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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has told Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and buildings in Washington and New York that house trade missions, the State Department said on Thursday, in retaliation for Moscow cutting the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia. The announcement was the latest in tit-for-tat measures between the two countries that have helped to drive relations to a new post-Cold War low, thwarting hopes on both sides that they might improve after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January. Last month, Moscow ordered the United States to cut its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia by more than half, to 455 people to match the number of Russian diplomats in the United States, after Congress overwhelmingly approved new sanctions against Russia. The sanctions were imposed in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and to punish Russia further for its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. “We believe this action was unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the United States had completed the reduction. “In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians,” Nauert said, the United States has required the Russian government to close its San Francisco consulate and two annexes in Washington, D.C. and New York by Sept. 2. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of the closures in a phone call on Thursday, a senior Trump administration official said. The two men plan to meet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September, the official said. Lavrov expressed regret about Washington’s decision during the phone call with Tillerson, his ministry said. “Moscow will closely study the new measures announced by the Americans, after which our reaction will be conveyed,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. The latest U.S. move caps eight months of back-and-forth retaliatory measures between the two countries spanning two U.S. administrations. In December, the administration of Barack Obama closed two Russian countryside vacation retreats in Maryland and New York, saying the compounds had been used for intelligence-related purposes. The closures were part of a broader response, including the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies, to what U.S. officials have called cyber interference by Moscow in the 2016 elections. The Kremlin has denied the allegations. Trump came into office wanting to improve relations with Russia, a desire that was hamstrung by the election interference allegations. The new sanctions passed by Congress conflicted with Trump’s goals, but he grudgingly signed them into law this month. The United States said last week that it would have to sharply scale back visa services in Russia, a move that will hit Russian business travelers, tourists and students. The Russian consulate in San Francisco handles work from seven states in the Western United States. There are three other Russian consulates separate from the embassy in Washington. They are in New York, Seattle and Houston. The consulate in San Francisco is the oldest and most established of Russia’s consulates in the United States, the senior Trump administration official told reporters. An official residence at the consulate will also be closed. No Russian diplomats are being expelled, and the diplomats assigned to San Francisco can be re-assigned to other posts in the United States, the official said. The Russians can continue to retain ownership of any of the closed facilities, or sell them, but will not be allowed to carry out diplomatic activities there, the official said. “Even after these closures, Russia will still maintain more diplomatic and consular annexes in the United States than we have in Russia,” the official said. “We’ve chosen to allow the Russian government to maintain some of its annexes in an effort to arrest the downward spiral in our relationship.”

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The shocking shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers have magnified the challenge that Hillary Clinton faces as she tries to reassure both voters jittery about social unrest and activists angry about law-enforcement abuses that she is on their side. For Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, the political concerns going forward are two-fold. She can’t afford to alienate black and progressive voters she needs to show up in large numbers in the November election by taking too strong a stand against the protests like those recently in Louisiana and Minnesota that resulted in hundreds of arrests. At the same time, Clinton can’t allow more moderate voters worried about the violent images on their TV screens to gravitate to her Republican rival, Donald Trump, who has attempted to use the tragedy in Dallas to argue that he is the better law-and-order candidate. Clinton herself recognizes the fine line she is trying to navigate. In remarks Friday following the Dallas sniper attack that left five officers dead, she acknowledged she was sending a mixed message in advocating for reform to curb police misconduct while at the same time praising the honor and bravery of police officers. “I know that, just by saying all these things together, I may upset some people,” Clinton said in Philadelphia. Polling by Reuters/Ipsos has revealed sharp differences in how Trump and Clinton’s supporters view the police when it comes to African-American suspects. Just 24 percent of Trump voters believe that black people are treated worse than whites compared to 55 percent of Clinton voters, according to a poll conducted between May 13 and June 7. African-Americans were also almost twice as likely as whites to describe the police as “too violent,” according to Reuters polling. The slain Dallas gunman, Micah Johnson, shot a dozen Dallas officers because he wanted to “kill white people,” authorities said. Prior to the attack, Clinton had tried to demonstrate her solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement after black men were killed by police in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “White people” need to start listening, she said, “to the legitimate cries that are coming from our African-American fellow citizens.” Clinton’s words were seized upon on Sunday by retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, a top contender to be Trump’s vice-presidential pick. Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, called Clinton’s comments “irresponsible” in an interview with ABC News because she “talked about white people being to blame.” Trump argued on Twitter Sunday that the United States is a “divided nation” due in part to the leadership of Clinton and President Barack Obama. Reports had him now strongly considering Flynn as a running mate in part because of Americans’ growing concerns over public safety. But Clinton has also had problems with black activists. Two Black Lives Matter advocates crashed a fundraiser in February, complaining about Clinton’s past comments about youth gangs. And in April, protesters sparred with her husband Bill Clinton, the former president, over the 1994 bill he signed into law that put non-violent offenders in prison for longer terms. Clinton has spoken at length about criminal-justice reform and scaling back gun rights, but still is viewed by many progressives, who have increasing sway in the party, as too centrist. Democrats, for example, are expected to formally call for the abolition of the death penalty for the first time at the party’s nominating convention later this month. While Clinton has been critical about racial bias in the application of capital punishment, she has come short of saying it should be done away with. Trump has argued the death penalty should be automatic for anyone found guilty of murdering a police officer. Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist in Florida, said he believes Clinton can find a message that can appease both moderates and liberals on the issue of police violence. “She can talk to the types of voters who strongly support their local law enforcement, but who also understand there are very troubling stories coming out of certain communities and real issues that need to be addressed,” he said. Clinton may be able to utilize Vice President Joe Biden, well-liked by law enforcement, as a surrogate to reach out to police groups. Clinton and Biden were scheduled to campaign together Friday, but the event was canceled in the wake of the Dallas incident. However, Biden, as a U.S. senator, was an advocate of the 1994 crime bill that’s now the object of scorn among black activists, underscoring the thorny politics of the issue within the party. Trump continues to enjoy the same kind of advantage among white voters that Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, held. The most recent Reuters tracking poll shows Trump leading Clinton among white likely voters by two points, while Trump trails Clinton among all likely voters by 13 points. That makes African-American turnout particularly critical for Clinton. In 2012, Romney won almost 60 percent of the white vote but still lost handily to Obama, who drove minorities to the polls in high numbers.

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TIMIKA, Indonesia (Reuters) - U.S. miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc is evacuating spouses and children of workers from its giant Indonesian copper mine after a string of shootings in the area raised security concerns. The move follows efforts by Indonesian authorities on Friday to evacuate villages near Freeport s Grasberg mine in the eastern province of Papua that authorities said had been occupied by armed separatists. Since August at least 12 people have been injured and two police officers have been killed by gunmen with suspected links to separatist rebels. Freeport has asked family and household members of its employees to prepare over the weekend for a temporary relocation from the mining town of Tembagapura, about 10 km (6.2 miles) from Grasberg, company sources said. Workers have been asked to stay behind and maintain their work schedule, they said. Details of the evacuation or the number of people impacted were not immediately clear. Shots were fired at a light vehicle and two large mining trucks were set on fire at Grasberg on Saturday, one of the sources said. The sources declined to be named as they were not authorized to talk to the media. Freeport in a statement on Saturday confirmed the evacuation plan and said it will be carried out immediately. We are working closely with government and law enforcement to ensure the safety of our people and those in the communities we support, and to bring about the return of peace and stability as soon as possible, it said. Grasberg is the world s second-largest copper mine by volume. The separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM) says it is at war with Indonesian authorities and wants to destroy Freeport in an effort to gain sovereignty for the region. TPN-OPM has claimed responsibility for the shootings but denies police allegations it took civilian hostages.

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Just as British ministers were hoping to win EU leaders’ support for their newly revealed Brexit plan, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson raised hackles by comparing any attempt to punish Britain to a World War Two escape movie. He was visiting New Delhi a day after Prime Minister Theresa May laid out the case for a “hard Brexit.” The wartime comment came as he answered a question on remarks made earlier by an aide to French President Francois Hollande who said Britain should not expect a better trading relationship with Europe once it had left. “If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings that anyone chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War Two movie, then I don’t think that’s the way forward,” Johnson answered. He was swiftly condemned by the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt who said on Twitter: “Yet more abhorrent & deeply unhelpful comments from @BorisJohnson which PM May should condemn.” But May’s spokeswoman played down the incident. “The Foreign Secretary was making a point about the risks of people approaching this in a punitive way. I certainly don’t accept the interpretation that some have put on it,” she said. “He was making a theatrical comparison to some of those evocative World War movies that people have seen. He was in no way suggesting that anyone was a Nazi.” In his prepared remarks to the Raisina Dialogue, a geopolitical conference hosted by the Indian foreign ministry and the Observer Research Foundation, Johnson, 52, said Britain should embrace free trade not only with Europe but with the wider world. Free trade would help to create jobs for those who see their livelihoods threatened, many of whom voted for Brexit, while vast wealth accrues to a tiny but powerful global elite. “They fear that they may be the first generation not to be overtaken in prosperity by their children,” he said. “I don’t think these people should be patronized or dismissed.” London, the British capital of which he was previously mayor, would not lose its status as a global financial center even outside the EU, he added. Johnson endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for tension in the South China Sea to be addressed under a rules-based order and said Britain stood with India in its fight against terrorism. But, complaining of the 150 percent import tariff India charges on Scotch whisky, he said it was time for Britain and Asia’s third-largest economy to strike a free trade deal.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sean Spicer still plans to leave the White House in late August, a senior White House official said on Tuesday, ending speculation that he might stay on after the firing of former communications director Anthony Scaramucci. President Donald Trump’s decision to hire Scaramucci less than two weeks ago prompted Spicer to resign in protest. Scaramucci lasted only 10 days in the job. He was fired on Monday after a profanity-filled tirade against then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon. Spicer has since been fielding lucrative offers for his post-White House life and has found them too appealing to forsake, the official said. Trump appointed his homeland security secretary, retired General John Kelly, to succeed Priebus after ousting him as chief of staff last week. A senior homeland security official said Kelly is considering bringing veteran government spokesman David Lapan with him to the White House as communications director.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will honour its commitments made while a member of the European Union, but specific figures on how much the country will pay for Brexit are subject to negotiations, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday. All I can point you to is the PM s position as set out many times in terms of the fact that the UK will honour commitments we ve made during the period of our membership. No EU member state will need to pay more or receive less over the remainder of the current budget plan, he told reporters. In terms of specific figures or scenarios, they are all subject to negotiation.

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - A U.S. missile strike on an airbase near the Syrian city of Homs on Friday killed five people and wounded seven more, the Homs governor told the Lebanese TV station al-Mayadeen, saying he did not expect the casualty toll to rise by much. Homs Governor Talal Barazi, in separate remarks to Reuters, said the targeted airbase had been providing air support for army operations against Islamic State east of Palmyra, and the attack served the interests of “armed terrorist groups”. “I believe - God willing - that the human casualties are not big, but there is material damage. We hope there are not many victims and martyrs,” he told Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump said he ordered missile strikes against an airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched this week, declaring he acted in America’s “national security interest” against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Barazi told al-Mayadeen there were civilian casualties at a village next to the base, but did not elaborate. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based organization that reports on the war, said four Syrian soldiers were killed, including a senior officer. It was citing its own sources. The Syrian army could not be reached for comment. Speaking at dawn, Barazi said rescue and fire-fighting operations had been going on for two hours at the base. He said the attack was a form of “support for the armed terrorist groups, and it is an attempt to weaken the capabilities of the Syrian Arab Army to combat terrorism”. Speaking to Syrian state TV, Barazi said: “The Syrian leadership and Syrian policy will not change. “This targeting was not the first and I don’t believe it will be the last,” he added. In separate comments to al-Mayadeen, he said: “The war against terrorism will continue.” U.S. officials said dozens of cruise missiles were fired against the base in response to the suspected gas attack in a rebel-held area that Washington has blamed on Assad’s forces. The Syrian government has strongly denied responsibility. The U.S. strikes “targeted military positions in Syria and in Homs specifically” in order to publicly “serve the goals of terrorism in Syria and the goals of Israel in the long run”, Barazi added in his interview with state TV.

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said a missile fired by Yemen s Houthi group toward Saudi Arabia on Tuesday bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons as she pushed the U.N. Security Council to act. Saudi air defenses shot down the ballistic missile and there were no reports of casualties or damage. In contrast, a U.N. human rights spokesman said coalition air strikes had killed at least 136 noncombatants in war-torn Yemen since Dec. 6. Saudi-led forces, backing Yemen s government, have fought the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen s more than two-year-long war. Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with weapons, saying the U.S. and Saudi allegations are baseless and unfounded. We must all act cooperatively to expose the crimes of the Tehran regime and do whatever is needed to make sure they get the message. If we do not, then Iran will bring the world deeper into a broadening regional conflict, Haley told the council. Haley said she was exploring, with some council colleagues, several options for pressuring Iran to adjust their behavior. However, Haley is likely to struggle to convince some members, like veto powers Russia and China, that U.N. action is needed. Russia s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov told council on Tuesday: We need to abandon the language of threats and sanctions and to start using the instruments of dialogue and concentrate on broadening cooperation and mutual trust. Most sanctions on Iran were lifted at the start of 2016 under the nuclear deal brokered by world powers and enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution. The resolution still subjects Tehran to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions that are technically not part of the nuclear deal. Haley said the Security Council could strengthen the provisions in that resolution or adopt a new resolution banning Iran from all activities related to ballistic missiles. Under the current resolution, Iran is called upon to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years. Some states argue that the language of the resolution does not make it obligatory. We could explore sanctions on Iran in response to its clear violations of the Yemen arms embargo, Haley said. We could hold the IRGC (Iran s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) accountable for its violations of numerous Security Council resolutions. A separate U.N. resolution on Yemen bans the supply of weapons to Houthi leaders and those acting on their behalf or at their direction.

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PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo s government considers the possibility of attacks by Islamic State fighters returning from Iraq and Syria one of the main threats to national security, according to a new strategy document. Around 300 Kosovars have gone to Syria and Iraq since 2012 to fight with the Islamic State group for the establishment of a caliphate ruled by Islamic law. Some 70 have been killed but many, including women and children, are still believed to be in the conflict zone, despite the group s expulsion from almost all the population centers it had held. The document, State Strategy Against Terrorism and Action Plan 2018-2022 , was posted on a government website on Friday. It said potential threats included attacks by members of terrorist organizations through foreign terrorist fighters, inactive cells, but also by sympathizers and supporters who may be inspired to commit violent acts . International and local security agencies have previously warned of the risk posed by returning fighters, and in 2015, Kosovo adopted a law making fighting in foreign conflicts punishable by up to 15 years in jail. The report said there had been public calls for terrorist attacks in Kosovo and the region and called terrorism one of the biggest threats to national security . Kosovo s population is nominally 90 percent Muslim, but largely secular in outlook. There have been no Islamist attacks on its soil, although in June, nine Kosovar men were charged with planning attacks at a soccer match in Albania against the visiting Israeli national team and its fans the previous November. The state prosecutor said some of the men had been in contact with Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a prominent Islamic State member and the self-declared commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq , from whom they had received orders to attack. Muhaxheri was reported to have been killed in the Syria the same month. The government strategy, compiled by the Interior Ministry, said that a form of radical Islam had been imported to Kosovo by non-governmental organizations from the Middle East after the end of its 1998-99 war of secession from Serbia.

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(Reuters) - Former Wisconsin sheriff David Clarke, an African-American who criticized the Black Lives Mater movement and was previously under consideration for a position with the Trump administration, has joined a super political action committee that backs the president, officials said on Tuesday. Clarke, 61, will serve as spokesman and senior advisor for America First Action, his office and the political action committee said in two separate statements. “I will help make sure we elect the candidates who will do what they promise in support of President Trump’s agenda,” Clarke said in a statement from his office. “Just as important, I will see to it that the will of the American people is not derailed by the left or the self-serving Washington establishment,” he added. Clarke, who spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer and campaigned for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, resigned his job on Thursday and said he would announce his plans this week. The 38-year law enforcement veteran was appointed Milwaukee County sheriff in 2002 and re-elected several times. Although he ran as a Democrat, he moved steadily to the right. “David Clarke is an American patriot, and we are very proud to welcome him,” America First Action President Brian Walsh said in the political action committee’s statement. Clarke has become one of the most polarizing critics of the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of protests against police killings of unarmed black men. Clarke said in May he was taking a job as assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but the following month media reported he had withdrawn his acceptance of the job.

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LILONGWE (Reuters) - Police in Malawi have arrested 200 suspected members of vigilante mobs that have been killing people they believe are vampires, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Nine people have been killed since mid-September in southern Malawi where there is a widespread belief in witchcraft. The violence has prompted the United Nations and the U.S. embassy to declare some parts of the country no-go zones. The attacks spread last week to Blantyre, Malawi s second largest city where a 22-year-old man was stoned then burned to death and another was stoned to death. Both were accused of bloodsucking, although medical experts deny the existence of vampirism in Malawi. Amos Daka, head of the Medical Society of Malawi, said his group was not aware that any one has adequate clinical evidence to support any of the many claims to date. President Peter Mutharika has visited parts of the country affected by the violence. This month, the United Nations pulled staff out of two areas in southern Malawi.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Senators urged auto safety regulators to publicly name the makes and models of tens of millions of vehicles with potentially faulty Takata air bag inflators, according to a letter made public late on Thursday. “There may still be 50 million airbags installed in vehicles whose owners not only have no idea, but also no way to find out, that they are driving a car containing potentially lethal airbags,” wrote Senators Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. On Wednesday, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirmed the Japanese air bag manufacturer would declare between 35 million and 40 million additional inflators defective by 2019, which will prompt automakers to recall vehicles with the inflators. The 50 million inflators that could still be recalled include 27 million side air bags and 23 million frontal air bag inflators. As part of a November agreement with NHTSA, those vehicles must also be recalled by 2019 unless Takata can prove they are safe. Takata must issue five separate defect reports starting May 16 and ending in 2019. Takata said the first report will cover 14 million of the 35 million to 40 million inflators being recalled. The second report is not due until Dec. 31 and subsequent reports are due in 2017, 2018 and 2019. NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas said automakers “will provide the information about the models and makes in the coming weeks.” He did not directly respond to the senators demands on the inflators that have not yet been recalled. Takata spokesman Jared Levy declined to comment. The senators want NHTSA to release regular updates regarding testing data on Takata airbags and their failure rates. To date, 14 automakers have recalled 28.8 million Takata inflators in about 24 million vehicles. Three additional automakers are part of the expansion. The latest recall means all Takata ammonium nitrate-based driver and passenger frontal air bag inflators without a chemical drying agent, known as a desiccant, will be recalled. But 23 million Takata frontal air bags with a desiccant have not been recalled. When exposed to moisture, ammonium nitrate, which is used to inflate the air bag, can cause the inflator to rupture with deadly force, spraying shrapnel into vehicle occupants. The defect is linked to at least 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide since 2008. Takata said it is not aware of any ruptures in the inflators in the vehicles that are part of recall announced Wednesday.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea and the United States launched large-scale joint aerial drills on Monday, officials said, a week after North Korea said it had tested its most advanced missile as part of a weapons programme that has raised global tensions. The annual U.S.-South Korean drill, called Vigilant Ace, will run until Friday, with six F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to be deployed among the more than 230 aircraft taking part. The exercises have been condemned as a provocation by the isolated North. F-35 fighters will also join the drill, which will also include the largest number of 5th generation fighters to take part, according to a South Korea-based U.S. Air Force spokesman. Around 12,000 U.S. service members, including from the Marines and Navy, will join South Korean troops. Aircraft taking part will be flown from eight U.S. and South Korean military installations. South Korean media reports said B-1B Lancer bombers could join the exercise this week. The U.S. Air Force spokesman could not confirm the reports. The joint exercise is designed to enhance readiness and operational capability and to ensure peace and security on the Korean peninsula, the U.S. military had said before the drills began. The drills come a week after North Korea said it had tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile ever in defiance of international sanctions and condemnation. Pyongyang blamed U.S. President Donald Trump for raising tensions and warned at the weekend the Vigilant Ace exercise was pushing tensions on the Korean peninsula towards a flare-up , according to North Korean state media. North Korea s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country called Trump insane on Sunday and said the drill would push the already acute situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war . The North s KCNA state news agency, citing a foreign ministry spokesman, also said on Saturday the Trump administration was begging for nuclear war by staging an extremely dangerous nuclear gamble on the Korean peninsula . North Korea regularly uses its state media to threaten the United States and its allies.

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BOZEMAN, Mont. (Reuters) - A Montana Republican congressman-elect pleaded guilty on Monday to assaulting a reporter and was ordered to perform community service and receive anger management training. Greg Gianforte, a wealthy former technology executive who campaigned on his support for President Donald Trump, attacked a reporter on May 24, the day before he won a special election to fill Montana’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Gallatin County Judge Rick West sentenced Gianforte to 40 hours of community service and 20 hours of anger management classes. The judge in Bozeman, Montana, also handed down a six-month deferred jail sentence, allowing Gianforte to avoid time behind bars if he complies with the court’s orders. Ben Jacobs, a political correspondent for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, said Gianforte “body-slammed” him, breaking his eyeglasses, when the reporter posed a question about healthcare during a campaign event in Bozeman. The altercation has been portrayed as a sign of the toxicity that has infused American politics. Critics of Trump say his strident criticism of the media has encouraged violence against journalists, while some of the president’s supporters say reporters in general are unfair in their coverage. “This was not a proud moment, but I’m ready to move on and we have a lot of work to do in Washington,” Gianforte, who is expected to be sworn in later this month, said outside court. Last week Gianforte apologized to Jacobs in a letter, and he sent a $50,000 check to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In return, Jacobs pledged not to sue him. “I am confident that he will be a strong advocate for a free press and the First Amendment,” Jacobs said in court on Monday. “And I even hope to be able to finally interview him once he has arrived on Capitol Hill.” Gianforte apologized to Jacobs again in court and said he looked forward to meeting with him later. The judge left open the possibility that Gianforte, after completing his sentence, could have the misdemeanor assault charge formally dismissed, Gallatin County Prosecutor Marty Lambert said by phone. Gianforte initially sought to plead no contest, instead of guilty, but the prosecutor said he insisted on a guilty plea. “This is the type of case where a defendant just needs to admit to the court what he did, to plead guilty, and he did that,” Lambert said. Gianforte on May 25 defeated Democrat Rob Quist to fill the House seat vacated when Trump appointed Ryan Zinke as interior secretary.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wary Democrats on Thursday challenged Republicans who control the U.S. Congress to conduct a credible investigation into contacts between President Donald Trump’s associates and Russia, a process that will likely take months and may never become public. “We will be watching very carefully. If the Intelligence Committee investigation is not proceeding to unearth the entire truth, we will seek alternative tools and structures to get to the truth, because get to the trust we must,” said Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate. A growing number of Republicans showed their willingness to buck the White House and accept expanded congressional inquiries after the resignation of Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn over disclosures that he discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian ambassador before taking office. Trump has reacted angrily in the aftermath of Flynn’s resignation, blaming journalists and blasting leaks. On Thursday, he dismissed a growing controversy about ties between his aides and Russia as a “scam” and a “ruse,” perpetrated by a hostile news media. But without the authority to hire a Watergate-style special prosecutor or convene a special committee, Democrats will have to rely on the Republican-led Senate and House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committees to demand classified documents and get to the bottom of any ties between Trump’s associates and Moscow. After eight years with a Democrat in the White House, Republicans want to work with Trump and his administration to advance their party’s legislative priorities, from repealing Obamacare to rolling back regulations and cutting taxes. But some congressional Republicans said they would support independent investigations only if committee-level probes proved inadequate. “The jurisdiction for counterintelligence programs falls on the Intelligence Committee, which is undertaking a bipartisan investigation, which I have full confidence will ... do a very good job and conduct a serious inquiry,” said Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican member of the intelligence panel. “If it doesn’t, which would surprise me, then I’ll be one of the first ones out there to say that it didn’t do so,” Rubio told reporters. A probe could take a year or more, in part because U.S. intelligence agencies have just begun to gather and analyze material. There will likely also be deep partisan divisions over which of its findings could ultimately be released. Democrats and Republicans have not agreed on the scope of an investigation. Democrats want Flynn to testify in a public hearing, but Richard Burr, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, has said only that public hearings would take place when they are appropriate. Some Democrats had questioned Burr’s commitment to a thorough investigation, but Schumer said on Thursday that Burr “is now working well” with Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. Senator Ron Wyden, another Democrat on the intelligence panel, said there would be “tough battles” ahead. Partisan divides are deeper in the House, where many Republicans - like Trump - have focused on the dangers posed by leaks from his White House, rather than aides’ potential ties to Russia. Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, questioned whether the recordings of Flynn’s conversations were even legal under federal surveillance rules. But critics say Republican calls for leak investigations may just be aimed at deflecting attention from possible misconduct by Trump aides. Paul Ryan, the Republican House Speaker, took a different view, telling his weekly news conference on Thursday: “If it’s classified information, that is criminal and there should be a criminal investigation of these leaks. That does compromise our national security.”

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ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan suggested on Thursday that Turkey could free a detained U.S. pastor if the United States handed over a Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania whom Ankara has blamed for a failed military coup last year, an idea that Washington appeared to dismiss. Turkey has been seeking the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan whose supporters are blamed for trying to overthrow Erdogan s government in July 2016. Gulen has denied any role in the coup attempt, in which 250 people were killed. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said the Turkish government has yet to provide enough evidence for the U.S. Justice Department to act. Thousands of people have been detained in a crackdown since the failed coup, including American Christian missionary Andrew Brunson, who ran a small church in Izmir on Turkey s western coast. Brunson has been held since October. Turkish media has said the charges against him include membership of Gulen s network, considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government. The United States has said that Brunson has been wrongfully imprisoned and has called for him to be released. In a speech to police officers at the presidential palace in Ankara, Erdogan appeared to link the fate of the two men. Give us the pastor back , they say. You have one pastor as well. Give him (Gulen) to us, Erdogan said. Then we will try him (Brunson) and give him to you. The (pastor) we have is on trial. Yours is not - he is living in Pennsylvania. You can give him easily. You can give him right away. A decree issued in August gave Erdogan authority to approve the exchange of foreigners detained or convicted in Turkey with people held in other countries in situations required by national security or national interests . Asked about Erdogan s suggestion of a swap of Gulen for Brunson, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, I can t imagine that we would go down that road. We have received extradition requests for him (Gulen), she told a daily State Department briefing. I have nothing new for you on that. We continue to call for Pastor Brunson s release. She said U.S. diplomats were able to visit Brunson on September 18, and added, We continue to advocate for his release. He was wrongfully imprisoned in Turkey, and we d like to see him brought home.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will endorse fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton for president on Thursday night, a Boston Globe reporter said on Twitter, citing a Warren source. Warren, who has a strong following in the progressive movement, will declare her support on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Thursday night at 9 p.m. EDT, reporter Annie Linskey said.

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(Reuters) - Even for a 2016 election campaign marked by rhetorical invective, the remarks President-elect Donald Trump and Mitt Romney made about each other in the run-up to the Nov. 8 vote were especially harsh. Those exchanges make all the more significant Trump’s plan to meet Romney, the unsuccessful 2012 Republican presidential candidate, on Saturday. A source familiar with the meeting said they may discuss whether Romney should be considered for secretary of state in a Trump administration. Here are some of the things, kind and unkind, that Trump and Romney have said about each other. * “Governor Romney, go out and get ‘em. You can do it.” - Trump endorsing Romney in February 2012 * “Donald Trump has shown an extraordinary ability to understand how our economy works ... It means a great deal to me to have the endorsement of Mr. Trump.” - Romney accepting the 2012 endorsement * “Dishonesty is Donald Trump’s hallmark.” - Romney speaking at a political forum in Utah in March * “He was begging for my endorsement. I could’ve said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees,’ and he would’ve dropped to his knees.” - Trump at a March campaign rally responding to the Romney speech and describing how Romney had sought his endorsement in 2012 * “Think of Donald Trump’s personal qualities. The bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics. Now, imagine your children and your grandchildren acting the way he does.” - Romney’s anti-Trump speech in March * “He failed horribly ... Mitt is indeed a choke artist.” - Trump in March assessing Romney’s presidential run * “Here’s what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.” - Romney in March * “Mitt Romney had his chance to beat a failed president but he choked like a dog. Now he calls me racist - but I am least racist person there is.” - Trump tweet in June * “I think his comments time and again appeal to the racist tendency that exists in some people and I think that’s dangerous.” - Romney in a CNN interview in June * “Mitt Romney called to congratulate me on the win. Very nice!” - Trump tweet five days after the Nov. 8 election

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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activist investor William Ackman promised U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that he will urge the board of Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX.TO) to reduce the high prices of four life-saving drugs that are now at the heart of two congressional probes. Speaking before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Ackman revealed that Valeant’s board will hold a conference call on Thursday to discuss the costs of heart medications Isuprel and Nitropress, as well as Cuprimine and Syprine, two drugs that are used to treat a genetic disorder that causes copper to build up in the body’s organs. Valeant raised the price of Isuprel by about 720 percent and Nitropress by 310 percent, after acquiring them in 2015. The other two were raised by 5,878 percent and 3,162 percent, respectively. “My recommendation is going to be to reduce the prices,” Ackman testified. The Senate Special Committee on Aging is one of two U.S. congressional panels investigating sky-rocketing price increases of certain decades-old drugs acquired by companies including Valeant and Turing Pharmaceuticals, a company founded by Martin Shkreli. Ackman, a major Valeant shareholder, appeared Wednesday alongside the company’s outgoing Chief Executive Michael Pearson and Howard Schiller, a board member and former chief financial officer. Ackman joined the board last month as Valeant faced mounting scrutiny by members of Congress, prosecutors and regulators over its drug pricing, business practices and accounting - issues that have caused its share price to plummet almost 90 percent since August. Valeant has about $30 billion of debt and has been negotiating with creditors, some of whom issued notices of default after it missed a deadline for the filing of its financial results. Ackman said Wednesday that one of his top priorities is to protect the company from bankruptcy. Later, in response to a question from Reuters, he expressed confidence that the company will recover. “There is not going to be any bankruptcy of Valeant,” he said. “We were in a death spiral, and we have taken steps to deal with the banks. We are going to file our 10K on time. We brought in a new CEO.” Pearson, Ackman and Schiller all told lawmakers on Wednesday they regretted Valeant’s pricing decisions. “The company was too aggressive and I, as its leader, was too aggressive in pursuing price increases on certain drugs,” he said. But many lawmakers on the panel appeared skeptical. They questioned Valeant’s business model of investing little in research and development, and the company’s practice of acquiring decades-old drugs and raising the prices. Senator Claire McCaskill, the panel’s top Democrat, angrily asked each of the panelists at one point if they could recall one drug that Valeant didn’t raise the price on. “Not in the United States,” Pearson responded, while Schiller was only able to come up with the name of one drug Valeant acquired after its purchase of Salix. “That is not social good, that is social bad,” McCaskill said. Lawmakers also questioned whether Valeant’s patient assistance and rebate programs are truly helping patients and hospitals afford the medications. Senator Susan Collins, the panel’s chairman, said her committee’s investigation has thus far been unable to find a single hospital that has received a discount. “I can assure you that many of the large hospital systems are getting discounts on the heart drugs,” Pearson said. Pearson is expected to step down in the coming weeks to make way for the incoming CEO, Joseph Papa, previously of Perrigo Company (PRGO.N). Wednesday’s hearing also featured testimony from doctors and a patient with Wilson’s Disease who was forced to stop using Syprine because of the price spike. Dr. Frederick Askari of the University of Michigan told the panel that the cost of Syprine is now so high that it has become less expensive to get a liver transplant and a life-time supply of anti-rejection medications. The patient, Berna Heyman, testified that Valeant refused to help her when she called to complain about the prices. Later, after speaking with the media, the company changed its tune, offered to help, and even sent flowers. “I refused the flowers,” she said.

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(Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday: Aides to Trump attack the credibility of the nonpartisan agency that will analyze the costs of a replacement for Obamacare, as the White House seeks to quell opposition from many conservative Republicans. Two days before U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was fired, Trump tried to call the high-profile New York prosecutor in what a White House official says was an effort to “thank him for his service and to wish him good luck.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel is controlled and cautious, a physicist from East Germany who takes her time making decisions and has never relished the attention that comes from being Europe’s most powerful leader. Trump is a wealthy real estate magnate from New York who shoots from the hip and enjoys the spotlight. On Tuesday, they meet for the first time. When Trump unveils his budget for the 2018 fiscal year on Thursday, conservative Republicans will be cheering proposed cuts to domestic programs that would pay for a military buildup. But more moderate Republicans are less enthusiastic and worry they could be forced to choose between opposing the president or backing reductions in popular programs such as aid for disabled children and hot meals for the elderly. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn says the Federal Reserve “has been doing a good job” and the Trump administration respects its independence, even if the U.S. central bank raises interest rates this week.

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MIDWAY ATOLL (Reuters) - President Barack Obama snorkeled on Thursday in the electric-blue water off Midway Atoll, a remote coral reef that serves as a reminder of both modern global climate challenges and the United State’s dominance in the Pacific since its World War Two victory there. The journey was aimed at sending a message about the need to protect vulnerable species and spaces from the ravages of climate change. But it was also timed as Obama makes his way to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders in his last visit to Asia, having sought to refocus U.S. defense and trade policy on the region. “It’s a signal, it’s a message saying the United States is committed to staying in the Pacific, and not sort of backing away,” said naval historian Tom Hone, who has studied the Battle of Midway. Zipping around the island in an 18-golf-cart motorcade filled with Secret Service, aides and camera crews, Obama stopped to see several endangered green sea turtles lazily paddle in to bask on the white sand beach. “When I grew up, we’d see these turtles all the time. You almost never see them beaching like this, just basking in the sun,” said Obama, who grew up in Hawaii, more than 1,100 nautical miles to the southeast. Obama, whose presidency comes to an end in five months, has tried to use his time in office to make Americans more passionate about climate change. Less than 5 percent of American voters say the environment is the most important issue facing the country, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling between July 24 and Aug. 21, and 35 percent say climate change will not affect the way they vote in the Nov. 8 election to pick Obama’s successor. The island visit bookends Obama’s trip last year to Alaska, where he hiked on a shrinking glacier. “These aren’t ‘photo ops’ - I think these are real opportunities to help the American people understand,” said Carol Browner, a former head of the Environmental Protection Agency who advised Obama on climate issues in his first term. “He can get a level of attention that nobody else can get,” Browner said. Last week, Obama quadrupled the size of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to create the world’s largest marine monument, protecting the area off the coast of Hawaii from commercial fishing and drilling. “This is going to be a precious resource for generations to come,” said Obama, his dress shirt undone an extra button in the sauna-like heat. “This is hallowed ground,” he said near a beach where young soldiers hunkered down under pillboxes, awaiting Japanese fighter planes during the World War Two Battle of Midway, one of the most-studied battles in military history. “Had it not been for the courage and the bravery of those airmen, we might have not seen the tide turn in the battle of the Pacific,” he said. In June 1942, U.S. forces, tipped by code-breakers that the Japanese navy was planning an attack, sank four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser in a giant air and sea battle. Obama’s golf cart motorcade bumped over a tarmac pock-marked by shrapnel from the battle, passing old hangars and a “bone yard” of scrap metal, old office chairs, and broken appliances. Massive bags held some of the 20 tons of plastic ocean garbage that land on the island each year, 5 tons of which come from the bellies of albatrosses, which feed the plastic to their young, often fatally. Curious tern fledglings checked out his entourage, which tripled the island’s average population of about 35 humans. “Watch the burrow!” called Miel Corbett, a Fish and Wildlife Services spokeswoman, as a visitor narrowly avoided stomping the underground home of the bonin petrel. About a million of the birds swoop out of their nests each night at dusk. Vestiges of the island’s former life as a large naval base remain, although many have fallen into decay. Visitors have not been allowed since 2012 because of tight budgets. Reporters wrote their stories in a still-working 1970s bowling alley, just down the way from barber shop.

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(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump is suspending the operations of his charitable foundation over concerns that donors could be seen as buying access to the Trump family, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. “No new money will come into the ETF bank account,” Eric Trump wrote in an email message on Thursday, according to the Post, in reference to the Eric Trump Foundation. Eric Trump faced criticism for an online auction sponsored by his foundation offering the highest bidder a chance to have coffee with his sister, Ivanka. The New York Times reported that bids had risen to more than $72,000, and that the top bidders were people seeking to influence Donald Trump’s policymaking. The foundation, which gives most of the money it raises to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, canceled the auction on Friday. Eric Trump told the Times on Wednesday he had decided to stop directly soliciting contributions to the foundation because he now recognized donors could be seeking access to his father. “As unfortunate as it is, I understand the quagmire,” Trump told the Times. “You do a good thing that backfires.” Eric Trump and the Trump presidential transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. Eric Trump and his brother, Donald Trump Jr., also came under fire this week for their role in a post-inauguration charity event that offered a private reception with their father in exchange for a $1 million donation. The brothers were listed on a draft invitation as honorary co-chairmen of the fundraiser for conservation charities, dubbed “Opening Day,” set to be held in Washington the day after the Jan. 20 inauguration. The invitation was first reported by TMZ.com last week. On Tuesday, the Trump transition team said Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were not involved with the fundraiser and a subsequent invitation dropped references to donors meeting with any members of the Trump family.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump on Thursday fired back at a critic in his own party who had denounced the president’s response to the Charlottesville, Virginia, attack, saying he had not drawn a “moral equivalency” between white hate groups and counter-protesters. Trump, on Twitter, called fellow Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s statement a day earlier “a disgusting lie.” On Wednesday, Graham had said Trump’s statements after the weekend attack had suggested “moral equivalency” between the two sides and urged him to instead use his words to heal Americans instead.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that he does not agree with President-elect Donald Trump’s comments that it would not be a bad thing if other countries, including Japan, acquired nuclear weapons. Asked by Democratic Senator Edward Markey about Trump’s comments, Tillerson said during his Senate confirmation hearing that he did not think anyone would advocate for more nuclear weapons on the planet. Pressed further by Markey on whether he agreed with Trump’s remarks, Tillerson replied: “I do not agree.”

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday the repeal of the Obamacare individual healthcare mandate was not a bargaining chip in negotiations over the Senate tax legislation. “This is all about getting this passed in the Senate. This isn’t a bargaining chip, the president thinks we should get rid of it and I think we should get rid of it,” Mnuchin said on Fox News Sunday. “It’s an unfair tax on poor people.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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BOGOTA (Reuters) - Pope Francis arrived in Colombia on Wednesday with a message of unity for a nation deeply divided by a peace deal that ended a five-decade war with Marxist FARC rebels but left many victims of the bloodshed wary of the fraught healing process. Francis, making his 20th foreign trip since becoming pontiff in 2013 and his fifth to his native Latin America, started his visit in Colombian capital Bogota. He will travel later in the week to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena. Greeted at the airport by President Juan Manuel Santos as attendees waved white handkerchiefs, the Argentine pope hopes his presence will help build bridges in a nation torn apart by bitter feuding over a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Speaking to reporters on the Bogota-bound plane, Francis said the trip was a bit special because it is being made to help Colombia go forward on its path to peace. Francis will encourage reconciliation as Colombians prepare to receive 7,000 former FARC fighters into society and repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades. References to the recent peace deal were immediate. A teenage boy, born in 2004 to vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas when she was held captive in the jungle by the FARC, handed Francis a white porcelain dove as a welcome present. On his drive to the Vatican Embassy in central Bogota, the leader of the world s Roman Catholics was mobbed in the pope mobile by screaming crowds tossing flowers and holding up children to be kissed. Peace is what Colombia has been seeking for a long time and is working to achieve, the pope said in a video message ahead of his arrival. A stable, lasting peace, so that we see and treat each other as brothers, never as enemies. The FARC, which began as a peasant revolt in 1964 and battled more than a dozen governments, has formed a political party and now hopes to use words instead of weapons to effect changes in Colombia s social and economic model. But many Colombians are furious that the 2016 peace deal with the government granted fighters amnesty and some will be rewarded with seats in congress. A referendum on the deal last year was narrowly rejected, before being later modified and passed by congress. Trumpet players, singing children and white-clad rappers greeted the pope - wearing a traditional woolen poncho - at the embassy where he urged young people to keep smiling and then led the crowd in the Hail Mary prayer. Don t let anyone steal your hope, he said. People lined up all day to see the pope pass by, queues stretched around the cathedral in Bogota as residents sought passes for his events, and street vendors sold t-shirts, baseball caps and posters carrying Francis s image. Pope Francis coming to Colombia has to unite the people. We cannot continue to be polarized. We must learn to live in peace and respect our differences, Lucia Camargo, a pensioner, said as she lined up for a glimpse of the pontiff. Although most church leaders have voiced support for the accord, some politicians and Catholic bishops have criticized the deal for being too lenient on the guerrillas. The pope is expected to urge them to set aside their differences. The visit will leave us a sense of union, of forgiveness, Bogota Mayor Enrique Penalosa told Reuters. Colombia is very polarized at the moment. There are many passions, many hatreds. Reconciliation will be the emphasis for events on Friday in the city of Villavicencio, south of Bogota, where the pope will listen to testimonials from people whose lives were affected by the violence and then deliver a homily. Victims and former rebels who demobilized prior to the accord will attend. The pope will not meet FARC leaders or the opposition. He also had a message of dialogue and forgiveness for neighboring Venezuela, wracked by months of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, who has tightened his hold on power as an economic crisis has escalated. As his plane flew over the socialist nation, the pope sent cordial greetings in a telegram to Maduro and Venezuelans. Praying that all in the nation may promote paths of solidarity, justice and harmony, I willingly invoke upon all of you God s blessings of peace, he said.

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The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Small business owners are the DREAMERS & INNOVATORS who are powering us into the future! Read more and watch here:bit.ly/2uYZdol [0938 EDT] - It was my great honor to pay tribute to a VET who went above & beyond the call of duty to PROTECT our COMRADES, our COUNTRY, & OUR FREEDOM! [1009 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Native American tribe in Montana and a coalition of conservation groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday for lifting a moratorium on coal leases on public land without consulting tribal leaders and conducting a full environmental review. “It is alarming and unacceptable for the United States, which has a solemn obligation as the Northern Cheyenne’s trustee, to sign up for many decades of harmful coal mining near and around our homeland without first consulting with our Nation,” Tribal Council Chairman and President Jace Killsback said in a statement. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe in southern Montana said the administration had lifted the moratorium without hearing the tribe’s concerns about the coal-leasing program’s impact on its members and lands. The tribe sent a letter earlier this month to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke requesting a meeting to discuss the issue. Zinke did not respond, and signed the order lifting the moratorium on Tuesday. In a press call on Wednesday, Zinke did not respond to a query about the Northern Cheyenne lawsuit. Killsback said the tribe, which filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Great Falls, would be harmed by lifting the ban. “The Northern Cheyenne rarely shares in the economic benefits to the region generated by coal industry and other energy development projects,” he said. About 426 million tons of federal coal are located near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation at the Decker and Spring Creek mines in Montana, the tribe said. However, neighboring tribe, the Crow, relies on coal production as its predominant industry and has called for the relaxation of coal regulations for years. “A war on coal is a war on the Crow people,” Zinke said on the call. Legal group Earthjustice argued that lifting the coal moratorium imperils public health for the benefit of coal companies. “No one voted to pollute our public lands, air or drinking water in the last election, yet the Trump administration is doing the bidding of powerful polluters as nearly its first order of business,” Earthjustice attorney Jenny Harbine said in a statement. The legal filing said that undoing the moratorium violates the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires a full environmental review prior to major policy changes.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration plans to cap the number of refugees admitted to the United States in the coming year at 45,000, two people with knowledge of the decision said on Tuesday, and advocates said this historically low level is insufficient in the face of growing humanitarian crises worldwide. That figure would be the lowest ceiling for refugee admissions since the U.S. Refugee Act was signed in 1980. Since then, the ceiling has never been set below 67,000 and in recent years has been around 70,000 to 80,000. The secretaries of State and Homeland Security are consulting with members of Congress on Wednesday, according to one White House official. The president’s decision on the refugee limit will be announced following that consultation, two officials said. The Wall Street Journal first reported the 45,000 figure on Tuesday. By law, the president is required to consult with members of Congress about the number of refugee admissions before the start of each fiscal year, on Oct. 1. The number of refugees actually admitted to the country, which can fall below the cap, dropped to its lowest in the fiscal year after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks with only around 27,000 admitted. For fiscal year 2017, which ends Sept. 30, former President Barack Obama established a cap of 110,000 refugees for permanent resettlement in the United States. After taking office in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order lowering the maximum number to 50,000 for 2017, saying that more would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” Critics said if the 2018 level is set even lower, it could damage the international reputation of the United States. “It’s tragic,” said Robert Carey, former director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement under Obama. “It’s really moving away from the commitments the government has had for protections of refugees from both Republican and Democratic administrations,” he said. “Some people will die.” In a speech to the United Nations last week, Trump said that more could be done to help refugees in their home regions. Offering financial assistance to hosting countries “is the safe, responsible, and humanitarian approach,” Trump said. But that type of assistance “ignores all the people who have fled to places that are still not safe,” said another former Obama administration official, Anne Richard. “Those are the people that the U.S. program really rescues,” said Richard, a former assistant secretary for refugees and migration at the State Department. She said other countries might try to follow suit by closing the door to more refugees. A September 2016 study by the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute found that of 3.3 million refugees admitted to the United States between 1975 through 2015, 20 were convicted of planning or committing a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment ahead of Trump’s final decision on the cap. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. David Inserra from the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation said Congress should have more of a say in setting the cap to avoid radical swings in the numbers when there is a change in administrations. “When president Obama increased the number dramatically Republicans said they didn’t want that but the consultation process didn’t give them any authority to stop it,” he said. “Now the same is going to be true for the other side.”

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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wants the foundations to be laid for the Akkuyu nuclear plant in southern Turkey by the end of this month, Yeni Safak and other newspapers cited him as telling reporters during a visit to Qatar. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday Russia and Turkey plan to launch the first reactor at Akkuyu in 2023, with Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom set to begin work at the site in the near future.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michael Cohen, one of President Donald Trump’s closest business advisers, said on Sunday he would testify on Tuesday to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, as the panel investigates alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The timing of Cohen’s testimony was first reported by NBC. Cohen confirmed that he would testify to the committee on Tuesday and said he did not know whether it would be in a closed session or public. Aides to the committee’s leaders did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Cohen said previously he had received a subpoena from at least one of the congressional committees investigating what U.S. intelligence has determined were Russia’s efforts to influence the election on Trump’s behalf, and whether Trump associates colluded with Russia. Russia denies such activity. The White House denies any collusion, but concerns about the issue and Trump’s ties to Russia have shadowed the first months of the Republican’s presidency. Cohen, a personal attorney to Trump, would be one of a series of close associates of the president to testify in Congress. Members of both the Senate and House of Representatives committees conducting investigations have said they expect to call more. Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month.

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Papua New Guinean police cleared the remaining asylum-seekers from a shuttered Australian-run detention complex on Friday, ending a three-week protest which started with some 600 people surviving on rain water and smuggled food and supplies. Australia closed the Manus Island detention centre on Oct. 31, after it was declared illegal by a Papua New Guinea court, but the asylum seekers refused to leave to transit centres saying they feared for their safety. Despite the unsanitary conditions and lack of adequate food and fresh water, about 300 remained when Papua New Guinea police started removing people on Thursday and Friday. The refugees are leaving the prison camp, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani told Reuters in a text message on Friday. We did our best to send out our voice but the government does not care. Australia s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement on Friday that all of the asylum seekers had now departed for alternative accommodation. Advocates should now desist from holding out false hope to these men that they will ever be brought to Australia, Dutton said. In Geneva, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR denounced the use of force by Papua New Guinean police to remove the refugees and asylum seekers and called for Australia to ensure their protection. The beating of refugees and asylum-seekers by uniformed officers with metal poles, shown by footage released today, is both shocking and inexcusable, UNHCR said in a statement. Several refugees were severely injured in the raid and needed medical treatment, it added, warning of a grave risk of further deterioration of the situation on the island. The fate of the asylum seekers, some of whom have been detained for years and come mostly from Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Syria, remains unclear. Australia steadfastly refuses to allow them entry under its strict sovereign borders policy and the asylum seekers have refused to resettle in Papua New Guinea. Australia and Papua New Guinea both say the asylum seekers are now the other s responsibility, although the Australian government said it had spent A$10 million ($7.6 million) on the transit facility and it wanted the men to move there. Under Australia s sovereign borders policy asylum seekers trying to reach its shores by boat are intercepted and detained in either Papua New Guinea or Nauru in the South Pacific. The United Nations and human rights groups have for years criticised Australia s policy, citing human rights abuses in the offshore detention centres and called for their closure. Papua New Guinea intensified efforts to clear the Manus facility on Thursday by bringing in buses to start moving the men and cutting off routes previously used to deliver smuggled supplies, said Christian pastor Jarrod McKenna, who was at the shuttered centre earlier this week helping the refugees. Pictures sent to Reuters by an asylum-seeker showed Papua New Guinean officials wearing army fatigues inside the camp on Friday, and a video distributed by advocacy group GetUp showed police armed with sticks pulling an asylum seeker to his feet. Buses are waiting for you, trucks are waiting for you...you will get on to them and you will move to your new location, you will not stay here, a man who identified himself as a police commander told the asylum seekers in a video posted to Facebook by Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz. Papua New Guinea immigration and police officials did not return telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment. ($1 = 1.3118 Australian dollars)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said on Monday he has recommended that President Donald Trump reduce the size of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah - a move that drew quick fire from conservationists but was supported by mining and drilling interests. The 1.35 million acre (5,463 square kms) area, designated by former President Barack Obama during his final days in office and named for its iconic twin buttes, is the first of 27 national monuments to be reviewed by the Trump administration as part of a plan to increase development on federal lands. “My job is to make sure that I ... reflect the concerns of Utah, and reflect the concerns of the taxpayers and the public who own the lands, and I think we’ve done that,” Zinke told reporters in a teleconference about his interim recommendation sent to Trump on Saturday. Zinke toured Utah for four days before making the recommendation. His report said that the Antiquities Act, used by past presidents to declare monuments, should cover the “smallest area compatible” with protecting important sites. “Therefore... the Secretary of the Interior recommends that the existing boundary of the (Bears Ears) be modified to be consistent with the intent of the act.” Rather than designating a vast monument, as Obama did, “it would have been more appropriate to identify and separate the areas that have significant objects to be protected to meet the purposes of the Act,” Zinke’s report said. More study is necessary to determine how much smaller Bears Ears should be, Zinke said, and that decision will not be made until all of the 27 monuments are reviewed. Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society, said Zinke’s recommendation was “nothing less than an attack on the future of all American monuments, parks and public lands,” and was “against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans.” A public comment period that closed in late May generated hundreds of thousands of comments, with the majority expressing hope that monuments like Bears Ears remain protected. Zinke also recommended that tribes be allowed to co-manage “cultural areas” within the resized monument - a nod to Native Americans who had lobbied for protections for the territory - and that Congress review conservation policies in the area. His recommendation to Trump set the tone for the administration’s broader review, triggered by an executive order in April. Trump had argued that previous administrations “abused” their right to designate monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906 and put millions of acres of land, mainly in western states, off limits to drilling, mining, logging and ranching without adequate input from locals. The review is likely to add fuel to a heated national debate over Washington’s role in America’s wildest spaces. Environmentalists and tribal groups support federal oversight, but many state political leaders, conservatives and industry groups say the lands should generate money for business, creating jobs, or yielding revenue for education and other public services. While the land encompassed by the Bears Ears monument is not believed to contain huge amounts of coal, oil or gas, several other monuments on Zinke’s review list do - making the Bears Ears decision symbolically important to industry groups. Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, representing oil and gas companies, said Zinke’s approach was sensible. “It’s clear that Bears Ears was an overreach, and was much larger than necessary to protect cultural resources.”

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LONDON (Reuters) - London s Natural History Museum said on Saturday there had been a serious incident outside and it was working with police. A museum spokesman told Reuters that no one was being allowed into the building and people were being let out through a different exit.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Friday pledged to build support in the U.S. House of Representatives for legislation keeping firearms from people on terrorism watch lists, despite repeated gun control failures this week in Congress. The “Terrorist Firearms Prevention Act” was introduced by nine House members representing diverse states stretching from Hawaii to Delaware, including some who have led the gun control fight for years. “If you can’t get on a plane because of the danger that may pose, there is no reason you should be able to purchase a dangerous weapon,” said Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo of Florida, in a refrain that has ricocheted through the U.S. Capitol since the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando. The legislation, identical to a bill by Senator Susan Collins of Maine that was debated on the Senate floor on Thursday, would halt sales of weapons to people on a “no-fly” list barring them from boarding airplanes, or a “Selectee” list in which they are subjected to special airport screenings. Over the past two weeks, the Senate failed to advance this or several other proposals placing new constraints on gun sales, as the U.S. mourned the deaths of 49 people killed at an Orlando nightclub with 53 others injured. Curbelo said he met with House Speaker Paul Ryan’s top aide to inform him of the bill. The lawmaker left that meeting with no assurances it would advance, but simply “no objection from the speaker’s office” to the legislation being introduced, Curbelo said. He added that the bill’s sponsors now must build support “amongst our colleagues” in a House that has a concentration of conservative Republicans opposed to most gun control ideas. Many Republicans have argued that travelers can mistakenly be placed on terrorism watch lists and denying them the ability to buy weapons would stomp on their constitutional rights. “We cannot let that argument stop, into perpetuity, our ability to advance wise legislation in this matter,” countered Republican Representative Scott Rigell of Virginia. Rigell, a co-sponsor of the bill, introduced himself to reporters at a press conference as a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, which lobbies against gun controls, and an owner of 10 firearms, including an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that is similar to the weapon used by Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter.

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NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - For more than 1,000 years, the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya south of Baghdad has been one of the hearts of Shi ite Islamic scholarship, training the clerics who lead Shi ite communities across the Muslim world. Thousands of students, from teenage boys to university graduates, study Islam at its schools in the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala. Shi ites, who are the majority in Iraq, were repressed under dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, but now lead the Iraqi government since Saddam was overthrown in 2003. Clerics trained at the Hawza have wide social and political influence, both inside Iraq and abroad. This year, around 200 fully fledged clerics will graduate, completing a process that requires at least ten years of study. In the Najaf school, a typical day will see clerics in flowing black robes and white turbans giving lectures to groups of students sitting on the floor of a great hall, lined with pointed arches and elaborate mosaics. For a photo essay on the life of student Shi'ite clerics, click here: reut.rs/2wQATVE Students are given instruction in subjects including Islamic jurisprudence, philosophy, theology, logic and interpreting Islam s holy book, the Koran. The Kerbala school teaches around 250 students each year, and in Najaf there are more than 1000. Together they are served by a faculty of around 90 teachers. Hawza has a high rank at the heart of the society, Wael Noor Al-Deen Murtadha, a Shi ite cleric and lecturer at the school, told Reuters. What is important about Hawza is that it reduces the moral degeneration and irregularities of life. It creates a culture among people aimed at reinforcing social relationships between different sects away from any discrimination.

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PALONG KHALI, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Hannah McKay was on her first foreign assignment, just three months after joining Reuters, photographing Rohingya Muslims in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Then she and other photographers heard around 5,000 more people were heading to the area, trying to find their way across the border from neighbouring Myanmar. Here is her account of what happened next: We were standing, looking out over paddy fields and grasslands lots of water and one thin path leading to the border with Myanmar. In the distance we could see a huge group of people. But they weren t moving. It was 4 o clock in the afternoon with only two hours left of daylight. So we decided to move towards them. It took us about an hour along the muddy path, meeting border guards and persuading them to let us pass. Then we saw thousands of refugees just sitting there, with more Bangladeshi border guards telling us to go back. We could see something was going on behind the crowd. So we waited for an opportunity to move closer, and that s when we saw them. The crowd was sitting on a riverbank and behind them, about three meters below, in the river itself, there were just hundreds of refugees coming across every minute. It was non-stop. There was no end to the people. People carrying babies. Elderly people being escorted through the water and mud, more than knee-deep. And we were just photographing everyone coming towards us. Then this woman appeared. She got to the point where she needed to get up to the footpath where we were. But she was just exhausted. She didn t have anything left to get herself up. Two refugee men on her level were trying to push her up, which was when we reached out to help. Another Reuters photographer, Adnan Abidi, took a hand. Another photographer took another and I got her leg when she got within range. It was a case of dragging her. She lay there for a few minutes and then, I have no idea what happened to her. There were so many people around and it was chaos. We decided to get down into the river to get a different view. And it was so difficult even for us who had some energy to spare. All the people around us had been walking for days. When I got back to the bank, I found I had nothing to hold onto, with two cameras weighing me down. That s when two refugee men reached out with their hands and pulled me on to the bank. I kept saying Thank You , but they didn t understand. It was overwhelming and made me think of the woman we had pulled out. You are there trying to do your job with a camera in your hand. And then your heart overrules your head. I had been in the camps, where everything was quite settled. But then I saw the real chaos and the refugees desperate situation. You hear about it. But seeing it is a completely different thing. Related photo at reut.rs/2yp96R4

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin formally registered his re-election bid on Wednesday, submitting the necessary documents to Russia s central election commission in person ahead of a March 18 vote. Polls show that Putin, who has dominated Russia s political landscape for the last 17 years as either president or prime minister, is on course to comfortably win another six-year term. That would allow him to rule until 2024, when he ll turn 72. The former KGB officer is running as an independent, a move seen as a way of strengthening his image as a father of the nation rather than as a party political figure. The ruling United Russia party and the Just Russia party have both said they will support him. Allies laud Putin for restoring national pride and expanding Moscow s global clout with interventions in Syria and Ukraine. But opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been barred from the election over a suspended prison sentence he says was fabricated, says Putin has been in power too long and that his support is artificially maintained by a biased state media and an unfair system which excludes genuine opponents. Navalny has called for a boycott of the election, raising the prospect of large-scale protests and clashes with the police.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Monday accused President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, of working with a Russian colleague to draft an opinion piece about his political work for Ukraine. In court filings, a prosecutor working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team said Manafort was working on the article as recently as Nov. 30. Had it been published, prosecutors say it would have violated a Nov. 8 court order not to discuss the case publicly. The Russian colleague who was working with Manafort allegedly to shape public opinion about his work for a Ukrainian political party has ties to Russian intelligence agencies, according to the filing. Manafort ultimately never published the opinion piece, after prosecutors reached out to his attorneys to alert them, they said in the filing. Due to Manafort’s actions, prosecutors said the judge should reject his request to modify his bail conditions. Manafort has proposed an $11.65 million bail package in exchange for lifting him from house arrest and electronic monitoring. As part of that deal, he would forfeit four of his real estate properties if he violated his bail conditions. “Even if the ghost-written op-ed were entirely accurate, fair and balanced, it would be a violation of this court’s November 8 order if it had been published,” wrote prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. A spokesman for Manafort did not have any immediate comment. Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates were both indicted in October in a 12-count indictment by a federal grand jury. They face charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. Initially, Manafort’s lawyers had said in their court filing that the special counsel’s office was willing to accept the proposed terms of his release. But prosecutors wrote that they can no longer trust Manafort, and cannot accept his proposed terms. “Because Manafort has now taken actions that reflect an intention to violate or circumvent the court’s existing orders, at a time one would expect particularly scrupulous adherence, the government submits that the proposed bail package is insufficient,” the filing said.

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BELGRADE (Reuters) - In a joint sting, Serbian and Croatian police have detained 17 people suspected of smuggling dozens of migrants into the European Union, Serbia s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. Serbia was at the center of the migrant crisis in 2015 and 2016 when hundreds of thousands of people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and Asia journeyed up through the Balkans to reach the European Union. That route was effectively closed last year, but a steady trickle of migrants, arriving mainly from Turkey via neighboring Bulgaria, has continued. Many migrants use smugglers to reach the EU. In a statement, the Interior Ministry said the group detained in Belgrade and four northern towns comprised 12 Serbians and one Afghan man. The police in neighboring Croatia have detained four more suspects, it said. It is suspected that this criminal group facilitated the illegal crossing of the border and transit ... to a total of 82 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, from whom they took 1,500 euros ($1,800) per person, it said. Official data show there are up to 4,500 migrants stranded in government-operated camps in Serbia. Rights activists say hundreds more are scattered in the capital Belgrade and towns along the Croatian border. ($1 = 0.8442 euros)

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DUNDO, Angola (Reuters) - Captured by militia and accused of being married to a Congolese government official, Kimpanga Caro could smell the fire she was told would be used to burn her decapitated head to ash. Caro, whose husband is a pastor not an official, was freed when one of the militiamen recognized her. She raced back home to find her husband in their ransacked village. They fled south, on foot with their five children, towards a country they heard was safe: Angola. Thirty thousand of her compatriots have made the same journey so far, among 1.4 million people driven from their homes in a year of violence in the central Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are signs that the refugee crisis is causing Angola a powerful regional ally that helped sustain Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his father in power for two decades to question its support for the leader of its volatile neighbor. At least 3,300 people have been killed in Kasai since the Kamuina Nsapu militia launched an insurrection to force a military withdrawal from the area. Refugees say villages have been destroyed and women have been raped both by the militiamen and by soldiers who have fought them. Their flight into the Angolan province of Lunda Norte has brought an international relief effort to the area for the first time since Angola s own 27-year civil war ended in 2002. A cooling in Angola s support for Kabila would leave the Congolese president more isolated than ever and make it even harder for him to hang on to power beyond the end of this year, when he has pledged to hold an election already a year late. Angola, with the third largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the region s strongest militaries, has twice in the past sent troops to prop up Kabila. Now, its soldiers are trying to contain the violence on the frontier. Luanda has doubled its troops and police on the border, according to Marcelino Caetano, provincial director of the Service for Migration and Foreigners, responsible for Lunda Norte province s 770-kilometre border with the DRC. We will maintain this level of control for as long as we have to, he said in his cramped, well-guarded offices in Dundo, an old diamond mining town just 9 kilometers from the border, declining to give exact numbers for Angolan troops in the area. Angola had pushed Kinshasa to allow U.N. officials into Kasai to help, but the Congolese have declined, he said. Since March, two Angolan border guards and one immigration official have been killed in attacks by Congolese militia on four separate border posts, said Inacio Feliciano, a senior police commander. Aid agencies suspect Angolan forces are patrolling inside Congo, though Caetano denied this. The unrest is not the only change that could alter Angola s policy of supporting Kabila: in Luanda, a new president is about to take power after 38 years of rule by Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Jo o Louren o, a military man and former defense minister, lacks dos Santos s historic ties with Kabila and his father Laurent, who took power in Congo in 1997 and was killed in 2001. Louren o regards Kabila as an increasingly destabilizing force, according to a diplomat familiar with his thinking, although the diplomat said military intervention against Kabila remains unlikely as it would probably make things worse. He doesn t want a Libya on his doorstep. Angola has worried about the 2,600-kilometre border it shares with the DRC for decades. During Angola s civil war, enemies of the ruling MPLA party hid, trained and armed in the former Zaire. Unrest in the vast, mineral rich Congo has had a tendency to draw its neighbors into regional conflict. With the victims of the Kasai violence now crossing into Angola and the threat of militia groups moving across the border too, the benefit of keeping Kabila as an ally is less obvious. At the Chissanda crossing last week, located just north of Dundo, two officials said the border was closed. Guards sat around chatting and watching the sun set. Authorities say they are letting refugees cross, though the stream has stopped in recent weeks. Some are even choosing to return home. The Congolese army says it has taken back control of Kasai, though Commander Feliciano said he had received reports of clashes around the city of Kananga on Sept 7. Refugees interviewed by Reuters told of soldiers raping and executing residents for supporting the militia in villages the army had taken back. We expect it to get worse again as we approach the end of the year, said Guy-Rufin Guernas, the local head for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in Dundo. Kabila agreed to hold presidential elections, due in 2016, by December. But the vote looks unlikely to happen by then, potentially sparking a violent backlash. UNHCR is working on the basis that another 50,000 refugees could cross into Angola before 2017 ends. To accommodate them, a new settlement is being constructed about 100 km outside Dundo, in the municipality of Lovua. Last Wednesday, recent arrivals were digging up roots on the 25x25 meter plots of land that families are being given in this remote area of sparse forest. Getting equipment, from solar lights to bulldozers, is difficult and expensive. Located at the north-eastern tip of Angola, Dundo s airport only just re-opened. Most goods are brought in by truck from Saurimo, the provincial capital of neighboring Lunda Sul, three hours away. At night there is almost total darkness. Buying basic goods is difficult. The cost of taking in the refugees is steep for Angola, which is in the midst of recession after the fall in the price of oil, its main source of wealth. Angola has had its own war, it understands the suffering these people are going through, said Guernas. In Cacanda, an earlier more ad-hoc settlement where nearly 7,000 refugees are still crammed under tarpaulin before they move to Lovua, many complain of a lack of food and shelter. Rafael Tshimbumba, 50, says the conditions may be basic but he cannot return to Kasai. He lost four children in the violence, when militias arrived at his village and began killing anyone that spoke Tshiluba, language of the Baluba people, highlighting the increasingly tribal element of the conflict. Here at least we are safe, he said, wearing the red and black t-shirt of the MPLA party that governs Angola. For Caro, who escaped from Congo with her pastor husband after the militia threatened to kill her, the flight itself led only to more danger. As the family stopped to rest in a village near the border, a passing car snatched her 5-year old boy. She searched for him for days and put a message out on the local radio, but found nothing. Only God knows where he s gone, she said, holding her youngest child in her arms.

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(Corrects Feb. 25 story to show event took place Wednesday, not Saturday. Corrects second paragraph to past tense from present tense, corrects paragraph 5 to clarify ambassador spoke before event.) By Julia Harte WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Kuwaiti government could pay up to $60,000 to President Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington for a party it held on Wednesday in an early test of Trump’s promise to turn over profits from such events to the U.S. Treasury. The Kuwait Embassy hosted an event to mark their National Day. Similar National Day celebrations at the Trump International Hotel for a crowd of several hundred can run from $40,000 to $60,000, according to cost estimates from the hotel seen by Reuters. The hotel declined to comment on the figures. One of Trump’s lawyers, Sheri Dillon, pledged at a Jan. 11 press conference to donate any Trump Hotel profits from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury. The White House and Alan Garten, the general counsel for the Trump Organization, did not return calls for comment on whether any profits from foreign government payments to the hotel have been donated. Dillon’s firm declined to comment. Kuwaiti Ambassador Salem al-Sabah told Reuters he was paying the Trump Hotel an amount similar to what he had paid the Four Seasons hotel to host a previous National Day event. He said on Wednesday before the event that he expected it to draw 500 or 600 people, but declined to disclose specific cost details. The Four Seasons, which declined to comment, also charges prices in the $40,000 to $60,000 range for such events, according to cost estimates seen by Reuters. A watchdog group led by former ethics lawyers for the Obama and George W. Bush administrations sued Trump in federal court in January, accusing him of violating the Constitution by allowing foreign government payments to businesses he owns. Some ethics lawyers say even if Trump turns over all of the profits from the Kuwait National Day party, he would still be in violation of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” They say all of the income from the event, not just profits, would need to be donated to the U.S. Treasury to avoid contravening the constitutional ban. Trump resigned in February as an officer of Trump Old Post Office LLC, the company that operates the hotel, but Richard Painter, Bush’s chief ethics lawyer, said the resignation made no difference as long as Trump retained an interest in it.     The ethics experts say Trump is still technically a recipient of payments to his hotels because he still has an ownership interest in them. Dillon, Trump’s lawyer, argued at the Jan. 11 press conference that payments to Trump’s hotels do not violate the Constitution because “paying for a hotel room is not a gift or a present and it has nothing to do with an office.” She also said that a separate law banning federal employees from engaging in matters affecting their financial interests does not apply to the president. The head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics agreed in public remarks in January but said it was “consistent policy of the executive branch” for the president to nevertheless avoid financial conflicts of interest.     The office declined to comment when asked by Reuters whether Trump would be contravening the Constitution if he did not turn over all hotel income from foreign governments. Four Democratic U.S. lawmakers asked the Government Accountability Office on Feb. 16 to assess whether Trump had made any payments to the Treasury resulting from profits at his hotels. GAO spokesman Chuck Young said the request was still being reviewed and the agency had not yet decided what to do about it. When the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was asked on Feb. 23 whether it would be tracking payments from foreign governments to Trump Hotels, and from the hotels to the U.S. Treasury, a spokeswoman for the committee declined to comment.

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia s upper house Senate on Wednesday passed a measure to legalize same-sex marriage, perhaps as soon as next week, after lawmakers dismissed a conservative push to allow religious objectors to refuse service to same-sex couples. Australians overwhelmingly endorsed legalizing same-sex marriage in a postal survey run by the national statistics agency and the bill easily passed the Senate by 43 votes to 12. Conservative lawmakers had pressed for broad protections for religious objectors, among them florists, bakers and musicians, to refuse service to same-sex couples. But amendments for lay celebrants to refuse to solemnize same-sex marriages and permitting caterers opposed to the unions to refuse service at wedding receptions were either defeated or abandoned during two days of debate in the senate, where same-sex marriage supporters are in the majority. The Australian people voted to lessen discrimination, not to extend it and we, the senate, have respected that vote by rejecting amendments which sought to extend discrimination, or derail marriage equality, Labor Senator Penny Wong, who voted down all the amendments, told Parliament. The bill moves to the lower house next week, where conservative lawmakers hope for a renewed push to add measures exempting objectors to same-sex marriage from existing laws against discrimination. I do not think we have made these changes in a way which advances rights fully, said center-right National Party Senator Matt Canavan. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull s Liberal-National coalition government and the main opposition Labor Party have said they wanted to pass the law through parliament by Dec. 7. If the legislation passes as expected, Australia will become the 26th nation to legalize same-sex marriage, a watershed for a country where some states held homosexual activity illegal until 1997.

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European parliamentarians want Britain to end regrettable practices that discriminate against EU citizens in the workplace and elsewhere, a draft resolution published on Thursday showed. Lawmakers also urged British authorities to grant broad rights to EU citizens and their families in Britain after it exits the EU in 2019, an issue where EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Thursday big differences remained. The European Parliament expresses concern about regrettable administrative practices against EU citizens living in the United Kingdom , the draft resolution said. Lawmakers said there were also cases of British citizens discriminated against in other EU countries. The British government said on Sept. 9 that its Equalities Office (GEO) was aware of, and is looking into, reports of discrimination against non-UK EU nationals seeking employment in violation of the 2010 Equality Act. The document, agreed on Thursday by the leaders of the assembly s political parties, will be voted on by the chamber next week in Strasbourg. The document is not binding on EU negotiators but the 28-nation parliament has the right to veto any deal with Britain on its future relations with the EU. MPs also urged Britain to protect the rights of EU citizens and their children even if they are born there after Brexit. Future family members should continue to benefit from right of residence under the same provisions as current family members, the document said. EU lawmakers have opposed Britain s proposals to create a new category of settled status under United Kingdom immigration law for EU citizens. Differences on these issues remain, Barnier said on Thursday at the end of a fourth round of Brexit negotiations. Without sufficient progress on citizens rights, the EU will not move on to negotiations on a future trade deal with London.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seven U.S. senators urged Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday to press Bahrain’s government to do more to promote political and social reform, adding to recent concern in Washington over that country’s human rights record. The letter said the United States should be prepared to consider “tangible consequences,” including reconsidering arms sales, if a recent crackdown on opposition continues. “Bahrain’s failure to address the legitimate grievances of its citizens has strained the country’s social fabric and invited outside actors to take advantage of the deteriorating situation,” six Democratic lawmakers and one Republican said in a letter to Kerry, a former Democratic senator. “Indeed, we believe the government’s harsh crackdown on the political opposition undermines the country’s stability and plays into the hands of Iran,” they wrote, calling themselves “deeply alarmed.” State Department spokesman John Kirby said he was aware of reports about the letter, but had not seen it. Asked about whether U.S. arms provided to Bahrain could be used against the opposition, he said, “We always have concerns about the end use of items that are inside the foreign military sales program.” Bahrain, which hosts the United States’ Fifth Fleet and is seen by Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdoms as a strategic bulwark against Iranian influence, drew U.S. and United Nations criticism this month when it moved to strip a top Shi’ite cleric’s citizenship and closed the main Shi’ite opposition group. A State Department report, first reported by Reuters, found Bahrain’s national reconciliation efforts after it crushed street protests in 2011 have stalled, and said the Western ally in the Gulf has not implemented recommendations to protect freedom of expression. “We continue to urge the government of Bahrain to reverse their recent harmful actions,” Kirby said a news briefing on Thursday. Earlier this week, the State Department said Bahrain’s plan to try an activist for tweets condemning its prison system and involvement in the war in Yemen is worrisome to the United States. The letter was led by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and also signed by Republican Marco Rubio and Democrats Patrick Leahy, Ron Wyden, Bob Casey, Chris Coons and Tim Kaine. It asked for more information on specific actions President Barack Obama’s administration is taking to press Bahrain’s leadership on the issue.

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian authorities scrapped an annual beer festival on Monday after an Islamist party objected to the event that had been planned for the first weekend of October in the country s capital. Though there are plenty of beer drinkers among the sizable Chinese and Indian minorities, protests against events deemed to be western and unIslamic - such as concerts and festivals involving alcohol - are common in Muslim-majority Malaysia and are usually led by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) said in a short statement on Monday that it has rejected the application for a permit by the organizers of the Better Beer Festival 2017 to host the event, which would have entered its sixth year. If the organizers continue with the event without DBKL s approval, action will be taken in accordance to existing laws, city hall said. Mybeer (M) Sdn Bhd, the company organizing the event, said in a separate statement that they were informed by DBKL officials that the decision was made due to the political sensitivity surrounding the event . A member of PAS central committee, Riduan Mohd Nor, said in a statement on Sept. 10 that there is no guarantee that such events would not lead to criminal acts, rape and free sex. Opponents of the beer festival also launched a campaign on Facebook to block the event. Around 6,000 people had been expected to attend the two-day festival, which would have featured craft beers from at least 11 countries, according to Facebook posts by the organizers and local news reports.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate passed a 10-year extension of sanctions against Iran on Thursday, sending the measure to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign into law and delaying any potentially tougher actions until next year. The measure passed by 99-0. It passed the House of Representatives nearly unanimously in November, and congressional aides said they expected Obama would sign it. The ISA will expire on Dec. 31 if not renewed. The White House had not pushed for an extension, but had not raised serious objections. Members of Congress and administration officials said the renewal of the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) would not violate the nuclear agreement with Iran reached last year. “While we do not think that an extension of ISA is necessary, we do not believe that a clean extension would be a violation of the JCPOA (Iran deal),” a senior administration official said. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said recently the extension would breach the agreement and threatened retaliation. Democrats who backed the accord said they did not believe the ISA extension violated the pact because it continued a sanctions regime that was already in place. They said they had not heard such objections from U.S. partners. “I have not heard strident objections from our key allies in the JCPOA,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons told reporters. The agreement was signed by the United States, Britain, Russia, France, China, Germany and Iran. Congress’ action did not address the fate of the nuclear pact, which was opposed by every Republican in the Senate and House. Lawmakers said it would make it easier for sanctions to be quickly reimposed if Iran violated the deal. Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump railed against the pact as he campaigned for the White House. Many other members of his party, which also controls Congress, have called for the new administration to tear up the agreement. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said the renewal ensures Trump can reimpose sanctions Obama lifted under the deal, in which Iran curbed its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. “Extending the Iran Sanctions Act ... ensures President-elect Trump and his administration have the tools necessary to push back against the regime’s hostile actions,” Corker said in a statement. Trump becomes president on Jan. 20. Corker has been mentioned as a possible Trump secretary of state. (Fixes typo in word “objections” in paragraph 8.)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday did not say when lawmakers would vote on a Republican plan to undo former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, but said House leaders were making progress on the bill. Speaking to reporters, Ryan said Republicans “were making very good progress” on their proposed legislation. He rejected concerns about the measure’s potential health insurance impact on people with pre-existing health conditions, saying there were layers of protections for such patients.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans proposed on Tuesday to delay or suspend several taxes under former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, including a tax on medical devices and the so-called “Cadillac” tax on generous health insurance plans. The move represents a new Republican attempt to roll back provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act widely known as Obamacare, after repeated failures by Congress’ majority party this year to repeal the law. Republicans in the House and Senate are also in the final stages of reconciling tax overhaul legislation, including a proposal to scrap Obamacare’s individual mandate, which imposes a tax penalty on Americans who do not obtain health insurance. A spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee said the additional proposed healthcare tax rollbacks would not be part of the broader tax overhaul bill. Republicans could try to merge the healthcare tax proposals with a must-pass government funding bill that is expected to be passed by Dec. 22, when current funding runs out. But to succeed, Republicans in the Senate, who hold a slim majority of seats, would need an assist from Democrats to get past procedural hurdles. In a statement, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady announced five new Republican-sponsored bills to provide targeted relief from Obamacare taxes, saying he looked forward to “advancing legislation in the weeks ahead.” One proposed bill would retroactively eliminate Obamacare penalties for employers who did not offer health insurance to their employees over the last three years, as well as for next year. The bill would also delay for one year the Cadillac tax on high-cost employer-sponsored insurance, which is otherwise scheduled to go into effect in 2020. Labor unions oppose this tax because their members often receive more generous healthcare plans, and they fear it would increase their costs. Another bill would suspend for five years the tax on medical devices, such as pacemakers and artificial hips. It was first imposed in January 2013 as a funding mechanism for Obamacare, a law that has brought medical coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans. The medical device tax has powerful opponents in both parties and manufacturers have lobbied heavily against it. Other proposals in the package would suspend a tax on health insurers for two years, and provide two years of relief from a tax on over-the-counter medications.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday initiating a government-wide review of the U.S. defense industry and suggest changes to strengthen it. The review is intended to identify and address potential weak points in the defense manufacturing base including companies that could go out of business and leave gaps in the supply chain for U.S. weapons systems, said Peter Navarro, the White House National Trade Council director. The executive order asked for recommendations on possible legislative, regulatory and policy changes that would improve and support the defense industry, calling it a “significant national priority”. “America’s defense industrial base is now facing increasing gaps in its capabilities,” Navarro said. “There’s just one company in the U.S. that can repair propellers for Navy submarines,” he added in a briefing with reporters. Defense analyst Howard Rubel of the investment bank Jefferies & Co said the free market has so far done a reasonably good job. “We don’t want to invest in buggy whip suppliers just because there is only one (supplier).” He added that it is important to recognize that the United States can sometimes buy more cheaply from its allies. The review mandated by the executive order will be led by the Pentagon and conducted in concert with the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security as well as other government agencies. Skilled labor is also a big part of the huge military buildup Trump has promised to project American power. Industry has already shown initiative in addressing the skilled labor shortage, including in the metals trades, Navarro said in his remarks.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday that a national security review of the U.S. steel industry will be completed “very shortly” and will seek to protect the interests of both domestic steel producers and consumers. Ross told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that he believes there is “a genuine national security issue that must be considered in this case,” the second major signal in two days that the Trump administration is preparing new steel import restrictions. In a speech in Cincinnati on Wednesday, Trump said: “Wait until you see what I’m going to do for steel and for your steel companies. We’re going to stop the dumping, and stop all of these wonderful other countries from coming in and killing our companies and our workers. You’ll be seeing that very soon.” The steel review under a Cold War-era trade law would result in a “thoughtful” set of recommendations for Trump to consider for action, Ross said. He has previously said he expected to complete the study by the end of June. Ross identified three kinds of actions that could be recommended: imposing tariffs above the current, country-specific anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on steel products; imposing quotas limiting the volume of steel imports; and a hybrid “tariff-rate quota” option that would include quotas on specific products with new tariffs for imports above those levels. Choosing the latter option would help mitigate concerns over steel price inflation from tariffs, Ross said. Some steel users have voiced concerns that import limits would cause price increases that would make them more vulnerable to foreign competitors. “The overall impact on inflation, were that to be the route, should be relatively modest,” Ross said. “So we’re very mindful of the need both to protect the domestic steel producers from inappropriate behavior on the part of foreign dumpers, but also to protect the steel consumers, the steel fabricators, the auto companies and everybody else who uses steel.”

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey told U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday he could not buy its support in a United Nations vote on Jerusalem, and said the world should teach the United States a very good lesson by resisting U.S. pressure. Trump has threatened to cut aid to countries that support a draft U.N. resolution calling for the United States to withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara U.N. member states should not let their decision in Thursday s vote at the U.N. General Assembly be dictated by money. Mr. Trump, you cannot buy Turkey s democratic will with your dollars, he said. The dollars will come back, but your will won t once it s sold. That is why your stance is important. Trump s announcement two weeks ago that he was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel s capital broke with decades of U.S. policy and international consensus that the city s status must be left to Israeli-Palestinian talks. Last week Erdogan hosted a special meeting of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, which condemned Trump s decision and called on the world to respond by recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Jerusalem, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in an action not recognized internationally. Trump s Jerusalem move led to harsh criticisms from Muslim countries and Israel s closest European allies, who have also rejected the move. A draft resolution calling for withdrawal of Trump s decision was vetoed at the United Nations Security Council by the United States on Monday. Following that vote, opponents of the U.S. decision called for the vote in the General Assembly. I hope and expect the United States won t get the result it expects from there and the world will give a very good lesson to the United States, Erdogan said.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said on Friday some forces were trying to oust the leader of the country, Russia s Interfax news agency reported. Some sides are trying to use certain forces in order to displace the leader of Lebanon, Interfax quoted Bassil as telling his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

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DETROIT (Reuters) - A federal judge in Michigan halted on Monday the deportation of more than 1,400 Iraqi nationals from the United States, the latest legal victory for the Iraqi nationals facing deportation in a closely watched case. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith granted a preliminary injunction requested by American Civil Liberties Union lawyers, who argued the immigrants would face persecution in Iraq because they are considered ethnic and religious minorities there. Goldsmith said the injunction provides detainees time to challenge their removal in federal courts. He said many of them faced “a feverish search for legal assistance” after their deportation orders were unexpectedly resurrected by the U.S. government after several years. Goldsmith wrote, in his 34-page opinion and order, the extra time assures “that those who might be subjected to grave harm and possible death are not cast out of this country before having their day in court.” The decision effectively means no Iraqi nationals can be deported from the United States for several months. It was not immediately known whether the U.S. government would appeal. A representative for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit was not immediately available for comment. There are 1,444 Iraqi nationals who have final deportation orders against them in the U.S., although only about 199 of them were detained in June as part of a nationwide sweep by immigration authorities. The ACLU sued on June 15 to halt the deportations, arguing the Iraqis could face persecution, torture, or death because many were Chaldean Catholics, Sunni Muslims, or Iraqi Kurds and that the groups were recognized as targets of ill-treatment in Iraq. Those arrested by immigration authorities had outstanding deportation orders and many had been convicted of serious crimes, ranging from homicide to weapons and drug charges, the U.S. government said. Goldsmith sided with the ACLU, expanding on June 26 an earlier stay which only protected 114 detainees from the Detroit area to the broader class of more than 1,400 Iraqi nationals nationwide. Goldsmith’s Monday decision came hours before that injunction was set to expire. The ACLU argued many Iraqi detainees have had difficulty obtaining critical government documents needed to file deportation order appeals, and also that the government has transferred many detainees to facilities in different parts of the country, separating them from their lawyers and families. Under Goldsmith’s ruling, immigration authorities must provide the ACLU with bi-weekly reports about each Iraqi that include where they are detained. On Friday, a federal prosecutor told Goldsmith his injunction was not necessary because many of the detainees were appealing final deportation orders through immigration court. The roundup of Iraqis in the Detroit area followed Iraq’s agreement to accept deportees as part of a deal that removed the country from Trump’s revised temporary travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries. Some of those affected came to the United States as children and committed their crimes decades ago but were allowed to stay because Iraq previously declined to issue travel documents for them. That changed after the two governments came to the agreement in March.

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - China summoned Australia s ambassador to lodge a complaint last week over Canberra s allegation that Beijing had sought to interfere in Australian politics, a source familiar with the diplomatic action told Reuters on Thursday. Relations between Australia and China became strained in recent weeks after Canberra said it would ban foreign political donations as part of a crackdown aimed at preventing external influence in domestic politics, sharpening the focus on China s soft power. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull singled out China as he said foreign powers were making unprecedented and increasingly sophisticated attempts to influence the political process in Australia. In response, China summoned Ambassador Jan Adams to a meeting at the Chinese Ministry for Foreign Affairs on December 8 to lodge a complaint, the source said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang confirmed the ministry had an important discussion with the Australian ambassador. The Australian side should be very clear about China s position on the relevant issue, Lu told a daily news briefing, without elaborating. China s Foreign Ministry said last week Turnbull s allegations were full of prejudice against China, were baseless and poisoned the atmosphere of China-Australia relations. Turnbull s allegations have been criticized by Australia s opposition Labor Party as showing an anti-China bias that could jeopardize bilateral trade. China, which is easily Australia s biggest trading partner, bought A$93 billion ($70 billion) worth of Australian goods and services last year. Australia s unshakeable security relationship with the United States, however, has limited how cosy it gets with China. Turnbull denied indulging in anti-Chinese rhetoric, insisting Labour was using the issue to win favor with a large voter block ahead of a make-or-break by-election on Saturday that analysts said will determine his political future. I am disappointed they have tried to turn Australians against each other, Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.

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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark intends to invest to boost efforts to prevent cyber attacks in a strategy to be presented early next year, its defense minister said on Tuesday. We are going to spend more money in this area, Claus Hjort Frederiksen told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Copenhagen, though he declined to disclose a figure. Cyber security is very high on the agenda for the right-leaning government, but also for the broad selection of Danish political parties negotiating a new defense strategy for the coming six years, he said. The government would like to expand an early warning system with sensors that detects when Danish companies or authorities are under attack from, for example, malware. To some degree we do have a system today, but we would like to expand it to the strategic infrastructure and to private companies, he told Reuters. The government also wants to increase the preventive capacity at the Danish center for cyber security to increase its ability to better catch and inform about imminent cyber threats, he said. World s no.1 container shipper and one of Denmark s largest companies Maersk was hit by major cyber attack in June, one of the biggest-ever disruptions to hit global shipping. The government also works for a deeper cooperation between authorities and private companies in battling cyber attacks, Frederiksen said. He said he believed companies were sometimes reluctant to inform they had been hit by cyber attacks, because they were afraid to scare off customers or investors. Frederiksen said he saw the overall cyber threat as one of the greatest threats of our time . If you can undermine our democratic nations by hacking the energy systems or the communication systems or the financial systems it will undermine our own people s belief in our societies ability to protect them, he said. Russia hacked the Danish defense network and gained access to employees emails in 2015 and 2016, Frederiksen said in April. Danish troops will get training in how to deal with Russian misinformation before being sent to join a NATO military build-up in Estonia in January, Frederiksen said in July.

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LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will travel to the Middle East this week to lend her support to economic reforms in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, her spokesman said. Her trip comes as Britain is looking for new relationships around the world, to replace those it will lose after it quits the European Union in a little more than a year. She will meet Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, where she will also discuss the crisis in Yemen and the dispute in Qatar. In Jordan, she will meet King Abdullah and Prime Minister Hanu Mulki. The London Stock Exchange is competing now to host part of Saudi Aramco s [IPO-ARMO.SE] initial public offering. Britain said this month it would provide $2 billion in credit guarantees to the energy company so it can buy British goods more easily. On Tuesday, British foreign minister Boris Johnson hosted officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United States to discuss humanitarian aid in Yemen, where aid agencies have complained about a port blockade. Aid agencies say it has worsened the crisis in Yemen where war has left an estimated 7 million people facing famine and killed more than 10,000 people.

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Tensions between Germany and Turkey are holding up planned defense projects at Rheinmetall, the German company s chief executive told news agency DPA in an interview. Ties between the two NATO allies have been strained by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan s crackdown on opponents after a failed coup last year as well as Germany s refusal to extradite people Turkey says were involved in the plot. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said in the interview published on Monday that several projects, including the production of ammunition for fighter jets in Turkey and upgrades to Turkey s Leopard tanks, were still awaiting decisions by the two governments. If relations with Turkey don t improve it will be difficult to obtain clearance from Germany, he said. Poor relations have also dimmed Rheinmetall s prospects for playing a role in Turkey s Altay tank project, worth an estimated 7 billion euros ($8.13 billion), DPA said. Turkey s BMC, with which Rheinmetall has a joint venture in Turkey, is among the bidders for the first tranche to build around 100 to 200 of a planned 1,000 combat tanks, DPA said. If BMC wins the contract, Rheinmetall could in theory take part in the development of the tank via joint venture RBSS, in which the German company holds a 40 percent stake, but it would need an export clearance from the German government. Papperger said Rheinmetall had no plans to build its own tank factory in Turkey.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director James Comey told Congress on Sunday a recent review of newly discovered emails did not change the agency’s conclusion reached in July that no charges were warranted in the case of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. U.S. Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz said in a tweet that Comey had informed him of the conclusion. Comey’s letter to Congress informing it of the newly discovered emails had thrown Clinton’s presidential race against Republican Donald Trump into turmoil.

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BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke about keeping pressure on North Korea with economic sanctions imposed through the United Nations, the White House said in a statement on Monday. The United States and South Korea and separately Russia together with China, carried out military drills in a show of force against North Korea, which has defied U.N. Security Council resolutions to conduct nuclear tests and ballistic missile tests. Trump and Xi spoke on the phone days after Trump and his aides publicly discussed potential military action against North Korea. On Friday, while delivering an address at a military base outside of Washington, Trump said he was more confident than ever that our options in addressing this threat are both effective and overwhelming. Trump is attending the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, while Xi is not. North Korea s nuclear threat is likely to loom large on the agenda. The two leaders also discussed Trump s coming China visit, the Xinhua News Agency said. Xi said China and the United States share extensive common interests and have seen sound momentum of exchanges and cooperation in various areas at present, Xinhua said. Xi called on both sides to work closely to ensure a fruitful trip and inject new impetus into the development of Sino-U.S. relations, the report said. The Chinese leader said he is happy to maintain communications with the U.S. leader on a regular basis over topics of mutual concern, it said. Trump will likely visit China in November as part of a trip that will take him to an ASEAN summit in the Philippines and an APEC summit in Vietnam.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is asking Congress to give the Pentagon about $2 billion for a “flexible” fund to use against Islamic State over the next six months, as his administration weighs changes to the U.S.-led campaign against the militant group. Trump is also seeking to upgrade long-underfunded facilities at the U.S. military’s Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba that Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, unsuccessfully sought to close during his eight-year administration. “It doesn’t seem like we are going to close it anytime soon,” John Roth, the acting Pentagon comptroller, told a Pentagon news briefing, explaining the move. The proposals were part of a $30 billion supplemental request to Congress to add more money to the Pentagon’s budget during the government’s ongoing fiscal year, which began under the Obama administration and ends in September. It includes plans to crank up U.S. funding for the fight against Islamic State militants for items like high-tech bombs and defenses against insurgents’ drones, bringing overall spending on the campaign to the highest level yet, the Pentagon said. “This will likely be our largest request,” Roth said. One analyst called the $2 billion flexible spending request a Pentagon “slush fund,” and many lawmakers were expected to be reluctant to loosen oversight over how the Pentagon spends money. What Trump’s additional funding might mean for America’s evolving war strategy against Islamic State in the coming months was not immediately clear. But the request comes as U.S.-backed forces in Iraq and Syria are entering a critical phase in their campaign to retake Islamic State’s two biggest cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. Trump’s administration is weighing deployment of more U.S. troops. The heads of the top U.S. congressional committees that oversee the Pentagon have criticized Trump’s 2018 budget request, saying even more money was needed. “It is clear to virtually everyone that we have cut our military too much and that it has suffered enormous damage,” said Republican Representative Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington questioned whether Trump’s budget wish list could muster enough support among Democrats, whose votes would be needed to sign off on the spending bills given the slim Republican hold on the Senate. Trump said during the election campaign that he not only wanted to keep the Guantanamo Bay detention center open but “load it up with some bad dudes.” Trump’s $5.1 billion “overseas contingency operations” request included a provision for $1.1 billion in additional funds for a range of Pentagon projects, including “planning and design of construction projects in support of Detention Operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” The prison, which was opened by Republican President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects captured overseas after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks came to symbolize harsh detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. Obama reduced the inmate population to 41, but fell short of fulfilling his promise to close the jail. The 2017 request would also hike spending for the broader Defense Department over the next six months, with $24.9 billion more sought to “readiness needs” after years of complaints over congressionally imposed spending caps. Lockheed Martin would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of that proposal. Some $13.5 billion would be spent on more military hardware, including five F-35 warplanes as well as Army Blackhawk helicopters made by Sikorsky Aircraft, a Lockheed subsidiary. Trump also wants 12 interceptors for the THAAD missile defense system. The United States is now deploying THAAD in South Korea in response to North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear tests. Boeing would also gain with $2.4 billion for an additional 24 of its F/A-18 E/F jet fighters. A further $7.2 billion would pay for things like military training, cyber and intelligence capabilities and support for weapons systems.

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PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on Saturday staged a protest in Paris against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s planned visit to France on Sunday. Protestors carried Palestinian flags and photos of French President Emmanuel Macron marked accomplice for hosting Netanyahu following the U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Netanyahu, who has welcomed Trump s move, will meet with Macron on Sunday ahead of a meeting with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. France said on Friday the United States had sidelined itself in the Middle East by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on French TV that the U.S. move went against international law . Trump says he has a project. Let him present it, so that this intervention can be wiped out by the restart of the peace process, he said. Macron and Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan will work together to try to persuade the United States to reconsider the decision, a Turkish presidential source said on Saturday. France has been a supporter of the Palestinian cause. In 2014, the French National Assembly passed a non-binding motion calling on the government to recognize Palestine, but the government has not officially done so.

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BEIJING (Reuters) - The North Korean nuclear issue must be resolved peacefully, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart during a meeting at the United Nations, China s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. The United States and South Korea, and separately Russia together with China, started military drills on Wednesday in a show of force against North Korea, which has repeatedly defied the United Nations to conduct nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Wang said in a meeting with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Monday that China would strictly implement U.N. Security council sanctions and stressed that parties directly involved must also take action and responsibility. The current deepening vicious cycle must be broken. Resuming peace talks is an equally important step in implementing security council resolutions, Wang said, according to a statement on the foreign ministry website. Russia has supported China s suspension-for-suspension proposal, where the United States and South Korea would agree to halt joint military drills while North Korea halted missile and nuclear tests. Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke about keeping pressure on North Korea using economic sanctions imposed through the United Nations, the White House said on Monday. Trump and Xi spoke on the phone days after Trump and his aides publicly discussed potential military action against North Korea. Trump said on Friday he was more confident than ever that our options in addressing this threat are both effective and overwhelming . Pyongyang carried out the latest in a rapid series of missile launches by firing another mid-range ballistic missile over Japan on Friday, soon after its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, in defiance of United Nations sanctions and other international pressure.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As a candidate, U.S. President Donald Trump promised to close the “carried interest” tax break that benefits some of Wall Street’s wealthiest financiers - but the Republican tax bill released on Thursday makes no mention of it. Carried interest is a share of an investment fund’s profits - typically about 20 percent beyond the return guaranteed to investors - that is paid out to the general partners of private equity, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds. Under current law, carried interest income is taxed at the capital gains rate of 20 percent. That is well below the 39.6 percent rate that high earners pay on ordinary wages and salary. Trump pledged during his populist presidential campaign to close the carried-interest loophole, saying hedge fund managers were “paper pushers” who were “getting away with murder.” Carried interest represents a large portion of many fund managers’ incomes. For years they have employed Washington lobbyists to help defend the lucrative tax break. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in August that the Trump administration still planned to close the loophole for hedge funds, but there might be an exemption to allow financial firms that “create jobs” to continue taking advantage of the tax break. The 429-page tax bill released by Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday has no language changing how financial firms can take advantage of the lower carried-interest rate. “The introduced text does not modify current policy related to carried interest,” a spokesman for the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee said. The bill is expected to undergo revisions before it is brought up for a vote in the House. Trump has said he would like to see the House and the Senate pass tax legislation before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 23. “We fully expected months ago that the one thing that they would do to close loopholes would be the one thing that Trump talked about during the campaign,” said Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress and a former economic adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama. Obama targeted the carried interest loophole but never closed it. Government estimates show it will cost the federal budget at least $20 billion over the next decade.

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