ANKARA (Reuters) - The head of Turkey s nationalist opposition said on Thursday a planned independence referendum by Kurds in northern Iraq should be viewed by Ankara as a reason for war  if necessary . Turkey, which is battling a three-decade Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, is concerned the referendum could further stoke separatist sentiment among the 15 million Kurds in Turkey.  On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited Iraq, where he conveyed to Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani Ankara s concerns about the decision to hold the referendum, planned for Sept. 25. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, who allied with the government in supporting the ruling AK Party s campaign in April s referendum on boosting President Tayyip Erdogan s powers, called on Ankara to oppose the vote.  A position must be taken to the end against Barzani s preparation for an independence referendum which incorporates Turkmen cities,  Bahceli told a news conference in Ankara.  This is a rehearsal for Kurdistan. If necessary Turkey should deem this referendum as a reason for war,  he added. Bahceli does not set policy, though his ideas reflect those of a segment of Turkish society fiercely opposed to the idea of an independent Kurdistan and supportive of Iraq s Turkmen ethnic minority, which has historical and cultural ties to Turkey. Kurds have sought an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East and left Kurdish-populated territory split between modern-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.     Like Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria all oppose the idea of Iraqi Kurdish independence, fearing it may fuel separatism among their own Kurdish populations.  The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, deemed a terrorist organization by Ankara, the United States and European Union, has waged a 33-year insurgency in southeast Turkey in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. The United States and other Western nations fear September s vote could ignite a new conflict with Baghdad and possibly neighboring countries, diverting attention from the war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

Summary: तुर्की के राष्ट्रवादी नेता का कहना है कि इराकी कुर्द जनमत संग्रह युद्ध का संभावित कारण है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission, Julie Brill, will resign and leave the U.S. agency at the end of March, the FTC said in a statement on Tuesday. Brill, a Democrat with expertise in privacy and consumer protection, has been on the commission since 2010. She will step down effective March 31 and will go to the law firm Hogan Lovells, where she will be co-lead of their global privacy and cybersecurity practice. “I’ve loved every minute that I’ve spent doing public service. I’m now looking forward to a new challenge after 26 years,” Brill said in a telephone interview. Brill’s departure leaves the commission, which should have five commissioners, with just three. It is headed by Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, a Democrat. The other members are Terrell McSweeny, also a Democrat, and Maureen Ohlhausen, a Republican.

Summary: अमेरिकी संघीय व्यापार आयोग से इस्तीफा देंगे ब्रिल


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi   will not seek a third term in office, he said in an interview with CNBC, adding that he does not intend to change the constitution and its provision of a two-term presidential limit.  It doesn t suit me as a president to stay one more day against the will of the Egyptians,  he told CNBC over the weekend.  We will not interfere with (the constitution)..I am with preserving two four-year terms,  Sisi added.  However, he did not confirm if he intended to run for a second term when his current term expires. Sisi came to power in 2014, a year after he led the military in ousting elected but unpopular Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. Rights groups say Sisi has since led an unprecedented crackdown on political opponents, activists and critical media. He is unlikely to face strong opposition and many in Egypt see him as vital to stability in a country where unrest since 2011 has battered the economy. Egyptian human rights lawyer and opposition leader Khaled Ali on Monday became the first person to announce he is running against Sisi, vowing to challenge him in the 2018 presidential election, provided he was not barred from the contest. The 45-year-old gained prominence in January, when he won a case that nullified a government transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a deal that had provoked mass protests.

Summary: मिस्र के सिसी का कहना है कि वह तीसरे कार्यकाल की मांग नहीं करेंगेः सीएनबीसी


MARAWI CITY/CLARK, Philippines (Reuters) - The Philippines on Monday announced the end of five months of military operations in a southern city held by pro-Islamic State rebels, after a fierce and unfamiliar urban war that has marked the country s biggest security crisis in years. Offensive combat operations were terminated after troops put a stop to the last stand of rebel gunmen who clung on inside several buildings in the heart of Marawi, and refused to surrender. Artillery and automatic gunfire were still heard on Monday and Reuters journalists saw flames behind a mosque. The bodies of 40 fighters and two of their wives were found there and in two buildings close by.  Ernesto Abella, spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte, said the Philippines had prevailed against  the most serious threat of violent extremism and radicalism in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia .  Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the security forces had  nipped the budding infrastructure  of extremist groups.   In crushing thus far the most serious attempt to export violent extremism and radicalism in the Philippines and in the region, we have contributed to preventing its spread in Asia,  Lorenzana said in Clark at a meeting of regional defense ministers. The rebel occupation stunned a military inexperienced in urban combat and stoked wider concerns that Islamic State loyalists have gained influence among local Muslims and have ambitions to use the island of Mindanao as a base for operations in Southeast Asia. Those fears are compounded by the organization of the militant alliance and its ability to recruit young fighters, lure foreign radicals, stockpile huge amounts of arms and endure 154 days of ground offensive and air strikes. The authorities said 920 militants, 165 troops and police and at least 45 civilians were killed in the conflict, which displaced more than 300,000 people. The center of the picturesque lakeside town is now in ruins due to heavy shelling and aerial bombing. The deputy task force commander in Marawi, Colonel Romeo Brawner, said troops would secure the city from militant  stragglers  who might still be alive.  If we find them and they will attack our soldiers or even the civilians, then we will have to defend ourselves,  he told reporters.    After months of slow progress, the military has made significant gains in retaking Marawi in the week since Isnilon Hapilon, Islamic State s  emir  in Southeast Asia and Omarkhayam Maute, a leader of the Maute militant group, were killed in a nighttime operation. Another leader and possible bankroller of the operation, Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad, was likely killed also, the military said. Military spokesman, Major General Restituto Padilla, confirmed there was still gunfire ongoing, but there were  no more terrorists  and the army s last battles were with an enemy decimated by the loss of its leadership.  They were formless, they had no place to run,  he said.      Duterte had declared Marawi City liberated six days ago, even though fighting was not actually over. On Sunday, he said it was important to be vigilant because no country could escape Islamic State s  clutches of evil .  I m not trying to scare you, but let s just be prepared for any event,  he said. Lorenzana said six battalions of troops would remain in Marawi and though the battle had been won, the enemy s radical ideology had not been completely annihilated.  He thanked the United States, Australia, Singapore and China for providing weaponry and technical support, including surveillance aircraft, and said the conflict would be a catalyst for closer international cooperation against extremism. The government estimates the rebuilding of the heart of Marawi could cost in excess of $1 billion.

Summary: फिलीपींस ने मरावी शहर में इस्लामी विद्रोहियों के साथ युद्ध समाप्त होने की घोषणा की


KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian lawmakers voted through a long-delayed overhaul of the health system on Thursday that the state s Western backers say will raise standards and tackle a culture of bribe-taking in surgeries and hospitals. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have been pressing for faster reform is a country where lives are more than five years shorter than the European average, according to the World Health Organization. But opponents of the changes, including many opposition MPs, say the more Western-style system will force patients to pay for their medicines for the first time, leaving the poorest with no healthcare. The legislation lets patients choose their own doctor, rather than have one foisted on them - a move the government said would encourage medics to improve service and give them less opportunity to demand kickbacks for treatment. The bill also sets out which medicines are paid for by the state and which ones patients will have to buy themselves. Backers have said it would be clearer than the present system, where medicines are in theory covered by the state, but patients often have to pay to get hold of pills when supplies run short. The government s task is to provide a quality medical system for citizens rather than  do nothing and tolerate the misery that we have in Ukrainian hospitals,  Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman told parliament after the vote passed. The government has been pushing for closer links to the European Union since a popular uprising ousted pro-Russian former president Viktor Yanukovich in 2014. Ambassadors from the G7 leading powers released a statement saying the legislation was  a sign that Ukraine is ready and committed to moving forward with its vital reforms . The legislation, which was steered by the United States-born acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun, has undergone 893 amendments and faced repeated criticism, including from Olga Bogomolets, the head of the parliamentary healthcare committee. Bogomolets said on Facebook on Thursday the changes would result in hospital closures and fewer doctors and medicines in rural areas, calling them tantamount to  genocide .  Supporters of the changes say vested interests who benefit from corruption in the current system spread scare stories about the reform.    Protesters camped outside parliament this week accusing President Petro Poroshenko of stalling on other legislation, including the creation of special anti-corruption courts and a move to strip lawmakers of automatic immunity.

Summary: यूक्रेन ने लंबे समय से विलंबित स्वास्थ्य सुधारों को पारित किया जिसकी पश्चिम ने प्रशंसा की


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican opposition leader Ricardo Anaya said on Sunday he would seek to win the presidency in a left-right alliance after stepping down as head of the conservative National Action Party (PAN). Anaya resigned as leader of the PAN on Saturday, a day after his party officially joined forces with the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Citizens Movement party in the  For Mexico in Front  coalition. If selected, Anaya will likely take on leftist former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and former Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade, who is seeking the nomination for the ruling centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Meade, who has served in both PRI and PAN administrations, resigned as finance minister in November and PRI officials hope he will help the party recover from a spate of corruption scandals.  This corrupt and inefficient PRI government has been an absolute national disaster,  Anaya said on Sunday, adding that his own party did not make fundamental structural changes during its two presidential terms from 2000 to 2012. Anaya saw a split in his party in October when former first lady Margarita Zavala left to launch a bid for the presidency as an independent candidate. Zavala, the wife of former President Felipe Calderon, said she quit the PAN because the party base had been subordinated to the interests of its leadership. The left-right coalition on Friday presented its official request with the electoral institute to compete in the July 2018 vote. The group must still pick its leader, with Anaya, who had been leader of the PAN since 2015, considered the front-runner. Anaya, 38, has faced criticism in the Mexican press for his family s  inexplicable  level of wealth, although he denies any wrongdoing. In a voter poll published on Wednesday, Anaya came in second behind Lopez Obrador, who leads the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party, but ahead of Meade. Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera, who was seen as a contender for the coalition, said on Saturday he would not run and criticized what he said was an undemocratic selection process.

Summary: मैक्सिकन विपक्षी नेता अनाया गठबंधन में राष्ट्रपति पद की मांग करेंगे


ATLANTA (Reuters) - President Donald Trump pledged to uphold Americans’ right to possess guns on Friday in a speech that he used to revisit some 2016 election campaign themes from his vow to build a border wall to dismissing a Democratic senator as “Pocahontas.” Trump pledged his allegiance to the powerful National Rifle Association, the country’s leading gun-rights advocacy group, at a convention attended by thousands. Elected in part on a law-and-order platform, Trump was the first sitting president to address the NRA since fellow Republican Ronald Reagan in 1983. “As your president, I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” Trump told thousands of people attending the NRA’s annual convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Trump, whose candidacy last year was endorsed by the NRA, marks his first 100 days in office on Saturday with no major legislative achievements but with a long litany of actions to loosen federal regulations and review free trade agreements. Stymied by his initial bid to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border when Congress balked at funding the initiative, Trump vowed he will sooner or later build the wall, which had been a signature campaign promise. “We need a wall. We’ll build the wall. Don’t even think about it,” he said. Politics and his unexpected election victory on Nov. 8 over Democrat Hillary Clinton also featured prominently in his remarks. Speculating on who might run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, Trump brought up the name of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and used a derogatory nickname he had adopted for her last year. “It may be Pochahontas, and she is not big on the NRA,” Trump said of Warren, who had once said she had some Native American ancestry. Pocahontas is a legendary Native American figure from the 1600s. Trump later attended a fund-raiser for Republican candidate Karen Handel, who will face Democrat Jon Ossoff on June 20 to determine who will win a House of Representatives seat to replace Tom Price, who became Trump’s health and human services secretary. Trump, at the NRA event, returned time and again to the theme of responsible gun ownership. “You have a true friend and champion in the White House,” he said. “We want to assure you of the sacred right of self defense for all of our citizens.”

Summary: ट्रंप ने एन. आर. ए. बंदूक लॉबी के प्रति वफादारी का वादा किया


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey s on-going visa crisis with the United States is unnecessary, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, adding that two allies need to solve the issue with mutual understanding. Speaking at a joint news conference with his Portuguese counterpart, Cavusoglu said it was not right to punish people unrelated to the tension.

Summary: अमेरिका के साथ तुर्की का वीजा संकट अनावश्यक हैः तुर्की के मंत्री


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel expressed muted concern on Sunday to a major arms deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia announced a day earlier during the visit to the region by U.S. President Donald Trump.  The central achievement of Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia was  nearly $110 billion in deals sealed on Saturday in which Riyadh will buy U.S. arms to help it counter Iran, with options running as high as $350 billion over 10 years. Although Israel also sees Iran as a threat to its security, it has a military advantage over the Arab states and has always been concerned about arms sales to them that could possibly narrow the margin separating them. “This is a matter that really should trouble us,” said Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz prior to the weekly cabinet meeting, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no mention of the deal in his customary public remarks. A senior U.S. official traveling with Trump said Washington understands what he described as Israel’s “completely legitimate” concerns and pledged to help the Jewish state maintain its military advantage. “We’re taking a whole bunch of measures, some apparent some not so apparent, to ensure Israel’s qualitative military edge. That will in no way be compromised,” the official told Reuters.  “You’ll hear a really strong statement from the president on his commitment to Israel and to Israel’s defense,” the official added.  Netanyahu has expressed the wish to improve ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states as part of an initiative that would draw the Palestinians into an eventual peace deal and function as a broad front against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Steinitz said he hoped to hear details of the deal. Trump and his entourage touch down in Israel on Monday. “We have also to make sure that those hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia will not, by any means, erode Israel’s qualitative edge, because Saudi Arabia is still a hostile country without any diplomatic relations and nobody knows what the future will be,” Steinitz said. In the 1980s, Israel expressed its concern at a U.S. sale to Saudi Arabia of then-advanced F-15 fighter jets that were stationed at a Red Sea airfield. But the desert kingdom has never threatened to use them against Israel.

Summary: इजरायली मंत्री ने U.S.-Saudi हथियार सौदे पर चिंता व्यक्त की


TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese court sentenced a former U.S. military base worker to life in prison on Friday for the rape and murder of a woman on the southern island of Okinawa, public broadcaster NHK reported. The Naha District Court found Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, 33, guilty of killing 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro in April last year, NHK said. A court spokesman told Reuters he was unable to immediately confirm the decision.   The case sparked anger on the island, where locals have long protested the presence of U.S. military bases that they say imposes a heavy burden on Okinawa. Okinawa hosts around 50,000 U.S. nationals, including 30,000 military personnel and civilians employed at the bases. In a bid to assuage locals, the United States last year agreed to limit legal protection and benefits to some U.S. civilian contractors working for the military in Japan under a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that dates back to 1960.  SOFA exempts personnel from requiring visas while in Japan, and has been criticized because it has been used by the U.S. military to ship people home before Japanese police can capture them.  Other incidents involving U.S. personnel have stirred resentment among Okinawans. On Nov. 19, a local man was killed in road accident after his van collided with a car driven by a U.S. Marine suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. The U.S. military responded by imposing a drinking ban for personnel in Japan on or off base.

Summary: जापान की अदालत ने बलात्कार, हत्या के लिए अमेरिकी आधार कार्यकर्ता को आजीवन कारावास की सजा सुनाईः एनएचके


BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Benghazi s commercial port officially reopened on Sunday after a three-year closure due to fighting between rival factions in the east Libyan city. To mark the opening Abdullah al-Thinni, prime minister of a government based in the east, arrived on board a tanker sent from the eastern city of Tobruk. The port does not export oil, but imports gas and some petroleum products as well as general cargo, and local costs for these would be reduced by the port s reopening, port spokesman Nasser Al-Maghrabi said.      Today Benghazi port opened and a tanker from Tobruk entered as a message to the world that the port is safe and we are ready to receive tankers,  port manager Abdulazim Al-Abbar said by telephone.  Until now we have not received notification of tankers arriving for exports and imports - for now we are starting up and waiting.    Like Benghazi s airport, the port had been closed since 2014 because of a conflict between forces loyal to eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar and an alliance of Islamists and other opponents. Haftar declared victory in early July, though isolated skirmishes continued. Benghazi airport reopened in mid-July.

Summary: संघर्ष के कारण तीन साल बंद रहने के बाद लीबिया के बेनगाज़ी में बंदरगाह फिर से खुला


BERLIN (Reuters) - Berliners voted to keep the historic Tegel airport open even after a new international hub is completed, creating a headache for the German capital s government, which wanted it closed. Tegel sprang up in just 90 days in 1948 to support the Berlin Airlift, a huge operation to ship supplies and thwart a Cold War Soviet blockade. It is much-loved by many Berliners and business travelers for its proximity to the city center. Berlin s government will now have to rethink its plans to close Tegel after some 56 percent of voters supported the non-binding referendum on Sunday, the same day as Germany s federal election, to reconsider the proposal. This had envisaged the closing of Tegel six months after the Berlin Brandenburg International (BER) airport - a grand project bedeviled by repeated construction and planning problems - finally starts operating. It still has no fixed opening date. Michael Mueller, Berlin s mayor said the result created a  very, difficult situation  and told rbb radio he would now talk to the airport s state owners about taking a different approach that could be  legally and financially challenging.  The chief executive of Berlin Airport, Engelbert Luetke Dalderup, said it was up to the airport s owners to decide and that the operator was working on its aim to complete the construction work for BER by August 2018. Opponents argue that Tegel, with its concrete, hexagonal terminal that dates back to the 1970s, is antiquated, does not meet current safety standards and must be renovated at a cost of at least 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion). They want the state government to go ahead with plans to convert the site into a new business and technology park to boost Berlin s economy, and build affordable flats to alleviate a housing shortage. Supporters, however, say that even when complete the new airport will be too small to meet passenger demand and want Tegel retained to serve around 10 million passengers per year, mainly on short-haul flights.  Airlines were also divided, with Ryanair calling for it to be kept open to avoid a capacity crunch, and Lufthansa saying it would prefer to operate from one airport.  Ryanair, which placed posters around Berlin urging locals to vote to keep Tegel open, on Monday welcomed the result and called on the government to explore all options to keep it open.

Summary: शीत युद्ध काल के टेगल हवाई अड्डे को खुला रखने के लिए बर्लिन ने मतदान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday he wants bipartisan cooperation on tax reform, as pressure on him to produce a legislative victory on any front escalated with the collapse of the latest Republican push to repeal Obamacare. The administration and Republicans in Congress are due to unveil a tax plan on Wednesday. The plan has been developed over several months by six White House and congressional Republicans working behind closed doors and with no input from Democrats. On the eve of its unveiling, Trump told members of the House of Representatives tax committee from both parties: “I’ve asked lawmakers of both parties to join us to discuss our framework. ... It’s time for both parties to come together.” He said lawmakers should expect a “very, very powerful document” that would deliver a big tax cut for the middle class. “We will cut taxes tremendously for the middle class - not just a little bit, but tremendously,” said the president, who is set to travel to Indianapolis on Wednesday to unveil the plan. Republicans, who control the White House and both chambers of Congress have been unable to deliver a significant legislative win on any topic since Trump took office in January. Senate Republicans admitted failure on Tuesday in their latest push to replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare,, raising pressure on the party to overhaul the tax code this year, although that difficult effort has repeatedly been delayed. Republicans and Democrats who met with Trump on Tuesday said afterward that the president indicated an interest in working with Democrats on both tax reform and healthcare going forward. “He said you get a better deal if it’s bipartisan,” said Representative Richard Neal, the panel’s top Democrat. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch has also called for bipartisan tax reform. Details of the Trump tax plan that have leaked out showed that the corporate income tax rate would be slashed to 20 percent from 35 percent, the rate for “pass-through” businesses to 25 percent from 39.6 percent, and the rate for top individual earners to 35 percent from 39.6 percent The U.S. tax code has not been overhauled since 1986 under Republican President Ronald Reagan. In the years since, it has gotten much more complex, skewed toward special interests and insufficient for raising enough revenue to cover Washington’s spending, producing a federal budget deficit. As the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have tried in recent months to forge a tax plan, their work has focused mostly on cutting tax rates and less on attempting a comprehensive overhaul of the code.   The Trump plan is expected to be light on specifics, particularly on how to pay for its proposed tax cuts, although Neal said the White House pushed hard on the idea of eliminating the deduction for state and local tax payments. Lawmakers said some key tax rates were still in flux on Tuesday.  Without offsets such as the closing of lucrative tax loopholes to pay for lower tax rates, the proposed tax cuts would deeply cut federal revenue by about $5 trillion in a decade, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation think tank. Such huge revenue losses, as well as the plan’s anticipated inclusion of a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, could make cooperation difficult for Democrats, who want tax reform to be revenue neutral and to offer no relief for top earners. Neal said Trump showed a readiness to avoid cutting taxes for the wealthy during their meeting. “He said, quote, the rich will not benefit,” said the Massachusetts Democrat. Representative James Renacci, a Ways and Means Committee Republican, said individual tax rates were still under discussion, including the possibility of raising the tax rate for the poorest taxpayers to 12 percent from 10 percent.  “There are a lot of questions on where we’re at in that area at this point. Some things are not totally tied down,” Renacci told Reuters. “We’ve got some tweaking to do.” Among Republicans, even fiscal hawks were showing a willingness to accept huge revenue losses, predicting that aggressive tax cuts would drive future economic growth and produce new tax revenues that would pay for lower rates. Such economic assumptions have been questioned by Democrats, who say that the Trump tax plan will unfairly favor the wealthy and that providing them with tax cuts does not drive growth.  Senate Republicans tentatively agreed last week that tax legislation could lose up to $1.5 trillion over a decade, but become revenue neutral thereafter due to economic growth. On Tuesday, Mark Meadows, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said he would not support a tax reform plan with a corporate tax rate above 20 percent or a small-business tax rate above 25 percent.

Summary: ओबामाकेयर के निरस्त होने के बाद ट्रम्प ने द्विदलीय कर सुधार में रुचि दिखाई


MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin observed Russia s biggest war games in years on Monday, watching as his forces successfully repelled an imaginary enemy and launched a tank-led counter offensive, part of an exercise that has rattled the West. NATO officials say they are monitoring the  Zapad-2017  ( West-2017 ) war games with  calm and confidence , but many are unnerved about what they see as Moscow testing its ability to wage war against the West. Russia says the exercise is rehearsing a purely defensive scenario. Putin, commander-in-chief of Russia s armed forces, sat in a command center flanked by his defense minister and the chief of his General Staff, and used binoculars to peer through a cold drizzle at the simulated conflict unfolding before his eyes. The Russian leader has appeared at similar events in the past, sometimes donning a military uniform, and uses them to bolster his image among Russians as a robust defender of the country s interests on the world stage. This time, the 64-year-old president, who is widely expected to run for re-election in March, wore a dark suit and looked relaxed as the firing range in front of him, in the Leningrad region, was briefly transformed into a war zone. Tracer bullets lit up the murky skyline, battle tanks churned across muddy terrain, shells exploded, helicopters fired missiles, planes roared overhead and hundreds of paratroopers and armored vehicles were dropped from the skies. The paratroopers, inserted behind the lines of their imaginary enemy, then waged war against what the defense ministry called  illegal armed formations.  The over-arching Zapad war games, which began on Sept. 14 and run to Sept. 20, are taking place in western Russia, Russia s exclave of Kaliningrad, and Belarus, a Russian ally which borders Ukraine as well as NATO member states Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.      Moscow says almost 13,000 Russian and Belarussian service personnel are taking part, as well as around 70 planes and helicopters. It says almost 700 pieces of military hardware are being deployed, including almost 250 tanks, 10 ships and various artillery and rocket systems. NATO officials have said they believe the exercises involve more troops than Moscow has disclosed, however, and have complained about what they say is the lack of transparency about the exercise, an allegation Russia rejects. As part of the same drills, Russia on Monday said it had successfully test fired a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, hitting a target at a firing range in Kazakhstan about 480 km (300 miles) away. Moscow says it is the West that threatens stability in eastern Europe because NATO has put a 4,000-strong multinational force in the Baltics and Poland, while the U.S. Army has deployed 600 paratroopers to the Baltics during Zapad. As a precaution, the United States has also temporarily taken over guardianship of the airspace of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which lack capable air forces and air defense systems.

Summary: पुतिन देख रहे हैं कि रूस युद्ध के खेल को तेज कर रहा है जिसने पश्चिम को हिलाकर रख दिया है


(Reuters) - Lawmakers in Kansas on Monday failed to override Republican Governor Sam Brownback’s veto of a bill expanding eligibility for Medicaid for the poor under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Kansas House of Representatives voted 81 to 44 in favor of overriding the veto, falling three votes short of the 84 needed to advance the override.  State lawmakers in the Republican-controlled senate voted in favor of the measure last week, just days after President Donald Trump’s efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare, ended with the bill being pulled from a vote. The Republican-controlled House also voted in favor of the measure, but Brownback quickly vetoed the bill on Thursday. The House took up a debate on overriding the veto that day, but postponed a vote until Monday. “It is disappointing that the Kansas House failed to override the veto because a small group of representatives chose to side with the Governor instead of the 82% of Kansans who support expanding KanCare and the vast majority of their colleagues in both chambers,” David Jordan, the executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a coalition of groups that backed Medicaid expansion, said in a statement on Monday.  Brownback said the measure failed to eliminate waiting lists for disability services, did not add work requirements and was not budget neutral. It also continued to support Planned Parenthood, which provides a range of reproductive services including abortions, which Brownback opposes.   Kansas was not among the 31 states that in 2016 had opted to expand Medicaid, with the federal government footing much of the cost under Obamacare. With the ACA’s enhanced federal funding, Medicaid expansion in Kansas, effective Jan. 1, 2018, would cost the state an estimated $31 million in fiscal 2018, which begins July 1, according to estimates cited in a legislative report on the bill. It would cost $67 million in fiscal 2019 with more than 180,000 additional recipients, the report said.   Without enhanced federal matching funds, the state’s costs would balloon to $465 million by fiscal 2019. Kansas tax collections fell $11.6 million below estimates for March mainly due to lower-than-expected personal income taxes, the state’s revenue department reported on Monday. However, tax revenue so far in fiscal 2017 was $57.5 million ahead of projections. (The story was refiled to delete “reports” source from headline; the vote is on Kansas legislature’s public record)

Summary: कैनसस हाउस मेडिकेड वीटो को ओवरराइड करने के प्रयास में विफल रहा


MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed sharply in a debate on Thursday over their support for President Barack Obama, with Sanders accusing Clinton of “a low blow” after she compared him to Republicans. As the Democratic race moves to states with large minority populations, both candidates openly courted black and Hispanic votes during a debate that was far more restrained and cordial than last week’s contentious debate in New Hampshire. In the sharpest exchange of the night, Clinton attacked Sanders for being too critical of Obama, who is extremely popular with the black voters who will play a big role in the outcome in South Carolina and other upcoming nominating contests. “The kind of criticism that we’ve heard from Senator Sanders about our president, I expect from Republicans, I do not expect from someone running for the Democratic nomination to succeed President Obama,” said Clinton, who served as secretary of state during Obama’s first term. “Madam Secretary, that is a low blow,” said Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sanders said he had been an Obama ally in the Senate even if he did not always agree with him. “Do senators have the right to disagree with the president?” Sanders said. Clinton, who has eagerly embraced Obama’s legacy, said Sanders had called Obama weak and a disappointment, and “that goes further than saying we have our disagreements.” With Clinton looking to rebound after her crushing 22-point loss to Sanders in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the two also differed over healthcare and Wall Street.  Even so, the restrained exchange on Thursday was unlikely to change the trajectory of a race that has intensified dramatically over two weeks. Clinton accused Sanders of misleading Americans on his healthcare. She said his proposal for a single-payer, Medicare-for-all healthcare plan would mean dismantling the program known as Obamacare and triggering another intense political struggle. “Based on every analysis I can find by people who are sympathetic to the goal, the numbers don’t add up,” Clinton told Sanders. “That’s a promise that cannot be kept.” Sanders said he was simply moving to provide what most industrialized countries have - healthcare coverage for all. “We’re not going to dismantle anything,” Sanders said. “In my view healthcare is a right of all people, not a privilege, and I will fight for that.” Sanders also repeated his accusation that Clinton is too beholden to the Wall Street interests she once represented as a U.S. senator from New York, noting her Super PAC received $15 million in donations from Wall Street. “Let’s not insult the intelligence of the American people,” he said. “Why in God’s name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions? I guess just for the fun of it, they want to throw money around.” Clinton said the donations did not mean she was in Wall Street’s pocket, and noted that President Barack Obama had taken donations from Wall Street during his campaigns. “When it mattered, he stood up and took on Wall Street,” she said. With an eye to on the minority vote, both candidates decried the high incarceration rate of African-Americans and called for broad reforms of the criminal justice system. Sanders said the disproportionately high rate of incarceration for black men was “one of the great tragedies” in the United States. He called for “fundamental police reform” that would “make it clear that any police officer who breaks the law will in fact be dealt with.” Clinton criticized what she called “systemic racism” in education, housing and employment. “When we talk about criminal justice reform … we also have to talk about jobs, education, housing and other ways of helping communities of color,” she said. They both agreed on the need for immigration reform, an important issue to Hispanic voters, though they clashed over the Obama administration’s actions on handling a wave of undocumented children who entered the country alone. Clinton criticized Sanders for voting against a reform measure in 2007, which Sanders defended because of a provision in the bill for guest workers. Clinton entered Thursday’s debate under acute pressure to calm growing nervousness among her supporters after her drubbing in New Hampshire and a razor-thin win the prior week in the Iowa caucus. Both states have nearly all-white populations. For his part, Sanders, who calls himself a democratic socialist, hoped to harness the momentum and enthusiasm he gained from the first two contests and prove he can be a viable contender to lead the Democratic Party to victory in the Nov. 8 presidential election. “What our campaign is indicating is that the American people are tired of establishment politics,” Sanders said. “They want a political revolution.” Clinton dodged an opportunity to distance herself from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s recent controversial comments that there was “a special place in hell” for women who don’t support other women. “Look, I think that she’s been saying that for as long as I’ve known her, which is about 25 years. But it doesn’t change my view that we need to empower everyone, women and men, to make the best decisions in their minds that they can make,” she said. On the foreign policy front, Sanders criticized Clinton for her warm relationship for Henry Kissinger, who served as secretary of state under Republican President Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War. Sanders called Kissinger “one of the most destructive secretaries of state.” Asked by Clinton about who his foreign policy advisers were, Sanders shot back: “Well it ain’t Henry Kissinger.” The race now moves to what should be more favorable ground for Clinton in Nevada and South Carolina, states with more black and Hispanic voters, who, polls show, have been more supportive of Clinton so far.  (Additional reporting by Amanda Becker, Alana Wise and Megan Cassella in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: क्लिंटन और सैंडर्स के बीच ओबामा को लेकर टकराव, अल्पसंख्यक वोटों के लिए लड़ रहे हैं चुनाव


TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election will deepen Asian allies’ anxiety about Washington’s  commitment to post-war security arrangements in the face of a rising China and volatile North Korea, and could bolster calls from conservatives in Tokyo for a more robust defense policy. Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and calls for allies to pay more of the cost for U.S. troops in the region or face their possible withdrawal have worried officials in some Asian capitals. So has his opposition to a 12-nation pan-Pacific trade pact that was a linchpin of Washington’s “pivot” to the region. “We should expect dramatic changes in the security environment,” said South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party floor leader Chung Jin-suk in parliament on Wednesday. But he added: “In any case, there should not be any wavering in the Korea-U.S. military alliance, which has been the foundation of prosperity of this country.”  A Japanese government official, speaking before Trump clinched the election, urged the new president to send a reassuring message. “The new president-elect should as soon as possible issue a statement reassuring the rest of the world that the strong commitment of the United States to its allies ... remains strong and reliable,” said the official, who declined to be identified. “We are certainly concerned about the comments (Trump) has made to date about the alliance and the U.S. role in the Pacific, particularly Japan,” the Japanese official said, although he added Trump’s policies might not match his rhetoric. Trump has made several comments that disturbed Washington’s Asian allies, from insisting they must foot more of the two-way defense bill to suggesting it might be alright for Tokyo and Seoul develop nuclear arms capability. In an article criticizing U.S. President Barack Obama’s “pivot” to Asia as “talking loudly but carrying a small stick” two Trump advisors said he would beef up the U.S. Navy while asserting it was “only fair” that Seoul and Tokyo pay more for defense.  “There is no question of Trump’s commitment to America’s Asian alliances as bedrocks of stability in the region,” wrote  University of California professor Peter Navarro and Alexander Gray, a former advisor to U.S. politician Randy Forbes, in the article, which appeared in the Nov. 7 edition of Foreign Policy. The article also criticized the Obama administration for failing to halt China’s aggressive maritime activities in the East and South China Seas, where Beijing has territorial rows with several countries in the region. Trump has called for more ships for the U.S. Navy. The “mere initiation of the Trump naval program will reassure our allies that the United States remains committed in the long term to its traditional role as guarantor of the liberal order in Asia”, the authors said.    Trump’s approach to the North Asia security alliances could spark calls in Japan for a more independent security stance, although serious talk of acquiring nuclear weapons is unlikely to emerge in the only nation to suffer atomic bombings.  “I think they will have more legitimacy,” said a Japanese diplomat, referring to those seeking a more robust security stance. “But the Japanese public is reluctant to go in that direction and we don’t have the capacity in terms of budget or (military) personnel.” Asian allies who joined the 12-nation Tran-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, a linchpin of Obama’s Asia pivot, now fear the pact is dead, given Trump’s harsh opposition. That has implications not only for trade, but security, since Washington and Tokyo had seen the TPP as way of creating a new regional rule-based architecture to counter China. “TPP was not just a trade deal, it was the United States and Japan, together ... these countries with shared values would create an advanced regional order with not just economic, but diplomatic and security implications,” said Toshihiro Nakayama, a professor at Keio University in Tokyo. “It was a symbol of America being committed to the region.” Singapore-based security expert Tim Huxley warned of a period of potentially destabilizing uncertainty ahead as the region waits for clearer strategic signs of precisely what a Trump presidency would mean for Asia. “Unless Trump speaks reassuringly and soothingly about the continued U.S. presence and commitment to the region, I won’t be surprised to see long-held doubts awoken in the minds of many Asian leaders about the durability of the traditional U.S. role,” he said.  Policy-makers expect it will take considerable time for Trump to work out personnel appointments and get down to policy formation. Divisive U.S. politics could also slow things down. That could mean a worrisome vacuum, but also suggests no quick, dramatic changes are in store. “It will take about half a year for Mr. Trump to firm up his foreign policies. He only has a transition team of about 200 people and his first focus will be domestic policy,” said Masashi Adachi, head of the Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s foreign policy panel. “I don’t think there will be a big change in his stance toward Japan. He has said the Japan-U.S. alliance is important. What he is talking about is details like increasing what Japan pays for U.S. troops in Japan,” Adachi added.

Summary: ट्रम्प के राष्ट्रपति पद से एशियाई सहयोगियों के बीच बड़ी चिंता पैदा होगी


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Connecticut Governor John Rowland on Friday urged a federal appeals court to overturn his conviction on charges that the Republican tried to use sham contracts to hide his political work in two U.S. congressional campaigns, saying prosecutors went too far in applying the law. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York heard arguments over whether Rowland used illegal consulting contracts for candidates who in 2010 and 2012 ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives. Rowland, who was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison in March 2015, is free on bail during his appeal. He had previously spent 10 months in prison following his 2004 guilty plea to separate charges arising from his acceptance of illegal gifts while he was governor. Rowland resigned from office that year. Andrew Fish, Rowland’s lawyer, told the appeals court on Friday that a draft contract rejected by one of the candidates, Mark Greenberg, did not constitute a falsified document. “Frankly, the government saying that a contract proposal is a falsified document makes little sense,” Fish said. He said prosecutors went too far in trying to criminalize Rowland’s conduct under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a governance law passed after Enron Corp’s collapse, that prohibits falsifying documents to hide financial wrongdoing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Liam Brennan countered that the case was in the “heartland” of the statute. “This is creating a fake record to have in the file in case there is an investigation,” he said. A federal jury in New Haven found Rowland guilty in March 2015 on charges of conspiracy, falsifying records in a federal investigation, causing false statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission, and causing illegal campaign contributions. Prosecutors said Rowland, 58, sought to advise Greenberg, who testified that in 2010 he rejected Rowland’s offer and a contract to conceal the ex-governor’s role. Rowland was also accused of negotiating a deal to work for a nursing home company owned by Brian Foley, the husband of 2012 congressional candidate, Lisa Wilson-Foley, and receive $35,000 intended to compensate him for advising her campaign. Wilson-Foley and Foley pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions. Wilson-Foley received a five-month prison term, while Foley was sentenced to three months in a halfway house.

Summary: कनेक्टिकट के पूर्व गवर्नर रोलैंड ने दोषसिद्धि की अपील की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress is likely to miss a Dec. 8 deadline for passing legislation funding a wide range of federal government programs through Sept. 30, 2018, kicking the contentious debate into next year, a senior U.S. House of Representatives aide said on Tuesday. With Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress still haggling over the overall level of spending for the fiscal year that began last Oct. 1, stop-gap appropriations will be needed to avert a partial government shutdown on Dec. 8 when existing funds expire, according to the aide who asked not to be identified. The temporary funding legislation could extend at least until late January. Failure to pass a longer-term appropriations bill before Congress breaks for Christmas sometime next month would be a setback in President Donald Trump’s drive to pump up military spending in the current fiscal year, which already is nearly two months old. Democrats are insisting that any Pentagon spending increase be coupled with more money for an array of non-defense programs, which also have been cut or frozen under Republican austerity measures. Without an agreement on the overall amount of spending, congressional appropriators are stymied in their ability to write a spending bill for the rest of fiscal 2018. Earlier on Tuesday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, cast some doubt on Congress’ ability to pass legislation funding the government through next September, telling reporters “there probably will be a continuing resolution,” meaning a stop-gap spending bill in December. Congress’ top four Republican and Democratic leaders were scheduled to meet Trump at the White House earlier on Tuesday to discuss government funding, tax legislation and other end-of-year measures. But the Senate and House of Representatives Democratic leaders, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, stayed away after Trump attacked them in a tweet as being weak on illegal immigration and driven to raise taxes. “I don’t see a deal!” Trump declared. Schumer and Pelosi instead said they would continue their direct talks with Republican counterparts in Congress.

Summary: कांग्रेस सरकार के वित्तपोषण की लड़ाई 2018 में बढ़ती हुई देखी गई


PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia s parliament voted to change party laws on Monday to re-distribute seats if a party is dissolved after the government filed a lawsuit earlier this month to dissolve the main opposition party, part of an escalating political crisis. Lawyers from the interior ministry filed a lawsuit on Oct. 6 to demand the dissolution of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), in a move that would help Prime Minister Hun Sen to extend his 32-year rule when the nation votes in an election next year. The latest move comes amid growing concern from the United Nations and rights groups over what they say is Cambodia s deteriorating human rights and political situation ahead of the key election. It follows an exodus by several opposition figures - nearly half of Cambodia s opposition parliamentarians fled abroad in September and early October - as Hun Sen moves to tighten his grip on power by silencing critics in the lead-up to the polls. The attempt to disband the CNRP comes after its leader, Kem Sokha, was charged with treason following his arrest on Sept.3.   The government said the CNRP had conspired with foreign advisors to topple the government, citing a 2013 video clip that shows Kem Sokha talking about a plan to take power with the help of Americans. Monday s parliamentary vote on the new amendments was supported by all 67 parliamentarians present from Hun Sen s ruling Cambodian People s Party (CPP), while the CNRP boycotted the morning session. Under the new laws,  if a political party abandons its seats, is delisted, is disbanded or dissolved, a list of candidates or members of parliament of that party are no longer valid and beneficial.   The laws require that National Election Committee re distribute seats to other parties participating in elections within seven days. Cheam Yeap, a lawmaker from the ruling CPP party, said the amendments were aimed at  guaranteeing long lasting political stability  in Cambodia.  Seeing the actions of betraying the nation and people by the CNRP leader Kem Sokha, with the obvious evidence, the signatory lawyers asked for the amendments on these four laws,  Cheam Yeap told the parliament on Monday. There was no debate on the amendments on Monday and the government has not provided new evidence against Kem Sokha, besides the 2013 video. Mu Sochua, deputy president of the opposition CNRP, who fled Cambodia earlier this month in fear of arrest, said that parliament s move was unconstitutional.  It s a total violation of the constitution and the will of the people. The highest national institution - the National Assembly will not be legitimate,  Mu Sochua, who has called for targeted sanctions against Cambodia, told Reuters by e-mail.   Authors and anyone adopting the proposed amendments will take part in putting an end to democracy in Cambodia.

Summary: कंबोडिया की संसद ने पार्टी कानून में बदलाव के लिए मतदान किया क्योंकि विपक्ष का भविष्य अधर में है


NEW YORK - Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday that he would be willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear program. He also called for a renegotiation of the Paris climate accord and said he would dismantle most of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations if he is elected president. Here are excerpts of the interview. On speaking to Kim Jong Un: “I would speak to him. I would have no problem speaking to him. At the same time, I would put a lot of pressure on China because economically we have tremendous power over China. People don’t realize that. They are extracting vast billions of dollars out of our country. Billions. And we have tremendous power over China. China can solve that problem with one meeting or one phone call.” On breaking up big banks:  “The big banks aren’t big banks compared to other big banks. In other words if you look at the big banks in Germany or if you look at the big banks in China, I have the biggest bank in the world right downstairs four or five floors below us. ... If we make our big banks too much not big, they won’t be able to compete with the banks from China and the banks from Germany and other big banks.” On repealing Dodd-Frank:  “I’m going to be making a statement about this in approximately two weeks having to do with Dodd-Frank. Much of it is very bad. Much of it gives so much power to the regulators that the bankers are unable to function.” “Dodd Frank has made it impossible for bankers to function. ... It makes it very hard for bankers to loan money for people to create jobs, for people with businesses to create jobs. And that has to stop. And will there be bad loans made? Yes, but there are bad loans made now with Dodd-Frank, OK, I mean all you have to do is take a look.” “The rules and regulations of Dodd Frank have made it so impossible to carry out business and to, especially with respect to lending to businesses who are going to employ a lot of people. So I’m going to make a statement about it. But Dodd-Frank – I mean there are some things in Dodd-Frank that can stay but overall Dodd-Frank has been very bad.” On tech stocks: “You have a stock market that is very strange. Could be a little bit similar to, would you say it’s nine years ago now? I guess it’s sort of nine years ago. But you know, you look at some of these tech stocks that are so, so weak as a concept and a company and they’re selling for so much money. And I would have said can that ever happen again? I think that could happen again.” “I’m talking about companies that have never made any money, that have a bad concept and that are valued at billions of dollars. So here we go again.” On auditing the Fed:  “I think number one, the Federal Reserve should be audited. You know, they’re not auditing it. And so far not too many people have been able to tell me why. I’m not one that says we should get rid of the Federal Reserve because I think the Federal Reserve has an important function, but it should certainly be audited and ... we should at least watch what they’re doing from the dollar standpoint.” On timing for audit-the-Fed legislation:  “It’s not my highest priority. I have other priorities like rebuild our military. ... It’s not my number one priority. But certainly it’s one of the things that we’ll be doing.” On replacing Fed Chair Janet Yellen:  “I’m not a person that thinks Janet Yellen is doing a bad job. I happen to be a low interest rate person, unless inflation rears its ugly head, which could happen at some point. It doesn’t seem like it’s happening any time soon. I don’t think I want to at this point - I mean, number one, she’s got time left.” “I would rather have a Republican in the position, but I am not the enemy of Janet Yellen. ... Look, if interest rates were raised and if the dollar went up more, we’d be doing no business. We’re being killed by other countries devaluing their currencies.” On the Paris accords: “Not a big fan. No. Not a big fan because other countries don’t adhere to it and China doesn’t adhere to it, and China’s spewing into the atmosphere.” “Take a look at China with certain agreements where they have to do it within 30 years, and we have to do it almost immediately. You understand what I mean by that? The agreements are not fair agreements, number one. And I would say that I will be looking at that very, very seriously, and at a minimum, I will be renegotiating those agreements. At a minimum. Ok? And at a maximum, I may do something else. But those agreements are one-sided agreements, and they’re bad for the United States.” On devaluation of the yuan: “China was in big trouble a year ago, now all of a sudden they cut their currency. They’re taking more business out of the United States. ... China, whenever they have a problem, they devalue their currency. And they take more money out of the United States. Jobs, money, product.” Trade: “We cannot allow China and other countries to rip the soul out of our country. And they will understand that.” South China Sea: “They’re building a massive fortress in the South China Sea. They’re not supposed to be doing that.”  On Russian presence in Ukraine: “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.” On Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Putin made very nice statements about me. Very strong, very nice statements. I think that’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing.  I think I’ll have a good relationship with Russia, and I may not. And the fact that he’s said good things about me doesn’t mean that, you know, it’s going to help him in a negotiation. It won’t help him at all. And I’ll know pretty soon in whether or not I’ll have a good relationship with Russia. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we actually did have a good relationship with foreign countries as opposed to the way they’re treating us now?” “Everyone knows. You know on Nov. 1, they’re going to announce new - the numbers are going to come out for Obamacare. They are going to be catastrophic.” “It’s beyond terrible healthcare. And Obamacare in ‘17 collapses. Don’t forget, Obama pushed everything to ‘17 because he’ll be out on the golf course. He’ll be playing a nice round of golf someplace. Obamacare is part of the bubble problem. Now, we’re going to terminate Obamacare, and we’re going to replace it with something much better and much less expensive.” “Well, the lines are very important. The lines meaning the state borders. These people are protected from competition. And you go to these states and they have - it’s almost like a monopoly in many of the states. You have to get rid of the lines. And they almost did it with Obamacare. It almost worked out. “ “I think that Medicaid should be sent to the states. Ok? Let them work it.” “It’s very important that we protect Social Security and our Medicare without cuts. And I’m the only Republican that says that.”   “I think he was inappropriate. I think he was totally inappropriate. He’s got plenty of problems, and I think he was inappropriate. So that’s fine... I’m sure I’ll have a good relationship with him.”

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया, वॉल स्ट्रीट विनियमन, तकनीकी शेयरों पर ट्रम्प


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Twitter s ban on adverts from Russian media was motivated by Washington s  deep prejudices  against Moscow and was setting a worrying precedent for the company to treat its clients unequally, the Kremlin said on Friday. Twitter Inc on Thursday accused Russian media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election and banned them from buying ads on its network, after criticism in the United States that the social network had not done enough to deter international meddling.  We regret this. We regret that, first and foremost, this company (Twitter) is most probably falling victim to deep prejudices about our mass media,  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters.  We also regret that the company is actually creating a precedent of unequal treatment of its clients which ... is likely to alarm and worry other users of this network.  In April, Reuters reported that RT and Sputnik were part of a plan by Russian President Vladimir Putin to swing the U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump and undermine voters  faith in the American electoral system, according to three current and four former U.S. officials. The Kremlin has strongly denied U.S. accusations of  meddling in the polls.  We still hope that in the end the company will deem it necessary to analyze this situation in detail and in the end will come to a conclusion that the work of free mass media, which RT and Sputnik are certainly part of, should in no way be qualified as meddling in the electoral process of the U.S.A. or any other country,  Peskov said. He also said that possible new U.S. sanctions against Russia were a cause for concern and a reflection of Washington s  unfriendly and even hostile attitude towards our country . The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it had belatedly begun informing Congress and others about groups associated with the Russian intelligence and defense sectors as required under a 2017 law tightening sanctions on Russia.

Summary: क्रेमलिन ने दो रूसी मीडिया आउटलेट्स के खिलाफ ट्विटर के 'पूर्वाग्रहपूर्ण' कदम पर निशाना साधा


MADRID (Reuters) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday called on Europe to stand up against separatism at a time when the Catalan independence push has deeply divided Spain. The standoff between Madrid and supporters of Catalan independence, triggered by a banned Oct. 1 referendum splitting with Spain, has stirred separatist feelings far beyond Spanish borders.  Nationalisms are a poison that prevent Europe from working together , said Juncker in a speech at a university Spanish city of Salamanca, where he received an award.  We cannot stay with our arms crossed because it is time for us to do what needs to be done. I say  no  to any form of separatism that weakens Europe and further widens the existing fissures.  Juncker s comments will further disappoint deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, who went into self-imposed exile in Belgium last week after Spain s central government responded to an independence declaration by firing his administration. Puigdemont had ambitions to garner support for his independence campaign in the heart of the European Union and has appealed for EU intervention, which so far has not been forthcoming. The secessionist drive has dragged Spain into its worst political crisis since the return of democracy four decades ago. The Catalan parliament s speaker and five lawmakers are appearing on Thursday before Spain s Supreme Court in Madrid to answer charges of rebellion and sedition for their roles in staging the referendum. The European Union is also currently facing a huge challenge to its unity in Britain s impending exit from the bloc. The Spanish dispute also bears some similarities with the battle for Scottish separation, which culminated in a 2014 referendum that narrowly rejected independence. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was with Juncker in Salamanca, thanked him for his support  in such difficult times.   Juncker has supported the Spanish government s actions, has expressed his respect for our constitution, our laws and our legal system,  he told students and professors at the event.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया संकट के बीच जंकर ने यूरोप से अलगाववादी 'जहर' को अस्वीकार करने का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s team has asked the White House to explore the possibility of getting his children top-secret security clearances, CBS News said on Monday, citing unnamed sources. Daughter Ivanka, sons Eric and Donald Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner were close advisers to Trump’s campaign and are part of his transition team announced on Friday. The CBS report did not specify for which Trump children top-secret clearance was being sought.

Summary: ट्रम्प की टीम ने अपने बच्चों के लिए शीर्ष-गुप्त मंजूरी मांगीः सीबीएस न्यूज


BOSTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Stocks are listing, bonds are drifting and suddenly gold is back in vogue. Global investors appear to be facing the prospect that next week’s U.S. presidential election may not play out as they have been expecting. Until last Friday, when the FBI said it had re-opened a probe of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, the prevailing view among the investment set had her coasting to victory. And most investors have said in surveys they were more comfortable with that outcome than a victory by Republican Donald Trump. Now, though, several polls depict an ever-tightening race as the clock counts down to Election Day on Tuesday, although the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton still with a 6-point lead. Investors generally see Clinton as a known quantity who would not make major changes that would upend financial markets, while Trump’s positions have been difficult to nail down. Yet against the tumultuous political backdrop, some of the biggest American stock funds remain either too sanguine, too confused or too focused on extending the bull market to guard against an Election Day result that could shock the world like the Brexit vote did in June. U.S. large-cap mutual funds, which oversee $4 trillion in assets, are heading into the showdown for the White House with only a thin layer of cash to absorb any potential shocks from the stock market.  Gerry Sullivan, who runs USA Mutuals’ $234 million Barrier Fund, said it would be hard to reposition his portfolio even if he knew the election results ahead of time.  “There is so much confusion,” Sullivan said. U.S. funds that invest in stocks with large market capitalizations are not showing any drastic moves toward precaution. Overall, they have only 3.1 percent of their assets dedicated to cash, according to the latest data from Morningstar Inc. These same funds held more cash, about 3.4 percent, before Barack Obama defeated John McCain in 2008. Multi-asset investors are more defensively positioned, especially those outside the United States, according to the latest Reuters asset allocation poll. Funds in Europe held 8.1 percent of their portfolios in cash in late October, while U.K.-based funds had some 9.6 percent of their holdings parked on the sidelines. “Investors are holding higher-than-normal levels of cash,” said Mark Haefele, global chief investment officer for UBS Wealth Management in London, who oversees around $2 trillion in assets. “That’s one way of hedging the uncertainty.” Nonetheless, Haefele said: “We’ve not seen significant de-risking around the election, but we have seen generally a consistent level of caution in the global client base.” With uncertainty about the outcome on the rise, a risk-off mood has enveloped markets around the world.  The S&P 500 index has declined for eight days in a row, its longest losing streak since the market crash in October 2008, while a benchmark for global stocks, the MSCI All-World Index, has dropped for seven of the last eight sessions. Both sit near four-month lows.  Safe-haven bonds, recently under pressure from expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates this year, have seen only a modest boost in the meantime, but gold has surged to a one-month high near $1,300 an ounce. “The trades you’re seeing in the market at the moment will go further in the event of a Trump victory,” said Mike Bell, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management in London. “You’d expect more downside to U.S. equities, the dollar and Treasury yields.” More than half of the stock and bond fund managers polled by Northern Trust in the third quarter said they expected the election to cause a large increase in market volatility. Prices for certain S&P 500 index options expiring in the days after the election indicate a market swing of between 2 and 4 percent, in either direction, by then. Still, portfolio managers sitting on a lot of cash, some with more than 20 percent of assets, say the stockpile is not a sign of worry about the outcome of the race.  “It’s due to the diminished risk-reward profile of investment opportunities in a mature profit cycle,” said Meggan Walsh, a portfolio manager at the $18 billion Invesco Diversified Dividend Fund. “We do not feel the election is an investable event.” Some value-oriented large-cap fund managers say the stock market is over-valued and they are on high alert for a market correction as the election coincides with a bull market nearing completion of its eighth year.  “It can be tempting to forget that nasty downturns happen with some regularity, and there is never a bell rung to announce their arrival,” portfolio managers Arik Ahitov and Dennis Bryant recently warned investors in the $800 million FPA Capital Fund.  After Britain surprised the world with a vote to leave the European Union, the S&P 500 Index tumbled nearly 4 percent on June 24. It soon recovered, however, and had regained record territory by mid-August. Even in Britain, the referendum’s unexpected outcome has yet to show it has long-lasting effects for investors outside of the currency market, where the British pound has sunk to a three-decade low against the dollar. London’s FTSE 100 index is up around 14-percent from its post-Brexit trough. The FPA Capital Fund managers had nearly 28 percent of the fund’s $800 million in assets in cash during the third quarter. They see the stock market as too expensive and are ready for a high level of panic, if that happens, according to their October letter to investors. “An elevated level of forced selling, combined with a lack of liquidity, might result in challenges for many fully invested products such as index funds, many ETFs, and funds that have no to very low levels of cash cushions,” the FPA Capital Fund portfolio managers said.  “In a down market, cash helps mitigate losses and affords one the opportunity to buy when others are being forced to sell, generally the best time to buy.”

Summary: चुनावी उथल-पुथल के बीच, कई बड़े फंड आक्रामक रहते हैं लेकिन नकदी का लालच


(Reuters) - U.S. civil rights activist DeRay McKesson, who was instrumental in the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement against police violence, is running for mayor of Baltimore. McKesson, who filed his paperwork minutes before Wednesday’s deadline, is among more than a dozen Democrats heading to an April primary.  The 30-year-old son of two now-recovered drug addicts, McKesson rose to prominence during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the police killing of unarmed black teen Michael Brown and has become one of the nation’s best-known civil rights leaders. His distinctive blue Patagonia vest has been seen everywhere from street demonstrations in his native Baltimore to a recent appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” “I am not the silver bullet for the challenges of our city -  no one individual is,” McKesson said on Wednesday in a post on the blog publishing platform Medium.  “Together, with the right ideas, the right passion, the right people, we can take this city in a new direction.” His rivals include former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and state Senator Catherine Pugh. The city has not elected a Republican mayor in more than 50 years. Current Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in September that she would not seek re-election when her term ends. A website set up to collect contributions for McKesson’s campaign had recorded 474 donations totaling $34,383 by midday Thursday. An alumnus of Maine’s Bowdoin College, McKesson worked in Baltimore and Minneapolis schools before moving into full-time activism.  One political observer said working-class Baltimore voters might hold his lack of political experience against him. “The profile he has now, he’s gotten from doing national work, not local work,” said Lester Spence, associate professor of political science and African studies at Johns Hopkins University. Last year, the mainly black city of 600,000 people was torn by its worst riots in a half-century following the death of Freddie Gray from injuries sustained while in police custody.    Coming amid a string of controversial police killings across the United States, Gray’s death proved a turning point when prosecutors brought charges against six officers within weeks. The first of those six trials, in which Officer William Porter faced charges including involuntary manslaughter, ended in a hung jury.  That threw State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s aggressive schedule into disarray, and a judge last month rejected prosecutors’ request to order Porter to testify against his fellow officers while he awaits retrial.

Summary: नागरिक अधिकार कार्यकर्ता डीरे मैककेसन बाल्टीमोर के महापौर के लिए दौड़ रहे हैं


HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong s public broadcaster RTHK dropped a 24-hour BBC World Service channel from its airwaves on Monday, replacing it with state radio from China in what critics say is a sign of encroaching Chinese control in the former British colony. Tensions between Hong Kong and Beijing s ruling Communist Party leaders have grown in recent years, particularly over the  Occupy  civil disobedience movement in 2014 when tens of thousands of protesters blocked roads for 79 days demanding full democracy. Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise of wide-ranging autonomy under a  one country, two systems  formula. An online petition, titled  RTHK: Give us back our BBC World Service , had been signed by nearly 1,000 people in a bid to keep the British broadcaster s round-the-clock programming, saying the switch would make Hong Kong  feel more parochial and inward-looking . However, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), the city s main public broadcaster, went ahead with scrapping the exclusive BBC channel at midnight on Sunday. Instead, China National Radio - a state-run outlet carrying no sensitive or critical reporting on China - would be broadcast on its own RTHK channel. The broadcasts are mostly in Mandarin, rather than the city s main Cantonese dialect. Amen Ng, a spokeswoman for RTHK, told Reuters earlier there were no political considerations in the decision and said the Chinese broadcaster would enhance cultural exchanges. She said there would still be BBC World Service broadcasts, although only overnight from 11 pm to 7 a.m. and occasionally on weekends. Other RTHK staff said the move had been forced through without broader consultation.    Nobody knew anything about it. We were told in a meeting just before it was announced,  said a senior RTHK editorial employee who declined to be identified because he wasn t authorized to speak to the media.   People see it as a negative thing. The BBC is generally regarded as independent, and (Chinese) state media is not,  he said. Some listeners said the move could hurt RTHK s trusted place in the public eye with its self-professed mission for editorial independence, not unlike the BBC after which it was modeled.       I m quite disappointed. It s a shame but I don t know what we can do, seriously,  said Dorothy Tang, an IT consultant. Others said the move was in line with a gradual  mainlandization  of Hong Kong that has seen Beijing s creeping influence in many sectors, including local government, law enforcement, politics, education, the judiciary, and the media. Gladys Chiu, the head of RTHK s program staff union, said there had been several recent incidents that had challenged RTHK s editorial independence, including staff being heckled by pro-Beijing voices on radio talk-shows and at public forums.    Sometimes the pressure is very direct,  Chiu said.

Summary: आलोचना के बावजूद हांगकांग ने 24 घंटे चलने वाले बीबीसी वर्ल्ड सर्विस रेडियो चैनल को रद्द किया


NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang is being considered to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Trump administration, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Yang is a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles where she represents corporate defendants in white-collar crime investigations and compliance matters. Previously, Yang served as the first female Asian-American U.S. attorney. She was appointed to the Central District of California by Republican President George W. Bush in 2002 and left in 2006 to join Gibson Dunn.     Yang is a longtime friend of Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and donated to his presidential campaign.  If tapped, she would become the second consecutive former federal prosecutor to lead the SEC.  Its current chair, Mary Jo White, previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Yang did not respond to a call or an email requesting comment, and it is not clear if she is the leading contender for the top SEC job. Other names that have been floating around include former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who is helping oversee the transition for financial regulation, and Ralph Ferrara, a former SEC general counsel who is also on the transition team. Unlike Atkins or Ferrara, Yang is not considered to be as deeply steeped in securities regulatory policy matters. Yang has represented a variety of corporate clients and also previously served as a Justice Department-appointed monitor for a medical device company.  Currently, she is representing Allergan Plc in a lawsuit filed last month against a company called Amazon Medica for trademark infringement, false advertising and unfair competition related to its selling Botox with foreign labels to U.S. doctors. She has also represented Uber Technologies Inc in a class action lawsuit to force the company to pay its drivers overtime and minimum wage. Yang was among the Gibson Dunn attorneys who were hired to conduct an outside investigation into the “Bridgegate” scandal. Their March 2014 report exonerated Christie, finding that he had no involvement in the decision to close lanes on the George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey and New York City.  Two of Christie’s former close associates, Bridget Kelly, his deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were convicted for their roles in the scandal last month.  During their trial, former Port Authority official David Wildstein, who previously pleaded guilty for his involvement, testified that he and Baroni had in fact discussed the lane closures with Christie.  Christie has not been charged with wrongdoing. Defense attorneys in the case and local media in New Jersey have raised questions about the independence of Gibson Dunn’s investigation, citing Yang’s personal friendship with Christie and efforts to raise money for his campaign.

Summary: Ex-U.S. एस. ई. सी. अध्यक्ष के लिए अटॉर्नी यांग पर विचार किया जा रहा हैः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee will not hold on Tuesday a closed briefing with the directors of the FBI and National Security Agency, a spokesman for the committee’s Republican chairman said on Monday. Representative Devin Nunes, the committee’s chairman, last week said he canceled a public hearing on the committee’s investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 election because it was necessary to hold the closed session with Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers. “Director Comey and Adm. Rogers could not come in tomorrow as we’d hoped, so the Committee will continue to try to schedule a time when they can meet with us in closed session,” Jack Langer, a spokesman for Nunes, said in a statement.

Summary: हाउस इंटेलिजेंस ने एफ. बी. आई., एन. एस. ए. के साथ बंद सत्र स्थगित किया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow is deeply concerned by the escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula caused by the continued war of words between the United States and North Korea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. “Moscow is convinced that there is no alternative to a political and diplomatic settlement of the North Korean problem,” he told a conference call with reporters.  He said the situation was being further aggravated by “the swapping of silly statements full of threats”. The Kremlin was reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement in which he vowed to destroy North Korea, leading the reclusive nation to declare that it might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.

Summary: कोरियाई प्रायद्वीप में बढ़ते तनाव से क्रेमलिन 'बहुत चिंतित' है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow on Wednesday that it was important not to allow a repeat of U.S. strikes in Syria. Lavrov said the strikes carried out by the United States on a Syrian airbase last week were unlawful. He added that he expected to hold frank and honest discussions with Tillerson on forming a broad anti-terrorism coalition.

Summary: रूस के लावरोव ने टिलरसन से कहा कि वे सीरिया में नए अमेरिकी हमलों की अनुमति न दें


AMMAN (Reuters) - Palestinian billionaire Sabih al-Masri, Jordan s most powerful businessman, returned to Amman on Tuesday after his release in Saudi Arabia secured when he agreed to pay an unspecified amount of money, sources close to the matter said.  Masri was detained for questioning last week over his alleged links with Saudi business partners among royals, ministers and officials who were rounded up last month in an unprecedented anti-corruption purge. Masri, chairman of Amman-based Arab Bank, Jordan s largest lender, was taken into custody just before he was planning to leave Saudi Arabia after chairing meetings of Saudi companies he owns, informed sources said.   He is at his home now in Amman,  said a family source. Masri later held meetings in the bank with senior officials. Arab Bank shares, which account for almost a quarter of the $24 billion market capitalization of the Amman exchange, ended  1.48 percent higher as investors reacted favorably to the news of his return. Masri has since taking the helm at Arab Bank in 2012 helped boost confidence in one of the Arab world s largest private financial institutions.  The bank, first established in Jerusalem in 1930 and one of the major Middle East financial institutions, has a balance sheet of more than $45 billion and has earned a reputation of resilience in the face of regional political turmoil. Masri, a Saudi citizen, said from his home in Riyadh on Sunday after his release that the Saudi authorities had accorded him  all respect . [L8N1OH05J] Saudi officials have not commented on his detention. Jordanian authorities privately said King Abdullah intervened to secure his release. A source familiar with the matter said Masri was freed after reaching a settlement to return an unspecified amount of money. There was no comment from the Masri family.  There is no way Masri has been freed without agreeing to some settlement. The Saudis are telling anyone who has made huge sums of money that they have to pay back some of that wealth,  the source said. Another source said Riyadh saw these settlements not as blackmail but an obligation to reimburse money taken illegally from the world s top oil producer over several decades. Saudi authorities have already succeeded in reaching financial settlements with dozens of royal family members, senior officials and wealthy businessmen in the crackdown spearheaded by powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Around 200 people in total have been questioned in the crackdown, authorities said last month. Saudi authorities estimate they could eventually recover around $100 billion of illicitly held funds. They have been working on reaching agreements with suspects detained at Riyadh s luxurious Ritz Carlton hotel, asking them to hand over assets and cash in return for their freedom. Masri s detention unnerved business circles in Jordan and the Palestinian Territories as well as many Arab magnates across the Middle East who have made fortunes in Saudi Arabia, according to several investors who asked not to be named. His multi-billion-dollar investments in hotels and banking in Jordan represent a cornerstone of the economy of the kingdom and he is by far the biggest investor in Palestinian areas. A member of a prominent merchant family from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Masri amassed a fortune by joining with influential Saudi royals in a catering business to supply troops during the U.S.-led military operation to retake Kuwait from Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Confidants said Masri had been warned not to travel to the Saudi capital after mass arrests of Saudi royals, ministers and businessmen in early November. Officials and businessmen had warned of the reverberations of the crisis on an aid-strapped Jordanian economy already plagued by high debts. Saudi Arabia is a major donor.

Summary: फिलिस्तीनी अरबपति मसरी सऊदी अरब में रिहा होने के बाद जॉर्डन लौट आएः पारिवारिक सूत्र


RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco s king dismissed several ministers and top officials on Tuesday for failing to improve the economic situation in a region shaken by protests, a statement said. Protests erupted in the Rif region around the northern city of Al-Hoceima last October, triggered by the death of a fishmonger whose produce was confiscated by police.  The man s crushing to death in a garbage truck during a confrontation with police became a symbol of corruption and official abuse. Protests, also fueled by economic underdevelopment, continued there this year. Morocco s King Mohammed dismissed the ministers of education, planning and housing and health, as well as other officials, after an economic agency found  imbalances  in implementing a development plan, state news agency MAP reported, citing a palace statement. Political protests are rare in Morocco, where the palace remains the ultimate power. The protests, the largest in Morocco since the days of the 2011  Arab Spring , were directed at the government and the king s entourage rather than the monarch himself. The king s move came as protest leader Nasser Zefzafi and 29 others accused of organizing demonstrations in the northern region went on trial in Casablanca. They face charges ranging from conspiring against the state to protesting without authorization. Zefzaki s lawyer told Reuters he could be sentenced to death in a worst-case scenario. The judge adjourned the session until Oct 31. Zefzaki s supporters protested in front of the court while some 70 lawyers attended the trial. The protest movement was born after Fikri s death. Police confiscated fish they said he had bought illegally and dumped it in a garbage truck. Desperate to recover his stock, Fikri jumped inside and was killed by a rubbish crusher. In July the king pardoned dozens of people arrested in the protests and blamed the failure of local officials to quickly implement development projects for stoking public anger.

Summary: मोरक्को के राजा ने अशांत आदिवासी क्षेत्र में धीमी प्रगति पर मंत्रियों को बर्खास्त किया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s ruling party United Russia wants the  ultimate victory  of President Vladimir Putin at the presidential election in March, party head and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday. Putin, 65, said earlier this month he would run for re-election as a self-nominated candidate, in a contest he seems sure to win comfortably, extending his grip on power into a third decade. Speaking at an annual gathering of United Russia, Medvedev said the party was Putin s party, and his key political resource. Medvedev promised it would support Putin in the election, which is scheduled for March 18.   We will give you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, all possible support, now and in the future,  said Medvedev, addressing  Putin by his first and patronymic names. Putin has been in power since 2000 either as president or prime minister.  If he wins what would be a fourth presidential term, he will be eligible to serve another six years until 2024, when he turns 72. Putin thanked Medvedev for the support and announced some goals for the future, such as higher economic growth and better healthcare.  We need to achieve a long-range steady increase in real incomes of citizens, to increase pensions and social support,  he said.

Summary: रूस की सत्तारूढ़ पार्टी 2018 के चुनाव में पुतिन की 'अंतिम जीत' चाहती है


LONDON (Reuters) - A public inquiry into a fire that killed at least 80 people at London s Grenfell Tower will get to the truth about the tragedy, its chairman pledged on Thursday, but critics said survivors of the blaze were still being failed. The 24-storey social housing block, home to a poor, multi-ethnic community, was gutted on June 14 in an inferno that started in a fourth-floor apartment in the middle of the night and quickly engulfed the building. Grenfell Tower was part of a deprived housing estate in Kensington and Chelsea, one of the richest boroughs in London, and the disaster has prompted a national debate about social inequality and government neglect of poor communities. The inquiry started with a minute s silence to honor the victims, whose exact number remains unknown because of the devastation inside the tower.  (The inquiry) can and will provide answers to the pressing questions of how a disaster of this kind could occur in 21st century London,  its chairman, retired judge Martin Moore-Bick, said in his opening statement. He said the inquiry was not there to punish anyone or to award compensation, but to get to the truth. A separate police investigation is underway, which could result in manslaughter charges. There have been no arrests. The inquiry will examine the cause and spread of the fire, the design, construction and refurbishment of the tower, whether fire regulations relating to high-rise buildings are adequate and whether they were complied with. It will also look at the actions of the authorities before and after the tragedy. But critics warned of a disconnect between the technical, legalistic inquiry process and the ongoing ordeal of traumatized former Grenfell Tower residents still awaiting new homes. Prime Minister Theresa May pledged that all families whose homes were destroyed in the fire would be rehoused within three weeks, but three months later most still live in hotels. Just three out of 197 households that needed rehousing have moved into permanent homes, while 29 have moved into temporary accommodation.  We lost everything. It s difficult for the other people to be in our shoes,  Miguel Alves, who escaped his 13th-floor apartment in Grenfell Tower with his family, told the BBC.  Now I m without anything, I m in the hotel, I have to cope with my family. My daughter, she just started school. They need some stability and that I cannot give to my family,  he said. Emma Dent Coad, a member of parliament from the opposition Labour Party who represents the area, said the inquiry s remit was too narrow and would fail to address the blaze s deeper causes such as failings in social housing policies. She also criticized the choice of venue for Moore-Bick s opening statement, a lavishly decorated room in central London.  We were sitting in a ballroom dripping with chandeliers. I think it was the most incredibly inappropriate place to have something like that, and actually says it all about the us-and-them divide that people see,  she told the BBC. Many of those affected have also expressed disquiet about the fact that Moore-Bick and the other lawyers appointed to run the inquiry are all white and part of a perceived  establishment  far removed from their own circumstances.  The experience of many residents of that tower is that they were ignored because of their immigration status,  lawyer Jolyon Maugham, who is advising some residents, told the BBC.  We need someone on the inquiry team that can speak to that experience and at the moment on the panel we have a bunch of white privileged barristers,  he said. One of the difficulties facing the inquiry is that it needs former residents to give evidence but some fear possible deportation. The government has said it would grant a 12-month amnesty to anyone affected by the fire who was in Britain illegally. Supporters say only permanent residency rights will persuade people to come forward.

Summary: लंदन में आग लगने से बचे लोगों के गुस्से और निराशा के बीच जांच शुरू


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin used a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday to give his views on why U.S.-Russian relations had reached such a low point, a Kremlin spokesman said. The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told a conference call with reporters on Thursday that the tone of the meeting had been “fairly constructive.” He said the Russian hope was that Putin’s message would be passed on to U.S. President Donald Trump. He said general agreement was reached at the meeting of the need to keep open lines of communication between Moscow and Washington. Peskov also said Putin had given Tillerson his views on the situation in Syria, and how it was likely to develop.

Summary: पुतिन ने टिलरसन को बताया कि क्यों आई. डी. 1..........................................................................................................................................................................................


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump signed the annual defense policy bill on Tuesday and urged Congress to fully fund the measure and lift the budget caps that have forced limits on U.S. defense spending for several years. Trump signed the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act at a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House surrounded by high-ranking defense officials. The NDAA sets policy for the U.S. military but does not provide funding, which is approved with other legislation.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने रक्षा नीति विधेयक पर हस्ताक्षर किए, अमेरिकी कांग्रेस से इसे निधि देने का आग्रह किया


AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday blocked sections of a Texas law intended to punish so-called “sanctuary cities”, regarded as soft on immigration, in a ruling handed down two days before the law was due to come into effect. Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio’s federal court found the Texas legislation was unlikely to withstand constitutional scrutiny. The judge’s ruling temporarily blocks part of the law that would require local law enforcement agencies in Texas to fulfill requests by U.S. immigration agents to hold immigrants in their jails until they can be picked up for deportation.  It also strikes down a provision that would have prevented local officials from adopting policies that might limit immigration enforcement in the state.  “The court cannot and does not second-guess the legislature, Garcia wrote in a 94-page decision. “However, the state may not exercise its authority in a manner that violates the United States Constitution.” The decision in Texas could have ramifications nationwide as other Republican-controlled states are looking at legislation targeting sanctuary cities, which they say illegally shield immigrants. The Texas law, which takes aim at any jurisdiction that refuses to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, is considered one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration efforts in the country.  The ruling will make Texas communities less safe, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in a statement.  “This decision will be appealed immediately and I am confident Texas’ law will be found constitutional and ultimately be upheld,” he added. It was the first law of its kind passed since President Donald Trump took office in January, pledging to crack down on illegal immigration. The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the Texas measure in a lawsuit on behalf of some local jurisdictions in the state. “The court was right to strike down virtually all of this patently unconstitutional law,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s immigrant rights project, said in a statement.  The impending law added to the anxiety felt by some illegal immigrants forced to evacuate their flooded homes in Houston after Hurricane Harvey struck southeast Texas. Nevertheless, federal agents are not enforcing immigration law at evacuation sites, shelters or food banks where people affected by flooding are seeking aid, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement on Wednesday. Some police chiefs have said forcing local police to work with U.S. immigration agents undermines community trust, making immigrants less likely to report crimes. “This week’s crisis with Hurricane Harvey is just the most recent example why people need to feel safe approaching our local police and support groups, no matter what,” Steve Adler, mayor of Texas’ state capital Austin, said in a statement.

Summary: न्यायाधीश ने 'अभयारण्य शहरों' को दंडित करने वाले टेक्सास कानून के प्रावधानों को अवरुद्ध कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama believes in the right of Americans to protest the election of Donald Trump in a non-violent manner, but wants people to hear the message that “we’re Americans and patriots” before Democrats and Republicans, the White House said on Thursday. “It’s important for us to remember, a day or two after the election, that we’re Democrats and Republicans, but we’re Americans and patriots first,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. “And that’s the message the president hopes that most people will hear.”

Summary: ओबामा ने प्रदर्शनकारियों से कहाः हम सभी अमेरिकी हैं-व्हाइट हाउस