WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned under pressure from President Donald Trump on Friday in an uproar over Price’s use of costly private charter planes for government business. His abrupt departure was announced an hour after Trump told reporters he was disappointed in Price’s use of private aircraft and did not like the way it reflected on his administration. “Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price offered his resignation earlier today and the president accepted,” the White House said in a statement. Trump named Don Wright to serve as acting secretary. Wright is currently the deputy assistant secretary for health and director of the office of disease prevention and health promotion. “I’m not happy. OK? I’m not happy,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn. Candidates to succeed Price included Seema Verma, who is administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and who is close to Vice President Mike Pence, and Scott Gottlieb, a physician who serves as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, according to industry analysts. Several sources saw Gottlieb as a clear front runner. They said he got along well with the White House and is viewed favorably there. Price’s resignation leaves Trump with a second Cabinet position to fill. He has yet to pick a secretary for homeland security after hiring former Secretary John Kelly as his White House chief of staff.     It was the latest blow to the Trump White House, which has struggled to get major legislative achievements passed by Congress and has been embroiled in one controversy after another since Trump took office in January. Price, a former congressman, was instrumental in the Trump administration’s policies aimed at undercutting Obamacare, as well as working with governors across the country to slowly begin unraveling parts of the law. In a resignation letter, Price offered little in the way of contrition. He said he had been working to reform the U.S. healthcare system and reduce regulatory burdens, among other goals. “I have spent forty years both as a doctor and public servant putting people first. I regret that the recent events have created a distraction from these important objectives,” he said. Trump, currently trying to sell his tax cut plan and oversee the federal response to devastation wreaked by three hurricanes, saw the Price drama as an unnecessary distraction and behind the scenes was telling aides “what was he thinking?,” a source close to the president said. Price promised on Thursday to repay the nearly $52,000 cost of his seats on private charter flights. “The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes,” Price said. But that was not enough to satisfy Trump. Trump told reporters that the “optics” of Price’s travel were not good, since, as president he was trying to renegotiate U.S. contracts to get a better deal for taxpayers. “Look, I think he’s a very fine person. I certainly don’t like the optics,” Trump said. Price had also been seen in the White House as having been ineffective in getting Congress to pass healthcare reform legislation, an effort that has fizzled on Capitol Hill. Price was one of a handful of senior officials in Trump’s administration put on the defensive over reports about their use of charter flights and government aircraft, sometimes for personal travel, when they could have flown commercial for less money. The White House issued an order late on Friday saying use of private planes required approval from White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and that the commercial air system was appropriate even for very senior officials with few exceptions. The Washington Post on Friday reported that Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin attended a Wimbledon tennis match, toured Westminster Abbey and took a cruise on the Thames this summer during a 10-day trip to discuss veterans’ health issues in Britain and Denmark. Shulkin, who traveled on a commercial airline, was accompanied on the trip by his wife, whose airfare was paid for by the government and who received a per diem for meals, the Post said, noting that the Department of Veterans Affairs said she was traveling on “approved invitational orders.” His six-person traveling party included an acting undersecretary of health and her husband as well as two aides. They were accompanied by a security detail of as many as six people, the Post said.  Washington news media outlet Politico has reported that Price had taken at least two dozen private charter flights since May at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of more than $400,000. Politico also reported he took approved military flights to Africa and Europe costing $500,000. Senior U.S. government officials travel frequently, but are generally expected to keep costs down by taking commercial flights or the train when possible. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have also been in the spotlight for their travel habits.

Summary: निजी विमान के हंगामे को लेकर ट्रम्प के दबाव में प्राइस ने स्वास्थ्य सचिव के पद से दिया इस्तीफा


SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia meets the military conditions needed to take the next step toward its eventual goal of NATO membership but it remains unclear whether it can satisfy the political requirements, the head of the alliance s military committee said on Tuesday. Bosnia wants to activate its Membership Action Plan (MAP), a formal step toward joining NATO, but must first complete full registration of all military assets in its two constituent, ethnically-based regions, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic.     Complicating Bosnia s membership drive is the stance of the Serb Republic, which remains wary of a military alliance that bombed Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo in 1995 and 1999. The Serb Republic has said it would hold a referendum on joining NATO. The Bosnian Serbs have opposed registering their region s military assets to the country s weak central government in Sarajevo.  However, the head of NATO s military committee praised Bosnia s progress at the military level.  Our recommendation when it comes to the level of interoperability, the level of effort your armed forces are putting into reform, will be positive,  said Petr Pavel, a Czech army general. But he stressed that the decision to give Bosnia the green light on activating MAP would be a political one. Dragan Covic, the chairman of Bosnia s tripartite presidency, has voiced optimism that NATO foreign ministers could decide to activate the country s MAP at a meeting in Brussels on Dec. 5-6. Participation in MAP is not in itself a guarantee of eventual NATO membership. Pavel said NATO had a strong interest in Balkan stability and cited various threats he said faced all of Europe, including a resurgent Russia, illegal migration and terrorism. Bosnia s inter-ethnic presidency, its central government in Sarajevo and the Bosniak-Croat Federation have long said joining NATO and the European Union are strategic priorities.  But the Bosnian Serbs lean toward closer ties with Russia, aligning their policy with that of wartime patron and ally Serbia where NATO remains hugely unpopular after its 1999 bombing campaign to drive Serbian forces out of Kosovo and after 1995 NATO air strikes against rebel Serbs in Bosnia.

Summary: बोस्निया नाटो बोली में सैन्य प्रगति कर रहा है-गठबंधन जनरल


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Hundreds of Singaporeans, most dressed in black, held a silent protest on Saturday against an uncontested presidential election this week in which applications from four candidates were rejected. Political protests are rare in the wealthy city-state but the election of Halimah Yacob, a former speaker of parliament, as the country s first woman president had led to some dismay over how other prospective candidates were rejected.  ROBBED OF AN ELECTION #NotMyPresident , read a banner at the entrance to the park where the protest was held, a venue called Speakers  Corner, which has been designated as the site in the city for people to air their views.  We care about the country and where it s heading toward,  said 22-year-old Anna, who declined to give her last name.  This is an issue that I feel especially strongly about,  she said, adding that the power of authorities  had gone unchecked . She said it was the first time she had attended a protest. If the election had been held, all citizens above the age of 21 would have been eligible to vote. Aiming to strengthen a sense of inclusivity, multicultural Singapore had decreed the presidency, a largely ceremonial six-year post, would be reserved for candidates from the minority Malay community this time. Of the four other applicants for the presidency, two were not Malays and two were not qualified to contest, the elections department said on Monday. Halimah had automatically qualified because she held a senior public post for over three years and was declared elected after nominations closed on Wednesday. The stringent eligibility rules include a stipulation that a candidate from the private sector should have headed a company with paid-up capital of at least S$500 million ($370 million). Organizers of Saturday s protest said it was silent as speeches that touched on race and religion would have needed a police permit. Gilbert Goh, one of the main organizers, said an estimated 2,000 people participated. Tan Cheng Bock, who lost the previous presidential election in 2011, said in a Facebook post:  It is not President Halimah as a person that Singaporeans are unhappy about. It is about the way our government has conducted this whole walkover presidential election.   Displays of dissent are unusual in Singapore, one of the richest and most politically stable countries in the world. It has been ruled by the People s Action Party (PAP) since independence in 1965 and the current prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, is the son of the country s founding father Lee Kuan Yew. In the 2015 general election   held months after the death of Lee Kuan Yew   the PAP won almost 70 per cent of the popular vote and swept all but six of parliament s 89 seats. It was the third gathering of so many people at the Speakers  Corner since the beginning of July. The annual Pink Dot gay pride rally drew thousands of people to the site on July 1. And in mid-July, a protest was held at the venue calling for an independent inquiry into whether Lee abused his power in a battle with his siblings over what to do with their late father s house.

Summary: सिंगापुर के लोगों ने निर्विरोध राष्ट्रपति चुनाव के खिलाफ विरोध प्रदर्शन किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Top Lebanese Druze politician Walid Jumblatt on Saturday called on Saudi Arabia to enter dialogue with Iran and said that the Kingdom s modernization plans could not work while Riyadh was engaged in a war in Yemen. Lebanon was thrust back onto the frontline of a regional power tussle this month between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The two regional powers back competing factions in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, the last of which has become a central arena of the proxy battle.   A settlement at minimum with the Islamic Republic (of Iran) gives us in Lebanon more strength and determination to cooperate to enforce the policy of disassociation,  Jumblatt wrote in a Tweet on Saturday.  Disassociation  is widely understood in Lebanon to mean its policy of staying out of regional conflicts, which Hariri has been stressing since his resignation, a reference to Hezbollah whose regional military role is a source of deep concern in Saudi Arabia Saudi policy of confronting Iran more aggressively around the region has been spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also attempting to push through difficult and extensive internal reforms.  Saudi Arabia has played an important role in Lebanon in the past, helping to broker the end of its civil war in 1990 and contributing to reconstruction afterwards.  But the extent of its role in the Nov. 4 resignation announcement by Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has been widely debated in Lebanon and led some Lebanese to fear that Riyadh sought to destabilize their country. Addressing Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Jumblatt said:  The challenges are tremendous and the modernization of the Kingdom is an Islamic and Arabic necessity but this mission cannot be successful while the Yemen war continues.  The Druze are a minority religious sect present in Syria, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Lebanon. The Saudi-led coalition has been targeting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement since 2015, after the Houthis seized parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee. On Wednesday, the coalition said it would allow aid in through the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif, as well as U.N. flights to Sanaa, more than two weeks after blockading the country.  Enough of the destruction and siege in Yemen and enough of the human and material drain on the Kingdom s people and resources,  Jumblatt said.  Let the Yemeni people choose who it wants and you, Your Excellency the Prince, be the judge, the reformer, and the big brother as your ancestors were.  Jumblatt also said it is very difficult to stop the war unless issues are overcome and discussions are held with Iranians. On Friday, Jumblatt criticized the way Hariri had been treated by  some Saudi circles , the first time he has appeared to direct blame at Riyadh over Hariri s resignation this month.  Lebanese officials say Saudi Arabia put Hariri under effective house arrest in Riyadh and forced him to declare his resignation on Nov. 4. Saudi Arabia has denied holding Hariri against his will or forcing him to resign.

Summary: लेबनान के जंब्लैट ने सऊदी-ईरानी चर्चा का आह्वान किया


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A federal judge in Argentina indicted former President Cristina Fernandez for treason and asked for her arrest for allegedly covering up Iran s possible role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people, a court ruling said. As Fernandez is a senator, Congress would first have to vote to strip her of parliamentary immunity for an arrest to occur. The judge, Claudio Bonadio, also indicted and ordered house arrest for Fernandez s Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, the 491-page ruling said. Fernandez called a news conference in Congress to deny wrongdoing and accuse Bonadio and President Mauricio Macri of degrading the judiciary.  It is an invented case about facts that did not exist,  she said, dressed in white. Timerman s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. While removing immunity from lawmakers is rare in Argentina, Congress voted on Oct. 25 to do so for Fernandez s former planning minister Julio De Vido and he was arrested the same day. De Vido is accused of fraud and corruption, which he denies. Argentina s legislature has entered a period of judicial recess until March but can be convened for urgent matters.    Fernandez and her allies have been the focus of several high profile cases with arrests and indictments since center-right Mauricio Macri defeated her chosen successor and was elected president in late 2015. Fernandez left office just a few months before the Congress in neighboring Brazil impeached another leftist female leader, Dilma Rousseff for breaking budget laws. The cover-up allegations against Fernandez gained international attention in January 2015, when the prosecutor who initially made them, Alberto Nisman, was found shot dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment. An Argentine appeals court a year ago ordered the re-opening of the investigation.  Nisman s death was classified as a suicide, though an official investigating the case has said the shooting appeared to be a homicide. Nisman s body was discovered hours before he was to brief Congress on the bombing of the AMIA center.  GRAINS-FOR-OIL Nisman said Fernandez worked behind the scenes to clear Iran and normalize relations to clinch a grains-for-oil deal with Tehran that was signed in 2013. The agreement created a joint commission to investigate the AMIA bombing that critics said was really a means to absolve Iran. Argentine, Israeli and U.S. officials have long blamed the AMIA attack on Hezbollah guerrillas backed by Iran. Tehran has denied links to the attack.  Earlier on Thursday, two lower level allies of Fernandez were arrested based on the same ruling from judge Bonadio: Carlos Zannini, a legal adviser, and Luis D Elia, the leader of a group of protesters supporting her government.  Zannini s lawyer, Alejandro Baldin, told local media the detention was  arbitrary, illegal and ran over constitutional and individual rights,  after leaving a police station in Rio Gallegos, where Zannini was held. D Elia s lawyer, Adrian Albor, told radio Del Plata that Bonadio had no respect for the law, rights, justice.  They are coming for everyone in the previous government.   Bonadio wrote in his ruling that evidence showed Iran, with the help of Argentine citizens, had appeared to achieve its goal of avoiding being declared a  terrorist  state by Argentina. The crime of treason is punishable by 10 to 25 years in prison, Argentina s maximum sentence. The next step in the case would be an oral trial and sentences can be appealed on first instance, which could be a long process.  Macri s leader in the Senate, Federico Pinedo, said on Twitter that Congress would analyze the request to strip immunity  with sincerity and responsibility.   Macri s coalition performed better than expected in Oct. 22 mid-term elections, gaining seats in Congress, but it is not clear if lawmakers will vote to strip Fernandez s immunity. Fernandez, who governed from 2007 to 2015, finished second to a Macri ally in the Buenos Aires province Senate race but won a seat under Argentina s list system. She was sworn in last week.  She was also indicted in late 2016 on charges she ran a corruption scheme with her public works secretary. Fernandez has admitted there may have been corruption in her government but personally denies wrongdoing.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना के फर्नांडीस पर राजद्रोह का आरोप, गिरफ्तारी की मांग


HAVANA (Reuters) - A fireworks explosion injured 39 people, including six children between the ages of 11 and 15, during a popular Cuban carnival on Christmas Eve, state-run media reported on Monday. The centuries-old Parrandas festival in the central town of Remedios takes place every Dec. 24 and draws thousands of Cubans and some tourists.  An unfortunate accident with fireworks occurred last night in Remedios,  the government s Cubadebate internet news service reported. Among the more than 20 seriously injured, according to  Cubadebate, health authorities said some were in  very grave, some less grave, and others in critical and very critical condition.   All the injured appeared to be local residents, and the report did not mention that any tourists were hurt. Remedios is located in Villa Clara province on the northern coast of the island. Two of the town s neighborhoods compete on Christmas Eve each year to put on the most spectacular show with floats and fireworks amidst a carnival atmosphere. The cause of the explosion was under investigation, according to official media.

Summary: क्रिसमस की पूर्व संध्या पर क्यूबा में आतिशबाजी में विस्फोट, 39 घायल


NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - In early September, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a senior Iranian official and cleric, flew to the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq. His entourage included a sizable security detail and the former head of the Revolutionary Guards, the most powerful military force in the Islamic Republic. Shahroudi, 69, spent several days on a charm offensive meeting officials, clerics and seminary students at his office near the golden dome shrine of Imam Ali, one of the world s holiest Shi ite sites. His aim was to raise his profile as a replacement for the top Shi ite cleric and most powerful man in Iraq: the 87-year old Ayatollah Ali Sistani, according to current and former Iraqi officials. While attention has focused on Iraq s battle against Islamic State, the country s future could equally hinge on what is happening in Najaf. With Sistani s advanced age and persistent rumors about his health, the question of his replacement has become more pointed. Iraqi Shi ite factions are jockeying to influence who replaces Sistani. Iran, whose population is mostly Shi ite, backs Shahroudi. Shahroudi could prove a controversial replacement for Sistani. Senior clergy in Najaf are wary of Iran trying to expand its influence and Shahroudi is viewed with some suspicion, although he could still build support among students. Since Sistani has distanced himself from Iranian politics some of his followers may not want a replacement who is close to Tehran. Sources in Najaf were unwilling to go on the record on a matter as sensitive as Sistani s successor, but a former senior Iraqi official told Reuters:  The Iranians will try their best.   It s not just religious, politics have become part of it. It will decide the fate of Iraq,  the official said. Iran has already expanded its influence in Iraq by helping the Shi ite-led government in Baghdad retake disputed areas from the Kurds. The head of the branch of the Revolutionary Guards responsible for operations outside Iran, Qassem Soleimani, personally convinced some Kurdish leaders to abandon their claim to contested towns, like the oil-rich Kirkuk. Attempts to reach Shahroudi and the Revolutionary Guards media office were unsuccessful, as were attempts to reach Sistani s office for comment. If Iran can influence who becomes the next top Shi ite cleric in Iraq, it could tighten its grip on power within the country for years. A senior cleric in Najaf who is sympathetic to the interests of Iran would also eliminate a rival to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who claims to be the leader of Shi ite Muslims worldwide. For years, Sistani, who has endorsed a religious and political viewpoint independent of Iran, has been Khamenei s top challenger for the leadership of the global Shi ite community. Sistani is rarely seen in public but his decrees are sacrosanct to his millions of Shi ite followers. Sistani s fatwa to rise up against the Sunni militants of Islamic State thwarted the group s push toward Baghdad in 2014. The cleric has also used his decrees to reduce sectarian violence in the country. Sistani opposed the secession of the Kurdish region after the referendum on independence in September but then urged Baghdad to protect Kurds after reports of abuses surfaced last month. Without Sistani s restraining influence, clashes are likely to break out between sects as well as among rival Shi ite groups, Iraqi officials and observers say.  Sistani is not just a poor guy sitting in a house. He can control millions of people,  the Iraqi former senior official said.  It will be a very bloody struggle after Sistani passes away.  Sources in Najaf expect Sistani to remain in his post until his death. There is no clear succession process, but Shahroudi would need to obtain the support of a large number of ordinary Shi ites, seminary students and other clerics. Shahroudi is no stranger to Najaf: he was born in the city to Iranian parents. In the 1970s he was jailed and tortured by Saddam Hussein s security forces because of his political activities. He moved to Iran after the Islamic revolution and has been promoted to top posts since Khamenei became supreme leader in 1989. Shahroudi was head of the Iranian judiciary for a decade and is currently the head of the Expediency Council, a body intended to resolve disputes between parliament and a hardline watchdog body, the Guardian Council. In public, Shahroudi is often seen sitting next to Khamenei. Shahroudi s visit is only one sign of how Tehran is trying to rally support for its candidate to replace Sistani. A company linked to the Revolutionary Guards is involved in a $300 million project to expand the Imam Ali shrine, making it the second largest Muslim holy site after Mecca in Saudi Arabia.  These projects create a state of dependency between recipients of aid and Tehran since they integrate the Iraqi infrastructure into the Iranian infrastructure network,  said Ali Alfoneh, an expert on the Guards at the Atlantic Council.  Furthermore, such activities provide a cover for the Islamic Republic s intelligence networks operating in Iraq.  In 2011, Shahroudi opened an office in Najaf and began paying clerical students stipends, which observers say was an attempt by Iran to increase its influence.  It was a provocative move,  said an Iraqi analyst familiar with the Shi ite clergy who asked not to be identified. Shahroudi subsequently opened offices in Baghdad and Karbala. He pays stipends to thousands of seminary students, according to Iraqi officials and clerical sources in Najaf.  Clerics often pay stipends to students to gather support, raise their profile and perhaps become accepted as a marja, or top cleric, observers say.  Iran is trying to influence the process of who comes after Sistani through the students,  said a Western diplomat in Iraq who did not have permission to speak on the record. Sistani is now the main sponsor of Shi ite clerical students, paying millions of dollars in Iraq and elsewhere. His son Mohammed Ridha oversees the financial and administrative work of his office.  Follow the dollars to see what will happen next,  said an Iraqi senior official familiar with the clerical politics of Najaf.  Mohammed Ridha Sistani controls all the cash.  Mohammed Ridha s work could position him to replace his father, observers say, though passing the religious mantle within a family would be unprecedented in Shi ite custom. Top contenders to replace Sistani in Najaf include three other marjas but they are old and there is no clear front-runner, according to clerical sources and Iraqi officials.  Nothing is fixed to make a decision for this procedure,  said Sheikh Ali Najafi, son of one of the top Najaf marjas.  While in Iraq, Shahroudi visited prime minister Haidar al Abadi in Baghdad. Iraqi officials said Sistani refused to see him in Najaf, but they do not expect the Iranians to give up.

Summary: ईरान इराक में शियाओं के नेतृत्व के लिए इच्छुक है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States was making progress on the North Korean issue, ahead of an expected sanctions announcement by Washington over Pyongyang s ballistic and nuclear weapons program.  I think we re making a lot of progress in a lot of ways,  Trump said before going into a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के मुद्दे पर अमेरिका बहुत प्रगति कर रहा हैः ट्रम्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said on Friday she was reassured during meetings with President Donald Trump’s administration that it was committed to full implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. In her first visit to Washington since Trump took power, Mogherini came to present the European Union as a valuable friend to the United States with common priorities. In a nod to Trump’s preferred style of diplomacy, she said that the European Union could adopt a more formal “transactional approach” on some issues to appeal to the new administration. Mogherini, who met this week with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Trump’s advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner and members of Congress, said her main intention in Washington was to discuss the nuclear accord, which granted Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Her visit suggests concern among European and other countries, including Russia and China, that the Trump administration may withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal. There have been increasing concerns since the White House put Iran “on notice” for test-firing a ballistic missile. Days later, Washington tightened sanctions against Iran by imposing measures against 25 individuals and entities for the missile test.  “I was reassured by what I heard in the meetings on the intention to stick to the full implementation of the agreement,” Mogherini told reporters. Mogherini said she won assurances from members of the Trump administration that they believe Russia should abide by the terms of the 2015 Minsk agreement to end fighting in eastern Ukraine. Mogherini said she and Tillerson discussed how the Minsk agreement might be fully implemented. But Mogherini also signaled doubt about Trump’s commitment to U.S. policy towards Russia. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have expressed concern that Trump will be too conciliatory towards Moscow, perhaps by granting Russia relief from sanctions on its energy, defense and finance industries. “We agreed that as long as the Minsk agreements are not fully implemented, sanctions would remain in place,” Mogherini said later on Friday at a Washington think tank. “But I don’t know if this is going to be the consolidated policy ... I was not in the Oval Office when President Trump called President (Vladimir) Putin.” Mogherini avoided directly criticizing Trump, but said European history showed that blocking the movement of people is doomed to fail.  Trump has vowed to build a wall along the U.S. southern border to block illegal immigration from Mexico. He has also issued an executive order barring people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except refugees from Syria, who are banned indefinitely.   “We tend to celebrate when walls come down,” Mogherini said. “America has always been great because it has been made up of many people coming from different places.”

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के मोघेरिनीः अमेरिका ने कहा कि वह ईरान परमाणु समझौते को पूरी तरह से लागू करेगा


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would not call a general election after a citizenship crisis claimed another member of parliament on Saturday, leaving his government clinging to power with the support of two independents. Australia s constitution bars dual nationals from parliament, and Turnbull s centre-right coalition government was thrown into disarray last month by a High Court ruling that five of them were ineligible to be lawmakers. Earlier on Saturday, Conservative Liberal party MP John Alexander told reporters in Sydney he was no longer certain that he was solely Australian, and that meant he had to resign. Turnbull will deal with issues such as a no-confidence motion when they arise, he told a televised news conference in Vietnam s central city of Danang, where he is attending a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.   We have the support of the crossbench on matters of confidence and supply. There is no question of that happening,  Turnbull added, ruling out the possibility of a no-confidence motion.  His centre-right coalition government must rely on the two independents to vote with it to safeguard its position and block the passage of legislation it opposes. Turnbull said he expected a Dec. 2 by-election would return Barnaby Joyce both to parliament and to his former position as deputy prime minister, thus bolstering the government. He ruled out an early return to Australia following Alexander s resignation.  It is my obligation that I must resign,  Alexander told a news conference.  That s what I will do. I think there is a great need for certainty, to clarify the situation and to do so as expeditiously as possible.  Alexander had been waiting for Britain s Home Office to clarify whether he held British citizenship by descent. It is not known whether they responded. He would have to confirm sole Australian citizenship before fighting a by-election to regain his seat. Alexander said he planned to contest the by-election which The Sydney Morning Herald said must be announced no later than Monday, to allow the minimum 33-day campaign required to hold the poll on December 16. Only the two independents now guarantee Turnbull s position after the High Court ruling expelled three members of the Liberal-National coalition government from parliament, with a fourth resigning days later, after confirming his dual nationality.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलियाई सांसद ने दोहरी नागरिकता को लेकर दिया इस्तीफा, सरकार को लगा नया झटका


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia rejected on Tuesday a report by an international inquiry blaming the Syrian government for a deadly toxic gas attack, casting doubt on whether the U.N. Security Council can agree to extend the investigation s mandate before it expires next week. Russia vetoed an initial U.S. bid to renew the joint  inquiry by the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Oct. 24, saying it wanted to wait for the release of the investigation s report two days later. It has since proposed its own rival draft resolution, which deputy Russian U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said on Tuesday aimed to enhance the effectiveness of the inquiry and correct  errors and systemic problems.   Without a comprehensive change it will become a tool to settle accounts with the Syrian authorities,  Safronkov told the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday during a meeting on the report by the U.N./OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM). The report found the Syrian government was responsible for an April 4 attack using the banned nerve agent sarin in the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing dozens of people. The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons. The chemical weapons attack prompted a U.S. missile strike just days later against a Syrian air base.  Russia is trying to shoot the messenger to cover up for the crimes of the Syrian regime,  Deputy British U.N. Ambassador Jonathan Allen told the Security Council. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said there could be no higher priority for the Security Council than renewing the JIM mandate. Diplomats said the United States had amended its draft resolution in a bid to win Russian support.  Anyone who prevents us from achieving this goal is aiding and abetting those who have been using chemical weapons,  Haley said.  They are helping to ensure, not just that more women and children will die, but that those women and children will die in one of the cruelest, most painful ways possible.  A resolution must get nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France to pass. Allen told reporters the Russian draft resolution  has very little if any support in the council and no realistic prospects of success.  The JIM had previously found that Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State militants used mustard gas. Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र में, रूस ने सीरिया में जहरीली गैस हमलों की जांच की निंदा की


(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will name former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue as his nominee for secretary of agriculture on Thursday, a senior transition official said on Wednesday. Here is a list of Republican Trump’s selections for top jobs in his administration.  NOTE: Senate confirmation is required for all the posts except national security adviser and White House posts. Tillerson, 64, has spent his entire career at Exxon Mobil Corp, where he rose to chairman and chief executive officer in 2006. A civil engineer by training, the Texan joined the world’s largest publicly traded energy company in 1975 and led several of its operations in the United States as well as in Yemen, Thailand and Russia. As Exxon’s chief executive, he maintained close ties with Moscow and opposed U.S. sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Crimea. Mnuchin, 54, is a successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc before leaving the investment bank in 2002. He assembled an investor group to buy a failed California mortgage lender in 2009, rebranded it as OneWest Bank and built it into Southern California’s largest bank. Housing advocacy groups criticized OneWest for its foreclosure practices, accusing it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling homeowners. Mattis is a retired Marine general known for his tough talk, distrust of Iran and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, Mattis, 66, is known by many U.S. forces by his nickname, “Mad Dog.” He was rebuked in 2005 for saying: “It’s fun to shoot some people.” Sessions, 70, was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s presidential bid and has been a close ally since. Son of a country store owner, the lawmaker from Alabama and former federal prosecutor has long taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, opposing any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Coats, 73, served as U.S. senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017, and was U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005. He previously served as U.S. representative from Indiana’s 4th Congressional District. Zinke, 55, a first-term Republican U.S. representative from Montana and a member of the House subcommittee on natural resources, has voted for legislation that would weaken environmental safeguards on public lands. He has taken stances favoring the coal industry, which suffered during the Obama administration. The League of Conservation Voters, which ranks lawmakers on their environmental record, gave Zinke an extremely low lifetime score of 3 percent. Ross, 79, heads the private equity firm WL Ross & Co. Forbes has pegged his net worth at about $2.9 billion. A staunch supporter of Trump, Ross helped shape the Trump campaign’s views on trade policy. He blames massive U.S. factory job losses on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, which went into force in 1994, and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization.      Lighthizer, 69, served as deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration in the 1980s and has since spent nearly three decades as a lawyer representing U.S. companies in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases, currently with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. A harsh critic of China’s trade practices, Lighthizer in 2010 told Congress that U.S. policymakers should take a more aggressive approach in dealing with the Asian country. Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants Inc [APOLOT.UL], which runs the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains, has been a vociferous critic of government regulation of the workplace and the National Labor Relations Board. Puzder, 66, has argued that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close and praises the benefits of automation, so his appointment is likely to antagonize organized labor.  U.S. Representative Price, 62, is an orthopedic surgeon who heads the House Budget Committee. A representative from Georgia since 2005, Price has criticized Obamacare and has championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts and lawsuit reforms to replace it. He is against abortion. Former Georgia Governor Perdue, 70, served on Trump’s agricultural advisory committee during the campaign. Perdue, a Republican, was elected to two terms as governor, serving from 2003 to 2011. Before that, he served in the state Senate representing a rural swath of the state about 100 miles (160 km) south of Atlanta. After finishing his second term as governor, Perdue founded Perdue Partners, a global trading firm that consults and provides services for companies looking to export products. Shulkin, 57, currently is under secretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, putting him in charge of the country’s largest healthcare system. Shulkin, a physician, was chosen by Democratic President Barack Obama for the under secretary post in 2015. He has spearheaded an effort to cut waiting times for care at VA medical centers. Trump promised during the campaign to improve medical care for veterans. Shulkin would be the first VA secretary who had not served in the military. Carson, 65, is a retired neurosurgeon who dropped out of the Republican presidential nominating race in March and threw his support to Trump. A popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, Carson had been reluctant to take a position in the incoming administration because of his lack of experience in the federal government. He is the first African-American picked for a Cabinet spot by Trump. Chao, 63, was labor secretary under President George W. Bush for eight years and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. She is a director at Ingersoll Rand Plc, News Corp and Vulcan Materials Co. She is married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. Perry, 66, is an addition to the list of oil drilling advocates skeptical about climate change who have been picked for senior positions in Trump’s Cabinet. The selections have worried environmentalists but cheered an oil and gas industry eager for expansion. Perry, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and also briefly ran for president in 2016, would be responsible for U.S. energy policy and oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons program.  DeVos, 59, is a billionaire Republican donor, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and an advocate for the privatization of education. As chair of the American Federation for Children, she has pushed at the state level for vouchers that families can use to send their children to private schools and for expansion of charter schools. The final leadership role of Kelly’s 45-year military career was head of the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 66-year-old retired Marine general differed with Obama on key issues and has warned of vulnerabilities along the United States’ southern border with Mexico. Priebus recently was re-elected to serve as Republican National Committee chairman but will give up that job to join Trump in the White House, where the low-key Washington operative could help forge ties with Congress to advance Trump’s agenda. Priebus, 44, was a steadfast supporter of Trump during the presidential campaign even as the party fractured amid the choice. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: SCOTT PRUITT An ardent opponent of Obama’s measures to stem climate change, Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt, 48, has enraged environmental activists. But he fits in with the president-elect’s promise to cut the agency back and eliminate regulation that he says is stifling oil and gas drilling. Pruitt became the top state prosecutor for Oklahoma, which has extensive oil reserves, in 2011 and has challenged the EPA multiple times since. U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney, 49, a South Carolina Republican, is a fiscal conservative. He was an outspoken critic of former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who resigned in 2015 amid opposition from fellow Republicans who were members of the House Freedom Caucus. Mulvaney was first elected to Congress in 2010. Haley, 44, has been the Republican governor of South Carolina since 2011 and has little experience in foreign policy or the federal government. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she led a successful push last year to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol after the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston by a white gunman. McMahon, 68, is a co-founder and former chief executive of the professional wrestling franchise WWE, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012 and was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign. U.S. Representative Pompeo, 53, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency and cyber security. A retired Army officer and Harvard Law School graduate, Pompeo supports the U.S. government’s sweeping collection of Americans’ communications data and wants to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. Walter “Jay” Clayton is a New York-based attorney who advises clients on major Wall Street deals, specializing in public and private mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising efforts. His past clients have included Alibaba Group Holding Company, Oaktree Capital Group and big banks.    Retired Lieutenant General Flynn, 58, was an early Trump supporter and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. He began his Army career in 1981 and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 under Obama but retired a year earlier than expected, according to media reports, and became a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign policy. Tom Bossert, 41, who worked as deputy homeland security adviser to former President George W. Bush, will serve as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. He currently runs a risk management consulting firm and has a cyber risk fellowship with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. Cohn, 56, president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, had widely been considered heir apparent to Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of the Wall Street firm. Trump hammered Goldman and Blankfein during the presidential campaign, releasing a television ad that called Blankfein part of a “global power structure” that had robbed America’s working class. Navarro, 67, has suggested a stepped-up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. A professor at the University of California, Irvine, who advised Trump during the campaign, Navarro argued that Washington should stop referring to the “one China” policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei: “There is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda.” Viola, 60, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a U.S. Army veteran who served in the famed 101st Airborne Division. He founded high-frequency trading firm Virtu Financial Inc and served as chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where he began his financial services career. After the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, Viola helped found the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. He is an owner of the Florida Panthers ice hockey team. CHIEF WHITE HOUSE STRATEGIST, SENIOR COUNSELOR: STEVE BANNON The former head of the conservative website Breitbart News came aboard as Trump’s campaign chairman in August. A rabble-rousing conservative media figure, he helped shift Breitbart into a forum for the alt-right, a loose confederation of those who reject mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. His hiring signals Trump’s dedication to operating outside the norms of Washington. As White House chief of staff, Bannon, 63, will serve as Trump’s gatekeeper and agenda-setter.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रंप ने अपने प्रशासन के लिए शीर्ष पदों को भरा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice to lead an important health agency said on Thursday that the way pharmaceutical companies classify products as generic or branded needs to be reviewed in order to help hold down government spending, as she cited Mylan NV’s EpiPen emergency allergy treatment.  Seema Verma, Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), did not answer questions about whether the U.S. government should negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. “I think what happened with ... the EpiPen issue is very disturbing,” Verma said at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. “The idea that perhaps Medicaid programs, which are struggling to pay for those programs, that they could have potentially received rebates is disturbing to me.”  Mylan has been criticized for listing EpiPen with Medicaid as a generic product even though it listed it with the Food and Drug Administration as a branded product. The classification led to Mylan’s paying significantly smaller rebates to the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor than if EpiPen were classified as branded. “I would like to review the processes in place there, in terms of the classifications, in terms of brand and generic, to ensure that type of thing doesn’t happen again,” Verma said. CMS said last year that it had “expressly advised” Mylan that the drugmaker had improperly classified EpiPen. Mylan said last month that U.S. antitrust authorities had launched an investigation into EpiPen. The company said suggestions it took any inappropriate or unlawful actions to prevent generic competition was “without merit.” Mylan has also come under fire for raising the price of a two-pack of EpiPens to $600 last summer from $100 in 2008. Mylan began selling a generic version of EpiPen for $300 per two-pack in December. Verma also said she would produce records of communication between the agency and Mylan, when questioned by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. A statement from Grassley’s office said Mylan had overcharged states and taxpayers by “potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.”  Democrats were not pleased with Verma’s sidestepping a question from Senator Debbie Stabenow about whether she agreed with Trump that the government should negotiate with drug companies over prices of drugs covered by the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly and disabled. “I don’t think that’s a simple yes or no answer,” Verma said. “The goal is to make sure that we’re getting affordable prices for our seniors.”

Summary: स्वास्थ्य एजेंसी का नेतृत्व करने के लिए ट्रम्प के चयन ने एपिपेन मुद्दे को 'परेशान करने वाला' बताया


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday while on a trip to Puerto Rico to observe hurricane recovery efforts that the island s massive debt will have to be wiped out.  They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we re going to have to wipe that out. You re going to say goodbye to that, I don t know if it s Goldman Sachs but whoever it is you can wave goodbye to that,  Trump said in an interview with Fox News. Puerto Rico, which earlier this year filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. municipal history, is struggling to regain economic stability in the face of a $72 billion debt load and near-insolvent public health and pension systems.

Summary: ट्रम्प का कहना है कि प्यूर्टो रिको के कर्ज को मिटाना होगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director Robert Mueller has been cleared by U.S. Department of Justice ethics experts to oversee an  investigation into possible collusion between then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russia, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.  The department appointed Mueller special counsel last week to ensure an independent probe, but an ethics rule limiting government attorneys from investigating people their former law firm represented raised questions over how Mueller would be allowed to operate. Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, represents President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who met with a Russian bank executive in December, and the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is a subject of a federal investigation. Kushner is now a White House adviser. Manafort quit the campaign last August, months before the Nov. 8 election. “Under the Rules of Professional Responsibility, Mr. Mueller is permitted to participate in matters involving his former firm’s clients so long as he has no confidential information about the client and did not participate in the representation,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. Although Mueller has now been cleared by the Justice Department, the White House may still use his former law firm’s connection to Manafort and Kushner to undermine the findings of his investigation, according to two sources close to the White House.

Summary: अमेरिकी नैतिकता विशेषज्ञों ने रूस की जांच का नेतृत्व करने के लिए मुलर को मंजूरी दी


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German explosives experts defused a massive World War Two bomb in the financial capital of Frankfurt on Sunday after tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes. The compulsory evacuation of 60,000 people was Germany s biggest such maneuver since the war, with more than a thousand emergency service workers helping to clear the area around the bomb, which was discovered on a building site last week.  The evacuation area included two hospitals, care homes, the Opera House and Germany s central bank, the Bundesbank, where $70 billion in gold reserves are stored underground. Police maintained security at the building. The all-day effort took longer than planned but officials expressed relief that residents would start returning home before sundown and that the operation wouldn t disrupt business on Monday. The work by bomb technicians started later than scheduled because some residents refused to leave the evacuation area despite fire chiefs warning that an uncontrolled explosion would be big enough to flatten a city block. Police said they took stragglers into custody to secure the area. More than 2,000 tonnes of live bombs and munitions are discovered each year in Germany, more than 70 years after the end of the war.  British and American warplanes pummeled the country with 1.5 million tonnes of bombs that killed 600,000 people. Officials estimate that 15 percent of the bombs failed to explode, some burrowing six meters (20 feet) deep. Residents were instructed to leave their homes by 8 a.m. local time [0600 GMT], and more than a thousand emergency service workers helped to clear the area. Police set up cordons at a 1.5 km (roughly a mile) radius around the device.  Many residents left town. Others spent time in cafes on the edge of the evacuation zone. Museums were free, and many hotels offered discounts. The city set up a temporary shelter at Frankfurt s trade fair site, serving bananas and beverages.   The device was found last week in the city s leafy Westend neighborhood, home to many wealthy bankers.  Premature babies and intensive care patients had to be evacuated along with everyone else from two hospitals and rescue workers helped about 500 elderly people leave residences and care homes. Bomb disposal experts used a special system to try and unscrew the fuses attached to the HC 4,000 bomb from a safe distance. If that had failed, a water jet would have been used to cut the fuses. The bomb was dropped by Britain s Royal Air Force during the 1939-45 war, city officials said.  In July, a kindergarten was evacuated after teachers discovered an unexploded World War Two bomb on a shelf among some toys. Three police explosives experts in Goettingen were killed in 2010 while preparing to defuse a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb.

Summary: फ्रैंकफर्ट ने 60,000 लोगों को निकालने के बाद बड़े पैमाने पर द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध के बम को निष्क्रिय कर दिया


HONOLULU (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will deliver a farewell address on Jan. 10 to reflect on his time in office and say thank you to his supporters, he said in an email statement released on Monday. Obama, noting that the first president of the United States, George Washington, had penned a farewell address in 1796, said he would deliver his speech in his hometown of Chicago.   “I’m thinking about (the remarks) as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here,” he said. Republican Donald Trump will be sworn in to office on Jan. 20. During his campaign for the White House, Trump pledged to undo many of Obama’s signature policy measures, including his healthcare law. Obama, who campaigned hard for Trump’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, has sought to ensure a smooth transition of power despite major policy differences with his successor. He also leaves his party without a clear figurehead as he leaves the White House. “Since 2009, we’ve faced our fair share of challenges, and come through them stronger,” Obama said in the email, likely foreshadowing a theme for his speech. “That’s because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding - our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better.”

Summary: ओबामा 10 जनवरी को शिकागो में विदाई भाषण देंगे


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday that Russia was closely monitoring any signals from the team of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump regarding its future foreign policy, RIA news agency reported. Trump is expected to name Rex Tillerson, chief executive of Exxon Mobil XOM.N, as Washington’s top diplomat, a source familiar with the situation said on Saturday. The appointment would add another figure in Trump’s cabinet with close ties to Russia.

Summary: रूस का कहना है कि वह ट्रम्प की टीम के संकेतों की बारीकी से निगरानी कर रहा हैः आर. आई. ए.


HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuela s former ambassador to the United Nations, Rafael Ramirez, has left the United States after being forced to resign by President Nicolas Maduro s government, according to a source with knowledge of his travel plan. Ramirez, who for more than a decade ran OPEC member Venezuela s massive oil industry, said earlier on Tuesday he was removed because of his opinions.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र में वेनेजुएला के पूर्व राजदूत ने संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका छोड़ दियाः स्रोत


KOSAMBI, Indonesia (Reuters) - Two explosions tore through a fireworks factory on the outskirts of Indonesia s capital on Thursday, killing at least 47 people and injuring dozens. It was one of Indonesia s worst industrial disasters and is likely to cast a new spotlight on lax safety standards in the Southeast Asian country, where rules are often ignored or weakly enforced. Workers had no time to escape from the plant in Tangerang, an industrial and manufacturing hub to the west of Jakarta, after the explosions that one neighbor described as a  roar  that could be heard miles away. A video of the scene inside the warehouse, widely shared on social media, showed charred bodies sprawled about the burnt-out factory, and Reuters reporters at the scene saw grass scorched over an area about 10 meters (33 feet) from the site.  People were burned so badly you couldn t see their faces ... It was really bad,  said search and rescue official Deden Nurjaman, who expected the death toll to climb as more bodies were found inside the factory. Fireworks are frequently used in Indonesia for religious and other celebrations, and are widely available. There have been a series of major fires in Indonesia this year, including one that engulfed one of Jakarta s main markets. Thick, dark plumes of smoke billowed from the factory through the afternoon as an inferno took hold. As night fell, the PT Panca Buana Cahaya Sukses warehouse was still smoldering and there was a stench of chemicals and burning plastic. Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono told Metro Television that 47 bodies had been discovered, 46 people were injured and 10 people were unaccounted for. He said the missing might have left with light injuries or not have been working at the time. One of the first policemen on the scene, Raymond Masengi, told Metro TV that he and other officers had to smash holes in the factory wall to help the injured escape. Fiza, a doctor in the emergency unit at Tangerang General Hospital, said he was treating seven people, some of them with burns to more than 80 percent of their bodies. Three were in critical condition. A nearby mosque held prayers for the victims. Forensic police worked in fading light to examine the debris, setting up a few floodlights to try and establish the cause of the blaze.  Yuwono said police were looking into the permit of the factory, which was close to a school and housing and - according to media reports - had been operating for only two months.     A witness who lives around the corner from the factory said she heard an explosion  like a roar .  I dressed and stepped outside the house, and saw the flames, they were almost in my face. The smoke, the heat was in my face. I panicked, I was scared, I picked up my son and ran away from the fire,  said Kartini, 40, who uses one name, like many Indonesians. Hundreds of children at a school just 100 meters (yards) from the factory jumped in terror over a wall as the explosions boomed, dropping books and bags in their haste to get away.  Science teacher Asep Mahmud, 47, said:  There were several small explosions and then one really big one that shook our buildings and desks.   (This story has been refiled to correct typo in second paragraph)

Summary: इंडोनेशिया के पटाखा कारखाने में विस्फोट, दर्जनों लोगों की मौत


SYDNEY (Reuters) - A ninth Australian lawmaker quit parliament on Wednesday after discovering she was a dual national, the latest casualty in a widening constitutional crisis that has already cost the government its majority. The resignation of Skye Kakoschke-Moore, one of three senators in the center-right Nick Xenophon Team, over the surprise revelation that she was a British citizen by descent, does not affect the government s position in the upper house.  Their advice was extremely surprising to me,  Kakoschke-Moore told reporters in Adelaide, after having learnt from  Britain s Home Office that her mother s birth in then-colonial Singapore in 1957 made her British by descent. Australia s 116-year-old constitution bans dual citizens  from holding national office, in a bid to prevent split allegiances. The crisis, which is likely to ripple even wider in coming weeks as lawmakers are required to prove their status, has already cut a swath through Australia s parliament. The ruling center-right coalition lost its one-seat majority in the lower house after Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was found ineligible for office and expelled by the High Court. Another resignation has since weakened it further. Adherence to the dual-citizenship rule, in a country where more than half the population of 24 million were either themselves, or have a parent, born overseas, has only recently come under the spotlight, with the High Court adopting a strict interpretation of the law. In response, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered all lawmakers to prove they comply with the laws by Dec. 5, and at least one lawmaker besides those who have quit has raised the possibility that she is ineligible. Senate votes from 2016 will be recounted to decide on a replacement for Kakoschke-Moore. By-elections set for Dec. 2 and Dec. 16, to replace Joyce and a lower-house government lawmaker who resigned on discovering he was British, are shaping as crucial for the government s survival. Joyce is expected to retain his seat, internal party polling published by the Australian newspaper showed, but former tennis champion John Alexander must contend with a high-profile rival in former New South Wales state Premier Kristina Keneally. The government would be reduced to minority rule if Alexander lost, forcing it to depend on a handful of independent lawmakers to retain power and pass laws.

Summary: नागरिकता संकट बढ़ने पर ऑस्ट्रेलिया के नौवें सांसद ने दिया इस्तीफा


FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump laid out a U.S. military policy on Tuesday that would avoid interventions in foreign conflicts and instead focus heavily on defeating the Islamic State militancy. In the latest stop on a “thank you” tour of states critical to his Nov. 8 election win, Trump introduced his choice for defense secretary, General James Mattis, to a large crowd in this city near the Fort Bragg military base, which has deployed soldiers to 90 countries around the world. “We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with,” Trump said. “Instead, our focus must be on defeating terrorism and destroying ISIS, and we will.” Trump’s rhetoric was similar to what he said during the election campaign when he railed against the war in Iraq. In Fayetteville, he vowed a strong rebuilding of the U.S. military, which he suggested has been stretched too thin. Instead of investing in wars, he said, he would spend money to build up America’s aging roads, bridges and airports. Even so, Trump said he wants to boost spending on the military. To help pay for his buildup, Trump pledged to seek congressional approval for lifting caps on defense spending that were part of “sequestration” legislation that imposed cut spending across the board. “We don’t want to have a depleted military because we’re all over the place fighting in areas that we shouldn’t be fighting in. It’s not going to be depleted any longer,” he said. Trump said any nation that shares these goals will be considered a U.S. partner. “We don’t forget. We want to strengthen old friendships and seek out new friendships,” he said. He said the policy of “intervention and chaos” must come to an end. While U.S. armed forces are deployed in far-flung places around the globe, they are only involved currently in active combat in the Middle East, specifically Iraq and Syria for the most part. “We will build up our military not as an act of aggression, but as an act of prevention,” he said. “In short, we seek peace through strength.” Trump described Mattis as the right person for the job and urged Congress to approve a waiver to let him take on the civilian position. Under U.S. law a military leader must be retired for seven years before becoming eligible to become defense secretary. Speaking to the crowed, Mattis said, “I look forward to being the civilian leader as long as the Congress gives me the waiver and the Senate votes to consent.” “We’re going to get you that waiver,” Trump said, returning to the microphone. “If you don’t get that waiver there are going to be a lot of angry people.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने गैर-हस्तक्षेपवादी अमेरिकी सैन्य नीति निर्धारित की


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was set to win an election in Prime Minister Narendra Modi s home state on Monday, the vote count showed, but with a reduced margin, which will be a boost for the opposition. A combined opposition led by the Congress party had mounted a tough challenge in the western state of Gujarat, hoping to weaken Modi in his home base by exploiting discontent over a lack of jobs and a national sales tax that hit business. The BJP won more than 100 seats in the 182-member state assembly, projections by India Today, CNN News18 and TimesNow showed. A party needs 92 seats to rule the state. Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, who formally took over as party president at the weekend, was set to win more than 70 seats, far better than it had done in the past. A relieved BJP said Modi s popularity remained intact.  There is no other leader close,  said Shyam Jaju, party vice president.  The mood in the BJP headquarters in New Delhi and in Gujarat s main city Ahmedabad was initially tense as early trends showed a close fight.  But later workers gathered to shout slogans and cheer victory.  Modi s party was also ahead in Himachal Pradesh, the Himalayan state in the north also voting for a new state assembly. Modi faces a general election in 2019, but before then, the opposition aims to slow down Modi s momentum in state elections, with two more next year. Businesses across India have been struggling with the poor implementation of a goods and services tax that aims to harmonize an array of state and federal taxes but entangled them in cumbersome procedures. Modi s shock ban of high-value currency notes in November last year, as part of his fight against corruption, also disrupted small business that forms the bedrock of his support base. Indian stock markets opened weaker, with the 50-share NSE index down almost 2 percent as early trends showed a close contest in Gujarat.  But stocks reversed the losses later - the 50-share NSE index was trading up 0.7 percent at 0455 GMT. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 64.32/33 to the dollar versus its previous close of 64.04. The rupee had dropped to a low of 64.74 in early trade. Almost all pre-vote and exit polls had predicted a comfortable victory, but the polls have often gone wrong in the past. To ensure his party s prospects, Modi addressed dozens of rallies during his campaign in Gujarat, performed rituals and even waved from a seaplane on his last day on the campaign trail.  If they had lost Gujarat, the BJP would have collapsed like a pack of cards,  said Congress member Sharmistha Mukherjee.  This is their citadel, they threw everything at it.   In the Congress party office in Ahmedabad, posters of Rahul Gandhi were being pasted on the wall.   Rahul Gandhi s hard work has paid off in the state and it proves that Modi s governance is not making anyone happy,  said a Congress leader, Shaktisinh Gohil.

Summary: भारत की सत्तारूढ़ पार्टी ने कड़ी प्रतिस्पर्धा के बाद मोदी राज्य में चुनाव में बढ़त बना ली है।


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China s foreign minister on Thursday called on North Korea not to go further in a  dangerous direction  with its nuclear program and said negotiations were the only way out of the crisis over Pyongyang s weapons development. Wang Yi also told the annual U.N. General Assembly China was committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and there should be no new nuclear weapons north or south of the border, or elsewhere in Northeast Asia. He urged the United States to honor its  four  no  commitment,  an apparent reference to an Aug. 1 statement by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in which he said Washington did not seek the collapse or change of the North Korean government, accelerated reunification of the peninsula, or to send its military north of the border.  We urge the DPRK not to go further along a dangerous direction,  Wang said, referring to North Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea.  And we call upon all parties to play a constructive role in easing tensions. There is still hope for peace and we must not give up. Negotiation is the only way out, which deserves every effort. Parties should meet each other half way, by addressing each other s legitimate concerns.  Wang made no mention in his speech of U.S. President Donald Trump s announcement of new sanctions on Thursday that open the door wider to blacklisting people and entities doing business with North Korea, including its shipping and trade networks. China, North Korea s main trading partner, has backed successive rounds of United Nations sanctions over North Korean nuclear bomb tests, but has repeatedly said it is opposed to unilateral sanctions and especially  long-arm jurisdiction  over Chinese entities and individuals.

Summary: चीन ने उत्तर कोरिया से 'खतरनाक दिशा' में आगे नहीं बढ़ने का आग्रह किया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump to crack down on illegal immigration will not undermine two data transfer agreements between the United States and the EU, Washington wrote in a letter to allay European concerns. An executive order signed by Trump on Jan. 25 aiming to toughen enforcement of U.S. immigration law rattled the European Union as it appeared to suggest Europeans would not be given the same privacy protections as U.S. citizens. The order directs U.S. agencies to “exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information.” Securing equal treatment of EU citizens was key to agreeing the Umbrella Agreement which protects law enforcement data shared between the United States and the EU.  And the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield - which makes possible about $260 billion of trade in digital services - was only clinched after Washington agreed to protect the data from excessive surveillance and misuse by companies. In the first written confirmation since the executive order stoked uncertainty over transatlantic data flows, the U.S. Department of Justice said the executive order did not affect either the Umbrella Agreement or the Privacy Shield. “Section 14 of the Executive Order does not affect the privacy rights extended by the Judicial Redress Act to Europeans. Nor does Section 14 affect the commitments the United States has made under the DPPA (Umbrella Agreement) or the Privacy Shield,” Bruce Swartz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, wrote to the European Commission in a letter seen by Reuters. EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova, who will travel to the United States at the end of March, said she was “not worried” but remained vigilant. The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is used by almost 2,000 companies including Google (GOOGL.O), Facebook (FB.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) to store data about EU citizens on U.S. servers. Its predecessor was struck down in 2015 by the EU’s top court for allowing U.S. agents unfettered access to Europeans’ data, forcing an acceleration of difficult talks to find a replacement.

Summary: अमेरिका का कहना है कि ट्रम्प का आदेश यूरोपीय संघ के साथ डेटा हस्तांतरण सौदों को कमजोर नहीं करेगा


COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A 17-year-old Danish girl who offered to fight for Islamic State was found guilty on Friday of planning bomb attacks at two schools, one of them Jewish, state broadcaster DR reported. The High Court ruling upholds a ruling in the Holbaek district court in May that found the girl - who was not named - guilty of attempted terrorism. The girl was arrested at her home in January last year, when she was aged 15, and charged with planning the attacks after acquiring chemicals for making bombs.

Summary: डेनिश उच्च न्यायालय ने 17 वर्षीय लड़की को स्कूलों के खिलाफ बम हमलों की योजना बनाने का दोषी पाया-स्थानीय मीडिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation that would grant U.S. privacy rights to Europeans is being delayed in the U.S. Senate, which may complicate negotiations over a broader trans-Atlantic data transfer pact that faces a January deadline for completion, sources said on Wednesday. The Judicial Redress Act, which would allow citizens of European allied countries to sue over data privacy in the United States, is “likely to be held” from a scheduled vote on Thursday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, a panel aide said.  Passage of the legislation is viewed as an important step toward securing a new “Safe Harbor” framework after the previous one was struck down by a top European Union court last year amid concerns about U.S. surveillance. More than 4,000 firms, including tech behemoths such as Google and IBM, have been relying on the 15-year-old Safe Harbor framework to freely transfer data between the United States and Europe, which has far stricter rules on the privacy of personal information. But that deal was ruled invalid last October by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which cited revelations about U.S. mass surveillance by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. European Union data protection authorities have given Brussels and Washington until the end of January to strike a new Safe Harbor agreement for transferring personal data.  Industry executives are growing increasingly alarmed that the new Safe Harbor agreement will not be completed in time. The Information Technology Industry Council, a Washington-based trade organization that represents Apple, Microsoft and other major tech companies, sent some of its executives to Europe on Wednesday to press for a quick resolution. A spokesman for the organization, which warned of “enormous” consequences in a letter this week to President Barack Obama and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker if a pact is not forged soon, said its leaders are meeting with government and data protection authorities in several cities, including Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin and London, ahead of the deadline. EU privacy regulators are due to meet on Feb. 2 to decide if they should begin enforcement action against companies if they determine all transfer mechanisms violate EU law and there is no new framework in place.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसदों ने यूरोपीय डेटा गोपनीयता सौदे पर विधेयक में देरी की


KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Cyber attacks using malware called  BadRabbit  hit Russia and other nations on Tuesday, affecting Russian Interfax news agency and causing flight delays at Ukraine s Odessa airport. While no major outages were reported, the U.S. government issued a warning on the attack, which followed campaigns in May and June that used similar malware and resulted in what some economists estimated are billions of dollars in losses. The attacks are disturbing because attackers quickly infected critical infrastructure, including transportation operators, indicating it was a  well-coordinated  campaign, said  Robert Lipovsky, a researcher with cyber firm ESET. More than half the victims were in Russia, followed by Ukraine, Bulgaria, Turkey and Japan, according to ESET.  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on the BadRabbit ransomware, a type of virus that locks up infected computers and asks victims to pay a ransom to restore access. It did not identify any U.S. victims but advised the public to refrain from paying ransoms and report any infections to the Federal Bureau of Investigation through the government s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Ransomware infections have the potential to halt activity at targeted organizations. The May  WannaCry  ransomware shuttered hospitals, factories and other facilities around the globe for days.  Interfax, one of Russia s largest news agencies, said some of its services were hit by the attack but expected them to be back online by the end of Tuesday. An Odessa airport spokesman said a few flights were delayed because workers had to process passenger data manually. Kiev s metro system reported a hack on its payment system but said trains were running normally.  Ukraine s cyber police chief told Reuters the country was  barely affected.  Russian cyber-security firm Kaspersky Lab said BadRabbit appeared to spread through a mechanism similar to June s destructive NotPetya virus, which took down many Ukrainian government agencies and businesses. It then spread across corporate networks of multinationals with operations or suppliers in eastern Europe. Kaspersky said it was investigating to see whether BadRabbit was related to NotPetya.  Ukrainian banking services, which have been hit by previous attacks, were unaffected, according to the nation s central bank.

Summary: रूस और अन्य देशों में साइबर हमलों की नई लहर आई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile programs a “grave threat” to global peace, the White House said in a statement after a meeting of the two leaders on Monday. Trump and Modi pledged to work together to counter North Korea’s “weapons of mass destruction” programs and vowed to hold “all parties” that support these programs accountable, the White House statement said.

Summary: ट्रंप, मोदी ने उत्तर कोरिया को शांति के लिए 'गंभीर खतरा' बतायाः व्हाइट हाउस


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Most of an Islamic State evacuation convoy stuck in east Syria has crossed out of government territory and is no longer the responsibility of the Syrian government or its ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi ite group said on Saturday.  A U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State has been using warplanes to prevent the convoy from entering territory held by the jihadists in east Syria. Hezbollah and the Syrian army had escorted it from west Syria as part of a truce deal.   The Syrian state and Hezbollah have fulfilled their obligations to transfer buses out of the area of Syrian government control without exposing them,  the statement said.  Hezbollah said in a statement that the U.S.-led jets were still blocking the convoy of fighters and their families, which was stuck in the desert, and were also stopping any aid from reaching it.  Six buses remain in government-held territory under the protection and care of the Syrian state and Hezbollah, the statement said. There were originally 17 buses in the convoy.  Hezbollah said there were old people, casualties and pregnant women in the buses stranded outside Syrian government control in the desert and called on the international community to step in to prevent them coming to harm.  About 300 lightly armed fighters were traveling on the buses, having surrendered their enclave straddling Syria s border with Lebanon on Monday under a deal which allowed them to join their jihadist comrades on the other side of the country.  It angered both the U.S.-led coalition, which does not want more battle-hardened militants in an area where it is operating, and Iraq, which sees them as a threat because the convoy s proposed destination of Al-Bukamal is close to its own border. The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, helped by Russia and Iran-backed militias including Hezbollah, is fighting Islamic State as it pushes eastwards across the desert. A commander in the pro-Assad military alliance said earlier on Saturday that Hezbollah and the Syrian army were seeking an alternative way for the convoy to cross into Islamic State territory, having already tried two other routes.   Work is under way to change the course of the convoy for a second time,  the commander said.  The coalition has vowed to continue monitoring the convoy and disrupting any effort it makes to cross into jihadist territory but said it would not bomb it directly because it contains about 300 civilian family members of the fighters. It has asked Russia to tell the Syrian government that it will not allow the convoy to move further east towards the Iraqi border, according to a statement issued late on Friday.  On Wednesday, the coalition said its jets had cratered a road and destroyed a bridge to stop the convoy progressing, and had bombed some of the jihadists  comrades coming the other way to meet it.  Hezbollah and the Syrian army on Thursday changed the route of the convoy from Humeima, a hamlet deep in the southeast desert, to a location further north, but coalition jets again struck near that route, the commander said.   It was considered a threat, meaning there was no passage that way,  the commander said. On Friday coalition jets made mock air raids over the convoy, the commander added.   It caused panic among the Daeshis. The militants are scared the convoy will be bombarded as soon as it enters Deir al-Zor,  the commander said, using a plural form of the Arabic acronym for Islamic state to refer to its fighters.

Summary: हिज़्बुल्लाह का कहना है कि आईएस के काफिले का बड़ा हिस्सा सीरियाई सरकारी क्षेत्र छोड़ चुका है


ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece has won an appeal over objections from forestry officials to a major tourism project in Athens that forms part of its third international bailout, overcoming one of the obstacles to turning the site into one of Europe s biggest coastal resorts. The 8 billion euro ($9.39 billion) project to develop the disused Hellenikon airport site is being closely watched by Greece s European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders and potential investors in the crisis-hit country.  The project features prominently among privatization targets in the country s 86 billion euro aid package, the third since the crisis began in 2010. Greek developer Lamda signed a 99-year lease with the state in 2014 for the 620-hectare (1,530-acre) area, once the site of Athens airport. But the project has faced delays, partly over a long-running row between developers and those who fear it will destroy the environment. Forestry authorities in May declared 3.7 hectares (9 acres) of the estate as protected woodland, on a spot developers said was integral to the project. Greece s privatization agency, which is in charge of concluding the deal with Lamda, appealed the decision. A four-member panel of the country s forestry department ruled on Monday that the plot was not forest.  The agency s appeal ... was upheld by a 3-to-2 majority,  the committee s president, Christos Antonellis, told Reuters, adding that the decision was expected to be published by Wednesday. The decision is subject to appeal.   The privatization agency s chief, Lila Tsitsogiannopoulou, said the decision was  positive  and that the agency s appeal had strong legal grounds. Separately, the government s top advisory body on the protection of antiquities recommended on Tuesday that only 30 hectares (74 acres) of the 620-hectare plot under the project be declared an archaeological site, according to sources close to the process. Government officials said the decision was a  big step for the development of the investment, in line with Greek law and the protection of cultural heritage . Lamda was not immediately available for comment. The recommendation is not binding, but the culture ministry always respects the body s decisions. Backed by Chinese and Gulf investors, Lamda submitted its detailed development plan for Hellenikon in July.    The Central Archaeological Council was still discussing the issue and had yet to approve the investment plan, one of the sources said. The council has held three inconclusive meetings on this issue this month. [L8N1M7372] The Hellenikon project has become a major political issue in Greece, which is slowly emerging from a multi-year debt crisis.  Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose leftist party strongly opposed it before coming to power in 2015, is now seen as keen to implement the deal to help boost economic activity and reduce unemployment, the euro zone s highest.  ($1 = 0.8522 euro)

Summary: ग्रीस ने एथेंस तटीय रिसॉर्ट विकसित करने के लिए वानिकी बाधा को पार किया


GARNER, Iowa/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Farmers in the U.S. agricultural heartland that helped elect Donald Trump are now pushing his administration to avoid a trade dispute with Mexico, fearing retaliatory tariffs that could hit over $3 billion in U.S. exports. The value of exports at risk is based on a Reuters analysis of a tariff list which Mexico used in a trucking dispute six years ago and which Mexican officials have said could serve as a model if President Trump sets new barriers to Mexican goods.      Pork producers contacted Trump’s transition team soon after the Nov. 8 election to stress that tariff-free access to Mexico has made it their top export market by volume, said John Weber, president of the National Pork Producers Council. The council has sent the administration multiple letters, including one signed in January by 133 agricultural organizations, and is arranging for several hog farmers to fly to Washington next month to talk to officials. “We just keep pounding them on how critical trade is to us,” said Weber, who fears Mexico could revive the list of mostly agricultural products it successfully used to push Washington into letting Mexican truckers on U.S. highways in 2011.  Pork products topped that list and, if revived, the tariffs would apply to over $800 million of annual pork exports, according to data compiled by IHS Markit’s Global Trade Atlas. “We’ll be the first to take the hit,” Weber said.  The lobbying effort by U.S. businesses which rely on the Mexican market shows how Mexico can press its case in Washington despite having an economy 1/17 the size of America’s and relying on the U.S. market for nearly 80 percent if its exports. In Iowa, where pigs outnumber people seven to one, hog and grain farmer Jamie Schmidt voted for Trump in part on his promise to cut regulatory burdens for businesses. Now he and others who farm the flat, rich land around Garner, Iowa, worry about trade. Schmidt gets about half of his income from hogs, earning $4-5 for each of the 425 pigs he sells per week, usually to a Tyson Foods (TSN.N) packing plant in nearby Perry, Iowa.  Tariffs from Mexico could depress U.S. wholesale prices and wipe out his profits, Schmidt said. “It would be devastating.”  In December, after fears of a trade dispute fueled a deep peso MXN= slump, Mexico started mapping out U.S. states that are most reliant on its market, replicating the strategy it used in the trucking dispute, said two senior Mexican officials. Mexican officials also prepared briefs, seen by Reuters, on Mexico’s own risks in a dispute, including losing much of its cost advantage in building cars, such as the Ford Fusion (F.N) made in Hermosillo, Mexico.  Reuters could not verify a complete list of products and states Mexico considered targeting this time around. But the country’s foreign minister said last month tariffs could target Iowa, which raises a third of U.S. hogs and exports about a quarter of its pork production, $100 million of which went to Mexico last year. The minister also said tariffs could aim at Wisconsin, the center of U.S. cheese production, and has singled out Texas for its “notable” trade surplus with Mexico. All three states voted for Trump in the 2016 election, with the president taking Iowa and Wisconsin by slim margins. Trump has accused Mexico of destroying U.S. jobs and has vowed to leave the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico if he cannot renegotiate better terms with Mexico. United States went from running a small trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63 billion deficit in 2016. Besides pork, cheese was also a top target in the trucking dispute in which Mexico retaliated with tariffs against rules that banned its trucks from U.S. roads. Some $200 million in current annual exports of cheese would be targeted if the tariff list were revived, according to the IHS database, which the U.S. government uses to measure the impact of trade disputes. The full tariff list would apply to $3.25 billion in current U.S. exports. John Holevoet, the director of government affairs at Wisconsin’s Dairy Business Association, said he has attended multiple meetings with Wisconsin federal lawmakers this year where risks of Mexican trade were discussed. Weber of the pork producers group said he believed the Trump administration “gets it” when it comes to the vulnerability of U.S. farm exports. Republican Congressman Steve King, who represents Iowa’s agriculture-focused fourth district, also pointed out that Iowa’s role as the first state to hold presidential primaries helps keep farm interests in Washington’s view. But King told Reuters he was worried the White House is still not taking trade risks seriously enough.  A possible 20 percent tax on Mexican imports, which White House spokesman Sean Spicer has said could also pay for Trump’s proposed border wall, would cause a trade war, he said. King said he has been in contact with the White House on the matter but has yet to secure a one-on-one meeting with the president. “I’m making sure that here in Washington they know what this means.”

Summary: मेक्सिको व्यापार युद्ध से ट्रम्प को दूर रखने के लिए अमेरिकी फार्म हार्टलैंड लॉबी


(Reuters) - British police said they have released two men arrested as part of the investigation into last week s Tube attack in Parsons Green, London, which injured 30 people. A 21-year-old man arrested in Hounslow on Sept. 16 and a 48-year-old man arrested in Newport on Sept. 20 were released by the police with no further action, the police said in a statement on late Thursday. bit.ly/2hnqiem  We have four males in custody and searches are continuing at four addresses. Detectives are carrying out extensive inquiries to determine the full facts behind the attack,  the police said.  A home-made bomb went off on Sept. 15 during the morning rush hour on a packed underground Tube train at Parsons Green station, sending flames through the carriage, although it appeared that the device did not fully explode. It was the fifth major militant incident in Britain this year. The Islamic State militant group, which had said it was behind several attacks on Western cities in recent years, including two attacks in London and one in Manchester this year, claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

Summary: ब्रिटिश पुलिस ने पार्सन्स ग्रीन हमले की जांच में दो लोगों को रिहा किया


(Reuters) - The White House has assured the Renewable Fuels Association that any executive orders changing the U.S. Renewable Fuels Program would include measures to support use of ethanol and biodiesel, according to a source familiar with the discussions between the White House and the trade group. The source, who requested anonymity, said the group was told the executive order could include a long-awaited waiver that would allow E15 gasoline to be sold more easily during summertime months, a review of how the Environmental Protection Agency estimates emissions impacts of biofuels, and support for a congressional tax credit for domestic producers of biodiesel. A White House official did not respond to a request for comment.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के जैव ईंधन आदेश में इथेनॉल के लिए प्रोत्साहन शामिल होगाः सूत्र


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s wife was escorted off the floor of the Republican convention on Wednesday night as delegates booed her husband’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump in his speech to delegates. Republican Ken Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia and a supporter of Cruz, who finished a distant second to Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, told Reuters he escorted Heidi Cruz off the convention floor for her own safety.

Summary: टेड क्रूज़ की पत्नी को हूटिंग के बीच रिपब्लिकन कन्वेंशन फ्लोर से बाहर ले जाया गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Secret Service said on Saturday night an incident at a campaign event for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Reno, Nevada, began when someone shouted “gun” but no weapon was found. “Immediately in front of the stage, an unidentified individual shouted ‘gun.’ Secret Service agents and Reno Police Officers immediately apprehended the subject. Upon a thorough search of the subject and the surrounding area, no weapon was found,” the Secret Service said in a statement. “A thorough investigation is ongoing at this time by the U.S. Secret Service and the Reno Police Department,” it said.

Summary: सीक्रेट सर्विस का कहना है कि ट्रंप की घटना में कोई हथियार नहीं मिला


Washington (Reuters) - Republican senators trying to repeal Obamacare are forming  consensus to keep some of the U.S. healthcare law’s taxes they long criticized, in hopes of delaying more drastic funding cuts, particularly to the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled.  First proposed by moderate Republicans, the idea is gaining traction among party members, according to five sources involved in or briefed on internal discussions. While no final decisions have been made, a sense of urgency has increased as Republicans draft a replacement bill to former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law before Congress goes on recess on June 30. But keeping some of the taxes in the Senate bill risks alienating conservatives. On Tuesday, 45 conservative groups and activists sent a letter to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, urging the Senate to repeal all Obamacare taxes. One cornerstone tax that could remain is the net investment income tax, which imposes a 3.8 percent surtax on capital gains, dividends and interest, the sources said. The taxes most likely to be abolished directly impact consumers and the health industry, including a tax on health insurance premiums, the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost employer-provided insurance and the medical device tax. Another proposal being floated is to keep all the taxes from the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, but to scale them back. A group of 13 Republican senators led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not completed a full draft of the bill, but is sending pieces to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to assess the impact of various provisions. The CBO’s assessment will help determine which taxes the Senate needs in order to pay for its replacement bill. It is not clear whether McConnell, or more conservative party members such as Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Mike Lee of Utah, are receptive to keeping some of the taxes. “I think most of the taxes are going to go away,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate’s No. 3-ranking Republican, said on Tuesday. “Our members are still having a conversation about if we want to make changes that are in the end going to require some additional revenue.” Spokesmen for McConnell and Cruz declined to comment. A spokesman for Lee said he wants Republicans to abolish every tax that was included in a 2015 Obamacare repeal bill that Obama vetoed.  Since Obamacare became law in 2010, Republicans have campaigned on repealing the program that extended insurance coverage to 20 million additional Americans through both subsidized private insurance and an expansion of Medicaid. They have argued that the law is too costly and represents undue government interference in Americans’ healthcare. President Donald Trump promised to eliminate the law on his first day in office, but Republicans, who control the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate, have struggled to coalesce around a single plan. Under Senate rules, their bill must replicate the $133 billion in savings projected by preliminary legislation that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last month. That bill would end Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid in 2020, slash its federal funding by more than $800 billion over 10 years and eliminate most of the law’s taxes. Moderate Republican senators from states that expanded Medicaid, including Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Dean Heller of Nevada, have proposed phasing out the expansion over a seven-year period, from 2020 to 2027, to give state governors more time to cut program costs. That timeframe also prevents senators, who serve six-year terms, from having to run for re-election when Medicaid cuts have been implemented, two former Republican Senate aides said.  Some of Obamacare’s taxes could also be repealed later when Congress tackles new legislation overhauling the U.S. tax code, two current Senate aides said.  “There’s no question that the current debate is not centered on eliminating all the taxes in Obamacare right now,” Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said last week. Under a process called reconciliation, the bill needs at least 50 votes to pass, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote if needed. In an interview with Reuters last month, McConnell said he did not yet know how he would get enough votes for an Obamacare repeal. “Think of me with a Rubik’s cube, sitting there trying to think about what combination will get you to 50,” McConnell said.

Summary: सीनेट अमेरिकी स्वास्थ्य देखभाल में कुछ ओबामाकेयर करों को रख सकती है