SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The laws that prohibit foreign nationals from spending money to influence U.S. elections do not prevent them from lawfully buying some kinds of political ads on Facebook and other online networks, campaign finance lawyers said. The omission of online ads could be a potential hurdle for those investigating alleged Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election, according to the campaign finance lawyers, who are not involved in the probes. Since 1974, the United States has barred foreign nationals from giving money to campaigns and it later barred them from donating to political parties. The laws also prohibit foreign nationals from coordinating with a campaign and from buying an ad that explicitly calls for the election or defeat of a candidate. At issue are laws concerning a category of ads known as “electioneering communications” that address where a candidate stands on an issue, that spread news stories about a candidate or that attack a candidate without directly calling for his or her defeat. Foreign nationals cannot spend money on electioneering communications but the term under U.S. law applies only to communications made by broadcast, cable or satellite - with no mention of the internet. A related law does bar foreign nationals from expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate in any advertising medium. But as long as online ads do not call on people to vote for a specific candidate, “they are not prohibited as a campaign finance matter,” said Jan Baran, a Washington lawyer who frequently represents Republican candidates. U.S. Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in May to investigate alleged Russian interference as well as potential collusion between Moscow and associates of President Donald Trump. The Russian government says it did not meddle and Trump has denied collusion.  Facebook (FB.O), which has become a leading platform for online political ads, has said that it has not found any evidence that Russian agents were buying ads.  Facebook said in April, however, that it had become a battleground for governments seeking to manipulate public opinion in other countries and outlined new measures to combat what it called “information operations.”  Trump’s election campaign spent some $70 million on highly targeted Facebook advertising last year, Brad Parscale, the digital director of the campaign, told Reuters this year. The absence of rules governing online advertising ties the hands of the U.S. Federal Election Commission, said Ann Ravel, a former Democratic appointee to the commission. “The law seems to totally exempt it and therefore it is not possible either to reasonably determine who is behind those ads, do an investigation to find out or penalize for that activity,” Ravel said. Other laws could come into play in an investigation. The U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act restricts publicity paid for by a foreign government such as Russia.

Summary: ऑनलाइन विज्ञापन अमेरिकी चुनाव में हस्तक्षेप के लिए कानूनी विकल्प प्रदान करते हैं


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government gave the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) until Friday 3:00 p.m (1200 GMT) to hand over control of its airports in order to avoid an international air embargo, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, according to state TV. The measure is meant as a retaliation against the independence referendum held by the KRG in northern Iraq on Monday.  Domestic flights are not involved in the ultimatum and in the worst case, international travel to and from the KRG will be re-routed through Baghdad and other Iraqi airports.    Baghdad last week asked foreign countries to stop direct flights to the international airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniya, in KRG territory, but only Iran declared such an air embargo, halting direct flights to and from Iraqi Kurdistan.   Humanitarian and  emergency  flights are exempted, provided they are pre-approved by Baghdad, Abadi said.  Baghdad will also ask neighboring countries to shut the border with Iraqi Kurdistan if the KRG doesn t hand over border posts to the central government by Friday.

Summary: इराक ने कुर्दिस्तान को प्रतिबंध से बचने के लिए हवाई अड्डों का नियंत्रण सौंपने के लिए शुक्रवार तक का समय दिया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - A passenger bus swerved off course and drove into a busy pedestrian underpass in Moscow on Monday, killing at least four people, Russian news agencies reported. Video from the scene posted on social media showed a bus veering off the road and plunging down the steps of a pedestrian underpass, crushing several people beneath its wheels. The driver of the bus had been detained by police, agencies said, after he lost control of the vehicle. The incident occurred on one of the Russian capital s busiest roads near the Slavyansky Boulevard metro station. Monday was an ordinary working day in Russia where Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated on Jan. 7.  An unnamed emergency services source told the TASS news agency that the number of fatalities had risen to five people. There were also unconfirmed reports that some 15 people had been injured. The Interfax news agency said investigators were looking into whether the incident had occurred as a result of a technical fault with the bus. Ten ambulances, fire service personnel, and three medivac helicopters were on the scene, agencies reported.

Summary: मास्को में बस पैदल चलने वालों के अंडरपास में घुसी, चार की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the Treasury Department on Friday to examine two powers given to regulators to police large financial companies following the 2008 financial crisis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. In his first visit to the Treasury building, Trump signed two memos that analysts view as largely affirming existing priorities he has outlined. One temporarily bars regulators from identifying new non-bank financial institutions as “systemically important financial institutions,” or SIFIs, while also ordering a review of this process, Mnuchin said in a briefing with reporters. SIFIs face added regulatory oversight and must hold more capital as a buffer against losses to safeguard against risk to the financial system. The other memo directs regulators to temporarily halt the use of “orderly liquidation authority” to dissolve troubled financial institutions unless the president directs it in an emergency. Trump will order a review of this as well, Mnuchin said. Still, the government has never attempted to use its orderly liquidation authority. The memo directs the Treasury to review the authority for 180 days, focusing on whether it exposes taxpayers to losses and encourages companies to take on more risk, or whether a revamped bankruptcy process would be preferable.  Critics, including Republicans in Congress, argue the authority effectively gives some firms “too big to fail” status, which could encourage them to take on more risk and necessitate government intervention if they fail. Trump has long said financial sector oversight could curb economic growth. While the two memos indicate that revisiting the rules remains a priority, they overlap with an earlier executive order the president signed in February directing a review of all financial rules. The impact of the memos may be limited. Mnuchin had previously said his team was already looking into both the SIFI designation process and the use of orderly liquidation. The Trump administration has been expected to reduce the number of companies subject to SIFI-level policing. Only two insurers, American International Group Inc (AIG.N) and Prudential Financial Inc (PRU.N), are designated as SIFIs because they pose a systemic threat to the financial system. Banks with more than $50 billion in assets such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) are automatically designated as SIFIs by law.  Republicans, who have criticized the SIFI process as opaque and arbitrary, have introduced legislation to curb it. The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of top regulators that Mnuchin now chairs, oversees the process.  “The president will be instructing me to put a hold on that for designations until we do a thorough review and make sure that it’s a fair and transparent process,” said Mnuchin.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने भविष्य के संकटों को रोकने के लिए वित्तीय नियमों की समीक्षा का आदेश दिया


PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech parliament s lower house voted on Wednesday to allow police to bring charges against Andrej Babis, the leading candidate to become prime minister after an election next month, in a case involving suspected abuse of European Union subsidies. Babis, a billionaire businessman and founder of the ANO movement, denies any wrongdoing. He has repeatedly called the police actions against him a political ploy meant to hurt him in the Oct. 20-21 election.

Summary: चेक सांसदों ने प्रधानमंत्री पद के उम्मीदवार बाबिस को धोखाधड़ी के आरोपों का सामना करने के लिए मजबूर करने के लिए मतदान किया


VANCOUVER (Reuters) - British Columbia has hired an investigator to look into money laundering at casinos in the Western Canadian province, it said on Thursday, after a report cited suspicious cash transactions at a Vancouver-area casino popular with Chinese gamblers. Peter German, a former deputy commissioner with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada s national police force, has been tapped to conduct the independent review and complete it by March, Attorney General David Eby said in a statement. German will make recommendations on reform to the province s anti-money laundering laws, he added.  There are concerns about money laundering that have been growing for years   our government is taking action to deal with them quickly and thoroughly.  A 2016 report released last week flagged suspicious cash transactions at the River Rock Casino Resort in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, including an incident involving C$13.5 million ($10.86 million) in C$20 bills. The report, commissioned by the previous Liberal government, highlighted problems with anti-money laundering rule compliance and cited the casino s culture of accepting large cash transactions without question. The report also said that the majority of high-risk cash transactions were from  high roller Asian VIP clients,  many of whom were recent immigrants to Canada or Chinese nationals.

Summary: ब्रिटिश कोलंबिया ने कैसिनो में धन शोधन की जांच के लिए जांचकर्ता को नियुक्त किया


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Both sides would benefit if Israel recognized it cannot permanently occupy Palestinian land and if Palestinians rejected incitement and recognized Israel’s legitimacy, U.S. President Barack Obama told the United Nations on Tuesday. Obama’s efforts to bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement have failed over the nearly eight years he has been in the White House, with the latest push by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry collapsing in 2014. U.S. officials have held out the possibility Obama could lay out the rough outlines of a deal - “parameters” in diplomatic parlance - after the Nov. 8 presidential election and before he leaves office in January, but many analysts doubt this would have much effect. “Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel ...(and if) Israel recognizes that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land,” Obama said. Speaking at the General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations for the last time as president, Obama also said Russia was trying to recover “lost glory” through force.  He warned Russia that if it “continues to interfere in the affairs of its neighbors, it may be popular at home, it may fuel nationalist fervor for a time, but over time it is also going to diminish its stature and make its borders less secure.” Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 after months of protests in Kiev ousted pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. On the international dispute over the South China Sea, Obama said: “A peaceful resolution of disputes offered by law will mean far greater stability then the militarization of a few rocks and reefs.”  China claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which ships carrying about $5 trillion in trade pass every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the sea, which is also believed to be rich in energy resources and fish stocks. In July, an arbitration court in The Hague said China’s claims to the waterway were invalid, in a case was brought by the Philippines. Beijing has refused to recognize the ruling.

Summary: ओबामा ने इजरायल से कब्जा खत्म करने और फिलिस्तीनियों से इजरायल को स्वीकार करने का आग्रह किया


ERBIL, Iraq/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder al-Abadi declared victory over Islamic State militants in Tal Afar and the entire province of Nineveh on Thursday, despite continued fighting in the small town of al- Ayadiya. Tal Afar had become the next target of the U.S.-backed war on the jihadist group following the capture of Mosul, where it had declared its  caliphate  over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.  Tal Afar has been liberated,  Abadi said in a statement.  We say to the Islamic State fighters: wherever you are, we are coming for you, and you have no choice but to surrender or die.  The defeat in Mosul, Nineveh s provincial capital, marked the latest in a string of territorial losses for the group. However, the militants still control areas on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border. This includes Hawija, a city between Mosul and Baghdad that Iraqi officials have said will be the coalition s next target. The Iraqi army dropped millions of leaflets over Hawija on Thursday, warning residents it was preparing an offensive to recapture the city from Islamic State, the military said in a statement. The leaflets urged residents to stay away from militants  headquarters, to drop weapons and turn themselves in to avoid being killed. Iraqi forces had been waiting to clear al- Ayadiya, 11 km (7 miles) northwest of Tal Afar, before declaring complete victory in the offensive. Islamic State militants had retreated to the town. Divisions from the Iraqi army and federal police, backed by units from Shi ite paramilitaries, retook al- Ayadiya on Thursday, military officers told Reuters, after several days of unexpectedly fierce fighting. However, pockets of resistance remained and Iraqi forces were still working to clear the remaining militants from the town.  We have to make sure that no more terrorists remain hiding inside the town s houses,  Army Lieutenant Colonel Salah Kareem told Reuters. Two military officers whose units are leading the fight in al- Ayadiya on Thursday said scattered groups of militants were still hiding in houses and using tunnel networks to move through the town. Four soldiers were killed and 10 more wounded as clashes continued in parts of al- Ayadiya on Thursday night, despite the announcement hours earlier by the prime minister. Three soldiers were killed on Thursday evening and seven more wounded when a woman detonated a suicide vest, Kareem said.  Soldiers thought the woman was a civilian trying to escape the fighting, but as soon as she came close to the soldiers,  she blew herself up and killed three,  an army officer said. In a separate incident, an Islamic State sniper killed a soldier and wounded three others during a search.  We are still being shot at by snipers and coming under heavy gunfire from Daesh fighters,  Kareem said. Iraqi forces will intensify their operations on Friday, to dislodge the militants still entrenched inside scattered houses, army officers said. Hundreds of additional troops had been sent into al- Ayadiya on Wednesday, as Iraqi forces came under increasing pressure to clear Islamic State fighters before the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid on Thursday evening. The battle was unexpectedly tough, with house-to-house fighting in the center of town. If reclaiming the town was harder than expected, the larger battle for Tal Afar was easier. The city s rapid collapse on Sunday after just eight days of fighting lent support to Iraqi military reports that the militants lack sturdy command and control structures west of Mosul. Up to 2,000 battle-hardened militants were believed to be defending Tal Afar against around 50,000 government troops last week. It was unclear how many had retreated to al- Ayadiya. U.S. Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend congratulated the Iraqi forces on achieving a  stunningly swift and decisive  victory in Tal Afar.  This is Iraq liberating Iraqis,  he told a Pentagon teleconference from Baghdad. Townsend added however, that a quick victory in Tal Afar did not necessarily mean the fight to retake Islamic State s remaining territory would be easy.  While I would like to say that we would see this elsewhere in Iraq and Syria, we are not really planning for that,  Townsend said.  We pledge to you, our people, that we will continue to liberate every inch of Iraq,  Abadi said in his statement. Tens of thousands of people had fled Tal Afar, a city with a pre-war population of about 200,000, in recent months. The United Nations estimated that 20,000 people had fled the city and its surrounding areas between Aug. 14 and 22 alone. Civilians who fled Tal Afar in recent weeks told Reuters  they had faced months of starvation and brutal treatment by the militants, who threatened them with death if they tried to escape.

Summary: इराकी प्रधानमंत्री ने ताल अफार में आईएस पर जीत की घोषणा की


(Reuters) - Transgender recruits will be able to join the U.S. military as of Jan. 1 after a federal judge on Monday denied a request by President Donald Trump’s administration to enforce his ban on transgender troops while the government appeals an order blocking it. In a ruling, with which the Pentagon said it would comply, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington refused to lift part of her Oct. 30 order stopping the ban from taking effect until the case is resolved, saying it likely violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law.  The White House said the Justice Department was reviewing its options. The Pentagon said in a statement that it would follow court orders and begin processing transgender applicants on Jan. 1. It added, however, that it and the U.S. Department of Justice “are actively pursuing relief from those court orders in order to allow an ongoing policy review scheduled to be completed before the end of March.”  The administration had argued that the Jan. 1 deadline was problematic because tens of thousands of personnel would have to be trained on the medical standards needed to process transgender applicants, and the military was not ready for that. Kollar-Kotelly rejected the concerns, saying preparations for accepting transgender troops were under way during the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.  “The directive from the Secretary of Defense requiring the military to prepare to begin allowing accession of transgender individuals was issued on June 30, 2016 - nearly one and a half years ago,” the judge said.  Several transgender service members filed a lawsuit after Trump said in July he would ban transgender people from the military, citing concern over military focus and medical costs. In an August memorandum, Trump gave the military until March 2018 to revert to a policy prohibiting openly transgender individuals from joining the military and authorizing their discharge. The memo also halted the use of government funds for sex-reassignment surgery for active-duty personnel.  Defense Secretary James Mattis had previously delayed a deadline that had been set during the Obama administration to begin enlisting transgender recruits to Jan. 1, which Trump’s ban then put off indefinitely.  The Pentagon said on Monday there were a number of guidelines that would have to be met by the applicants.  It said that sex reassignment or genital reconstruction would be disqualifying factors unless a medical provider certified that a period of 18 months had passed since the most recent surgery, no complications persisted and additional surgeries are not required.  The service members who sued Trump, Mattis and military leaders in August had been serving openly as transgender people in the U.S. Army, Air Force and Coast Guard. They said Trump’s ban discriminated against them based on their sex and transgender status.  In her October ruling, Kollar-Kotelly said the Trump administration’s reasons for the ban “do not appear to be supported by any facts” and cited a military-commissioned study that debunked concerns about military cohesion or healthcare costs.  A federal judge in Maryland also halted the ban in Nov. 21 ruling.

Summary: अमेरिकी सेना को 1 जनवरी तक ट्रांसजेंडर भर्तियों को स्वीकार करना होगा, न्यायाधीश के नियम


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday there was no need to  complicate  matters in the Middle East after Trump phoned him to talk about his decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a Cairo presidential statement said. It said Sisi cautioned Trump against  taking measures that would undermine the chances of peace in the Middle East .  The Egyptian president affirmed the Egyptian position on preserving the legal status of Jerusalem within the framework of international references and relevant U.N. resolutions,  the statement said. U.S. endorsement of Israel s claim to all of Jerusalem as its capital would break with decades of U.S. policy that the city s status must be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. The international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the entire city.

Summary: सिसी ने मध्य पूर्व में मामलों को 'जटिल' बनाने के खिलाफ ट्रम्प को आगाह कियाः मिस्र के राष्ट्रपति


YOKOSUKA (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy s top officer on Tuesday said that vessels from eastern Pacific could be brought forward to reinforce U.S. naval power in Asia as Washington contends with increased threats in the region and accidents that have weakened its maritime force.  We will continue to assure that we meet all of our missions here in the Asia Pacific area. It could be something coming forward from Third Fleet or something like that to meet those requirements,  Chief of U.S. Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said at a briefing aboard the USS Ronald Reagan carrier in Japan. He declined to say when or how many ships could be transferred. The growing threat posed by North Korea s ballistic missile and nuclear weapon advances coupled with operations to counter China s increasing military might in the South China Sea and other parts of Asia is putting an increased burden on the U.S. Seventh Fleet.  That added pressure on crews has been blamed for contributing to a series of accidents involving naval vessels this year including collisions by two destroyers with merchant ships that killed 17 U.S. sailors. In August the USS John S.McCain guided missile destroyer was struck by a merchant ship near Singapore, while its sister ship, the Fitzgerald, almost sank off the coast of Japan in June after colliding with a Philippine container ship.  Richardson spoke after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a new national security strategy based on his  America First  vision that singled out China and Russia as  revisionist powers.  For its part, China is attempting to revise the global status quo by its aggression in the South China Sea, a U.S. official said. Beijing is building military bases there on manmade islands in waters claimed by other nations.   One can only draw certain conclusion about what are the intentions of the Chinese with respect to those islands. We will respond as we have always done, which is that we are going to continue to be present down there,  Richardson said.  For now, he said, North Korea was the  most urgent  task for the U.S. Navy in Asia as it became  more and more capable  with every new missile test. The latest ballistic missile tested on Nov. 29 reached an altitude of more than 4,000 kilometers (2485.48 miles), giving it enough-range, Pyongyang claims, to hit major U.S. cities including Washington D.C.  Richardson said his task in 2018 is to build a navy  more lethal  and  dangerous  to potential U.S. foes.   There is a near unanimous consensus that we need more naval power than we have now,  he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी नौसेना प्रमुख का कहना है कि पूर्वी प्रशांत से युद्धपोतों के साथ एशिया में बलों को मजबूत किया जा सकता है


BERLIN (Reuters) - Greens want the next coalition government to push for the removal of all nuclear warheads stationed in Germany, a document seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday. The discussion paper on defence and foreign policy did not mention the United States, which is believed to have 20 nuclear warheads at a military base in Buechel in western Germany, according to unofficial estimates. Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to secure a fourth term through an unlikely coalition with the ecologist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) after her conservative bloc lost support to the far-right in an election in September. NATO member Germany is not a nuclear power and in 2011 a Merkel-led government announced plans to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022 after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.  Within NATO, we want to ensure that the remaining nuclear weapons in Germany are withdrawn and we want to suspend the modernization programme,  read a section in the document stating the Greens  position. Before leaving office former U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to modernize nuclear bombs, delivery systems and laboratories. His successor, Donald Trump, has said he wants to strengthen and expand his country s nuclear capability. The conservatives, Greens and FDP are hoping to end exploratory discussions on Thursday and move on to proper negotiations on forming a government. They remain divided on several key issues, including immigration, reforming the euro zone and climate policy.

Summary: जर्मन ग्रीन्स चाहते हैं कि अंतिम परमाणु हथियार वापस लिए जाएंः दस्तावेज़


LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hit out at former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond on Thursday, calling him “an embarrassment” as he defended his ownership of a prestigious Scottish golf course.  The attack is the latest in a feud between the pair, stemming from Trump’s objection in 2013 to a Scottish government-approved offshore wind farm project near one of his golf courses.  Trump has found himself under scrutiny from British politicians more generally after they voted last week to debate a call to ban him from the UK due to public outcry over his proposal to stop Muslims entering the United States. Calling Salmond a “stupid man”, Trump accused him of destroying landscapes by supporting wind farm projects and said he “disgracefully” released from prison a Libyan convicted of blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. “Alex Salmond is an embarrassment to Scotland,” he said. Trump’s statement was issued as a response to Salmond, who had said on Wednesday on a radio program that it would be better for Scotland if the billionaire developer and former reality TV star were not the owner of the Turnberry golf course in the south west of the country.  Salmond, a campaigner for Scotland’s independence from the United Kingdom, also said he would support Britain’s interior minister Theresa May if she did issue Trump with a travel ban, ending his comments by suggesting that Trump wore a toupee.  In a previous row, Trump had called Salmond a “has-been and totally irrelevant”.  Half-Scottish Trump, who speaks proudly of his Gaelic heritage, defended his ownership of Turnberry, one of the two golf resorts he owns in Scotland, saying he was spending 200 million pounds ($290 million)on a revamp. Should Britain ban him from entering, Trump has threatened to cancel 700 million pounds of planned investments in Scotland.  “His response to any suggested ban has not changed,” a spokeswoman for Trump said on Thursday.

Summary: ट्रंप ने स्कॉटलैंड के पूर्व नेता को आड़े हाथों लिया, जुबानी जंग बढ़ती जा रही है


BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will ask China to cut its financial links with North Korea and to abide by U.N. sanctions when meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, a senior White House official said on Wednesday. Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon from South Korea for a two-night stop in the Chinese capital as part of his marathon Asia tour. The U.S. president was undecided on whether to declare North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism by the end of his trip, the official said, speaking to reporters on-board Air Force One. Trump believes any talks with the North would require reducing threats, ending provocations and movement toward denuclearization and that no deal can be achieved without denuclearisation, the official added.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के साथ वित्तीय संबंध तोड़ने के लिए चीन से कहेंगे ट्रंपः व्हाइट हाउस अधिकारी


PARIS (Reuters) - Nissan is halting joint development of luxury cars with Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, sources close to the companies told Reuters, suspending a key project in their seven-year partnership and potentially hitting profitability at a new shared factory in Mexico. Nissan (7201.T) decided in October its premium Infiniti brand would not use “MFA2”, an upgraded Daimler (DAIGn.DE) car platform that the companies have jointly funded, in part because Infiniti was not performing well enough to absorb Mercedes technology costs, the sources said. “It wasn’t possible to close a deal on the basis of MFA2,” said one of the people. “The targets set by Infiniti were too difficult to achieve.” The move could reduce efficiency at a $1 billion shared factory opening this year in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where the companies had planned to use the same compact car architecture to cut complexity and production costs, two of the sources said. It could also ultimately force Nissan to write down part of a 250 million pound ($306 million) investment at its UK plant that included Mercedes-based tooling, they added. Daimler and Nissan pursue joint programs only when “beneficial for both sides”, the companies said in separate statements to Reuters, without directly addressing emailed questions about their plans for MFA2 vehicles. Projects are constantly reviewed against targets to account for “developments beyond the control of management”, they added, and discussions about joint development of future premium compact cars are ongoing.  Nissan’s decision deals a blow to the broad cooperation deal struck between Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn and his Daimler counterpart Dieter Zetsche in 2010. It also underscores the mixed results of Nissan’s battle over almost three decades to transform Infiniti into a significant global player in the lucrative luxury car market. The decision predates Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president, the sources said, and was unrelated to campaign vows to penalize Mexican imports that have rattled the auto industry. Ford (F.N) on Tuesday scrapped a planned compact car plant in the country. Nissan and Daimler are pushing ahead with Aguascalientes, where they will build Infiniti and Mercedes models for the U.S. and other markets from a single assembly line opening in 2017. The project nonetheless faces weakening U.S. demand for smaller cars that contributed to Ford’s cancellation and has further raised profitability hurdles for new Infiniti compacts. Persistently low oil prices accelerated the market shift to larger vehicles in 2016, Ford sales chief Mark LaNeve said on Wednesday. “All the growth was SUVs and trucks.” Infiniti has struggled outside the United States, last year selling 16,000 vehicles in Western Europe and 230,000 globally - less than 5 percent of Nissan’s overall tally and barely one-tenth of Mercedes’s expected 2 million deliveries. The first Infiniti appeared in 1989, the same year as the launch model for Toyota’s (7203.T) upscale Lexus brand - which has since grown three times bigger by sales. Modern carmakers pursue economies of scale by increasing the number of models built on each underlying platform - an adaptable chassis accommodating different body sizes, engines and alternative component sets for every part of the vehicle. The retreat on luxury compacts leaves intact the sharing of engines between Infiniti and Mercedes, and small cars between Renault and Daimler’s Smart. The three groups also collaborate on vans and pickups. But joint premium car development for Mexican production was “one of the largest projects between the Renault-Nissan alliance and Daimler”, Ghosn said when unveiling the program in 2014. A year later, after upgrading its plant in Sunderland, England, Nissan began building the Infiniti Q30 hatchback on the current MFA architecture developed for the Mercedes A-Class and derivatives. The plant added the QX30 SUV in 2016, extending Infiniti’s push into smaller vehicles. Nissan has now ditched plans to use the updated Mercedes platform for successors to those models planned for Aguascalientes, the sources said - or for any future Infinitis. Other cancellations include a compact Mercedes-based Infiniti Q40 sedan earmarked for the plant in 2018. Instead the single, less efficient assembly line will build Mercedes cars including an A-Class sedan and subsequent mini-SUV alongside Infiniti vehicles based on Renault-Nissan architecture, starting with a new QX50 SUV this year. Nissan was forced to conclude that the Infiniti brand would not command the higher prices required to turn a profit on vehicles stuffed with Mercedes technology, one source explained.  “One of the lessons learned is that if you have the costs of a luxury vehicle but not the pricing, it’s hard to be profitable,” he said. Nissan may end up writing down some Sunderland investment in Mercedes-based tooling that had been intended to outlast the current Q30 and QX30, people with knowledge of the matter said.  The company is still paying its share of MFA2 development costs running to hundreds of millions of euros for a platform it no longer plans to use, they said, but will leave Daimler with a higher share of some production costs in Aguascalientes. The setback may also show the limits of Ghosn’s consensual approach to economies of scale as head of both Renault (RENA.PA) and Nissan, whose 18-year-old alliance is underpinned by significant cross-shareholdings. The slow pace of integration has contributed to upheaval at the recently created alliance powertrain division, charged with  converging Renault and Nissan engineering. Plans to build Infinitis on Mercedes technology had encountered resistance at Nissan from the start, one source said. “Once again, Ghosn has been unable to break through the wall of engineers to force commonality.”

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः निसान ने डेमलर के साथ लक्जरी कारों का संयुक्त विकास रोका-सूत्र


MARIB, Yemen (Reuters) - At a hospital in the Yemeni city of Marib, demand for artificial limbs from victims of the country s war is so high that prosthetics are made on site in a special workshop. A soldier with an artificial arm hitches up his robe to reveal a stump where his leg once was. He is angry that authorities have done little to help him since he was wounded.   I was at the front and a mortar exploded near me. We fought well, but now I get no salary, no support from the government or anyone. They just left us,  said Hassan Meigan. More than two years into a war that has already left 10,000 dead, regional power Saudi Arabia is struggling to pull together an effective local military force to defeat the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement that has seized large parts of Yemen. The dysfunction is a reminder to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that his campaign to counter arch-enemy Iran in the Middle East, including threats against Tehran s ally Hezbollah, may be hard to implement. During a rare visit to a large area of Yemeni territory controlled by the pro-Saudi government, journalists saw a patchwork of mutually suspicious army units, whose loyalty to disparate regions and commanders has hindered their war against Houthi fighters. Some soldiers appeared to be hunkering down in their bases rather than joining the fight. Those who do fight say salaries go unpaid for months. The front lines have barely moved for months. Saudi Arabia has sought to create a unified military force based in Marib, but these troops have failed to eject the Houthis from the nearby capital Sanaa, where the Saudis see the rebels as a threat to their national security. With Saudi politics in turmoil after a wave of high-profile arrests and Iranian influence growing, Yemeni officers recognize the importance of an effective army but acknowledge that success still eludes them.  Empowering the National Army and unifying all weapons and authority under it is our goal. This is what we re trying to accomplish so we can end the war with a military victory,  Brigadier General Marzooq al-Seyadi, a top Yemeni commander, told Reuters.  The difficulties until now in achieving this in the face of local and ideological factors have posed problems ... but with the aid of the Arab Coalition and the United States, which provides daily advice and support to our side, we will succeed.  A coalition spokesman, Colonel Turki al-Malki, said in September that the mission was to back Yemen  whether it s inside the country by supporting the Yemeni National Army or defending the borders and territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . Sunni Saudi Arabia has led the mostly Gulf Arab coalition against the Shi ite Houthis, since they seized the Yemeni capital and fanned out across the country. But the Houthis  rump state in Yemen s Western highlands has weathered thousands of Saudi-led air strikes that have been aided by refueling and intelligence from the United States. Denying they are a pawn of Iran, the Houthis say they are fighting to fend off a mercenary army in the thrall of the Gulf and the West. The group launched a missile toward Riyadh s main airport on Saturday, which Saudi Arabia said was a declaration of war by Tehran. But after years of fighting that have ravaged the deeply poor country with hunger and disease, even some of Saudi Arabia s staunchest allies in Yemen say they are angry at being manipulated from abroad.  We re fighting as proxies ... (Western powers) can end the war in Yemen. They can pressure Iran and Saudi Arabia, solve their issues and their differences,  said Ali Abd-Rabbu al-Qadhi, a lawmaker and tribal leader from Marib.  It s Yemeni blood that s being shed ... We re one society with common roots and one religion, but the international conflict has brought us to where we are,  said al-Qadhi, who wore a holstered pistol over his traditional Yemeni sarong. Despite the lack of progress on the battlefield, some soldiers on the dusty streets of Marib appeared eager to fight.  Onward to Sanaa, God willing!  smiled Abdullah al-Sufi, 20, whose khaki fatigues hung loose on his gangly frame.  We know there are foreign conspiracies on Yemeni soil, there are problems, there are setbacks. But we are fighting for our country and for our homes, that s the important thing.  As war started in March 2015, after Saudi Prince Mohammed sent in troops, Yemen s most powerful units had already sided with Houthi militiamen to rain rockets and tank fire on Marib, which the fledgling new army and allied tribes repelled. In the most ambitious military adventure in their history, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates took part in that fight, but were stung by scores of combat deaths. The Arab forces have largely pulled back to a support role in bases far from the front line. Now units trained by Saudi Arabia fight in scattered theaters with little obvious coordination, loyal to different parties and local leaders in a society awash with guns and notorious for its fickle politics. The kingdom supports brigades adhering to Sunni Islam s puritanical Salafi school in Western Yemen, while also backing the Muslim Brotherhood around Marib and loyalists of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the south. Additionally, the United Arab Emirates, - the other key Gulf power in the anti-Iran war effort in Yemen - has armed and trained formidable units across southern and eastern Yemen. To add to the confusion, these fighters despise the Houthis as well as pro-Saudi units in northern Yemen.  Displayed on walls all over Marib, portraits of slain soldiers are captioned with poems praising them as  martyrs  and  lions.   My son is sixteen. He said  dad, give me a gun, I want to fight.  He goes to the front now. No father is happy with this, but what can we do? This is a war, this is the situation we re in,  said one Marib veteran. Yemen s government also appears to be living through difficult times. President Hadi has been in Riyadh since being ejected from his country by the Houthis, and sources said his hosts have banned him from traveling for over a month, citing poor security in Yemen. Officials in his office denied the reports. But the Saudi response this week to the Houthi ballistic missile - to close all ports, borders and airspace, the majority of which are nominally under Hadi s control - appeared to deal an unprecedented rebuke to their ally. Activist Khalid Baqlan expressed the fear of many young people and professionals that the errors of a weak government and foreign powers were hollowing out Yemeni society.   What we re seeing is not the building of real state institutions but the empowerment of groups with competing agendas who could fight in the future, benefiting no one,  said Baqlan, from the Saba Youth Council, a civil society group.  There has to be a political solution, it s the only way to save the country.  Yemen's stalemated war: tmsnrt.rs/2zshXBc

Summary: यमन युद्ध में गहरी, ईरान के खिलाफ सऊदी लड़ाई लड़खड़ा गई


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The raucous, passionate and unpredictable 2016 U.S. presidential election is on track to notch another distinction: the most wagered-upon political event ever. With many opinion polls showing a tight race just one day before Tuesday’s election, record numbers of bettors are pouring millions into online platforms from Ireland to Iowa in the hope of capturing a financial windfall from a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump.  UK-based internet betting exchange Betfair said on Sunday its “Next President” market was set to become the most traded it had ever seen and expected to surpass even Brexit, the contentious UK referendum to leave the European Union. By Sunday, roughly $130 million had been traded on who will become the next U.S. president, compared with $159 million on the Brexit referendum, Betfair spokeswoman Naomi Totten said. The amount bet so far on the 2016 contest dwarfs the roughly $50 million laid on the 2012 race. “We think it is because (of) how raw the Brexit (vote) is in people’s minds - they’re not convinced yet that it’s a done deal,” Totten said. Most polls leading into Britain’s June 23 referendum predicted Britons would choose to remain in the EU. Instead, they voted to leave by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin. Betfair’s “Next President” market was by far the largest of more than 70 markets on the site related to the U.S. election. As of Friday, some $140 million has been put into play on markets ranging from who will win the popular vote to how many states each party will carry. On Ireland’s Paddy Power, which merged with Betfair earlier this year, the U.S. presidential election “is definitely on course to be the biggest political event,” said spokesman Féilim Mac An Iomaire. The site has had about $4.38 million bet on the race so far. For Paddy Power, sporting events remain the site’s “bread and butter,” with politics more of a “niche market,” Mac An Iomaire said. Nonetheless, he expects the 2016 race to be among the top 10-most-traded events on the site. Even people with no knowledge of politics know who Trump is, said Mac An Iomaire said, explaining the runaway popularity of the U.S. election in betting markets. “Trump is such a huge celebrity.” Ladbrokes, a UK-based gambling company, said about 5 million pounds, or a little over $6 million, had been bet on the 2016 presidential election since its markets on the race opened four years ago. A Ladbrokes spokesman said that amount was “at least double” the amount wagered on the 2012 election. The three sites all reported an 83 percent probability of a Clinton victory on Tuesday. Her probability shot up a few percentage points on Sunday after the FBI stood by its earlier recommendation that no criminal charges were warranted against Clinton in her use of a private email server.  The vast majority of big-dollar political betting occurs outside America. Wagering on elections in the United States is limited by law to relatively small trading platforms connected to universities, which use data from the markets for academic research. Still, the sites are abuzz with activity as the election nears, albeit in small amounts.  On PredictIt, launched in 2014 and jointly run by Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, and Washington, D.C.-based political consulting firm Aristotle International Inc, the five most-active markets all related to the presidential election. PredictIt is not legally permitted to disclose the amount of money traded, but its top three markets have all reached the maximum number of participants. Trading on the older Iowa Electronic Markets, launched by the University of Iowa in 1988, has also been brisk, although a spokeswoman said she could not say if 2016 was seeing substantially more volume than in 2012, when President Barack Obama won re-election against Republican Mitt Romney. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton with a 5 percentage point lead over Trump in the national survey - 44 percent to 39 percent - while races in the swing states of Florida, North Carolina had shifted from Clinton’s control to being too close to call. The PredictIt market gave Clinton an 81 percent probability of winning the White House. IEM’s “Winner Takes All” market showed her with a 71 percent chance . Betfair said on Friday that Trump was emerging as the clear favorite among one group of players in particular - Brexit backers. Two-thirds of its customers who had supported a Brexit outcome were also backing Trump on Betfair. Paul Krishnamurty, a professional gambler for 15 years who works as an analyst at Betfair and a columnist at Politico, is not one of them. He told Reuters he stood to lose $28,000 if Trump wins on Tuesday. Krishnamurty, who said he had earned roughly half a million dollars during his betting career, has laid money on several election-related markets this year. He took a winning position on Trump’s selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate and bet against Jeb Bush during the Republican nominating contests.  He said he believed Clinton would likely to win both North Carolina and Florida and that a Trump victory was unlikely. “I personally believe she will win in a landslide,” Krishnamurty said.

Summary: सट्टेबाजी साइटों ने अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति चुनाव पर रिकॉर्ड दांव खेला


ROME (Reuters) - Italian politicians denounced on Monday a proposal by Austria s new government to offer passports to German-speaking residents of the northern Italian province of Alto Adige. The idea was included in a 180-page coalition program signed on Saturday after weeks of negotiations by Austria s anti-immigration Freedom Party and the conservative People s Party. The accord risked tearing at fragile ethnic fault lines which run through the autonomous area of Alto Adige, also known as the South Tyrol.  Get your hands off Italy,  said Giorgia Meloni, the head of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, which is part of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi s center-right opposition bloc.  Brothers of Italy will raise the barricades in Alto Adige, in parliament and in every institution, and will ask President (Sergio) Mattarella to stop this undignified insult,  she said in a statement. Alto Adige was ceded to Italy by Austria after World War One. Despite moves by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to settle thousands of ethnic Italians there in the 1920s, German speakers still outnumber Italians by around two to one. Italians and Germans have their own schools and largely frequent different bars and restaurants. But the region enjoys enormous autonomy and generous handouts from Rome, which have helped dampen secessionist sentiments in the province. The new Austrian government portrayed its plan to offer citizenship to Alto Adige residents whose first language is German as a pro-European gesture to promote  an ever-closer union of citizens of member states . Benedetto Della Vedova, a junior foreign minister in Rome, dismissed this, saying the offer was couched in a  velvet glove of Europeanism  but bore the  scent of the ethno-nationalist iron fist . Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano was more cautious, saying he would raise the matter at a later date.  It will be a conversation that requires enormous delicacy,  he was quoted as saying by ANSA agency during a visit to China.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रिया के पासपोर्ट प्रस्ताव पर इटली के राजनेताओं ने हाथ खड़े किए


(Reuters) - If Republican Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz lands a win in the nominating contest in his home state of Texas on Tuesday, part of the credit will go to support from a small and often overlooked interest group: homeschoolers. The Senator’s campaign has invested months of effort courting the well-organized network of families who educate their children at home - often to avoid constraints on religion in public school - in the hopes they can keep a big chunk of conservative voters away from his rivals, billionaire Donald Trump and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. “They were crucial to our win in Iowa and will be in Texas (as well),” said Cruz campaign spokeswoman Catherine Frazier, referring to Cruz’s only victory in a string of four contests for the party’s presidential nomination so far that have otherwise been swept by Trump.     The Cruz campaign has used its message of religious liberty and small government to draw some 6,670 members to its “Homeschoolers for Cruz” coalition in recent months - many of whom campaign on his behalf.     “One thing to understand about homeschoolers is we are all networked,” said Ken Cuccinelli, a member of Homeschoolers for Cruz and an occasional campaign surrogate.     He said the group has used email pleas, door-knocking, and old-fashioned word-of-mouth to win votes. “The real rock stars are the teenagers. They have so much energy... And work ethic. They just churn through work like us old people don’t.”      Cruz’s campaign is betting that support like that will help him secure a win in Texas - the biggest prize among the 12 states holding Republican nominating contests on Super Tuesday. Texas has 155 delegates and a big win for Cruz could potentially shift the balance of the race to decide who will be the Republican nominee at the Nov. 8 presidential election. Trump currently has 82 delegates to Cruz’s 17. Only around 3.5 percent of schoolchildren in the United States are homeschooled. But the families that endorse homeschooling can have outsized political influence in some states and are often conservative.     Many proponents of homeschooling share two important traits: a bent toward religion and a tendency to carefully guard against education policy changes that could affect them personally. “(Cruz) is going to make sure that the federal government will not infringe on what we believe is our God-given right,” said Will Estrada, a Virginia-based co-chair of Homeschoolers for Cruz and a lawyer at the Home School Legal Defense Association - which does not typically endorse candidates before the general election. Homeschoolers help candidates tap into the evangelical vote, long thought to be Cruz’s firewall in Southern states, even though he has struggled to win the conservative Christian vote amid the challenge by Trump.     Cruz leads Trump in Texas, 36.2 to 26.6 percent, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average, one of few leads predicted for the Texas senator for March 1 contests.      The stakes are high for Cruz on Tuesday. At a recent presidential forum at Regent University in Virginia, also a Super Tuesday state, Cruz warned that a runaway victory for Trump could make the billionaire businessman “unstoppable.”             Marlin Bontrager, a homeschooler parent whose family gospel band tours the country by bus, said he’s supporting Cruz in part because he worries that secular education has contributed to a drop in the American intellect and the rise of Trump, as well. “Our educational system has(...) dumbed down our society. And we’re seeing the effect of that this election,” he said, referring to the broad support for Trump.               In 2008, homeschoolers in Iowa mobilized around then-Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, helping him win the state.   (Additional reporting by Luciana Lopez; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Alistair Bell) 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: रिपब्लिकन क्रूज ने टेक्सास के लिए लड़ाई में होमस्कूल की जगह बनाई


LONDON (Reuters) - British police on Friday advised people to avoid the area near Parsons Green, a west London underground station, after media reports of a blast on a train.  Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service and British Transport Police are in attendance along with the London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service,  London s police said in a statement.  We would advise people to avoid the area.

Summary: लंदन पुलिस ने लोगों को स्टेशन की घटना के पास के क्षेत्र से बचने की सलाह दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the 2018 fiscal year would not reduce U.S. aid to Israel but that assistance levels to other nations, including Egypt and Jordan, were still being evaluated. “Our assistance to Israel is ... guaranteed and that reflects obviously our strong commitment to one of our strongest partners and allies,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “With respect to other assistance levels, foreign military assistance levels, those are still being evaluated and decisions are going to be made going forward,” Toner added, noting that treaty obligations would be a factor. The United States provides assistance to Jordan and Egypt as part of their peace treaties with Israel. (This version of the story corrects headline by adding dropped word “preserves”)

Summary: ट्रम्प बजट इज़राइल के लिए सहायता को संरक्षित करता है, अन्य देशों का मूल्यांकन किया जा रहा हैः राज्य विभाग


(Editors note: Attention to language in the second paragraph that some readers may find offensive.) (Reuters) - A local North Carolina Republican headquarters was spray-painted with an anti-Donald Trump message early on Friday, the second time in a month that a party office in the state has been defaced. A vandal sprayed the door and walls of the Alamance County Republican Party headquarters in Burlington with the words “Fuck Trump” and painted over the word “Republican” on a sign at the office at about 2 a.m. local time, according to Chris Verdeck, assistant police chief in the city. No arrests have been made in the incident, which was caught on surveillance video footage, Verdeck said in a phone interview. The vandalism in Burlington, which is located about 20 miles east of Greensboro, occurred four days before the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday. The contest between Republican candidate Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has been one of the most bitterly fought presidential campaigns in years. Police released a still image from the surveillance video of the vandal, who appeared to be a young man with a light complexion and dark hair wearing a light-colored hooded sweatshirt. The man appeared to have acted alone, Verdeck said. “This is deeply troubling to our Alamance County GOP members and volunteers, but even more so, this is troubling for our nation,” Alamance County Republican Party Chairman Ben York said in a statement. “It is my hope that we can be an example to the world that this behavior is unacceptable and it will not deter us from the noble responsibility we have to live and vote in the freedom that has been given to us.”  Last month, the Orange County Republican Party’s office in Hillsborough, which sits about 25 miles east of Burlington, was set on fire and a graffiti message left nearby said “leave town or else.”  Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, called the Hillsborough incident “political terrorism.” North Carolina is considered one of the battleground states in the election, with its likely outcome unknown, giving it the chance to play a decisive role in the Electoral College vote that ultimately decides the presidency. Democratic establishments have also been targeted in the run-up to the election, which has been distinguished by vitriol and sometimes violent acts hurled between Republicans and Democrats. Earlier this week, a historic black church in Greenville, Mississippi, was burned and spray-painted with “Vote Trump.” Black churches in the U.S. South have long been a base of support for the Democratic Party.

Summary: उत्तरी कैरोलिना रिपब्लिकन कार्यालय को ट्रम्प विरोधी संदेश के साथ चित्रित किया गया


DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is not ready to allow talks on Britain s withdrawal from the European Union to move to the second phase next month, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Tuesday.  Yes we all want to move onto phase two of the Brexit negotiations but we are not in a place right now that allows us to do that. We have very serious issues, particularly around the (UK-Irish) border, that need more clarity,  Coveney told a news conference before a meeting with his British counterpart Boris Johnson.

Summary: आयरलैंड ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता को चरण 2 में जाने देने के लिए तैयार नहीं हैः मंत्री


MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines  anti-graft body filed criminal charges against former President Benigno Aquino on Wednesday for mishandling a botched anti-militant raid that resulted in the death of 44 police commandos in 2015. The police officers  deaths at the hands of an overwhelming number of rebel gunmen contributed to the stalling of peace efforts with Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines and was the biggest crisis of Aquino s 2010-2016 presidency. The Office of the Ombudsman said it had charged Aquino with usurpation of authority, as well as graft and corruption, following preliminary investigations. The agency said the former leader allowed a suspended police chief to be involved in the planning and execution of the January 2015 incident in Mamasapano in Maguindano province and kept the interior minister and police officer in charge out of the loop. Aquino s representative did not respond immediately to a request for comment.  Police Special Action Force commandos killed two al Qaeda-linked militants but were ambushed and outnumbered by militants during the raid. The incident caused national outrage and Aquino s approval and trust ratings fell to record lows. A bill put to Congress by the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front to grant self-rule over the predominantly Muslim region of Mindanao island stalled, which many in the process blamed on the impact of the Mamasapano incident. The bill has since been reworked and is expected to be put to Congress again soon, with President Rodrigo Duterte determined to see it passed as a means to develop the country s most impoverished region and arrest the spread of radical sentiment and the influence of the Islamic State group.

Summary: फिलीपींस के लोकपाल ने पूर्व राष्ट्रपति एक्विनो के खिलाफ आपराधिक मामला दर्ज किया


KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers killed at least five people and wounded more than 20 in an attack on a Shi ite mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday, police and medical sources said. It was the first such attack since the central Iraqi government in Baghdad seized Kirkuk last month from Kurdish forces that had controlled the oil city of a million people for three years. Acting Kirkuk governor Rakan Saeed appealed to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi after a meeting of the provincial security panel to send more troops to secure the city.  Deployed forces from police and Counter Terrorism Service are not enough to cover all areas of Kirkuk. We need to double the troops,  he said in a statement after chairing the meeting.   The interior ministry confirmed the attacks on a mosque on Atlas Street in the center of Kirkuk and gave an initial casualty toll of one dead and 16 wounded. The central government in Baghdad recaptured the city in October along with other territory in northern Iraq claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds following an offensive launched in retaliation for the Kurdish independence referendum. Iraqi security forces forced the Kurdish Peshmerga to withdraw from Kirkuk and their retreat also allowed Baghdad to take control of all the oilfields operated by the state-owned North Oil Company in Kirkuk s northern province. No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday s attacks but the suicide bombings are a trademark of Islamic State militants. Police sources said the attacks happened in quick succession and the death toll might rise because some of the wounded were in a critical condition.  It s a crowded street and a place for street vendors. The terrorists wanted to kill a large number of people,  said a police major in Kirkuk. In a separate incident, unknown gunmen opened fire with light weapons on a police patrol in eastern Kirkuk, without causing any casualties, police sources said. Iraqi security officials have said Islamic State is likely to wage an insurgency in Iraq after its self-proclaimed caliphate all but collapsed and the militants were dislodged from large areas of the west and north of the country. Iraqi security forces have recaptured nearly all the territories once controlled by Islamic State. Fighting is ongoing in the border areas with Syria where militants are entrenched in the small town of Rawa and nearby areas.

Summary: इराक के किर्कुक में दो आत्मघाती हमलों में कम से कम पांच लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton said on Monday she could resume presidential campaigning in a couple of days after a bout of pneumonia that she initially had not believed was “that big a deal.” Clinton’s health scare after she almost collapsed at an event on Sunday, causing her to cancel some campaign trips, revived concerns about a tendency toward secrecy that has dogged her campaign, and underscored perennial worries about the medical fitness of candidates for one of the world’s most demanding jobs. “Well, it will be in the next couple of days. ... I just want to get this over and done with and get back on the trail as soon as possible,” she said in an interview on CNN on Monday night, adding she had ignored doctor’s orders to rest.  “I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal.”  Her campaign acknowledged on Monday it may have been too slow disclosing her pneumonia diagnosis after she nearly fainted at a New York memorial ceremony for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. She was diagnosed with the lung infection on Friday. “I think that in retrospect, we could have handled it better in terms of providing more information more quickly,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon told MSNBC earlier in the day. The health problem was the latest blow for the Democratic presidential nominee at a time when Republican rival Donald Trump has erased most of her lead in national opinion polls and is competitive again in many battleground states where the Nov. 8 election is likely to be decided. Clinton, 68, said she had dealt with similar episodes of dizziness before. “You know, it is something that has occurred a few times over the course of my life. I’m aware of it and usually can avoid it,” she told CNN. Asked if she passed out during the incident on Sunday, she said: “No, I didn’t. I felt dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute. Once I got in. Once I could sit down. Once I could cool off. Once I had some water, I immediately started feeling better.”   Her campaign said her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would campaign on her behalf while she rests. Both Clinton and Trump, 70, said they intended to release more of their medical details in the coming days, as their campaigns gear up for the November election. Questions about the incident reinforced the perception of Clinton as secretive, a view fueled by the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while serving as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. A federal investigation of that issue said she was “extremely careless” in her handling of classified emails, but did not recommend criminal charges. Trump said on Monday that health was a campaign issue but he did not attack Clinton over her physical condition. “I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail,” he said in an interview with Fox News. He focused his criticism on comments by Clinton last week in which she dismissed half of his supporters as a “basket of deplorables” of racist, homophobic people. Clinton said she regretted the remark. Trump has compared the comment with a much-criticized remark by 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney that 47 percent of the electorate was dependent on the government. “I was deeply shocked and alarmed to hear my opponent attack, slander, smear, demean these wonderful, amazing people who are supporting our campaign by the millions,” Trump told a conference of National Guard members in Baltimore. Trump has himself aroused controversy with comments in which he called some Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists, questioned whether a U.S.-born judge could be fair because of his Mexican heritage and criticized the Muslim parents of an American soldier who died in combat in Iraq. ‘SHORT-TERM TURBULENCE’ Clinton’s pneumonia disclosure was made public hours after her campaign said she had become “overheated” to explain why, her knees buckling and unsteady, she was rushed from the Sept. 11 ceremony. “The short-term turbulence will be more about the handling of this than the substance,” David Axelrod, a former political adviser to Obama, told Reuters.  “Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia,” Axelrod tweeted later. “What’s the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?” Trump had suggested for weeks that Clinton lacked the energy needed to be president. He has raised questions about her stamina, reprising a tactic from the Republican primary campaign when he derided rival Jeb Bush as a “low-energy” candidate.  Democrats said her attendance at events despite her pneumonia diagnosis proved her toughness. Trump’s campaign has issued a short letter from his doctor saying he was in excellent health with “extraordinary” strength and stamina. But the letter did not mention what medicine Trump might be taking or other details typically included in such disclosures. In July 2015, Clinton released a two-page letter outlining her medical condition that sought to reassure Americans about her health after she fell and suffered a concussion at home in 2012 near the end of her tenure as secretary of state.

Summary: निमोनिया की लड़ाई के बारे में क्लिंटन कहती हैं, "मुझे नहीं लगता था कि यह कोई बड़ी बात है।"


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Banks, credit card issuers and other financial companies will be able to block customers from banding together to sue over disputes, after the U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly killed a rule banning the firms from using “forced arbitration” clauses. Republican Vice President Mike Pence appeared on the Senate floor at 10:11 p.m. EDT (0211 GMT) to cast the tie-breaking vote as the chamber’s president and approve the most significant roll-back of Obama-era financial policy since President Donald Trump took office vowing to loosen the leash on Wall Street. The final count was 51 to 50.   The Republican-dominated House of Representatives has already passed the resolution repealing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule released in July. The resolution also bars regulators from instituting a similar ban in the future. After a signature from Trump, expected soon, the resolution will abruptly end a years-long fight that has included multiple federal regulators, consumer advocacy groups, and financial lobbyists. CFPB Director Richard Cordray, a Democrat appointed by former President Barack Obama, rarely comments on congressional action but on Tuesday night said “Wall Street won and ordinary people lost.”  “This vote means the courtroom doors will remain closed for groups of people seeking justice and relief when they are wronged by a company,” he added. Customers must agree to the clauses as a condition of opening accounts, saying they will take any disputes to closed-door arbitration instead of joining class-action lawsuits, where complainants band together to share litigation costs. The clauses are used for nearly every U.S. consumer product and service since the Supreme Court ruled them legal in 2011.  Victims of the Equifax Inc. (EFX.N) hack were outraged last month when the company included forced arbitration fine print in offering them free credit monitoring. The company later removed the clauses. At the same time, Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) customers whose identities were used in last year’s phony accounts scandal have had difficulty suing the bank because they are bound by arbitration clauses in contracts they signed for legitimate accounts. The CFPB rule, set to go into effect next spring, was not retroactive and would not have helped Equifax or Wells customers. Members of Trump’s administration have relentlessly assailed the regulation, and on Monday the Treasury Department laid out arguments against it in a special report. Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Norieka said on Tuesday the Senate’s action stopped a rule “that would have likely increased the cost of credit for hardworking Americans and made it more difficult for small community banks to resolve differences with their customers.” Meanwhile, major bank lobbying groups who sued last month to block the rule cheered the resolution’s passage.  One of the groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said congress had reined in the “overgrown and unaccountable” CFPB, an independent agency created to protect individuals’ finances that conservatives say consistently reaches beyond its authority in its rulemaking. Critics of the rule had said class actions only benefit trial lawyers and arbitration generally wins larger settlement awards for customers. Supporters said forced arbitration harms customers by putting companies in control of the process and taking away the right to sue enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.  The CFPB created its rule after conducting a five-year study that found customers struggle to have banks open arbitration cases about their complaints, but that those few cases have led to slightly higher individual awards than class actions.  “The Senate today prevented a cash grab that would have transferred wealth from consumers to the pockets of wealthy attorneys,” said Ted Frank, director of the center for class-action fairness at the free-market group Competitive Enterprise Institute. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, the most senior Democrat on the Banking Committee, meanwhile, said Tuesday’s vote “will make the rich richer, and the powerful more powerful.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन, वॉल स्ट्रीट ने वर्ग-कार्रवाई नियम को समाप्त करने में जीत हासिल की


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli military officials were quoted on Monday rowing back from an assertion by the defense minister that Hezbollah was behind a spate of shelling from Syria, which could increase tension on Israel s northern frontier. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been warning that Israel, which has largely stayed out of the six-year-old Syrian civil war, could step up attacks in retaliation for shelling across the frontier, or to block Damascus s Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah reinforcements from setting up bases. That could thrust the Israelis into confrontation with Syria and potential run-ins with its big-power backer, Russia. Israel last battled Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, and has occasionally fired on Syria to attack what it said were Hezbollah or Iranian targets during the civil war, but has mainly avoided direct fighting against Syria since their last war in 1973.    Twice last week, mortar rounds or rockets launched from Syria hit areas of the Israeli-held Golan Heights, causing no casualties but drawing Israeli artillery fire against Syrian army posts. Addressing his parliamentary faction on Monday, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a far right politician, said the Golan shelling was carried out by a Syrian cell on Hezbollah s orders without Damascus having been informed, to stoke Israeli-Syrian fighting. Lieberman did not detail the source of his information.  There was a personal instruction by (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah to compartmentalize Assad and his regime from the execution of this shooting ... with the goal of dragging us into the Syrian mire,  Lieberman said in the televised remarks.  Therefore I call here both on the Assad regime ... and also on the Russian forces that are present there, to restrain Hezbollah.   Within hours, every major Israeli media outlet aired remarks attributed to unnamed military officers casting doubt on Lieberman s account.  We have no information supporting Lieberman s statement purporting that the (Syrian shelling) cell was run by Hezbollah personnel,  the top-rated Channel 2 television quoted  sources in the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)  as saying.  Lieberman s office   did not immediately respond to  the comments contradicting him. A Lieber man confidant who requested anonymity told Reuters :  The defense minister spoke based on his own judgment and assessment.  Hezbollah did not respond to Lieberman s allegations, but its affiliated TV station Al-Manar noted the Israeli media dissent. In what appeared to be a reference to Israel s efforts to coordinate its actions in Syria with Moscow, Lieberman said Russian military commanders in Syria  have received all the (information) that they need on this matter . There was no immediate comment from officials in Moscow. Syria s Foreign Ministry said after Saturday s exchange of fire on the Golan that Israeli strikes would have  grave consequences . Lieberman says Israel is doing everything in its power to stave off military confrontation on the northern front.

Summary: इजरायली पीतल ने हिज़्बुल्लाह पर गोलाबारी का आरोप लगाने पर संदेह जताया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans released their “skinny bill” that would repeal some of Obamacare late on Thursday, just hours before they were expected to vote on the legislation. Many Republican lawmakers said they did not want the eight-page bill to become law, and held off supporting it until they received assurances from House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan that members of both chambers could set up a special committee that would craft new legislation.  Senate Republican leaders said the bill was simply a way to keep alive the seven-year promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, which was also a top campaign promise from President Donald Trump. The Senate failed to pass two major bills earlier in the week that would repeal or replace the healthcare law after spending months on both pieces of legislation.  The Affordable Care Act, known informally as Obamacare, brought insurance to 20 million previously uninsured Americans and was the signature domestic achievement of former Democratic President Barack Obama. Republicans say the law is too costly and represents undue government interference in healthcare.  Here’s what’s in the “skinny” repeal bill, formally called the Health Care Freedom Act:  The bill repeals an Obamacare penalty on individuals who do not purchase health insurance. It also repeals a penalty for eight years on employers with more than 50 employees that do not provide health insurance.  The legislation repeals a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical device sales, until Dec. 31, 2020. If it were to become law, this repeal would be welcome news to manufacturers such as Medtronic Inc and Abbott Laboratories Inc.  The Senate bill effectively defunds Planned Parenthood for one year by prohibiting Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, from reimbursing the women’s healthcare provider. The majority of Planned Parenthood patients are on Medicaid.  Unlike previous attempts to craft legislation to repeal or replace Obamacare, the skinny bill does not end the law’s Medicaid expansion or make changes to the federal health program.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः सीनेट के 'पतले निरसन' स्वास्थ्य सेवा विधेयक में क्या है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives called on Wednesday for the right to review any effort by President Donald Trump to ease sanctions on Russia, as a growing number of lawmakers worried over past contacts between his aides and Moscow. Three Republican and four Democratic members of the House  introduced the “Russian Sanctions Review Act,” a companion bill to a measure introduced in the Senate by a separate group of Republicans and Democrats last week. Prospects for both bills are uncertain for now, although that could change if the Trump administration were to move to ease sanctions imposed on Moscow. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced out on Monday after revelations he had discussed the issue of sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington before Trump took office last month, and had then misrepresented to Vice President Mike Pence what he talked about. The affair has thrown a spotlight on U.S. relations with Moscow, which Trump has long said he would like to improve. One sponsor of the House bill, Representative Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House, said the bill’s backers would discuss with House leaders whether they would allow the legislation to come up for a vote. Trump’s fellow Republicans control majorities in both the Senate and House. To date, congressional leaders have not moved to advance any new legislation related to sanctions on Russia. Both bills are modeled on a 2015 law that let Congress review the Iran nuclear agreement between the United States and other major powers negotiated by former President Barack Obama’s administration. Among other things, the measures would require the Trump administration to submit to Congress a description of any proposed easing of sanctions on Russia, and to certify that Moscow had stopped supporting actions to undermine the government of Ukraine or cyber attacks on the United States or its people. The loudest protests about contacts between Trump aides and Russia have come from Democrats, despite their insistence that investigating Russian influence on the U.S. election should not be a partisan issue. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia sought to tilt the 2016 election in Trump’s favor by hacking and leaking Democratic emails. The Republicans who co-sponsored the House bill did not attend a news conference about it on Wednesday. Hoyer nonetheless said he expected the bills would be backed by enough lawmakers in both houses of Congress to withstand any potential veto by Trump.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसद किसी भी ट्रम्प रूस प्रतिबंध कदम पर कहना चाहते हैं


BAGHDAD/KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi on Monday forces captured the headquarters for the North Oil Company, northwest of Kirkuk, and a nearby refinery from Kurdish forces, without fighting, an Iraqi oil official said. Iraq forces moved into the premises of Iraqi state-owned North Oil after taking the nearby K1 airbase, the Kirkuk-based official told Reuters. They were also deploying in the nearby Baba Gurgur field and the North Oil refinery. Oil and natural gas production from the Kirkuk region is proceeding normally despite the ongoing Iraqi military operation to seize the region form Kurdish forces, another Iraqi Oil Ministry official told Reuters in Baghdad.  Kurdish leaders we consider as our brothers have agreed to hand over control of North Oil and North Gas company facilities who belong to the state,  said a military commander involved in the operation.  We have an agreement with some Kurdish leaders that the oil and gas facilities should stay out of the conflict,  the ministry official said. North Oil contributes a small part of Iraq s overall crude production, pumped mainly from fields in the south.

Summary: इराकी बलों ने कुर्द बलों से नॉर्थ ऑयल कंपनी पर कब्जा कर लिया; तेल उत्पादन में कोई व्यवधान नहीं


DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Donald Trump shunned Thursday night’s debate of the Republican presidential candidates hosted by Fox News and instead filled an auditorium a few miles down the road, trying to prove his widespread support only days before Iowa kicks off the U.S. nominating voting process.  Trump, with just one day’s notice on a weeknight, was able to fill to capacity a hall at Drake University that holds 700. “I didn’t want to be here, to be honest, I wanted to be about five minutes away” at the debate, Trump told the crowd. “When you’re treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights - whether we like it or not.” The back-and-forth between Trump and Fox News continued even after the debate had begun.  Trump said he skipped the debate because he would not be treated fairly by Fox News anchor and debate moderator Megyn Kelly. He told the crowd that Fox News made repeated calls to try to persuade him to change his mind. He said officials, presumably the network’s chairman, Roger Ailes, called him until moments before the debate began. Fox News told the story differently.  The network acknowledged that Ailes had three conversations with Trump but said in a statement that Trump had offered to participate in the debate only if Fox News donated $5 million to his charity. Fox News declined to make the payment, calling it a “quid pro quo” in its statement.  Trump has made such a demand previously, telling CNN when it hosted a Republican debate that it should donate $5 million to charity from the profits gained from advertising. CNN turned down that demand. Trump was able to garner a tremendous amount of attention on Thursday without having to share much of the spotlight. Cable news networks CNN and MSNBC provided extensive coverage of his event. In deciding to hold a competing event, Trump said the gathering would be to benefit veterans and he welcomed his rivals to attend. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania joined Trump after participating in the undercard debate held for the Republican candidates at the bottom of the polls. Both men spoke briefly about the need to help the nation’s veterans. Trump told the crowd that in one day he raised more than $5 million for a veterans group, although his campaign did not say which group was getting the funds. At the conclusion of the event, Trump announced that the total raised for veterans had risen to $6 million. Trump said he personally donated $1 million. Trump’s decision to skip the debate was sharply criticized by his opponents. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz opened the debate by mocking Trump in his absence. “I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly,” Cruz said, imitating Trump. “And Ben, you’re a terrible surgeon. Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way.” There are risks in holding his own event for Trump, who several recent polls have shown barely leading Cruz. If Trump wins the Iowa caucuses, the move will be lauded as proof that he has built a movement capable of circumventing establishment media. If he places second, the skipped debate will be blamed as a fatal tactical error that allowed opponents to paint him as weak in the fact of tough questions. Trump acknowledged that he did not know whether the event would ultimately hurt or help his campaign.  “Who the hell knows, but it’s for our vets,” he said. Supporters and some curious onlookers waited in the sub-freezing cold in a line that wrapped around the building and down a block.  Trump’s campaign erected a large Jumbotron outside the auditorium to allow an overflow crowd to watch his remarks. Before Trump took the stage, some of his well-known supporters spoke. Lynnette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, two women with a large online video blog following, urged the crowd to back Trump.    Randy Bowling, a Trump supporter from Ottumwa, Iowa, said some of his friends who are undecided in the Republican contest said Trump’s decision to not participate in the debate raised doubts about supporting him.  “We have mixed emotions,” Bowling said. “We caught a lot of flak from our friends who are on the fence.”  Sharon and Richard Lode drove three hours from Sioux Rapids, Iowa to see Trump’s event, deciding they would make the drive with only one-day’s notice.  Sharon Lode, who is 65, was not worried that skipping the debate could hurt Trump on caucus day.  “It took a lot of guts to stand up to them,” she said.  Steven Doran, 19, was one of the many students and other curious area residents who attended the event with no plans to ultimately support Trump. Doran plans to participate in the Democratic caucus.  “The spectacle,” Doran said, when asked why he was there. “I’ve never seen Trump in person.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने अपने ही कार्यक्रम में पूरा सदन खींचा क्योंकि उन्होंने फॉक्स न्यूज की बहस को अस्वीकार कर दिया


SACRAMENTO, Calif./LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A ballot measure to make recreational marijuana legal for adults was approved in California, opening the most populous U.S. state to a burgeoning commercial cannabis market in a major victory for supporters of liberalized drug laws. Proposition 64 passed easily as statewide returns from the election showed nearly 56 percent of voters favoring the measure and 44 percent opposed, according to results on Wednesday morning reported from more than 90 percent of precincts. California was by far the largest of five states with ballot measures seeking to legalize the use of marijuana for the sheer pleasure of its intoxicating effects, and approval there extends legalization to the entire U.S. Pacific Coast. Recreational marijuana was first approved in 2012 by Washington state and Colorado, and later by voters in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia. Victory also was declared on Tuesday by supporters of a similar measure in Massachusetts, giving legalized recreational pot its first toehold in New England.  Nevada voters also backed legalization for recreational purposes, but neighboring Arizona rejected a similar proposal. In the fifth state, Maine, the result was too close to call on Wednesday morning. The Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s leading organization supporting liberalization of cannabis laws, likewise projected passage of measures permitting medical use of marijuana in Florida, Arkansas, North Dakota and Montana. Before Tuesday, 25 states had already legalized cannabis in some way, whether for medical or recreational uses, or both. [here] Approval in California alone, home to 39 million people, means that almost a fifth of all Americans live in states where recreational marijuana is legal, according to U.S. Census figures.  California was the first U.S. state to legalize medical marijuana, doing so in 1996.  The new measure, spearheaded by a coalition of supporters that included Democratic Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Sean Parker, allows adults to possess and use up to an ounce of pot for private, recreational use. It also permits personal cultivation of as many as six cannabis plants.  Moreover, it would establish a system to license, regulate and tax sales of marijuana, while allowing city governments to exercise local control over commercial distribution within their borders. California voters defeated a similar initiative in 2010, but public opinion polls show attitudes have since shifted. Opponents of liberalized marijuana laws have argued that such measures carry major public safety risks and would make pot more accessible to youngsters. Experts say the latest initiatives include more sophisticated regulatory mechanisms aimed at keeping cannabis away from children and banning the involvement of criminal gangs and drug cartels. They also point to the potential for hundreds of millions in additional state tax revenue from pot sales and billions in economic activity.  Investors new to the sector said they are eager for a piece of a recreational marijuana market that by some estimates will reach $50 billion over the next decade. “It’s changed in the minds of these voters from being like cocaine to being like beer,” said University of Southern California political scientist John Matsusaka. Civil rights groups have also embraced legalization, arguing that current marijuana laws have led to a disproportionate number of minorities being incarcerated for minor drug offenses.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के मतदाताओं ने मनोरंजक मारिजुआना को गले लगाया


GAZA (Reuters) - A senior Palestinian official in President Mahmoud Abbas s ruling Fatah party said on Thursday that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, due to visit the region later this month,  is unwelcome in Palestine .  In the name of Fatah I say that we will not welcome Trump s deputy in the Palestinian Territories. He asked to meet (Abbas) on the 19th of this month in Bethlehem, such a meeting will not take place,  Jibril Rajoub said. Aides for Abbas were not immediately available for comment.

Summary: अमेरिकी उपराष्ट्रपति पेंस 'फिलिस्तीन में अवांछित': फतह अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans appeared to have enough votes on Wednesday to pass a budget measure that is crucial to President Donald Trump’s hopes of enacting tax reform legislation before the end of the year. Senate Republican whip John Cornyn, who is in charge of marshalling votes for legislation, said he expected the fiscal 2018 spending blueprint to draw the support necessary to unlock a legislative tool enabling Republicans to move a tax reform bill through the Senate without help from Democrats. Asked if Republicans had enough votes to pass the budget measure, Cornyn told Reuters: “I believe we do.” The resolution requires approval from at least 50 lawmakers in the 100-seat chamber, with Vice President Mike Pence able to cast a tie-breaking vote. The Senate is expected to vote on the budget resolution on Thursday. Republicans control the Senate by only a 52-48 margin, and with Democrats largely opposed to Trump’s plan to deliver up to $6 trillion in tax cuts to businesses and individuals, Republicans can afford to lose few votes among their own. A budget approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives would allow Republicans to use a procedure known as reconciliation to move tax legislation through the Senate with a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes normally required. Republican Senator Rand Paul, a fiscal hawk, has threatened to vote against the measure. But Republicans would need to lose three votes for the measure to fail, and there did not appear to be two other Republicans opposing the resolution. On Wednesday, Republicans voted down Democratic amendments to prevent tax cuts for wealthy Americans and protect funding for the Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs for the elderly and the poor.  Earlier on Wednesday, Trump talked with 18 members of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, including Republicans and five Democrats who are up for re-election in states that Trump won in the 2016 presidential election. The White House hopes those Democrats will be open to working with Trump. It was the latest White House attempt to recruit Democratic support to ensure that tax reform does not meet the same fate as Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, which failed in the Senate when Republicans could not muster enough votes. Trump and top Republicans insist that the tax plan would benefit the middle class.  Analysts argue that wealthy Americans would benefit most. On Wednesday, the left-leaning Center for American Progress released a report saying that Trump personally would get $23 million a year from a proposed business tax cut, while his heirs and heirs of his Cabinet members would reap $3.5 billion from the repeal of the federal inheritance tax.   Senator Ron Wyden, the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said he warned Trump that some middle-class voters would be hurt by the plan’s proposal to eliminate the $4,000 personal exemption and the deduction for state and local taxes.  “Any plan that starts off with the middle class in a serious hole is going to be pretty hard to fix,” Wyden told reporters. Democrats oppose the Republican budget resolution in part because it would allow tax legislation to expand the federal deficit by up to $1.5 trillion over the next decade.

Summary: ऐसा प्रतीत होता है कि सीनेट रिपब्लिकन के पास कर सुधार का मार्ग प्रशस्त करने के लिए वोट हैं


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers volunteered to join or rejoin its army to resist new U.N. sanctions and to fight against the United States in the current geopolitical tension between Pyongyang and Washington.  Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the People’s Army after the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement on Monday condemning new sanctions imposed by the United Nations  in retaliation for North Korean missile tests. Earlier this week, nuclear-armed North Korea threatened to strike the United States and its Pacific territory of Guam. KCNA said on Wednesday a mass rally was held in Pyongyang to support the government. North Korea has previously mobilized large crowds to show its resolve when tensions escalate. In August 2015, 1 million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, raising additional tensions. North Korea warned foreign diplomats to leave Pyongyang in 2013 when it suspended work at a joint inter-Korean industrial park and threatened missile strikes on U.S. Pacific bases, notably in Guam and Hawaii.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया का कहना है कि तनाव बढ़ने पर पीपुल्स आर्मी के लिए लगभग 35 लाख स्वयंसेवक हैं


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s government on Tuesday unexpectedly changed two of its top officials responsible for U.S. relations, citing concerns about an increasingly anti-Mexican climate across the border. Carlos Sada, previously the consul in Los Angeles, was named ambassador to the United States while Paulo Carreno, one of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s communications chiefs, was appointed the deputy foreign minister for North America. The new ambassador must still be approved by the Senate. “We have been warning that our citizens have begun to feel a more hostile climate,” Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu told local radio after the announcement. “This (anti-Mexican) rhetoric has made it clear that we have to act in a different way so that this tendency being generated doesn’t damage the bilateral relationship,” she added. Mexican government officials have expressed concern about the rise of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump due to his repeated verbal attacks on Mexico, and his insistence that Mexico should be made to pay for a border wall. Trump on Tuesday threatened to block remittances from undocumented Mexican migrants if elected president unless the country pays billions for his planned wall. Trump also called Ford’s announcement that it would build more cars in Mexico “an absolute disgrace.”

Summary: मेक्सिको ने प्रतिकूल जलवायु का हवाला देते हुए शीर्ष अमेरिकी राजनयिकों की जगह ली