PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia s government has raised the possibility that the main opposition party could be ruled out of elections if it does not replace its leader, Kem Sokha, who has been charged with treason. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has said it will not replace its leader and the comments reinforced its fears that Prime Minister Hun Sen plans to cripple it before next year s elections. The arrest of Kem Sokha on Sunday drew Western condemnation and marked an escalation in a crackdown on critics of Hun Sen, who has ruled for 30 years and could face possibly his toughest electoral challenge from the CNRP next year.  They have to appoint an acting president,  government spokesman Phay Siphan told Reuters on Tuesday.  If they don t comply with the law, they will not exist and have no right to political activity... It s their choice, not my choice.  Kem Sokha s daughter, Kem Monovithya, who is also a party official, said the party would not appoint a new leader. Kem Sokha was only named in February after his predecessor resigned in fear the party would be banned if he stayed on.  The ruling party can drop their divide-and-conquer plan now,  she said. Opposition officials accuse Hun Sen of trying to weaken or destroy the party ahead of the election, after it did well in June local elections, in which it nonetheless came well behind Hun Sen s Cambodia People s Party. Hun Sen, one of Asia s longest serving rulers, said on Wednesday there could be more arrests after  the act of treason  and it had reinforced the need for him to stay in office.  I ve decided to continue my work - not less than 10 years more,  he told garment factory workers, jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis. Kem Sokha became leader after opposition veteran Sam Rainsy resigned because of a new law that forbids any party having a leader who is found guilty of a crime. Sam Rainsy fled into exile to avoid a defamation conviction he says was political. Cambodian law says a political party has 90 days to replace a president if he or she dies, resigns or is convicted of an offence. Western countries have condemned the arrest of Kem Sokha and a crackdown on critics of Hun Sen, including independent media.  We don t care about people outside,  Phay Siphan said.  We care about our national security. We don t belong to anyone.  China, Hun Sen s close ally, has voiced support for Cambodia on steps to ensure its security. Kem Sokha was formally charged with treason on Tuesday. His lawyers have dismissed the evidence presented against him so far - a video publicly available since 2013 - in which he tells supporters he is getting support and advice from Americans for the campaign to win elections.      The government and the ruling CPP have manufactured these treason charges against Kem Sokha for political purposes, aiming to try and knock the political opposition out of the ring before the 2018 electoral contest even begins,  said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः कंबोडिया का कहना है कि विपक्षी दल को चुनाव से रोका जा सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. budget deficit is projected to rise to $600 billion in 2016, $16 billion less than previously expected, the White House Office of Management and Budget said on Friday. In a mid-session review, the administration said the 2016 deficit is now projected to be 3.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Summary: अमेरिका का बजट घाटा 2016 में 600 अरब डॉलर तक पहुंच जाएगाः व्हाइट हाउस


(Reuters) - A promise that U.S. Republican front-runner Donald Trump will adopt a more presidential campaign style does not signal a retreat from core policies such as his pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border, his top adviser said on Sunday. Senior Trump aide Paul Manafort dismissed rival Republican candidate Ted Cruz’s accusation that the real estate mogul had lied about his policies on immigration to “fool gullible voters.” The tussle over Trump’s style and substance preceded Tuesday’s Republican and Democratic nominating contests in Pennsylvania and four other Northeastern U.S. states: the next chapter in 2016’s drawn-out selection of the candidates for November’s presidential election. Cruz seized on Manafort’s comments at a closed-door meeting of top Republican officials in Florida on Thursday that Trump, 69, would temper the image he has projected so far, saying the “part that he’s been playing is now evolving.” “I never said Trump wasn’t going to build a wall. I never said Trump was going to change any of his positions,” Manafort said on “Fox News Sunday.” The adviser said Cruz, a 45-year-old U.S. senator from Texas who is Trump’s closest rival, was trying to distract voters from his own difficult path to the nomination. Ohio Governor John Kasich, 63, is also vying to be the Republican candidate. But, despite Manafort’s promise of a more restrained tone, Trump has continued to employ insulting nicknames at rallies, on Saturday referring to Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted.” The billionaire New Yorker has alarmed some senior party figures with unflattering descriptions of Mexicans, a pledge to immediately deport millions of illegal immigrants and a proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, among other things. The rhetoric has drawn protesters to Trump rallies, sometimes culminating in scuffles. On Sunday, the Connecticut State Police arrested a 20-year-old man, saying he had posted a threat on Twitter to bomb an upcoming Trump rally. On Tuesday - one week after Trump’s crushing win in New York’s primary election - Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island will hold their primaries.  Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s campaign says the former secretary of state now has an essentially insurmountable lead over rival Bernie Sanders. The 74-year-old U.S. senator from Vermont has no plans to drop out of the race, according to his staff, who are counting on defying pollsters with some surprise wins on Tuesday. Trump is working to accrue the 1,237 delegates to the July 18-21 Republican National Convention needed to win the nomination outright. That would avert a contested convention, in which Cruz, Kasich or a dark-horse establishment figure could win the nomination on a second or subsequent ballot. Manafort predicted Trump would win the nomination on the first ballot at the Cleveland convention. Trump already has at least 844 delegates committed to him, according to the Associated Press. Cruz has 543 and Kasich has 148. In the five Northeastern states, 118 delegates will be at stake. Pennsylvania will also choose 54 delegates not bound to any candidate.  Trump has won more states overall than Cruz has, but the Texan has tried to keep Trump from winning the needed delegates by using selection rules that vary by state. In Colorado, for example, delegates were picked without a popular vote. “He’s trying to say the process doesn’t matter. He’s trying to say voting doesn’t matter,” Manafort said of Cruz on Sunday. “He’s trying to say all that matters is to destroy the party and see who can pick up the pieces on a second, third or fourth ballot. “We’re not going to let that happen,” Manafort said.  State nominating contests continue through June. Also on Sunday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus played down conservative billionaire Charles Koch’s comment that “it’s possible” Clinton, 68, would make a better president than the Republicans in the race. “Charles, in the past, has gone out of his way to make the case for him being a little bit less partisan than people would expect,” Priebus said on ABC.  “It’s going to come down to four to eight more years of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton or a different direction,” Priebus said. “And I think that’s going to be a very powerful case that we’re going to be able to make as a party.” Democrats, including Clinton, have criticized Koch and his brother, David Koch, for using their wealth and a huge funding network they helped organize to support politicians, usually Republican ones, who reflect their opposition to government regulation of industry. The Clinton campaign was not pleased with Koch’s faint praise. A response to Koch’s comments posted on Clinton’s Twitter account said, “Not interested in endorsements from people who deny climate science and try to make it harder for people to vote.”

Summary: ट्रंप को नीचा दिखाने का मतलब नीति से पीछे हटना नहीं हैः सहायक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian government-backed hackers stole highly classified U.S. cyber secrets in 2015 from the National Security Agency after a contractor put information on his home computer, two newspapers reported on Thursday. As reported first by The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources, the theft included information on penetrating foreign computer networks and protecting against cyber attacks and is likely to be viewed as one of the most significant security breaches to date. In a later story, The Washington Post said the employee had worked at the NSA s Tailored Access Operations unit for elite hackers before he was fired in 2015. The NSA declined to comment, citing agency policy  never to comment on our affiliates or personnel issues.  Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.  If confirmed, the hack would mark the latest in a series of breaches of classified data from the secretive intelligence agency, including the 2013 leaks of data on classified U.S. surveillance programs by contractor Edward Snowden. Another contractor, Harold Martin, is awaiting trial on charges that he took classified NSA material home. The Washington Post reported that Martin was not involved in the newly disclosed case.  Republican U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement responding to the Journal report that, if true, the details were alarming.   The NSA needs to get its head out of the sand and solve its contractor problem,  Sasse said.  Russia is a clear adversary in cyberspace and we can t afford these self-inflicted injuries.  Tensions are already high in Washington over U.S. allegations of a surge in hacking of American targets by Russians, including the targeting of state election agencies and the hacking of Democratic Party computers in a bid to sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in favor of Republican Donald Trump. Citing unidentified sources, both the Journal and the Post also reported that the contractor used antivirus software from Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, the company whose products were banned from U.S. government networks last month because of suspicions they help the Kremlin conduct espionage.  Kaspersky Lab has strongly denied those allegations.  Russian government officials could have used flaws in Kaspersky software to hack into the machine in question, security experts told Reuters. They could also have intercepted traffic from the machine to Kaspersky computers. Kaspersky said in a statement on Thursday that it found itself caught in the middle of a geopolitical fight.  Kaspersky Lab has not been provided any evidence substantiating the company s involvement in the alleged incident reported by the Wall Street Journal,  it said.  It is unfortunate that news coverage of unproven claims continue to perpetuate accusations about the company.     The Department of Homeland Security on Sept. 13 banned Kaspersky products in federal networks, and the U.S. Senate approved a bill to ban them from use by the federal government, citing concerns the company may be a pawn of the Kremlin and poses a national security risk.  James Lewis, a cyber expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the report of the breach sounded credible, though he did not have firsthand information on what had transpired.   The baffling parts are that he was able to get stuff out of the building and that he was using Kaspersky, despite where he worked,  Lewis said. He said that intelligence agencies have considered Kaspersky products to be a source of risk for years. Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who led calls in Congress to purge Kaspersky Lab products from government networks, on Thursday called on the Trump administration to declassify information about threats posed by Kaspersky Lab.  It s a disservice to the public and our national security to continue withholding this information,  Shaheen said in a statement.

Summary: रूसी हैकर्स ने NSA से अमेरिकी साइबर सीक्रेट चुरायाः मीडिया रिपोर्ट


LIMA (Reuters) - North Korea s ambassador to Peru said Tuesday that Lima s decision to expel him was akin to  throwing gasoline on the fire  on the dispute over Pyongyang s nuclear tests that it would continue to pursue  without wavering.  Peru declared the ambassador, Kim Hak-Chol, a persona non grata on Monday to protest North Korea s refusal to heed the world s  constant calls  to end its nuclear program - giving him five days to leave the Andean country.  The bilateral and diplomatic measure taken yesterday by the Peruvian government lacks judicial and moral reasoning and doesn t further world peace and security at all,  Kim said, reading from a statement at a news conference in Lima.  To the contrary, it throws gasoline on the fire for which we express protest and regret,  Kim added before declining to take questions from reporters. Peru s decision to expel Kim followed a similar move by Mexico last week and a public call from the United States last month for Latin American countries to sever ties with North Korea. Peruvian Foreign Minister Ricardo Luna said the move was strongly rooted in international law as reflected by new U.N. sanctions against North Korea passed on Monday.  It s inappropriate to maintain relations with that country,  Luna said in broadcast comments to journalists.  Though we haven t broken off ties, by expelling him the level of diplomats in charge of relations is lowered.  North Korea has faced growing condemnation from around the world following its sixth and largest nuclear test this month which fueled fears it could spark war. U.S. President Donald Trump has described the boosted sanctions passed by the U.N. Security Council on Monday as  nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen.  Kim condemned the sanctions as part of the hostility from the United States regarding North Korea that he said has forced Pyongyang to pursue nuclear tests as a dissuasive measure.  That s a problem between us and the United States,  Kim said.  We ll continue without wavering on the path of justice that we ve chosen despite the slander and defamation from the United States because we re certain our cause is just and will triumph.  Kim will leave Peru as requested and two diplomats will remain in charge of the embassy, an embassy representative said. Peru does not have any diplomats in North Korea. Pyongyang opened its embassy in Peru in the 1980s during the first government of former President Alan Garcia, which bought weapons from North Korea at a discount for police. Trade between the two countries is minimal.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया का कहना है कि पेरू परमाणु युद्ध की 'आग पर गैस' फेंक रहा है


(Please note strong language in paragraphs 3, 11) By Jill Serjeant (Reuters) - Clint Eastwood, the 86-year-old four-time Oscar winner, excoriated the current generation of Americans as weak and overly sensitive while backing Donald Trump even though the Republican presidential hopeful has “said a lot of dumb things.” Eastwood, a prominent celebrity supporter of the Republican Party who appeared at its 2012 U.S. presidential nominating convention, offered a harsh assessment of Americans in an interview with Esquire magazine published on Wednesday. “He’s onto something because secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up,” the acclaimed actor and director said of Trump. “That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now. We’re really in a pussy generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells.” “We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist,” Eastwood added. Given the choice between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Trump in the Nov. 8 election, the celebrated star of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” said, “That’s a tough one, isn’t it? I’d have to go for Trump ... you know, ‘cause she’s declared that she’s gonna follow in Obama’s footsteps.” In one of the most unusual speeches at a major U.S. party convention, Eastwood four years ago addressed an empty chair used to symbolically represent President Barack Obama on stage at the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida, in a rambling denunciation of Obama. Asked by Esquire what troubled him most, Eastwood referred to his chair speech. “What troubles me ... I guess when I did that silly thing at the Republican convention, talking to the chair,” Eastwood said. In the interview, Eastwood made reference to the uproar in May that followed Trump’s comments accusing the judge overseeing a fraud lawsuit involving Trump University real-estate seminars of being biased against him because of Trump’s pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to block illegal immigrants. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is an American of Mexican descent. Eastwood told Esquire that Trump was portrayed as “a racist now because he’s talked about this judge.” “And yeah, it’s a dumb thing to say. I mean, to predicate your opinion on the fact that the guy was born to Mexican parents or something,” Eastwood said. “He’s said a lot of dumb things. So have all of them. Both sides. But everybody - the press and everybody’s going, ‘Oh, well, that’s racist,’ and they’re making a big hoodoo out of it. Just fucking get over it. It’s a sad time in history.” There were more than 100 tweets per minute about Eastwood on Twitter by Thursday afternoon. More than half of the tweets mentioning the Hollywood star were of negative sentiment, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph. “Clint Eastwood was born in 1930. Let’s start a list of things that weren’t considered racist when he was growing up,” tweeted Sarah McBride, the national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign gay rights group. Others praised Eastwood, who rose to fame playing surly cowboys and cops. “Thank you Clint Eastwood. You’ve always been a personal hero. You said what needed to be said,” tweeted a person named Ruari.

Summary: क्लिंट ईस्टवुडः ट्रम्प कहते हैं 'मूर्खतापूर्ण बातें' लेकिन लोगों को 'इससे उबर जाना चाहिए'


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy to the United Nations said Monday the United States plans to circulate a new resolution on North Korea this week and wants a vote next week by the Security Council. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the United Nations to impose the strongest possible measures to deter North Korea from further steps on its nuclear program. She said the United States would engage in negotiations this week on the resolution and  said North Korea  has slapped everybody in the face  with its latest nuclear test.

Summary: अमेरिका इस सप्ताह उत्तर कोरिया पर प्रस्ताव प्रसारित करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York State’s attorney general and 12 other top state law enforcement officials said on Friday they would mount a vigorous court challenge to any effort to roll back vehicle emission rules by the Trump administration.  In March, President Donald Trump ordered a review of U.S. vehicle fuel-efficiency standards from 2022-2025 put in place by the Obama administration, saying they were too tough on the auto industry. The push to weaken the rules by the Trump administration comes as automakers are worried that consumers shift to larger vehicles and low gas prices will make it expensive or impossible to meet the regulations. They also fear a prolonged fight with states over the rules could make revising their product plans difficult. Democratic state officials have been increasingly aggressive in challenging Trump administration regulatory rollback efforts. “In light of the critical public health and environmental benefits the standards will deliver, if EPA acts to weaken or delay the current standards for model years 2022-25, like California, we intend to vigorously pursue appropriate legal remedies to block such action,” the state attorneys wrote in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, Washington State, Oregon and Rhode Island. An EPA spokesman said Friday the agency is reviewing the letter. Automakers including General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Toyota Motor Corp say the Obama administration did not conduct a proper review to ensure those rules are feasible. Automakers have met with Trump administration officials in recent months and hope to reach a deal with California and other states on vehicle fuel efficiency standards. Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group, said automakers “urge everyone to avoid pre-judging the results” of the ongoing review. “A process is now under way again for a thoughtful and coordinated analysis,” California has opposed weakening the rules, threatened to pursue tougher standards unilaterally and could mount a legal challenge.     The White House plans to hold negotiations with car companies, California and potentially other states. A deal would remove uncertainty for automakers, who need years of lead time to engineer future models and want uniform rules across all 50 states. The Obama administration’s rules, negotiated with automakers in 2011, were aimed at doubling average fleet-wide fuel efficiency to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Under the 2011 deal, the 2022-2025 model year rules had to be finalized by April 2018. The Obama administration completed a review of the 2022-2025 rules days before leaving office. Without a deal, automakers could be forced to meet one set of standards in California and a dozen states that have adopted its rules and other rules in the rest of the country. In 2011, Obama said the rules would save motorists $1.7 trillion in fuel costs over the life of the vehicles, but cost the auto industry about $200 billion over 13 years.

Summary: वाहन उत्सर्जन मानकों पर ट्रम्प को चुनौती देगा 13 राज्यों का गठबंधन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department on Monday finalized a contentious rule to protect streams and forests from the impact of coal mining, one of the Obama administration’s last major environmental regulations that the incoming Trump administration is likely to target. The Stream Protection Rule, which the coal industry strongly opposes, updates 33-year-old regulations with stronger requirements for responsible surface coal mining.       The Interior Department says the rule will protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests over the next two decades. “This updated, scientifically modern rule will make life better for a countless number of Americans who live near places where coal is being mined,” said Joseph Pizarchik, director of the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, which crafted the rule.  Pizarchik said his office received over 150,000 public comments on the proposal. The Stream Protection rule requires companies to avoid mining practices that could pollute streams and drinking water sources, restore streams, and promise to return mined areas to their original form. It also requires mining companies to replant these areas with native trees and vegetation in certain cases. The rule also requires testing and monitoring of streams near coal mines before, during and after drilling to ensure that miners can detect increased levels of pollution.  Industry groups like the National Mining Association have been vocal opponents of the proposal, saying it places too much of a burden on mining companies. The rule is likely to be reversed by President-elect Donald Trump, who said that in his early days in office he would reverse a number of regulations targeting the coal industry, which he has promised to revive.  The Republican-majority Congress could use the Congressional Review Act to block the rule with a simple majority vote. Trump would likely not veto it. Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who represents coal-mining state West Virginia, called the Stream Protection Rule a “last-ditch effort” by the Obama administration to burden her state’s struggling coal industry. “The decision by voters last month makes today’s announcement by the Office of Surface Mining an exercise in futility,” Capito said in a statement. “Working with President-elect Trump and our Republican congressional majority, I am confident that we will be able to use the Congressional Review Act to stop this rule from taking effect.”

Summary: अमेरिकी आंतरिक विभाग ने कोयला खनन से जलमार्गों की रक्षा के लिए नियम को अंतिम रूप दिया


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia embarked on an anti-corruption purge on Sunday involving the arrest of royals, ministers and investors including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the kingdom s most prominent businessmen. Eleven princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers were detained, two senior officials told Reuters.  Prince Alwaleed is a nephew of the king and owner of investment firm Kingdom Holding Co 4280.SE. The following is a list of entities in which he has holdings either through personal investment or via Kingdom Holding: Financial Services -Banque Saudi Fransi 1050.SE: 16.19 percent -Citigroup (C.N), *ownership percentage not known Technology -Apple Inc (AAPL.O), 5 percent  -Careem -Lyft  -Motorola Solutions Inc (MSI.N) -Twitter Inc (TWTR.N): 4.9 percent Consumer and retail -EBay Inc (EBAY.O) -Fashion Village Trading Company -Jingdong (JD.com): 2.2 percent -Saks Incorporated -Savola Group Company 2050.SE Publishing -Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) -Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O): 4.98 percent - News Corp (NWSA.O): Prince Alwaleed previously held a small stake, according to government filings. A News Corp spokesman said the company was unaware of any current holdings Entertainment -Euro Disney Petrochemicals -National Industrialisation Company 2060.SE: 6.23 percent Aviation -Parent company of Flynas: 34.08 percent Education -Kingdom Schools Healthcare -Medical Services Projects Company Private equity -Kingdom Africa Management Hotel Real Estate -Four Seasons, George V Hotel, Paris -The Plaza, New York -Savoy Hotel, London Hotel Management Companies -Fairmont Raffles Holding International -Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts -IFA Hotels and Resorts Co (IFAH.KW) -Kingdom Hotel Investments -M venpick Hotels and Resorts  Real Estate -Ballast Nedam -Canary Wharf (Songbird Estates) -Jeddah Economic Company -Kingdom Centre -Kingdom City -Kingdom Riyadh Land Source: Kingdom Holding website, Tadawul website, Reuters, Securities and Exchange Commission filings

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः प्रिंस अलवलीद का अंतर्राष्ट्रीय और घरेलू निवेश


KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan lawmakers accused the government on Wednesday of trying to intimidate them by deploying heavy security in the capital and around parliament, before a move to change the constitution to extend the president s rule.  A legislator from President Yoweri Museveni s party is  expected to introduce legislation on Thursday meant to remove an age cap on the office of president from the constitution.   The East African country s constitution bars anyone over 75 years old from running in presidential elections. That would make Museveni, 73, ineligible to stand again in 2021.  An ally of Western powers who has deployed forces in Somalia to help fight Islamist militants, Museveni has held power since 1986, when his rebels captured power. He has won every election since. Opponents accuse him of creeping authoritarianism.   Security forces began patrolling the center of Kampala this week and deployments have also been boosted around parliament, in which Museveni s party commands a comfortable majority.  The regime knows how unpopular this move ... for Museveni to rule until he dies is (among) the public,  legislator Wilfred Niwagaba, an independent opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment, told Reuters.  (Museveni) has now decided to use the army and police to instil fear in citizens and MPs.  A number of other African presidents have sought to prolong their rule by having legislators void legal limits, triggering sometimes bloody unrest. Opposition to such a move in Uganda has been growing with civic rights activists, opposition MPs and even some members of the ruling party mounting protests. On Tuesday, police in the eastern town of Iganga fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse youths demonstrating against the legislative measure.  Late on Wednesday, police raided the premises of at least two pro-democracy organizations in Kampala, blockaded staff inside offices and conducted searches, officials at those organizations said. The activists said police did not say why they were  searching but suspected it was connected to their mobilization against the proposed law. Police spokesman Asan Kasingye told Reuters he was not aware of raids on the two organizations.  Military spokesman Richard Karemire said the beefed-up security was  normal and typical  to ensure public safety and was not meant to intimidate anyone.  International and local rights activists routinely accuse the Ugandan government of using security personnel to cripple public opposition to Museveni.  Although he won plaudits in the initial years of his rule for restoring stability after protracted internal bloodshed and for drawing foreign investment, rights violations, rampant graft and dysfunctional public services have since eroded his standing. Museveni has not stated whether he will seek re-election, but officials have been struggling to counter widespread suspicion he is quietly backing efforts to lift the age cap.   The show of brute force in town is to remind us who is in charge, but we ll not allow that bill to see the light of day,  parliamentarian John Baptist Nambeshe said.

Summary: युगांडा के सांसदों ने मुसेवेनी शासन के विस्तार के कदम से पहले धमकी का हवाला दिया


LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Wednesday they had issued an arrest warrant for the brother of a suicide bomber who killed 22 people in an attack on a pop concert in Manchester in May and prosecutors had asked Libya to extradite him. Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton born to Libyan parents, blew himself up at the end of a show by U.S. singer Ariana Grande in the deadliest militant attack in Britain for 12 years. His victims included seven children among the victims while more than 500 were injured. Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, who is responsible for counter-terrorism in northwest England, said police had now applied for and been granted an arrest warrant for Abedi s younger brother Hashem for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion.  Hashem Abedi is currently detained in Libya and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) has now requested that Libyan authorities consider his extradition back to the United Kingdom,  Jackson said.  We are grateful for the Libyan authorities considering this request.  He added that detectives had not found any evidence of the involvement of any wider network.  Islamic State said it was responsible in the immediate aftermath of the bombing but security services have always treated the claim with scepticism. Days after the attack Libyan counter-terrorism investigators arrested Hashem Abedi and the brothers  father Ramadan.  In June, the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), a counter-terrorism force aligned with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, said Hashem Abedi had told them that his brother had been radicalised in Britain in 2015. They had both flown from Britain to Libya in April and Hashem said he had helped buy the equipment necessary for the attack although he had not known that Salman was planning a bombing, Rada said.  British police say Salman Abedi returned to Manchester on May 18, four days before his attack. The family had emigrated to Britain during the rule of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, moving from London to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester where they lived for more than a decade. The brothers  parents returned to Libya during the country s 2011 revolution. Jackson said their investigation was still running  at a very fast pace  and the inquiry had involved a trawl through 16,000 hours of closed circuit TV (CCTV) footage and more than 8 million lines of telephone communications data. Police have previously said they believed Salman Abedi had built the bomb himself and CCTV showed him buying nuts from a hardware store that were used as shrapnel as well as the tin that was believed to contain the explosives.

Summary: ब्रिटेन ने मैनचेस्टर बम हमलावर के भाई की गिरफ्तारी की मांग की, लीबिया से उसे प्रत्यर्पित करने को कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans joined four Democrats on Monday in demanding that the White House provide more information about an executive order that has sown confusion among international organizations involved in family planning, AIDS treatment and other healthcare issues. In one of his first actions as president, Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 23 reinstating the so-called Mexico City policy, known by critics as the “global gag” rule, which withholds U.S. funding for international organizations that perform abortions or provide information about abortion. Although other Republican presidents have also adopted the policy, Trump broadened the scope to all global health assistance, “which may encompass as much as fifteen times more federal funding than previous Republican administrations’ versions of this policy,” the six senators wrote in the letter, which was seen by Reuters. The order withholds half a billion dollars or more in U.S. funds, and aid groups said it was issued with so little guidance that they have been scrambling to figure out how to proceed.  In the letter, the senators said Trump’s broader order now includes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and all other global health programs funded through the Department of State, Agency for International Development and Department of Health and Human Services. PEPFAR, which enjoys broad bipartisan support in Congress, is the largest provider of AIDS-fighting medicine in the world, and has been credited with saving millions of lives. “This directive ... has caused mass confusion among federal agencies and international relief organizations. While they wait for clarity from this administration, there’s been a global chilling effect on life-saving work,” said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who organized the letter. Among other things, the senators asked if Trump’s administration had conducted a cost-benefit assessment of the policy, whether it had determined how many lives might be saved or lost or whether it had researched how transmission of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Zika might be affected. Besides Shaheen, the letter was signed by Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, Democrats Ben Cardin and Richard Blumenthal and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. The Trump administration is planning to submit a budget proposing steep cuts in spending on the U.S. State Department and foreign aid. Several Republican members of Congress have expressed reservations about that plan.

Summary: ट्रम्प के गर्भपात आदेश पर स्पष्टता के लिए डेमोक्रेट के आह्वान में रिपब्लिकन शामिल हुए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In Friday s speech laying out his strategy toward Iran and his decision not to certify it is complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump made a series of statements that analysts questioned.  Trump said he might terminate the deal under which Iran agreed to curb its disputed nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions, and laid out a more aggressive approach to counter Iran s ballistic missile programs and its support for militant groups. Below are some of Trump s controversial comments, along with analysis of their basis in fact. TRUMP:  The previous administration lifted these sanctions, just before what would have been the total collapse of the Iranian regime, through the deeply controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.   Several foreign policy analysts said there was no reason to believe that the government of Iran, whose economy suffered from economic sanctions that targeted its oil industry, was close to falling apart.  There is no evidence that I  aware of that would suggest that regime was on the verge of collapse,  said Michael Singh, an expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who served on Republican President George W. Bush s National Security Council staff.  The sanctions were having a pretty strong impact on the Iranian economy. Especially because of the oil sanctions, you had a real contraction of Iranian economy,  he said.  But saying anything beyond that is a matter of speculation.  In fact, Singh argued, the pressure brought on Tehran from international sanctions  could actually help to unite factions within Iran  and thereby strengthen its rulers. TRUMP:  The nuclear deal threw Iran s dictatorship a political and economic lifeline, providing urgently needed relief from the intense domestic pressure the sanctions had created. It also gave the regime an immediate financial boost and over $100 billion its government could use to fund terrorism.     The $100 billion, in fact, already belonged to Iran and represented foreign assets blocked by sanctions. It was unfrozen with the lifting of international sanctions under the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But, experts said that Tehran would see only a fraction of that sum because of debts it owed, including $20 billion to China for infrastructure projects. Various estimates put the actual amount Tehran received at between $60 and $35 billion.     In addition, roughly $1.7 billion was handed over to Iran that stemmed from an uncompleted arms deal between the United States and the government of the late Shah, which paid a $400 million deposit before being toppled in Iran s 1979 revolution.  The remaining $1.3 billion represented interest owed on the $400 million, according to U.S. officials, who used the money as leverage to obtain the release of five U.S. citizens held in Iran. The Obama administration repaid the deposit with pallets of cash delivered by aircraft.  ON IRAN HAVING MADE MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS OF THE NUCLEAR DEAL TRUMP:  The Iranian regime has committed multiple violations of the agreement. For example, on two separate occasions, they have exceeded the limit of 130 metric tons of heavy water. Until recently, the Iranian regime has also failed to meet our expectations in its operation of advanced centrifuges.   The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog charged with monitoring the deal, says that Tehran is in full compliance   a judgment the Trump administration twice previously affirmed - and that  nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the JCPOA are being implemented.   At present, Iran is subject to the world s most robust nuclear verification regime,  IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement after Trump s speech.  Iran has exceeded the 130-metric-ton cap on its heavy water stockpile and run more advanced centrifuges   the devices that purify uranium   than permitted by the deal and arguably exceeded the limits on its low-riched uranium supply. But experts say that Iran quickly corrected all of the infractions and, most importantly, argued that Iran had not committed a deal-rupturing  material breach.   Multiple violations is an exaggeration. There are very few actual violations,  said Robert Einhorn, a nonproliferation expert who worked at the State Department under former President Barack Obama and is now at the Brookings Institution think tank.  They sought to exploit any ambiguity in the text, but when they did that the United States pushed back and a reasonable outcome was reached in every case,  he said.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ईरान पर ट्रंप के कुछ दावों पर विशेषज्ञों ने उठाए सवाल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee suspended committee rules and confirmed U.S. Representative Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services and banker Steven Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary Wednesday on a straight party line vote, sending the nominations to the Senate floor. Under pressure from their political base to block President Donald Trump’s nominees, Democrats stayed away from the meeting for a second day running. This normally would have stopped action, but Republicans plowed ahead by voting to suspend the rule that required at least one Democrat to be present for business to be conducted. Republican members of the committee, who were all present,  then approved the nominees 14-0. The nominees are considered likely to be confirmed by the Republican-majority Senate. “We took some unprecedented action today due to some unprecedented obstruction on the part of our colleagues,” said the panel’s chairman, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, who was furious over the Democrats’ no-show. He said he had obtained approval from the Senate parliamentarian for the move suspending the rule. Democrats were also unhappy. “It’s deeply troubling to me that Republicans on the Finance Committee chose to break the rules in the face of strong evidence of two nominees’ serious ethical problems,” the Finance Committee’s top Democrat, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, said in a statement.  The Democrats said Tuesday they were boycotting Finance Committee proceedings because they wanted more information on Price’s stock trades in an Australian medical company and reports that Mnuchin’s former bank, OneWest, used automated “robo-signings” of foreclosure documents, which apparently contradicted statements the nominees had made to senators. Senate Democrats on Wednesday boycotted another committee vote on Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, who has expressed doubts about the science of climate change. That session ended without any committee action. Republicans accused the Democrats of deliberately stalling the functions of Trump’s new administration. “They (the Democrats) had tons of information (about Price and Mnuchin),” Hatch said. “It’s another way of roughing up the president and his choice of nominees.” But Democrats have come under pressure from liberal activists who want them to counter Trump at every turn, especially after his order last week blocking immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries. It sparked a wave of protests in major U.S. cities.  One group that has been running television ads against Mnuchin blasted Republicans for the vote.  “Steven Mnuchin is such an illegitimate, compromised nominee that Republicans had to change the rules to force through his nomination,” said Kait Sweeney, press secretary of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट पैनल ने नियमों को निलंबित किया, मंत्रिमंडल के लिए प्राइस, म्नुचिन का समर्थन किया


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will propose new cabinet level U.S.-Japan talks on trade, security and macroeconomic issues, including currencies, when he meets U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, a Japanese government official involved in planning the summit said. Abe heads to Washington later on Thursday hoping promises to help create U.S. jobs and bolster Japan’s military will persuade Trump to turn down the heat on trade and currency and stand by the decades-old alliance. “In a situation in which security relations in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly severe, it is very important to demonstrate the unshakeable U.S.-Japan alliance at home and abroad,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. “This is the most important theme of the U.S.-Japan leaders summit,” he said, adding it was also vital to have constructive discussions on how to create a “win-win” relationship by further strengthening U.S.-Japan economic ties. Trump has lumped Japan with China and Mexico as big contributors to the U.S. trade deficit, targeted its auto trade as “unfair” and accused Tokyo of using monetary policy to devalue its currency to boost exports. “We use monetary easing, fiscal policy and structural reform in order to escape from deflation. We don’t engage in competitive currency devaluation or target specific levels,”    Masahiko Shibayama, an adviser to the premier, told Reuters. “We’ll explain based on the fact that Japanese automakers are contributing to U.S. jobs through their local subsidiaries.” During his election campaign, Trump complained Tokyo was not sharing enough of the cost of the U.S. security umbrella although his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, assured Japan the alliance was firm when he visited the country last week.  Abe, who will be accompanied by Finance Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, will bring a package of steps Tokyo says could create 700,000 U.S. jobs through private-public investment in infrastructure such as high-speed trains, government sources say. Trump, who abandoned the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact championed by his predecessor Barack Obama and Abe as a counterweight to a rising China, has made clear he wants a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Tokyo instead. Abe has left the door open to FTA talks but Japanese officials worry such negotiations would boost pressure on politically sensitive sectors such as agriculture while yielding few economic benefits for Japan. The new cabinet level talks, the government official told Reuters, would be a way of buying time rather than opening FTA talks at an early stage.  Tokyo and Washington already have a cabinet-level mechanism for security talks, the so-called “2-plus-2” meetings of defense and foreign ministers. The new economic framework will be headed by Aso, who is also deputy prime minister, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, and would address a range of issues, with a focus on crafting trade policies and measures to bolster U.S. employment, said a report in the Nikkei business daily. Abe is likely to propose crafting highly liberal rules for trade and investment in areas such as intellectual property protection, rules of origin, regulations on state-owned companies and e-commerce, the Nikkei said. Japan hopes such bilateral rules would be similar to those agreed upon in the TPP and could be extended to cover the Asia-Pacific region to counter China’s growing clout, it added. The two nations are also preparing statements regarding economic cooperation and security to be issued after the summit meeting, the Nikkei said.  Abe and Trump will also play a round of gold in Florida this weekend after the meeting at the White House on Friday and Trump said he will make sure the Japanese leader is his partner in the game, rather than a competitor.

Summary: जापान के आबे अमेरिका के साथ नई कैबिनेट स्तर की वार्ता का प्रस्ताव रखेंगेः सरकारी अधिकारी


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s official Xinhua news agency attacked Western democracy as divisive and confrontational on Tuesday, praising on the eve of a key Communist Party Congress the harmony and cooperative nature of the Chinese system. China s constitution enshrines the Communist Party s long-term  leading  role in government, though it allows the existence of various other political parties under what is calls a  multi-party cooperation system . But all are subservient to the Communist Party. Activists who call for pluralism are regularly jailed and criticism of China s authoritarian system silenced. In a lengthy English-language commentary, Xinhua took aim at the  crises and chaos swamp(ing) Western liberal democracy .  Unlike competitive, confrontational Western politics, the CPC and non-Communist parties cooperate with each other, working together for the advancement of socialism and striving to improve the people s standard of living,  it said.   The relationship maintains political stability and social harmony and ensures efficient policy making and implementation.  China s system leads to social unity not the divisions which are an unavoidable consequence of the adversarial nature of today s Western democracy, Xinhua said.   Endless political backbiting, bickering and policy reversals, which make the hallmarks of liberal democracy, have retarded economic and social progress and ignored the interests of most citizens.  Xinhua did not name any countries, but state media has previously cited the examples of Britain s vote to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president as examples of why Western democracy is flawed. When Xi Jinping assumed office five years ago, his ascendancy gave many Chinese hope for political reform, mainly due to his folksy style and the legacy of his father, Xi Zhongxun, a former reformist vice-premier. But Xi has overseen a sweeping crackdown on civil society, charging or detaining dozens of rights lawyers and activists who authorities say are a threat to national security and social stability. Internet controls have also been tightened. Xi looks set to further cement his grip on power at the once-in-five-years Congress that opens on Wednesday, promoting key allies and laying out a policy framework for the years ahead. Xinhua said that under the leadership of the party, Chinese-style democracy has never been in better shape.  China has absolutely no need to import the failing party political systems of other countries.    After several hundred years, the Western model is showing its age. It is high time for profound reflection on the ills of a doddering democracy which has precipitated so many of the world s ills and solved so few.

Summary: चीन के सरकारी मीडिया ने कांग्रेस से पहले पश्चिमी लोकतंत्र पर हमला किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A year after Donald Trump was elected president on a promise to revive the ailing U.S. coal industry, the sector’s long-term prospects for growth and hiring remain as bleak as ever. A Reuters review of mining data shows an industry that has seen only modest gains in jobs and production this year - much of it from a temporary uptick in foreign demand for U.S. coal rather than presidential policy changes. U.S. utilities are shutting coal-fired power plants at a rapid pace and shifting to cheap natural gas, along with wind and solar power. And domestic demand makes up about 90 percent of the market for U.S. coal. “We’re not planning to build any additional coal facilities,” said Melissa McHenry, a spokeswoman for American Electric Power, one of the largest U.S. utilities. “The future for coal is dictated by economics … and you can’t make those kinds of investments based on one administration’s politics.”  Coal plants now make up 47 percent of AEP’s capacity for power generation, a figure it plans to shrink to 33 percent by 2030. (For a graphic on coal production, demand and employment, see: tmsnrt.rs/2zKY1tQ) The situation highlights the limitations of presidential policy on major industries and global economic trends. As some energy experts have said all along, the forces that will make or break mining are well beyond the powers of the Oval Office. A White House official did not respond to a request for comment. Trump has likely done all he can do to help the industry, said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, which represents major U.S. coal companies.  “The government is no longer against us,” he said. “We now only have market forces to contend with.” Trump has taken action on many promises he made to coal interests in states that helped him win the election. The president started the process of killing former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, meant to reduce carbon emissions from power plants; ended an Obama-era moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands; ditched limits on dumping coal waste into streams; and started withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. Now Trump’s Energy Secretary, Rick Perry, is attempting to push a rule through the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that would subsidize power plants that store at least a 90-day supply of coal on site. The goal is to extend the life of some coal burning power plants, a move Perry says will make the electric grid more reliable. While the full impact of Trump’s coal policy could take years to understand, the changes so far are unlikely to boost domestic demand, energy analysts and utility officials said. Trump has cast the coal industry as a victim of burdensome regulation. The industry has lost more than 40 percent of its work force in less than a decade and seen production drop to its lowest levels since 1978. Its share of the power market has fallen to less than a third from about half in 2003. “We’re going to bring the coal industry back 100 percent,” Trump said at a rally in Virginia in August of 2016. So far, progress has been limited. U.S. coal production is on track to rise more than 8 percent in 2017 over the previous year, to 790 million tons, according to the Energy Information Administration. But 2018 output is expected to decline. The number of coal miners has also risen slightly to 51,900 in October, up about 2,200 since November 2016 - but down about 70 percent from a 1985 peak, according to the Labor Department. On November 1, Trump cited the modest production increases in a Tweet, saying, “It is finally happening for our great clean coal miners!” But these increases are largely attributable to demand for U.S. coal from Asian steel mills after temporary outages from their usual suppliers in Australia, according to James Stevenson, a coal analyst at IHS Markit. During the first six months of 2017, Asian countries took in 7.5 million short tons of U.S. coal, up 97 percent over the same period in 2016, according to the EIA. That demand will soon fade, Stevenson said. “We are not going to get a repeat of 2017,” he said of the spike in exports. Forecasts from utilities and the U.S. government reveal little reason for hope of a sustained coal rebound. Utilities are expected to shut down more than 13,600 megawatts of coal plant capacity in 2018. That follows a loss of nearly 8,000 MW this year and 13,000 MW in 2016, according to EIA and Thomson Reuters data.  By 2025, coal-fired power plant capacity will dip to 226,380 MW, down about 30 percent from 2011, according to EIA. Three Texas coal plants owned by Vistra Energy Corp subsidiary Luminant are among the latest to close, bringing the number of plants that shut, or plan to, to 265 since 2010 - a figure higher than the 258 plants that remain, according to the Sierra Club, which has campaigned against coal. Vistra said the closures were forced by lower prices for natural gas and renewable power - and not by environmental regulations. Duke Energy, one of the country’s largest utilities, has shut down more than 5,400 MW of coal capacity since 2011 and plans to shed another 2,000 MW by 2024. Over the next decade, Duke plans to invest $11 billion in new natural gas and renewable power - and nothing in new coal-fired generation, said spokesman Rick Rhodes. A Nov. 2 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - which has two of the largest coal producers in its district, Peabody Energy Corp and Arch Coal Inc - said coal-fired power plants “may eventually become obsolete.” Coal companies believe they can survive despite the troubling market outlook. Peabody expects a “modest number” of coal power plant retirements in the coming years, with some of that lost capacity shifting to remaining plants that will increase output, spokesman Vic Svec said. Arch spokeswoman Logan Bonacorsi offered a similar forecast.   Robert Murray, the chief executive of privately-held Murray Energy Corp - one of America’s biggest underground miners - said Trump could do more for the industry. The administration, Murray said, should end tax breaks for wind and solar power and reverse an EPA finding that carbon emissions endanger human health. But Trump’s tax bill last week preserved most solar incentives, which have bi-partisan backing. And the EPA has so far steered clear of the so-called “endangerment finding” on emissions that is the basis of many fossil-fuel regulations, given the breadth of scientific evidence that would be needed to reverse it. Murray Energy, meanwhile, announced on Oct. 31 it will buy a 30.5 percent stake in a coal-mining partnership in Utah called Canyon Consolidated Resources, LLC. The deal might help the companies cut costs, but it’s unlikely to help workers: Murray said about 200 of 1,000 jobs in Utah could be lost.

Summary: ट्रम्प के चुनाव के एक साल बाद, कोयले का भविष्य अंधकारमय बना हुआ है


WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday reversed decades of U.S. policy and recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, imperiling Middle East peace efforts and upsetting the Arab world and Western allies alike. Trump announced his administration would begin a process of moving the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a step expected to take years and one that his predecessors opted not to take to avoid inflaming tensions. The status of Jerusalem - home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions - is one of the biggest obstacles to reaching a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Trump s announcement as a  historic landmark,  but other close Western allies of Washington such as Britain and France were critical. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the United States  abdicated its role as a mediator in peace efforts, and Palestinian secular and Islamist factions called for a general strike and rallies on Thursday to protest. The international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the entire city, believing its status should be resolved in negotiations. No other country has its embassy in Jerusalem.  Trump s decision fulfills a campaign promise and will please Republican conservatives and evangelicals who make up a sizeable portion of his domestic support.   I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,  Trump said in a speech at the White House.  While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.    Trump s decision risks further inflaming a region already grappling with conflict in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Protests broke out in areas of Jordan s capital, Amman, inhabited by Palestinian refugees, and several hundred protesters gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul. The United States is asking Israel to temper its response to Trump s announcement because Washington expects a backlash and is weighing the potential threat to U.S. facilities and people, according to a State Department document seen by Reuters. Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent state of theirs to be in the city s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally. Netanyahu said any peace deal with Palestinians must include Jerusalem as Israel s capital. That would be a non-starter for Palestinians in any negotiations if it meant the entire city would be under Israeli control. For a graphic on possible Jerusalem U.S. Embassy sites, click tmsnrt.rs/2jIXIoq Abbas on Wednesday called the city  the eternal capital of the state of Palestine.  He said Trump s decision was tantamount to the United States abdicating its peace mediator role. Jordan said Trump s decision was  legally null.   I think it s pretty catastrophic, frankly,  said Hussein Ibish at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, adding that  Trump did not distinguish in any meaningful sense between West Jerusalem and occupied East Jerusalem.  Palestinian Islamist group Hamas accused Trump of a  flagrant aggression against the Palestinian people.  Palestinians switched off Christmas lights at Jesus  traditional birthplace in Bethlehem on Wednesday night to protest Trump s move. Trump has tilted U.S. policy toward Israel since taking office in January.  He cannot expect to side entirely with Israel on the most sensitive and complex issues in the process, and yet expect the Palestinians to see the United States as an honest broker,  said former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer. Pope Francis called for Jerusalem s status quo to be respected. China and Russia expressed concern the move could aggravate Middle East hostilities. A statement from the Saudi Royal Court said the Saudi government had expressed  condemnation and deep regret  about  the move. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May called the U.S. decision  unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region.  The United Nations Security Council is likely to meet on Friday over Trump s decision, diplomats said on Wednesday. Trump said his move was not intended to tip the scale in favor of Israel and that any deal involving the future of Jerusalem would have to be negotiated by the parties.     He insisted he was not taking a position on  any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders.    Other key disputes between the two sides include the fate of Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements built on occupied land. Trump made no mention of settlements. He said he remained committed to the two-state solution if the parties want one. The president called on the region to take his message calmly.  There will of course be disagreement and dissent regarding this announcement but we are confident that ultimately, as we work through these disagreements, we will arrive at a place of greater understanding and cooperation,  Trump said. U.S. Representative Eliot Engel, a pro-Israel Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee who is often critical of Trump s foreign policy, said:  This decision is long overdue and helps correct a decades-long indignity.  Trump acted under a 1995 law that requires the United States to move its embassy to Jerusalem. His predecessors, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, consistently put off that decision.   Trump ordered a delay to any embassy move from Tel Aviv since the United States does not have an embassy in Jerusalem to move into. A senior administration official said it could take three to four years to build one. The Jerusalem decision has raised doubts about the Trump administration s ability to follow through on a peace effort that Trump s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has led for months aimed at reviving long-stalled negotiations. There was no indication Trump asked Netanyahu for anything in return when he notified the Israeli leader of his Jerusalem decision on Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter said. But Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for Republican and Democratic administrations, said Trump, who has long touted himself as a master negotiator, might be setting the stage for seeking Israeli concessions later.  This might be the case where Trump applies a little honey now to show the Israelis he s the most pro-Israel president ever, and then applies a little vinegar later,  he said.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने येरुशलम को इजरायल की राजधानी के रूप में मान्यता दी, लंबे समय से अमेरिकी नीति को उलट दिया


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A top Myanmar official appealed on Monday for democracy in the country to be given  a chance to survive  amid international anger over a military campaign against Rohingya Muslims that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing. Some 507,000 Rohingya Muslim have fled to Bangladesh since insurgents attacked security posts near the border on Aug. 25, triggering fierce Myanmar military retaliation. Myanmar says more than 500 people have been killed, most of them insurgents. National Security Adviser Thaung Tun told Reuters that he has spoken with his U.S. counterpart, H.R. McMaster, on the phone and visited members of the U.S. Congress in Washington  last week. He said sanctions were not specifically discussed.  The United States called last week on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar s military, but it stopped short of threatening to reimpose U.S. sanctions, which were suspended under the Obama administration.  We need to ensure that democracy has a chance to survive in Myanmar. This is a young democracy,  Thaung Tun told Reuters in an interview at the United Nations, noting that government leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has only been in office for 18 months.  Suu Kyi assumed power following a landslide election win after former military leaders initiated a political transition. For years, the United States and others imposed sanctions on Myanmar in support of Suu Kyi s campaign for democracy.  We have a lot of challenges and these challenges cannot be overcome in a day. Rome wasn t built in a day. So we can t undo 50 years of challenges,  said Thaung Tun, adding that he hoped to meet in person with McMaster, President Donald Trump s national security adviser, to brief him on the current situation. A Trump administration official said last month the violence made it harder for the United States and Myanmar to build warmer ties, and there would likely be some  easing  in the short term, but he did not expect a return to sanctions. Thaung Tun said he had not met privately with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley but had spoken to her briefly on the sidelines of other meetings in New York.  The U.N. Security Council met publicly last week on Myanmar for the first time since 2009. Haley said the Myanmar authorities appeared to be carrying out  a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority.  She said countries should stop supplying weapons to Myanmar until the military has sufficient accountability measures. Thaung Tun said  action has been taken against a number of policemen who exceeded their bounds in dealing with detainees.   We have very strict instructions for the security forces to carry out their duties within the bounds of the code of conduct,  he said.  Nobody is above the law.  He said that ethnic cleansing or genocide was not happening in Myanmar. The Myanmar government has said that there have no military operations since Sept. 5. But Thaung Tun said that since then security forces have responded when attacked.   Under the cover of night there have been some sporadic attacks and the police and the security people have been required to respond in self-defense,  he said.  The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots in Myanmar that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and subjected to bouts of communal violence over the years. Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Monday to set up a  working group  to plan the repatriation of those who had fled. (This story has been refiled to correct national security adviser s name on second reference and thereafter to  Thaung Tun , not  Tun .)

Summary: म्यांमार के शीर्ष अधिकारी का कहना है कि 'युवा लोकतंत्र' चुनौतियों का सामना कर रहा है


(Reuters) - Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s candidate in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, said on Saturday he would not approve a proposed deal for AT&T Inc to buy Time Warner Inc if he is elected. AT&T has agreed in principle to buy Time Warner for about $85 billion, it was reported on Friday.

Summary: अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति चुने जाने पर एटी एंड टी-टाइम वार्नर सौदे को मंजूरी नहीं देंगेः ट्रम्प


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Wednesday its campaign to capture Raqqa from Islamic State (IS) was in its final stages and its fighters had seized 80 percent of the city. In a statement, the SDF said it had opened a new front against IS on the northern edge of Raqqa, describing this as  a feature of the final stages of the Euphrates Wrath campaign, which is nearing its end .

Summary: U.S.-backed एस. डी. एफ. का कहना है कि रक्का अभियान अंतिम चरण में है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will proceed as planned to meet with Republican congressional leaders on Tuesday and criticized Democratic leaders for bowing out, the White House said. “The president’s invitation to the Democrat leaders still stands and he encourages them to put aside their pettiness, stop the political grandstanding, show up and get to work,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने डेमोक्रेटिक नेताओं से कहाः 'राजनीतिक भव्यता बंद करें'


DUBAI (Reuters) - Senior Saudi Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, once seen as a leading contender to the throne, was freed after reaching an  acceptable settlement agreement  with authorities paying more than $1 billion, a Saudi official said on Wednesday. The official said Miteb, in his deal with the government,  had admitted corruption. Three other people involved in corruption cases have also finalised settlement agreements with authorities, the official told Reuters.

Summary: सऊदी के वरिष्ठ राजकुमार को 1 अरब डॉलर के समझौते में रिहा किया गयाः सऊदी अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration s announcement on Sunday that it is issuing new travel restrictions on people entering the United States from eight countries could lead to an upcoming Supreme Court case on its previous more controversial ban ending in a whimper rather than a bang. The new presidential proclamation set restrictions on citizens from eight countries and is set to go into effect on Oct. 18, eight days after the court is due to hear oral arguments over the legality of Trump s earlier ban. The Trump administration on Sunday night asked the high court to considering hearing new briefing on the case before the oral argument to address  the effects of the proclamation on the issues currently pending before the court in these cases.  Now the nine-justice court could skip deciding the case altogether, legal experts said. The March 6 order under Supreme Court review banned travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and limited refugee admissions. Challengers say the order discriminated against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution. A decision on that issue would be consequential not just for Trump but also future presidents who would be bound by it. But with the challenged policy no longer on the books, the court has various options to resolve the dispute without issuing a ruling. The 90-day travel ban, which covered Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, ran until Sunday. The 120-day refugee ban expires on Oct. 24. Even before Trump s latest announcement, experienced Supreme Court lawyers and immigration law experts had expressed doubts about whether the nine justices would want to issue a decisive ruling, in part because of a desire to stay out of such a contentious issue.      If the court can avoid entering into the fray, that may be appealing to them,  said Anil Kalhan, an immigration law professor at Drexel University School of Law. With the travel restrictions expiring, the court has an easy way out because it could simply say that the case is no longer a live issue and therefore, in legal parlance, moot. The Supreme Court has already intervened three times since March in limiting the scope of lower court rulings that struck down the March order. Its most significant act came in June when it allowed both bans to go into effect in a limited fashion. The unsigned decision suggested that the court s four liberals and two of its conservative majority, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, were keen on a compromise. Three other conservatives, including Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, said both bans should have been allowed to go into effect in full. The Trump administration has yet to say what it would prefer the court to do, but former Justice Department lawyers say it is likely to request that if the court does dismiss the case, it also throws out the lower court rulings that struck the bans down. The benefit for the administration is that it would wipe out those precedents, including the broad decision by the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said the order discriminated against Muslims. The decision cited Trump s campaign statements in concluding that the order was motivated by anti-Muslim bias. The Trump administration says the order was needed for national security reasons.  It s certainly in the government s interest to get the adverse ... opinions off the books because those decisions constrain executive authority,  said Washington lawyer Pratik Shah, who previously worked at the Justice Department. The March order took effect on June 26, following a Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the scope of lower court rulings. Litigation continued over the summer on who exactly was covered by the bans, culminating in a Supreme Court decision on Sept. 12 that allowed Trump to enforce the refugee ban broadly but kept lower court restrictions that prevent close family members from being denied entry. The March 6 order was itself Trump s second attempt to impose a travel ban after his original, much broader Jan. 27 plan was blocked by lower court following turmoil at U.S. airports caused by its abrupt rollout.     (THis version of the story has been refiled to change date in dateline)

Summary: सुप्रीम कोर्ट के पास यात्रा प्रतिबंध के फैसले को टालने का विकल्प है


PARIS (Reuters) - Lebanon s Saad al-Hariri has accepted an invitation to come to France, although his arrival date in Paris is not known yet, a French diplomatic source said.  The source was confirming comments made by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Riyadh.

Summary: लेबनान के हरीरी ने फ्रांस आने का निमंत्रण स्वीकार किया, आगमन की तारीख अज्ञातः फ्रांसीसी सूत्र


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi King Salman has ordered that women be allowed to drive, ending a restriction seen by rights activists as an emblem of the Islamic kingdom s repression of women. Here is a look at some of the biggest outstanding women s rights issues in Saudi Arabia: Women must have a male guardian s approval for decisions in fields including marriage, travel, applying for a passport and even medical treatment and employment in some cases. Many aspects of the guardianship system are not codified in law but stem from informal practice. The Saudi ambassador to the United States has said women will not need permission from a guardian to get a driving license nor to have a guardian in the car. Earlier this year King Salman issued an order allowing women to benefit from services such as education and healthcare without the consent of a male guardian. Rights groups say this is being implemented only on an ad hoc basis. Women may testify in court, but in some cases their testimony is considered worth only half that of a man. The kingdom has removed requirements that a woman bring a male relative to identify them in court. Saudi Arabia licensed the first female attorneys to practice law in 2013, with the right to represent clients and to own and run their own law firms. It has improved women s access to government services in recent years, enabling women to secure their own identity cards and issuing divorced and widowed women family cards, which identify familial relationships and are needed for bureaucratic processes, according to Human Rights Watch. Women are required to dress modestly, but there is no specific written dress code and compliance varies in different regions and different situations. In practice, most Saudi women are expected to wear the long, dark abaya robe and a headscarf. Dress is monitored by religious police and women have been detained and released for immodest clothing. The requirements do not tend to apply to foreign women. Unrelated Saudi men and women are not supposed to mix, meaning that they are separated into male and family sections in restaurants or entertainment venues or in sex-segregated areas at conferences.     In a business environment women can find themselves in areas where they have little or no access to senior officials and policymakers, who are mainly male. The strict segregation policies act as a disincentive to employers wanting to hire women. Businesses and government agencies in Saudi Arabia are segregated, with the exception of oil giant Saudi Aramco and some foreign companies. Saudi Arabia allowed women into the national stadium for the first time this week as it launched celebrations to mark the 87th anniversary of its founding. There is no formal bar on women buying or renting property but it can be difficult for women to do so without a male relative, according to rights groups. The Saudi government wants to encourage female participation in the workforce. Authorities have removed restrictions on women s work in the labor code and ended formal requirements for women to obtain a guardian s permission to work, but some employers still demand this and are not penalized for doing so. Saudi women have been moving into roles previously reserved for men such as retail, air traffic control and emergency call centers. But the vast majority of chief executives and senior government officials are male and all-male workplaces can lack basic facilities like ladies  restrooms. Conservative clerics have repeatedly said women who do physical exercise are immodest, even when they are not in public or seen by men. But Saudi public schools will begin offering physical education for girls in this academic year, the education ministry announced in July, and the advisory Shura council has opened the door to licensing women s gyms. The kingdom sent two female athletes to the Olympics for the first time in 2012, and four to the 2016 games.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः सऊदी राजा ने महिलाओं के गाड़ी चलाने पर प्रतिबंध हटा दिया-लेकिन अन्य अधिकारों का क्या?


VALLEGRANDE, Bolivia (Reuters) - Thousands gathered on Monday in a small town in southern Bolivia, where the leader of the Cuban revolution Ernesto  Che  Guevara was executed by CIA-backed Bolivian soldiers 50 years earlier.  Bolivia s President Evo Morales, one of few remaining leftist leaders in a region that has shifted to the political right, camped in a sleeping bag and tent and welcomed dignitaries from allies Cuba and Venezuela.  50 years later, the legend of Ernesto Che Guevara lives in the young people, in their unquestionable struggle for equality and liberation,  Morales wrote on Twitter ahead of a scheduled speech. Over the weekend artists, activists, veterans of the Cuban revolution and Guevara s descendants gathered to commemorate the revolutionary hero in Vallegrande, where he was buried in a hidden, unmarked grave in 1967 before his remains were moved to Cuba 30 years later. The Argentine-born doctor met Fidel Castro in Mexico, where they trained and bought guns in preparation for the Cuban revolution before setting sail for the island on Nov. 25, 1956, to start the insurgency that toppled U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista two years later. Guevara rose to become one of the most important men in the rebel force and later in Cuba s revolutionary government, heading the central bank and industry ministry.  He had hoped to replicate the revolution in Congo and then in Bolivia, but his call to arms largely failed and he was surrounded by U.S.-trained soldiers and caught in a ravine near La Higuera on Oct. 8, 1967. The next day he was taken to Vallegrande, 60 km (37 miles) away and Bolivia s then-President Ren  Barrientos ordered his execution, avoiding a trial. Guevara was 39.  His remains were exhumed and reburied in Santa Clara, Cuba, in 1997, when the Cuban Communism he helped build was struggling  to survive after the Soviet Union collapsed. Commemorative ceremonies were held in Santa Clara on Sunday, and Cuba s Vice President Ramiro Vald s joined Morales in Bolivia on Monday.  Guevara remains an anti-imperialist hero to many, especially in Latin America and Africa. In Cuba he is remembered for promoting unpaid voluntary work by toiling shirtless on building sites and hauling sacks of sugar. But in the town of Rosario, Argentina, where he was born, some residents have been collecting signatures to have his statue removed, protesting what they call his violent means to promote communism and lack of human rights in today s Cuba.

Summary: बोलिविया के मोरालेस ने फांसी के 50 साल बाद 'चे' श्रद्धांजलि दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, on Wednesday described as “demoralizing” and “disheartening” the U.S. president’s Twitter attacks on a judge who suspended Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, a spokesman for Gorsuch said. Gorsuch’s comments came as a federal appeals court in San Francisco was expected to decide in coming days on the narrow question of whether U.S. District Judge James Robart acted properly in temporarily halting enforcement of Trump’s ban. A Republican strategist hired by the White House to help guide Gorsuch’s nomination through the U.S. Senate said that Gorsuch, himself an appeals court judge, used those words when he met with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, took to Twitter over the weekend to condemn the Friday night order by Robart that placed on hold the president’s Jan. 27 temporary travel ban on people from the seven countries and all refugees.  Trump called Robart a “so-called judge” whose “ridiculous” opinion “essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country.” Trump’s administration appealed Robart’s ruling to a three-judge federal appeals panel, which heard oral arguments  on Tuesday.  Presidents are usually hesitant to weigh in on judicial matters out of respect for the U.S. Constitution, which ensures a separation of powers among the president’s executive branch, Congress and the judiciary.  The Republican-led Senate on Wednesday confirmed immigration hardliner Republican Senator Jeff Sessions to be the next attorney general despite strong Democratic opposition. Trump says his executive order aims to head off attacks by Islamist militants. The order, the most divisive act of Trump’s young presidency, sparked protests and chaos at U.S. and overseas airports. Critics said the ban unfairly targeted people for their religion. “I don’t ever want to call a court biased,” Trump told hundreds of police chiefs and sheriffs from major cities at a meeting in a Washington hotel on Wednesday. “So I won’t call it biased. And we haven’t had a decision yet. But courts seem to be so political.”  Trump nominated Gorsuch on Jan. 31 to succeed conservative Justice Antonin Scalia on the nine-member Supreme Court. Scalia died a year ago this month.  Blumenthal, a member of the Judiciary Committee that will hold a confirmation hearing on Gorsuch, said the nominee had a responsibility to reassure Americans that he would be an open-minded and independent jurist by going public with his concerns about Trump. The appeals court decision on whether to reinstate the ban, will be just a first step in a fast-moving case. The courts will ultimately have to address questions about the extent of the president’s power on matters of immigration and national security. Traditionally, judges have been extremely cautious about stepping on the executive branch’s authority in such matters, legal experts say, although some note that the implementation of Trump’s order presents unique issues. Trump’s order barred travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except those from civil war-torn Syria, who are subject to an indefinite ban. Also at issue is whether the order violates a provision of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits laws favoring one religion over another, along with relevant discrimination laws.  Trump, a Republican, has made extensive use of presidential directives that bypass Congress and has appeared to be taken aback by legal challenges to his travel order. He praised a federal judge in Boston who earlier ruled in his favor on the travel ban as a “highly respected” jurist whose findings were “perfect.”  Last year, Trump accused Indiana-born U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of bias in overseeing a lawsuit against one of Trump’s businesses, Trump University, because of his Mexican heritage. Democrats and other critics have called Trump’s comments toward the judiciary an attack on a core principle of American democracy: that the courts are independent and uphold the rule of law.  At the meeting with law enforcement officials, Trump read from the law he cited to justify the travel ban, quoting it in fragments and sprinkling in bits of interpretation. He said the law clearly allowed a president to suspend entry of any class of people if he determined them to be a detriment to national security. The matter is likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is ideologically split with four liberal justices and four conservatives pending Senate action on Trump’s nomination of Gorsuch, a conservative jurist. U.S. State Department figures showed that 480 refugees had been admitted to the United States since Robart’s order went into effect, including 168 on Wednesday. Of those admitted, 198 were from war-torn Syria.

Summary: राष्ट्रपति के ट्वीट से ट्रम्प की सुप्रीम कोर्ट की पसंद निराश


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s ruling Communist Party announced a new Central Committee, the largest of its elite ruling bodies, at the closing session of the 19th Communist Party Congress on Tuesday, a course-setting leadership reshuffle held every five years. The list provides clues to who will, or won t, fill top party positions during President Xi Jinping s second term. The party will announce its new Politburo Standing Committee around midday (0400 GMT) on Wednesday. The Standing Committee, which now includes seven members headed by Xi and is the apex of power in China, is selected by the new Central Committee.  Here are noteworthy names: - Wang Qishan, 69, the anti-corruption tsar and current Standing Committee member, is not on the new Central Committee, ending months of speculation whether he would remain for another term and break an unofficial retirement rule of not taking a new position after age 68.  Wang may still get a leadership role outside the Standing Committee, sources told Reuters before the congress. - Zhao Leji, 60, head of the party s Organization Department, which oversees personnel decisions, made both the Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Committee lists, suggesting he may take over Wang Qishan s role as top graft-buster. - Vice President Li Yuanchao, who is on the cusp of retirement at the age of 67, is expected to retire from the 25-member Politburo after he was not included on the 204-member Central Committee. - China s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, 67, could keep his state councilor job or be further promoted to parliament or its advisory body after he made it back to the Central Committee.  If Yang retires, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, 64 this month, and Song Tao, 62, minister of the party s International Liaison Department, are the top contenders for Yang s job. Both Wang and Song are Central Committee members. - Veteran diplomat Liu Jieyi, 59, China s permanent representative to the United Nations, was elected to the Central Committee and is expected to take over as minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office, replacing Zhang Zhijun, who is retiring. - Transport Minister Li Xiaopeng, 58, the oldest son of former premier Li Peng, became a full member of the Central Committee. He was the lowest vote-getter among alternate members of the Central Committee five years ago. - Ten women made it onto the committee, 4.9 percent of the total, basically the same proportion as the previous Central Committee. There were also 16 delegates from ethnic minorities, three of whom are women. - China s top banking regulator Guo Shuqing, veteran banker Jiang Chaoliang and securities regulator Liu Shiyu, the three front runners to succeed Zhou Xiaochuan as central bank governor, were all voted onto the Central Committee. (This version of the story corrects the number of ethnic minority members to 16 from 15 in paragraph 12)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः कौन अंदर है? कौन बाहर है? चीन की कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी की केंद्रीय समिति


CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Democratic White House candidate Bernie Sanders went on the offensive against front-runner Hillary Clinton on Sunday in the most contentious of their four presidential debates, accusing her of cozying up to Wall Street and misrepresenting his stance on healthcare and guns. Reflecting Sanders’ rise in opinion polls, the two battled with new urgency over who was best suited to lead Democrats in the November election. Sanders cast himself as the outsider who would lead a political revolution, while Clinton touted her experience and embraced President Barack Obama’s legacy. In their last televised debate before Iowa’s caucuses launch the nominating race on Feb. 1, Clinton raised questions about the self-styled democratic socialist’s positions on Wall Street reform, healthcare and gun control. Sanders pushed back at every turn. He painted Clinton as a defender of the status quo who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees as a former secretary of state from Wall Street backers. “I don’t take money from big banks. I don’t get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs,” the U.S. senator from Vermont said, adding, “I have huge doubts when people receive money from Wall Street.” He referred to his rising poll numbers in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he has pulled even or ahead of Clinton, saying he believed he could expand his number of supporters to include more African-American voters. He noted that when his presidential campaign began, Clinton was 50 percentage points ahead of him in the polls. “Guess what: In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is (now) very, very close,” Sanders said. The debate followed a week of rising tension between the two leading candidates. Sanders was noticeably more animated that in previous debates, sometimes grimacing and shaking his head during Clinton’s answers. Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who lags badly in polls, was often a bystander although he joined Sanders in criticizing Clinton’s Wall Street ties. Clinton said she would build on Obama’s agenda, accusing Sanders of voting to deregulate the financial market in 2000 in a way that led to the central causes of the financial collapse of 2008 that pitched the U.S. economy into a deep recession. Clinton tried to undercut Sanders’ support among supporters of Obama, who remains a popular figure in the Democratic Party. “He’s criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street. And President Obama has led our country out of the Great Recession,” she said.  “Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing, he even in 2011 publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama.” Clinton pounced on Sanders’ “Medicare-for-all” plan that was announced just hours before the debate after Clinton had criticized Sanders for refusing to explain how he would pay for the proposal. The former secretary of state, former U.S. senator and wife of former President Bill Clinton said Sanders’ healthcare plan would undermine Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act at a time when Republican legislators were still trying to repeal and replace it. “I have to say I’m not sure whether we’re talking about the plan you introduced tonight or the plan you introduced nine times over 20 years,” she told Sanders. “But the fact is we have the Affordable Care Act. ... We have already seen 19 million Americans get insurance.” Sanders said he wanted to build on the Obama law by making health insurance more affordable. “Nobody is tearing this up,” he said, referring to the program popularly known as Obamacare. “We’re moving forward.” The debate was held across the street from the Charleston church where a white gunman killed nine black worshippers in June, and Clinton made reference to the incident while accusing Sanders of being weak on gun control. She welcomed his decision on Saturday night to back a bill in Congress rescinding portions of a law giving gunmakers immunity from lawsuits, but said his record showed a more lenient attitude toward the demands of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby. Sanders defended himself, saying he has a strong record on trying to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands and standing up to the NRA. Sanders supporters watching in Manchester, New Hampshire, said he seemed more engaged than in past debates. “I thought that Bernie was much more prepared,” Chris Haigh, 66, said. Sanders has pulled into a statistical tie with Clinton in recent polls in Iowa, whose caucuses are the first contest in the race to pick a nominee for the November election. He also leads Clinton in the next state to vote, Vermont neighbor New Hampshire, on Feb. 9, according to polls. After those two states, the race moves to Nevada and South Carolina, which have more diverse voting populations and where polls show Clinton leading. On March 1, or “Super Tuesday”, voters in 11 states, many of them in the South where Clinton has big poll leads, will cast primary ballots.  (Additional reporting by Alana Wise and Luciana Lopez; Writing by Steve Holland and John Whitesides; Editing by Mary Milliken and Jonathan Oatis) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: विवादास्पद डेमोक्रेटिक बहस में सैंडर्स ने क्लिंटन पर कसा तंज


LONDON (Reuters) - The British government expects to bring a budget for Northern Ireland before parliament at Westminster in mid-November, after the region s largest parties failed to reach agreement on forming a government, the Northern Ireland minister said on Thursday.   I would expect the budget bill to be considered in this House shortly after the November recess,  which ends on Nov. 13, James Brokenshire told parliament on Thursday.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की संसद नवंबर के मध्य में उत्तरी आयरलैंड के बजट पर विचार करेगी


DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte thanked Moscow on Friday for its  timely assistance  in defeating pro-Islamic State militants who took over a southern city for months, expressing his willingness to buy Russian weapons. Duterte last month declared the liberation of Marawi City from Islamist militants after 154 days of fighting, which killed more than 1,100 people, including 165 soldiers, and displaced nearly 400,000 residents.   I want to build a strong armed forces and a strong police and the reason is very important for you to know that we are eyeing - we are buying arms from Russia this time,  Duterte told Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. The Philippines was to buy more than 20,000 assault rifles from the United States, but some senators, concerned with Duterte s human rights record and rising killings, blocked that sale. But China and Russia, whose relations with the Philippines have vastly improved in recent months, donated a total of 11,000 assault rifles and trucks.  Your timely assistance to my country helped us replenish the old arms and the spent bores that were fired repeatedly and we have a new stock,  he said, in transcripts sent to Manila by the presidential communications office. Manila and Moscow signed a military deal on logistics, including a contract with a state-owned company for the supply of equipment, during the first-ever visit by a Russian defense minister to the Philippines last month.  The Philippines will have a 125 billion pesos ($2.44 billion) fund to modernize the military from 2018 to 2022 through a multi-year congressional allocation to upgrade its hardware, a senior military official told Reuters.  We are looking at helicopters, small arms and equipment for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, but we are still discussing the specifics,  said the same military official who declined to be named because he was not authorized to talk to the press.  We still prefer U.S. and Western equipment but they are very expensive. If the Russians and Chinese equipment can be comparable in quality, then they can be excellent alternatives.

Summary: दुतेर्ते ने पुतिन से कहा, हम रूस, फिलीपींस से हथियार खरीदेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he does not have to win the New Hampshire primary vote on Tuesday to secure the nomination, apparently tamping down expectations despite holding a double-digit lead in that state’s polls.     The billionaire businessman came in second to Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses last week, although polls put him ahead. His candidacy has alarmed the Republican establishment and has been marked by rows, including over his calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. No Republican has won the presidential nomination without winning either the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary since the 1970s, but it would not technically be impossible.  Asked whether a loss in New Hampshire would derail his campaign, Trump told the NBC News show “Meet the Press”: “I don’t think I need it. I hope that I get it.”  “I would like to win but I don’t know that it is necessary.”    Recent opinion polls give him a lead of between 10 and 22 percentage points over the next closest contender.  Trump has built his campaign in part around his self-declared reputation as a “winner,” and a loss in New Hampshire would intensify doubts that he can translate opinion poll support into votes. He also told “Meet the Press” that he has spent as much as $50 million less than expected on the campaign so far, in part because the media provides him so much free publicity. “People like you put me on. What do I take a commercial for?” Trump told the show’s moderator, Chuck Todd. (This story has been refiled to restore dropped word “in” in 2nd paragraph; restores quotation marks to “Meet the Press” in paragraphs 4 and 8)  (Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Louise Ireland) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: नामांकन हासिल करने के लिए न्यू हैम्पशायर की जीत जरूरी नहीं हैः ट्रम्प