JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a leading contender to become head of the ruling ANC in December, has named science and technology minister Naledi Pandor as his running mate, local media reported on Sunday. The race to replace President Jacob Zuma at the helm of the African National Congress is heating up amid mounting allegations of graft against Zuma, who consistently denies wrongdoing. His successor will be the ANC s presidential candidate in 2019, when Zuma will step down as head of state. Ramaphosa has been under pressure to pick a female running mate as gender equality is a key ANC policy goal and his main challenger is Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a veteran politician, former African Union head and Zuma s ex-wife. Eyewitness News and the Mail & Guardian newspaper reported on their websites that Ramaphosa made the announcement that Pandor would be the ANC deputy presidential candidate on his ticket during a rally in the northern province of Limpopo.        It s a smart move. Pandor s smart and she does not appear tainted by any corruption allegation nor is she close to either the Zuma or Ramaphosa camps. And as a woman, she ticks a number of boxes that make a lot of sense,  said Gary van Staden, a political analyst with NKC African Economics.   Pandor is an articulate technocrat with a professorial manner who has also done a stint as education minister. Her spokesman could not immediately confirm the reports and said Pandor was traveling to Jordan for a science conference.  Ramaphosa s camp could not immediately be reached for comment.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका की रामफोसा ने एएनसी की दौड़ में महिला विज्ञान मंत्री को डिप्टी के रूप में चुनाः मीडिया


LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May s spokesman refused on Thursday to comment on a newspaper report that a British jihadi who recruited for the Islamic State militant group has been killed in Syria by a U.S. drone.   I ve seen the reports, I don t have any comments to make in relation to this specific case,  the spokesman said. He repeated government advice warning against all travel to Syria. Sally Jones was killed along with her 12-year-old son, The Sun newspaper reported.

Summary: ब्रिटेन ने 'श्वेत विधवा' जिहादी की कथित मौत पर टिप्पणी करने से किया इनकार


PRETORIA (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma has asked the High Court to reject a call by an anti-corruption watchdog for an official inquiry into alleged influence-peddling in his government. A report a year ago by South Africa s anti-graft agency known as Public Protector recommended a judicial probe be held to look into allegations of systemic corruption by Zuma, some of his ministers and heads of state-owned companies. The report focused on allegations that Zuma s friends, businessman brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, had influenced the appointment of ministers. The 75-year-old Zuma, whose rule has long been dogged by scandal, and the Gupta brothers have denied the accusations. The president, who previously described the  State of Capture  report as  unfair  in parliament, wants the court to send it back to the watchdog for further investigations. He questioned the right of the report s author, Public Protector former head Thuli Madonsela, to call for a judicial inquiry. The report, whose public release Zuma had sought to block through the courts, called for an inquiry be set up by the president and for a judge to be appointed within 30 days of its release.  Is she competent to then direct the president to hold a commission on inquiry? With respect to this submission, she s not,  Zuma s lawyer Ishmael Semenya told the court, referring to Madonsela. The hearing is expected to continue until Thursday and a ruling is expected at a later date. Zuma this year faced a series of corruption allegations, most recently over leaked emails that suggest the Gupta brothers may have used their influence to secure state contracts for their companies. Zuma and the Gupta brothers have denied these allegations. Separately, Zuma is facing the possibility of more court charges. The Supreme Court this month upheld a High Court ruling to reinstate 783 corruption charges filed against him before he became president in 2009. The National Prosecuting Authority is expected to make a decision on whether to charge Zuma.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका के जुमा ने अदालत से प्रभाव डालने की जांच के आह्वान को खारिज करने को कहा


HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - The city council of Allentown, Pennsylvania, voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve a resolution expressing “no confidence” in Mayor Ed Pawlowski and urging him to resign as an FBI corruption investigation swirls around city hall. The move followed guilty pleas by three members of Pawlowski’s administration to federal charges stemming from what prosecutors say was a pay-to-play scheme benefiting the mayor, who has held the top job in Pennsylvania’s third-largest city for 10 years. However, the vote by all seven members of the Allentown City Council is non-binding, meaning that they cannot force Pawlowski from office. “No, he doesn’t have to resign,” City Councilman Julio Guridy said before the meeting. “He can stay there until they arrest him.” Pawlowski did not attend the meeting but a spokesman has previously said he did not intend to resign.  “It is disappointing that the City Council has chosen to be politically opportunistic rather than do the job they have been elected to do,” Pawlowski’s attorney, Mark Schamel, said in a statement issued after the vote. “The mayor has not been charged with anything. It is a political stunt.” Schamel said Pawlowski remained committed to serving the city as mayor and urged the public to be patient with the judicial process. Removing an elected official in Pennsylvania is relatively difficult unless that official is convicted of a serious crime. Only the state legislature can remove a mayor through impeachment. Allentown residents spoke on both sides of the issue. “Crime is down everywhere in Allentown except in one place, city hall, where we are,” businessman Chris Cocca said, calling the resolution “the right thing to do.” Antiques dealer Paul Fuhrman said the council was making a mistake: “This is some kind of vendetta.” Dale Wiles, a former assistant city solicitor, pleaded guilty in December to withholding documents from the FBI. Gary Strathearn, the former finance director, and Mary Ellen Koval, the former city controller, pleaded guilty this month to fraud charges. All three are awaiting sentencing. Court papers identify the purported master of the scheme as “Public Official #3.” The city council resolution says Pawlowski is the only city official who fits the description. Pawlowski needed campaign funds in 2014 for an abortive run for governor, and in 2015 for an announced bid for the U.S. Senate that ended when the FBI raided city hall on July 2, 2015.

Summary: भ्रष्टाचार की जांच के बीच पेंसिल्वेनिया के खिलाफ अविश्वास प्रस्ताव को मंजूरी


PARIS (Reuters) - Far-left trade unionists marched through cities across France on Thursday in a second day of protest against President Emmanuel Macron s overhaul of a labor code long cherished by workers, although their numbers were lower than a week earlier. In Paris, protesters lit flares and carried banners reading  Withdraw All Decrees , a call for Macron to drop the measures, which will give companies more power to set working conditions. The protests challenge the president s ability to push through reforms that are being closely watched in European capitals   Berlin in particular. But they are also a test of union strength at a time their influence appears on the decline.      The head of the CGT union spearheading the street protests said public anger was mounting and warned workers the  corporate bosses  would triumph if trade unions failed to pull together.   When the union movement and workers are divided, it is generally speaking the corporate bosses who win,  CGT chief Philippe Martinez said. The moderate CFDT union, France s biggest, and the leftist Force Ouvriere (FO) have expressed disappointment with Macron, who was elected in May pledging reforms to reboot the economy and cut unemployment, but refused to join the CGT protests.  Some 132,000 people took part in protests across France on Thursday, the Interior Ministry estimated, down from 223,000 at similar rallies last week.  Police said the number of protesters in Paris was a third lower, at about 16,000 protesters, though the CGT put the turnout at 55,000. Macron says he will not bow to street pressure.  The centrist government is due to enact the labor reforms on Friday before embarking on other, potentially more explosive changes. Those include a revamping of France s employment insurance and pension systems. Macron angered workers and leftist opponents when he recently said he would not cede ground to  slackers . Rivals were swift to paint the president as a champion of the wealthy and big business.  He wants to rally behind him influential people, rich people, those that have and consider the rest of us to be a confused mass of savages,  Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the hard-left  France Unbowed  party, told reporters before joining the protest in Paris. The ability of the unions to shut down swathes of the economy and force ministers to respond is not what it was. Strikes have become less frequent, less disruptive and less successful.  Companies in France lost 81 days to strikes per 1,000 workers in 2014, compared with more than 300 days in the late 1990s and over a thousand days in the late 1980s.    While the fight against labor reform may be lost, unions plan more protests against the 39-year-old leader s reform drive. Truck drivers will strike on Monday before a rally by pensioners on Sept. 28. Civil servants will take to the streets on Oct. 10. Melenchon will lead his party s own protest on Sept. 23. Macron, whose popularity has fallen sharply since the election, says he has a mandate to re-shape the economy.  The next weeks will be critical to determine how much political capital Macron will lose during the protests,  said London-based think-tank Eurointelligence.

Summary: फ्रांसीसी श्रम सुधार के खिलाफ संघ का विरोध प्रदर्शन थम रहा है


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla./GOLDEN, Colo. (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton on Saturday challenged FBI Director James Comey to provide a fuller explanation of investigative steps he is taking related to her use of a private email server, as the Democratic presidential candidate accused him of “deeply troubling” behavior 10 days before the U.S. elections. Speaking to volunteers in Daytona Beach, Florida, Clinton said: “Some of you may have heard about a letter the FBI director sent” on Friday to the U.S. Congress informing it that the agency is again reviewing emails. Comey had decided in July that the FBI was not going to seek prosecution of Clinton for her handling of classified materials on a private email server while she was secretary of state. “It is pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election,” Clinton said, adding, “It’s not just strange, it’s unprecedented and it’s deeply troubling because voters deserve to get full and complete facts.” She urged Comey to “put it all out on the table.” In tandem with Clinton, fellow Democrats on Saturday also worked to pressure Comey to provide details on a controversy that dominated the presidential campaigns on Saturday, less than two weeks before the Nov. 8 elections. Four U.S. senators - Patrick Leahy, the longest-serving Senate Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, Thomas Carper and Benjamin Cardin - wrote Comey and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking that they provide by Monday more detailed information about investigative steps underway. At a press conference in Columbus, Ohio, the Congressional Black Caucus, comprised of about 45 members of the House of Representatives, nearly all Democrats, also urged Comey to be more forthcoming. Sources close to the investigation on Friday said the latest emails were discovered as part of a separate probe into Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner, a former Democratic U.S. congressman from New York, is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages he is alleged to have sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pounded away at the new FBI development, devoting a large part of a campaign speech in Golden, Colorado, to attacking Clinton and arguing that she is not to be trusted with the presidency. “Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful,” Trump said, standing in front of hay bales stacked in a horse barn. “Hillary set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding her illegal actions from public disclosure and exposure.” Comey, however, has not provided any details on whether the emails now under review are being seen for the first time by the FBI or the nature of their contents. Clinton’s campaign team tried to downplay the new review. “There’s no evidence of wrongdoing, no charge of wrongdoing,” said John Podesta, who heads the Clinton campaign, referring to the FBI’s latest announcement that it was taking “appropriate investigative steps” after learning of emails “that appear to be pertinent” to the earlier Clinton email probe. In some of his toughest language on Saturday, Podesta portrayed Comey’s letter to Congress as “light on facts, heavy on innuendo.” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, trying to tamp down speculation of a voter backlash this late in the campaign, said Americans had already “factored” what they knew about the email investigation into how they would cast their ballots. “We don’t see it changing the landscape” for undecided voters, Mook said. Clinton aides also said this latest controversy has further energized her supporters. Clinton did a campaign swing through Florida as she and Trump were thought to be in a tight race in a state famous for its role in close presidential elections. Many analysts believe this battleground state is essential for Trump to win in order to have any chance of being elected. In recent weeks, Trump has been running behind Clinton in most public opinion polls. Singer and actor Jennifer Lopez was scheduled to headline a free concert in Miami on Saturday for Clinton supporters. The Clinton campaign hopes that “J.Lo,” as she is known by fans, will provide celebrity star power and help Clinton connect with young voters who earlier this year flocked to Democratic primary challenger Bernie Sanders. Justice Department officials, according to a source who asked not to be identified, were opposed to the FBI director’s letter being sent to Congress and believe his actions conflict with a Justice Department memo outlining instructions that agencies should not to act in ways that could influence elections. While Lynch did not discuss the matter directly with Comey, the source said aides were in touch with each other. Comey let it be known he felt he had to send the letter as a follow-up to his congressional testimony earlier this year regarding the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s emails, the source said. During his speech in Golden, before flying to Arizona to campaign, Trump accused the Obama administration’s Justice Department of trying to protect Clinton from prosecution. “The attorney general didn’t want anything to happen to Hillary. I wonder why. It’s very sad. Folks, we’re living in a third world country,” Trump said.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने नवीनतम ईमेल फ्लैप में एफ. बी. आई. निदेशक का सामना किया


BOGOTA/CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday pays homage to the social justice legacy of one of his role models, Saint Peter Claver, who ministered to slaves in Colombia in the 1600s, defying Spanish colonial masters who treated them as chattel. Francis wraps up his five-day trip with a stop in Cartagena, the walled Caribbean port city that was a gateway for the slave trade in the New World. There, he is expected to hammer home his message that Colombia needs to address social inequality as it struggles to nurture a fledgling peace process to end a 50-year civil war. The Spanish-born Claver, who died in 1654, is revered throughout Latin America, particularly by fellow Jesuits like Francis, for his groundbreaking work with the era s poor and marginalized. Claver begged his Jesuit superiors in Spain to send him to   Cartagena so he could minister to the victims of the brutal trans-Atlantic slave trade, where African captives were bought and sold in colonial Cartagena s cobblestone streets. He boarded slave ships that arrived with their human cargo, distributing food on board and later ministering to the sick and dying in huts along the beach. Francis, who has made defense of the poor and downtrodden a major plank of his papacy, was greatly influenced by Claver s story from the days when he was a young Jesuit seminarian in his native Buenos Aires.   There are a lot of similarities that resonate with Pope Francis and this young, Latino Jesuit who has this transformative encounter with the poor,  said Father Sean Salai, a Jesuit priest and author of a book about the saints who influenced Francis. Through their encounter with the poor, both men moved  into more of a direct relationship with God s people,  Salai said in a phone interview from his base in San Antonio, Texas.  In a letter he called himself the  slave of the slaves forever,  and this encounter with the poor transformed him, much like Pope Francis, who gave up on the idea of doing a doctorate in theology to be closer to the people,  Salai said. While Cartagena s colonial historic district is Colombia s top tourist destination, the city, like much of the country, has deep socioeconomic and racial divisions. Poor Afro-Colombian street vendors sell coral and pearl jewelry, coconut milk and tropical fruits to tourists on the steps of the church named after Claver and where his remains are kept behind glass in the altar. Francis will pray before the remains, bless participants in two charity programs and visit a home where today s Jesuits help some 300 members of the city s poor Afro-Colombian community.  I came to receive the pope s blessing, to hear him,  said Liney Galindo, 32, from northern Barranquilla.  May God enlighten him to bring a message of forgiveness, reconciliation, and wisdom to us.      Francis also will meet homeless people and young girls in a Church program to prevent child prostitution in a city where young people are often victims of sex tourism and exploited by well-off locals and foreigners. Cartagena s archbishop, Jorge Jimenez, hopes the pope s presence will boost the programs.  We need to be able to expand, because here those problems are really big,  Jimenez said in an interview.

Summary: कार्टाजेना की यात्रा पर, पोप 'दासों के गुलाम' आदर्श को सम्मानित करेंगे


(Reuters) - A South Carolina bill to require transgender people to use public restrooms matching their sex at birth was slammed by critics on Wednesday, and former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr said he would cancel a performance in North Carolina where a similar law has been passed.  “We need to take a stand against this hatred,” Starr said in a statement. “Spread peace and love.” He said he was canceling a June performance in Cary, North Carolina, to protest that state’s law. Rocker Bruce Springsteen has also scrapped a concert in the state. So-called “bathroom bills” have fueled debate about privacy, religious freedom and equal rights and drawn stern reactions from major corporations and entertainers who call them discriminatory. Most of the speakers at a subcommittee hearing in Columbia, South Carolina, on Wednesday said the bathroom measure proposed there defied logic. “This bill is an undisguised attack on some of our most talented and most vulnerable citizens,” Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said, adding it would cause irreparable economic damage. Supporters said opening restrooms and locker rooms to the opposite gender in schools would violate students’ right to privacy.  Republican Senator Lee Bright, who sponsored the measure, said he feared adult men would use more lenient bathroom policies as an excuse to prey on women and children. “I don’t believe that transgender people are pedophiles,” he added. U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles told lawmakers he was unaware of any assaults by transgender people or people pretending to be the opposite sex in South Carolina bathrooms. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, has said the proposed law was unnecessary and unlikely to win legislative approval this year. North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McCrory on Tuesday tweaked his state’s law with an executive order, adding protections against discrimination for state employees based on sexual orientation and gender identity. But McCrory and top Republican lawmakers said they would not repeal the measure, despite companies such as PayPal Holdings and Deutsche Bank halting plans to add jobs in the state. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, on Wednesday signed an anti-discrimination order protecting the rights of gay and transgender state employees and employees of state contractors. Edwards said the order was good for business.

Summary: आलोचकों ने प्रस्तावित दक्षिण कैरोलिना ट्रांसजेंडर बाथरूम बिल की आलोचना की


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired tear gas at opposition leader Raila Odinga s car, a Reuters witness said.  Earlier, police and supporters of Odinga had fought running battles on Friday along the main road to Nairobi s international airport before Odinga landed from an overseas trip.

Summary: केन्याई पुलिस ने विपक्षी नेता की कार पर आंसू गैस छोड़ीः रॉयटर्स गवाह


MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday called on Catalonia regional leaders to cancel a planned referendum on splitting from Spain because it goes against the country s laws.  Don t go ahead. Go back to the law and democracy. This referendum is a chimera,  Rajoy said in a televised speech.

Summary: स्पेन के राजोय ने कैटेलोनिया के नेताओं से जनमत संग्रह रद्द करने का आह्वान किया


TOKYO/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is not ruling out the eventual possibility of direct talks with North Korea, Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan said on Tuesday, hours after Pyongyang warned nuclear war might break out at any moment. Talks between the adversaries have long been urged by China in particular, but Washington and its ally Japan have been reluctant to sit down at the table while Pyongyang continues to pursue a goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States.  Eventually, we don t rule out the possibility of course of direct talks,  Sullivan said in Tokyo after talks with his Japanese counterpart.   Our focus is on diplomacy to solve this problem that is presented by the DPRK. We must, however, with our allies, Japan and South Korea and elsewhere, be prepared for the worst, should diplomacy fail,  he said. DPRK stands for North Korea s official name, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert highlighted U.S. diplomatic efforts by Sullivan and others to pressure North Korea to give up its weapons programmes by  encouraging implementation of international sanctions. Nauert told a regular briefing that sanctions were choking off money supply to North Korea and it was feeling the effect,  but even so Pyongyang was  not showing that they are anywhere near desiring to have talks.   We hope that this diplomatic approach will be successful in the end,  Nauert said, while adding of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson:  He s got to be the most optimistic guy in the U.S. government.  Tension has soared following a series of weapons tests by North Korea and a string of increasingly bellicose exchanges between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Leaflets, apparently from North Korea, calling Trump a  mad dog  and depicting gruesome images of him have turned up across central Seoul, adding an unusually personal element to North Korean propaganda.  The situation on the Korean peninsula where the attention of the whole world is focused has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment,  North Korea s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Kim In Ryong told a U.N. General Assembly committee on Monday.  As long as one does not take part in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK (North Korea), we have no intention to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against any other country,  according to Kim s prepared remarks for the discussion on nuclear weapons. Kim did not read that section out loud. South Korea and the United States began week-long joint naval drills in the waters around the Korean peninsula on Monday, involving about 40 ships from both militaries, including the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, South Korea s defense ministry said. North Korean state media said on Tuesday the allies   desperate efforts  to block North Korea s advance only showed  it should continue its nuclear program  to the last.    The DPRK has been fully ready for all the U.S. is resorting to, including sanctions, pressure and military option, as it has the tremendous nuclear force for self-defence and irresistible strength of self-reliance and self-development,  the official KCNA news agency said in a commentary. Asked about the North Korean envoy s warning of nuclear war, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said it would not be in anyone s interest.  China still hopes that all parties, in this situation where things on the Korean peninsula are highly complex and sensitive, can exercise restraint and do more to benefit the lowering of tensions in the region,  Lu told a daily news briefing. The U.N. Security Council has ratcheted up sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes since 2006.  The most recent U.N. sanctions banned exports of coal, iron ore and seafood, aimed at cutting off a third of the North s total annual exports of $3 billion. Experts say North Korea has been scrambling to find alternative sources of hard currency to keep its economy afloat and advance its weapons program.  On Monday, the head of cyber-intelligence at BAE Systems Plc (BAES.L) said North Korea s Lazarus hacking group was probably responsible for a recent cyber heist in Taiwan. Taiwan s Central News Agency said last week that hackers had sought to steal some $60 million from the Far Eastern Bank, but it had recovered all but $500,000. BAE Systems and others have previously linked Lazarus to an $81-million cyber heist at Bangladesh s central bank last year. North Korea has recently allowed citizens as young as 12 to bet on horse races for the first time as the country scrambles to unearth new sources of hard currency amid intensifying international sanctions.  Punters had previously risked three years  hard labor for gambling in the tightly controlled state, but the growing importance of private markets means more people have money to spend on leisure, experts said. Lee Sang-keun, a researcher at the Institute of Unification Studies at Seoul s Ewha Womans University, said wealthy North Koreans had to pay for such activities with Chinese or U.S. currency.   Many North Koreans make lots of money from the market, dine at hamburger restaurants and go shopping, all of which help fatten regime coffers. That s part of the reason why the regime still has some financial latitude, despite international sanctions,  Lee said.

Summary: अमेरिकी अधिकारी का कहना है कि उत्तर कोरिया के साथ अंतिम सीधी वार्ता से इनकार नहीं किया जा सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama wants to boost U.S. aid to Colombia to help remove landmines and implement the government’s peace accord with a leftist rebel group, the White House said on Tuesday. Obama would discuss the plan with Colombian President Juan Manual Santos during a White House visit on Thursday, and invite U.S. lawmakers to participate in two events aimed at showing support for the potential deal that would end Latin America’s longest war. The fight between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions more since it began in 1964. Three previous attempts at a peace accord failed. After almost four years of talks, an elusive peace deal may finally be in sight, said Bernard Aronson, the U.S. envoy to the negotiations. “I think there’s a real prospect for success and signing of a peace accord this year, hopefully within the first half of this year,” Aronson told reporters on a conference call. Under the deal, FARC rebels would disarm, and the government would need to expand health and education services into areas of the country that had been controlled by the group - two areas where expanded U.S. financial aid could help, said Mark Feierstein, a senior director at the White House National Security Council. “One of the biggest challenges will be to demobilize the FARC and ensure their reintegration into society as constructive members,” Feierstein said. Feierstein declined to comment on how much additional aid Obama would propose. The United States has long been a donor to Colombia, providing almost $10 billion in aid between 2000 and 2015 through a program called Plan Colombia, according to the Congressional Research Service. Colombia’s government on Tuesday warned the country’s second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), that time is running out to begin peace negotiations to end five decades of war. Any ELN talks would be independent of those with the FARC. On Thursday, Santos meets with Vice President Joe Biden and a group of U.S. senators at Biden’s residence to talk about the peace process and the future of U.S. support for Colombia, before later meeting Obama in the Oval Office. Obama and Santos were also expected to discuss ways the two countries can work together to fight the Zika virus, Feierstein said.

Summary: ओबामा शांति समझौते में मदद के लिए कोलंबिया के सैंटोस को अमेरिकी सहायता की पेशकश करेंगे


MUNICH (Reuters) - A spokesman for Bavaria s Christian Social Union (CSU) denied a German media report on Thursday that Horst Seehofer is to stand down as state premier and hand over to rival Markus Soeder, but stay on as head of the Christian Social Union (CSU). Broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk, citing no sources, had reported the move. A shakeup has been widely expected as senior CSU members meet on Thursday. But a spokesman for the CSU said the media report was  absolutely wrong . Any changes, which would come as Germany struggles to find a way out of a political crisis caused by the collapse of coalition talks on Sunday night, could end a longstanding power struggle within the CSU, sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU).

Summary: जर्मनी के सी. एस. यू. ने सीहोफर के बवेरिया के प्रधानमंत्री पद छोड़ने की खबर का खंडन किया


TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia s navy rescued almost 100 migrants from a sinking boat off its southeast coast late on Monday, authorities said, hours after eight people being smuggled to Europe drowned in the same stretch of water. The incidents coincided with the launch of joint patrols by the Tunisian and Italian navies to stem migrant flows and carry out search and rescue operations in the area, the Tunisian Defense Ministry said. Tunisia s coast has become the launch pad of choice for traffickers transporting migrants from North Africa across the Mediterranean. Wooden boats packed with migrants, their numbers often swelled by young Tunisians seeking work in Europe, have started landing on secluded Sicilian beaches, often in broad daylight. Activity via Libya, until recently the busiest country of departure on that route, has declined since July as its coast guard and an armed group in the smuggling hub of Sabratha tightened controls. The Tunisian Interior Ministry said late on Monday the coast guard pulled 98 Tunisians, including three children, from the sinking vessel near the island of Kerkennah. Earlier on Monday at least eight people drowned nearby when another boat carrying dozens of migrants collided with a Tunisian navy vessel. Tunisia has won plaudits from abroad for its transition to democracy since 2011, when an uprising toppled autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. But unemployment remains high, especially among the country s youth.

Summary: ट्यूनीशियाई नौसेना ने 100 प्रवासियों को बचाया, आठ लोगों के डूबने के कुछ घंटों बाद


PARIS (Reuters) - Emmanuel Macron, who at the age of 39 has brought youth and vigor to the French presidency, is also developing a reputation for stinging and sometimes off-message language.  During a visit to a struggling company in the south-west of France on Wednesday, Macron was caught on video discussing clashes outside between the police and workers protesting his economic policies.  Instead of kicking up a bloody mess, some of them would be better off going to see if they can get a job over there,  he said, referring to a nearby aluminum factory battling to find workers.  Some of them have got the qualifications to do it,  he said, adding:  It s not that far for them to go.  The comments lit up TV channels and Twitter, where they were relished by the far-left and far-right, who are keen to cast Macron, a former investment banker, as out of touch with the common man and a president for the rich.  Florian Philippot, until recently the number two in the far-right National Front party, described Macron as having  contempt  for France s lower-income workers. A similar accusation was leveled by Clementine Autain, a lawmaker from the far-left France Unbowed party.   It shows a great class contempt,  she said.  He can t stop coming out with unfair comments targeting the masses.   Macron s new spokesman, former journalist Bruno Roger-Petit, was quick to post the full video of Macron s exchange on Twitter, saying some outlets and opponents were circulating extracts that made the president sound worse than was the case.  Truncated and taken out of context,  he said of snippets on social media.  Emmanuel Macron was underlining that the search for solutions on jobs is everyone s responsibility.  It is not the first time Macron has sparked controversy with his language and then shown little sign of contrition.  While his often erudite speeches are laced with literary references that show off his elite education, he has a tendency to use dismissive words in off-the-cuff comments that critics say make him sound arrogant. Last month, as he was finalizing changes to France s labor rules to make hiring and firing easier, he said he would not bow to  slackers  who resist reform. In July, visiting a high-tech start-up center in Paris, he talked about  those who succeed and those who are nothing .  And in 2016, when confronted by angry unionists while he was economy minister, Macron was recorded saying:  You don t scare me with your t-shirt. The best way of paying for a suit is to work.  Spikey language has dogged French presidents in the past. Nicolas Sarkozy caused uproar while interior minister in 2005 when he branded youths behind the worst urban violence in France in decades as  scum , a comment that haunted him as president. And Francois Hollande was accused by his former partner of referring to the poor as  toothless , undermining his efforts to portray himself as a friend of the needy.

Summary: मैक्रों की तीखी जीभ ने फ्रांसीसी ट्विटर को उन्माद में डाल दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has lifted her hold on President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, a move that will allow the Senate to vote to confirm Makan Delrahim, a senior Republican aide said on Friday. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, had met with Delrahim early in September where she pressed him about her concerns about lobbying and political interference in antitrust.  Delrahim, a veteran of the Justice Department and a lobbyist, has been nominated to be assistant attorney general. It was not immediately clear when the vote would go forward. The president took an usually long time nominating Delrahim, finally naming him in late March. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved him in June, and sent his nomination to the full Senate. In the interim, the Justice Department Antitrust Division is being run by Andrew Finch, who will become a deputy to Delrahim once he is in place. Warren’s office and Delrahim did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the hold being lifted. Senator Orrin Hatch, a member of the Judiciary Committee and a Utah Republican, has worked with Warren and others to address concerns about Delrahim’s nomination, Hatch’s office said in a statement.  Warren had been concerned about Trump attempting to exert political influence on antitrust decisions. As a candidate, Trump had said he would oppose AT&T Inc’s proposed $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc, owner of CNN and one of the country’s largest film and television companies. Delrahim said in his confirmation hearing in May that on his watch, the division’s merger reviews would be free from any political influence.

Summary: डेमोक्रेटिक सीनेटर ने ट्रम्प के अविश्वास उम्मीदवार-सहायक पर रोक हटाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is at the “top of the pack,” saying the United States has fallen behind in its weapons capacity. In a Reuters interview, Trump also said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea “very easily if they want to,” ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to exert more influence to rein in Pyongyang’s increasingly bellicose actions. Trump also expressed support for the European Union as a governing body, saying “I’m totally in favor of it,” and for the first time as president expressed a preference for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but said he would be satisfied with whatever makes the two sides happy. Trump also predicted his efforts to pressure NATO allies to pay more for their own defense and ease the burden on the U.S. budget would reap dividends. “They owe a lot of money,” he said. In his first comments about the U.S. nuclear arsenal since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity “until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Trump said in the interview he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the United States has “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.” “I am the first one that would like to see ... nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power.  “It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack,” Trump said. Russia has 7,000 warheads and the United States, 6,800, according to the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclear group. “Russia and the United States have far more weapons than is necessary to deter nuclear attack by the other or by another nuclear-armed country,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the independent Arms Control Association non-profit group.  The new strategic arms limitation treaty, known as New START, between the United States and Russia requires that by February 5, 2018, both countries must limit their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons to equal levels for 10 years. The treaty permits both countries to have no more than 800 deployed and non-deployed land-based intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers equipped to carry nuclear weapons, and contains equal limits on other nuclear weapons. Analysts have questioned whether Trump wants to abrogate New START or would begin deploying other warheads. In the interview, Trump called New START “a one-sided deal.” “Just another bad deal that the country made, whether it’s START, whether it’s the Iran deal ... We’re going to start making good deals,” he said. The United States is in the midst of a $1 trillion, 30-year modernization of its aging ballistic missile submarines, bombers and land-based missiles. Trump also complained that the Russian deployment of a ground-based cruise missile is in violation of a 1987 treaty that bans land-based American and Russian intermediate-range missiles. “To me it’s a big deal,” said Trump, who has held out the possibility of warmer U.S. relations with Russia. Asked if he would raise the issue with Putin, Trump said he would do so “if and when we meet.” He said he had no meetings scheduled as of yet with Putin. Speaking from behind his desk in the Oval Office, Trump  expressed concern about North Korea’s ballistic missile tests and said accelerating a missile defense system for U.S. allies Japan and South Korea was among many options available. “There’s talks of a lot more than that,” Trump said, when asked about the missile defense system. “We’ll see what happens. But it’s a very dangerous situation, and China can end it very quickly in my opinion.” China has made clear that it opposes North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and has repeatedly called for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and a return to negotiations between Pyongyang and world powers. But efforts to change Pyongyang’s behavior through sanctions have historically failed, largely because of China’s fear that severe measures could trigger a collapse of the North Korean state and send refugees streaming across their border. Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month in Florida was interrupted by a ballistic missile launch by North Korea. Trump did not completely rule out possibly meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at some point in the future under certain circumstances but suggested it might be too late. “It’s very late. We’re very angry at what he’s done, and frankly this should have been taken care of during the Obama administration,” he said. According to Japanese news reports, the Japanese government plans to start debate over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, and the land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense system to improve its capability to counter North Korean ballistic     missiles. The strength of Trump’s remarks in favor of the EU took some Brussels officials by surprise after his support for Britain’s vote last summer to exit from the EU. “I’m totally in favor of it,” Trump said of the EU. “I think it’s wonderful. If they’re happy, I’m in favor of it.” Statements by him and others in his administration have suggested to Europeans that he sees little value in the Union as such, which Trump last month called a “vehicle for Germany.”

Summary: ट्रम्प यह सुनिश्चित करना चाहते हैं कि अमेरिकी परमाणु शस्त्रागार 'पैक के शीर्ष' पर हो


(Reuters) - The U.S. government spent more than a decade preparing responses to malicious hacking by a foreign power but had no clear strategy when Russia launched a disinformation campaign over the internet during the U.S. election campaign, current and former White House cyber security advisers said. Far more effort has gone into plotting offensive hacking and preparing defenses against the less probable but more dramatic damage from electronic assaults on the power grid, financial system or direct manipulation of voting machines. Over the last several years, U.S. intelligence agencies tracked Russia’s use of coordinated hacking and disinformation in Ukraine and elsewhere, the advisers and intelligence experts said, but there was little sustained, high-level government conversation about the risk of the propaganda coming to the United States. During the presidential election it did - to an extent that may have altered the outcome, the security sources said. But U.S. officials felt limited in investigating Russian-supported propaganda efforts because of free speech guarantees in the Constitution.  A former White House official cautioned that any U.S. government attempt to counter the flow of foreign state-backed disinformation through deterrence would face major political, legal and moral obstacles.   “You would have to have massive surveillance and curtailed freedom and that is a cost we have not been willing to accept,” said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They (Russia) can control distribution of information in ways we don’t.” Clinton Watts, a security consultant, former FBI agent and a fellow at the nonprofit Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the U.S. government no longer has an organization, such as the U.S. Information Agency, that provided counter-narratives during the Cold War. He said that most major Russian disinformation campaigns in the United States and Europe have started at Russian-government funded media outlets, such as RT television or Sputnik News, before being amplified on Twitter by others. Watts said it was urgent for the U.S. government to build the capability to track what is happening online and dispute false stories. “Those two things need to be done immediately,” Watts said. “You have to have a public statement or it leads to conspiracy theories.” A defense spending pill passed this month calls for the State Department to establish a “Global Engagement Center” to take on some of that work, but similar efforts to counter less sophisticated Islamic State narratives have fallen short. The U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against U.S. political organizations in October, a month before the Nov. 8 election. James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who has worked for the departments of State and Commerce and the U.S. military, said Washington needed to move beyond antiquated notions of projecting influence if it hoped to catch up with Russia. “They have RT and all we know how to do is send a carrier battle group,” Lewis said. “We’re going to be stuck until we find a way deal with that.” Watts, who said he has tracked tens of thousands of pro-Russia Twitter handles since 2014, believes many of the most effective stories stoke fear of war or other calamities or promote a narrative of corrupt Western politicians, media and other elites.  He and others said Sputnik shows the intensity of the Russian effort. Launched two years ago as a successor to the official Russian wire service and radio network, Sputnik does not merely parrot the Kremlin political line, according to experts. It has gone out of its way to hire outsiders with social media expertise, including left and right-leaning Americans who are critical of U.S. policies. Sputnik News did not respond to a request for comment. During the election campaign, one of the most prominent fulltime Sputnik writers and commentators, Cassandra Fairbanks, shifted from an ardent anti-police protestor and supporter of socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to a vocal backer of Republican Donald Trump. Fairbanks said in an interview with Reuters that Sputnik had not told her to advocate for Trump, now president-elect. She said she was swayed by Trump’s opposition to overseas wars and international trade agreements. “I did my best to push for him,” Fairbanks said, “but that was of my free will.” A woman in her thirties with more than 80,000 Twitter followers, Fairbanks was an activist with the hacking movement known as Anonymous before she joined Sputnik.    The day before the election, Fairbanks said on a YouTube channel that it was “pretty likely” that the authors of emails hacked from the account of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta were using code words for pedophilia when they spoke about pizza.  The assertion fed the falsehood that Clinton supporters were operating a child sex ring out of a Washington-based pizza parlor. The channel, with 1.8 million subscribers, was run by Alex Jones, a radio host who has said the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job.” Joe Fionda, a veteran of the Occupy protests who worked briefly for Sputnik in 2015, said the organization’s articles and social media efforts overall were aimed at praising Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies such as Syria and dwelling on negative news in the United States, including police misconduct. Some U.S. officials and political analysts have said Putin could believe businessman Trump would be friendlier to Russia than Clinton, especially when it came to economic sanctions. Fionda said spreading hacked emails was a priority at Sputnik. He said his job included trying to create viral memes on a Facebook page called Mutinous Media, which did not list a Sputnik connection. Former workers of the Democratic National Committee, one of the groups infiltrated by Russian-backed hackers, said the U.S. government should consider providing funding for the technological defense of major political parties. They said that once hacked emails began appearing online, party functionaries were constantly behind in responding.  They also said that the staff of Democratic President Barack Obama had been overly concerned about not appearing to defend its own party’s candidate. Obama has asked spy agencies to deliver an analysis of Russian meddling in the election that will include discussion of propaganda operations, Office of the Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Robert Litt told Reuters. Asked on Tuesday whether he thought the U.S. government had been caught off guard, Litt said: “I’m not touching this with an 11-foot pole. It is a very important issue that the intelligence community is looking at very carefully, and it will issue a report in due time.”

Summary: अमेरिकी सरकार रूस के दुष्प्रचार अभियान से हार गईः सलाहकार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House adviser Sebastian Gorka, who was closely aligned with a nationalist faction led by ousted senior strategist Steve Bannon, no longer works for President Donald Trump, the White House said on Friday. “Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House,” a White House official said in a statement. The official did not elaborate, but the statement suggested that Gorka had been fired. Gorka had reportedly feuded with national security adviser General H.R. McMaster and was unhappy with the decision Trump announced this week - backed by McMaster and the U.S. military - to reorient U.S. policy in Afghanistan. Gorka, who frequently appeared on cable news shows to tout Trump’s policies, was a divisive figure within the  administration, seen by veteran intelligence professionals and diplomats as an ideologue with little real-world experience. He is the latest in a string of hawkish or nationalist advisers to leave the National Security Council and other parts of the White House in recent weeks, suggesting that in the battle among Trump’s foreign policy advisers, internationalist voices such as those of McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are prevailing. Earlier, the conservative Federalist news outlet, citing multiple sources familiar with the situation, said Gorka, a counterterrorism expert, had quit. In a letter of resignation, Gorka expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the Trump administration, the Federalist said. “As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House,” Gorka was quoted as saying in the letter.  Trump fired Bannon a week ago in the latest White House shake-up, removing a far-right architect of his 2016 election victory and a driving force behind his nationalist and anti-globalization agenda. “Regrettably, outside of yourself, the individuals who most embodied and represented the policies that will ‘Make America Great Again,’ have been internally countered, systematically removed, or undermined in recent months. This was made patently obvious as I read the text of your speech on Afghanistan this week,” he said in the letter. A U.S. citizen born in Britain with Hungarian parents, Gorka worked as national security editor at Bannon’s Breitbart news website, where he often warned of Islamic terrorism.

Summary: ट्रम्प के सलाहकार और बैनन के सहयोगी गोरका बाहर हैंः व्हाइट हाउस


(Reuters) - The state of Texas won at least a temporary victory on Tuesday in its bid to implement a controversial voter identification law when a federal appeals court stayed a ruling by a U.S. district court judge that barred its enforcement. A three-member panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans voted 2-1 to put the lower court judge’s ruling on hold while it considers the constitutionality of the law, which was passed this year by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. That bill was meant to fix elements of a 2011 voter ID measure that was considered one of the strictest in the United States and subject to years of court challenges during the Obama administration. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on cutting voter fraud, has supported Texas’ bid to require that voters show a form of identification. “The state has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits (of the case)” Judges Jennifer Elrod and Jerry Smith wrote in a six-page ruling.  In a four-page dissenting opinion, Judge James Graves wrote that if the 5th Circuit was going to take up the case, it should have stayed the entire law from taking effect until a final ruling was issued. Lauren Ehrsam, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said in a written statement “We are pleased that the Fifth Circuit has stayed the injunction and allowed Texas to proceed with its duly enacted voter identification laws.” “Preserving the integrity of the ballot is vital to our democracy, and the Fifth Circuit’s order allows Texas to continue to fulfill that duty as this case moves forward,” Ehrsam said. Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa could not be reached for comment on the ruling on Tuesday evening. Hiojosa has previously likened the voter ID requirements to “Jim Crow-era tactics” designed to keep Republican lawmakers in power.Critics say the Texas law and similar statutes enacted in other states were tailored to make it harder for minorities and immigrants, including black and Hispanic voters who are less likely to have the authorized IDs and tend to favor Democrats, to cast ballots. Backers say the laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud and are no more onerous than the requirements imposed by states for driving a motor vehicle.

Summary: अमेरिकी अपील अदालत का कहना है कि टेक्सास मतदाता पहचान पत्र कानून लागू कर सकता है


ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq launched an offensive on Thursday to dislodge Islamic State from Hawija, west of the oil city of Kirkuk and one of two areas of the country still under the control of the militants. The Iraqi Joint Operations Command said the offensive to capture Hawija in northern Iraq  will be swift,  state TV reported.  The action, announced by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, took place four days before a referendum on Kurdish independence due to be held in northern Iraq, including Kirkuk. Abadi says Monday s referendum is against the constitution and has called on the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government to cancel it. Kirkuk is shaping up as a flashpoint ahead of the independence vote as it is also home to Arab and Turkmen communities who oppose breaking away from Iraq. Kurdish Peshmerga forces took control of Kirkuk after the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of Islamic State offensive in 2014, preventing the militants from capturing the oil fields. A U.S.-led international coalition is providing air support to the Iraqi forces  offensive on Hawija, state TV said.  The Iraqi forces, deployed north and west of Hawija district, are pushing southward along the Tigris River and had cleared the first lines of defense by midday, state TV said.  A total of 23 villages were captured from Islamic State, said the operation s commander, Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Yarallah, cited by the TV channel.  We finished the first chapter of the liberation operation,  in Hawija, he said, without indicating the timing of the second chapter.    The United Nations last week said up to 85,000 people could be displaced from the Hawija region. Up to 30,000 children are in extreme danger, Save the Children said on Thursday.   They have already suffered horribly under ISIS rule...food, water and medicine are running out, with many children reportedly weak and malnourished,  the organization said.   It is imperative that all Iraqi and coalition forces open up safe escape routes for people and allow civilians to flee to wherever is safest,  it added. Iraqi forces and Sunni tribal fighters also captured on Thursday the region of Ana, in the Euphrates River valley, as they pushed toward the Syria border, a military statement said.  The offensive on Hawija should not affect the Kurdish plan to hold the referendum in Kirkuk on Monday, a Kurdish official told Reuters.   The Peshmerga hold the frontlines with the Hawija district from the eastern side, near Kirkuk, but are not taking part in the offensive, he said.    Hawija, north of Baghdad, and a stretch of land along the Syrian border, west of the Iraqi capital, are the last pieces of the country still in the hands of Islamic State. The group overran about a third of Iraq in 2014. Islamic State s self-declared caliphate effectively collapsed in July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group s de facto capital in Iraq, after a grueling nine-month battle. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took part in operations against the militants.  Islamic State also controls territory in Syria, along the Iraqi border but it is shrinking fast in the face of a U.S.-backed Kurdish-led coalition and Russian and Iranian-backed forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Summary: इराक ने तेल शहर किर्कुक के पास इस्लामिक स्टेट के कब्जे वाले क्षेत्र हवीजा पर हमला किया


HAVANA (Reuters) - After Hurricane Irma wrought havoc on Havana s decrepit buildings and killed four in building collapses there, city authorities held a rare media briefing to stress they were prioritizing solving the capital s longstanding housing needs. A quarter of buildings in the Cuban city are in  bad or  regular  shape, according to the provincial housing authority, due largely to a punishing tropical climate, lack of adequate maintenance and passage of time.  Some Havana residents complained Irma would not have been as deadly if authorities had addressed their housing needs, a criticism authorities rejected. Euclides Santos, in charge of Havana housing, told a small group of foreign reporters the city had put a strategy in place in 2012 to repair housing as well as provide new homes even if lack of resources made it hard to fulfill its goals. Around 50,000 families in total were in need of new housing, Santos said.  We have delivered 10,000 or so homes so far to people in shelters which means the program is achieving results,  he said on Friday, noting the city had nearly doubled annual spending on construction in that time to around 185 million Cuban pesos, equivalent to some $7.7 million. Some Cubans had been waiting in communal shelters for more than 20 years at the start of the program, said Santos, pointing to the economic crisis Cuba went through after the fall of the Soviet Union. The country has also suffered from the decades-long U.S. trade embargo.  Havana had focused first on providing homes for those Cubans, then for those who had been waiting 15-19 years. Now it was looking to resolve housing needs of those who had been waiting 10-14 years.   There is a strategy to reduce the time families have to spend in these places,  Santos said, adding that around 7,000 people were residing in Havana s 109 shelters.  Families have little privacy in the shelters, where flimsy walls or even washing lines are often used to crudely divide the units. Many Cubans say they would rather risk their lives staying in their crumbling homes than move to one. Others say they would prefer to remain in existing homes in the city center, even though they are falling apart, rather than move to new houses they complain are shoddily built and out of town. The city s aim had been to build 3,000 homes per year, which would have solved 80-90 percent of Havana s housing needs by 2020, Santos said. However, a lack of resources meant it had only managed to build between 2,200 and 2,300 homes per year so far. With shipments of cheap oil from Venezuela reduced and Cuba s exports down, the cash-strapped island nation has had to cut imports over the past two years. Irma added to those woes. While the eye of the hurricane did not reach Havana, tropical-storm force winds and heavy rains of its outer bands, as well as a storm surge, lashed its buildings. Nearly 200 were completely destroyed. Two brothers were killed in densely packed Canter Havana when a wall fell on their flat. Santos said authorities had urged them to evacuate the building which they knew was in bad shape. The actual owner of the flat had already been given a new home and they were squatting there, he said.

Summary: इरमा द्वारा हवाना को तबाह करने के बाद, शहर ने आवास प्रतिस्थापन अभियान पर प्रकाश डाला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House chief of staff John Kelly said on Friday the federal government would stand with Puerto Rico in its recovery efforts until the “job is done,” saying President Donald Trump was just recognizing reality in a tweet earlier in the day that noted the emergency response would not go on forever. “This country, our country, will stand with those American citizens in Puerto Rico until the job is done,” Kelly told reporters at the White House, adding that the president’s tweet on Thursday morning was “exactly accurate.” “They’re not going to be there for ever,” he said, referring to personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. military.

Summary: काम पूरा होने तक प्यूर्टो रिको के साथ खड़ा रहेगा अमेरिकाः व्हाइट हाउस


BERLIN (Reuters) - Leaders of Germany s Social Democrats have voted unanimously to begin exploratory talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives about forming a coalition government, Andreas Nahles, head of the SPD s parliamentary group, said on Friday. Nahles said party leaders would work on substantive issues in the talks, with a party conference in January to determine the way forward. She said the SPD, which suffered its worst post-war election losses in September, planned to enter the talks with an open and constructive attitude with an eye to improving the lives of ordinary Germans.

Summary: जर्मन एस. पी. डी. नेताओं ने रूढ़िवादियों के साथ खोजपूर्ण वार्ता शुरू करने के लिए मतदान किया


BEIJING (Reuters) - A former Chinese justice minister has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party following an investigation by the anti-corruption watchdog, the first time the government has announced that she was in trouble. Wu Aiying, 65, was justice minister from 2005 until February this year, according to her official resume, and one of only a handful of senior female officials in China. In a statement released late on Saturday following a four-day meeting of the party s Central Committee, the largest of its elite ruling bodies, Wu s name was listed as one of a number of officials to have been expelled from the party for graft. While the other names listed, including former Chongqing city party boss, Sun Zhengcai, had been announced earlier, Wu s name had not been mentioned by the party in connection with any investigation. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection found that Wu had  serious discipline problems , the communique said using a euphemism for corruption, but gave no other details. It was not possible to reach Wu or a representative for comment. Wu had spent most her career working in the eastern province of Shandong, where she rose to become a deputy provincial party chief, before moving to Beijing in late 2003 to work at the Justice Ministry. China s legal authorities have been one of the focuses of President Xi Jinping s crackdown on deep-rooted corruption, with powerful former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, and many of his allies and former associates, jailed. It is not clear if Wu had any direct connection with Zhou. The WeChat account of the state-run Beijing News, Political Matters, said that Wu was known to be a no-nonsense straight talker, once shouting at an underling when a mobile phone rang in the middle of a meeting. The announcement about Wu comes a few days before the party opens a key, once-in-five-years Congress on Wednesday, which will see Xi strengthen his power and promote key allies and aides.

Summary: चीन ने भ्रष्टाचार के आरोप में पूर्व न्याय मंत्री को पार्टी से निकाला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal for suspending immigration from parts of the world with a history of terrorism could have a legal basis, but his assertion that it be part of a broader ban on Muslim immigrants makes it constitutionally untenable, legal scholars say. The new twist in Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric came in the aftermath of a weekend shooting massacre at a Florida nightclub by the American-born son of Afghan immigrants. In a fiery speech on Monday, he expanded on his proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, vowing if elected to halt immigration from any area of the world where there is a “proven history of terrorism” against America or its allies. He also accused the Muslim-American community of broad complicity in attacks such as the Orlando shooting, which was carried out by a gunman pledging allegiance to Islamic State, and threatened “big consequences” for those who fail to inform on their neighbors. Many legal experts said Trump’s proposal for a religion-based ban would be unlikely to pass the test of U.S. constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, due process and equal protection and would likely be struck down by the courts if he tried to implement them by presidential decree. However, a ban on immigrants from certain countries has some precedent and might pass muster.  Some see that new proposal as reminiscent of the congressional Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was used for years to halt the influx of Chinese laborers and has been widely considered a black mark on America’s immigration record. But Trump’s overall immigration plan would go beyond that, targeting not just a country or a region of the world but also a religion, something that no modern U.S. president has done.  “This is an absurd proposal to build a Fortress America and pull up the drawbridges,” said John Bellinger, former legal adviser to the Bush administration. President Barack Obama took a veiled swipe at Trump on Tuesday, saying such ideas represented a “dangerous” mindset. But U.S. presidents have wide latitude on immigration matters, and some conservative scholars said that the fate of any proposed ban would hinge on how narrowly Trump framed it. They note, for instance, that Democratic President Jimmy Carter barred Iranian nationals from entering the United States during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. “If a Trump administration cut off immigration from certain countries, rather than certain religions, it would not violate the Constitution,” said John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California Berkeley and former Justice Department official who advised the George W. Bush administration on interrogation methods used on terrorism suspects. Herman Schwartz, a law professor at American University in Washington, said if Trump stuck to his proposal for a temporary prohibition on Muslim immigrants, that raises significant constitutional questions and “shows his shaky command of the legal facts.” In Monday’s speech in New Hampshire, Trump showed little sign of scaling back his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States, which he first laid out in December after an Islamic State-linked deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. Debate over the legality of Trump’s proposals was complicated by the vagueness of his pronouncement and questions on how broadly he would extend any immigration ban if elected. While legal experts say presidents have the power to ban immigrants from specific countries, the United States does not currently ban immigration from any country. Officials do give extra scrutiny to people entering from countries such Syria and Iran. Under the broadest interpretation of Trump’s pronouncement,  immigration could be barred not only from the Muslim world but from U.S.-allied countries in Europe and Asia where militant attacks have taken place. This could include India, the source of many skilled engineers for the U.S. technology sector. Critics say this would be impractical and counterproductive. “Is Mr. Trump proposing to stop issuing visas even for business or tourism or education to nationals of certain countries?” said Bellinger. “Rather than increase economic growth, Mr. Trump’s plan could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.” Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, a Trump foreign policy adviser, justified the candidate’s pronouncement, saying “it is perfectly appropriate for the country to refuse admission to those whose presence may be detrimental to the national interest.“ But Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, when asked whether a president has the authority to ban immigrants based on religion, said: “I’m not sure he does.” Legal experts also raised doubts about the legality of Trump’s demand that members of the American Muslim community “cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad” or else they will be “brought to justice” themselves.” Critics have accused him of anti-Muslim fear-mongering to win votes. “Generally, the idea that knowledge in and of itself comes with criminal liability is antithetical to the way we talk about criminal law in the United States,” said Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and former federal prosecutor. If Trump tried to implement such prosecutions as president, he said, potential defendants could simply invoke their constitutional right against self-incrimination and continue to remain silent.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने आप्रवासन प्रस्तावों में नया मोड़ जोड़ा, लेकिन कानूनी संदेह बना हुआ है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate plans to vote on its tax overhaul package this week, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber said on Monday. “The current plan this week is to vote on the Senate tax bill that was voted out of the Finance Committee last Thursday night,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters. The bill is a major priority for both Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump.

Summary: सीनेट इस सप्ताह कर योजना पर मतदान करेगी, नंबर 2 रिपब्लिकन का कहना है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has an “ironclad” commitment to mutual defense among the NATO allies, the White House said on Thursday after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump raised questions about whether he would defend NATO allies if they were attacked. White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to directly address Trump’s comments to The New York Times but said potential foes should make no mistake or miscalculation about Washington’s readiness to defend its NATO treaty allies. “The U.S. commitment to that pledge is ironclad,” Earnest told a briefing. “The president renewed that commitment just two weeks ago today when he traveled to Warsaw, Poland, to attend the NATO summit.”

Summary: नाटो की आपसी रक्षा के लिए अमेरिका की प्रतिबद्धता 'कठोर' हैः व्हाइट हाउस


PARIS (Reuters) - France s National Assembly (lower house of parliament) will vote to adopt a counter-terrorism bill on Tuesday, including measures to increase police and intelligence agency powers when there is a security threat or reason to believe an attack is planned. The bill, still subject to amendments but expected to be definitively approved by mid-October, will transpose into law several powers granted to the police and other agencies under a state of emergency that began in November 2015, after the Islamist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.  The state of emergency, the most sweeping anti-terrorism powers in Europe, will expire at the end of October.  Below is an outline of the measures that will come into force if the bill passes into law. Human rights and legal experts have raised concerns about the sweep of the proposals, including the fact that in some cases the interior ministry would be able to act without judicial oversight. Under the proposals, the legislation would remain in place until at least 2021, and the government will have to report to parliament annually on how it is using the new powers. ** The interior ministry would have the power to designate public spaces as security zones for up to a month, limiting who could enter and leave (both vehicles and people) and with wide powers to stop and search within the perimeter. Private security guards, under police supervision, would be granted similar stop and search powers. ** The interior ministry would have the power to shut down places of worship if there are suspicions that they are being used to propagate hate speech or incitement to violence, to provoke acts of terrorism or to justify terrorist acts. The closures could be for up to six months, with the religious sites having 48 hours to lodge an appeal with judicial authorities against the decision. ** The interior ministry would have the power to limit the movement of people considered a national security threat. The  individual administrative control and surveillance measures  would compel a person to remain in a defined geographic area, report to the police three times a week, report any change of residence and potentially submit to an electronic surveillance bracelet. ** The interior ministry, with approval from a judge, would have the freedom to search private property and seize documents, objects or goods if there is a suspicion of terrorist activity being planned or to prevent a terrorist act being carried out.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः फ्रांस के आतंकवाद-रोधी विधेयक में मुख्य तत्व


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Advocacy groups launched petitions and sent letters on Wednesday urging two of the biggest U.S. public pension funds to divest from an investment fund unless it stops paying one of President Donald Trump’s companies to run a New York hotel. Reuters reported on April 26 that public pension funds in at least seven U.S. states periodically send millions of dollars to an investment fund that owns the upscale Trump SoHo Hotel and Condominium in New York City and pays a Trump company to run it, according to a Reuters review of public records. Two legal advocacy groups sent petitions to half a million of their members and letters urging state officials who oversee the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to reconsider their investments in CIM Fund III, which owns the Trump SoHo.  “The money used for this investment comes from mandatory deductions from the paychecks of public employees. These employees are thus forced to indirectly subsidize President Trump beyond the Constitution’s mandate of a fixed salary,” said the letters from Free Speech for People in Newton, Massachusetts, and Courage Campaign in Los Angeles. Article II of the U.S. Constitution bars the president from receiving additional payments beyond his salary from state governments. The fees that public pension funds pay CIM may fall into that category, several constitutional lawyers have told Reuters. The White House in June rejected the allegation that government payments to Trump’s businesses violated the Constitution and said “partisan politics” had motivated lawsuits challenging Trump’s continued ownership of his businesses. The advocacy groups urged the pension funds either to divest from the CIM fund or work with other investors to demand that CIM end its relationship with the Trump Organization. CalPERS declined to comment, but CalPERS officials disclosed in response to a public records request that the pension fund paid CIM $1,722,418 in management fees for the first three months of 2017. In a statement, a spokesman for New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli noted that the CIM fund was in the process of gradually selling off the properties it owns and said the New York state pension fund “has limited rights as an investor and does not make or control CIM’s investment choices.”  CIM said in a statement that it “is committed to creating attractive investment opportunities for its investors and then overseeing those investments to produce the best outcomes possible for the funds it manages.” It added that the Trump SoHo was underperforming and said it was “working hard to restore its performance before we bring it to market.” The White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to multiple requests for comment.   Democratic officials and lawmakers have also raised concerns over the payment chain between the public pension funds and the Trump SoHo.  The public pension funds’ investments in CIM Fund III were cited in a June lawsuit that the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed against Trump, alleging that government payments to his businesses violated the Constitution. In May, the top Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing pensions asked the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to assess the constitutionality of the payments. The office said it was not authorized to probe presidential actions.

Summary: अभियान ने अमेरिकी सार्वजनिक पेंशन कोष को ट्रम्प होटल के मालिक से अलग करने का आग्रह किया


TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday all options are on the table in dealing with North Korea, but that President Donald Trump is determined to work with Japan, China and South Korea to find a peaceful solution. “We appreciate the challenging time in which the people of Japan live with increasing provocation across the Sea of Japan,” Pence said in Tokyo before a lunch with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “We are with you 100 percent.” Abe said he supported Trump’s stance that strategic patience with North Korea had run out, and that all options were on the table. North Korea has conducted a series of missile launches and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, including a failed missile launch on Sunday.

Summary: पेंस ने कहा कि अमेरिका उत्तर कोरिया का शांतिपूर्ण समाधान खोजने के लिए जापान और सहयोगियों के साथ काम करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned 10 more Venezuelan officials, including several government ministers, who it said had helped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s attempts to undermine democratic rule in the country. “These individuals are associated with undermining electoral processes, media censorship, or corruption in government-administered food programs in Venezuela,” the U.S. Treasury said in a statement. On Oct. 15, state elections were held in Venezuela. The list of officials includes Julian Rodriguez Diaz, Venezuela’s ambassador to Italy; Ernesto Emilio Villegas Poljak, Venezuela’s new minister of culture; Freddy Bernal Rosales,  Venezuela’s minister for urban agriculture; and Manuel Fernandez Melendez, who heads the country’s National Telephone Company.

Summary: अमेरिका ने भ्रष्टाचार के लिए वेनेजुएला के 10 लोगों को काली सूची में डाला, राज्य के वोट को कमजोर किया


BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - A threat by a senior Chinese diplomat to invade Taiwan the instant any U.S. warship visits the self-ruled island has sparked a war of words, with Taipei accusing Beijing of failing to understand what democracy means. China considers Taiwan to be a wayward province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is its main source of arms. Beijing regularly calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue between it and the United States. In September, the U.S. Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2018 fiscal year, which authorises mutual visits by navy vessels between Taiwan and the United States. At a Chinese embassy event in Washington on Friday, diplomat Li Kexin said he had told U.S. officials that China would activate its Anti-Secession Law, which allows it to use force on Taiwan if deemed necessary to prevent the island from seceding, if the United States sent navy ships to Taiwan.   The day that a U.S. Navy vessel arrives in Kaohsiung is the day that our People s Liberation Army unifies Taiwan with military force,  Chinese media at the weekend quoted Li as saying, referring to Taiwan s main port.  Taiwan s Foreign Ministry said late on Saturday that, while Chinese officials seemed to want to try and win over hearts and minds in Taiwan, they also had been repeatedly using threats that hurt the feelings of Taiwan s people.  These methods show a lack of knowledge about the real meaning of the democratic system and how a democratic society works,  the ministry said. China suspects Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who leads the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, wants to declare the island s formal independence. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s security. Relations between China and Taiwan were becoming even more complex and severe, Zhang Zhijun, head of China s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office, told a visiting delegation of the New Party, a small pro-China Taiwan opposition party on Monday. Taiwan independence forces are trying to root out Chinese culture in Taiwan and are the gravest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the official Xinhua news agency cited Zhang as saying.     China will never back down over Taiwan, influential Chinese tabloid the Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party s official People s Daily, said earlier on Monday.   Li s words have sent a warning to Taiwan and drew a clear red line,  it said in an editorial.  If Taiwan attempts to hold an independence referendum or other activities in pursuit of de jure  Taiwan independence , the PLA will undoubtedly take action.  China would continue to maintain the principle of peaceful unification, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday.   At the same time, we will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,  he told reporters.

Summary: चीनी राजनयिक की आक्रमण की धमकी को लेकर चीन और ताइवान में तकरार


STRASBOURG (Reuters) - European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told the EU s eastern states on Wednesday he would fight for equal rights for their consumers, but their workers would not be allowed to unfairly undercut those in western members. Juncker extended an olive branch to the eurosceptic governments in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in his annual speech on the state of the European Union, where east-west divisions have driven a painful wedge.  East to west: Europe must breathe with both lungs. Otherwise our continent will struggle for air,  Junker said.  In a union of equals, there can be no second class consumers. I will not accept that in some parts of Europe, people are sold food of lower quality than in other countries, despite the packaging and branding being identical.  Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania have complained that food products sold by multinational producers on their markets are often of poorer quality than the same ones in the west. Juncker said national authorities would be given better legal instruments to root out such  illegal practices , an attempt to woo the reluctant easterners at a time when the EU needs unity as it negotiates over the complex terms of Britain s departure in 2019. In another gesture toward the eastern states, Juncker said it was time to let Bulgaria and Romania into the EU s Schengen zone of passport-free travel.  But he also said the bloc would go ahead with reforming its labor rules, which now allow workers from the poorer EU east to work in the wealthier west for low salaries. French President Emmanuel Macron has made ending this practice, which he says amounts to social dumping, a key priority. The eastern states are opposed, saying they should be allowed to compete in that way to catch up after decades of communist rule after World War Two. While the so-called  posted workers  only represent around one percent of the EU workforce, the issue has become sensitive. EU diplomats say the bloc will change the current rules, a plan also backed by Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, in a move that could make it easier for Macron to carry out economic reforms at home by showing he is delivering for French workers.  In a Union of equals, there can be no second class workers. Workers should earn the same pay for the same work in the same place,  Juncker said, adding he would seek to establish an EU Labour Agency  for ensuring fairness in our single market.  Juncker said he was  saddened  with the refusal by the ex-communist eastern states to take in refugees arriving in the bloc to help their western and southern peers.  More than two years of bruising battles over migration have caused a lot of bad blood in the EU, spilling over to other policy areas and reinforcing calls from the west to cut generous EU funding for the eastern states who deny help.  But Juncker reserved his most pointed criticism for Poland and Hungary, where nationalist governments have clashed with the Brussels on multiple issues, including a contested judiciary overhaul in Poland and Hungary s continued rejection of refugees despite the bloc s top court ruling that they must be taken in.   The rule of law means that law and justice are upheld by an independent judiciary,  Juncker said.  The judgments of the European Court of Justice have to be respected by all.   To undermine them, or to undermine the independence of national courts, is to strip citizens of their fundamental rights. The rule of law is not optional in the European Union. It is a must.  As the EU contemplates deeper integration after Britain s departure, the eastern states - mostly outside the euro zone - fear they will be pushed out of the decision-making core and will lose out in a  multi-speed  EU. Juncker offered some reassurances on that, saying he did not favor a separate euro zone budget, or a euro zone finance minister, but closer ties between all 27 EU states remaining after Brexit.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ का जंकर पूर्वी राज्यों को गाजर और छड़ी प्रदान करता है


(Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday: The former top U.S. intelligence official rejects Trump’s accusation that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped him even as the White House urges Congress to investigate Trump’s allegation. Demand for travel to the United States over the coming months has flattened out following a positive start to the year, with uncertainty over a possible new travel order likely deterring visitors, travel analysis company ForwardKeys says.

Summary: हाइलाइट्सः ट्रम्प प्रेसीडेंसी 5 मार्च को शाम 7.35 बजे ईएसटी


SYDNEY (Reuters) - The citizenship crisis engulfing Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull s government deepened on Tuesday as an eighth lawmaker exited parliament and the main opposition party drafted in a high-profile candidate for a key by-election. Turnbull s center-right government has already lost its majority in parliament, accounting for four of the eight lawmakers to be forced out or to resign from parliament in recent weeks because they were dual citizens. That status is banned under the Australian constitution to prevent split allegiances. Adherence to that rule in a country where more than half the population of 24 million was either born overseas or has a parent who was born overseas has only come under the spotlight in the current crisis, with the High Court confirming a strict interpretation of the law. Jacqui Lambie, an independent and outspoken senator for the island state of Tasmania, confirmed on Tuesday that she was the eighth lawmaker in a parliament of 226 to fall foul of the dual citizenship law, with political analysts warning that several more are likely to fall. The opposition Labor Party upped the stakes on Tuesday by announcing it was putting forward former state premier Kristina Keneally to contest the seat vacated by a lawmaker in Turnbull s Liberal Party. The by-election in the inner Sydney seat of Bennelong, along with another one for the seat of former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who was ejected by last month s High Court ruling, will be key to restoring Turnbull s small majority in parliament.  This is a chance which I think a lot of people in Australia would like to have that has fallen to the people of Bennelong to send a message against the dysfunction and the chaos of the current government, the policy paralysis, the failure of leadership,  Labor leader Bill Shorten told reporters on Tuesday. While Joyce is widely expected to win back his safe rural seat after renouncing his New Zealand citizenship, the entry of the popular Keneally into the Sydney race has made that contest far less certain. Previously a safe conservative seat, it fell to the Labor Party in 2007, before the conservatives won it back in 2010.  Elections are notoriously volatile, anything is possible,  Nicholas Economou, a political scientist at Monash University, told Reuters.  Voters often use by-elections to give a stinging rebuke to a government that s at war with itself and that s what this government is. It s game on in Bennelong.  The citizenship crisis has hit Turnbull hard, with a poll released on Monday showing he had slipped to a new low in voter popularity amid criticism that he has failed to act decisively. Independent lawmakers have threatened to use their new-found power in the lower house to push through controversial legislation that has been blocked by the government, including a Royal Commission into the banking sector. The government and main opposition party cobbled together a deal on Monday to agree to a deadline of Dec. 1 for all politicians to disclose the birthplace of their parents and grandparents. Lambie vowed to immediately renounce her UK citizenship, granted by descent courtesy of her Scottish-born father.  I won t be laying down, I ll just get up and get back on and go again, simple as that,  she told local radio. Lambie, 43, a former army corporal, has become one of Australia s most recognizable and colorful politicians in her short time in office. She has garnered headlines for a range of controversial comments, including her belief that China could invade Australia and applauding Russian President Vladimir Putin s  very strong leadership .

Summary: आठवें सांसद के गिरने से ऑस्ट्रेलियाई नागरिकता संकट गहरा गया


COLOMBO (Reuters) - European lawmakers said on Thursday they were disappointed about Sri Lanka s slow roll-out of human rights reforms that the island nation had promised in exchange for trade concessions. The European Union reinstated concessions on a series of products in May - after Sri Lanka said it would ratify 27 international conventions on rights, labor conditions, the environment and governance. The island s key garments industry benefited the most from the duty reductions and other allowances offered by the EU s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus scheme. But a European Parliament delegation said they had seen little progress more than five months after the agreement. There was no immediate comment from the government.  It was noted that a number of important issues remain pending, in particular the revision of the Prevention of Terrorism Act on which the Prime Minister and other senior figures had given their personal assurances,  the EU delegation said in a statement. The United Nations has said Sri Lanka s current terrorism legislation allows the torture of detainees. Sri Lanka originally lost the EU concession in 2010 after then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa rejected demands from the international community to address human rights abuses allegedly committed during a 2009 offensive to crush a Tamil insurgency. Rajapaksa was ousted in January last year, and the EU agreed to reinstate the concessions after a new administration, led by President Maithripala Sirisena, promised to make changes. The garments industry is Sri Lanka s second biggest hard currency earner after remittances.  It boasts annual exports of around $5 billion and produces goods for Victoria s Secret, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Marks & Spencer and other well known brands.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के सांसदों को श्रीलंका के अधिकार सुधारों में बहुत कम प्रगति दिखाई देती है


LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who spearheaded the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, congratulated Prime Minister Theresa May on agreeing a divorce deal with the EU to move Brexit talks on to trade on Friday.  Congratulations to PM for her determination in getting today s deal,  he said on Twitter.   We now aim to forge a deep and special partnership with our European friends and allies while remaining true to the referendum result - taking back control of our laws, money and borders for the whole of the UK.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के प्रधानमंत्री जॉनसन ने ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता की प्रगति पर प्रधानमंत्री मे को बधाई दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he supported efforts to quickly act on legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia and Iran that passed the Senate nearly unanimously but has stalled in the House. Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, “has indicated he wants to get moving on this quickly, and we want to honor that,” Ryan said at his weekly news conference. The Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act, which also includes new sanctions against Russia, passed the Senate 98-2 last week, a vote that looked like it might complicate President Donald Trump’s desire for warmer relations with Moscow. The measure must pass the House before it can be sent to Trump to sign into law or veto. The House parliamentarian found that the legislation violated a constitutional requirement that any bill affecting government revenues must originate in the House, something known as a “blue slip” violation. Democrats said they were skeptical about the explanation, noting that previous “blue slip” issues had been resolved in a matter of minutes. Kevin Brady, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters he had sent the Senate a solution clearing the way for it to take the bill back, change it and move it forward. Ben Cardin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters the change did not appear to substantively alter the legislation and that staff was reviewing it to determine how to move ahead. Senior Senate Democratic aides said any bill involving sanctions or fines could be interpreted as affecting U.S. revenues. Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a larger majority in the House than in the Senate. Some lawmakers and congressional aides said the White House was concerned about a provision that would require Trump to obtain Congress’ approval before easing any sanctions on Russia. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Congress last week to ensure that any sanctions package would give Trump the flexibility to adjust sanctions. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the administration would not take a position before the bill advanced through the House. However, he acknowledged the White House needed to work with Congress on some areas of the measure. Ryan said he did not yet know if it would go through the formal markup debate and amendment process. Democrats have said that process could delay the bill for months. Asked if he supported the policy in the bill, Ryan said he supported sanctions.

Summary: हाउस स्पीकर रेयान ने ईरान, रूस प्रतिबंधों पर त्वरित कार्रवाई का समर्थन किया


MINSK (Reuters) - In the shadow of disused Soviet-era factories in Minsk, a street lined with eclectic bars, art galleries and yoga studios has become a haven from the vigilant eyes of the Belarussian authorities.  This place is like an island,  said Yegor, 21, who works at  popular bar Hooligan.  It s the street of freedom.  The government of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for the past 23 years and has boasted that he is  the last and only dictator in Europe  ,has little tolerance for any opposition. A powerful police force and feared state security  keep citizens in check. But police patrols are rare in Oktyabrskaya, partly due to its location on an out-of-the-way peninsula in a bend of the river Svislach. When the first restaurant opened there in 2012, few visitors came but now it ranks among the most fashionable quarters of Minsk.  Such is the growing popularity of that Oktyabrskaya that investors such as Belgazprombank, a subsidiary of state-owned Russian lender Gazprombank, have big plans for the district. Earlier this year the bank purchased part of a factory there and intends to turn it into a gallery, restaurant and theater complex. The manufacturing sector has not entirely abandoned Oktyabrskaya - one  machine-making factory named after the 1917 October Revolution (MZOR) still operates there. Financial difficulties prompted state-owned MZOR to lease or sell some of its facilities to Oktyabrskaya s developers, but the firm still maintains some production with a reduced workforce. Mikhail, who has worked at the factory for 42 years, said he approves of the influx of new  hipster  businesses.  The street has come back to life,  he said. Oktyabrskaya s long-term future ultimately depends on the authorities good favor, cultural analyst Maksim Zhbankov said.  For now they tolerate it. But I can t say that someone won t turn up tomorrow and say they ve decided to tear it all down,  he said.

Summary: मिन्स्क सांस्कृतिक केंद्र अधिकारियों के लिए पनाहगाह बन गया


BEDMINSTER, N.J. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was very close to making a decision on the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan, which is undergoing a review and could see an increase in troop strength. “We’re getting close. We’re getting very close,” Trump told reporters at his New Jersey golf club when asked about Afghanistan.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान पर फैसले के करीब हैं ट्रंप