MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday announced that Russia would donate defense hardware to support the military s fight against pro-Islamic State militants, who he said could regroup and attack  anywhere and everywhere . Duterte said Russia would provide about 5,000 assault rifles in a deal to be signed this month, and the Philippine military would no longer have to use second-hand arms.  We will have the Kalashnikov,  he said in a speech to troops, adding that Russia wanted to keep the donation secret. Moscow s gift would follow China s donation of more than 6,000 assault rifles and 100 sniper rifles, among the fruits of Duterte s efforts to form partnerships with two arms-producing powers that are rivals to the United States. The United States has for decades been the Philippines  defense treaty ally and its biggest source or hardware and training, providing about $1 billion in equipment since 2000. Duterte has made no secret of his animosity toward Washington and his disdain for the U.S. military alliance. A senior defense official told Reuters the Russian weapons would arrive later this month, when Russia s defense minister attends a regional meeting. The rifles would be accompanied by millions of rounds of ammunition and dozens of army trucks. Five Russian warships were due to visit in Manila to deliver the equipment, the official said. Four have visited the country this year, in two separate visits. Duterte said the military needed to be properly equipped to handle Islamic State loyalists who had established a dangerous foothold in Mindanao in the south.  They will not disappear, they will regroup anywhere and everywhere,  Duterte said.

Summary: रूस फिलीपींस को कलाश्निकोव, ट्रक और गोला-बारूद दान करेगा


ALMATY (Reuters) - The first prominent dissident to return to Uzbekistan since the death of its long-time leader was detained on arrival on Wednesday, his wife said, raising questions about the new president s efforts to change the country s image. Uzbek police took writer Nurulloh Muhammad Raufkhon away in handcuffs after he landed at Tashkent airport, and sent him to jail after questioning, Gulnara Otakhonova told Reuters in tears. Officers told her to bring him clothes and a lawyer but did not say what he was charged with, she added.  The interior ministry in mainly Muslim ex-Soviet state bordering Afghanistan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Raufkhon had been in self-imposed exile in Turkey since 2016, when he was placed on a security blacklist after publishing a book that criticized former leader Islam Karimov.  Karimov, held responsible by Western governments for systematic human rights violations during his 25 years in power, died last September. His successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has sought to present himself as a more liberal leader, and this month Raufkhon told Reuters in an interview that, despite harboring some misgivings, he would soon return home. In an open letter to Mirziyoyev last week, Raufkhon said his safe return would  suit the country which is repackaging itself in front of the world community as free and fair since you came to power . Improving Tashkent s image could help Mirziyoyev forge closer ties with the West and attract foreign investment to modernize the economy which has struggled to create enough jobs, forcing millions of Uzbeks to look for work abroad. Raufkhon s wife , said by telephone that she and their son had waited for several hours at the airport before seeing Raufkhon escorted outside in handcuffs, then taken to a police station. As she waited outside the police station later in the day, a police officer told her to hire a lawyer. In the evening, police told her they were taking Raufkhon to jail and instructed her to bring clothes for him, still without stating any charges, Otakhonova said. Steve Swerdlow, Uzbekistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, called Raufkhon s detention  troubling, particularly given reports authorities had informed him about his rehabilitation and the various steps President Mirziyoyev has taken to show this is a new political era in Uzbekistan . Mirziyoyev last month ordered the removal of 16,000 people, including Raufkhon, from the blacklist. But some of his reforms announced since the December election have suffered from setbacks or delays caused, according to Uzbekistan-based foreign diplomats, by interventions of Karimov-era security boss Rustam Inoyatov with whom Mirziyoyev effectively shares power.

Summary: निर्वासन से लौटने पर असंतुष्ट उज़्बेक लेखक गिरफ्तारः पत्नी


ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that Washington was keen for a new start in relations between the two countries, sources in Yildirim’s office said, after ties soured during the Obama administration. Pence and Yildirim met on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, Germany, and discussed improving ties, boosting cooperation in the fight against terrorism and the need to work together to find a permanent solution in Syria. Yildirim told Pence that moves by the United States to meet Turkey’s demands over Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric blamed by Ankara for masterminding and orchestrating a failed coup last July, would pave the way for a fresh start in relations. Ties between the United States and Turkey - which has the second largest army in the NATO alliance and is key to the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq - have deteriorated sharply since the failed military coup. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and the government want Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, extradited. Gulen denies involvement in the coup attempt. Ankara has also been angered by U.S. support for a Kurdish militia group fighting Islamic State in Syria. Turkey sees the group as an extension of the outlawed PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey and has been behind a spate of recent bombings. Erdogan believes ties will improve under U.S. President Donald Trump. A phone call between the two earlier this month was very positive, sources in Erdogan’s office have said.

Summary: तुर्की के प्रधानमंत्री और अमेरिकी उपराष्ट्रपति ने संबंधों में सुधार पर चर्चा कीः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate majority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, said on Wednesday he did not support any additional investigation into whether Russia influenced the 2016 U.S. election, saying as he opened the Senate that it would “impede” probes already under way. But the chamber’s Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, reiterated his calls for a special counsel to look into the matter. Schumer said the need was more urgent after Republican President Donald Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट रिपब्लिकन नेता ने रूस की नई जांच का विरोध किया


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in a major speech on Europe, on Saturday urged the European Union to  recover the sense of being a single community  if it wants a future of prosperity and fairness for all. Francis spoke at the end of a two-day conference at the Vatican called  Re-Thinking Europe . Dozens of participants attended, including European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, the vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and religious leaders. While the pope did not specifically mention the situation in Catalonia, where the region s leaders want to break away from Spain, or Britain s decision to leave the EU, he spoke often of solidarity, teamwork and mutual sacrifice.  A European Union that, in facing its crises, fails to recover a sense of being a single community that sustains and assists its members   and not just a collection of small interest groups   would miss out not only on one of the greatest challenges of its history, but also on one of the greatest opportunities for its own future,  he said.  Particular and nationalist agendas risk thwarting the courageous dreams of the founders of Europe,  he said. In his long speech, Francis appeared to warn against the dangers to Europe posed by populist anti-immigrant parties. In elections in Germany in September, Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured almost 13 percent of the vote, making it the third largest party and the first far-right party to win seats in more than half a century.  Extremist and populist groups are finding fertile ground in many countries; they make protest the heart of their political message, without offering the alternative of a constructive political project,  Francis said, without naming any group. History s first Latin American pope said politics had often gone astray, saying  Sadly, all too often we see how politics is becoming instead a forum for clashes between opposing forces.  In his address to the pope at the closing ceremony, Tajani, the European Parliament president, spoke of  risk of a return to intolerance and xenophobia . The pope called for immigrants to be welcomed to Europe as an enriching resource, rather than be seen as a threat. But, in an apparent assertion that immigration had to be controlled, he said that while authorities should have an  open heart  they should be able to  provide for the full integration, on the social, economic and political level  of newcomers.

Summary: पोप ने यूरोपीय संघ से एकता को फिर से खोजने का आग्रह किया यदि वह भविष्य चाहता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said on Monday that indictments announced by Special Counsel Robert Mueller do not change anything regarding his panel’s investigation of potential Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. “It doesn’t change anything with our investigation,” Burr said in a statement. “We received documents from and had interest in two of the individuals named, but clearly the criminal charges put them in the Special Counsel’s purview.”

Summary: सीनेट खुफिया अध्यक्षः आरोपों से समिति की जांच नहीं बदलती


EDINBURGH (Reuters) - A poll has found that 51 percent of Britons would now keep European Union membership while 41 percent want to leave the bloc, a near reversal of last year s referendum result. The BMG poll of 1,400 people for The Independent published on the newspaper s website on Saturday came as Britain moves into a second phase of negotiations on exiting the EU, which will focus on trade. The Independent said the lead for  remain  over  leave  was the biggest in any poll so far since the vote in June 2016. But the head of polling at BMG, quoted in the Independent, said that the reason for the change was a shift in opinion among those who did not vote in last year s referendum, while around nine in 10  leave  and  remain  voters were unchanged in their views. The survey was carried out from December 5 to 8. In the referendum last year, 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the EU and 48 percent voted to remain. Mike Smithson, an election analyst who runs the www.politicalbetting.com website who is also a former Liberal Democrat politician, said on Twitter it was  the biggest lead for Remain since (the EU referendum).  Prime Minister Theresa May this week secured an agreement with the EU to move Brexit talks on to trade and a transition pact, but some European leaders warned that negotiations, which have been arduous so far, could now become tougher.

Summary: आधे से अधिक ब्रिटिश अब यूरोपीय संघ में बने रहना चाहते हैं-सर्वेक्षण


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan state elections may be repeated in the five states won by the opposition if the governors-elect continue to refuse to be sworn in by a controversial pro-government legislative superbody, President Nicolas Maduro warned on Friday. His warning came in a televised speech after the government on Sunday unexpectedly won 18 of 23 states in a vote which the opposition calls fraudulent. Authorities have mandated that all elected governors participate in a ceremony before the pro-government Constituent Assembly, but the five opposition winners did not take part.     Anyone who wants to be governor will have to recognize the Constituent National Assembly; otherwise elections will be repeated in states where the Assembly is not recognized,  Maduro said at the inauguration of one of the socialist candidates in western Lara state.     The opposition says that by law, the oath must be taken before regional parliaments and not before the Constituent Assembly, but so far none of their candidates have undergone that process and formally assumed their roles.     Venezuela s opposition leaders have said they would travel abroad to denounce what they call dirty tricks by the government and outright fraud in the minerals-rich state of Bolivar. Maduro says the opposition cries fraud whenever it loses elections and that Venezuela s electoral system is the most secure in the world.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के मादुरो ने विपक्ष द्वारा जीते गए राज्यों में फिर से चुनाव कराने की चेतावनी दी


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said he would discuss a broad framework on bilateral economic cooperation with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence without going into any details in their first round of talks on Tuesday. Speaking at a regular news conference, Aso, who is also finance minister, said he would not discuss any bilateral free trade agreement with Pence when he visits Tokyo on Tuesday.

Summary: जापान अमेरिका के साथ व्यापक आर्थिक ढांचे पर चर्चा करेगा, न कि द्विपक्षीय एफ. टी. ए.: एसो


JAKARTA (Reuters) - The head of an Indonesian group representing victims of the mass killings of alleged communists in the mid-1960s said he had pinpointed 16 suspected mass grave sites in central Java that could contain about 5,000 bodies.     Bedjo Untung, of the 1965 Murder Victims Research Foundation (YPKP 65), said the sites were around the town of Purwodadi where suspected communists were sent for execution. Untung has asked the human rights commission (Komnas HAM) to investigate.    Some of the bodies were thrown into a ravine. Some were thrown in wells,  Untung told a new briefing, citing the testimony of three witnesses.   I have a witness who when he was a kid used to follow his father to wash the dead bodies. Every morning people sent them around 50 bodies. So we estimate there were around 5,000,  he said, adding that human bones had been found in the area.  I can conclude that they were suspected followers of the Indonesian communist party (PKI),  said Untung, who was himself jailed for being a member of the now banned PKI. One of the worst massacres of the 20th century, some historians say at least 500,000 people died in an orgy of bloodshed after then-general Suharto took power following an abortive coup. A million or more people were jailed, suspected of being communists. The killings in 1965 and 1966 have never been officially investigated and perpetrators have never faced justice despite a pledge by President Joko Widodo to resolve human rights issues. Untung said that 122 other suspected sites of mass graves had previously been identified.  According to newly declassified U.S. documents, the U.S. government had intimate knowledge of the mass killing of alleged communists even as it failed to publicly reveal the slaughter. The documents also reveal that Indonesian army intermediaries told Western embassies they were considering toppling then president Sukarno less than a fortnight after the killing of six generals by rebel military personnel that sparked the bloodletting. [L4N1MT2UD] Amiruddin Al Rahab, a commissioner at Komnas HAM, said he would look into the matter. The rights group has previously made recommendations to launch an official investigation and set up ad hoc human rights courts but so far these have not been enacted.  Indonesia, the world s largest Muslim-majority country, still has periodic bouts of anti-communist hysteria. In September, a meeting by human rights activists and YPKP 65 was shut down after Islamists and nationalists rioted outside the venue.

Summary: इंडोनेशिया समूह ने 1965 के नरसंहारों से संदिग्ध सामूहिक कब्रों की पहचान की


TUNIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Tunisians protested on Saturday in the streets of the capital against a widely contested new law that grants  officials from the former regime involved in corruption amnesty from prosecution. Tunisia s parliament on Wednesday approved a law protecting officials accused of graft during the rule of autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, triggering angry protests by the opposition and activists. Waving flags and banners saying  No to forgiveness ,  Resisting against mafia rule , around 1,500 people marched through the capital s central Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the company of opposition leaders. After months of protests, the law was amended from an original draft which would have also granted amnesty to corrupt businessmen. Now they will be liable to prosecution for crimes committed during Ben Ali s 24-year rule. Critics of the so-called  Economic Reconciliation  law say it is a step back from the spirit of Tunisia s 2011 revolution to oust Ben Ali, who fled after weeks of protests against corruption and inequality.  The counterrevolution is being led today by the President of the Republic,  Hamma Hammami, leader of Popular Front party, told Reuters.  The people returned to the streets again today as before the revolution and will not be silent against the corrupt system.  Ruling parties Ennahda and Nidaa Tounes supported the law. The law was proposed by President Beji Caid Essebsi, himself a former Ben Ali official, and sent to parliament in 2015. But debate was postponed after criticism that the original bill benefited business elites tied to the government. Government officials say the law helps to turn the page on the past, improves the climate for investment and gives confidence to the administration and officials. Slim Azzabi, the director of the president s office, said reconciliation would include about 2,000 employees and officials and will contribute to additional economic growth by 1.2 percent because of returned funds. Despite the consensus between secular and Islamist parties that helped the country s transition toward democracy, the bill has divided Tunisians between those who want to draw a line under the past and those who say they must deal with past graft. Since the 2011 uprising, Tunisia has been held up by Western partners as a model of democracy for the region. Economic progress has lagged, though, and corruption remains a major problem in the North African state.

Summary: ट्यूनीशियाई लोगों ने विवादित भ्रष्टाचार माफी के खिलाफ मार्च किया


MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Fighting between the military and police backed by intelligence forces killed nine people in the Somali capital on Saturday, police said.     It seems they mistook the Somali national army for (clan) militias. The death toll is nine people including a civilian,  Major Abdullahi Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters. He said the fighting occurred because police were wrongly informed that there were armed militias in the area.  Accidents happen,  he said.  Somalia has been riven by civil war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew a dictator then turned against each other. The weak U.N.-backed government is now battling an Islamist insurgency, but many members of its security forces are badly trained and coordination is poor.   Last night security forces (the police and intelligence) besieged us and then opened fire. We defended ourselves and chased the so-called security forces after hours of fighting today. We lost two soldiers and a wife of my colleague,  Major Nur Osman, a military officer, told Reuters on Saturday.  The land belongs to the military, it houses the families of  soldiers. However, the security forces were trying to force us off the land,  he said.  Residents said the fighting was terrifying.   We were awoken last night ... by gunfire ... We took our babies on our shoulders and fled,  resident Mohamed Idle told Reuters. In a separate incident on Saturday, Islamist insurgents briefly entered the town of El Wak in Gedo region, southern Somalia, near the border with Kenya.  A few soldiers were in El Wak and they left in the morning for tactical practice. Many al Shabaab fighters advanced,  Captain Ibrahim Ali, a military officer, told Reuters. Al Shabaab said they stayed briefly, took weapons and supplies, and left.

Summary: सोमाली सरकारी बलों की विभिन्न शाखाओं के बीच लड़ाई में नौ मारे गएः पुलिस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to clear a procedural path forward for a Republican tax bill, which was still being written and was expected to be unveiled next week as President Donald Trump seeks his first major legislative achievement. Overcoming last-minute resistance from lawmakers in their own ranks, House Republicans approved a fiscal 2018 budget measure that would make enactment of an eventual tax bill easier in the Senate, though many difficult decisions lie ahead. Passage of the budget resolution was a win for party leaders and Trump, who promised in their 2016 election campaigns to revamp the tax code. The plan they have offered for doing that is opposed by Democrats as a give-away to the wealthy and corporations.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन ने बजट मंजूरी के साथ कर विधेयक के लिए रास्ता साफ किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in Congress ended a 25-hour sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives where they have been countless times before: short of the votes needed to tighten U.S. gun laws. But many see their latest defeat as a prelude to victory in the Nov. 8 elections. Spurred by the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Democrats are showing a new willingness to make gun laws a top issue in Washington and on the campaign trail, defying powerful lobbying groups like the National Rifle Association that have helped make the United States the most gun-friendly country in the developed world. The effort is not likely to change federal firearms laws this year, as Republicans who control Congress have shown little interest in proposals that they say weaken Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms. But Democrats and their allies say that defeat now on Capitol Hill could help them win control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in the Nov. 8 elections. That is a shift from previous elections when Democrats have downplayed the issue on the campaign trail. “The tide has turned, and Republicans ignore this issue at their own peril,” said Robert Weiner, a former Democratic congressional aide.  Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee, talks frequently in her campaign about banning military-style assault rifles and expanding background checks — a marked contrast to President Barack Obama, who avoided talk of guns during his 2008 and 2012 elections. In Congress, Democrats have resorted to confrontational tactics to force gun votes since June 12, when a gunman killed 49 people at a Florida nightclub. Senator Chris Murphy’s 15-hour speech in the Senate last week forced five votes this week on measures that would make it harder for terrorism suspects to buy guns, though none have advanced. In the House, Democrats occupied the chamber for 25 hours in an unsuccessful attempt to force votes on terrorism suspects and expanding background checks for gun buyers. Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway said Democrats’ willingness to talk about guns reflects the party becoming more liberal, not a change in public sentiment.  Most voters view the shooting in Orlando as an act of terrorism inspired by Islamic State, she said. “The shooter called 911 to pledge allegiance to ISIS, he did not call 911 and pledge allegiance to Smith & Wesson,” she said, referring to an acronym for Islamic State and the firearms manufacturer. Still, Democrats’ willingness to take a stand on gun control has shifted the debate, said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “There’s a potentially a good electoral outcome for Democrats out of this. They will probably pick up seats,” he said. After landslide defeats in 2010 and 2014, most Democrats who remain in office tend to represent safely liberal congressional districts where gun control is popular. But those up for election in competitive states have spoken up as well. U.S. Representative Patrick Murphy, who hopes to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio in gun-friendly Florida, said during the House sit-in that gun rights groups like the NRA are “largely responsible” for the country’s 32,000 annual gun deaths.  “This passion you’re seeing is what’s needed to get people to wake up,” he said on the House floor. The NRA did not respond to a request for comment. Democrats have public opinion on their side: a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted this week found that 48 percent of those surveyed support strong gun regulations, while 23 percent support minimal rules. Support runs higher for specific proposals, like imposing background checks on all gun buyers. (bit.ly/28U7CA7) But intensity has been a sticking point for gun control advocates. The NRA has been able to mobilize supporters who are willing to vote for or against a candidate solely because of their position on guns, while gun-control supporters typically consider other issues as well, such as abortion and the environment. “Anytime the Democrats start a gun movement, it costs them votes,” said Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, who has worked for centrist Democratic candidates. “I can’t imagine it’s changing.” Shootings in Newtown, Connecticut; San Bernardino, California; Charleston, South Carolina; and, most recently, Orlando have changed that dynamic, others say.  “Mass shootings are highly visible, and force people to pay attention and realize that we have a problem that isn’t going to be solved by more guns,” said Tharon Johnson, a Democratic strategist in Atlanta who worked on Obama’s 2012 campaign. The gun-control lobbying group Everytown for Gun Safety says its members generated 245,000 telephone calls to Congress, and brought hundreds of its members to Congress to press for action during the debate. “I’ve been in the fight for a number of years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Colin Goddard, an advocate with the group who was wounded during the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shooting.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट्स का कहना है कि कांग्रेस में बंदूक की हार चुनाव प्रचार में मदद कर सकती है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Meals on Wheels America, the umbrella organization for 5,000  providers of home-delivered meals for seniors, said on Saturday that online donations have surged since the White House released a proposed budget that could lead to a big drop in its funding. The organization, which provides advocacy services for the national network, received about $50,000 on Thursday after the budget blueprint was announced, compared with $1,000 on a typical day.  President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal includes a 17.9 percent cut for fiscal 2018 in funds for the Department of Health and Human Services, which provides most of the government support for Meals on Wheels, the organization said. The budget proposal did not say how the cut would affect the Administration for Community Living, the HHS agency that funds nutrition programs for the elderly, Meals on Wheels spokeswoman Jenny Bertolette said.  Meals on Wheels said on its website that it is difficult to imagine a scenario under which the next federal budget would not have an impact on its services. “While Meals on Wheels America and local Meals on Wheels programs are seeing an uptick in giving, it does not replace federal funding,” Bertolette told Reuters in an email. The White House referred questions about the HHS budget to the department. An HHS representative referred to a statement from Secretary Tom Price released earlier this week. “HHS is dedicated to fulfilling our department’s mission to improve the health and well-being of the American people. This budget supports that mission and will help ensure we are delivering critical services to our fellow citizens,” the statement said. Trump’s budget proposal calls for a sharp increase in military spending and a like reduction in most discretionary non-defense programs, prompting a wave of concern from Democrats and some of the president’s fellow Republicans.      Bertolette said the national Meals on Wheels association did not know whether its local members have seen a similar jump in donations. One in six seniors “struggles with hunger,” according to the organization, which provides its services free of charge for those who cannot afford to pay.  Seniors who have fresh meals delivered daily show greater improvement in health and well-being than those who get frozen meals delivered once a week or no meals at all, the organization said, citing research from Brown University and funded by AARP Inc. According to the website, Meals on Wheels America hosts a resource center on nutrition with the help of federal funding.

Summary: मील ऑन व्हील्स अमेरिका ने अमेरिकी बजट के बाद दान में वृद्धि देखी


EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Offices at Scotland s devolved parliament in Edinburgh were briefly evacuated on Tuesday after suspicious packages containing white powder were found.  It s a white powder incident, there were a couple of suspicious packages sent to a Tory (Conservative) MSP,  a source at the parliament told Reuters, using the acronym for Member of the Scottish parliament. Business returned to normal after police gave the all-clear, the Scottish parliament said.  Known as Holyrood, the parliament building is located at the bottom of the Royal Mile, Edinburgh s most famous thoroughfare which leads down from its historic castle to Queen Elizabeth s Edinburgh residence, Holyrood Palace. The parliament s chief executive said only the building housing MSPs  offices had been evacuated while the rest of the parliamentary campus was operating normally. The parliament said later police inquiries had concluded there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident and that no crime had been committed.

Summary: संदिग्ध सफेद पाउडर के डर से स्कॉटिश संसद कार्यालयों को कुछ समय के लिए खाली कराया गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon plans to transfer about a dozen inmates of the Guantanamo military prison to at least two countries that have agreed to take them, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, the latest move in President Barack Obama’s final push to close the facility. The first of the transfers are expected in the next few days and the others will take place in coming weeks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Among them will be Tariq Ba Odah, a Yemeni man who has been on a long-term hunger strike and has lost about half of his body weight. There are now 91 prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Most have been held without charge or trial for more than a decade, drawing international condemnation. Obama, who last month presented Congress with a blueprint for closing the prison, is seeking to make good on his long-time pledge before he leaves office in January. But he faces stiff opposition from many Republican lawmakers, as well as some of his fellow Democrats. The Pentagon has notified Congress of its latest planned  transfers from among the 37 detainees already cleared to be sent to their homelands or other countries, the official said. U.S. officials have said they expect to move out all members of that group by this summer. Obama’s plan for shuttering the facility calls for bringing the several dozen remaining prisoners to maximum-security prison in the United States. But U.S. law bars such transfers to the mainland, and Obama has not ruled out doing so by use of executive action. “I do not have a timeline on when particular detainees will be transferred from Guantanamo,” Commander Gary Ross, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement. “However, the administration is committed to reducing the detainee population and to closing the detention facility responsibly.” The most prominent of those to be resettled over the next several weeks is Bah Odah, a 37-year-old Yemeni who has been force-fed by nasal tube since he stopped eating solid food in 2007.  His weight had dropped to 74 pounds from 148 and his legal team feared he could die of starvation, according to an account in a Reuters report at the end of December. Lawyers for Ba Odah, who was cleared for transfer in 2009, had tried unsuccessfully to win his release on health and humanitarian grounds, but Pentagon officials said he was receiving proper care. The plan to resettle about a dozen inmates was first reported by the Washington Post. The U.S. official declined to name the countries ready to take them in. Ten Yemeni men were sent to Oman in January. Others were recently sent to Ghana, Bosnia and Montenegro. The Obama administration has ruled out sending Yemenis, who make up the bulk of the remaining prisoners, to their homeland because it is engulfed in civil war and has an active Al Qaeda branch. Guantanamo prisoners were rounded up overseas when the United States became embroiled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The facility, opened by Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush, came to symbolize aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. (This story has been refiled to insert dropped words in paragraph 9 attribution)

Summary: पेंटागन जल्द ही ग्वांतानामो के लगभग एक दर्जन कैदियों को अन्य देशों में भेजेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressional vote on a Republican healthcare plan may not come for weeks as leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate continue negotiations over possible proposals, the White House said on Monday. Any vote on healthcare legislation would be determined by Republican congressional leaders and when they have enough votes to pass a plan, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters at a daily news briefing after U.S. President Donald Trump last week said he was in no rush for a vote.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि स्वास्थ्य सेवा योजना पर वोट हफ्तों तक नहीं आ सकता है


BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalonia s regional parliament declared independence from Spain on Friday in a disputed vote that is now likely to be declared illegal by Spain s constitutional court. The independence motion was passed in the 135-strong assembly with 70 votes in favor, 10 against and 2 blank ballots, the assembly s speaker said. Lawmakers from the Socialist Party, the People s Party (PP) and Ciudadanos had left the chamber before the vote in protest.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया की संसद ने स्पेन से स्वतंत्रता की घोषणा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that Hurricane Harvey could bring forward the deadline by which the nation’s debt ceiling needs to be raised and that he is open to the borrowing cap being dealt with as part of a wider bill.    “We obviously have now the hurricane spending, which is an issue. So that’s going to have some impact on our September spending,” Mnuchin said in a interview with broadcaster CNBC, adding that it could affect the debt ceiling deadline by a couple of days. He also said projections may move around once the Treasury receives corporate tax receipts on Sept. 15. The U.S. government has a statutory limit on how much money it can borrow to cover the budget deficit that results from Washington spending more than it collects in taxes. Only Congress can raise that limit. Mnuchin told lawmakers in July they needed to raise the debt limit by Sept 29, otherwise the U.S. government might not have enough money to pay all its bills. Yields on U.S. Treasury bills maturing in the first two weeks of October shot up by between 4 and 5 basis points each following Mnuchin’s comments. The moves reflect some concern in the short-term Treasury securities market that lawmakers might not raise the limit in time. Mnuchin’s comments came as financial firms fear that the U.S. Congress may fail to reach a deal to raise the country’s debt limit. The Treasury chief appeared open to the possibility of raising the debt ceiling as part of a larger bill in Congress.  Asked if he would support the debt ceiling being tied to a bill on Hurricane Harvey relief in Congress, he said while his preference was a ‘clean’ increase “at the end of the day, it’s all about raising it. If they want to raise it and attach it to something, that’s fine with me as well.” Mnuchin said he was having discussions on the debt cap with both Republican and Democrat leaders and he remained “very confident” the ceiling would be raised. Separately, Mnuchin suggested the Trump administration’s position on financial regulation reform was not overly distant from that of the nation’s central bank. Last week Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen warned against rolling back reforms introduced following the 2007 to 2009 crisis, and said any changes should be modest. “We are working on a lot of things together with the Fed and see many aspects of [regulation] the same way,” Mnuchin said. President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether to renominate Yellen when her term as chair ends in February. Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president who is now Trump’s chief economic advisor, is also seen as a strong contender. Mnuchin, who is involved in the selection process, declined to comment on the possible frontrunners but said that he and Yellen, who meet on a weekly basis for breakfast, “have a very constructive dialog on a lot of issues, including regulation.”

Summary: तूफान हार्वे अमेरिकी ऋण सीमा की समय सीमा को आगे बढ़ा सकता हैः म्यूचिन


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police arrested seven people on Monday after they were seen raising a rainbow flag at a concert, security sources said, in a rare public show of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the conservative Muslim country. Security sources said the seven were arrested for  promoting sexual deviancy,  a euphemism in Egypt for homosexuality, after they were seen on camera raising the rainbow flag at a Mashrou  Leila concert, a popular Lebanese alternative rock band whose lead singer is openly gay. Egyptian Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadek ordered the State Security Prosecution to immediately investigate the incident, state news agency MENA reported. The public prosecutor has not yet announced a decision on whether formal charges will be filed and a case brought to court. Although homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in Egypt, it is a conservative society and discrimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested and typically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy. The largest crackdown on homosexuals in Egypt took place in 2001, when police raided a floating disco called the Queen Boat. Fifty-two men were tried in the case, which drew widespread criticism from human rights groups and Western governments.

Summary: मिस्र में संगीत कार्यक्रम में इंद्रधनुष झंडा फहराने के आरोप में सात गिरफ्तार


PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting dozens of world leaders along with global companies and movie superstars at a summit in Paris to accelerate efforts to combat climate change.    The  One Planet  summit will not announce internationally binding commitments, but is counting on mobilizing money from public and private financial institutions and from corporations. Below are some key pledges made around the summit. * More than 200 institutional investors with $26 trillion in assets under management said they would step up pressure on the world s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to fight climate change.  They said that would be more effective than threatening to pull the plug on their investments in such firms. Divestment would only be a last resort. If big emitters refuse to cooperate, shareholders could ratchet up pressure with public statements, resolutions and votes. * The European Commission is  looking positively  at plans to lower capital requirements for environmentally friendly investments by banks in a bid to boost the green economy and counter climate change.  The move could be part of a broader set of measures the European Union plans to present in March to meet the target of cutting carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, for which it estimates around 180 billion euros ($212.2 billion) in additional low-carbon investments are needed per year.  * The World Bank said it will no longer finance upstream oil and gas projects after 2019, apart from certain gas projects in the poorest countries in exceptional circumstances. As a global multilateral development institution, the World Bank said it is continuing to transform its own operations in recognition of a rapidly changing world.  * Belgium will issue its first bond for use in financing projects to reduce the country s carbon emissions, following a number of countries that have sold or plan to sell  green bonds . Poland became the first a year ago, followed by France with a 7 billion euro issue in January.  Belgium plans to sell 3 to 5 billion euros ($3.5-6 billion) in the first quarter of 2018. * Dutch bank ING (INGA.AS) said that by end 2025 it will stop funding any utility that relies on coal for more than 5 percent of its energy.  It will support new clients whose reliance on coal is less than 10 percent as long as they have a strategy in place to cut that to close to zero by 2025. ING also will phase out lending to individual coal-fired power plants by then. * French insurer AXA (AXAF.PA) will quadruple investments in environmentally friendly projects, adding 9 billion euros ($10.6 billion) by 2020, and divest further from the coal industry. Axa will target firms deriving more than 30 percent of their revenue from coal. It also will not insure any new coal mines or oil sands projects, including associated pipeline businesses. * French state-owned power utility EDF (EDF.PA) plans a big push into solar energy in France that is likely to cost around 25 billion euros. EDF aims to build 30 gigawatt of solar capacity by 2035 in response to a government drive for a massive deployment of renewables. * French gas and power utility Engie (ENGIE.PA) is prepared to invest 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to improve energy efficiency in France over the next five years, its CEO said ahead of the Paris summit.  Engie says energy efficiency contracts already make up 700 million euros of its operating income and that this is likely to increase fourfold by 2026.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः वन प्लैनेट शिखर सम्मेलन ने जलवायु कार्रवाई के लिए निजी क्षेत्र की ओर रुख किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said he felt good about the vote count on a government spending bill coming before House on Thursday afternoon that is aimed at keeping the government from shutting down this week.  “I feel good where we are,” Ryan told reporters. He also said Republicans want to talk to Trump and other congressional leaders about budget caps. “It would be nice to get back to the table and start negotiating caps and all the other things we have to do,” he said

Summary: रयान खर्च के बिल को लेकर अच्छा महसूस करते हैं, बजट पर बातचीत चाहते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who last month lost her job as head of the Democratic National Committee, won a bid on Tuesday to be her party’s nominee for a seventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Miami Herald reported. The newspaper projected that Wasserman Schultz defeated Tim Canova, a law professor who is an outspoken Wall Street critic. He is aligned with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic presidential nomination to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Summary: हाउस रेस में वासरमैन शुल्ज ने फ्लोरिडा डेमोक्रेटिक की मंजूरी जीतीः मियामी हेराल्ड


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Monday it was looking into whether Russians bought U.S. election ads on its Bing search engine or on other Microsoft-owned products and platforms, after rival Google said it had discovered such ads on its products.  We take reports of misuse of our platform seriously. We are therefore investigating and if inappropriate activity is found, we will take steps to minimize such misuse in the future,  a Microsoft representative said in an email to Reuters.

Summary: माइक्रोसॉफ्ट देख रहा है कि क्या रूसियों ने खोज इंजन पर अमेरिकी विज्ञापन खरीदे हैं


CARACAS (Reuters) - Even by the volatile and violent standards of recent times in Venezuela, 2017 was an exceptional year, a  perfect storm  of political and economic crisis.  Going into a fourth year of crippling recession, Venezuela s 30 million people found themselves skipping meals, suffering shortages of basic foods and medicines, jostling in lines for ever-scarcer subsidized goods, unable to keep up with dizzying inflation rates, and emigrating in ever larger numbers.  In unprecedented scenes for the once-prosperous OPEC nation, some citizens survived only by scavenging through garbage.  Not surprisingly in that context, President Nicolas Maduro s ruling Socialists   the inheritors of Hugo Chavez s  21st century revolution  - - lost popularity on the street, and the opposition coalition sensed a chance to unseat them.  The tipping point came in March when the pro-Maduro Supreme Court essentially took over functions of the opposition-led National Assembly. Though the controversial ruling was later modified, it was a trigger and rallying cry for the opposition, which began a campaign of street protests that ran from April to July.  Hundreds of thousands took to the streets across Venezuela, decrying economic hardship, demanding a presidential election, urging a foreign humanitarian aid corridor, and seeking freedom for scores of jailed activists.  Slogans that read  Maduro, murderer!  and  Maduro, dictator!  began appearing on roads and walls around the country. Though the majority of protesters were peaceful, youths wearing masks and brandishing homemade Viking-style shields started turning up at the front of rallies to taunt security forces.  When police and National Guard soldiers blocked marches, youths threw Molotov cocktails and stones. The security forces quickly escalated tactics, routinely turning water-cannons on the protesters and firing teargas into crowds. Guns appeared on the streets, and on several occasions security officials were caught on camera firing directly at demonstrators. Police were targeted with homemade explosives. Opposition supporters burned one man alive.  The deaths, injuries and arrests mounted. Over the chaotic months, at least 125 people died, thousands were injured and thousands were jailed.  Global opinion hardened against Maduro. Amid the extraordinary daily events, gangs burst into the National Assembly and beat up opposition lawmakers. The nation s best-known jailed opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was released from prison and placed on home arrest to the joy of his supporters, then taken back to jail, then allowed home again, all in a matter of days. Venezuelans grew accustomed to navigating around barricades and burning streets as they tried to get to school and work. Some days, the country virtually shut down.  By the end of July, many opposition supporters feared for their lives and protest numbers dwindled. Maduro said he was defeating a U.S.-backed coup attempt and authorities held an election, which the opposition boycotted, for an all-powerful Constituent Assembly charged with imposing order on the country. Having failed to block the Constituent Assembly, the protests fizzled out, leaving opposition supporters nursing their wounds and planning their next moves.  They decided to tackle Maduro at the ballot-box in regional elections in October, but that backfired badly when they lost most of the governorships despite polls showing they would win. The opposition alleged fraud, but their complaints did not get traction and Maduro cemented his authority.  In November, Venezuela said it planned to renegotiate its entire foreign debt, adding another dimension to the deepening national crisis. (See reut.rs/2AdRQ0Q for related photo essay)

Summary: अस्थिर वेनेजुएला में विरोध और संकट का वर्ष


CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - The white former policeman caught on video shooting an unarmed black man in the back after a 2015 traffic stop in South Carolina was sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in prison, with a federal judge ruling that the killing amounted to murder. The decision came a year after Michael Slager s state murder trial for the death of 50-year-old Walter Scott ended with a deadlocked jury. Slager, 36, is one of the few police officers in recent years in the United States to receive prison time for an on-duty shooting.  Everyone recognizes that this was a tragedy,  U.S. District Judge David Norton told a Charleston courtroom packed with members of both men s families.  What s just for the Scott family is not necessarily just for the Slager family, and what s just for the Slager family is not necessarily just for the Scott family,  he said.  It s a zero-sum game.  Slager was a patrolman in North Charleston when he pulled over Scott, a father of four, for a broken brake light on April 4, 2015. He said he opened fire because he felt threatened after the motorist tried to take his stun gun during a struggle. Yet he pleaded guilty in May to violating Scott s civil rights by using excessive force, a charge that carried a possible lifetime prison sentence. Slager shot at Scott eight times, hitting him five times. State prosecutors dropped the murder charge in exchange for the federal plea. On Thursday, Slager expressed remorse.  I wish this never would have happened,  said Slager, jailed since his plea and dressed in an inmate s gray and white jumpsuit.  I wish I could go back and change events, but I can t and I am very sorry for that.  A bystander s cellphone video of the shooting drew national attention to the case, renewing concerns about police treatment of minorities. The footage was a centerpiece of the four-day sentence hearing, with both prosecutors and defense lawyers arguing it bolstered their cases. Norton sided with the government, finding that Slager had committed second-degree murder and obstructed justice by lying to investigators about Scott trying to grab his Taser. The judge rejected the defense argument that Slager was provoked or acted in the heat of passion. Scott s relatives and their lawyers said the punishment marked a historic moment for justice. They called on law enforcement to rethink the use of deadly force. Before court ended, several family members told Slager they had forgiven him. But their pain has not diminished.  We will never be the same again,  said Anthony Scott, the motorist s older brother.  How could someone shoot someone in the back like that as they were running away?

Summary: दक्षिण कैरोलिना के पूर्व पुलिसकर्मी को अश्वेत मोटर चालक की मौत के लिए 20 साल की जेल


(In 2nd paragraph of Feb. 16 item, corrects to show that protesters met with officials from Governor Burgum’s office, not the governor himself) By Terray Sylvester (Reuters) - Federal officials and North Dakota’s governor on Thursday refused to extend next week’s evacuation deadline for activists living in camps that have been a base for months for demonstrations against the multibillion-dollar Dakota Access oil pipeline. Opponents of the 1,170-mile (1.882-km) line met with officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, officials representing Republican Governor Doug Burgum and the state Department of Transportation on Thursday morning, asking to be given more time to remove their belongings and waste from the camps. In a statement on Thursday evening, Burgum and the Army Corps refused to extend next Wednesday’s deadline. Army Corps spokesman Ryan Hignight said contractors working for the agency would enter the camp as soon as they could. “We’re not going to necessarily wait for the 22nd,” Hignight said. Pipeline opponents say they fear fresh conflicts with law enforcement if Army Crops crews, including waste-removal personnel, are accompanied by police.  “It’s completely impossible to remove everything down there in that short of a time frame,” said Chase Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “The people aren’t opposed to the help of the Army Corps, but it’s got to be without the presence of militarized law enforcement.” The exchange came a day after Burgum ordered pipeline opponents to move off of land owned by the Army Corps, citing safety and environmental pollution concerns posed by spring snowmelt and rising water levels in the nearby Cannonball River. Hignight warned that anyone still occupying Army Corps land after the deadline could face fines as high as $5,000 and six-month jail terms. About 700 pipeline opponents have been arrested since August 2016. Environmentalists and Native Americans who have opposed the pipeline, saying it threatens water resources and sacred sites, have faced a series of setbacks since Republican President Donald Trump took office in January. A federal judge on Monday denied a request by Native American tribes seeking to halt construction of the final link of the $3.8 billion pipeline after the Corps of Engineers granted a final easement to Energy Transfer Partners LP last week.

Summary: गवर्नर, आर्मी कॉर्प्स ने डकोटा पाइपलाइन प्रदर्शनकारियों के लिए समय सीमा बढ़ाने पर रोक लगाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team earlier this month as part of its Russia probe, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the meeting. Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn was the prime topic of the conversation between Kushner and Mueller’s team, CNN said, citing one of the sources. Flynn, who resigned in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, is under investigation by Mueller’s team, which is looking into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in last year’s presidential election. The nature of the questioning was principally to make sure Kushner did not have information that exonerated Flynn, CNN said, citing one source. Kushner spoke with Mueller’s team for less than 90 minutes, CNN said. “Mr. Kushner has voluntarily cooperated with all relevant inquiries and will continue to do so,” Abbe Lowell, Kushner’s lawyer, told Reuters. Lawyers for Flynn have halted communications with Trump’s legal team, a potentially critical step in Mueller’s  probe, sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday. Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, called John Dowd, Trump’s private lawyer, last week to say the matter had reached a point where the two could no longer could discuss it, two people familiar with the call told Reuters.  It was not clear whether Kelner made the call because he had negotiated a plea agreement with Mueller for Flynn to cooperate in the probe, or because Flynn had decided to engage with Mueller, said two other sources. The probe has dogged the White House since January, when U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election and Trump has said there was no collusion.

Summary: रूस की जांच में कुशनर ने विशेष वकील मुलर से मुलाकात कीः सीएनएन


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A thick cloud of toxic smog 10 times the recommended limit enveloped India s capital, New Delhi, on Monday, as government officials struggled to tackle a public health crisis that is well into its second week. A U.S. embassy measure showed levels of poisonous airborne particles, known as PM 2.5, had reached 498 on Monday afternoon, compared with the upper limit of  good  quality air at 50. India s weather office said rain was forecast over the next three days which could help clear the smog.  Light rainfall is likely in states surrounding Delhi and in Delhi over the next three days, and this could result in a change in wind pattern in the region,  Charan Singh, a scientist at India Meteorological Department, told Reuters.  Smog will start to abate starting tomorrow.  But Skymet, India s only private weather forecaster, said dense smog would continue over Delhi and the surrounding area for at least the next two days. The Supreme Court is due to hear a petition filed by a New Delhi lawyer to direct government authorities to tackle the  intolerable and unbearable air pollution . The Delhi state government declared a public health emergency last week after pollution levels spiked, a yearly phenomenon blamed on a combination of illegal crop burning in northern states, vehicle exhaust and dust. Over the weekend, authorities began using fire trucks to spray water in parts of the capital to keep the dust and other air particles down, but it has had little effect.  A senior federal government official said there was little more that could be done.  We can only do this much, and now we will have to wait for rains to clean the atmosphere,  said Prashant Gargava, an official at the Central Pollution Control Board. Gargava, who is in charge of monitoring air quality, said Delhi s air has been consistently in the  hazardous  zone, despite measures such as a halt to construction and increasing car parking charges four-fold to encourage people to use public transport. The PM 2.5 airborne particles are about 30 times finer than a human hair. The particles can be inhaled deep into the lungs, causing respiratory diseases and other ailments. Hospitals have seen a surge of patients coming in with respiratory complaints, according to media reports.  Every second we are damaging our lungs, but we cannot stop breathing,  said Arvind Kumar, the head of the chest and lung surgery department at the Sir Ganga Ram hospital. United Airlines said it had resumed flights from Newark, New Jersey, to New Delhi on Sunday, after suspending the service temporarily over concern about the bad air. Authorities decided to reopen schools on Monday after closing them temporarily for a few days last week, but the decision is likely to add more vehicles on the road.  Enforcement agencies said they were unable to impose a blanket ban on the movement of commercial trucks. Primary school teacher Aarti Menon said her family had been wearing face masks, even when indoors.  Not everyone can afford an air purifier or air-conditioned car. We are all living in hell,  said Menon, a mother of two teenage daughters. The National Green Tribunal, an environment court, has directed the city government and neighboring states to stop farmers from burning crop stubble. But the governments have not been able to do so. New Delhi-based non-government group TARA Homes for Children, which supports 60 poor children, said it was seeking donations to buy at least five air purifiers.   Some of the children have breathing issues and couldn t go to school,  said a volunteer at the group.

Summary: धुंध ने भारतीय राजधानी को दबा दिया क्योंकि आपातकालीन उपाय राहत लाने में विफल रहे


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An influential Shi’ite cleric said on Sunday American nationals should leave Iraq, in retaliation for the new travel curbs imposed by the U.S. administration on the Iraqis. ``It would be arrogance for you to enter freely Iraq and other countries while barring to them the entrance to your country ... and therefore you should get your nationals out,’’ Moqtada al-Sadr said on his website, commenting on U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision.   The Iraqi government has so far declined to comment on the executive order signed by Trump on Friday, which suspends the entry of travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for at least 90 days {nL1N1FH1XY].

Summary: प्रभावशाली शिया मौलवी सदर का कहना है कि अमेरिकियों को इराक छोड़ देना चाहिए


HARARE (Reuters) - In his inaugural address, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa promised on Friday that elections would be held next year as scheduled and outlined a broad vision for restoring economic and financial stability. Mnangagwa, who took over from Robert Mugabe after a military intervention, also told a packed national stadium in Harare that Zimbabwe was ready to re-engage with the outside world but said its land reform process could not be reversed.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मनांगाग्वा ने वित्तीय स्थिरता का वादा किया, अगले साल चुनाव


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri rescinded his resignation on Tuesday, drawing a line under a month-long crisis triggered when he announced from Riyadh that he was stepping down and remained outside Lebanon for weeks. His coalition government, which includes the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, reaffirmed a state policy of staying out of conflicts in Arab states. Hariri s Saudi allies accuse Hezbollah of waging war across the Middle East as agents of Iran. Hariri s shock resignation had thrust Lebanon to the forefront of the regional quarrel between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which has been played out on battlefields in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Lebanese officials said Saudi Arabia had coerced Hariri, a long-time Saudi ally, into resigning and put him under effective house arrest until an intervention by France led to his return to Lebanon. Saudi Arabia and Hariri have denied this. President Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, refused to accept his resignation while he remained abroad. Saudi concern over the influence wielded by Shi ite Muslim Iran and Hezbollah in other Arab states had been widely seen as the root cause of the crisis, which raised fears for Lebanon s economic and political stability.  The Lebanese policy of  dissociation  was declared in 2012 to keep the deeply divided state out of regional conflicts such as the civil war in neighbouring Syria. Despite the policy, Hezbollah is heavily involved there, sending thousands of fighters to help President Bashar al-Assad. In its first meeting since Hariri s resignation, the cabinet on Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to the policy.   All (the government s) political components decide to dissociate themselves from all conflicts, disputes, wars or the internal affairs of brother Arab countries, in order to preserve Lebanon s economic and political relations,  Hariri said. Lebanon, where Sunni Muslim, Shi ite, Christian and Druze groups fought a civil war from 1975-1990, has a governing system designed to share power among sectarian groups. Hariri, a wealthy Sunni businessman with long ties to the kingdom, had denounced Iran during his resignation speech and said he was outside Lebanon because he feared for his family s safety. His father, an ex-prime minister, was assassinated in 2005. In a speech during the cabinet session, Hariri warned that the tensions in the region could easily drag Lebanon down a dangerous route, and the issues which had led to the crisis could not be ignored.  Developments in the region suggest a new wave of conflict ... Perhaps the conflict is nearing the end, and Lebanon cannot be plunged into chaos on the finish line.  If we are rejecting interference by any state in Lebanese affairs, it cannot be that we accept that any Lebanese side interferes in the affairs of Arab states,  Hariri said, an apparent reference to Hezbollah.  We have to address this issue, and take a decision announcing our disassociation, in words and deeds,  he said.     Hariri s resignation was accompanied by a sharp escalation in Saudi statements targeting the Lebanese state, with Riyadh at one point accusing the Beirut government of declaring war against it. Western governments, including the United States, stressed their support for Hariri and Lebanon.  Hariri will be in Paris on Friday for a meeting of the International Lebanon Support Group, a body that includes the five members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The meeting, to be opened by French President Emmanuel Macron, aims in part to put pressure on Saudi Arabia and Iran to desist from interference in Lebanon, diplomats said.  (This version of the story re-inserts the word  not  in paragraph 13)

Summary: लेबनान के हरीरी ने इस्तीफा रद्द किया, संकट में रेखा खींची


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday he hopes to start the 90-day countdown clock to launch a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement before Congress takes its spring recess at the end of next week. Ross told CNBC in a live interview that he needs leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to sign off on the notification letter before a 90-day consultation period can start.  The administration has sent them a draft letter that lays out some of its negotiating priorities. “There’s no change in our thinking,” Ross told CNBC. “This letter simply describes in very broad outline the topics that we will be discussing. So I don’t think there’s any great reason for you to overthink it.”

Summary: अमेरिकी वाणिज्य के रॉस का कहना है कि अगले सप्ताह तक नाफ्टा वार्ता की उलटी गिनती शुरू होने की उम्मीद है


RIYADH (Reuters) - The draft of a final statement by a Syrian opposition meeting in Riyadh calls for the departure of President Bashar al-Assad at the beginning of any transition, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Wednesday. An array of opposition groups and figures began meeting earlier in the day in a bid to unify the group s position ahead of U.N.-backed peace talks to end the country s six-year civil war. Some opposition members have hinted that the new communique could drop any mention of Assad, softening a long-standing demand that he not have a role in any transition.

Summary: विपक्ष के मसौदा बयान में असद को सत्ता हस्तांतरण की शुरुआत में ही छोड़ने का आह्वान किया गया हैः अरबिया


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The FBI is investigating more emails as part of a probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system, it said on Friday, in a new twist that could damage the Democratic candidate in the 2016 presidential race. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said in a letter to senior lawmakers that the agency would determine whether the additional emails contained classified information, adding that he did not know “how long it will take us to complete this additional work.” The announcement came as Clinton and Republican opponent Donald Trump enter the final stretch of campaigning ahead of the Nov. 8 election.  In a news conference late on Friday in Des Moines, Iowa, Clinton urged Comey to release more details about what the FBI was looking for in the newly discovered emails. She leads Trump in opinion polls after a bruising campaign in which she has struggled to convince voters that she is trustworthy and honest. Fresh revelations about her use of email are unlikely to assuage those concerns, and questions around the FBI investigation will now likely dog her in the coming days as she campaigns across battleground states. U.S. stocks immediately fell sharply on the news, but went on to partially recover. The FBI spent about a year investigating Clinton’s use of the unauthorized server at her home in Chappaqua, New York, while she was U.S. secretary of state after classified government secrets were found in some of her emails.  Comey said in July that while “there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” Although Comey recommended no criminal charges be brought against Clinton, Trump has repeatedly said her email practices are criminal and should disqualify her for office. He seized on Friday’s development at rallies in Maine and New Hampshire. “This is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and I’m sure it will be properly handled from this point forward,” Trump told a crowd in Lisbon, Maine. “We hope that all, all justice will be fully served,” he said. Supporters cheered his words and chanted, “Lock her up.” Clinton said she had learned of the newly discovered emails from news reports.  “I’m confident whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in July,” she said. “That’s why it’s incumbent upon the FBI to tell us what’s going on.” Two sources close to the investigation said the latest emails were discovered not during an investigation into Clinton, but rather as part of a separate probe into Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The FBI has been investigating illicit text messages allegedly sent from Weiner to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, and found the Clinton emails on a device related to that investigation, the sources said. Abedin told federal investigators in April that she used several email accounts for her work, including a Yahoo email, according to a summary of the interview released by the FBI in September. She said it was difficult to print from the State Department’s email system so she routinely forwarded documents to her private accounts when she needed to print them out, according to the summary.  Abedin announced her separation from Weiner in August after a sex scandal similar to an earlier incident that led him to resign from the U.S. Congress. Lawyers representing Abedin did not respond to questions sent by email on Friday. Weiner did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, and he did not respond to phone calls. Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist who had previously advised former President Bill Clinton but has no role with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, said the linking of Clinton’s email woes with Weiner’s sex scandals made it harder for her campaign to distinguish itself from Trump’s sex scandals. “The whole campaign is now smeared with sex, corruption and scandal,” he said. “Nobody remembers the beginning of something, they only remember the end. What are they going to remember? They’re all the same: sex, scandal, corruption, emails. People are going to have trouble sorting out all this information.” Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, said it was “extraordinary” for the FBI to release the letter so close to the end of a hotly contested election. “The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining,” Podesta said in a statement. “We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.”  Clinton has repeatedly apologized for using the private email server in her home instead of a government email account for her work as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. She has said she did not knowingly send or receive classified information. While the FBI probe of new emails will likely prove a distraction to Clinton in the coming days, it was unclear what impact it would have when Americans go to the polls. Election experts say about 20 percent of ballots have already been cast, as more Americans vote by mail or go to the polls early. “A lot of concern about the emails has already been baked into this electoral cake I think,” said Linda Fowler, a professor of government at Dartmouth College. “They know she did it, they know it was inappropriate and, failing some sensational revelation on Nov. 6, it’s hard to see that it’s going to make that big a difference.” Still, Republican lawmakers, who are facing a difficult fight to keep their majorities in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, leaped to condemn Clinton. House Speaker Paul Ryan reiterated his call that the Democratic nominee be barred from briefings involving classified information until the investigation is over. Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee, said the FBI’s decision to look into the emails shows “how serious this discovery must be.”    Clinton did not respond to reporters’ shouted questions about the news when she left her plane for a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. U.S. stocks declined in a volatile session on Friday but partially recovered from the sharp drop spurred by the FBI announcement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day down about 9 points, or .05 percent, while the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was unchanged on the day. The dollar also fell against major currencies.

Summary: एफ़. बी. आई. द्वारा समीक्षा की घोषणा के बाद क्लिंटन की ईमेल समस्या फिर से सामने आई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder will testify on the Flint drinking water crisis at a House of Representatives oversight panel next month, aides for the committee said on Friday. The panel earlier this month held its first hearing into Flint’s lead-laced drinking water, which thousands of children are believed to have ingested since April 2014. Democrats had complained that Snyder, a Republican, had not been invited to that hearing.  The committee has also invited Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy to testify at next month’s hearing. Susan Hedman, the former EPA Midwest chief who resigned earlier this month, was also invited. The exact date in March for the hearing has not been set yet.

Summary: मिशिगन गवर्नर, ई. पी. ए. फ्लिंट पर हाउस पैनल में गवाही देंगे


KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) - The governor of Kenya s Kisumu county, an opposition stronghold, said people would be justified in rebellion if a presidential election goes ahead on Thursday, given concerns over preparations for the vote.   If the government subverts the sovereign will of the people ... then people are entitled to rebel against this government,  Anyang Nyong o told reporters on Wednesday.

Summary: अगर मतदान आगे बढ़ता है तो केन्या के लोगों को विद्रोह करने का अधिकार हैः किसुमु गवर्नर


JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudanese judges ended a five-month strike without a pay deal on Thursday, saying they had to clear a massive backlog of cases. President Salva Kiir, who in July sacked several striking judges, has told union representatives he would resolve their demands in the near future, Arop Malueth of the Judges and Justice Union said. The strike was over salaries that the judges say have been rendered practically worthless by hyperinflation in a country in civil war since 2013.  Courts already faced a huge backlog as the nation of 12 million people only had 274 judges on the payroll in the last government budget. Some have since resigned, some are off sick and others are on leave, the union said.  This strike has gone for five months but nothing has been done by the authorities and our citizens have been suffering every day because the courts are closed,  Malueth told Reuters. The union s general assembly agreed on Wednesday to return to work on Sept. 11. War has brought famine and forced more than a quarter of South Sudan s population to flee their homes, creating Africa s biggest refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Summary: दक्षिण सूडान के न्यायाधीशों ने भारी कानूनी बैकलॉग में लौटने के लिए हड़ताल समाप्त की


BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan forces fighting in Benghazi have lost four men and seen 10 wounded so far in December, five months after declaring victory in a campaign to control the eastern city, a medical source said on Monday. Three of the dead from the Libyan National Army (LNA) were killed by snipers and one by a landmine as it faces resistance from a group of fighters in the Benghazi district of Khreibish. There have been daily clashes in the area and occasional air strikes. LNA commander Khalifa Haftar declared victory in a three-year military campaign against an array of Islamist militants and other fighters in Benghazi in early July.     The fighting is part of a broader conflict that developed following the 2011 fall of strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Haftar has opposed a U.N.-backed government based in the capital, Tripoli, as he has gradually strengthened his position on the ground.

Summary: बेनगाज़ी में लड़ाई जारी रहने से लीबिया की सेना हताहत हुई


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The EU executive said on Wednesday it was ready to institute court proceedings within weeks that could lead to fines for Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic if they refuse to take in asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece. Speaking to reporters after the EU s top court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), upheld the legality of quotas for states to take migrants relocated from the Mediterranean, Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said:   If the member states that have not relocated at all or not for a long time do not change their approach in the coming weeks, we should then consider to take the last step in the infringement procedure, taking Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to the European Court of Justice.  The ECJ has the power to levy financial penalties on governments which fail to comply with EU law.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने हंगरी, पोलैंड को शरणार्थियों से इनकार करने पर जुर्माना लगाने की धमकी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to slash funding for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Internal Revenue Service and other financial regulators passed a key committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday after a long partisan fight. The expansive legislation would also place a halt on the payday lending restrictions that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently proposed. The Appropriations Committee voted 30-17 to approve the bill allocating funds for financial services and general government, which now goes to the full House. One of the committee’s senior Democrats, Jose Serrano of New York, warned that the “bill in its current form will be vetoed.”  The Senate must still pass accompanying legislation. After that, both chambers will reconcile their bills into a single piece for President Barack Obama to sign or veto. Congress has tangled over budget laws for years, and federal agencies frequently rely on temporary continuing resolutions for funding. Republicans cast the bill as a way to streamline agencies and hold them accountable for spending decisions, while saving taxpayer money. Democrats attacked what they called “riders” to the bill, such as a measure to stop the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rule and one to prevent corporations from being required to disclose political donations. They also said cuts to the SEC would hobble the agency in carrying out its duties and implementing the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Earlier this month the CFPB, charged with shielding consumers from financial fraud, proposed rules to limit short-term borrowings known as “payday” loans, which can charge interest as high as 390 percent. Critics say the proposal will cut off credit to poor people who may need small loans during emergencies. Representative Steven Palazzo, a Mississippi Republican, proposed an amendment on Thursday to delay implementing the rules until the bureau reports to Congress on their possible effects, saying he was concerned they could force people to turn to loan sharks.  Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz had been one of the few members of her party to oppose the rules, and had sponsored a bill to delay CFPB rules for two years.  Wasserman Schultz, who is also a U.S. representative from Florida, reversed her position in the last week. She told the hearing on Thursday the proposal is “inarguably a step in the right direction,” adding, “I stand with the CFPB in its efforts to protect Americans from predatory lending.”

Summary: हाउस कमेटी ने वित्तीय नियामकों के लिए धन में कटौती करने का कदम उठाया


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina s top prosecutor quit on Monday under pressure from the government over accusations that she hampered corruption investigations into officials from the previous administration of President Cristina Fernandez.  Alejandra Gils Carbo, whose resignation will take effect on Dec. 31, was appointed chief prosecutor during populist Fernandez s second term and stayed in the post under business-oriented President Mauricio Macri. Macri, in office since late 2015, accused Gils Carbo of failing to bring corruption charges against members of Fernandez s cabinet. Gils Carbo is herself the focus of a corruption investigation cantering on her tenure as lead prosecutor. She has denied corruption allegations. At a press conference in July, Macri described Gils Carbo as a  political activist  who misused her power as attorney general.  After repeatedly calling for her resignation, Macri s government began a campaign for reforms that would allow for Gils Carbo s firing, which ultimately prompted her to step down. In her resignation letter, Gils Carbo told Macri she was concerned that his actions would end up hurting state institutions by  significantly affecting the autonomy of the public prosecutor s office.  Gils Carbo resigned one week after a powerful minister from the Fernandez era was arrested following a vote in Congress that stripped him of his parliamentary immunity in two corruption cases. The former minister, Julio De Vido, is the most powerful official from the Fernandez administration to be jailed. Macri s coalition was empowered by midterm elections on Oct. 22, and he has pledged more reforms.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना के मुख्य अभियोजक ने सरकारी दबाव में दिया इस्तीफा


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Supporters of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Saturday expressed anger and vindication over leaked comments made by Hillary Clinton to banks and big business that appeared to confirm their fears about her support for global trade and tendency to cozy up to Wall Street. Clinton, who needs Sanders’ coalition of young and left-leaning voters to propel her to the presidency, pushes for open trade and open borders in one of the speeches, and takes a conciliatory approach to Wall Street, both positions she later backed away from in an effort to capture the popular appeal of Sanders’ attacks on trade deals and powerful banks.  The excerpts of remarks by the former secretary of state, made in 2013 and 2014 in closed-door meetings where audiences paid to attend, were published online on Friday by WikiLeaks, which sourced them to the email account of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman.  Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the speech transcripts. Clinton has previously declined to release any such transcripts. “This is a very clear illustration of why there is a fundamental lack of trust from progressives for Hillary Clinton,” said Tobita Chow, chair of the People’s Lobby in Chicago, which endorsed Sanders in the primary election. “The progressive movement needs to make a call to Secretary Clinton to clarify where she stands really on these issues and that’s got to involve very clear renunciations of the positions that are revealed in these transcripts,” Chow said. The revelations were quickly overshadowed by the release of an 11-year-old recording of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, making lewd comments about women.  Clinton has worked hard to build trust with so-called progressives, adopting several of Sanders’ positions after she bested him in the primary race. The U.S. senator from Vermont now supports his former rival in the Nov. 8 general election against Trump. Still, Clinton has struggled to win support from young “millennials” who were crucial to Sanders’ success, and some Democrats expressed concern that the leaks would discourage those supporters from showing up to vote.  “That is a big concern and this certainly doesn’t help,” said Larry Cohen, chair of the board of Our Revolution, a progressive organization formed in the wake of Sanders’ bid for the presidency, which aims to keep pushing the former candidate’s ideas at a grassroots level. “It matters in terms of turnout, energy, volunteering, all those things.” The Clinton campaign said it would not confirm the accuracy of the documents released by WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.  “We are not going to confirm the authenticity of stolen documents released by Julian Assange, who has made no secret of his desire to damage Hillary Clinton,” said Glen Caplin, a campaign spokesman.  “Guccifer 2.0 has already proven the warnings of top national security officials that documents can be faked as part of a sophisticated Russian misinformation campaign,” he said, referring to the hacker or hacking group that altered some data stolen from the Democratic National Committee before making it public earlier this year.  The U.S. government on Friday formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the election. The origin of the leaks did not dampen social media criticism of the speeches by some. “Bernie was right about Hillary,” wrote Facebook user Grace Tilly, “she’s a tool for Wall Street.” “Clinton is the politicians’ politician - exactly the Wall Street insider Bernie described,” wrote Facebook user Brian Leach. Spokesmen for Sanders did not respond to requests for comment. NBC News quoted a statement from Sanders saying he would work to advance the Democrats’ policy platform. “Whatever Secretary Clinton may or may not have said behind closed doors on Wall Street, I am determined to implement the agenda of the Democratic Party platform which was agreed to by her campaign,” the statement said. Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf said progressive voters would still choose the former first lady, even with misgivings. “I’d like to meet the Bernie Sanders supporter who is going to say, ‘Well I’m a little worried about her on international trade, so I’m going to vote for Donald Trump’,” he said.

Summary: वाल सेंट को क्लिंटन की लीक की गई टिप्पणियों पर सैंडर्स के समर्थक नाराज़ हैं।


DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Ministers from Asia-Pacific countries ended their meeting on Thursday with a  very good outcome , despite differing views on trade and protectionism, Vietnamese Trade Minister Tran Tuan Anh told a news conference. Talks among trade and foreign ministers from Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries on a communique for leaders were extended into a second day in the face of U.S. demands for changes to the language used concerning issues such as free trade and protectionism, officials at the talks said.  There were diverse views, but we were able to conclude with very good outcome, which reflects the interests of all APEC economies,  the Vietnamese minister said, referring specifically to trade and protectionism.

Summary: ए. पी. ई. सी. के मंत्रियों ने अमेरिका के लिए व्यापार शब्दों पर विवाद के बाद वार्ता समाप्त कर दी।


PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech center-left government of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka stepped down on Wednesday, making way for billionaire Andrej Babis, who won an election last month, to take power in time for an EU summit in December.  The government approved its resignation, the resignation will be delivered to the president today,  Sobotka told reporters after a regular government session.   Sobotka s coalition government was the first in 15 years to complete a full four-year term and presided over robust economic growth that helped cut unemployment to the lowest level in the EU and push up wages at the fastest pace in a decade. However, voters tired of politics as usual opted for anti-establishment candidates, punishing traditional parties at the polls. Babis s ANO party, with pledges to fight political corruption and run the state with a business touch, was the biggest benefactor of this shift despite being part of the outgoing cabinet with Sobotka s Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats. ANO has failed to convince any of the other eight parliamentary parties to join a coalition. Babis has instead sought a minority cabinet, expected to be appointed by President Milos Zeman on Dec. 13 and take power immediately. This would enable Babis to attend the summit of EU leaders on Dec. 14-15, where the main topic will be progress in negotiations with Britain over its departure from the EU. Parties have shunned Babis, a businessman worth $4 billion and ranked by Forbes as the second richest Czech, because of police charges he illegally received a 2 million euro EU subsidy a decade ago for a farm and convention center by hiding ownership. He denies any wrongdoing. As a lawmaker, he has immunity from prosecution, which the outgoing parliament voted to suspend but which comes into effect again with the new parliament. Some lawmakers who voted to allow him to face prosecution in the past have hinted they will uphold his immunity, suspending proceedings for this parliamentary term. Only the small Communist party has said so far that it could consider tolerating Babis s minority government, but its 15 votes are not enough to secure victory in a confidence vote in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies, where ANO holds 78 seats. Initial votes in the new parliament have shown ANO voting along with the Communists as well as the far-right, anti-EU and anti-NATO SPD party, but the latter has so far said it would not give backing or tolerance to Babis in a confidence vote.     Once appointed prime minister, Babis would remain in the position even if he loses a confidence vote, pending talks on an alternative solution.

Summary: चेक सरकार ने दिया इस्तीफा, चुनाव विजेता बाबिस के लिए बनाई जगह


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council is discussing a resolution to impose accountability after a report blamed the Syrian government for a sarin attack that killed dozens of people in April, the British ambassador to the U.N. said on Friday.

Summary: सीरियाई सरकार द्वारा सरीन हमले के लिए दोषी ठहराए जाने के बाद संयुक्त राष्ट्र प्रस्ताव पर चर्चा कर रहा है


ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis made one of his most emotional anti-war addresses on Thursday, saying during a visit to a U.S. military cemetery that the world seemed to be headed into war perhaps bigger than any before. Francis said a Mass for several thousand people at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in the town of Nettuno, south of the Italian capital, on the day Roman Catholics commemorate their dead.  The burial ground is the final resting place for 7,860 American soldiers who died in the liberation of southern Italy and Rome in 1943 and 1944. He walked slowly and alone amid the rows of low white headstones in the shape of crosses and Stars of David, gently resting a white rose on about a dozen and stopping to pray silently before saying the Mass.  Please Lord, stop. No more wars. No more of these useless massacres,  he said, speaking in hushed tones in an improvised homily. Francis said that remembering the many young people who died in World War Two was even more important  today that the world once more is at war and is preparing to go even more forcefully into war.  He did not elaborate but appeared to be referring to the possibility of nuclear war. As tensions between the United States and North Korea have increased in recent months, Francis has warned that a nuclear conflict would destroy a good part of humanity. Last April, he said a third country should try to mediate the dispute between Pyongyang and Washington to cool a situation that had become  too hot . U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said North Korea  will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen  if it threatened the United States, will visit South Korea as part of a trip to Asia that starts on Friday. While Trump is in Asia, the pope will be hosting an international seminar at the Vatican that will urge the banning of nuclear weapons. The cemetery Mass was attended by U.S. Ambassador to Italy Lewis Eisenberg and the acting U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Louis Bono.  If today is a day of hope, it is also a day of tears,  the pope said.  Humanity must not forget  the tears of mothers and wives who lost husbands and sons in past wars.  Humanity has not learned the lesson and seems that it does not want to learn it,  he said, asking for prayers for the victims of today s conflicts, especially children. On his way back to the Vatican, Francis stopped to pray at the Ardeatine Caves, where in March, 1944 occupying Nazis killed 335 Italian men and boys as a reprisal for the killing of 33 German policemen by partisans. They were all shot in the back of the neck. The Germans blew up the caves in a vain attempt to try to hide the massacre.     Seventy-five of the victims were Jews. He and Rome s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, each read a prayer. After walking past the tombs in the still dark caves, the pope wrote in the visitors  book:  This is the fruit of war: hate, death, vendetta. Forgive us Lord .         (This version of the story was corrected to make clear that visits to cemetery and massacre site were separate events by moving original paragraph 8 to the bottom of the story)

Summary: पोप, अमेरिकी सैन्य कब्रिस्तान में, भावनात्मक युद्ध विरोधी भाषण देते हैं


GANDHINAGAR, India (Reuters) - The leaders of India and Japan agreed on Thursday to deepen defense ties and push for more cooperation with Australia and the United States, as they seek to counter growing Chinese influence across Asia. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived this week in his counterpart Narendra Modi s home state, skipping the tradition of visiting the capital of New Delhi, for the tenth meeting between two leaders since Modi came to power in 2014. Relations have deepened between Asia s second and third largest economies as Abe and Modi, who enjoy a close personal relationship, increasingly see eye-to-eye to balance China as the dominant Asian power.  Almost everything that takes place during the visit, including economic deals, will in part be done with China in mind,  Eurasia analysts said in a note.   Abe s visit comes days after New Delhi and Beijing agreed to end the longest and most serious military confrontation along their shared and contested border in decades, a dispute that had raised worries of a broader conflict between the Asian giants.  In a lengthy joint statement, India and Japan said deepening security links was paramount. This included collaboration on research into unmanned ground vehicles and robotics and the possibility of joint field exercises between their armies. There was also  renewed momentum  for cooperation with the United States and Australia. Earlier this year, India rejected an Australian request to be included in four-country naval drills for fear of angering Beijing.  Relations between India and Japan are not only a bilateral relationship but have developed into a strategic global partnership,  Abe told reporters in Gandhinagar, the capital of western Gujarat state.  We (India and Japan) will strengthen our collaboration with those countries with whom we share universal values.  Abe flew to Gujarat to lay the foundation stone of a $17 billion bullet train project, India s first, that was made possible by a huge Japanese loan.  Tokyo wants to win other high-speed rail lines India plans to build, to edge out Chinese ambitions to do the same and provide a boost for its high-end manufacturers. The visit was light on specific announcements, but India said it welcomed proposals for increased Japanese investment into infrastructure projects in its remote northeast, a region New Delhi sees as its gateway to Southeast Asia.  China claims part of India s northeast as its own territory. Japanese investment into the northeast  would give legs to our Act East policy,  Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told reporters. Modi and Abe also said they would push for more progress on the development of industrial corridors for the growth of Asia and Africa.  Analysts say the planned $40 billion Asia-Africa Growth Corridor takes direct aim at China s Belt and Road project, envisaged as a modern-day  Silk Road  connecting China by land and sea across Asia and beyond to the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Summary: चीन को ध्यान में रखते हुए जापान, भारत रक्षा को और मजबूत करने पर सहमत हुए