcement.  Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury accused Makuei of attacks against the U.N. mission in South Sudan and obstructing of peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in the country.  What do they call it? Economic sanctions? What property do I have in America and all over the world?  he told Reuters in response to the sanctions.

Summary: ट्रंप प्रशासन ने दक्षिण सूडान युद्ध के लिए तीन अधिकारियों को काली सूची में डाला


NEW YORK (Reuters) - It may be too close to call between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, but the senator from Vermont was the clear winner on social media.  Sanders maintained his strong social media presence during the caucuses, commanding the majority of the Twitter mentions over Clinton. Sanders was mentioned over 77,000 times on Twitter during the caucus, while Clinton was mentioned 52,000 times, according to social media sentiment analytics firm Brandwatch.  Clinton, the Democratic front-runner and former secretary of state, was in a virtual tie with Sanders with more than 93 percent of Iowa precincts reporting. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, amassed the largest number of new Facebook followers of any candidate in the race during Monday, the social network said, topping Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump by 15,695 to 10,704. Clinton had the third most new followers, with 6,210 liking her page in the past day. Among Republicans, Trump finished second in the caucuses to Ted Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas. Sanders resonated with Millennial social media users as well. Social media platform Yik Yak, which is particularly popular among younger social media users, said Sanders was mentioned in 60 percent of all yaks that discussed a Democratic candidate during the caucuses. While social media buzz does not necessarily translate into votes, it is a good indication of the interest level surrounding a candidate. The Iowa contest was the first of the state-by-state battles to pick nominees for the Nov. 8 election to succeed President Barack Obama. Google trends data also showed strong interest in Sanders. In Iowa, Sanders was the top-searched-for Democratic candidate on the search engine, with 52 percent of queries relating to the Democratic candidates. Clinton commanded 42 percent of queries. Even so, Trump was the top most-searched for presidential candidate overall, according to the most recent Google search data available.  (Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Additional reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: बर्नी सैंडर्स ने सोशल मीडिया पर मजबूत गति दिखाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal will spare big social welfare programs such as Social Security and Medicare from any cuts, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. Mnuchin said Trump would also use a major policy speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night to preview some elements of his sweeping plans to cut taxes for the middle class, simplify the tax system and make American companies more globally competitive with lower rates and changes to encourage U.S. manufacturing. Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Mnuchin, who has acknowledged that tax reform is his top policy priority, said the budget plan would not seek cuts to federal benefits programs known as “entitlements.” “We are not touching those now. So don’t expect to see that as part of this budget, OK,” Mnuchin said of the programs, according to a transcript provided by Fox. “We are very focused on other aspects and that’s what’s very important to us. And that’s the president’s priority.” Trump during his election campaign promised not to cut Social Security, Medicare healthcare for seniors nor Medicaid healthcare for the poor. Preservation of these programs, coupled with a middle-class tax cut, would aid the retirees and working class Americans who make up a significant portion of Trump’s political base. In a transcript of the Fox News Channel interview, Mnuchin said Trump will be “touching on tax reform” in his speech. Mnuchin said the plan would cut the number of tax brackets and “create a level playing field for U.S. companies to be able to compete in the world.” But Wall Street, which has sent stocks to record highs on anticipation of Trump’s tax cut plans, has grown impatient and could react negatively to a lack of substantive details about the plan in Trump’s speech, financial analysts said.    With both chambers of the U.S. Congress in Republican hands, Trump has the potential to enact major elements of his legislative agenda.  But divisions with the Republican Party over the approach on Obamacare and taxes could prove to be an obstacle. Some Republican lawmakers have urged Trump to lay out more specifics on his policy plans, saying that more White House engagement is needed to build momentum in Congress for his agenda. Mnuchin offered little new information and said key tax plan  elements were not yet settled. He said Trump was looking at a “reciprocal tax” that would help create more trade parity with other countries. Trump administration officials have complained that many countries charge value-added taxes on imports while exempting exports from taxation. But Mnuchin again said he was still “studying very carefully” a House Republican border tax adjustment plan that would levy a 20 percent tax on imports to encourage more U.S.-based production and exports. That plan aims to raise more than $1 trillion in revenue over a decade to offset lower tax rates for businesses. “There are certain aspects that the president likes about the concept of a border-adjusted tax, there are certain aspects that he’s very concerned about,” Mnuchin said.  He added that the Trump administration would work with the House of Representatives and Senate to craft “a combined plan that takes the best of all of this when we bring it forward.” In a comment suggesting that Trump’s budget and tax plans may use aggressive revenue assumptions, Mnuchin said the administration “fundamentally believes in dynamic scoring,” a budget calculation method that assumes that a lower tax burden boosts revenues by encouraging economic activity. The Congressional Budget Office has previously used mainly “static” scoring methods that assume very conservative economic effects of tax and budget changes.

Summary: ट्रम्प के बजट में अमेरिकी पात्रता कार्यक्रमों में कोई कटौती नहीं की गईः म्नुचिन


BEIJING (Reuters) - Cooperation between China and the United States will lead to a win-win outcome for both sides, but confrontation will bring mutual losses, China said on Tuesday, after the United States branded it a competitor seeking to challenge U.S. power. China hopes the United States can abandon its mentality of zero-sum games and seek common ground while respecting differences, China s U.S. embassy said on its website.  On the basis of mutual respect, China is willing to exist peacefully with other countries including the United States,  it said.  But the U.S. ought to adapt to, and accept, China s development.  China has always been a contributor to global development and a protector of the international order, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said later in Beijing.       Cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States,  she said, adding that it was not surprising for the two to have disagreements but that they should find constructive ways to handle them. China s economic and diplomatic activities around the world are broadly welcomed and no country or report will succeed in distorting the facts or deploying malicious slander, she told a daily news briefing. As the world s two largest economies, China and the United States have a responsibility to protect global peace and stability and promote global prosperity, Hua added.  We urge the U.S. side to stop intentionally distorting China s strategic intentions.  In a new national security strategy based on U.S. President Donald Trump s  America First  vision on Monday, the United States lumped China and Russia together as competitors seeking to erode U.S. security and prosperity.                The singling out of China and Russia as  revisionist powers  comes despite Trump s own attempts to build strong relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two sides seek to rein in North Korea s nuclear and missile programs. The new U.S. strategy reflects an unwillingness to accept the reality of China s rise, the state-run Global Times said in an editorial.   But because of the enormous size and strength China has already achieved, they won t be able to suppress China,  the widely-read newspaper said. However, Trump was basically reiterating his standard line on China rather than threatening any specific action, said Shi Yinhong, head of the Centre for American Studies at Beijing s Renmin University.  Since he took office the Chinese government s line on Trump has always been: Don t really look at what he says, but look at what he does,  said Shi, who has advised the government on diplomacy.  So the strong words against China in the report the Chinese government won t really care about.   A senior U.S. administration official said China was attempting to revise the global status quo through its aggression in the South China Sea.  China says its expansion of islets in the South China Sea is for peaceful purposes only and it can, in any case, do what it wants, as it has irrefutable sovereignty there. The U.S. administration also warned that intellectual property theft by China was a national security problem.

Summary: अमेरिका द्वारा प्रतिद्वंद्वी घोषित किए जाने के बाद चीन ने सहयोग का आग्रह किया


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken a lead in party nominations for the next leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), securing the support of 65 percent of branches tallied so far, a poll showed. Hundreds of ANC branches across South Africa are nominating their choice for party president and other senior positions ahead of a December conference where about 5,000 delegates sent by the branches will cast their votes. The ANC s next leader will probably become president of the country at a national election in 2019 given the party s electoral dominance. Early indications are that party members are split between Ramaphosa, a former union leader and one of the country s richest people, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former minister and ex-wife of President Jacob Zuma, for the party s top job. The poll by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) found that Dlamini-Zuma had secured 30 percent of nominations and that ANC Treasurer General Zweli Mkhize received most of the remaining 5 percent of nominations. The IRR said its data suggested 74 percent of ANC branches had made nominations and cautioned that it had not been able to corroborate its findings. The ANC does not make the nomination tallies public. A Ramaphosa win in December has tended to be viewed as the more positive outcome by investors, some of whom have been spooked by Dlamini-Zuma s campaign message of radical wealth redistribution. Nominations do not necessarily translate into votes at the ANC s elective conference because delegates could vote for a different candidate than the one nominated by their branch. Dlamini-Zuma s campaign says that many branches sympathetic to her are yet to submit their nominations, which could reduce Ramaphosa s lead or swing the outcome in December in her favor. Dlamini-Zuma is backed by the ANC s women s and youth leagues, which also vote in December.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका के रामफोसा एएनसी नेता के नामांकन में आगेः सर्वेक्षण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Friday urged passage of a U.S.-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution to renew an international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria for one month. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, speaking to reporters in a briefing, said the United States was very disappointed in Russia s veto of U.N. Security Council action on the issue on Thursday. Russia separately on Friday rejected the one-month extension proposal crafted by Japan.

Summary: अमेरिका ने सीरिया में रासायनिक हथियारों के हमलों की जांच बढ़ाने के जापान के प्रस्ताव को पारित करने का आग्रह किया


(Reuters) - The race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination - once a civil affair - has taken a sour turn, with mud-slinging from both camps over the former secretary of state’s win in the Nevada caucuses.  Sanders’ supporters are alleging that foul play by casino managers helped Clinton out in Saturday’s contest, while Clinton’s camp has blasted - in at times vulgar terms - the Vermont senator’s assertion he took the state’s Latino vote. The tensions reflect the tight battle between the two heading into next Saturday’s South Carolina primary. Sanders, who had surged in recent months to challenge front-runner Clinton, is trying to maintain momentum against her in a part of the United States where she wields an advantage among minority voters.     The angrier tone also marks a turn from what has been a mostly civil race on the Democratic side, in contrast with the noisy insult-hurling that has characterized much of the Republican race. . While Sanders and the former first lady have publicly clashed on their approaches to healthcare and regulating Wall Street, they have frequently emphasized their common ground on social issues. Sanders has also refused so far to join in Republican attacks on Clinton’s record as secretary of state. “Let’s talk about the real issues facing America,” he said during one televised debate. The tone soured after Nevada. Officials with National Nurses United, which endorsed Sanders, have said there were irregularities at casino caucus sites - such as casino managers wearing Clinton paraphernalia - which they said amounted to intimidation of casino employee voters. “From what nurses observed in Nevada Sanders campaign should call for UN observers to protect democracy,” the union said in one Twitter post on Sunday. Neither Clinton nor Sanders’ campaigns immediately responded to requests for comment on the allegations. Meanwhile, both campaigns have argued about what the polling from the Nevada caucuses show. One set of entrance and exit poll results conducted by CBS News showed Sanders took 53 percent of Latino votes in the state. This is a critical group for Sanders as he seeks to broaden his support base after his early results - a very narrow loss and a decisive win - in Iowa and New Hampshire, which have overwhelmingly white voter populations. “I don’t typically like to swear on Twitter, but by all accounts so far this is complete and utter bullshit,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill wrote on Twitter, referring to a Sanders’ campaign press release asserting he took the Latino bloc in Nevada. Clinton has been expected to find easier territory as  contests move into the south in the state-by-state battles to pick a party presidential nominee for the November general election. Her backers say minority voters are her “firewall” against Sanders’ popularity among young voters who dislike establishment politics and are attracted by his vows to take on Wall Street excesses and high college fees. She won Nevada, which is nearly a quarter Latino, by just over 5 points. Sanders’ camp, meanwhile, has disputed Clinton camp assertions that she drew the lion’s share of the union votes in the Nevada contest, accusing her campaign of inventing figures.  “They do have a tendency to make stuff up,” Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs said in an email. The American Federation of Teachers issued a press release on Monday listing 23 unions that back Clinton.   (Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Frances Kerry) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: नेवादा के बाद क्लिंटन और सैंडर्स के बीच प्रतिस्पर्धा बढ़ी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal investigators have secured a warrant to examine newly discovered emails related to Hillary Clinton’s private server, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday, as a prominent Democrat accused FBI Director James Comey of breaking the law by trying to influence the election. The warrant will allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to examine the emails to see if they are relevant to its probe of the private email server used for government work by Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Comey came under heavy pressure from Democrats on Sunday to quickly provide details of the emails, as Clinton allies worried the prolonged controversy could extend beyond the Nov. 8 election and cast a shadow over a Clinton transition if she wins the White House. Comey’s disclosure of the email discovery in a letter to Congress on Friday plunged the final days of the White House race between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump into turmoil. Clinton had opened a recent lead over Trump in national polls, but it had been narrowing even before the email controversy resurfaced. The unexpected turn in the email controversy shook  financial markets’ conviction of a Clinton victory in the election and the U.S. dollar slipped against major currencies in early Asian trading on Monday. U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Comey on Sunday suggesting he violated the Hatch Act, which bars the use of a federal government position to influence an election. “Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law,” Reid, a senator from Nevada, said in the letter to Comey. Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook questioned Comey’s decision to send a letter notifying Congress of the email review before he even knew whether they were significant or relevant. Comey’s letter was “long on innuendo, short on facts,” Podesta said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program, and accused the FBI chief of breaking precedent by disclosing aspects of an investigation so close to the election. “We are calling on Mr. Comey to come forward and explain what’s at issue here,” Podesta said, adding the significance of the emails was unclear. “He might have taken the first step of actually having looked at them before he did this in the middle of a presidential campaign, so close to the voting,” Podesta said. Comey’s letter was sent over the objections of Justice Department officials. But those officials did not try to stop the FBI from getting the warrant, a source familiar with the decision said, because they are interested in the FBI moving quickly on the probe. Sources close to the investigation have said the latest emails were discovered as part of a separate probe of former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages he is alleged to have sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The FBI already had a warrant to search Weiner’s laptop in that probe, but needed a warrant to look at the material that might be related to Clinton. Sources familiar with the matter said FBI agents working on the Weiner investigation saw material on a laptop belonging to Weiner that led them to believe it might be relevant to the investigation of Clinton’s email practices. Trump has highlighted the issue as proof for his argument that Clinton is corrupt and untrustworthy. “We have one ultimate check on Hillary’s corruption and that is the power of the vote,” Trump told a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday. “The only way to beat the corruption is to show up and vote by the tens of millions.” Comey, who announced in July that the FBI’s long investigation of Clinton’s emails was ending without any charges, said in his letter the agency would review the newly surfaced emails to determine their relevance to the investigation of her handling of classified information. Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, said he filed a complaint over Comey’s actions with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations. “We cannot allow F.B.I. or Justice Department officials to unnecessarily publicize pending investigations concerning candidates of either party while an election is underway. That is an abuse of power,” he said in a column in the New York Times. But Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Columbia Law School, called the allegations that Comey improperly tried to influence the election “inane.” “Comey’s critics cannot show his letter violated the Hatch Act unless they can prove that the FBI director was intending to influence the election rather than inform Congress, which was Comey’s stated aim,” said Richman, who said he had advised Comey on law enforcement policy but not this issue. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Sunday showed Clinton with a statistically insignificant 1-point national lead on Trump. About a third of likely voters in the poll said they were less likely to back Clinton given Comey’s disclosure. Clinton, who told a Florida rally on Saturday that Comey’s letter was “deeply troubling,” did not address the issue directly on Sunday but referred vaguely to voters overcoming a “distraction.” “There’s a lot of noise and distraction but it really comes down to the kind of future we want and who can get us there,” she told a packed gay nightclub in Wilton Manors, Florida, where hundreds of supporters who could not get in lined the streets outside. “We don’t want a president who would appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn marriage equality,” she said.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. ने क्लिंटन के ईमेल की जांच के लिए वारंट प्राप्त किया


HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday the U.S. relationship with China was too lopsided and listed market access, protectionism and intellectual property as the biggest problems amid trade tensions between the two countries.  Ross said both sides were frank and open, and articulated good points of view during his trip to Beijing, which was a good sign, although neither made concessions.   The most important thing to push for with China is better market access for companies operating there physically and for companies exporting there,  Ross said.  Ranking equal with that would be less protectionist behavior.   The U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement on Tuesday that Ross had pressed China on the  need to rebalance bilateral trade and investment relations  and urged it to take  meaningful action  on trade issues. China s relationship with the United States has been strained by the Trump administration s criticism of China s trade practices and by demands that Beijing do more to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Ross, speaking to reporters in Hong Kong two days after his visit to Beijing, also said overcapacity was still a big issue in some sectors and highlighted new industries such as robotics as potential threats.  There apparently are something like 400 robotics companies in China right now and people in the industry tell me maybe 360 of those are in it to get the subsidies and tax breaks and are not really serious about the product,  he said. On Monday, Ross told Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that the United States hoped for  very good deliverables  when U.S. President Donald Trump visits China, likely in November. He did not specify what  deliverables  the United States was hoping for.  Ross is due to lead a trade mission to China as part of President Trump s visit there.

Summary: अमेरिकी वाणिज्य सचिव का कहना है कि बाजार तक पहुंच, संरक्षणवाद चीन के मुद्दों में शीर्ष पर है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei criticized Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, calling him “an irrational type” due to his proposal that tariffs on imported Chinese goods be increased to up to 45 percent. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday, Lou said, “Trump is an irrational type. If he were to do this, that would be in violation of the rules set by the World Trade Organization.” Lou said that if the United States put Trump’s proposal into effect, it “would not be entitled to its position as the world’s major power. The U.S. needs to recognize that the U.S. and China are mutually dependent on each other. Our economic cycles are intertwined.” He acknowledged that rhetoric in a U.S. presidential campaign can become heated. China is the United States’ largest trading partner. Chinese officials have generally avoided criticizing Trump directly, though they have made indirect criticism of his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States and indirectly rebuffed Trump’s claims that China is stealing U.S. jobs. China’s tightly-controlled state media has largely stuck to reporting the facts about Trump, with some notable exceptions. Last month, influential tabloid the Global Times accused Trump of being a racist, warning that other extremists, such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, had both been voted into power. Trump on Sunday again asserted that China had waged “economic war” against the United States.  “They’ve taken our jobs, they’ve taken our money,” the billionaire businessman said at a campaign rally in New York. “We can’t continue to be ripped off like we’re being ripped off.” At a Republican presidential debate last month, Trump said China will not allow free trade or U.S. manufacturers to compete freely. “The 45 percent (tariff) is a threat that if they don’t behave, if they don’t follow the rules and regulations so that we can have it equal on both sides, we will tax you,” he said. Republican rival Ted Cruz criticized the 45 percent tariff proposal, saying during the same debate that it would be passed on to U.S. consumers.  “How does it help you to have a president come and say ... I’m going to put a 45 percent tax on diapers when you buy diapers, on automobiles when you buy automobiles, on clothing when you buy clothing. That hurts you,” the U.S. senator from Texas said. The United States reported a $366-billion trade deficit with China in 2015, up from $343 billion in 2014 - the largest U.S. trade imbalance with any nation. The deficit is up nearly 12 percent in the first two months of 2016 to $57 billion.

Summary: चीनी अधिकारी ने व्यापार पर ट्रंप को बताया 'तर्कहीन'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast on Saturday that he wanted to give a shot at achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians before moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In June Trump signed a temporary order to keep the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, despite a campaign promise he made to move it to Jerusalem. In an interview with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on the TBN program “Huckabee,” Trump noted his administration was working on a plan for peace between the two sides. “I want to give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem,” he said. “If we can make peace between the Palestinians and Israel, I think it’ll lead to ultimately peace in the Middle East, which has to happen,” he said. Asked if there was a timeframe for the embassy move, Trump said: “We’re going to make a decision in the not too distant future.”

Summary: जेरूसलम में अमेरिकी दूतावास स्थानांतरित करने से पहले शांति को एक मौका देने के लिए ट्रम्प कहते हैंः साक्षात्कार


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia should prepare a “painful” response to new U.S. sanctions to be imposed on Moscow, Konstantin Kosachyov, a prominent member of the upper house of Russia’s parliament, said on his Facebook page on Wednesday. “Judging by the unanimous vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the sanctions package against Russia, Iran and North Korea, there will be no breakthrough (in U.S.-Russian relations)... In fact, further degradation of bilateral cooperation is becoming inevitable,” Kosachyov said.  The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Russia and force President Donald Trump to obtain lawmakers’ permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow.

Summary: नए अमेरिकी प्रतिबंधों पर रूस की प्रतिक्रिया 'दर्दनाक' होनी चाहिएः सांसद


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Supporters of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have appropriated the phrase “basket of deplorables” - used by Hillary Clinton during the campaign to pillory some of his backers - to plan an inauguration party called the “Deploraball.”  But while the intention might be to mock the defeated Democratic candidate, the planned gathering has revealed a deep schism within the ranks of a movement known as the alt-right: pitting those embracing white nationalism or outright racism against those seeking a more credible platform for hard-right conservatives. The party will be held at the National Press Club in Washington the night before Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, when many official inauguration events are taking place.  Organizers say the Deploraball is a cocktail party for Trump supporters from all ethnic backgrounds and no incendiary or discriminatory actions will be allowed. Organizers call themselves “Trumpists” and say they have sold 1,000 tickets ranging in price from $99 to $2,500. But after an online battle between star guests, Deploraball organizers offered ticket holders refunds “in light of recent events.” One of the original organizers of the ball, alt-right social media personality Tim Treadstone who is commonly referred to by his online persona “Baked Alaska,” has been disinvited after tweeting several anti-Semitic comments, setting off angry  exchanges among members of the alt-right on Twitter. Another featured guest at the party, Mike Cernovich, has condemned Treadstone for appearing anti-Semitic and homophobic. “The lines are drawn and the fracture is more or less complete,” he said. Cernovich, an architect of viral Internet trends promoting rumors of Clinton’s supposed ill health that have been credited with helping push Trump to victory with the support of the alt-right, said he has rejected the alt-right’s descent into white nationalism.  The alt-right movement, which came to the fore during the presidential campaign, is a loose grouping that rejects mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. It had previously been more widely embraced by libertarians and the far-right fringe: people more opposed to the concept of political correctness than to racial or other diversity. Trump has been criticized for naming Steve Bannon, former head of the Breitbart News website that is closely linked to the alt-right, as a senior White House adviser. Days after the Nov. 8 election, the movement was strongly  criticized when some Trump supporters gave Nazi salutes to alt-right leader Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, during a gathering in Washington to celebrate Trump’s victory.  The incident prompted some figures linked with the alt-right to assume the term “new right” to describe themselves instead.  In an interview with New York Times journalists last month, Trump condemned the alt-right conference organized by Spencer. “I condemn them. I disavow, and I condemn,” Trump said. After Treadstone posted anti-Jewish tweets over the past week, Cernovich told him not to repeat the so-called “hailgate” scandal at Deploraball.  “No Nazi salutes ... or don’t have your name on the event,” Cernovich wrote in a series of insult-filled text messages to Treadstone that were later posted on Twitter.  The argument raged on social media between the two southern California-based men, who were once friends, egged on by their fans. “You used the movement and now you want to distance yourself from it,” Treadstone, wearing pastel-colored camouflage apparel and a bleached blond beard, said in one 45-minute video post. The Republican president-elect, Trump, has not been formally invited to the event nor is he expected to attend, but “of course we’d be thrilled if he did,” said one organizer, Jeff Giesea. Trump’s transition team was not immediately available for comment on the party. In remarks she quickly said she regretted, Clinton told a fundraiser in September that Trump had given voice to hateful rhetoric through his behavior as a candidate and that “half” of his supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables.” Trump supporters seized on the phrase as typifying snobbish put-downs by coastal elites. The Deploraball was initially planned for the Clarendon Ballroom in Arlington, Virginia, but organizers said the venue was switched because of pressure on the Clarendon from Clinton supporters. The Clarendon, a private events venue and nightclub, denied that and said in a statement it decided not to issue a contract “due to the suspicious actions of the organizers.” Performers will include singer Scott Isbell and classical pianist Stephen Limbaugh, according to the organizers, who have also invited rapper Kanye West but have not heard back. Treadstone, a former rapper and orchestrator of pro-Trump flash-mobs, had also been scheduled to perform. Another guest star will be Breitbart’s U.S. technology editor, Milo Yiannopoulos, organizers say. Yiannopoulos has been criticized for comments he has made about Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists and feminists. Twitter banned him in July for inciting harassment of the actress Leslie Jones. The Hollywood Reporter reported on Thursday he had secured a book deal and quoted him as saying, "They said banning me from Twitter would finish me off. Just as I predicted, the opposite has happened." (bit.ly/2hzszWy) Treadstone said the main difference between himself and the so-called new right, including Cernovich and Yiannopoulos, is the explicit support of white nationalism. “If you don’t support white advocacy, you cannot be alt-right and that’s where a lot of people are running into a problem,” he told Reuters. Cernovich, who says Treadstone is increasingly fixated on Jewish conspiracy theory, said the branch of former alt-righters he belongs to are more inclusive and are primarily focused on populism, nationalism and the rejection of “victim culture and identity politics.” The group also has no clear leader, unlike with white nationalist alt-right, which looks to Spencer, he said. Giesea described “Trumpism” as a new breed of Republicanism and said it was still a work-in-progress. “We’re in the process of constructing it, and it’s messy,” he said.

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशंसकों की 'डिप्लोराबॉल' पार्टी ने ऑल्ट-राइट आंदोलन में दरार दिखाई


JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan denied on Friday that a businessman sanctioned by the United States was an adviser to President Salva Kiir, and said the decision to blacklist him was based on misleading information.   Benjamin Bol Mel was among several individuals from different countries whom the United States placed under sanctions on Thursday.  It said Mel had served as Kiir s principal financial adviser as well as his private secretary, and that ABMC Thai-South Sudan Construction Company Limited, of which Mel is president, was suspected of getting preferential treatment in government contracts. Ateny Wek Ateny, Kiir s spokesman, said the assertion that Mel had business ties with the president  is not true , and also denied that there were any official relations between the two men.   He is not an adviser to the president and he should be treated as an individual.   Ateny said most of the information the United States used to blacklist South Sudan officials was  misleading . South Sudan has been battered by a four-year civil war triggered by a disagreement between Kiir and his then-deputy, Riek Machar.  The fighting has left tens of thousands dead, displaced about a quarter of the population and left the oil-dependent economy moribund.  Rights activists have accused mostly government troops of killings, mass rapes, and looting and destroying property.  Several serving or former South Sudanese officials are already under U.S. sanctions for alleged roles in the conflict, including Malek Reuben Riak Rengu, the army s deputy chief of the defense staff for logistics; former army chief Paul Malong; and Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth.  The U.S. Embassy in South Sudan said on Friday that Mel was being punished for his  role, and that of his business network, in facilitating corruption . It said Mel was exploiting his connections with Kiir  to regularly engage in large scale government contracts worth millions of dollars for construction work that was not completed .

Summary: दक्षिण सूडान का कहना है कि राष्ट्रपति का प्रतिबंधित व्यवसायी से कोई संबंध नहीं है


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis used his Christmas message on Monday to call for a negotiated two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after U.S. President Donald Trump stoked regional tensions with his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Francis spoke of the Middle East conflict and other world flashpoints in his  Urbi et Orbi  (to the city and the world) address, four days after more than 120 countries backed a U.N. resolution urging the United States to reverse its decision on Jerusalem.  Let us pray that the will to resume dialogue may prevail between the parties and that a negotiated solution can finally be reached, one that would allow the peaceful coexistence of two states within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders,  he said, referring to the Israelis and Palestinians.  We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians,  he said in his address, delivered from the balcony of St. Peter s Basilica to tens of thousands of people. It was the second time that the pope has spoken out publicly about Jerusalem since Trump s decision on Dec. 6. On that day, Francis called for the city s  status quo  to be respected, lest new tensions in the Middle East further inflame world conflicts.  Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, whereas Israel has declared the whole city to be its  united and eternal  capital. Francis, leader of the world s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, urged people to see the defenseless baby Jesus in the children who suffer the most from war, migration and natural calamities caused by man today.  Today, as the winds of war are blowing in our world ... Christmas invites us to focus on the sign of the child and to recognize him in the faces of little children, especially those for whom, like Jesus,  there is no place in the inn,  he said. Francis, celebrating the fifth Christmas of his pontificate, said he had seen Jesus in the children he met during his recent trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, and he called for adequate protection of the dignity of minority groups in that region. More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya people have fled mainly Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh in recent months. The pope had to tread a delicate diplomatic line during his visit, avoiding the word  Rohingya  while in Myanmar, which does not recognize them as a minority group, though he used the term when in Bangladesh.  Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed and how hard it is not to have a place to lay one s head. May our hearts not be closed as they were in the homes of Bethlehem,  he said. He also urged the world to see Jesus in the innocent children suffering from wars in Syria and Iraq and also in Yemen, complaining that its people had been  largely forgotten, with serious humanitarian implications for its people, who suffer from hunger and the spread of diseases . He also listed conflicts affecting children in South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Ukraine and Venezuela. At his Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter s Basilica on Sunday, Francis strongly defended immigrants, comparing them to Mary and Joseph finding no place to stay in Bethlehem and saying faith demands that foreigners be welcomed.

Summary: मध्य पूर्व को दो-राज्य समाधान की आवश्यकता हैः पोप ने क्रिसमस संदेश में कहा


NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Bettors on both sides of the Atlantic are ramping up wagers in niche online markets over whether Donald Trump will serve out a full term as U.S. president in the wake of controversies surrounding the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey. Some, such as the online political stock market PredictIt, have seen record volume during the last two days on contracts focused on whether Trump will be impeached. Others based in the United Kingdom are drawing bets on the less-specific question of whether Trump remains in office until his term expires in January 2021. The contract on PredictIt titled “Will Donald Trump be impeached in 2017?” saw volume of more than 100,000 contracts in the last 24 hours after reports of a memo written by Comey that said Trump had asked him to end the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia.  At one point early on Wednesday, the price of a “yes” contract on the impeachment question jumped to a record 33 cents, implying a 33 percent probability that Trump would be impeached. That compares with only 7 percent just over a week ago. By late in the day, however, the price had slid back to 27 percent, just above where it ended late Tuesday at 24 percent. PredictIt is jointly run by Washington political consultancy Aristotle and Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. All of its users are registered U.S. voters. The bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair (PPB.I) (PPB.L) said bettors there had laid out more than 5,000 pounds ($6,470) on an early departure for Trump in the hours after it was reported Trump had asked Comey to shut down the FBI’s investigation of Russia ties. In all, the question of whether Trump will make an early exit has drawn more than $270,000 in wagers, while a related question on whether Trump will leave in 2017, 2018, 2019 or 2020 or later has garnered more than $480,000. British betting firm Ladbrokes (LCL.L) cut the price of a Trump impeachment to odds-on at 4-5 from 11-10, equivalent to about 56 percent probability that Trump will be removed from office. “Political punters are wondering how many more scandals can Trump overcome,” said Ladbrokes spokeswoman Jessica Bridge. “And despite the short price on offer, money has poured in for the president to be impeached, leaving us with little option but to cut the odds.”

Summary: ट्रेक्सिट? ऑनलाइन सट्टेबाजों ने ट्रम्प के राष्ट्रपति पद का शुरुआती अंत किया