MARRAKESH, Morocco/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The prospect of an abrupt shift in U.S. climate policy under President-elect Donald Trump lifted the shares of U.S. mining equipment giant Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N), North American railroads and other companies tied to fossil fuels, and slammed shares of renewable energy firms. Trump has called climate change a hoax, said he would rip up the Paris climate treaty and promised to revive the U.S. coal sector. His victory caused dismay at a climate policy conference in Morocco on Wednesday. In the United States, the prospect of a sharp turn in U.S. environmental policy helped boost Caterpillar shares by more than 7 percent on Wednesday on hopes that a Trump administration would reinvigorate coal mining and investment in infrastructure. A mining slump has depressed Caterpillar’s profits and forced rounds of layoffs.    The Obama administration has pursued emissions rules designed to discourage coal-fired power plants, while Trump has said he would revive the coal industry and roll back regulation. “There is bountiful evidence that free trade, tax reform, infrastructure investment and smart regulation are critically important to manufacturers’ success,” Caterpillar said in a statement.  Shares in farm and equipment maker Deere & Co (DE.N) and truck makers Paccar Inc (PCAR.O) and Navistar International Corp (NAV.N) also rose, as did oil stocks.  Railroads Norfolk Southern Corp (NSC.N) and Union Pacific Corp rose 3.3 percent and 4 percent respectively. U.S. railroads have suffered as coal shipments have declined.  “Obviously this is good news for fossil energy and coal in particularly,” said National Mining Association spokesperson Luke Popovich. “We will have a profound shift in policy. And hopefully spur development in low emission and higher efficiency technologies which make coal cleaner to use.”  Regulation and federal policies are not the only challenge for coal.  “A new administration may result in less regulatory pressure for utilities, the competition offered by natural gas doesn’t change,” said Michael Trevino, spokesman for No. 2 U.S. railroad BNSF, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc(BRKa.N).  Trump’s victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton cast a dark cloud over delegates attending a 200-nation meeting in Marrakesh being held from Nov. 7-18 to celebrate the start of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming last Friday.  Some delegates expressed concern that Trump could cause other nations to reconsider their position on global warming. Trump has said climate change was an invention by China and wants instead to promote jobs in the U.S. fossil fuel industry. “We will have a lot more hurdles,” said Ian Fry, head of the delegation of Tuvalu, a Pacific island state which fears rising sea levels, adding Trump’s victory could have a “domino effect on other nations”. The Paris Agreement allows all nations to set national targets to slow climate change and some could scale those back. There are no sanctions for non-compliance. Many nations vowed to push ahead despite Trump with the sweeping plan to phase out net global greenhouse gas emissions between 2050 and 2100 by shifting from coal and oil to cleaner energies such as wind or solar power. Still, Trump’s victory drove down renewable energy stocks. Shares in Vestas (VWS.CO), the world’s biggest wind turbine maker, were down 6.2 percent in mid-morning, while German peer Nordex (NDXG.DE) traded 6.6 percent lower. In the United States, Silicon Valley electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc(TSLA.O) sank 3.4 percent to its lowest price since February. Tesla benefits from federal tax breaks for electric vehicles and selling credits generated under a California electric vehicle policy. Other renewable shares were also hit. Spain’s Gamesa GAM.MC, which is being merged with Siemens (SIEGn.DE), and Portugal’s EDP Renovaveis (EDPR.LS) traded 2.4 and 5.2 percent lower, respectively. Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, a European forum for 128 investors with more than 13 trillion euros in assets, said changes towards greener growth were “irreversible”. “Renewables have already overtaken coal as a global power source, electric vehicles are the growth segment of the auto industry and jobs are being created in clean energy sectors faster than any other,” she said.

Summary: ट्रम्प की जीत ने कोयले को बढ़ावा दिया, अक्षय स्टॉक को प्रभावित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, on Monday emphasized the need for judicial independence even as Trump castigates jurists who have ruled against him, while Democrats questioned whether he would rule against abortion rights and gun control while favoring corporations. With the ideological balance of the Supreme Court at stake, the Senate Judiciary Committee opened its confirmation hearing for Gorsuch, a conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado. Republicans praised Gorsuch, 49, as highly qualified for a lifetime appointment as a justice. “I think we’re off to a good start,” Republican Chuck Grassley, the committee’s chairman, said afterward, with senators getting their first shot at questioning Gorsuch on Tuesday. Committee Democrats noted Gorsuch has the chance to join the court only because Senate Republicans last year refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama’s nomination of federal appellate judge Merrick Garland. Despite slim chances of blocking his nomination in the Republican-led Senate, Democrats raised questions about Gorsuch’s suitability for the job. “Our job is to determine whether Judge Gorsuch is a reasonable, mainstream conservative or is he not,” said the panel’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein. Speaking publicly for the first time since Trump nominated him on Jan. 31, Gorsuch defended his judicial record in the face of Democratic criticism of his rulings.  Gorsuch, speaking mostly in generalities that could not cause him any trouble, emphasized the need for “neutral and independent judges to apply the law,” warned against judicial overreach, and referred to “the modest station we judges are meant to occupy in a democracy.” “If judges were just secret legislators, declaring not what the law is but what they would like it to be, the very idea of a government by the people and for the people would be at risk,” Gorsuch said in comments in harmony with conservative criticism of unelected “activist judges.” Gorsuch, a cool-headed and amiable jurist, gave Democrats very little ammunition to use against him, although there could be more drama when he takes questions. The hearing could last four days, providing classic Washington political theater. Grassley said the panel is likely to vote on the nomination on April 3, with the full Senate vote likely soon after. If Gorsuch is confirmed by the Senate, as expected, he would restore a narrow 5-4 conservative court majority. The seat has been vacant for 13 months, since the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal underscored the importance of judicial independence at a time when Trump has excoriated federal judges who have ruled against him on matters including two executive orders, put on hold by courts, to block people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States. Blumenthal said it was not “idle speculation” to suggest the Supreme Court might be asked to enforce a subpoena against Trump, citing FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before Congress on Monday confirming an ongoing investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.  Republican Ted Cruz said there is no reason for Gorsuch to be questioned about Trump, noting that previous nominees have not had to speak about allegations made against the president who nominated them. Democrats highlighted cases on which Gorsuch has ruled and questioned the influence of conservative interest groups in advising Trump on his selection. Feinstein emphasized abortion. Conservatives have long opposed the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide. Feinstein called that ruling and others since then buttressing abortion rights “super precedents” deserving special deference. Feinstein cited two Gorsuch legal opinions in which she said he “argued in favor of making it harder to convict felons who possess guns.” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said he was worried that Gorsuch’s conservative method of interpreting the Constitution “goes beyond being a philosophy and becomes an agenda” that is anti-abortion, anti-environment and pro-business. “Will you allow the government to intrude on Americans’ personal privacy and freedoms? Will you elevate the rights of corporations over those of real people? Will you rubberstamp a president whose administration has asserted that executive power is not subject to judicial review?” Leahy said. Many Democrats contend Trump’s party “stole” a Supreme Court seat by freezing out Garland. “Your nomination is part of a Republican strategy to capture our judicial branch of government,” Senator Dick Durbin told Gorsuch. “That is why the Senate Republicans kept this Supreme Court seat vacant for more than a year and why they left 30 judicial nominees who had received bipartisan approval of this committee to die on the Senate calendar as President Obama left office.” Gorsuch said he has tried to treat all who come to court fairly and with respect. “I have decided cases for Native Americans seeking to protect tribal lands, for class actions like one that ensured compensation for victims of nuclear waste pollution by corporations in Colorado,” he said. He also said he has ruled for disabled students, prisoners and workers alleging civil rights violations, and for immigrants who entered the country illegally. The court’s ideological leaning could help determine the outcome of cases involving the death penalty, abortion, gun control, environmental regulations, transgender rights, voting rights, immigration, religious liberty, presidential powers and more. Republicans hold 52 of the Senate’s 100 seats. Under present rules, Gorsuch would need 60 votes to secure confirmation. If Gorsuch cannot muster 60, Republicans could change the rules to allow confirmation by a simple majority.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट्स ने ट्रम्प के उच्च न्यायालय के उम्मीदवार गोरसच के बारे में संदेह जताया


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli parliament voted on Monday in favor of a draft law barring police from publicizing its conclusions in criminal probes   legislation seen as shielding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under investigation for corruption. The draft must still pass two more parliamentary votes. But if written into law, police would not be allowed to say whether they have found sufficient grounds to charge Netanyahu, keeping the Israeli public in the dark until the attorney-general determines whether the prime minister is to be prosecuted. The draft law also proposes a one-year jail term for officials who leak findings to the press.  Its two sponsors, confidants of Netanyahu, said the law is meant to protect suspects  rights and reputation, while the opposition derided it as a blatant attempt to protect Netanyahu and withhold knowledge from the public about his investigations.      The public doesn t need to know everything. The public will find out at the end,  Netanyahu s coalition head, David Bitan told the Knesset television channel.      Netanyahu has said he has no interest in promoting personal legislation but he has not ordered Bitan and his co-sponsor of the bill, David Amsalem, to withdraw the legislation.  Netanyahu is a suspect in two cases, one into alleged meddling in the media industry and the other into gifts he received from rich businessmen. He denies any wrongdoing. But, if charged, he would come under heavy pressure to resign or could call an election to test whether he still had a mandate.   This is a Netanyahu law,  said Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition party Yesh Atid, which latest polls show as neck in neck with Netanyahu s Likud.  It is tailored for very few people. The only people to benefit from it are politicians, mafia heads and politicians who behave like mafia heads.  All four prime ministers of the past two decades have been suspects in police investigations, but only Ehud Olmert was charged and convicted. He spent 16 months in jail for accepting bribes from real estate developers. In high-profile cases such as these, police usually say if they have gathered sufficient evidence against the suspects, before handing over to the Justice Ministry, where the Attorney-General and prosecutors decide whether to file charges.  The attorney-general has expressed alarm about the proposed legislation. [L8N1NK5EK] The two investigations in which Netanyahu is a suspect are known as Case 1000 and Case 2000. Case 1000 revolves around gifts he received from businessmen, including cigars and champagne. Netanyahu s lawyers say they were simply presents from long-time friends, with no quid pro quo. Case 2000 focuses on suspicions Netanyahu negotiated with the publisher of Israel s best-selling newspaper for better coverage in return for curbs on the competition. The prime minister s lawyers say Netanyahu never seriously considered any such deal. Netanyahu has described himself as a victim of a political witch hunt and said of the cases against him:  There will be nothing because there is nothing.

Summary: इजरायल ने आपराधिक जांच के तहत प्रधानमंत्री को संरक्षण देने वाले कानून को आगे बढ़ाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday gave final legislative approval to a $1.2 trillion spending bill to keep the government open through September, a measure President Donald Trump is expected to sign before Friday’s deadline.      Senators from both Republican and Democratic parties voted in favor of the bill, which passed 79 to 18 with only Republicans opposing the measure, citing minimal changes to spending levels.   The bill, which was passed 309-118 in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, now heads to Trump.  While it failed to include many of the items Trump had requested, he is expected to sign the bill before midnight Friday, when without his signature the government would shut down.  As soon as this spending measure is law, lawmakers and Trump must already begin looking forward to the next deadline on Oct. 1. Lawmakers are hopeful they can pass regular spending bills but the process is likely to be complicated by Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, a desire to rewrite the tax code and a need to find a deal to raise the debt ceiling since the limit is expected to be reached in the fall.  Under the compromise measure, the Pentagon’s funding increased, a priority that had been laid out by Republicans and Trump. It also funded Democratic priorities, including health care subsidies.  “This bill is far from perfect, but it’s better than how we are spending our money today, better than how we were spending our money a year ago,” Republican Senator Roy Blunt said on the Senate floor.  Democrats also claimed victory in the passage of the legislation, arguing that it fails to fund Trump’s priorities including money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Additionally, the bill funds subsidies for health care coverage provided through the Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature domestic legislation.  Republican Senator Ted Cruz gave his reasons for voting against the bill.  “While I am pleased to see increased funding for our men and women in uniform and their critical missions across the globe, this bill fails in a number of ways, including by continuing to fund sanctuary cities, Planned Parenthood, and Obamacare,” Cruz said.  Sanctuary cities are those that give limited cooperation to the federal government in enforcing immigration laws and Planned Parenthood is a conservative target because abortion is among the women’s health care services it provides. The spending bill does not include many of the spending cuts on domestic programs Trump had sought and adds $2 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $295 million for Puerto Rico’s underfunded Medicaid healthcare for the poor and $407 million for firefighting in Western states. The legislation adds $12.5 billion in defense spending. It makes $2.5 billion more available after Trump gives details on his plans for fighting the Islamic State militant group. The bill was approved months after the Oct. 1 2016 deadline to pass government funding for the fiscal year. For the past seven months, federal agencies have been operating mainly on simple extensions of the previous year’s funding and the priorities that came with that.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट ने सितंबर तक सरकार को धन देने के लिए विधेयक पारित किया


LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers have written to Prime Minister Theresa May, urging her to challenge U.S. President Donald Trump on his views on climate change when the two leaders meet on Friday. Trump has dismissed climate change as a “hoax” and vowed during his presidential campaign to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. “As one of the world’s largest emitters ... his approach to reducing emissions could determine whether we, in the UK and people round the world, experience or avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” the letter from the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee said. May is set to be the first foreign leader to meet the new U.S. President on Friday, with the talks expected to focus on trade. Environmental Audit Committee chair Mary Creagh said that May should use the opportunity to demonstrate Britain’s commitment to fighting climate change. “The Prime Minister has said she won’t be afraid to challenge the new President. So she should start by telling him climate change is not ‘a hoax’,” Creagh said. Scientists warn that rising global temperatures must be stalled to stave off the worst effects of climate change, including floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

Summary: ब्रिटिश सांसदों ने मे से जलवायु परिवर्तन पर ट्रम्प से निपटने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee asked the government ethics watchdog on Monday to review comments by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin plugging “The Lego Batman Movie,” a film one of his companies produced, for a possible ethics violation. In a letter to Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub, Senator Ron Wyden said he was concerned that Mnuchin had violated his ethics agreement signed in January in his comments on Friday at the end of a live interview with the Axios news website. Mnuchin had agreed to divest his interests in Ratpac-Dune Entertainment Holdings LLC within 120 days of his confirmation, and “not participate personally and substantially in any matter that has a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of the entity” unless first obtaining a waiver. RatPac-Dune, co-founded by Mnuchin with producer-director Brett Rattner and media billionaire James Packer, has produced and financed a number of Hollywood hits in recent years, including “Avatar,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “The Lego Batman Movie.” At the Axios event, Mnuchin was asked in a question from a reader for a movie recommendation. “I’m not allowed to promote anything that I’m involved in.  So I just want to have the legal disclosure, you’ve asked me the question, and I am not promoting any product,” Mnuchin said. “But you should send all your kids to ‘Lego Batman.’” The comment drew laughter from the audience at the Washington event. Wyden said the Finance Committee had received no notifications regarding Mnuchin’s holdings in RatPac-Dune and assumed the Treasury chief still held that interest. “I am concerned that Sec. Mnuchin’s comments, may be seen to have a predictable effect on the financial interests” of RatPac-Dune, Wyden said in his letter. In a statement, a Treasury spokesman said: “As his statement reflects, the Secretary clearly recognized that he generally may not promote private interests and specifically gave the legal disclosure that he was not promoting a movie, but answering a question he was asked directly.” The OGE recommended last month that the White House should consider disciplinary action against President Donald Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway for her on-air comment on Fox News Channel promoting the clothing and jewelry line of Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump. Conway said people “should go buy Ivanka’s stuff.” The White House later told the ethics watchdog that Conway had acted “inadvertently” and without “nefarious motive or intent to benefit personally.”

Summary: सीनेटर ने म्यूचिन की 'लेगो बैटमैन' टिप्पणी की नैतिकता जांच की मांग की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans on Tuesday accused Hillary Clinton’s State Department of failing to protect four Americans killed in a 2012 attack in Libya, in a final report that contained no major new revelations but rekindled debate on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. In an 800-page report that Democrats derided as a political vendetta, Republicans said Clinton, who served as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and her staff showed a “shameful” lack of response to congressional investigators looking into the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. The report, the culmination of a two-year investigation by a special congressional committee led by Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, is likely to be the last official attempt to investigate the attack. Seven other congressional panels have also investigated the attack on the U.S. diplomatic and CIA posts in Benghazi. The latest investigation has been used by Republicans to attack Clinton’s national-security credentials. Opinion polls have shown Americans deeply split along partisan lines over the probe. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has repeatedly charged that Clinton is personally responsible for the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed by militia groups in the Sept. 11, 2012 incident. Clinton’s campaign dismissed the committee’s report, saying it had not found anything that had not been discovered by previous congressional probes. White House press secretary Josh Earnest labeled the effort a “political exercise.” Clinton, speaking in Denver, said it was crucial to “learn the right lessons” from the Benghazi tragedy. “No one has thought more about or lost more sleep over the lives that we lost - the four Americans - which was devastating,” said Clinton. Trump waited until hours after the report’s release to comment. “Benghazi is just another Hillary Clinton failure,” he said on Twitter. “It just never seems to work the way it’s supposed to with Clinton.” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Clinton’s actions as secretary of state were “disqualifying.” “Hillary Clinton was in charge, knew the risks, and did nothing” to protect personnel on the ground in Libya, he said. Professor Julian Zelizer, a political analyst at Princeton University, called the report “old news” but said that would not stop Trump from trying to exploit the issue going forward. “A story like this, even though it seems familiar, can still serve to mobilize Republicans, and certainly Donald Trump will do that. He’ll certainly try,” Zelizer said.  Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist, said he doubted the report would influence undecided voters. “Those who are willing to believe that there was wrongdoing on Secretary Clinton’s part were unlikely willing to vote for her in the first place,” he said. At a news conference on Capitol Hill, Gowdy, chairman of the special congressional panel, said there was a disconnect between the violence unfolding in Benghazi and the perception among top Obama administration officials that “the fighting had subsided” at the U.S. diplomatic compound. The committee’s report faulted the State Department for providing inadequate security for the U.S. compound in Benghazi, State Department officials and the CIA for failing to properly evaluate the threat to U.S. personnel on the ground, and the Pentagon for not being in position to aid the Americans under siege. The report did not dispute assertions by the Obama administration that such a mission would have come too late to help the four who were killed. None of those conclusions, however, came as revelations. All had been reached by previous probes. The report also accused the White House of stonewalling the investigation, something aides to Obama have denied. Democrats on the Benghazi committee issued their own report a day before Tuesday’s release, accusing Republicans of conducting an overzealous investigation. According to a website maintained by committee Democrats, the investigation cost more than $7.1 million, a figure that excludes money spent on investigations by the seven other congressional committees that investigated the attacks. The Gowdy committee investigation lasted 782 days, longer than congressional probes of Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, the Iran-Contra scandal and Hurricane Katrina. Since it was established in May 2014, the Gowdy committee has held four public hearings, according to its website, which said that it interviewed 107 witnesses, mostly behind closed doors, including 81 who never appeared before the other committees that investigated the attacks. It reviewed about 75,000 pages of previously unexamined documents. Last October, Clinton, already a Democratic presidential candidate, calmly deflected harsh Republican criticism of her handling of the attack during a testy 11-hour hearing before the Gowdy committee. In testimony that stretched deep into the night, Clinton rejected Republican accusations that she ignored requests for security upgrades in Libya and misinformed the public about the cause of the attack. Clinton’s appearance before the panel followed months of controversy about her use of a private home email server for her State Department work, a disclosure that emerged in part because of the panel’s demand to see her official records. A 2012 report by a government accountability review board faulted State Department officials for providing “grossly” insufficient security in Benghazi, despite upgrade requests from Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and others in Libya.

Summary: पैनल की रिपोर्ट ने क्लिंटन और बेनगाज़ी पर बहस को फिर से शुरू किया


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian anti-corruption prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against Deputy Prime Minister Sevil Shhaideh for suspected abuse of office in a land transfer case, they said on Friday. The probe against Shhaideh, 52, is the first high-profile investigation faced by the nine-month old Social Democrat (PSD) government in one of the European Union s most graft-prone member states. Shhaideh, also a minister for regional development, is a close ally of PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who has received a suspended sentence for vote rigging and is currently on trial in a separate abuse of office case.    I was called here and I was informed ... I am a suspect, I cannot say more because the investigation is ongoing,  Shhaideh told reporters outside the prosecutors  headquarters.   I will make use of all my rights so as to be able to analyze the documents with my lawyer.  Prosecutors said in a statement that they suspected Shhaideh, at the time a deputy regional development minister, of helping in 2013 to illegally transfer 324 hectares (800 acres) of prime land near the Danube river from the state to the county council of Teleorman, which then leased it to private operators. The transfer was done through government bills, which the prosecutors said contravened the constitution as well as legislation concerning state property and national waters. Dragnea served as head of the Teleorman county council for more than a decade until 2012 and has had business ties to the region. Prosecutors are investigating four public servants in the case and have asked parliament to approve an investigation into Rovana Plumb, a lawmaker and currently minister in charge of European funds. They said they suspected Plumb, who was acting environment minister in 2013, of complicity in abuse of office. Under Romanian legislation, parliament must approve investigations against sitting lawmakers. Transparency International ranks Romania among the European Union s most corrupt states and Brussels, which keeps its justice system under special monitoring, has praised magistrates for their efforts to curb graft. In August, the European Commission expressed concerns that a planned overhaul of the judiciary would undermine Romania s progress. [nL8N1LA6DLC]  The overhaul, which would give the politically appointed justice minister more control over the judiciary, comes half a year after government attempts to weaken the crackdown on high-level graft triggered Romania s largest street protests in decades.  Shhaideh, who comes from Romania s small Muslim community, was Dragnea s first pick for prime minister after last December s parliamentary election, but the centrist president, Klaus Iohannis, rejected her nomination. [nL5N1EM134]

Summary: रोमानियाई उप प्रधानमंत्री शैदेह ने पद के दुरुपयोग के लिए जांच की


SOFIA (Reuters) - Turkey has charged three Bulgarians with illegal migrant trafficking and assisting a criminal organization, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The three were detained on Friday and held in custody in the northwestern Turkish city of Edirne pending investigations, a ministry statement said  Last week the Bulgarian authorities smashed a gang suspected of smuggling migrants into Western Europe. Eight people, including two Pakistanis, were charged with smuggling offences after they transported migrants, mainly Pakistanis, Afghans and Iraqis, from Turkey into Romania and then on to Hungary and Austria. Bulgaria has built a fence on its border with its Balkan neighbor Turkey and has bolstered its border controls to prevent inflows of illegal migrants.

Summary: तुर्की ने तीन बुल्गारियाई लोगों पर प्रवासी तस्करी का आरोप लगाया


GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - A home belonging to Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has been attacked and a policeman died in the incident, local lawmakers and U.N. sponsored radio said on Monday. Photos posted on social media showed the main house on the farm, located near the village of Musienene in North Kivu province in the east of the country, was gutted by fire.  Kabila was not at the property during the attack which took place overnight from Sunday to Monday.  It was not immediately known who was responsible for the raid. The body of the policeman who died was burned, a local government official said.    Congo is embroiled in a political crisis linked to Kabila s refusal to step down as president when his mandate expired a year ago while militia violence and political unrest are increasing.  We firmly condemn this barbarous act and call on the population ... to disassociate from any actions likely to compromise peace and development in this part of the country,  lawmakers said in a statement.  More than a decade after the end of a 1998-2003 war in which millions of people died, mostly from hunger and disease, rebel fighters and local militias stalk Congo s mineral-rich eastern borderlands. The armies of Congo and neighboring Uganda launched a joint operation against the Congo-based, Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) last week. The Islamist rebel group is suspected of being behind a Dec. 8 attack on a United Nations base in North Kivu that killed 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers and five Congolese soldiers.  The ADF has been blamed for a wave of attacks and massacres in the area. Raids by local Mai Mai militia fighters are also growing increasingly frequent.

Summary: हमलावरों ने कांगो लोकतांत्रिक गणराज्य के राष्ट्रपति की संपत्ति को आग लगा दी


ALBANY, N.Y. (Reuters) - Lawyers for two New York residents seeking to throw Ted Cruz off next month’s presidential primary ballot in the state urged an Appeals Court panel on Wednesday to consider whether the U.S. senator from Texas is eligible given his Canadian birth. The case put forward by New York residents Barry Korman, 81, of Manhattan and William Gallo, 85, of Manhasset, had been dismissed by a Supreme Court judge earlier this month because it was filed after a procedural deadline. Lawyers Roger Bernstein and Judith Hancock urged the five judges of the Appellate Division of New York to consider the merits of their case to block Cruz from the April 19 New York state primary election. The objectors attached Cruz’s birth certificate showing he was born in December 1970 in Calgary, Alberta. Bernstein told the panel the primary ballot must only contain constitutionally eligible presidential candidates, and argued the appeals judges should give greater weight to the importance of the issue than the missed deadline. Their petition to block Cruz came 19 days beyond the three-day limit after a candidate files a request to be placed on the ballot, Cruz’s lawyers said, adding that the objection should not go forward because it was tardy. The appeals judges are expected to rule later this week. The case is one of several similar challenges to Cruz’s eligibility to run for the White House - including lawsuits in Alabama, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas - filed since Republican front-runner Donald Trump brought up questions about whether Cruz meets the constitutional requirement to be president. The Constitution says that to be president, a person must be a “natural-born citizen” of the United States. Cruz has argued that he is eligible to run because of his mother’s U.S. citizenship, and many legal experts say it is unlikely any judge in the United States would block his presidential bid. The lawyers representing the New York objectors are also representing the appeal of Carmon Elliott, who is complaining about Cruz being on the ballot in Pennsylvania.

Summary: क्रूज़ व्हाइट हाउस की बोली के विरोधियों ने एन. वाई. अपील पैनल में मामला उठाया


YANGON (Reuters) - Proposed U.S. sanctions targeting Myanmar s military for its treatment of Rohingya Muslims would hinder the fledgling civilian government sharing power with the generals, a spokesman for de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Friday. The bill, introduced by members of the U.S. Senate on the eve of Donald Trump s departure on his first trip to Asia since becoming president in January, seeks to reimpose some sanctions lifted last year as Myanmar returned to democracy. The measure would impose targeted sanctions and travel curbs on Myanmar military officials and bar the United States from supplying most assistance to the military until perpetrators of atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar s western Rakhine State are held accountable. Responding to the moves in Washington, Suu Kyi s spokesman, Zaw Htay, told Reuters,  we need internal stability to improve the country s economy. Imposing international sanctions directly affects the people in travel and in business investments, and there are many bad consequences.  Myanmar officials would explain the government s efforts on Rakhine during a visit by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson scheduled for Nov. 15, he added.  We will explain to him what we are doing when he comes here. We can not tell him not to do that. And we don t know what is U.S. policy,  Zaw Htay said. Zaw Htay, a former army major who is a holdover from the quasi-civilian administration that handed over the reins last year, said the army, known as the Tatmadaw, had to be involved in Myanmar s transition. Myanmar was previously hit by sanctions over the military junta s brutal suppression of the then opposition led by Suu Kyi, but Zaw Htay stressed the civilian government still has to work with the military.    The country s reconstruction cannot be done only by the government. The Tatmadaw needs to be involved, it is very clear. Everything has to undergo negotiation with the Tatmadaw under the 2008 constitution,  he said, referring to the charter drawn up by the junta before Myanmar began its democracy transition.   Sanctions and pressures affect the government s work. It won t be a positive result if they impose sanctions, as with the previous experience (of sanctions).  He added,  Of course, it will damage all the business investments, not only military-owned (businesses). It will definitely have a bad affect. There can only be bad results.  Republican Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain, and Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, were among the lawmakers who have sponsored the bill.  A companion bill is also being introduced in the House of Representatives.  Members of Congress have pressed for a strong response to the plight of the Rohingya, and the Trump administration has been weighing labeling the actions by Myanmar s military as  ethnic cleansing . Myanmar has rejected that accusation, defending the military s actions as a counter-insurgency operation provoked by Rohingya militant attacks on 30 security posts in Rakhine State on Aug. 25. More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar since the military crackdown that has led to reports of burnt villages and widespread killings. The United Nations has denounced it as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. Zaw Htay said Myanmar was calling for the international community to  cooperate positively  on the Rakhine issue, rather than focusing on what he called mere allegations of abuse by security forces.  We are not ignoring human rights abuses,  he said.  They are all allegations. The international diplomats and international organizations who are saying what happened are always using allegations, without evidence. No one can give strong evidence of their allegations, although we asked for it.  Myanmar had so far been unable to take action based on the claims made by refugees in Bangladesh, he said.  We will take action if they are right...So cooperate with us by showing strong evidence, rather than basing it on just allegations.

Summary: यदि अमेरिका सेना पर प्रतिबंध लगाता है तो म्यांमार को 'बुरे परिणाम' देखने को मिलते हैं


GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations and Red Cross on Tuesday urged the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen to re-open an aid lifeline to bring imported food and medicine into the country. It is estimated that seven million people are facing famine there. The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement in Yemen said on Monday it would close all air, land and sea ports to the Arabian Peninsula country to stem the flow of arms from Iran. The Saudis and their allies say the Houthis get weapons from their arch-foe, Iran. Iran denies the charges and blames the conflict in Yemen on Riyadh. The U.N. Security Council is due to meet on Wednesday, at the request of Sweden, to discuss the humanitarian situation in Yemen, diplomats said in New York.  We call for all air and sea ports to remain open to ensure food, fuel and medicines can enter the country,  Jens Laerke of the U.N. Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs said in Geneva. He said humanitarian operations are currently  blocked  because air and sea ports in Yemen are closed,  The Saudi-led coalition has told the world body to  inform all commercial vessels at Hodeidah and Saleef ports to leave , Laerke said, referring to Red Sea ports controlled by the Houthis. The price of fuel jumped 60 percent  overnight  in Yemen and the price of cooking gas doubled, he said.  This is an access problem of colossal dimensions right now.  The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) joined the call.  Food, medicine and other essential supplies are critical for the survival of 27 million Yemenis already weakened by a conflict now in its third year,  Robert Mardini, ICRC regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement. The ICRC said that a shipment of chlorine tablets to prevent cholera did not get clearance at Yemen s northern border. It voiced fears for 50,000 vials of insulin for diabetics due to be delivered by next week, which require constant refrigeration. ICRC spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet said that a ship carrying 500 metric tonnes of rice, which arrived in Hodeidah port in October after a three-month trip from Pakistan, had to leave the port last week without offloading because the ship s crane had broken.  The port itself lacks adequate cranes after repeated coalition bombing.     Rupert Colville, U.N. human rights spokesman, said it would study whether the blockade amounted to  collective punishment , banned under international law, but hoped that it would be temporary. Attacks in Yemen over the past week that have killed dozens of civilians, including children, at markets and homes, he said.  These included at least nine air strikes on the Houthi-held city of Sanaa since Saturday, when a missile was fired from Yemen toward the Saudi capital of Riyadh, he said.  A cholera epidemic has caused 908,702 suspected cases and 2,194 deaths since the outbreak began in April, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said. In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel called for increased aid to Yemen, citing alarm at the latest  U.N. report.  No one will be able to say later, particularly with respect to Yemen, that they didn t know what was happening.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र, रेड क्रॉस ने सऊदी के नेतृत्व वाले गठबंधन से यमन के लिए सहायता जीवन रेखा को फिर से खोलने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House tried to defuse Republican charges of hypocrisy against President Barack Obama over Supreme Court nominees on Wednesday as liberal activists swung into action and the top Senate Democrat predicted a Republican “cave-in.” The White House turned up the heat on the Republican-led Senate to allow fair hearings and a timely vote on Obama’s impending selection to fill the court vacancy left by Saturday’s death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. The Democratic president’s nominee could change the balance of power on the top U.S. court - Scalia’s death left it with four conservative and four liberal justices - and a monumental fight is brewing over Obama’s pick for the lifetime appointment. Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said Scalia’s seat should remain vacant until Obama’s successor takes office next January so voters can have a say in the selection when they cast ballots in the Nov. 8 presidential election. The Senate must confirm any Supreme Court nominee. “I, first of all, think that they’re going to cave in,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, speaking in Reno, Nevada, said of the Republicans. “I think the president’s going to give us a nominee that’s a good one, and I think they’re going to have to hold hearings and have a vote.”     Obama has argued the Senate has a constitutional duty to consider his nominee. White House spokesman Josh Earnest was put on the defensive over Obama’s actions a decade ago as a member of the Senate when he tried to block the nomination put forward by his predecessor in the White House, Republican George W. Bush, of conservative Samuel Alito to the nation’s highest court. As a first-term senator from Illinois, Obama used a procedural maneuver called a filibuster. Alito was confirmed anyway.      “Some Democrats engaged in a process of throwing sand in the gears of the confirmation process. And that’s an approach that the president regrets,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.     Earnest portrayed Obama’s vote to try to block Alito as “symbolic” and sought to contrast it to “Republicans’ reflexive opposition” to Obama nominating a justice to replace Scalia. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said the filibuster that Obama joined undercut the White House’s argument. Liberal groups including MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a conference call with reporters they would mount a campaign to prod Republican senators to allow hearings and a vote on Obama’s nominee. They said they already had gathered some 500,000 petition signatures opposing McConnell’s stance. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Judiciary Committee that considers high court nominees, has not ruled out holding hearings, although he has offered mixed messages about how to proceed. “Grassroots voices are going to be the key to making Senator McConnell back off,” Senator Chuck Schumer, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, told reporters. Earnest declined to rule out that Obama would make a recess appointment: naming someone to the job on a temporary basis while the Senate is on a recess, bypassing the confirmation process. The White House has been in touch with the offices of “multiple” senators of both parties about the court vacancy, Earnest said. During a speech at Yale Law School in Connecticut, liberal Justice Stephen Breyer called for a moment of silence to honor Scalia, telling the audience: “It’s going to be a grayer place without him.”  Earnest said Obama and first lady Michelle Obama would pay their respects to Scalia on Friday when the late justice’s body lies in repose at the Supreme Court building. Earnest said Obama would not go to Scalia’s funeral Mass on Saturday in Washington but that Vice President Joe Biden would attend. The remaining eight justices have canceled a meeting set for Friday to discuss action on future cases but are due next week to hear scheduled oral arguments in pending cases.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने ओबामा के खिलाफ सुप्रीम कोर्ट के पाखंड के आरोप का खंडन किया


DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen s Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said on Thursday his group could target Saudi oil tankers should Saudi Arabia attack Yemen s main port at Hodeidah.   We could target Saudi oil tankers and we could do anything,  he said.  In a televised speech, the leader also said his group s ballistic missiles were capable of reaching the United Arab Emirates  capital of Abu Dhabi and anywhere inside Saudi Arabia.  It was unclear whether the Houthi group has the capability to carry out its threats. Abdel Malek said the Houthis had successfully fired a missile at Abu Dhabi earlier this month, meaning the United Arab Emirates was no longer safe from attack. He gave no further details and there has been no indication by the UAE of any missiles landing on their territory.  UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter his country was not intimidated by Houthi threats.  The Houthis  comments threatening the UAE and its capital are tangible proof of the need for the Decisive Storm (operation),  Gargash said, referring to the Saudi-led coalition intervening in Yemen.  Iran s militias have vile objectives and represent a real threat,  he added. Yemen has been devastated by more than two years of civil war in which President Abd Rabu Hadi s government, backed by the coalition, is fighting to drive the Iran-allied Houthis out of cities they seized in 2014 and 2015 in a rapid rise to national power.  Today the port of Hodeidah is being threatened and we cannot turn a blind eye to that,  Abdel-Malek said.   If the Saudi regime and with a green light from the U.S. attack Hodeidah then we have to take steps that we haven t taken before.   The United Nations had proposed that the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, where 80 percent of food imports arrive, should be handed to a neutral party, to smooth the flow of humanitarian relief and prevent the port being engulfed by Yemen s two-year-old war. The government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi accuses the Houthis of using the port to smuggle in weapons and of collecting custom duties on goods, which they use to finance the war. The Houthis deny this.

Summary: यमन के हौती नेता का कहना है कि अगर होदेइदाह ने हमला किया तो वे सऊदी तेल टैंकरों को निशाना बना सकते हैं


(Reuters) - The New York Power Authority (NYPA) on Friday sent 10 engineers, planners and technical supervisors to Puerto Rico to help with the assessment and reconstruction of the island s power grid, which was completely shut down by Hurricane Maria. The NYPA workers were part of a group that traveled to Puerto Rico with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on the first flight to depart for Puerto Rico s capital San Juan since the  Category 4 hurricane hit the island on Wednesday, according to a statement from the governor s office.  We have assembled top emergency response experts to support Puerto Rico and help repair its devastated power structure, and we are providing supplies and any additional assistance we can to support the island as they recover from this unprecedented natural disaster,  Cuomo said in a statement. In addition to the 10 NYPA specialists and translators, New York also sent drones and two drone pilots from the Department of Environmental Conservation to assist with the reconstruction of Puerto Rico s power grid. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which owns and operates the power system serving the commonwealth s 3.4 million residents, filed for bankruptcy in July, after years of underinvestment that yielded a grid it called  degraded and unsafe.  Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello has said PREPA was so severely hit that it could be months before electricity is restored to all customers.  The NYPA workers are some of the first utility workers to go to Puerto Rico from the mainland after Maria. The American Public Power Association (APPA), which is helping coordinate the utility response, has said it was also planning to bring in crews from other parts of the U.S. mainland to help with recovery efforts on both Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. There were some specialists from the Western Area Power Authority, which serves much of the U.S. West from Montana to Texas and California, already on Puerto Rico when Maria struck the island.  The Western Area workers had been on their way to the Virgin Islands to help rebuild and restore power after Hurricane Irma when they got stuck in Puerto Rico.  Irma grazed Puerto Rico on Sept. 6, knocking out power to more than 1 million of PREPA s 1.5 million customers. PREPA said it restored power to all but about 60,000 homes and businesses by Tuesday before Maria hit.

Summary: एन. वाई. बिजली कंपनी ने तूफान के बाद प्यूर्टो रिको की सहायता के लिए चालक दल भेजा


PRAGUE (Reuters) - Support for billionaire Andrej Babis s ANO party dipped ahead of a Czech election on Oct. 20-21, but the party maintained a double-digit lead over its closest rival and remained favorite to lead the next government, an opinion poll showed on Monday. Babis, the second richest Czech, has been harvesting disillusion of many voters in the central European EU member country with corruption in the political class, inefficient government and slow catch-up in incomes with the richer western Europe. The final poll by the Median agency before a black-out starting on Tuesday showed eight parties winning seats, including a strengthening far-right, anti-EU formation. Support for ANO dipped to 25 percent in the survey conducted on Sept 26-Oct 14, down from 27 percent in September.      ANO has maintained it image as a protest party despite serving in the outgoing cabinet as partner to the centre-left Social Democrats of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. Babis s image suffered from police charges earlier this month of fraud in tapping European Union subsidy, a small project among many by the chemicals, food and media businessman worth $4 billion according to Forbes magazine. He denies any wrongdoing.  A Slovak court also annulled last Thursday rulings clearing Babis of cooperating with former Communist secret police in then totalitarian Czechoslovakia. He denies being an agent. The poll showed ANO will need partners to form a parliamentary majority. A relatively weak showing by ANO would embolden potential partners demanding that Babis personally stays out of the cabinet due to the police charges. Babis served as finance minister from 2014 until May this year, presiding over a drive to raise tax collection and a fiscal surplus last year. He opposes deeper EU integration and adopting the euro. He also opposes accepting any refugees. Rivals say he poses a threat to democracy due to his authoritarian style, desire to simplify decision making, and conflicts of interest as businessman whose firms compete for state contracts and receive subsidies. Babis moved his firm Agrofert to a trust fund earlier this year and denies any abuse of his position.     The Social Democrats   who have not ruled out a new coalition with ANO   polled second with 12.5 percent, down 1 percentage point, followed by the far-left Communists with 10.5 percent. The rise of ANO and other protest groups show a shift from traditional parties even as the country enjoys fast economic growth and the lowest unemployment in the EU.  The Social Democrats lost about 40 percent of voters and the centre-right TOP 09 party polled 6 percent, half of its score  in the previous election.  The far-right, anti-EU SPD party jumped to 9.5 percent, tapping into anti-immigration sentiment in a country that saw almost none of the 2015 immigration wave into Europe.   The Pirate Party, a local offshoot of the international Pirate movement which focuses on government transparency and an  electronic agenda polled 8.5 percent, giving it chances of entering parliament for the first time.

Summary: चेक ए. एन. ओ. पार्टी में गिरावट, लेकिन मतदान से पहले बढ़त बरकरारः सर्वेक्षण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee said on Friday that it has scheduled a new hearing on Kaspersky Lab software as lawmakers review accusations that the Kremlin could use its products to conduct espionage. Kaspersky Lab has strongly denied those allegations, which last month prompted the Trump administration to order civilian government agencies to purge the software from its networks, and agreed to send Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky to Washington to testify before Congress.  The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology announced the Oct. 25 hearing a day after reports that Russian government-backed hackers stole highly classified U.S. cyber secrets in 2015 from a National Security Agency contractor who had Kaspersky software installed on his laptop. The House science committee did not say who would be called to testify at the hearing.  Eugene Kaspersky last month told Reuters that the committee had invited him to testify at a Sept. 27 hearing and that he would attend if he could get an expedited visa to enter the United States.  That hearing was later canceled, though the committee held a closed-door classified session on Kaspersky software on Sept. 26. Eugene Kaspersky said in a statement on Friday that he hoped to attend the hearing. “I look forward to participating in the hearing once it’s rescheduled and having the opportunity to address the committee’s concerns directly,” he said.  An appearance before Congress would mark Kaspersky’s most high-profile attempt to dispel long-standing accusations that his firm may be conducting espionage on behalf of the Russian government. The investigation into the 2015 NSA hack is focused on somebody who worked at the agency’s Tailored Access Operations unit, a unit that uses computer hacking to gather intelligence, according to two people familiar with the classified probe. Kaspersky anti-virus software was running on the contractor’s laptop at the time of the hack, and investigators are looking into whether hackers used the software to breach the computer and steal the data, said one of those sources.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन समिति ने कैस्परस्की सॉफ्टवेयर पर नई सुनवाई बुलाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There will be no planned announcement on Friday of U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, the White House said. Trump fired the former director James Comey on May 9 in a surprise announcement that sparked days of political turmoil. On Thursday, the president said he was close to choosing a replacement.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि शुक्रवार को एफ. बी. आई. निदेशक के नाम की घोषणा नहीं की जाएगी


NEW YORK (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump is considering Goldman Sachs Group Inc President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn to head the White House budget office or to fill other positions, a Trump transition official said on Wednesday. Cohn, 56, a former Goldman commodities trader who joined the firm in 1990, has been widely considered to be the heir apparent to Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein. Dow Jones reported earlier on Wednesday that Cohn, who met with Trump on Tuesday, has had discussions about leaving the firm. If Cohn is picked to become Trump’s budget director and is subsequently confirmed by the U.S. Senate early next year, he would play a lead role in formulating spending priorities for domestic and international programs funded by Washington. The budgets produced annually by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget are a reflection of every administration’s legislative priorities and a blueprint for detailed spending and tax bills the president wants Congress to consider. Cohn has donated both to Democrats and Republicans over the years. He has given more recently to Republicans, including $33,400 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2015, according to campaign contribution records. They also showed that in 2007 and 2008, Cohn donated to Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns. Cohn is a former Goldman commodities trader from Ohio who joined the firm in 1990. He served in a variety of leadership roles in bond trading, becoming co-head of Goldman’s broader securities and eventually, co-president in 2006. He makes frequent appearances at industry conferences and on television, where he speaks about the state of the financial markets.   Cohn struggled with dyslexia as a child and bounced from school to school, according to a Malcolm Gladwell profile from his book “David and Goliath.”  Cohn is typically known throughout Goldman for his direct and abrasive manner in dealing with colleagues, although he has become more polished in recent years, current and former executives said. Leaving Goldman to go to Washington would not be the first time that Cohn had taken a big risk.  He was given his first job on Wall Street after visiting the trading pit and sharing a cab with one of the traders to LaGuardia airport. Although Cohn knew nothing about trading options, he convinced the trader to give him an interview opportunity and he eventually landed a job on the floor of the commodities exchange.  “Everything I’ve done in my career ... is to take risks,” Cohn said in a 2009 speech at American University’s Kogod School of Business to new graduates.  Alongside Blankfein, Cohn is one of the few senior executives left on Wall Street who navigated through the financial crisis. Cohn’s co-president, Jon Winkelried, left the firm in 2009.  But with Blankfein showing no sign that he will step down soon, some inside the firm have wondered if Cohn has other aspirations outside the Wall Street bank.  Pacific Investment Management Co in 2013 had considered Cohn to replace Mohamed El-Erian. But discussions never progressed beyond an initial stage, according to reports at the time.  While Cohn does not have political experience, he is no stranger to Capitol Hill. Cohn was a regular visitor to Washington following the financial crisis, speaking to lawmakers and regulators about the markets, financial regulation and the commodities sector.  He has known Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Democratic senator from Ohio, for years and has contributed to his campaign.  Cohn met with lawmakers, including Brown, in 2014 as Goldman tried to defend its presence in the commodities market.  Cohn is also friendly with Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican senator who renounced his support for Trump in October. The two co-hosted an event in 2013 in Cleveland for small business owners who graduated from Goldman’s 10,000 Small Business program.   Cohn is just one of a cadre of other former Goldman Sachs executives who are slated to join the Trump administration, including nominee for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House adviser Steve Bannon. With the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives both under Republican control, Trump’s budget proposals are likely to receive more serious consideration than budgets submitted over the past few years by President Obama, who was regularly at odds with Republican lawmakers.

Summary: गोल्डमैन कोहन की नजर शीर्ष ट्रम्प बजट पद परः संक्रमण अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was disappointed that a conservative faction in the House of Representatives blocked his healthcare legislation and said “we learned a lot about loyalty” from the effort. Speaking in the Oval Office after a stunning political setback, Trump said the healthcare effort was a victim of stalwart Democratic opposition and any future healthcare legislation would likely need Democratic support. He also said he was surprised and disappointed by the opposition from the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservatives who prevented Republicans from using their majority in the House to pass the legislation. Asked if he felt betrayed by the Freedom Caucus, Trump said he did not. “No, I’m not betrayed. They’re friends of mine. I’m disappointed because we could have had it. So I’m disappointed. I’m a little surprised, to be honest with you,” Trump said. “We really had it. It was pretty much there, within grasp. But I’ll tell you what’s going to come of it is a better bill...because there were things in this bill that I didn’t particularly like. If both parties could get together and do real healthcare, that’s the best thing,” he said. Trump, a New York businessman who won election Nov. 8 based in part on promises to get big deals through Congress, cast the failure as a learning experience. “We all learned a lot. We learned a lot about loyalty,” Trump said. “We learned a lot about some very arcane rules in obviously both the Senate and the House.” Trump also expressed confidence in House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was seen as the main backer of the legislation. Ryan personally delivered the news earlier in the day to Trump that there were not enough votes to pass it. “I like Speaker Ryan. He worked very, very hard. A lot of different groups. He’s got a lot of factions. And there’s been a long history of liking and disliking, even within the Republican Party, long before I got here,” he said. “I’m not going to speak badly about anybody within the party.” Trump has privately told confidants he wished he had done tax reform first instead of getting immersed in the difficult effort to overhaul President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, which passed without Republican support in 2010. “We’ll probably be going right now for tax reform,” Trump said, saying he wanted “big tax cuts and tax reform. That will be next.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने हाउस रूढ़िवादियों द्वारा स्वास्थ्य सेवा विधेयक को अवरुद्ध किए जाने से निराश किया


GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea on Friday ruled out negotiations with Washington as long as joint U.S-South Korea military exercises continue, and said that Pyongyang s atomic weapons program would remain as a deterrent against a U.S. nuclear threat. In an interview with Reuters, Han Tae Song, North Korea s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, brushed off the new  sanctions which the Trump administration has said it is preparing, as well as the possibility of North Korea being added to a U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism. South Korea and the United States agreed on Friday to keep working for a peaceful end to the North Korean nuclear crisis, but a U.S. envoy said it was difficult to gauge the reclusive North s intentions as there has been  no signal . Han, asked about those bilateral talks in Seoul, replied:  As long as there is continuous hostile policy against my country by the U.S. and as long as there are continued war games at our doorstep, then there will not be negotiations.    There are continued military exercises using nuclear assets as well as aircraft carriers, and strategic bombers and then...raising such kinds of military exercises against my country,  he said. He, who is ambassador to the U.N. s Conference on Disarmament, was speaking at the Democratic People s Republic of Korea (DPRK) mission in Geneva, where the DPRK and the United States secured a 1994 nuclear deal which later fell apart.  He said he had no information on when North Korea might test a ballistic missile again, after the last one two months ago.   The DPRK, my country, will continue to build-up its self-defense capability, the pivot of which is nuclear forces and capability for a triumphant...strike as long as U.S. and hostile forces keep up nuclear threat and blackmail,  Han said.   Our country plans ultimate completion of the nuclear force,  he said. China said on Thursday that a  dual suspension  proposal to handle North Korea was still the best option, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had rejected a  freeze for freeze  agreement. Han, asked about China s latest appeal for a freeze, said  the situation is far from those things . Han said that U.S. administrations had  never accepted  halting joint military exercises, adding:  So if they accept such things, then we will think what we do in the future.  North Korea could not consider abandoning its nuclear program, he said, adding:  This is the deterrent, the nuclear deterrent to cope with the nuclear threat from America.  Han said that Trump was expected to announce further sanctions against North Korea. Existing sanctions have constituted  large-scale human rights violations  that had delayed delivery of aid and consumer goods, he said.  It is obvious that the aim of the sanctions is to overthrow the system of my country by isolating and stifling it and to intentionally bring about humanitarian disaster instead of preventing weapons development as claimed by the U.S. and its followers,  he said. Han, asked whether new U.S. sanctions were expected against North Korean individuals or financial structures, said:   The media is saying the Americans and Trump are considering such things.  But that is their business and then we don t mind what they want to do against my country since the aim is quite clear.  So we are ready for such kinds of measures taken by  America against my country,  he said.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः उत्तर कोरिया ने परमाणु हथियारों पर बातचीत से किया इनकार


LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - William Jackson remembers the exodus vividly, when over 10,000 Protestants fled the west bank of Londonderry s River Foyle for the city s suburbs as Northern Ireland s  Troubles  erupted.  Almost 50 years on Jackson is among some 250 Protestants who stayed and carved out a tiny enclave known as  The Fountain , a tight, fiercely pro-British community that is separated by high walls and fences from the surrounding Irish nationalist heartland.  You are not talking one or two families, you are talking hundreds and hundreds and hundreds,  Jackson said, recalling the flight which began in 1969 when British troops were sent to the city to quell unrest over a civil rights campaign launched by the Catholic minority. Three decades of bloodshed followed between Catholic Irish nationalists, seeking to unite with Ireland, and pro-British Protestant loyalists, who want to remain part of the United Kingdom. Around 3,600 people were killed before a 1998 peace agreement. Much of Northern Ireland has since been transformed, yet in many areas the two sides remain separated by so-called  peace walls . The fences of up to 15 meters set up in the years after 1969 were supposed to be temporary but many still remain. In The Fountain, the metal gate in the wall between it and the nearby Bogside area - home to the late Irish nationalist hero Martin McGuinness - is locked at 9 p.m. each night and it remains one of the province s flashpoints when sporadic violence breaks out.  We stayed here because we re hardcore,  said Jackson.  We managed to stay as a small community and it s always been that way. Nationalists wouldn t be welcome to live here, even today. Just the same as Protestants wouldn t be made welcome in the Bogside. It s just one of those things unfortunately.  Social codes are so ingrained that it is virtually unheard for people to spend time in the opposing community s neighborhood but anyone who did could face threats or a beating from local hardliners.  Outsiders , as locals refer to Protestants not originally from the area, have moved in but only last around five or six years, according to Jackson, who runs the local Heritage Tower museum, one the smallest galleries in Northern Ireland.  You have families that come and spend a year and they go because of the way of life here,  he said.  Some of the police have actually referred to us as like rats living in a cage.  The area remains blighted by poverty and many houses remain derelict. Some residents say they disconnect their electricity periodically to save money.  At The Fountain s Cathedral Youth Club, Jeanette Warke has spent the last 45 years providing an education and recreational outlet to three generations of youngsters who went from dodging bullets to fighting unemployment. Warke has seen The Fountain change over that time and now concentrates on better integrating local Catholic and Protestant children. Last year she brought them to Dublin for the centenary of the Irish uprising that led to independence from Britain and to France for a commemoration of the World War One Battle of the Somme.  We ve really opened up big avenues for these young people, Protestant and Catholic to look at their history,  said Warke, who still works at the age of 73 and has been honored by Britain s Queen for her services to young people.  You re not looking to change young people s mindsets and to take them away from their own culture, that s not what we are about. We re looking to create a better understanding and also respect for each other and that to me is very, very important.  However Jackson, Warke and other locals think it s still too soon to tear down the walls between Protestants who call their city Londonderry and Catholics who refer to it simply as Derry. There s more work to do, Warke said. Until then, The Fountain community will remain as tight as ever.  My mother says the only time she will leave the Fountain is in a box,  said 38-year-old Daphne Atkinson, a fellow youth club worker.  She s proud of where she s from which is a good thing so she ll not leave only when it s her time to go.

Summary: उत्तरी आयरलैंडः फव्वारे के अंदर जीवन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A five-week summer break might sound sweet to many people, but maybe not to the 292 Republicans in Congress who leave Washington with none of their major legislative goals achieved after six months in power alongside President Donald Trump. With Congress due to be closed until Sept. 5, voters may ask: What happened to repealing and replacing Obamacare? Overhauling the tax code? Investing more money in job-creating infrastructure projects? The awkward answer for Republican lawmakers and Trump is “not much.” Despite having control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives since the November 2016 elections, Republicans have not delivered on their biggest campaign promises. Distracted by a probe of possible ties between his campaign and Russian meddling in the election, among many other issues he tweets about, Trump has yet to propose any major legislation since his Jan. 20 inauguration. Some Republicans fear voters will punish their party in the November 2018 elections for inaction now, and that congressional losses would make it even harder for Trump to get things done in 2019-2020, the second half of his four-year term. Republicans’ failure to repeal Obamacare “is going to be difficult to explain to the (Republican) base,” former Senate Majority Tom Daschle, a Democrat, said in a recent interview.   There are some achievements for Republicans to point to, including the Senate confirmation in April of Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, conservative judge Neil Gorsuch. This week, congressional Democrats and Republicans also pressured Trump into enacting a Russia-Iran-North Korea sanctions bill. Lawmakers also managed to pass bills to improve veterans’ healthcare and renew a Food and Drug Administration funding stream for reviewing drug safety. The Senate confirmed a new FBI director and Congress also repealed 14 Obama-era regulations. But as Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina told reporters, he and his fellow Republicans “lack traction” on major legislation. “We have not done well on the big events.” When Congress returns in early September, Republicans want to focus on taxes. But a comprehensive tax reform initiative remains under wraps amid deep divisions in the party. There has been no movement on legislation to finance the rebuilding of roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure. Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who faces a possible tough re-election next year, said Trump remains popular among voters in her state, which he carried by 36 points in November. “They’re grateful for the rollback of what we all considered onerous regulations against industry; onerous overreach by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency),” Heitkamp said of the regulations then-President Barack Obama imposed before leaving office, which Trump and Congress nullified. Republicans want to pass a budget blueprint for the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1, an action that was supposed to have been taken care of long before the summer recess. Without the measure, Republican legislation rewriting the U.S. tax code might not advance. There are serious disagreements among Republicans about long-term spending levels, however. Also ominous are the party’s rifts over funding the government near-term and avoiding Oct. 1 federal agency shutdowns. And there is the problem of raising Washington’s borrowing limit. Failure could trigger a historic U.S. default. Those and other issues will be taken up next month. But in the run-up to the summer break the Senate did manage to close ranks and unanimously pass a resolution proclaiming Sept. 25 as National Lobster Day.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन के अधूरे वादों के साथ कांग्रेस टूटने की ओर बढ़ रही है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian air strike killed 49 Nusra Front militants including seven of its field commanders in Syria s Idlib province, Russia s Rossiya 24 state television channel cited the Russian defense ministry as saying on Thursday. Nusra Front severed ties with al Qaeda last year and rebranded to head the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance. Russia said on Wednesday it had critically injured a leader of the Tahrir al-Sham militant group, Abu Mohamad al-Golani, with an air strike in Syria that also killed 12 of his field commanders. Golani is now in a coma, Russian news agencies cited Russia s defense ministry as saying on Thursday.

Summary: रूस का कहना है कि सीरिया में हवाई हमले में नुसरा फ्रंट के 7 फील्ड कमांडर मारे गए


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government will not hold talks with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) about the results of the  unconstitutional  referendum on independence held on Monday in northern Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.  We are not ready to discuss or have a dialogue about the results of the referendum because it is unconstitutional,  Abadi said in a speech broadcast on state TV on Monday night. Masoud Barzani s KRG says the referendum is not binding and was meant to be a legitimate mandate to negotiate with Baghdad and neighboring countries over the secession of the Kurdish-controlled region from Iraq. The vote was expected to deliver a comfortable  yes , and final results should be announced in 72 hours.

Summary: इराक ने स्वतंत्रता जनमत संग्रह के परिणामों के बारे में कुर्दिस्तान के साथ बातचीत से इनकार कर दिया


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Five crew members of a Dominican-registered dredger were missing after a collision with an Indonesian-registered tanker in Singapore s territorial waters on Wednesday, Singapore s Marine Port Authority (MPA) said. The missing include four Chinese nationals and one Malaysian, the MPA said. Seven other Chinese nationals have been rescued, it said. The dredger capsized and is currently partially submerged, while the tanker reported damage to her starboard, MPA said. Singapore authorities are conducting search and rescue operations and the Singapore Navy has deployed three patrol craft. The Singapore Air Force has also deployed a helicopter to conduct an aerial search, the MPA said. It said there had been no disruption to shipping traffic in the Singapore Strait.

Summary: सिंगापुर में ड्रेजर की टैंकर से टक्कर के बाद चालक दल के पांच सदस्य लापता


DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland has made  significant progress  in talks with Britain on the future of the Northern Irish border, but the sides are  not there yet , a spokesman for Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Monday. The spokesman said Ireland was seeking  a commitment to avoid a hard border in the withdrawal treaty, or ensuring that the rules and regulations of the single market and customs union cannot diverge . It is also looking for assurances on the protection of the Northern Ireland peace process, cross-border funding and the British-Irish common travel area as well as a commitment to a transition period, he said.

Summary: आयरिश सरकार ने कहा कि ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता पर महत्वपूर्ण प्रगति हुई है


STOCKHOLM/CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. academic Richard Thaler, who helped popularize the idea of  nudging  people towards doing what was best for them, won the 2017 Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for his work on how human nature affects supposedly rational markets.  Influential in the field of behavioral economics, his research showed how traits such as lack of self-control and fear of losing what you already have prompt decisions that may not have the best outcome in the longer term.   I think the most important impact (of my research) is the recognition that economic agents are human and economic models have to incorporate that,  Thaler, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said in a call broadcast at the Nobel news conference.  Asked at a separate news conference in Chicago if it was difficult to get traditional, data-oriented economists to embrace his ideas, Thaler said it was "impossible...economists don't do a lot of embracing actually."  Awarding the 9 million Swedish crown ($1.1 million) prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said:  Richard Thaler s contributions have built a bridge between the economic and psychological analyses of individual decision-making.    His empirical findings and theoretical insights have been instrumental in creating the new and rapidly expanding field of behavioral economics, which has had a profound impact on many areas of economic research and policy.   Thaler brought to prominence the idea of  nudge  economics, where individuals are subtly guided toward beneficial behaviors without heavy-handed compulsion, the theme of a 2008 book he co-wrote which caught the eye of policymakers around the world.  In research focused on self control - or the lack of it - Thaler touched on an age-old problem: why New Year s resolutions to change aspects of your life are notoriously hard to keep.  The issue has relevance for economics as individuals  tendency to fall prey to temptation often negatively affects plans to, for instance, save for retirement.  Together with Professor Cass Sunstein, he argued that society - while maintaining freedom of choice - should actively try to guide individuals in the right direction.  Their book, titled  Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness  became popular with some western politicians seeking ways to encourage their citizens to save and live healthily, without incurring voters  wrath for raising taxes or banning behavior outright.   This has also been used in public pension systems in the United States and the general idea of  nudging  ... has made a breakthrough in public policy making,  Torsten Persson, economics prize committee member, told Reuters.   There s also a nudging unit for the UK government, there s one for the Australian government, it even affects the Swedish government when they think about these things.   David Laibson, chair of Harvard University s economics department, said many of Thaler s theories have been widely applied by business and government, aiming to get individuals to do a range of actions such as paying parking tickets and getting flu shots.   If you live in a developed country, there s some firm or entity that has read these ideas and started to affect your life,  Laibson said.  Influential in academic circles, the movie-going public may have noticed Thaler make a brief cameo in the 2015 film  The Big Short , explaining the so-called  hot-hand fallacy  where past success is expected to also warrant success in the future, with pop star Selena Gomez.   I basically have made a career stealing ideas from psychologists,  Thaler joked at the Chicago news conference.  Asked how he would spend his prize money, he said:   I will spend it as irrationally as possible.   The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968. It was not part of the original group of awards set out in dynamite tycoon Nobel s 1895 will.  Economy is the last of this year s Nobels, with prizes for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace awarded last week.  The United States has dominated the economics prize, with American economists accounting for roughly half of laureates since the inception of the award. Indeed, between 2000 and 2013, U.S. academics won or shared the prize every year.  While Americans have dominated the Nobel science and economics prizes, another category of researchers - women - have been few and far between. Indeed only one woman - Elinor Ostrom in 2009 - has won the economics prize to date, and not a single individual woman won any Nobel award in 2017.   We are disappointed looking in a larger perspective that there aren t more women who have been rewarded,  the Academy s secretary general Goran Hansson said.  He said the Academy would hold a conference to discuss the issue and nominators will be asked to identify women scientists for recognition and also consider ethnic and geographic diversity.   We are concerned, we are taking measures. I hope that in five years, 10 years, we will see a very different distribution,  Hansson said.  (For graphic on Nobel Prize winners, click - tmsnrt.rs/2hMJ6aQ)

Summary: हम सभी इंसान हैंः 'नज' सिद्धांतकार थेलर ने अर्थशास्त्र का नोबेल जीता


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela s former Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino, in video shot before his detention and published on his Twitter account on Thursday, said he had been a  victim  of an  unjustified attack.  Del Pino, an engineer who also used to lead state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], said he would exercise his right to self-defense but did not elaborate on who ordered his arrest in the early hours of Thursday.

Summary: पहले से रिकॉर्ड किए गए वीडियो में, वेनेजुएला के हिरासत में लिए गए तेल मंत्री ने कहा कि वह 'पीड़ित' है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he expected to have most members of his Cabinet announced next week, interviewing more candidates at Trump Tower for top jobs in his administration as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20. Trump is still weighing who to choose as secretary of state. The Republican president-elect said on Thursday he had chosen retired Marine Corps General James Mattis as defense secretary and would make a formal announcement on that on Monday. “We have tremendous people joining the Cabinet and beyond the Cabinet. You’ll be seeing almost all of them next week,” Republican Trump, who has never previously held public office, said in an interview that aired on Friday on Fox News. Even without his full foreign policy team in place, Trump had more phone calls with foreign leaders, breaking tradition by speaking with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, the first such contact by a president-elect since President Jimmy Carter adopted a one-China policy in 1979. Trump also invited Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte to the White House next year during a “very engaging, animated” phone conversation, according to a Duterte aide. Duterte has sparred with Democratic President Barack Obama and insulted him. Obama canceled a planned meeting with him in September. A statement issued by Trump’s transition team made no mention of an invitation. Domestically, Trump plans to move quickly after taking office on his goals to overhaul taxation, healthcare and immigration laws, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said in an interview published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday. Top priorities include curbing illegal immigration, abolishing and replacing President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare program, and filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court, Pence told the newspaper. Asked what he would do on his first day in office, Trump told Fox News he may address his campaign pledge to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico, though he did not go into specifics. “We could do the wall, we’re going to do some repealing, we’re going to do some executive orders that we think are inappropriate,” Trump told Fox, referring to the possibility of reversing executive orders issued by Obama, a Democrat, during his eight-year term. CEOs TO ADVISE ON POLICY On Friday Trump named an advisory panel led by the chief executive of Blackstone, the world’s biggest alternative asset manager, stacked with executives from some of America’s largest companies, such as Wal Mart Stores Inc, Boeing Co and International Business Machines Corp. On Thursday he claimed success in persuading Carrier Corp, an Indiana an air conditioner maker, to keep about 1,000 jobs in the United States rather than move them to Mexico. But that drew criticism from former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, a Trump supporter who had been reported to be under consideration for a Cabinet job. “When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent,” she wrote in an opinion piece on the Young Conservatives website youngcons.com. “Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail,” she wrote. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had an investment of up to $250,000 in 2014 in United Technologies Corp., the parent company of Carrier.          Trump is weighing who to put in charge of the Department of Homeland Security, which enforces immigration law and plays a key role in preventing terror attacks; a director of national intelligence; and several Cabinet posts dealing with energy and the environment. On Friday, Jay Cohen, former under secretary of Homeland Security for science and technology and a retired Navy rear admiral, told reporters in Trump Tower that he interviewed for a position he would not reveal. “Cyber security was discussed, and I believe that President-elect Trump understands fully the magnitude of that challenge,” Cohen said. Trump has narrowed the field for secretary of state to four candidates, including the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, who attacked Trump throughout the 2016 campaign but spoke glowingly of the president-elect after having dinner with him earlier this week. “There was actually good chemistry,” Trump said on Fox.

Summary: ट्रम्प जल्दी से अपने शीर्ष कैबिनेट पदों को भरने के लिए आगे बढ़ते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in Paris on Friday, the State Department said in a statement on Thursday. The two will meet during a ministerial meeting of the International Lebanon Support Group, a body that includes the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council   Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Hariri rescinded his resignation on Tuesday, drawing a line under a month-long crisis triggered when he announced from Riyadh that he was stepping down and remained outside Lebanon for weeks. His coalition government, which includes the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, reaffirmed a state policy of staying out of conflicts in Arab states. The State Department statement said Tillerson would encourage the Lebanese government and other nations to  move more aggressively  in limiting Hezbollah s  destabilizing activity in the region.

Summary: टिलरसन शुक्रवार को पेरिस में लेबनान के हरीरी से मिलेंगेः अमेरिकी विदेश विभाग


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to ban transgender  personnel from serving in the military has alarmed some senior military officers who were caught off guard by it. Trump’s declaration, which came via early morning tweets on Wednesday, appeared to pre-empt an ongoing Pentagon review looking into allowing openly transgender recruits to join the military, and he drew criticism from three senior officers interviewed by Reuters on Thursday.     “I hope our commander in chief understands that we don’t transmit orders via Twitter, and that he can’t, either,” one said by telephone, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Even if this were an order, implementing it legally would take considerable time, if it’s even possible.”      Rights groups and some lawmakers from both parties accused Trump of politically motivated discrimination and said the decision creates uncertainty for transgender active-duty service members and reservists, who say they number in the thousands.. The United States’ top military officer, Marine General Joseph Dunford, told the armed forces on Thursday there had been no change yet to Pentagon policy on transgender personnel. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged the uncertainty that followed Trump’s announcement in a note to service chiefs, commanders and senior enlisted leaders. “I know there are questions about yesterday’s announcement on the transgender policy by the President,” Dunford wrote. “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance,” Dunford said in the message, first reported by Reuters. Dunford then made the assurance that the military would “treat all of our personnel with respect.”  His message neither voiced support nor opposition to Trump’s decision. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Dunford in a separate message sent more narrowly to heads of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force acknowledged that Trump’s announcement on Wednesday was “unexpected.” The Defense Department had been expected to begin formally allowing transgender people to enlist this year. But Mattis on June 30 approved a six-month delay to allow for a review.  As a presidential candidate, Trump last year had vowed to fight for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.  His move on Wednesday was praised by conservative activists and some fellow Republicans. The White House said Trump had “extensive discussions with his national security team,” and that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was informed after the president decided on Tuesday to go ahead. Trump cited “tremendous medical costs and disruption” as a justification for the ban, a point disputed by experts and advocates for allowing military service to be determined by an individual’s capabilities, not gender identity or sexual preference. The Army’s chief of staff, General Mark Milley, said on Thursday that there had been issues with transgender individuals serving in the Army. “I will be candid. ... This is a complex issue and there (are) a variety of challenges out there that we have to deal with and we have been working through it, but this is not clean-cut either way,” he said. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said implementation of  Trump’s decision was still being worked out. Separately, the Trump administration on Thursday told a U.S. appeals court in New York that federal law does not ban discrimination against gay employees, a sharp reversal of the position Democratic former President Barack Obama took. Trump’s plan to ban transgender military service members has  unleashed legal threats from advocates who say they are seeking plaintiffs who want to sue. Trump’s tweets did not make clear when a ban would go into effect, nor whether it applies to serving members of the military or those wishing to join.  But if the Defense Department actively roots out transgender people and discharges them from the military, the Pentagon is likely to face an especially contentious fight, legal experts say. “There’s no valid justification for excluding transgender people from the military,” said Jon Davidson, legal director for LGBT rights group Lambda Legal. It was also unclear whether it might go beyond active-duty forces and apply to reservists. Indiana National Guard reservist Cameron St. Andrew, who  resigned from full-time service after the November election, told Reuters that as a transgender person he was concerned about his status. “I try to be tough about it,” he said, but added: “It breaks your spirit down.” One active-duty U.S. military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said senior officials were not consulted. “We’re scratching our heads and asking where the hell this came from,” the officer said by phone.  “Maybe the president is in step with some members of Congress and some voters, but he is out of step with today’s military. Our service personnel today don’t give a damn about the personal lives of their comrades so long as they know they can trust them when it counts.”

Summary: ट्रांसजेंडर सेवा के सदस्यों पर ट्रम्प के प्रतिबंध ने कुछ सैन्य अधिकारियों को चिंतित किया


DUBAI (Reuters) - At least 61 people were killed and 300 injured by a quake in Iran s Kermanshah province on the Iraqi border on Sunday, state television reported. The television quoted an emergency services official as saying that many of the victims were in the town of Sarpol-e Zahab, about 15 km (10 miles) from the border.

Summary: ईरान के पश्चिमी प्रांत में भूकंप से कम से कम 61 लोगों की मौत, 300 घायलः सरकारी टीवी


MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines on Friday defended its graft-fighting efforts in a bid to convince the United States to continue providing development assistance after an initial five-year grant of $434 million expired in May last year.  The move comes despite President Rodrigo Duterte s remark that America s money could be replaced, after the U.S. government s Millennium Challenge Corporation last year cited human rights concerns in deferring its vote on aid for Manila. The Philippines fell short of the  control of corruption  target on the MCC s scorecard for fiscal 2018, which determines a country s eligibility for assistance. However, the rating  may not completely reflect the reform initiatives of the Duterte administration in the area of fighting corruption and good governance,  said Harry Roque, a spokesman for the Philippine president. Duterte has fired government officials over corruption allegations, ordered agencies to open their records to the public, cut red tape and set up a hotline for people to report graft, Roque said in a statement.  We are hopeful that the MCC board would take into account these initiatives and see our commitment to further reforms in the areas covered by the compact assistance,  he added. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez also weighed in, saying the president had been  relentless in the campaign against corruption in government . Duterte  cleansed the corruption-plagued  Bureau of Corrections, and last month set up an anti-graft panel to investigate cases against presidential appointees, he added.  Duterte took power on a platform of battling crime, drugs and graft, but is himself being investigated by an independent anti-graft body over allegations of non-disclosure of wealth when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao. He raised the prospect of severing ties with Washington after being infuriated by U.S. criticism of his war on drugs, which has claimed more than 3,900 lives since he took office 16 months ago.

Summary: फिलीपींस ने अमेरिकी सहायता को लुभाने के लिए भ्रष्टाचार विरोधी उपायों पर प्रकाश डाला


BEIJING (Reuters) - China defended its ally Pakistan on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States could no longer be silent about Pakistan’s “safe havens” for militants and warned it had much to lose by continuing to “harbor terrorists”. Trump on Monday committed the United States to an open-ended conflict in Afghanistan, signaling he would dispatch more troops to America’s longest war and vowing “a fight to win”. Trump insisted that others - the Afghan government, Pakistan, India and NATO allies - step up their own commitment to resolving the 16-year conflict, but he saved his sharpest words for Pakistan. Senior U.S. officials warned security assistance for Pakistan could be reduced unless the nuclear-armed nation cooperated more in preventing militants from using safe havens on its soil. Critics say Pakistan sees militants such as the Taliban as useful tools to limit the influence of old rival India. Pakistan denies allowing militants refuge on its territory, saying it takes action against all groups. Asked about Trump’s speech, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Pakistan was on the front line in the struggle against terrorism and had made “great sacrifices” and “important contributions” in the fight. “We believe that the international community should fully recognize Pakistan’s anti-terrorism,” she told a daily news briefing. “We are happy to see Pakistan and the United States carry out anti-terror cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, and work together for security and stability in the region and world.”  China and Pakistan consider each other “all-weather friends” and have close diplomatic, economic and security ties. China has its own security concerns in the region, in particular any links between militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Islamist groups China blames for violence in its far western region of Xinjiang. “We hope the relevant U.S. policies can help promote the security, stability and development of Afghanistan and the region,” Hua said.

Summary: ट्रंप की आलोचना के बाद चीन ने सहयोगी पाकिस्तान का बचाव किया