WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia on Friday discussed ways to support Iraqis in their fight against Islamic State militants and the importance of a political transition in war-torn Syria, the White House said. Obama met with Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval office for about an hour. The deputy crown prince is visiting the United States to repair frayed relations and to promote a plan, known as Vision 2030, to slash the kingdom’s dependence on oil exports. “The President expressed appreciation for Saudi Arabia’s contributions to the campaign against ISIL,” the White House said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.  The two talked about steps to support Iraqis “including increased Gulf support to fund urgent humanitarian and stabilization needs,” the White House said.  U.S. officials have expressed unease about the Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, which according to the United Nations and human rights groups has resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties. Saudi Arabia is worried about closer relations between the United States and Iran, Riyadh’s arch enemy, after a 2015 nuclear deal.   Obama welcomed Saudi Arabia’s commitment to a political settlement of the Yemen conflict and support by the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which the kingdom is a member, to address humanitarian needs and rebuild the country, the White House said.  On Syria, Obama and the prince talked about the importance of supporting a political transition away from President Bashar al-Assad, the White House said. The United States is working with international partners on what it calls a Syrian-led transition process facilitated by the United Nations, but so far there has been little progress.  Over 50 diplomats at the U.S. State Department signed a memo, leaked on Thursday, that was critical of the Obama administration’s Syria policy and called for targeted military strikes against Assad’s government.  Asked about the memo, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, also in Washington, told reporters the kingdom had been arguing for a “more robust intervention” including airstrikes, a no-fly zone, and a no-drive zone, from the beginning of the five-year civil war.  Obama does not see a military solution to the crisis in Syria, White House spokeswoman Jen Friedman said.  Both Washington and Riyadh are anticipating the release of classified pages of a U.S. report into the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, that some U.S. lawmakers have alleged link Saudi government officials to the attacks. Jubeir said investigations show that the allegations “are not correct and they don’t hold.”

Summary: ओबामा, सऊदी राजकुमार ने वाशिंगटन बैठक में इराक और सीरिया पर ध्यान केंद्रित किया


(Reuters) - Low gas prices and President Barack Obama’s high approval ratings are key factors that favor Democrat Hillary Clinton winning the White House in next week’s election, according to a model from Moody’s Analytics that has accurately predicted the last nine U.S. presidential contests. Clinton is forecast to pick up 332 Electoral College votes against 206 for Republican Donald Trump, Moody’s Analytics predicted on Tuesday in the final update of its model before Election Day on Nov. 8. That would match Obama’s margin of victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in 2012. The Reuters-Ipsos States of the Nation project also predicts a Clinton win, with a 95 percent probability of her winning at least 278 electoral votes. A candidate needs to win at least 270 electoral votes to be elected president. The Moody’s Analytics model is based on a combination of state-level economic conditions and political history, and has correctly called the outcome of each presidential election since Republican Ronald Reagan unseated Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980. Rather than focus on the individual candidates in a race, the model instead centers on whether current economic and political conditions favor the incumbent party in the White House. This year those factors point to Clinton becoming the 45th U.S. president. The economic factors Moody’s measures include the two-year percentage changes in real personal income per household, as well as house and gasoline prices.  Among the political factors weighed, Moody’s said the most important is the share of the vote in any one state that went to the incumbent party in the previous election. It also takes into account voter fatigue and the incumbent president’s approval ratings. This year, with Obama enjoying some of his highest job approval ratings since his first year in office in 2009 and gasoline prices holding steady at well-below-average levels, the model suggests the Democrats will win their third straight presidential election, Moody’s said. That would mark the first time since the 1988 election of Republican George H.W. Bush that one party has won three consecutive presidential contests. Moody’s warns, however, that its model does not take into account any individual characteristics of specific candidates. “Given the unusual nature of the 2016 election cycle to date, it is very possible that voters will react to changing economic and political conditions differently than they have in past election cycles, placing some risk in the model outcome, particularly state-by-state projections,” Moody’s analytics economist Dan White wrote in the report.

Summary: मूडीज एनालिटिक्स के चुनाव मॉडल ने क्लिंटन की जीत की भविष्यवाणी की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a press conference at the White House on Friday at 2:15 p.m. ET (1915 GMT) before leaving for his annual family vacation in Hawaii, the White House said on Thursday.

Summary: ओबामा शुक्रवार को व्हाइट हाउस में संवाददाता सम्मेलन करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama’s administration has decided to include a massive report on the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” in his presidential papers, meaning it may eventually be declassified. The White House wrote to Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the Republican chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Dec. 9 informing them of its decision. Feinstein, who released the letter on Monday, said Obama had refused to declassify the report at this time but she was pleased it would go into his archive, meaning it would one day be available for declassification. “The report represents six years of hard work by dedicated staff, and I firmly believe its 6,700 pages and 38,000 footnotes will stand the test of time. I also strongly believe that this must be a lesson learned — that torture doesn’t work,” Feinstein said in a statement.  A White House spokesman confirmed the decision. Burr’s office had no immediate comment. Feinstein and other congressional Democrats had urged Obama to declassify and release the report before Republican President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20. Feinstein chaired the intelligence panel as it researched and wrote the report on the interrogation techniques used in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and she spearheaded the effort to expose the CIA’s actions. The committee, then led by Democrats, released a 525-page executive summary of its findings in December 2014. But the full report has been deemed by Obama and others as too sensitive to release. Trump promised during his campaign that he would not only revive waterboarding, but bring back “a hell of a lot worse” if elected. However, he said more recently that retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, his nominee for secretary of defense, had persuasively argued against it. Obama ended the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” via executive order just after he took office in January 2009. Led by Republican Senator John McCain and Feinstein, Congress has since passed legislation outlawing their use.

Summary: सीनेट की सी. आई. ए. यातना रिपोर्ट ओबामा संग्रह में जाएगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan has “full confidence” in the investigation of possible Russian influence on the 2016 U.S. election campaign being led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Ryan spokeswoman said on Monday. “Speaker Ryan has full confidence that Chairman Nunes is conducting a thorough, fair and credible investigation,” Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in an emailed statement.

Summary: रयान को हाउस इंटेलिजेंस चुनाव जांच में 'पूरा भरोसा' है


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Former Australian Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen, who worked on the Northern Ireland peace talks and served on the International Court of Justice, died on Sunday. He was 94. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced plans for a state funeral, saying there were very few honors that Stephen, who held five separate knighthoods, didn t have to his name.  Australia will remember Sir Ninian for his humility, his intellect, and his lifelong commitment to justice and the rule of law,  Turnbull said. Stephen served as governor-general from 1982 to 1989 when he became the first Australian Ambassador for the Environment, working hard to ban mining in Antarctica. He was born in Britain and moved to Australia in his late teens where he studied law before serving as an infantryman during World War Two, serving in New Guinea and Borneo. Both the British and Irish governments chose Stephen to chair the second phase of the Northern Ireland peace talks in 1992. He was also a judge for the International Criminal Tribunal investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. In his later years, he advised on South Africa s constitution, worked for the International Labour Organisation in Burma and was involved in setting up a tribunal to hear cases involving atrocities committed by the genocidal Khmer Rouge  killing fields  regime of 1975-79. He also helped draft a constitution for Afghanistan after the 2001 ouster of the Taliban.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया के पूर्व गवर्नर-जनरल और शांति निर्माता निनियन स्टीफन का 94 वर्ष की आयु में निधन हो गया।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Elliott Abrams, who served in foreign policy roles for presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, is President Donald Trump’s leading candidate to be deputy secretary of state, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. Abrams is to meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Abrams, 69, last served in government in the Bush White House, first as a Middle East expert on the National Security Council and later as a global democracy strategy adviser. Another candidate for the position was former diplomat Paula Dobriansky, the source said, while adding that it appeared Abrams had the inside track.

Summary: इलियट अब्राम्स उप विदेश मंत्री के लिए ट्रम्प के प्रमुख उम्मीदवार हैंः सूत्र


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is more likely to strike an exit deal with the European Union than it is to crash out of the bloc without any agreement, British trade minister Liam Fox said on Wednesday.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट समझौते की संभावना 'कोई सौदा नहीं' से अधिकः ब्रिटेन के व्यापार मंत्री


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has charged a former Senegalese foreign minister and a former top Hong Kong government official with links to a Chinese energy conglomerate with bribing high-level officials in Chad and Uganda in exchange for contracts for the mainland company. Chi Ping Patrick Ho, 68, of Hong Kong, and Cheikh Gadio, 61, were charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international money laundering and conspiracy, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement on Monday.  It said Gadio, a former foreign minister of Senegal, was arrested in New York on Friday. It added that Ho, a former Hong Kong home affairs secretary who heads a non-governmental organization based in Hong Kong and Virginia, was arrested on Saturday. “Wiring almost a million dollars through New York’s banking system in furtherance of their corrupt schemes, the defendants allegedly sought to generate business through bribes paid to the president of Chad and the Ugandan foreign minister,” Joon Kim, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was quoted as saying in the statement. No one could be reached at the embassies of Chad and Uganda in Washington late on Monday. The missions did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment. In a statement, the U.S. Justice Department said the case against Ho involved two bribery schemes to pay high-level officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages for a Shanghai-headquartered, multibillion-dollar energy firm. This energy company funded a non-government organization (NGO) based in Hong Kong and Virginia that Ho heads, the statement said, without naming the Shanghai company or the NGO.  Ho is the secretary general of the Hong Kong-based China Energy Fund Committee, a mainland-backed think-tank that describes itself as a charitable, non-government organization.  China Energy Fund Committee is fully funded by CEFC China Energy, a Shanghai-based private conglomerate, according to the think tank’s website. The organization did not respond to an email requesting comment. CEFC China Energy said in a statement posted on its website late on Tuesday that: “As a non-governmental, non-profit organization, the fund is not involved in the commercial activities of CEFC China Energy.” CEFC does not have any investment in Uganda, the company said in the statement, and its investment in Chad had been acquired via a stake bought from Taiwan’s state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp and it had not dealt directly with the Chad government. “The company will continue monitoring this matter and will take necessary measures based on developments,” it said. CEFC has been a key player in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative, which aims to bolster China’s global leadership ambitions by building infrastructure and trade links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing Tuesday that he was not aware of the specific details of the case. “I want to emphasize that the Chinese government consistently requires Chinese companies abroad to operate lawfully and abide by local laws and regulations.”  Idriss Deby has been Chad’s president since 1990. Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa served as the president of the U.N. General Assembly in 2014 and 2015. Ho’s attorney, Ed Kim, of Krieger Kim & Lewin LLP, declined to comment to Reuters. Bob Baum of Federal Defenders, who represented Gadio for the bail argument, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ho was ordered detained after appearing in court on Monday, the Justice Department statement said. It said Gadio appeared before a judge on Saturday and is being held until he can meet the conditions of a $1 million bond, according to court records. The Justice Department said a $2 million bribe was paid to Chad’s president, who then provided the company with an opportunity to obtain oil rights in Chad without international competition. The department said in the statement that Gadio was the go-between and was paid $400,000 by Ho via wire transfers through New York. The Justice Department accused Ho of being involved with bribes and promises of future benefits to Uganda’s foreign minister in exchange for help in obtaining business advantages for the Chinese company.

Summary: अमेरिका ने चीन की ऊर्जा कंपनी के लिए अफ्रीकी अधिकारियों को रिश्वत देने के लिए दो लोगों पर आरोप लगाया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump clashed on Wednesday with a union official who accused the president-elect of lying about the number of jobs saved in a deal to keep air conditioner maker Carrier from moving some jobs from Indiana to Mexico. Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents workers at United Technologies Corp’s Carrier plant in Indianapolis, in an interview on CNN criticized Trump for at least the second time in two days over the deal.  Trump, in a Twitter post on Wednesday, offered a sharp reply: “Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers Local 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!”  On Tuesday, Jones told The Washington Post that when Trump spoke at the Carrier factory last week, “He got up there and, for whatever reason, lied his ass off.” Indiana state officials have agreed to give Carrier $7 million in tax breaks to encourage it to keep about 1,100 jobs in the state, although about 300 of the jobs are in the company’s headquarters and were not scheduled to go to Mexico. Only 800 of the positions are union factory jobs, and Carrier still plans to send an estimated 1,300 jobs to Mexico. Some employees are disappointed, Jones said on CNN on Wednesday. “We had a lot of our members, when the word was coming out of 1,100, they thought that they would have a job,” he said. In more remarks on CNN later on Wednesday, Jones responded to Trump’s Twitter post. “That’s pretty low-down, low life,” he said. “He doesn’t like to be challenged, and I challenged him.” Trump, who made tough talk on trade a centerpiece of his election campaign, had vowed to impose hefty tariffs if Carrier did not reverse course on shifting jobs to Mexico.  Trump posted another tweet after Jones’ later remarks on CNN. “If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana,” Trump wrote.

Summary: ट्रंप ने कहा कि उन पर झूठ बोलने का आरोप लगाने वाले संघ प्रमुख ने 'भयानक काम' किया है


MANILA (Reuters) - Leaders from across Asia joined U.S. President Donald Trump at an extravagant gala dinner in the Philippines’ capital on Sunday, a show of amity in a region fraught with tensions that have lurked behind his marathon tour of the continent. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte set the tone of cordiality ahead of the two days of summit meetings he will host, suggesting that despite their differences over claims to the South China Sea, the leaders should not discuss the issue. “We have to be friends, the other hotheads would like us to confront China and the rest of the world on so many issues,” Duterte said at a business conference, as planes carrying heads of state and government attending the summit landed in quick succession in Manila.  “The South China Sea is better left untouched, nobody can afford to go to war. It can ill-afford a violent confrontation.” Hours earlier, during a bilateral visit to Vietnam, Trump offered to mediate in the dispute over the South China Sea, where four Southeast Asian countries and Taiwan contest China’s sweeping claims to the busy waterway. All the claimants will be at the summit, except for Taiwan. Trump will join leaders of Southeast and East Asian nations in Manila over the next two days, the last leg of a tour that has taken him to Japan, South Korea and China as well as Vietnam. The sheer length of the trip - the longest to Asia by a U.S. president in more than a quarter century - may reassure some that, despite Trump’s “America First” policy, Washington remains committed to a region China sees as its strategic domain. Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Russia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand arrived one by one for a glitzy gala dinner where they were entertained by singers and dancers. Each of the men sported a cream-colored barong, a traditional Philippines shirt made of fiber from the pineapple plant, embroidered and worn untucked. They were served a four-course Filipino-Asian fusion meal curate and prepared by Chef Jessie Sincioco, who also designed the menu for Pope Francis when he visited the Philippines in 2015. Police used water canon to prevent hundreds of protesters reaching the U.S. embassy in Manila ahead of Trump’s arrival. Carrying placards declaring “Dump Trump” and “Down with U.S. Imperialism”, the left-wing protesters were blocked by police in riot gear with shields and batons, and then showered with jets of water from a fire engine. The United States and its former colony, the Philippines,  have been strategic allies since World War Two.  Trump is expected to try during the summit to shore up relations, which have been strained by the mercurial Duterte’s notorious anti-U.S. sentiment and his enthusiasm for better ties with Russia and China. Duterte - sometimes described as the ‘Trump of the East’ because of his brash style - said last week he would tell the U.S. president to “lay off” if he raised the issue of human rights when they met. More than 3,900 Filipinos have been killed in what the police call self-defense in a war on drugs declared by Duterte. Critics say executions are taking place with no accountability, allegations the police reject. But Trump, who has been criticized at home for neglecting rights issues in dealings abroad, praised Duterte in May for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem”. “INDO-PACIFIC” Trump’s tour comes against a background of tensions on the Korean peninsula following exchanges of war-like threats and insults between North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and Trump over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development program. China has been urged by both South Korea and the United States to take a more active role in curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile ambitions. During his tour, Trump and his team have repeatedly used the term “Indo-Pacific” instead of “Asia-Pacific” for the region, which some see as an effort to depict it as more than China-dominated. Pacific Rim nation leaders agreed in Vietnam on Saturday to address “unfair trade practices” and “market distorting subsidies”, a statement that bore the imprint of Trump’s efforts to reshape the global trade landscape. The summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries in Vietnam put on show the contrasting vision of the “America First” policy with the traditional consensus favoring multinational deals that China now seeks to champion. Manila hosted the APEC summit two years ago, and at that meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won a Twitter poll with the hashtag #APEChottie that asked people to vote for the most attractive leader there. Journalists swarmed the youthful leader and screamed in excitement. On his latest visit, Trudeau visited an outlet of Jollibee, a chain that has become a byword for Filipino fast food, chatting and posing for selfies, charming the people of Manila again. (This story has been refiled to correct word “untucked” in 10th paragraph.)

Summary: ट्रम्प के दौरे के समापन के साथ गाला ग्लिट्ज़ ने एशिया के तनाव को ढक दिया


(Reuters) - Donald Trump was scheduled to hold additional meetings on Friday and Monday as he forms his administration before taking over from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20.  The Republican president-elect has held more than 85 meetings so far, according to his transition team. Trump was to meet with the following people in coming days, according to his team: * U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican * U.S. Senator from West Virginia, a Democrat * Meeting originally scheduled for Dec. 9 Technology industry leaders invited for a meeting with Trump, according to media reports citing transition officials.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प अमेरिकी सदन के अध्यक्ष रयान, अमेरिकी सीनेटर मैनचिन से मिलेंगे


BERLIN (Reuters) - Frauke Petry, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, said on Tuesday she was leaving the party in a major blow to its credibility just two days after it surged to third place in a national election. The anti-immigrant AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote in Germany’s election on Sunday, becoming the third-largest group in parliament and the first from the far-right to win seats in the Bundestag since the 1950s.  Petry, the highest-profile figure in the AfD’s more moderate wing, had shocked other senior members by saying on Monday she would not sit with the AfD in the Bundestag (lower house) but rather as an independent member of parliament. Her husband, another senior AfD figure, is also leaving the party.  “We tried to change course but you have to realize when you reach a point when that is no longer possible,” Petry, a 42-year-old chemist, told reporters in the eastern city of Dresden. “I have five children for whom I am responsible and ultimately you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror.” Petry has clashed with other senior members, arguing for the party to take a more moderate course to make it possible for it to join a coalition government. Her husband, Marcus Pretzell - head of the AfD in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and also an MP in the European Parliament - is quitting the party and will become an independent MP, a spokesman for the AfD in NRW said. The spokesman said Pretzell and another AfD lawmaker in NRW’s regional assembly who is also leaving the party had made the decision for reasons of “personal integrity”. On Monday, four of the 17 AfD lawmakers in the assembly of the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern announced they were bolting because the party had become more radical. Europe’s far-right parties have a history of infighting among their various factions. Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, last week lost her deputy over policy differences.  Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, the AfD’s top candidates during the election campaign, were elected as chairs of the party’s parliamentary group on Tuesday. Gauland is a supporter of Bjoern Hoecke, a senior AfD member who has courted controversy by denying that Adolf Hitler was “absolutely evil” and calling Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial a “monument of shame”. Weidel was originally an opponent of Hoecke but has not been so critical of him lately. Weidel said she did not expect other lawmakers to quit the party but added: “We’ll have to see. The step surprised us all, but there are not yet any trends recognizable in the future parliamentary group.” Senior AfD member Dirk Driesang, who in July founded a moderate group within the AfD called the “Alternative Centre”, with which Petry was said to sympathize, told news magazine Der Spiegel that the group could not understand Petry’s decision and would not be following in her footsteps. He said the group would continue to fight for the AfD to take a moderate course and added that “a spin-off from the AfD is a stillbirth”. Driesang pointed to the example of Bernd Lucke, who founded the AfD then left in 2015 due to what he saw as rising xenophobia and then formed a new, unsuccessful party. Petry was the most recognizable face in the AfD during its swift rise over the past two years. But she said on Monday she could not stand with an “anarchistic party” that lacked a credible plan to govern. For months, Petry has urged the AfD to soften its stance and prepare to join coalition governments, while others wanted the party to stick to opposition. Mainstream parties refuse to work with the AfD. She had also distanced herself from some of the AfD’s more radical senior members, saying their comments were putting voters off. Gauland caused a scandal during the election campaign by saying Germans should be proud of their World War Two soldiers. He also said the integration minister should be “disposed of” in Turkey, where her parents come from. As the AfD convened in Berlin on Tuesday for its first parliamentary group meeting, Gauland said discussions in the Bundestag would not echo those of the party’s campaign. “It’s clear that the talks during the campaign are different to those held in parliament,” he said.

Summary: जर्मनी के धुर दक्षिणपंथी ए. एफ. डी. के सह-नेता को बड़ा झटका, छोड़ेंगे पद


DUBAI (Reuters) - Seven suspected al Qaeda militants were killed by a drone strike in central Yemen on Wednesday, residents and local officials said.  The strikes hit two cars carrying armed individuals in al-Bayda province, the sources said.  U.S. forces have repeatedly launched drone and air strikes against Yemen s al Qaeda branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The group has taken advantage of a more than two-year-old civil war between the Iran-aligned Houthi group and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi s Saudi-backed government to strengthen its position in the impoverished country. AQAP operates in several provinces in southern and eastern Yemen, including in Abyan, Shabwa and al-Bayda.

Summary: यमन में ड्रोन हमले में अल कायदा के सात संदिग्ध सदस्य मारे गएः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House Intelligence Committee has not issued a subpoena to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as part of its probe into possible Russian election meddling and ties to the Trump campaign, people familiar with the investigation told Reuters on Tuesday. The Associated Press, citing an unidentified congressional aide, reported earlier on Tuesday that a subpoena had been issued. Cohen told ABC News he had been asked to provide information and testimony to investigators in the House and Senate, but had declined the request because it was “poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered.”

Summary: हाउस पैनल ने ट्रम्प के वकील माइकल कोहेन को सम्मन नहीं भेजा हैः सूत्र


KOGUTA/KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) - The body of a man was found in a sugarcane field in western Kenya on Sunday, a day after high-level officials visited the area aiming to calm ethnic tensions inflamed by this week s presidential election.  The Luo community largely boycotted Thursday s election, which was supposed to pit opposition leader Raila Odinga, a Luo, against President Uhuru Kenyatta, a Kikuyu with a Kalenjin deputy president. The Supreme Court ordered a repeat of the vote after it nullified Kenyatta s win in an August election on procedural grounds. The motive for the killing of 64-year-old George Odumbe and the identity of its perpetrators were unclear. It came a day after villagers from the Luo and Kalenjin communities armed themselves against each other.  The body of Odumbe, a Luo laborer at a sugar company, was found with three arrows in the back and severe head wounds, a Reuters witness in the village of Koguta said. It was found in a field between Koguta and the nearby Kalenjin village of Mau. Locals warned the death of the Luo man could spark tit-for-tat violence.  There s a desire for revenge by the Luo community, I m trying to tell them to stay calm, but they are so bitter and angry,  Gordon Onyango, 32, a Luo, said.  The two sides are both having meetings now and they are both armed.   Reuters was unable to speak with the Kalenjin community in Mau, but saw a group of young men from the village gathered under a tree. Most were armed with bows and arrows. Odinga withdrew from the rerun election, saying it would not be fair. In his strongholds in the west, an area that has long felt excluded from political and economic power, protesters prevented polling stations from opening in four counties.  Across Kenya, 10 percent of polling stations were unable to open, although there were no problems in Kenyatta s areas. Turnout dropped to 43 percent from 80 percent in August, the election commission said. In some parts of the country, such as Koguta in Kisumu county, protests damaged relations with other communities who wanted to vote for Kenyatta.  That anger risks igniting ethnic violence, which killed around 1,200 people after a disputed 2007 presidential vote, but which has been largely absent from this election. At least 51 people have been killed in political violence since August, but most deaths have occurred in clashes between protesters and police. Police, although stationed only 400 meters from where the body was discovered, declined to visit the scene for several hours until reinforcements arrived.  Police did not answer calls from Reuters. But Julius Genga, a county legislator, said by phone while he was driving to the scene:  We want the police to be deployed to try to restore calm because after the death of this man, tension is boiling up and we don t want it to escalate it to unmanageable levels.  Kericho county governor Paul Chepkwony told Reuters that he hoped the death would be  an isolated one . Not all recent attacks were ethnically based. On Friday police shot dead a man who was part of a group that stormed the home of former lawmaker James Rege, who had defected to the ruling party from Odinga s movement three years into his term, Homa Bay police commander Marius Tum told Reuters on Sunday.  Both Rege and his attackers were Luo, Tum said, and police were investigating whether other lawmakers had organised the attack.

Summary: केन्या के गाँव में चुनाव को लेकर तीर से एक व्यक्ति की हत्या


SHAH PORIR DWIP, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Bangladeshi authorities have destroyed about 20 boats that ferried Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar, accusing smugglers of using the huge exodus to bring methamphetamine into the country. Refugees told Reuters that border guards also beat and arrested passengers and crew as they landed at Shah Porir Dwip, on the southern tip of Bangladesh on Tuesday night, before the vessels were smashed to pieces by locals. The local commander of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), Lieutenant Colonel Ariful Islam, denied there were beatings, and said the action was a crackdown on human trafficking and the smuggling of methamphetamine, a drug known locally as  ya ba .  The boats are trying to carry passengers they are not supposed to,  he told Reuters. He accused the organizers of the boat journeys of exploiting destitute Rohingyas by charging them for the short trip to Bangladesh. Some passengers told Reuters they had paid 10,000 Bangladeshi taka ($123) each for the trip, although others said they traveled free. More than half a million Rohingya Muslims have arrived in Bangladesh from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since its armed forces responded to attacks by militants on Aug. 25 with a counteroffensive described by United Nations officials as  ethnic cleansing . While four passengers told Reuters they saw no drugs on board, Lieutenant Colonel Islam said border guards had found a large quantity of the drugs in the water on Tuesday night.  Maybe the carrier had dropped it before disembarking,  he said. At a teeming processing center in nearby Teknaf, Ibrahim Holil, from the village of Maungdaw Moknibara in Myanmar s Rakhine State, described on Wednesday how he said he was hit with a stick by a border guard as he helped his relatives disembark from their boat.  There is nothing in this boat. Only our belongings,  he said. Farous Ahmad, 65, said his two sons  - Sura Ahammed and Dildar Ahammed - were arrested soon after they landed. He said they had worked as crew on the trip because they had no money to pay the fare.  They also beat me everywhere. I do not know where my sons are,  he told Reuters.  I don t know why the BGB arrested my sons. People told me the BGB would shelter us in Bangladesh but yet they arrested them and also we had to spend the whole night sitting.  Asked about the allegations of beatings, Lieutenant Colonel Islam said:  It is never possible. Please check your source and motive.  Reuters reporters saw the remnants of the smashed boats. Nearby was a pile of sledgehammers and machetes. A local fisherman, Robi Alam, said the BGB had given local people money to destroy the boats. Bangladeshi authorities said last month they would crack down on fisherman charging Rohingya for ferrying them to safety, which they described as human trafficking.    Thousands of people continue to cross land and sea borders daily to reach Bangladesh, putting great strain on one of the poorest regions of a poor country. One refugee, who asked not to be identified, said his relatives were among 6,000 people waiting in Myanmar to cross to Bangladesh by boat on Wednesday night. He said news of the destruction of the boats and the arrests on Tuesday night had spread and he was concerned the owners of other vessels would be deterred from making the trip. Including the latest influx, about 1 million Rohingya, who were mostly stripped of their citizenship by a 1982 law passed by the military junta that then ruled Myanmar, now live in Bangladesh after fleeing periodic outbreaks of violence. Resentment against the stateless group has brewed for years in Bangladesh, where authorities have linked them to a surge in methamphetamine use. Seizures of the drug jumped more than 2,500 percent to 29.4 million pills between 2011 and 2016 and police and government officials say the Rohingya refugees, who cannot easily be traced, are the traffickers  preferred mules. The authorities have cited a growing drug problem as one reason for pushing ahead with a controversial scheme to move thousands of refugees from their border camps to an undeveloped island in the Bay of Bengal. Myanmar and Bangladesh are also discussing a framework for returning the Rohingyas to Myanmar. The two countries agreed on Monday to work on a repatriation plan, and a Myanmar government spokesman confirmed it would go along with it, provided people could verify their status with paperwork.

Summary: बांग्लादेश ने म्यांमार से रोहिंग्याओं को ले जा रही नौकाओं को नष्ट किया


VIENNA (Reuters) - The head of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, has said he will travel to Washington for meetings “on the sidelines of” the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, though he did not specify who. In a statement on his Facebook page, the head of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) did not say whether he would attend the inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, but did state he would not be meeting Trump himself. Spokesmen for his party were not immediately available for comment.   Strache’s visit is likely to raise fresh questions about ties between European far-right parties and people close to Trump. FPO officials met people close to Trump, including his pick for national security adviser Michael Flynn, on a recent visit to the United States, the party said last month. “There is a series of invitations to talks with interesting political representatives of the United States on the sidelines of the U.S. president’s inauguration on our packed schedule,” Strache said, adding that he would be accompanied by an FPO delegation. French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was seen at Trump Tower last week, but a spokesman for Trump said she did not meet with him or his team.  The Kleine Zeitung newspaper said Strache’s delegation would include Norbert Hofer, who narrowly failed to become president last year, which would have made him the first freely elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War Two.  Strache said “good diplomatic and economic relations” between Austria and the United States were a priority for him given his party’s “possible future government responsibilities”. Austria’s centrist government’s mandate runs until next year. “In order to avoid unnecessary speculation, a meeting with the future U.S. president, Donald Trump, is not planned,” Strache said.

Summary: ट्रम्प के उद्घाटन के समय वाशिंगटन का दौरा करेंगे ऑस्ट्रिया के धुर दक्षिणपंथी प्रमुख


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has gone on Twitter to lambaste a number of companies for cost over-runs, or high prices, or foreign manufacturing. But Reuters interviews with executives and lobbyists who met with him at the White House reveal a Trump who is very different from his uncompromising and demanding @realDonaldTrump Twitter handle. Here are some of the examples to illustrate the difference in tone: What he tweeted about automakers: Jan. 3 - General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax! Jan. 5 - Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax. What he told automakers at Jan. 24 White House meeting: “We’re reducing taxes very substantially and we’re reducing unnecessary regulations. We are going to make the process much more simple for the auto companies and for everybody else that wants to do business in the United States.” What he tweeted about manufacturers: Dec. 2 - Rexnord of Indiana is moving to Mexico and rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers. This is happening all over our country. No more! Dec 6 -  Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order! Dec. 12 - Lockheed Martin: The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th. What he told manufacturers at Jan. 23 White House meeting: “We’re going to be cutting regulation massively ... The problem with the regulation that we have right now is that you can’t do anything.” What he tweeted about drugmakers: March 7 - I am working on a new system where there will be competition in the Drug Industry. Pricing for the American people will come way down! What he told drugmakers on Jan. 31 White House meeting “We’re also gonna be streamlining the process, so that, from your standpoint, when you have a drug, you can actually get it approved if it works, instead of waiting for many, many years.”

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः तुलना और विरोधाभास-ट्रम्प के ट्वीट बनाम सीईओ के लिए निजी टिप्पणियां


NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday he would seek to ensure that women have access to late-term abortions in the state even if conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court remove federal legal guarantees in place since the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.  Cuomo, a Democrat who is considered a potential candidate for his party’s 2020 presidential nomination, proposed an amendment to the New York Constitution that he said would preserve the status quo regardless of future Supreme Court rulings.  President Donald Trump, the Republican who took office on Jan. 20, plans to announce a nominee to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. That person, if confirmed, is expected to restore the court’s conservative majority after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. The high court ruled four decades ago that the U.S. Constitution protects the right of a woman to have an abortion until the point of viability.  The court defined that as when the fetus “has the capability of meaningful life outside the mother’s womb,” generally at about 24 weeks into pregnancy.  The court also recognized a right to abortion after viability if necessary to protect the woman’s life or health. If the Supreme Court were to overrule Roe v. Wade, as abortion opponents have long hoped, the procedure would remain legal only where state laws allow it.  In New York, a state law that dates to 1970 legalized abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and afterward only if the woman’s life is at stake, with no exception for health. The law is not enforced but could be if Roe v. Wade were overruled, abortion advocates say.  The state’s law was “revolutionary back in the day because it legalized abortion before Roe v. Wade, but is now unchanged,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in an interview this month. “The state law is not as protective as Roe,” she said.  Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, which opposes abortion, predicted that Cuomo’s proposal would fail. “How many abortions are enough?” he said in a statement, noting New York’s high rate of abortions. “No one can credibly claim that access to abortion is under any threat in New York.” There were 29.6 abortions per 1,000 women in New York in 2014, compared to 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women nationally, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that supports abortion rights. Cuomo told a Planned Parenthood rally in Albany, New York, on Monday that women’s rights were under attack in Washington. “As they threaten this nation with a possible Supreme Court nominee who will reverse Roe v. Wade,” Cuomo said, according to a transcript provided by his office. “We’re going to protect Roe v. Wade in the State of New York.” New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a legal opinion in September making clear that federal court rulings supersede the state’s 1970 law. For a constitutional amendment to succeed in New York, majorities in the legislature must approve it twice, in successive terms, and voters must approve it.  Republicans control the New York Senate, although it is possible some Republicans might support such an amendment if pressured by constituents who favor abortion rights, said Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at New York’s Fordham University.  Opposition to Trump may galvanize liberals into being aggressive, Panagopoulos said. “People are scared, and that might compel them to action in a way that different circumstances might have them sitting on the sidelines,” he said.  For years, states have planned for a day when the Supreme Court might overrule Roe v. Wade. Some 19 states have laws that could restrict abortion in that event, while seven have laws that would still guarantee the right to an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क के गवर्नर ने गर्भपात के अधिकारों के लिए राज्य के संविधान में संशोधन का आह्वान किया


LONDON (Reuters) - London s East Croydon station was due to reopen on Monday after police said an item they had been investigating was not harmful.  The item at East Croydon has been declared non-suspicious,  Britain s transport police said on Twitter.  The station will be reopening very shortly.  The temporary closure caused delays for commuters and for travellers using the city s nearby Gatwick Airport. Britain is on its second-highest level of security alert after several attacks in the country in recent months.

Summary: लंदन का ईस्ट क्रॉयडन स्टेशन सुरक्षा जांच के बाद फिर से खुलेगाः पुलिस


KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian lawmaker wounded in an explosion in Kiev that killed two people blamed Russia on Thursday for the blast while investigators said they were considering various motives for what they called an act of terrorism. Ihor Mosiychuk, a member of the populist opposition Radical Party, was hospitalized but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, while his bodyguard and a passerby were killed. Two others were wounded. Since fighting with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014, the number of incidents involving explosives outside the conflict zone has increased. There has been a spate of vehicle bombings over the past 18 months in Kiev, the capital, and elsewhere, but investigators have failed to find those responsible.  Ukraine s state security service (SBU) said that unknown perpetrators had rigged a motorcycle with explosives on Wednesday that detonated as the lawmaker left a TV station. Radical party leader Oleg Lyashko said he had no doubt the incident was politically motivated, while Mosiychuk blamed Russia.  I believe that the initiators are in Moscow, the executors are in Kiev,  Mosiychuk said on Facebook. Russian involvement is one of the possible motives being investigated, deputy Kiev prosecutor Pavlo Kononenko told journalists.  Another explanation is Mosiychuk s political activity, his public position within our country,  he said.  A third explanation is an attempt on Mosiychuk s life for personal reasons.  The Kremlin dismissed the accusations as a product of anti-Russian sentiment.  Beyond all doubt, these are new signs of this anti-Russian campaign which has unfortunately swept across Ukraine and Kiev,  Russian President Vladimir Putin s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. Relations between Kiev and Moscow collapsed in 2014 after Russia seized Ukraine s Crimea peninsula and backed a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in eastern Ukrainian regions.      Radical Party lawmaker Evhen Deidei posted photos on his Facebook page from the scene of Wednesday s attack which showed the burnt-out shell of a motorcycle in front of a damaged vehicle.   Judging by the damage to the car and the shrapnel holes in the doors, the power of the explosion was pretty strong,  he said.  There is a lot of blood on the stairs, where Ihor was situated at the time of the explosion.  The interior ministry s Shkiryak said political analyst Vitaliy Bala was one of the three wounded in the blast. In June, a colonel in Ukraine s military intelligence was killed by a car bomb in central Kiev. In 2016 a prominent investigative journalist, Pavel Sheremet, was killed by an explosive device in his car.

Summary: यूक्रेन के सांसद ने कीव में हुए घातक विस्फोट के लिए रूस को जिम्मेदार ठहराया


CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that Republican opponent Donald Trump may have violated U.S. law, following a news report that one of his companies attempted to do business in Cuba. Newsweek said on Thursday that a hotel and casino company controlled by Trump secretly conducted business with Cuba that was illegal under U.S. sanctions in force during Fidel Castro’s presidency of the Communist-ruled island. (See the Newsweek article: bit.ly/2dmKH3e)  “Today we learned about his efforts to do business in Cuba which appear to violate U.S. law, certainly flout American foreign policy, and he has consistently misled people in responding to questions about whether he was attempting to do business in Cuba,” Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane. Clinton and Trump are in a close race ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Newsweek, citing interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings, said the Trump company spent at least $68,000 for a 1998 trip to Cuba at a time when any corporate expenditure in the Caribbean country was prohibited without U.S. government approval. The Trump company did not spend the money directly, but funneled the cash for the Cuba trip through an American consulting firm, Newsweek said. Newsweek cited a former Trump executive as saying the goal of the Cuba trip was to give Trump’s company a foothold should Washington loosen or lift the restrictions under the U.S. trade embargo. The former executive said Trump had participated in discussions about the Cuba trip and knew it had taken place, according to Newsweek. “The efforts that Trump is making to get into the Cuba market, putting his business interests ahead of the laws of the United States ... shows that he puts his personal and business interests ahead of the laws and the values and the policies of the United States of America,” Clinton said.

Summary: क्लिंटन का कहना है कि ट्रम्प ने क्यूबा पर अमेरिकी कानून का उल्लंघन किया होगा


(Reuters) - Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has made income inequality and Wall Street main themes of his campaign for the Democratic nomination to run for president in November.  Here is a look at some of his policy proposals, taken from his website, news stories and interviews. Sanders would expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and the Deferred Action for Parents of America program to extend legal protections given to certain immigrants who entered the country illegally. He would establish a whistleblower visa program for workers reporting labor violations. Sanders would end both for-profit and family detention of illegal immigrants. He would reform immigration laws, and would include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently in the country. The candidate would protect the border with technology such as high-grade cameras, thermal imaging and movement sensors instead erecting of a border wall. Sanders would reverse trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement. He opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement. He would make it easier for people to join labor unions. Sanders says that permanent normal trade relations with China have been disastrous. He has called for U.S. companies to invest more in the United States. Sanders would seek the breakup of the largest financial institutions and reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era banking law that forced a separation of commercial and investment banking businesses. He would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Sanders would tax Wall Street speculation to help fund free public college and university tuition, and would establish a progressive estate tax for those who inherit more than $3.5 million. He would set up a $1 trillion infrastructure investment program. The candidate would lift the cap on taxable income above $250,000 to expand Social Security benefits. Sanders supports the Iran nuclear deal, and opposes the use of ground troops in Iraq and Syria.  He would close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, and would move toward normalizing relations with Cuba.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः बड़े बैंकों को तोड़ें, मुक्त व्यापार समझौतों को समाप्त करें। राष्ट्रपति सैंडर्स क्या करेंगे?


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe s wife Grace has sued a Belgium-based businessman for failing to deliver a $1.35 million ring she ordered for a wedding anniversary, state media reported on Wednesday. Grace, 52, an influential figure in Mugabe s ruling ZANU-PF party and seen as a potential successor to her husband, is  nicknamed  Gucci Grace  for her reputed dedication to shopping. But she and her 93-year-old husband have kept their assets under wraps despite frequent local private media reports on Grace buying properties in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Herald, a government-controlled newspaper, reported that Grace was suing businessman Jamal Hamed after a deal to have Hamed supply the First Lady with a diamond ring turned sour. Grace s spokeswoman Olga Bungu could not be reached for comment on Wednesday while her lawyer Wilson Manase, who filed the papers at the High Court, was said to be attending court. In court papers seen by the Herald, Grace said she had in 2015 ordered the ring for her 20-year wedding anniversary last year but Hamed failed to deliver and refunded her only $120,000. The First Lady asked the High Court to attach properties and three companies owned by Hamed in Harare, the Herald said. Hamed told Reuters from Belgium that he had not been served with the court papers. His Harare-based lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said she had not seen the papers.  We have not received anything at all and I am not in Harare to be served any claim or false allegations,  Hamed said. In Zimbabwe, at least 8 out of 10 potential workers are unemployed. The average national monthly income is $200 and news of the million-dollar ring was immediately greeted with scorn on social media. Mugabe, who says he leads a frugal life, and Grace own a dairy company and several farms near Harare. The two have never responded to media reports that they own several properties. Last year, Hamed accused Grace of seizing his Harare properties following the dispute and asked the High Court to intervene. He then said Grace had threatened her if he ever returned to Zimbabwe.  Grace, through her lawyer Manase, denied all the accusations.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे की प्रथम महिला ने 13.5 लाख डॉलर की अंगूठी को लेकर विवाद में मुकदमा दायर कियाः राज्य मीडिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House and congressional Democrats pressured Republicans on Thursday for bipartisan Zika-funding legislation, saying the public health battle against the mosquito-borne virus is being undercut by efforts to ram through a bill with less funding. But there was no sign that Republicans would abandon their $1.1 billion measure, raising the chance that Congress will leave the growing health crisis unattended until September.  In a conference call, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the lack of funding has made it difficult for the health agency to ramp up mosquito-control and diagnostic testing and pursue new research. President Barack Obama asked the Republican-controlled Congress in February for $1.9 billion in emergency funding to fight Zika. But as lawmakers prepare to leave for a seven-week recess on July 15, Senate Democrats who defeated the Republican measure last week predict it will only fail again. “We are at the 11th hour and 59th minute before Congress is gone all summer,” said Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, which is among a number of southern U.S. states likely to be hard-hit by the Zika virus. U.S. health officials say Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.  Over the past few days, Obama has urged Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democrats to adopt a bipartisan approach. On Thursday, Democrats called on McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan to revive a bipartisan measure that passed the Senate in May. McConnell has said he would stick with the current legislation, which was agreed by House and Senate negotiators and has already passed the House.  A senior Senate Republican aide dismissed the call for change as “cover” for Democratic efforts to block the Republican measure. A Ryan spokeswoman said: “We hope Senate Democrats do the right thing and end their filibuster.” Even some Democratic aides expressed skepticism that McConnell or Ryan would change course.        The CDC is monitoring 320 pregnant U.S. women with laboratory evidence of Zika infection. In Puerto Rico, where Zika has been rampant for months, as many as 50 pregnant women are infected every day, CDC Director Thomas Frieden said. Altogether, there are more than 1,130 Zika cases in the United States, the CDC said. All contracted the virus outside the United States, in a lab or through unprotected sex.  Frieden said the CDC has spent most of the $222 million it has received for Zika in the United States on state and municipal efforts, funding, staffing and equipment. “It’s frankly difficult to navigate with so many unknowns,” Frieden said. “That’s why we haven’t been able to do things like begin ramping up centers of excellence to improve the performance of diagnostic tests, of mosquito control and to begin some of the really in-depth studies.” Additional funding would also aid vaccine research and help community health centers in areas with the highest Zika transmission rates.  The Republican measure failed in the Senate on June 28 when Democrats objected to Republican provisions, including one to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving funds to combat what can be sexually transmitted infection. The legislation would also take money from battling the Ebola virus and from funds set aside to implement the Obamacare health insurance program in U.S. territories. “They’ll force yet another failed vote on this cynical legislation and then pack their bags for the longest Senate vacation since 1954,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said. The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

Summary: अमेरिकी डेमोक्रेट ने द्विदलीय जीका वित्तपोषण के लिए रिपब्लिकन पर दबाव डाला


GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to stop resettlement of Syrian refugees will cost lives, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Monday. “The president’s executive order will effectively keep people trapped in war zones, directly endangering their lives,” MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement. “Slamming shut the doors to the United States of America, which has rigorously vetted refugees for years, is an attack on the basic accepted notion that people should be able to flee for their lives,” Jason Cone, executive director of MSF-USA, was quoted as saying in the statement. “Every day our teams on the ground see people desperately seeking safety at closed borders and in war zones from which they cannot flee,” he said.  The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR says 4.9 million Syrians are refugees in neighboring countries, while almost a million have fled to Europe, and more than 6 million are displaced within their own country.  During the election campaign, Trump decried former President Barack Obama’s decision to increase the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States over fears that some fleeing the country’s civil war might carry out attacks. Some 25,000 refugees were resettled in the United States between October and year-end under UNHCR’s program for the most vulnerable, UNHCR said on Friday. Trump’s administration has banned entry of refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries, drawing criticism even from some prominent Republicans and protests that drew tens of thousands in major American cities. On Sunday his administration tempered the ban by saying people who hold so-called green cards as lawful permanent U.S. residents would not be blocked. Apart from Syria, the affected countries are Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a joint statement on Saturday that the U.S. resettlement program was vital, and but they stopped short of criticizing the new administration’s policy. Nobody at UNHCR or IOM was immediately available to comment on Monday.

Summary: एमएसएफ का कहना है कि ट्रम्प के शरणार्थी प्रतिबंध ने सीरियाई जीवन को खतरे में डाल दिया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Manufacturers and Wall Street have led the quest for business access to President Donald Trump in his first 100 days in office, with media companies and Silicon Valley seldom entering the presidential bubble, a Reuters review found. Since inauguration day on Jan. 20, top executives from at least 186 companies have visited with Trump or senior advisers at the White House or on presidential trips, including those to Mar-a-Lago, the private, seaside Florida club where he spends many weekends. Some of the meetings have been reported in the press. But Reuters analyzed more than 900 White House press pool reports to give the first big picture view, albeit an incomplete one, of who has had the most and least success at bending the president’s ear. Such access can be crucial for companies, with Trump regularly passing judgment and making proposals on business issues such as trade, taxes, immigration and regulation. The review showed Trump listening closely to some segments of Corporate America, though perhaps neglecting the dynamic technology and entertainment sectors, both powerful U.S. export industries. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc (AAPL.O), and other tech leaders met with Trump before his inauguration. Access sometimes means influence, but it was likely too soon to tell, after less than 100 days, whether Trump’s actions have disproportionately favored big manufacturers and Wall Street. Industrial power-houses have led the way on access, including companies with the clout to make significant hiring decisions: Ford Motor Co (F.N) CEO Mark Fields has met with Trump at least four times; General Motors (GM.N) CEO Mary Barra, at least four times; and Boeing (BA.N) representatives, at least three times. The Reuters review helps fill a blank in the Trump record that opened in mid-April when he put the White House visitor logs off-limits to the public. They had been mostly public under Obama.  Transparency advocates have warned that Trump’s decision will make it harder to hold him accountable. “A public record of who has the president’s ear is more important than it has ever been,” said John Wonderlich, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit good-government advocacy group. The review showed about half of the companies that have made it into the Trump inner circle through April 21, day 92 of his presidency, were manufacturers or financial firms - asset managers, insurers and banks ranging from Wall Street giants such as Citigroup (C.N) to small community banks. Financier Stephen Schwarzman, who chairs a presidential advisory forum of business leaders, is CEO of the Blackstone Group (BX.N), the largest manager of private equity and real estate assets. He was spotted by the press pool aboard Air Force 1 on Feb. 3 when the president was traveling to Mar-a-Lago. Schwarzman also attended at least three meetings with Trump and other executives. Almost all of Trump’s meetings were group encounters with 10 or more executives sitting down with the president and White House officials in events billed as listening sessions, roundtable discussions or town halls.  A few were more intimate encounters, such as on March 18, when Ike Perlmutter, CEO of Marvel Entertainment, a Walt Disney Corp. (DIS.N) subsidiary, met with the president in Mar-a-Lago before having dinner with the president, first lady Melania Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Perlmutter, however, was one of few executives from media companies seen by pool reporters in meetings with Trump. Information technology firms, which enjoyed significant access to former President Barack Obama, have had less access to Trump than legacy manufacturers such as auto and steel makers. IBM (IBM.N) CEO Ginni Rometty attended three meetings with Trump, but was one of only a few CEOs from big tech firms seen at the White House. Manufacturers and financiers also enjoyed access to the White House under Obama, according to a Reuters review in December 2015 of White House visitor logs.   The recent Reuters review is not comprehensive since the press pool, though dogged and alert, may have missed some of Trump’s meetings with business leaders.  The pool is a rotation of journalists from several outlets, including Reuters, who follow Trump and get briefings from White House officials on some, but not all of his meetings.

Summary: निर्माताओं, वॉल स्ट्रीट को पहले 100 दिनों में ट्रम्प का कान मिल रहा है


TOKYO (Reuters) - Mongolian sumo grand champion Harumafuji on Tuesday apologized for injuring a fellow wrestler who media said suffered a fractured skull after being hit with a beer bottle in the latest scandal to engulf the closed, hierarchical sumo society.  Harumafuji, 33, hit Takanoiwa on the head last month at a party of sumo wrestlers from Mongolia, public broadcaster NHK quoted unnamed sources affiliated with the Japan Sumo Association as saying. Takanoiwa, 27, is not taking part in the 15-day tournament that started on Sunday in Fukuoka, western Japan, due to the fracture, concussion and several other injuries, according to the association s Twitter entry. Takanoiwa told the association it would take two weeks for the injuries to heal, NHK and other media said. The association said Harumafuji would sit out the tournament and that it was looking into the matter.  As for Takanoiwa s injuries, I apologize deeply for causing trouble for stable master Takanohana, people affiliated with Takanohana stable, the Sumo Association and my stable master,  NHK showed Harumafuji telling reporters. He declined to give details of the assault, NHK said.   Takanoiwa belongs to a stable led by former grand champion Takanohana. The stable master has already reported the incident to police, Kyodo news agency said. It was not immediately clear if Harumafuji would be charged.   No one was available for comment at Harumafuji s or Takanoiwa s stable.        In 2010, former stable master Tokitsukaze was sentenced to fives years in prison for instructing seniors to beat up a novice 17-year-old wrestler. The same year, grand champion Asashoryu, also from Mongolia, retired from the ancient sport following a probe into reports of a drunken scuffle in Tokyo.

Summary: मंगोलियाई सूमो चैंपियन ने साथी पहलवान पर बीयर की बोतल से हमले की मीडिया रिपोर्ट के बाद माफी मांगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with leaders of several Gulf nations and Britain as part of his previously scheduled trip to Germany next month, the White House said on Wednesday. On April 21, Obama will participate in a summit with leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council nations, which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it said in a statement. In Britain, Obama will meet with Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister David Cameron, the statement said, before moving on to Germany, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Summary: ओबामा ने कहा, सऊदी, ब्रिटेन ने जर्मनी की यात्रा रोकीः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Health Secretary Tom Price’s use of private jets for government travel was under investigation on Friday after an internal watchdog agreed to review the issue following calls by Democrats for a probe. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Daniel Levinson’s office said it would request Price’s travel records and seek to review their justification. Price has taken at least two dozen such charter flights since May at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of about $300,000, according to Politico, which first reported the travel. HHS’s Office of the Inspector General “is conducting a review of Secretary Price’s federal travel using chartered aircraft. The review focuses on whether the travel complied with Federal Travel Regulations, but may encompass other issues related to the travel,” said Levinson’s spokeswoman, Tesia Williams, adding that it would be finished as soon as possible. The move comes after House Democratic lawmakers called for the internal review earlier this week. [nL2N1M203S] Separately, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s top Democrat, U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, also asked Price for details on the flights and called on panel chairman Trey Gowdy to hold an immediate hearing on the issue. Representatives for Price did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation, earlier reported by the Washington Post and NBC News.  HHS spokeswoman Charmaine Yoest defended Price’s travels, telling the Post: “This is Secretary Price, getting outside of D.C., making sure he is connected with the real American people” and adding that commercial flights could have lengthy delays or force him to miss public events.  In a letter to Price, Cummings asked the secretary for details on the number of flights, the full costs and any documentation about their purpose by Oct. 10. “If these reports are accurate, this would be a stunning and hypocritical breach of trust given that the Trump Administration ... is trying to take away health care from millions of Americans and is proposing to slash funding at HHS,” he wrote.   As a U.S. lawmaker in 2009, Price chastised “the fiscal irresponsibility” of government private plane use in an appearance on CNBC that he also posted on Twitter at the time. Questions over Price’s charter flights come as another top U.S. official, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, is facing scrutiny over his use of a government plane to fly to Kentucky for a visit to Louisville and Fort Knox. Mnuchin and his wife viewed the solar eclipse during the trip, which was to an area of the country that experienced the full eclipse. [nL2N1LI0YD]

Summary: स्वास्थ्य सचिव प्राइस के निजी विमानों के उपयोग की समीक्षा की जा रही है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum plans to join party front-runner Donald Trump at a rally in Iowa later on Thursday, his campaign said.  Santorum, a former U.S. lawmaker, will participate in the so-called “undercard” debate for Republican presidential candidates with less support in the polls before going to the event with Trump, who has vowed to skip Thursday night’s debate hosted by Fox News.     Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee also said he plans to attend Trump’s event.  (Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: ट्रंप की रैली में शामिल होंगे सैंटोरम, अभियान ने कहा


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican official widened a tax evasion complaint against U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, the same day the new American leader signed a decree to speed up construction of a border wall between the two countries. The complaint was originally filed in October alleging the Trump Organization and Los Angeles real estate firm Irongate did not pay federal taxes, or have proper building permits for an ultimately failed luxury condominium project in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. The complaint was broadened on Wednesday to allege Trump violated Mexican law by, as a foreigner, seeking to buy property within 31 miles (50 km) of the U.S. border to develop the Trump Ocean Resort Baja project, the official Jaime Martinez, who filed the complaint as a private citizen, told reporters. The filing was also expanded to question whether Trump was issued a visa in relation with the project, in compliance with Mexican immigration laws, Martinez said. Mexico’s attorney general’s office said it was investigating the complaint but did not provide further detail. “The truth is that he did not pay taxes, the truth is he did not pay for construction or land use in Tijuana... and all of this constitutes a series of criminal acts,” said Martinez, head of the federally-run Commission for Dialogue with Indigenous People of Mexico.  The press offices of the Trump Organization and the Trump administration did not immediately reply to emails seeking request for comment. Asked about the timing of the announcement, Martinez, a former member of Congress, said the complaint was widened in response to Trump’s “aggressive attitude” in signing an executive order to expedite construction of a wall along the 2,000 mile (3,220 km) U.S. southern border.  The Tijuana condominium project folded in 2009 and its failure led investors who lost millions of dollars to file a lawsuit against Trump in a U.S. court. In a 2012 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Trump said Irongate was to blame for the project’s demise and while he licensed his name to it, he was not involved in its building.  According to the expanded complaint seen on Wednesday, that lawsuit was settled in late 2013.

Summary: मैक्सिकन अधिकारी ने ट्रम्प के खिलाफ कर-चकमा शिकायत का विस्तार किया


DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar s ruler said he is ready for U.S.-hosted direct talks aimed at solving the worst diplomatic crisis in the Gulf in years but has yet to hear a response to U.S. President Donald Trump s invitation to the four Arab states boycotting Doha. Speaking to U.S. broadcaster CBS News, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said he wanted an end to the dispute, which erupted on June 5 and pits Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt against Qatar.  Nothing is going to be above our dignity, our sovereignty. But we want it to end. I always say that,  he told the  60 Minutes  program in an interview aired on Sunday.  If they (are) going to walk one meter toward me, I m willing to walk 10,000 miles towards them,  he said. The four countries have cut diplomatic, transport and trade ties with Qatar, the world s top seller of liquefied natural gas, accusing it of financing terrorism. Doha denies the charges. The dispute has hit travel and food imports and ratcheted up tensions in a wealthy region which plays a leading role in global energy markets as well as events across the wider Middle East.  On Sunday, Bahrain s foreign minister called for freezing Qatar s membership out of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to preserve its unity, adding that Bahrain will not attend the upcoming GCC summit if Qatar does not change its stand. Qatar hosts Al Udeid air base, the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East. Sheikh Tamim said Trump had told him  I will not accept my friends fighting amongst themselves,  and that in talks on the sidelines of a United Nations  meeting in September he had made an offer to host talks in the United States.  I told him straightaway,  Mr President, we are very ready. I ve been asking for dialogue from day one,  Sheikh Tamim said, adding that the meeting was supposed to happen very soon and that he had not heard a response from the other countries. Trump, who has said he would be willing to mediate in the dispute, said in September he had a  very strong feeling  it would be solved  pretty quickly . Earlier in September, Saudi Arabia suspended any dialogue with Qatar, accusing it of  distorting facts,  just after a report of a phone call between the leaders of the two countries suggested a possible breakthrough in the dispute. Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by  phone with Qatar s emir on Sept. 8 in the first publicly reported contact between the two leaders since the crisis began. There has been no further contact reported since then. In the CBS interview, Sheikh Tamim reiterated that Qatar would not close down the Doha-based Al Jazeera television network, as demanded by the four countries who accuse the broadcaster of bias and interfering in their affairs. Al Jazeera says it is an independent news service giving a voice to everyone in the region. Sheikh Tamim also said he feared for the region if any military actions were taken as part of the crisis.  I m fearful that if anything happens, if any military act happens, this region will be in chaos,  he said.

Summary: कतर के अमीर ने कहा, खाड़ी संकट पर ट्रंप की मेजबानी में वार्ता के लिए तैयारः सीबीएस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday declined to say what steps he would take if Republican leaders’ proposed legislation to dismantle Obamacare failed to pass the House of Representatives. Asked whether he will keep pushing the bill aimed at replacing former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act if a vote on the replacement fails, Trump told reporters: “We’ll see what happens.”

Summary: यदि यह सदन में पारित होने में विफल रहता है तो स्वास्थ्य सेवा योजना के भविष्य पर ट्रम्प की नजर


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea used Chinese-made trucks to display missiles at a massive military parade last week, according to photographs released by state media, underlining the difficulty in enforcing U.N. sanctions against the isolated state. At Saturday’s parade to mark the 105th birth anniversary of founder president Kim Il Sung, North Korea displayed six Pukkuksong submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) for the first time, towed behind trucks painted in North Korean navy camouflage. In the photographs, the logo of Chinese firm Sinotruk can be seen on the vehicles.  Last year, Reuters reported that North Korea was using  Sinotruk HOWO trucks to display a new mobile artillery system.  A Sinotruk sales official said on Tuesday he was not aware the company’s trucks had been used in this year’s parade. “From my understanding, we haven’t had any business with the North Korean market since last year; North Korea has never been a major focus of ours,” said the official, who gave only his last name, Gu. “It may have been from before then and they refitted it themselves.” China and North Korea maintain “normal contacts, including normal business contacts”, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, when asked about the trucks. “At the same time, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China strictly adheres to its international responsibilities, including those from Security Council resolutions,” Lu told a daily news briefing.  Since 2006, it has been against United Nations sanctions to ship military hardware into North Korea but control of equipment and vehicles that have “dual-use” military and civilian  applications has been far less stringent. It is also much harder to track. North Korean state media has in the past released images of Sinotruk chassis and cabins in propaganda related to construction or mining. A U.N. report which noted the use of the trucks in the display of mobile artillery last year did not name Sinotruk, but said that the Chinese seller had included a “clear clause” in its deal with the North Korean buyer that the trucks were to be for civilian use only. North Korea also appeared to reveal two new types of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) during Saturday’s parade. One was mounted on a large off-road truck which was identified in an earlier U.N. report as being of Chinese origin. In a 2010 statement sent to China, North Korea’s forestry ministry said the trucks were bought to transport timber, according to the U.N. report. The second of the two ICBMs was mounted on a North Korean-branded “Taekpaeksan” military truck which used tyres made by China-based Triangle Group, according to photos of the parade seen by Reuters. Triangle Group, a major tyre manufacturer headquartered in Weihai, a port city in eastern Shandong province, said it was not aware its tyres had been used in the military parade.  “It’s possible they were resold from somewhere else,” an official from Triangle’s export department said.

Summary: पनडुब्बी से दागी जाने वाली मिसाइल दिखाने के लिए उत्तर कोरिया की परेड में इस्तेमाल किया गया चीन निर्मित ट्रक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Democratic senator on Monday prevented legislation from being quickly considered that would expand the FBI’s power to use secretive surveillance orders to obtain some Internet records, arguing it would lead to a “dramatic erosion” of U.S. privacy rights.   Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon placed a hold on the annual Intelligence Authorization Act, which grants congressional approval for clandestine operations carried out by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. A provision of the authorization bill would allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use national security letters, which do not require a warrant, to compel companies such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook to hand over certain Internet records. These would include email metadata, some browsing history and social media log-in information. Such an expansion would allow the FBI to retrieve sensitive data of U.S. citizens without court approval, Wyden said.  “Convenience alone does not justify such a dramatic erosion of Americans’ constitutional rights,” he said on the Senate floor. National security letters are the latest flashpoint in a years-long debate pitting U.S. surveillance operations against digital privacy interests. Wyden’s objection blocks the Senate from rapidly advancing the bill and now forces Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell to go through normal order to hold a roll call vote, a process that can take days. Currently, national security letters, or NSLs, can only compel sharing of phone billing records, according to a 2008 legal memo written by the U.S. Justice Department. Still, the FBI has used the letters since then to request Internet records during national security investigations. Senate Republicans have attempted to advance the NSL expansion, which FBI Director James Comey has called his top legislative priority, several times in recent months. Last week the Senate came two votes short of advancing separate legislation that would have expanded national security letters. [uL1N19E0ZY] Though some Republicans invoked the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando earlier this month to promote that measure, Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last week it was “one hundred percent correct” that it would not have prevented the massacre. Wyden also said he opposed another provision of the authorization bill that would limit the jurisdiction of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a government advisory committee that reviews the legality and effectiveness U.S. surveillance programs.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटर, एफ. बी. आई. ईमेल डेटा हड़पने का विरोध करते हुए, जासूसी बिल पर रोक लगाते हैं


LONDON (Reuters) - British police said reports of a suspicious package near Holborn, central London, had turned out to be a false alarm.  Pictures on Twitter had shown several police cars and officers in the cordoned-off street, but a spokeswoman later said the operation had been stood down. Britain s threat level is currently set to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely, and 30 people were injured last Friday when a bomb on a train apparently failed to fully detonate.

Summary: ब्रिटिश पुलिस का कहना है कि लंदन के होलबोर्न में संदिग्ध पैकेज गलत चेतावनी थी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats vowed on Tuesday to fight a measure expected to be slipped into budget legislation that would open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil and gas drilling, saying it would destroy one of earth’s remaining paradises. Northern Alaska’s ANWR is a wilderness about the size of South Carolina that supports tribes that have fished and hunted there for thousands of years and is home to polar bears, caribou and birds vulnerable to development.  A plan passed by the Senate budget committee late last month contains a directive for the Senate energy committee to draw up a provision securing $1 billion in revenue for the budget, which is expected to be voted on late Thursday.  The head of the energy panel, Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican and a longtime proponent of drilling in ANWR, is expected to write a provision opening the reserve. She and Senator Dan Sullivan, also an Alaska Republican, have both supported measures to open up parts of ANWR. “This Republican budget scam to hand over the wildest place left in America to Big Oil should be removed from the budget and put on ice,” said Senator Edward Markey.  Senator Jeff Merkley said there is “something cynical and sad” about the effort because it could boost oil output from the U.S. state that is already feeling the fastest effects of climate change, which the overwhelming majority of scientists link to human-caused carbon emissions. An environmentalist said Republicans were trying to sneak drilling into the budget and eliminate opportunities for debate.  Lydia Weiss, the director of government relations at the Wilderness Society, called it an “unacceptable abuse of Senate procedure” and said Americans deserve to see the Senate debate the issue in the open. Petroleum interests have long lobbied to explore in the area and say technology advances mean the impact of operations on the reserve would be smaller than in years past.  Still, it is uncertain whether energy companies that have faced static crude prices amid a wealth of oil and gas in the continental United States would be willing to increase drilling in the harsh and frigid Arctic.   Markey said the group is reaching out to Republicans for support in opposition to the drilling amendment, which likely will need 50 votes in the 100-member chamber to pass. Democrats hope Republican senators John McCain and Susan Collins, who have previously voted against drilling, will support them.

Summary: सीनेट डेमोक्रेट्स ने अलास्का रिजर्व में ड्रिलिंग से लड़ने का संकल्प लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday formally announced Retired General John Kelly, a 45-year military veteran, as his choice to lead the Department Of Homeland Security. Trump’s transition team said in a statement that Kelly would “spearhead the urgent mission of stopping illegal immigration and securing our borders” as well as streamline the Transportation Security Administration and improve ties between U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Summary: होमलैंड सिक्योरिटी का नेतृत्व करने के लिए ट्रंप ने सेवानिवृत्त जनरल केली को चुनाः बयान


LONDON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran signed deals with Damascus on Tuesday to repair Syria s power grid, state media said, a potentially lucrative move for Tehran that points to a deepening economic role after years of fighting in the Syrian conflict. Shunned by Western powers, the Syrian government is looking to friendly states such as Iran, Russia and China to play a major role in rebuilding the country, as the war heads toward its seventh year.  Since at least 2012, Iran has provided critical military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad s government, helping it regain control of swathes of the country. Iran experts say Tehran is now looking to reap a financial dividend. In January, Iran s government and entities close to Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) signed major telecommunications and mining deals with Damascus. [nL5N1F84NX] On Tuesday, Iran and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding during a visit by Syria s electricity minister to Tehran, including building a power plant the coastal province Latakia with a capacity of 540 megawatts, Syrian state news agency SANA said.  The agreement involves restoring the main control center for Syria s electricity grid in the capital Damascus, it said. The new electricity deals could be worth millions of euros, Iranian state media said on Tuesday.  The agreement also includes rehabilitating a 90-megawatt power station in Deir al-Zor province, where the Syrian army and allied forces have made swift advances against Islamic State in recent days.  With Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, the government has driven rebels from Syria s main urban centers in western Syria and marched eastwards against Islamic State.  The Syrian government ... is working relentlessly to restore the power system,  SANA cited Syrian Electricity Minister Mohammad Zuhair Kharboutli as saying.  Iranian companies will have a role in rebuilding Syria.  Two contracts were also signed, including for Iran to supply power to Aleppo city, which the Syrian military and its allies fully regained last year in a major blow to rebels, SANA said.     We will stand by the Syrian people to rebuild this country ... We will bring light to houses of the Syrian people,  Sattar Mahmoudi, Iran s caretaker energy minister, was quoted as saying on the ministry s website. The deals will be worth hundreds of millions of euros if finalised, and Tehran is also keen to expand its cooperation to construct water and sewerage facilities in Syria, he said. More than 1,000 soldiers deployed by the Revolutionary Guards to Syria have died on the front lines of the multi-sided conflict in recent years.  Iran s Revolutionary Guards saved the Assad regime from collapsing at a heavy price for Damascus for now they own Syria,  Emanuele Ottolenghi, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Reuters.  I expect these to be the first in a wave of tenders won by IRGC companies, which will have the best reconstruction projects to Iran,  he added. Iranian firms are already involved in a series of electricity generation projects in Syria. Iran aims to export electricity and create the biggest power network in the Islamic world by hooking up Iran s national grid with those of Iraq and Lebanon. Iran said in August that it has exported $58 million worth of goods to Syria in the first four months of this year, marking a 100 percent increase compared with the same period a year ago.

Summary: ईरान ने बिजली ग्रिड की मरम्मत के लिए सीरिया के साथ समझौता किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Protesters at Howard University chanted and booed on Friday through James Comey’s first public address since he testified to Congress about his firing by U.S. President Donald Trump, challenging the former FBI director with a taste of the “real world” he was trying to describe to them. Students protesting the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s treatment of black activists began chanting the civil rights song “We Shall Not Be Moved” as Comey stood at the podium, waiting out the demonstrators during a video about the historically black university in Washington, D.C.  The chants continued, intensifying and sometimes subsiding,  as Comey began his address, which focused on how he believed college campuses were very much a part of what he called the “real world.” Comey did not ignore the shouts. “The rest of the real world is a place where it’s hard sometimes to find people who will listen with an attitude that they might actually be convinced of something,” he told them.  “Instead, what happens in most of the real world - and about four rows in this auditorium - is that people don’t listen at all.” The protesters included HUResist, a Howard student social justice group that criticized Comey’s FBI for its treatment of Black Lives Matter activists.  “Get out James Comey, you ain’t my homie!” students chanted before his address.  “We will not let the voice and opinions of white supremacy live on this campus,” HUResist said on Twitter. Howard University officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Comey became a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats when he disclosed shortly before the November presidential election a new trove of emails involving the party’s candidate, Hillary Clinton. Many, including Clinton, said they believed this contributed to her loss to Republican Trump. In June congressional testimony, Comey accused the president of firing him in May to undermine the FBI’s investigation of possible collusion by Trump’s campaign with Russia to influence the election. At Howard, Comey soldiered on with comments about a “real world” that may have been veiled criticism of Trump, who touts the virtues of winning, but also were directed at the fury in front of him. “They aren’t looking to actually learn anything about you or about what you think,” he said. “It’s a place where people take sides rather than trying to understand - are they still on the right side? They care mostly about their side winning.”

Summary: कोमी ने 'वास्तविक दुनिया' की बात की, अश्वेत विश्वविद्यालय में विरोध प्रदर्शनों से मुलाकात की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Donald Trump moves closer to clinching the Republican presidential nomination, he has offered lavish praise for Bernie Sanders, who faces increasingly slim chances in his battle with Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race. Trump has begun calling for Sanders to run as an independent if he does not win the Democratic nomination and said he may borrow talking points from Sanders’ speeches criticizing Clinton to use in a possible matchup with the former secretary of state in the Nov. 8 general election. “He said some things about her that were so incredible – incredible – and so incredibly bad,” Trump said on Tuesday after sweeping five Northeastern primaries, adding Sanders had “been telling the truth.” Yet data and interviews with Sanders supporters suggest that winning over large numbers of them may be difficult for the New York billionaire businessman.  Even though Trump, 69, and Sanders, 74, a U.S. senator from Vermont, emphasize some common themes such as criticism of Wall Street and international trade agreements, there is only limited crossover appeal between the two candidates, according to Reuters/Ipsos data.  Among voters who back Trump, just 12 percent said Sanders would be their second choice if Trump were not in the race, only slightly higher than the 7 percent who said Clinton would be their next pick. Sanders supporters were even less willing than Trump backers to consider crossing over. Just 8 percent of Sanders supporters said they would vote for Trump as their second choice, roughly the same as the portion of voters who listed Trump’s Republican rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich as their second choice.  Sanders supporter Joseph Hayes, 37, of Oregon, still has hope for his candidate. But if it comes down to Trump or Clinton, Hayes said it was an easy, if unpleasant, choice. “I would have to vote for Hillary. Reluctantly so, but I would,” he said. People who outwardly back both Sanders and Trump are even more of a rarity. Donor rolls show just over two dozen voters willing to support both Trump and Sanders financially. “I think Bernie Sanders is too poor to be bought, and I think Donald Trump is too rich to be bought by special interests,” said Royce Gourley, a real estate investor, who gave $2,500 to Sanders and $2,700 to Trump, Federal Election Commission filings show.  But Trump could find an opening as both he and Sanders have gained strong followings among voters looking for an outsider candidate who will shake up the Washington establishment.  Both have made significant inroads among laborers and union members who support their opposition to U.S. trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which critics say threaten U.S. jobs.  But the two are far apart on many issues, especially immigration. Trump has proposed building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and has proposed a temporary ban on Muslims seeking to enter the country.  Sanders has called such proposals “crap” and often criticizes what he calls “inhumane” deportation programs.  For Sanders supporters like Dave Berry, 62, of Tacoma, Washington, the wooing may pay off as voters weigh the decision to stick with their party or stir things up in Washington.  “I will probably put a check in Trump’s column (in the general election),” Berry said of a possible Trump-Clinton general election contest. He said he did not think the former reality TV star could win, but felt good about making Clinton uneasy about her prospects of securing an easy win.  One risk for Clinton is Sanders voters who may sit out the election or choose a third-party candidate if their favorite is not on the ballot.  Valerie Benson, 80, of Cleveland, said that if it came down to Trump against Clinton, “I don’t know that I would vote for anybody then.”

Summary: ट्रम्प सैंडर्स की प्रशंसा करते हैं लेकिन अपने मतदाताओं को जीतने के लिए संघर्ष कर सकते हैं