BEIRUT (Reuters) - Nothing so encapsulated the political shackles in which Saad al-Hariri has operated as Lebanon s prime minister as the way he resigned in a televised statement made from Saudi Arabia.  Every major decision by the unlikely politician was determined by factors beyond his control. He entered politics after the 2005 assassination of his father and his resignation served the agenda of Riyadh.  The dependence of their leaders on powerful external patrons is nothing new in Lebanon, where regional powers from Saudi Arabia to Iran have long tussled for geopolitical advantage.  But the case of Hariri, who many Lebanese think was summoned to the Saudi capital, coerced into resigning and put under house arrest - which he has denied - underscores an instance of external pressure extreme even by Lebanon s high standards.  In an interview on Sunday, he said he will return to Lebanon in the coming days and might reconsider his resignation. Even if he does, the events of the past 10 days show how decisions taken beyond Lebanon's borders would still define his role.  His shock resignation statement on Nov. 4, which has thrust Lebanon into a new political crisis, included a laundry list of Saudi complaints about the behavior of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, Riyadh s main political adversaries.  Iran and Hezbollah, Hariri said, are  sowing strife  in the Arab world.  As Riyadh s ally at a time of its enemies  ascendancy, Hariri was already playing Lebanon s intricate political game from a position of weakness.  A year ago, after spending years abroad, he agreed to join a national unity government with President Michel Aoun, a former rival and Hezbollah ally, that included Hezbollah itself.  It was a compromise he said was necessary to end Lebanon s sectarian-tinged political paralysis and one that was personally difficult, as Hariri accuses Hezbollah of the assassination of his father, Rafik al-Hariri.  He seemed committed to that compromise until the moment he flew to Riyadh on Nov. 3, telling officials of discussions planned for his return the following Monday.  Saudi Arabia had previously accepted Hariri s political bargain in Lebanon. But Iran s trumpeting of its successes along with Hezbollah in the wars in Syria and Yemen at the expense of Saudi allies may have altered Riyadh s calculation.  A day after traveling to Riyadh, Hariri appeared on television reading a statement of resignation.  Hariri s career was built on the backing of Gulf states, the deployment of his family fortune - spending large amounts of it in Lebanon to finance a media network and charitable gifts to secure widespread support - and feelings of respect among many Lebanese for his late father.  In his resignation address, Saad said:  We are living in a climate similar to the atmosphere that prevailed before the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri .  In Lebanon s sectarian system, the prime minister must always be a Sunni Muslim and Rafik made his family pre-eminent among Lebanese Sunnis.  Rafik carved out a business empire in Saudi Arabia with the backing of its ruling family and returned to Lebanon to rebuild when the civil war there ended in 1990, serving twice as prime minister. The car bomb that killed Rafik gave Saad little choice but to adopt a previously unsought role as political leader.  Before being plunged into Lebanon s volatile politics, Saad had led a playboy lifestyle running his father s business. He was raised in Saudi Arabia and has Saudi nationality.  Outrage at Rafik s killing helped Hariri s movement to electoral victory five months later and he installed a political ally as prime minister, not taking the post himself until 2009.  It was the first government headed by factions opposed to the influence of Syria - and by extension Damascus  allies Iran and Hezbollah - since the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.  That opposition came to a head in 2008 when the government tried to seize Hezbollah s telecommunications network, triggering street battles in Beirut that the heavily armed Shi ite Muslim movement won.  Qatar brokered a compromise, with Hariri becoming head of a coalition government that included Hezbollah. But Hezbollah pulled out in 2011, bringing down the administration.  As tensions rose over the war in neighboring Syria, Hariri left Lebanon, spending most of the ensuing years abroad until he returned months before joining a new government last year.  But his sway - and that of his family s regional patron Saudi Arabia - had diminished. The formation of last year s government was widely seen in Lebanon as an acknowledgement of the political dominance of Iran and Hezbollah.  Saudi Arabia s own apparent impatience with Hariri became evident in the fortunes of the family company - Saudi Oger - whose billions had underpinned their political role in Lebanon.  With a new dispensation in Riyadh under King Salman and his ambitious son Prince Mohammed, and a fall in oil prices damaging its finances, the Saudi government seemed less willing to roll out big state projects to enrich some allies.  When Hariri s first stint as premier ended in 2011, he said in a newspaper interview:  In Lebanon it s never over for anyone .  A source in his camp said a compromise to bring him back to Beirut as prime minister was still possible if Aoun distanced himself from Hezbollah s regional role.  Such a statement by Aoun might give some satisfaction to Saudi Arabia, but it would seem to leave Hariri no stronger than before.  After so public a departure, especially one delivered from abroad, his dependence on Riyadh has been made especially visible. His enemies in Lebanon even mocked his Arabic during his resignation speech as being more Saudi than Lebanese.  And the posters of him that have appeared across Beirut with the slogan  We are with you  looked less like statements of mass support than solidarity with a political hostage.

Summary: लेबनान के हरीरी को बड़ी बाहरी ताकतों ने जकड़ लिया


WASHINGTON/HAVANA (Reuters) - The U.S. government made it tougher on Wednesday for Americans to visit Cuba and do business in the country, making good on a pledge by President Donald Trump to roll back his Democratic predecessor s move toward warmer ties with Havana. The restrictions, which take effect on Thursday, are aimed at preventing the military, intelligence and security arms of Cuba s Communist government from benefiting from American tourists and trade, the White House said. They fill in the regulatory detail on a Trump policy speech in June, in which the Republican president called for a tightening of restrictions. He said then that the Cuban government continued to oppress its people and former President Barack Obama had made too many concessions in his 2014 diplomatic breakthrough with Washington s former Cold War foe. The regulations include a ban on Americans doing business with some 180 Cuban government entities, holding companies, and tourism companies. The list includes 83 state-owned hotels, including famous hotels in Old Havana such as Ernest Hemingway s erstwhile favorite haunt the Hotel Ambos Mundos, as well as the city s new luxury shopping mall.  All these measures hurt the Cuban people,  said Cuba s Foreign Ministry chief for U.S. Affairs Josefina Vidal. She said that government revenue funds Cuba s free education and healthcare systems. Speaking to reporters in Havana, she called the list  arbitrary  and the regulations a further  setback  in U.S.-Cuban relations. The new rules were criticized as too lax by Republican leaders who favor a hard line, but as counterproductive by those who agreed with Obama s rationale for the detente: that Washington s many decades of isolating the Caribbean island failed to force change. The Cuban hotels listed included those run by military-linked chains Gaviota and Habaguanex. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American, said the list failed to go far enough because it omitted companies like Gran Caribe Hotel Group and Cubanacan that have ties to the Cuban government. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said the regulations were unfair to Cuba, coming as Trump was being  feted in Beijing  by a Communist government  in a country to which Americans can travel freely.   The hypocrisy of the White House ideologues is glaring,  Leahy said in a statement.  While U.S. travelers will still be able to make authorized trips to Cuba with a U.S.-based organization and accompanied by a U.S. representative of the group, it will be harder for them to travel individually, according to the new regulations. Before Obama s opening, travel by many Americans was similarly restricted to such organized trips. Travelers need to be able to show a  full-time schedule  with activities that support Cuban people and show  meaningful interaction,  going beyond merely staying in rooms in private homes, eating in private restaurants, or shopping in private stores, a U.S. official told reporters on a conference call. The administration says it is keen to support such small private enterprises that have sprung up around the country under President Raul Castro s reforms to the largely state-controlled economy.  Staying or eating or shopping in some of those privately owned places is something that we wanted to encourage. But what we wanted to say is, that alone is not enough,  the official said. However, Cubans in the fledgling private sector say the Trump administration s more hostile stance toward Havana has already hurt their business.  He is putting us in serious danger by frightening away American visitors looking to rent our properties,  said Norma Hernandez, who rents out rooms on Airbnb and who said her  business flourished over the last year thanks to a surge in U.S. visitors. Trump s rollback of Obama s opening has not affected a  centerpiece of the detente, the restoration of diplomatic ties and the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington. Business contracts and travel arrangements already in place will be allowed to go ahead and will not be subject to the restrictions, officials told reporters. The list of entities that Americans cannot do business with includes a special development zone at Cuba s Mariel port, which Cuba hopes to develop into a major Caribbean industrial and shipping hub with tax and customs breaks. The National Foreign Trade Council, a business lobby group in Washington, called the Mariel restriction  counterproductive  because it would hurt a Cuban government initiative that could potentially benefit Cuban workers. The head of an educational travel company said there were still many legal avenues - as well as commercial flights, cruise ships, U.S.-owned hotels, and tour providers - to enable Americans to visit Cuba. But he said the new restrictions would hurt Cuba s private sector, at a time when the economy is already struggling.  U.S. backtracking on Cuba could not come at a worse time,  said Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel.

Summary: अमेरिकी सरकार के नए नियम क्यूबा के साथ यात्रा और व्यापार को प्रतिबंधित करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. lawmakers called on Thursday for public hearings on an attack in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers, saying there were still many unanswered questions about the ambush despite receiving more information from the Pentagon. Two top Department of Defense officials, Robert Karem, assistant secretary for international security affairs, and Major General Albert Elton, deputy director for special operations and counterterrorism, conducted a closed briefing on the ambush for members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator John McCain, the Republican chairman of the committee, said he was pleased with the briefing. McCain last week threatened to issue a subpoena because the White House had not been forthcoming about details about the attack. “I am pleased at the cooperation we’re getting now,” McCain told reporters. McCain said there were still many unanswered questions, most notably why it took 48 hours before the body of Sargent La David Johnson was recovered. “What was the strategy; why were we surprised? There’s 100 questions that need to be answered,” McCain said. The issue has also generated a political firestorm. President Donald Trump was harshly criticized for his handling of a call with Myeshia Johnson, Johnson’s widow, who said the Republican president “made me cry even worse” by saying her husband had known “what he signed up for.” Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic committee member, said he wanted public hearings on the matter to explain to the U.S. public why the country has 6,000 troops posted in Africa and provide more information about the ambush. “I need to be able to look families in the eye and explain what our mission is, what mistakes were made in this incident, and were mistakes made, who made them and why,” Blumenthal told reporters after the briefing. “Most important, there need to be public hearings,” he said. McCain said he would decide whether to hold public hearings depending on what happened with the military’s investigation, citing security concerns about making anything public too soon. “We can’t betray sensitive information that would put the lives of these men and women in danger,” McCain said. On Monday, General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, held an hour-long news conference during which he sought to tamp down criticism that the Pentagon had released too little information about the deaths of the soldiers. [L2N1MY1MD]

Summary: घातक नाइजर अभियान ने कांग्रेस में सार्वजनिक सुनवाई की मांग की


MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has suspended trade relations with North Korea to comply with a U.N. Security Council resolution over its repeated missile tests, Manila s foreign minister said on Friday. The United States and other Western countries have asked the United Nations to consider tough new sanctions on North Korea after its test last week that it said was of an advanced hydrogen bomb.  We can say we have suspended trade relations with North Korea,  Foreign Minister Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters after a meeting with the U.S. ambassador on cooperation on an anti-drugs program.  We will fully comply with UNSC resolution including the economic sanctions.  Tension on the Korean peninsula has escalated as North Korea s young leader, Kim Jong Un, has stepped up the development of weapons in defiance of U.N. sanctions.  It has tested a series of missiles this year, including one that flew over Japan, and conducted its sixth and biggest nuclear test on Sunday.  The Philippines is North Korea s fifth-largest trade partner, with bilateral trade from January to June this year worth $28.8 million, according to the state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. On an annual basis, North Korea imported $28.8 million of products from the Philippines in 2016, an increase of 80 percent from the previous year, while Manila s imports from Pyongyang surged 170 percent to $16.1 million.  According to the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the main exports to North Korea in 2015 were computers, integrated circuited boards, bananas and women s undergarments.  The U.N. Security Council is quite clear,  Cayetano said.  Part of these are the economic sanctions and the Philippines will comply. We have been communicating with the DTI secretary and I think it was yesterday and the other day, we have gotten direction from the (presidential) palace to support the U.N. Security Council.  Cayetano said the trade ban covered raw computer chips from the Philippines.

Summary: फिलीपींस ने संयुक्त राष्ट्र के प्रस्ताव का पालन करने के लिए उत्तर कोरिया के साथ व्यापार निलंबित किया


(In this Oct. 13 story, corrects description of legal standard regarding Trump in paragraph 15) By Alison Frankel and Dan Levine (Reuters) - Donald Trump hasn’t sued a newspaper for libel in three decades, despite the Republican presidential nominee repeatedly threatening to do so over the course of his business career, according to databases of state and federal court records.  A lawyer for the New York real estate developer demanded on Wednesday The New York Times retract a story in which two women accused Trump of inappropriately touching them. If the newspaper did not comply, Trump, who says the allegations are fabricated, would “pursue all available actions and remedies,” the lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, said in a letter.  Trump said at a rally on Thursday he was preparing a lawsuit.  An attorney for the Times, David McCraw, said the story was of national importance and the paper would “welcome the opportunity” to defend it in court. Over the years, media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, the New York Post and Fortune Magazine have reported receiving similar threats from Trump or his representatives in advance of unflattering articles. However, Trump rarely makes good on those threats, according to a Reuters review of court dockets in the database of online legal research service Westlaw, a unit of Thomson Reuters.       The last time he sued a news organization for libel was apparently in 1984. Trump filed the case after the Chicago Tribune’s architecture critic called his proposed 150-story Manhattan skyscraper an “atrocious, ugly monstrosity.” In 1985, a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed the suit, ruling the critic had a First Amendment right to express his opinion. The skyscraper was never built. In the 32 years since Trump brought that suit, he has not taken similar action against another news organization, although he or his companies have sued at least three individuals and a book publisher. He was successful in one of those cases.  Book author and former New York Times reporter Timothy O’Brien defeated a Trump libel lawsuit in 2011, after Trump underwent a grueling deposition by O’Brien’s lawyers.  Trump’s suit against O’Brien, which also named O’Brien’s publisher, Time Warner Book Group, alleged the author deliberately underestimated the businessman’s net worth. A New Jersey state judge found in 2009 that Trump had not established O’Brien’s actual malice.     Former Miss Universe contestant Sheena Monnin was hit with a $5 million default judgment after she failed to appear for arbitration in a case in which Trump claimed she falsely denigrated the pageant as “rigged.” The arbitration judgment was upheld by a federal judge in Manhattan in 2013. The court record indicates the judgment was paid in 2014.     The same year, a San Diego federal judge ruled Tarla Makaeff, who was lead plaintiff in a class action against Trump University, did not act with malice when she said in letters to her bank and the Better Business Bureau that Trump University engaged in fraudulent business practices. The judge, Gonzalo Curiel, dismissed Trump’s defamation claim.     Trump’s attorneys, as well as a spokeswoman for his campaign, did not respond to requests for comment on his libel litigation record, including requests for information on any suits the Reuters docket search may have missed.     U.S. courts have routinely deemed Trump a public figure in libel lawsuits. That means he has to show not only that the story is false, but also that the media outlet knew that it was false or published it in “reckless disregard” for the truth. If Trump were a private person, he would have to show the paper was negligent in failing to learn the allegations were false, which is a lower standard of proof. The New York Times attorney, David McCraw, wrote that the paper carefully vetted the allegations in the story. Any Trump claim will be difficult because Trump’s accusers were on the record, said Jane Kirtley, a media law expert at University of Minnesota Law School. That would bolster the newspaper’s argument that it didn’t act recklessly in publishing their accounts. Trump has vowed to “open up our libel laws,” if he wins the presidency on Nov. 8, to make it easier to sue news organizations. In reality, he would not be able to unilaterally change the laws because they are generally governed by individual states and court precedents. Court records show that Trump or his businesses have themselves been sued several times for libel or defamation. Most of those suits, including a complaint by a former tenant of a Trump condominium and another by a former dealer at a Trump casino in Indiana, were dismissed. One defamation suit against Trump survived dismissal, however. Stock analyst Marvin Roffman sued Trump for $2 million in federal court in Philadelphia in 1990, claiming he was fired from his job after publicly predicting the failure of the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. Roffman alleged Trump defamed him in critical statements to numerous newspapers and magazines. After a federal judge refused to toss the case, the Trump Organization settled in 1991. An attorney for Roffman declined to comment.

Summary: रिकॉर्ड बताते हैं कि ट्रंप ने दशकों से किसी अखबार पर मानहानि का मुकदमा नहीं किया है


MADRID (Reuters) - Leaders of Spain s industrialized northeastern region of Catalonia said the regional population had voted for independence in a ballot on Sunday that the central government said was illegal and non-representative. With 95 percent of the vote counted, authorities said the  Yes  vote stood at 90.1 percent, albeit with a turnout of just a little over 40 percent - 2.26 million out of 5.34 million registered voters. On Tuesday, Barcelona metro stations were closed, pickets blocked main roads and civil servants walked out in response to a strike called by pro-independence groups. The stand-off could now take three different paths. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont continues with his pledge to declare unilateral independence, likely prompting the central government to trigger Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which would strip the region of its autonomous status and put it under direct Madrid rule.  If Article 155 is triggered, the next step would be snap elections in Catalonia. Pro-independence parties only hold the majority in the regional parliament with the help of the far-left group CUP, and polls, before Sunday s ballot, suggest these groups could lose their hold on power if a new election was called. However, after events on Sunday, when police swung truncheons and fired rubber bullets in the direction of mostly peaceful demonstrators to shut down the referendum, pro-independence parties may again win the election. Such a result would raise doubts surrounding Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy s ability to govern. Rajoy s immediate opposition in the national parliament lacks the numbers to force him out through a no-confidence vote, but without cross-party support on Catalonia, he may be forced to call a snap national election himself. Rajoy was voted in as a minority leader twice in last year s two elections and a fractious parliament suggests a snap election may prompt a similar result. If the Catalan parliament gives up the push for independence, Rajoy may sit down with Puigdemont to hammer out a new deal for the region including a better tax deal and greater fiscal autonomy. Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro and Economy Minister Luis de Guindos have suggested this may be a possibility if the independence drive is completely abandoned.  Puigdemont has yet to make a unilateral declaration of independence, instead calling for a period of reflection, leaving the door open for such a scenario. However, after the violent scenes on Sunday and continued protests on Tuesday via a partial strike across the region, the Catalan leader may be keen to keep face and avoid being seen bowing down to Madrid.  If the Catalans do not go ahead with a declaration of independence but also fail to sit down for talks with Rajoy as the two party s positions diverge beyond a possible compromise, Madrid may refer the matter to the constitutional courts. Legal and financial action against Catalan leaders is likely to fuel animosity and could prompt further protests, pushing leaders on both sides into difficult positions.

Summary: तनाव, बातचीत, अदालतेंः स्पेन-कैटेलोनिया गतिरोध के लिए तीन परिदृश्य


WASHINGTON/GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama lacerated Donald Trump on Tuesday over his repeated assertions that the Nov. 8 election is rigged against him, telling the Republican presidential candidate to “stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.” With opinion polls showing him falling further back against his White House rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump has intensified his allegations, although numerous studies have shown that voter fraud in U.S. elections is rare. At a campaign rally in Grand Junction, Colorado, Trump continued his attack, saying, “The press has created a rigged system and poisoned the minds of the voters.” But he also used his speech to detail a new initiative if elected president: a constitutional amendment imposing term limits for members of Congress, six years for members of the House of Representatives, 12 years for members of the Senate. Obama was asked about Trump’s voter fraud assertions on Tuesday at a joint news conference in the White House Rose Garden following meetings with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. He responded with a blistering attack on the Republican candidate, noting that U.S. elections are run and monitored by local officials, who may well be appointed by Republican governors of states, and saying that cases of significant voter fraud were not to be found in American elections. Obama said there was “no serious” person who would suggest it was possible to rig American elections, adding, “I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.” Trump, speaking at the Grand Junction rally Tuesday evening, said that Obama should stop campaigning for “Crooked Hillary” and “get out and work on jobs and work on the border.” Trump has raised the possibility for weeks of illegal activities that could tarnish the November election result, citing scant or questionable evidence, including the possibility of votes being cast by dead people, and he has urged his supporters to show up at polling locations on Election Day. He has sharpened his allegations even as Republican lawyers called his assertions unfounded. In a report titled “The Truth About Voter Fraud,” the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law cited voter fraud incident rates between 0.00004 percent and 0.0009 percent. An August study by the Washington Post found 31 credible cases of impersonation fraud out of more than 1 billion votes cast in elections from 2000 to 2014. Arizona State University studies in 2012 and 2016 found similarly low rates. In pointed remarks that were part civics lesson, Obama said that if Trump wins on Nov. 8, “It would be my expectation of Hillary Clinton to offer a gracious concession speech” and “it would be my job ... and escort him over to the Capitol, in which there would be a peaceful transfer of power” at his swearing in. Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, took a softer tone than Trump during a campaign appearance in North Carolina, saying he was “confident” that the integrity of the election will be ensured. But Pence added that “in recent years we’ve had instances, proven instances of voter fraud.” A number of Republican-led states, citing the need to prevent voter fraud, have passed laws with stricter identification requirements. But several have been struck down by courts that ruled they were designed to hinder minority voting.   Trump trails Clinton by 7 points in national opinion polls, according to an average of polls compiled by RealClear Politics. Over the last few weeks, Trump, who has never previously run for office, has been embroiled in one controversy after another, eclipsing policy issues such as taxes, trade, the economy and national security that normally dominate the final push in presidential campaigns. With three weeks left until Election Day and early voting both by mail and in person already under way in many states, Trump has been grappling with the fallout from the release earlier this month of a 2005 videotape in which he was heard bragging about groping women and making other unwanted sexual advances. He has said the remarks were just “locker room” talk and has strongly denied allegations by a string of women who have come forward since the video emerged to say Trump groped or touched them inappropriately, denouncing his accusers as liars and fame-seekers. The controversies will be the backdrop for the third and final of three presidential debates, to be held on Wednesday evening in Las Vegas. Trump was widely viewed as having been on the defensive during the first debate. He appeared to have improved his performance in the second debate, but according to polling, more voters saw Clinton as the victor. Wednesday’s debate, like the first one, will be a traditional format with the moderator posing all the questions. Topics chosen by moderator Chris Wallace include debt and entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots, and fitness to be president.  At Tuesday’s press conference, Obama also criticized Trump for his “continued flattery” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying “it is out of step with” the country. Trump has praised Putin as a strong leader and on Monday suggested that if he wins next month he might meet the Russian leader before he is even sworn in as president.

Summary: ओबामा ने चुनाव में धांधली के दावों पर ट्रंप से कहा, 'चिल्लाना बंद करें'


(Reuters) - Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday the attack in Brussels that killed more than 30 people is the “latest brutal reminder” that more must be done to defeat Islamic State militants, including by European Union member countries. In an address at Stanford University in California, Clinton said the United States and Europe should take a “harder look” at protocols at airports and other “soft sites” that are outside security perimeters.  Clinton also said “there is much we can do to support our European partners” but “there is also more they can do to share the burden with us.” Clinton said she would like to see more European countries investing in defense and security in the way Germany has during the Obama administration. “The most urgent task is stopping the flow of foreign fighters to and from the Middle East” who are citizens of France, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom with European passports that make it easier for them to cross into Syria and return radicalized, Clinton said. Clinton said that many European nations do not currently alert their neighbors when they turn away a “suspected jihadist” at their border or when a citizen’s passport is stolen. European Union countries also need to share traveler information more readily, Clinton said. “It’s actually easier for the United States to get flight manifests from EU nations than it is for EU nations to get them from their own neighbors, thanks to an agreement that the United States negotiated when I was secretary of state,” Clinton said. Additional steps that could be taken in Europe are the creation of a “new, unified, European border and coast guard” to strengthen the external borders of a continent that is under “unprecedented pressure from refugees and migrants,” Clinton said. Clinton also praised past partnerships between the United States and Europe, calling the NATO alliance between North American and European countries one of the best investments that America has made. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has in recent days said that the United States should rethink its involvement in the decades-old alliance. Clinton also took aim at Trump, along with presidential rival U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, when she slammed “offensive, inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes all Muslims,” including those who could be partners in the fight against terrorism.

Summary: आतंकवाद से निपटने में अमेरिका की मदद के लिए और अधिक यूरोप कर सकता हैः क्लिंटन


WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Wednesday moved to show their medical fitness for the White House as Clinton released a letter from her doctor declaring her fit for the presidency and Trump taped a TV-segment about his well-being. Clinton, 68, is healthy and fit to serve as president and is currently recovering from non-contagious, bacterial pneumonia, her physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, said in a letter about the Democratic nominee’s medical condition released by the campaign. Trump, 70, knows he could stand to lose a few pounds but otherwise is in great health, campaign adviser Sarah Huckabee Sanders told MSNBC on Wednesday after the Republican nominee taped an episode of the “Dr. Oz Show” in New York that will air on Thursday. Bardack, in her letter about Clinton, wrote: “She is recovering well with antibiotics and rest. She continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as President of the United States.” The announcements came as Clinton spent a third day resting at her home in Chappaqua, New York, after falling ill on Sunday morning as she left a Sept. 11 memorial in New York City. Video footage taken by a bystander showed Clinton becoming dizzy as she attempted to get into a waiting vehicle. Her campaign said later in the day that the former secretary of state had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. Though senior aides knew about Clinton’s diagnosis, the delay in public disclosure fueled criticism that she is prone to secrecy and fed unsubstantiated internet rumors that she is hiding a health issue. Bardack said Clinton’s pneumonia was diagnosed after a chest scan on Friday and that she was prescribed a 10-day course of antibiotics.  Bacterial pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics while viral pneumonia necessitates a different approach, according to Dr. Steve Simpson, acting director of the Division of Pulmonary Disease at the University of Kansas Hospital. Simpson has not evaluated or treated Clinton. Since bacterial pneumonia is not contagious, Clinton was at no risk of transmitting the infection at campaign and fundraising events before or after she was diagnosed. She is scheduled to return to the campaign trail on Thursday. Bardack said Clinton’s cholesterol and blood pressure are within normal ranges. She had a normal mammogram and breast ultrasound and shows no signs of developing heart disease, which runs in her family. Clinton takes medication for an underactive thyroid, which has been stable for years, Clarinex for her allergies, a vitamin B12 supplement and the blood thinner Coumadin following a 2012 blood clot in her head. In December 2012, as Clinton was near the end of her term as secretary of state, she fell at home and suffered a concussion, developing a blood clot shortly thereafter. Since then, Clinton’s dosage of Coumadin has “been adjusted as needed according to regular lab testing,” Bardack said. After consultation with a specialist, a decision was made to not switch Clinton to a newer anticoagulation drug. Bardack had released a two-page assessment of Clinton’s health in July 2015. Trump’s campaign released a brief letter from his personal physician in December 2015 that said he was in “astonishingly excellent” health but did not provide detail about treatment or medications. Neither candidate has released the type of detailed or voluminous medical records provided by past presidential candidates such as U.S. Senator John McCain, who in 2008 allowed reporters to review 1,173 pages of medical records after concerns were raised about a cancer scare. Trump’s campaign has said he will release additional medical information to the public in the coming days. The “Dr. Oz Show” on Wednesday released a short clip of its Thursday segment with Trump. In it, Trump gives Dr. Mehmet Oz two letters showing the results of medical tests conducted last week. Huckabee Sanders said she did not see the summary Trump showed Oz, but “he self-admitted he could lose a few pounds.” Trump weighs 267 pounds, according to media reports. That weight would mean Trump, like many Americans but few U.S. presidents, is considered medically obese, according to body mass index standards. Clinton’s running-mate, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, 58, also released a physician letter on Wednesday. Dr. Brian Monahan, who oversees the Office of the Attending Physician in the U.S. Congress, said Kaine, as of his last physical last February, was in “overall excellent health.” Monahan said Kaine was on no medications but recommended a vitamin D supplement.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के लिए मेडिकल फिटनेस दिखाने के लिए हिलेरी, ट्रंप ने उठाया कदम


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey urged the United States on Monday to review its suspension of visa services after the arrest of a U.S. consulate employee sharply escalated tension between the two NATO allies and drove Turkey’s currency and stocks lower. Relations between Ankara and Washington have been plagued by disputes over U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria, Turkey’s calls for the extradition of a U.S.-based cleric and the indictment of a Turkish former minister in a U.S. court. But last week’s arrest of a Turkish employee of the U.S. consulate in Istanbul marked a fresh low. Turkey said the employee had links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for a failed military coup in July 2016. Gulen denies any connection with the coup. The U.S. embassy in Ankara condemned Ankara’s charges as baseless and announced on Sunday night it was halting all non-immigrant visa services in Turkey while it reassessed Turkey’s commitment to the security of its missions and staff. Within hours, Ankara announced it was taking the same measures against U.S. citizens seeking visas for Turkey. The U.S. ambassador said the duration of the visa services’ suspension would depend on talks between the two governments about the reasons for the detention of local staff in Turkey. In a written statement late on Monday, Ambassador John Bass said the length of the suspension would also depend on “the Turkish government’s commitment to protecting our facilities and personnel here in Turkey”. He noted that the move was not a visa ban on Turkish citizens, that valid visas could still be used and visa applications could be made outside of Turkey. The U.S. Embassy had been unable to learn the reasons for the arrest of its Turkish staff member last week or what evidence exists against the employee, Bass said, adding that he had not been allowed sufficient access to the employee’s lawyer. Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul said that if Washington had serious security concerns about its missions in Turkey, steps would be taken to address them. “But if it’s an issue regarding the arrest of the consulate employee, then this is a decision the Turkish judiciary has made,” Gul told A Haber television. “Trying a Turkish citizen for a crime committed in Turkey is our right.” The Turkish foreign ministry summoned a U.S. diplomat to urge the United States to lift the visa services suspension, saying it was causing “unnecessary tensions”, and President Tayyip Erdogan also criticized the U.S. move. “For the (U.S.) embassy in Ankara to take such a decision and implement it, it is upsetting,” Erdogan told a news conference during a visit to Ukraine. State-run Anadolu news agency said another U.S. consulate worker had been summoned to testify over his wife and daughter’s suspected links to Gulen - which it said had emerged during the questioning of Metin Topuz, the employee arrested last week. The diplomatic spat spooked investors. The lira dropped 3.4 percent and stood at 3.7385 against the dollar after being quoted overnight as touching a level of 3.9223. The main BIST 100 stock index fell as much as 4.7 percent, closing the day down 2.73 percent at 101,298 points. Airline shares were particularly hard hit, with flag carrier Turkish Airlines falling 9 percent. The central bank said it was following developments closely. “This looks like a really serious situation,” said Blue Bay Asset Management strategist Timothy Ash. He added that the central bank would need to move quickly to calm market nerves and possibly hike interest rates - something Erdogan has resisted. Turkey’s leading business association, TUSIAD, warned that the dispute would harm bilateral economic, social and cultural ties, and called for disagreements to be settled calmly. The row with the United States coincides with deep strains in Turkey’s relations with Germany, another key ally, and with Turkish military activity at the Syrian and Iraqi borders, though their market impact has so far been limited. U.S.-Turkish tensions have risen in recent months over U.S. military support for Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, considered by Ankara to be an extension of the banned PKK which has waged an insurgency for three decades in southeast Turkey. Turkey has also pressed, so far in vain, for the United States to extradite Gulen, viewed in Ankara as the mastermind behind the failed coup in which more than 240 people were killed.  Friction with the United States has also arisen from the indictment last month by a U.S. court of Turkey’s former economy minister Zafer Caglayan on charges of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran. Sinan Ulgen, an analyst and former Turkish diplomat, said those underlying disputes had created a crisis of confidence which made this latest fall-out particularly bitter. “This harshness is a result of a build-up,” he said. “We should not consider this as solely a reaction to the detentions of consulate employees”.

Summary: तुर्की ने लीरा, शेयरों में गिरावट के कारण अमेरिका से वीजा निलंबन की समीक्षा करने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump has given $10 million of his personal money to his presidential campaign in an effort to boost his White House bid 11 days before the Nov. 8 election, according to media reports.  The Wall Street Journal, citing two advisers, said the Republican presidential nominee wired the money on Friday morning. A Fox News reporter said Trump told him he would give $10 million to the campaign on Friday.

Summary: ट्रम्प 10 मिलियन डॉलर के निवेश के साथ राष्ट्रपति पद की बोली को बढ़ावा देना चाहते हैंः रिपोर्ट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump plans to nominate Brian Brooks, general counsel for Fannie Mae, as deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Axios reported on Saturday, citing three sources it said had knowledge of the pick. Brooks oversees the legal department and government and industry relations at the Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly known as Fannie Mae, a government-sponsored entity that provides financing for mortgage lenders. He is senior adviser to the chief executive and board of directors. Brooks worked at California bank OneWest with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who wanted a loyalist for the post, according to two of Axios’ unidentified sources.  A White House spokeswoman would not confirm the report. The position requires U.S. Senate confirmation. Trump’s first pick for the job, Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker James Donovan, withdrew his name last month for personal reasons. Earlier this year, the White House had considered Brooks to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to CNBC.

Summary: फैनी माई के ब्रूक्स को यू. एस. डिप्टी ट्रेजरी सेक्रेटरी नामित किया जाएगा-एक्सियोस


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The well-preserved wreck of a World War One German submarine, possibly still containing the bodies of its 23 crew members, has been found off the Belgian coast. The use of submarines, often referred to as U-boats, in World War One to disrupt British trade routes in the English Channel and the North Sea was a key part of German tactics. The 93 German U-boats stationed in Belgian ports downed more than 2,500 ships but were also a target themselves, with 70 of them lost at sea, killing 1,200 sailors.  It was not yet clear which of the 11 known wrecks of the German submarines had been found, and authorities said they would not give the exact location of the wreck to deter looters.  Of the 11 downed U-Boats in Belgian waters, this one is the best preserved example,  the province of West Flanders said. Belgium s North Sea minister said he would investigate whether the wreck could be recognized as a heritage site.

Summary: प्रथम विश्व युद्ध की जर्मन 'यू-बोट' पनडुब्बी का मलबा बेल्जियम के पास मिला


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma and his Angolan counterpart, Joao Lourenco, will travel on Wednesday to Zimbabwe, where 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe is under growing pressure to resign, South Africa s state broadcaster said.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका, अंगोला के नेता बुधवार को जिम्बाब्वे का दौरा करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday made its final plea to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow its proposed ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries to go into effect as the justices weigh how to handle the hotly contested dispute. The court papers filed by President Donald Trump’s administration complete the briefing on the government’s emergency application asking the justices to block lower court injunctions in favor of challengers to the ban. The Supreme Court could now act at any time. The lower court rulings blocked the 90-day ban on travelers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and a 120-day ban on all refugees entering the United States to give the government time to implement stronger vetting procedures. In the court papers, Acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall said the lower courts had wrongly second-guessed the president on national security policy when reviewing the March 6 executive order. “The president expressly determined that the order’s provisions are needed to promote national security, but the lower courts here ... nullified that judgment,” he wrote. In court papers filed on Tuesday, lawyers for the state of Hawaii and individual plaintiffs in Maryland urged the high court not to allow the ban go into effect.

Summary: ट्रम्प के वकीलों ने यात्रा प्रतिबंध पर सुप्रीम कोर्ट में अंतिम याचिका दायर की


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Frankfurt emergency service staff started to evacuate patients from two hospitals in Germany s financial capital on Saturday ahead of the planned defusing of a massive World War Two bomb. Some 60,000 people have to leave their homes early on Sunday in Germany s biggest evacuation since the war while officials disarm the 1.4 tonne British bomb. It was discovered on a building site in Frankfurt s leafy Westend, where many wealthy bankers live. More than 100 hospital patients, including premature infants and those in intensive care, were evacuated on Saturday, Frankfurt city councillor Markus Frank told Reuters television. More than 2,000 tonnes of live bombs and munitions are found each year in Germany, even under buildings. In July, a kindergarten was evacuated after teachers discovered an unexploded World War Two bomb on a shelf among some toys. Frankfurt fire and police chiefs said they would use force and incarceration if necessary to clear the area of residents, warning that an uncontrolled explosion of the bomb would be big enough to flatten a city block. The HC 4000 bomb is assumed to have been dropped by Britain s Royal Air Force during the 1939-45 war. The country was pummeled by 1.5 million tonnes of bombs from British and American warplanes that killed 600,000 people. German officials estimate 15 percent of the bombs failed to explode, some burrowing six meters (yards) deep. Three police explosives experts in Goettingen were killed in 2010 while preparing to defuse a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb. The compulsory evacuation radius of 1.5 km (roughly a mile) around the bomb includes police headquarters, two hospitals, transport systems and Germany s central bank storing $70 billion in gold reserves. Frankfurt s residents have to clear the area by 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday and police will ring every doorbell and use helicopters with heat-sensing cameras to make sure nobody is left behind before they start diffusing the bomb. Roads and transport systems, including the parts of the underground, will be closed during the work and for at least two hours after the bomb is defused, to allow patients to be transported back to hospitals. Air traffic from Frankfurt airport could also be affected if there is an easterly wind on Sunday. Also, small private planes, helicopters and drones will be banned from the evacuation zone. Frankfurters can spend the day at shelters set up at the trade fair and the Jahrhunderthalle convention center. Most museums are offering residents free entry on Sunday, and a few of them will open their doors earlier in the morning than usual.

Summary: फ्रैंकफर्ट ने द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध के बम को निष्क्रिय करने के प्रयास से पहले निकासी शुरू की


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two Turkish soldiers were killed and one was wounded on Thursday in northern Iraq s Avasin Basyan region by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, Turkey s military said. Separately, four militants were killed in the southeastern Turkish province of Tunceli, Dogan news agency said. A ceasefire between the Turkish state and PKK militants broke down in July 2015 and southeast Turkey subsequently saw some of the worst violence since the group launched its insurgency in 1984. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the conflict. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Summary: उत्तरी इराक में दो तुर्की सैनिकों की हत्याः तुर्की सेना


SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will join three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups in a joint drill scheduled for Nov. 11 to 14, the South s military said on Friday. South Korean naval vessels will participate in the drill in waters off the east coast, the South s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement. The Pentagon said on Wednesday the drill involving three aircraft carrier strike groups in the Western Pacific would be carried out for the first time in a decade, confirming a Reuters report. A total of seven South Korean navy vessels, including Aegis-equipped warships, will participate in the drill, the statement said, to accompany 14 U.S. naval warships. During the joint drill, the two countries will practice air operations, air artillery strikes and aircraft carrier escorts to test their ability to jointly carry out such operations. The drill is also in response to North Korean nuclear and missile provocations, the South s military said, and to show any such developments by Pyongyang can be repelled with  overwhelming force .

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया का कहना है कि वह अमेरिकी विमान वाहक अभ्यास नवंबर 11-14 में शामिल होगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Democrats introduced legislation on Wednesday to direct banking regulators to review operations at the country’s largest banks and consider shutting them down if they exhibit repeated wrongdoing to consumers.  The bill, likely to meet stiff opposition from the Republican majority in Congress, represents the most direct threat yet from policymakers eager to see the nation’s biggest banks, including Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, broken up. “It is clear steeper penalties need to be used when a megabank demonstrates a pattern of consumer abuse,” said Representative Maxine Waters, a lead sponsor of the bill and the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. Deficiencies in processing customer complaints, servicing residential mortgages, as well as engaging in deceptive business practices or opening unauthorized accounts could all be deemed harmful to consumers under the bill, opening banks up to significant regulatory action. Eight Democrats, led by Waters, introduced the legislation on Wednesday. If signed into law, the bill would require federal banking regulators to review every U.S. bank identified as a “global systemically important bank” within 90 days. Specifically, regulators would need to determine if the banks have exhibited “repeated law violations that harmed consumers,” as defined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, another federal regulator. The bill puts pressure directly on banking regulators, who Democrats argue are not utilizing all their tools to curb what they see as bad behavior in the banking sector. Democrats in Congress are frequently critical of the banking sector, but this new legislation represents the most direct attempt by lawmakers to significantly curb big banks.     If any banks are found to be repeat offenders, regulators would have 120 days to begin winding the institution down and barring its executives from the financial industry, using their existing powers. And large bank executives would be required to attest annually they have reviewed all lines of bank business and are compliant with consumer protection laws. Executives would also face heightened civil and criminal liability under the bill. Lawmakers backing the bill identified several banks they believe should face such a comprehensive review and possible dissolution, including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup. One week earlier, Waters released a report claiming Wells Fargo has shown a “pattern of abusive business practices,” making clear, and reiterated her belief the bank should be broken up. Spokespeople for those banks either declined to comment on Waters’s bill or did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The new bill is also the latest step Democrats have taken to increase pressure on banking regulators, who they believe are not taking a sufficiently harsh stance with the industry. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has repeatedly pressed the Federal Reserve to remove members of Wells’s board of directors who were in that role when bank employees created potentially millions of fake customer accounts. Warren has not signed on to the new legislation.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसद उन बैंकों को बंद करना चाहते हैं जो उपभोक्ताओं को नुकसान पहुंचाते हैं


TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian police officer who was stabbed by a suspected Islamist died of his wounds on Thursday, and security unions threatened to stage protests if parliament fails to legislate tougher protections for security force personnel. The suspect, named as Zied Gharbi, was arrested on Wednesday after two policemen suffered knife wounds near the parliament. He shouted  Allahu Akbar  - God is greatest - as he stabbed the policeman in the neck, witness and officials said. The attack was close to the Bardo museum where 21 people, mostly European tourists, were killed in an attack by gunmen in March 2015. Tunisia suffered two other major attacks that year, one against tourists at the beach resort of Sousse and the other against presidential guards in the capital.  Our colleague Riadh Barrouta died Thursday after the terrorist attack in Bardo yesterday,  Walid Hkima, a national security spokesman, said. The attacker was 25 and from Ettadamen, one of the largest, poorest suburbs of Tunis.  The Interior Ministry said Wednesday s attacker had confessed that  he had adopted Takfiri thought three years ago and believes that killing security forces is a form of jihad . Takfiri is a term for a hardline Sunni Muslim who labels followers of other schools of Islam unbelievers, often as a justification for fighting them.  Zied Gharbi has no ties with Islamist groups, but he had been influenced by hardline ideology on the Internet, officials said.  Initial investigations showed that this terrorist does not belong to any terrorist organization, he had not received orders from any group,  Hkima said. Security unions said in a joint statement on Thursday they would give the parliament two weeks to approve a new law strengthening punishments for assaults on security forces. The bill, sent to the parliament two years ago, also aims to give policemen more powers in the face of any possible threat.  If the parliament will not pass the bill in two weeks, we will stop providing personal protection to political party leaders and will hold protests. We will escalate , the statement added. Parliament speaker Mohamed Naceur said on Wednesday that the bill should be expedited, but added that a dialogue with civil society should be held to respect human rights and the constitution. Local and international organizations including Human Rights Watch have rejected the bill, asked to withdraw it from parliament and said it promotes a culture of impunity. The 2015 attacks severely damaged the economy of the North African country, where tourists visiting its Mediterranean coast are a significant source of revenue. Since then, security has been boosted and authorities have cracked down on militants, dismantling dozens of cells.

Summary: हमले के बाद ट्यूनीशिया के पुलिसकर्मी की मौत, सुरक्षा संघों ने अधिक सुरक्षा की मांग की


(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump held additional meetings in New York on Tuesday as he worked to fill administration positions ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20.  Below are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles. See end of list for posts already filled. * Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive and Trump’s campaign finance chairman * Jeb Hensarling, Republican U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee * Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer * Tom Barrack, founder and chairman of Colony Capital Inc * Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate at the Blackstone Group  * Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor  * Rudy Giuliani, former Republican mayor of New York City * Nikki Haley, Republican governor of South Carolina * John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Republican President George W. Bush * Bob Corker, Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee * Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq * James Mattis, retired Marine general * David Petraeus, former CIA director and retired Army general * Tom Cotton, Republican U.S. senator from Arkansas       * Jon Kyl, former Republican U.S. senator from Arizona * Duncan Hunter, Republican U.S. representative from California and early Trump supporter, member of the House Armed Services Committee * Jim Talent, former Republican U.S. senator from Missouri who was on the Senate Armed Services Committee  * Rick Perry, former Republican Texas governor * Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W. Bush * Tom Price, Republican U.S. representative from Georgia who is an orthopedic surgeon * Rich Bagger, former pharmaceutical executive and former top aide to Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie * Bobby Jindal, former Republican Louisiana governor * Michael McCaul, Republican U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee * David Clarke, Milwaukee county sheriff and vocal Trump supporter  * Joe Arpaio, outgoing Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff who campaigned for Trump * Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state * Jeff Holmstead, energy lawyer, former EPA official during George W. Bush administration * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors  * Leslie Rutledge, Republican Arkansas attorney general * Carol Comer, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc * Kevin Cramer, Republican U.S. Representative from North Dakota * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors  * Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp * James Connaughton, chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush * Rick Perry, former Republican Texas governor * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee * Jan Brewer, former Republican Arizona governor * Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Mary Fallin, Republican Oklahoma governor * Ray Washburne, chief executive of investment company Charter Holdings * Cathy McMorris Rodgers, U.S. representative from Washington state and Republican Conference chair * Wilbur Ross, billionaire investor, chairman of Invesco Ltd subsidiary WL Ross & Co * Linda McMahon, former World Wrestling Entertainment executive and two-time Republican Senate candidate * Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency * Ronald Burgess, retired lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief  * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, former Republican U.S. representative from Michigan * Rudy Giuliani, former Republican mayor of New York City  * Richard Grenell, former spokesman for the United States at the United Nations  * Peter King, Republican U.S. representative from New York * Tulsi Gabbard, a war veteran and Democratic U.S. representative from Hawaii * Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of steel producer Nucor Corp * Andrew Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants * Victoria Lipnic, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission commissioner and former Labor Department official during the George W. Bush administration * Elaine Chao, former labor secretary and deputy transportation secretary under Republican Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, respectively. Chao is wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell * Dr. Ben Carson, former 2016 Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon The Trump transition team confirmed he would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah, and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  * Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus * Steve Bannon, former head of the conservative website Breitbart News * Jeff Sessions, Republican U.S. senator from Alabama and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (subject to Senate confirmation) * Republican U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo from Kansas (subject to Senate confirmation) * Michael Flynn, retired Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प प्रशासन में प्रमुख पदों के लिए दावेदार


(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Republican Representative Tom Price of Georgia as his pick to be health and human services secretary and Elaine Chao, a former labor secretary, to head the Transportation Department. The following are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles as the Republican works to form his administration before taking office on Jan. 20, 2017, according to Reuters sources and media reports. See end of list for posts already filled. * Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) executive and Trump’s campaign finance chairman * Jeb Hensarling, Republican U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee * Tom Barrack, founder and chairman of Colony Capital Inc CLNY.N * John Allison, former chief executive officer of BB&T Corp (BBT.N) * David McCormick, president of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates LP * Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor  * Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York City * David Petraeus, former CIA director and retired Army general * John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Republican President George W. Bush * Bob Corker, Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee * Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq * James Mattis, retired Marine Corps general * David Petraeus, former CIA director and retired Army general * Tom Cotton, Republican U.S. senator from Arkansas       * Jon Kyl, former Republican U.S. senator from Arizona * Duncan Hunter, Republican U.S. representative from California and early Trump supporter, member of the House Armed Services Committee * Jim Talent, former Republican U.S. senator from Missouri who was on the Senate Armed Services Committee  * Rick Perry, former Republican Texas governor * Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W. Bush * Michael McCaul, Republican U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee * David Clarke, Milwaukee county sheriff and vocal Trump supporter  * Joe Arpaio, outgoing Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff who campaigned for Trump * Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state * Frances Townsend, homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Republican former President George W. Bush * Jeff Holmstead, energy lawyer, former EPA official during George W. Bush administration * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors  * Leslie Rutledge, Republican Arkansas attorney general * Carol Comer, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management * Scott Pruitt, Republican Oklahoma attorney general * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc (CLR.N) * Kevin Cramer, Republican U.S. representative from North Dakota * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors  * Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp (DVN.N) * James Connaughton, chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush * Rick Perry, former Republican Texas governor * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee * Jan Brewer, Republican former Arizona governor * Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc (CLR.N) * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Mary Fallin, Republican Oklahoma governor * Ray Washburne, chief executive of investment company Charter Holdings * Cathy McMorris Rodgers, U.S. representative from Washington state and House Republican Conference chair * Wilbur Ross, billionaire investor, chairman of Invesco Ltd (IVZ.N) subsidiary WL Ross & Co * Linda McMahon, former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE.N) executive and two-time Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Connecticut * U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency * Ronald Burgess, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief  * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, Republican former U.S. representative from Michigan * Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York City  * Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of steel producer Nucor Corp (NUE.N) * Lou Barletta, Republican U.S. representative from Pennsylvania * Andrew Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants * Victoria Lipnic, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission commissioner and former Labor Department official during the George W. Bush administration * Dr. Ben Carson, former 2016 Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon The Trump transition team confirmed he would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah, and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  * Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus * Steve Bannon, former head of the conservative website Breitbart News * Jeff Sessions, Republican U.S. senator from Alabama and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (subject to Senate confirmation) * Republican U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo from Kansas (subject to Senate confirmation) * Michael Flynn, retired Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency * Nikki Haley, Republican South Carolina governor (subject to Senate confirmation) * Betsy DeVos, Republican donor and former chair of the Michigan Republican Party * Tom Price, Republican U.S. representative from Georgia,  orthopedic surgeon   * Elaine Chao, former labor secretary and deputy transportation secretary under Republican Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, respectively. Chao is married to  Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः दावेदार, ट्रम्प प्रशासन में प्रमुख पदों के लिए चयन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Monday that if elected, she would pressure U.S. technology companies to help intelligence agencies disrupt violent plots after a gunman inspired by radical Islamist groups killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub. In a speech in Cleveland, she articulated plans for expanded online surveillance of potential extremist attackers. She is campaigning against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump ahead of the November presidential election.  “We already know we need more resources for this fight. The professionals who keep us safe would be the first to say we need better intelligence to discover and disrupt terrorist plots before they can be carried out,” Clinton said. “That’s why I’ve proposed an ‘intelligence surge’ to bolster our capabilities across the board, with appropriate safeguards here at home.” While Clinton did not detail what her effort would entail, she said she wants technology companies to be more cooperative to government requests for help in countering online propaganda, tracking patterns in social media and intercepting communications. Clinton’s comments will likely further stoke an international debate over digital privacy, which has flared  after attacks in Paris, Brussels and San Bernardino, California. Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old Orlando shooter and a U.S. citizen, was likely inspired by jihadist content online, but there is not yet evidence that he was part of any plot directed by others outside the United States, FBI Director James Comey said Monday. Facebook (FB.O), Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) and Twitter (TWTR.N) have all dedicated more resources to combating online propaganda and recruiting by Islamic militants within the past year. But they do so quietly to avoid the perception that they are overly cozy with authorities. The companies rely heavily on users to flag problematic content, which is impossible to eliminate completely without creating a highly censored Internet, according to technologists.  Counterterrorism experts have also long said so-called lone wolf attackers are difficult to track and stop because they often do not communicate their plans to others. Twitter and Facebook had no immediate response to questions about Clinton’s comments. Google declined comment. The Center for Democracy and Technology and Electronic Frontier Foundation, both digital advocacy groups, said they were waiting for more specifics from Clinton before commenting. Unlike Trump, Clinton did not call for blocking online content. She did not reiterate her previous push for a massive effort to break encryption, and she ruled out targeted surveillance of Muslim Americans as “dangerous.”

Summary: क्लिंटन ने ऑरलैंडो हमले के मद्देनजर अमेरिका से 'खुफिया जानकारी बढ़ाने' का आह्वान किया


ABUJA (Reuters) - The vast majority of almost 2 million Nigerians driven from their homes by the conflict with Boko Haram cannot return because of a lack of security, an aid agency said on Wednesday. About 1.8 million people have been displaced in Nigeria by the conflict with the Islamist insurgency, which has left at least 20,000 dead and shows little sign of ending as it drags into its ninth year.     The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in a report that 86 percent of internally displaced people were not ready to return home in the immediate future. Insecurity is cited by 84 percent of them as the main reason for wanting to stay put, it said. Only about six in 10 people said they wanted to return to their villages at some point, but could not do so now, the NRC report said. Many of the displaced say they have tried to return home, only to be forced to flee back to safer camps and cities because of continued attacks by Boko Haram and general insecurity.  While the end game is for communities to return home, the unfortunate truth is that pushing people back now will have harmful consequences,  Jan Egeland, NRC secretary general, said in a statement. Although Boko Haram in recent months has increased its attacks on displaced people, they still feel safer in camps and urban centers than in their communities, said Egeland. The Nigerian government and military have repeatedly said the insurgency has been  defeated .  Despite that, Boko Haram has killed 381 civilians in Nigeria and Cameroon since the beginning of April, more than double the amount dead in the preceding five months, Amnesty International said last month. The NRC survey did not take into account the roughly 200,000 refugees who have fled to neighboring countries such as Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The humanitarian crisis in northern Nigeria is now one of the biggest in the world, with $1 billion needed to fund relief efforts in 2017, the United Nations says.

Summary: बोको हराम से लड़ रहे कई नाइजीरियाई विस्थापित हो गए हैं जो घर लौटने के लिए तैयार नहीं हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday will deliver remarks about his decision on whether to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, White House Press Secretary Sarah Saders said on Tuesday, adding that Trump is pretty solid in his thinking on the issue. Trump notified Arab leaders on Tuesday that he intends to make the major change in calls to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabia s King Salman. Many of the leaders warned that unilateral U.S. steps on Jerusalem would derail a fledgling U.S.-led peace effort and unleash turmoil in the region. (This story corrects spelling of press secretary s surname to  Sanders  instead of  Saunders  in first paragraph)

Summary: येरुशलम दूतावास पर फैसले पर टिप्पणी करेंगे ट्रंपः व्हाइट हाउस


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Many Americans view Islam unfavorably, and supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are more than twice as likely to view the religion negatively as those backing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to a Reuters/Ipsos online poll of more than 7,000 Americans. It shows that 37 percent of American adults have a “somewhat unfavorable” or “very unfavorable” view of Islam. This includes 58 percent of Trump supporters and 24 percent of Clinton supporters, a contrast largely mirrored by the breakdown between Republicans and Democrats. By comparison, respondents overall had an equally unfavorable view of atheism at 38 percent, compared with 21 percent for Hinduism, 16 percent for Judaism and 8 percent for Christianity.  Spokespeople for Trump and Clinton declined to comment. The poll took place before an attacker on Thursday drove his truck into a holiday crowd in Nice, France, killing more than 80 people in what President Francois Hollande called a terrorist act. Police sources said the driver, while linked to common crimes, was not on a watch list of intelligence services and no Islamist militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The race for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election has put a spotlight on Americans’ views of Muslims with Trump proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. He repeated the proposal after Omar Mateen, a New York-born Muslim armed with an assault rifle, killed 49 people in an attack on a Florida gay nightclub last month.  The ideological divide between Trump and Clinton supporters is set against a backdrop of increasing violence and discrimination against Muslims in the United States. The poll shows 78 percent of Trump supporters and 36 percent of Clinton supporters said that when compared to other religions, Islam was more likely to encourage acts of terrorism. Trump supporters were also about twice as likely as Clinton supporters to say that Islam was more encouraging of violence toward Americans, women and gay people. Polling on none of the other belief systems and their perceived connection to terrorism or violence came close to matching those numbers. Clinton has called for a more inclusive environment within American society and for a joint effort between the U.S. government and Muslim countries to battle the spread of Islamist militancy.  She has criticized Trump’s harsh statements about Muslims and Mexicans while Trump has bemoaned what he calls American society’s devotion to political correctness. Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/29IPJ6l Party affiliation accounted for the deepest division among Americans where their views on Muslims were concerned. Respondents’ status as rich or poor, young or old, or male or female did not offer as pronounced an overall view as did their identification as Democrats or Republicans.  “If it was true that Trump did not represent Republicans broadly defined, you would think Republicans would look different; they don’t,” said Douglas McAdam, a sociology professor at Stanford University who studies American politics. “It goes against the claims of the (former presidential candidate) Mitt Romneys of the world, that Trump is not really a Republican, that he doesn’t represent the Republican party. He seems to be resonating with Republicans generally.” According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, attacks on American Muslims and on mosques in the United States rose in 2015 to their highest level ever recorded.  The group said 31 incidents of damage or destruction of mosques were reported; there were 11 incidents in which a Muslim person was the target of a slur or another kind of harassment.  The Reuters/Ipsos poll ran in all 50 states from June 14 to July 6. It included 7,473 American adults and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 1 percentage point.

Summary: अमेरिका में मुसलमानों को लेकर रिपब्लिकन, डेमोक्रेट में भारी विभाजनः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस पोल


(Reuters) - U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley asked the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday to explain spending trends for the EpiPen emergency allergy treatment. The request followed a recent report by Reuters detailing how EpiPen price hikes by manufacturer Mylan NV had added millions to U.S. Department of Defense spending since 2008 as the agency covered more prescriptions for the lifesaving allergy shot at near retail prices. “We know the price increase for EpiPens is hitting individual consumers and Medicare and Medicaid,” Grassley, a Republican, said in a statement.  “We need to determine whether taxpayers overpaid for the EpiPen through the Department of Defense and the VA and whether they deserve a rebate, as they do with Medicaid.  Spending that isn’t warranted squeezes the health care budget.” Mylan agreed last month to pay $465 million to settle questions of whether it underpaid U.S. government healthcare programs by misclassifying EpiPen.  The company raised the price for a package of two EpiPens by sixfold to more than $600 over the last decade.

Summary: सीनेटर ग्रासले ने रक्षा विभाग से एपिपेन के खर्च की व्याख्या करने को कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A quarter of Republicans think White House hopeful Ted Cruz is disqualified to serve as U.S. president because he was born in Canada to an American mother, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Republican voters nearly mirror independents and the broader electorate in their belief that Cruz cannot hold the White House, with 27 percent of all voters and 28 percent of independents responding he should be disqualified. Cruz, a U.S. Senator from Texas who was born to a U.S. citizen mother and Cuban father in Calgary, Alberta, has brushed aside the attacks about his eligibility as pure politics. But the questions could hamper his ability to rally the broad Republican support he would need to win the party’s nomination to run for the presidency in November’s election. Only 47 percent of all voters surveyed responded that they thought Cruz is qualified to be president with regard to his citizenship, with 26 percent saying they were not sure. The poll was taken from Jan. 7 to Jan. 14, before questions about Cruz’s eligibility became one of the most heated moments of Thursday night’s Republican primary debate. New York businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump has made questions about Cruz’s eligibility a regular attack line on the campaign trail and the debate stage.  “I already know the Democrats are going to be bringing a suit. You have a big lawsuit over your head while you’re running, and if you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you can even serve in office?” Trump said during Thursday night’s debate. “So you should go out, get a declaratory judgment, let the courts decide.” But Cruz tried to use Trump’s own previous words against him in response.  “Back in September, my friend Donald said that he had his lawyers look at this from every which way and there was nothing to do this,” Cruz said. “Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers have.”  Trump became a conservative darling in 2011 when he repeatedly questioned President Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president, insisting that the president may have been born in another country and demanding to see his birth certificate. Obama was born in Hawaii. It made Trump one of the most well-known “birthers,” a term used to describe those who insisted Obama had been born elsewhere. The constitutional issue at question is the requirement that a president be a “natural born” citizen. Cruz, 45, has argued that because he became a citizen at the time he was born, that makes him qualify as natural born. But his opponents argue that at the time of the writing of the Constitution, natural born would have required being born on American soil. U.S. Senator John McCain, who ran as the Republican nominee in 2008, was born in Panama, but argued he met the requirement because his birth took place on a U.S. military installation, which is the same as American soil. The poll, which has a confidence interval of 5 percentage points, posed two questions to two separate polls of voters. One group was asked about Cruz’s eligibility. The other half was asked a generic question about the eligibility of anyone born in Canada with an American parent.  (Reporting by Ginger Gibson and Chris Kahn; editing by Grant McCool) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: एक चौथाई रिपब्लिकन मानते हैं कि क्रूज़ का जन्मस्थान उन्हें राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए अयोग्य ठहराता हैः सर्वेक्षण


ROME (Reuters) - Italy s ruling Democratic Party (PD), hit by internal divisions and a banking scandal, is continuing to slide in opinion polls, with a new survey on Saturday putting it more than six points behind the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The survey by the Ixe agency, commissioned by Huffington Post Italia, comes just days before parliament is expected to be dissolved to make way for elections in March. It gives the center-left PD just 22.8 percent of voter support, down almost five points in the last two months, compared with 29.0 percent for 5-Star, which has gained almost two points in the same period. Silvio Berlusconi s center-right Forza Italia (Go Italy!) is given 16.2 percent, with its right-wing allies the Northern League and Brothers of Italy on 12.1 percent and 5.0 percent respectively. This bloc is expected to win most seats at the election but not enough for an absolute majority, resulting in a hung parliament. With the PD s support eroding in virtually all opinion polls, several political commentators have speculated that its leader Matteo Renzi may choose or be forced to announce he will not be the party s candidate for prime minister at the election. Renzi has given no indication so far he will take this step. The PD has split under his leadership, with critics complaining he has dragged the traditionally center-left party to the right.  Breakaway groups united this month to form a new left-wing party called Free and Equal (LeU), which now has 7.3 percent of support, according to Ixe. The PD s popularity seems to have also been hurt by a parliamentary commission looking into the collapse of 10 Italian banks in the past two years.  The commission s findings have put the PD on the defensive, allowing the opposition to claim a conflict of interest involving one of Renzi s closest allies who was active in trying to save a bank where her father was a board member.

Summary: चुनाव नजदीक आते ही इटली में सत्तारूढ़ पी. डी. ने चुनाव में और गिरावट दर्ज की


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Paris climate deal is unworkable without the participation of the United States, the RIA news agency cited Kremlin aide Andrei Belousov as saying on Friday. On Monday, President Donald Trump said the United States would be withdrawing from the 2015 landmark deal which is designed to fight climate change. Trump said the Paris accord would undermine the U.S. economy, cost U.S. jobs, weaken American national sovereignty and put the country at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world. Russia has signed but not yet ratified the Paris accord. RIA cited Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich as saying earlier on Friday that Russia would not alter its decision to join the agreement despite the U.S. withdrawal.

Summary: क्रेमलिन का कहना है कि पेरिस जलवायु समझौता अमेरिका के बिना काम नहीं कर सकताः आर. आई. ए.


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Granting Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont political asylum in Belgium would be  not unrealistic  if he asks for it, the Belgian migration minister said, underlining his country s position as a contrarian voice in the Spanish standoff. The Madrid government sacked the Catalan leader and dismissed the region s parliament on Friday, hours after it declared itself an independent nation [nL8N1N280L]. Spain s constitutional court has also started a review of Catalonia s independence vote for prosecutors to decide if it constituted rebellion. While there was no indication Puigdemont was hoping to come to Belgium, the country is one of few members of the European Union where EU citizens can ask for political asylum.   It is not unrealistic if you look at the situation,  Belgium s migration minister, Theo Francken, told Belgian broadcaster VTM.  They are already talking about a prison sentence,  Francken, a member of Flemish nationalist party N-VA, said.  The question is to what extent he would get a fair trial.  It would be difficult for Spain to extradite Puigdemont in such a case, he said. While most European leaders have refrained from commenting on the Spanish crisis, saying it was an internal matter and the country s constitution should prevail, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel called for dialogue between Madrid and Barcelona[nL8N1MD34Z]. Michel, a centrist from French-speaking Wallonia, has governed in coalition with the N-VA since 2014, a period during which the party toned down its calls for more independence for Belgium s Dutch-speaking North. The relationship between Belgium and Spain soured over a similar issue in the 1990s and 2000s, when the country refused to extradite a Spanish couple wanted over alleged involvement with the Basque militant group ETA.

Summary: कैटलन नेता को बेल्जियम में शरण मिलना 'अवास्तविक नहीं': मंत्री


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump campaigned for president as a savvy billionaire who would apply his business acumen to improving the U.S. economy, cutting taxes for Americans and negotiating better trade deals. But his vast, complicated network of businesses under the Trump Organization, including numerous foreign investments and debts, could create unprecedented conflicts of interest when he takes the oath of office as U.S. president in January, government ethics experts said.  Federal law does not prohibit the president from being involved in private business while in office, even though members of Congress and lower-ranking executive branch officials are subject to strict conflict-of-interest rules. Lyndon Johnson, for instance, quietly managed his broadcasting businesses despite insisting publicly that he had ceased all involvement, according to his biographer, Robert Caro. “There are no legal restrictions, no legal requirements,” said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. But most presidents in recent decades have voluntarily placed their personal assets, including property and financial holdings, in blind trusts overseen by independent advisers to avoid any appearance of impropriety, experts said. Under a blind trust, the owner has no say or knowledge in how the assets are managed. President Barack Obama was one exception, but his investments are mostly in broad-based index funds and U.S. Treasury notes with little chance of conflicts. Trump’s businesses include licensing deals, hotels and golf courses around the world. During the campaign, he filed a 104-page financial disclosure statement, as required by law, that showed he had financial interests in more than 500 entities with names like China Trademark LLC and DT Marks Qatar LLC but had few details. While plenty of wealthy men have been president, no one has ascended to the White House with such a complex array of assets. Trump’s spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on how he planned to manage his businesses while he was in the White House. During the campaign, Trump did say he would likely transfer day-to-day operations to his children. But experts in government ethics said that would do little to insulate Trump. “That presumably frees some time up for him to be the president, but it doesn’t do anything to clear the conflicts of interest,” said Kenneth Gross, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who has counseled high-ranking political appointees on ethics laws. “His family’s interests, his children’s interests, are co-existent with his own.” The nature of Trump’s businesses, Gross said, makes a blind trust all but meaningless – even if he were inclined to shift control of his empire from his family, an idea he has rejected. Gross advised Michael Bloomberg, a New York billionaire businessman, when he became mayor of New York City. Bloomberg stepped away from day-to-day operations at his data and media company, Bloomberg LP, and donated all terminals that were used by city agencies to avoid any impression of profiting from public funds. Some of the potential problems for the Republican president-elect are obvious. One of his latest ventures, a luxury hotel in Washington just blocks from the White House, leases its property from the U.S. government, putting Trump on both sides of any landlord-tenant disputes. Others are more opaque. Trump has licensing deals and diverse real estate holdings in numerous countries that could benefit from foreign government subsidies or tax breaks. Companies in which he holds an interest owe hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to foreign banks that are subject to U.S. regulations, such as Deutsche Bank and Bank of China, according to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. His properties include hotels in countries like Turkey, Uruguay, the Philippines and South Korea, and golf courses in the United Arab Emirates, Ireland and Britain.   Conflicts of interest could stem, for example, from countries trying to influence policies by doing business with any of his companies or even his children. His daughter Ivanka has a line of fashion products, which along with other Trump-branded items are made in countries like China. Trump has accused China of currency manipulation and threatened to put tariffs on its imports. Trump’s opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, faced criticism during the campaign over the Clinton Foundation, the charity founded by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. That was despite an ethics agreement that Hillary Clinton signed in 2009 in order to become Obama’s secretary state that was designed to ensure donors could not sway U.S. foreign policy. Under the deal, the State Department was allowed to review any new contributions from foreign governments. Unlike Clinton, however, Trump is not answerable to anyone else as president. And he has already shown himself willing to blur the lines between campaigning and marketing, holding events at his own properties and touting his companies during speeches.  Given the high-profile properties that bear his name, a blind trust would do little to help his case, experts said. “You can’t put a golf course in a blind trust; it would be pointless,” said Robert Kelner, a Washington lawyer and an expert on government ethics. “The idea behind a blind trust is that it’s blind – you don’t know what assets are held.” The only unassailable solution, experts said, would be for Trump to sell off his businesses and place the proceeds in a blind trust. With no legal requirements, Trump’s actions as president are only subject to the will of the voters or to built-in checks and balances like Congressional oversight.  The potential for conflicts is exacerbated by the lack of publicly known details about Trump’s holdings. Even his net worth is unclear. Trump has boasted of more than $10 billion in wealth, but financial magazines have estimated his fortune at less than half that. He has refused to release his tax returns, breaking with decades of presidential campaign tradition, and legal experts said he is under no obligation to do so as president. His dealings with foreign governments are thus largely unknown. He will likely face scrutiny of policy decisions that affect countries where he is known to have business interests, said Bookbinder.

Summary: ट्रम्प के व्यापारिक साम्राज्य ने अभूतपूर्व संभावित हितों के टकराव को जन्म दिया है


LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans’ growing alarm over rising prescription drug costs will pressure a new U.S. administration and Congress to take action on pharmaceutical pricing, industry executives and healthcare experts say. Drugmaker stocks, battered in recent months, soared this week after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s victory. Democratic rival Hillary Clinton had vowed to take on pharmaceutical “price gouging,” and some pundits predicted the Democrats would gain control of the Senate, giving her a stronger hand. The Republican sweep of Congress eliminated those fears, while boosting chances for other measures, such as corporate tax reforms that would benefit industry. However, the vote did not change a key dynamic: U.S. consumers are paying more of the cost of drugs through higher health insurance deductibles and copayments, making them more sensitive to manufacturer price hikes. Most recently, a sixfold increase in the price of Mylan NV’s EpiPen stoked outrage for families who rely on the lifesaving allergy shot and prompted investigations by state attorneys general and Congress. If a manufacturer sharply raises the price of a drug, “it will be in the headlines. I don’t think it matters which party is in office,” said Sandra Hunt, principal at PricewaterhouseCooper’s health industry practice. Republican lawmakers have taken up drug pricing alongside Democrats. Republicans Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Representative Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led inquiries into Mylan’s EpiPen pricing. “A very strong majority of Republican voters want the Congress to address drug prices,” said John Rother, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care, which campaigns for lower prices. An October Kaiser Family Foundation survey showed that 74 percent of respondents said making drugs for chronic conditions affordable should be a top health care priority for the federal government. Among Republican respondents, 68 percent put drug prices as a top priority. A poll conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that 64 percent of voters - including 78 percent of likely Clinton voters and 48 percent of Trump supporters - believe the federal government should be able to limit pharmaceutical drug price hikes. Trump and Republican leaders have vowed to repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, known as Obamacare, which has extended medical insurance to more than 20 million Americans. Despite complaints about Obamacare insurance premium increases, just 37 percent of Kaiser poll respondents said that overturning it was a high priority. Chaffetz is “evaluating his next steps” on the drug pricing issue when the next Congress convenes, an aide said. A representative for Grassley said he would press forward with a scheduled Nov. 30 hearing into Mylan’s EpiPen pricing. “The U.S. has always been a country that supports innovation ... and we hope it will remain the same,” said Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca Plc, which sells drugs like cholesterol-fighter Crestor. “But we also believe we will continue to have to deal with price ressures.”   Clinton’s proposals to curb drug prices included capping consumers’ monthly out-of-pocket costs. In the past, Trump has suggested allowing the government’s Medicare health program for seniors to negotiate prices and making it easier to import drugs from countries where they sell for less. A Trump administration also could provide extra funding to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to speed approval of generic drugs, which still tend to cost far less than their brand name equivalents, health policy experts said. Capital Alpha Partners analyst Kim Monk, in a research note on Wednesday, said she expects advisors and Congress to steer Trump toward “more Republican-oriented ideas,” including pricing drugs based on their relative health benefit and requiring more disclosure of pricing details. Consumer advocate Rother cited the FAIR Drug Pricing Act, introduced in September by Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin Democrat, as a potential vehicle for federal action. The bill would require manufacturers to explain annual price increases of more than 10 percent. “It is a bipartisan bill consistent with traditional Republican health policy based on transparency and competition,” Rother said. In California, voters on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure that would have require drugmakers to provide state health plans with discounts similar to those given to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA pays the lowest prices in the country.    Drugmakers spent more than $106 million on a campaign to defeat the measure.      A similar measure will go before Ohio voters, who backed Trump in the election, next November. The coalition behind California’s proposition on Wednesday urged legislators to come up with “a more comprehensive solution to lower sky-rocketing drug prices.”

Summary: अमेरिकी उपभोक्ता चाहेंगे कि ट्रम्प, कांग्रेस दवा की कीमतों को उठाए