WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday handed a victory to congressional Republicans who challenged President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, ruling that his administration overstepped its constitutional powers relating to government spending. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, based in Washington, ruled that the administration cannot spend billions of dollars in federal funds to provide subsidies under the law known as Obamacare to private insurers without the approval of Congress. At issue in the case, brought by the Republican-led House of Representatives, are reimbursements to insurance companies to compensate them for reductions that the law requires them to make to customers’ out-of-pocket medical payments. The ruling will not have an immediate effect on the law because the judge put the decision on hold pending an expected appeal by the administration. But it adds to uncertainty over the future of Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential and congressional elections, including whether enough health insurers will continue to participate in the program. Insurers have sustained losses from their Obamacare business, saying they have not attracted enough healthy customers to offset the costs of sicker members. Two of the largest players, UnitedHealth Group and Humana Inc, had already said they would not offer plans in many markets next year. “If you’re going to lose more money, why participate?” asked Steve Halper, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets. Shares in hospital operators such as Community Health Systems Inc fell sharply, while insurer stocks including Aetna Inc, which plans to remain in at least 15 Obamacare markets next year, also declined. In court papers, the administration had warned that a court victory for the House Republicans would lead to a spike in insurance premiums for Americans and force the government to pay more in tax credits to insurance policy-holders. As part of an appeal, the administration is likely to press its argument that the House lacks legal standing to sue.  “This suit represents the first time in our nation’s history that Congress has been permitted to sue the executive branch over a disagreement about how to interpret a statute,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. “It’s unfortunate that Republicans have resorted to a taxpayer-funded lawsuit to re-fight a political fight that they keep losing,” Earnest added. “They’ve been losing this fight for six years, and they’ll lose it again.” Conservatives have mounted a series of legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act since it was passed by Congress in 2010 over unified Republican opposition. Collyer was appointed to the bench by Republican former President George W. Bush. The law has helped bring insurance coverage to millions of Americans who previously had none, subsidizing the cost of insurance through tax credits. In addition, the federal government helped defray consumers’ out-of-pocket costs. The House Republicans argued that the administration’s action violated the U.S. Constitution because it is the legislative branch, not the executive branch, that authorizes government spending. “BIG win for the Constitution,” House Speaker Paul Ryan wrote on Twitter. Jonathan Turley, the lawyer who spearheaded the lawsuit, in a blog post called the ruling “a resounding victory not just for Congress but for our constitutional system as a whole.” The appeals court in Washington may be more receptive to the administration’s arguments, in part because seven of its 11 active judges are Democratic-appointees, including four picked by Obama. The case focuses on a cost-sharing provision of Obamacare that requires insurers to reduce deductibles and co-pays. Insurers are supposed to be reimbursed for these costs by the federal government. Cost-sharing is determined by the income of the policyholder and is a mechanism for reducing healthcare costs for lower-income households.  The Obama administration has interpreted the provision as a type of federal spending that does not need to be explicitly authorized by Congress. The House Republicans who filed the challenge disagreed. Collyer ruled that the cost-sharing provisions cannot be funded through the same permanent appropriation that covers tax credits made available under the law. The judge rejected the administration’s contention that the appropriation should be viewed as permanent because the alternative interpretation would lead to “absurd economic, fiscal and healthcare policy results.” The U.S. Supreme Court in June 2015, in a ruling authored by Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected a conservative challenge that could have gutted Obamacare, upholding nationwide tax subsidies crucial to the law. Roberts also wrote a major 2012 ruling preserving Obamacare.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने ओबामाकेयर की कानूनी चुनौती जीती, बीमाकर्ता की चिंताओं को बढ़ाया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army said a U.S. missile attack on one of its airbases killed six people and caused extensive damage, adding it would respond by continuing its campaign to “crush terrorism” and restore peace and security to all of Syria. A statement from the army command described the attack on Friday as an act of “blatant aggression”, saying it had made the United States “a partner” of Islamic State, the ex-Nusra Front and other “terrorist organizations”.   The United States on Friday fired dozens of cruise missiles at an airbase from which it said a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched this week, in an escalation of the U.S. military role in Syria that directly raised tension with Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump said he had ordered the strikes in America’s “national security interest”.  The Syrian army said the attack “undermines the operation of combating terrorism that the Syrian Arab Army is carrying out”.  “The United States has tried to justify this aggression under the pretext of the Syrian Arab Army using chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun, without knowing the reality of what happened,” it added.     Washington has blamed Assad’s forces for the attack that killed scores of people in rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday. The Syrian government has strongly denied responsibility and blamed the deaths on leaks from a rebel chemical arms store it says was hit by a Syrian air strike.  Rebels say there were no military positions in the targeted area in Khan Sheikhoun and that they have no chemical weapons.  The army said Friday’s U.S. attack “sends the wrong messages to the terrorist organizations and makes them go further in using chemical weapons in the future whenever they face big losses on the battlefield”. The Syrian government describes all armed groups opposed to it as terrorists.

Summary: सीरिया का कहना है कि अमेरिकी हमले में छह लोगों की मौत हो गई, व्यापक नुकसान हुआ


PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron has a reputation for disarming hostile audiences with repartee and humor, but his latest verbal jousting on a trip to Africa has drawn criticism at home. In an interview broadcast late on Wednesday, Macron dismissed as  ridiculous  suggestions he had offended Burkina Faso s President Roch Marc Kabore when he quipped with students that Kabore had left the room to fix the air-conditioning. The exchange came during a boisterous 90-minute question-and-answer session at Ouagadougou University earlier this week that followed Macron s promise of a new era in relations between France and Africa. When one of the students in the audience grilled Macron over what he would do about Burkina Faso s constant power cuts, the 39-year-old replied:  You speak to me like I m a colonial power, but I don t want to look after electricity in Burkina Faso. That s the job of your president.   Earlier heckles turned into laughter and applause. When Kabore later left the hall, Macron joked:  You see, he s gone. He s left to fix the air-conditioning.  Shortly after, a smiling Kabore returned to his seat. Macron s remark touched off a social media frenzy, splitting those who defended it as lighthearted banter and others who complained of paternalistic overtones.  Far-right rivals accused him of  bordering on racism .  That s ridiculous,  Macron said in an interview with France 24.  We have a relationship of equals, that means we can joke with one another.  Macron has courted trouble with his language before. He was widely criticized this summer after saying that Africa faced  civilisational  problems. In France he has provoked anger by describing opponents as  slackers  and urging workers to  stop kicking up a bloody mess .   Firing back at his critics, Macron said it was those who deemed it inappropriate to joke with an African leader who were guilty of patronizing the continent.  I would have had a laugh about it with any European leader with whom I have this kind of relationship. I don t with (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel, but I do for example with (European Commission president) Jean-Claude Juncker,  he said.  (Fixes typo in para 9, adds TV in media identifier)

Summary: मजाक में क्या गलत है? मैक्रों ने अफ्रीका में वातानुकूलन गैग का बचाव किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s Hezbollah accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s government on Sunday of pushing the region to war in Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and said nowhere in Israel would be safe if such a conflict were to erupt. Tensions have risen this year between Iran-backed Hezbollah and its arch enemy Israel, which last fought a major conflict in 2006. Israel has said it would use all its strength from the start in any new war with Hezbollah. In a speech to followers, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli government did not have  a correct assessment of where this war will lead if they ignite it , and did not know how it would end.  They do not have a correct picture about what is awaiting them if they go to the idiocy of this war,  Nasrallah said. Israel does not know where such a conflict would be fought, or who would take part, he added. Nasrallah said earlier this year that a future Israeli war against Syria or Lebanon could draw thousands of fighters from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Pakistan, and could take place inside Israel. Israel is concerned by Tehran s steadily increasing influence in the region during the six-year-old Syrian conflict, whether via its own Revolutionary Guard forces or the groups it backs, especially Hezbollah. Nasrallah was speaking on Sunday on the occasion of Ashura, when Shi ites commemorate the slaying of the Prophet Mohammad s grandson, the Imam Hussein, at Kerbala in 680.  He called on Jews who emigrated to Israel to  leave and return to the countries from which they came so they are not fuel for any war that the idiotic Netanyahu government takes them to . Were war to erupt, he said, they might not have long to leave.  They will have no secure place in occupied Palestine,  he said. Netanyahu said in August that Iran was building sites to produce precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon, with the aim of using them against Israel. Tens of thousands of Shi ites wearing mourning black marched through the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut to commemorate Ashura, when Hezbollah rallies supporters around its political causes. Men with boxes of tissues weaved through the crowds, handing them to those weeping in mourning.  All of these crowds are answering Nasrallah s call, Hussein s call, saying we are ready to give our selves and souls and blood and children and all we own in sacrifice to this religion,  said Deeb Hussein al-Annan, whose son was killed fighting for Hezbollah in Syria in 2014.  We are defending the cause and our existence [in Syria],  he added, holding a flag emblazoned with a picture of his son. The group s role in Syria is the focus of controversy in Lebanon. Hezbollah s opponents say it has dragged Lebanon into the conflict. Hezbollah says it has stopped extremist groups such as Islamic State from advancing into Lebanon from Syria. Nasrallah said the battle against Islamic State must continue  in every place to eliminate Daesh , using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Summary: हिज़्बुल्लाह का कहना है कि इज़राइल इस क्षेत्र को युद्ध की ओर धकेल रहा है


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi authorities fired a senior education official and other supervisors after a school textbook was found that included a photo-shopped image of the late King Faisal seated next to  Star Wars  movie character Yoda, Saudi media reported on Tuesday. The dismissal was also prompted by other errors in various textbooks, including history, chemistry, English language and religious education. The Education Ministry recalled textbooks with a cover photo showing Yoda seated next to King Faisal as he signed the United Nations Charter in 1945, Saudi media said. The Arabic-language Okaz daily said the education minister ended the contract of the undersecretary of the Curriculum and Educational Programs Department, Mohammed bin Attiyah al-Harthi, as well as all officials in charge of reviewing and approving the textbooks. The online newspaper sabq.org and al-Madinah Arabic daily carried similar reports on their websites. The reports appeared after Harthi rejected charges that a social science textbook contained errors. He accused critics of exploiting the mistakes to achieve fame, Okaz said. Okaz quoted Harthi as saying he would remain loyal to the kingdom despite his dismissal.  The artist who had added the Yoda image to the photo of King Faisal said he did not know how the picture had ended up on the cover of the textbook, Saudi media reported.  He said he made the picture in 2013 as part of a project intended to  build a bridge between the young generation and major historic events  by mixing popular culture in U.S. movies into historic events.

Summary: सऊदी की पाठ्यपुस्तक में योदा की तस्वीर आने के बाद अधिकारी बर्खास्त


TRIPOLI (Reuters) - At least five civilians were killed and 12 others wounded among dozens of casualties in recent fighting in the Libyan migrant smuggling hub of Sabratha, the United Nations said on Monday. Sabratha s university hospital has twice been hit by shelling, rendering the emergency and surgery units unusable, the U.N. Libya mission said in a statement. The clashes have pitted the Anas al-Dabbashi brigade, a powerful armed group previously known for migrant smuggling, against the Operations Room to combat the Islamic State, a group formed last year to oust jihadists from Sabratha. The fighting broke out when a Dabbashi brigade member was shot dead at a checkpoint, but the brigade s head has said the underlying cause was the group s move to stop the departure of migrant boats to Italy following a deal with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli. Sabratha had been the most common departure point for migrants setting off toward Italy from Libya, until a sudden drop in crossings from July.  The health ministry in Tripoli said on Friday that, overall, at least 26 people including combatants had been killed and 170 wounded in nearly two weeks of fighting.

Summary: लीबिया के तस्करी केंद्र में झड़पों में दर्जनों हताहतों में नागरिक भी शामिल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Veteran U.S. diplomat Anne Patterson is out of the running to under secretary of defense for policy, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, depriving Defense Secretary Jim Mattis of his choice for his top policy adviser. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said  Patterson ran into resistance on Capitol Hill that might have made it hard for her to win confirmation by the U.S. Senate. The Washington Post first reported that Patterson, who had previously served as the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East and as ambassador to Egypt, Pakistan, Colombia and El Salvador, was no longer a candidate. The newspaper reported that Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, both Republicans and members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that would have reviewed her candidacy, opposed her selection. Aides to both did not respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear whether Patterson also faced opposition from the White House, though one Trump administration official said there has been a tug-of-war between Mattis and the White House over who should fill the top slots at the Pentagon. “The White House is being met with resistance from Secretary Mattis on almost every single one of our suggestions of who we would like in senior DoD jobs,” said the official, saying “we are basically at a gridlock” but he hoped this would end soon. As under secretary of defense for policy, Patterson would have been the top policy adviser to the defense secretary as well as one of the primary links between the Pentagon and the rest of the U.S. national security apparatus. It was unclear how soon Mattis might offer an alternative for that or other key senior posts that, like many at the State Department, remain empty.

Summary: वयोवृद्ध अमेरिकी राजनयिक पैटरसन पेंटागन पद के लिए दौड़ से बाहर


MADRID (Reuters) - The influential Catalan business lobby Cercle d Economia said on Wednesday it was extremely worried by the prospect of Catalonia declaring independence from Spain and called for leaders from both sides to start talks.  Such a declaration would plunge the country into an extraordinarily complex situation with unknown, but very serious consequences,  the lobby said in a statement.  The lobby also condemned violence on Sunday, saying Catalan-Spanish relationships had deteriorated as a consequence, after Spanish riot police were seen beating Catalans attempting to cast a ballot in a vote the government had said was illegal.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया की व्यापारिक लॉबी ने कहा कि वह स्वतंत्रता की किसी भी घोषणा से चिंतित है


((This story published on April 5th corrects typographical error in paragraph 8)) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he thinks Susan Rice, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama, committed a crime by seeking the identities of Trump associates mentioned in intercepted communications, but he declined requests for evidence, the New York Times reported. In an interview, Trump declined to tell the New York Times whether he had reviewed intelligence to bolster his claim about Rice but said he would explain himself “at the right time.” Rice said she had no immediate comment on the president’s remarks when contacted by Reuters. Later on Wednesday, Erin Pelton, a spokesman for Rice, said in an email to Reuters: “I’m not going to dignify the President’s ludicrous charge with a comment.” Trump and his allies have focused on unsubstantiated reports that Rice, who served as Obama’s national security adviser, disclosed the names of Trump aides swept up in U.S. surveillance of foreign targets. Rice dismissed the reports as “absolutely false” in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday. According to five U.S. intelligence officials, Rice followed standard procedure in requesting the National Security Agency to reveal to her the names of American citizens who had been in contact with Russians whose communications were monitored by U.S. intelligence. It is unlikely she would have known that any unidentified American had a connection to Trump, the officials said. As White House national security adviser, Rice could not order the NSA to reveal the identities of any Americans. Instead, she could only request it to do so. Such requests, which a number of senior officials are authorized to make, trigger a legal and intelligence review by the agency to determine whether revealing the name has potential intelligence value and could expose a security threat to the United States, said one of the officials, who is familiar with the process and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal intelligence procedures. There is nothing unusual, much less suspicious, about any request by Rice, said another intelligence official, especially since it could have revealed Russian intelligence contacts or agents operating in the United States. This official and two other intelligence officials said the NSA often receives dozens of such requests in a month. John Culhane, a professor at Widener University Delaware Law School, said he thought Rice could have a credible libel lawsuit against Trump. Though public figures like Rice face a higher standard in bringing such claims, Culhane said she could contend Trump demonstrated a “reckless disregard” for the truth. But the president typically enjoys immunity from civil lawsuits over official acts, Culhane noted, and a court could find that Trump’s interview with the newspaper was within the scope of his official duties.

Summary: सबूत देने से इनकार करते हुए ट्रंप ने कहा कि उन्हें लगता है कि ओबामा के सलाहकार राइस ने अपराध किया हैः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet made a decision on whether to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, his adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner said on Sunday, a move that would break with decades of U.S. policy and could fuel violence in the Middle East.   He s still looking at a lot of different facts, and then when he makes his decision, he ll be the one to want to tell you, not me,  Kushner said at an annual conference on U.S. policy in the Middle East organized by the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington. A senior administration official said last week that Trump could make the announcement on Wednesday. Kushner is leading Trump s efforts to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, efforts that so far have shown little progress. Past U.S. presidents have insisted that the status of Jerusalem   home to sites holy to the Jewish, Muslim and Christian religions   must be decided in negotiations. The Palestinians want Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the international community does not recognize Israel s claim on all of the city. Any move by the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital would fuel extremism and violence, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Saturday. A senior Jordanian source said on Sunday that Amman, the current president of the Arab summit, has begun consultations on convening an emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation before Trump s expected declaration this week.

Summary: जेरूसलम को इजरायल की राजधानी के रूप में मान्यता देने पर अभी भी विचार कर रहे हैं ट्रंपः कुशनर


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed lawmaker Julian Smith as her new Chief Whip on Thursday, promoting him to head the office which is responsible for making sure May s Conservatives vote in support of the government. Smith, 46, had previously been a deputy chief whip. He replaces Gavin Williamson who was earlier appointed as defense minister. The government said lawmaker Esther McVey would take on Smith s former role.

Summary: ब्रिटिश पीएम मे ने जूलियन स्मिथ को मुख्य सचेतक नियुक्त कियाः बयान


TOKYO (Reuters) - NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged all United Nation members on Tuesday to fully and transparently implement sanctions against North Korea, which he said has emerged as a global threat able to fire ballistic missiles as far as Europe and North America.  North Korea s ballistic and nuclear tests are an affront to the United Nations Security Council,  North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a joint announcement in Tokyo, where he met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  They pose a global threat which requires a global response,  Stoltenberg said. Pyongyang has undertaken an unprecedented missile testing program in recent months, as well as its biggest nuclear test yet in early September. Stoltenberg s trip to Tokyo comes ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump s first official visit to Asia, which starts in Japan on Sunday. Talks about North Korea are expected to dominate a trip that will include a stop in Beijing, where Trump is expected to pressure China s leadership to act more decisively against Pyongyang. China is North Korea s major ally and trading partner.  Rather than dialogue it is necessary to cause North Korea to change policies by raising the pressure to the maximum,  Abe said in a joint announcement with Stoltenberg. Trump has warned North Korea it would be totally destroyed if it threatened the United States with ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. North Korea stoked tensions last week when it reiterated a threat to conduct an atmospheric nuclear test over the Pacific Ocean in a demonstration of its nuclear capability.

Summary: नाटो प्रमुख ने वैश्विक खतरे का मुकाबला करने के लिए उत्तर कोरियाई प्रतिबंधों को पूरी तरह से लागू करने का आग्रह किया


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Authorities in the Netherlands tried on Tuesday to defuse a threat by Moscow to close Russian air space to Dutch planes in a dispute over landing slots at Amsterdam s Schiphol airport.  The Dutch Airline Pilots Association said Russia has indicated it will enforce the ban from Saturday. It would mainly hurt Air France subsidiary KLM, the former Dutch flag carrier and the only Dutch airline that flies over Russia. The dispute centers on a reduction from 23 to 13 in the number of slots available to Russian freight carrier AirBridgeCargo at Europe s third-busiest airport following Schiphol s half-yearly reallocation.on Oct. 28. The Dutch transport ministry is  in talks with several parties over the availability of slots for freight traffic at Schiphol,  said spokesman Roel Vincken, who declined to comment further for fear of negatively impacting the talks. A spokesman for the Russian transport ministry said KLM and AirBridgeCargo were in talks about KLM giving up some of its slots as part of a possible compromise. Russian-Dutch relations have been tense since the 2014 downing of Malaysia passenger flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, which killed 298 people, most of them Dutch.   AirBridgeCargo s Dutch chief Henk-Jan van Keulen said in a telephone interview that his company had been forced to reroute almost half of its traffic through Liege, Belgium, using trucks, because of the reallocation of slots at Schiphol. Van Keulen said financial damages were difficult to estimate, as they are lessened by lower fees at Liege and are being partly borne by the various freight-forwarding companies it works with. Spokesman Joost van Doesburg said the Dutch Airline Pilots Association had received a request from KLM to add an extra pilot to all flights traveling to Asia, as they will have to re-route beginning on Saturday.  If Russia follows through on the ban, hours of travel time will be added to Asian flights.   It s only a threat but you have to prepare,  Van Doesburg said.  Russia does this sometimes when it feels countries aren t giving appropriate attention to a complaint.      De Telegraaf newspaper reported that around 15 percent of KLM s flights would be affected. A KLM spokeswoman said the airline would respond later. Airport Coordination Netherlands, the organization which allocates slots at Schiphol, said AirBridgeCargo s slots had been cut for failure to fully utilize its existing slots, according to European rules, and it did not have the power to grant any additional slots because of a cap imposed at the airport.

Summary: डच अधिकारी शिफोल लैंडिंग स्लॉट पर रूसी हवाई प्रतिबंध से बचने की कोशिश करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House press corps gathered on Saturday for its annual black-tie dinner, a toned-down affair this year after Donald Trump snubbed the event, becoming the first incumbent U.S. president to bow out in 36 years. Without Trump, who scheduled a rally instead to mark his 100th day in office, the usually celebrity-filled soiree hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association took a more sober turn, even as it pulled in top journalists and Washington insiders. Most of Trump’s administration also skipped the event in solidarity with the president, who has repeatedly accused the press of mistreatment. The president used his campaign-style gathering to again lambaste the media.  “I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away,” he told a crowd in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, calling out The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC by name. In Washington, WHCA President Jeff Mason defended press freedom even as he acknowledged this year’s dinner had a different feel, saying attempts to undermine the media was dangerous for democracy. “We are not fake news, we are not failing news organizations and we are not the enemy of the American people,” said Mason, a Reuters correspondent. Instead of the typical roasts - presidents of both parties have delivered their own zingers for years - the event returned to its traditional roots of recognizing reporters’ work and handing out student scholarships as famed journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein presented awards. “That’s not Donald Trump’s style,” NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell told MSNBC, referring to the self-deprecating jokes presidents in the past have made despite tensions with the press. Instead, the humor fell to headline comedian Hasan Minhaj. “Welcome to the series finale of the White House correspondents’ dinner,” Minhaj, who plays a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” program, told the crowd. He also joked about Trump, despite organizers’ wishes, saying he did so to honor U.S. constitutional protection of free speech: “Only in America can a first-generation, Indian-American Muslim kid get on this stage and make fun of the president.” In a video message, actor Alec Baldwin, who has raised Trump’s ire playing him on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” program also encouraged attendees. Few other celebrities graced the red carpet, although some well-known Washingtonians, such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California, appeared.  Trump attended in 2011, when then-President Barack Obama made jokes at the expense of the New York real estate developer and reality television show host. In an interview with Reuters this week, Trump said he decided against attending as president because he felt he had been treated unfairly by the media, adding: “I would come next year, absolutely.” In Pennsylvania, Trump told supporters the media dinner would be boring but was noncommittal on whether he would go in 2018 or hold another rally. Late night television show host Samantha Bee also hosted a competing event - “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” - that she said would honor journalists, rather than skewer Trump.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस में बिना ट्रंप के प्रेस डिनर जारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has certified that the Honduran government has been fighting corruption and supporting human rights, clearing the way for Honduras to receive millions of dollars in U.S. aid, a document seen by Reuters showed. The document, dated Nov. 28, which was seen by Reuters on Monday, showed that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson certified Honduras for the assistance, two days after a controversial presidential election that has been claimed by an ally of Washington. Honduras has faced violent protests over the disputed results of the election, which has still not produced a clear winner over a week after the vote ended. The decision to issue the certification prompted concern from some congressional Democrats that Republican President Donald Trump’s administration could be seen to be taking sides. “What kind of message does that send?” one congressional aide asked. State Department officials did not have an immediate response when questioned about the timing of the certification.  Honduras is required to fulfill about a dozen requirements in order to receive its share of $644 million appropriated by the U.S. Congress under a program to assist Central American governments. Among those requirements are combating corruption - including investigating and prosecuting current and former government officials alleged to be corrupt - and protecting the rights of political opposition parties. Honduras struggles with violent drug gangs, one of the world’s highest murder rates and endemic poverty. In recent years, many Hondurans - including children - have attempted to migrate to the United States. In hopes of stemming this migration, former President Barack Obama’s administration in 2015 came up with a plan that included sending hundreds of millions of dollars in additional aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Congress agreed to provide the money, if the governments were found to be taking steps to fight crime and corruption. A preliminary ballot count in Honduras on Monday pointed to a narrow victory for President Juan Orlando Hernandez over opposition challenger Salvador Nasralla, although the electoral tribunal has not declared a winner. Early last week, Nasralla, a former sportscaster and game show host, appeared set for an upset victory over Hernandez. The counting process suddenly halted for more than a day and began leaning in favor of Hernandez after resuming. Opposition leaders said they wanted a recount and have accused the government of stealing the election. Hernandez, 49, implemented a military-led crackdown on gang violence after taking office in 2014. He has been supported by Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly.  Nasralla, 64, is one of Honduras’ best-known faces and is backed by former President Manuel Zelaya, a leftist ousted in a coup in 2009.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः अमेरिकी दस्तावेज़ ने वोट संकट के बीच होंडुरास को समर्थन अधिकारों के रूप में प्रमाणित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major U.S. hedge fund managers are on pace this year to more than double the amount they gave in the 2012 election campaign, with independent fundraising groups backing Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and Republican rival Ted Cruz receiving the most so far. About $47 million has been lavished on presidential candidates and lawmakers and the political action committees that support them by two dozen of the industry's top managers in the first 13 months of this election season, according to a Reuters review of Federal Election Commission filings. (For a list of the top givers see tmsnrt.rs/1nlPYZv) Most of the hedge fund support going to Cruz and Clinton has come from a handful of people out of the two dozen managers studied. Robert Mercer, co-chief executive of Renaissance Technologies, for example, has given $11 million to Keep the Promise I, a Super PAC that supports Cruz. Mercer is an enigmatic computer programmer who is a powerful financial force in conservative politics. Cruz wants to abolish the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service, slash income and payroll taxes and impose a new “business transfer tax.” Cruz’s wife, Heidi Cruz, is a Goldman Sachs executive in Houston. Clinton’s main benefactor is billionaire George Soros, a long-time patron of Democratic and humanitarian causes and chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros alone is responsible for $7.3 million of the $11.7 million that has gone to Super PACs and other committees supporting Clinton. The hedge fund managers’ spokespersons either declined to comment or did not respond to queries from Reuters. But Whitney Tilson, a hedge fund manager who runs Kase Capital, said one reason fellow managers are spending more this election is Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. “There are some pretty heated emotions about Donald Trump,” said Tilson, who plans to support the Democratic Party nominee. Trump, who says he is self-funding his campaign, supports closing a loophole that lets some hedge fund managers pay less than the usual income tax rate on performance fees they get known as “carried interest.” Clinton supports this, too. The Managed Funds Association, an industry lobbying group, declined to comment on policy aims under the next president. There are other worries, too, about a Trump presidency.After months of campaigning and debates, Trump’s economic and financial policy positions are still sketchy or unknown. A Trump presidency could bring “tremendous uncertainty and instability,” said Gregory Wawro, a political science professor at Columbia University.  Wawro speculated that Trump’s popularity with blue-collar and middle-class voters could prompt the Republican Party to reassess an approach to taxes and economic issues that has favored top earners and major corporations in recent years.  The surge of hedge fund donations has had little effect on the Republican race so far. Cruz is running well behind Trump while U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is seen by establishment Republicans as their best hope to stop Trump winning the nomination, is a distant third. Conservative Solutions, a Super PAC that backs Rubio, received $2.5 million from Paul Singer, the long-time Republican fundraiser who runs Elliott Management, and another $2.6 million in contributions from hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin of Citadel Investment Group. Two other Republican candidates with major hedge fund backing, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, have dropped out of the race. Christie’s Super PAC, America Leads, received about $3 million from Steve Cohen of Point72 Asset Management, while Right to Rise, a PAC that supports Bush, drew $450,000 in donations from managers including Citadel’s Griffin, David Tepper of Appaloosa Management and Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital Management. In the Democratic race, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has eschewed donations from Wall Street. He has racked up a string of wins in early state nominating contests with attacks on Wall Street and calls for a more equitable distribution of the country’s wealth. Overall, hedge fund contributions to 2016 presidential candidates and lawmakers and the PACs supporting them favored Republicans over Democrats by about 3 to 2. For a list of the top hedge fund donors in 2016: tmsnrt.rs/1nlPYZv

Summary: अमेरिकी हेज फंड प्रबंधक 2016 की दौड़ में पैसा डालते हैं और ट्रम्प एक कारक है


(Reuters) - Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, informally approached LionTree Advisors Chief Executive Aryeh Bourkoff about setting up a Trump TV network after the U.S. presidential election, but the investment bank does not want to be involved, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kushner contacted Bourkoff, one of the media industry’s top dealmakers, in the past few months, but there have been no further conversations, the source said on Monday. The source asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. There was no reason given for LionTree’s reluctance to participate in the process.  The Financial Times first reported the LionTree talks earlier on Monday, citing sources.(on.ft.com/2dIbnrX) Trump, the Republican U.S. presidential nominee, told the Washington Post last month he had “no interest in a media company” and that reports he was considering setting up one were “a false rumor.” He trails Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Kushner, the owner of the weekly New York Observer newspaper, is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka. Kushner did not respond to requests for comment. LionTree declined comment. To set up a television network, Trump would have to negotiate with cable and satellite carriers, which can be an arduous task. It can then take years to turn a profit. Fox News Channel, the most-watched U.S. cable network, took five years to be profitable.  It might be easier and less expensive for Trump to launch an online streaming service.

Summary: ट्रम्प के दामाद ने ट्रम्प टीवी नेटवर्क स्थापित करने के लिए बातचीत कीः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Environmental Protection Agency has told several lawmakers it aims to end late on Friday a freeze on grants and contracts that had been ordered by the White House, congressional aides said. The freeze has led to widespread concerns in states and cities about whether there would be delays in efforts to monitor and clean up toxic pollution, particularly lead pollution in drinking water, that would put the health of Americans at risk. The Trump administration on Monday asked the EPA to temporarily freeze grants, contracts and interagency agreements pending a review. The EPA allocates $4 billion in contracts annually on projects ranging from cleaning up polluted industrial sites to testing of air and water quality. The concerns were acute in Flint, Michigan, where children for years have been exposed to dangerous levels of lead in drinking water. After Representative Dan Kildee, whose congressional district includes Flint, and Michigan’s two U.S. senators wrote to President Donald Trump asking whether programs would be delayed, the EPA told them that grants to clean up the water would be uninterrupted. Congress last year approved $100 million to clean up water in Flint.   The EPA told some lawmakers it was continuing to award environmental program grants and revolving-loan fund grants to states and tribes and was “working quickly to address issues related to other categories of grants,” aides said. But Flint and other cities exposed to lead poisoning remain concerned about testing.  “The people of Flint also rely on other EPA contracts to conduct independent water testing and provide expertise when it comes to ensuring water quality,” said Mitchell Rivard, a Kildee spokesman, who was waiting for news from the EPA and Trump about those programs. An official from another Midwestern city that has suffered lead poisoning, speaking on condition of anonymity, said local politicians had asked the EPA if programs would be slowed but had received no answers. A former EPA head of grants said the freeze was troubling because it showed a “total lack of communication about it with states, tribes and communities.” “They’re supposed to be EPA’s partners in keeping people safe and health, so they should have been consulted, or at least warned,” said Karl Brooks, a former acting assistant administrator at the agency. If every polluted community has to push politicians to write letters to the EPA, the agency “will be spending most of its time answering congressional letters and not getting lead out of water or mercury out of our air,” he said.

Summary: ई. पी. ए. का लक्ष्य शुक्रवार को अनुबंधों और अनुदानों पर ट्रम्प की रोक को समाप्त करना है।


LONDON (Reuters) - Iran s Revolutionary Guards have arrested at least 30 dual nationals during the past two years, mostly on spying charges, according to lawyers, diplomats and relatives, twice as many as earlier reported by local or international media. The number marks a sharp rise since 2015, when an international nuclear deal raised hopes of detente with the West. In the years before that the number of dual nationals detained at any given time was in single figures. It also points up a new trend as a majority of those arrested since then, 19 out of the 30, have citizenship in Europe. Previously most of the detainees were Iranian Americans. Detainees  relatives and lawyers said the Guards were using them as bargaining chips in international relations and to put off European firms that sought business in Iran after the government agreed the deal with world powers to lift sanctions. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has vast business interests as well as being Iran s most powerful security force and has criticized the government for handing contracts to foreigners. The Guards did not respond to several requests for comment. The Iranian government referred Reuters to the judiciary, which also did not respond to repeated approaches. Iranian authorities have previously denied holding detainees for ransom and accuse Western governments of holding Iranians on trumped-up charges. Relatives of dual nationals detained in Iran, their lawyers and Western diplomats shared information such as name, date of arrest and any charges, on condition neither they nor the detainees were identified, citing fear of repercussions. Iran does not routinely announce arrests or charges and does not recognize dual nationals, whose rights to consular assistance are enshrined in the U.N. Vienna Convention. In all cases, the sources said the detainees had not carried out any espionage and were arrested only because of their second citizenship. They explained their willingness to share details by saying they had been kept in the dark by both the Iranian authorities and Western governments. Several governments argue that maintaining a low profile is in the best interests of the detainees.  This is very much what guides our approach,  a UK government source said. Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Daphne Kerremans said identifying detainees  could get the prisoners into trouble . Some relatives only break their silence once their initial hopes have been dashed. The wife of Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-based Iranian scientist arrested in 2016 after attending a conference in Tehran, decided to speak out in February.  We were all hopeful that he would be released soon. He was calling us from jail, saying he had not been officially charged. They had told him that he would be released after answering a few questions,  Vida Mehrannia said by telephone from Stockholm.  I made the case public to media after nine months when he was threatened with a death sentence by a prosecutor and went on a hunger strike,  she added. Djalali was sentenced to death in October on espionage charges. Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said at the time:  We will point out that this will affect the relationship with the EU, and this in a time when Iran and the EU need to cooperate, not least with the nuclear deal we have with Iran.  The deal to lift sanctions in return for curbs on Iran s nuclear program was international, but significant U.S. restrictions remained in place. Official confirmation of new arrests sometimes emerges indirectly. Records of a session of the European Parliament in June 2017 showed three Dutch-Iranian nationals were in jail in Iran. Only one case has been reported. Asked about the two unknown cases, Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kerremans told Reuters the individuals were  arrested in November 2012 and January 2016 and said government actions were mostly  aimed at ensuring an honest trial, not demanding release .  It is very difficult for the Dutch government to lend support since Iran does not recognize the Dutch nationality of the prisoners, and gives little to no information about them,  she said. In January 2016, then-British Prime Minister David Cameron raised the issue of three dual UK-Iran nationals held in Iranian prisons in a phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, according to a transcript posted on the Downing Street website. Only two of those cases were known to the public at the time. Contacted for comment, a UK foreign ministry spokesman declined to specify how many British-Iranian dual nationals had been arrested. London raised all cases with Iran at every available opportunity, he said. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British aid worker employed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 while on holiday in Iran and later charged with plotting to overthrow Iran s clerical establishment. The foundation and her family have repeatedly denied the accusations.  The only thing that as a family we can do is to point out the injustice of this,  said her husband Richard Ratcliffe. He and others said this week that Foreign Minister Boris Johnson had made inaccurate comments about her to members of parliament that had been seized on by the Iranian judiciary and used to frame her. Johnson had said,  she was simply teaching people journalism.  He subsequently said  the UK government has no doubt that she was on holiday in Iran  and that his comments  could have been clearer .  My point was that I disagreed with the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime, not that I wanted to lend any credence to Iranian allegations that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been engaged in such activity,  he said. In 2016, Iran released five U.S. citizens in a prisoner exchange as the nuclear deal was implemented. One remained behind and six American citizens or permanent residents have been arrested since, their lawyers or relatives have told media, of whom one has been freed on bail. A U.S. State Department official confirmed three cases, did not comment on two others and mentioned another detainee, Nizar Zakka, saying he was unjustly held and calling for his release without clarifying his U.S. status. Asked for more details about Zakka and other detained US citizens and legal residents, the official said the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad was a top priority, adding:  Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.  In an October 25 letter to the U.N. Secretary General seen by Reuters, Zakka s lawyer Jason Poblete said his client was a U.S. permanent resident and  is being held as a hostage, as are other innocent persons, to exact political concessions from the United States and other governments , including on sanctions. For its part, Iran says its nationals are detained unjustly in the West. Kazem Gharibabadi, deputy head of Iran s Council for Human Rights, part of the judiciary, has said more than 56 Iranians are imprisoned in the United States and an unspecified number in other countries.  Some of those are detained under baseless charges, including bypassing sanctions,  he was quoted as saying by state media on Sunday. U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle declined to comment on Gharibabadi s figure, saying the Justice Department does not track prosecutions by nationality and the U.S. government s Bureau of Prisons does not track how many inmates have Iranian nationality. He said inmates in U.S. federal prison  are serving sentences handed down by federal judges after thorough due process of law .

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ईरान के रिवोल्यूशनरी गार्ड्स ने दोहरे नागरिकों को गिरफ्तार किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has begun circulating long-awaited draft legislation that would give federal judges clear authority to order technology companies like Apple to help law enforcement officials access encrypted data, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The proposal from Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not spell out how companies must provide access or the circumstances under which they could be ordered to help. It also does not create specific penalties for noncompliance, leaving that determination to judges, the sources said. Previous legislative efforts have focused on requiring technology products to have a built-in “back door” for law enforcement. The latest approach would not mandate any specific technology, but rather would require companies to figure out how to access the data. Congress has tried and failed for years to pass legislation that could prevent criminals and spies from “going dark,” or hiding from law enforcement by using encrypted computer and communications services. The latest effort died when the Obama administration signaled last fall that it would not support it. But Apple’s high-profile showdown with the government over a federal magistrate judge’s order that it unlock an iPhone connected to the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, has reopened the debate. Apple and the Justice Department are set to face off in court on Tuesday. “The going-dark issue has been gathering momentum (in Congress) like a train coming down the tracks, but it still seemed for a while like it was going to be a long time before it got to the station,” Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters in an interview. “But it arrived with a fury with this lawsuit.” Apple and many of its allies argue that the court is over-reaching its authority in the San Bernardino case and that Congress should ultimately resolve the encryption debate. President Obama warned a tech conference earlier this month against “fetishizing” phones and made it clear that he supports law enforcement efforts to gain access to encrypted information. Administration officials have reviewed the legislation from Burr and Feinstein and offered suggested edits, the sources said, signaling that the White House may now be more open to a legislative approach. Still, the Burr-Feinstein effort is expected to face a steep climb in a gridlocked Congress wary about tackling such a complex and controversial issue during an election year. “We have previously been quite skeptical of legislative handling of this particular matter,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters last month after the Apple case began. “I don’t know at this point whether or not (conversations with lawmakers) will result in a piece of legislation that we will embrace.” In an attempt to break the congressional stalemate on encryption, Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Representative Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced legislation earlier this month to form a national encryption commission to further study the issue.  That effort has been criticized by some privacy advocates who believe its composition would be skewed to favor law enforcement. Others have complained that it would give Congress an excuse to continue postponing action on encryption.

Summary: कूटलेखन पर सीनेट के प्रस्ताव ने न्यायाधीशों को व्यापक शक्तियां दीं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has made income inequality a top campaign theme, had taxable income of $205,271 in 2014, putting him almost in the top 5 percent of American earners, according to the release of Friday of his federal tax return. That figure was still far below the millions earned by his main Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in recent years.  Sanders and his wife, Jane, paid $27,653 in federal income taxes in 2014, an effective federal tax rate of 13.5 percent, on income of $205,271, which is their adjusted gross income before deductions. That figure is just below the $206,563 that Census data show as the lower limit for the top 5 percent of U.S. households in 2014. But Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had income approaching $140 million over the last eight years, according to previously released returns. Sanders on Thursday described himself as “one of the poorer members of the United States Senate.”     Median net worth among members of the U.S. Senate in 2014 stood at $2.9 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit organization that tracks money in politics. The return released on Friday does not include information on Sanders’ net worth. The return does show Sanders had federal taxable income after deductions of $140,994.  Sanders has run a populist effort, vowing to reform what he calls a “corrupt” campaign finance system reliant on millionaires and billionaires at the expense of average voters. Clinton, in contrast, has much stronger ties to the financial system, including six-figure payments for speeches she gave to several financial institutions in recent years.  Sanders often expresses skepticism that someone with those kinds of ties can effectively overhaul banks and other institutions. Clinton says she is steadfast in her commitment to eroding income inequality and creating a safe financial system.     The two have clashed repeatedly over the topic - most recently Thursday night at a debate in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At that event, Sanders promised to release his tax returns after Clinton raised the issue. “You’ll get them, yes,” Sanders said. “They are very boring tax returns. No big money from speeches, no major investments. Unfortunately - unfortunately - I remain one of the poorer members of the United States Senate.” Clinton has a significant lead in pledged delegates over Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination for the November presidential election.

Summary: सैंडर्स का कर विवरण प्रतिद्वंद्वी क्लिंटन के साथ विरोधाभास को उजागर करता है


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Three people died when Hurricane Irma hit the island of Puerto Rico, including a 79-year-old woman, the territory s governor said on Thursday. The elderly woman, who the government described as bedridden, died after a fall while being transported to a shelter. The other fatalities were a woman in Camuy, who was electrocuted in her home and a man who died of injuries suffered in a traffic accident in Can vanas during the storm, according to a statement from Governor Ricard Rossello.

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको में तूफान इरमा से तीन लोगों की मौत, सरकार ने कहा


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia s powerful Crown Prince called the Supreme Leader of Iran  the new Hitler of the Middle East  in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, sharply escalating the war of words between the arch-rivals. The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region. Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defense minister in the U.S.-allied kingdom, suggested the Islamic Republic s alleged expansion under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needed to be confronted.  But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesn t work. We don t want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East,  the paper quoted him as saying. Iran reacted harshly by saying that Salman was discredited internationally by his  immature  behavior, state television reported.  No one in the world and in the international arena gives credit to him because of his immature and weak-minded behavior and remarks,  Iran s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying.  Now that he has decided to follow the path of famous regional dictators ... he should think about their fate as well.  Tensions soared this month when Lebanon s Saudi-allied Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned in a television broadcast from Riyadh, citing the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and risks to his life. Hezbollah called the move an act of war engineered by Saudi authorities, an accusation they denied.  Hariri has since suspended his resignation. Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes in a 2-1/2-year-old war in neighboring Yemen to defeat the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement that seized broad swaths of the country. Salman told the Times that the war was going in its favor and that its allies controlled 85 percent of Yemen s territory. The Houthis, however, still retain the main population centers despite the war effort by a Saudi-led military coalition which receives intelligence and refueling for its warplanes by the United States. Some 10,000 people have died in the conflict. The group launched a ballistic missile toward Riyadh s main airport on Nov. 4, which Saudi Arabis decried as an act of war by Tehran. Bin Salman said in May that the kingdom would make sure any future struggle between the two countries  is waged in Iran . For his part, Khamenei has referred to the House of Saud as an  accursed tree , and Iranian officials have accused the kingdom of spreading terrorism, an accusation it denies.

Summary: सऊदी क्राउन प्रिंस ने ईरान के नेता को 'नया हिटलर' कहाः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


BAMAKO (Reuters) - Four United Nations peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed and 21 people were wounded in two separate attacks by unknown assailants in Mali on Friday, the U.N. mission there said. Regional armies, U.N. forces and French and U.S. soldiers are struggling to halt the growing influence  of Islamist militants, some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, in West Africa s Sahel region. Mali s U.N. mission, MINUSMA, has suffered the highest number of fatalities among current U.N. peacekeeping operations.  I condemn in the strongest terms this attack that has once again befallen the MINUSMA force as well as the (Malian army),  U.N. mission head Mahamat Saleh Annadif said in a statement. In the first incident on Friday, three peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed when they came under attack during a joint operation in the Menaka region near the border with Niger, an area that has seen a spike in violence over the last year.  Sixteen other peacekeepers and one civilian were also wounded. Later in the day at around noon (1200 GMT), a MINUSMA convoy in the central Mopti region was the target of what the mission described as a  complex attack  by militants using explosive devices and rocket launchers.   One U.N. soldier was killed and three others were seriously wounded, MINUSMA said in a statement. The mission did not specify the nationalities of the soldiers killed or wounded in either of the attacks. A 2013 French-led military intervention drove back militants who had seized control of Mali s desert north a year earlier, but they have regrouped and launch regular attacks against Malian soldiers, U.N. peacekeepers and civilians.  Islamist groups are now increasingly exploiting the porous borders between Mali and neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso to expand their range of operations, alarming Western powers. France and the United States both have troops deployed in the West Africa.  A new regional force composed of soldiers from Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad - the so-called G5 Sahel nations - launched its first operations late last month.

Summary: माली में दो अलग-अलग हमलों में संयुक्त राष्ट्र के चार शांति सैनिकों की मौत


KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber in an explosives-packed vehicle attacked a NATO convoy in Afghanistan on Monday, wounding  a small number  of foreign troops and at least three civilians, officials said. The soldiers were taken to the nearby Bagram Air Field and  none of their injuries appeared life-threatening, NATO s headquarters in Kabul said.  At least three civilians were hurt, District Governor Abdul Shukor Qodossi said, without giving details on the extent of their injuries. A statement from the Taliban militants said 13 Americans had been killed and 11 wounded and three armored vehicles destroyed. The attack came on the 16th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, which triggered the U.S.-led military operation that toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान में नाटो के काफिले पर आत्मघाती हमला, कुछ घायल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With a bitter election campaign finally over, the Congress will reconvene this week to try to set aside its partisan differences long enough to keep the government from closing. As President-elect Donald Trump shapes his administration, Republicans are expected to move away from initial plans for compromise funding legislation and opt instead for a short-term measure to keep the government running into next year, when they will have control of Congress and the White House.   Washington has been operating since Oct. 1 under a temporary “continuing resolution” on the budget. It expires on Dec. 9. Lawmakers will be trying to approve a new one before then. Mired in partisan gridlock, Congress in recent years has seldom completed the entire federal budget process, falling back frequently on stop-gap measures that last a few months. During their “lame-duck” session starting this week, lawmakers will have little time to draft another continuing resolution to cover funding U.S. agencies and military operations. Congress is tentatively set to adjourn by Dec. 17 and has an additional break over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. A new Congress will meet in January, with the 100-seat Senate more closely split than before last week’s elections. Neither party will have the 60 votes needed to move legislation easily through the chamber. The voters last Tuesday also preserved the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, though it is slightly smaller, giving the Democrats more power to block the Republicans. Legislation to streamline federal regulations for new drugs could come up during the lame duck session. So could funding for cancer research, precision medicine and treatments for opioid addiction, said congressional aides. Some conservative House Republicans want a budget measure that will expire in March, which would coincide with needed action on the federal debt limit, according to House aides. Others have talked about a continuing resolution that would run until sometime February, giving the new president and Congress enough time to determine their priorities for more comprehensive funding legislation for the remainder of the federal fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. Before the election shifted the political center of gravity in favor of Republicans, Republican leaders had talked about crafting funding legislation through negotiations with Democrats and President Barack Obama and approving it before Christmas.

Summary: चुनाव खत्म, खर्च को लेकर बहस में फंसी कांग्रेस


(Reuters) - Double Olympic champion Mo Farah continued his build-up to the Rio Games by breaking David Moorcroft’s 34-year-old British record in the 3,000 meters at a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on Sunday. Farah, the 5,000 and 10,000m gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, won in seven minutes 32.62 seconds after striding out at the front in a determined effort to beat Moorcroft’s 1982 time of 7:32.79. “Did I get it?,” the 33-year-old, who pulled out of the meet last year after being angered by allegations surrounding his coach Alberto Salazar, who denied violating anti-doping rules, asked a BBC interviewer. “That’s incredible... I thought I’d just missed it. It was a bit tight on the last lap, I had to dig in,” added Farah, who paid tribute to his boyhood hero Muhammad Ali before the race by striking a boxing stance. Former Olympic and world heavyweight champion Ali died on Friday aged 74 and Sunday’s meeting held a minute’s applause for the man known as ‘The Greatest’. “He was a big hero of mine and I send all my condolences to his family and friends,” said Somali-born Farah, who will defend  his titles in Rio in August. Kenya’s Mathew Kiptanui was second in 7:44.16 with compatriot Hillary Maiyo third. Kenyan David Rudisha, the Olympic 800m champion and world record holder, ran the second fastest 600m ever with his time of 1:13.10, not far off the world best of 1:12.81 in the little-run distance. He felt he could have gone faster. “I think I lost it in the last 100 meters,” he said. Apart from Farah and Rudisha, there were four other world leading times at the meet including for Conseslus Kipruto of Kenya in winning the men’s steeplechase in 8:00.12 and for his  compatriot Asbel Kiprop who took the 1,500 in 3:29.33. Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim won the men’s high jump with a world leading leap of 2.37 meters, while Cuba’s Yarisley Silva produced a year’s best of 4.84 in the women’s pole vault.    Britain’s Greg Rutherford, another 2012 Olympic champion, was beaten in the long jump for the first time since last July. He said after his jump of 8.17 left him fifth, with American Marquise Goodwin winning comfortably with a mark of 8.42, that he was struggling with a “mild neck injury” from the previous round in Rome last week. “We have tried to get it 100 percent ready in time. Sadly I have made it worse on the first landing and I am currently unable to move my neck,” he said. “The doctor thinks it is a bad whiplash but it won’t affect my Olympic bid. I am positive the British Athletics medical staff will be able to fix it over the next week.” Australia’s Sally Pearson, the Olympic 100 meters hurdles champion, made her competitive return a year after shattering her wrist in a fall in Rome but finished seventh in a race won by American Kendra Harrison in 12.46 seconds.

Summary: फराह ने मूरक्रॉफ्ट का 3,000 मीटर का ब्रिटिश रिकॉर्ड तोड़ा


NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s outspoken doubts about climate change and his administration’s efforts to roll back regulation to combat it have stirred a sleepy faction in U.S. politics: the Republican environmental movement.  The various groups represent conservatives, Catholics and the younger generation of Republicans who, unlike Trump, not only recognize the science of climate change but want to see their party wrest the initiative from Democrats and lead efforts to combat global warming.  Conservative green groups such as ConservAmerica and republicEn, along with politically neutral religious groups such as Catholic Climate Covenant and bipartisan groups such as the Citizens Climate Lobby, have ramped up efforts to recruit more congressional Republicans to work on addressing climate change since Trump’s election. Conservative environmental advocates promote what they call “free enterprise” solutions to climate change, like a carbon tax. That stands in contrast to the approach of liberal environmentalists under former President Barack Obama, who backed bans on certain kinds of oil drilling and regulations aimed at discouraging petroleum use. But whatever their differences, the conservative groups say they have an important role to play. “Conservatives now have a chance to earn back the trust of Americans on environmental issues,” said Alex Bozmoski, director of strategy for republicEn. “They can lead in a completely different direction that actually grows the economy while cutting greenhouse gasses.” The activists’ efforts have not swayed anywhere near a majority yet on Capitol Hill. Only 20 or so of the 237 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have spoken out on climate change this year. But they hope to build a big enough bloc in Congress, or enough influence at the White House, to temper Trump’s agenda. Lobbying has yielded some early results: a pro-environment voting bloc in Congress, the Climate Solutions Caucus, for example, has signed on more Republicans in the last two months than in it had in the final year of Obama’s administration - its first year in existence. Urged on by a coalition of conservative and religious groups, including the Catholic Climate Covenant, a handful of additional Republicans have also signed a congressional resolution pledging to address climate change.  The resolution was non-binding, but it represented a direct challenge to Trump’s climate stance, a high-profile signal of dissent within his party. “It’s like Alcoholics Anonymous — you’ve got to first recognize you’ve got a problem before you can deal with it,” said Mark Sanford, a Republican Congressman from South Carolina who signed the resolution. Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the more than 100-year-old Sierra Club environmental group, said she was happy to see “enlightened Republicans” beginning to act on climate change. But Pierce added, “Legislative action is a long time away based on, at least, the Republican leadership.”   Pierce also said she was skeptical of free enterprise solutions advocated by conservative environmental groups like republicEn, which she said sounded to her like “we have to pay them not to pollute.” Jose Aguto, associate director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, said Republicans are the only major political party in the world not convinced by climate change. “Once they accept the reality and science of climate change, we will have reached a tipping point in the political will for solutions.” Trump has raised the hackles of many environmentalists since taking office. He has overturned several Obama-era environmental regulations, and last week he proposed slashing the Environmental Protection Agency budget by 31 percent. During his presidential campaign Trump called climate change a “hoax” and vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris accord, a global pact to fight it – tapping into a well of Republican concern that the United States’ energy habits would be policed by the United Nations. But Republican bias against climate science is out of step with the majority of Americans. A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows a majority of Republican supporters agree the United States should play a leading role in combating climate change. “It shouldn’t surprise anyone that more and more Republicans are interested in this issue,” said Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo of Florida. “This issue was regrettably politicized some 20 or so years ago, and we are in the process of taking some of the politics out.” On Feb. 8, representatives from a newly formed group of Republican statesmen, the Climate Leadership Council, including former Treasury secretaries Henry Paulson and James A. Baker, met with senior administration officials to push a carbon tax. “We got a very respectful hearing,” said the council’s CEO, Ted Halstead. “We’ve also been meeting with Republicans on the Hill and have found open minds.” The White House did not comment on the meetings. Billionaire Republican donor and environmental advocate Andy Sabin, meanwhile, said he has been speaking directly with White House officials in hope of becoming Trump’s unpaid climate change adviser – modeled on the role of fellow billionaire Carl Icahn in advising Trump on regulation.  Focusing on health concerns would be the most effective way to get Trump to try to slow climate change, said Sabin, a precious metals magnate. When asked about the chances of Sabin getting the position, a White House spokeswoman said, “We don’t have an announcement at this time.” Republican Senator James Inhofe incurred public ridicule two years ago after marching into the Capitol Building with a snowball, claiming the cold weather disproved Obama’s climate change claims. This year, republicEn used the incident as part of a humorous rallying call on Valentine’s Day. Volunteers delivered greeting cards to lawmakers quoting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in his former role as chief executive officer of Exxon, declaring climate change to be a serious risk warranting “thoughtful action.”  Along with the card were coconut-coated cakes called Sno Balls, a photograph of Inhofe and a poem: “Roses are red, snowballs are white, together we’ll get the solution right.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ग्रीन समूह जलवायु परिवर्तन पर ट्रम्प को नाराज करना चाहते हैं


ANKARA (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged Muslims on Tuesday to disrupt what he called a plot by unnamed countries in the region to build ties with Israel. He gave no more details on the states. But an Israeli cabinet minister said last month that his government had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia linked to their common concerns over Tehran.  Some regional Islamic countries have shamelessly revealed their closeness to the Zionist regime (Israel),  Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live by state TV.   I am sure that the Muslims around the world will not let this sinister plot bear fruit.   Both Saudi Arabia and Israel view Iran as the main threat to the Middle East. Increased tension between Tehran and Riyadh has fueled speculation that shared interests may push Saudi Arabia and Israel to work together. The Saudis have not publicly responded to the reports and Riyadh maintains that any relations with Israel hinge on Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war - territory Palestinians seek for a future state. Regional rivalry between Sunni Muslim monarchy Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran has overflowed into conflicts in Syria and Iraq. A Saudi-led military coalition has also been fighting in the Arabian peninsula s poorest country, Yemen, on behalf of a government based in the south against the Houthis, a Shi ite movement backed by Iran.

Summary: ईरान ने मुसलमानों से क्षेत्र में इजरायल के संबंधों को बाधित करने के लिए कहाः टीवी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bob Corker eviscerated President Donald Trump repeatedly on national television on Tuesday, calling him a liar who has debased the country in an extraordinary diatribe against a sitting president by a fellow Republican. Corker, the only Senate Republican not seeking re-election next year, accused the president of telling falsehoods that could easily be proven wrong and of willfully damaging the country’s standing in the world, exposing deepening divisions in the Republican Party under Trump’s White House. “The president has great difficulty with the truth on many issues,” Corker told CNN in the first of a series of interviews at the Capitol hours before Trump was due to meet with senators to seek consensus on proposed tax cuts. “Unfortunately world leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue,” said Corker, in the sharpest of his bitter public exchanges with the president in recent weeks.     “Certainly people here are, because these things are provably untrue. They’re just factually incorrect and people know the difference.” Speaking later to reporters, Corker called Trump a bully. Trump hit back on Twitter after Corker’s television interviews, calling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman “incompetent” and reprising one of his trademark derisive nicknames.  “He doesn’t have a clue as the entire World WAS laughing and taking advantage of us. People like liddle’ Bob Corker have set the U.S. way back,” Trump tweeted.  Although he is a foreign policy specialist, Corker is also a key player in the tax debate. His support could be crucial as Republicans seek passage of the White House-backed tax plan in the closely divided Senate. [nL2N1MZ0SH] The senator from Tennessee, whose recent announcement he would not seek re-election in November 2018 has freed him from the need to stick to a voter-friendly script, pulled no punches in his onslaught against Trump. He acknowledged that tensions between the two men, once allies, have been building for months. The Trump-Corker clash is the latest to erupt in what has been a sometimes fraught relationship between the president and the politicians who should be his partners in Congress.  Trump pilloried Senate Republicans - as a group and by name - after their failure this summer to repeal and replace the 2010 healthcare law known as Obamacare, one of his top presidential campaign promises. While Corker’s comments were the strongest yet from a fellow Republican, Trump has also provoked the ire of another respected senior Republican, John McCain, whose war record he mocked.  McCain’s barbs prompted Trump last week to tell the 80-year-old senator, who has brain cancer, to be careful because “I fight back.” The latest exchange began early Tuesday morning when Corker advised the White House not to interfere in lawmakers’ tax deliberations and called Trump’s lunch a “photo op.”  Later, Trump took to Twitter to belittle Corker, a national security adviser on his presidential campaign, with an early morning tweet in which he anticipated opposition for his administration’s tax plan. “Bob Corker, who ... couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts,” Trump wrote.  That prompted a retort on Twitter from Corker, “Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president.”  With the tax plan, Trump is hoping to notch up his first major legislative win - something that has so far eluded him even though Republicans both chambers of Congress. Tensions with Corker erupted this month when Trump said Corker “begged” for his endorsement as he weighed running for re-election and Corker responded by calling Trump’s White House an “adult day care center.” Trump has also blamed Corker for the Iran nuclear deal forged under Democratic President Barack Obama. Every Republican, including Corker, voted against the 2015 accord. In his CNN interview, Corker assailed Trump for telling falsehoods that are easily disproven and questioned why he persisted in doing so. “I don’t know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debases our country in that way but he does but he does.” “He is purposely breaking down relationships we have around the world that had been useful to our nation. ... I think the debasement of our nation is what he’ll be remembered most for.” Corker, who was an early backer of Trump’s White House campaign at a time when many senior Republicans were expressing doubts, said he would not support him again. “I was one of those - that hoped he would rise to the occasion as president and aspire to lead our nation instead of divide it,” he told reporters at the Capitol. “He has not risen to the occasion.”

Summary: अनकॉर्क्डः वरिष्ठ रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर का ट्रम्प पर गुस्सा फूटा


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Two men suspected of having fought for an al Qaeda-linked group in Syria were among four Syrian migrants arrested in the Netherlands, Dutch authorities said on Friday. The national prosecutor s office said in a statement that the two men were from 2012-2015 members of the Nusra Front, which the Dutch government designates as a terrorist group, and had traveled to the Netherlands as  refugees  in 2015. A third Syrian man was arrested in possession of four kilograms of marijuana while the fourth had traveled to the Netherlands using fake documents in 2017.  All four remain in custody, the statement said.

Summary: नीदरलैंड में अलकायदा के संदिग्ध लड़ाकों सहित चार सीरियाई गिरफ्तारः अभियोजक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday approved a reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, nearly three years after the legislative authority for the country’s commodities and swaps regulator expired. The head of the CFTC, Timothy Massad, praised the committee for clearing the way for the full Senate to vote on authorization. “I am committed to continuing to work with Congress throughout this process, particularly on making sure end-users like agricultural producers can continue to safely and affordably use the derivatives markets, while ensuring these markets do not generate excessive risk to our financial system,” he said in a statement.  The CFTC has operated on year-by-year funding since the end of 2013 because Congress has not passed a new authorization, which lawmakers say created uncertainty in many markets. The House of Representatives has already approved a similar bill. Republicans, who control the Senate, said the bill would allow farmers, ranchers and small energy providers to use derivatives for hedging operational costs without being ensnared in regulation intended to prevent the risky type of swap deals that contributed to the financial crisis.  The bill “allows for anticipatory hedges and the management of a hedge when it serves as a risk management tool for our producers and commercial end-users and not an investment or for speculation,” said Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas. Still, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a proponent of strong Wall Street oversight, said the bill as written would also benefit financial players. “It’s clear that this bill is all about helping Wall Street traders and big energy companies like Koch Industries under the guise of helping farmers,” he said. Massad’s major concern involved funding. The senior Democrat on the committee, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, sought to add a provision that would create a model for backing the CFTC similar to that used for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which offsets taxpayer funds it receives with fees and fines. The proposal was not included in the final bill.  “The funding language proposed by Senator Stabenow addresses the fact that we are the only federal financial regulator without some form of fee-based funding,” Massad said. Republican John Boozman of Arkansas, who has say over the CFTC’s budget as chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on financial services, shot down the idea, describing funding tied to fines as a “bounty program.”

Summary: सीनेट समिति ने अमेरिकी वस्तु नियामक के लिए प्राधिकरण को मंजूरी दी


(Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are due to release tax legislation on Thursday calling for slashing taxes on corporations, repealing some taxes paid primarily by the wealthy and adjusting other taxes on families and individuals.  As questions about the final shape of the bill swirl around Washington, the following is a look at the basic features of the plan released in September, though changes are expected: * Reduce the U.S. corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from a current statutory 35 percent. * Eliminate the corporate alternative minimum tax. * Move to a territorial tax system that no longer imposes the U.S. corporate tax on foreign profits of U.S. companies. * Require U.S. corporations to return assets held overseas at lowered one-time tax rates. * Establish a minimum global tax aimed at the overseas profits of U.S. corporations to prevent tax base erosion. “PASS-THROUGH” BUSINESSES * Limit the maximum tax rate on small businesses and other non-corporate enterprises to 25 percent, down from the present maximum rate on “pass-through” income of 39.6 percent. * Allow immediate and full expensing of capital investments for at least five years. * Partially limit the business tax deduction for debt interest payments. * Cut the top individual rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent. * Increase the standard deduction for taxpayers to $12,000 from $6,300 for individuals, and to $24,000 from $12,600 for married couples. * Reduce the current seven individual income tax brackets to three brackets of 12 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent. * Consider a fourth bracket at a rate higher than 35 percent for high-income Americans to prevent shifting the overall tax burden from higher- to lower-income households. * Partially repeal the deduction for state and local tax payments. * Eliminate the $4,050 personal exemption for taxpayers and family members. * Create a “substantial” increase in the child tax credit, now $1,000; raise the income limit to qualify for the credit; and eliminate the higher qualifying income rate for married couples. * Create a $500 tax credit for taxpayers with non-child dependents. * Repeal the individual alternative minimum tax on high-income taxpayers. * Repeal the estate tax paid chiefly by the richest Americans.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः रिपब्लिकन टैक्स बिल में क्या है?


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If you haven’t heard a lot about what Hillary Clinton thinks of a string of controversial comments by Donald Trump that have generated round-the-clock coverage on cable news broadcasts, there is a reason – it’s by design. Since becoming the Democratic nominee last month, Clinton has been touring toy manufacturers, visiting tie makers and dropping in on public health clinics, where if she mentions Trump at all, it is usually to contrast their policies. Her swift condemnation at a Wednesday campaign rally of Trump’s remark that gun rights activists could stop her from nominating liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices was a rare instance where she has directly engaged her Republican rival in the 2016 race for the White House. Aides say Clinton’s strategy is simple: let Trump be Trump. Trump has suffered a series of missteps over the past two weeks that go beyond his remarks on gun rights activists, which he later accused the media of deliberately misinterpreting. He has tangled with party leaders, clashed with the parents of a fallen Muslim American Army captain and this week accused Clinton, a former secretary of state, and President Barack Obama of “founding” the Islamic State militant group. On Friday, he said he was just being sarcastic when he made that remark.  “There is an adage in politics:  Don’t get in the way of a train wreck,” said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, a top campaign aide to presidential candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. Clinton’s advisers say they see little benefit in her going toe-to-toe with Trump over every personal accusation, generating sound bites that would dominate cable news broadcasts. Rather, they are happy for him to be embroiled in controversy while Clinton focuses on policy. Trump’s campaign declined to comment for this story, but the New York real estate developer has accused the national media of bias toward Clinton. He re-posted a supporter’s Tweet on Friday that said the “corrupt media” was deliberately exaggerating his remarks to favor his Democratic opponent.  Trump has slipped in opinion polls, and worried Republican Party leaders have urged him to stop making off-the-cuff inflammatory statements that generate blanket, often negative, media coverage and distract from efforts to highlight what they see as Clinton’s many shortcomings. “He’s sucking all the oxygen out of the room to his own detriment,” said Republican strategist and Trump supporter Ford O’Connell. It’s not enough to dominate media coverage, he needs to “win” it, O’Connell said. Trump has boasted that the news coverage he generates means he does not have to spend as much on campaign ads, but political veterans say he is squandering the attention and missing opportunities to win over undecided voters. For example, Trump gave an economic speech on Monday that was meant to help his campaign regain momentum, but it was quickly eclipsed by the fallout over his remarks on gun rights activists. Clinton, meanwhile, has been busy courting local media in must-win states. Her national press pool, which seldom gets to question the candidate, often waits as she conducts interviews with local news outlets. She has granted few recent interviews to national outlets and rarely holds press conferences, a strategy her critics say is calculated to avoid questions about her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, and the relationship between her family’s global charity, the Clinton Foundation, and the State Department. Clinton, who has said she is one of the most transparent presidential candidates in history, has acknowledged her use of the private email server was a mistake but said she properly handled all classified information. She has denied any improper links between the foundation and the State Department. In interviews with local outlets, Clinton is more likely to face questions about job creation, public health and raising wages - all parts of her platform that she is keen to discuss. In Florida, a crucial battleground state, Republican lobbyist Gus Corbella says the contrast between the local coverage of Clinton’s campaign stops there and Trump’s events has been stark. “Clinton’s campaign seems to have the more disciplined approach,” Corbella said. “The rollout that day is on a specific event she’s attending, a message she’s trying to deliver. Whereas on the Trump side, it’s what crazy thing did he say today and the response to that.” After Clinton’s visit last week to a tie maker in Colorado, the lead story on the front page of the Denver Post was “Clinton pledges millions of jobs.” Trump also featured on the front page, but in a smaller story about “damage control” in his troubled campaign.

Summary: क्लिंटन खुशी से ट्रम्प को राष्ट्रीय सुर्खियों में लाती हैं, इसकी चमक से बचती हैं


PARIS (Reuters) - Four months after a heavy electoral defeat, France s National Front is on the verge of a split between its leader and her chief deputy that could open the way to a policy change on the euro as the far-right party seeks to rebrand itself.   Marine Le Pen s relationship with Florian Philippot, for years her closest aide, has become so strained since she lost the presidential election to centrist Emmanuel Macron that far-right experts say it has reached the point of no-return. A rupture would mark an important change for the FN and Le Pen because she has for years defended Philippot s anti-euro, protectionist line against critics in the party, and built her 2012 and 2017 presidential campaigns on his advice. Philippot has been under fire in the party over its setbacks in this year s presidential and parliamentary elections, with many blaming the anti-euro line he has backed so strongly.  Le Pen, whose leadership is also under scrutiny, has increasingly distanced herself from Philippot, focusing on the party s anti-immigration, identitarian roots in speeches rather than the party s stance on the euro. Philippot has stood firm, maintaining that opposing the euro is a vote winner.  Le Pen has now issued him an ultimatum, saying he must decide between his party role and a think-tank group known as the Patriots that he has set up focused on an anti-euro policy.   I don t intend to abandon the Patriots nor my convictions nor my ideals,  a visibly shaken Philippot said in an interview on CNews.  If they want to get rid of me and prevent me from working on the relaunch of the National Front, then let it be done,  he added. Minutes later Le Pen issued a terse statement saying she had decide to revoke his responsibilities for strategy and communications, but stopped short of firing him as vice president - for now. Jerome Fourquet, a specialist on the far-right at pollster Ifop, sees the split as definitive.   This seems to have escalated to a point of no-return,  he said. If Philippot leaves the party or is forced out, it could at first cause further turmoil for the far-right as it struggles to portray itself as the main opposition to Macron, despite having reached the second round of the presidential election in May. In the presidential run-off, Le Pen secured 34 percent of the vote against 66 percent for Macron   its strongest election performance but still a disappointment. In June s parliamentary election, the national Front won only eight seats.   The role of chief opponent has been assumed by Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the far-left France Insoumise (France Unbowed), who together with unions is leading calls for mass protests against reforms planned by Macron. The departure of Philippot, a graduate of France s top ENA administrative school, could be followed by others in the party with a similar profile walking out, depriving the party of figures who were key to policy-making. Le Pen and her party might, however, see long-term gains as his exit could enable her to reassert her authority and make it easier to shift policy on the euro. This might in turn help the FN forge alliances with other right-wing politicians.   If Philippot was to leave there would be a negative buzz, there would be turmoil in the FN, but after a while that would likely be digested and overcome,  Fourquet said. He underlined that the party had survived previous crises, such as the departure in the late 1990s of Bruno Megret, once a political star who took allies with him. Analysts say Philippot has fewer loyal allies and a smaller political capital than Megret did at the time and would therefore be unlikely to create a rival party that would pose a serious threat to the FN.              The deadline for the FN to decide how it wants to rebrand itself is March, when it will hold a party congress to decide on a new name and what its strategies and policies should be for the next presidential election due in 2022.         Jean Messiha, who coordinated Le Pen s presidential manifesto, said the party was in a difficult phase where it was adapting to France s changed political landscape.  We need to get our act together and, most importantly, we need Marine Le Pen to reaffirm, to reassert her authority,  he told Reuters. Le Pen s partner, senior FN official Louis Aliot, made a similar point, telling supporters at the weekend not to give in to  defeatism .  In politics, you re never dead,  he said.

Summary: चुनाव में करारी हार के बाद विभाजन के कगार पर फ्रांस का राष्ट्रीय मोर्चा


LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union agreed that Britain would not have to come up with a figure for a financial deal to leave the bloc before moving talks on to discuss a trade deal, Brexit minister David Davis said on Sunday. Speaking to Sky News, Davis said Britain agreed to the sequencing of talks demanded by the EU but had told the bloc s negotiators it would not come up with a figure to push them beyond  phase one .  We said: alright. we ll do this sequencing, but don t imagine you will have a number or a formula (for the financial settlement) at the end of it. We ll get towards that process but you won t have a number or a formula before we move on to the next stage. They accepted that,  he said.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने सहमति व्यक्त की कि बातचीत को आगे बढ़ाने के लिए किसी राशि की आवश्यकता नहीं हैः ब्रिटिश ब्रेक्सिट मंत्री


ATHENS (Reuters) - European Investment Bank (EIB) President Werner Hoyer, cited as a possible candidate to take over as Germany s finance minister, said on Friday he was  looking forward to another six years at the bank.  Asked by reporters in Athens how he felt about the possibly of becoming finance minister, Hoyer said:   To be honest I haven t been in Berlin in the last 20 days and I m extremely happy at the EIB and just about to complete my term there. I m looking forward to another six years at the bank.  Germany s long-time Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has agreed to become president of parliament in the new coalition government to be formed following national elections last weekend.

Summary: जर्मन फिनमिन पोस्ट के बारे में पूछे जाने पर होयर ने ई. आई. बी. पर 'बेहद खुश' कहा


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) may take legal action against a bill that would enshrine into law the use of the army in the country s long war against drug cartels, saying it could ask that the measure be ruled unconstitutional. Known as the Law of Internal Security, it will formally regulate the deployment of the military in Mexico more than a decade after the government dispatched it to fight drug cartels in a conflict that has claimed well over 100,000 lives. Bucking widespread protests from rights groups, Congress on Friday gave a green light to the law, which was backed by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and some members of the center-right opposition National Action Party. It will now head to President Enrique Pena Nieto s desk to be signed into law. The new law could lead to the  violation of Mexicans  basic rights and freedoms, affect the design and constitutionally established balance between institutions, state organs and powers, and lead to states of emergency being imposed on Mexican society,  the CNDH said in a statement late Saturday. Supporters of the legislation say it will set out clear rules that limit the use of soldiers to fight crime. Multiple human rights groups and international organizations, including the United Nations, attacked the bill, mindful of the dozens of reported cases of abuses by members of the military in Mexico over the past 11 years. They say it could usher in greater abuses and impunity by the armed forces. Opponents of the bill have taken to the streets to protest and demand the measure not be signed into law. The CNDH said it has asked Pena Nieto to make the necessary changes to the bill to make sure it upholds human and civil rights.

Summary: मैक्सिकन मानवाधिकार समूह सुरक्षा कानून के खिलाफ कानूनी कार्रवाई पर विचार कर रहा है