WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH (Reuters) - In a secure room at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, President Donald Trump’s top military advisers presented him with three options for punishing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a poison gas attack that killed dozens of civilians.     It was Thursday afternoon, just hours before 59 U.S. cruise missiles would rain down on a Syrian military airfield in response to what Trump had called “a disgrace to humanity.”  Trump was at his Florida estate for his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. But that summit took a backseat to the top-secret briefing by U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, an official familiar with the briefing told Reuters. McMaster and Mattis presented Trump with three options, which were quickly narrowed to two: bomb multiple airfields or just the Shayrat airfield near the city of Homs, where the military jet carrying the poison gas had taken off, the official said. At least 70 people, including 20 children, were killed in the gas attack in northern Syria. Russia, which has military forces in Syria aiding Assad’s government, says the deaths were caused by a gas leak from a depot where rebel groups stored chemical weapons, a charge the rebels deny and U.S. intelligence officials say is false. After listening to an argument that it was best to minimize both Russian and Arab casualties, the official said, Trump chose the minimum option and ordered the launch of a barrage of cruise missiles against the Shayrat air field.  Mattis and McMaster argued that choosing that target would draw the clearest line between Assad’s use of nerve gas and the retaliatory strike, the official said. In addition, the living quarters occupied by Russian advisers, Syrian airmen and some civilian workers were on the periphery of the airfield, which meant it could be destroyed without risking hundreds of casualties — especially if the attack occurred outside the base’s normal working hours. Another official privy to the discussions said the administration has contingency plans for possible additional strikes as early as Friday night, depending on how Assad responds to the first attack. “Whether this is over is up to President Assad,” said this official. “We have additional options ready to go.” Confronting his first foreign policy crisis, Trump relied largely on seasoned military officers — Mattis, a former Marine  general, and McMaster, a U.S. Army lieutenant general — rather than the political operatives who had dominated his policy decisions in the first weeks of his presidency, said three officials involved in the deliberations. After news of the gas attack first surfaced on Tuesday, Trump immediately requested a list of options to punish Assad, according to two senior officials who took part in those meetings. The officials all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations and intelligence matters. Senior administration officials said they met with Trump as early as Tuesday evening and presented options including sanctions, diplomatic pressure and plans for a variety of military strikes on Syria, all of them drawn up well before he took office. The most aggressive option on the shelf, one of the officials said, called for a “decapitation” strike on Assad’s presidential palace, which sits alone on a hill west of downtown Damascus. “He had a lot of questions and said he wanted to think about it but he also had some points he wanted to make. He wanted the options refined,” one official said.  On Wednesday morning, intelligence officials and Trump’s military advisers said they were certain which Syrian air base was used to launch the chemical attack and that they had tracked the Sukhoi-22 jet that carried it out.  Trump told them to focus on the military plans. “It was a matter of dusting those off and adapting them for the current target set and timing,” said another official. On Wednesday afternoon, Trump appeared in the White House Rose Garden and said the “unspeakable” attack against “even beautiful little babies” had changed his attitude toward Assad. Asked then whether he was formulating a new policy on Syria, Trump replied: “You’ll see.” At about 3:45 p.m on Thursday afternoon, General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff called an unscheduled meeting of the service chiefs at the Pentagon to finalize the plan for the military strikes. Shortly after 4 p.m., Trump signed off on the missile attacks, according to the White House.  Two U.S. warships – the USS Ross and the USS Porter – fired 59 cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea at the targeted air base. They began landing at around 8:40 p.m. ET (00:40 GMT), just as the two presidents were finishing their meals.

Summary: ट्रंप ने शी के साथ रात्रिभोज से पहले सीरियाई हवाई हमले का आदेश दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces killed dozens of Islamic State members in a strike on Monday on two training camps in Yemen, the Pentagon said. The camps in al-Bayda province were being used to train new fighters using AK-47s, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, the Pentagon said in a statement. Islamic State has used ungoverned areas in Yemen to plot, direct, instigate, resource and recruit for attacks against America and its allies around the world, it said.

Summary: यमन में इस्लामिक स्टेट के शिविरों पर अमेरिकी हमले में दर्जनों लोग मारे गएः पेंटागन


PARIS (Reuters) - A United States Congress decision on the Iran nuclear deal could clarify Washington s stance on the international accord and lead to a positive outcome for Total (TOTF.PA) and its planned $5 billion Iranian gas project, its CEO said on Wednesday. Congress has two months to decide whether to reinstate sanctions on Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump last week refused to formally certify that Tehran was complying with the nuclear agreement hailed by his predecessor Barack Obama as key to stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons. The deal was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. Total was the first Western oil major to sign a deal with Iran to develop phase 11 of Iran s South Pars, the world s largest gas field. A decision to reinstate sanctions on Iran could jeopardize the project. Pouyanne has said Total would withdraw from Iran if obliged by law.   There is an ongoing process in the United States. Congress has to make a decision. What is good with this process is that there is going to be a clarification of the position of the United States,  Pouyanne told journalists on the sidelines of an oil conference in Paris.  Who knows, perhaps it could be a clarification that would be positive. I don t think there is a majority in the U.S. Senate that wants to abolish the deal.

Summary: ईरान परमाणु समझौते पर कांग्रेस का स्पष्टीकरण सकारात्मक हो सकता हैः टोटल सीईओ


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House officials tried to pressure Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke into expelling tens of thousands of Honduran immigrants, the Washington Post reported on Thursday,  saying also that Duke said she planned to resign. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert both called Duke about her decision to extend residency permits to the immigrants, the newspaper reported, citing current and former administration officials. The calls came on Monday just as she was about to announce the Temporary Protected Status for the Hondurans, they said. She refused to reverse the decision on the immigrants.  Homeland Security had a Monday deadline to announce plans for 57,000 Hondurans and 2,500 Nicaraguans who were granted TPS after Hurricane Mitch hit Central America in 1998.  Duke ended the protected status for the Nicaraguans on Monday but said DHS needed more time to decide on the Hondurans. She extended their status to July 5, 2018. The officials said Duke was irritated by what she saw as  politically driven interference by White House officials, including her old boss Kelly, who had been Homeland Security secretary. Duke informed Kelly she would resign, the officials said on condition of anonymity.  DHS spokesman Tyler Q. Houlton said in an email that Duke “is committed to continuing her work at DHS” and had made her decision based on current immigration law.  “As with many issues, there were a variety of views inside the administration on TPS,” Houlton said. “It is perfectly normal for members of the White House team to weigh in on major decisions.”  The White House did not respond to requests for comment on reports on the internal debate in the Post and the Wall Street Journal. The Trump administration has targeted the program, which critics say allows participants to repeatedly extend their stays in six-to-18-month increments in case of a natural disaster, civil strife or other emergencies in their homelands.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के दबाव में कार्यवाहक डीएचएस प्रमुख इस्तीफा देना चाहते हैंः रिपोर्ट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer started work on Monday, vowing to help reverse a “dangerous trajectory” of U.S. trade and making plans to meet with lawmakers over the NAFTA trade deal and attend a Pacific trade ministers conference in Vietnam. Lighthizer, a veteran trade lawyer and deputy USTR during the Reagan administration, was sworn into office by Vice President Mike Pence, capping months of delays and filling the last open seat in President Donald Trump’s cabinet. Lighthizer will be one of three key leaders on trade policy, working alongside Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and White House trade and industrial policy adviser Peter Navarro. All three have vowed to help shrink chronic U.S. trade deficits through stronger enforcement of U.S. trade laws and to negotiate deals that boost U.S. exports without leading to jobs and factories migrating overseas.   “When my grandchildren, who are here today, talk to their grandchildren, they will say that President Trump permanently reversed the dangerous trajectory of American trade, put America first and made our farmers, ranchers and workers richer and the country safer,” Lighthizer said. “I hope I can make some small contribution to that accomplishment.” Lighthizer, 69, will be the principal U.S. negotiator in talks expected to start later this year to revamp the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. On Tuesday, he will start two days of meetings with members of key trade-related panels in Congress, a spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee said. The meetings are required before USTR can formally launch the formal renegotiating process with a 90-day consultation period. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer also said Lighthizer will attend the May 20-21 meeting of trade ministers from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries in Hanoi, Vietnam. At that meeting, Lighthizer will face many counterparts who were signatories to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-country free trade agreement from which Trump withdrew in January. Some countries, including Japan, have been exploring options to revive TPP without the United States. China, the largest U.S. trading partner, also is a member of APEC, allowing Lighthizer an opportunity to meet his Chinese counterparts as the Trump administration seeks to build on agreements to shrink the U.S. trade deficit with China. Last week, Commerce’s Ross said the United States and China had agreed to take action by mid-July to increase access to Chinese markets for U.S. beef, financial services and liquefied natural gas.

Summary: अमेरिका के नए व्यापार दूत ने कहा कि वे नाफ्टा पर सांसदों से मिलेंगे, एपेक की बैठक में भाग लेंगे


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Four suspects charged with two women accused of killing the estranged half-brother of North Korea s leader were identified for the first time in a Malaysian court on Thursday.  Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong were charged in March along with four unnamed others for the murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur international airport on Feb 13.  The four unnamed suspects were only identified as Mr. Chang, Mr. Y, James, and Hanamori also known as  Grandpa  or  Uncle , investigating police officer Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz told the court, citing criminal investigation findings. Wan Azirul identified Mr. Y as a man seen in a video recording played in court. The man, wearing a black cap and carrying a black backpack, was seen in the video walking into the airport with a woman who resembled Huong.  Huong and Siti Aisyah are accused of murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with liquid VX, a chemical poison banned by the United Nations.  Based on my investigation, Mr. Y was the person who applied a liquid on the second accused,  Wan Azirul said, referring to Huong.  Meanwhile, Mr. Chang was seen meeting with Siti Aisyah at a restaurant at the airport s third-level departure hall in a separate video screened in court, Wan Azirul said.  Hanamori had given instructions to Mr. Y, while James had  recruited  Siti Aisyah, Wan Azirul said, without elaborating.  He did not say whether the four suspects were North Koreans or whether they were the same four people who Malaysian police said left Kuala Lumpur for Pyongyang on the day of the killing.  Malaysia has issued an Interpol red notice, the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant, on the four who left, identified as North Koreans Ri Ji Hyon, Hong Song Hac, O Jong Gil, and Ri Jae Nam.    The trial will resume after a planned visit to the airport on Oct. 24.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के किम जोंग नाम की हत्या के चार अन्य संदिग्धों को अदालत में नामित किया गया


MAREA, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Shaven-headed former jihadists filled a classroom in northern Syria as a Muslim cleric taught them a more moderate form of Islam than the version they had imposed in Islamic State s self-proclaimed caliphate. Their class was in a new rehabilitation center for Islamic State members set up in the town of Marea, north of Aleppo, in an area controlled by Syrian rebel groups backed by Turkey.  The center, set up in October, is meant to address a problem emerging across swathes of Syria and Iraq - how to handle thousands of people living there who joined Islamic State as it enforced its brutal rule. Islamic State used public killings and torture to enforce its draconian religious code, sexually enslaved captive women and slaughtered prisoners of war and members of enemy tribes. Its self-styled caliphate is now on the verge of defeat, having lost large tracts of its territory and most of its major towns and cities in both Syria and Iraq.     Although some IS members came from abroad out of conviction, many others were local people who joined the group to protect themselves or earn money, according to an official at the center. There are 25 ex-members now at the center where they take classes in religious doctrine and law. Psychological counseling is mandatory; some get individual sessions to help wean them off extremist ideology. The center is funded by the director as well as small donations, and its staff are all volunteers. Marea was besieged, but never captured, by IS. Last year, rebels backed by the Turkish army drove IS out of nearby areas.  Judges in rebel-held areas have tried Islamic State members who were captured or defected, and their sentences have included time at the center, guarded by a security team.  The center evaluates former jihadists each month and shares its views with local authorities, which base their release decisions on the center s recommendations.     Dressed in long-sleeved orange shirts and black vests, the ex-jihadists listened to lecturer Sheikh Mohammad al-Mahmoud, who asked them questions about Islamic rulings. No one answered.  Why did you join Islamic State and force Islam on people if you don t even know these answers?  he asked. Civilians across Syria and Iraq often reject former IS militants, holding them responsible for killing people from the area and destroying the towns and cities they entered. But not all former IS members at the center were armed insurgents, the center s lawyer said.   In the brutal administrative areas where Islamic State was, the overwhelming majority (joined) to protect itself or to have the bare minimum to live,  Ibrahim Najjar said. Some people joined just to obtain a canister of cooking gas, he added.  IS militants also tended to marry locals  daughters, he said, initially targeting the daughters of influential families and in later years marrying daughters of small families, calling on family ties to recruit fathers and brothers as informants. In an interview with Reuters at the center, former IS member Khalil Abdul-Ghafur spoke in formal Arabic - Islamic State s preferred version of the language - until the center director reminded him to switch back to Syrian dialect.  The 14-year-old from a village near Aleppo said he joined the jihadist group after insurgents arrived. He took lessons in sharia (Islamic law) and trained to use both light and heavy weapons, before IS dispatched him to al-Bab, near Marea.  He was wounded twice, both times returning to the militant ranks after he recovered. He only left IS when he found out rebels had detained his father over his membership of the group. Asked why he joined Islamic State, Abdul-Ghafur was at first silent.  I don t know what to tell you. They used to show us video clips,  he eventually said.  And they talk to us about heaven and freedom and all that.  He did not elaborate on life after Islamic State, only saying the center has good food, clothes and lessons. But he intends to go back to school when he is released, having not completed his education because his school was bombed. Ersin Khizri, 22, left his home in Ukraine and traveled to Syria with his wife and baby daughter to join IS ranks, in which he fought in Iraq. He left the group in January because he found it unjust, he said, turning himself in to rebels in Syria.  It s over: there is no more Daesh left,  he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.  I don t know what the outside situation is like.  The men in the center watch movies and play chess in their spare time, smoking the cigarettes that were banned under IS. They are divided into three categories: those who did not commit crimes against civilians, those who did, and foreign members. Housed in a former school, the center holds ex-jihadists from the Caucasus, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Tunisia, Iraq and other countries. Hussein Naser, the center s director, said the men will stay there for no more than a year, mainly because it does not have the capabilities to hold them longer.  The goals of the center are to defeat the extremist ideology of the IS members that we have, ensuring their safety when they leave the center and that they can live with civilians,  Naser said.

Summary: सीरिया में तुर्की समर्थित विद्रोहियों ने आईएस जिहादियों को पुनर्वसन के माध्यम से रखा


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday the main part of the battle with Islamic State in Syria was over, according to the state-run RIA news agency. RIA also quoted Lavrov as saying the key task in Syria now was to  destroy Jabhat al-Nusra,  referring to the al Qaeda-linked group known in English as Nusra Front.

Summary: रूस के लावरोवः सीरिया में इस्लामिक स्टेट के साथ लड़ाई का मुख्य हिस्सा समाप्त हो गया है-आरआईए


VALLETTA (Reuters) - European Union leaders said they agreed to stick together in dealing with Donald Trump, but at their first summit since he took office they were at odds on how far to confront or engage with the new U.S. president. Trump and his policies, from questioning the value of NATO and free trade to banning Muslim refugees, came up repeatedly in discussions in Malta on external “challenges” facing the Union. British Prime Minister Theresa May, about to lead her country out of the EU, briefed peers on her visit to Washington last week and assured them Trump was committed to cooperating in their defense — just as Britain would also be after Brexit. Francois Hollande, the outgoing Socialist president of France, led criticism of Trump, calling it “unacceptable” for him to applaud Brexit and forecast the break-up of the EU. In thinly veiled rebukes to May and some eastern states, he warned of trying to cut their own transatlantic deals. “A lot of countries should think of their future first of all in the European Union rather than imagining I don’t what kind of bilateral relationship with the United States,” he said. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, who like many in the east is alarmed by Trump’s conciliatory noises to Moscow, poured cold water on May’s suggestion Britain could be a link to Washington. Europe did not need a “bridge”, she was quoted as saying, because it could communicate with Trump on Twitter. But her Polish neighbor, Beata Szydlo, reserved her main  criticisms for her predecessor as prime minister, EU summit chair Donald Tusk, who described Trump this week as a “threat” to the EU, along with Russia, China and militant Islam.  “European politicians trying to build this sense of fear ... are making a mistake,” said Szydlo, whose government, like Trump, has spoken out against Muslim immigration. “One cannot be confrontational in our relations with the United States.” Stressing the need for unity, the bloc’s dominant leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Europeans still had common ground with the United States in many areas, while not sharing Trump’s scepticism about many international institutions. “We have again made very clear our common values and our faith in multilateralism,” she told a news conference.  The Union would, she said, push for free trade deals with more nations as Trump pulls back. But cooperation with the United States against militant threats would continue, she said. One EU diplomat said France was clearly pushing to use the Trump presidency to rally Europeans behind a policy of greater distance from Washington and turning to the EU, rather than NATO, for their security.  “The Germans are much more cautious,” the diplomat said. “There is a clear issue to be decided: whether we seek common ground to engage with the United States, or turn our backs.” Summit host Joseph Muscat, the Maltese prime minister, chose to emphasize balance in summing up the discussions, speaking of “concern” at Trump’s policy but “no sense of anti-Americanism”. “There was a sense that we need to engage with the U.S. just the same,” Muscat said. “But we need to show that we cannot stay silent where there are principles involved.”

Summary: ट्रम्प पर विभाजित, यूरोपीय संघ ने यूरोपीय एकता पर जोर दिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The computer technician who set up Hillary Clinton’s private email server for her work as U.S. secretary of state declined to answer questions more than 125 times during a deposition ordered by a federal judge, a transcript released on Thursday shows. Bryan Pagliano worked on Clinton’s previous presidential run in 2008. He joined the State Department’s technology department the next year as one of Clinton’s political appointees and set up the unauthorized server in her New York home.  The decision to set up the server has dogged Clinton, the presumptive Democratic Party candidate ahead of November’s presidential election, and clouded her campaign with legal uncertainty. A majority of voters say they find her dishonest, polls show, with many citing her private server as a reason. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington had ordered Pagliano and other Clinton aides and department officials to give sworn testimony to help him decide whether the server was set up to thwart the public’s right to see government records.  Sullivan is overseeing a lawsuit by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group suing the State Department. It is one of scores of such lawsuits filed by individuals and groups who were incorrectly told by the government that Clinton had no emails before the arrangement became publicly known in 2015, two years after Clinton left the department. “On the advice of counsel, I will decline to answer your question in reliance on my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Pagliano said 128 times over 80 minutes in response to a series of questions by a Judicial Watch lawyer. The deposition under oath took place on Wednesday. The Fifth Amendment gives Americans the right not to be forced to be witnesses against themselves in criminal cases. Pagliano is cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal inquiry on the server arrangement in exchange for a form of immunity from prosecution.  The inquiry, prompted by the discovery of classified government secrets among Clinton’s emails, has been underway for nearly a year. Investigators have interviewed several of Clinton’s senior aides. No one has been charged.  Clinton has repeatedly said the server was a mistake in hindsight and that she thought it was allowed, which department officials now say was not the case. She has said she does not believe she will be charged with breaking any laws. Her spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Summary: क्लिंटन के सर्वर तकनीशियन ने अदालत द्वारा आदेशित प्रश्नों का उत्तर देने से इनकार कर दिया


Sydney - (Reuters) - Australia will send troops to assist Philippine forces in the ongoing battle against Islamic State fighters in the southern city of Marawi, Australia s Defense Minister Marise Payne said on Friday. Small contingents of Australian soldiers will be sent to train Philippine troops, Payne said during a press conference with her counterpart, Delfin Lorenzana in Manila.   We are very committed to supporting the Philippines in its efforts to defend itself against terrorist threats,  Minister Payne said.  This is a threat to the region (that) we all need to work together to defeat.  But no Australian troops will be actively involved in the fighting, Lorenza said.  It would not look good if we would be needing troops to fight the war here. We are happy with the assistance we re getting from Australia.  The militants swept through Marawi on May 23 and have held parts of it despite sustained ground attacks by hundreds of soldiers and daily pummeling by planes and artillery. The southern Philippines has been marred for decades by insurgency and banditry. But the intensity of the battle in Marawi and the presence of foreign fighters fighting alongside local militants has raised concerns that the region may be becoming a Southeast Asian hub for Islamic State as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria. The Australian troops will compliment those from their country already sent to the Philippines to train local personnel, Payne said. Philippine troops fighting Islamic State-linked rebels in a southern city have encountered armed resistance from women and children who were likely family member of militants, the Phillipine military said on Monday. A spokesman for Payne said further details of the training contingent would be determined in coming days.

Summary: इस्लामी चरमपंथियों से लड़ने में फिलीपींस की मदद के लिए और सैनिक भेजेगा ऑस्ट्रेलिया


MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish government will take control of Catalonia if  regional leader Carles Puigdemont replies ambiguously to Madrid s question about whether he has declared independence from Spain, the interior minister said on Saturday. Puigdemont made a symbolic declaration of independence on Tuesday night, only to suspend it seconds later and call for negotiations with Madrid on the region s future. Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has given him until Monday to clarify his position - and then until Thursday to change his mind if he insists on a split - threatening to suspend Catalonia s autonomy if he chooses independence.  The answer must be without any ambiguity. He must say  yes  or  no ,  Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido told Cope radio.  If he answers ambiguously, it means he doesn t want dialogue and thus the Spanish government will have to take action,  he also said. Puigdemont, who is holding consultations with local parties to prepare his answer, faces a tough dilemma. If he says he did proclaim independence, the central government will step in. If he says he did not declare it, then the far-left Catalan party CUP would probably withdraw its support for his minority government. CUP on Friday called on Puigdemont to make an unequivocal declaration of independence in defiance of the Madrid government s deadlines. Such a hardline position has also been backed by influential pro-independence civic group Asamblea Nacional Catalana (Catalan National Assembly). They were joined on Saturday by another key member of Puigdemont s coalition, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, whose leader Oriol Junqueras said they should press ahead with splitting from Spain following an independence vote. The Catalan government said 90 percent of Catalans had voted for a breakaway in an Oct. 1 referendum that central authorities in Madrid had declared illegal and most opponents of independence boycotted, reducing turnout to around 43 percent.   We have an unequivocal and absolute commitment to fulfill the democratic mandate from Oct. 1,  Junqueras said. Under Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, the central government in Madrid can suspend the political autonomy of a region if it breaks the law.  This article, which enables Rajoy to sack the Catalan government and call a regional election, has never been activated since the constitution was adopted in 1978 after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

Summary: अगर स्वतंत्रता पर अस्पष्ट जवाब मिलता है तो स्पेन कैटेलोनिया पर नियंत्रण कर लेगा


CARACAS (Reuters) - A power outage hit parts of the Venezuelan capital Caracas as well as the nearby states of Miranda and Vargas for around five hours on Monday, in what critics said was another sign of the oil-rich nation s economic meltdown. Authorities blamed the outage, which began around noon (1600 GMT), on the collapse of an important cable linking a power plant and a transmission tower. The fault affected some phone lines, parts of the Caracas metro, and the main Maiquetia airport just outside the capital. Many workers had no choice but to walk home, shops and restaurants closed, and Venezuelans grumbled that another day was disrupted by tumult. The country is already grappling with the world s fastest inflation, rising malnutrition, and disease as the state-led economic system grinds to a halt.  Venezuela has fallen apart,  said David Garcia, 38, as he queued for a hotdog at a stand in the wealthier Chacao neighborhood. He had spent two hours looking for an open restaurant because he could not cook at home. Venezuela has in recent years suffered frequent blackouts that critics attribute to insufficient investment following the 2007 nationalization of the electricity sector.  This is a symptom of a country collapsing due to the negligence of those in power,  tweeted opposition lawmaker Tom s Guanipa. The government has in some cases attributed the blackouts to sabotage or accused critics of exaggerating problems. Energy minister Luis Motta on Monday tweeted articles on a recent power outage at Atlanta airport in the U.S. state of Georgia, adding:  It happens there too.  He did not provide details on the magnitude and effects of Monday s blackout. Shopkeepers complained that the outage had hurt business.  It s a lost day,  said Armindo Gomes, 24, whose Portuguese family runs two bakeries, as he pointed at dough, cheese and meat that should have been refrigerated.

Summary: वेनेजुएला में पांच घंटे के ब्लैकआउट के बाद रोशनी फिर से शुरू


TOKYO (Reuters) - A Tokyo-based non-governmental organization, Human Rights Now, on Wednesday called on the Japanese government to take a stronger stance over the arrests of two Reuters journalists detained in Myanmar last week.  Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on Tuesday said freedom of the press was vital and that Japan was closely monitoring the situation, but he did not call for the journalists  release. Human Rights Now Secretary-General Kazuko Ito told Reuters that Japan should send a stronger message about the arrests.  Ito said that by not joining in international calls for the journalists  release, Japan might be sending a message that it was ok for the Myanmar government to violate human rights.  Therefore, I would like (the government of Japan) to exercise care in its comments and clearly express astance of standing together with those who are victims of humanrights violations,  she told Reuters. Asked about Ito s remarks, Japan s top government spokesman said Tokyo had already conveyed its concerns to Myanmar.  I will refrain from details but the government has already directly conveyed its concerns regarding this incident to the government of Myanmar,   Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.  Japan typically shies away from outspoken public comments  about human rights issues overseas, preferring to focus on quiet diplomacy.  Japan is one of Myanmar s biggest foreign aid donors, where it vies for influence with China, Myanmar s largest trading partner. Japan said last year it would provide aid worth 800 billion yen ($7 billion) to Myanmar over five years. Human Rights Now is a well-known group in Japan. It has a membership of over 700 individuals and organizations, including lawyers, with a presence in Tokyo and Osaka in Japan as well as New York, Geneva and Myanmar, its website says, and has had United Nations special consultative status since 2012. The Reuters journalists were arrested after they were invited to dine with police officers on the evening of Dec. 12 on the outskirts of Myanmar s largest city, Yangon.  They had worked on Reuters coverage of a crisis that has seen an estimated 655,000 Rohingya Muslims flee from a fierce military crackdown in the western state of Rakhine following attacks by militants. A spokesman for Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Wednesday he had been informed that the police had almost completed their investigation of the journalists, after which a court case against them would begin. Authorities have been investigating whether the journalists violated the country s colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.  A number of governments, including the United States, Canada and Britain, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, have criticized the arrests as an attack on press freedom and called on Myanmar to release the two men.  The detention of journalists reporting on such critical matters to the public interest is an egregious attack on freedom of the press in Myanmar that will severely undermine the ability of journalists to conduct their legitimate work without fear of reprisal,  Human Rights Now said in a statement, in which it called for the journalists  immediate release and the end to proceedings against them.

Summary: मानवाधिकार समूह ने जापान से म्यांमार में पत्रकारों की गिरफ्तारी पर कड़ा रुख अपनाने का आह्वान किया


DETROIT/SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Businesses shut their doors, students skipped class and thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the United States on Thursday to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Activists called “A Day Without Immigrants” to highlight the importance of the foreign-born, who account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, or more than 40 million naturalized American citizens. Trump campaigned against the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, playing on fears of violent crime while promising to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and stop potential terrorists from entering the country.  While the number of participants in Thursday’s protests could not be determined, many sympathetic business owners closed shop and working-class immigrants forwent pay for the day. “I told my English teacher that I wasn’t going to school, and she said she understood,” said Rosa Castro, a 13-year-old U.S. citizen in Detroit, who marched with her 26-year-old sister, one of several undocumented family members whose future she is concerned about. Since taking office last month, the Republican president has signed an executive order temporarily banning entry to the United States by travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all refugees. That order was put on hold by federal courts. Immigrant rights groups have also expressed alarm after federal raids last week rounded up more than 680 people suspected of being in the country illegally.  In San Diego’s Logan Heights neighborhood, a 44-year-old undocumented business owner who identified herself only as Lucia for fear of deportation told Reuters she closed her nutrition shop for the day, costing her $200. “Our community is frightened and cannot speak out,” she said. “Things are very bad for us with the new president.” Advocates have called attention to cases such as one in El Paso, Texas, where federal agents arrested a transgender woman as she left a courthouse where she was seeking a protective order for domestic violence. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe wrote Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to express concern over immigration enforcement in his state, citing an NBC Washington report that agents arrested people outside a church that operates as a shelter from the cold. Sympathy marches and rallies were held in cities including Raleigh, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas. Thousands joined demonstrations in Chicago and Detroit.    In the Los Angeles Fashion District - comprising some 4,000 apparel outlets, showrooms and manufacturers covering about 100 blocks of downtown - about half the shops in the area’s retail core were closed, along with about 40 percent of one of the large flower markets in the area, said district spokeswoman Ariana Gomez. A Southern California grocery chain, Northgate Gonzalez Markets, said it gave employees at 41 stores and the corporate headquarters permission to use paid personal time off to participate. In Washington, more than 50 restaurants were closed, including high-end eateries. “As far as I’m aware, all of our immigrant employees chose to take the day off,” said Ruth Gresser, 57, who owns four pizza restaurants in the District of Columbia area. “We have three relative novices and an old lady making pizza,” she said, referring to herself. At the Pentagon, about half a dozen food outlets were forced to close after staff members joined the protest, a Defense Department spokesman said. The National Restaurant Association criticized the walkouts, saying in a statement that the organizers “disrupt the workplaces of hard-working Americans who are trying to provide for their families.” In Austin, hundreds chanting “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here” marched from City Hall to the State Capitol, where lawmakers in the Republican-controlled body are considering a measure to punish sanctuary cities that shield immigrants from federal agents.

Summary: अमेरिका भर में आप्रवासियों ने काम छोड़ दिया, ट्रम्प विरोधी विरोध में स्कूल


ANKARA (Reuters) - A German journalist went on trial for terrorism charges in Turkey on Wednesday, saying she was innocent and demanding her immediate release, in a case that has damaged already sour relations with Berlin. Mesale Tolu was detained in April, accused of being a member of a terrorist organization and publishing terrorist propaganda. Her husband was also detained and their three-year-old son has been living with his mother in jail for the last five months. Tolu is one of 18 people on trial accused of membership of the MLKP, a communist party with links to armed Kurdish groups. They face up to 20 years in jail.  I have not committed any of the above mentioned crimes and have no connection with illegal organizations. I demand my release and my acquittal,  Tolu told the court in Silivri, near Istanbul, Turkish media reported.  The court ordered that Tolu and five other defendants remain in jail pending trial, while releasing eight others. The next hearing will be on Dec. 18. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel demanded her release.  We demand a fair trial, based on the rule of law. Above all, what matters now is speed so that Mesale Tolu can be released as soon as possible,  he told Bild newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday. Tolu is one of 11 German nationals detained in Turkey - among them fellow journalist Deniz Yucel and human rights campaigner Peter Steudtner.  The cases have added to strains in bilateral relations after Ankara denied German lawmakers permission to visit German soldiers serving at the Incirlik air base. In a crackdown on alleged perpetrators of an attempted coup last year, some 50,000 people been jailed pending trial.  Chancellor Angela Merkel said last month that Turkey s 12-year journey to join the European Union should be halted.     Tolu said it was unacceptable that she and her son had spent five months in jail.  Pre-trial detention has become punishment not only for me but also for my family and for my son,  she told the court.

Summary: तुर्की की अदालत ने जर्मन पत्रकार को आतंकवाद के आरोप में हिरासत में भेजा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team can now begin work with officials at certain government agencies as they prepare for the new administration to take over in January, the White House said on Thursday.  “The President-elect’s team has now completed the necessary steps for an initial group of authorized individuals to begin receiving briefings and other materials from our transition teams at select agencies across the government,” said White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine in a statement. “We expect to receive additional names for a wider range of agencies from the President-elect’s team as the transition work continues, and we will facilitate those requests on a rolling basis,” Hoffine said.

Summary: ट्रंप टीम के कुछ सदस्य एजेंसी ब्रीफिंग शुरू कर सकते हैंः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a defense policy bill on Friday without some controversial provisions that had worried Democrats, but Republican lawmakers said they expect to revisit the issues once Republican Donald Trump is in the White House. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by 375-34, sending it to the U.S. Senate, which is expected to vote next week on the $618.7 billion measure setting policy for the Pentagon. After months of negotiation, the House and Senate Armed Services committees unveiled a compromise version of the NDAA this week that did not include provisions such as the Russell Amendment, a “religious freedom” measure that Democrats said would have let federal contractors discriminate against workers on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, overturning an executive order by Democratic President Barack Obama. During debate before Friday’s vote, some Republicans said they wanted to revisit the issue. Republicans will control both houses of Congress and the White House after Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20. “We look forward to working directly with the incoming administration to address the concerns, not just for the DoD. (Department of Defense), but for the government nationwide,” said Republican Representative Mac Thornberry, the House Armed Services Committee chairman. The NDAA also includes $3.2 billion more for the Pentagon than Obama requested in his budget bill. Some Democrats objected to the increase, part of a continuing debate between the two parties over whether defense spending should be matched by non-defense spending. Thornberry also said he hoped the Trump administration would send Congress a supplemental budget request to provide even more money for the Pentagon.

Summary: सदन ने बड़े पैमाने पर रक्षा विधेयक को अपनाया, ट्रम्प के नेतृत्व में बदलाव देखे गए


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Six people were killed when a small plane crashed in Russia s far eastern region of Khabarovsk early on Wednesday, Russian news agencies said. There were seven people on board the L-410 aircraft including two crew, RIA said, adding that one passenger, a child, had survived the crash, but was in grave condition.

Summary: रूस के सुदूर पूर्व में विमान दुर्घटना में छह लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned House Republican lawmakers that he will leave Obamacare in place and move on to tax reform if they do not get behind new healthcare legislation and support it in a vote on Friday. It was not clear late on Thursday evening that Trump and the Republican leaders who crafted the bill had enough support to pass it, meaning they now risk defeat in their first attempt at major legislation and may fail to deliver on a key campaign pledge. “We have been promising the American people that we will repeal and replace this broken law because it’s collapsing and it’s failing families, and tomorrow we’re proceeding,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after an evening all-hands meeting. He ignored reporters who asked if he had secured the votes to pass the bill. Ryan and leaders in the House of Representatives were forced to postpone a vote on their healthcare bill, formally called the American Health Care Act, earlier on Thursday, dealing Trump an embarrassing setback. The vote had been symbolically planned for the anniversary of former Democratic President Barack Obama signing his namesake healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, in 2010. It was supposed to have been Trump’s first legislative victory. Trump and his fellow Republicans had pledged to replace Obamacare, which they view as too intrusive and too expensive. But, after a week of calling Republican lawmakers and bringing them into the Oval Office for meetings, Trump failed to close the deal with two different factions within his party on time for the planned Thursday vote. Conservatives felt the bill did not go far enough to repeal Obamacare and moderates felt the plan could hurt their constituents. House Republican leaders had signaled they were ready to work through the weekend to figure out a way to reconcile their differences. As the healthcare drama unfolded on Capitol Hill, Trump played it cool, taking a break from negotiations to hang out with some truckers, climbing into the cab of a long-haul transport truck parked on the back driveway of the White House, and blowing the horn a few times. He told reporters the vote would be close but he remained optimistic. “I think we’re doing well. We’ll find out in about three hours,” he said, just as reports began to surface that the vote had been postponed. By evening, Trump sent his top lieutenants to a dramatic meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday night with an ultimatum: he was done talking. According to Representative Chris Collins of New York, a top Trump ally, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told House Republicans that Trump wanted a vote. “The president has said he wants a vote tomorrow, up or down,” Collins said. “If for any reason it is down, we are just going to move forward with additional parts of his agenda” such as tax reform, Collins told reporters after leaving the meeting. However, the vote has been seen by financial markets as a crucial test of Trump’s ability to work with Congress to deliver on his other priorities, such as tax cuts and infrastructure spending. Even if their replacement plan does eventually get approval from the House, the legislation faces a potentially tough fight in the Republican-controlled Senate. The House and Senate had hoped to deliver a new healthcare bill to Trump by April 8, when Congress is scheduled to begin a two-week spring break. The Republicans have a majority in the House but, because of united Democratic opposition, can afford to lose only 21 Republican votes. By Thursday morning, NBC News said that 30 Republicans had planned to vote “no” or were leaning that way. North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows, the chairman of the pivotal conservative bloc known as the Freedom Caucus, said he and others were struggling to support the plan. “I am desperately trying to get to ‘yes’ and I think the president knows that. I told him that personally,” Meadows said. However, after Thursday night’s meeting, he was still a ‘no’. Obamacare aimed to boost the number of Americans with health insurance through mandates on individuals and employers, and income-based subsidies. Some 20 million Americans gained insurance coverage through the law. The House replacement plan would rescind the taxes created by Obamacare, repeal a penalty against people who do not buy coverage, slash funding for the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled, and modify tax subsidies that help individuals buy plans. House leaders agreed to four pages of last-minute amendments to the bill, including allowing states to choose which “essential benefits” are required in healthcare insurance plans, and keeping a 0.9 percent surcharge on Medicare for high-income Americans for six years. It was unclear whether that was enough. Representative Trent Franks, a Freedom Caucus member who had been “undeclared” on his position on the bill, said he liked the changes. “It’s going in the right direction,” Franks said outside the House.  The amendments will give states more money for maternal health and mental health, said Representative Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska moderate who still has not said how he will vote. Uncertainty over the healthcare bill rattled financial markets this week. The delay in the house vote is likely to extend the ups and downs in the stocks of some hospital groups and health insurers. U.S. stock markets rose steadily in recent months on optimism over a pro-business Trump agenda but fell back sharply on Tuesday as investors worried that failure to push through the healthcare bill could postpone other business-friendly Trump priorities. “Delay on healthcare equates to delay on tax cuts. That is why the market turned red when the news flow suggested they didn’t have a deal,” said David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors, a money management firm. Others said it was too soon to panic. “If this thing gets materially delayed or if we get a ‘no’ vote, we’re going to see a horrific market reaction. But if they vote in the morning and it passes, we’ll have a hell of a rally,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Graphic on Obamacare and Republican healthcare bill (tmsnrt.rs/2n0ZMKf) Graphic on shifting positions in the U.S. Senate on Republican healthcare bill (tmsnrt.rs/2mUE4Xf) Graphic on poll on Americans' views of the Republican healthcare bill ( tmsnrt.rs/2n7f3e4)

Summary: ट्रम्प ने स्वास्थ्य सेवा योजना पर करो या मरो शुक्रवार के मतदान में समर्थन की मांग की


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump by phone on Wednesday and Trump invited him to a meeting “at the first opportunity”, Netanyahu’s office said. The conversation was “hearty and warm” and regional issues were discussed, the office said, adding: “The Prime Minister congratulated Trump on his electoral win and told him that the United States has no better ally than Israel.”

Summary: ट्रंप ने नेतन्याहू को 'पहले अवसर पर' मिलने का न्योता दियाः इजरायल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Thursday averted a government shutdown just one day before federal funding was due to expire, sending President Donald Trump a bill to provide just enough money to keep agencies operating through Jan. 19. With lawmakers eager to begin a holiday recess until Jan. 3, the House of Representatives and Senate scurried to pass the hastily written bill by votes of 231-188 and 66-32, respectively. When Congress returns, lawmakers will immediately have to get back to work on appropriating more money for a fiscal year that already will be three months old. They will try to pass an “omnibus” spending bill to fund the government from Jan. 19 through Sept. 30. Negotiators have been struggling for months over thorny issues such as the amount of defense-spending increases versus increases for other domestic programs, including medical research, opioid treatment and “anti-terrorism” activities. Fiscal hawks, meanwhile, are angry that Congress is again moving to bust through spending caps that had been designed to tamp down mounting federal debt. But some of those same lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Congress earlier in the week voted for a sweeping tax bill that will add $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years to a national debt that already stands at $20 trillion. With the clock ticking toward a deadline of midnight on Friday when government funding would run out, Democrats in the House and Senate made a strong pitch for including protections for young immigrants who entered the country illegally as children, popularly known as “Dreamers.” In the end, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and immigration advocacy groups failed. But nearly all of the House’s 193 Democrats and 29 of the Senate’s 46 Democrats voted no, in part to protest the lack of action on the immigration measure. Shortly before the House and Senate votes, Democratic Representative Luis Gutierrez told reporters, “We’re really tired of tomorrow,” referring to years of failed attempts in Congress to protect Dreamers from deportation, allow them to legally work in the United States and get on a path to citizenship. They will resume their fight in January, aiming to win on the next spending bill or a separate measure. Trump has eliminated Obama-era temporary protections for Dreamers, but has asked Congress to come up with a permanent solution by March. In the meantime, about 122 Dreamers a day are becoming vulnerable to deportation while Congress bickers. Also on Thursday, the Senate put the brakes on another bill that passed the House, which would provide $81 billion in new disaster aid to help Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and several states hit by this year’s hurricanes or wildfires. The temporary spending bill did, however, give Trump a modest increase of $4.7 billion for the Department of Defense to be used for missile defense and ship repair. The bill includes $2.85 billion to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program through March and funding for community health centers and the Indian Health Service. The plan also would extend the National Security Agency’s expiring internet surveillance program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, through Jan. 19. Other provisions address funding for veterans, the Coast Guard and flood insurance. Most government programs would be temporarily extended until Jan. 19 at fiscal 2017 levels.

Summary: कांग्रेस ने बंद को टालने के लिए मतदान किया, ट्रम्प को स्टॉपगैप खर्च बिल भेजा


(Reuters) - Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg heard from more than a dozen U.S. conservative leaders on Wednesday and said he will work to build trust with users who believe the social network displays politically biased news content. After a closed-door meeting at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters, Zuckerberg defended his company’s practices but acknowledged that many conservatives believe Facebook is politically liberal.  “It doesn’t make sense for our mission or our business to suppress political content,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook after the meeting.  “I know many conservatives don’t trust that our platform surfaces content without a political bias,” he added. “I wanted to hear their concerns personally and have an open conversation about how we can build trust. “ The editorial practices at the world’s largest social network came under scrutiny after a former Facebook contractor anonymously accused editors there of deliberately suppressing conservative news. The allegations were reported by technology news website Gizmodo, which did not identify the ex-contractor. Facebook has denied the allegations and said it would conduct a full investigation. A Facebook spokeswoman said the meeting produced “a constructive discussion” and some attendees called it productive. “I think Facebook is very sincere in wanting to resolve outstanding issues with conservatives,” Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, said after the meeting. Attendees were frank about their concerns, but the tone was cordial, Bozell said. “Facebook invited that frank talk. People didn’t hold back too much,” he said.     On her Facebook page, conservative CNN commentator S.E. Cupp said the meeting had produced “strong commitments to address issues, as well as to work together on common goals.”   Other attendees included former White House press secretary Dana Perino, media personality Glenn Beck and former Republican Senator Jim DeMint. Zuckerberg said that while Silicon Valley has a reputation for being liberal, Facebook’s 1.6 billion users span every background and ideology. “The reality is, conservatives and Republicans have always been an important part of Facebook,” Zuckerberg wrote. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has more Facebook fans than any other presidential candidate, he said. Fox News “drives more interactions on its Facebook page than any other news outlet in the world,” Zuckerberg added. “It’s not even close.”  Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox (FOXA.O). Facebook employees who donate to presidential candidates lean Democratic. Seventy-nine percent of employee contributions to 2016 contenders went to Democrats, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign finance data, and 21 percent to Republicans. Zuckerberg has contributed to candidates in both parties. Sixty-percent of his donations during the 2014 midterm elections went to Republicans and 40 percent to Democrats. He has not supported a presidential candidate this cycle. Although a U.S. Senate committee is investigating whether there is liberal bias in selection of trending topics, there is little chance the government will try to regulate Facebook’s practices, said Republican Senator John Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. “I don’t have any reason to believe that would be necessary,” Thune told reporters on Tuesday. Thune sent a letter to Facebook last week to demand that it explain its editorial decision-making and how stories are chosen for the “trending topics” feature. He said his primary concern was that Facebook was potentially being deceptive about how its news feed curation algorithms work.  Facebook last week released its guidelines for choosing trending topics, but the operations of the news feed algorithm remain closely guarded. Legal experts said the government has few tools to dictate how a private company makes news decisions. “As a legal matter, Facebook is not required to be even-handed,” said Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Congress can’t introduce something that tries to prohibit Facebook from making these kinds of choices.”

Summary: फेसबुक के जुकरबर्ग ने पक्षपात विवाद पर अमेरिकी रूढ़िवादियों से मुलाकात की


DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi called on Yemenis on Monday to rise up against the Iran-aligned Houthis after the death of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Speaking in a speech carried live on the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television, Hadi also called for a new chapter in the fight against the Houthis, who were allied with Saleh before he turned on them and offered to back the Saudi-led coalition.

Summary: हादी ने यमनियों से सालेह की मौत के बाद हौथियों के खिलाफ खड़े होने का आह्वान किया-लाइव भाषण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A sheriff’s department in North Dakota is investigating possible charges against the U.S. Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein, for damaging equipment during protests on Tuesday over construction of an oil pipeline. Stein was part of a group protesting the Dakota Access pipeline and spray-painted construction equipment, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said. Stein does not dispute the account. Protesters, who say the project will damage burial sites considered sacred to a nearby Native American tribe and pollute the area’s drinking water, also attached themselves to bulldozers and broke a fence, the department said. Stein, a 66-year-old doctor and environmental activist from Massachusetts, said in a statement that she had spray-painted the words “I approve this message” onto a bulldozer, a nod to the phrase American politicians append to their advertisements to comply with transparency laws.  No arrests were made, the department said, and the investigation was continuing. The department also posted a picture on its Facebook page that showed Stein spraying the bulldozer, calling it a “criminal act.”     The $3.7 billion, 1,100-mile (1,800-km) pipeline project would be the first to move crude oil from the Bakken shale, a vast oil formation in North Dakota, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Energy Transfer Partners is leading a group of firms to build it.  The project sparked violent clashes during the weekend between tribe members and other protesters and security officers near the construction site, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is seeking a court order to block construction. The Green Party opposes continued investment in oil extraction because of its link to climate change. “I hope the North Dakota authorities press charges against the real vandalism taking place at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation: the bulldozing of sacred burial sites and the unleashing of vicious attack dogs,” Stein said in her statement. She said that pipeline security officials had used dogs and pepper spray on protesters over the weekend.  A spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners did not respond to a request for comment. A Reuters-Ipsos poll in late August showed Stein the first choice of 2 percent of voters, trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump and Libertarian Gary Johnson. The U.S. presidential election will be held on Nov. 8. Stein was arrested for trespassing in Texas during her 2012 presidential campaign when she tried to take supplies to protesters opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline.

Summary: यू. एस. ग्रीन पार्टी के स्टीन ने नॉर्थ डकोटा पाइपलाइन विरोध में जांच की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Thursday approved nominees for the two vacant spots on the five-member Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the highest ranking Democrat on the committee. The nominations of Democrat Lisa Fairfax and Republican Hester Peirce now go to the full Senate. The Republican-led Congress has been slow to fill empty seats at agencies and boards, and many of the nominations made by outgoing President Barack Obama, a Democrat, have stalled. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, the most senior Democrat on the Banking Committee, said the committee has yet to hold hearings for nominees to the Federal Reserve Board or the board of the Export-Import Bank.  “It is disgraceful that the Senate still hasn’t confirmed any of the 20 nominations that the Banking Committee has received since the start of last year,” said Brown in a statement. “These nominees are essential to promoting financial stability, protecting national security, and ensuring that American businesses of all sizes can compete on a level playing field with foreign competitors.” The two SEC nominees were part of a block of five nominations that were approved by a single voice vote in a room near the Senate floor.  The committee also approved Jay Lerner as inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Amias Gerety as assistant secretary for financial institutions at the Treasury Department and Rhett Jeppson as director of the U.S. Mint.  Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat from North Dakota, dissented in the hastily scheduled vote in protest over the Export-Import Bank board nominees. “Despite the fact that Congress finally passed my bill to reauthorize the agency last December, the Ex-Im Bank has still been hamstrung from supporting American jobs and businesses because there isn’t a majority on the board,” she said in a statement. “I don’t have strong concerns with the nominees we voted on today.”  The committee attempted to approve the nominees last month, but opposition from Democrats over corporate political disclosure threw the vote into disarray. The Democrats had pressed the SEC nominees to support a requirement that corporations disclose political donations. Obama put the two names forward in October.  Peirce once worked on the Senate Banking Committee staff and then became a senior research fellow and director of the financial markets working group at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.  Fairfax is a law professor at George Washington University, and has written a primer on shareholder activism.

Summary: सीनेट बैंकिंग समिति ने एस. ई. सी. के दो नामितों को मंजूरी दी


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California has joined the Climate Solutions Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers dedicated to fighting climate change, spokesmen for the group and Issa said on Wednesday. The group, founded a year ago by Florida lawmakers looking to slow the effects of global warming, like coastal flooding, now has 13 Republicans and 13 Democrats. It is committed to keeping an even number of members of both parties. The group hopes to become a counter-balance to President Donald Trump’s new administration, which includes several doubters of the science of climate change.  “This is a place where Democrats and Republicans are working together on problem that’s really difficult to solve,” said Daniel Richter, the caucus spokesman and legislative director for the Citizens Climate Lobby, a non-profit whose volunteers encourage members of Congress to join the caucus. Not all Republicans accept the idea that human activity is causing global temperatures to rise, a conclusion reached by an overwhelming majority of scientists. Others accuse Democrats of overly politicizing a scientific issue in an attempt to demonize their opponents. Trump, a Republican, has expressed skepticism about climate change, speculating during his campaign that global warming was “a hoax” and concern over it was “a money-making industry.” Richter said he hoped the caucus can one day be as powerful as the House Freedom Caucus, a group of Republicans whose votes en bloc have become a strong force for conservative activism, scuttling new legislation its members ideologically oppose. But he said, with Congress strongly weighted in favor of Republicans, the caucus will need at least a dozen more Republican members to become a significant force.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन इस्सा जलवायु परिवर्तन पर द्विदलीय हाउस कॉकस में शामिल हुए


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have issued detention warrants for 216 people, including former finance ministry personnel, suspected of having links to last year s failed coup attempt, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Wednesday. It said 17 former finance ministry personnel had been detained so far and another 65 were sought over alleged links to Gulen s network, Anadolu said.  Separately, authorities carried out operations across 40 provinces targeting  private imams  believed to be recruiting members to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen from Turkey s armed forces. Ankara blames Gulen for orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt last year and has repeatedly demanded the United States extradite him, so far in vain. Gulen denies involvement. In the aftermath of the coup, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 have been sacked or suspended from their jobs in the military, public and private sector. The extent of the purges has unnerved rights groups and Turkey s Western allies, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the abortive putsch as a pretext to stifle dissent. The government, however, says the measures are necessary due to the gravity of the threats it is facing following the military coup attempt, in which 240 people were killed.

Summary: तुर्की ने तख्तापलट के बाद की जांच में 216 लोगों को हिरासत में लेने का आदेश दियाः अनादोलु


NEW YORK(Reuters) - In August, a dozen inventors gathered around a fire pit outside the headquarters of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and set alight patents they said had been rendered worthless by an overreaching federal government.  “It’s time for us to make patents great again,” Michael Caputo, an advisor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told those gathered. US Inventor, the group behind the protest Caputo now represents as a spokesman, is calling for the abolition of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, an administrative tribunal run by the patent office that reviews the validity of patents.  The rallying cry marks an about-face for some conservatives, who broadly supported the board’s creation in 2011 as a way to rein in trial lawyers and “patent trolls,” who hold patents for the sole purpose of suing big companies for licensing fees.  “Things have really flipped when it comes to the conservative perspective on patents,” said Charles Duan, a lawyer with left-leaning consumer group Public Knowledge. Much of the credit goes to activists who have convinced many conservatives that the real problem is not out-of-control litigation but how the tribunal designed to speed up resolving patent disputes favors big business over smaller rivals.  The change of positions has been aided by deepening right-wing distrust of tech giants, such as Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, which have benefited the most from PTAB while embracing liberal causes like immigration or gay and transgender rights. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2A1LfXV) The U.S. Supreme Court is due to rule sometime next year on whether the tribunal is an unconstitutional intrusion of the executive branch onto matters reserved for the courts and influential conservative groups are already weighing in. The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, Federalist Society, and the American Conservative Union have published articles or submitted briefs arguing that PTAB should be abolished. Most legal experts expect it to survive, though, noting the Supreme Court has largely accepted the powers of executive-branch courts in other areas, such as public employee benefits. The mounting criticism of PTAB could still convince the court’s conservative justices to vote for abolition, said Q. Todd Dickinson, a lawyer with the firm Polsinelli and a former director of the patent office.  The advocacy effort by conservative groups could also convince the Trump administration to curb the patent board’s power, Dickinson said. AN ANTI-TROLL WEAPON More than 70 percent of the Republicans in Congress backed  the legislation that created PTAB. At the time, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the law would “help reduce unnecessary litigation against American businesses.” In February the same business lobbying group criticized PTAB for creating “cost and uncertainty for patent owners.” U.S. Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who holds patents relating to computer interfaces, was not in Congress at the time the board was created, but said conservatives’ initial intent to curb excessive litigation has gradually given way to fears that PTAB is helping the wrong businesses.   The board’s creation was pushed by big tech companies, banks and retailers, who complained they were being inundated with “troll” lawsuits.  Successfully defending a patent case in federal court often takes years and costs millions of dollars, escalating pressure to settle. PTAB offered a cheaper and faster alternative. The average cost of litigating a PTAB petition to a final decision is about $250,000, according to patent risk management company RPX Corp.  There are no juries and limited live witness testimony in PTAB proceedings, and its administrative judges apply a lower standard of proof than would be required in federal court.  About 80 percent of the patents that PTAB makes final decisions on are either partially or fully invalidated, according to a report issued in October by the patent office. But the agency also said 56 percent of patents challenged at PTAB are upheld, in part because the court frequently declines requests to review patents.  A spokesman for the patent office declined to comment.  Inventors say PTAB has made it much harder to get patents licensed by big technology, which now routinely respond to patent infringement claims by initiating PTAB proceedings.  “Patents owners who don’t have the wherewithal to withstand serial challenges to the validity of their patents just can’t license them,” said David Pridham, chief executive of Dominion Harbor, a firm that owns and attempts to license former Eastman Kodak Co patents.  Paul Morinville, a cowboy hat-wearing entrepreneur from Indiana and the founder of US Inventor, said it has become harder for him to get funding for his business based on software patents he holds.  Morinville has been speaking to Republican lawmakers and their staffers for the past four years and many conservatives credit his group with raising alarm about the patent tribunal.  “They are as close to your iconic garage inventor as you can get, so their stories really resonate,” said James Edwards, a conservative lobbyist focused on patent law. While conservative groups have been most vocal, the debate transcends party lines. Some Republicans, such as Representative Darrell Issa of California, keep supporting the PTAB, while some Democrats have joined Republicans in calls to curb its powers.  Many trial lawyers whose case loads have fallen also oppose it. But many liberals have embraced PTAB as a means of eliminating brand-name pharmaceutical patents that keep drug prices high. Generic drug makers and large tech companies are also among the board’s supporters, arguing it has actually increased competition by weeding out low-quality patents. The conservative backlash in part reflects how the right views tech giants like Apple and Google, which thanks to the tribunal have prevailed in hundreds of disputes with patent owners seeking hefty compensation.  “Google, Amazon, and Apple and other big tech companies - you look at their power and it is really astounding. And they are generally left-leaning companies,” said Matthew Dowd, a conservative patent lawyer in Washington D.C. who has represented US Inventor. “Those dynamics are definitely playing into the increasing willingness of conservatives to speak up about patents.”

Summary: अमेरिकी पेटेंट समीक्षा बोर्ड रूढ़िवादी लक्ष्य बन जाता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, asked about the practice of waterboarding as an intelligence-gathering tool, said: “Absolutely I feel it works,” but added he would defer to his Cabinet on whether to use it. Trump told ABC in an interview to be broadcast later on Wednesday he would rely on the advice of CIA Director Mike Pompeo and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, among others, about using the illegal technique. “And if they don’t want to do it, that’s fine. If they do want to do it then I will work toward that end. I want to do everything within the bounds of what we’re allowed to do if it’s legal ... Do I feel it works? Absolutely I feel it works.” Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, signed an executive order in 2009 banning waterboarding - a form of simulated drowning - and other Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, which are denounced by many lawmakers and rights groups as torture.

Summary: ट्रम्प कहते हैं कि वाटरबोर्डिंग 'काम करता है' लेकिन कैबिनेट के लिए स्थगित कर दिया जाएगाः एबीसी साक्षात्कार


BANGKOK (Reuters) - A roadside bomb planted by suspected Muslim insurgents killed four army rangers and wounded six, including a civilian, in southern Thailand on Friday, a security official said.  A decades old-separatist insurgency in predominantly Buddhist Thailand s largely Muslim provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat has killed more than 6,500 people since 2004.  The bomb was planted under a road that was being built in Pattani, the security official said.  The group that planted the bomb is using old techniques in order to create instability in the region. They planted the bomb under a road currently under construction,  said Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for security forces in the region. Friday s blast followed roadside bombs last week that killed two soldiers and wounded more than 20 people in Yala. There was no claim of responsibility for the blast, which is usually the case in Thailand s deep south, where insurgents are fighting for secession. Thailand s three southernmost provinces were part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate until they were annexed in 1909.

Summary: थाईलैंड के अशांत दक्षिण में सड़क किनारे हुए बम विस्फोट में चार लोगों की मौत


SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean president Moon Jae-in will hold a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Saturday, South Korea s presidential office said in a statement on Friday. Last week, Seoul and Beijing agreed to move beyond a year-long stand-off over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea, a dispute that has been devastating to South Korean businesses that rely on Chinese consumers. The two leaders will both attend the APEC summit of Asia Pacific leaders in Vietnam s central city of Danang.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया शनिवार को चीन के साथ शिखर सम्मेलन करेगाः ब्लू हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is finalizing a $29 billion disaster aid request after hurricanes hit Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing a senior administration official and congressional aides. The request, which could come as early as Wednesday, combines $16 billion for the government-backed flood insurance program and almost $13 billion in new relief for hurricane victims, AP said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस आपदा सहायता के लिए 29 अरब डॉलर के अनुरोध को अंतिम रूप दे रहा हैः एपी


THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte sealed a deal to form a new coalition government on Tuesday, announcing a major tax overhaul and steering the Netherlands towards the political right. The four-party coalition talks were the country s longest since World War Two, overtaking a record of 208 days set in 1977 as the parties struggled to bridge wide differences. Among the issues discussed in often fraught debates were migration   a topic which dominated the national election in March in which the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders finished second   taxation and euthanasia.  It took a long time, but we have an ambitious and balanced plan that will benefit all,  Rutte said, presenting the pact. Rutte, who leads the liberal VVD party, will head his third government since coming to power in 2010. He is due to start picking his cabinet on Friday, the day after parliament debates the government pact, and have his team installed by the end of this month. The coalition will have a more rightwing hue than the outgoing government of the VVD and the centre-left Labour party. The independent budget office said the government s plans would increase growth in gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.2 percentage points annually through 2021, with average growth forecast at 2 percent. But despite being able to reap the benefits of the strongest Dutch economic expansion in a decade, at over 3 percent, the new government may struggle to promote its political agenda, given its wafer-thin, one-seat majority in both houses of parliament.  Among the most important plans of the new coalition   which comprises the VVD, the centrist D66 and conservative Christian parties CDA and Christian Union   is a large tax overhaul, with a cut in income taxes worth around 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) that will benefit the wealthy and middle classes. The coalition also aims to lower the corporate tax rate, from 25 to 21 percent, which will be partly offset by higher taxes on food and a scaling-back of tax breaks for homeowners. The largest employers  association said the plans would make the Netherlands more attractive for international companies.  The dividend tax is going to be totally abolished. That s especially beneficial for foreign investors,  said Marcel Klok, a senior economist at ING bank. Lowering taxes for households and companies will bring higher consumer spending and employment that will support the wider economy.  It is becoming more rewarding to work and that is one of the main aims of this government.  However, labour unions said the plans would raise the cost of living,  while companies  shareholders are being pampered . The coalition does not include Wilders  party and, while a greater focus on national identity is part of its agenda, a clampdown on migration is not. The four parties have agreed to limit financial allowances for asylum seekers in the first two years of their stay, though the Netherlands plans to admit several hundred refugees per year more than until now.     Government plans also include higher taxes for polluters and the promise to shut all five coal-fired energy plants in the country by 2030. This should help lower emissions of carbon dioxide in 2030 to 49 percent of the level reached in 1990. That goal seems unfeasible, environmental group Greenpeace said.  Coal plants will be allowed to run 10 years longer than necessary, while other plans to reduce emissions remain vague.    A plan by D66 to extend euthanasia will not get the full support of the coalition since the CDA and Christian Union oppose the idea.

Summary: दाएँ मोड़ में, डच प्रधानमंत्री ने नए सरकारी समझौते पर मुहर लगा दी


PYONGYANG - North Koreans stage a demonstration of devotion to their leader Kim Jong Un at least once a year, in a large ceremonial square in Pyongyang.  Mansae!  the people call as they parade past the 33-year old, who stands on a balcony above them:  Live long!  This December, Kim will mark six years in power. In that time he has purged or executed around 340 people, according to the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank of South Korea s National Intelligence Service (NIS). The people on parade carry flowers including North Korea s national blooms, Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia, which were specially created in honor of Kim s grandfather and father, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. North Korea is the only socialist country to have passed power down the family line. Images of former presidents are pinned on the left side of every jacket and dress. They are worn there to be close to the wearers  hearts. In private conversations, some North Koreans quietly lament the shortcomings of their system: It s too bureaucratic, takes too long to get things done, is disorganized, they say. But few dare to openly criticize the Supreme Leader. North Korea s GDP per capita, estimated at $1,700 in the CIA Factbook, places it 215th in the world   it is poorer than Haiti, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. Defectors say many North Koreans lead double lives, earning money in unofficial market places to supplement state incomes. The leadership turns a blind eye to this. Traditionally, Pyongyang has been the home of North Korea s elites. But the inhabitants of the capital must also prepare for the parades. Around this time, everyone everywhere must increase production in a process known as a  battle.  People, organized into work units, are assigned duties on top of their usual jobs. The  70-day battle  ahead of a Party congress in 2016 meant long after-work hours sprucing up the capital. State media released a report: Some work units had delivered 110 percent of their quotas. The fatigue shows in some flower-wavers  faces.  On June 1, 2016, the country announced that a new campaign of celebration was to be held. This time, it said, the battle would last 200 days.

Summary: किम जोंग उन का सम्मान


BEIJING (Reuters) - The failure of Catalonia s effort to declare independence shows that Taiwan independence is also doomed to fail as national unity is paramount for all countries, a Chinese official said on Wednesday. China takes a dim view of independence or secessionist movements around the world, while saying it adheres to a policy of non-interference in other nations  internal affairs. Beijing has said it opposes any actions to split Spain. Last month Madrid assumed direct rule over Catalonia after the Spanish prime minister sacked the region s secessionist government which had declared independence from Spain following an attempted referendum. The issue is particularly sensitive for China because of the status of self-ruled and democratic Taiwan, claimed by China as its inherent territory, but where many people would like to proclaim formal independence, a red line for Beijing. The failure of Catalonia s independence bid was a good thing, said Ma Xiaoguang, the spokesman of China s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office.  The failure of the Catalonia referendum fully shows that protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity is a paramount national interest for east or west,  Ma told a regular news briefing.  So Taiwan independence is doomed to failure.  Relations between Beijing and Taipei have nosedived since the island elected Tsai Ing-wen as president last year. China believes she wants formal independence for Taiwan. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China, but will defend Taiwan s democracy and security. China has suspended a regular dialogue mechanism with Taiwan, stepped up military drills around the island and sought to squeeze its international space by siphoning off Taiwan s remaining diplomatic allies. This week, Taiwan said its environment minister had been prevented from attending an annual U.N. climate meeting in Germany, despite credentials as a non-governmental participant, due to pressure from China. Ma said Taiwan had itself to blame for the poor state of ties and its inability to participate in events such as the climate talks.  The Taiwan side shouldn t put blame on others while they themselves are to blame, and should earnestly reflect on things,  he added.

Summary: चीन का कहना है कि कैटेलोनिया की स्थिति से पता चलता है कि ताइवान की स्वतंत्रता का प्रयास विफल होने वाला है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday that he will support a bill to address Puerto Rico’s financial crisis when it comes up for an important procedural vote on Wednesday, but he  could not say how many other Democrats are for the legislation.

Summary: शीर्ष अमेरिकी सीनेट डेमोक्रेट का कहना है कि वह प्यूर्टो रिको विधेयक का समर्थन करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House wants to see a Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama to help pass a tax overhaul bill, a senior adviser said on Monday, indicating a possible shift toward supporting candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of pursuing teenage girls when he was in his 30s. Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, is the Republicans’ only realistic chance to win the special Dec. 12 election. Republicans have a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate. The White House has said President Donald Trump thinks the allegations, including a charge Moore initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s, are troubling and he should step down if they are true. But it has also said it is up to the people of Alabama to make the choice for the Senate and it has not called on Moore to exit the race, as have many other leading Republicans. In an interview with Fox News Channel on Monday, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway railed against Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate. Jones, a former federal prosecutor, has overtaken Moore in polls since allegations of sexual misconduct were first reported by the Washington Post two weeks ago. Asked if she was favoring a vote for Moore, Conway said: “We want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill.”  The U.S. House of Representatives passed tax legislation last week. The Senate, where Republicans can afford to lose only two votes, will take up its own version next week. Last week, Conway told Fox: “There’s no Senate seat that’s worth more than a child.” Moore’s campaign has struggled since the Post detailed the accounts of four women who say Moore pursued them while they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. More women have since spoken out with allegations of their own. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations. Moore, 70, has denied the accusations and has said he is the victim of a witch hunt. In her first televised interview since the Post detailed her allegations, Leigh Corfman told NBC’s “Today” show on Monday that Moore “basically laid out some blankets on the floor of his living room and proceeded to seduce me, I guess you would say” on her second visit to his home when she was 14 and he was 32. Corfman said that since the story in the Washington Post there have been “a lot of people that have come out and have said that because of my courage they’re able to do the same.” She said she had considered confronting Moore twice before, but did not do it, once because her school-age children were afraid that “they would be castigated in their group.” Corfman said she has not been paid by anyone for speaking up about her allegations. “If anything, it has cost me. I had to take leave from my job,” she said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस कर विधेयक पर मतदान के लिए अलबामा सीनेट में रिपब्लिकन की सीट चाहता हैः सलाहकार


BEIJING (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday condemned missile attacks by Yemen s Houthi militias on Saudi Arabia, saying they threatened the region s security and undermined efforts to halt the conflict. Saudi Arabia said its air defense forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired from warring Yemen over the capital Riyadh on Saturday. The rocket was brought down near King Khaled Airport on the northern outskirts of the capital. Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Iran s supply of rockets to militias in Yemen was an act of  direct military aggression  that could be an act of war.  Houthi missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, enabled by Iran s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, threaten regional security and undermine UN efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict,  the White House said in a statement as U.S. President Donald Trump began a visit to the Chinese capital.   These missile systems were not present in Yemen before the conflict, and we call upon the United Nations to conduct a thorough examination of evidence that the Iranian regime is perpetuating the war in Yemen to advance its regional ambitions,  the statement added.   It said the United States would continue working with other  like-minded  partners to respond to such attacks and expose what it called Iran s destabilizing activities in the region. Iran denied it was behind the missile launch. On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said missile attacks from Yemen were a reaction to what he called Saudi aggression. In reaction to the missile, the Saudi-led coalition closed all air, land and sea ports to the impoverished country. It also intensified air strikes on areas controlled by the Houthis including the capital Sanaa. The war has killed more than 10,000 people and triggered one of the worst man-made humanitarian disasters in recent history. The United Nations on Tuesday called on the coalition to re-open an aid lifeline into Yemen, saying food and medicine imports were vital for 7 million people facing famine.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने यमन के हौथियों द्वारा सऊदी पर मिसाइल हमलों की निंदा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet on Tuesday with the Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, to discuss keeping the government open but cited differences with them. “Meeting with “Chuck and Nancy” today about keeping government open and working. Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes. I don’t see a deal!” Trump said in a Twitter post.

Summary: सरकार को खुला रखने पर डेमोक्रेट्स के साथ 'मुझे कोई समझौता नहीं दिखता': ट्रम्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Expanded negotiations against North Korea announced on Thursday would “be very” good if they succeed in cutting off imported goods, and showed lessening support from China toward Pyongyang, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC in an interview on Friday. “I think that move by the Chinese central bank was important... From the physical point of view of limiting the trade ... But even more importantly, it sent a very powerful message to North Korea that China is not being as supportive of them as it had been,” said Ross, who is scheduled to visit Beijing this weekend.

Summary: अमेरिकी वाणिज्य प्रमुख का कहना है कि उत्तर कोरियाई प्रतिबंधों का विस्तार चीन के घटते समर्थन को दर्शाता हैः सीएनबीसी


BARCELONA (Reuters) - Around one million Catalans rallied in Barcelona on Monday, waving red and yellow striped flags and banging drums, in a show of support for independence after Madrid moved to block a referendum on the region s split from Spain. Sept. 11 marks the  Diada , Catalonia s national day, which commemorates the fall of Barcelona to Spain in 1714 and is traditionally used by pro-independence activists to call for secession for the northeastern region with a distinct language. However, this year s event had particular significance as a show of strength for the independence movement just three weeks ahead of a referendum on the issue which Madrid has declared illegal and taken steps to obstruct in the courts.  Demonstrators climbed on each others  shoulders to form human towers, a Catalan tradition, while others carried banners reading  We re going to be a free country!  and  Full of hope  while wearing fluorescent yellow t-shirts with the word  yes .  City police said on Twitter that around one million people took part, one of the highest turn-outs in recent years. Protesters said they hoped the vote would go ahead as planned on Oct. 1.  We hope that we will be able to hold the referendum with total normality, because in a democracy it is normal to be able to vote,  said German Freixas, a 42-year-old engineer accompanying his family to the rally.  If the people want it to happen, it will go ahead.  The Constitutional Court last Thursday suspended the referendum after a legal challenge by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Police have since searched newspaper offices and printers for signs of any preparation for the referendum. The head of Catalonia s regional government, Carles Puigdemont, told journalists on Monday:  It s not an option that the referendum won t go ahead. It s 20 days away and we ve already overcome many hurdles.  Puigdemont is facing criminal charges of misuse of public money, disobedience and abuse of office for organizing the referendum. He is prepared to go to prison, he has said. A majority of Catalonia s mayors have so far said they will allow the use of municipal facilities for the vote. The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, said on Monday she would do everything possible to allow people to vote but would not put civil servants  jobs at risk. Polls have shown support for independence waning in recent years with those wanting a separate state in a minority. However, a majority of Catalans want to vote on the issue. At a peaceful march in August, convened as a show of unity in the wake of Islamist attacks that killed 16, mostly in Barcelona, the king and Rajoy were booed and jeered by the crowds in a show of resentment toward Madrid.  Protesters on Monday held a minute of silence for the victims of the attacks.

Summary: स्पेन से कैटलोनिया की स्वतंत्रता के लिए लगभग दस लाख लोगों की रैली


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani went to Turkey to meet with the country’s president and sought meetings with U.S. government officials in an attempt to end U.S. prosecution of a wealthy Turkish gold trader charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran, Manhattan federal prosecutors said. The moves were disclosed in a letter on Friday to U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, who is overseeing the case in which the trader, Reza Zarrab, is accused of conspiring with others to conduct illegal transactions through U.S. banks on behalf of Iran’s government and other Iranian entities. The new disclosures highlight the politically charged nature of a case that expanded in scope earlier this week with the arrest in New York of an executive at a Turkish state-owned bank charged with conspiring with Zarrab to evade sanctions.  Zarrab, a dual national of Iran and Turkey, had been arrested in 2013 in a corruption probe of people with close ties to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister of Turkey at the time. Erdogan is currently president. In the letter prosecutors said Giuliani and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey - both recently added to Zarrab’s legal team - traveled to Turkey shortly after February 24 to meet with Erdogan to discuss ways to end the prosecution. Giuliani informed the office of Attorney General Jeff Sessions about the planned trip, according to the letter. Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan said that Mukasey and Giuliani, who is a close ally of President Donald Trump, had also sought to meet with other officials in the U.S. government on the issue. “Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Mukasey’s efforts are aimed at reaching a disposition in the case,” Kim wrote in the letter. Kim has sought to question whether Giuliani and Mukasey should be allowed to represent Zarrab given the potential conflicts of interest. Zarrab allegedly victimized at least eight large banks which are current or former clients of Giuliani and Mukasey’s law firms. Kim had called earlier this week for a special hearing to make sure Zarrab understands the potential conflict. Benjamin Brafman, an attorney for Zarrab, responded in a letter to the court on Friday, saying he would consent to a limited hearing but stressed that he believed the prosecution had no right to question the actions of Giuliani and Mukasey. “That information quite frankly is none of the Government’s business,” Brafman wrote.

Summary: गियुलियानी ने ईरान प्रतिबंध मामले में तुर्क के खिलाफ मुकदमा समाप्त करने की मांग की