BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Monday jailed former Tianjin mayor Huang Xingguo for 12 years, after he took more than 40 million yuan ($6 million) in bribes to push through promotions and land approvals, a court in the northern province of Hebei said. Dozens of senior Chinese officials have been investigated or jailed since President Xi Jinping assumed power, vowing to root out corruption and warning that the problem threatens the ruling Communist Party s grip on power. Huang, who was also acting chief of the Communist Party in the northern port city, became its mayor in 2008, before being investigated on suspicion of corruption in September last year. He abused his power to obtain bribes of more than 40 million yuan ($6.04 million) in exchange for promotions and land approvals, the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People s Court said on its official microblog on China s Twitter-like Weibo.     The corrupt behavior spanned Huang s political career of more than two decades spent in several Chinese cities, from previous posts in Ningbo and Taizhou in the coastal province of Zhejiang to his time in Tianjin, the statement added.  It was not possible for Reuters to reach Huang for comment.  In January, the Communist Party said it would prosecute Huang, 63, for graft, following its announcement last September of an initial investigation. Huang had made  presumptuous comments  on government policy and had damaged party unity, the investigation by the corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI), showed.    He was also found to have accepted gifts, traveled with an  entourage  and worked to further his career by buying support and giving jobs to friends. The court said its sentence took into account the guilt and remorse Huang expressed over his offences, besides his cooperative attitude and the evidence he gave investigators. Tianjin, about an hour southeast of Beijing, has ambitions to become a financial hub for northern China and is one of four  areas designated a municipality, along with Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, giving it the same high status as a province. In 2015, a series of massive explosions at a chemicals warehouse in Tianjin killed about 170 people, provoking nationwide anger that it had been built close to people s homes.

Summary: चीन ने भ्रष्टाचार के आरोप में तियानजिन के पूर्व महापौर को 12 साल की जेल की सजा सुनाई


CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan authorities overnight freed two activists who were in jail for more than a year after being accused of plotting against socialist President Nicolas Maduro, the opposition said on Saturday. Delson Guarate, who had been a mayor in central Aragua state, and former student leader Yon Goicoechea were among nearly 400 jailed anti-Maduro activists who rights campaigners say are political prisoners but whom the government calls coup-plotters.  I m with my family today,  tweeted Goicoechea, displaying a photo of himself against the backdrop of Caracas  Avila mountain.  Tomorrow I ll address the country. God is with us.    I m free!  Guarate tweeted. The pair s freedom, with some unspecified conditions attached, was confirmed by opposition parties and a rights group, but the government had no comment.  The releases came as Maduro called for one of the most prominent opposition leaders, congress head Julio Borges, to face treason charges for lobbying against his government in global financial circles. And the pro-Maduro Supreme Court began moves this week to remove parliamentary immunity for congress deputy leader Freddy Guevara, so he can be tried for instigating violence.  Guevara runs the militant Popular Will party, which both Goicoechea and Guarate belong to. It has been at the forefront of anti-Maduro protests, including four months of demonstrations this year that led to 125 deaths.  Critics say Maduro has turned the OPEC nation into a dictatorship. His supporters say the 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez is resisting a Western-backed push to oust him. In a New York Times column earlier this year, Goicoechea described how a dozen policemen put a black cloth over his head when they arrested him before taking him to a cell without natural light or ventilation.   When I stretched my arms, I could touch two opposite walls,  he wrote in the column smuggled out of prison.  The door was blocked with black garbage bags, leaving the room in total darkness.   There was rotten, worm-infested food on the floor alongside scraps of clothing covered in feces. It felt as if I had been buried alive.     Senior officials said Goicoechea was an  imperialist  agent caught with explosives in his possession, while Guarate had been financing  terrorism.  Neither was tried. Popular Will, which the government has threatened to proscribe as a terrorist organization, said it would not stop fighting for the freedom of all activists.  The dictatorship s  justice  is a revolving door,  said party legislator Juan Mejia.  Some leave, while others come in at its discretion and to its benefit.

Summary: वेनेजुएला ने दो मदुरो विरोधी कार्यकर्ताओं को रिहा किया; कई अभी भी जेल में हैं


AHERLOW, Ireland (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he had not been contacted by the FBI about new investigative steps being taken related to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she led the State Department.  The FBI on Friday said it was investigating more emails in what the Democratic presidential candidate described as “deeply troubling” behavior 10 days before the U.S. elections. “I haven’t been notified of anything, no, I haven’t been requested of anything, no, I’m not aware of the department being requested, and I have no further comment to make,” Kerry told a news conference in Ireland. “As an American citizen and former nominee of the party, there is a lot I’d like to say about what is going on, but I can’t and I am just going to remain out of this,” he added. Clinton on Saturday challenged FBI Director James Comey to provide a fuller explanation of investigative steps he is taking related to her use of a private email server.  Comey had decided in July that the FBI was not going to seek prosecution of Clinton. But on Friday he said the agency was trying to determine whether additional emails contained classified information. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has been reeling for weeks from the release of a 2005 audio tape in which he boasted about groping women, has seized on the FBI move as evidence Clinton is unfit to lead the country. Kerry was in Ireland to accept the Tipperary International Peace Award, joining recipients like former South African President Nelson Mandela, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Kerry is due to travel to London on Monday for talks on Libya that will seek to break a political stalemate over the country’s U.N-backed unity government.

Summary: केरी का कहना है कि क्लिंटन की नई ईमेल समीक्षा पर एफ. बी. आई. ने उनसे संपर्क नहीं किया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The failure by President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans to dismantle Obamacare has infuriated the party’s conservative flank and is intensifying intra-party warfare ahead of the 2018 U.S. congressional elections.  Donors and activists upset by the collapse of the latest Senate healthcare bill said it hardened their determination to back conservative candidates in next year’s elections, even if that means ousting Republican incumbents. “I am fed up. I’m beyond frustrated,” said Mica Mosbacher, a Houston-based Republican fundraiser, who added she was “extremely disappointed in Ted Cruz,” a Republican U.S. senator from Texas who had threatened to oppose the latest healthcare bill because he wanted to see changes. Texas is scheduled to hold the first nominating primary of the midterm elections in March 2018.  Trump vowed during the 2016 election campaign to scrap the 2010 Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement, which Republicans see as a costly government overreach. Democrats say it has extended health insurance to millions. The latest bill to overturn Obamacare failed on Tuesday after three Senate Republicans, including moderate Susan Collins and conservative Rand Paul, said they could not support it. Republicans narrowly control the chamber by 52-48.  In November 2018, all 435 seats of the U.S. House of Representatives and 33 seats in the Senate will be up for election. In the Senate, that includes 23 Democrats and eight Republicans, with several in both parties in fights expected to be competitive. If a large number of Republicans are forced to defend their seats against challengers from their own party in primary fights, Democrats will seek to exploit weakened candidates in the general election in their effort to wrest control of the House and Senate from Republicans. A shift of either chamber into Democratic hands would make it even more difficult for Trump to pass his agenda of tax reform, toughening immigration laws and rolling back Obamacare. Republicans have not delivered a significant legislative win on any topic since Trump took office in January.  Mosbacher said she was “leaning toward supporting” Cruz’s primary opponent, Stefano de Stefano, even though she served as fundraiser for the incumbent’s 2012 campaign. Whoever prevails in that fight would likely face Beto O’Rourke, a well-funded Democrat, in the general election. Texas last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1988. The conservative group Club For Growth has already begun interviewing Republican primary challengers it will consider backing next year.  “We’ll continue to push for full repeal of Obamacare, and we’re disappointed Republicans have been unable to deliver on their seven-year promise,” said Rachael Slobodien, a spokeswoman for Club for Growth. Club for Growth is not alone in its frustration over the defeat of the Obamacare repeal effort. David Bozell, president of ForAmerica, a conservative grassroots organization, said incumbents who failed to line up solidly behind repeal had “shown some true colors” and in doing so, were inviting primary fights for their party’s nomination. Republican Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada are top targets for conservative groups. Conservative Kelli Ward has already announced her candidacy challenging Flake, and is seeking to amass support as a more conservative option.  Dave Tamasi, a Republican lobbyist and fundraiser, said he thought it was too soon to know if the healthcare failure would hurt Republicans. “Opponents may try to use today or the failure to pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act to give their candidacy a little bit of a push. The question is can that fuel today sustain itself over the long term of an election cycle,” he said. So far, Trump has been hedging his bets on the Republican primaries. But many of his allies are already backing conservative primary challengers. Trump has blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over Congress’ inaction. Such criticisms could help turn next year’s elections into a referendum on congressional incumbents, rather than on the president himself.  “I think we are entering an era of more primary challenges in general, The disappointment by activists over the inability for Republicans to repeal Obamacare only adds fuel to this fire,” said Craig Robinson, former political director of the Iowa Republican Party.

Summary: अमेरिकी स्वास्थ्य सेवा विधेयक के पतन ने रिपब्लिकन अंदरूनी लड़ाई को बढ़ा दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key meeting between Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives ended on Thursday without a compromise on a proposal to eliminate a popular deduction for state and local taxes, the top House tax writer told reporters.  “I’m going to stay at the table and so is the leadership ... to try to find a solution,” U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said after a dozen Republicans from states that oppose the deduction’s elimination voted against a key budget measure to advance tax reform. “They made it clear. They need this problem solved before they vote ‘yes’ on tax reform,” he added.

Summary: अमेरिकी हाउस टैक्स प्रमुख का कहना है कि एस. ए. एल. टी. कटौती बैठक बिना किसी समझौते के समाप्त हुई


BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative and independent protesters channeling themes from the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders dumped faux contributions into Boston Harbor on Friday, one of some 30 nationwide demonstrations planned against big money in politics. In Washington, police arrested 142 members of a more liberal group called Democracy Spring including 12 who cuffed themselves inside the Capitol Rotunda to protest the influence of special interests and to denounce laws making it more difficult to vote. Nearly 1,000 Democracy Spring demonstrators have been arrested in Washington this week. Both the week-long protests in Washington and Friday’s nationwide demonstrations led by the activist group Represent.Us have tapped into some of the voter frustration seen on the presidential campaign trail. “From super PACs (political action committees) to lucrative job offers and campaign contributions, there are tons of perfectly legal ways to bribe a politician,” said Charlotte Hill, communications director for Represent.Us. The group, which has promoted anti-corruption resolutions in American cities, says it neither endorses nor opposes any presidential candidate. Represent.Us said it would stage events in 33 cities. Trump, a billionaire Republican, and Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist running for the Democratic nomination, have both criticized the influence of large campaign contributions in their surprising runs for the White House. “It doesn’t matter if you’re conservative or progressive. Two hundred and forty-three years after the original Boston Tea Party, Americans of all political stripes are still facing taxation without political representation,” said Dan Krassner, political director of Represent.Us. About 40 activists attended the symbolic re-staging of the Boston Tea Party near the spot where American colonists dumped tea into the harbor to protest taxes levied by the British. Represent.Us activists tossed a stack of wooden crates into the water, representing campaign contributions. In Washington on Friday, Democracy Spring activists cuffed themselves to scaffolding in the Capitol Rotunda.  “We the people demand a democracy free from the corruption influence of big money and voter suppression,” the protesters said in unison. Another 130 were arrested for unlawful demonstrations, Capitol Police said. A few hundred chanting demonstrators marched up Capitol Hill with signs saying “Sweep Big Money out of Politics” and “Corporations are not people.” They also protested the high cost of college loans, economic inequality and fracking. “We need to get money out of politics and overturn Citizens United (a Supreme Court decision on campaign contributions),” said David Cheplowitz, 27, of Rochester, New York.

Summary: देश भर में प्रदर्शनकारियों ने अमेरिकी राजनीति में बड़ी रकम की निंदा की


GENEVA (Reuters) - Another wave of cholera could strike Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition blockade has cut off fuel for hospitals, water pumps and vital aid supplies for starving children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday. Dr. Nevio Zagaria, WHO country representative in Yemen, told Reuters that 16 percent of Yemeni children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, including 5.2 percent with a severe form that is life-threatening, and the problem is increasing. Yemen, where 8 million people face famine, is mired in a proxy war between the Iran-aligned Houthi armed movement and the U.S.-backed military coalition that the United Nations says has led to the world s worst humanitarian crisis. Some 960,000 suspected cases of cholera and 2,219 deaths have been reported since the epidemic began in April, WHO figures show. Children account for nearly a third of infections of the waterborne disease, spread by food or water contaminated with human feces, that causes acute diarrhoea and dehydration and can kill within hours if untreated. Although the number of new cases has dropped for 11 straight weeks, 35 districts in Yemen are still reporting cholera with  high attack rates  in communities, Zagaria said. A deteriorating economic situation and lack of safe drinking water, due to water sewage systems in many cities lacking fuel for the pumps, have compounded the humanitarian crisis, he said.  This is a perfect mix to have a new explosion of a cholera epidemic at the beginning of the rainy season in March of next year,  Zagaria said in a telephone interview from Sanaa, amid four days of clashes in the capital city. WHO is working with local authorities in both the internationally recognized government and Houthi-controlled  Sana a to identify areas at highest risk of a spike in the cholera epidemic and to boost defences, he said.  A campaign of oral cholera vaccination - initially planned last July during an acute phase and then abandoned by authorities - is now under reconsideration but as a preventive action next year, he said. Meanwhile, a ship carrying 35 tonnes of WHO surgical and medical supplies is being diverted to Aden after waiting weeks to offload at Hodeidah port, Zagaria said.  We are waiting and hoping that the situation of the blockade will be resolved. We have an opening to the humanitarian blockade but the opening to the commercial blockade is only partial,  he added. The United Nations appealed on Friday to the coalition to fully lift its blockade of Yemen, which was partially eased last week to let aid into Hodeidah and Salif, and U.N. flights into Sanaa.  The U.S.-backed military coalition closed air, land and sea access on Nov. 6 in a move it said was to stop the flow of Iranian arms to the Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen. Aid shipments cover only a fraction of Yemen s needs, since almost all food, fuel and medicine are commercially imported. Yemen s health system has virtually collapsed, with most health workers unpaid for seven months. WHO supports 130 hospitals across the country, providing fuel, water, oxygen, drugs, medical supplies and essential equipment, Zagaria said.  The (fuel) contractors that we are working with are finding difficulty in keeping the stock,  he said, noting that some hospitals require 60,000 liters of fuel per month.  WHO runs 15 stabilization centers for severely acute malnourished children with medical complications and is expanding with 10 more, Zagaria said.  We see that there is a constant flow of newly admitted patients to these centers.  The deterioration of the situation in terms of malnutrition in children is increasing... It is very difficult to quantify with precise numbers,  said Zagaria, who went to the intensive care unit of the pediatric ward in Sadaa last week.  I am a pediatrician, I worked many years in Africa. You don t need to take the weight and the height.

Summary: सहायता, ईंधन की कमी के कारण यमन में हैजा फिर से उभर सकता हैः डब्ल्यूएचओ


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump sold all of his shares in companies in June, aides said on Tuesday, a move that likely raised substantial cash ahead of the presidential election and could now ease some concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Trump’s stock portfolio included shares of companies including Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and a host of others, according to a financial disclosure form filed in May. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in an email that Trump sold all of his shares, but he did not respond to questions about what Trump did with the sales proceeds or whether he withdrew from any other investments at the same time.  The Republican’s transition team did not provide documentation of the sales. Trump will not have to file a new financial disclosure form until May 2018, according to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Presidents typically provide some such information voluntarily during their first year in office. Selling his shares would reduce some potential for conflicts for the businessman-turned-politician as he prepares to take over the White House from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20. It would not address concerns about Trump’s personal and family business activities, which include hotels and golf resorts from Panama to Scotland. Trump has said he will step back from running his business, but he has not given any detail about the arrangements. During the presidential campaign, Trump indicated he had pulled back from the stock market. “I did invest, and I got out, and it was actually very good timing,” he told Fox Business in an August interview. The issue arose after Trump urged the government to cancel an order with Boeing Co for a revamped Air Force One presidential plane. The New York real estate developer, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 election, said, without citing proof, that costs for the aircraft were out of control.	 Trump had previously said he owned Boeing shares. Asked earlier on Tuesday whether the president-elect still owned them, Miller said Trump sold all his shares in June, but it was not clear at the time whether he was speaking only about Boeing stock.

Summary: ट्रंप ने जून में कंपनियों में अपने सभी शेयर बेचेः प्रवक्ता


PARIS (Reuters) - Corsican nationalists won almost half of the vote in the first round of the French Mediterranean island s territorial election on Sunday, a landslide likely to fuel local calls for greater autonomy from Paris. The ticket led by autonomist leader Gilles Simeoni won 45.36 percent of the votes for the newly created, more powerful local assembly, according to final interior ministry results. A second round will be held next Sunday. President Emmanuel Macron s ticket only came in fourth with 11.26 percent of the vote. In the April and May presidential elections, Macron had already significantly underperformed his national score in Corsica. Macron s Republic On the Move party said in a statement the vote showed Corsicans  loss of confidence in the central government and that it aimed to rebuilt trust everywhere in France. Separately, the party also hailed the election of the first mayor associated with Macron s movement on Sunday, in the southern village of Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe near Toulouse.

Summary: फ्रांस के चुनाव के पहले दौर में कॉर्सिकन राष्ट्रवादियों की बढ़त


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. spy agencies have told Congress that Hillary Clinton’s home computer server contained some emails that should have been treated as “top secret” because their wording matched sections of some of the government’s most highly classified documents, four sources familiar with the agency reports said.     The two reports are the first formal declarations by U.S. spy agencies detailing how they believe Clinton violated government rules when highly classified information in at least 22 email messages passed through her unsecured home server.     The State Department has already acknowledged that the emails contained top secret intelligence, though it says they were not marked that way. It has not previously been clear if the emails contained full classified documents or only some information from them.     The agencies did not find any top secret documents that passed through Clinton’s server in their full version, the sources from Congress and the government’s executive branch said.      However, the agency reports found some emails included passages that closely tracked or mirrored communications marked “top secret,” according to the sources, who all requested anonymity. In some cases, additional classification markings meant access was supposed to be limited to small groups of specially cleared officials.      Under the law and government rules, U.S. officials and contractors may not transmit any classified information - not only documents - outside secure, government-controlled channels. Such information should not be sent even through the government’s .gov email network.     The front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president and former secretary of state has insisted she broke no rules. Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, did not respond to a request for comment. Clinton campaign spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests for comment.      Two sources said some of the top secret material was related to the CIA’s campaign of drone strikes against Islamist militants in the Middle East and South Asia.      That campaign has been widely reported by Reuters and other media outlets, but it officially is classified as a “Top Secret/Special Access Program” (SAP), meaning only a limited number of people whose names are on a special list are allowed to learn details about it.     One source said the reports identified some information in messages on Clinton’s server that came from human sources, such as confidential CIA informants, and some from technical systems, such as spy satellites or electronic eavesdropping.     The Clinton campaign criticized the State Department’s decision last month to withhold the 22 emails containing top secret information from the public, blaming it on “bureaucratic infighting” and “over-classification run amok.”     “As we have previously made clear, we are not going to speak to the content of the emails,” a State Department official said on Wednesday when asked about the intelligence agency reports.     Clinton’s use of a private server in her New York home for her government work is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department’s and spy community’s internal watchdogs and several Republican-controlled congressional committees.     Two of the sources told Reuters that one of the reports on the emails came from the CIA. Three sources said the other report came from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), which analyzes U.S. spy satellite intelligence.     A spokesman for NGA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. CIA spokespeople declined to comment.        The two spy agencies’ reports were sent to Congress in the past few weeks by the intelligence community inspector general, an official government watchdog for multiple spy agencies.     The inspector general’s office has confirmed that it requested the reports from two intelligence agencies, but didn’t identify them.      It was unclear what the congressional committees that received the classified reports, the House and Senate intelligence and foreign relations panels, will do with them. The contents cannot be discussed publicly. The committees requested intelligence reports in connection with their efforts to ensure that government secrets are appropriately protected.  (Editing by Stuart Grudgings) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: जासूसी एजेंसियों का कहना है कि क्लिंटन के ईमेल शीर्ष गुप्त दस्तावेजों से निकटता से मेल खाते हैंः सूत्र


SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump s new national security strategy unveiled this week is a  criminal document  that seeks the  total subordination of the whole world to the interests of the U.S.,  North Korea s foreign ministry said on Friday.  This has fully revealed that  America first policy  which the gang of Trump is crying out loudly about is nothing but the proclamation of aggression aimed at holding sway over the world according to its taste and at its own free will,  a foreign ministry spokesman said, according to a statement released by state media outlet KCNA. In the document, announced on Monday, Trump said Washington had to deal with the challenge posed by North Korea s weapons programs. The U.N. Security Council is due to vote on Friday on a U.S.-drafted resolution that seeks, yet again, to toughen sanctions on North Korea in response to its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch, diplomats said.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया का कहना है कि ट्रम्प की नई सुरक्षा रणनीति 'पूरी दुनिया की पूरी तरह से अधीनता' चाहती है


LONDON (Reuters) -  Brexit is not a game,  the European Union s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, told British reporters on Tuesday when asked if the ball was in the EU s court to make the next move.   Britain and its EU partners clashed on Monday over which side should make the next move to unblock the talks, with both sides saying  the ball  is in the other side s court.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के बार्नियर ने कहा, 'ब्रेक्सिट कोई खेल नहीं है'


BERLIN (Reuters) - The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) will have proportionally more lawmakers with an immigrant background in the new parliament than Chancellor Angela s conservatives, according to a survey. The AfD, which enters parliament for the first time after winning 12.6 percent of the vote in Sunday s election, has been sharply critical of Merkel s decision to take in 1.3 million mainly Muslim migrants and says Islam has no place in Germany. Yet 7.5 percent of the AfD s 93 lawmakers have an immigrant background compared with only 2.5 percent of the conservatives, according to the survey by Mediendienst Integration, an online portal that collects data on immigration and asylum. That leaves the AfD and the conservative bloc each with seven lawmakers with a recent immigrant background.  Ironically, by entering parliament, the anti-immigrant AfD has contributed to a rise in the number of deputies with an immigration background,  said Jannis Panagiotidis of Osnabrueck University. Some 22.5 percent of Germany s 82 million population have an immigrant background, which means they did not have German citizenship at birth or were born to at least one parent who was not born German. Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Christian Social Union (CSU) Bavarian allies won most seats in the election on Sept. 24, which secured Merkel a fourth term but saw her conservatives  support plunge to its lowest level in the post-war period. The CDU/CSU, which together have 246 seats in the Bundestag lower house, are expected to try to build a coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens. The AfD is the third largest party in the new lower house Bundestag, behind the center-left Social Democrats. The new 709-seat assembly will have a total 57 members with an immigration background, 20 more than in the outgoing Bundestag, which had 630 seats. The far-left Die Linke has the highest percentage of immigrant deputies - nearly 19 percent.

Summary: जर्मनी के धुर दक्षिणपंथी ए. एफ. डी. में मर्केल के रूढ़िवादियों की तुलना में अधिक अप्रवासी सांसद हैं।


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers have asked for  protection  when they visit Malta this week to probe accusations of high-level corruption on the island, citing death threats made against some members of the EU parliament. The legislature passed a motion this month voicing concerns about democracy and the rule of law in the EU s smallest state, following the killing of a journalist who had accused some political leaders of graft and money laundering. A group of seven MEPs will visit Malta on Thursday and Friday. In a letter seen by Reuters, Manfred Weber, the German leader of the center-right bloc, wrote to European Parliament President Antonio Tajani on Wednesday asking him to  remind the Maltese authorities of their duty to protect  the delegation and  allow them to carry out their duty free from fear . The stark terms of the letter underscored the depth of feeling in Brussels about recent developments in Malta. It also reflected Tajani s call on Monday for the Polish government to ensure the safety of MEPs after a far-right protest there over an EU parliament motion about democracy in Poland. Centre-left Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says Malta does not tolerate crime and promised justice for the murdered journalist, who had leveled personal accusations against him as well as against members of the center-right opposition party. Sven Giegold, a German member of the EU parliament s Greens party and a leading campaigner on financial crime who will be part of the delegation, told Reuters he was not very worried but added:  I hope the security will be guaranteed.  Weber, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, wrote that there were  serious concerns  about the independence of the Maltese police and referred to MEPs being  threatened with their lives for speaking out in defense of the rule of law in Malta . One of his group s members, Maltese center-right MEP Roberta Metsola, has faced public death threats on social media after speaking on the issue, parliamentary officials said.  Mr Weber can rest assured that, as in previous occasions, Malta will offer maximum hospitality to the MEP delegation , a spokesman for the Maltese government told Reuters.

Summary: धमकी के बाद यूरोपीय संघ के सांसदों ने माल्टा यात्रा पर 'सुरक्षा' मांगी


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan allowed the wife and mother of an Indian man convicted of spying to visit him on Monday in Islamabad, eight months after he was sentenced to death by a military court.  Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, a former officer in the Indian navy, was arrested in March 2016 in the Pakistan province of Baluchistan, where there has been a long-running conflict  between national security forces and militant separatists.  The case has added to tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who often accuse each other of violating a 2003 ceasefire along their disputed border in Kashmir, where the countries sometime engage in intense artillery duels.  Pakistan released a picture of Jadhav s mother, Avanti, and wife, Chetankul, seated at a desk and speaking to him from behind a glass window.   The mother and wife of Commander Jadhav sitting comfortably in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan. We honor our commitments,  a spokesman for Pakistan s foreign office, Mohammad Faisal, said in an earlier Twitter posting when the women first arrived at the ministry in Islamabad.  India s foreign affairs office has not responded to a request for comment on the meeting.  After Jadhav was sentenced to death in April, India asked the World Court for an injunction to bar the execution, arguing that he was denied diplomatic assistance during what it says was an unfair trial. The World Court ordered Pakistan in May to delay Jadhav s execution, and said Islamabad had violated a treaty guaranteeing diplomatic assistance to foreigners accused of crimes.  Pakistan authorities say Jadhav confessed to being ordered by India s intelligence service to conduct espionage and sabotage in Baluchistan  to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan . Baluchistan is at the center of a $57 billion Chinese-backed  Belt and Road  development project that at first focused on Chinese companies building roads and power stations, but is now expanding to include setting up industries.  In a transcript released by Pakistan of what it says is Jadhav s confession, the former naval officer says disrupting the Chinese-funded projects was a main goal of his activities.

Summary: पाकिस्तान ने पत्नी और मां को मौत की सजा पाए भारतीय व्यक्ति से मिलने की अनुमति दी


BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - At least 16 people died on Sunday when a tourist boat capsized in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, officials said. The accident took place in Krishna river about 25 km (15 miles) from Vijayawada city, district administrative chief B. Lakshmikantham told Reuters. The administration was investigating what exactly caused the incident, but the initial probe found that the private boat operator did not have the necessary permission to ferry people, Lakshmikantham said. Around 20 of the roughly 35 people on the boat were rescued and search operations were continuing, India s National Disaster Response Force said on Twitter.

Summary: दक्षिण भारत में नाव पलटने से कम से कम 16 लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Texas seeking to revive the state’s strict Republican-backed voter-identification requirements that a lower court found had a discriminatory effect on black and Hispanic people. The justices let stand a July 2016 decision by a lower court that found that the 2011 Texas statute ran afoul of a federal law that bars racial discrimination in elections and directed a lower court to find a way to fix the law’s discriminatory effects against minorities. There were no noted dissents from the high court’s decision not to hear the case from any of the eight justices, but Chief Justice John Roberts took the unusual step of issuing a statement explaining why the case was not taken up, noting that litigation on the matter is continuing in lower courts. Roberts said that although there was “no barrier to our review,” all the legal issues can be raised on appeal at a later time.  The law, passed by a Republican-led legislature and signed by a Republican governor, had been considered one of the strictest of its type in the United States. It was challenged in court by the U.S. Justice Department under former President Barack Obama, civil rights groups and individual voters. Critics including the Obama administration had said the Texas law and similar statutes enacted in other Republican-governed states were tailored to make it harder for minorities including black and Hispanic voters, who tend to support Democrats, to cast ballots. Backers of these laws have said they are necessary to prevent voter fraud, despite little evidence of such fraud. The seven types of government-issued identification permitted under the law as proof of identity included a driver’s license, a concealed handgun license, a military ID card and a U.S. passport but not state university ID cards or identification issued to obtain welfare benefits. A special 15-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-6 that the Texas law had a discriminatory effect and violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The judges were divided differently on other parts of the ruling. The appeals court directed a federal district court to examine claims by the plaintiffs that the law was actually intended to be discriminatory, rather than merely having a discriminatory effect. A hearing on that part of the case was scheduled for Tuesday but has now been delayed following a request from President Donald Trump’s administration. While Obama’s administration had backed the challenge to the Texas requirements, the Trump administration could change course. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office launched the appeal, said he was disappointed by the court’s action. “Texas enacted a common sense voter ID law to safeguard the integrity of our elections, and we will continue to fight for the law in the district court, the Fifth Circuit, and if necessary, the Supreme Court again,” Paxton said in a statement. Challengers of the Texas law have said that up to 600,000 people would be unable to vote if the law were fully in effect because of the large number of voters who lack the limited types of permissible identification. After the appeals court ruling, Texas and the plaintiffs struck a deal for a short-term remedy to be used for the November 2016 election. The Texas law is one of several passed by Republican legislatures since 2010. A similar law in North Carolina was struck down by a federal appeals court in July 2016.

Summary: अमेरिकी सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने मतदाता पहचान पत्र कानून पर टेक्सास की अपील को खारिज कर दिया


CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Greenpeace Africa and other NGOs intend to appeal against South Africa s decision to grant an environmental permit for a new 4,000 megawatt nuclear plant close to Cape Town, the activists said on Monday. Last month South Africa s department of environmental affairs granted authorization to state-owned power utility Eskom to build the new plant at Duynefontein, close to the continent s only existing nuclear site Koeberg. South Africa s nuclear regulator said in October that an installation site license for the plant would likely be granted in June, despite the finance minister saying construction of a new plant was unaffordable in a stagnant economy facing further credit downgrades.  If this project goes ahead, it will infringe the environmental rights of both present and future generations. This authorization can and must be challenged,  Penny-Jane Cooke, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace Africa, said in a statement. South Africa s nuclear plans are shrouded in controversy and uncertainty, with local activists and the media raising concerns about transparency and costs as well as safety and environmental risks at a time when Pretoria is trying to reduce the economy s heavy reliance on coal power. Nuclear reactor makers including Rosatom, South Korea s Kepco, France s EDF and Areva, Toshiba-owned Westinghouse and China s CGN are eyeing the South African project, which could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

Summary: कार्यकर्ता दक्षिण अफ्रीका के नए परमाणु संयंत्र के फैसले के खिलाफ अपील करेंगे


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syrian government forces have to date cleared 85 percent of the country s area from militants, Russian news agencies cited Alexander Lapin, the head of the Russian troops  headquarters in Syria, as saying on Tuesday. Islamic State fighters are still in control of around 27,000 square km of Syria s territory, he said.

Summary: रूसी सेनाः सीरियाई सरकारी सैनिकों ने सीरिया के 85 प्रतिशत हिस्से को नियंत्रित किया-एजेंसियां


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will nominate Kirstjen Nielsen, who as top aide to his White House chief of staff has sought to instill order in Trump’s team, to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday. If confirmed by the Senate, Nielsen would take the reins at a sprawling department with more than 240,000 employees that is responsible for U.S. border and airport security, immigration policy, disaster response, refugee admissions and other matters. Nielsen, 45, is a cyber security expert with a considerable resume in homeland security that includes work at the department’s Transportation Security Administration and on former Republican President George W. Bush’s White House Homeland Security Council. Nielsen was retired Marine Corps General John Kelly’s chief of staff when he was secretary of homeland security during the opening months of Trump’s presidency. Kelly brought her to the White House as his deputy when Trump named him chief of staff in July to replace Reince Priebus after only six months on the job. The nomination requires Senate confirmation. Nielsen’s departure from the White House would mark the latest upheaval in Trump’s White House team. She was responsible for carrying out some of Kelly’s orders on who gets access to the president. As a result, she has irritated some White House officials who now have limited contact with Trump, according to sources familiar with the situation. Kelly has sought to bring more order to the chaotic West Wing since replacing Priebus. Trump has welcomed the changes to some extent, although he has privately confided to friends that the limitations on access to the Oval Office sometimes go too far. Putting Nielsen into the Homeland Security post will allow Trump and Kelly to keep a close eye on the department, but getting her out of the White House could permit some of Kelly’s strictness to be relaxed. The department has been led by an acting secretary, Elaine Duke, since Kelly took the White House post. Cyber security is one of the primary issues under the Homeland Security Department’s portfolio. Nielsen previously worked at a cyber think tank at George Washington University, blocks from the White House, and is considered well-versed in some of the more technical missions at the department, such as sharing cyber-threat information with the private sector. The department was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States exposed cracks in the country’s homeland security apparatus. The appointment comes at a busy time for the department, with one of its agencies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, overseeing disaster relief in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida as well as wildfire-ravaged areas of California. The department also is responsible for U.S. border security. The department is a major player in implementing Trump’s aggressive stance toward deporting illegal immigrants, as well as vetting the lower number of refugees Trump has decided to allow into the United States and devising his travel ban on six Muslim-majority nations, North Korea and certain Venezuelans. ‘LOW-DRAMA PICK’ “It seems like a low-drama pick. It’s a little concerning that she seems to have little background in immigration security and policy, but those individual agencies are in good hands already, and there is a strong core of career managers,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors more limits on immigration.  Nielsen is not known for hard-line views on immigration like those of White House adviser Stephen Miller. If confirmed, Nielsen would be the first homeland security secretary to have previously served as a rank-and-file member of the department. Some previous DHS secretaries have been criticized for not possessing enough technical fluency to address cyber threats facing the nation. She also served as a corporate attorney and a congressional staff member, the White House statement said. “Kirstjen’s a policy wonk at heart, especially when it comes to cyber,” Frank Cilluffo, a former senior homeland security official under Bush who worked with Nielsen at George Washington University. Nielsen would immediately be given the task of helping coordinate the federal response to potential cyber attacks that target elections. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election to try to help Trump win, in part by hacking and releasing emails embarrassing to his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and through online propaganda. Russia has denied meddling in the election and Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow. Jeh Johnson, who served as former Democratic President Barack Obama’s last homeland secretary chief, designated election systems as critical infrastructure, widening the support the department can provide to states. But the department has clashed with several state officials over how best to cooperate to defend future elections. Politico first reported the appointment.

Summary: ट्रंप ने गृह सुरक्षा पद के लिए व्हाइट हाउस के सहायक को नामित किया


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces killed three suspected militants and arrested 74 others in raids targeting militant groups in North Sinai in recent days, the military said in a statement on Thursday. Egypt faces an Islamist insurgency led by the Islamic State group in the Sinai Peninsula, where hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed since 2013. The military did not name a specific militant group or release the names of those killed but said the militants were  highly dangerous . As part of their raids security forces destroyed five four-wheel drive vehicles and four storage sites used to manufacture improvised explosive devices, the military statement said.

Summary: मिस्र का कहना है कि सिनाई में छापेमारी में तीन आतंकवादी मारे गए, 74 गिरफ्तार


TABATINGA, Brazil (Reuters) - U.S. military personnel are taking part this week in the largest international army operation ever held deep in the Amazon jungle of northern Brazil, in a sign of closer U.S.-Brazil defense ties. Troops from Brazil, Colombia and Peru will set up a temporary military base in their tri-border region for a week-long logistics exercise in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, Brazilian army officials said. About 50 U.S. personnel will be present for the exercise, including 19 observers and 31 members of the Montana Air National Guard who will be based out of Manaus providing air transportation, a U.S. embassy statement said. The United States will provide a Hercules C-130 transport plane to move personnel and equipment, the Brazilian army said. The presence of U.S military personnel in Brazil s Amazon region underscored improving defense relations between the two most populous countries in the Western Hemisphere after more than a decade of distancing under leftist Brazilian governments. In March, then-commander of the U.S. Army South, Major General Clarence K. K. Chinn visited military installations in the Amazon and was decorated in Brasilia. Bilateral agreements on defense cooperation and information security have taken effect recently after years of stalling in Brazil s Congress. The Brazilian general in charge of the operation said he was  astounded  by criticism of the U.S. involvement in the exercise in a globalized world where Brazil maintains good relations with China, Russia and the United States.  It s a senseless conspiracy theory raised by leftist parties,  General Guilherme Theophilo Gaspar de Oliveira, the Brazilian Army s logistics commander, told reporters, as he praised deep U.S. experience and know how in disaster relief.  The Brazilian Army said it was the first time such a large military exercise has been held in the Amazon and would help prepare the armed forces of the three neighboring countries for a humanitarian crisis such as mass migration. Brazil has kept a close eye on economic and political upheaval in neighboring Venezuela that could trigger such an exodus. More than 30,000 Venezuelans have already fled over the border into the northern Brazilian state of Roraima, according to federal police. The Brazilian Army said Venezuela is one of the 19 countries sending observers for the so-called United America Operation. Brazilian Defense Minister Raul Jungmann will attend the jungle exercises on the weekend and then fly to Washington for three days of talks with Pentagon officials, his press representative said.

Summary: अमेरिकी सेना अमेज़न में ब्राजील की सेना के अभ्यास में शामिल हुई


(Reuters) - Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan proposed a $2.6 billion fiscal 2017 budget on Thursday that he said could be the city’s ticket to removing state oversight of its finances. He said the all-funds budget, which includes $1.077 billion of general fund spending, would mark the third-straight balanced budget for the city, which exited the biggest-ever municipal bankruptcy in December 2014. A financial review commission was created under Michigan law to oversee a post-bankruptcy Detroit until it reaches certain benchmarks. “If we can finish the 2017 fiscal year with a balanced budget and we’re paying our bills and meeting some other conditions that I believe we’ll meet, we will be able to get out of the financial review commission control period,” Duggan told the city council. He added the goal is to shed state oversight by January 2018. If the city ends fiscal 2017 with a deficit, the mayor said Detroit would have to start a new three-year balanced budget cycle. Detroit Chief Financial Officer John Hill said the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is based on conservative revenue estimates that could be hurt if the state cuts revenue sharing to local governments to deal with costs for the ongoing lead-tainted water crisis in Flint.  The mayor said he plans to tap $50 million in unused, voter-approved bond proceeds dating as far back as 1987 for various projects. Duggan also addressed a $490 million increase in the unfunded liability for Detroit’s two pension funds caused by the use of outdated mortality tables by the city’s bankruptcy consultants. The situation has become “pretty adversarial” with the consultants, who have been told by the city not to destroy any of the documents they took with them, according to the mayor. He cautioned the council that a malpractice lawsuit against the consultants would be difficult to win.

Summary: डेट्रॉइट के महापौर ने राज्य के निरीक्षण को कम करने पर नजर रखते हुए बजट का अनावरण किया


ROME (Reuters) - Salvatore  Toto  Riina, the Sicilian Mafia s most powerful boss of the 20th century who was convicted for ordering dozens of murders, died of natural causes early on Friday after almost a quarter of a century in jail. Riina, who turned 87 on Thursday, died in the prison ward of a hospital in Parma, the northern Italian city where he had been serving 26 life sentences for homicides committed between 1969 and 1992. His victims included the two magistrates who led the campaign to bring mob bosses to justice. He had fallen into a coma after complications during surgery a few days ago, and his family had been given permission to be by his side on Thursday, the Justice Ministry said. Nicknamed  the Beast ,  Riina began his violent criminal career on the streets of Corleone after World War Two and became the Sicilian Mafia s boss of bosses when it reached its 20th century apex. Riina oversaw a flourishing economic period for organized crime group Cosa Nostra, or  Our Thing , when it was trafficking heroin to the eastern United States and pulling the levers of political power in Palermo and Rome. But due to Riina s savagery, hundreds of mobsters broke their code of silence in the 1980s and 1990s and testified against him, allowing magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino to uncover the long-hidden secrets of Cosa Nostra and prosecute its leaders for the crimes of its soldiers. Riina s January 1993 arrest, after more than 20 years as a fugitive, came just months after Falcone and Borsellino were blown up on his orders, and coincided with the tumultuous downfall of Italy s corrupt post-war political system. Since then, Riina has been held under high security with little access to his family in accordance with a law written to prevent bosses from commanding from prison. However, he remained a powerful figure within the mob even behind bars and refused to cooperate with investigators until the end.  Matteo Messina Denaro, a Riina ally who has been a fugitive for 25 years, is the highest ranking boss still at large, but it is unlikely he will be able take power, John Dickie, a British historian and author of the book  Cosa Nostra , told Reuters.  Cosa Nostra is internally and politically divided in a way that makes it almost ungovernable, and this division dates back to Riina s campaign for power in the 80s,  Dickie said.  Riina s surviving foes within Cosa Nostra had close ties to North America, and they are the ones most likely to seek a shift in the crime syndicate s balance of power.   Because the Sicilian Mafia is struggling, it needs to renew its access to the United States, which has been crucial to the organization since the 1880s,  Dickie said. Given various nicknames over the years - Toto, Shorty, the Beast among them - Riina was 19 when he shot a man dead during a gang fight in Corleone and spent six years in prison, a rite of passage for a mafioso.   When he returned to Corleone, he and his childhood friend Bernardo Provenzano, who would lead Cosa Nostra after Riina s arrest, fell under the sway of Luciano Leggio. Leggio took over the Corleone mafia with Riina and Provenzano at his side by killing the town s wartime mafia boss, medical doctor Michele Navarra, in 1958. U.S. author Mario Puzo would later name the main character in  The Godfather  after the town.  In 1969, Riina and Provenzano led a hit squad against feared boss Michele  the Cobra  Cavataio, ambushing him inside an office in Palermo, killing the Cobra, another mafioso and two innocent bystanders. The so-called  Lazio Street Massacre  gave the Corleone clan a foothold in Sicily s capital and a post on Cosa Nostra s governing body, the  Commission , and the arrest of Leggio in 1974 made Riina the acting boss of the Corleone crime family. The 1981 murder of mob boss Stefano Bontate signaled the beginning of a two-year killing spree known as  The Slaughter , in which Riina sought to annihilate his many rivals. Fearing for their lives and for those of their families, hundreds of mobsters broke their code of silence, or omerta, and cooperated with investigators.  The turncoat testimony was a key component in Falcone and Borsellino s landmark case against Cosa Nostra, which in January 1992 ended by holding mob bosses responsible for crimes committed by their underlings.  Two months later, mafia assassins gunned down Salvo Lima,  Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti s right-hand man in Sicily, sending a clear message about what Riina thought of the court ruling and Rome s failure to stop it. In May of the same year, a massive bomb that blew apart a motorway near Palermo killed Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards. In July, Borsellino was blown up by another car bomb along with his five bodyguards. Riina was arrested in Palermo six months after Borsellino s murder, but he never broke his code of silence, leaving a shroud of mystery over suspected negotiations between Cosa Nostra and Rome said to have taken place after Falcone s assassination. The law-enforcement crackdown that followed the 1992 bombings severely hobbled Cosa Nostra, whose presence in Sicily is still felt, but whose economic and political might has faded.  Today, Calabria s  Ndrangheta is considered by investigators to be Italy s most powerful organized crime group thanks to its role as the biggest European importer of South American cocaine. The mafia tradition has been carried forward by Riina s two sons, Giovanni and Giuseppe, who remained loyal to their father. Giovanni has been sentenced to life in prison for four murders, and Giuseppe spent several years in jail on mafia charges, though he is now free. Riina is also survived by two daughters, Maria Concetta and Lucia, and his wife Antonietta. His funeral is likely to be a private ceremony in Corleone, police said.

Summary: भीड़ प्रमुख और सामूहिक हत्यारे रीना की प्राकृतिक कारणों से मृत्यु हो गई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, said on Tuesday he is  “awaiting instructions” from Trump on whether to support a restoration of the Export-Import Bank’s full lending powers. The U.S. government trade bank’s loans have been capped at $10 million for more than a year because it has too few board members, with Republican opponents to the bank blocking recent nominees. The cap means that EXIM cannot finance the largest export U.S. products such as Boeing Co aircraft or Westinghouse nuclear reactors. Asked by Senator Maria Cantwell at his confirmation hearing whether he supports nominating new board members at the bank as part of a broad trade strategy aimed at reducing U.S. trade deficits and boosting exports, Lighthizer said that decision would ultimately be up to Trump. “I expect to do what the president instructs me to do when he instructs me to do it,” said Lighthizer, a former USTR deputy in the Reagan administration and a steel industry trade lawyer. Conservative Republicans in Congress have tried to kill EXIM because they view it as providing unnecessary “corporate welfare” and putting U.S. taxpayers at risk for foreign projects.

Summary: यू. एस. टी. आर. उम्मीदवारः एक्जिम बैंक पर ट्रम्प के निर्देशों का इंतजार


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia s Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer al-Sabhan said the personal security detail of Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri, who resigned on Saturday, had  confirmed information  of a plot to kill him.  Speaking in an interview on Future, an Arabic television channel owned by Hariri, he said Hariri was in Riyadh, adding there were  security threats to the prime minister and the kingdom is keen on his safety .

Summary: सऊदी मंत्री का कहना है कि उन्होंने हरीरी को मारने की साजिश के बारे में 'पुष्ट जानकारी' दी है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday picked a fossil fuel industry defender as his top environmental official, another retired general as homeland security chief and Iowa’s governor as U.S. ambassador to China in choices at odds with some of his recent pronouncements. Trump, continuing to build his Cabinet as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20, said Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, 48, would be nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt sued the EPA in a bid to undo a key regulation under outgoing President Barack Obama that would curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, mainly from coal-fired power plants. Trump tapped retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, 66, for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, whose responsibilities include immigration. Kelly, the third retired general named by Trump to a senior administration post, last year told Congress that a lack of security on the U.S.-Mexican border posed a threat to the United States. Trump’s transition team said Republican Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, 70, who has boasted of close ties to Beijing’s leaders, was picked as U.S. ambassador to China.  In addition, transition officials said Linda McMahon, 68, former CEO of professional wrestling company WWE and wife of wrestling kingpin Vince McMahon, was Trump’s choice to head the Small Business Administration. Trump has taken part in WWE events in the past and has close ties to the McMahons. He is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame. All four posts require Senate confirmation. Pruitt’s selection came despite a softer tone Trump has struck on environmental regulation since his Nov. 8 election. He has stepped back from casting climate change as a hoax, signaled he might be willing to allow the United States to continue participating in the Paris climate change deal aimed at lowering world carbon emissions, and met with former Vice President Al Gore, a leading environmental voice. Pruitt’s selection brought a quick rebuke from Democrats. “The head of the EPA cannot be a stenographer for the lobbyists of polluters and Big Oil,” House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said of Pruitt. Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, brushed off the criticism, praising Pruitt’s record and telling reporters at Trump Tower: “We’re very accustomed to the naysayers and the critics.”  Trump talked tough during the campaign about deporting all of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States and building a wall along the Mexican border. But since the election he has softened his comments on deportation and referred to some illegal immigrants as “terrific people.” Kelly would work in tandem with Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, who is a leading advocate of cracking down on illegal immigration. The former four-star general would head a department in charge of securing borders against illegal immigration, protecting the president, responding to natural disasters and coordinating intelligence and counterterrorism. He formerly headed the Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. He was a proponent of keeping open the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Trump previously picked retired Marine Corps General James Mattis as defense secretary and retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as national security adviser. Branstad has been an eager trading partner with China, helping Iowa sell agricultural goods to the Asian powerhouse. His choice came after Trump rattled the world’s second-largest economy with tough talk on trade and a telephone call with the leader of Taiwan. Trump has more key appointments to make in coming days, including the high-profile job of secretary of state. His team said former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a fierce Trump critic during the campaign, is still under consideration for a diplomatic job. Aside from the personnel announcements, Trump basked in being named Time magazine’s “person of the year,” telling NBC’s “Today” show, “It’s a great honor, it means a lot.” In an interview with Time, Trump continued to take on corporate America, promising to bring down drug prices and causing shares of U.S. pharmaceutical and biotech companies to fall.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने मातृभूमि सुरक्षा, पर्यावरण, चीन के राजदूत की नौकरियों को भरा


TBILISI (Reuters) - The Trump Organization pulled out of a $250-million real estate project in ex-Soviet Georgia to avoid a potential conflict with Donald Trump’s role as president, Trump’s former business partner in the project told Reuters. The Trump Organization declined to comment on the assertion that it quit the project due to conflict-of-interest concerns, and the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment. Since winning election as U.S. president, Donald Trump has said he would take steps to ensure he had no conflict of interests with his business. However, he has given few details on how he will do that. Trump planned to give his brand name to Georgian developer Silk Road Group, to build a 47-storey residential tower in the Georgian Black Sea resort of Batumi, a plan he had announced during his visit to the South Caucasus country in April 2012. SRG and the Trump Organization announced their joint decision to terminate the project last week, but did not elaborate on the reasons.  “The only reason (for project termination) was that Mr. Trump was elected as the U.S. president and could not continue business abroad as it would pose a conflict of interest,” Giorgi Ramishvili, SRG head, told Reuters in an interview. “I appreciate that the Trump Organization said in the statement that it had continued to hold our company and Georgia in the highest regard.” Federal law does not prohibit the president’s involvement in private business while in office, even though lawmakers and executive branch officials are subject to conflict-of-interest rules. Nevertheless, Trump has come under pressure from Democrats, and some of his Republican allies, to avoid any conflict of interests. Trump has said he plans to transfer control of his businesses to his oldest three children. Georgia will present the White House with a thorny foreign policy problem. A close U.S. ally seeking membership of NATO, it accuses Russia of propping up separatists in two breakaway regions on its territory. That could complicate Trump’s drive for friendlier relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Asked to comment on the reasons for pulling out of the Georgia project, the Trump Organization sent Reuters a joint statement with SRG announcing the decision but not giving a reason. Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s general counsel, said the organization stood by its statement and declined to comment on Ramishvili’s assertion the deal was cancelled due to conflict-of-interest concerns. The Trump transition team, which typically defers to the Trump Organization on business issues, did not respond to a request for comment. The Trump Organization has canceled licensing deals in  some other countries, including Brazil and Azerbaijan, but has not publicly cited conflict of interest concerns as the reason for those decisions. Ramishvili said his company, one of the largest private investment companies in the South Caucasus, would still go ahead with the Batumi tower project. He said his company was ready to invest not less than the $250 million that was originally planned. “It won’t have Trump’s name, but it may be called the Fifth Avenue Tower as it will look similar to the Trump Tower in New York,” Ramishvili said. Ramishvili said he believed Trump would “keep Georgia on his mind” during his presidency. “I’m sure that President Trump will always remember positive emotions that he had during his visit to our country, when he dubbed Georgia as one of the amazing places in the world,” Ramishvili said. “I’m happy that I’ve brought this iconic figure to Georgia and I’m sure that he will be a great president.”

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः हितों के टकराव से बचने के लिए ट्रम्प ने पूर्व सोवियत जॉर्जिया में परियोजना से हाथ खींच लिया-पूर्व साथी


TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwan court on Friday jailed a mainland Chinese man for 14 months for breaching national security laws, following months of strained relations over China s detention of a national from the self-ruled island. China, which sees Taiwan as a wayward province to be taken back by force, if necessary, severed official communications last year to pressure President Tsai Ing-wen, whose party traditionally favors independence, to concede its position.  Zhou Hongxu, formerly a student in Taiwan, was charged for seeking to arrange meetings between a Taiwan government official and a Chinese Communist party official outside Taiwan, in return for payment to the Taiwan official, a court document showed. Zhou  intentionally  jeopardized national security, though the attempt was unsuccessful, the court said in the document released after the verdict.    Zhou, who had met the Chinese official at a 2014 event in  Shanghai in 2014, did not plead guilty, his lawyer said, despite a confession during the trial that he later described as having  been made in improper circumstances.  He appeared in court on Friday in a calm mood and dressed in dark colors.  The court reduced his sentence, taking into account his confession, and the failure of the bid to breach national security, it said in its statement. On Monday, a Taiwanese activist, Li Ming-che, confessed in a Chinese court to attempting to subvert the Beijing government,  videos of his hearing released by Chinese authorities showed, although his wife refused to recognize the court s authority. Li, a community college teacher known for his pro-democracy and rights activism, had gone missing on a trip to mainland China in March.

Summary: ताइवान ने राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा के आरोप में मुख्य भूमि चीनी व्यक्ति को जेल भेजा


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey said on Tuesday it could expand its military mission in Syria to two other provinces, potentially bringing its forces into confrontation with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters that Ankara considers its enemies. Turkish troops have operated an  observation mission  in rebel-held territory in Syria s northwestern Idlib province, under a deal with Damascus allies Russia and Iran to help reduce fighting between insurgents and government forces.  It s been considered that the observation mission of the Turkish armed forces in the Idlib de-escalation zone is continuing successfully, and such a mission being performed near Western Aleppo and Afrin would provide a real environment of peace and safety,  Turkey s National Security Council said in a statement. Ankara, which has long backed rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, has toned down its demands that Assad leave power. It now says its main concerns in Syria are combating both Islamist militants and Kurdish fighters it considers allies of the Kurdistan Workers  Party (PKK) which has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey. Earlier this month, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey needed to clear the Afrin region of northwest Syria of Kurdish YPG militia fighters as the military operation in Idlib province is largely complete. The Kurdish YPG is the main element in a U.S.-backed force that Washington has assisted with training, weapons, air support and help from ground advisers in the battle against Islamic State. Washington s support for the YPG is a bone of contention between the United States and Turkey, which are allies in NATO.

Summary: तुर्की ने सीरिया में सैन्य अभियान को अफरीन, अलेप्पो तक बढ़ाने की योजना का सुझाव दिया


LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said late on Thursday that he would not resign over a scandal involving payments that Brazilian builder Odebrecht paid a decade ago to a company he controlled while holding public office. In a televised address to the nation flanked by members of his cabinet, Kuczynski denied any wrongdoing and said that while he owned the company, Westfield Capital Ltd, he was not manager of it when it received the payments. Prior to the message, the leaders of several parties in the opposition-controlled Congress said they would seek to oust him if he would not resign.

Summary: पेरू के कुजिंस्की ने कहा कि ओडेब्रेक्ट घोटाले पर इस्तीफा नहीं देंगे


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday said Puerto Rico’s financial crisis risks turning the commonwealth into a chaotic mess unless the U.S. Congress can enact a plan to restructure its debt. “The challenge is for Congress to act fast enough so that the unfolding crisis in Puerto Rico doesn’t cascade out of control,” Lew said during an on-stage interview at the annual Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles. The island faces $70 billion in debt overall, a staggering 45-percent poverty rate and a shrinking population. It owes another $1.9 billion on July 1 that Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla says it cannot pay. On Monday the Government Development Bank defaulted on a $422 million debt payment while it agreed to a tentative restructuring framework with some large creditors who promised to hold back from taking legal action for 30 days. Congress is debating a bill to put the island’s finances under federal oversight and allow it to restructure debt in a bankruptcy-like process. The bill has faced criticism from conservative and liberal wings of both parties. Lew reiterated there was so far little spillover from Puerto Rico’s problems into the $3.7 trillion U.S. municipal bond market where it is a major issuer of triple-tax-free debt. “In the absence of a restructuring, what you will end up with is a chaotic unwinding which does enormous harm to millions of Americans, including veterans who served loyally in our military. That I believe is something that has more of a potential spillover risk to the municipal bond market than anything else,” Lew said. As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico cannot file for bankruptcy protection. It is struggling to pay for basic services like police and firefighters as well as combat the spread of the  Zika virus. Lew reiterated that putting in place an independent oversight authority to work out an orderly restructuring would also ensure fairness to all stakeholders. Some investors are concerned that if all bondholders are treated the same, there is a risk of eroding well established rules governing who gets paid and when in a restructuring. “The cost of delay is that you get to a point where there is nothing to restructure. If you get to a point where the restructuring can’t work, then you either let chaos happen or you have a bailout. I believe restructuring is the alternative to a bailout,” Lew said.

Summary: कांग्रेस की योजना के बिना प्यूर्टो रिको को वित्तीय अराजकता का सामना करना पड़ सकता हैः ल्यू


DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh allowed two journalists from Myanmar detained while reporting about fleeing Rohingya Muslims to fly home on Tuesday and was dropping charges against them, their lawyer said.   Minzayar Oo and Hkun Lat were picked up from the Cox Bazar s region in early September because they were working as journalists on tourist visas, police said. They were released on bail after calls from Germany s GEO magazine, which had assigned Minzayar Oo to cover the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, as well as rights groups.  It s so good to be free again,  Minzayar Oo, one of Myanmar s most prominent photographers, told Reuters soon after his plane landed in the Thai capital of Bangkok. Bangladesh authorities had begun the process to drop the charges against the pair, their lawyer, Jyotirmoy Barua, said. Minzayar Oo has worked for various media outlets, covering Myanmar s emergence from military rule. He had previously worked as a contractor with Reuters.  Hkun Lat is also a well-known photographer in Myanmar and has won prizes for his coverage of conflict in frontier regions. About 582,000 refugees from Myanmar have poured into Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts triggered an army crackdown in response.

Summary: बांग्लादेश द्वारा आरोप हटाए जाने के बाद म्यांमार के पत्रकार स्वदेश लौट गए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not have appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation, according to a New York Times interview. “Sessions should have never recused himself and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” the Times quoted Trump as saying. Sessions recused himself in March from the probe into allegations of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible ties between Russians and the Trump campaign. He did so after failing to disclose at his confirmation hearing that he had held meetings last year with Russia’s ambassador. A Sessions spokesman declined a Reuters request for comment.  There were media reports last month that Sessions, a former U.S. senator who was an early supporter of Trump’s campaign, had offered to resign because of tensions with Trump over the recusal. Trump also told the New York Times that a conversation he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a dinner at the Group of 20 summit in Germany earlier this month lasted about 15 minutes and was mostly about “pleasantries.” That conversation has sparked controversy because it was only disclosed on Tuesday.  Ian Bremmer, the president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, has said the meeting lasted about an hour.

Summary: ट्रंप ने कहा कि उन्हें सेशन को अटॉर्नी जनरल के रूप में नहीं चुनना चाहिए थाः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (Reuters) - Reince Priebus, the unassuming head of the Republican National Committee, often plays the piano late at night, sometimes with a glass of wine nearby. Tickling the ivories is a lifelong passion for Priebus and he has been doing it “more than usual” lately, he told Reuters in an interview last week. It’s his way of easing the stress from the most combustible Republican presidential race in generations.  It has been a rough ride for the 44-year-old party chairman from Wisconsin, who presided over a three-day meeting of Republican officials in Florida last week. One reason for all that piano playing is the unconventional campaign being run by Republican front-runner Donald Trump. The bellicose billionaire has said that the party rules are “rigged” and could give Trump’s chief rival, Ted Cruz, a chance to become the nominee through a brokered convention, even if Trump racks up more victories in state nominating contests. He said Priebus “should be ashamed of himself.”  Yet privately, the relationship between the two has improved, their aides told Reuters. Priebus has taken frequent calls from Trump to explain nomination rules or simply hear him out, aides said. But Priebus also has been catching fire from anti-Trump forces who want him to drop his neutrality and do more to thwart Trump’s march toward the nomination ahead of the party’s convention in Cleveland in July, when it must settle on a nominee to face Democrat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in the Nov. 8 election. If Trump wins the nomination - a prospect increasingly likely after his string of state victories - Priebus will need to unify his party or risk losing in November. On Friday, when Priebus urged the party to rally around the eventual nominee, the blowback from the stop-Trump crowd was intense. “The best way for the Republican Party to unite, win and to grow is to reject Donald Trump,” said Rory Cooper, senior adviser to a group called #NeverTrump. Adding to Priebus’s dilemma is his task of choreographing a convention when the outcome remains uncertain. In most elections, the nomination is settled by late spring, giving party leaders time to focus on the messaging and stagecraft of the summer convention, which is typically centered on building excitement for the nominee. Priebus must plan for several scenarios: a traditional win in which Trump gets the 1,237 delegates he needs ahead of the convention; a contested convention in which Trump still wins; or the selection of Cruz or Ohio Governor John Kasich on a second or third ballot. The Republican convention has not been contested since 1952 and Henry Barbour, an RNC member from Mississippi, noted it was “uncharted waters” for the party not to have presumptive nominee so late in the cycle. Some corporations are so alarmed about how the race has turned out they have decided not to pour funding into sponsoring the convention. There also is the potential for protests of Trump in Cleveland. Trump himself has warned of riots in a contested convention. Trump’s criticism of the nominating rules has been jarring to party officials and the feud could undermine efforts to unify the party. Colorado Republican Party Chairman Steve House said on Facebook his family received death threats after Cruz swept the state’s 34 delegates. In private discussions with Trump, Priebus said he talks about “the daily events of the day or the week or the moment or the debate.” He also talks regularly with Cruz and Kasich. Does Trump, with his inflammatory remarks, get under his skin? “No, he doesn’t because I kind of know where he’s coming from. I’m not unfamiliar with his opinions. So it doesn’t really bother me because I know what the truth is,” Priebus said. Trump senior adviser Paul Manafort said Trump and Priebus were “communicating frequently” and communicating better these days. “They don’t agree on everything but they agree to try to work things out and they are working things out,” he said. An RNC member close to Priebus agreed. “They’re not best buddies or anything but they have a pretty good relationship,” the member said. “I consider all this back and forth as a little bit of ‘heat of the battle’ tensions.” Trump’s complaints about the party’s system have prompted some of his own supporters to roll their eyes in dismay. “He ain’t read the rules,” said Ada Fisher, a retired physician and Republican National Committee member from North Carolina, who was wearing a Trump button at the Florida event. The prevailing opinion among RNC members was that Trump is simply energizing his anti-establishment supporters, a point hammered home by Manafort, who privately told party leaders Trump is “projecting an image” and will transition to a more serious demeanor. RNC members vow to protect Priebus from any attempt to replace him should Trump become the nominee. “I think any effort to oust Reince will fail and it’s not the job of our nominee to select the RNC chair. It’s the job of the RNC members to select the RNC chair,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

Summary: डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प के संभावित खलनायकः पियानो बजाने वाले रींस प्रीबस


MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The man accused of deliberately plowing into Christmas shoppers on a busy street in the Australian city of Melbourne was charged on Saturday with 18 counts of attempted murder and one count of conduct endangering life. The Thursday incident was the second serious vehicle attack in Australia s second biggest city this year. Police said they had charged the man, former Afghanistan refugee Saeed Noori, after formally interviewing him about the attack that police had earlier described as a  deliberate act . Police have said Noori, 32, is known to have mental health problems and to use drugs and they did not believe the attack was terrorism-related. Police suspect Noori was behind the wheel of a white SUV when he deliberately sped up and drove into dozens of pedestrians crossing the road at one of the busiest intersections in Melbourne s central business district. Noori appeared in the Magistrates Court later on Saturday where he was remanded in custody. He will next appear in court on Wednesday. The court also ordered that Noori be assessed by psychologists. Islamist militants have used vehicles to attack people several times in Europe and the United States over the past couple of years. In January, six people were killed in Melbourne s central business district when a man used his vehicle to mow them down. Police also ruled out terrorism for that attack. Following the January incident, authorities installed 140 concrete bollards in the city center. Victoria State premier Daniel Andrews said 12 people remained in hospital, including three who in critical condition. He said there would be an increased police presence at Melbourne events, including the Boxing Day Test Cricket, carols and other major sports events.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलियाई वाहन हमले में चालक पर हत्या के प्रयास का आरोप


(Reuters) - Detroit would sell its first general obligation bonds since exiting bankruptcy in December 2014 under a proposal by Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration to refund up to $660 million of outstanding bonds. The city council on Tuesday sent the plan to refund up to $275 million of unlimited tax GO bonds sold in 2014 and up to $385 million of limited tax GO bonds sold in 2010 and 2012 to its Budget, Finance and Audit Committee for consideration.  The outstanding bonds were issued through the Michigan Finance Authority and backed by the city’s share of distributable state aid payments. John Naglick, Detroit’s finance director, said Detroit expects to capture lower interest rates in the bond refundings to save money for the budget and to lower property tax rates supporting the bonds.  “If it wasn’t for this move to record low rates, we wouldn’t do this,” he said. Ten and 30-year yields on Municipal Market Data’s benchmark triple-A scale are at or near all-time lows, driven by big investor demand for debt sold by states, cities, schools and other municipal issuers. Detroit was able to shed about $7 billion of its $18 billion of debt and obligations in the biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy. In its first post-bankruptcy public debt offering last August, the city restructured $245 million of variable-rate revenue bonds backed by city income taxes into a fixed-rate mode at a hefty spread over MMD’s scale. If the GO bond refundings are approved by the city council committee on Wednesday, the measures would head for a full-council vote on June 21. Naglick said the issuance also needs approval from the Detroit Financial Review Commission, the city’s post-bankruptcy oversight board, which meets on June 27.

Summary: डेट्रॉइट की नज़रें $660 मिलियन तक के बॉन्ड की वापसी पर हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain on Wednesday said he planned to introduce legislation that would strike language included in a massive 2016 spending bill that eased a congressional ban on the use of Russian rocket engines. McCain told a hearing on the issue that he and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy would introduce the legislation on Thursday, the first of many actions planned “to ensure we end our dependence on Russian rocket engines and stop subsidizing Vladimir Putin and his gang of corrupt cronies.” McCain vowed to do “everything in my power” to ban future use of the engines, which power the Atlas 5 rocket built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co.

Summary: मैक्केन ने रूसी रॉकेट इंजन प्रतिबंध को आसान बनाने वाले अमेरिकी कानून को पूर्ववत करने की कसम खाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, highlighting his pledge to send people to Mars by the 2030s, on Tuesday announced further public-private efforts to build habitats that could help humans live long-term far from the Earth. “We are working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space. These missions will teach us how humans can live far from Earth - something we’ll need for the long journey to Mars,” Obama said in an opinion piece on CNN’s website. His comments come ahead of a meeting planned by the White House in Pittsburgh this week to team up scientists, students and others to advance the commercial space market, Obama said.  NASA separately said it was coordinating with commercial space companies to develop “deep space habitat modules” and create opportunities for companies to use the International Space Station’s docking port. Obama has previously sought to boost space exploration and renewed that pledge on Tuesday: “We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America’s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time.”  The two-term president’s recommitment comes in the final months of his tenure and faces an uncertain future after he leaves office in January. His successors will be chosen on Nov. 8 in an election that could also reshape Congress, which allocates government funding.     Obama, a self-described “nerd” who last year hosted budding astronomers at the White House, has made known his love of space. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her rival, Republican Donald Trump, have given little, if any, attention to the issue on the campaign trail. Humans have yet to travel to Mars, Earth’s neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away. Like Earth, the so-called Red Planet also has seasons, and a 2012 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission found conditions there once supported microbial life, according to the U.S. space agency. It would take about eight months to get there, depending on rocket velocity, according to NASA experts.  Efforts to fund the space program have faltered in recent years over concerns about fiscal priorities. As part of the space habitat effort, NASA said on Tuesday it was entering the so-called “proving ground” stage to demonstrate and test various technologies over the next 10 years.

Summary: ओबामा ने कहा कि मनुष्यों को मंगल ग्रह तक पहुंचने में मदद करने के लिए आवासों पर काम शुरू हो गया है


BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in office in the German national election on Sept. 24, but a fractured vote that brings the far-right into parliament means she must try to work out a three-way coalition untested at federal level. The new alliance would comprise Merkel s conservative bloc - her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) - along with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and environmentalist Greens. Such a tie-up is called a  Jamaica  coalition, because the three parties  colors of black, yellow and green match those of the Jamaican flag. To secure a coalition agreement, the unlikely bedfellows must overcome differences on a range of issues including immigration policy, Europe, tax and the environment. The CDU and CSU have reached an agreement over immigration policy, but it is not clear whether it will pass muster in a full coalition. Following are remarks on the possible coalition from senior officials:  We achieved a joint result (with the Bavarian CSU allies) which I think is a very, very good basis to go into exploratory talks with the FDP and Greens.    On Friday, October 20th, we will have a first round of exploratory talks with all partners.   The parties come from very different starting positions. There will be discussions in a lot of policy areas with the FDP and the Greens.   We know that unusual combinations can of course bring the opportunity to find some solutions to things that had seemed unsolvable until now. So now we need to put our noses to the grindstone and see what we can do.    We d be well advised not to be perfectionists in the upcoming coalition negotiations but rather to be open and to build trust that a government will be formed that acts sensibly, even during unforeseeable crises.   Thoroughness is certainly more important than speed, but I m optimistic that everything will be sorted out by Christmas. All four parties are showing goodwill and the will of the voters is clear too:  Jamaica  should be formed.   We all need to just get started now.   Compromises always mean everyone needs to give a bit.   We don t have to govern. There is also the possibility of another grand coalition (between Merkel s conservatives and the Social Democrats).   It can succeed. The most important thing is that trust needs to be built between participants, and that takes time. That s why it would be illusory to believe we could conclude negotiations by Christmas.   No one would understand it if the new government does not pass an immigration law.   We need a mix of humanity and order. We Greens also want to secure the EU s external borders and build a sensible database of fingerprints.   This is an agreement between the CDU and CSU, and far from the result of exploratory talks for a coalition with the FDP and Greens.   Immigration is not the only issue where the parties have different ideas.   I am certain that, in the end, the solution that the CDU/CSU have found with each other will not be the basis for common work (with us) for the next four years.   No party can expect the others to accept its original wording without changes ... But I believe that a signal about limiting immigration on humanitarian grounds will ultimately make its way into the coalition agreement.   Europe s fiscal policy needs a shift away from austerity toward a common pact for tax collection and investments, which would trigger social and ecological innovations.   A red line for us in coalition talks is the mutualisation of debt in Europe, the creation of new pots of money.   What we Christian Democrats call  preservation of Creation  overlaps a lot with what the Greens call a sustainable approach to nature.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः जर्मन गठबंधन घड़ी-चलो गठबंधन वार्ता में पूर्णतावादी न बनें, मर्केल के सहयोगी ने कहा


RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has invited U.S. firms to take part in developing its civilian nuclear power program, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Monday, adding the kingdom was not interested in diverting nuclear technology to military use. Reuters has reported that Westinghouse is in talks with other U.S.-based companies to form a consortium for a multi-billion-dollar project to build two reactors and that those firms are pushing Washington to restart talks with Riyadh on a civil nuclear cooperation pact. Falih said Saudi Arabia was committed to restricting nuclear technology to civilian use.  Not only are we not interested in any way to diverting nuclear technology to military use, we are very active in non-proliferation by others,  he said at a joint news conference with U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry. KACARE, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, is the Saudi government agency tasked with the nuclear plans. It said last month on its website that it was in talks with Toshiba-owned Westinghouse and France s EDF.   We hope that the two paths will converge - the commercial, technical discussions between KACARE and the American companies, while we work with our counterparts on the American side to address the regulatory and policy issues,  Falih said. Perry, who is on his first official visit to Saudi Arabia and will go on to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week, said it was  a bit premature  to comment on the negotiations.  We are in the early stages of it but I think we both are working from the position of getting to yes,  he said. Washington usually requires a country to sign a peaceful nuclear cooperation pact - known as a 123 agreement - that blocks steps in fuel production with potential bomb-making uses. In previous talks, Saudi Arabia has refused to sign up to any agreement that would deprive it of the possibility of one day enriching uranium. The world s top oil exporter says it wants nuclear power to diversify its energy mix allowing it to export more crude rather than burning it to generate electricity. It has not yet acquired nuclear power or enrichment technology. Reactors need uranium enriched to around 5 percent purity but the same technology in this process can also be used to enrich the heavy metal to a higher, weapons-grade level. This has been at the heart of Western and regional concerns over the nuclear work of Iran, Saudi Arabia s arch-rival which enriches uranium domestically. Riyadh has said it wants to tap its own uranium resources for  self-sufficiency in producing nuclear fuel . The kingdom sent a request for information to nuclear reactor suppliers in October, and plans to award the first construction contract in 2018. Its nuclear plans have gained momentum as part of a reform plan led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to reduce the economy s dependence on oil. Riyadh wants eventually to install up to 17.6 gigawatts of atomic capacity by 2032 - or up to 17 reactors. This is a promising prospect for the struggling global nuclear industry and the United States is expected to face competition from South Korea, Russia, France and China for the initial tender.

Summary: सऊदी परमाणु संयंत्रों के लिए बोली लगाने के लिए अमेरिकी कंपनियों को आमंत्रित किया गया