LONDON (Reuters) - Business is booming for Paul Murphy s recruitment agency in northwest England. Clients are rolling in with more jobs in restaurants, bars and hotels than ever before, but finding workers to fill them has become tricky. Britain s vote to leave the EU has complicated life for Murphy. A steady stream of continental Europeans who for years have taken up hundreds of thousands of positions in the hospitality business and other industries has started to dry up.  It s definitely getting worse. The lead time to fill a chef vacancy at the moment ... could be anything between two and six months,  said Murphy, whose Knight Benton Recruitment agency is based in the small town of Cleator Moor. By contrast finding a chef last year would take two months at most, he told Reuters.  Citizens of the remaining European Union states - from Italians and Spanish to Poles and Romanians - face losing their automatic right to live in Britain when it leaves the bloc in March 2019. Murphy believes the government must produce an alternative immigration regime that ensures employers get the workers they need.  Without a proper plan in place, they could crash the economy,  he said.  The hospitality sector, like farming and construction, has relied heavily on Europeans, and particularly on people from the poorer ex-communist states which began joining the EU in 2003. Citizens of other EU countries could make up as much as a quarter of the 3 million workers in hospitality, according to a KPMG report based on a survey of British Hospitality Association (BHA) members. That includes 75 percent of waiting staff, 37 percent of housekeepers and 25 percent of chefs. Last June s referendum has affected both the supply of labor and demand for it. European workers are starting to leave Britain or having second thoughts about coming in the first place, worried about their uncertain status after Brexit.  On top of this, the pound has fallen more than 15 percent against the euro and about 21 percent against the Polish zloty since the referendum. That means Europeans  sterling pay does not stretch nearly so far when they send money home, encouraging them to seek work elsewhere. But Murphy s clients need more staff. Cleator Moor lies on the edge of the Lake District national park, a top tourist draw. The weak pound has encouraged many Britons to holiday at home and attracted growing numbers of foreign visitors to places like the Lake District. They need feeding and accommodating. Smaller firms are particularly affected. Some are paying agencies to recruit for roles they used to fill easily themselves, raising salaries and offering more part-time hours.    At a national level, big brands like the Pret a Manger sandwich chain and pizza restaurant group Franco Manca have warned about the impact on their businesses.  Hospitality alone accounts for around 4.3 percent of the British economy, the BHA estimates, but the problem is wider.   Numerous recruitment and sentiment surveys have suggested that firms across the economy are struggling to fill vacancies. Prime Minister Theresa May s government has to balance these concerns with those of the many Britons who say they voted for Brexit primarily to clamp down on migration from the EU. The government wants to keep the right of Irish citizens to work in Britain, an arrangement which long pre-dates the EU. But a leaked document last week showed it is considering restricting migration from other EU states to all but the highest skilled workers. The government has said only that it would set out its proposals later this year. Employers fear too hard a line will make matters worse. Already they raised salaries at the fastest pace for two years in August as the fall in EU migration aggravates the labor shortage, according to a survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.  Hospitality needs to recruit 200,000 people every year to make up for natural staff turnover and power its growth, according to the BHA. Without any new EU migration or an increase in applications from Britons, it estimates the industry could face a shortfall of more than 60,000 jobs every year. Since 2003 the number of people born in other EU states living in Britain has jumped from 1.26 million to 3.68 million in 2017, according to Oxford University s Migration Observatory. Eastern Europeans accounted for almost all the increase. But that trend has slowed sharply. In the 12 months to March, net migration from all countries was 246,000, down 81,000 from the previous year, official data show. More than half that drop was due to EU citizens leaving and fewer arriving since the Brexit vote. The biggest fall was among citizens of eight eastern European countries. Up-market fast food chain Leon, which runs 52 restaurants mostly in London and southeast England, is feeling the consequences.  What we ve seen this year, particularly in the last quarter, is a significant drop in applications from EU nationals,  said Marco Reick, the firm s people director. With staff from other EU states making up around 60 percent of Leon s 1,000-strong workforce, the firm has responded by splitting full-time roles into part-time positions. While more expensive initially, this makes them more attractive to British candidates who tend to want more casual work.  Indian fine-dining restaurant group MW Eat says job  applications from EU nationals are down around 80 percent since the referendum.  We ve had to increase wages by in excess of 10 percent,  said chairman Ranjit Mathrani. Even then, the group is taking on less qualified candidates, raising training costs. As a result, it is having to increase menu prices.  Finding British replacements isn t easy. Mathrani said MW Eat would prefer to hire more locally-born workers, but many see hospitality as an unattractive career choice. On top of that unemployment is its lowest in decades, at 1.46 million people or 4.3 percent of the workforce in the three months to July. Peter Gowers, chief executive of the Travelodge budget hotel group, says there simply aren t enough available Britons.  Even if the hotel industry recruited virtually every person on the unemployment register there wouldn t be enough people to fill all the roles needed in the 10 years following Brexit,  he told the Mail on Sunday newspaper. Gowers called on the government to consider a guest worker program to avoid price rises and investment cuts. Other large firms say they have avoided the impact so far. One such is the Gordon Ramsay Group, which operates restaurants under the name of one of Britain s most outspoken celebrity chefs. CEO Stuart Gillies said that with two thirds of its workforce from other EU states, the firm has brought forward steps to retain staff including offering more flexible shifts.   The government s ambition is to cut annual net migration to  the tens of thousands . For some employers, the prospect of further falls in migration is unsettling.   That really makes me very uncomfortable, because we re struggling as it is,  said Reick.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के कर्मचारी ब्रिटेन से उसी तरह चले जाते हैं जैसे रेस्तरां मालिकों को उनकी सबसे अधिक आवश्यकता होती है


ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland s defense ministry has admitted sending staff to test reconnaissance drones in contested land held by Israel - an embarrassing blow for the neutral European country s status as an honest broker in the Middle East. Swiss officials visited an airfield in the Golan Heights region on three occasions in 2012, 2013 and 2015 to monitor tests of the Israeli-built Hermes 900 aircraft that they are    buying for $265 million. The visits, which lasted several days, took place in an area which Switzerland does not recognize as being part of Israel, which took the land from Syria following a 1967 war. Following an internal review this year, the Swiss found the presence of their personnel at the airfield contradicted the Swiss position on the Middle East conflict, the ministry said. The visits took place without the knowledge of the Swiss foreign ministry. No further visits have taken place since the affair came to light, it said in a statement.  This incident was a communication breakdown,  it said.  Those who were informed about the activities did not realize Swiss officials were not allowed to be there and those who knew about the restrictions were not informed about the planned activities.  Future tests will now take place at an airfield within Israel, it added, with the drones due to enter service in 2020. Switzerland has frequently acted as a broker in the Middle East, most recently hosting peace talks about the Syrian civil war in Geneva and carrying out consular services for Iran and Saudi Arabia in their respective countries.  This case damages the credibility of Switzerland with regards to all governments in the region which are in conflict with Israel,  veteran diplomat Tim Guldimann, a lawmaker from the Social Democrat party, told the Tages-Anzeiger paper.

Summary: स्विस ने गोलन हाइट्स में ड्रोन परीक्षण जंगल को स्वीकार किया


MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The search for an Argentine navy submarine missing in the South Atlantic for one week reached a  critical phase  on Wednesday as the 44 crew on board could be running low on oxygen, a navy spokesman said. Dozens of planes and boats were searching for the ARA San Juan, a mission that has plunged relatives of the sailors into an anguished wait for news and transfixed the South American country of 44 million people.   If the German-built submarine, in service for more than three decades, had sunk or was otherwise unable to rise to the surface since it gave its last location on Nov. 15, it would be using up the last of its seven-day oxygen supply.  We are in the critical phase...particularly with respect to oxygen,  navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters.  There has been no contact with anything that could be the San Juan submarine.  Relatives of the crew members have gathered at a naval base in Mar del Plata, where the search is coordinated. Their concern grew as the hours ticked by. The craft was probably on the seabed because the mechanism to surface either failed or was not activated by a crew member, naval investigator Fernando Morales told Reuters in a telephone interview.  If the captain stayed at the bottom because he thought it was more prudent to stay at the bottom, it s one thing. But at this point we have to think that if he s at the bottom, it s because he could not emerge,  Morales said. In an evening news conference, Balbi said an unusual noise was detected on Nov. 15, near where the submarine last reported its position. He declined to say if the sound indicated an explosion or emergency on the vessel. Data on the noise were being analyzed, he added. Favorable weather allowed search boats to cover a greater area after being hampered by strong winds and waves for much of the past few days, Balbi said. Poor weather was expected to return on Thursday. Around 30 boats and planes and 4,000 people from Argentina, the United States, Britain, Chile and Brazil have joined the search for the submarine, which last transmitted its location about 480 km (300 miles) from the coast.  Planes have covered some 500,000 square km (190,000 square miles) of the ocean surface, but much of the area has not yet been scoured by the boats. Argentines have been gripped by the search, with local newspapers placing photographs on their front pages of crew members  relatives praying. The case has dominated discussion on social media in Argentina, with the hash tags  Los 44  (The 44) and (navy spokesman)  Enrique Balbi  becoming trending topics on Twitter. Comparisons were made to the most recent major rescue operation in the region, when 33 miners in northern Chile were rescued in 2010 after 69 days trapped underground. The submarine was en route from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, to the coastal city of Mar del Plata, some 400 km (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires, when it reported an electrical malfunction shortly before disappearing last week. The submarine was launched in 1983 and underwent maintenance in 2008 in Argentina. The disappearance has highlighted the dwindling resources and lack of training faced by the armed forces since the end of a military dictatorship in the early 1980s.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना की लापता पनडुब्बी की खोज 'महत्वपूर्ण चरण' में पहुंची


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives ethics committee has begun a sweeping probe into possible sexual harassment and discrimination by the chamber’s 434 lawmakers and their staff, requesting on Friday a wide range of documents from the congressional office that handles employment disputes.  In a letter to the office, Susan Brooks, the committee’s Republican chair, and Theodore Deutch, its senior Democrat, requested the congressional compliance office promptly share all its records “related to any claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation or any other employment practice.” Capitol Hill has been rocked this fall by news of possible sexual misconduct by lawmakers, and outrage that public money may have been paid to settle harassment suits against lawmakers. Most notably Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, is under pressure to resign in light of sexual harassment allegations, which Reuters has not verified. U.S. media have reported Conyers used public funds to settle a claim with a woman, and the ethics committee is currently investigating if he “used official resources for impermissible personal purposes.” Conyers has acknowledged settling with a former staffer over her claims of harassment, but he has denied wrongdoing.  Meanwhile, Texas Republican Representative Joe Barton recently decided not to seek re-election after a nude photo of him appeared on the internet. The committee had no comment beyond the letter. Pressure is mounting for it to ramp up its enforcement of congressional rules. It last took a disciplinary action on Aug. 1, determining Representative Ben Ray Lujan broke a rule on campaign communications but not imposing any sanctions. Along with resolving disputes and enforcing employment laws for more than 30,000 people working for Congress, the compliance office provides public money to confidentially settle claims against lawmakers. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is seeking to change that practice with legislation that would require prompt public disclosure of settlement awards. In a letter sent to House Administration Committee Chair Gregg Harper on Friday, the compliance office said that since 2013 it has paid settlements on two claims including sex discrimination allegations and one alleging sexual harassment.  It paid $84,000 for one sexual harassment claim and $7,000 in one case alleging both sex and religious discrimination.  Politico reported the harassment award was made on behalf of Texas Republican Blake Farenthold.  “While I 100 percent support more transparency with respect to claims against members of Congress, I can neither confirm nor deny that settlement involved my office as the Congressional Accountability Act prohibits me from answering that question,” said Farenthold in a statement.  In 2014 Farenthold’s former communications director Lauren Greene sued him, alleging a hostile work environment, gender discrimination, and retaliation, court documents show. Farenthold and Greene reached a mediated agreement in 2015 to avoid costly litigation, but the settlement’s details were confidential, according to a statement released at the time, where Farenthold denied engaging in any wrongdoing.

Summary: हाउस एथिक्स पैनल ने यौन उत्पीड़न के दावों की व्यापक जांच शुरू की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Friday will propose a $10 billion investment in partnerships to encourage the growth of the U.S. manufacturing sector as part of a national push to discourage outsourcing in the industry. The proposal would work with a broader campaign to encourage companies to build and expand their U.S. manufacturing operations. Clinton is slated to roll out the proposal on Friday in Syracuse, New York, ahead of the state’s nominating contest on April 19. New York has long been a hub of the manufacturing industry, but suffered significant declines in the sector in recent years. From 2000-2008, upstate New York alone lost nearly 105,000 manufacturing jobs, according to the state government. Clinton maintains a lead in the state, which she represented in the U.S. Senate, over rival Bernie Sanders, a U.S. Senator from Vermont and a New York native.  Sanders was born and raised in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn. The Clinton campaign is headquartered there.  The campaign said the proposal’s multi-billion dollar price tag would largely be covered by Clinton’s proposed “clawback” tax, which would rescind tax relief for companies that outsource jobs or facilities abroad.

Summary: 10 अरब डॉलर के विनिर्माण निवेश का प्रस्ताव रखेंगी हिलेरी क्लिंटन


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan s health ministry is likely to drastically water down a proposal restricting smoking in restaurants, media said on Friday, a move that risks Tokyo becoming one of the unhealthiest hosts of the Olympic Games hosts in years. Japan ranks at the bottom globally in anti-smoking measures, going by the types of public spaces entirely free of smoke, says the World Health Organization, which has teamed up with global Olympics officials to guarantee smoke-free Games venues. Ahead of the 2020 summer Olympics, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) is among those pressuring the Japanese capital to follow Rio de Janeiro and other recent games hosts in banning smoking in all public areas. IOC Vice President John Coats has said the body cannot force a ban beyond the venues and the Olympic Village, however.  The Health Ministry was forced this year to scale back a proposed bill for a blanket ban on public smoking in the face of opposition by pro-smoking politicians, restaurateurs and Japan Tobacco, which is one-third government owned. But even the weaker bill foundered, due to opposition from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). In August, anti-smoking Health Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki lost his job in a cabinet reshuffle. Now the ministry contemplates allowing smoking indoors at establishments that have a floor area of up to five times the 30 square meters (323 square feet) and adequate ventilation stipulated in the earlier bill, media said. However, a health ministry official told Reuters the new proposal was still in such an early stage of discussion that none of its content had yet been decided. Fifty years ago, around half of Japanese smoked, a figure that has shrunk to less than a fifth now. Smoking areas have been dramatically restricted, but laws vary among cities. There is still a cigarette vending machine in a Health Ministry annex. Health officials say 15,000 Japanese die every year from second-hand smoke. The new proposal is  terrible,  says anti-smoking activist Manabu Sakuta, since nearly 90 percent of food and beverage establishments in Tokyo are smaller than 150 square meters (180 sq yards). But he is pinning his hopes on Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, who vowed in July to push for a smoking ban before the Olympics.  There s some possibility here, so we ll have to focus on that,  he said.

Summary: जापान का स्वास्थ्य मंत्रालय रेस्तरां में धूम्रपान करने के प्रस्ताव पर रोक लगाएगाः मीडिया


COLOMBO (Reuters) - The United Nations on Friday urged the Sri Lankan government to urgently implement reforms to end war-time arbitrary detention and strengthen independent monitoring of tough legislation. Sri Lanka has used the 1979 Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to pursue a tough line to prevent aiding and abetting terrorism in the island nation s long conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels. That legislation gives wide powers to police to arrest a suspect without informing the immediate family, restricts access to lawyers and allows detention of up to 18-months without charging. The war ended in 2009, but the government has not repealed PTA, though it had promised to end arbitrary detentions. Many ethnic minority Tamils who have been arrested under the PTA have complained of years of detention without being charged. The U.N. is now asking Sri Lanka to repeal the draconian law and introduce an internationally acceptable law. The government says it has begun moves to replace the PTA and is in the process of introducing new legislation.   There are no effective safeguards against arbitrariness in this context and there is an urgent need to strengthen mechanisms for independent monitoring and oversight, Leigh Toomey, a member of the UN working group on arbitrary detention told reporters in Colombo after concluding a 11-day mission. She said they had identified significant challenges to the right of personal liberty in Sri Lanka, resulting in arbitrary detention across the country. The Working Group also said their attention had been drawn to a loss of liberty among the socially vulnerable, such as children, women, elderly people, people with psycho-social problems and the poor. Sri Lanka is under criticism from the rights groups over its slow progress on the commitments it made to the UN human Rights council following a U.N. resolution that called for post-war reconciliation and an investigation of all alleged war crimes. Sri Lanka ended a 26-year-civil war crushing the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan in 2009. The United Nations and rights groups have accused the military of killing thousands of civilians, mostly Tamils, during the final weeks of the conflict. The Tamil Tigers were also accused of widespread abuses during the war, such as using child soldiers and targeting civilians with suicide bombers. In November European lawmakers said they were disappointed about Sri Lanka s slow roll-out of human rights reforms that it had promised in exchange for trade concessions.   A U.N. rights watchdog in 2016 called on Sri Lanka to investigate documented allegations of torture and rape of detainees by security forces and to rein in broad police powers. The U.N. Committee against Torture described continuing reports of abductions, deaths in custody, poor conditions of detention and the use of forced confessions in court.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने श्रीलंका में मनमाने ढंग से हिरासत को समाप्त करने के लिए तत्काल सुधारों की मांग की


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday ruled out a resumption of stalled peace talks with communist rebels if they do not stop guerrilla attacks, two days after lawmakers ousted the last leftist from his cabinet. An angry Duterte in May ordered the scrapping of formal peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) after the military said fighters from the CPP s military wing, the New People s Army, stepped up offensives in the countryside.  There will be no talks until you declare a ceasefire, period,  he said in a speech in his home city of Davao.  And if you say you want another war, be my guest.  Duterte gave two cabinet positions to left-wing activists recommended by the CPP when he assumed power last year to show his commitment to ending nearly five decades of conflict, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. The legislature s Commission on Appointments on Wednesday rejected the appointment of leftist Rafael Mariano as agrarian reform minister.  Mariano s exit came less than a month after the same panel ousted Judy Taguiwalo, another leftist, as social welfare minister, in what some commentators say is a move by Duterte s allies to punish the CPP.  But Duterte s office in both cases expressed disappointment the ministers had not been approved. In the Philippines, all ministers must be approved by the house panel, but the process can take more than a year. The president is furious about repeated attacks by the communist rebels who, he said, have killed many soldiers and police. He is also angered by what he sees as duplicity by the CPP s exiled political leaders, to whom he says he has made many concessions and has shown good faith by making the peace process a top priority for his administration. The rebels  chief negotiator, Luis Jalandoni, has said the government s demand to stop guerrilla attacks is  ridiculous  because soldiers are attacking villages where rebels are based.

Summary: फिलीपींस के दुतेर्ते ने कहा कि कम्युनिस्टों के संघर्ष विराम के बिना कोई शांति वार्ता नहीं होगी


SHARM AL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday he was against military strikes on Iran or the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, saying there was enough turmoil in the Middle East. In a meeting with a group of journalists, Sisi also pledged support for Saudi Arabia in its stand-off with Iran. Asked about the prospect of attacks on Iran and Hezbollah  - two days after Saudi Arabia had accused Lebanon of declaring war because of Hezbollah s  aggressive actions , Sisi stressed the importance of de-escalation.  I am always against war,  Sisi said, without spelling out who might be involved in military action. Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia called for sanctions against Hezbollah this week and accused Iran of supplying Yemen s Houthis with missiles used to target it.  I have said it once and I will say it again, Gulf national security is Egyptian national security. I have faith in the wise and firm leadership of Saudi Arabia,  Sisi said. Sisi said the situation in the kingdom was  reassuring and stable  following last weekend s arrests of 11 princes, former and current ministers, and a group of elite businessmen on  corruption allegations.  They face allegations of money laundering, bribery, extortion and exploiting public office for personal gain. Sisi stressed his backing of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states, which have showered Egypt with aid ever since the general-turned-president led the military s ouster of former President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 following mass protests. Lebanon has been thrust to the center of regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran since the Saudi-allied Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri quit as prime minister on Saturday, blaming Iran and Hezbollah in his resignation speech. Hezbollah is both a military and a political organization that is represented in the Lebanese parliament and in the Hariri-led coalition government formed last year. Its powerful guerrilla army is widely seen as stronger than the Lebanese army, and has played a major role in the war in neighboring Syria, another theater of Saudi-Iranian rivalry where Hezbollah has fought in support of the Syrian government. Sisi was elected a year after he ousted Mursi and his first four-year term ends next year. He would not be drawn on when he would announce a re-election bid, although he is widely expected to run and win. He hinted at doing so by February.  I have to present achievements over the past four years to Egyptians first, before saying whether I will run or not. I will do this over the next two months, December and January, and based on their response I will reach a position on running.  One candidate has already declared his intention to challenge Sisi. Rights lawyer Khaled Ali announced his 2018 bid on Monday in a speech criticizing Sisi s administration; accusing it of suppressing freedoms and causing deteriorating economic and security conditions. Egypt s economy has been struggling to recover since a 2011 uprising scared away tourists and investors, two main sources of foreign currency, but a three-year International Monetary Fund program is expected to help restore confidence. The IMF program is tied to harsh reforms, chief of which was the central bank s decision to float the pound currency last year, which halved its value from 8.8 to the dollar to almost 18. Sisi said on Wednesday he expected the pound to rally in the near future.  I expect that the exchange rate will strengthen in the coming period, because all the problems that created the crisis over the past few years before the float, I believe, have been solved,  he said. Tourism, a major source of hard currency, took a massive hit in 2015 when Russia suspended flights to Egypt, after Islamic State blew a plane out of the air that took off from Sharm al-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort in which Sisi was speaking on Wednesday, killing all 224 people, mostly Russians, on board. Sisi said he was not pressing the Russian government to restore flights because he understood its need to protect its citizens.  I have never, and will never, insist on the restoration of flights,  he said. He said security forces were making significant gains against militants, however. The military had captured a foreign fighter in a raid it carried out against militants responsible for a deadly attack on a police convoy in Egypt s Western Desert last month, he said. Three security sources said at the time that at least 52 police officers and conscripts were killed on Oct. 21 when their patrol came under attack, but the interior ministry rebutted the figure the next day and said only 16 policemen had been killed. A new militant group with links to al Qaeda claimed responsibility for attack last week. The foreign militant is the sole survivor of the raid and his confession would be revealed to the public soon, Sisi said. The Western Desert, which spans Egypt s more than 1,200 kilometre (745 miles) border with Libya, is a new battlefront for security forces, who have been fighting Islamic State militants in the Sinai Peninsula since 2013. Sisi did not specify the fighter s nationality but the porous border with Libya has been used to smuggle people and weapons regularly. When asked about his support for Khalifa Haftar, the eastern Libyan commander whose Libyan National Army has been fighting Islamist militant groups and other fighters in Benghazi and Derna for more than two years, Sisi said it did not mean he opposed the U.N.-backed Tripoli-based government, even though Haftar and his supporters reject it.  Our support for Haftar is in line with the constants of Egyptian policy; we support a political solution and our backing of Haftar is not at the expense of Fayez Seraj s government.

Summary: मिस्र के राष्ट्रपति ने सऊदी अरब के शुद्धिकरण का समर्थन किया, ईरान के साथ तनाव कम करने का आग्रह किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday he told Donald Trump during a private meeting that fear is gripping communities in America’s largest city over the U.S. president-elect’s vows to crack down on illegal immigrants. The Democratic mayor and the wealthy Republican New York real estate developer traded insults during the campaign, but met for about an hour inside Trump’s skyscraper headquarters. Afterward, de Blasio said he expressed his concerns about Trump’s policies toward immigrants, as well the need for tough Wall Street regulation and protecting the rights of racial and religious minorities. De Blasio, who supported fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton against Trump in last week’s election, said the two men had a candid and substantive discussion. De Blasio said he told Trump immigrant families should not be torn apart by deportations, and that the police tactic supported by Trump of stopping and searching people on the street can drive a wedge between minorities and law enforcement. New York historically has been a city filled with immigrants. According to census data, 37 percent of New York City’s 8.6 million residents are foreign-born, far above the national figure of 13 percent.  “I tried to express to him how much fear there is - how much fear there is in communities all over this city,” the mayor told reporters outside Trump Tower.  During the campaign, Trump called for the deportation of all of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally. Trump said in a TV interview aired on Sunday his priority was to remove up to 3 million immigrants who have criminal records or are gang members or drug dealers, and would decide on the others after the U.S. border is secured. The mayor last Thursday said New York would remain a sanctuary city shielding illegal immigrants, adding that “we are not going to sacrifice a half million people who live among us, who are part of our community.” Trump has said he may want to place some U.S. mosques under surveillance and suggested he may want to maintain a national database of Muslims. The New York Police Department has 900 officers who are Muslim, de Blasio said he told Trump.  The mayor declined to say what Trump’s responses had been. “I think they both said it was a very productive meeting,” Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said separately, adding that the president-elect is open to speaking with a variety of people. Trump during the campaign called de Blasio the worst mayor in America and in New York City’s history. The mayor during the campaign called Trump dangerous and “one of the worst demagogues in recent U.S. political history.” Trump grew up in the New York City borough of Queens and still makes Manhattan his primary residence. Trump has not said whether he will continue to live part-time in New York after he takes office on Jan. 20. De Blasio said he spoke to Trump about the importance of tough banking regulations and of tax cuts that do not favor the wealthy. Trump has promised a “dismantling” of the Democratic-backed 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law enacted following the financial crisis, and has promised deep tax cuts. The mayor expressed some optimism that Trump would follow through on a campaign pledge to spend more on infrastructure. Trump said during the campaign he would rebuild America’s infrastructure including highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools and hospitals. “It would have a hugely positive impact on millions of New Yorkers, and hopefully put a lot of people back to work,” de Blasio said.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क शहर के मेयर ने ट्रम्प को अपनी नीतियों पर डर के बारे में बताया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top lawmakers from both major U.S. political parties said on Sunday they trusted the Justice Department to appropriately handle its probe of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private email server, after a heavily criticized meeting between Clinton’s husband and the U.S. attorney general. Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain said on CBS show “Face the Nation” that they would respect Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s decision on whether to prosecute Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee.  Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also said he respected the process, though he acknowledged Lynch’s private meeting last week at an airport with former President Bill Clinton was unfortunate. “I think both of them wish their airplanes had never come anywhere near each other,” Schiff said on “Face the Nation,” adding that he still had confidence in the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to do a thorough investigation of Clinton’s email use. “If they say they are going to conduct this investigation by the book, I believe that’s what’s going to happen,” said Schiff, who supports Clinton for the party’s nomination. Lynch said on Friday that she would accept whatever recommendations the career prosecutors working on the case made about whether to prosecute Clinton. The lawmakers’ endorsement for the process follows Clinton’s meeting Saturday with investigators at the FBI’s Washington headquarters, where she answered questions for three and a half hours as part of the probe into use of her private email server. The FBI is investigating Clinton’s email use and whether laws were broken as a result of a personal email server kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Lawmakers and political strategists speculated on Sunday that the FBI’s interview of Clinton signaled its investigation could be nearing its end. But the FBI offered no information about the status of the probe or who its targets may be. Clinton has long insisted she is not a target. Clinton herself said in comments to MSNBC on Saturday that she “was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion.” Her rival, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, said it was “impossible” for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against her. The two have already begun an acrimonious battle ahead of the presidential election on Nov. 8. Democrats are hoping the issue will be resolved before their four-day convention in Philadelphia that begins July 25, which is expected to culminate with Clinton’s nomination for the presidential race. It is unclear what Democrats would do if Clinton were to be indicted and if any contingency plan exists.   Not all lawmakers said they were confident the Justice Department could maintain impartiality. Tom Cotton, a Republican senator, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday he thought Lynch’s meeting with Bill Clinton “raises questions about political interference in this investigation.”

Summary: शीर्ष सांसदों को क्लिंटन की ईमेल जांच की निष्पक्षता पर भरोसा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. and German officials agreed this week to deepen their collaboration on a range of cyber issues, including working to promote norms for responsible state behavior in cyberspace and expanding training in developing countries. The two governments underscored their shared strategic goals in a joint statement issued Thursday after a two-day annual bilateral meeting on cyber issues. Christopher Painter, cyber coordinator for the U.S. State Department, said the two countries already worked together closely in many areas, including law enforcement, human rights and other areas, but the fourth annual talks were focused on a broader, “whole-of-government” approach. “Having this annual discussion ... brings all the agencies together and it’s a good way to take stock and make sure we’re going in the right direction and thinking about how we can collaborate even further,” he told Reuters in an interview. Ties between Germany and the United States remain strong despite tensions that flared after documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, which showed the National Security Agency had spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Painter said he had spoken in Germany many times since that incident and Washington had not shied away from engaging Germany on the issue of surveillance and privacy. But he said it was not hampering cooperation and collaboration in other cyber areas. “This is something that we continue to address and we take seriously,” he said. “At the same time ... we can’t let that discussion, as important as it is, divide us and detract us from talking about all the other issues we have in common and the long-term goals we have.”  Painter said the two sides welcomed a consensus 2015 UN Group of Governmental Experts report which affirmed that international law applied in cyberspace, and adoption of additional confidence-building measures. Germany planned to continue working for wider adoption of cyber norms in its role as the new chairman of the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), he said. Given limited personnel and resources, the two countries also planned to share information on their training work in Africa, Latin America and other parts of the developing world.   “We all have limited resources, so it’s very helpful for us to share what we’re doing so we’re not all training the same three guys in a country.” The next bilateral cyber dialogue will occur in Berlin in 2017.

Summary: अमेरिका, जर्मनी की नजर साइबर सहयोग को गहरा करने के तरीकों पर


MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday called for calm in a tweet posted minutes after the Catalan regional parliament declared independence from the rest of the country in a disputed vote that will likely be declared illegal.  I ask for calm from all Spaniards. The rule of law will restore legality in Catalonia,  Rajoy wrote.

Summary: स्पेन के राजोय ने शांति का आह्वान किया, कहा कि कैटेलोनिया में कानून का शासन बहाल किया जाएगा


YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar on Tuesday launched its first bid to improve relations between Buddhists and Muslims since an eruption of deadly violence in August inflamed communal tension and triggered an exodus of some 520,000 Muslims to Bangladesh. Rohingya Muslims are still fleeing, more than six weeks after Rohingya insurgents attacked security forces in western Myanmar s Rakhine state. The United Nations has denounced a ferocious military crackdown in response to the attacks as ethnic cleansing aimed at driving out Rohingya. A new surge of refugees has entered Bangladesh in recent days, including about 11,000 on Monday. Some have told of increasing hunger in Rakhine as well as of more mob attacks on Muslim villagers. Despite growing international condemnation of the refugee crisis, the military campaign is popular in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where there is little sympathy for the Rohingya, and for Muslims in general, and where Buddhist nationalism has surged in recent years. The party of government leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the first step toward trying to ease animosity with inter-faith prayers at a stadium in the biggest city of Yangon, with  Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and others. Thousands of people packed the stands of the stadium, with Buddhist monks, Hindus, Christian nuns and Muslim men with beards and caps listening to religious leaders who took turns to appeal for friendship.  Be free from killing one another, be free from torturing one another, be free from destroying or demolishing one another,  the chief Buddhist monk of Yangon, Iddhibala, told the crowd. Stepping off the podium, he shook hands with Muslim leader Hafiz Mufti Ali.  Citizens should collaborate in friendship and work for the country,  Ali said, adding:  Freedom of life, freedom of education, freedom of religion, it is absolutely necessary for the country to fulfill all these rights.  The Rohingya had pinned hopes for change on Suu Kyi s party but it has been wary of Buddhist nationalist pressure. Her party did not field a single Muslim candidate in the 2015 election that it swept. Rohingya are not classified as an indigenous minority in Myanmar and so are denied citizenship under a law that links nationality to ethnicity. Regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, they face  restrictions and discrimination and are derided by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in Rakhine, and by much of the wider population. The militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) who launched the Aug. 25 attacks that triggered the latest spasm of violence are demanding full citizenship rights and recognition as an indigenous community. A one-month ceasefire the insurgents called in September in order, they said, to ease aid deliveries to Rakhine, expired at midnight on Monday, but authorities said there was no sign of any new attacks. The government rebuffed the ceasefire, saying it did not negotiate with terrorists. Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing. It says more than 500 people have been killed in the violence since late August, most of them ARSA  terrorists . Even before the government offensive, the small, lightly armed ARSA appeared only capable of hit-and-run raids and unable to mount any sort of sustained challenge to the army. The insurgents said on Saturday they were ready to respond to any peace move by the government, even though their ceasefire was ending. Reports of food shortages in Rakhine will add to the urgency of calls by aid agencies and the international community for unfettered humanitarian access to the conflict zone. Villagers said food was running out because rice crops were not ready for harvest and authorities had shut village markets and limited food transport, apparently to cut supplies to the militants. The government has cited worry about food as a main reason people have cited for leaving, but a senior state government official dismissed any suggestion of starvation.     Among those fleeing were more than 30 people on a boat that capsized off Bangladesh on Sunday. Twenty-five people drowned, 13 of them children, police said.

Summary: म्यांमार ने बौद्ध-मुस्लिम तनाव को कम करने के लिए पहला कदम उठाया


GAZA (Reuters) - Gaza s merchants and consumers are reaping early rewards from reconciliation moves by the enclave s dominant Hamas Islamists and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA). Israeli border restrictions, including a nearly blanket ban on exports from Gaza, and three wars since 2008 have imposed severe hardship in the territory. Israel says its rules are driven by security concerns, accusing Hamas of having used imported material to build weapons including rockets that have been fired at its cities. Since Hamas ceded Gaza s border crossings with Israel - the main gateway for commercial imports - to the Authority on Nov 1 under an Egyptian-brokered unity deal, many prices in the territory have dropped. The main reason for the decrease: the Authority has canceled surcharges, sometimes as high as 25 percent, that Hamas collected in cash from merchants in Gaza. Businesses, in turn, have passed on some of those savings to customers: a 2017 Kia Picanto compact car, for example, now sells for $20,000 instead of $22,500, and a kilo of beef costs 40 shekels ($11), down from 50 ($15). And this week, the PA, which takes its own tax in an arrangement agreed with Israel, allowed the import of cigarettes costing eight shekels a pack compared with the usual 21 shekels for other brands, through Israel s Kerem Shalom commercial crossing for the first time. Cigarettes used to come in only via smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border but the PA is seeking understandings with Hamas and Cairo to choke off that channel.  (Hamas s fees) led to a weakening of sales power because the people in Gaza live under bad economic conditions and because of the Israeli blockade and the loss of jobs,  said Tareq Al-Saqqa, who owns an electrical goods company in Gaza, where unemployment tops 40 percent. Citing security concerns, Israel and Egypt maintain tight restrictions at their Gaza borders. Hamas, regarded by the West as a terrorist group, seized the enclave in fighting in 2007 against forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel s limits on Gaza s import of so-called  dual use  material, such as steel and cement, that it fears could be used by Hamas to make weapons or fortifications are unlikely to change soon. But hundreds of truckloads of food and a wide variety of consumer goods move into Gaza daily via Israel. Hamas, which handed administrative control of Gaza to the Authority under the reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo on Oct. 12, has spurned Israel s demand it disarm.   Israel said it would deal with the new administration in Gaza but in the way that would not allow Hamas and other factions to develop their military capabilities, which means it will continue to ban essential materials,  said Mohammad Abu Jayyab, a Gaza economist. He and other local economic experts cautioned against any hopes of a rapid revival of Gaza s economy unless Israel s restrictions were fully removed.  Responsibility for security in still an open issue in Gaza, where Hamas, which is still policing the territory, has what analysts say are at least 25,000 well-equipped fighters. Further unity talks are scheduled for Nov. 21 in Cairo. Keeping pressure on Hamas, Abbas has yet to lift economic sanctions he imposed in Gaza in June that included a cut in salaries the Authority paid to 60,000 civil servants. Abbas recently sent nearly 15,000 of them into early retirement. (This version of the story corrects spelling of surname, paragraph 12)

Summary: फिलिस्तीनी सुलह ने गाजा के उपभोक्ताओं के लिए सस्ती कीमतों का संकेत दिया


LONDON (Reuters) - British police were hunting for an unidentified man on Tuesday after a suitcase containing 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) worth of gems was stolen from a luggage rack on a train at London s Euston station. The owner, a 35-year-old jewelry dealer, boarded a train to Birmingham on Nov. 8 but when the train arrived at Rugby in central England, he discovered that his suitcase of rubies, emeralds and sapphires was no longer on the luggage rack. Police released a grainy image of a man who they said they would like to speak to.  I would like to speak to the man in the CCTV images about this extremely high value luggage theft,  Det. Sgt. Nick Thompson from British Transport Police said.  The suitcase was a large black suitcase and contained more than 40 gems such as rubies, emeralds and sapphires.

Summary: लंदन की ट्रेन से 10 लाख पाउंड मूल्य के नीलम और अन्य रत्नों का सूटकेस चोरी हो गया


JEDDAH (Reuters) - Arab countries and Qatar should enter into direct talks to solve a diplomatic dispute, Russia s foreign minister said on a trip to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, urging all parties to restore regional unity. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt severed ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups - a charge it denies.  We have confirmed our position (that we are) in favor of settling the disagreements by means of negotiations, by directly expressing concerns and achieving solutions which would take into account the concerns and the interests of all parties,  the minister, Sergei Lavrov, told a news conference in Jeddah.   We are interested in all those mediatory efforts that are currently being made producing results and the unity of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) being restored,  he added. Kuwait and the United States have been mediating to reach a breakthrough in the three-month long crisis that has put the whole region on edge, and prompted Turkey to send troops to the wealthy Gulf state in a sign of support.  Last week, Saudi Arabia 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 Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told the news conference that Qatar needed to show seriousness in finding a solution to the crisis.  We want clarity in the Qatari position, we want seriousness in finding a solution to this crisis that leads to the implementation of principles which all countries support: no supporting terrorism, no welcoming unwanted guests, no spreading hate, no intervention in others  affairs,  Jubeir said.  The two ministers also discussed the planned de-escalation zones in Syria and unification of the Syrian opposition.  The kingdom supports the creation of de-escalation zones and looks forward to starting a political process that will end the Syrian crisis,  Jubeir said. President Bashar al-Assad s negotiators have not met directly with the opposition because there is no unified delegation from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) and two other groups, known as the Cairo and Moscow platforms, all claim to represent the opposition.

Summary: रूस ने खाड़ी संकट के समाधान के लिए बातचीत का आग्रह किया


(Reuters) - A tiger and polar bear in a Siberian zoo made contrasting  predictions of the outcome of Tuesday’s U.S. election when invited to choose between pumpkins representing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Female tiger Yunona favored a pumpkin carved with the image of Clinton, the Democratic nominee, while polar bear Felix opted after some deliberation for one bearing the name of Republican candidate Trump. The Royev Ruchey Zoo in Krasnoyarsk, which released a video of the two, said the animals faced a tough choice as the pumpkins had been filled with fresh meat and fish, both favorite treats with Yunona and Felix.

Summary: टाइगर ने क्लिंटन को सलाह दी, साइबेरियाई चिड़ियाघर के नकली वोट में ट्रम्प का समर्थन किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An extra 2,500 visas for Afghans who assisted American forces during the war in their country will be granted under the $1 trillion U.S. government funding deal reached on Sunday, preserving a program that had been at risk of shutting down. The spending deal agreed by congressional negotiators  continued the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which allows Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, often risking their lives, to move to the United States after a rigorous vetting process. A recent bi-partisan push by U.S. lawmakers for more SIV visas came against the backdrop of efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to clamp down on immigration from majority Muslim countries, an effort that has been blocked by the courts. In March, the U.S. embassy in Kabul said it had stopped scheduling interviews for SIV applicants because it had nearly run out of visas, even though 1,500 more were included in the National Defense Authorization Act passed in late 2016. That helped prompt a group of senators, including Republican Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain to seek more.  As of April 20, only 780 SIV visas remained available, while more than 14,000 Afghans had already begun the application progress, according to the U.S. State Department. Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a long-time advocate for the SIV program, said letting it lapse would have sent a message that the United States was willing to abandon its supporters. “It’s both a moral and practical imperative that Congress approve additional visas. Thousands of Afghans have put themselves, and their families, at risk to help our soldiers and diplomats accomplish the U.S. mission and return home safely,” Shaheen said in an emailed statement.  Afghanistan is not one of the six countries whose citizens would have been barred under Trump’s executive order, but some of the president’s fellow Republicans in Congress have resisted expanding the SIV program out of concern that militants could use it to enter the United States. Supporters of the program say such concerns are overblown, noting the intensity of the screening to which applicants are subjected.

Summary: अमेरिकी सेना की मदद करने वाले अफगानों को फंडिंग बिल के तहत अधिक वीजा मिलते हैं


ANKARA/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Turkish tanks carried out drills at the Iraqi border on Monday, the army said, a week before a referendum across that frontier on Kurdish independence that Ankara has called a threat to its national security. The exercises came as Turkey, the central government in Baghdad and their shared neighbor Iran all stepped up protests and warnings about the looming plebiscite in semi-autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq. Iran, which like Turkey fears fuelling separatism in its own Kurdish population, warned of unspecified consequences if the vote went ahead.      Turkey s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said any threats from inside or outside its territory would face immediate retaliation. The military command released pictures of the tanks speeding along roads and kicking up dust during exercises. Iraq s Supreme Federal Court ordered Kurdistan region to suspend the vote, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi s office said. Baghdad, its neighbors and Western powers fear the referendum could distract attention from the fight against Islamic State militants across the region. But the Kurdish leadership showed no sign of bowing to pressure to call off the vote, including from the United Nations - which urged Erbil to resolve disputes with Baghdad over land and power sharing through dialogue. In Turkey, around 100 military vehicles, mostly tanks, took part in the drill near the Habur border gate, a crossing point into Iraq, the private news agency Dogan said. Vehicles carrying missiles and howitzers also participated. Turkish military sources said the drill was due to run until Sept. 26, a day after the planned Kurdish referendum. Turkey has not spelt out what response it might take if the referendum goes ahead. It has brought forward meetings of the cabinet and its national security council to Friday, three days ahead of the vote, to look again at the situation. Separately, Turkey s military said it carried out an air strike in northern Iraq on Monday and that  four terrorists were neutralized . Turkish forces often launch cross-border attacks they say target members of the outlawed Kurdish PKK group, which has waged an insurgency in southern Turkey for three decades.  Those who are chasing dreams in Syria and Iraq should know very well that any attempt that threatens our national security, from inside or outside our borders, will be immediately retaliated in kind,  Prime Minister Yildirim said in a speech in the southern Turkish town of Sanliurfa.  Kurdish forces have, with U.S. backing, been in the forefront of the battle against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The Kurdish involvement in Syria strains relations between Washington and Ankara.  The Iraqi Supreme Federal Court approved Prime Minister Abadi s demand to consider  the breakaway of any region or province from Iraq as unconstitutional , his office said in a statement. The court is responsible for settling disputes between Iraq s central government and regions including Kurdistan, but  has no means to implement its rulings in the Kurdish region which has its own police and government, led by Massoud Barzani. Iran issued a veiled warning to the Kurds that their security could be affected if Iraq s unity was threatened.  Any damage to this strategic principle would lead to the revision of and serious alteration in the existing cooperation between Iran and Iraq s Kurdistan region,  said Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran s Supreme National Security Council,  according to state-run Press TV. Turkey s protests in the build-up to the vote had been relatively muted. It has built good relations with Barzani s semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, founded on strong economic links as well as Ankara and Erbil s shared suspicions of other Kurdish groups.     The Kurdish Regional Government, led by Barzani s KDP party,exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day to worldmarkets via Turkey and said on Monday that Russian oil major Rosneft (ROSN.MM) would invest in pipelines in the Kurdish region to export gas to Turkey and Europe.

Summary: कुर्दिश मतदान से एक सप्ताह पहले इराकी सीमा पर तुर्की के टैंकों का अभ्यास


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama exhorted fellow Democrats on Wednesday to preserve his legacy-defining healthcare law as Republicans moved ahead with their long-sought bid to scrap it in what Vice President-elect Mike Pence called the “first order of business” of Donald Trump’s administration. The emerging Democratic strategy is to warn that Republicans risk throwing the entire U.S. healthcare system into chaos by moving to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, without a plan to replace it.  Republicans argue the system is already broken and that they will help more people gain coverage by repealing the law while working to minimize disruptions to those who depend on it. Both Obama and Pence visited Capitol Hill for closed-door discussions on Obamacare. Pence, the Indiana governor and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, met Republican lawmakers to plot the path forward on scuttling the law.  “The first order of business is to keep our promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the kind of healthcare reform that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government,” Pence told a news conference. Down the hall from Pence, Obama, who hands over the presidency to Trump on Jan. 20, urged Democratic lawmakers to protect his signature domestic policy measure. He told reporters his message was: “Look out for the American people.” Democrats acknowledge they lack the votes needed to stop repeal legislation being pushed by Republicans, who will control the White House and both chambers of Congress when Trump takes office. But they are warning of the risks of the repeal legislation in hopes of spurring a public backlash against it. Without a replacement by Republicans, as early as 2018, the roughly 20 million people who gained insurance under the law could see their coverage in jeopardy. “The Republican plan to cut healthcare wouldn’t ‘make America great again,’” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters, invoking Trump’s campaign slogan. “It would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care.” Since the law was enacted, Republicans in Congress have voted more than 50 times to try to repeal all or part of it and conservatives have filed suits to try to invalidate it. Republicans criticize Obamacare as an excessive government intrusion into the healthcare market and contend it is harming job growth by adding burdens on businesses. Republicans on Wednesday stepped up their rhetorical attack on Obamacare, with House Speaker Paul Ryan saying the law ruined the American healthcare system. Trump wrote on Twitter that Republicans “must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases.”    Pence said Trump would work with congressional leaders for a “smooth transition to a market-based healthcare reform system” through legislative and executive action.     Republicans have offered few details, however, on what a replacement for Obamacare would look like. Ryan said lawmakers would take action that did not “pull the rug out from anybody” and that the party had “plenty of ideas.” Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow said Republicans were “pulling the string that’s going to unravel the whole (healthcare) system.” Schumer said any effort by Republicans to shift the blame to Democrats would fail: “They want to repeal it and then try to hang it on us. Not going to happen. It’s their responsibility, plain and simple.”  The House Republican Study Committee, composed of the most conservative members of the chamber, signaled they were aware of the risk of appearing not to have a plan and filed a bill on Wednesday that could constitute a replacement. House Republicans last year offered a proposal that would, among other things, provide refundable tax credits to help people afford their medical insurance premiums. Obamacare helped people obtain insurance by increasing funding to states to expand the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor and providing government subsidies to help people obtain coverage from private insurers through government-run exchanges. Republican Senator Rand Paul, who is a doctor, joined the Democrats in voting against beginning consideration of the Obamacare repeal resolution. While Paul said he supported repealing the law, he added the current proposal would increase the government debt by $9.7 trillion in the next 10 years.  “Is that really what the Republican Party represents?” Paul said during Senate floor debate. The United States has a more complicated healthcare system than some other rich nations whose governments provide medical coverage. Many Americans get health insurance through their employers. Others buy policies directly from private insurers or are eligible for government-run programs for elderly and low-income people. About 29 million had no medical insurance in 2015, according to the most recent government statistics. The U.S. population tops 320 million people. Trump has vowed to protect some popular parts of Obamacare, such as barring insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने ओबामाकेयर को निरस्त करने को 'व्यवसाय का पहला आदेश' बनाया


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants holed up west of Baghdad launched their biggest attack on Iraqi troops in months on Wednesday, security sources said, killing at least seven soldiers before being forced to retreat. The fighting, near the city of Ramadi in Anbar province, continued for several hours after the militants attacked with suicide car bombs, mortars and machine guns, the sources said. Bolstered by reinforcements, Iraqi forces killed 16 militants, state TV said, citing military commanders. Warplanes chased those who fled, it said. According to a preliminary toll from security sources, the attack killed at least seven soldiers and wounded 16, making it one of the biggest since government troops recaptured Ramadi from Islamic State in December 2015. A low-intensity guerrilla war has continued in the region.  The jihadist group remains in control of a pocket north of Baghdad, Hawija, and a stretch of land across the Syrian-Iraqi border, where Iraqi forces launched offensives this month supported by a U.S.-led international coalition. The  caliphate  that Islamic State declared over parts of Iraq and Syria effectively collapsed in July, when Iraqi forces captured its de facto capital Mosul.

Summary: बगदाद के पश्चिम में इस्लामिक स्टेट के हमले में सात लोगों की मौतः सुरक्षा सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the U.S. Senate, says he could live without the drama surrounding President Donald Trump’s White House, but from a policy standpoint sees the new commander-in-chief as a solid ally in the mode of any president from his party. McConnell told Reuters that he finds Trump accessible and that they talk regularly, even more frequently than he spoke to the last Republican president, George W. Bush. While McConnell would not discuss the substance of their conversations, he said the two are able to be frank with one another without it damaging their relationship. “We have a good relationship. He’s never, as far as I can tell, gotten angry at me - in my presence, anyway. We have a good working relationship,” McConnell said during a roundtable with Reuters reporters on Wednesday. McConnell, who last week said he hoped to see “less drama” from the White House, said that Trump does not always take his advice. “He knows, as you all know, that I’ve not been a fan of the tweets and the extracurricular comments. I said last week we could do with a little less drama,” McConnell said. Cracking a grin, he added, “The reason I’m smiling - obviously, he’s disinclined to take my advice on some things. But it has not impaired the ability to communicate and convey my opinion, which I do frequently.” In matters of style, McConnell and Trump are a study in contrasts. The Senate majority leader is a taciturn traditionalist steeped in the ways of Washington, after more than three decades in Congress. Trump, a real estate magnate and reality TV celebrity who had never held public office until he assumed the presidency in January, airs his views regularly on Twitter and has vowed to drain what he calls the “swamp” of the U.S. capital. McConnell declined to say if he had advised Trump to speak less about the controversy dogging the administration: questions about whether associates of Trump colluded with alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, and concerns about Trump’s abrupt dismissal of FBI Director James Comey as the agency was probing the Russia matter. On questions concerning Russia, McConnell stuck to his script. “I think all of that is going to be handled by the special counsel and the Senate intelligence committee, and I’m confident in their ability to do the job,” he said, referring to a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department last week, and to one of several congressional panels probing the Russia issue. Some Republican lawmakers and lobbyists worry the issue will slow legislative plans. Republicans have yet to chalk up significant legislative achievements despite being in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. But McConnell said he and Trump are aligned in putting an overhaul of Obamacare and a rewrite of the tax code at the top of their agenda. McConnell acknowledged there had been doubts within his party during the 2016 campaign about what Trump would do in the White House. “This was a guy who was giving fund-raisers for (Senate Democratic leader) Chuck Schumer four or five years ago,” McConnell said. But McConnell, whose wife Elaine Chao is a member of Trump’s cabinet as transportation secretary, said he sees Trump as someone who has embraced Republican orthodoxy. “In other words, what the administration is doing, not only am I comfortable with it, but I think the vast majority of Republicans in Congress feel that this is a right-of-center presidency, which is what we had hoped” for, he said. “If you look at what the president is actually for, it strikes me as indistinguishable from what a President Jeb Bush or a President Marco Rubio would have been advocating: deregulation, tax reform, repeal and replace of Obamacare, judges like Neil Gorsuch,” McConnell said. Trump’s relationship with Congress has been boosted by the frequent and “very significant” presence of Vice President Mike Pence in the halls of Capitol Hill, McConnell said, describing Pence’s role as “serious value-added.” “He is, in my view, kind of the de facto congressional relations guy for the administration,” he said, noting Pence, a former Indiana governor and Republican congressman, has strong relationships on the Hill. McConnell described Pence as playing a similar role with Congress as Vice President Dick Cheney did during the George W. Bush administration: listening and sometimes weighing in on discussions about healthcare and tax reform. “It’s been really helpful because members feel like they can go over and whisper in his ear about whatever their particular problem is, and something will be done about it, because they’ve kind of elevated it to a higher level,” McConnell said.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिव-ट्वीट्स से नफरत करें, एजेंडा से प्यार करें-मैककॉनेल


BARCELONA - Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy urged Catalans to turn out in force in a December election to  restore normality  to a region buffeted by attempts to split from Spain. In his first visit to Barcelona since Madrid imposed direct rule on Catalonia and sacked its separatist leaders, Rajoy said the Dec. 21 election would safeguard the economy and stop companies moving out of the economically important region.  We want a massive turnout to begin a new political era of tranquillity, normality, coexistence and respect,  Rajoy told the Catalan wing of his conservative People s Party (PP).   We must urgently bring back normality to Catalonia ... to reduce social tension and stop damage to the economy.  Despite opposition to the early election imposed by Madrid as a way to resolve the impasse, the two leading pro-independence parties, PDeCAT of deposed leader Carles Puigdemont, and the ERC, have said they will participate.  However, they failed to agree to run on a united ticket, potentially harming the separatist camp s chances of winning a majority in the regional parliament.  The far-left pro-independence CUP party, whose support was key to Puigdemont s government, decided on Sunday to run in the upcoming election. Madrid s imposition of direct rule on Catalonia has widened a rift between political parties both in regional politics and at the municipal level.  On Sunday, the party of Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau voted to break its pact to govern with the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), citing the latter s support for the application of direct rule. Some 54 percent of Spaniards evaluate positively Madrid s handling of the Catalan crisis, but only 28 percent of Catalans share this view, according to a poll for newspaper El Pais. On Saturday, 750,000 people marched in Barcelona to call for the release of separatist leaders from pre-trial detention.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया में स्पेन के प्रधानमंत्री ने दिसंबर के चुनाव में भारी मतदान का आह्वान किया


LONDON (Reuters) - Iran carried out a cyber attack on British lawmakers earlier this year, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday, citing an intelligence assessment of the incident. The report came the day after Britain joined other European countries in warning the United States against harming a nuclear deal with Iran. Britain s parliament was hit by a  sustained and determined  cyber attack in June, designed to identify weak email passwords, just over a month after a ransomware worm crippled parts of the country s health service. The Times said that the attack was Iran s first significant cyber attack on a British target after the hack was initially blamed on Russia.     Britain s National Cyber Security Centre was not immediately available for comment. The Iranian government had no immediate comment. While the motive for the attack has not yet been established, the hackers were not seeking simple financial profit, The Times said.

Summary: जून में ब्रिटिश सांसदों पर साइबर हमले के पीछे ईरान थाः द टाइम्स


WARSAW (Reuters) - A bill sponsored by Poland s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party will undermine the fairness of elections, opposition deputies said in parliament on Thursday. The proposal would introduce live web feeds from polling stations, but also replace all current members of the State Electoral Commission, a body responsible for conducting and overseeing elections, as well as all election commissioners, giving political parties more say in naming new ones. The PiS has said its bill would make voting more transparent, but critics said the real aim is to boost the electoral prospects of the party, which has been accused by the European Commission of eroding democratic standards.  This bill is a thuggish project. This is a mine placed under elections in Poland,  the head of opposition PSL party, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said in parliament. The socially conservative PiS, in power since late 2015, is already at loggerheads with fellow members of the European Union over its push to bring the courts and state media under more direct government control, as well as over migration. According to the 72-page long amendment that did not undergo any public consultations, seven of the nine members of the State Electoral Commission would be chosen by parliament for 9-year terms, with PiS set to directly appoint three members and the remaining parties four.  The remaining two members would be judges chosen by the head of the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Administrative court.  PiS deputies have already appointed the head of the Tribunal following changes in the law that opposition parties said violated the constitution, a charge PiS denies.  The changes proposed in the bill will destabilize the election system and are a serious threat to the effective carrying out of the local elections in 2018,  the State Election Commission said in a statement last week. Head of the Commission Wojciech Hermelinski said on Thursday the amendment would also give an advantage to political parties at the expense of independent candidates. The bill would require the newly-chosen Commission to appoint nearly 400 election commissioners within 60 days of the bill coming into force, removing the requirement for the commissioners to be independent from political parties. Lawmakers are expected to initially vote on the bill early on Friday. If finally passed by the PiS-dominated parliament, the bill would still have to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda, who could potentially veto it.

Summary: पोलैंड में सत्तारूढ़ पार्टी के विधेयक से निष्पक्ष चुनाव खतरे में, विपक्ष ने कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require border agents to obtain a warrant before searching data held on electronic devices belonging to Americans. The bill comes amid rising concern among civil liberties advocates about the effect on privacy of border searches of social media information, photos and email held on phones and laptops, which have grown in frequency in recent years and do not require a warrant.  President Donald Trump’s administration has fanned those concerns as it has sought to implement “extreme vetting” security checks to restrict the flow of immigrants and refugees into the United States, an effort that has included consideration of a requirement that visitors share their social media passwords.  In addition to foreign visitors, media reports in recent months have suggested digital data of Americans re-entering the country has also been subject to added scrutiny. Numbers maintained by the Department of Homeland Security show border searches of phones have spiked in recent years, and official documents show the agency is able to extract data from some mobile devices, including those protected by passwords. Generally, U.S. law enforcement is required to obtain a warrant before it can search electronic devices of an American. A unanimous 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision affirmed that a search and seizure of an arrested person’s cell phone was unconstitutional without a warrant. But a so-called “border search exception” allowed federal authorities to conduct searches within 100 miles (160 km) of a U.S. border without a warrant. The Protecting Data at the Border Act would seek to limit the exception by requiring a warrant before searching devices at the border that belong to a U.S. citizen of permanent resident, except in some emergency circumstances. It would not apply to foreigners with valid U.S. visas who are entering the country or people who are applying for U.S. visas. The bill would also bar officials from delaying or denying entry into the United States if a person refused to share passwords, personal information numbers, social media or online account information or access credentials. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Senator Rand Paul sponsored the legislation, while Democratic Representative Jared Polis and Republican Representative Blake Farenthold introduced the bill in the House. Despite attracting bipartisan sponsors, it was not clear whether the measure would be able to earn enough Republican support to advance in the Republican-controlled Congress. “A border stop shouldn’t be an excuse for extreme surveillance such as downloading the entire contents of your phone,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington civil liberties organization that supports the legislation.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसदों ने सीमा पर फोन खोज को सीमित करने के लिए विधेयक पेश किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. service member from the coalition fighting Islamic State was killed and another injured in Iraq over the weekend when an improvised explosive device (IED) struck their vehicle, the Pentagon said on Monday. The incident took place on Sunday, Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said, but he did not provide further details.  Prior to the incident, a dozen U.S. service members had been killed fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014, according to Pentagon data.  Iraqi forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, began an offensive on Sept. 21 to dislodge Islamic State from Hawija. Islamic State militants set fire to three oil wells near Hawija, west of the oil city of Kirkuk, one of two areas of Iraq still under their control, military and oil officials said. Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim group, has lost control of all the oilfields it once held in the north of Iraq.

Summary: इराक में आई. ई. डी. विस्फोट में अमेरिकी सेवा सदस्य की मौतः पेंटागन


DUBAI (Reuters) - An air strike by a Saudi-led military coalition killed 26 people at a hotel and an adjoining market in Yemen s northern Saadah province on Wednesday, according to medics and a Reuters witness. The attack, which struck the Sahar district of the vast territory that borders Saudi Arabia, demolished the budget hotel and reduced market stalls outside to a heap of twisted sheet metal. Medics retrieved corpses from the rubble.  The military alliance led by Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes against Yemen s armed Houthi movement, which hails from Saadah and now controls much of the country. The coalition said in a statement carried on state news agency SPA that it was looking into media reports of the strike and would release its findings after a comprehensive review. The 2-1/2 year war effort has yet to achieve its goal of restoring to power the internationally recognized government, but the conflict has unleashed one of the world s worst humanitarian crises and killed at least 10,000 people. Saudi Arabia and its allies, which receive logistical and intelligence help from the United States, accuse the Houthis of being a proxy of Iran.  The Houthi group denies those charges and says it is conducting a patriotic resistance against outside aggressors in thrall to the West.

Summary: यमन में सऊदी के नेतृत्व में हवाई हमले में 26 लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will  speak at an event in the Vatican next week, likely broadening his appeal to Catholic voters ahead of crucial nominating contests in a series of Northeastern states. Like Pope Francis, Sanders has made economic inequality and the plight of the working class a central tenet of his message. Sanders’ April 15 visit to Vatican City, where he will give an economic address at a conference, will come just days before Democrats in New York vote in their state primary. The trip may help the U.S. senator amplify the anti-corporate line of attack he has employed against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as he tries to keep his insurgent campaign for the Nov. 8 presidential election alive.  Sanders, who would be the first Jewish U.S. president if elected, described himself on MSNBC as a “big, big fan of the pope,” who leads the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. Speaking to reporters in New York later, Sanders said he hoped to meet with Francis.  “The pope’s schedule is determined by the Vatican but I would certainly be enthusiastic about that,” said Sanders, 74, the Brooklyn-born son of Polish-Jewish immigrants.  A meeting with the Argentine pontiff could provide an electoral boost to Sanders, who has trailed former Secretary of State Clinton in support among America’s Catholic Democrats. “Pope Francis has criticized the ‘make money at all cost’ capitalist mentality and called for more compassion for the poor,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist in Washington. “That’s exactly the way, Bernie Sanders wants to define his campaign against Clinton.”         Clinton has scored victories over Sanders in Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Texas, all of which are more than one-quarter Catholic.  A survey by the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that while almost 70 percent of Catholic Democrats thought Clinton would make a good president, just 46 percent thought Sanders would be one. “This is a great play for Sanders because it ties directly his messaging related to income equality, it puts him on the world stage as a leader, and it does it with an institution and leader important to a key voting bloc in a state where every vote is going to count heading into the primary,” said Virginia-based Democratic strategist Bud Jackson.  Sanders was invited to speak at the Vatican event by the Vatican, a senior papal official said, denying a report that Sanders had invited himself. “I deny that. It was not that way,” Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo told Reuters. Sorondo, a close aide to Pope Francis, is chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event. Late April brings nominating contests in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, all states with large populations of Catholic voters. Sanders’ victory earlier this week over Clinton in the Wisconsin primary marked his sixth win in the past seven contests, sparking renewed talk of Clinton’s political vulnerability despite her substantial delegate lead. Sanders this week said Clinton, who is also a former first lady and former U.S. senator, was not qualified to be president. After heavy criticism from Clinton’s campaign and other Democrats, he backed off Friday morning in an interview on NBC’s “Today.”  “On her worst day, she would be an infinitely better president than either of the Republican candidates,” he said, referring to New York developer Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Clinton has been under fire from progressives since her campaign began. On Thursday, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had a testy exchange at a campaign rally in Philadelphia with protestors from the Black Lives Matter movement over the effects of an anti-crime bill passed during his presidency.  At one point, Bill Clinton accused the movement of “defending the people who kill the lives you say matter.”  On Friday, he seemed regretful. “I rather vigorously defended my wife, as I am wont to do, and I realized, finally, I was talking past her (the protestor) the same way she was talking past me,” Clinton said at an event in Erie, Pennsylvania. “We have got to stop that in this country. We’ve got to listen to each other again.”   In the Republican race, Trump extended his lead nationally over Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. The national online poll showed that 42 percent of Republicans support Trump, compared with 32 percent for Cruz and 20 percent for Kasich.

Summary: वेटिकन यात्रा से क्लिंटन के खिलाफ सैंडर्स की लड़ाई को बढ़ावा मिल सकता है


JUBA (Reuters) - A judge of South Sudan s Supreme Court resigned on Tuesday, saying a lack of independence from the executive had turned the judiciary into a  mockery  and complaining of poor working conditions. All of South Sudan s judges went on a five-month strike in May over poor pay, raising the risk of impunity in a country already convulsed by criminality and war. South Sudan, the world s youngest country, descended into civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir fired his deputy, unleashing a conflict that has spawned a patchwork of armed factions.  The independence of the judiciary, in the Republic of South Sudan, has become a mockery,  Kukurlopita Marino Pitia, a Supreme Court judge, said in his resignation letter.  The war in South Sudan cannot be used as an excuse to interfere and silence and silence the judiciary,  Pitia said, adding that the judiciary was expected to protect many rights that are jeopardized by conflict. Government officials were not available immediately for  comment on his letter. The conflict in South Sudan has slashed oil revenues and paralyzed agriculture, spurring hyperinflation that has rendered many civil servants  salaries almost worthless. Arop Malueth, secretary for the steering committee for Judges and the Justice Union, told Reuters that two more judges from the lower courts had also resigned.  Many of us feel that the judiciary is not independent as it should be,  Malueth said, adding that some judges had been dismissed unconstitutionally, at the behest of the executive. EX-ARMY CHIEF Separately, the government said on Tuesday the former chief of the army, General Paul Malong, would be allowed to leave the country, six months after placing him under house arrest in the capital following a falling out with President Kiir. Kiir s spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told UN radio in South Sudan that Malong was free to go to any country for medical treatment  on grounds of humanity . Malong led the army s war effort against rebels from 2014 but Kiir sacked him in May and placed him under house arrest. Earlier this month, Kiir sent troops to disarm Malong s bodyguards at his house in Juba, but they refused. Kiir s troops then surrounded Malong s house, sparking fears of clashes, before withdrawing a week later. Malong is under U.S. sanctions and has been accused, along with Kiir, by a U.N. panel of experts of leading troops who murdered and raped civilians during the civil war.(This version of the story was refiled to correct reporter s name in signoff)

Summary: दक्षिण सूडान सुप्रीम कोर्ट के न्यायाधीश ने स्वतंत्रता की कमी का हवाला देते हुए इस्तीफा दे दिया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that some of his opponents would destabilize Russia and usher in chaos if they were elected in a presidential election next year, but promised genuine political competition.   Putin, who is running for re-election in March, was answering a question at his annual news conference about opposition leader Alexei Navalny who looks unlikely to be allowed to contest the election due to what Navalny says is a trumped up criminal case. The question was put to him to Ksenia Sobchak, a television personality who has said she plans to run against Putin in the same election, which polls suggest Putin will comfortably win. Putin, in response, accused Sobchak, who has said she wants to attract voters who are  against all candidates,  of not offering any positive solutions to the problems facing Russia.  He likened Navalny to former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who came to power in his own country in 2004 after a peaceful revolution and is now heavily involved in politics in Ukraine, where he is calling for the impeachment of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.  Do you want tens of people like Saakashvili to be running around public squares?  Putin asked Sobchak, when asked about Navalny not being allowed to take part in the election.  Those who you ve named (Navalny) are the same as Saakashvili, only the Russian version. And you want these Saakashvilis to destabilize the situation in the country? Do you want attempted coups d etat? We ve lived through all that. Do you really want to go back to all that? I am sure that the overwhelming majority of Russian citizens do not want this.  Putin said the authorities were not afraid of genuine political competition and promised such competition would exist. Navalny, commenting on social media, said Putin s response showed the reasons for barring him from taking part in next year s presidential election were due to  a political decision.   It s like he s saying we re in power and we ve decided that it (Navalny running) is a bad idea,  Navalny said.

Summary: चुनाव से पहले पुतिन ने कहा कि विपक्ष रूस को अस्थिर कर देगा


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s foreign minister Boris Johnson has arrived in the United States to meet close advisers to President-elect Donald Trump and senior Congressional leaders to discuss ties between the countries. Last June’s vote to leave the European Union has left Britain facing some of the most complicated negotiations since World War Two, with the country keen to deepen ties with the United States and other nations to show that Brexit will not diminish its standing in the world. Johnson’s visit, which was not flagged in advance, is part of Prime Minister Theresa May’s strategy to improve relations with Trump’s team after the president-elect irritated the government by saying that outspoken anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage would be a good choice for Britain’s ambassador to Washington.  May’s two most senior aides made a secret trip to the United States last month. “Following the successful meeting last month between the Prime Minister’s chiefs of staff and President-elect Donald Trump’s team, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is undertaking a short visit to the U.S. for meetings with close advisers to the president-elect and senior Congressional leaders,” a spokesman for Britain’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. “The discussions will be focused on UK-U.S. relations and other foreign policy matters.” May had told Sky News earlier in the day that she was sure that Britain and the United States would build on their close ties and that their “special relationship” would endure despite describing some of his comments about women as “unacceptable”.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के विदेश मंत्री ट्रंप के सलाहकारों से मिलने के लिए अमेरिका पहुंचे


TOKYO (Reuters) - A fast-growing challenge by Tokyo s governor, often floated as Japan s first possible female premier, to Shinzo Abe s ruling bloc has highlighted the risk of his gamble on a snap poll as she tries to replicate a historic defeat of his party. Abe called the Oct. 22 election in the hope his improved ratings and a struggling opposition would help his Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition keep its majority in the lower house, where it now holds a two-thirds  super majority .  But Abe s bet now looks increasingly shaky, given growing support for Yuriko Koike s fledgling  Party of Hope  - launched this week - and the opposition Democratic Party s move to have its candidates leave the party and run on her ticket. No general election needed to be held until late 2018. Abe s decision has evoked comparison s to British Prime Minister Theresa May s move to call a snap election in June, only to see her Conservative Party lose its overall majority, although analysts noted Koike might have become an even bigger threat had Abe waited.  Abe thought the risk worth taking. Maybe he didn t anticipate what Koike would do,  said Daniel Sneider, a Stanford University scholar currently doing research in Japan.  The growing momentum of Koike s party has also revived memories of a 1993 political drama when a coalition led by another reformist governor, Morihiro Hosokawa, ousted the LDP for the first time since its founding four decades earlier. Clearly, the historical parallels are weighing on Abe s mind. Abe, Koike and Democratic Party leader Seiji Maehara were elected to the lower house for the first time that year, Koike and Maehara from Hosokawa s Japan New Party and Abe from the LDP.  There was a new party boom in the 1990s and the result was political confusion and a long period of economic stagnation,  Abe said in a campaign speech on Thursday. Hosokawa s fractious alliance fractured after less than one year. Abe also cited the 2009-12 rule of the Democratic Party, whose policy flip-flops and infighting many voters recall.  What would be born of a (new party) boom is confusion, not hope,  Abe said. Another key player in 1993, Ichiro Ozawa, who bolted the LDP and helped engineer Hosokawa s coalition as well as the Democratic Party s 2009 surge to power, is also playing a role now. His tiny Liberal Party may also merge with Koike s party. Like anti-LDP forces in 1993 and the Democrats in 2009, Koike is promising to  shed the shackles of vested interests   - a slogan appealing to voters seeking an alternative to the LDP. Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi - who mentored Koike after she later joined the LDP - also skilfully painted the old  guard in his own party as obstacles to reform in a 2005 election, winning a massive victory. To succeed, however, Koike may have to take a big gamble of her own by running in the election herself, risking a backlash for quitting as governor and ending up an opposition leader.Koike, who compares herself to French President Emmanuel Macron and his meteoric rise, has repeatedly said she ll stay on as governor, but her carefully parsed comments have failed to dampen speculation.  Ms. Koike is saying she won t run, but ... I think she will run,  Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday, one day after Abe called the lower house poll.  It would be great if she announced that boldly and debated policies head on,  he added, in an apparent challenge. Despite Koike s efforts to broaden her party base by absorbing many Democratic Party candidates, fielding a big enough slate to take a majority in the 465-member lower house could be tough. Candidates must register on Oct. 10. She said on Friday she won t accept all Democrats who want to run on her ticket, and liberals will probably be left out. Even if Koike, who defied the LDP to run for governor last year and whose local party trounced it in a July Tokyo assembly election, decides not to run herself, her party s challenge can still weaken Abe if the LDP fares badly.  If the LDP loses 40 seats or more, she looks good,  said Columbia University professor emeritus Gerry Curtis.

Summary: टोक्यो के गवर्नर की ऊर्जावान चुनौती ने पीएम आबे के त्वरित चुनाव निर्णय के जोखिम को उजागर किया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of Russian state oil giant Rosneft, Igor Sechin, will not be in Moscow on Wednesday where he is meant to appear in court to testify in a major corruption trial of a former minister, according to Russian news agencies.  Russian prosecutors accuse Alexei Ulyukayev of extorting a $2 million bribe from powerful political rival Sechin in exchange for approving a lucrative business deal in what turned out to be a sting operation.  Ulyukayev, who was fired by President Vladimir Putin from his post as economy minister shortly after being detained, denies the charges and says Sechin framed him.   Asked by reporters whether he would be in Moscow on Wednesday when the hearing is due, Sechin replied that he would be still be on a visit to western Siberia where on Tuesday he attended the opening of a new Rosneft oil field.  Tomorrow I am meeting with the governor (of the Khanty-Mansiiysk region), gathering the staff, will be summing up results of the prime minister s visit,  Sechin was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. Sechin has already missed two hearings in Ulyukayev s trial. He has previously said he would attend as soon as his schedule allowed. Ulyukayev s arrest a year ago came moments after Sechin personally handed him the cash in a late-night meeting at the Rosneft headquarters in exchange for signing off on Rosneft s purchase of a stake in mid-sized oil producer Bashneft, according to investigators. The fate of Bashneft, one of the most lucrative state assets to be privatized in years, was the focus of a major turf war between rival Kremlin camps, sources close to the deal and in the government have said. Ulyukayev was among those who believed Bashneft should go to private investors. Both he and Sechin are deeply embedded in the tangle of allegiances and rivalries in Russian politics and business.  Ulyukayev belonged to a faction of economic liberals who argued for less state control over the economy, while Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, represents the opposite view.   Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev dismissed speculation over possible reasons for Sechin s likely absence at Wednesday s hearing, also citing the demands of his schedule.   This is a made up problem and it was made up with only one purpose - to avoid attention from the essence of the trial,   Leontyev said.  This is not the first case in the human or Russian history when the court wants to hear a testimony of a man with tight schedule.  Ulyukayev faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.

Summary: रोसनेफ्ट की सेचिन पूर्व मंत्री के भ्रष्टाचार के मुकदमे में सुनवाई से चूक जाएगीः मीडिया