(In Dec. 25 story, removes reference to Shi ite Muslims in first paragraph, and changes  militant attacks  to  terrorist crimes  in second paragraph) DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahraini military court sentenced six men to death and revoked their citizenship after they were convicted on charges of forming a terrorist cell and plotting to assassinate a military official, Bahrain news agency BNA reported on Monday. The men, including one soldier, were accused of several  terrorist crimes  and of attempting to assassinate a commander of the Bahraini army, BNA said. The court sentenced seven other people linked to the case to seven years in jail and revoked their citizenship, while five others were acquitted, BNA added, quoting a state prosecution statement. BNA said the 18 men involved in the case include eight who were convicted in absentia, having fled to Iraq and Iran. It was not clear which of the absent eight were sentenced to death and which to jail. Bahrain accuses mainly Shi ite Iran of stoking militancy in the kingdom, a strategic island where the U.S. Navy s Fifth Fleet is based, charges Tehran denies. Bahrain has a Shi ite Muslim majority population but is ruled by a Sunni royal family. The rulings are subject to appeal, the statement said. Bahrain in January executed three Shi ite men convicted of killing three policemen, including an officer from the United Arab Emirates, in a 2014 bomb attack. They were the first such executions in over two decades and sparked protests. Bahrain had seen occasional unrest since 2011 when authorities crushed protests mainly by the Shi ite majority demanding a bigger role in running the country.

Summary: बहरीन की सैन्य अदालत ने आतंकवाद के आरोप में छह लोगों को मौत की सजा सुनाई


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s Energy Minister on Friday called on companies bidding in its first round of licensing to explore for oil and gas in its Mediterranean waters to begin technical discussions, suggesting the process would continue despite the political crisis. Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned in a speech from Saudi Arabia last Saturday and has yet to return to the country, sparking a political crisis. President Aoun has said he will not accept Hariri s resignation until he returns to the country, while the Lebanese authorities have said they consider the government to still be legitimate. And Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abi Khalil said on Twitter that he signed a document on Friday calling on companies who submitted bids for the offshore license blocks  to negotiate the technical proposals . Lebanon sits on the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean where a number of big subsea gas fields have been discovered since 2009, including the Leviathan and Tamar fields situated in Israeli waters near to the disputed marine border with Lebanon. Lebanon re-launched the tendering competition for the  exploration and production rights in January after a three-year delay due to political paralysis.  However, a consortium made up of France s Total, Italy s ENI and Russia s Novatek, made the only offer in the tendering process which closed on October 12, with bids for two of the blocks.  The Lebanese Petroleum Administration has said it will evaluate bids for the offshore blocks and present them to the energy minister by Nov. 13. Final approval will then be sought from Lebanon s council of ministers.

Summary: राजनीतिक संकट के बावजूद लेबनान के अपतटीय तेल और गैस लाइसेंस का दौर जारी है


(Reuters) - A longtime political adviser to Hillary Clinton last year urged her presidential campaign to support a new version of a law that separated commercial and investment banking to avoid antagonizing the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, according to emails published by Wikileaks on Monday. Mandy Grunwald, an outside adviser to Clinton, urged Clinton’s policy team in October 2015, just days before a Wall Street policy rollout, to consider endorsing a new version of the Glass-Steagall Act, according to an email reviewed by Reuters. The Glass-Steagall Act was a Depression-era law that prohibited commercial banks from engaging in risky trading activities. The 1933 law was repealed in 1999 during the presidency of Bill Clinton when he passed legislation removing barriers between commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies. Many Democratic activists believe that reinstating the Glass-Steagall law and breaking up large financial institutions would help prevent future financial crises such as the one that rocked the U.S. economy in 2008.  Grunwald said if Clinton did not back a new Glass-Steagall, she risked alienating liberal U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, an outspoken critic of Wall Street who is popular in the left wing of the Democratic Party. The Clinton campaign would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the latest batch of hacked emails of Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta released by Wikileaks. The U.S. government last week formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations, a charge Russia has denied. As a result, Clinton campaign officials and supporters have warned that such email releases could include fraudulent or misleading documents among genuine emails. At the time of Grunwald’s email, Clinton’s primary debates against her then-rival U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont were fast approaching. Grunwald worried that if Clinton did not support a new Glass-Steagall law, it would make it more difficult to defend her plan to curb Wall Street risk. It could also prompt Warren to endorse Sanders, Grunwald wrote in the email released by Wikileaks.  Grunwald said that in conversations with Clinton, the former secretary of state had indicated she was “leaning toward endorsing Glass Steagall,” instead of or in addition to the risk-based approach she ultimately announced. “I understand we face phoniness charges if we ‘change’ our position now - but we face risks this way too,” Grunwald wrote, adding that Clinton’s policy team told her it should be a political decision. In the weeks after the email, Clinton announced that she would look to break up large banks based on the risk they posed to the economy, not based on size alone or type of investment activity. Clinton also proposed levying a “risk fee” on the liabilities of banks with more than $50 billion in assets, saying it was a more comprehensive approach. Democratic Party sources told Reuters on Monday they believe that around 50,000 of Podesta’s emails are in the possession of Wikileaks and they expect them to be dribbled out periodically between now and the Nov. 8 election between Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. A previous dump of hacked emails from Podesta on Friday included what appear to be excerpts from paid speeches that Clinton made to Wall Street, which her campaign had refused to release.

Summary: विकिलीक्स के ईमेल से पता चलता है कि क्लिंटन ने ग्लास-स्टीगल को बहाल करने पर विचार किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton extended her lead over Republican rival Donald Trump to 13 percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday, up from 10 points at the end of last week. The July 8-12 poll showed 46 percent of likely voters supported Clinton, the former secretary of state, while 33 percent supported Trump, a celebrity real estate developer. Another 21 percent did not support either candidate. That compared with 45 percent who supported Clinton and 35 percent who supported Trump in the five days to July 8.  Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has mostly led in the national online poll this year. The last time Trump came close to Clinton’s popularity was in early May, when his last two rivals for the Republican nomination dropped out of the race and party leaders started to line up behind his campaign. Trump, who is expected to become the official Republican nominee at the party’s convention next week, has since lost ground in the poll as he struggled to refocus his campaign from the Republican nominating contests to the Nov. 8 general election.  Over the past several weeks, Trump has faced criticism for his past business dealings and has quarreled with Republican leaders over his rejection of international trade agreements and his promises to crack down on immigration. Clinton, meanwhile, has been dogged by criticisms of how she handled classified information as secretary of state.  James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said last week that Clinton and her staff were “extremely careless” with sensitive information but recommended that the government not seek criminal charges against her.  Still, Americans have become increasingly positive about Clinton this month, with half of likely voters now saying they have a favorable view of her, according to the poll, up from 46 percent on July 1. Some 60 percent of likely voters have an unfavorable view of Trump, compared with 58 percent on July 1. The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,146 likely voters across the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने ट्रम्प पर 13 अंकों की बढ़त बनाईः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस


CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed an attack on a church in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Sunday which killed at least five people, the group s Amaq news agency said in an online statement. It said two Islamic State members had carried out the attack but provided no evidence for the claim.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट ने पाकिस्तान के चर्च पर हमले का दावा कियाः अमाक समाचार एजेंसी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican congressional leaders have refused Democrats’ calls for a special prosecutor or select committee to investigate possible links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, saying investigations by congressional committees are sufficient. U.S. intelligence agencies said in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacks of the Democratic National Committee’s and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman’s computers to influence the election on Trump’s behalf. Russia has denied this. Three U.S. agencies - the CIA, National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation - as well as the Justice Department, launched investigations into the matter under Democratic President Barack Obama. In addition, here are some of the ways that congressional committees are looking into the matter: HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE - The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence began its investigation of potential Russian influence on the 2016 presidential race before Trump took office on Jan. 20. The panel’s chairman, Republican Representative Devin Nunes, played a leading role in Trump’s transition, which prompted some critics to question whether he was too close to the Republican president to conduct a fair investigation. Some of Nunes’ statements contributed to their concerns, including his confirmation that he had spoken to journalists at the White House’s request to dispute reports that Trump’s campaign had contact with Russia.  Nunes has also said he does not want the investigation to turn into a “witch hunt” like the 1950s McCarthy congressional hearings into some Americans’ alleged links with communism. The committee members had to push for full access to information collected by the CIA, FBI and other agencies, but more recently they have said their access has improved. The panel will hold its first public hearing on the matter on March 20. FBI director James Comey and the leaders or former leaders of most of the major U.S. intelligence agencies have been invited to testify. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said he does not know yet whether the panel is capable of conducting a credible investigation. SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE - The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is conducting its own investigation. Also started before Trump took office, it is considered the most robust congressional action. Its chairman, Richard Burr, was re-elected in November in the Republican sweep that carried Trump into office and preserved Republican control of Congress. Although he was a Trump supporter during the campaign, he is not as closely linked with the president as Nunes is. But he also made calls to reporters as the White House tried to dispute allegations about campaign contacts with Russia. Senator Mark Warner, the committee’s Democratic vice chairman, said he had “grave concerns” about the independence of the committee’s probe after the report that Burr had helped the White House dispute the stories. Burr and Warner have expressed fewer concerns than members of the House committee about the amount of information that intelligence agencies have provided to them.         The Senate intelligence committee will hold an open hearing on Russian efforts to influence campaigns more generally, on March 30. The witness list includes experts, not current Trump administration or intelligence community officials. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the panel’s subcommittee on crime and terrorism, and Sheldon Whitehouse, its ranking Democrat, announced that they, too, would investigate Russian attempts to influence the election. They also have asked the FBI and the Justice Department to produce any information that supports Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that his predecessor wiretapped him during the 2016 campaign. The full Judiciary Committee is also investigating. Its chairman, Chuck Grassley, and top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, have had officials brief panel members. Grassley and Feinstein also sent a joint letter to Comey asking for a briefing and transcripts and documents of calls between Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE - Committee Democrats tried to force the committee to ask the Department of Justice to produce records of its investigation into whether Trump or his campaign had ties to Russia, but panel Republicans blocked the effort. The committee’s chairman, Representative Bob Goodlatte, said instead that he would urge the government to continue its investigation. However, Goodlatte said he had asked the Justice Department to brief the committee, and had not had a response. HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE - Jason Chaffetz, the committee’s Republican chairman, has resisted calls to investigate the Trump administration. After Michael Flynn resigned as Trump’s national security adviser because of his calls to Russia’s ambassador, Chaffetz said his panel would not look into the issue. He has, however, signed letters seeking related information, and he was among the first lawmakers to call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from Russia-related investigations because of his contacts with Kislyak.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः कांग्रेस ने ट्रम्प और रूस के बीच संबंधों की जांच की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. State Department officials on Monday circulated a draft memo criticizing President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, prompting a retort from the White House that they should “get with the program or they can go.” The order, which Trump issued on Friday, banned immigration from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and temporarily halted the entry of refugees. Chaos broke out as border, customs, and immigration officials struggled to act on the directive amid loud protests at major U.S. airports. The draft memo in the “dissent channel,” through which dissenting views are sent to the secretary of state and other top department officials, argued the policy would be counterproductive and damage America’s image abroad.  “The end result of this ban will not be a drop in terror attacks in the United States; rather it will be a drop in international good will towards Americans and a threat towards our economy,” said the draft memo seen by Reuters. The document argued the policy would sour relations with the  affected countries, inflame anti-American sentiment, and hurt those who seek to visit the United States for humanitarian reasons such as medical care. “Moreover, such a policy runs counter to core American values of nondiscrimination, fair play, and extending a warm welcome to foreign visitors and immigrants,” it added. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he was aware of the memo and thought media reporting on the executive order had been “blown way out of proportion and exaggerated.” “These career bureaucrats have a problem with it? I think that they should either get with the program or they can go,” he told reporters at his daily briefing. Acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner, however, called the dissent channel an “important” vehicle to convey alternative views that Acting Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and the department as a whole “value and respect.” Separately, U.S. officials said the department had received multiple cables from U.S. embassies over the weekend reporting foreign dismay at Trump’s executive order. Host countries expressed unhappiness, and U.S. embassies have questioned how to implement what homeland security and other officials said was a poorly conceived policy. A cable from the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, reported     Indonesians had taken to social media to express “outrage,” and cited the order as “an example of the Islamophobia of the new administration,” said a U.S. official, reading from the cable. A cable from the U.S. embassy in Khartoum said Sudanese businessmen worried the new order would hurt “their ability to attract U.S. business to Sudan in the wake of the lifting of U.S. sanctions a week earlier,” the official said. The Obama administration took steps on Jan. 13 to lift a 20-year-old trade embargo against Sudan, unfreeze assets, and remove financial sanctions in what it said was a response to the country’s assistance in fighting Islamic State and other extremist groups. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad said many Iraqis viewed the order “as an affront to Iraq’s national pride (in a part of the world where pride and honor are often considered more important than concrete signs of support),” the U.S. official said, quoting from the embassy cable. Iraq, which is allied with the United States in the battle against the Islamic State extremist group and hosts more than 5,000 U.S. troops, had no immediate comment on the order. The cable said there were 7,000 U.S. contractors associated with the U.S. mission in Iraq, 2,000 of whom are regular passport holders who could be affected if Iraq retaliated with reciprocal steps, the official said. Asked about the cables, a State Department spokesperson said: “We will not comment on internal communications.”

Summary: अमेरिकी राजनयिकों ने आप्रवासन आदेश की आलोचना करते हुए ज्ञापन प्रसारित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Jeff Flake said on Wednesday he expects more  Republican colleagues to speak out against Donald Trump’s behavior and policies, one day after denouncing the Republican president in a fiery speech. Flake had accused Trump of “reckless, outrageous and undignified” behavior and said his “instinct to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people.” His condemnation in a speech on the Senate floor came just hours after Senator Bob Corker, another Republican, lashed out at Trump as “an utterly untruthful president” who was debasing the United States. Flake, who is not seeking re-election in Arizona next year, said on Wednesday he thinks other Republican lawmakers will join him in standing up to Trump. “Privately a number of my colleagues have expressed concern about the direction of our politics and the behavior of the president,” Flake told CNN. “There comes a tipping point where you realize we just can’t continue to normalize this kind of behavior so I do think we’ll have more people stand up in the coming months.” Trump responded by saying Flake’s feud with him probably would have cost him with voters and that he would have lost if he had sought re-election. “He was against me before he ever knew me,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “He would have never won. He did the smart thing for himself. This way he can get out somewhat gracefully.” Despite control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, Republicans have yet to deliver any major legislative victories this year on priorities such as tax reform, healthcare and immigration. Republican Senator John McCain, who is fighting brain cancer, also has spoken out sharply against Trump.  But most Republicans in Congress have either remained silent or tried to play down divisions inside their party as Trump has attacked lawmakers, the media and others he sees as opposing or trying to undermine his presidency. “I think people should settle their differences personally,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “I think it’s better that way. I think it’s in our interest to have party unity so that we can continue to work forward on an agenda.” So far, the fierce criticism from Flake and Corker has drawn more praise from Democrats than from fellow Republicans. “History will judge Senator Flake and Senator Corker as two men of the greatest conscience to have graced this chamber on either side of the aisle in a long time,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said.

Summary: सीनेटर फ्लेक को उम्मीद है कि अधिक रिपब्लिकन ट्रम्प की निंदा करेंगे


(Reuters) - Irma, now a category 4 , is heading towards the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean and is expected to move near or over the northern part of the region by Tuesday night or Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane Irma is about 320 miles (515 km) east of the Leeward Islands and packing maximum sustained winds of 150 mph(240 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said.   Swells generated by Irma will affect the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands during the next several days,  the NHC said.

Summary: खतरनाक तूफान इरमा कैरेबियाई द्वीपों की ओर बढ़ रहा हैः एन. एच. सी.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Presidential candidate John Kasich called on Monday for “active steps” to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Israel, including suspending U.S. participation in the Iran deal and helping the Jewish state strengthen relationships with Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. In a speech to a pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Kasich said: “I applaud our continued legacy of support for the Jewish state,” adding, “I condemn all attempts to isolate, pressure and delegitimize the State of Israel.”

Summary: कासिच ने U.S.-Israel संबंधों को मजबूत करने के लिए 'सक्रिय कदम' उठाने का आह्वान किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government delegation has postponed its departure to U.N.-backed peace talks that are due to resume on Tuesday in Geneva, the pro-Syrian government newspaper al-Watan reported. The office of U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said it would not comment on the travel plans of the Syrian government. The al-Watan report cited diplomatic sources in Geneva saying the Syrian government was annoyed by a statement that emerged last week from a Syrian opposition meeting in Riyadh. Syrian opposition groups stuck by a long-standing demand that President Bashar al-Assad be gone from power before a political transition. Damascus viewed the statement as a  return to square one , al-Watan reported.

Summary: सीरियाई सरकार के प्रतिनिधिमंडल ने जिनेवा वार्ता के लिए प्रस्थान स्थगित कियाः रिपोर्ट


MANILA (Reuters) - The issue of human rights and alleged extrajudicial killings in the Philippines was not discussed during a meeting on Monday between U.S. President Donald Trump and counterpart Rodrigo Duterte, a Philippine spokesman said.  Harry Roque, Duterte s spokesman, told a news conference Duterte had explained his anti-drugs policy at length to Trump, who  seemed to be appreciative of his efforts . Roque described the relationship between Trump and Duterte as  warm, friendly and candid  and said they shared similar feelings about former U.S. President Barack Obama. Roque also said the plight of Myanmar s Rohingya Muslims was discussed between leaders of ASEAN and that Myanmar responded.

Summary: दुतेर्ते-ट्रम्प वार्ता में मानवाधिकारों, हत्याओं को संबोधित नहीं किया गयाः प्रवक्ता


KAUNUS, Lithuania (Reuters) - German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen will meet U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Washington on Friday, a ministry spokesman said. Her visit comes ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers next week and the Munich Security Conference a week later. Mattis has sought to reassure NATO allies like Germany that the United States remains committed to the alliance despite comments by President Donald Trump that it is obsolete because it failed to protect Europe against Islamist attacks.

Summary: जर्मनी के रक्षा मंत्री शुक्रवार को अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति मैटिस से मिलेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Doug Jones, who scored an upset victory last week in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama, said on Sunday he did not believe President Donald Trump needed to resign over sexual misconduct allegations against him. “I don’t think that the president ought to resign at this point,” Jones told CNN’s State of the Union program. “Those allegations were made before the election, and so people had an opportunity to judge before that election. I think we need to move on and not get distracted by those issues.” More than a dozen women have accused Trump of making unwanted sexual advances against them before he entered politics.  Accusations of sexual harassment against high-profile men in politics, media and the entertainment industry have put a new spotlight on the allegations against Trump, and several Democratic senators have called on him to resign. Trump and White House officials have denied the allegations. The accusations emerged during the 2016 presidential campaign, when a videotape surfaced of a 2005 conversation caught on an open microphone in which Trump spoke in vulgar terms about trying to have sex with women. Trump apologized for the remarks but called them private “locker-room talk” and said he had not done the things he talked about. Jones prevailed in the Senate race against Republican Roy Moore, who himself had been accused of sexual misconduct. Jones’ victory in the deeply conservative state of Alabama was a political blow to Trump, who had endorsed Moore.

Summary: निर्वाचित सीनेटर जोन्स ट्रम्प के इस्तीफे की मांग में शामिल नहीं हुए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman at the center of a New York Times piece detailing Republican Donald Trump’s history with women took issue with the story on Monday, saying she never had a negative experience with the billionaire and does not believe he ever mistreated women. Rowanne Brewer Lane, a former model who dated Trump for several months starting in the late 1990s, said her words were mischaracterized in the Times article, which used dozens of interviews to show what it said was a pattern of unsettling personal behavior by the presidential candidate with women. The Times story said Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election, asked Lane to change into a bikini shortly after meeting her at a pool party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. According to the article, he then introduced her to the crowd outside, saying, “That is a stunning Trump girl, isn’t it?” On Monday, Lane told the same story in a series of television interviews but said she had been flattered by his comment. “They spun it to where it appeared negative,” Lane said on Fox News. “I did not have a negative experience with Donald Trump.” Lane said that during the time she and Trump were dating, he “never made me feel like I was being demeaned in any way.” She also said she supports Trump’s presidential run. The New York Times responded to Lane’s accusations by saying she was quoted “fairly, accurately and at length.” “The story provides context for the reader including that the swimsuit scene was the ‘start of a whirlwind romance’ between Ms. Brewer Lane and Mr. Trump,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said in a statement. Trump has deflected criticism about his attitude toward women throughout his campaign. On Monday, he called the New York Times “so dishonest.” “Their hit piece cover story on me yesterday was just blown up by Rowanne Brewer, who said it was a lie!” Trump posted on Twitter.     Times reporters Michael Barbaro and Megan Twohey defended their story in several television interviews on Monday, saying it showed how Trump behaved privately with women and revealed common themes including unwelcome advances, aggression and commentary on their appearance. “People can evaluate the story ... on its own merits,” Barbaro said on CBS “This Morning.”

Summary: पूर्व ट्रम्प प्रेमिका ने महिलाओं के साथ इतिहास पर न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स की कहानी का खंडन किया


WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump set the tone for a tense first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week by tweeting on Thursday that the United States could no longer tolerate massive trade deficits and job losses.  The White House said Trump would host Xi next Thursday and Friday at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida. It said Trump and his wife, Melania, would host Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at a dinner next Thursday. In a tweet on Thursday evening, Trump said the highly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, which is also expected to cover differences over North Korea and China’s strategic ambitions in the South China Sea, “will be a very difficult one.” “We can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses,” he wrote, adding in apparent reference to U.S. firms manufacturing in China: “American companies must be prepared to look at other alternatives.” Despite a string of U.S.-China meetings and conversations that have appeared aimed at mending ties after strong criticism of China by Trump during his election campaign, U.S. officials have said the Republican president will not pull his punches in the meeting.     General Electric Co Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt urged Trump on Thursday to maintain the country’s economic relationship with China, saying the United States had much to gain from globalization. “The country loses if we don’t trade. The relationship with China is key,” Immelt told an aviation panel hosted by industry group the Wings Club. “If you give up on trade, you give up on the best lever that the president of the United States has in negotiating around the world. I just think that President Trump is too smart to give up on that.” The U.S. Commerce Department said earlier that Beijing must change its trade practices and the way its state enterprises operate. “China and others need to realize the games are over – continuing their unfair trade practices and operation as a non-market economy will have serious consequences,” it said. The department said it was launching a new review of China’s status as a non-market economy, which allows the United States  to maintain high anti-dumping duties on cheap Chinese imports, but the designation is widely expected to remain in place.    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang stressed the need to see the big picture while fostering mutual trade interests. “The market dictates that interests between our two countries are structured so that you will always have me and I will always have you,” he told a regular briefing. “Both sides should work together to make the cake of mutual interest bigger and not simply seek fairer distribution.” Trump administration officials say the need for China to do more to rein in the nuclear and missile programs of its neighbor and ally North Korea will top the agenda, along with trade. The U.S. side is also expected to criticize Beijing for its pursuit of expansive claims in the South China Sea. White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing the meeting would be an opportunity for Trump “to develop a relationship in person with President Xi.” “He’s spoken to him on the phone a few times, but we have big problems ... everything from the South China Sea, to trade, to North Korea. There are big issues of national and economic security that need to get addressed.” Asked if the administration had a vision, or a description for its China policy like the “pivot” or “rebalance” to Asia touted by former President Barack Obama, Spicer said: “Right now we’re not worried so much about slogans as much as progress. “There’s a lot of big things that we need to accomplish with China, and I think that we will - we will work on them.” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed in Beijing this month to work with China on North Korea and stressed Trump’s desire to enhance understanding.  China has been irritated at being told repeatedly by Washington to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, or face U.S. sanctions on Chinese businesses trading with North Korea, and by the U.S. decision to base an advanced missile defense system in South Korea. Beijing is also deeply suspicious of U.S. intentions toward self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own, after Trump, as president-elect, broke with decades of U.S. policy by taking a phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and saying Washington did not have to stick to a “one China” policy. Trump later agreed in a phone call with Xi to honor the long-standing policy and has also written to him since seeking “constructive ties.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कहा कि व्यापार अंतर चीन की बैठक को 'बहुत कठिन' बना देगा


MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - The Philippines is preparing to declare the end of fighting in a southern city seized for five months by pro-Islamic State rebels, a top military commander said on Saturday, as troops continued a phased withdrawal from the devastated lakeside city.   Only 20 insurgents remained in a small area in Marawi City, including five  significant  figures, and three battalions of troops were closing in on their positions, said Lieutenant-General Carlito Galvez.     Most probably tomorrow, we can do it,  Galvez told reporters when asked when the military can declare fighting is over.  We can declare it is totally complete.    Galvez said troops are zeroing in on three sons of Isnilon Hapilon, the slain  emir  of Islamic State in Southeast Asia, and two Malaysians, including Amin Baco, who has been central to facilitating the movement of foreign fighters in the region.   We cannot say our mission is totally accomplished or completed if the five persons are still there,  he said, adding the remaining militants are  struggling to survive  and to protect their shrinking position.   Another general told Reuters they were also looking for a prominent Indonesian militant. The military is concerned Hapilon s sons and these foreign fighters could succeed core leaders of the alliance killed this week.    Hapilon and Omarkhayam Maute were killed by commandoes on Monday. Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad, who experts say may have funded the Marawi siege, was also dead, according to a freed hostage, but his body has yet to be found. The defense ministry said on Saturday that forensic tests by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had confirmed that the man killed was Hapilon. The United States has provided technical support to treaty ally the Philippines, including surveillance drones. The deaths of the leaders could slow down any effort by Islamic State to establish a presence in Mindanao, a vast island with a history of rebellion and home to the predominantly Roman Catholic nation s Muslim minority.  The organization and combat capability of the rebels has stunned the military. Some experts see the siege as a prelude to a more ambitious bid by Islamic State loyalists to exploit Mindanao s poverty and use its jungles and mountains as a base to train, recruit and launch attacks in the region. Galvez, head of the Western Mindanao Command, inspected troops in Marawi and sent off a battalion of marines central to  military operations . It was the second unit to leave the conflict area.   The military declined to divulge the number of troops remaining in Marawi. Elite commandoes were leading the assault, with army infantry battalions and police commandoes securing safe areas.   The military said eleven hostages were  processed  on Saturday to determine whether they were really captives or militant members and sympathizers trying to slip away.   Galvez said rehabilitation, including retrieval of the dead, would start after the end of hostilities is declared. The Philippines estimates the rebuilding of areas battered by months of government air strikes could cost at least 50 billion Philippine pesos ($971 million).

Summary: दक्षिणी फिलीपींस शहर में लड़ाई जल्द ही समाप्त हो सकती है-सैन्य


DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States said it launched its first attack on Islamic State s deadly Yemen branch on Monday with a series of nighttime airstrikes that residents said targeted two villages and killed several people. Unmanned U.S. drones launched around 12 missiles at militant positions in Yakla and al-Abl in southern al-Bayda province, according to local people living nearby, who declined to be named due to safety concerns. They said the number of casualties caused by the attack was not immediately clear because locals were too afraid to approach the site as U.S. aircraft hovered over the area for hours. The Pentagon said in a statement that U.S. forces had killed dozens of Islamic State members in a strike on two camps where fighters trained in using machine guns and grenade launchers. Residents disputed that account, saying the fighters targeted actually hailed from a powerful al Qaeda affiliate who deployed in the area to fight Iran-aligned Houthi militiamen as part of Yemen s civil war, which began in 2015. The complex conflict pits a kaleidoscope of tribes, military units and political factions against each other in chaotic rivalries that have allowed hardline Sunni Muslim militant groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State to thrive. The United States provides arms and logistical support to a Saudi-led military coalition that has launched almost daily air strikes against the Houthis to try to restore Yemen s internationally recognized government. Al Qaeda in Yemen, one of the fiercest branches of the global network, has plotted to down U.S. airliners and claimed responsibility for the 2015 attacks on the office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. It has been targeted by U.S. air strikes for a decade. Islamic State, which only launched its first bombing in Yemen as it careered toward civil war in March 2015, has claimed responsibility for a series of spectacular attacks on military and civilian targets which have killed hundreds of people. (reut.rs/2ghdNRx) Yakla, one of the sites targeted in the strike, was the site of a U.S. raid in January targeting suspected al Qaeda militants which local medics said killed 30 people including 10 women and children, and also left a Navy SEAL dead.

Summary: अमेरिका ने पहली बार यमनी इस्लामिक स्टेट पर निशाना साधा


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s Social Democrats (SPD) beat Angela Merkel s conservatives in a vote in the northern state of Lower Saxony on Sunday in a setback to the chancellor as she prepares for tricky three-way coalition talks at the national level this week. The SPD, which has governed the swing state home to carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) with the Greens for four years, won 37.5 percent, well up from 32.6 percent in the last election there in 2013, according to an exit poll from infratest dimap. Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) fetched 35 percent of the vote in the rich agricultural state, down from 36 percent in the last election there in 2013. The environmentalist Greens, currently junior coalition partner to the SPD in Lower Saxony, won 8.5 percent.  The liberal Free Democrats (FDP) won 7 percent and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) cleared the 5-percent threshold to enter parliament with 5.5 percent. Merkel s conservatives, which scored their worst result since 1949 in September s national election, begin exploratory discussions with the FDP and Greens in Berlin this week as they seek to cobble together a federal government.

Summary: जर्मनी के सोशल डेमोक्रेट्स ने राज्य के मतदान में मर्केल के रूढ़िवादियों को हराया


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis condemned on Thursday inequality in healthcare, particularly in rich countries, saying governments had a duty to ensure the common good for all its citizens.  Increasingly sophisticated and costly treatments are available to ever more limited and privileged segments of the population,  Francis said in an address to a conference of European members of the World Medical Association.  This raises questions about the sustainability of healthcare delivery and about what might be called a systemic tendency toward growing inequality in healthcare,  he said. The tendency was clearly apparent when you compared healthcare cover between countries and continents, the pope said, adding that it was also visible within more wealthy countries,  where access to healthcare risks being more dependent on individuals  economic resources than on their actual need for treatment.  Francis did not mention any countries. Healthcare is a big issue in the United States, where President Donald Trump has vowed to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, introduced by his predecessor, Barack Obama, which aimed to make it easier for lower-income households to get health insurance. He said healthcare legislation needed a  broad vision and a comprehensive view of what most effectively promotes the common good in each concrete situation.  In speaking of end-of-life issues, Francis re-affirmed the Catholic Church s long-standing teaching that it is morally acceptable for a patient or a family to suspend or reject  disproportionate measures  to keep a terminally ill person alive. But he stressed that this was  different from euthanasia, which is always wrong, in that the intent of euthanasia is to end life and cause death . Regarding end-of-life decisions, the pope said governments had a duty  to protect all those involved, defending the fundamental equality whereby everyone is recognized under law as a human being living with others in society .

Summary: पोप ने अमीर देशों में स्वास्थ्य संबंधी असमानता की निंदा की


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Hondurans voted on Sunday in a presidential election that many expect to result in a second term for the current U.S.-friendly leader, eight years after he supported a coup against a former president who also floated the idea of reelection. Based on recent polls, Juan Orlando Hernandez, of the center-right National Party, looks set to profit from a 2015 Supreme Court decision that overturned a constitutional ban on reelection. He is running against television host Salvador Nasralla, who helms a broad left-right coalition called the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship. Below are the candidates  main proposals: Juan Orlando Hernandez - A former head of Congress who studied at the State University of New York and Honduras  military academy, Hernandez, 49, enjoys a good rapport with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and is seen as a reliable U.S. ally in Central America. - Hernandez has managed to lower the murder rate and raise growth while expanding his influence into the furthest reaches of the Honduran government.  - Critics say Hernandez, who was born in a humble, rural family of 17 siblings, has stifled dissent and is seeking to consolidate power. U.S. government officials say they want him to revitalize stalled legislation to place a cap on presidential term limits and assuage fears he will not cede power.  - With his slogan  Change has begun and should continue,  Hernandez says he will keep up his militarized fight against the gangs that have turned the Central American nation into one of the world s most violent. - Hernandez says his Honduras 20/20 plan will help lure investment in textiles, call centers and car manufacturing and lift growth. He wants to push ahead with special economic zones, a project that has so far yielded few concrete results. He says his policies will create 600,000 new jobs in the next four years. Salvador Nasralla - A colorful 64-year-old sports and talent TV show host descended from Lebanese immigrants, Nasralla promises to put an end to years of violence, poverty and graft. - Nasralla s Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship coalition includes the Liberty and Refoundation Party, or LIBRE. It is controlled by ousted former President Manuel Zelaya, who many believe is the true force behind the coalition. - A non-traditional political figure who has benefited from his entertainment background to build support among those disenchanted by business-as-usual Honduran politics, Nasralla trailed Hernandez by 15 points in a September poll, the last permitted before the election. - Nasralla says he will ask the United Nations to install an anti-graft body, similar to one operating in Guatemala, to probe and bring charges in corruption cases. He would maintain the Military Police created by Hernandez but wants to start a community police force to work in violent slums. He would also continue firing corrupt national police officers, while hiring up to 25,000 new officers. - Plans for the economy are vague, but the coalition has proposed lowering the sales tax and slashing a Hernandez-imposed corporate levy that has enraged the private sector.  - The Alliance has proposed a referendum on how the current Constitution should be rewritten, either by Congress or by a new national assembly. It also wants a referendum on stripping the powers of the Supreme Court, which it accuses of being pliant to Hernandez.

Summary: उम्मीदवार और होंडुरास राष्ट्रपति चुनाव में क्या दांव पर है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump ordered his homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, to hold an emergency meeting Friday night to assess the threat posed by a global computer ransomware attack in at least 150 countries, a senior administration official told Reuters. Senior security staff held another meeting in the White House Situation Room on Saturday, and the FBI and National Security Agency were trying to identify the perpetrators of the massive cyber attack, said the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Summary: वैश्विक साइबर हमले के बाद ट्रंप ने दिए आपात बैठक के आदेशः अधिकारी


(Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has pledged to raise taxes on the wealthy, preserve the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and provide a path to citizenship for undocumented workers.	 Here are the proposals the former secretary of state has made as part of her argument that she is best qualified to occupy the Oval Office. (For a Factbox on Republican opponent Donald Trump’s proposals, please see) Clinton has said the rich, not the middle class, would see their taxes go up. She supports billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s eponymous tax proposal calling for those making more than $1 million a year to pay an effective tax rate of 30 percent. Clinton has also called for an additional 4 percent tax on those making more than $5 million annually. Clinton has pledged to raise the estate tax levied on property transferred from a deceased person to their heirs. She also supports a tiered inheritance tax structure, with a top rate of 65 percent on the wealthiest estates of more than $500 million for a single person or $1 billion for a couple. Clinton has pledged to unveil a plan to rebuild U.S. infrastructure during her first 100 days, saying this would create new jobs. She would use some of the revenue generated from her tax plan to pay for making community colleges tuition-free and ensuring students can graduate from public colleges and universities without incurring debt. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that independently scored Clinton’s proposals in their totality, estimated her policies would cost $1.8 trillion over the next decade and would be offset by $1.6 trillion, mostly generated by taxing high earners. The group said the remaining $200 billion could be covered by $275 billion in corporate tax revenue the Clinton campaign has called for but not yet spelled out in sufficient detail for them to credit as an offset at this time. Clinton has promised to propose broad legislation within her first 100 days in office to overhaul the immigration system and establish a process for undocumented workers to become citizens. Clinton has said she will defend executive actions taken by Democratic President Barack Obama to defer deportations of children brought illegally to the United States and the parents of children who are citizens or legal residents. She has said if Congress does not pass comprehensive immigration reform, she will similarly use executive action to defer deportations in “sympathetic cases.” A federal court has ruled that Obama did not have the authority to issue his executive orders on immigration, known as DACA and DAPA. The U.S. Supreme Court, currently short one member, split 4-to-4 on whether to hear the administration’s appeal, leaving the lower court’s ruling in place for the time being. Clinton has promised to preserve the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law enacted after the financial crisis, and to pursue further measures to toughen Wall Street regulations. She has proposed a fee for large financial institutions based on their size and the level of risk they pose. She would also give regulators additional authority to force institutions that pose high risks to break apart or reorganize. Clinton has also urged strengthening the Volcker Rule, which restricts proprietary trading by commercial banks. She has called for a new tax on high-frequency trading and for stricter oversight of hedge funds, private equity firms and other players in the so-called shadow-banking system. She has promised stiffer policies on people who commit financial crimes, including an extension of the statute of limitations on such crimes and a requirement for bank executives to return bonuses if their institutions suffer major losses. Changes to Dodd-Frank have stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress, and it is unclear whether Clinton could get congressional backing to strengthen the law, unless Democrats win control of one or both chambers in the Nov. 8 election. Clinton has pledged to defeat Islamic State and has said the first step to fighting the militant group is to eliminate its strongholds in Iraq and Syria. In a departure from the Obama administration, she supports the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria and has called for an intensified air campaign by the U.S.-led coalition. Clinton has said she would send additional American special forces to help Arab and Kurdish forces already on the ground. She opposes sending additional U.S. ground troops to the region. Clinton has said the United States and European allies must share intelligence more effectively in order to thwart potential attacks. She has urged Silicon Valley companies to work with the government to track militant recruitment tactics on the internet.  Current and former Obama administration officials have told Reuters they believe Clinton would  take a harder line on Russia than either Obama or Trump. Clinton has said she believes Russian hackers are behind the breach of Democratic Party systems in an attempt to influence the U.S. presidential election. Clinton has said Russia should play a role in fighting Islamic State in Syria, and her foreign policy adviser has said she would consider arming government forces in Ukraine, one of Russia’s neighbors, in a move to combat Russian “aggression in Europe.” Russia has backed ethnic Russian separatists in Ukraine. Clinton was a key player in Obama’s “pivot” to Asia when she served as his secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Clinton has said she will “aggressively pursue trade cases and impose consequences” against China when it commits trade abuses. She opposes granting China market-economy status, which China will be seeking when a World Trade Organization clause expires in December, and has said she would make sure a newly installed trade prosecutor would ensure that China is playing by the rules. Clinton has said she would treat cyber attacks from countries such as Russia and China “like any other attack” and that the United States “will be ready with serious political, economic and military responses.”

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः अर्थव्यवस्था, इस्लामिक स्टेट और अन्य मुद्दों पर क्लिंटन की नीतियां


BERLIN (Reuters) - The premier of Germany s most populous state has become the most senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative bloc to throw his weight behind French President Emmanuel Macron s proposals for deepening and reforming the European Union. In an article for Thursday s Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, Armin Laschet, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, embraced proposals for a common European army, intelligence service and, in the long term, a common finance minister. The proposals could offer a basis for cooperation with the Social Democrats (SPD), who vote on Thursday on whether to enter talks on supporting a new conservative-led government. SPD leader Martin Schulz, a former European Parliament president, is an outspoken advocate of closer European integration.  In a time of  eurosclerosis , with (eurosceptic) populists inside Europe and instability on the periphery, Macron wants to work with us to overcome the crisis,  wrote Laschet, his party s vice-president.  Europe s crisis, forced by Brexit, offers the chance at last to confront the challenges.  Merkel and most of her party colleagues have been more cautious in their reception of Macron s reform proposals, which include closer cooperation on defense, migration and a deeper integration of the euro currency zone. He was less specific in addressing Macron s proposals for changing the euro zone s governance mechanisms, saying only:  We need better conditions for investment, and we need harmonization of corporation tax.  Schulz has said that the SPD, reluctant to repeat the bruising experience of being deserted by voters after governing for four years with Merkel in coalition, will discuss Macron s proposals at its three-day party congress starting on Thursday.  What are our possibilities, our options, our instruments for ensuring that Germany embraces these French ideas?  Schulz asked earlier on Wednesday.  France is making proposals and Germany is not engaging. This is not acceptable.

Summary: शीर्ष जर्मन रूढ़िवादी ने मैक्रों के यूरोपीय संघ के प्रस्तावों को अपनाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, an early supporter of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, is considering a run to lead the Republican National Committee, Politico reported on Thursday. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report, and representatives for Christie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Christie, whose term as governor ends in January 2018, had been leading Trump’s transition team until U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence recently took over earlier this month. Current RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has been tapped to serve as Trump’s chief of staff when he starts his White House term Jan. 20, 2017. Christie had launched a presidential bid alongside Trump in a pool of 17 candidates that eventually saw Trump, a New York businessman who had never held political office, win the nomination as well as the Nov. 8 presidential election over Democrat Hillary Clinton.  Christie had been a rising political star before the so-called “Bridgegate” scandal involving his former top aides that left his reputation in tatters.   Pence took over from Christie, who at one time had been considered a possible candidate to serve as Trump’s attorney general, a post that instead went to U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Trump’s team has said Christie would remain as vice chair of the transition effort. Earlier this month, Christie’s two former aides were convicted for shutting down access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in 2013, creating a days-long traffic jam. The scheme was intended to punish the town’s mayor, a Democrat, for declining to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign.

Summary: न्यू जर्सी के क्रिस्टी रिपब्लिकन पार्टी का नेतृत्व करने के लिए दौड़ में हैंः रिपोर्ट


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Saturday suspended any dialogue with Qatar, accusing it of  distorting facts , just after a report of a phone call between the leaders of both countries suggested a breakthrough in the Gulf dispute. Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by the telephone with Qatar s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Friday when they discussed the Gulf dispute, state media from both countries reported earlier. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar on June 5, suspending air and shipping routes with the world s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, which is home to the region s biggest U.S. military base. The nations say Doha supports regional foe Iran and Islamists, charges Qatar s leaders deny. Kuwait has been trying to mediate the dispute.  During the call, the Emir of Qatar expressed his desire to sit at the dialogue table and discuss the demands of the four countries to ensure the interests of all,  Saudi state news agency SPA reported.  The details will be announced later after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia concludes an understanding with the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Arab Republic of Egypt,  SPA said. The phone call was the first publicly reported contact between the two leaders since the start of the crisis.  Qatar s state news agency QNA said the phone call was based on coordination of U.S. President Donald Trump who had earlier talked with Sheikh Tamim. Trump on Thursday said he would be willing to step in and mediate the worst dispute in decades among the U.S.-allied Arab states and Qatar, and said he thinks a deal could come quickly. Both Qatar s Emir and the Saudi Crown Prince  stressed the need to resolve the crisis by sitting down to the dialogue table to ensure the unity and stability of the GCC countries,  QNA reported. Sheikh Tamim welcomed the proposal of Prince Mohammed during the call  to assign two envoys to resolve controversial issues in a way that does not affect the sovereignty of the states,  QNA said. Saudi Arabia later issued a second statement citing an unnamed official at the ministry of the foreign affairs denying the QNA report.  What was published on the Qatar News Agency is a continuation of the distortion of the Qatari authority of the facts,  SPA reported citing the Saudi official.  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announces the suspension of any dialogue or communication with the authority in Qatar until a clear statement is issued clarifying its position in public.

Summary: सऊदी अरब ने कतर के साथ किसी भी वार्ता को निलंबित कियाः एस. पी. ए.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Deputy Chief of Staff Thea Lee resigned on Tuesday from President Donald Trump’s manufacturing council, slamming his remarks about protests in Virginia and saying he “tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism.” The statement by the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, cited Trump’s remarks at a news conference earlier Tuesday in which he said both left- and right-wing groups were to blame for violence in Virginia after a white supremacist rally on Saturday. “President Trump’s remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis. We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups,” Trumka and Lee said in a statement.

Summary: ए. एफ. एल.-सी. आई. ओ. नेता ने ट्रम्प की परिषद से इस्तीफा दिया, कहा कि राष्ट्रपति 'कट्टरता को सहन करते हैं'


TOKYO/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Women in the Asia-Pacific region expressed dismay on Thursday about the U.S. presidential campaign’s focus on the emotional topic of sexual harassment, saying it shows both democracy and the rights of women in America have some way to go. In a fiery final debate on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, Republican nominee Donald Trump accused Democrat rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign of orchestrating a series of accusations by women who said the businessman had made unwanted sexual advances.  Clinton, who would be America’s first female president, said the women came forward after Trump said he had never made unwanted advances on women. His denial came after a 2005 video surfaced earlier this month in which he was recorded bragging about groping women against their will. Hsiao Bi-khim, a lawmaker from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said she found it “rather incredible” Trump had survived politically in the face of the allegations. If a candidate in Taiwan was caught on tape making similar remarks, “I don’t think such a person would survive a presidential campaign,” she said. Taiwan in January elected its first woman president, Tsai Ing-wen, and on gender equality at least, appears more advanced politically than the United States, she said. “Not only have we elected a woman president, but we have a higher percentage of women who are independently involved in politics and in leadership positions,” Hsiao said. Japan’s former minister for gender equality, Kuniko Inoguchi, said the rest of the world has been dismayed to see the U.S. campaign devolve into “a downgraded debate on women’s issues” and it wouldn’t be happening if Clinton were a man running for president. “So when the glass ceiling breaks, there are a lot of injuries that a woman must bear,” Inoguchi said. Mari Miura, a Sophia University political science professor specializing in women’s issues, said Japanese politicians have also sparked outrage for comments demeaning women in the past. “We hear such comments constantly from Japanese conservative men,” she said. “There are so many incidents that people get used to it and it’s easier to let it go.” A study commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, published in March, found 28.7 percent of women had experienced some form of sexual harassment, and 40 percent of those said they had experienced unwanted touching. South Korea, which in 2012 elected its first woman president, Park Geun-hye, has slowly become more accepting of women politicians, said Park Young-sun, a female senior member of the Democratic Party of Korea, which has a majority in parliament. Park Young-sun said that when she first entered parliament, in 2004, female lawmakers were considered “decorative items on display”. “They were given positions within the parties like flowers being placed decoratively here and there. Now it’s better.”  Nurul Izzah, a Malaysian member of parliament and daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, said the U.S. campaign debate was “a tragedy for women everywhere”. Nurul said “there is a lot of condescension, prejudice” in Malaysian politics, but “political attacks are not really focused on gender-specific issues”. A senior female member of Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s government said what Trump has been accused of doing with women “would make him definitely unelectable in Indonesia”. “What shocks me is that many Americans still accept him and make excuses for him.” She said sexual assault is not part of Indonesia’s political culture, “and even if there are instances, it is not tolerated, and it doesn’t sit well with either men or women”. ‘EVE-TEASING’ India, where sexual harassment and groping on public transport is known as “Eve-teasing”, went through its own soul-searching over the issue after the death of a young woman who was gang-raped on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012. “In our climate, a Donald Trump-like figure would have to apologize publicly,” said Maya Mirchandani, foreign affairs editor at NDTV, a leading news channel. When she started in TV news in the 1990s, young female reporters were called “soundbite soldiers”, she said. “Print journalists alleged that we used our bodies to stop politicians and get them to talk to us.” Today, Indian law sets clear guidelines for companies to ensure harassment in the workplace is dealt with, she said. Even Australia, known for its colorful language and no-holds barred political culture, has been shocked by the U.S. presidential campaign, said Ged Kearney, female president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The closest Australia has come to anything similar recently was a ‘ditch the witch’ campaign adopted by supporters of the conservative opposition against former prime minister Julia Gillard, Australia’s first prime minister, when she argued for a carbon tax during her time in power from 2010 to 2013. “Personally, I think Donald Trump would definitely be unelectable in Australia,” Kearney said. “I don’t think there is any place in Australia for that level of misogyny and cheapening of politics.”

Summary: एशिया-प्रशांत में महिलाओं ने अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति अभियान पर निराशा व्यक्त की


CARACAS (Reuters) - Last March, Chief Justice Maikel Moreno shocked Venezuela when his Supreme Court nullified the powers of the National Assembly and transferred them to the 32-judge tribunal. Even in a country used to political upheaval, the decision triggered major protests, forcing Moreno to roll back much of the move three days later. But the power play illustrated Moreno s role as enforcer for the embattled administration of President Nicolas Maduro, now branded a dictatorship by a growing number of governments, from France and the United States to South American neighbors Colombia and Peru. The 51-year-old bodyguard-turned-judge and his court have overruled virtually every major law passed by the opposition-led assembly. Moreno s past, however, remains unknown even to most Venezuelans. To trace his ascent, Reuters examined documents and interviewed associates, colleagues and friends of the chief justice in five countries.  The picture that emerges is of a jurist who, by leveraging personal connections and handling politically sensitive cases that other lawyers and judges rejected, endeared himself to Maduro and fellow members of the late Hugo Chavez s  Bolivarian Revolution.  In his rise to Venezuela s top judicial perch, Moreno left behind a past that includes allegations he participated in extortion and influence-peddling rackets and his arrest in 1989 on suspicions of killing a teenager, according to government documents and people familiar with his history. Reuters found no evidence Moreno was ever tried or convicted of any criminal charges. In a brief text-message exchange with Reuters on Nov. 7, Moreno said the allegations of jail time, long rumored in Venezuela, were  invented  by sensationalists. He offered to give Reuters an interview, but then did not respond to requests to schedule one. He did not respond to additional questions by text about his career or other episodes in which he was accused of wrongdoing. Neither the Supreme Court nor Maduro s government responded to separate requests for comment. Documents including a 2006 intelligence report by the Supreme Court s security division and a high court ruling against Moreno last decade point to episodes in which Moreno was accused of being on the wrong side of the law   from the 1989 shooting to his ouster as a lower court judge in 2007 for what the high court said was the improper release of two murder suspects. Opponents of the Maduro government say Moreno is instrumental in propping up an administration that is increasingly authoritarian. In recent months, the top court has sentenced five opposition mayors to prison. It approved the ouster of Venezuela s chief prosecutor, who fled the country in mid-August, joining a growing exodus of Maduro critics. In May, Moreno s court gave the green light for Maduro to proceed with the election that created the Constituent Assembly, a legislature that now supersedes the National Assembly and cemented for many the country s tilt toward authoritarian rule. At least 125 people died in four months of protests that ensued after the court sought in March to neuter the assembly.  The greatest affront to the people is to put a criminal in charge of the judicial system,  said Luis Velazquez, a former Venezuelan judge who investigated Moreno on behalf of the Supreme Court a decade before Maduro appointed Moreno to run the top bench. During his investigation, Velazquez says he found an arrest record for Moreno after the 1989 shooting death of the teen and investigated a phone call in which another judge in a separate case recorded Moreno allegedly pressuring him to release a suspected arms and drug trafficker. The chief justice is not the first senior Venezuelan official to be accused of abuse of power.  The U.S. government earlier this year accused Vice President Tareck El Aissami of drug trafficking. It sanctioned Maduro himself for having  deliberately and repeatedly abused the rights of citizens  with repressive tactics. And it sanctioned Moreno and seven other Supreme Court justices for allegedly usurping the legislature and  restricting the rights and thwarting the will of the Venezuelan people.  Venezuela s government has dismissed the accusations and criticized the sanctions, which bar Americans from engaging in business with any of the officials and freezes any assets the officials may have in U.S. jurisdictions. El Aissami, the vice president, denied ties to the drug trade and slammed the United States on Twitter for  miserable provocations  and  vile aggression.   Under Chavez and now Maduro, the economy has cratered and social stability has ruptured in a country that was once one of Latin America s most prosperous and still boasts the world s largest proven oil reserves. After an October vote in which Maduro s Socialist party candidates swept a majority of gubernatorial elections, the president dismissed accusations of fraud and defended the legitimacy of his government.   I am not a dictator,  Maduro said.  I have a moustache and look like Stalin, but I m not him.  Little in the public record exists about Moreno s youth. He was born on New Year s Eve, 1965, in the eastern city of El Tigre, according to public tax and electoral documents. In the late 1980s, court, intelligence and newspaper records show he worked as a bodyguard for then-President Carlos Andres Perez. It is not clear how he became a bodyguard or joined the president s security detail. That era in Venezuela, marked by food shortages and high inflation similar to the conditions roiling the country now, set the stage for the eventual entry of Chavez, a disgruntled leftist Army officer, into power. With anger and hardship mounting, riots erupted in 1989. Hundreds of people died.  On the evening of April 26, Moreno and two other Perez bodyguards were in Parque Central, a working-class neighborhood of Caracas, the capital, according to an account two days later in El Nacional, a national newspaper. For reasons that are not clear, a brawl broke out. Ruben Gil, a 19-year-old student, entered the fray with a baseball bat, the newspaper said. The bodyguards opened fire, shooting Gil dead.  Presidential Bodyguards Kill Youth,  read the front-page headline, above a picture of Gil s weeping mother, Carmen Romelia Marquez de Gomez. Police arrested Moreno, according to the newspaper account, people familiar with the incident and an intelligence report prepared a decade ago by the security division of Venezuela s Supreme Court. A mugshot from his arrest, included in the report and dated the week after the killing, shows Moreno was arrested for  homicide.  The Supreme Court commissioned the report, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, in 2006. The 32-member court was already aligned with the leftist government by then, because of appointments made by Chavez, but several judges there had begun to question Moreno s rulings as a lower court judge. The report, which has never before been made public, was signed by Luis Enrique Villoria Garcia, director general of the court s security division at the time. Reuters was unable to reach Villoria to discuss the report. One page appears to be missing from the 19-page copy reviewed by Reuters. But details from the report regarding the homicide and Moreno s removal from the bench in 2007 were independently verified by people familiar with its contents. Those people include one senior government official, three former Supreme Court judges and three former senior intelligence officials. Important details about the homicide and Moreno s arrest remain unclear. Notably, Reuters was unable to find a paper trail documenting whether Moreno was tried, sentenced or imprisoned. The Supreme Court report says he was jailed until sometime in 1990, and cites a criminal case number for a homicide charge against him, 522755, but Reuters could not find any files associated with the case. A security guard at Lebrun, a central judicial archive in Caracas, would not grant Reuters access to records there. The Supreme Court did not respond to requests seeking permission to search the archive. Gil s mother died a decade ago, according to people close to the family. Two people close to Gil told Reuters that witnesses and family members at the time of the brawl said Moreno fired the shot that killed the 19-year-old. These people, who requested anonymity, saying they were afraid of reprisals, said Gil had been a gang member and that an existing, but unspecified rivalry with Moreno had sparked the brawl. One person, who says he saw Gil s body in a Caracas morgue, said the young man was shot in the back. Gil s death certificate, reviewed by Reuters, cites gunshot as the cause of death. Three people close to the family said legal proceedings followed Gil s death, but none of them knew what became of the case.  I have wanted to denounce him for years, but I have been too scared,  one of these people said.  Moreno has never publicly denied, confirmed or discussed shooting Gil. He told friends and colleagues the killing was in self-defense, according to a person close to Moreno who spoke on condition of anonymity. Another person, who also asked not to be named, told Reuters that Moreno said any fallout from the killing had been  resolved.  At some point in 1990, according to the intelligence report, Moreno was released from jail. It said he had received  an illegally granted procedural benefit  but gave no further details about his release. In the text exchange with Reuters, Moreno disputed the assertion of jail time, saying it and the other details from the report  are not true either.  He did not clarify or directly address other specifics from the report.  Once free, Moreno pursued a law degree at Santa Maria University, in Caracas. He worked as a bailiff while he studied, according to his official biography. While Moreno studied, Chavez in 1992 led a failed coup attempt against Perez s increasingly unpopular government. Chavez was jailed, but freed in 1994 thanks to the work of Cilia Flores, a firebrand attorney fond of leftist causes. In the next decade, Flores became a close aide of Chavez and the head of the National Assembly. She was also a friend of Moreno. It is not clear how she knew him, but Flores years before had also studied law at Santa Maria. The government did not respond to Reuters requests to speak with Flores. Reuters could not reach her outside government channels. Completing his law degree in 1995, Moreno worked for two years as an attorney before taking a job as a legal advisor at Corporacion Alas de Venezuela C.A., a holding company for Venezuelan airline Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela. By that time, Chavez had won increasing support from working-class Venezuelans and was on track to win the 1998 presidential election. Moreno was already bragging about his close ties to Flores and other ascendant Chavistas.  He made sure everyone knew about that relationship,  said Nelson Ramiz, who owned Aeropostal but gave up control of the airline and moved to Miami in 2007 after a dispute with regulators. After three years at the airline, Moreno worked as a legal advisor to the metropolitan police in Sucre, a district of Caracas. He also began advising the National Assembly and became an auxiliary judge for a district in the country s northeast. For the rest of the 1990s, Moreno alternated between work as an attorney and judge, sometimes wearing both hats at nearly the same time. It is not unusual for some attorneys in Venezuela to also work as judges. But Moreno s choice of cases sometimes created what critics saw as conflicts of interest. In one episode, he defended a suspect in a high-profile homicide trial and later, as judge, heard related charges against another suspect.  Both cases stemmed from shooting deaths that occurred during a short-lived coup against Chavez in April 2002. During the coup, gunfire erupted as opposition supporters marched toward Miraflores Palace, seat of the presidency. Witnesses later said they saw rooftop snipers, gunmen on a bridge and gun-wielding police officers during the shooting.  By the time the violence ended, 19 people were dead. Basic facts of the event, which fueled years of controversy and trials, are still disputed by critics and supporters of the Chavez and Maduro governments. Richard Penalver, a government supporter accused of being one of the shooters, hired Moreno as his defense lawyer. In 2003, Moreno secured Penalver s acquittal, a victory for the pro-government camp. Shortly thereafter, this time as pre-trial judge, Moreno agreed to hear whether a case should proceed against Ivan Simonovis, a former Caracas police commissioner who faced charges related to four of the deaths. Government opponents argued that the charges were manipulated and that Simonovis was being made a scapegoat. They also perceived a conflict for Moreno because of his recent role in clearing Penalver. Although the defense asked Moreno to recuse himself, according to one of the attorneys and a Simonovis family member, Moreno refused. He sent the case to trial, where Simonovis was convicted the following year and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Simonovis, now serving time under house arrest because of an illness, is not allowed under the terms of his sentence to discuss the case with Reuters. Few other judges were willing to hear such a polarizing case.  None of us wanted to take on political cases,  one former Supreme Court justice told Reuters.  Maikel did, though, to ingratiate himself  with the Chavez government. At the time, Moreno was getting ever closer to crucial powerbrokers, especially Flores and her longtime boyfriend - Chavez s confidante and future successor, Maduro. The judge and the power couple grew to have regular contact, the former justice said. Moreno began throwing his weight around with other judges. In 2004, Caracas judge Luis Melendez recorded a telephone conversation in which Moreno said he was phoning at the behest of Jose Vicente Rangel, Venezuela s vice president at the time. Disturbed by a prior call from Moreno, Melendez taped the follow-up conversation and gave the recording to internal inspectors of the national judiciary. In the recording, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, Moreno is heard pressuring Melendez to release Saul Cordero, a suspected criminal charged at the time with drug and arms trafficking. Reuters also reviewed a transcript of the call printed on Supreme Court letterhead during its investigation of Moreno in 2006.  The important thing is for him to be out,  Moreno told Melendez.  Do what needs to be done.  The senior government official and one other person familiar with the recording said it was authentic. It is not clear whether Melendez released Cordero. But Cordero was never tried on the charges and eventually was named a police chief by a pro-government mayor in the municipality of Caroni. Reuters could not reach Cordero, Melendez or Rangel for comment. By 2006, word of the phone call and of Moreno s controversial role in the 2002 shooting trials was increasingly well-known in judicial circles, according to several judges, attorneys and other officials active at the time. The Supreme Court ordered its security division to investigate.  The resulting intelligence report unearthed allegations that helped derail Moreno s first stint as a judge. The report, for instance, held that Moreno s efforts to affect judicial outcomes went beyond pressuring colleagues. It cited testimony by numerous witnesses alleging Moreno took part in an extortion ring   known as  Los Enanos,  or  the Dwarves    that secured payments from defendants in exchange for lenient sentences or acquittals. Moreno was never charged for anything related to the alleged extortion. But his behavior, the report warned, was a threat to the courts, to Chavez and to  the revolution.  In 2007, the Supreme Court found Moreno in contempt of the tribunal and defrocked him as an appeals court judge. Citing  grave and inexcusable errors,  the high court found Moreno had improperly released two murder suspects, according to its ruling. Reuters could not determine on what grounds Moreno had released the two suspects.  Despite his ouster, Moreno remained calm, according to people who spoke with him at the time. Allies like Maduro, whom Chavez had just named foreign minister, would help him.  Maduro and Cilia will protect me,  Moreno told Ramiz, according to the former airline owner s recollection of a conversation with Moreno shortly after the dismissal. The two had remained friendly after Moreno left Aeropostal. Almost immediately, Maduro sent Moreno to a diplomatic post in Rome. After a year, Maduro sent Moreno to Trinidad and Tobago, a Caribbean country much closer to home, where he held a commercial post with the Venezuelan embassy until 2010. Moreno then returned to Caracas and studied for a doctorate. Chavez, stricken by cancer, died in March 2013. Maduro, by then vice president, succeeded Chavez the following month. Weeks later, he married Flores, making her first lady. With his allies firmly in power, Moreno revived a judicial career that three senior judges said would have remained moribund without such connections, given Moreno s arrest in the 1989 killing and his later ouster from the court system. The country s 1999 constitution, rewritten by Chavez, stipulates the head of the Supreme Court be of  good repute.  In 2014, Maduro named Moreno, with a fresh doctorate in constitutional law, to the top court. Since then, Moreno s influence has only grown. In February 2017, Maduro named him chief justice, outraging critics, including Gabriela Ramirez, the national ombudsman at the time. Ramirez unsuccessfully sought to derail the appointment, citing to senior officials Moreno s ouster from the appeals court. Under Moreno as chief justice, the court proceeded to dismiss every legal challenge to Maduro s authority that has reached the bench.

Summary: विशेष रिपोर्टः कैसे एक बर्खास्त न्यायाधीश मादुरो के वेनेज़ुएला के लिए मुख्य कानूनी प्रवर्तक बन गया


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania s ruling Social Democrats have filed a slew of new changes to the criminal code that would decriminalize several graft offences, including some abuse of office crimes, their second attempt this year to weaken a crackdown on corruption. Transparency International ranks Romania as one of the European Union s most corrupt states and Brussels keeps its justice system under special monitoring, although it has praised magistrates for their efforts to root out high-level graft. A draft bill released on Tuesday showed a group of Social Democrat lawmakers are proposing that abuse of office offences that cause financial damage of less than 200,000 euros ($237,100) should no longer be punishable. Other changes include serving prison sentences of less than three years at home, lower sentences for bribe taking and other graft crimes, as well as decriminalizing taking a bribe for someone other than the accused. Another proposal would make using one s position to obtain sexual favors no longer a crime.  If approved, the changes would put an end to an ongoing trial of Social Democrat Party leader and lower house speaker Liviu Dragnea, who is accused of abuse of office.  Dozens of lawmakers and mayors across all parties stand to benefit from the changes. Romania s anti-corruption prosecution unit has sent 72 members of parliament to trial since 2006.  A similar attempt to decriminalize some abuse of office crimes triggered the country s largest street protests in decades at the start of 2017. The ruling coalition backed down at the time but has revived the proposals. Earlier this month, the ruling coalition has used its overwhelming parliament majority to approve a judicial overhaul that puts magistrates under political control. They have also filed a different set of proposals to change the criminal code that could derail law and order. Thousands of magistrates, centrist President Klaus Iohannis, the European Commission, the U.S. State Department and seven EU states have all criticized both the approved bills and the criminal code proposals. The Social Democrats and their junior coalition partner ALDE have denied the changes would affect the independence of the judiciary and have stressed that parliament has the right to legislate however it sees fit. The proposed changes place Romania alongside its eastern European peers Hungary and Poland, where populist leaders are also trying to control the judiciary, in defying EU concerns over the rule of law.

Summary: रोमानियाई सत्तारूढ़ सांसदों ने भ्रष्टाचार विरोधी नियमों को ढीला करने का प्रस्ताव रखा


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Californians are expected to pass a ballot measure on Election Day legalizing recreational marijuana, and the prospect has cities and counties seeing dollar signs. Proposition 64 would impose state taxes on the cultivation and sale of marijuana. But it also allows local jurisdictions to add taxes of their own, something many cities and counties said they plan to do. Economists warn that burdensome taxes and fees on the nascent industry could backfire, fueling the black market and pushing marijuana businesses to decamp for towns where it’s cheaper to operate. For many city and county officials across California, however, the promise of new revenue to fill budget gaps and fund services is too alluring to pass up.  More than 60 local marijuana measures will appear on ballots across California in Tuesday’s election. In Monterey, a scenic county along the state’s rugged central coast, officials said new local marijuana taxes and fees, if approved, could bring in $30 million, nearly double the county’s $16 million budget deficit. In Coalinga, a Fresno County community of about 13,000, officials hope to solve a $3 million budget crisis with marijuana taxes. Central California’s King City anticipates new revenues of $1 million to $2 million, or almost 30 percent of the city’s general fund. Proposed marijuana taxes in Gonzales, population 8,400, are projected to hit $1.6 million, more than the city collects annually in sales and property taxes combined.  “There is no other business that would generate this type of revenue,” Gonzales City Manager Rene Mendez said. “It’s easy to see why this is something that communities want to pursue.” Some California communities have gone further, announcing plans to reinvent themselves as hubs for the industry. Desert Hot Springs in Southern California, a town that narrowly skirted bankruptcy after the financial crash, was one of a few cities to pass a marijuana tax in 2014. It is eager for marijuana revenue. The city passed an ordinance to allow for growing and processing businesses to legally operate. Mayor Scott Matas said it’s already having an effect – real estate prices on vacant and dilapidated industrial parcels have skyrocketed as investors stand poised to build manufacturing sites and open nurseries. Forecasts for local marijuana taxes – which will be collected in addition to state taxes – are staggering. Desert Hot Springs’ current general fund is about $15 million. But city leaders project marijuana tax collections could reach $1 million next year and, eventually, climb to $50 million if all the available land gets fully built out. “If the industry takes off, the revenue could be life-changing for this community,” Matas said. For more on U.S. states and marijuana, see this graphic:  tmsnrt.rs/2fBzYmV Many of the California communities hoping to cash in on recreational marijuana formed their plans after meeting with David McPherson of HdL Companies, a Southern California consulting firm specializing in revenue strategies for local governments. The former Oakland tax administrator said he believes marijuana provides a rare opportunity for new job growth and tax revenue that could help struggling communities keep pace with rising pension costs and infrastructure and school funding needs. “It’s almost like the next dot com,” he said. McPherson is working with 40 communities on marijuana issues and has helped draft a dozen local tax measures for Tuesday’s ballots.  “Cities have really struggled to balance their budgets,” he said. “This is a new industry that’s going to increase significantly and create jobs and more employment in their communities.”  Not all municipalities have embraced high marijuana taxes. Some said they hope to squash the black market by keeping taxes low, so legal businesses can better compete with the illicit supply. In Mendocino, a longtime marijuana-growing region in Northern California, county officials scoffed at initial projections by McPherson of up to $110 million in annual local taxes – a potential cash infusion equivalent to 60 percent of the county’s general fund. Instead, the county proposed a measure with a much lower tax rate. “These numbers are designed to make government drool and say,‘How much can we get out of our cultivators and farmers?’” said Jude Thilman, a Fort Bragg resident and member of the Mendocino Cannabis Policy Council at a May meeting of the Mendocino County Supervisors. “The farmers are not doing that well. People are barely getting by.” Nate Bradley, head of the California Cannabis Industry Association, worries that high taxes would encourage farmers to continue growing marijuana illegally. “We want to pull these guys out of the hills. But if you’re looking at them like they’re ATM machines, they are not going to come out of the hills.” Some cities want to avoid the whole issue by banning all marijuana farming and sales within their jurisdictions, something allowed by the ballot measure.  In Orange County south of Los Angeles, Placentia Mayor Pro Tem Craig Green said the city has no plans to allow marijuana sales or cultivation. “There are problems with the cannabis business,” such as the increased costs to law enforcement, he said. “It ends up costing more in the end.”

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के शहरों में मारिजुआना को भुनाने का मौका


BEIRUT/RIYADH/AMMAN (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia pulled no punches when it condemned President Donald Trump s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But Palestinian officials say Riyadh has also been working for weeks behind the scenes to press them to support a nascent U.S. peace plan. Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy on Wednesday with his announcement and instructions to begin the process of moving the embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite warnings that it would drive the wedge between Israel and the Palestinians deeper.  The Saudi royal court described the decision as  unjustified and irresponsible  and  a big step back in efforts to advance the peace process.  But Arab officials privately say that Riyadh appears to be on board with a broader U.S. strategy for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan still in its early phases of development. Four Palestinian officials, who spoke on condition they not be named, said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas discussed in detail a grand bargain that Trump and Jared Kushner, the president s son-in-law and adviser, are expected to unveil in the first half of 2018. One official said Prince Mohammed asked Abbas to show support for the U.S. administration s peace efforts when the two met in Riyadh in November.  Another Palestinian official said Prince Mohammed told Abbas:  Be patient, you will hear good news. This peace process will go ahead.  The U.S.-Saudi relationship has improved dramatically under Trump, partly because the leaders share a vision of confronting Riyadh s arch-rival Iran more aggressively in the region.  Kushner, 36, whose father knew Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, has also nurtured strong personal ties with the 32-year-old crown prince as he asserts Saudi influence internationally and amasses power for himself at home. The Saudi royal court did not respond to requests for comment. A White House official said Kushner did not ask the crown prince to talk to Abbas about the plan. Palestinian officials fear, and many Arab officials suspect, that by closing the door on East Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state, Trump will align with Israel in offering the Palestinians limited self-government inside disconnected patches of the occupied West Bank, with no right of return for refugees displaced by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967. The Palestinian officials said they were concerned that the proposal that Prince Mohammed communicated to Abbas, which purportedly came from Kushner, presents exactly that scenario. As told to Abbas, the proposal included establishing  a Palestinian entity  in Gaza as well as the West Bank administrative areas A and B and 10 percent of area C, which contains Jewish settlements, a third Palestinian official said.  Jewish settlements in the West Bank would stay, there would be no right of return, and Israel would remain responsible for the borders, he said. The proposal appears to differ little from existing arrangements in the West Bank, widening Palestinian control but falling far short of their minimum national demands.  This is rejected by Palestinians. Abu Mazen (Abbas) explained the position and its danger to the Palestinian cause and Saudi Arabia understood that,  the official said. The White House official denied that Kushner communicated those details to Prince Mohammed:  It does not accurately reflect any part of the conversation.  Trump sought to temper the blow from his Jerusalem announcement with a phone call to Abbas on Tuesday, stressing that the Palestinians stood to gain from the plan being drawn up by Kushner and U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt.  President Trump in a phone call told Abu Mazen:  I will have some proposals for you that you would like . When Abu Mazen pressed him on details, Trump didn t give any,  the first Palestinian official said. A Saudi source said he believed an understanding on Israeli-Palestinian peace would nonetheless begin to emerge in the coming weeks.  Do not underestimate the businessman in (Trump). He has always called it the ultimate deal,  the source said, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.  I don t think our government is going to accept that unless it has something sweetened in the pipeline which (King Salman and the crown prince) could sell to the Arab world   that the Palestinians would have their own state.   Trump s decision on Jerusalem is seen almost uniformly in Arab capitals as a sharp tilt toward Israel, which has only signed peace deals with Egypt and Jordan.  Jordan, a U.S. ally which has played a key role in the peace process since inking its bilateral deal with Israel in 1994, insists that no peace can be achieved without Jerusalem. Jordanian political analyst Oraib Rantawi, who spoke with King Abdullah after the monarch met with top U.S. administration officials last week, said Amman is worried about being bypassed in favor of Saudi Arabia.  There are direct dealings and a desire to present a deal that is unfair to the Palestinians in return for securing U.S. backing and paving the way for Gulf-Israeli cooperation to confront Iran,  he said. Most Arab states are unlikely to object to Trump s announcement because they find themselves more aligned with Israel than ever, particularly on countering Iran, said Shadi Hamid, senior fellow at Brookings Institution in Washington,   If Saudi officials, including the crown prince himself, were particularly concerned with Jerusalem s status, they would presumably have used their privileged status as a top Trump ally and lobbied the administration to hold off on such a needlessly toxic move,  he wrote in an article published in The Atlantic.  It s unlikely Trump would have followed through if the Saudis had drawn something resembling a red line.              Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, a member of the security cabinet, told Army Radio in November that Israel has had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia, a disclosure of long-rumored secret dealings between the two countries which have no official ties. Saudi Arabia denied the reports. It maintains that normalizing relations hinges on Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war, territory Palestinians seek for a future state. But with both Saudi Arabia and Israel viewing Iran as a major main threat in the Middle East, shared interests may push them to work together. Under Prince Mohammed, the kingdom is pushing back at what it sees as growing Iranian influence in and around its borders.   They ve got an unprecedented level of support from Washington right now and seem to be making the most of it,  said a diplomat in the region.  They re not willing to jeopardize that. They ve got bigger fish to fry.

Summary: जेरूसलम के कदम पर आक्रोश के बावजूद, सऊदी अमेरिकी शांति प्रयासों के साथ बोर्ड पर देखे गए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will Pakistan next week during an Asian trip that will also take him to the country’s rival India, a senior official at the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

Summary: टिलरसन पाकिस्तान के साथ-साथ भारत भी जाएंगेः वरिष्ठ अमेरिकी अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he needed a U.S. appeals court considering the legality of his immigration order to go his way, saying a lot of “bad people” are thinking of coming to the United States. Trump made the comments during an appearance at the White House in which he also criticized Senate delays of his Cabinet nominees, including Scott Pruitt for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Summary: ट्रम्पः अमेरिकी अपील अदालत को आप्रवासन आदेश पर अपना रास्ता अपनाना चाहिए