WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Equifax said on Friday that it made changes in its top management as part of its review of a massive data breach, with two technology and security executives leaving the company “effective immediately.” The credit-monitoring company announced the changes in a press release that gave its most detailed public response to date of the discovery of the data breach on July 29 and the actions it has since taken. The statement came on a day when Equifax’s share price continued to slide following a week of relentless criticism over its response to the data breach,  Lawmakers, regulators and consumers have complained that Equifax’s response to the breach, which exposed sensitive data like Social Security numbers of up to 143 million people, had been slow, inadequate and confusing. Equifax on Friday said that Susan Mauldin, chief security officer, and David Webb, chief information officer, were retiring.  The company named Mark Rohrwasser as interim chief information office and Russ Ayres as interim chief security officer, saying in its statement, “The personnel changes are effective immediately.” Rohrwasser has led the company’s international IT operations, and Ayres was a vice president in the IT organization. The company also confirmed that Mandiant, the threat intelligence arm of the cyber firm FireEye, has been brought on to help investigate the breach. It said Mandiant was brought in on Aug. 2 after Equifax’s security team initially observed “suspicious network traffic” on July 29.  The company has hired public relations companies DJE Holdings and McGinn and Company to manage its response to the hack, PR Week reported. Equifax and the two PR firms declined to comment on the report. Equifax’s share prices has fallen by more than a third since the company disclosed the hack on Sept. 7. Shares shed 3.8 percent on Friday to close at $92.98. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has built a reputation as a fierce consumer champion, kicked off a new round of attacks on Equifax on Friday by introducing a bill along with 11 other senators to allow consumers to freeze their credit for free. A credit freeze prevents thieves from applying for a loan using another person’s information. Warren also signaled in a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency she helped create in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, that it may require extra powers to ensure closer federal oversight of credit reporting agencies. Warren also wrote letters to Equifax and rival credit monitoring agencies TransUnion and Experian, federal regulators and the Government Accountability Office to see if new federal legislation was needed to protect consumers. Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and more than 30 others in a state group investigating the breach acknowledged that Equifax has agreed to give free credit monitoring to hack victims but pressed the company to stop collecting any money to monitor or freeze credit. “Selling a fee-based product that competes with Equifax’s own free offer of credit monitoring services to victims of Equifax’s own data breach is unfair,” Jepsen said. Also on Friday, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on Social Security urged Social Security Administration to consider nullifying its contract with Equifax and consider making the company ineligible for future government contracts. The two senators, Republican Bill Cassidy and Democrat Sherrod Brown, said they were concerned that personal information maintained by the Social Security Administration may also be at risk because the agency worked with Equifax to build its E-Authentication security platform. Equifax has reported that for 2016, state and federal governments accounted for 5 percent of its total revenue of $3.1 billion. Equifax, which disclosed the breach more than a month after it learned of it on July 29, said at the time that thieves may have stolen the personal information of 143 million Americans in one of the largest hacks ever. The problem is not restricted to the United States. Equifax said on Friday that data on up to 400,000 Britons was stolen in the hack because it was stored in the United States. The data included names, email addresses and telephone numbers but not street addresses or financial data, Equifax said. Canada’s privacy commissioner said on Friday that it has launched an investigation into the data breach. Equifax is still working to determine the number of Canadians affected, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said in a statement.

Summary: इक्विफैक्स के दो शीर्ष प्रौद्योगिकी अधिकारियों ने 'तत्काल प्रभाव से' कंपनी छोड़ी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry optimistically discussed expanding American coal exports to Ukraine and other energy matters during a lengthy phone call this month with a Russian prankster who Perry thought was Ukraine’s prime minister. Perry actually was talking with comedians known in Russia for targeting celebrities and politicians with audacious stunts, Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said in a written statement. Pranksters Vladimir Krasnov and Alexei Stolyarov are sometimes called the “Jerky Boys of Russia,” after an American duo who put out recordings of their prank phone calls in the 1990s. They have made faux calls to British singer Elton John, who thought he was speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and others. “These individuals are known for pranking high-level officials and celebrities, particularly those who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their governments. In this case, the energy security of Ukraine,” Hynes said. During the 22-minute call on July 19, Perry, whose department oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons program, discussed a range of topics in a business-like tone, including sanctions against Russia and helping Ukraine develop oil and gas. Perry said the Trump administration opposes Nord Stream 2, a Russian project to bring natural gas to Europe across the Baltic and that U.S. technology could help Ukraine develop gas. “Giving Ukraine more options with some of our technology is, I think, in everyone’s best interest with the exception of the Russians, but that’s OK,” he said. Perry also discussed the Paris climate accord and coal exports on the call.  The call, first reported by E&E news, was recorded and posted online. (bit.ly/2eMg35v) It happened about a month after Perry met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his delegation at the Energy Department. President Donald Trump said last month that Washington plans to offer Ukraine more coal exports from the United States because the eastern European nation’s industrial sector has difficulty securing coal from separatist-held regions.  It is unclear how the United States would bring more coal to Ukraine but Perry hinted on the call that the Commerce Department was working on it.  “The coal conversation at this particular point in time is with (Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross) and I full well suspect it will go forward,” he said on the call.  News of the call came the same day the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impose new sanctions on Russia.

Summary: अमेरिकी ऊर्जा सचिव को रूसी कॉमेडियनों के साथ नकली साक्षात्कार में ठगा गया


(Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday accused the city of Cleveland of taking too long to issue permits to protesters planning demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in July and threatened to sue if the city delays further. “Delays by the city are effectively blocking groups from exercising their fundamental right to political expression,”  Christine Link, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement. “Cleveland is using security planning as a mask to suppress political speech.” Thousands of demonstrators are expected to converge outside the convention from July 18 to 21 when presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is likely to receive the party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 general election. Raucous protests for and against the candidate have erupted at Trump events during the primary campaign. Large groups require a parade permit in Cleveland for demonstrations that would obstruct traffic or occur during special events. City spokesman Dan Williams said permits would be issued “in time for the convention” but he declined to say what date it considered appropriate. He said he was unaware of any permits issued so far. The normal permitting process could not be expected for the convention because “this is not normal,” Williams said. The city of Philadelphia, which will host the Democratic convention a week later, has already begun issuing permits, and Cleveland has told protesters they should wait until two weeks before the convention, the ACLU said. Undue delays may infringe on protesters’ rights to free speech, the ACLU said, suggesting a deadline of June 1. If Cleveland delays too long, the ACLU would file a lawsuit in federal court and ask for an expedited hearing, Link said in a telephone interview. Protesters need adequate time to make travel arrangements and rent needed materials such as portable toilets and sound stage equipment, Link said. The ACLU wrote on behalf of Citizens for Trump, which applied for a permit one month ago, and the liberal activist group Organize Ohio, which has been waiting two months for a permit. Citizens for Trump anticipates 104 cars and trucks, 100 motorcycles, four horses and at least 5,000 people to participate in its event, while Organize Ohio expects 3,000 to 5,000 marchers, the ACLU said. Another attorney represents an individual, John Penley, who has said the city has yet to even respond to his request for a permit application, the ACLU said.

Summary: एसीएलयू ने सम्मेलन विरोध अनुमति में देरी पर क्लीवलैंड को धमकी दी


BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) - Catalonia s former leader Carles Puigdemont was spared custody on Monday, when a Brussels court ruled he could remain at liberty in Belgium until it had heard Spanish charges against him of rebellion. The court s decision means Puigdemont, who left Spain last month after Madrid fired his secessionist government and dissolved the Catalan parliament, is free to campaign for independence in an election in the region on Dec 21. Puigdemont said on Monday his government s actions were legitimate and criticized the Spanish judicial system for a  clear lack of independence and neutrality . The December vote is shaping up to be a de facto independence referendum. Puigdemont s PDeCAT and another secessionist party said at the weekend they might run on a combined ticket, but would need to make a decision on any formal alliance - which might also include other parties - by a deadline of Tuesday.  Alliances could however also form after the election. The independence push has dragged Spain into its worst political crisis since its return to democracy four decades ago. It has deeply divided the country, fuelling anti-Spanish feelings in Catalonia and nationalist tendencies elsewhere.  Puigdemont turned himself in to Belgian police on Sunday along with four of his ex-ministers, after Spain issued a European arrest warrant on charges of rebellion as well as misuse of public funds. All five are barred from leaving Belgium without a judge s consent. They will appear before a Belgian court on Nov. 17 for a hearing to discuss the arrest warrant, prosecutors in Brussels said in a statement. Puigdemont, writing in Britain s Guardian newspaper, called for scrutiny of the Spanish judicial system and said the crisis could be solved only with a political and not a judicial solution.  Does anyone think that the sacked Catalan government can expect a fair and independent hearing, uninfluenced by political and media pressure? I do not,  he wrote. Spain s central government took control of Catalonia, which accounts for a fifth of the national economy, after local leaders held an independence referendum on Oct. 1 despite a Constitutional Court ban. The region s parliament then passed a unilateral declaration of independence. In response, Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fired the government and called the snap regional elections. Eight of Puigdemont s allies stayed behind in Spain and have been detained on similar accusations to the ones the deposed leader faces. On Sunday, the first part of a GAD3 survey showed that pro-independence parties would win the election in Catalonia but may not gain the parliamentary majority needed to continue with secession. On Monday, the second part showed just one in seven people in the region believe the current standoff between Barcelona and Madrid will end in independence, while more than two thirds think the process has been bad for the economy. Published in La Vanguardia newspaper, that survey polled 1,233 people between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3. Optimism that a negotiated solution would be found was low, with just over a fifth of respondents thinking the crisis would lead to talks between regional authorities and Madrid.  The uncertainty has prompted more than 2,000 companies to relocate their legal headquarters out of the region since Oct. 1. The Bank of Spain has said that if the conflict persists it could lead to slower growth and job creation.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया के पूर्व नेता ने स्वतंत्रता के लिए अभियान चलाने की स्वतंत्रता दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican President Donald Trump defended his immigration executive order on Wednesday as necessary for the nation’s security in a speech to law enforcement officers in which he criticized U.S. courts as being political. “I don’t ever want to call a court biased, so I won’t call it biased,” Trump said. “And we haven’t had a decision yet. But courts seem to be so political, and it would be so great for our justice system if they would be able to read the statement and do what’s right. And that has to do with the security of our country.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने आप्रवासन आदेश का बचाव किया, अदालतों को 'इतना राजनीतिक' कहा


KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo must hold a long-delayed election to replace President Joseph Kabila by the end of next year or the vote will lose international support, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday. Repeated delays to the poll, originally scheduled for late 2016, have led to unrest and raised fears the Central African nation could slip back into the kind of conflicts that killed millions around the turn of the century. U.S. envoy Nikki Haley met with Kabila for 90 minutes on Friday. She is the most senior member of President Donald Trump s administration to visit the country.   It was a firm, candid conversation,  Haley told a small group of reporters, adding she had  made very clear that the United States wanted to see elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 and we wouldn t accept elections any later .   A relationship with the United States is dependent on how he acts going forward,  she said.  He has the ability to either support that or not support that, but we have the ability to make our decisions based on that.  Haley, who earlier on Friday met with the Congolese electoral commission (CENI), political opposition and Catholic bishops, did not elaborate on what action the United States could take.       After meeting with CENI, she told reporters she had passed on a message that  these elections must take place in 2018 or there will be no support for the electoral process .  Every day we don t have elections in this country someone dies,  she said.  The electoral commission had said earlier this month that the vote to replace Kabila could not take place until April 2019 at the earliest, leading the opposition to warn that the population would  take matters into its own hands . Dozens died in protests against Kabila s refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December. The resulting political crisis has also contributed to rising militia violence in Congo s east and center. Kabila, who has ruled Congo since his father s assassination in 2001, says the election delays are due to challenges registering millions of voters.  However, his opponents accuse him of using the delay to maneuver to remove term limits that prevent him from standing for re-election, as presidents in neighboring Rwanda and Congo Republic have done. He denies those charges.  Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said the government hoped to see the election as soon as possible but that it was up to the electoral commission to set the date.  It s not up to the government, nor to Ms Haley to organize the elections,  Mende said.  I don t think that we can be subjected to these kinds of diktats.  International donors have said they are prepared to provide significant funding to elections but are waiting for a realistic calendar from CENI. So far, they have contributed only 6 percent of the $123 million that the United Nations is expecting, the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo said earlier this month.

Summary: अमेरिका का कहना है कि कांगो को 2018 के अंत तक लंबे समय से विलंबित चुनाव कराना होगा


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A policeman and a militant from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Friday, the local governor s office said. It said nine other policemen were wounded during a security operation against the Kurdish group in the city.  Clashes broke out as our security forces entered the address to apprehend a member of the PKK,  the governor s office said.  The PKK, which is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, has led a three-decade armed insurgency against the Turkish state.  The government has been increasing operations against the militant group since the collapse of a ceasefire in 2015.

Summary: दक्षिण-पूर्वी तुर्की में पुलिसकर्मी, पी. के. के. आतंकवादी मारे गएः गवर्नर कार्यालय


(Reuters) - The mayor of Stockton, California, was arrested on Thursday on a felony eavesdropping charge stemming from a strip poker game he is accused of surreptitiously recording at a summer camp he hosts for disadvantaged inner-city children, prosecutors said. Mayor Anthony Ray Silva, 41, was also charged with three misdemeanor counts - contributing to the delinquency of a minor, child endangerment and furnishing alcoholic beverages to individuals under the legal drinking age of 21, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. Silva is accused of using his cellphone to make an audio recording of conversation among several young people, including a 16-year-old boy, who were playing strip poker with the mayor inside his cabin at the camp. Prosecutors said in a media statement it was evident that the participants, who were naked, were recorded against their will. Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe said those present besides the mayor included two to three females and three males, all ranging in age from 18 to 20. The criminal complaint further accuses Silva of supplying alcohol to six underage youths. Prosecutors said some were camp counselors. The incidents, according to prosecutors, took place last August at the Stockton Silver Lake Camp in Amador County, which lies in California Gold Country on the edge of the Sierras northeast of Stockton. In addition to hosting unprivileged children at the city-leased camp each summer, Silva has served as president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Stockton for the past six years. Silva’s lawyer, Mark Reichel, told Reuters his client “will be vindicated” and suggested the case was politically motivated, noting that the mayor, a Republican, faces a tough election run-off in November against a Democratic city councilman. Asked whether Silva was playing strip poker with youths from his camp, Reichel replied, “I highly doubt it.” Reichel added, “I can’t wait to fight them in court, so we can expose the epidemic of kids at summer camp playing strip poker.” Silva was elected mayor of Stockton, a city of about 300,000 east of San Francisco, in November 2012, months after the municipality filed for bankruptcy. The city emerged from bankruptcy protection in February 2015. Silva, who is not married, was arrested by FBI agents Thursday morning at the camp and released on $20,000 bond later in the day.  His next court date is Aug. 18. If convicted of the charges, he could face up to three years in prison.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के मेयर पर यूथ कैम्प स्ट्रिप पोकर स्कैंडल का आरोप


CINCINNATI (Reuters) - When Larry Harmon tried to vote on a marijuana initiative in November in his hometown of Kent, Ohio, the 59-year-old software engineer found his name had been struck from the voter rolls. Two hours south in Zanesville, restaurant worker Chris Conrad, 37, was also told he was no longer registered. Both men later found out why: they had not voted often enough. As the Nov. 8 elections loom, officials in Ohio have removed tens of thousands of voters from registration lists because they have not cast a ballot since 2008.  All U.S. states periodically cleanse their voter rolls, but only a handful remove voters simply because they don’t vote on a regular basis. And nowhere could the practice have a greater potential impact in the state-by-state battle for the White House than Ohio, a swing state that has backed the winner in every presidential election since 1960. Voters of all stripes in Ohio are affected, but the policy appears to be helping Republicans in the state’s largest metropolitan areas, according to a Reuters survey of voter lists. In the state’s three largest counties that include Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, voters have been struck from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods. That’s because residents of relatively affluent Republican-leaning neighborhoods are more likely to vote in both congressional elections and presidential contests, historical turnouts show. Democrats are less likely to vote in mid-term elections and thus are more at risk of falling off the rolls.  In the three biggest counties, at least 144,000 voters have been removed, the Reuters analysis found. The statewide total is unclear. Each of the state’s 88 counties manages its own voter rolls, which generally are not made public.  Unlike other voting-rights disputes that have sparked protests and lawsuits, the practice doesn’t appear to be driven by one specific party. Both Republican and Democratic officials in Ohio have purged inactive voters over the past 20 years. But neighborhoods that have a high proportion of poor, African-American residents are hit hardest, the Reuters analysis found. “It’s absolutely unfair,” said Donna Porter-Jones, an organizer at Amos Project, an interfaith group that aims to register 30,000 voters from some of Cincinnati’s poorest neighborhoods ahead of November.  Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, says canceling registrations for voters who missed three straight federal elections helps keep voting rolls current. Since 2011, the state has cleared out more than 2 million records of people who have moved or died, he said.  Those who don’t vote over a six-year stretch or respond to a postcard mailed to their address have only themselves to blame, he said. “If this is really important thing to you in your life, voting, you probably would have done so within a six-year period,” he said in an interview. People who don’t respond to the postcard can be removed from voting lists if they sit out the next two federal elections. Many other states only remove voters from the rolls if they have died or moved to a new address. “You shouldn’t be struck of your right to vote because you skipped an election,” said Kathleen Clyde, a Democratic state representative who has been fighting the practice. Four civil liberties groups sued to end the practice last month, arguing that it violates federal law and unfairly targets low-income and minority voters.   Voting-rights advocates say they are concerned that many infrequent voters who helped drive turnout to a record in the 2008 presidential election won’t be able to vote in this year’s likely matchup between Democrat Hillary Clinton, vying to become the first female president, and Republican Donald Trump, the celebrity billionaire. The Ohio lawsuit is one of a number being fought across the country. Photo ID requirements and other efforts to tighten voting laws have spurred fierce partisan battles and protests in recent months. They follow a Supreme Court decision in 2013 that struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act, a signature achievement of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The Ohio dispute, by contrast, centers on a practice that has been in place for decades but is receiving new attention from civil liberties groups and Democrats ahead of November.  “We are pleased the courts are reviewing the state’s actions,” said Pratt Wiley, national director of voter expansion at the Democratic Party in Washington. Republican party officials at the local and national level, as well as the Trump campaign, did not respond to requests for comment. But Tom Fitton, the head of Judicial Watch, a conservative group that has pushed Ohio and other states to keep their voting lists up to date, described the lawsuit as a “power play” by civil liberties groups “to ensure that candidates they like are able to steal elections if necessary.”  Federal law prohibits states from removing voters solely because they haven’t voted, but it also requires them to keep voter lists up to date. Ohio residents who are removed from voting lists must re-register at least 30 days before an election.  Harmon, the software engineer, backed President Barack Obama in 2008 but has sat out presidential and congressional elections since then. He says he initially thought he had done something wrong to get kicked off the voting rolls. “I felt embarrassed and stupid at the time,” said Harmon, who is involved in the Ohio lawsuit. “The more I think about it, the madder I am,” he said. In Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, 5 percent of voters in neighborhoods that backed Obama by more than 60 percent in 2012 were purged last year due to inactivity, according to the Reuters analysis of the voter lists. In neighborhoods where Obama got less than 40 percent of the vote, 2.5 percent of registered voters were removed for that reason. In Franklin County, home to the state capital Columbus, 11 percent of voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods have been purged since 2012 due to inactivity. Only 6 percent of voters in Republican-leaning neighborhoods have been purged.   The disparity is especially stark in Hamilton County, where affluent Republican suburbs ring Cincinnati, which has one of the highest child-poverty rates in the country. In the heavily African-American neighborhoods near downtown, more than 10 percent of registered voters have been removed due to inactivity since 2012. In suburban Indian Hill, only 4 percent have been purged due to inactivity.  Overall, 30,000 voters have been removed due to inactivity since 2012, a larger figure than Obama’s margin of victory that year.   On a recent rainy afternoon, Amos Project canvasser Marcia Mackey tried to get some of those voters back in the system. Wielding a clipboard and a smile, Mackey asked pedestrians in the Over the Rhine neighborhood north of downtown Cincinnati when they last cast a ballot. If they couldn’t remember, she encouraged them to register again. “People don’t know they’ve been purged until they go to the election site and get turned away,” Mackey said. “We need to make sure that people have voices.”

Summary: इसका उपयोग करें या इसे खो देंः कभी-कभी नवंबर में ओहियो के मतदाता बंद हो सकते हैं।


TOKYO (Reuters) - Campaigning began on Tuesday in an election that pits Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s Liberal Democratic Party against the fledgling Party of Hope led by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and other smaller parties contesting seats in Japan s more powerful lower house of parliament. The following are the stances on key policies from the LDP, Party of Hope and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), another new party made up of the rump of the disbanded opposition Democratic Party. The election is Oct. 22. - Proceed with a planned sales tax hike in 2019 to 10 percent from the current 8 percent. Use part of the revenue from the increase for childcare and welfare programs.       Hope - Freeze the scheduled sales tax hike to ensure economic recovery. - The sales tax should not be raised to 10 percent at once. - Accelerate the  Abenomics  recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy and fiscal spending to realize economic recovery and break away from deflation.    - Maintain the objective of turning Japan s budget balance to a surplus, without setting a deadline for achieving it. The party previously said it aimed to hit the goal by fiscal 2020.  - Boost Japan s productivity and cope with labor shortages through innovation in such areas as robots, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. - Maintain the Bank of Japan s ultra-easy monetary policy as debate on withdrawing the stimulus is premature. Hope  - Scrap over-reliance on fiscal spending and monetary easing. Maintain the Bank of Japan s massive stimulus for the time being, but call on the government and the BOJ to work together to seek a smooth exit from ultra-loose monetary policy. - Impose tax on companies  huge internal reserves and use the proceeds to improve Japan s fiscal health and make up for a shortfall of revenues from freezing the sales tax hike.   - Seek to adopt a  basic income  system, in which all citizens receive a set amount of money on a regular basis, to help low-income households. - Maintain the Bank of Japan s ultra-easy policy for the time being but urge the central bank to work with the government to seek a smooth withdrawal of stimulus in the future. - Boost wages of childcare and nursing care workers.  - Put a cap on working hours and raise minimum wages. - Realize  equal pay for equal work . - Revise the pacifist constitution to provide a firm legal basis for Japan s military, which is called the Self-Defense Forces. Article 9 of the constitution, which was drafted by the United States after World War Two, renounces war as a means for resolving international disputes, and the maintenance of armed forces for this purpose. Hope  - Hold debate on possible revisions to Article 9 and other parts of the constitution.    - Oppose the LDP s plan to clarify the status of the military in the constitution.  - Take a leading role as the international community applies pressure on North Korea to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.  - Further solidify Japan s alliance with the United States and strengthen Tokyo s missile defense capabilities. Hope - Echoes the LDP s calls for strict enforcement of sanctions against North Korea, early return of those Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents decades ago, and tighter alliance with the United States.     - Use diplomacy to resolve the North Korean crisis peacefully. Uphold exclusively defensive security policy. - Utilize nuclear power as an important part of Japan s  energy mix for now as long as its safety is ensured, but will lower the country s dependence on nuclear energy as more renewable energy sources are introduced. Hope - End nuclear power by 2030 amid public safety worries after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Offer government aid on research to increase the ratio of renewable energy to 30 percent.  - Put an end to nuclear power as soon as possible.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः 22 अक्टूबर के मतदान से पहले जापान के मुख्य दलों की प्रमुख चुनावी प्रतिज्ञाएँ


QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed a senior Pakistani police official on his way to work and two others on Thursday in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said. Baluchistan was rocked by a series of attacks late last year that claimed over 180 lives and raised concerns about a growing militant presence, including fighters affiliated with Islamic State, which has claimed several bombings in the province.  The violence has raised concerns about security for projects in the $57 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a planned transport and energy link from western China to Pakistan s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.  Three individuals have embraced martyrdom including (Additional Inspector General) Hamid Shakeel and his driver,  provincial government spokesman Anwar Ul Haq Kakar told Reuters.  A spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.  Shakil was on his way to work in the provincial capital, Quetta, when the suicide bomber intercepted his vehicle, Baluchistan police Inspector General Moazzam Jah told Reuters. One other police officer was killed and three officials were seriously wounded, he added.  Attacks on security officials in Baluchistan have accelerated, with four suicide bombings and one armed attack targeting police in the past six months.

Summary: अशांत दक्षिण-पश्चिमी पाकिस्तान में बम विस्फोट, वरिष्ठ पुलिस अधिकारी सहित तीन की मौत


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at insurers on Monday in an escalating threat to cut the healthcare subsidy payments that make Obamacare plans affordable, after repeatedly urging Republican senators to keep working to undo his Democratic predecessor’s healthcare law. “If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn’t it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays?” Trump, a Republican, wrote on Twitter. Trump, frustrated that he and Republicans have not been able to keep campaign promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, has threatened to let it implode. So far, the administration has continued to make the monthly subsidy payments, but withholding them would be one way to make good on Trump’s threat. Republican Senator Rand Paul told reporters on Monday he spoke to Trump by phone and the president was considering taking executive action to address problems with the healthcare system. Paul said he told Trump he thought he had the authority to create associations that would allow organizations - such as the AARP that represents retirees, or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - to offer group health insurance plans. The White House declined to comment on matter. On Capitol Hill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said senators were too divided to keep working on healthcare overhaul legislation, and that he and other senior Republicans would take that message to the White House. “There’s just too much animosity and we’re too divided on healthcare,” Hatch said in an interview. He said lawmakers could return to a healthcare overhaul later but for now should pivot to tax reform. Some senators were not ready to drop healthcare, however. Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, met with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and several Republican state governors at the White House on Monday to discuss a proposal Cassidy and others have made to send federal healthcare funds to the states in grants, Cassidy told reporters. But Cassidy said he had not discussed bringing his proposal to the Senate floor with Senate leaders. And the third-ranking Republican senator, John Thune, told reporters Monday evening that until there is a proposal that can win a majority of senators’ support, “I think we’ve had our vote and we’re moving onto tax reform.” Hatch, in the interview with Reuters, also said he thought Congress would have to approve new funds for the government’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies to insurers that Trump had been threatening to end. These subsidies lower the price of health coverage for the poor under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.  Insurers have asked the government to commit to making the $8 billion in payments for 2018, saying they may raise rates or leave the individual insurance marketplace if there is too much uncertainty.

Summary: स्वास्थ्य देखभाल सब्सिडी पर लड़ाई में ट्रम्प का लक्ष्य बीमाकर्ताओं पर है


ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni remains Italy s most trusted leader while the 5-Star Movement s Luigi Di Maio has moved into second place, overtaking former premier Matteo Renzi for the first time, according to a poll published on Wednesday. The Ixe survey of the leaders of the main parties said 39 percent of voters had confidence in Gentiloni, who took office in December after Renzi resigned following defeat in a referendum on constitutional reform. Italy is due to hold national elections by May and Renzi says he will be candidate for prime minister for his Democratic Party (PD). Gentiloni, also a PD member, is expected to fall back into the ranks when parliament is dissolved. Some 27 percent said they had faith in Renzi, against 32 percent backing for Di Maio, who was picked to be the prime ministerial candidate for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in September, boosting his profile and standing. In the last Ixe leadership survey in August, Gentiloni had an approval rating of 32 percent, Renzi was on 25 percent and Di Maio on 18 percent.  People probably find Gentiloni s composure reassuring,  Roberto Weber, who carried out the Ixe poll, told Rai Radio. Matteo Salvini, the far-right leader of the Northern League party, had a rating of 27 percent, and Giorgia Meloni, head of the rightist Brothers of Italy party, was on 26 percent.  Their ally Silvio Berlusconi, who sees himself as the natural head of the centre-right bloc, was adrift on 21 percent. In the previous survey, he and Meloni were both on 17 percent. Opinion polls put the 5-Star and PD parties roughly neck-and-neck on around 27 percent, with the Northern League on 15 percent, Berlusconi s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party on around 13 percent and Brothers of Italy on just under 4 percent. A new electoral system voted into law last month is likely to produce a hung parliament at the forthcoming ballot, with no one party or coalition coming anywhere close to winning enough seats to govern alone.

Summary: जेंटिलोनी को इटली के सबसे भरोसेमंद राजनीतिक नेता के रूप में देखा जाता हैः सर्वेक्षण


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign laid out states critical to the U.S. presidential election in a memo to supporters dated Wednesday, including six with key minority populations - Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Colorado and Nevada. The memo, sent to “interested parties” from Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, also set a goal of raking in $4 million a day between now and the Nov. 8 election, or around $500 million total. The memo, which was shared with Reuters by a Clinton supporter, emphasized the importance of boosting turnout among minority voters in the race against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. “If we fail to turn out African-American voters in Ohio, North Carolina or Virginia, we will lose. If we fail to turn out Hispanic voters in Florida, Colorado or Nevada, we will lose,” Mook wrote.   “If we fail to turn out Asian-American and Pacific Islander voters in Nevada or Virginia, we will lose. Plain and simple,” he added. The memo emphasized the need for “the most aggressive Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) program in history” across the country and named other states, such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, as key to the campaign’s efforts. The campaign declined to comment. Clinton’s lead over Trump widened to 13 percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday. The poll showed 46 percent of likely voters supporting Clinton, with 33 percent backing Trump. But 22 percent said they would not support either candidate. That support is lopsided among different racial and ethnic groups. Among the smaller sample of black voters, for example, Clinton has a whopping 80 percent support, while with white voters the two candidates are just about even, according to the poll.

Summary: चुनाव में प्रमुख राज्यों पर ध्यान केंद्रित करेंगे क्लिंटन अभियानः ज्ञापन


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union postponed a new round of Brexit negotiations by a week until the end of the month in what EU diplomats said was to allow time for Prime Minister Theresa May to make a key speech in about 10 days. In confirming a delay until Sept. 25, which Brussels had been expecting, the British government said in a statement it was a joint decision taken because  more time for consultation would give negotiators the flexibility to make progress . There has been no confirmation in London that May will make any speech around Sept. 21. There was no immediate official comment from the European Commission, which is the EU executive. However, diplomats in the EU capital said they had been told on Tuesday that the negotiations had been put back  for reasons of the UK political calendar  rather than for any reason in Brussels. EU officials and diplomats expect May to make a keynote speech around Sept. 21 and believe she may use it to outline the kind of transition arrangements Britain wants once it leaves the Union in March 2019 and before a long-term treaty setting out a free trade pact can be fully negotiated and implemented. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has, like his counterpart British Brexit minister David Davis, played down the significance of the precise timing of talks in Brussels.  After the last round in late August, Barnier said the sides were far apart on the terms on which Britain will leave. That raised doubts about whether two further rounds scheduled before an EU summit on Oct. 19-20 would show enough progress to let leaders agree to launch negotiations on the post-Brexit relationship. EU sources doubt that May will be ready to give ground as early as this month on EU demands, notably that Britain pay it tens of billions of euros (dollars) on leaving. In early October she faces a tricky first Conservative party conference since she lost her parliamentary majority in an ill-advised snap election. Rather, some EU officials expect May to speak in more detail later this month on the transition. She may explain to impatient Brexit supporters that Britain may remain inside some EU structures - and pay Brussels for the privilege - for some years to avoid a  cliff-edge  disruption to trade and business. Such a policy statement by May, whose divided ministers have lately spoken more unanimously in favor of such a transition, would not in itself mean a shift in the negotiating stance on  divorce  issues, such as expatriates  rights, how much Britain will pay on leaving or land border controls with Ireland. However, delaying the Brussels talks may make it easier for the prime minister to get her message over without distraction. Britain is keen to move on to discuss the future relationship and the transition to it as soon as possible, arguing that all these issues are ultimately intertwined. The other 27 national leaders insist, however, that the divorce talks must show  sufficient progress  - a deliberately vague phrase - before they will negotiate a future trade deal.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता एक सप्ताह के लिए स्थगित, यूरोपीय संघ को मई के भाषण की उम्मीद


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan offered his strongest support yet for Donald Trump’s White House bid on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention, saying the New York businessman he has repeatedly criticized provides America “a chance at a better way.”  Behind the scenes in Cleveland, the highest-ranking elected Republican has been shopping a competing vision for the party, backed by some wealthy donors and Republican establishment figures who see him as the savior of a party thrown into turmoil by Trump’s candidacy. The support reflects deep divisions within the party over Trump’s harder line on stemming illegal immigration and his threats to scrap trade deals that he says have hurt American workers but establishment Republicans view as central to their free trade policies. The split has created an identity crisis for the party, embodied in the figures of Trump and Ryan.  “Everybody knows the tough spot Paul Ryan is in,” said Annie Dickerson, a New York delegate to the convention and close adviser to Republican financier Paul Singer, referring to Ryan’s dilemma in backing a candidate as the party’s standard bearer in the Nov. 8 presidential election who does not represent many of its traditional values. “He’s the antidote to all the frustration that’s in Cleveland this week,” she said, noting that despite a public push for unity, there are those still unhappy with Trump’s nomination. Ryan, 46, is chairman of the convention at which Trump was officially nominated on Tuesday. But he has kept a low profile, avoiding the convention’s opening day on Monday, and instead holding meetings with state delegations and addressing private gatherings of Republican supporters, according to aides and attendees. At the meetings, according to attendees, Ryan has been pushing his “Better GOP” platform, a six-part agenda that shares strong similarities to the form of conservatism President George W. Bush advocated - reduced regulation, lower taxes, and welfare reform. It contrasts with the speeches typically delivered by Trump, who prefers to lambaste his opponents and skip detailed policy discussions. Doug Heye, a former House Republican leadership aide close to Ryan, said Ryan’s platform “gives them something that they can talk to constituents about that isn’t divisive, that isn’t name calling.”  Heye said the approach could help Ryan position himself as the face of the party if Trump loses the election.  Ryan has publicly clashed with Trump over the latter’s promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants and end trade deals. He criticized Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country and called his remarks about the heritage of a Mexican-American judge racist. Ryan supports free trade and comprehensive immigration reform, and as chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, he authored a document that called for a drastically reduced federal government.  The risk for Ryan is that a swath of the party is moving away from traditional Republican orthodoxy, and by not embracing Trump he could find himself isolated. Some of Trump’s supporters see him as emblematic of the Washington dysfunction that has angered many Republicans.  Mark Bolin, a Canton, Ohio, business owner who supports Trump, called Ryan’s tepid endorsement of Trump “political suicide.” He said Ryan and other Republicans leaders can’t admit their own failures. “Instead of them thinking there’s something wrong with their party, they think it must be us, the American people aren’t smart enough,” Bolin said.  Ryan has long been seen as a rising star and some wealthy donors pushed Ryan, who was the vice presidential nominee in 2012, to run for president this year. He declined but hasn’t ruled out running in the future. Advisers to Singer and the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers say the donors are banking on Ryan to carry the flag for traditional Republican values. “I like Ryan and his day to lead the party will come - very soon, if Trump loses,” said energy magnate Dan Eberhart, another major donor.   Linda Devore, 66, a retired attorney from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who met Ryan for the first time in 2012, rushed over to give him a hug when he arrived on Tuesday morning to speak to her delegation at a hotel in the Cleveland.  “He’s just one of the smartest Republicans. That’s what I told him,” Devore said. “He’s a quick wit. He said, ‘Pretty low bar, huh?’”

Summary: पर्दे के पीछे, रयान क्लीवलैंड में अपना एजेंडा पेश करता है, न कि ट्रम्प का


(Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump won the endorsement on Tuesday of Joe Arpaio, the provocative Arizona sheriff known for his tough stance on illegal immigration. Arpaio joined the real estate billionaire in Marshalltown, Iowa, to voice his support before the Iowa caucuses on Monday, the Trump campaign said in a statement. The caucuses are the first contest in the nomination race for the Nov. 8 presidential election. “I have great respect for Sheriff Arpaio. We must restore law and order on the border and respect the men and women of our police forces. I thank him for his support of my policies and candidacy for president,” Trump said, according to the statement. “Donald Trump is a leader. He produces results and is ready to get tough in order to protect American jobs and families,” Arpaio was quoted as saying. “I have fought on the front lines to prevent illegal immigration. I know Donald Trump will stand with me and countless Americans to secure our border. I am proud to support him as the best candidate for president of the United States of America,” Arpaio added. Arpaio, 83, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, since 1993, has been found guilty of racial profiling in a federal court, and been accused of abuse of power, misuse of funds and unlawful enforcement of immigration laws. He bills himself as “America’s toughest sheriff.”  (Reporting by Eric Walsh in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: एरिजोना के विवादास्पद कानूनविद अर्पायो ने ट्रंप को समर्थन दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Rand Paul said on Thursday that he and three of his fellow Republicans in the Senate oppose the draft healthcare bill put forward by party leaders as it is currently written, potentially imperiling the legislation’s passage, the Associated Press reported. Republicans can only afford to lose two votes and still pass the bill in the Senate, given the expectation of universal Democratic opposition.

Summary: सीनेटर पॉल का कहना है कि वह, तीन अन्य रिपब्लिकन नए स्वास्थ्य सेवा मसौदे का विरोध करते हैंः एपी


MIAMI (Reuters) - Marco Rubio had all that you need in a Republican presidential candidate: fluency on the issues, a conservative outlook, crossover appeal as a Cuban-American, and youthful good looks.     But in an election year when anyone associated with the Republican establishment is seen as tainted, Rubio ended his  campaign after New York real estate mogul Donald Trump won the coveted primary, or nominating contest, in Rubio’s home state of Florida on Tuesday. “This may not have been the year for a hopeful and optimistic message about our future,” Rubio told supporters as he announced his decision.    How the 44-year-old U.S. senator got to this point is a story of miscalculations and missed opportunities, according to interviews with more than a dozen campaign officials, financial donors and Republican strategists. Rubio attempted to position himself as a new-age Republican, the son of Cuban immigrants who was able to connect with everyday voters with tales of his hard-luck upbringing. He also tried to appeal to America’s growing Hispanic population to help boost his party’s chances of claiming victory in the Nov. 8 election.  He got off to a difficult start. His advisers wanted to run a campaign where it made more sense to be on Fox News, a channel popular with Republicans, or on other cable networks and local broadcasters whose clips can go viral on social media, rather than spend a lot of time in small towns in Iowa and New Hampshire. The early nominating contests there often shape the narrative and direction of presidential elections. So Rubio made a strategic gamble. He would try a different approach in those two states, strategists familiar with his campaign said. He would try to save time and money by making strategic stops in those states rather than carpet-bomb them with multiple visits. It would be a break from the usual playbook of White House hopefuls that says candidates should saturate Iowa and New Hampshire with town halls and other events and aim for early wins to garner media coverage and campaign donations and build momentum. Rubio’s gamble backfired. Republican activists in Iowa complained he was largely absent from the state for long stretches, not spending the face-to-face time necessary to sell himself. He only made an all-out push in the late stages of the race. Throughout the campaign, Rubio has battled perceptions that he does not work hard enough. For other candidates running for president, a voting record in the Senate would be a minor issue. But for Rubio, missing votes on the Senate floor dovetailed with the narrative that was building on the trail. If he was not in the Senate and was not on the trail, where was he? Rubio spokesman Alex Conant said Rubio faced more than $50 million in attacks ads. “Obviously that had a massive impact. I think we could have won Iowa had it not been for the more than $25 million in attacks spent on us in Iowa alone.” Republican rival and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas tried to visit every Iowa county on a bus. Rubio tended to fly in and fly out. Polls showed he typically did better in metropolitan areas, not the hamlets than can often make or break candidates in early states. Cruz won Iowa’s caucuses on Feb. 1 with Trump second. Rubio’s third-place finish was seen as something of a victory by his camp, but Republicans in the state were not so sure.     “He had a chance to win Iowa,” said Jamie Johnson, a Republican activist in Iowa. As Johnson traveled the state ahead of the caucuses, voters often asked him when Rubio would visit their area, he said. “Iowans like being visited in their home county,” he explained. “If a presidential candidate wants to win in Iowa, then he must put in the shoe leather.”     Rubio’s team said he had tended to campaign in major population centers in Iowa in order to get the most impact from the news media. “I was very pleased with the campaign that we ran here and I thought the national team did a very good job and I had no complaints,” said Iowa state Senator Jack Whitver, who was the head of Rubio’s Iowa campaign. NO-SHOW AT DINNERS Rubio heard similar complaints in New Hampshire. He spent just 28 days campaigning there, about half as much as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a fraction of the some 70 days that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Ohio Governor John Kasich were there.      Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, sought to hold meet-and-greet events at his home for each candidate. Candidates such as Bush and Kasich took him up on it. Rubio did not. Cullen eventually aligned himself with Kasich, who went on to finish second to Trump in the state. “There were a lot of opinion leaders - key endorsers who end up on a candidate’s delegate list - who were interested in Rubio but never got to meet him or have those small-group, private meetings that result in commitments,” Cullen said. Renee Plummer, a real-estate developer and an influential conservative activist in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who hosted more than 10 Republican candidates for intimate dinners with local leaders, said she tried to schedule Rubio three separate times to no avail. She eventually threw her support behind Christie.     Rubio faced another problem: a perception that he could only muster well-worn talking points.      At a July 6, 2015, dinner at a Chicago steakhouse with reporters, he appeared relaxed and knowledgeable. But as the campaign intensified, that Rubio appeared less and less frequently, replaced by a candidate who seemed able only to deliver canned lines and talking points.     Christie’s campaign noticed. Days before the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary, Christie caught Rubio in repeat mode during a debate, calling him robotic and scripted. It affirmed some voters’ doubts that he lacked depth. Rubio never quite recovered.      “What happened to Marco in New Hampshire struck a responsive chord,” said John “Mac” Stipanovich, a prominent Florida lobbyist who first supported Bush and then switched to Rubio. “It crystallized that lack of stature.”     Trump’s unrelenting dominance of the media spotlight made it hard for rivals to shine. But Rubio’s decision, starting with a debate in Houston on Feb. 25, to try to match Trump insult for insult was cited by voters as another wrong move. Rubio has since said he regretted the negative turn.       A campaign source said it was Rubio who made the ultimate decision to switch gears and attack Trump personally, motivated in part by a desire to win more media coverage. It worked. At a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, he ruefully noted that when he was engaged in his war of insults with Trump, CNN and other networks carried his events live, something they had not done before.     That was, in a nutshell, the problem. Months of wall-to- wall news coverage of Trump decimated Rubio’s strategy of using free-media avenues.     “You can’t out-Trump Trump,” said Rubio supporter Jim Bundstein in Florida.      For some, the roots of Rubio’s problems can be traced back further to an icy afternoon in Washington on Jan. 28, 2013. That is when he held a news conference with three Democratic senators and a Republican on Capitol Hill to launch immigration reforms.      The legislation, sponsored by what became known as a bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators, would have created a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but only if steps were taken to secure the U.S. southern border with Mexico and strengthen visa tracking.     Rubio had already faced conservative anger when flirting with immigration reform a year earlier, when he proposed a path to citizenship for young people who came to the country illegally but would join the military.      Conservative columnist Ann Coulter derided those ideas as “nothing but amnesty” for lawbreakers.      The “Gang of Eight” bill ran into similar resistance. As Rubio distanced himself from it, Hispanic groups faulted him for giving up.     In a Republican primary race where Trump has thrilled many conservatives by vowing to deport immigrants and build a wall on the Mexican border, Rubio’s involvement in the legislation and sudden abandonment of it haunted his 2016 campaign. It was the centerpiece of attack ads by his rivals and the independent fundraising groups supporting them. At a rally in Tampa, Florida, on Monday, Trump said of the senator: “He’s weak on immigration. He’s very weak on amnesty. I don’t know how he got elected.”

Summary: रूबियो का अभियान कैसे विफल रहाः शुरू से ही समस्याएं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Individuals who steal classified information from the U.S. government are “enemies to our state” and must be punished forcefully, the White House’s homeland security adviser said on Wednesday. Tom Bossert, in remarks that were among the first he has made publicly since becoming the White House homeland security adviser, characterized cyber security in the U.S. government and around the world as being in general disarray. “We need to find the people who do it and hold them accountable and be absolutely unwavering in doing so,” Bossert said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.  “People who have taken things that they should not have taken, like Snowden and others, are absolute enemies to our state. Period,” Bossert said. “They need to be caught, punished, and treated as such.” He was referring to Edward Snowden, the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor whose leak of classified information in 2014 triggered an international furor over the reach of U.S. spy operations. Bossert, whose role includes special emphasis on cyber security, made his remarks a week after WikiLeaks published documents related to secret CIA hacking tools.  Investigators believe the documents were likely provided by a contractor or CIA employee, two U.S. officials told Reuters last week. It would be the third high-profile public case in recent years in which an insider pilfered a large tranche of secrets from a U.S. intelligence agency. The recent CIA leak shows that intensified U.S. government efforts to prevent leaks by “insider threats” have largely failed, according to cyber security professionals and intelligence officials. In January former President Barack Obama shortened the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. military intelligence analyst who leaked hundreds of thousands of State Department cables to WikiLeaks in 2010 Manning, now due for release in May, had served seven of her 35-year sentence, and Obama defended his leniency by saying justice had been served. But he drew criticism from Republicans who said the move could embolden other potential leakers. Bossert said agencies and companies have a responsibility to institute controls and continuous employee screening and monitoring systems to guard against insider threats.  As he characterized cyber security as being in general disarray, Bossert said the Obama administration did not do enough to forcefully combat and deter growing criminal and nation-state threats. “I feel like I have re-awoken from a long eight-year nap and I found a world that is on fire,” Bossert said. President Donald Trump’s annual budget proposal, expected to be released on Thursday, would reflect the White House’s plan to prioritize cyber security across the federal government, Bossert said. He also confirmed media reports that Rob Joyce, the National Security Agency’s top hacker, is joining the White House as cyber security coordinator.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के अधिकारी ने कहा, सरकारी लीकर 'हमारे राज्य के दुश्मन' हैं


LONDON (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have opened a new case against a British-Iranian charity worker serving five years in jail in Tehran, leveling charges that could carry a sentence of 16 additional years in prison, her family said on Monday.   Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested by the elite Revolutionary Guards in April 2016 at a Tehran airport, as she was about to return to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after a family visit.   She was convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran s clerical establishment, a charge denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. She was sentenced to five years in prison.   In a hearing in Evin Prison, where she is serving her term, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told on Sunday that a new case had been opened at the insistence of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran s most powerful security force, her family said in a statement.   The new charges include joining and receiving money from organizations working to overthrow the Islamic Republic, and attending a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London, the family said.  Nazanin and the rest of her family are bewildered at this turn,  the family statement said.  Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said the Revolutionary Guards were  inventing new charges to prevent her early release . Iran s judiciary was not immediately available for comment. Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to work in London for the BBC, which Iran says is seeking to topple the Islamic theocracy. During Sunday s hearing she rejected all the new charges, the family said. Iran refuses to recognize dual nationals and denies them access to consular assistance.  On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September, Britain s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, said progress in the relationship between London and Tehran would depend to some extent on a resolution of the Nazanin case.

Summary: जेल में बंद ब्रिटिश-ईरानी चैरिटी कार्यकर्ता पर नए आरोप लगेः परिवार


(Reuters) - U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc is pulling back from 16 of 19 pricing regions in California where it offered Obamacare options this year, state officials said on Tuesday. The move, which takes effect for 2018, means Anthem will offer Obamacare coverage in three pricing regions comprising 28 counties in California. That is just 41 percent of its current enrollment, or about 108,000 consumers, leaving some 153,000 consumers without Anthem Obamacare options, state officials said. Anthem blamed the move in part on uncertainty over whether the Trump administration would maintain subsidies that keep costs down among the factors that have “led to an increasing overall lack of predictability.” As a result, the insurer said it does not allow them to provide affordable plan choices for all California consumers.  “The market for these plans has become unstable. And with federal rules and guidance changing, it’s no longer possible for us to offer some of those plans,” Brian Ternan, president of Anthem Blue Cross of California, said in a statement on the company’s website. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to cut off subsidy payments that make the plans affordable for lower income Americans and help insurers to keep premiums down, after efforts to repeal the law signed by his predecessor, President Barack Obama, failed in Congress.  Trump has repeatedly urged Republican lawmakers to keep working to undo Obama’s Affordable Care Act which has extended insurance to some 20 million more Americans. Anthem said it would offer individual plans both in and out of the state’s exchanges in the three regions made up of those 28 counties.  Anthem, which announced last month that it was mostly exiting individual plans in Wisconsin and Indiana, said the decision does not affect those with employer-provided insurance, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, Medi-Cal or “grandfathered” plans purchased before March 2010. Also on Tuesday, federal regulators extended the deadline for insurers in Michigan to submit 2018 Obamacare individual plan premium rates as they await more clarity from the Trump administration, Michigan’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services said. Michigan said it was given permission by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to postpone the release of its proposed 2018 rate changes for 30 days. The state now plans to release them on September 1.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया में ओबामाकेयर योजना की पेशकशों में कटौती करने के लिए गान


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn in as president on Friday following the resignation of Robert Mugabe after nearly four decades in power, state broadcaster ZBC reported on Wednesday. Mnangagwa, who fled for his safety after Mugabe sacked him two weeks ago, will land back in Zimbabwe at 6pm (1600 GMT) at Manyame Airbase in Harare, ZBC said.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मनांगाग्वा शुक्रवार को राष्ट्रपति के रूप में शपथ लेंगेः राज्य प्रसारक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to Poland and Spain next month to attend the NATO Summit, including a bilateral meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss security issues, the White House said on Monday.  Obama will attend his last NATO summit in Warsaw from July 7 to July 9, the White House said in a statement. He then travels to meet with leaders in Spain, a NATO ally, from July 9 to July 11, it said.

Summary: ओबामा जुलाई में नाटो शिखर सम्मेलन में पोलैंड और स्पेन की यात्रा करेंगेः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives rallied behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday, after recent attempts by Republicans and conservative news outlets to discredit him and his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In a letter sent to Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, 171 of the 193 Democrats in the House said they support Mueller’s probe, and urged Rosenstein to let it continue “unfettered by political influence or threats to his authority.”  “We will not stand by and allow Fox News and right-wing Republicans to defy the rule of law and create their own rules to interfere with the legitimate investigation under the Constitution of the United States,” California Democrat Maxine Waters said during a press conference Thursday. “There is an organized effort by Republicans ... to spin a false narrative and conjure up outrageous scenarios to accuse Special Counsel Mueller of being biased,” she added. Rosenstein appointed Mueller as Special Counsel in May, after President Donald Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey for what Trump later said was “this Russia thing.” Critics promptly accused the president of trying to obstruct the probe. Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia to interfere with the election. Russia has denied meddling and Trump has said there was no collusion.  Republican criticism of Mueller, himself a member of their party, has intensified in recent months since he charged four of Trump’s close associates, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Republicans and talk show hosts on Fox News have accused Mueller’s team and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of bias, citing issues including anti-Trump text messages exchanged between two FBI staffers who previously worked on Mueller’s team. House Republicans have launched their own investigation into the FBI’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails, and questioned whether she received favorable treatment after no charges were brought. Recently, rumors have flown around Washington that Trump may be seeking to have Mueller fired. Trump’s lawyers have said that is not true. Rosenstein, also a Republican, oversees Mueller’s team. He can only fire Mueller for good cause, and he told Congress last week he sees no legitimate basis for doing so. “This investigation must continue unimpeded,” House Judiciary Committee Ranking Democrat Jerrold Nadler said Thursday. Nadler said Republicans were trying to “provide cover for the President as the walls close in on him.”

Summary: हाउस डेमोक्रेट्स ने विशेष वकील मुलर की रक्षा के लिए रैली की


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency chief said on Tuesday it was a “matter of when, not if” a foreign nation-state attempts to launch a cyber attack on the U.S. critical infrastructure, citing the recent hack on Ukraine’s power grid as a cause for concern. Speaking at the RSA cyber security conference in San Francisco, Admiral Michael Rogers said he was also worried about data manipulation and potential offensive cyber threats posed by non-nation-state actors such as Islamic State. The U.S. government said last week a December blackout in Ukraine that affected 225,000 customers was the result of a cyber attack, supporting what most security researchers had already concluded.  Some private researchers have linked the incident to a Russian hacking group known as “Sandworm.”

Summary: एनएसए प्रमुख का कहना है कि 'कब, नहीं तो' विदेशी देश अमेरिकी बुनियादी ढांचे को हैक करता है


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s top general said on Monday he was encouraged by contact between President Robert Mugabe and former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking two weeks ago triggered a coup.  In remarks made on the state broadcaster, General Constantino Chiwenga said Mnangagwa would be back in the country soon and hold talks with Mugabe, adding that the army was confident its intervention code named  Operation Restore Legacy  was progressing well.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के अपदस्थ उपराष्ट्रपति से बातचीत कर रहे हैं मुगाबेः सेना प्रमुख


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed legislation to fund the federal government for two weeks, giving congressional negotiators more time to work out budget priorities through next September and other thorny policy matters. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a post on Twitter that Trump, as expected, signed the stop-gap funding bill that averts a shutdown of federal agencies at midnight when existing money runs out. For months, Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress have been working behind the scenes to hammer out a deal to fund government for fiscal 2018, which began on Oct. 1. Absent that deal, Washington has been operating on temporary spending bills. Much of the negotiation centers around Republican demands for increased military spending. Democrats say the Pentagon does need more money, but they argue that an array of other domestic programs also face shortfalls. A senior Senate Democratic aide said on Friday that the negotiators are trying to figure out how to divide up $200 billion over two years in additional funding. That much of a spending increase is setting off alarms among conservative Republicans. Representative Mark Meadows, who heads the House Freedom Caucus comprised of about three dozen of some of the most conservative members of Congress, said that $70 billion to $80 billion in added spending would be more reasonable. The caucus is pushing for Pentagon increases without more money for other domestic programs.  Besides the spending levels, the Democratic aide said negotiators are hoping to come to a deal on protecting around 700,000 undocumented immigrants, who were brought to the United States as children, from possible deportation. Other elements of the negotiations include new disaster relief funds for Puerto Rico and U.S. states hard-hit by hurricanes and wildfires, as well as funding for a children’s health-insurance program for low-income families and money for community health centers. Many in Congress hope the negotiations on these issues can be wrapped up before Dec. 22, when current funding expires and lawmakers hope to leave Washington for a winter break.

Summary: बजट वार्ता तेज होने पर ट्रम्प ने अस्थायी व्यय विधेयक पर हस्ताक्षर किए


AMED, Indonesia (Reuters) - A Balinese town once bustling with holidaymakers has almost emptied of tourists after warnings that nearby Mount Agung could erupt at any time - a snapshot of the growing cost the rumbling volcano poses to Indonesia s economy. Business has slumped at many hotels, dive resorts and restaurants in towns around the volcano since authorities issue the highest alert level for Mount Agung last month.     An owner of a dive center in Amed, around 15 km (9 miles) from the volcano and just outside the official  danger zone , said many of her guests had canceled.  If (the situation) lasts for nine months or more... then we have no choice but to close down because we will have no money left to operate and pay the staff,  said Helene Rabate, a Spaniard who runs the center. Cafes and restaurants were largely empty and few visitors were seen at the usually crowded dive centers of this seaside town. The last time Agung erupted was in 1963, when more than 1,000 people were killed. Since then, tourism has transformed towns like Amed from sleepy fishing and agricultural villages.     Restaurant owner Wayan Widarti has seen a dramatic drop in customers.      It could be worse than when the Bali bombing happened because there s uncertainty on when (the eruption) is going to happen and how long we wait,  she said, referring to the 2002 nightclub bombing that killed 202 people and prompted a slump in visitors to the holiday island. Bali, famous for its surf, beaches and temples, attracted nearly 5 million visitors last year - more than half the total number of foreign tourists to Indonesia. Tourism, a cornerstone of Bali s economy, is Indonesia s fourth-biggest earner of foreign currency after natural resources like coal and palm oil. Indonesian policy makers have been seeking to boost an economy whose growth rate has been stuck at around 5 percent for the last few years, so any protracted damage to tourism will be particularly unwelcome.  Indonesian officials have said Bali remains safe for tourism, but there have been cancellations even in areas further away from the volcano amid concerns that ash clouds could disrupt air connections. Some tourists are still in the area at a safe distance from the volcano.   We plan to... just follow security instructions... and take a fast boat to escape if there is an eruption,  said Arlin Shiu, a woman from Hong Kong who was traveling with a friend. Disaster management authorities have imposed an exclusion zone of up to 12 km, prompting more than 140,000 residents to flee to neighboring villages.  For people who live in safe zones, there is no reason to evacuate,  Bali governor I Made Mangku Pastika said, adding that makeshift evacuation centers were straining under the weight of thousands of extra evacuees. (INTERACTIVE:  Mount Agung awakens - tmsnrt.rs/2ymKRSY)

Summary: पर्यटकों द्वारा परित्यक्त, बाली शहर इंडोनेशिया के ज्वालामुखी की कीमत गिनता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday he now recalls a meeting in March 2016 that has come under scrutiny as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s election campaign colluded with Russia. In testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Sessions acknowledged he attended a meeting with George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser who pleaded guilty last month to lying to the FBI. According to court documents, Papadopoulos told the meeting he could help use his Russian connections to broker a meeting between then-candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Sessions had previously testified to Congress he was unaware of communications between the campaign and Russian officials.

Summary: अटॉर्नी जनरल सेशंस का कहना है कि अब रूस की जांच में फ्लैग की गई बैठक को याद किया जाता है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on Tuesday that there was  positive momentum  behind the idea of Pope Francis visiting Russia, but suggested there was more work to be done if it were to happen.  Parolin, speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, did not give any date for such a possible visit. The Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart in 1054. The pope, leader of the world s 1.2 billion Catholics, is seeking to improve ties, and last year in Cuba held what was the first ever meeting between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch.  Parolin said he had also used his talks in the Russian capital to also raise certain difficulties faced by the Catholic Church in Russia. He said that Moscow and the Vatican disagreed about the plight of Christians in certain parts of the world. He did not elaborate. Parolin, who is due later on Tuesday to meet Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said he also believed Russia could play an important role when it came to helping solve a crisis in Venezuela because of its close relations with Caracas.

Summary: पोप फ्रांसिस के रूस दौरे की संभावनाओं को लेकर वेटिकन उत्साहित


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The heads of the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community have recommended to President Barack Obama that the director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Michael Rogers, be removed from his position, sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.     The recommendation by Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, first reported by The Washington Post, was delivered to the White House last month.         Obama chose Rogers to take over at the NSA in 2014 and gave him the task of repairing the damage after the huge leaks about its electronic spying program by contractor Edward Snowden.      But there have been other security lapses, the sources said, including the one that led to the arrest of NSA contractor Harold Martin earlier this year.          Rogers is being considered as a potential new director of national intelligence by President-elect Donald Trump, a post that oversees all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies.     The Washington Post reported that a decision by Rogers to travel to New York to meet with Trump on Thursday without notifying superiors caused consternation at senior levels of the administration, but the recommendation to remove him predated his visit. Rogers is head of both the National Security Agency and the U.S. military’s Cyber Command. Carter was also disappointed with the Cyber Command’s performance in the war against Islamic State, another source said. The White House, Pentagon, NSA and office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. A Trump campaign spokesman had no immediate comment.      U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee and a Republican, said later on Saturday he had written to Carter and Clapper asking them to testify to the committee about the matter. The Obama administration wants to split leadership at the National Security Agency and Cyber Command, arguing that the job of leading two agencies with differing missions is too much for one person.     But some members of Congress, led by Republican Senator John McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, oppose that plan, saying that Cyber Command needs access to the NSA’s resources to do its job effectively.

Summary: वरिष्ठ अमेरिकी अधिकारियों ने एनएसए निदेशक को हटाने की सिफारिश कीः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outgoing President Barack Obama will hold his final news conference as U.S. leader on the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 18  in the briefing room at the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said on Friday. He offered no specific time for the event.

Summary: ओबामा बुधवार को अंतिम समाचार सम्मेलन करेंगेः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has been in touch with Chinese officials to reassure them that it is adhering to the “One China” policy after President-elect Donald Trump’s telephone call with the Taiwan’s leader last week. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said U.S. officials reiterated “our country’s continued commitment to a one-China policy.” The policy has been in place for 40 years and is focused on promoting and preserving peace and stability in the strait separating China and Taiwan, which is in U.S. interests, Earnest said. “If the president-elect’s team has a different aim, I’ll leave it to them to describe,” he said.

Summary: अमेरिका ने ट्रम्प के बाद बीजिंग के लिए 'एक चीन' नीति की पुष्टि कीः व्हाइट हाउस


GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Wednesday told Guatemalans not to waste their money trying to get to the United States illegally, detailing how his department was cracking down on undocumented immigrants and would speed up deportations. Speaking after he greeted a plane full of Guatemalans deported back from the United States, Kelly said U.S. authorities were not carrying out mass deportations of immigrants and would follow the law.  But he stressed that deportees would be returned their home countries more quickly than in the past. “If you’re a Guatemalan who is considering paying a great deal of money to a coyote (smuggler) to bring you to the United States, you’ll be wasting your money,” Kelly said at a Guatemalan Air Force base where 347 deportees earlier arrived on a flight.  “You will be returned very quickly,” he said. Kelly left Guatemala shortly after speaking to reporters, headed for Mexico where he and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were expected to explain new U.S. immigration measures to their counterparts. U.S. immigration courts have a large backlog of cases, meaning it can take years to deport some undocumented immigrants.  In recent years, tens of thousands of Central American children and families have moved to the United States, many seeking asylum from ruthless street gangs. Kelly made his comments a day after his department said it planned to deport non-Mexican irregular immigrants to Mexico, regardless of their nationality. The plan angered Mexican officials, with their lead negotiator and Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray saying there was no way Mexico would accept it.

Summary: अमेरिकी गृह सचिव केली ने ग्वाटेमाला के लोगों को घर पर रहने की चेतावनी दी


(Reuters) - A veteran federal prosecutor recruited onto special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is known for a skill that may come in handy in the investigation of potential ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team: persuading witnesses to turn on friends, colleagues and superiors. Andrew Weissmann, who headed the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal fraud section before joining Mueller’s team last month, is best known for two assignments - the investigation of now-defunct energy company Enron and organized crime cases in Brooklyn, New York - that depended heavily on gaining witness cooperation. Securing the cooperation of people close to Trump, many of whom have been retaining their own lawyers, could be important for Mueller, who was named by the Justice Department as special counsel on May 17 and is investigating, among other issues, whether Trump himself has sought to obstruct justice. Trump has denied allegations of both collusion and obstruction.  “Flipping” witnesses is a common, although not always successful, tactic in criminal prosecutions. Robert Ray, who succeeded Kenneth Starr as the independent counsel examining former President Bill Clinton, noted that Trump’s fired former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, has already offered through his lawyer to testify before Congress in exchange for immunity, suggesting potential willingness to cooperate as a witness. “It would seem to me the time is now to make some decisions about what you have and what leverage can be applied to get the things you don’t have,” Ray said, referring to Mueller’s team. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and others close to the president already have hired their own lawyers to help navigate Mueller’s expanding probe and ongoing congressional investigations. Kathryn Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel under former President Barack Obama, said Weissmann is willing to take risks to secure witness testimony that other prosecutors might not. Ruemmler worked with Weissmann on the Justice Department’s Enron task force that investigated the massive corporate fraud that led to the company’s 2001 collapse.  Ruemmler recalled that Weissmann had a hunch that former Enron treasurer Ben Glisan would be willing to talk despite already having pleaded guilty without agreeing to cooperate. So Weissmann had U.S. marshals bring Glisan before the grand jury from prison, Ruemmler said.  Other prosecutors might have feared Glisan’s testimony could contradict their theory of the case, Ruemmler said, but Weissmann’s gamble paid off when the former executive became a key witness. “He’s not afraid to lose, and that is sometimes an unusual quality,” Ruemmler said of Weissmann. Weissmann also led lengthy negotiations with lawyers for Andrew Fastow, Enron’s former chief financial officer and a star prosecution witness in the case, gaining leverage from the fact that prosecutors had indicted Fastow’s wife, also a former Enron employee, on tax fraud charges. Both pleaded guilty, and Fastow testified against former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who was convicted in 2006. Fastow declined to comment. Glisan could not be reached for comment. Representatives for Mueller and the Trump legal team declined to comment. Critics have said say Weissmann’s hardball approach can lead to prosecutorial overreach. A number of Enron convictions were overturned on appeal, and Skilling’s 24-year sentence was later reduced by 10 years. Defense lawyer Tom Kirkendall, who represented clients related to the Enron case, said the task force intimidated witnesses and misinterpreted the law. But Sam Buell, a former prosecutor who was a member of the Enron task force, called such criticism routine in high-stakes cases. Mueller has several other highly experienced lawyers on his team, including U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben. Trump has also been building a legal team led by New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz, with veteran Washington defense lawyer John Dowd recently coming aboard. Before his work relating to Enron, Weissmann served as a federal prosecutor in the organized crime bureau in Brooklyn. In 1997, he and trial partner George Stamboulidis brought down one of the country’s most powerful mob bosses, Vincent “the Chin” Gigante, with the help of turncoat witnesses. “We cut our teeth in the organized crime section,” said Stamboulidis, now in private practice. “And the only way you can make those cases is to get people to cooperate, even when the oath of Omerta (a Mafia code of silence and non-cooperation with authorities) was strong and in full play.”

Summary: मुलर टीम के वकील ने ट्रंप की जांच के लिए गवाह-फ़्लिपिंग विशेषज्ञता लाई


KABUL (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross will  drastically  cut back its operations in Afghanistan following attacks that have killed seven of its staff this year, the aid group said on Monday. The announcement underlines the deteriorating security for aid groups in Afghanistan, where the ICRC has been operating for more than 30 years and has been running its fourth biggest humanitarian program.  Exposure to risk has become our greatest challenge and concern,  Monica Zanarelli, head of the ICRC in Afghanistan, told a news conference in the capital, Kabul.  We have no choice but to drastically reduce our presence in Afghanistan,  she said, adding that the decision would particularly affect operations in the north, where facilities in Kunduz, Faryab, and Balkh provinces would be closed or downsized. Red Cross officials said the assessments are ongoing and could not say how many of its 1,800 staff would be affected. The Red Cross had already warned of the threat to its operations following a series of attacks over the past year. In February, the organization put all of its operations on hold after six of its staff were killed in an attack on an aid convoy in the far north. Operations gradually resumed over the summer, but last month, a Spanish Red Cross physiotherapist working in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif was shot dead by one of her patients. In addition, four of its staff have been abducted over the past year. The spreading conflict has combined with an increase in criminality, making for more  blurred lines  between the various armed groups which complicate efforts to safely provide aid, Zanarelli said.  I would say there are more gray areas than there were in the past, and this is certainly what is affecting our capacity to assess our security,  she said. According to U.S. military estimates, the government controls no more than 60 percent of the country, with the rest either controlled or contested by the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

Summary: हमलों के बाद अंतर्राष्ट्रीय रेड क्रॉस ने अफगान अभियानों में "भारी" कटौती की


NIAMEY (Reuters) - Gunmen on pick-up trucks and motorcycles coming from Mali killed 13 gendarmes and wounded five more in an attack on their base in western Niger, security sources said on Saturday. The village is a few dozen kilometers (miles) from where militants killed four U.S. soldiers in an ambush on Oct. 4 that has thrown a spotlight on a U.S. counter-terrorism mission in Niger, a country that straddles an expanse of the Sahara. Niger s military officials confirmed the attack. The assailants crossed over the border from Mali and drove up to the village of Ayorou, about 40 km (25 miles) inside, before springing their attack, the security sources said.   They were heavily armed. They had rocket launchers and machine guns. They came in four vehicles each with about seven fighters,  said a security source on the scene. Reinforcements later arrived and stopped them as they tried to cross back over the border, another security source on the scene said, triggering a gun battle. They escaped into Mali and were being pursued, he added.   Land and air forces are pursuing the assailants with a view to neutralising them,  a statement from Niger s military said, confirming the death toll. In the initial attack one of the assailants was killed in an exchange of fire but others managed to make off with four Nigerien army vehicles, the first security source said. Since taking over swathes of northern Mali in 2012, and then being scattered by a French-led counter-offensive the following year, Islamist militants have established themselves in lawless spaces across the desert.  They have used these areas as a springboard for a wave of attacks that threaten to destabilize West Africa. Fighters have inflicted damage on military outposts, killed security officials and civilians, kidnapped Westerners and sometimes mounted high-profile attacks on hotels and resorts across the region, including in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Several Islamist groups and well-armed ethnic militia operate in the area along the Mali-Niger border. There have been at least 46 attacks there since early last year. However, officials suspect many of them, including the ambush on the joint U.S.-Niger patrol, to be the work of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, led by Arabic-speaking north African militant Adnan Walid al-Sahrawi.  He has pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, although the extent of their ties are not known. No group has yet claimed responsibility for Saturday s attack, nor the one that killed the U.S. soldiers.     Responding to its ever growing militant threat, Mali on Saturday announced a year extension of a state of emergency.  I hope we won t need to continue extending the state of emergency,  Defence Minister Tiena Coulibaly told reporters.  We hope that before Oct. 31, 2018, order will be restored.    The increasingly fluid, cross-border nature of the militant threat forced the Sahel countries Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso to launch a joint force   known as  G5 Sahel    in July, to try better coordinate policing their deserts. But it has yet to receive a commitment to more than a fraction of the donor funding that it needs. A U.N. Security Council delegation was in Mali on Saturday to discuss the force.  This tragedy is one more element that ... underlines the urgency of a strong and determined response through the creation of the joint G5 Sahel force,  French permanent representative to the U.N. Francois Delattre told journalists during the meetings.

Summary: माली सीमा के पास बंदूकधारियों के हमले में नाइजर के 13 सैनिक मारे गए