WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Classified documents that the heads of four U.S. intelligence agencies presented last week to President-elect Donald Trump included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him, two U.S. officials said Tuesday evening. They told Reuters the claims, which one called “unsubstantiated,” were contained in a two-page memo appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that U.S. intelligence officials presented to Trump and President Barack Obama last week. Trump responded on Tuesday evening in a tweet calling the reports: “FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One of the officials, both of whom requested anonymity to discuss classified matters, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other U.S. agencies are continuing to investigate the credibility and accuracy of the claims. They are included in opposition research reports made available last year to Democrats and U.S. officials by a former British intelligence official, most of whose past work U.S. officials consider credible. The official said investigators so far have been unable to confirm the material about Trump financial and personal entanglements with Russian businessmen and others whom U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or working on behalf of Russian intelligence. Some material in the reports produced by the former British intelligence officer has proved to be erroneous, the official said. The FBI declined comment. The charges that Russia attempted to compromise New York real estate businessman Trump were presented to the FBI and other U.S. government officials last summer and have been circulating for months. The FBI initially took the material seriously, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, which was first reported by CNN.  However, the FBI failed to act on the material, and the former British intelligence officer broke off contact about three weeks before the November election, they said.  The warning of information about Russia’s compromising claims follows growing U.S. intelligence and law enforcement concerns about what Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has called “multifaceted” Russian influence and espionage operations in Europe and the United States.  In addition to hacking computer networks and spreading propaganda and fake news, it includes efforts to cultivate business and political leaders and find compromising personal, financial and other information on persons of interest, U.S. intelligence officials said. The classified briefings last week were presented to Obama and Trump by Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. U.S. intelligence chiefs included a classified summary of the material to make Trump aware that it is circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress, government officials and others, one of the officials said. An unclassified intelligence report released on Friday concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to help Trump’s electoral chances by discrediting Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign. The report said U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that as part of the effort Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, used intermediaries such as WikiLeaks and others to release emails it hacked from the Democratic National Committee and top Democrats.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने असत्यापित रिपोर्ट दी कि रूस के पास उनके बारे में हानिकारक विवरण थे


NAIROBI (Reuters) - A gunman shot and wounded a bodyguard to Kenya s deputy chief justice on Tuesday, police said, adding to an increasingly tense atmosphere two days before the East African nation is due to hold a repeat presidential election.  Rashid Mohamed, the officer in charge of Dagoretti police station, told Reuters it was unclear why the bodyguard to Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu was shot or how many attackers there were. The bodyguard was shot in the shoulder and his gun was taken as he was buying pots of flowers by the side of the road, Mohamed said.  Last month, the chief justice said judges have received repeated threats since the Supreme Court nullified President Uhuru Kenyatta s win in the Aug. 8 polls and ordered a fresh election.

Summary: बंदूकधारी ने केन्या के उप मुख्य न्यायाधीश के अंगरक्षक को घायल कर दिया


HARARE (Reuters) - Robert Mugabe s 37-year rule may be over, but a culture of political fawning by the Zimbabwean state media and fear of those in authority still flourishes.  The Herald newspaper and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation - state and ruling ZANU-PF party mouthpieces - routinely heaped lavish praise on the 93-year-old Mugabe and his wife Grace in sycophantic articles and commentaries. With the sudden change of guard, Zimbabwe s official media is having a hard time shaking off old habits and is now tailoring its eulogies to fit Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe s successor. State radio intersperses programs with martial music from the war of independence in honor of Mnangagwa s war veteran allies and the army.   One morning talk show host spoke glowingly on Tuesday of seeing the presidential motorcade at 0645 GMT. This, he said, signaled the new leader was keeping his word to hit the ground running.  The president is showing the way so get to work on time,  he said. Mnangagwa, 75, a close Mugabe ally for several decades, took power after the military takeover on Nov. 15 following a succession battle that split the ruling ZANU-PF party.  Comrade Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, (is) a true son of the soil who sacrificed his entire life to serving Zibmabwe as evidenced by the role he played in the liberation struggle as well as after independence up to this day. We are blessed to have you as our leader,  an advertisement by the ministry for women affairs, gender and community development gushed in the  Herald. Not all within the ruling party are comfortable with the trend though. Justice Wadyajena, a Mnangagwa admirer and outspoken ZANU-PF parliamentarian, reminded his Twitter followers of the dangers of personality cults.  Those falling all over each other pledging loyalty to President ED are just brutes playing meek,  Wadyajena wrote, referring to Mnangagwa by the initials of his first and middle names.   If you really are principled, there s no reason to bootlick, your conduct should speak for itself. We ve seen the danger of personalizing governance and gatekeeping a NATIONAL FIGURE!!  Mnangagwa, who served Mugabe loyally for 52 years, is expected to form a new cabinet this week. Zimbabweans are watching to see if he breaks with the past and names a broad-based government or selects figures from the Mugabe era s old guard.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मुगाबे चले गए हैं, लेकिन राजनीतिक कवायद अभी भी जारी है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would be willing to help facilitate conversations between Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad to try to ease tensions between the two sides after a Kurdish referendum vote, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.  The United States, if asked, would be willing to help facilitate a conversation between the two,  State Department spokesman Heather Nauert told a briefing, underscoring that Washington would not engage unless asked. Nauert also said the United States was not in a position to confirm the authenticity of a newly released recording purported to be of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Summary: कुर्द, बगदाद के बीच बातचीत को सुविधाजनक बनाने के लिए अमेरिका इच्छुकः विदेश विभाग


ASHLAND, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told reporters on Sunday that she will attend the three debates set up ahead of the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election. “I will be there,” Clinton said, responding to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s complaints that the debates schedule conflicts with televised National Football League games. (This version of the story corrects the dateline to ASHLAND, Ohio, instead of CLEVELAND HEIGHTS)

Summary: राष्ट्रपति पद की बहस के लिए 'मैं वहाँ रहूंगी': क्लिंटन


COLOMBO (Reuters) - A British woman won 800,000 rupees ($5,200) in compensation from a Sri Lankan court on Wednesday after being wrongly deported for having a Buddha tattoo on her arm.  Buddhism is accorded the  foremost place  in Sri Lanka s constitution and about 70 percent of the island s 21 million people are Buddhist. But there is no law banning Buddha tattoos. The Supreme Court also ordered police involved in the 2014 arrest and detention of Naomi Coleman to pay her 50,000 rupees ($325) each, the government s information department said on in its website (www.news.lk). Coleman was deported  contrary to the law governing immigration and emigration , the government said. Coleman was not present in court.  A lower court had decided to deport Coleman partly because she could have been  vulnerable  if allowed to stay as some Sri Lankans could have been offended by the tattoo, officials said. In 2013, Sri Lanka, a former British colony, denied entry to a British man because of his Buddha tattoo.

Summary: ब्रिटिश महिला ने बुद्ध के टैटू पर श्रीलंका के निर्वासन के लिए 5,200 डॉलर जीते


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nancy Pelosi may face a challenge to her 14-year-old role as the leading Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives now that Republicans have captured the White House and maintained their grip on Congress. Representative Tim Ryan, 43, of Ohio, is weighing a run against Pelosi, 76, who is the House minority leader and former speaker of the House, said Ryan’s spokesman Michael Zetts. The party vote for minority leader is scheduled for Thursday. “He is concerned that if changes aren’t made we will be in the political wilderness for many years to come,” Zetts said. It was unclear how much support Ryan might have. He has been in the House since 2003. Voters who elected Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8 also gave Democrats a few more seats in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives and the 100-member Senate, but Republicans held on to their majorities in both. Democrats had expected to do much better; some had predicted double-digit wins in the House. Pelosi, of California, faced calls from Representative Seth Moulton and other Democrats, dismayed by the election results, to postpone the party’s leadership election until later in November while a reassessment is made. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, may have given some ammunition to Pelosi’s detractors on Monday when he said, “I kind of like Pelosi staying around. As long as she’s there, I think we stay in the majority.” The new Congress convenes on Jan. 3; Trump will succeed President Barack Obama, a Democrat, on Jan. 20. In the U.S. Senate, New York’s Chuck Schumer is expected to replace the retiring fellow Democrat Harry Reid as minority leader. In the Republican party, no one is challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Republicans are expected on Tuesday to nominate Paul Ryan to remain House speaker.  Ryan would face an election in January, when all members of the new House, both Democrats and Republicans, vote on a new speaker.  Before Trump’s win, some Republican conservatives angered by Ryan’s tepid support for Trump were talking about trying to block his re-election. Those threats have subsided but not vanished. An aide to New York Republican Representative Chris Collins said, “Congressman Collins fully believes Speaker Ryan is a slam dunk to be re-elected as speaker, and looks forward to working with him in the next Congress.” Collins was Trump’s first supporter in the House. Some conservative Republicans still have doubts. “Presently Speaker Ryan does not have my vote, but I will listen to his message tomorrow,” Representative Tom Massie of Kentucky said in a statement.

Summary: ट्रम्प की जीत, डेमोक्रेट ने पेलोसी के नेता के रूप में भविष्य को झटका दिया


HOUSTON (Reuters) - An anti-abortion activist indicted for using a fake driver’s license ID to aid secret filming inside Planned Parenthood facilities turned himself into authorities in Houston on Thursday and was offered a probation deal, prosecutors said. David Daleiden, indicted in January by a Houston-area grand jury, appeared at Harris County District Court on a charge of tampering with a governmental record, which can bring up to 20 years in prison. He also faces a misdemeanor charge for trying to procure fetal tissue. Daleiden leads the California-based Center for Medical Progress that released the secretly filmed videos used to accuse the women’s health group of trading in aborted fetal tissue.  He was offered a probation deal in which, if he keeps a clean record for a certain period of time, charges would be dropped, prosecutors said.   Daleiden’s lawyers said he planned to reject the deal and is seeking an apology from prosecutors. Daleiden told a news conference outside court that he wants Texas to prosecute Planned Parenthood, saying it “is open for business in baby body parts.”  Planned Parenthood has denied Daleiden’s allegations and sued in federal court, arguing the people who recorded the videos acted illegally. In a twist for the Texas Republican leaders who had ordered an investigation, the grand jury in January cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing and indicted video makers Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. “We’re glad they’re being held accountable, and we hope other law enforcement agencies pursue criminal charges, as well,” said Eric Ferrero, vice president at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Merritt, a lesser figure in the filming, appeared at a Houston court on Wednesday and was also offered a probation deal. Lawyers for the activist do not dispute that the pair used false IDs but said they did so for investigative journalism. Countering that contention, Eric Ferrero, vice president at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, “We don’t know of any journalists who have engaged in wire fraud and mail fraud, lied to multiple government agencies, tampered with government documents, and broken laws in at least four states only to lie about what they found. It’s hard to imagine anyone calling that ‘journalism’.”  The videos released last summer purported to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to negotiate prices for aborted fetal tissue. Under federal law, donated human fetal tissue may be used for research, but profiting from its sale is prohibited. In response to the videos, Texas and other Republican-controlled states tried to halt funding for Planned Parenthood. U.S. congressional Republicans pushed for a funding cut. Planned Parenthood has said Daleiden and Merritt presented fake IDs in April 2015 and posed as research executives from a fictitious company to secretly film conversations at a health and administrative center in Houston.

Summary: टेक्सास के अभियोजक ने वीडियो के पीछे गर्भपात विरोधी कार्यकर्ता को परिवीक्षा की पेशकश की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Senate committee that handles Supreme Court nominees said on Friday he no longer expected an imminent court vacancy, bolstering assumptions that Justice Anthony Kennedy would not retire this year. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said expectations earlier this year of a vacancy on the nine-member bench had evaporated. “Evidently that’s not going to happen,” Grassley said in a telephone interview from his home state of Iowa during the Senate’s summer break. “I don’t have any expectation we will have a vacancy as I thought there would be” earlier this year. There had been speculation in the spring that Kennedy, a conservative justice who turned 81 last month and has served on the court since 1988, was considering retirement. Kennedy is the regular swing vote on the high court, sometimes siding with the four liberal justices in major rulings. A court vacancy would give Republican President Donald Trump a chance to appoint a second conservative justice to the high court since taking office in January. But court watchers expect Trump to nominate a jurist who is more likely to consistently decide cases with the conservative wing of the court, unlike Kennedy. In the interview on Friday, Grassley noted that every year there is speculation that a justice might retire during the summer at the end of the court’s session. He declined to give details on the “rumors” he had heard earlier this year about an impending vacancy. Grassley added that such talk is often stoked when there are justices in their 70s and 80s serving on the court. Besides Kennedy, 81, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 84 and Stephen Breyer will turn 79 next week. Rumors that Kennedy was set to retire reached a fever pitch several months ago after some of his former judicial clerks said he was considering it.  But Kennedy did not announce his retirement at a weekend reunion in June with many of the former clerks. He also did not make an announcement after the court’s rulings marking the end of its term on June 26.  His silence on the matter tamped down the rumors and led to a broad assumption that he would remain on the court, at least for the coming term, which begins in October. Kennedy, like all the other justices, was also assigned responsibility on June 27 to handle applications from a specific regional appeals court, further reducing speculation over his retirement. Earlier this year, Trump won Senate confirmation of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch arrived on the high court more than a year after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, who had been a leading conservative voice. The Republican-led Senate in 2016 refused to consider then-President Barack Obama’s nomination of federal judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy created by Scalia’s death. Garland would have tipped the court in a more liberal direction.

Summary: सीनेटर ग्रासली को सुप्रीम कोर्ट में आसन्न रिक्ति की उम्मीद नहीं है


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union and six former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, agreed a joint summit declaration on Friday that aims to help bring the countries closer to the West, overcoming Kiev s objections, two EU officials said.  It s been agreed,  one official said as leaders from EU member states and from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan met for talks in Brussels.

Summary: यूक्रेन यूरोपीय संघ शिखर सम्मेलन घोषणा पर हस्ताक्षर करने के लिए सहमतः अधिकारी


(Reuters) - Legislation to allow Michigan gun owners to carry a concealed handgun without a permit was approved in the state House of Representatives on Wednesday, in a move that follows the lead of a dozen other states. The package of four bills, which cleared the Republican-controlled House with support from a handful of Democrats, now moves to the Senate, also dominated by Republicans.  It was not immediately clear whether Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder supports the bill. But the measure, if also approved in a Senate vote, could automatically become law 14 days after reaching the governor’s desk unless he vetoes it. The legislation would lift a requirement that handgun owners obtain a concealed pistol license with a $100 fee to legally carry the weapon in public.  Handgun owners also would be allowed carry a concealed pistol in public without the firearms training that is currently mandated.  Advocates framed the issue as upholding a U.S. constitutional right to bear arms. “We all know criminals are not paying fees, taking classes and waiting for approval to come in the mail before they begin carrying guns,” Michigan state Representative Michele Hoitenga, sponsor of the bill, said in a statement.  The legislation “levels the playing field for honest people,” she said. Opponents of the bill criticized it as dangerous. Twelve other U.S. states already allow gun owners to carry their weapons without a concealed-carry permit, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Most are conservative-leaning with Republican-majority legislatures but Vermont, where Democrats control the statehouse, is among the 12. “The states that have eliminated the permit requirement are basically making it easier to carry a gun in public than drive a car,” said Hannah Shearer, a staff attorney with the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress this year would, if approved and signed by President Donald Trump, require all states to allow firearm owners to carry their guns under the regulations of their home state, even if visiting elsewhere. For instance, a person allowed to carry a concealed firearm without a permit in North Dakota could do so when visiting California or New York state, where permits are required, Shearer said.

Summary: मिशिगन स्टेट हाउस ने बिना परमिट के छिपी हुई बंदूकें रखने की मंजूरी दी


(Reuters) - Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday she was on the path to victory in the 2016 presidential election until late interference by Russian hackers and FBI Director James Comey scared off some potential supporters. In her most extensive public comments on the Nov. 8 election, Clinton told a New York conference she was derailed by Comey’s Oct. 28 letter informing Congress the Federal Bureau of Investigation had reopened a probe of her use of a private email server and by the WikiLeaks release of campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, allegedly stolen by Russian hackers. “If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president,” she told a women’s conference moderated by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “It wasn’t a perfect campaign, but I was on the way to winning until a combination of Comey’s letter and Russian WikiLeaks,” the Democrat said of the loss to Republican Donald Trump. “The reason why I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days.” Clinton, who said she is going through the “painful process” of writing a book dealing in part with the election, also said misogyny played a role in her defeat. Becoming the first woman U.S. president would have been “a really big deal,” she said. Clinton took personal responsibility for the campaign’s mistakes, but did not question her strategy or her staff. “I was the candidate, I was the person who was on the ballot. I am very aware of the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had,” Clinton said. She said she had no doubt that Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to influence the election for Trump, and bluntly criticized the new U.S. president for some of his foreign policy views and for tweeting too much. “I’m back to being an activist citizen - and part of the resistance,” she said. Clinton said broader negotiations involving China and other countries in the region were critical for convincing North Korea to rein in its nuclear program. She questioned Trump’s recent suggestion he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un under the right circumstances. “You should not offer that in the absence of a broader strategic framework to try to get China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, to put the kind of pressure on the regime that will finally bring them to the negotiating table,” Clinton said. She also said she supported the recent missile strikes ordered by Trump in Syria but was unsure if they would make a difference. “There is a lot that we don’t really yet fully know about what was part of that strike,” she said.

Summary: क्लिंटन का कहना है कि कोमी का पत्र, रूसी हैकरों ने उन्हें चुनाव में नुकसान पहुंचाया


SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will provide additional financial support for companies that formerly operated at the now shut-down Kaesong industrial complex inside North Korea, Seoul s Ministry of Unification said on Friday. The ministry said financial support would total 66 billion won ($59.06 million) for 174 companies that had been affected by the closing of the complex in February last year after South Korea pulled out of the joint venture in response to the North s nuclear and missile tests.  The government created this support plan to boost government responsibility for Kaesong industrial complex companies and firms involved in inter-Korean business that faced unexpected difficulties after sudden government policy changes,  said Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung in a media briefing. The latest tranche of government aid for Kaesong companies comes on top of the 517.3 billion won that has been awarded since the closure of the zone in February last year. Businesses have lodged complaints the government had not done enough to help them after the shutdown. Their frustration grew after North Korea s state-run websites said in October local workers were operating in the district, saying it was exercising its national sovereignty in the area. Seoul at the time said North Korea shouldn t violate property rights of South Korean businesses operating in the zone. On Friday, North Korean website Uriminzokkiri repeated Pyongyang s stance, saying that South Korea had no grounds to protest as the Kaesong territory has long been declared  a military controlled zone . South Korean companies have sought permission from authorities in Seoul to visit the complex, which has not yet been granted. Businesses remain split on whether they will accept the government s latest decision to provide financial aid, Chun said, with some accepting and others seeking more support.  We hope this will be a cause (for businesses) to start anew, that all conflicts (with the South Korean government) over this support issue will be relieved through this round of aid,  said Chun, also stating Friday s decision did not mean inter-Korean business efforts were restarting.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया का कहना है कि केसोंग कंपनियों को वित्तीय सहायता प्रदान करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A decision by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) to shift its U.S. banks from state regulators to a federal bank regulator is garnering scrutiny from a pair of U.S. Democratic senators. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen sent a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Monday, pressing for details on the regulator’s decision to allow the bank to come under its purview, after it had sparred with New York’s banking regulator. Earlier this month, MUFG’s Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd branches in New York, Illinois, Texas and California were granted federal charters, allowing the bank to be regulated by the Trump administration rather than state governments. The pair said they were “disturbed” by the decision, and questioned whether the shift to a federal banking license allowed the bank to escape any investigations by the New York Department of Financial Supervision, where the company had bank branches. They also questioned the role of Acting Comptroller Keith Noreika, who previously counted MUFG as a client, in the decision. Noreika recused himself from the bank’s application for a federal charter, but the two senators are demanding additional details on that decision, and who was responsible for approving the bank’s charter instead. An OCC spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटरों ने जापानी बैंक द्वारा 'संदिग्ध' निरीक्षण बदलाव पर विवरण मांगा


YAUCO, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Hurricane Maria battered this quiet Puerto Rican outpost and covered it with mud, but it couldn t separate Sandra Harasimowicz from her beloved pets. She and her husband Gary Rosario said they clung to the side of a house for hours last week to save their seven dogs from a hurricane that reduced their picturesque neighborhood in Puerto Rico to a desolate mud pit. Harasimowicz, 43, a native of Poland said the couple were trapped neck-deep in water after Hurricane Maria tore into their home in the southwestern town of Yauco last Wednesday, sending them and their dogs scrambling onto a neighbor s roof to escape. The storm, which has killed at least 10 people across the U.S. territory, turned the couple s street into bed of debris-strewn silt after a nearby river burst its banks. The surging flow entered their house  like it was the end of the world,  Harasimowicz told Reuters on Monday. Trying to keep the animals close in the hurricane while holding tight to solar panels on the neighbor s roof, Harasimowicz said she watched aghast as one of the dogs jumped four times into the raging torrent that had swamped the street. Each time Rosario, who is Puerto Rican and a national guardsman, leapt in after the errant dog to haul it back to safety.  I thought I was going to lose him; he just did it because he s such an animal lover,  said Harasimowicz, whose family lives in the city of Poznan in western Poland.  I said:  That s it, I m losing the animals and I m losing my husband.  The mother of two explained how the couple had earlier stashed their eight cats on top of the kitchen cupboards to ride out the storm when the floodwaters started rising to their chins. The couple had already sent their children, aged 6 and 12, to stay with a friend nearby before Maria struck. But after failing to find a refuge for the cats and dogs, Harasimowicz said they felt they should remain there with the animals, in part because they did not believe the storm would be so severe.  Basically, we underestimated,  Harasimowicz said. Maria knocked out power and telecommunications across the island of 3.4 million, unleashing chaos and disorder that residents believe will take months from which to recover. Residents of the Yauco estate known as Urbanizacion Luchetti returned to find furniture, refrigerators and washing machines had moved around their homes in the mud bath. Floors were caked in a musty-smelling brown sludge. Furnishings were ruined.  Everyone says they want to leave here,  said neighbor Jose Velazquez, 57, reviewing the mess Maria had made of his home. At the end of the street, the rotting body of a pit bull lay on its side by a house railing, maggots teeming at its neck. Harasimowicz and Rosario returned home Wednesday night when the flooding began to recede, spending the night on top of a bunk bed with their pets. But they were horrified as the waters began rising again. Believing they had no choice in order to survive, the couple broke into a neighbor s house with a hammer so they could occupy its rooftop annex with their pets. By then, they had acquired another dog that had wandered up seeking shelter from the storm.  It was either break in or die,  said Rosario, a jovial 49-year-old who on Monday was taking stock of his ruined home and the family s gaggle of pets, all of which survived. The couple have bathed and washed their clothes in rainwater collecting on the roof, and are now planning their next move. After 12 years in Puerto Rico - seven of them in Yauco - Harasimowicz said she has had enough.  Never again,  she said.  This is over for me.

Summary: दंपति ने पालतू जानवरों को बचाने के लिए छत पर तूफान मारिया की अवहेलना की-उनमें से बहुत से


BAGHDAD/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran on Sunday shut its border crossings with Iraq s Kurdistan in support of measures taken by the Iraqi government to isolate the Kurdish region, the Iraqi foreign ministry said.  At the request of the Iraqi government, the Islamic Republic of Iran closed today the border crossings with the Kurdistan region of Iraq,  the Iraqi foreign ministry said in a statement in Baghdad. Earlier in the day, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi had indirectly dismissed claims these crossings were shut.  As far as I know, nothing new has happened in this area,   the Iranian Students  News Agency (ISNA) quoted him as saying. An Iranian MP Mohammad-Javad Nobandegani said Tehran did not want to publicize the closing of the border.   There is no need for explicit publicity,  the MP was quoted as saying by Iran s ILNA news agency. The closure would negatively impact residents who depend on border trade, he said, adding that  national interests sometimes require us to act this way.  Iran last month halted flights to and from Kurdish regions in northern Iraq over the independence referendum by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Tehran also carried out war games at the Kurdish border in September. Tehran fears the spread of separatism to its own Kurdish population, which is around 8 million. Iran backs Shi ite groups which have been ruling or holding key security and government positions in Iraq since the 2003 U.S-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein.

Summary: इराक का कहना है कि ईरान ने कुर्दिस्तान के साथ लगी सीमा को बंद कर दिया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate’s top Republican broke with President-elect Donald Trump on Monday over whether Russian hacking during the U.S. election merited closer scrutiny, a fissure between Trump and his party that appeared to grow as lawmakers pressed for a special investigation into the matter. The divide raised the possibility of enduring clashes between Trump and Republicans during his presidency over how to handle Russian President Vladimir Putin, a leader long viewed by many in the party as a calculating, untrustworthy foe but whom Trump has repeatedly praised for his leadership. “The Russians are not our friends,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a news conference. Calls on Sunday by two leading Republican foreign policy voices, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, to investigate Russia’s hacking were buoyed on Monday by McConnell, who said Russia’s involvement needed further investigation. “Any foreign breach of our cyber security measures is disturbing, and I strongly condemn any such efforts,” McConnell said. “This simply cannot be a partisan issue.” McConnell said it “defies belief” that Republicans would be reluctant to investigate Russian actions. McConnell’s remarks contrasted with those of Trump and his staff, who scoffed at reports that the CIA had concluded the hacks and leaks of Democratic emails were carried out with the goal of helping Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump said the conclusion was “ridiculous.” Some lawmakers have called for a special committee to investigate the hacking, but McConnell did not back that idea, saying he has confidence in the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees. Cory Gardner, a Republican, said the Russian hacking reflected the need for a permanent committee dedicated to cyber security. It was not clear how the House of Representatives would respond to the hacking and calls for investigations. House committees have not announced plans for hearings, and Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement criticizing Russia but blasting what he termed “exploiting the work of our intelligence committee for partisan purposes.” Though congressional Republicans support a probe of Russia’s involvement in the election, they have shied away from agreeing with the CIA’s assessment that the hacks were deliberately carried out to undermine Clinton. “It’s obvious that the Russians hacked into our campaigns,” McCain said Monday in an interview with Reuters. “But there is no information that they were intending to affect the outcome of the election, and that’s why we need a congressional investigation.” Separately on Monday, one Republican and nine Democratic electors led by the daughter of the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, wrote to James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, requesting a briefing on the hacking reports before the Electoral College formally decides the election on Dec. 19. John Podesta, chairman of Clinton’s presidential campaign, said in a statement that the campaign supported the electors’ letter, which raises “very grave issues involving our national security.” Clapper’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the letter.   Charles Schumer, who will be the Senate Democratic leader next year, said he welcomed McConnell’s support for “a deep and thorough bipartisan investigation” with access to all relevant intelligence. Trump and his staff have repeatedly dismissed the reports as “ridiculous,” blaming them on Democrats unhappy that Trump won. “Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card,” Trump said on Twitter on Monday. “It would be called conspiracy theory!” A second tweet said, “Unless you catch ‘hackers’ in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before election?” White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Monday pointed to a public statement from the intelligence community in early October that concluded the hacking had been authorized by “Russia’s senior-most officials” and was aimed at sowing discord in the U.S. election.  That statement stopped short of alleging that Russia wanted to help Trump. But Earnest suggested on Monday that may have been the intent. “You didn’t need a security clearance to figure out who benefited from malicious Russian cyber activity,” Earnest said.  “The president-elect didn’t call it into question. He called on Russia to hack his opponent. He called on Russia to hack Secretary Clinton.”

Summary: सीनेट के रिपब्लिकन नेता ने रूसी हैकिंग की जांच का समर्थन किया


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Mauricio Macri s main bulwark against a comeback by his populist predecessor, Cristina Fernandez, in October s legislative elections is someone whose name is not even on the ballot. Buenos Aires Governor Maria Eugenia Vidal has been handed the role of ensuring that Macri s  Let s Change  coalition wins more votes than the list of candidates headed by Fernandez, who is running for a Senate seat in Argentina s most-populous province. Argentina s electoral list system guarantees Fernandez will get one of three Senate seats up for grabs in the Oct. 22 vote. What is really at play in the election is whether she gets enough support to pose a serious challenge in the 2019 presidential election, when Macri is expected to run for a second term.  This election is about electoral power and Cristina s ability to make a comeback. It is not about legislative power,  said Julio Burdman, head of local polling firm Observatorio Electoral, referring to the midterm vote.  Vidal is like Captain America. She was created as a super-soldier for Macri to win his war against Cristina,  he added.  An opinion poll released on Tuesday by the firm showed Vidal, 44, was more popular than Macri and holds the key to keeping Fernandez at bay in Buenos Aires. Home to about 40 percent of Argentine voters, the province is the gateway to the presidency.  Billions of dollars in potential investment and the future of Latin America s No. 3 economy hang in the balance. Investors eyeing Argentina s vast oil and mineral wealth want Macri s coalition to block any chance of his political nemesis, Fernandez, returning to the presidency in 2019.  They hope that will turn the page on the free-spending populist governments that have ruled Argentina on-and-off for seven decades since the days of Juan and Evita Peron.  Macri, a scion of a wealthy business family, has a positive image with 44.2 percent of those polled in Buenos Aires province, with Fernandez trailing at 35.1 percent, according to the Observatorio Electoral survey. Vidal, however, comfortably bests them both with 49.8 percent. Even though Fernandez is loved by millions of poor Argentines for her generous social spending, her critics say her growth-at-all-costs policies stoked inflation and distorted the economy through heavy currency controls during her 2007-2015 administrations.  Investors in Argentina s $550 billion economy are therefore focused on how many votes Fernandez and her list of congressional candidates get versus Macri s coalition. Vidal, a former welfare administrator known for her common touch with working families, has become a political juggernaut just when Macri needs her to deflect fallout out from his unpopular subsidy cuts and other fiscal tightening measures. Some 38.2 percent of respondents in the Observatorio Electoral poll said they planned to vote for the list headed by Macri ally Esteban Bullrich, a little-known former education minister. After making a series of gaffes early in the campaign, he has been accompanied by Vidal at most rallies. Fernandez s list trailed with 35.8 percent in the opinion poll. The difference was within the survey s 3.2-point margin of error. So with 7.1 percent of voters still undecided as of Friday, it is still anybody s race. Vidal is walking the province, ringing doorbells and taking to the airwaves in the campaign against Fernandez. A poll over the weekend by consultancy Elypsis showed Vidal was Argentina s most popular politician. She is especially strong in the poor, heavily populated Buenos Aires suburbs, a traditional base of Fernandez support where Macri remains relatively unpopular. Argentina s peso currency, bonds and stock market, fearing a return of the profit-killing economic distortions of the Fernandez years, recoiled in June when she announced she would run for the Senate. It is Vidal s job to make sure Fernandez s support does not grow beyond the 34 percent she got in last month s primary vote, in which she beat Bullrich by less than a percentage point. Polls have generally shown him gaining since then.  While Fernandez refuses to discuss Vidal, the governor has become the Macri camp s most vocal critic of Fernandez, chiding her for not paying attention to the struggling residents of the province she is running to represent in the Senate. Vidal s critics say she is a creation of the media, which regularly cover her neighborhood visits and town-hall meetings. The most direct exchange between Vidal and Fernandez came  after the former president alleged that free cafeterias for poor children had been closed as a reprisal measure when school teachers in the province went on strike over better pay.   I d like to tell Cristina Fernandez that we know, that we are used to her lying while campaigning,  Vidal said.  But I d ask her to leave children out of it. They are going to keep eating, strikes or no strikes.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना के मैक्री ने फर्नांडीस के खिलाफ लोकप्रिय गवर्नर को तैनात किया


HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong s Chief Executive Carrie Lam warned in her maiden policy speech on Wednesday that the city faced  grave  challenges and must develop a more diversified economy, unveiling a mix of housing and tax relief policies to raise competitiveness. Hong Kong, one of the world s costliest cities, has battled rising income inequality, the slow implementation of marquee public projects, political tensions with its mainland China and a slide in its competitiveness.  In the face of competition from other economies as well as the rise of protectionism in recent years, Hong Kong is facing increasingly grave challenges. We must develop a high value-added and diversified economy,  Lam said. Hong Kong has seen its lucrative position as the world s gateway to China eroded as the mainland rapidly builds up its own ports, airlines and financial powerhouses, and opens its markets to foreign investors. Lam said she would bolster support for small and medium enterprises in the Asian financial hub by cutting company profits tax to 8.25 percent from 16.5 percent for the first HK$2 million ($256,000) of earnings. Earnings after that would be taxed at the current 16.5 percent. On Hong Kong s soaring housing prices, Lam said that despite a raft of property cooling measures, the government had  no magic wands . Lam pledged to increase land supply where possible and launch a new subsidized  starter homes  scheme to help families not eligible for cheap-rental public housing. The first phase would provide around 1,000 residential units.  Even if our housing policy has broad community support, it takes time to find land for increasing the housing supply,  conceded Lam, Hong Kong s first female leader.  Hong Kong residents are squeezed into an average living space of just 150 square feet (14 square meters) per person, and apartments are the most expensive in the world, according to a recent UBS report ranking 20 global cities including New York, London, Tokyo and Paris. Even residents with good jobs and wages have struggled to get on the property ladder.  Chinese President Xi Jinping also voiced concern over the city s property market when he visited on July 1 for the 20th anniversary of the former British colony s handover to China. Some observers felt Lam s housing initiatives were not bold enough, with local property shares giving up initial gains and closing the day down 1.8 percent.  Property shares are down because of the lack of mention of farmland conversion to build first homes. But the chief executive cannot be too specific, so the sell-off doesn t reflect the real picture,  said Nicole Wong, a property analyst with CLSA. Lam also said Hong Kong would aim to double expenditure on research and development over the next five years, to 1.5 percent of annual GDP from 0.73 percent, in a bid to bolster its sputtering tech prospects with neighboring Chinese city Shenzhen having galloped ahead in recent years. She said the government needed to be  more proactive , and to seize opportunities from China s Belt and Road push to extend trade and transport networks to Europe. She also said the city needed to better integrate with China s Guangdong province as part of a regional economic development blueprint.   Income inequality is at its highest level in over four decades in the city of 7.3 million people, stoking discontent that has seen large-scale protests in recent years over calls for more affordable housing as well as democracy. Since taking office on July 1, Lam has sought to heal social divisions amid growing tensions with China, and to forge a softer and more socially engaged leadership style than her predecessor, the staunchly pro-Beijing Leung Chun-ying. Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997 under a  one country, two systems  formula which guarantees wide-ranging autonomy and judicial independence not seen in mainland China. But tensions have heightened in recent years amid concern over Beijing s interference in Hong Kong, sparking large scale pro-democracy protests and some calls for outright independence from China. Lam said Hong Kong has the responsibility  to say  no  to any attempt to threaten our country s (China s) sovereignty, security and development interests,  while re-iterating that it was the  constitutional responsibility  of the government to implement new national security laws, known as Article 23.   We need to have a society that is united, harmonious and caring,  she said.

Summary: हांगकांग के नेता का कहना है कि एशियाई वित्तीय केंद्र 'गंभीर' चुनौतियों का सामना कर रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats on Friday stepped closer to having enough votes to block a confirmation vote on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee with three more Democratic senators coming out against Neil Gorsuch for the lifetime job as a justice. Democrats are attempting use a procedural hurdle called a filibuster that requires 60 votes to allow a confirmation vote in the 100-seat U.S. Senate. Senate Republicans are hoping to vote on April 7 to confirm the conservative appeals court judge nominated by the Republican president in January.  Democratic Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Brian Schatz of Hawaii came out against Gorsuch on Friday and backed a filibuster. Republicans control the Senate 52-48. But if Democrats can muster 41 votes, they would be able to sustain the filibuster. As of Friday afternoon, 36 Democrats had indicated their support for such a move. Two Democrats have said they support Gorsuch. Another two have voiced opposition to Gorsuch but have not made clear whether they would support a filibuster to block a confirmation vote.  Seven Democrats and one independent, Angus King of Maine, who usually votes with them, have not yet announced their position. If Democrats amass enough support to block a confirmation vote, it would force Republican Senate leaders to try to change the chamber’s long-standing rules and allow confirmation by a simple majority, a move backed by Trump that is sometimes called the “nuclear option.” If confirmed by the Senate to fill a vacancy created by the February 2016 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, Gorsuch would reinstate the nine-seat high court’s conservative majority at a time when Republicans control Congress and the White House. McCaskill said in a statement she could not support Gorsuch because a study of his legal opinions revealed “a rigid ideology that always puts the little guy under the boot of corporations.” McCaskill is up for re-election next year in a state Trump won in the 2016 presidential election. Blumenthal, a member of the Judiciary Committee that held a four-day confirmation hearing last week and will vote on sending the nomination to the Senate floor on Monday, said in a statement Gorsuch has not been forthcoming with senators about his views on key issues, leaving his core beliefs little known.  “Instead he has evaded real answers at every turn,” Blumenthal said. “We must assume that Judge Gorsuch has passed the Trump litmus test - a pro-life, pro-gun, conservative judge.” Blumenthal said Gorsuch’s refusal to “distance himself from right-wing groups” raised questions about whether he may be “an acolyte of hard-right special interests.” Schatz said Gorsuch’s record as a judge was troubling and he had not shown he would challenge executive overreach.  “His refusal to answer questions on long-decided cases or condemn attacks on the judiciary during the hearing demonstrates that he is outside of the legal mainstream,” Schatz said.     Their statements came one day after Gorsuch won his first Democratic support, giving Republicans who control the chamber two of the eight Democratic votes they need to break a filibuster. Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Democrats who face re-election in states that voted for Trump last year, said they would vote for Gorsuch. Trump made the appointment of conservative jurists to the Supreme Court a key promise during the 2016 presidential election. Republicans have defended Gorsuch as well qualified to be a Supreme Court justice and praised his performance during the confirmation hearings.  If the filibuster is beaten, the confirmation vote itself would require a simple majority. Some Democrats have accused Republicans of “stealing” a Supreme Court seat last year when the Senate refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Scalia, appellate judge Merrick Garland.

Summary: अधिक डेमोक्रेटिक सीनेटरों ने ट्रम्प के अमेरिकी सर्वोच्च न्यायालय के चयन का विरोध किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday debated resurrecting the stalled Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel dump in Nevada, a project critics say is hindered by the lack of an easy transport route. Representative John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, has proposed draft legislation to restart the licensing of Yucca Mountain. The government has already spent billions of dollars for initial construction of the project, which has been pending since Ronald Reagan was president. Former President Barack Obama opposed Yucca and stopped its licensing process in 2010. But President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget provides $120 million to restart licensing and for development of interim nuclear waste sites until Yucca can be completed. More details about the Trump administration’s support of Yucca could come when a broader budget is released in May. Currently, spent nuclear fuel, which can be deadly if left unshielded, is stored at reactors across the country, first in cooling ponds and then in thick casks.  The Yucca site itself, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Las Vegas, faces a cumbersome and costly licensing process that could take years to complete and questions from critics about how long spent fuel can remain without radiation leaking into an aquifer. Yucca supporters say there is little groundwater at the desert site and what is there is contained by barriers and does not flow to any river or drinking water supply. An even trickier problem will be getting the spent fuel to Yucca Mountain safely by train and truck from nuclear reactors sites all across the country. “Transportation is the Achilles heel of the Yucca Mountain repository site,” said Bob Halstead, the head of Nevada’s agency for nuclear projects.  One train route studied by the Department of Energy, known as Caliente, has been at least partially blocked by Obama’s 2015 designation of a national monument called Basin and Range. Another route, known as Mina, is opposed by the Walker River tribe, which withdrew permission in 2007 for the government to ship waste through its reservation. Many casino owners and gaming associations also oppose the transport of spent nuclear fuel near the city of Las Vegas, saying publicity about the shipments could harm property values and tourism. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pointed out that nuclear waste has been transported safely in the country for more than 40 years, which Yucca backers are quick to cite. Shimkus, whose state of Illinois has more reactors than any other, says Yucca is ideal because of its remoteness. There are no nuclear power reactors in Nevada, and the state’s entire Congressional delegation, which includes members of both parties, opposes Yucca.  Representative Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, said a major accident would harm human health, cost hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs, and damage the Las Vegas economy.   “Do you honestly believe that shipping over 5,000 truck casks of high-level nuclear waste over a span of 50 years won’t result in at least one radiological accident?” Rosen said at the hearing.  The bill contains a measure directing the energy secretary to consider routes avoiding Las Vegas. But the provision is unenforceable under existing laws, Halstead said. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a Republican, met with Energy Secretary Rick Perry in Washington on Wednesday. Sandoval said he reiterated his opposition to Yucca and urged Perry to explore a “realistic, safe alternative,” to the U.S. nuclear waste problem.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसदों ने परिवहन संकट का सामना करते हुए युक्का परमाणु डंप को आगे बढ़ाया


LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The union-backed “Fight for $15” movement protested at Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s restaurants on Thursday in a bid to stop the chains’ head, a vocal opponent of minimum wage increases and “overregulation,” from becoming U.S. labor secretary. Senate leadership has pushed back the confirmation hearing of Andrew Puzder to February from a tentative date of Jan. 17.  Puzder, 66, leads CKE Restaurants Inc. For years, he has said Obama administration policies have saddled industry with higher costs and contributed to a “government-mandated restaurant recession.”        An enthusiastic supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, Puzder has spoken against efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15 and is widely expected to roll back policies such as those aimed at curbing unpaid overtime and improving worker safety. The four-year-old “Fight for $15” movement has helped win big minimum wage hikes in California and New York. It also seeks to unionize restaurant workers. The restaurant industry is the biggest U.S. employer of minimum wage workers, and CKE’s restaurants, like many others, have been cited or sued for violating wage and safety rules. “If Puzder is confirmed as labor secretary, it will mean the Trump years will be about low pay ... instead of making lives better for working Americans like me,” said Terrance Dixon, 32, who makes $9 per hour at a St. Louis Hardee’s.       Puzder was unavailable for comment. He recently resigned from the International Franchise Association’s board. That industry group represents companies like CKE and McDonald’s Corp and has urged its 15,000 members to lobby on Puzder’s behalf.     “These protests distract from the real issues at hand for our nation’s leaders – how to create economic growth at all levels, which is the only real solution to income inequality in America,” said Matt Haller, IFA’s senior vice president of public affairs.       Senate Democrats including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts held a hearing on Tuesday after Republican rivals rebuffed their request to bring witnesses to Puzder’s upcoming confirmation hearing.  The protestor-packed event included testimony from Laura McDonald, 51, who was a general manager at a CKE-owned Carl’s Jr restaurant in California from 1988 until 2012.  She has joined two potential California class-action wage and hour lawsuits against CKE, which during her tenure switched general managers from salaried to hourly workers. In 2004, CKE paid $9 million to settle California lawsuits claiming unpaid overtime for general managers. “When CKE made general managers into hourly employees, it set our wages so low that we had to work 47-1/2 hours a week just to earn the same money we’ve been being paid as a salary,” McDonald said.  A transition official accused Democrats of running a smear campaign and lauded Puzder as a successful businessman. Puzder opponents face stiff odds when it comes to derailing his confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate. The last six incoming presidents made 109 Cabinet-level appointments and just six picks did not go on to win Senate approval, according to an analysis by the website FiveThirtyEight.

Summary: फास्ट फूड कर्मचारियों ने ट्रम्प के श्रम सचिव पद के उम्मीदवार का विरोध किया


ADEN (Reuters) - At least six people were killed on Tuesday when a suicide car bomb ripped through a base used by a local security force in Yemen s southern port city of Aden, residents said, in an attack claimed by Islamic State. Dozens of other people, including civilians, were wounded in the attack, which occurred outside a camp used by a local security force organized by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen s Houthi rebels. Islamist militants have exploited a civil war that began in 92015 to try to expand their influence and gain a foothold in the impoverished country located in the southern Arabian Peninsula, near the world s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia. Witnesses described a huge explosion that shook the al-Mansoura district in northern Aden, destroying at least one building and shattering windows in others. A plume of smoke rose over the area. Ambulances raced to the scene to evacuate the wounded. Pictures circulating on social media showed several young men in military uniform being carried away. Residents said two suicide bombers carried out the attack. But Islamic state, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said only one bomber was involved and identified him as Abu Hajar al-Adani. The group said Adani targeted the operations room of the  apostate Security Belt , destroying it and killing and wounding all those inside it. Pictures posted on social media showed young men in military uniforms being carried away in bandages. The Security Belt was set up by the United Arab Emirates, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis since they advanced on Aden in 2015, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia. The civil war between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the internationally recognized Hadi government has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than two million. The war  drags on with no sign that it will end soon. Tuesday s attack was the second of its kind in Aden this month. On Nov. 5, a car bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint, killing 15 people and wounding at least 20. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that assault but provided no evidence it was involved [nL5N1NB0EF].

Summary: यमन में आत्मघाती हमले में कम से कम छह लोगों की मौत


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s military is preparing a sweeping leadership reshuffle, dropping top generals, including two that sources say are under investigation for corruption. The changes would make room for President Xi Jinping to install trusted allies in key positions at a key party congress that begins on Oct 18. A list of 303 military delegates to the Communist Party Congress, published by the army s official newspaper on Wednesday, excluded Fang Fenghui and Zhang Yang, both members of the Central Military Commission. The commission is China s top military decision-making body. Reuters reported this week that the 66-year-old Fang, who accompanied Xi to his first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in April, is being questioned on suspicion of corruption. Three sources familiar with the matter said Zhang, the director of the military s Political Work Department, is also the subject of a probe. China s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The personnel changes herald a clean sweep of the top-ranking generals heading up the department. All three of Zhang s deputies - Jia Tingan, Du Hengyan and Wu Changde - were also missing from the list of congress delegates.  This is a very clear message: they re out,  said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese elite politics at the Brookings Institution.  Their political careers have come to an end.  On Friday, news reports carried by the People s Liberation Army Daily and the official news agency Xinhua abruptly referred to the navy s political commissar, Miao Hua, as the Political Work Department director, despite no official announcement of Zhang being replaced in his role. The department is in charge of imbuing political thought and makes military personnel decisions in a similar vein to the Communist Party s Organisation Department. The Political Work Department used to be headed by Xu Caihou, who along with a fellow former vice-chairman of the military commission, Guo Boxiong, was accused of taking bribes in exchange for promotions. Guo was jailed for life last year, while Xu died of cancer in 2015 before he could face trial. Also among the key omissions from the list published Wednesday were Du Jincai, who was replaced as the military s anti-corruption chief in March, and Cai Yingting, who left his post as head of the PLA Academy of Military Science in January. Taking into account officials who are likely to retire, as many as seven of the 11 spots on the military commission may be vacated, strengthening talk in Chinese political circles that the body may be streamlined.  Xi, who is commander-in-chief of China s armed forces, currently chairs the commission, which also comprises two vice-chairmen and eight committee members.  Two sources familiar with the matter said the commission may be cut down to Xi and four vice-chairmen, doing away with committee members and streamlining reporting lines.  Li, the Brookings expert, said that among those likely to be central to the army s refreshed leadership were Li Zuocheng, who took over from Fang as chief of the Joint Staff Department last month, Miao and the three commanders of the army s ground, air and naval forces: Han Weiguo, Ding Laihang and Shen Jinlong.  The fact that all five were newly-appointed this year and none were members of the Communist Party s 200-odd strong Central Committee, Li said, reflected the extent to which Xi was rejuvenating the leadership as part of his years-long drive to modernize the military and make it more ready for combat.  This is really a major step from Xi Jinping to consolidate his authority to promote the young, those who have some professional experience,  but are  not corrupted, and certainly not belonging to the factions of Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou,  he said.

Summary: चीन की सेना में व्यापक बदलाव शी के लिए अधिक मारक क्षमता की ओर इशारा करता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is considering appointing a moderate Republican to the Supreme Court, a source close to the process said on Wednesday, but leaders in the Republican-led Senate held firm to their threat to block anyone he nominates. The source said Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a Republican and former federal judge, was among the possible candidates.  As governor, Sandoval has taken a traditional Republican stance in support of gun rights, but his more moderate views on social issues, such as abortion rights, could make him an attractive choice for the Democratic president. A 52-year-old Mexican-American, Sandoval was appointed a judge by Republican George W. Bush, Obama’s predecessor, before being elected governor in 2010. He abandoned his state’s legal defense of a same-sex marriage ban before the Supreme Court declared such bans unconstitutional last year. The Feb. 13 death of long-serving conservative Justice Antonin Scalia created a vacancy on the nine-seat court and ignited a political fight. Republicans are maneuvering to foil Obama’s ability to choose a replacement who could tilt the court to the left for the first time in decades. Scalia’s death left the court with four liberals and four conservatives. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Tuesday the Senate will not hold hearings or vote on any Supreme Court nominee until the next president takes office in January 2017, following the Nov. 8 presidential election. Republicans hope to win back the White House then. The Senate must confirm any high court nominee, but McConnell remained unswayed even with word that Obama was considering the Republican Sandoval for the job. “This nomination will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the fall,” McConnell said. Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee that would hold any confirmation hearings, concurred, saying, “It’s the principle, not the person.” The White House said it was hoping for a meeting with Grassley and his committee’s top Democrat, Patrick Leahy. A McConnell aide said McConnell was trying to schedule a meeting with Obama to reiterate his opposition to any nominee. Sandoval met on Monday in the U.S. Capitol for about 30 minutes with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Reid asked him whether he would be interested in being considered for the high court job, according to the source, who asked not to be identified. “He said he was interested,” the source said of Sandoval, adding that “a number of people are being checked out” for the job. Reid is a close ally of Obama. White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined during a briefing to confirm whether Sandoval was on Obama’s list of potential nominees. White House officials are seeking a candidate they think lawmakers from both parties could support, but Obama may be unlikely to choose any Republican, even a centrist. The Democratic political base would object to such a choice, a risk Obama is unlikely to take during an election year.     Some liberal groups expressed alarm that Sandoval would be considered. Charles Chamberlain of the group Democracy for America called it “downright absurd” that Obama would risk his legacy by appointing “another anti-labor Republican” to an already pro-big business Supreme Court. Sandoval opposed Obama’s healthcare law, but opted to expand his state’s Medicaid health insurance program for the poor under the measure, breaking from a number of Republican governors who refused to do so.      He expressed support for bipartisan immigration legislation that passed the Senate in 2013 before dying in the House of Representatives amid Republican opposition. In 2013, Sandoval vetoed legislation to require background checks on all Nevada gun sales. Last year, he signed a law backed by the National Rifle Association that expanded the defenses for justifiable homicide and repealed a local ordinance that required handgun registration. Obama vowed on Wednesday to move ahead with a nominee and said Republicans would risk public ire if they blocked a qualified candidate for political motives, as well as diminishing the credibility of the high court. Obama said he expected the Senate Judiciary Committee to extend his nominee the courtesy of a confirmation hearing and then vote on whether he or she is qualified. “In the meantime, the American people are going to have the ability to gauge whether the person I’ve nominated is well within the mainstream, is a good jurist, is somebody who’s worthy to sit on the Supreme Court,” Obama told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think it will be very difficult for Mr. McConnell to explain how, if the public concludes that this person’s very well qualified, that the Senate should stand in the way simply for political reasons.” Liberals vowed to pressure Senate Republicans into considering Obama’s nominee, with several groups delivering to the Senate boxes of what they said contained 1.3 million signatures from citizens demanding that a confirmation process go forward after the president announces his pick.

Summary: ओबामा ने सुप्रीम कोर्ट के लिए रिपब्लिकन पार्टी को चुना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dialing back the Volcker Rule that limits banks’ ability to engage in speculative investments is a top priority for President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, according to a document seen by Reuters on Monday. In written responses to questions posed by members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Mnuchin said he would use his role as head of the interagency Financial Stability Oversight Council to give the Volcker Rule a stricter definition of proprietary trading.  In “prop trading” a financial firm uses its own money to invest in privately held companies, hedge funds and similar vehicles. The Volcker rule was designed to limit the type of risk-taking activities that helped land banks in trouble during the financial crisis. “As Chair of FSOC I would plan to address the issue of the definition of the Volcker Rule to make sure that banks can provide the necessary liquidity for customer markets and address the issues in the Fed report,” Mnuchin wrote in the document, which also included senators’ questions and was verified by a Senate aide. During his confirmation hearing with the Senate Finance Committee last week, Mnuchin cited a recent Federal Reserve report that found the rule, part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform law, was limiting market liquidity. The committee has not yet scheduled a date to vote to send the nomination to the full chamber for approval. Regulators have applied proprietary trading prohibitions to too many activities, he said. The Fed report found that ambiguity and gray areas in the rule were pushing dealers to conservative strategies to ensure they did not cross the line on the prohibitions. In the responses Mnuchin also made it clear he believes the  rule should only apply to “a bank that benefits from federal deposit insurance.” The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guarantees retail deposits at about 6,000 banks, including the consumer banking arms of the country’s largest investment banks. The law currently applies to banks that have access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window or other government backstop.  Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat who serves on the Finance Committee, wrote that uninsured investment banks also pose risks that the rule, named for former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker, was supposed to address. “As we saw during the financial crisis, when nonbanking affiliates of FDIC insured banks failed, they were rescued by their insured affiliates, which in turn were forced to be rescued by taxpayers,” she wrote. “This was the case with State Street Bank, and your former employer, Goldman Sachs, which converted to a bank holding company in order to be eligible for federal bailout funds.” Mnuchin reiterated that an updated version of the 1933 Glass-Steagall law that had long separated commercial and investment banking should be instated to reduce risks. The law was repealed in 1999. Mnuchin has not shared details of his “21st Century Glass-Steagall,” but hinted it would be looser than the original. “A bright line between commercial and investment banking, although less complicated, may inhibit the necessary lending and capital markets activities to support a robust economy,” he wrote.

Summary: ट्रम्प ट्रेजरी नॉमिनी वोल्कर नियम के तहत सीमाओं को ढीला करना चाहते हैंः दस्तावेज़


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is slated to sell $375 million worth of crude oil from the country’s emergency reserve this winter after Congress passed a temporary spending bill on Friday that contained a measure authorizing the sale. President Barack Obama’s administration has pushed Congress to approve an up to $2 billion plan for a revamp of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a string of heavily guarded underground salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico filled with crude. The stash currently holds about 695 million barrels of oil. A Department of Energy spokeswoman said authorization in the spending bill “will allow the Department to take necessary steps to increase the integrity and extend the life” of the reserve.  Congress passed the original funding for the reserve after the 1973 to 1974 Arab oil embargo to protect the country from global supply disruptions that have the potential to spike domestic fuel prices and damage the U.S. economy.  Many of the reserve’s steel tanks and pumps are now rusting after decades of being whipped by storms and exposed to salt air. A plan submitted to Congress by the Energy Department in September said “this equipment today is near, at, or beyond the end of its design life.” In addition, the U.S. oil boom of the last decade has reversed the direction of many pipelines away from the reserve, making it more difficult to get oil to market in a hurry.  The $375 million sale, or nearly 7.3 million barrels of oil in today’s price, is just the first planned installment. For each of the next three fiscal years Congress would have to approve the annual sales to reach the up to $2 billion revamp plan. It remains to be seen whether President-elect Donald Trump would urge Congress for the annual authorizations in the coming years. This sale, which could take place seven to nine weeks after the temporary spending bill is enacted, would pay for the design of the revamp of the SPR and other pre-construction costs.  Further sales would pay for construction of new equipment and new marine terminals to allow the reserve greater capacity to ship oil by vessels.

Summary: अमेरिका इस सर्दियों में $375 मिलियन का आपातकालीन आरक्षित तेल बेचने के लिए तैयार है


WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spent the Thanksgiving holiday at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday, dining with his family at the Florida golf club after revisiting a campaign pledge he made about restoring American manufacturing. Trump, known for his use of Twitter to drive political debate, tweeted about an Indiana air conditioner maker he featured in his election campaign as an emblem of trade deals he said were unfavorable to American workers. Trump, who has not been seen in public since arriving in Florida on Tuesday, said he was “working hard, even on Thanksgiving, trying to get Carrier A.C. Company to stay in the U.S. (Indiana). MAKING PROGRESS - Will know soon!” Carrier Corp, a division of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N), responded on Twitter that the company has had “discussions with the incoming administration” but had “nothing to announce at this time.” A representative for the company had no additional comment. Earlier this year, the company said it would move 1,400 jobs to Mexico from Indiana, giving a three-year timetable for the shift. The state’s Republican governor, Mike Pence - later picked by Trump as his vice-presidential running mate - decried the decision, and spoke out against it often on the campaign trail. Trump made Carrier’s decision part of his rallying cry against the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. He said he would slap taxes on the company’s air conditioners shipped back to the United States. Asked by Reuters last week whether the company was reconsidering its decision given Trump’s victory in the Nov. 8 election over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the company said in a statement it was “making every effort” to help its Indiana employees during the shift. “By providing three years advance notice of the move and by funding education and retraining programs for up to four years after the move is complete, we are providing employees with both time and opportunity to help them to make a smooth transition,” the company said. Carrier also cited an agreement it had reached with the United Steelworkers union about compensation for affected workers. Trump’s Thanksgiving comments on Carrier were reminiscent of remarks he tweeted last week about Ford Motor Co (F.N), a company he criticized during the campaign for shifting some production lines to Mexico. When Ford informed Trump it would not shift production of a Lincoln sport utility vehicle to Mexico from Kentucky, he took to Twitter to say he saved the plant, although the company had never considered moving the whole factory south of the border. “I worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky,” Trump tweeted, referring to Ford’s executive chairman. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has been interviewing candidates for his Cabinet and other top White House positions. He and Pence have held more than 60 such meetings since the election. He did not announce any new decisions on Thursday. A spokeswoman said he was spending the evening with family members. “They recognize how precious this kind of time is, and look forward to an evening together to celebrate and count their many blessings,” the spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said. They dined in the Mar-a-Lago club, where the menu included a choice of four chilled seafoods, “Mr. Trump’s Wedge Salad,” devilled eggs, traditional turkey and stuffing, lamb, beef and sea bass. Among the eight desserts: “Three Layer Trump Chocolate Cake.” Trump announced two picks on Wednesday for his Cabinet - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and wealthy Republican donor and school choice advocate Betsy DeVos to lead the Education Department. Both are subject to Senate confirmation. Major choices for the Pentagon, State Department and Treasury are still to come. Trump’s State Department deliberations have spurred debate within his inner circle - particularly his consideration of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and businessman who ran against Democratic President Barack Obama in the 2012 election. Romney would be a comforting pick for establishment Republicans. But hardline Trump backers believe he should be disqualified because he called Trump a “fraud” during the Republican nominating race and urged Republicans to stop him from becoming their candidate for the 2016 election. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s senior adviser, said on Thursday she was on the receiving end of a “deluge of social media & private comms” about the Romney option, noting being “loyal” was a positive attribute for the job. Trump and Pence were “spending significant time” on the secretary of state pick, spokesman Jason Miller told reporters before the Thanksgiving break. “They’ll be looking for things like chemistry, experience, a similar vision into what the president-elect and vice president elect are trying to do with this administration,” Miller said.

Summary: ट्रम्प अपने थैंक्सगिविंग मेन्यू में राजनीति रखते हैं।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Congress to give his plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a “fair hearing” and said he did not want to pass the issue on to the person who succeeds him in the White House.

Summary: ओबामा ने कांग्रेस से ग्वांतानामो को बंद करने की योजना पर निष्पक्ष सुनवाई करने का आग्रह किया


GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations called on Monday for a humanitarian pause in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Tuesday to allow civilians to leave their homes, aid workers to reach them, and the wounded to get medical care. Jamie McGoldrick, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said in a statement that the streets of Sanaa had become  battlegrounds  and that aid workers  remain in lockdown .  Thus, I call on all parties to the conflict to urgently enable a humanitarian pause on Tuesday 5 December, between 10:00 a.m. and 16:00 p.m. to allow civilians to leave their homes and seek assistance and protection and to facilitate the movement of aid workers to ensure the continuity of life-saving programs,  he said.  McGoldrick warned the warring parties that any deliberate attacks against civilians, and against civilian and medical infrastructure, are  clear violations of international humanitarian law and may constitute war crimes .

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने सना में मानवीय विराम की मांग की जहां सड़कें "युद्ध के मैदान" हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Monday that the United States is providing more support to Iraq as its military moves to take back territory from Islamic State, and he expects the city of Mosul will be retaken eventually. “As we see the Iraqis willing to fight and gaining ground, let’s make sure that we are providing them more support,” Obama said in an interview with CBS News. U.S. officials announced in Baghdad on Monday the United States will deploy about 200 additional troops, mostly as advisers for Iraqi troops as they advance toward Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control. The increase raises the authorized U.S. troop level in Iraq to 4,087, not including special operations personnel, some logistics workers and troops on temporary rotations. “We’re not doing the fighting ourselves,” Obama said, “but when we provide training, when we provide special forces who are backing them up, when we are gaining intelligence, working with the coalitions that we have, what we’ve seen is that we can continually tighten the noose” on Islamic State. “My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall,” Obama said.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट से लड़ने के लिए इराक को और समर्थन दे रहा है अमेरिकाः ओबामा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump indicated a tougher U.S. approach to China by speaking to Taiwan’s president last week, but how far he will push a risky test of wills to wring concessions from Beijing on issues from trade to North Korea is unclear. The call between Trump and Tsai Ing-wen was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president with a Taiwanese leader since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979. It prompted a diplomatic protest from China which the outgoing Obama administration warned could undermine progress in relations with Beijing, which has been carefully built up over decades by both Republican and Democratic administrations. Analysts say it could provoke military confrontation with China if pressed too far. Trump officials and Vice President-elect Mike Pence sought to play down the significance of the 10-minute conversation, saying it was a “courtesy” call and not intended to show a policy shift. However, Trump fueled the fire on Sunday by complaining about Chinese economic and military policy on Twitter, while on Monday an economic adviser to Trump, Stephen Moore, said if Beijing did not like it, “screw ‘em.” Analysts, including senior former U.S. officials, said the call appeared to be at least an initial shot across China’s bow to signal a tougher approach to Beijing, which includes plans for a buildup in the U.S. military, in part in response to China’s growing power in the Asia-Pacific region. Jon Huntsman, reportedly among the candidates to become Trump’s secretary of state, was quoted by The New York Times as saying at the weekend that Taiwan might prove a “useful leverage point” in dealings with China. Trump adviser and China hawk Peter Navarro, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, another in the mix for the top U.S. diplomatic role, have both proposed using degrees of escalation on Taiwan to pressure China to step back from its pursuit of territory in East Asia. Navarro, who has produced books and multipart television documentaries warning of the dangers of China’s rise, has suggested stepped up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program.  He argued that Washington should stop referring to a “one-China” policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei, saying “there is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda.” Bolton though, in an article in January, countenanced a “diplomatic ladder of escalation” that could start with receiving Taiwanese diplomats officially at the State Department and lead to restoring full diplomatic recognition. Evan Medeiros, a former official who served as President Barack Obama’s top adviser on East Asia, said this was a highly risky strategy. “Here’s the reality: China let us all know very clearly in the mid-1990s that the Taiwan issue is a war-and-peace issue,” Medeiros said. “Is that a proposition that the U.S. should test? “The Taiwan issue is so politically sensitive and ranks so high in Chinese priorities of interest they are not going to begin trading anything away for it. And if the U.S. decided to establish formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, it could easily precipitate a military crisis in Northeast Asia,” he said. Douglas Paal, a White House official under Republican administrations who served as U.S. representative to Taiwan from 2002-2006, said the approach of Trump advisers seemed rooted in the 1990s, when China was much weaker and the United States in a better position to take a tougher line. “The problem is that Beijing decided in 1996 on a 10-year (military) buildup so that it would never have to swallow such stuff again,” Paal said. He said Chinese President Xi Jinping is seeking to cement his position at a congress of the ruling Communist Party next year.  “Were he to look soft on something like making the U.S. office in Taipei into an official diplomatic outpost, Xi would be devoured by his rivals, and he won’t let that happen,” Paal said. Chris Murphy, a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said using Taiwan as a way to pressure China to cooperate on North Korea’s nuclear program or on trade could be counterproductive. “Pressing China on Taiwan won’t likely bring them to the table on North Korea and currency,” he wrote on Twitter. “Risks backing them into a dark, nasty corner.” Two sources familiar with the debate on China policy within the Trump camp said Bolton and other hard-liners had encouraged Taiwanese leaders to approach the president-elect.  However, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and others advising Trump and his transition team have cautioned against an open break with the four-decade “One China” Policy, they said.  As a result, Trump first presented the request for a phone conversation as a personal matter rather than a harbinger of a shift in U.S. policy, which left Japan and other U.S. Asian allies unfazed. However, the sources said that after Trump tweeted about Chinese currency manipulation, import tariffs and the South China Sea, some Asian leaders were asking whether he was deliberately provoking China, potentially leading to a dangerous escalation of tensions. Chas Freeman, a former U.S. diplomat who was then-President Richard Nixon’s interpreter on his historic trip to China in 1972, said he thought Chinese officials were waiting to see what Trump’s intentions were as president. “They (Chinese) don’t want to humiliate Mr. Trump or get into an emotional confrontation with him,” he said. “So the immediate impact of this will be they will give him the benefit of the doubt, that he didn’t know what he was doing, and didn’t understand the significance of this, that perhaps he was manipulated by people around him.”

Summary: बीजिंग के साथ वसीयतों की जोखिम भरी परीक्षा में ट्रम्प ने शुरू से ही आग लगा दी


MUNICH (Reuters) - Lawmakers of Germany s Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives, have nominated state finance minister Markus Soeder as candidate for state premier in a regional election. CSU parliamentary group leader Thomas Kreuzer told reporters in Munich that CSU lawmakers had unilaterally agreed to nominate Soeder, a fierce critic of Merkel s refugee policy, as candidate to run for state premier in next year s regional election. Soeder said he welcomed the decision from Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer to keep the post of CSU party leader since this would help to find a way out of the political impasse in Berlin.

Summary: सी. एस. यू. ने दक्षिणपंथी को बवेरिया राज्य प्रीमियर के लिए उम्मीदवार के रूप में नामित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that, subject to receipt of further information, he planned to allow the opening of long-secret files on the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy due for release next week. Politico magazine earlier quoted Trump administration and other U.S. government officials as saying the president would almost certainly block the release of information from some of the thousands of classified files, which the U.S. National Archives is scheduled to make public by an Oct. 26 deadline.  “Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened,” Trump said in a tweet. “The president believes that these documents should be made available in the interests of full transparency unless agencies provide a compelling and clear national security or law enforcement justification otherwise,” a White House official said. The Nov. 22 1963 assassination cut short “Camelot,” as the 1,000 days of the Kennedy presidency became known. Kennedy was 46 and remains one of the most admired U.S. presidents. Thousands of books, articles, TV shows, movies and documentaries have been produced about the assassination and surveys have shown a majority of Americans still distrust official evidence pointing to Lee Harvey Oswald as the sole killer. Despite serious questions about the official inquest, and theories purporting that organized crime, Cuba or a cabal of U.S. security agents was involved, conspiracy theorists have yet to produce conclusive proof Oswald acted in consort with anyone. Over the years, the National Archives has released most documents related to the case, but a final batch, amounting to tens of thousands of pages, remains and only Trump has the authority to decide whether some should continue to be withheld or released in redacted form. The Washington Post and other media have quoted officials as saying that government agencies have lobbied Trump to withhold some of the documents, arguing that they could expose relatively recent intelligence and law enforcement operations. Philip Shenon, the author of the Politico article and of a book on the assassination, said he did not think the last batch of papers contained any major bombshells, but may shed light on the activities of Oswald while he was traveling in Mexico City in late September 1963, and courting Cuban and Soviet spies.”From the record we already have, we know he met there with Soviet spies and Cuban spies and other people who might have wanted to see Kennedy dead,” Shenon said.  “It’s going to be very interesting to see what else the government knew about the threat Oswald might pose – how much more they learned about his trip in Mexico City and whether or not they bungled evidence to suggest he was a threat.” Shenon said it would be interesting, too, to see if there was anything in the documents to substantiate comments Trump made during his election campaign linking Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s father to Oswald. “It’s the president’s favorite conspiracy theory about the Kennedy assassination ... but I don’t think there is,” Shenon said. Cruz’s father Rafael has called Trump’s allegations that he was pictured with Oswald in New Orleans before the assassination “ludicrous.”

Summary: जे. एफ. के. फाइलों को जारी करेंगे ट्रम्प, 'आगे की जानकारी' के अधीन


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Christmas came early for U.S. gun shop owners - who saw a rush of firearms purchases ahead of the presidential election - but they may now be hard-pressed to match last year’s record holiday sales. Gun merchants had a record October, federal background check data shows, as gun enthusiasts snapped up pistols and rifles on fears that Democrat Hillary Clinton would win the White House and seek to restrict ownership.  Traffic has fallen off substantially since Republican Donald Trump, a gun rights supporter, won the presidency on Nov. 8. Shares of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp SWHC.O are down 15 percent since then, despite a rebound this week, while Sturm Ruger & Company’s (RGR.N) stock is 17 percent lower. Like most other retailers, gun sellers thrive during the holidays. Last year’s Black Friday featured record activity for a single day, according background check data.  December 2015 was the second busiest month ever, topped only by December 2012, when President Barack Obama threatened to rein in gun rights after a deranged man killed 26 people, including 20 children, in a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Obama, a Democrat, never enacted any sweeping new gun restrictions because he faced opposition in a Republican-controlled Congress. Now, with this year’s Black Friday just days away, gun dealers say traffic is regaining momentum after the post-election drop. “I’m not expecting it to be any slower than our normal Black Friday,” said Kellie Weeks, owner of Georgia Gun Store in Gainesville, Georgia. “But if Hillary had won, we would have sold out already.”  After Obama was elected in 2008, November background checks jumped 48 percent compared to the prior November, according to background check data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. By comparison, checks rose a more modest 5 percent in November 2004 after Republican George W. Bush was re-elected. Such checks are the best proxy for data on gun sales, which gun manufacturers do not publicly release. The foundation strips the data of applications for conceal-carry permits - typically made by people who already own guns - to give a better reflection of actual purchases.  Through October 2016, background checks are up 15 percent compared to the same amount of time last year, suggesting another a strong year of overall sales. Wall Street expects Smith & Wesson’s revenue to increase 28 percent in 2016 and 11 percent next year, according to Thomson Reuters data. The Springfield, Massachusetts, company reports its October-quarter results on December 1. Even after the recent selloff, Smith & Wesson’s stock is up 10 percent in 2016, better than the S&P 500’s 7-percent rise. Gilbert’s Gun Shop in Frankfort, Kentucky, expects to sell fewer high-capacity magazines over the holidays because customers no longer fear they will be banned. But the shop and other gun stores consulted by Reuters remain hopeful that demand for newly launched compact and target pistols will help spur a busy holiday season. “Some categories might be light,” he said. “But in general, sales through Black Friday and Christmas, I still think will be very strong.”

Summary: हिलेरी क्लिंटन की हार के बावजूद बंदूक की दुकानों की नजर व्यस्त ब्लैक फ्राइडे पर


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, seen in China and the two Koreas as a symbol of Japan s past militarism, to mark its annual autumn festival, the shrine said on Tuesday. Abe was expected to refrain from visiting the shrine during the festival, which will last until Friday, the Nikkei business daily and Kyodo news agency reported. He is scheduled to visit northern Japan, Akita prefecture and Yamagata prefecture, for an election campaign stump on Tuesday, Kyodo news said. His ruling coalition is on track for a big win in Sunday s general election - even though almost half the country s voters don t want him to keep his job, a media survey showed on Monday. Abe s snap election comes amid heightened global tension following North Korea s nuclear tests and missile launches, which prompted the U.N. Security Council to impose fresh sanctions. Health Minister Katsunobu Kato also sent an ritual offering to the shrine, a spokesperson for the shrine said. Past visits to Yasukuni by Japanese leaders have outraged Beijing and Seoul because it honors 14 Japanese leaders convicted by an Allied tribunal as war criminals, along with Japan s war dead. China s position on the shrine was clear, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in Beijing.  We urge the Japanese side to earnestly, squarely and deeply reflect on their history of aggression, appropriately handle the relevant issue and take actual steps to win the trust of their Asian neighbors and the international community,  Lu said. Abe has only visited the shrine in person once, in December 2013, since becoming premier the previous year.  Rather than attend in person, Abe sends a ritual offering on several occasions in an effort to improve ties with China and South Korea, which have been strained by territorial and other disputes. Japan, China and South Korea are trying to hold a summit meeting this year, the Nikkei business said.

Summary: जापान के प्रधानमंत्री आबे ने युद्ध में मारे गए लोगों के लिए यासुकुनी मंदिर में अनुष्ठानिक भेंट भेजी